"Hmph. Gary said that he was strong? He looks pathetic." Said a purple haired boy, with a black and purple jacket, gray jeans, and black eyes.

"I couldn't agree more, Paul." Said a blond haired boy, with a orange jacket, black t-shirt, beige pants, brown belt, and silvery, bluish eyes. The two boys were leaning against one of the pine trees in the court yard, examining the new student, Ash.

"Please just drop it Gary." Ash said looking at his feet, but something was clearly bothering him. 'What happened to you Ash?' Gary asked himself while looking at Ash who's eyes were covered by his hat's shadow. Until they entered the school's door they were silent.

"The Principle's office is over this way." Said Gary pointing down one of the hallways that was full of kids ready for there first day of school. 'Oh, Ash is going to be so surprised to see who the principle is.' Gary thought with an evil grin on his face. Ash didn't notice this because he was looking all around him in 'aw'. The celling was very high, and the walls were covered with red, shiny lockers. Even the tile floor seemed to be squeaky clean.

"This way." Said Gary when they got to a room with black double doors. When Gary opened them there a round receptionist desk, with a woman sitting at it looking like she was doing some work on her computer. She had brown hair that went down to her shoulders, and a headband that pulled back some of her hair.

On the right of the desk was a door, and on the left was a hallway that had a sign above it saying: Teacher and staff only. For some reason this room seemed more like an business office then a high school's office.

Gary then led Ash to the door to the right and opened it up for Ash gesturing for him to go in. The look on Gary's face made Ash nervous. 'What is he up to?' He thought when he walked, then he saw a familiar face.

"Ah! Professor. Oak!?" Ash accidently yelled out when he saw the aged man. The man had white hair, a red shirt, beige jeans, brown leather shoes, and black eyes.

"Quiet boy." The professor hushed Ash.

"Sorry." Said Ash scratching the back of his head. 'So this what Gary was so excited about.' Ash stared back at Gary who was trying hard not to laugh. 'Why is he laughing? It's not even that funny.'

"Anyways, how was your journey back in Kanto?" Professor Oak asked unaware that Gary had already asked him.

"I...I don't want to talk about it." Ash said with his face to the side and down, and his hat covering his eyes. The professor knew Ash too well, so he decided to drop it for now. "Well, welcome to your new school Ash." Said professor Oak picking up a piece of paper off his desk. 'How does he know which paper is which? There are so many papers on his desk.' Ash thought.

"This will be your schedule." Oak handed him the paper, when Ash took it he glanced at it then said, "Thanks professor Oak!"

The school bell rung.

"Well that means it's time for you two to leave." Professor Oak shooed them out of his office, but before closed door he said "Ash meet me here at lunch please."

Ash nodded his head then ran back to Gary. "So what's your first class?" Gary took the piece of paper. "Oh man you're lucky, you have battling first." Gary said a little envious.

"Awesome!" Ash said getting excited.

"Here let me take you the field, that's where the battle class is being held." Gary picked up the pace a bit knowing Ash was going to run there if he was too slow.

"But don't you need to get to your own class?"

"Don't worry, my class is that way anyway. An if I'm late pops will excuse it." Gary reassured Ash. After a while they made it to another pair of double doors. Gary opened the doors for Ash and gestured him to go in. After Ash walked in Gary had left to quickly get to his own class.

This time he wasn't indoors. There was no celling, but it had desks like any normal class room. There was couple of battle fields that were separated by chain gates. All of this was surrounded by stands, and then buildings.

"Oh you must be the new student." Said a middle aged man that had brown hair, that connected with his brown beard, he had a blue t-shirt, with ecru colored shorts, that was held up by his brown belt. His eyes where brown, he was wearing sandals, and a brown satchel.

"Yes." Ash responded.

"Ash Ketchup, was it?" The other students giggled a bit. Ash sweat dropped, "Ketchum." Ash corrected.

"Oh my bad." The man scratched the back of his head, with a bit of sweat on his face. "Please take a seat. Anyone will do, since it's the first day I'll let you choose one your self." He said gesturing towards the 5 by 5 desks. The only seat left was the seat in front and center out of all the desk. 'The worst spot you could get. Right in front of the teacher.'

After Ash took his seat, the man had said, "My name is Birch. I'll be your battle teacher. Today I would like to see what all of you are made of, so I paired you with one person. That person will be your oponet. The list is posted on the wall behind you." Everyone rushed to see who they were battling, hoping they weren't partnered with Paul so they at least had a fighting chance. Ash was the last person to see who his openet was.

"Oh man the new kid is battling against Paul." Ash heard some students say.

"Oh that poor kid. Let's hope that Paul will go easy on him."

"Ha! Yeah right. Paul never goes easy on anyone. He overkills everyone's Pokémon."

"Yeah, everyone's except Gary's."

"That's why he's number 2."

Ash's hands were shaking...in excitment. Even Pikachu was getting fired up.

"Ready, Pikachu?" Ash said looking at his yellow mouse Pokemon with red cheeks. "Pika-pi!" It clenched it's paws in a fist and pumed it's arm in the air.

"Tsk. P-a-t-h-e-t-i-c." Paul sounded out. Ash turned his attention to the boy mocking him. "So you must Paul. I'm Ash." Ash held out his hand for a handshake. Paul slapped it away. "I don't shake hands with losers." Ash stared at Paul in confusion as Paul walked away.

"Just ignore him." Said a boy's voice that was behind Ash. The boy had green hair, purple jacket, a black long sleeved shirt, green pants, and green eyes. "The name's Drew." He said holding a rose that he pulled out of nowhere. Ash started at the rose dumbfounded, "Um-" Ash began.

"Don't let Paul bother, he's like that to anyone new."

"Okay."

"BTW, Paul is the seconded strongest trainer in the whole school." Drew ran his fingers through his hair, "So if you can beat him, then you will be the new number two." Drew was now holding up two fingers. 'What's with this guy?' Ash thought.

"No presser though."

"Don't worry about me, I just want to see how strong he is."

"Oh he's really strong."

"Really? Anyways, it seems that everyone has a rank. So what's yours?"

"Me? I'm number 7!" Drew said with a lot of confidence.

"Wow! You're so high up in the rank!" Ash had said with sparkles in his eyes.

Since Ash's battle was the last one, he had waited for a long time. It's was 3 minutes before they had to switch classes, so he was getting worried that he wasn't going to battle.

Then 2nd to last battle had ended. "Pikachu, are you ready?"

"Pika." It nodded it's head. Ash heart was ponding, but he wasn't nervous at all. He was excited. Ash hasn't battled since...the incident.

"This will be a one-on-one battle. Trainers please send out your Pokémon." Said Professor Birch, standing in the ref box.

"Pikachu, I choose you!"

"Man Professor Birch really wanted to end this last battle quick."

"Yeah pairing the new kid with Paul. Geesh you would think that he would be easy on him since he is new, and paired him up with someone that had a lower rank."

"Yeah. Oh 2 more minutes untill the bell rings." Said a couple of students in the stands.

"Tsk. Let's end this quick. Ursaring, stand by for battle!' Paul said throwing a pokeball relasing a bear like Pokemon that had a yellow ring on it's stomach.

The crowd was no longer paying attention. They all knew that Ursaring was one of Paul's strongest Pokemon, and even Gary had a hard time beating it.

"Battle begin!" Yelled Professor Berch.

"Ursaring, hammer arm!" The bear like Pokemon charged at the little Pikachu, as it's arm turned white. "Pikachu use iron tail!" Pikachu blocked the hammer with it's glowing tail. The crowd seemed to be getting quieter and quieter. Paul seemed surprised that Pikachu knew an iron type move.

"Use thunder punch and ice punch, until you get a hit!" Said Paul now in the game.

"Pikachu, doge them with quick attack!" Pikachu then started running side to side, and sometimes back.

There were a few close calls, and Ursaring almost hit Pikachu. "Keep on going Pikachu!"

Then Ash noticed that Ursaring was getting slower. "Pikachu, use electro ball!" Pikachu then collected electricity in it's tail, and formed it into a ball.

Right before Ursaring was about to throw another punch, Pikachu launched the ball straight at the bear Pokemon.

Unsaring was hit by the electro ball and was sent back. Unsaring's breathing was becoming heavy.

"Pikachu, thunder bolt!" The thunder bolt was sent straight at Ursaring. Unsaring was hit once more but was still standing.

"Ursaring, hyper beam!" The Pokemon gathered energy in it's mouth and sent it flying at Pikachu.

"Pikachu dodge!" Then the whole battle field was glowing and when it died down Ash shouted "Pikachu!"

...

"Iron tail, and fallow it up with electro ball!"

"What!" Paul shouted in shock when he saw Ash's Pikachu was still fighting. Ursaring fell to the ground, unconscious. For a moment the whole place was silent. Pikachu ran back onto Ash's shoulder, without a single scratch on it. Then the whole stadium went up in cheers. "Go new kid!" They shouted. Ash hadn't realized that the bell had rung and the other class was watching along with his own.

"Ursaring is unable to battle! In which means... Ash is the winner! And the new number 2!" Professor Birch tried shouting over the wild crowd.

Paul had his head down when he returned Ursaring, shoved his hands in pockets, and walked away. "Great battle Paul!"

Paul growled at Ash and kept walking. "Ashie-boy! You won!" Gary said running from the stands.

"It seems that I have." Ash said grabbing his hat, closing his eyes, and smiling.