I feel so sick ;_;  but I promised I'll update today, so yeah here it is ^.^

Sycamore reads equations and formulas to us one by one, in his usual, unenthusiastic monotone, directly from the book

It's possible that he might be excited about what he teaches us; something he can display an awkward spark of passion for it, as if he's starting to get into the material.

Most days, however, are like this one. What we're covering is fairly simple, so I find it increasingly difficult to keep my concentration on him. It's not too long until my legs begin aching again, which only makes it even harder.

I'm almost starting to regret walking around the city yesterday with Dawn.

"Now...Yvonne?"  I hear Sycamore say which catches my attention.

It's odd for Sycamore to ask Serena a question, but not unheard of. She quickly jumps to her feet, a little startled, and immediately pins her eyes onto him.

"Y-yes?" She replies.

"In this particular example of a redox reaction, the combustion of methane reaction actually produces one more product than is listed. That product is...?" He says.

Even though it's an easy question, she timidly waits a bit before answering, biting down slightly on her lower lip.

"Um...H-Heat?" She replies.

"Correct, well done, Serena." He smiles at her and signals her to sit back down.

A shaky start, but it's something.

"Right, for the remainder of the class I'd like you to work in groups of three or four on the problems in chapter 12. I'll be here if you need me." Sycamore says.

Regardless, I look to my right to pick out someone to form a group with. Given the two smiling faces hovering near mine, I don't think I'm going to get much say in the matter.

"I suppose we have a group then..." I sweatdrop.

"Ashy~! You want to work together? Okay, okay~! That's great it;s really been a while~!"May goofily says.

The class begins the process of noisily shuffling the desks around, with Bianca doing the same as she puts her in front of mine. She's a little lucky to not be able to hear the din of the classroom, which is loud enough to cause some discomfort.

As I look to May, I notice a figure around 5'6/5'7 behind her. The shadow catches May's attention as well and she turns to the honey blonde-haired observer.

"Hello, Serenaa~!" May brightly says.

"Um...hello.." Serena timidly says, talk about Juxtaposition. 

"Serena! Ya join' us?" I smile at her.

Serena looks down and blushes a little at my offer. Out of all the people in the class, Serena's most familiar with the three of us, so it's reasonable that she'd come to m-us first.

She leaves briefly to drag her desk over, and Bianca and May wheel back to me as soon her back is turned.

"..."

"I guess we get to play again, Ashy~! You hardly ever play with us anymore.." May waves her finger.

"I wonder why? You two always seem to have some ulterior motive." I roll my eyes.

"..." Bianca didn't like that....

"WowzeRS! That hurt, Ashy...I'd almost think you were insulting me~!" May puts her hands on her hips.

"But~! It's you, Ashy boy, so I know for 100% that you're joking~!!" She gives a goofy smile.

Serena gently sets down her desk in front of Bianca's. Her eyes are locked downwards, and I'm left wondering why until I look around the class.

Most are busy setting up their own groups, but a few are casting curious glances at her. At this range, it's hard to tell whether that is where their interest in her ends, or if they're talking about her as well.

We all move to sort ourselves out, spreading our text books and worksheets around the larger surface created by the four joined desks. It isn't long before the class as a whole gets down to work.

"So~! How about we play truth and dares?" May suggests.

"Sure!" I fist pump, I love games like this.

"O-Okay..." Serena looks up.

"..." (Yes) 

"I'll go first....hm....Serena~! Truth or dare?" May asks her.

Serena gulps and answers " T-Truth" She stutters.

"Have ya ever had a boyfriend?" She smirks and nudges me with her elbow.

I don't understand what she's trying to do but Serena blushes heavily.

"..No.." She sighs, sounds like she's always wanted one.

"Okay, your turn!" May points at Serena.

...

"Ash.." She looks into my eyes.

"Urm....Truth." I smile at her.

Her eyes are really beautiful, some people might say only a half of her is beautiful, or non at all, but all of her is beautiful.

"W-What's t-t-the most heroic thing you've ever d-done..?" She plays with her thumbs.

I place one hand on my chin and think.

"I saved a dog from drowni-well, I tried and it ended up saving me....." I scratch my head.

The three laugh slightly.

"Oh." A memory pops into my head.

"When I was about the age of 7, back in Pallet, I saved a girl from a house fire. Apparently, it was her birthday and the candles were next to the curtain and the curtain set on fire and the fire spread very fast and only the girl survived....Well, I hope she did....there's more to it, bu-"

"C-c-continue!" Serena says loudly. I look at her facial expression and it's a mixture of shock and sadness.

"I-uh-okay....I-I-There was a door that had been half kicked in. The neighbours couldn't kick the door in because it was on the wrong way around. So they managed to make a small hole that only a child could fit through...me being heroic, I crawled through, escaping from my Mom and Dad who cried my name in fear and headed inside...-" 

I close my eyes and remember the burned bodies that were on the ground.

"-I thought everyone had died until I heard a sniffle behind the circle of flames. I took my jacket off and placed it over the fire to make a path. I quickly walked into the circle and there was a little girl and her Mom....H-Her mom was burned to crisp...the Mom was covering the little girl with her body probably to protect her from the fire. I ran over to the girl and moved the Mom's body off her. T-T-The girl's face..was half burned. I was amazed that she was still alive. Me, being young I didn't know what to do besides cover it with someone, so I pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the burn on the burned leg. The girl cried in pain from the burns...I said 'D-Don't give up until it's over...o-o-okay?" I pulled her up and we landed in a hugging position. I moved my left arm and picked her up by her legs and carried her out of the house to safety...t-t-that's the last time I ever saw her...." I open my eyes finally.

 I look at May, her eyes are more open than ever while her hands do the sign language for Bianca, she looks amazed and touched by what I did for that girl.

I look at Serena...

"Serena, are you okay?" May stops doing the sign language and questions her.

"Y-yes" She replies covering her face with her hair.

"Are you sure?" I start to feel worried for her.

"I'm fine." She reassures me, but I know something is off.

We settle back into our routine, debating over our answers whenever a doubt comes up, but as time goes on I notice that Serena isn't talking at all. 

The other two girls notice her silence.

"Serena, you're being too quiet~! You have to contribute, too~! Someday, we might work on a bigger project, like one that's so big it's worth celebrating afterwards, like with ice cream, or cake. If you act like this, we won't take ya along~!" May laughs.

I can tell that they're trying to tease her to bring her out of her shell, but I don't think that kind of approach will work on Serena.

"G-Guys, don't tease her like that.

They do back off, though, with May moving away from the issue by asking me a question again. On seeing how difficult the problem she is working on is, I don't know whether it was skillful dodge, or mere coincidence.

I look at Serena's desk to see how she's doing, and freeze. Our papers are covered in equations, but Serena's only halfway there. It seems like she hasn't written anything in the past twenty minutes.

When I realize that, I want to kick myself for how dumb I've been.

I should have known that someone as fragile as Serena wasn't just going to brush off what happened so easily, but I've been too eager to move on from an awkward situation to notice.

I'd believed that Serena had gotten stronger, and she has, but it wasn't enough, and I was too eager to believe it. Now, she's terrified, alone in the middle of the classroom and there's nothing I can do without drawing more attention to her.

It's infuriating. May's worried, and even Bianca is biting her lip.

None of us know how to deal with this situation, so I decide to call Sycamore. His judgment would probably be better than ours.

I look up and manage to catch his eye, silently motioning fro him to come over. I want to make as little a fuss about this as possible, since if there's anything that would make this worse, it's more attention being focused on her.

Sycamore quietly begins to ask us what's wrong, before catching himself as he sees Serena.

"Did...did we upset her...?" May looks sad.

"Don't worry." Sycamore says.

Serena starts shaking, but won't even look up. Serena continues to stare into the equations on her desk, vision so unfocused that I doubt she even sees them.

"I think, for Yvonne's sake, that it would be good to quickly take her somewhere away from others." Sycamore says almost unhearble.

"Ketchum, could you please take her out of class?" He smiles at me.

Nodding, I stand and move to the side of Serena. Sycamore steps back to allow us some room.

I take one arm around my shoulder and lift her.

I begin to walk at a slow pace to make sure I don't inadvertently hurt her. As much as I try to make this look normal there would be many more gazes on us if not for Sycamore distraction.

Eventually, thankfully, we reach the door and go through.

For a while, I simply stay in place and wait for her to say something. I rub her should a little to try and comfort her.

"Serena...I want to say something, anything, to help. I can't, though. I don't really know what just happened, or even what caused it. I feel helpless, and ashamed of myself for not b-being of any use." I say what's on my mind, I-I feel like crying, it's like she's blocking me out for good.

I think I'm best taking her to the nurse's office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Serena silently takes off her shoes and lies on the bed in the infirmary, the nurse and I take our leave.

He shuts the curtain behind us. We both take a seat, and I quietly and thoroughly go through everything that happened, in quite some detail.

He nods throughout my explanation, his face looking troubled as I finish.

"You don't know either?...." I infer from his expression.

"Well....yes and no. It's complicated." Brock tries to explain it.

"Right....Um, do you mind if I have a moment alone with her?" I ask nicely.

"Go right ahead, but don't take too long! Education is important." He motions to her curtain and hold it open for me.

I walk inside and he closes the curtain leaving me and her in the square, walls of curtains.

I walk over to the bed and look at her, she's fast asleep.

I grab her hand...the one with scars and fall to my knees, feeling like I had been stabbed.

"I-I love you." 

I'll update again later! It's coming to an end soon! I'd say about 5 more chapters! :) See ya next chap! I love you all! - Pokeamour