Just A Couple Of Letters

Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue, me no own, so you no sue.

Yeah, Misty was supposed to be doing her homework. And she was! Sort of. If you can call staring at the wall, daydreaming and drawing little spirals and hearts all over the margins of your paper doing your homework. After all, it was only a fill-in-the-blank worksheet. And she only had two more questions left anyway. With a sigh she jotted down the answers to those last two questions. Mrs. Davis was looking pointedly at her. With the words “American Revolution” and “Thomas Jefferson” in their proper slots, Misty went back to doodling. Still in her day dreamy state, she sketched a couple of letters and another heart in the top right corner of her paper and outlined it with more little hearts.

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The next day…

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“All right seventh period. We’re going to grade yesterday’s papers. Pass them to the front.” The class obeyed her grudgingly. Mrs. Davis mixed them up, then started passing them back out. Misty looked at her paper.

“Crystal Collins…” she read quietly, then turned around.

“Hey Ash, who’s paper ya got? I have Crystal’s.”

“Actually, I got yours,” he replied offhandedly. Misty’s face turned as white as her Togepi’s shell. Not that pokemon were allowed at school.

“Myst? You okay?” he asked, confused.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. *As long as you don’t look in the corner…*

“Do you always do this to your homework?”

“Only when I’m bored.” Their conversation was cut off by Mrs. Davis, who was calling out the answers.

"Number one: John Adams. Number two: George Washington. Number three: The Second Continental Congress.” And so on. The finished checking the work without any exclamation of surprise from Ash, which was a good sign.

“All right. If they missed one it’s a ninety-seven, two it’s a ninety-four, three it’s a ninety, four it’s an eighty-seven…”

“Wha?” Ash said softly.

*Aww… shoot!* Misty heard a soft scratching sound behind her as Mrs. Davis called out, “Hand back the papers to their owners.” Misty got up mechanically and walked across the room to Crystal, an African-American girl who had her hair done in dozens of tiny braids.

“I like your hair,” Misty commented as she handed Crystal her paper back. Crystal was surprised for a second before responding.

“Oh! Thanks, it took me almost three hours to do,” she confided.

“Well, it looks really good,” Misty assured her before walking back to her seat. She barely looked at her grade, a ninety-four, but looked at the upper corner. “M A” That was her own. Underneath, scrawled in Ash’s messy handwriting, was more. “Who’s “A”?” Misty sighed in relief. Ash was just as dense as ever; he hadn’t figured it out.

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After class…

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At her locker, Ash came up to her.

“Hey Misty,” he said casually. She finished putting her stuff in her backpack before replying.

“Hey Ash,” she replied, slamming her locker shut extra hard, to make up for all the trouble it had given her while she was trying to get it open. They walked in silence to the ninth-grade hallway, where their friend Brock had classes. He was waiting for them at the entrance, like always. It was a routine. Ash met Misty at her locker, they walked over to meet Brock, and they all walked home together. A mile and a half out, Brock turned off, and Ash and Misty headed another mile out ant walked down their street, where Ash lived across the street from Misty. They could’ve ridden the bus, but preferred to walk home with Brock, who they didn’t see very often.

On the way home, if Brock noticed the unusual quietness, he probably thought it was due to he several tests sprung on the eighth grade that day. Even so, Misty knew that with Brock around, Ash wouldn’t mention the paper, so when he turned off onto his street she wanted to call him back, but bit her tongue. But surprisingly Ash didn’t say anything for a few minutes, so Misty started to relax.

“So… ya gonna tell me who this “A” person is?” he asked suddenly. Misty stopped and stared at her feet, trying to fight the blush that was rising to her cheeks.

“Myst? What’s up?” he asked confused.

“It’s nothing. I just don’t want to talk about that,” she mumbled.

“Why not? I wouldn’t tell!”

“Knowing you Ash, you’d tell without realizing you told. Remember Bobby Kesler in fourth grade?”

“Hey! I was asleep! It’s not my fault that when people ask me questions while I’m asleep I answer them!”

“I’m still not gonna tell you.”

“Why?”

“ASH! SHUT UP! THIS CONVERSATION IS CLOSED!”

“Oh. Okay.” They walked in silence the rest of the way until they reached their street. Misty just wasn’t feeling very talkative. Ash actually did something smart. He kept quiet. Probably because he was thinking… Misty had always told him about her crushes, even after Bobby. So why was she so secretive now?

When they reached their houses though, Ash did something strange. Instead of running right across the street, like he usually did, he stood there, apparently thinking hard about something. He seemed to come to a decision about something, so Misty waited to see what he wanted. He leaned over suddenly and kissed her on the cheek before running over to his house, faster than usual, blushing hard. Misty stood there for a moment, hand to her cheek, before turning away to hide a smile as she walked into her house, thinking, *Maybe it’s not such a bad thing Ash graded my homework after all…*

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This was intended to be a one-shot, but since I posted it on fanfiction.net before and got people telling me to continue, well, it’s not a one-shot anymore.

I’ll try and update soon.

magicg