A/N: I finally got around to writing a Contestshippy!!! This took ages to plan and write, so please review.

LIFE IS UNFAIR

by Koukla Doll

"Why does he hate me so much?" I wailed.

"Who?" asked Ash from his hamburger. We were at the Pokemon Center cafeteria. It was bustling with activity and noise. Normally I loved places with activity and noise, but right now it just annoyed me. I rolled my eyes.

"Like you need to ask. It's Drew. He lives to annoy me."

"Don't you live to annoy him too?" pointed out my stupid brother. I glared at him. He was right, but of course I was never going to admit that.

"No, of course not. I'm not a jerk like him."

"I feel your pain, May," said Ash sagely. "Me and Gary were exactly the same."

I sighed and slumped in my seat. Ash would never understand, idiot that he was. Drew was ten times worse than Gary, how ever bad Gary had been. And yet...

"Are you going to eat that?" asked Ash, brown eyes gleaming as he drooled at my untouched pizza.

"No, you can have it," I said, pushing it towards him. He dove at it hungrily.

"Where's Brock?"

"Like you need to ask," Max mocked me. "Flirting with Nurse Joy, of course."

"Right," I said wearily. Should have guessed. "Well, I'm going to train. The contest is in three days time and I have to be ready. You want to come, Max?"

"No," said Max. "I'll wait with Ash."

"Suit yourself," I said, a little glumly. My own brother liked my friend more than me.

"Your own brother likes Ash more than you," sneered a familiar voice. "See? That's how pathetic you are."

I opened my mouth to retort angrily, whirling around. Standing before me was a short, stocky boy perhaps a little older than myself. He had shiny, wavy green hair and bright green eyes full of amiable disgust. But then I could only open and close my mouth uselessly like a Magikarp. I could think of nothing to say except that Drew was a mind-reader.

Drew laughed, and said, "Going to train, hey May? You'll need it. That'll make it even more humiliating when I beat you." Laughing in a superior way, he turned on his heel and walked away.

For lack of a better retort, I yelled after him, "I hate you!"

"Where do you get such sophisticated comebacks?" teased Max. "I really don't know how you think of them."

"...shut up," I said shortly, walking towards the training area outside. At least there I might escape everyone's torments.

But of course not. Alas, as soon as I got outside, I met Harley. If possible, this guy was even worse than Drew. He had long, curly purple hair, a mushroom for a hat and a devious mind. "Oh, May, how nice to see you," he said sweetly. I walked straight past him, ignoring him, but he scurried after me and grabbed my hand. "I can't blame you for ignoring me," he said in his sickening voice. "But I promise, I've turned a new leaf. I'm a better person! How can I make you believe me?"

I shook him off angrily. "And how many times have you told me that now?" I asked furiously. It was just too much.

"Oh dear. I thought this might happen," said Harley. "Listen...you know that Drew kid?"

I froze. How much did he know? Not even Max knew about Drew. "What about him?" I said slowly.

"He's a jerk right?"

"Come off it, Harley. You're a jerk too," I replied irritably.

"What if...I could help you get revenge on him?

I stopped. "What's the catch?" I said carefully.

"May, May, May. I want to make up for all the times I've tricked you."

"I don't believe you," I told him, "but if it's about making Drew miserable..." I couldn't stop a grin from creeping over my face. "Okay, whatever. Let's do it."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Here's what we're going to do," Harley said in a low voice. "But NOT now. You'll need to do it about one hour before the contest, in three days. Go into the Pokémon Center, and say that Drew's asked you to take his Pokémon out for him for some last-minute preparation. If she doesn't believe you, I'll back you up."

"Why would she believe you?" I said suspiciously.

"Come on, May. How many times have I proved myself to her?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, pretended to prove myself to her. Anyway, then we'll take his Pokémon and feed them these." He held up a jar of berries. "They cause extreme confusion when eaten in large quantities." He grinned. "Simple yet brilliant, hey? Then we'll give them back to Nurse Joy straight away and say he wanted them later instead. But - and here's the really great bit - they won't start working until the last round, or somewhere thereabouts. He'll be totally humiliated!"

I was horrified. "Harley, that's terrible! I can't believe you were thinking of doing that!" I stopped. "Well, actually, I wouldn't put it past you to drug somebody else's Pokémon. But how could you think I would do something like that?"

He shrugged. "Whatever you say, May."

Revolted, I turned and ran to find Drew and tell him what Harley was planning to do to his Pokémon.

When I told him, he laughed as if this were far to ridiculous for words. "Why would he do that?" he asked. "Okay, I wouldn't put it past him to drug your Pokémon, but why mine?"

"Because you're so much better than me," I persisted. "Look, Harley's a cheating, no-good liar, and he'll do anything to win. Please, just give yourself a fair chance."

He looked a bit surprised, but quickly gathered himself and sneered, "You want me to win!"

"Of course I don't," I said impatiently. "I want to win just as much as any dumb coordinator around here, and as much as the smart ones too." I grinned. "Look, just do yourself a favour and keep a close eye on your Pokémon, okay?"

"Whatever, May," he said, stretching his arms above his head.

He flicked his hair as he walked away.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was an hour before the contest and the hall was charged and explosive. People talked in excited whispers, and their Pokémon hopped around, sensing the excitement. I bit my lip and wondered if Drew had taken my warning seriously.

Somehow, I doubted it.

"Squirtle squirt!" burbled my Squirtle, chasing Combusken in circles.

"Oh, stop it," I said irritably. I picked it up and held it tightly with one hand, chewing my lip anxiously. Harley was talking to Nurse Joy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Squirtle, start off with bubble!"

I could practically feel the excitement radiating off the crowd. I was full of confident determination. Well, almost full. There was also the nagging doubt about whether Harley had drugged Drew's Pokémon or not. Squirtle could feel it, and was slightly hesitant as she let loose a patterned stream of coloured bubbles. I gritted my teeth and tried to force the concern for Drew out of my mind. He had already performed, and had of course scored an astonishing 26. So had Harley, and encouragingly his performance had only earned him a 20.5.

"Give it your all, Squirtle, ice beam!"

Squirtle half-turned towards me. The bubbles floated hauntingly in the air, glinting in the bright light. I set my mouth in a tight line and nodded. Squirtle turned back towards the bubbles, drew a huge breath and dispelled a spiked, rather eerie-looking beam of ice, with split into many tiny, spiked thread-like beams. Each one hit a bubble, and the bubbles burst into tiny coloured drops of water, tinkling slowly down through the air like snowflakes, drifting down among the remaining bubbles. The crowd gasped with delight.

"A beautiful and haunting display, showing the magical power of water-types," gushed Lilian. "Let's hear what our judges have to say."

"A well thought-out and rather eerie performance," said the first, displaying a 9.

"Remarkable!" said the second, also displaying a 9.

"It sent a chill down my spine," said the third. "Perfect sync between trainer and Pokémon." She gave my performance another 9.

I was speechless. I had managed to achieve a jaw-dropping 27, the highest score yet!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"I can't believe it, May!" cried Ash. "That was incredible."

I blushed and felt a rush of affection for my best friend. "Thanks," I said softly. "But - but -"

Harley stalked past me, sulkily, and mouthed, 'Tell anyone and I'll do it to you too.'

I was shocked. He had drugged Drew's Pokémon.

"But?" said Brock expectantly.

"Nothing," I said quickly. "Let's go see who made it into the battles."

Drew and I, as the highest scorers, had made it in along with four other contestants. I was pleased to see that Harley hadn't. I was matched up to somebody called Arielle, who was battling with her Venasaur.

Drew grinned. "Should be a piece of cake. They all look weak anyway." He looked at me sideways and said, "Drugged my Pokémon, huh? I thought Masquerain went pretty well."

"It did," I said distractedly, fiddling with my bandana. "The berries won't work until somewhere near the final round."

"Sure," said Drew sarcastically. "Wonder when I'll go up against you, May? Probably not until the last round."

I wasn't sure whether it was a compliment or just a factual statement. It was probably the latter. Drew was nowhere near decent enough to compliment his rival, or even acknowledge her abilities.

Then again, Drew was pretty good, and if I could rival his abilities, I guess he did acknowledge mine.

He was right. The battles were relatively easy and he and I went up against each other in the final round. I was unbearably anxious. I knew the berries would start working any second now and I wished I had warned Nurse Joy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The crowd was going wild. Drew and I stood glaring at each other.

"Welcome, folks, to the final round of this contest! Here, we have May and her Combusken going up against Drew and his Flygon. The winner will be awarded this ribbon." Lilian held up a beautiful ribbon. It was all I need to get into the Grand Festival. But if I won, and (Drew's Pokémon being drugged) I was pretty sure I would, what would I do? I couldn't just take it, it was against all my morals. But I couldn't tell them Harley had done it, either, because there was no way anybody would believe me.

There was nothing I could do.

Well, the battle went pretty much smoothly until about halfway through.

"Sky uppercut!" I commanded. In a furious, burning blaze Combusken swung his sharp claws up through the air, where they connected with Flygon's belly. The poor Pokémon flew backwards and slammed into a wall. It sank to the floor as the clock ticked to 2:30. We'd used up half our time and I was starting to relax. The berries were not having any effect. Harley must have mistimed his offence and given them too late.

Alas, it was not to be.

Drew called in a panic, "Flygon, get up and use sandstorm!" Flygon looked up and stared at his trainer as if he'd never seen him before. It got to its feet and wandered about the arena looking lost.

The berries were working.

I looked up into the crowd to find Harley. He wasn't there, and I thought, when I get my hands on that swollen head of his...

There was a gasp from the crowd and my furious thoughts were interrupted. I looked up. Flygon had just attempted to use a Sandstorm on Combusken, but the attack had backfired and Flygon was lying on the ground, taking ragged breaths.

A wild, reckless panic seemed to take hold of Drew. "Flygon, get up, now, don't give up, okay?! You can do it! Use crunch."

The whole crowd flinched as Flygon bit hard on the first thing it saw, which was its wing. The sound of crumpling cellophane hung in the air as Flygon screamed silently and collapsed to the ground.

Silence.

"...well..." began Lilian, looking confused and a bit miffed, "it seems that Drew's Flygon was seized by a sudden attack of severe confusion and knocked itself out. Therefore, the ribbon goes to May!"

The crowd erupted into cheers. I knew I should be happy, but somehow, seeing the look on Drew's face, I couldn't force a smile. He was staring at Flygon as if not quite disappointed, but confused and maybe, if it was possible for Drew to look sad, even a little bit so. I took the ribbon and saw reflected in the shiny satin all my dreams, of being a Top Coordinator and winning the international Grand Festival.

"This isn't mine," I said quietly, as a similar ribbon was placed around Combusken's neck. Lilian didn't hear me and nudged me forward into the spotlight. I squinted up into the crowd and saw Ash, Max and Brock's happy, proud faces, and I felt very, very sad as I said more loudly, "This isn't mine." I glanced over at Drew. Understanding began to dawn on his face.

"Drew's Pokémon were illegally drugged," I said very loudly so that everyone could hear me. There was a gasp from the crowd. I didn't know what to say next. I couldn't tell the truth and say Harley was the one who had drugged Flygon; nobody would believe me. There were tears in my eyes as I looked straight into the crowd and lied, "I should know, because I drugged them."

Everyone gave a gasp of disbelief. I looked over at Drew. His face swam before me through the tears that were welling up in my eyes. He looked at me like I had just lost an arm and blood was spouting from it. I held out the ribbon to him. "I'm sorry," I said more quietly as he walked over slowly and took it. Then, not able to bear the look on Ash's stunned face, I ran from the room.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I trudged over to a bench outside the Contest Hall and cried. Only after I had been sobbing for about fifteen minutes did I notice Drew was standing behind me, watching me. It was obvious he had been doing so for a long time. My cheeks grew hot and I wiped my eyes hastily with one gloved hand.

After a long silence, Drew said, "So. That was clever of you."

"What?" I asked in a wobbly voice.

"Telling me Harley had drugged my Pokémon. And then owning up to doing it yourself. You know you won't be able to enter any more contests now?"

I said nothing. Oh, the injustice of it all! I had done the right thing, always, and Harley had drugged Drew's Pokémon, and out of my own stupid camaraderie I had taken the blame. Neither Drew nor Harley would have done it for me, and of that I was sure. Now I would never be able to achieve my dream.

Drew held out a tissue to me. I smiled weakly and nodded my thanks as I took it. He came around and sat next to me on the bench. "I never would have thought you would be the one to do something like that," he said. "No, but I wouldn't have done it for you either. You realise that don't you?"

I nodded, still unspeaking. What could I say?

"It was really good of you," he continued. "I wouldn't have had the courage, especially not if I hadn't actually done it, like you."

I jerked my head up to stare at him. He laughed. "I'm not an idiot, May. You might be annoying, but you're not a cheater like Harley. I can put two and two together, you know."

I grinned ruefully. So Drew had me all figured out. One person in all the hundreds who had heard my lie knew the truth, and didn't hate me.

Surprisingly, I wouldn't have cared if Drew was the only person in the entire world who didn't hate me.

"Thank you," said Drew quietly. "I know I'll be seeing you again, May. Until then..." He stood up and passed something to me. I looked down at it and smiled.

"You're welcome," I replied. "And thank you."

Drew flicked his hair and walked away without another word. I smiled down at the thing he had passed me.

It was a rose.