Shopping is a Bitch....?

"Why did we let those girls drag us all the way here?" Max asked in aggravation as he carried a lot of bags in his arms, most of them coming from his sister. After they had finished eating their breakfast, the girls had managed to 'convince' (threaten) the boys to accompany them in the mall to shop for the festival and after an hour, all of them, with the exception of Ash, were carrying mountain of shopping bags.

"I think because they threaten us with large mallets." Brock commented, he could barely see anything because of the mountains of bags he was carrying in front of him.

"This is what I get for not accepting that offer, I would have met one of the best trainers in this generation but nooooooooooo, I had to choose visiting my old friend and this is what it gets me." Gary grumbled under his breath while carrying a ton of shopping bags.

Ash on the other hand was a bit lucky. Yes the girls had forced him to carry some bags but unlike the other boys he made sure that it was convenient for him and took a shopping cart, five shopping carts to be exact, and place the bags that the girls gave to him inside the cart. That made Ash very relaxed.

Speaking of Ash, he was leaning on a wall with a large smiled on his face, Pikachu knowing what that smiles means, asked his trainer a question that he already knows the answer to.

"(When are you going to go to her)?" Pikachu asked his love sick trainer.

"The first chance I'll get, I'll be running to where she is." Ash said in a whispered to make sure that no one can hear it but Pikachu.

"(What about you just make your way toward her right now, hearing this girls compliment about their clothing is making me sick)." Pikachu said as he tried to block the sound of squealing a giggling coming from the changing room.

"I totally like that skirt Dawn, I think you should buy it. It looks good with your boots." May complimented.

"Yeah I know and I think you should by that bandana, May it totally matches your eyes." Dawn squealed in delight.

"Hey Zoey, do you think this shirt goes with this jacket." Misty asked in worry.

"It's perfect for that, what about this gown, you think it's too much?" Zoey asked as she presented herself in front of Misty.

"It suits you well Zoey." Misty answered with a sincere tone.

The boys outside, with the exception of Ash, groaned in aggravation and frustration as they hear the girls chatter about their clothing. "I would prefer to have my dad lecture me about being a gym leader than hearing this garbage." Max commented in a desperate tone.

"I would prefer be Croagunk's punching bag than to endure this." Brock desperately said.

"I would rather have one gramps boring childhood stories than this." Gary said exasperation.

Unlucky for them, the girls heard that.

"Max, you owe, little mister. So you would do well to shut it and carry those bags." May said as she step-out of the changing room, together with the other girls. The four of them then proceeded to drop the clothes that they tried on top of the boys, the three boys almost fell down but manage to keep their footing, if only barely.

"Hey where's Ash?" Zoey asked with concern.

"He…was…just….right….their…" Max said with difficulty, the weights of all those bags were making it difficult for him to concentrate in anything.

"If Ash pulled a disappearing act on us again, I swear I'm not going to feed him for a month." Brock groaned which caught the attention of Misty, Zoey, and Gary. May Dawn and Max were the only one's not curios on what that means.

"Disappearing act?" Misty and Zoey asked in unison. Gary would have asked that question but the luggage were really annoying him right now.

Brock then began explaining Ash's unceremonious disappearing act in the last two-in-a half years to the three as May and Dawn searched for a note.

"So Ash had seldomly disappeared during his journey with you guys in Hoenn." Misty said as Brock finished his story.

"And it became frequent during your journeys in the Battle Frontier and here in Sinnoh." Zoey summarized in a confused tone.

"And every time Ash appears, his so happy that it borderlines disturbing." Gary finished as he dropped the bags that he was holding to see if Brock was really telling the truth.

""Yup….that's about it but Ash usually leave us a letter for us to know how long he'll be disappearing." Brock said as he gently laid down the bags that he was holding.

"Yeah, it became Ash's habit." Max said as he gently dropped the bags that he was holding to the ground.

"I found it." Dawn said as she held out a letter. May quickly swiped the letter and began reading it out loud.

Hey guys, something important came up, you guys may probably see me outside at 3:30PM in the afternoon.

P.S. Follow me and it will not end well…. For you guys anyway

May finish with a sad look on her face. "He never really did forgive us when we followed him that one time." May said solemnly.

"I think I'll follow Ash, to see what his doing." Gary said as he slowly leaves the group. Brock stopped Gary before he could make another step.

'Trust me on this Gary, when Ash disappears it's better not to follow him." Brock said remembering the time Ash beat him up when they followed him.

"Brock's right, I could still remember how Ash beat the living day lights out of Brock when we followed him that one time and the beating wasn't for the faint of heart, especially that Ash was smiling when he was doing it." Max exclaimed which cause the people who didn't know that to look at him strangely.

"Thanks Max for reminding me how Ash kicked my butt." Brock said sarcastically.

"I know Ash longer and better than you guys have so I KNOW how to conceal myself better than any of you. Plus I'm curious, what would make Ash so happy to disappear?" Gary asked as he walked off towards the exit of the shop. The group didn't stopped him this time, it was his funeral afterall.

"There goes a brave soul that would get his butt handed by Ash." Max commented with a low tone.

"Don't worry Max, well visit his corpse during his funeral." Brock said as he saluted Gary's soon to be dead body.

"So who's going to carry the bags that Ash and Gary left?" Misty asked as she looked at the bags that both Ash and Gary left behing.

Brock and Max would have a sore body tomorrow.