Chapter 4

The next day Serena got up early so she could train a little bit more. She went down the stairs, ate breakfast, and went in the backyard. But when she stepped outside she saw her mom standing in front of her.

"Since you missed your practice yesterday, I figured you could practice early in the morning," she said.

"Practice what?" Serena asked.

"You know," Serena's mom giggled. "Ryhorn racing of course!"

"Well, you see, I'm still feeling a little tired. I just came out here to...relax! Yes relax. That's right. So you go do your work and don't worry about me. I'll practice Ryhorn racing after school," Serena said as she pushed her mom back inside.

"Well, okay, I guess you can practice after school," Serena's mom said. Serena shut the door, but put her ear to it to make sure her mom wasn't listening.

"She's not there now time to get to work." Serena said excitedly and threw her pokeballs.

Serena practiced, practiced, practiced, until it was time for school. Luckily her mom didn't even notice that she was practicing for battles.

Soon, the bus arrived and Serena got on she waved goodbye to her mom and the bus drove away. Ash had told Serena the day before that he wasn't going to take the bus to school, so Serena sat alone in the back.

When the bus arrived Serena ran to her classroom. As soon as she saw Ash, she rushed to him.

"Let's battle," she said. "Today, at recess."

"Well seems like you're fired up," Ash said. "I accept the challenge."

The day felt like hours to Serena. Time went by so slowly, all Serena wanted was to battle Ash.

And then, lunch finally came. Serena was so excited to recess, she ate so quickly. But right before recess started the speakers said:

"There has been a fire reported in the building, I repeat there has been a fire reported in the building. Please find your teacher and get out of the building."

Serena and Ash thought their teacher was in their classroom, so they headed there. But when they got in they saw a fire burning the blackboard. They hurried out the room, but saw that all the doors were blocked with fire. It was hot, scorching hot. And there was no escape. There was only one thing left to do. Serena threw her pokeball and Pancham came out of it.

"Now Pancham use Tackle, but aim it at the wall!" Serena ordered. Pancham did as she said and made a hole in the wall. Serena returned Pancham and her and Ash climbed through the hole. They soon found their teacher, but the fire was spreading. Now it was not only burning inside the building, but outside it too. Everyone was scared. Their teacher told everyone to run as far away from the school as they could. Ash and Serena went the same direction and ran. They ran and ran and ran some more. They ran until their legs were too tired to take another step. Serena finally looked up.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know," Ash replied. "Looks like a city."

"Ya but," Serena paused. "This doesn't look like our city."

"Are we," Ash started. "Lost?"

"Oh no!" Serena yelled. "We ran the opposite direction of our city. Our city is that way." Serena pointed to the direction they came from.

"How will we ever get home?!?" Ash said and sat on a tree stump. "We don't even have food!"

"Well if we start heading there now, we might be able to make it there by evening." Serena told Ash. "Now get up, we don't have a lot of time." Serena gave Ash a hand and they started their journey. Their long journey to find their way home.