One's Saving Grace

Seeing Familiar Faces

Ash's POV-

Lillie and I had gotten into the classroom before school had even started. Not much was said between the two of us as we sat in the classroom.

"If I knew I was gonna be this early, I might not have ran all the way here." I said with a chuckle.

Lillie looked at me with a glint of amusment in her eyes. "How far did you have to run?" She asked.

I smiled and tilted my head back in thought. "Hmm, I wanna say close to two and a half to three miles." I answered.

The silence that followed was a little unsettling, but I found out why when I looked back down at Lillie. She was staring at me in shock. "You ran a full three miles?" She asked.

"Uh yeah, I mean it really wasn't that bad." I replied.

"Sorry, just, that's a long way to run." She told me before scowliing slightly. "What about Pikachu?" She asked, "do you make him run the whole way with you?" She said.

I shook my head. "No, usually if he runs with me, it's his choice, otherwise, he just sits on my shoulder." I replied with a laugh.

Lillie silently nodded before looking away.

A couple of minutes passed, before the rest of the class showed up, each one greeting me in their own way. A couple of minutes followed, before professor Kukui showed up.

Kukui walked to the front of class. "Alola every..one." He said, before stopping and staring at me. "Ash, how did you get here before me? I left the house before you, you never passed me." He said.

I shrugged in response. "I honestly don't know what to tell you professor, I've been here for a little while." I spoke with a chuckle.

"How? I only just got here." Kukui responded.

"Wait, what do you mean left the house before you?" Sophocles interrupted, "You make it sound like you're living together." 

I chuckled and nodded. "Technically we are." I responded.

"But why?" Sophocles questioned.

"It's because my mom is still in my home region of Kanto, she didn't want to leave, and I wanted to come here and attend the school. So professor Kukui offered to let me stay with him, which I accepted." I explained.

I watched the class nod in understanding, before turning to look back at professor Kukui. 

"Well since that's out of the way, how about we continue with class." Kukui said with a smile.

"Today we will be doing something special down at the Tauros track, with the help of a guest from the Kalos region. So I want you to all choose a partner to do this activity with, once you do, go and meet me outside at the track." Kukui told us, before leaving the classroom.

With that, the hounds of hell were set upon me, the class gathered around me, trying to persuade me to be their partners. 

"Come on Ash, partner with me." Sophocles said as he occupied the space infront of me, making it next to impossible to see anything else .

"Don't partner with Mr. No social skills, partner with me instead." Lana said to me, while pushing Sophocles out of the way.

"Come on Ash, you can be my partner instead of them." Mallow said, the noise of Lana and Sophocles fighting, ever present in the background.

"None of them can compare to the strenght our team would have, join up with me Ash." Kiawe said, a good natured smirk present on his face as he spoke.