By Spruceton Spook

Ash glanced sadly out the window, the warm, bright sunshine beckoning him outside. So inviting, so enticing . . . Ash needed to be out there. Out in the open, taking in the fresh air and the space, using the convenience of the beautiful day for his own pleasure and need. He couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

He would have bounded out there in a second, Pokéballs in hand, Pikachu by his side. Misty and Brock romping behind him, heading out to the fields. A full day of battling Pokémon and needed training before him, the gorgeous, green mountains of Pallet Town surrounding them. Doing what he loved most, nothing standing in his way.

But, unfortunately, there was something in his way. He turned to the obstacle, displaying his boyish puppy dog eyes and pulling his mouth into a small, sheepish grin.

"Please Mom?" he begged softly, trying to act and look as innocent as he possibly could. His brown eyes glistened with desire.

His mother's didn't, however. She stared down at him rigidly, her face changing not one bit for Ash's display of imploring begs. Slowly, she shook her head back and forth.

Ash's face fell. "Aw, c'mon!" he whined. "Can't I do it later?"

"No, Ash!" Delia answered firmly. "I told you ten times to clean that room of yours! And you're going to do it now!"

Ash groaned loudly. "But look at it out!" he complained in reply, pointing out the window. "It's the perfect day to battle! I need to go out!"

Delia shook her head again, this time more forcefully. "You need to clean your room. And you're not going out until you do, either."

"But that's not fair!" he cried, his voice becoming more high pitched.

Delia shrugged, turning her back to him in plans of returning to the kitchen. She didn't like doing this to Ash, but she couldn't even look in the room anymore because it irritated her too much. And she knew that once he started with his battling, she'd lose him for the day, and the mess would continue to rot away.

"Well, you should have thought about that before," she calmly but bluntly replied, making her way slowly into the kitchen. "Hop to it."

Ash was getting angrier by the minute. At first he thought he could convince her to let him go out for a while, and clean the disaster he called his room later. But he was mad at himself a little, too. Day after day, he watched his room get messier and messier, and putting it off was not the wise choice. There were plenty of opportunities to do it, but just like him, he put it off. Now, as the Pokémon League drew closer and closer, he needed all the training he could possibly put in. And this wasn't helping.

With her back turned to him, Ash stuck his tongue out at her. He was standing at the base of the stairs, where his mother had abruptly halted him moments before, when he had plans of bolting out into the sunshine. He wanted to smile at his silly, childish action, but he kept the straight face to build up his determination to defeat her.

Of course, at the most convenient moment, Misty made her appearance from the kitchen, where she and Brock were finishing their lunch and pulling out ingredients to make cookies. Her mouth fell as she saw Ash's tongue flop rudely and secretly out of his mouth, and she grinned.

"Mrs. Ketchum, Ash just stuck his tongue out at you!" she squealed, pointing at the shocked boy who immediately shot his friend an evil glare.

"Misty!" he growled at her, then smiling innocently and embarrassingly as Delia turned slowly to him, highly more annoyed than mad.

She shook her head and sighed, bringing her hands up to rub her temples. Ash just giggled, sweatdropping and scratching the back of his head.

"Ash, please!" Delia begged silently, dragging the ?please' out in emphasis. "Please, just clean your room. That's all I ask."

"I don't want to!" Ash pouted determinedly, balling his fists.

"Oh, shut up, Ash!" Misty yelled back at him, coming up beside Delia. "Just do it, for God's sake, and get it over with!"

Ash glared at her harshly. "You don't get it, either, Misty! The Pokémon League's in four weeks! Got that? Four weeks! I need to train, because if I don't, I'm going to lose miserably!"

Misty just gave him an absurd face. "Ash, why bother? You're gonna lose miserably anyway. At least you'll have a clean room to come home to and mope in."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash spit angrily, coming up close to her to stare her deeply in the eye.

Misty smiled slyly. "Just what you think it means."

"Are you calling me a loser?!" Ash demanded, his blood rising.

"Okay, that's enough!" Delia shouted, grabbing Ash and pulling him away from Misty. The sudden argument had just provoked her more, and she was becoming fed up. "Ash, upstairs now!"

"But Mom . . . ," Ash moaned, dragging his feet reluctantly as Delia pushed him up the stairs. "I have to train for the Pokémon League! I'm just gonna do a half-assed job anyway so I can get out there faster!"

That outburst had earned him a hard shove up the stairs. "Ash, if you don't cut it out right now, you won't be going to the Pokémon League!" Delia bawled. "Understand me, mister?"

Ash's eyes rose in shock, and with a huff but not another word spoken, he stamped up the stairs. That was the clincher, and he begrudgingly admitted his defeat. He turned to his faithful Pikachu, who had been resting on the couch and silently watching the action, and called him upstairs. The Pokémon could sense Ash's displeasure, and he scampered up loyally to him.

Giving his mother and tattle-tailing friend one more piercing glare, Ash continued up to his room, disappearing as he reached the upper landing.

Misty gave Delia a silly smile, shaking her head. Delia did the same, rolling her eyes.

"It never ends," she tiredly sighed, patting Misty's back.

Misty let out a little laugh. "Try traveling with his stubborn attitude."

Delia huffed in surprise. "Try raising him for ten years."

"You win."

Ash kicked the door of his room open, and it snapped back on its squeaky hinges. He put his hands on his hips as his eyes scanned the sloppy room before him, and although he was quite upset with not being able to win the argument, he had to silently admit to himself that his room was a mess. Most of the clutter consisted of books and Pokémon magazines, which Ash had torn apart his collection of the other day to find a single article. Thank God no dirty clothes were there, as they had been a couple days before, but Ash was relieved to find them gone one day when he, Misty, and Brock had returned from a day out. However, a new pile of clean clothes sat atop his desk, practically three days worth, waiting ever so patiently to be put away. The pile was even beginning to fall over, it seemed. His bed was unmade, which was really Misty's fault, but he didn't want to bother her about that. His and Brock's sleeping bags were kicked off into the corner of the room, totally opposite from being folded up neatly every morning as his mother had requested. Barely any of Ash's deep blue carpet could be seen, as it was coated with unknown slips of paper and lint, and desperately needed to be vacuumed.

Ash still wanted to get out to battle. But he didn't want to make his mom mad, either. He immediately went to the pile of clean clothes, and grasped them in his arms. A couple pairs of socks and such fell off the top of the pile, and Pikachu jumped to get them.

"Thanks, buddy," smiled Ash, reaching down to get the clothes from Pikachu. He gave his Pokémon a vigorous back-rub, then strolled over to his dresser to put the clothes away.

Crash. Ash's head immediately turned to the sound of the noise. His eyes narrowed in confusion as they found what had fallen, which happened to be a picture off his wall.

Pikachu's ears flickered as he stared at it, and then at Ash, who was still a little bewildered. He shrugged, put the clothes down, and bent down to pick up the picture.

"That's funny," he mumbled, dusting off the frame of the picture with his fingers. It was a bright, clear snapshot of him, Misty, and Brock in Celadon City, taken at a small park festival that they had attended. There was a photographer there taking pictures of the guests, and Ash had ordered one to send home to his mom. He smiled fondly at it as he held it in his hands, but still eyed it weirdly. "This thing never fell before."

"Pikachu," Pikachu agreed, hopping up to settle on Ash's shoulder to get a better look at the photo.

"Huh," Ash said, gently placing the picture back on the wall. He centered it for a moment, and satisfied with the way it looked, he returned to his pile of clothes.

Pikachu remained on his shoulder as he stuffed the clothing into the respectable drawers, neither of them uttering a word. They both listened to the comforting cheeping of the birds out the window, and the soft breeze blowing through the trees. Ash wanted to get out there as soon as possible, but he wasn't going to be good on his word of doing a "half-assed" job. He was going to clean his room, and clean it good.

Crash! Ash spun around again quickly, his eyes settling immediately on the fallen picture on the floor. Pikachu clutched on desperately to Ash's shirt, unsettled from Ash's sudden twist. Ash eyed it strangely.

"What the hell?" he grumbled, reaching down for the picture. He stared at the wall, and brought his hand up to fiddle with the nail. It seemed to be pretty stable in the wall, so Ash turned the picture over to see if the latch was broken. It wasn't, either. He scowled to no one in particular, suddenly overcome with confusion.

"Why does this keep falling?" he asked Pikachu.

"Pika," he replied negatively.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

As Ash went to place the picture on the wall yet again, he was stopped suddenly by the sound of few solid knocks. They were very faint, but loud enough to catch Ash's attention. He froze immediately, his eyebrows rising in confusion. He stopped breathing for a moment, and listened closely, bringing the picture close to him.

He looked over at Pikachu, who looked as baffled as he did. "Didja hear that, Pikachu?" he asked, his eyes still holding a weird look.

"Pika pika," Pikachu answered, nodding. He hopped off of Ash's shoulder.

Ash was about to shrug when the tapping came again. It was slower this time, but much louder. Right away, Ash searched for the source of the sound, for it was one that he had never heard before. There were many noises in his home that a visitor would find strange, but Ash knew each and every one of them . . . the silent hum of dishwasher, the water heater coming to life in the basement, the quiet trickling of moisture rushing through the radiators. They were all familiar to him, but this sound wasn't.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"There it is again!" Ash whispered, this time almost certain that it was coming from behind the wall, the same wall the picture had been hanging on moments ago. The picture still remained in Ash's hands as he backed away slowly from the wall, his eyes darted all over the place. His mind boggled, he tried desperately to figure out what it was.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Chu!" Pikachu uttered, his yellow fur standing on end. Ash saw Pikachu getting nervous, and it made him nervous, as well.

"Oh, it's okay, Pikachu," Ash said, trying to comfort his friend. "I'm pretty sure it's nothing. Strange, though. That's a new noise to me."

Ash and Pikachu stood in silence for a few moments, waiting for the sound to happen again, if it did. Ash wanted to hear it again; perhaps then could he be able to find out what it was. But nothing happened soon afterward, and Ash decided that it must have been the house creaking in some way.

Shrugging at the slight interruption in his cleaning, he let out a small giggle.

"Man, Pikachu," he said. "We sure do get distracted easily, don't we?"

Relieved that the peculiar sound had stopped, Pikachu grinned and responded in a happy "cha." Ash smiled to his Pokémon, eager to get back to cleaning. Placing the picture on top of his dresser, he leapt up the stairs to his bunk, and began to settle out the sheets and comforter on the bed.

Standing on the steps while working, Ash almost fell off when the tapping began again, this time louder and more distinct. It caught him off guard suddenly, and he staggered to regain his balance on the steps. His head had turned to the sound upon hearing it, finding himself once again glancing at the east wall of his room.

But something about the knocks this time startled Ash terribly. Instead of sounding out one at a time which a small pause in between, they seemed to forming into a more rhythmical pattern. That was it for Ash, and the bizarre sound was beginning to get on his nerves. He hopped off the steps and strolled past Pikachu, who seemed more upset than before, and stared roughly at the wall.

Ash didn't really know what he was doing, but as if he did it involuntarily, he knocked twice on the wall. Pikachu eyed his trainer oddly, wondering just what he was doing. The small yellow mouse was taken back, though, when Ash's two knocks were returned back to him.

Ash's heart took a leap as his taps were repeated, and almost in fear, he tapped three more times. And three more times the knocks echoed.

"What is going on here?" Ash asked, his voice squeaky in mystification and fear.

Suddenly becoming daring, Ash knocked on the wall in his usual, rhythmic knock that he used when he knocked on any door, anywhere. His mom always knew it was him at the door because of that knock. Ash didn't know where he picked it up, but it had just come naturally to him as he pounded his fist lightly on the wall.

What am I doing? Ash asked himself as he did it, but his question was soon answered as the exact knock came back at him, going through him like an arrow. But this was not just some trick, or even an echo. What could possibly be repeating his knocks from behind his wall?

Ash and Pikachu didn't want to find out. Struck with unbelievable fright, Ash gulped loudly and bolted out of the room. Pikachu took off in an instant behind him, watching in horror as Ash got out of that room as quickly as his legs allowed him.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" he screeched boisterously as he dashed down the stairs, almost tripping down the last few of them in his panic furry.

He reached the landing and spun around on his heels, the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground was the tight grip he had on the banister. He made an immediate sprint for the kitchen, where he found his mom, Misty, and Brock. They all looked up from the cookie pans they were dropping huge hunks of chocolate chip cookie dough onto when Ash crashed into the room, his eyes wide in fear.

"Ash, dear God, what's wrong?" Misty asked him, giving him an undoubtable look of perplexity.

The same looks appeared on Delia and Brock's faces, and Ash scanned each one of them. His mouth hung open agape and he panted from his flight down the stairs. Pikachu caught up to him, and hopped onto his shoulder, a little shaken up.

"Upstairs . . . ," he said, pointing up, his voice shaking. "Oh my God, there's something upstairs!"

"What?!" Brock exclaimed. "What do you mean there's something upstairs?"

Ash's eyes widened. "There're weird sounds upstairs! I heard them! Weird tapping and stuff."

"What?" Misty asked, dragging out the word in ludicrous disbelief. Her mocking grin was stabbing into Ash.

"Ash, what are you talking about?" Delia asked him, giving him the same annoyed look that she had before. "What's this about?"

"I don't know!" Ash replied, rubbing his head nervously. "First, that picture of us in Celadon City, ya know the one, right? It fell off my wall, and when I put it back, it fell off again! And then there was this weird tapping from behind the wall, and at first I thought it was nothing, but when I started tapping back at it, it just repeated, and . . . and . . ."

He trailed off as he witnessed all three of their faces lift into spirited, derisive grins. Even Misty raised a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle, joining Brock and Delia as they shook their heads pathetically at Ash. Ash's face fell in disbelief and disappointment as he glared at the three humored people before him.

"What, you don't believe me?" he asked inaudibly and in shock.

"I think you'll do anything to get out of cleaning your room," Delia replied.

Misty let out her laughter now, deafening Ash's ears. "Ash, you are so pathetic!" she cried.

"I think you're letting your imagination run a little too wild," Brock proclaimed, winking at his friend.

Ash growled at them. "I'm not making this up!" he insisted, his fear switching to anger.

"Pika pika! Chu!" Pikachu agreed, waving his little arms as he stuck up for Ash. Although they couldn't understand what he was saying, it was apparent in the way Pikachu looked that he, too, was trying to convince them of this certain "extraordinary" experience.

Misty chuckled. "How many Pokémon treats did you slip Pikachu to stick up for ya, Ash?"

"Ugh! I didn't give him anything!" Ash retorted. "Pikachu heard it, too!"

"Sure he did, Ash," replied Brock, nodded. "Sure he did."

Ash fumed. "You don't believe me? Huh? Come upstairs and see for yourselves!"

Ash backed up a little to begin his trip upstairs, but stopped when he realized that not one of them was making any motion to follow. He tilted his head and eyed them in an offended manner, ready to burst. The three just stared back at him, unwilling to believe what to them was an obvious fib to get out of the dreaded chore.

"Come on!" Ash insisted, waving his hand to draw them closer. "I'm serious! I'm not kidding around. There is definitely something up there!"

"Pikachu!" encouraged Pikachu, also. He hopped off of Ash's shoulder and sprang to the staircase, his ears twitching excitedly.

Misty, Brock, and Delia still stood there. Misty was smirking at Ash, and his eyes set on her angrily. Delia shrugged and scooped some more cookie dough out of the bowl, and set it on the sheet. Brock was just looking from Misty to Ash's face, snickering silently at their flaming glares.

"I'm not lying!" mumbled Ash, still glaring spitefully at Misty.

Finally, Brock shook his head, his mouth curving into a half-grin. He walked over to Ash and gave him a small push, catching the boy a little by surprise. Winking at him again, he turned to Misty.

"Come on, Misty," he said, making her eyes rise in confusion. "Let's go see what going on."

Ash was shocked, but beamed. "Thanks, Brock!"

"Ugh, this is ridiculous," Misty said, rolling her eyes. But still she came as Brock beckoned her with his finger.

"Can you keep an eye on Togepi for me?" Misty asked Delia, looking down at the Pokémon who was licking one of the spoons happily.

"No problem," Delia graciously replied. "Ash needs you right now," she followed in a whisper.

Lowering her eyes jokingly, she pointed to Ash with a flicker of her eye, making a coo-coo sign around her head. Misty giggled silently, and followed Ash and Brock up the stairs.

The three entered Ash's room moments later. Ash immediately went for the photo that he had placed on his dresser.

"Ooooh, scary," Misty taunted as soon as she entered, waving her arms around her head. "I can feel presences! Oh no!"

Ash frowned at her. "Har har, Misty."

Brock chuckled, and grabbed the picture out of Ash's hands. "So, what's the deal with this, you said? What, did it float or something?"

"No!" Ash shot back, yanking it out of his hand. "It keeps falling off the wall, I told you! Twice it happened while I was up here."

"Doing nothing, I notice," said Misty rather perky, scanning her eyes around the still messy room. "Nice cleaning job."

Ash grumbled, but ignored her comment otherwise. He strode over to the wall and placed the picture on the nail, then stepped back slowly. For a silent moment, the three stared at the picture, Ash eyeing it determinedly.

"Is it supposed to do something, Ash?" Brock asked after a good couple of minutes.

Feeling a little foolish and slightly disappointed, Ash took a deep breath. "I don't understand. It wouldn't stay on the wall fifteen minutes ago!"

Misty sighed. "Oh, in your crazy little world, it wouldn't."

"Why won't you believe me, Misty?" Ash snarled, turning away from the wall and facing her.

"Because it's crazy!" she replied, staring him down. "You're just so stubborn! Why can't you just clean your room like your mom wants? Why do you have to be a problem?"

"I am not a problem!" Ash responded coldly. "I'm scared, Misty! I heard knocking behind the wall!"

Misty gave him a face. "What knocking? I don't hear any knocking!"

"Well it was here before!"

"Oh, just like the picture falling, too, huh?"

"Yeah!"

"You just want to trick your mom so you can get out of cleaning your pigsty!" Misty accused, baring her teeth at Ash.

Ash looked at her, appalled. Why was she accusing him of this? Although he wanted them to trust him, even he couldn't shake the feeling that his story sounded somewhat absurd.

"Now that's a lie!" screamed Ash, almost bringing Brock's hands to his ears.

Brock came between them, restraining them each with his arms. "Okay, okay, guys. Calm down, calm down."

Ash and Misty were silenced. Misty turned with a huff away from Ash while Ash turned to the wall. He stared annoyingly at the photo on the wall, wondering why it chose that moment to stay up. All he needed was it to fall again, but most of all what he needed was the tapping. Where was it now that he needed it? Its sudden disappearance was making Ash look like a fool, and he was feeling every bit of it.

Finally, Misty and Brock couldn't stand to wait anymore. The delicious aroma of the cookies floated up the stairs, and even Ash was sniffing in the smell, making his mouth water.

"Okay, this is stupid now," Misty said, leaving the room. "Ash, I . . . , oh, never mind." She waved him away.

Brock and Misty leapt down the stairs, leaving Ash and Pikachu in the wake of his calm room. Ash wanted to go down for cookies, too, but he knew it was no use. Delia was probably not going to let him have any anyway, but that proved to be wrong when he became fed up with being in his deceiving room, and joined his friends and mom in a delightful afternoon snack.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .