I Choose You? [Pokémon]

Chapter 16

That evening, Dawn was sitting alone inbred staring at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep and had no idea why, she glanced at Piplup who was sleeping comfortably using her backpack as a sleeping bag.

She procrastinated, fiddling around with her Pokédex and phone for a few minutes before she decided to go out. She got up from bed and got dressed again, and stepped out the door wearing her left boot at the same time.

She wandered down the hallway, noticing light coming from the crack of one of the doors. Her curiosity took over and she carefully peeked between the crack.

Serena was sitting at her desk seemingly watching something on her laptop. She had a notepad open and was furiously scribbling notes. Dawn was about to step away until she heard something familiar.

"So Dawn, how do you feel about winning this contest?", a reporter asked.
"I feel great! I can't wait for my next one", Dawn had replied.
"She's definitely gonna win it!", Ash chimed in. Brock was standing next to them.

Serena scribbled some more notes before switching to another clip. Dawn frowned, she remembered that short interview after one of her contests. Is she.. taking notes on public clips of me with Ash. Dawn took a step back before hearing another clip playing. This time, it was a clip of Misty and Ash.

Serena flipped her notepad's page, her eyes scanning her notes. Dawn watched her, she had never seen Serena so focused before.

Suddenly, Serena turned around and Dawn straight in the eye. Dawn gasped and stumbled backwards from the door.

"Sorry!", Dawn said quickly standing up again.
"It's okay..", Serena said blinking a few times, "Oh Arceus.. it's late isn't it? I lost track of the time.." Serena stood up from her desk, looking like she had just snapped out of a trance. She glanced back at Dawn.

"Goodnight Dawn", Serena said before turning off her lights.

"Goodnight, Serena.."

•••

The next morning, the three girls and Gary were eating breakfast. Dawn had been nervously glancing at Serena throughout the morning, but Serena tried to ignore her.

"I wonder what we'll be doing today..", Misty said casually, "I mean, there's only a week till the next elimination."

Dawn shrugged, "I hope it's nothing stupid.."

"Probably will be", Gary added, "I mean, this show's kinda stupid if you ask me."

Dawn laughed, Misty smiled slightly and Serena glanced at him darkly, not at all amused.

•••
That afternoon.

"So this week, you guys will go back with the dates, except there's a small twist~", the announcer said, "There will be two dates a day for four days and Ash will have to secretly vote for his favorite every other day."

Ash frowned, he hated the fact that now he was forced to choose between his friends.

"By the end of this week, the top two and bottom two would have already been decided by Ash", the announcer announced grinning, "But then, instead of a battle between the bottom two.. we will have live audience voting."

Misty, Serena and Dawn froze. The idea of the audience choosing which one of them gets in like that sounded horrible. They all know how toxically criticized they are by the show's fans for the smallest things- like having an annoying voice, choosing to eat pie instead of cake or even what they wear.

"Ash, today your dates will be..", the announcer took out a red envelope from his pocket and opened it, "Misty Waterflower and Gary Oak."

Misty blinked, she didn't expect to go first. She glanced at Ash and then at Gary.

"Misty and Ash, meetup here in two hours", the announcer said, "Ash, you'll meet up again here by 6pm with Gary."

The three of them nodded, Ash slightly grossed out at the idea of going on a date with Gary. C'mon, it doesn't have to be weird.. we're all just friends hanging out.., Ash thought.

Serena tapped Misty's shoulder, Misty turned to her.
"Good luck..", Serena whispered smiling slightly.
"Thanks", Misty replied smiling back. Maybe Serena isn't as bad as I thought..

They all dispersed, Misty feeling a bit nervous about her date with Ash. She wasn't nervous about the Sade itself but more of the idea that the audience were going to be judging every single move she makes. Them liking her is crucial if she somehow ended up in the bottom two.

That also made Misty even more nervous, if she did end up in the bottom two it would be because Ash put her there.. and that would mean he didn't like her. The more she thought about it, the more anxious she got.

Tune in for the next episode of PokéBachelors!

A/N: I realized after reading a few comments that the location of this fanfic does sound a lot like the new region Alola. This wasn't even intentional because I started this before Alola was announced XD