MUCH ADO ABOUT A CRUSH

I don't own pokemon and all that jazz

A/N: This is my very first fanfic EVER! Please be kind in your feedback...and 
I hope you enjoy it! That's what keeps me writing!

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Ch 3

	‘Ok! So, Gary thought he had an advantage from the very first moment he 
sent out his Umbreon. He totally thought he was gonna win, but I used 
Poliwrath because of its advantage over dark types. There was one tense 
moment when…’

Meanwhile, In The Shed:

	There was a knock on the shed door. ‘Who is it?’ asked Duplica, praying 
that it wasn’t Ash. ‘It’s me,’ whispered the person outside. Duplica looked 
up from the giant card she was making. ‘Oh, yeah. That’s useful,’ she said to 
the door. The voice outside groaned. ‘It’s me…Gary!’ ‘Oh! You can come in. 
The door’s open.’
	Gary entered with a small cardboard box in his hand. He set it down 
next to Richie, who was sitting on the floor, helping Tracey paint a huge 
banner that said: “Happy Birthday Ash!!” 
	‘Where’s Brock, he was just here…’
‘You know how he is,’ said Tracey, without looking up. ‘He’s fighting with 
Mimey about cleaning something.’
‘I still don’t understand how Mrs. Ketchum puts up with those two always 
cribbing over who gets to…I don’t know…mop the floor!’ cried Gary as he sat 
in the only chair in the shed. And, right on que, in popped Brock. ‘There, 
now the house is as clean as a whistle!’ he said cheerfully. ‘Until Ash 
decides to trash it again, of course…’ said Duplica, without missing a beat.
	‘Hey, Richie, just out of curiosity. Why did you ask me to get pikachu-
shaped confetti? I mean, I thought Ash-y boy cared about all his pokemon 
equally,’ questioned Gary as he gestured towards the small cardboard box on 
the floor. 
	‘Oh! He does, he does!! But, Ash’s birthday is also the anniversary of 
the day Ash first met Pikachu,’ explained Richie, setting his paintbrush on 
the ground.
	‘Hey, wait a minute,’ said Tracey, stopping mid-stroke. ‘Isn’t it also 
the anniversary of the day…’
‘Ash and Misty first met!’ Brock said, completing Tracey’s sentence. ‘They’ve 
known each other for that long?’ asked Gary, incredulously. ‘And he still 
doesn’t know that Misty like him?’ Richie asked with a disbelieving look on 
his face. 
	‘Yeah, and they would make such a cute couple, too,’ gushed Duplica, 
her eyes sparkling with excitement. ‘We should do something to celebrate the 
day they met!’ cried Brock. ‘You know what we should do? We should set them 
up,’ said Tracey matter-of-factly as he returned to painting the banner. 
‘What?’ cried Richie
‘What?’ cried Brock  
‘WHAT?!’ screamed Gary.
	‘I think that’s a brilliant idea!’ Duplica squeaked, getting off the 
floor. ‘And you all know it would be good for them. They’re, like, made for 
each other. Ash is over active and naïve. His head is in the clouds and he 
has great confidence in himself and his friend. Misty, on the other hand, is 
down to earth, smart, has a self-esteem issue and she is one of the few 
people who can actually put up with Ash, and they’re both great pokemon 
trainers, of course. They’re perfect for each other!’
	‘Fine, we’ll set them up,’ agreed Brock. ‘They obviously care about 
each other and maybe they’ll both finally admit it.’
	‘What?!’ screamed Gary. ‘You’re actually going with this? No way, 
Brock. When they find out we did this, they’ll both blow!! And they both have 
terrible tempers. And you know how Misty gets when she starts lecturing!’
	‘Not “when” they find out…“if” they find out,’ suggested Richie. 
‘“If”’?’ pondered Gary. ‘“If” is good.’
	‘But, the question is…”How are we going to do it?”,’ asked Tracey as he 
cleaned his paintbrushes. ‘ We should make it like that movie,’ said Gary 
thoughtfully. ‘It’s called “Much Ado About Nothing” or something like that.’
	‘No way!’ declared Richie. ‘They’d see right through it. And…for your 
information, “Much Ado About Nothing” was a play written by William 
Shakespeare long before it became a movie!’
	Gary took the opportunity to glare at Richie.
 ‘Why don’t we write letters in their handwriting and slip it under their 
doors?’ suggested Brock excitedly. ‘ That is so clichéd!’ cried Duplica. ‘The 
letters will say: “I love you. Please meet me blah blah blah… love, Ash or 
Misty.” They’ll meet and be like:
	“Hey, Misty. I read the letter you sent me.”
“ I didn’t write you a letter. You wrote me a letter.”
	“Um…no I didn’t.”
“You didn’t? Oh…”
	“Did you write me this letter or not?”
“Wait…I think I know what’s going on here…”
	And…*BAM*, they’ll both be all over us, yelling and screaming and 
stomping and slamming doors.
	‘It won’t work.’
‘You know, Duplica,’ pondered Tracey, with a bemused look on his face, ‘You 
do a pretty good imitation of both of them.’
	‘Duh! Don’t you know who I am? I do “A pretty good imitation” of 
everybody!’
‘We could use that,’ continued Tracey. ‘I mean, if you were, say…talking to 
me over the phone, I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference between 
Ash, and you imitating Ash.’ Duplica thought about this for a while for a 
while. 
	‘It’s brilliant! I’ll call Ash on the phone in his room and Misty on 
her cell! It’s perfect! Tracey, you’re a genius! Where do you come up with 
this stuff?’
	‘What do you expect,’ Gary asked in a huff. ‘He watches all those 
stupid soaps while he’s supposed to be working in the lab.’
	‘Yeah! And now you’ve got Sparky and Ditto hooked. They’re both loafing 
inside,’ said Brock sarcastically. ‘Not to worry. I made sure to wipe the 
dust off them!’
	‘Stop heckling him Brock, and hand me my cell phone from my bag. I’ll 
call Misty,’ insisted Duplica.
	‘Whoa! Hey, not so fast,’ cried Richie, snatching Duplica’s phone 
before Brock could give it to her. ‘There are a lot of things to take into 
consideration. Like the fact that Misty has Ash’s number stored on her cell. 
And yours, and all of ours. If we’re going to call her, we have to do it from 
Ash’s phone, or she’ll know we’re the ones calling!’
	‘And plus,’ added Brock, slipping Duplica’s cell back into her bag, 
‘You can’t call either of them now, anyway.’
	‘Why not?’
‘They’re both inside Ash’s room together. It would be stupid to call now!’
	‘Ok, we need a plan,’ Gary said, getting out of the chair and pacing 
around the shed. ‘Firstly, we need to get them apart so we can call them. 
Then, we need to keep them apart to finish both the calls. If we call one of 
them and not the other, the whole plan will kind of belly-flop.’
	‘We need to get Misty out of the house and Ash out of his room, then 
we’ll sneak into his room and use his phone to call Misty’s cell. Then we 
need to get Ash back into his room and use one of our phones to call his 
line,’ said Richie. 
	‘I think I have an idea. Come with me,’ said Duplica, as she exited the 
shed and headed towards the house.

A/N: Not a brilliant plan, I know. But I’m just trying to keep the plot light 
and simple. Hope it’s good…be kind! XP 

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