NepgyaHeart
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Summary: After winning a school raffle, Eloise Damon embarks on a journey through Unova. Through reluctance, hesitation, trial and error, her brother pushing her to her limits, and her friend Sylviana holding her hand to guide her, Eloise bumbles her way to pyrrhic victory. Finally having friends, becoming outspoken, and liking pokémon didn't hurt, though.
Warnings: Nothing comes to mind except some swearing.
I felt indifferent towards pokémon, really.
My first real interaction with a pokémon was in third grade. It was me and some other kid's turn to care for the class petilil after school. Instead of excitement, I felt endangered as the grass-type shot shaky leech seeds at the both of us when she got startled at my presence. One wrapped around the both of our ankles and wouldn't let go for a while. Didn't hurt or scar, though.
The next year, someone accidentally kicked the class lillipup, causing him to run around the room and tackle everything in sight, including me. The hit actually made me fall down and kiss the floor. And the next year? The class purrloin stole my pencil case and almost gave me a panic attack when I told my teacher, who shamed me for being a tattletale and not trying to ask the dumb cat nicely (which I actually did. I never got it back, by the way). These three incidents happened to other classmates, of course, but I carried a particular lasting annoyance from the experiences. Those three pokémon were selected for the classroom setting, and I managed to get on all of their bad sides. What did that say about me?
My friend Sylviana said it was because I didn't smile that every class pokémon didn't really like me. My brother said that it was because I was fat and made the floor shake with every step I took, making each pokémon scared of me. If I had to guess, they both were probably right.
The last major interaction I had with a pokémon of similar nature was about five years ago. My brother, halfway through college, depressed, moody, and directionless, came home with a pawniard he caught. It was right after our mom gave him an ultimatum of going on a pokémon journey or getting a job, both of which he had never experienced before. He chose the former after a bunch of arguing.
The night he brought the pawniard home, the thing took an interest in me. He stared me down despite me being well bigger than him, and kept faking stabs at me with his sharp arms whilst laughing. Or whatever that weird breathy noise he made was. My brother kept watching his first pokémon and, at my pain, smiled continuously for the first time since entering college.
After that, I didn't have to deal with annoying pokémon in my life at all, except for the dumb pidove that tried to make a nest on the balcony outside my window every summer, or when my brother visited home and sent out one of his seemingly sadistic pokémon whenever I went into the room. I still felt indifferent to pokémon. I just didn't really care.
Despite that, I somehow wound up in this situation: standing opposite my friend Sylviana on a battlefield with a tepig as my partner. At the upper end of seventeen, I was starting my pokémon journey about eight years above the national average age of ten. Sad, ain't it?
I managed to win a school raffle that allowed me to go on a journey in place of a year of school, held every year with one winner. I would have called myself the ultimate lucky student, but I wasn't. The pool of students included only those who never went on a journey before. This year, I ended up being the only person in the school who never attempted going on a journey somehow. I should have just lied on that survey I had to take on the first day of school. Thus, I won. And they wouldn't take no for an answer.
The tepig was part of the deal, but really? A tepig? How cruel. They had to give a pig a pig, of course.
It wasn't like I was going to reject it, though. After what happened at the end of last year, I was too scared to go back to school.
"I'll go easy on you, El!" Sylviana threw her hair over her shoulder. For the first time this year, it was back to her natural blonde. I guessed she got bored of glitter green.
"Not like it'll make a difference," I said to myself. The tepig looked raring to go, not realizing how hopeless this battle was.
By Sylviana's feet was her dearly beloved sylveon. Although she never told me much about the journey she had a few years ago, I did know that her pokémon were unusually strong. Something about intense training with the guy she toured Unova with, I recalled her telling me. The pink thing beside her was no exception.
With the snap of her trainer's fingers, the sylveon leapt forth, face morphing from angelic to smug. "You can go first. Remember, whoever gets a good hit in first wins no matter what."
Ah, the little game of "one hit outs" or whatever it was called, meant to serve as our handicap. It still wouldn't help, I knew.
This tepig knew ember and tackle, and was a girl. That was all I was told when I was given her. The only chance we had of winning was spamming ember and hoping it landed. There was no way anything else was going to work.
Sylviana shook in anticipation across from me. I took a deep breath and tried to bring myself to shout. Right before I opened my mouth, everything hitched in my throat, and all I did was say quietly, "Ember."
"What was that, El? It's not fair if I can't hear your commands." Actually, wasn't that legitimate strategy in battles? There was no official rule against it, as far as I knew. And I read the basic trainer's manual last night, so I knew. Anyway, the tepig drove home Sylviana's point by turning around and tilting her head. She hadn't heard me either? This would be a problem. I couldn't bring myself to speak any louder if I wanted to. It was too embarrassing.
"Em-ember." I tried again. At least this time was a little louder and steadier, ignoring the stumble. But, it still sucked. The tepig looked at me again with lost written all over her face. I went to try again, but didn't get to.
"I guess we'll go, then, El. Don't have all day!" Sylviana had no patience. I knew this to be true. As well as that she would jump at any opportunity to win. "It'll be fast. Celeste!"
It was my turn to look confused. Last time I heard, Celeste was Destiny, and that was a week ago. Last month, I think she was Valentina. Last year, probably Penelope. Anyway, in the beginning, she was Angel.
"Grab that tepig, then use swift!" Celeste's ribbons shot out across the field and wrapped around the tepig, holding her in place. I would admit that I blanked out right there to rack my brain and ponder, What the hell move is swift?
It sounded familiar, yet I hadn't a clue. It couldn't have been a buff given the context. It didn't matter since I found out the hard way. Celeste yanked the tepig closer to her as she charged some move. The next thing I saw was a string of sharp stars shooting out, straight at the tepig. The first one hit and the tepig cried out in pain. I could have sworn Celeste started reeling her in faster at that. All I could do was stand awkwardly and let it happen. And let that be seared into my mind as the move swift.
The second star landed, but elicited no sound other than a solid thump. The next however-many followed suit. What was left on the battlefield was a tepig crumpled on the ground and a sylveon wagging her tail, waiting to be doted on. Celeste clapped her ribbons together behind her as if they were dirty.
Sylviana jumped to shower Celeste with affection. Meanwhile I walked over to the tepig the slowest I could while biting my lip. Once I stood next to her, she groaned and rolled over. Her eyes opened, and, instead of glaring at me or any angry reaction I expected since I kind of let her get hurt, she softly oinked and tried to stand.
What did I feel from that? Well, what was I supposed to feel? I felt pretty shitty since she got hurt, but what was I supposed to do about it? All I did was pull out the potion Sylviana gave to me earlier and spray it all over the tepig. Once I used the whole bottle, she sprung up and wagged her tail like nothing happened. Well, potions only provided temporary pain relief, so let's see her energy in about an hour.
Hoo, boy, if this tepig's personality was going to be like Sylviana's, like it looked like, there would be a problem somewhere down the line.
"You did great, El." I stared at Sylviana and slouched further over. That couldn't have been farther from the truth. Though, even though I accepted that as fact, it didn't really light a fire under me or anything. It was just a little frustrating that this was going to be harder than it seemed.
"Sure." The tepig kept distracting me by bumping against my leg. I kept taking small inches away from her, but she stuck to me like a magnet. No one was this friendly or nice in reality. Something had to be up with her. Why couldn't she just have been as bland as I was?
Sylviana tapped her Xtransceiver, reminding me that we had to finalize the results of our battle. I pulled up mine and stared at the screen, an application called Spar Star opened up. Two icons, a blue Battle Completed and a gray Forfeit, appeared. I selected the former and was taken to a confirmation screen, then a screen with a green Winner and a red Loser icon.
"I won," she sang and tapped away. Then, Sylviana looked at me expectantly.
I slowly chose Loser and watched as the icon filled the screen, the red background and black text creating a haunting sensation. My win-loss ratio of 0-1 came up next. Sylviana gave a small cheer and flashed her own screen in front of my face, her 74-5 ratio dwarfing mine. I should have been happy for her, but all I felt was bitterness. What other damn result did she expect?
Immediately, I was sent to a national victory leaderboard ranking all trainers in Unova registered to the app. Talk about insult to injury. I ranked 309,026,154th in the region, apparently, tied with a bunch of other people with the same or equivalent win ratio as mine. I didn't even think about checking out the cross-regional leaderboard. And that number, as absurd and specific as it was, kept repeating in my head.
"And now we wait." Sylviana bounced on her heels as she wore a satisfied smile.
"For what?" I managed to ask.
"Never mind." She pointed to the sky. A huge bird pokémon soared above, diving straight at us. It cawed just as I realized that there was someone holding onto one of its legs.
Closer and closer the two came until they were nearly on top of us. The pokémon was a braviary; I at least knew that. When he was about twenty feet above the ground, the person clutching the bird let go and started dropping down. The guy landed a few yards away from us on a knee and a hand in a pose that tried too hard to be cool. I kept wondering if he pulled anything and didn't want to admit it since he wasn't standing up yet.
"Ricky!" Sylviana walked over to the guy and drummed his shoulders. I was more worried about the fact that some random dude just dropped from the sky, and that his braviary was making his way towards me. Sylviana pulled the guy up while his pokémon stood just a foot away from me and kept cocking his head.
I took a small sidestep, nudging the tepig along with me away from the bird. He came closer and shoved his face in mine, beak nearly piercing my glasses and gouging my eye out, tongue wagging like no tomorrow. Wow, was this thing huge.
"Bomber, don't bother her." The guy yanked the braviary away by the neck and shook his head. "Sorry, he likes people." He returned Bomber to his poké ball after the bird whacked him on the back with a large wing in a come on type of manner.
"Uh-huh." I slowly nodded like an idiot to glaze over that.
"This is my friend." Sylviana slapped the guy on the back right where Bomber had, then did the same to me. Boy, did she hit hard.
"Sure. Maverick." He stuck his hand out while staring off in some other direction. That was seriously his name? How hipster.
Reluctantly, I met his hand with mine and twitched it in the guise of a handshake. "Eloise."
"Lois? Nice meeting you." So close, yet so off. He turned around and didn't give me a chance to correct him. Not that I had the balls to do so, but still. Guess it was my fault, really, since I tended to slur and speak quietly. But he couldn't have at least pretended to care a little more?
"So-"
Maverick held a hand up and stopped her. "I'm going ahead. This is boring. Need to train more." He sure made a great first impression. "If you wanna follow me, go ahead, but I'm not holding your hand through Unova again, Sylvia."
So, he was the guy she traveled with before? I hadn't a clue why we encountered him, but I knew I didn't really want to see him again. Sylviana did, though. She pulled on his arm and groaned. "Stay and travel with us for a while. At least till Striaton."
"I'm not slowing down."
"You're not saying no. But hold up!" Surprisingly, Maverick stopped. "Let's have a battle. I'm bored. Let's give El a show, too."
He turned around and crossed his arms. "Seriously?"
"Yup. One hit outs."
"Hurry up." His words were curt. The way he held his forehead probably meant he didn't want to deal with Sylviana's pestering. When she wanted something, she usually got it.
"Not recording this one." Sylviana stood opposite Maverick and covered her Xtransceiver, screen still displaying her 74-5 ratio.
Wait, why did our battle have to be registered to Spar Star? Oh, yeah, I accidentally pushed buttons since I never used the app before and ended up pairing us together somehow.
"Fine by me. Just don't complain when you lose."
"Here we go, Dean!" Sylviana hurled a luxury ball, and out came her hydreigon. He hung his jaw loose and hovered surprisingly steadily considering his wing-to-body size ratio. "Who's a good boy?"
Dean let out a roar and smacked his lips. The sound caused the tepig by my leg to cower behind me. I shook my head as I heard the crinkling sound of a plastic wrapper. Sylviana whipped out a small cake to feed Dean. No wonder I caught that one huge filling in the biggest of his tiny teeth when he opened up.
"Whatever. Edge." Maverick lazily tossed a poké ball, and out came a bisharp. I couldn't put a finger on it, but this particular pokémon seemed kind of familiar. And not just because my brother had one. Something about the scratch on his head-axe.
The battle was riveting. I couldn't put it into words, but knew that Maverick won in just one move. Okay, actually, while Sylviana ordered Dean to charge in, Edge moved to use sucker punch and landed a hit, so he won. I would note that my brothers' bisharp was much faster and more precise than Maverick's appeared to be. From what I could tell, at least.
Maverick returned Edge and walked on after winning. Sylviana hurried to follow him, dragging me with her by the sleeve, yet pouting and grumbling to herself.
"This sucks." I hid my words in a sigh. I really didn't understand why I had to go all the way to Nuvema Town from Opelucid City to get the tepig for my journey instead of the school. At least when I got my eighth badge in Opelucid, I could head straight home and forget it all ever happened, if I planned things right.
It was a surprisingly short distance to Accumula Town. The whole trip, Sylviana and Maverick walked ahead side-by-side while talking about something I couldn't hear. I trailed them and tried my best to not lose them or look like a creep.
"No stopping," Maverick announced as we first stepped foot in the town. No issue there, except that my legs burned since he walked faster than I did. The tepig kept up without complaining.
As we walked on, I pulled some candy out of my bag. I really liked gum. I was known by my classmates as the person who always had gum to spare if asked for some. Not that I really wanted to share, but how rude would I be if I said no? It would be a weird flavor marketed to hyper kids under the age of ten, guaranteed. A hefty stash of the stuff nested in my bag, hiding from shame. The dense block-type gum called my name this time. Unwrapping it and discreetly tossing it in my mouth distracted me for about a minute.
The tepig squealed. I nearly forgot about her. Maybe I should have put a bell on her. Or just return her. The way she stared up at the wrapper in my hand made me stop chewing. She wanted a piece? Did she really? I shook a new block of gum in front of her to test my hypothesis. Again, she squealed.
Okay, maybe this tepig wasn't that bad. I kind of wanted to laugh.
It was artificial blue and smelled like chemicals. Was it even safe for her to try? I really didn't know what I was thinking, but to get her to stop bumping against me, I stopped walking, unwrapped the gum, and tossed it in her mouth. "Don't swallow it. Please just don't."
I shouldn't have given it to her. Who knew if she would listen to me, much less understand me. A wet smacking from her at least meant she didn't eat it yet. But, all things went wrong eventually. Not even a minute later, she cringed and groaned.
"Wait." The wrapper was in my hand, prepared for this very moment. "Here."
Before I could squat down and hold out the thing for her to spit it out in, she coughed and sent a small fireball shooting out to the stairs I saw Sylviana and Maverick finish ascending. Gum was at the center of it, soaring an unusually long distance.
A passing person almost made it into the line of fire. But it was too short to be a person. There was a mohawk, though. The gum flew just luckily enough to barely miss hitting the guy's hair.
"Too sour? Just hope he didn't notice that!" The flavor was sour blue raspberry. Xtreme, according to the package. All I could do was quicken my pace, hold the wrapper in my hand, and try to avoid meeting the person we almost set ablaze. He didn't actually get hit, though, so he wouldn't make a scene, yeah?
They guy stopped walking to roll his shoulders. As I passed him, I realized it was not a man, but some pokemon. With weird skin-pants and bared teeth for whatever reason.
I hadn't a clue what it was, but something else intrigued me more: it had a tattoo on its head, right under the mohawk. It was a black gyarados coiled into an infinity symbol. I stopped walking to ogle at the thing. On top of the tattoo, it even had a gold chain and bandanna around its neck. In its hand was one of those trilby hats, too. How that worked with the hair, I didn't know.
Swag. It had to have had a trainer. I needed to see the trainer so I could laugh at them. So badly did I want to laugh at the poor little guy, too. Someone had to tell me that I would see more pokémon like that in the future. Maybe then I would like them more.
Catching up to Sylviana came back to me, so I reluctantly turned away from the stunning specimen in front of me and went on. At the bottom of the stairs, the fireball sizzled out and a wad of half-chewed gum remained. One swift motion later, I climbed the stairs with an unusually warm blob of gum pinched between its wrapper in my fingers. The tepig groaned.
"Just hurry. I have other flavors." What an amazing sequence of events. With a spring in my step, I clamored up the stairs to keep up with Sylviana. Really, though, I wondered why I bothered saying that. How stupid did I sound?
She cried out with what I guessed was glee? What I said worked? Speed must have been this tepig's boon. Practically flying up the stairs, she made it to the top well before I did.
"Just follow them." Pointing at Sylviana's slowly disappearing back, I couldn't bring myself to return the tepig. We're gum buddies? I thought, trying to make the best of my situation.
Striaton City was a step up from Accumula Town. The feeling I got when I entered it was much better, too. That was because Sylviana got tired and called a car service to bring us here shortly after I caught up to them (wasted gum disposed of properly, of course). She sure knew how to work her silver spoon.
"Let's go to the center." Pinching my sleeve, Sylviana dragged me to a large building with a red roof. We entered together through its automatic doors, Maverick leaving us to go wherever it was he wanted to. "I'm gonna go with Ricky for now. You can get your own room and do whatever you want. I'll find you later. Be back soon."
Sylviana left, and so did the excitement. As well as my lifeline. With the tepig by my side, I joined the line at the front desk. When five people stood in front of me, my heart started pounding. What was I supposed to say to the receptionist? Just room for one, please? That had to be it, right? But what if they were completely booked already? What if she couldn't hear me? Should I just have waited for Sylviana to come back to help me?
The woman first in line approached the desk. Then, in a flash, the man in front of me went up. Everyone in line had requested rooms, so I had to have been in the right place. My slouch became more obvious despite that knowledge.
"Can I help you?" The woman behind the desk looked straight at me. The tepig nudged me and I dragged my feet to meet the lady.
"I'd like a single room." What happened? Like every other time something like this happened, I changed my answer last minute to something even wrong-er. My everything became numb. It suddenly became hot. I dug my fingernails deep into my palms and tried to ignore my blunder. Did what I say even make sense?
"For how long?"
There was more to this exchange? How long should I have expected to stay? Sylviana told me there was a gym here, but… "Three days." It was more of a question, but I couldn't bring myself to say any more.
"At 1,000 poké a night for private rooms, that'll be 3,000 poké, please."
I just nodded and mechanically took three 1,000 poké bills out of my bag's inside pocket. Without any slip-ups, to my benefit. It was a good thing Sylviana told me that in centers, pokémon healing was free, but food and board was not; otherwise, I would have frozen like an idiot at her response. I didn't even remember what happened after I took the money out, just that I wanted the exchange to be over.
The tepig got me out of my daze again. I found myself in a hallway lined with rooms by some miracle. In my hand was a card key and receipt for the room I got. Well, the purchase could have been more painful. And the room was pretty cheap. But, I was pretty sure that poké centers were in cahoots with whatever luxury hotels existed nearby them in terms of profit, so that probably evened it out. Either that or taxes.
I was only left with 7,000 poké that my mom gave me, though. According to my brother and Sylviana, I was supposed to win battles to get more money. But I was already exhausted. I checked my Xtransceiver, and it was only just past noon; I got my tepig in Nuvema Town at around eight this morning.
Finding and entering my room, ignoring some flyer posted on the door, was much easier than paying for it. I let the tepig in first. Order existed in the room. No dust or stains showed themselves from what I could see. Not even thinking, I turned the television on and sat on the bed like I did at home. The tepig managed to hop up beside me, and wagged her tail while watching the TV.
"This is gonna be a long day," I said to myself. The gum in my mouth muffled the words. Now I chewed two blocks.
The tepig… That bothered me. I couldn't even bring myself to think of her as my tepig. I also couldn't come up with a decent name for her. Everything in my head was either predictable, too cutesy, or too edgy. Sylviana loved naming her pokémon. She said it was her favorite part of getting a new partner.
Her Dean's name came from the fact that she got him as a deino. She was still young when she got him, so his name wasn't too fabulous, and he got too attached to it when she came up with something better. I was pretty sure she named Celeste (or Angel or whatever) based on whatever name she wished she had herself. The sylveon always reacted positively to her new names. Like trainer, like partner, I assumed.
My brother called his pawniard, now a bisharp Miles. Apparently it was because when they started out on their journey, they passed by a gym with people running on treadmills facing the street. Miles went through the open door and tried running on a treadmill himself. Of course, he couldn't turn it on, so he ended up running into the window. It left an impression on my brother. He decided on Miles, and the pawniard liked it.
So what about this tepig? We had done nothing together, and the only thing I knew of her was that she didn't like sour gum. Speaking of, I opened a different flavor of gum and held a piece out to her. "This one's sweet, I think." Who didn't like strawberry?
If I was to be stuck with her, we might as well have found a common ground. To my surprise, she whipped her head away from the gum. So she didn't want any more? Guessed "Gummy" was out of the question for a name. And a word to the wise: strawberry and sour blue raspberry was not a good flavor combination.
I didn't bother going any further with that and instead changed the channel on the TV. Boring news, cartoons, and the like flashed by as I flicked stations to find something.
The tepig sat and watched the channels fly by. Hope she wasn't impressionable. "When I come up with a name for you, we'll go out and train." I decided on that. But since I was horribly indecisive, that declaration was just an excuse to procrastinate. "Probably."
A minute passed and I landed on Cooking Network. Any show on these food channels was entertaining, so I left it there. I checked the door and made sure it was closed. How embarrassing if someone walked in and saw us watching cooking shows.
The tepig hopped off the bed and plopped down right in front of the television, tail wagging and eyes glued to the screen. We had this in common, then.
A couple of commercial breaks later, I actually felt like going outside. The tepig, on the other hand, was enchanted by the cooking show.
"The mystery ingredients were a doozy, but I'm pretty confident I can take that gross canned soup and turn it into a delicious, spicy broth. So I decided to make ramen for my entree," the chef on TV said. "I love, love, love spicy food. And the pantry had a bunch of beautiful peppers begging to be put in my soup. After I dumped the canned soup into a pot to heat up, I ran to the pantry."
I sat back down to watch at least until the next commercial break. The tepig kept crying out. She sure was hype for something.
"The pantry was pepper paradise. I took a big green bell pepper-"
She oinked. I had to admit, her squeal was pretty cute.
"-a few jalapenos-"
Another oink.
"-some poblanos-"
Again, an oink.
"-and serranos. Plus a lot of chili powders from the spice rack." That was a pepper paradise to the chef? Had he never gone to a supermarket before?
A very loud oink.
I really didn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. So she liked peppers? Or maybe just the way they sounded? Maybe she liked the chef? Some commercial interrupted the show, but the tepig kept staring at the TV.
I had nothing to lose, so I played a little game. "Ghost."
An oink.
Quieter than it was, but I still got a reaction. "Cayenne."
She oinked again.
So I wasn't exciting enough? "Guajillo."
A flat oink.
Sarcasm or waiting for the show to start again? "Shishito."
An excited oink.
That was exotic-sounding enough for her. "Tabasco."
An explosive oink.
The commercials were still running, so she was reacting to me, yeah? My whole repertoire of pepper names exhausted, I then knew she liked peppers. That had to be it. I was too lazy to come up with anything else. So, I moved to stand next to her. When she looked up at me, I pointed at her and said lamely, "Pepper."
That was a legitimate name for some people. The tepig saved me grief by smiling and oinking.
"Sure, let's run with that." So there I was with my tepig Pepper. Damn, I came up with a name for her. And it was a food. I said that thing before, so we had to go try training now. "Let's go out now."
She shook her head, eyes still glued to the screen. How was I supposed to react to this?
"And there are ten minutes left on the clock, chefs."
Okay, maybe after the show was over would we go. Some forest stood to the east of Striaton, so we would be fine on time.
It was hot, humid, and grody in the forest beside Striaton. Deciding to just go in a straight line to not get lost, Pepper and I currently stood in an empty patch of land. "And there are pokémon where?"
At least no trainers showed themselves. On cue, I heard rustling in a nearby bush. Out came some rodent. I scanned it with the pokédex app Stat Star (sister app of Spar Star) on my Xtransceiver and knew it to be a patrat. He paid us no mind, however. "Come on, the only battle we had was with Sylviana. That doesn't even count."
"Go instigate that thing," I said with weird breaks between each word. Was this seriously how training went? Might as well just sign her up for a gym membership. Pepper snapped up and ran a small lap around the patrat.
He growled. We were just a nuisance to him? Not like I wanted to do this either.
What I thought didn't even matter. The battle started as Patrat charged at Pepper. Was this tackle? "Ember?" I said it at the same volume I had during out bout with Sylviana. But, I guessed since the area was so quiet, Pepper heard me this time around, even with the gum in my mouth. I still didn't know what I was doing. She only knew two moves, though, so how badly could this go?
Pepper took a deep breath, then sent out bits of fire, halting Patrat in his tracks. He ran in again, then leapt in the air with his mouth agape. His gnarly tooth glowed as he fell towards Pepper.
Pity I sucked under pressure. "Tackle?" Her ears perked a little. Was she straining herself to hear me? Or unwilling to follow my command? Boy, oh, boy, I was going to have to get used to not just talking, but talking loudly.
I meant my command, though. If this were like a video game or something, the bashing tackle would at least stun Patrat. Hopefully Pepper knew to avoid his tooth.
The tooth was of no worry as Pepper smashed into Patrat right after I blinked. Bouncing back and landing perfectly, she wore a satisfied smile. Meanwhile, Patrat grumbled, rubbing his face where Pepper nailed him. Running away became his next move.
"Wait-" I cut myself off. I intended to stop Patrat from escaping to have Pepper wail on him until kingdom come? "Forget it. Who's next?" I asked no one.
Pepper cried out. In the direction she faced was another patrat. "Here we go again."
A pink blob drifted behind a rusted chain link fence we walked along to get back to the city just as the sun started setting.
"What a space case." It floated into the fence, bounced off of it, then changed its path by a 30-degree angle. They collided again shortly after. "Is it brain dead?"
I scanned it with Stat Star and learned it was a munna. "Do I do anything about this?" He kept ramming into the fence like he was programmed to. "There's a hole for him to get out through like a foot away from him. Just get in there!"
"Ah..." he droned. What a strange sound.
Such a travesty, one that I kept watching for some reason. Just until he gets out, I told myself.
Finally, Munna adjusted himself to bump through the hole in the fence. Except it actually was just too small for him to get through. If he actually tried to squeeze through it, he probably would have made it, but it was like he was being pushed by the wind and nothing more. "Good God, are you alive? How haven't you died yet?"
The brainless smile he wore didn't help him. He just kept wiggling against the hole. "No, wait, he's actually stuck." Indeed he was. The munna was just barely moving, not even worried about being trapped in there. "Do I do something about this?"
I meant, it wasn't my job to do that. Plus, I didn't want to touch him, period. Who knew if I would hurt him, gross myself out, or agitate him. Pepper jumped and hit my bag with her head, specifically the side pocket I put her poké ball in.
"Do what now?" So I was listening to Pepper? How the tables had turned. Next, she rubbed against a hole in the fence on the ground.
"Don't you get stuck too."
Contrary to my prediction, Pepper squeezed through to the other side with ease. I stood juggling Pepper's poké ball and an empty one Sylviana gave me in my hand. Pokémon got sucked into poké balls when returned. If I caught this munna, at least temporarily, could I "save" him?
I almost wanted to walk away (hooray for inaction), but Pepper waited on me. And the sight was too sad to leave alone. "Prepare thyself."
"Ah..." he droned. Still pretty empty up there.
With no grace or sense of urgency, I tossed the poké ball at Munna. He went in without trouble, and the ball traveled through the hole, landing right beside Pepper. "Why didn't I just hold the ball? That would have been easier. But then it wouldn't have been cool!" What a revelation.
Pepper didn't complain as she nudged the ball and pushed herself through the hole she entered. I took it and sent Munna out. Immediately after coming out, he started drifting back towards the hole. In a panic, I returned him, did a 180-degree turn, and sent him back out again. "Well, see ya. Don't get stuck again."
For some reason, he stopped moving. "You can go if you wanna now." Pepper grunted in what I assumed was agreement.
Still, he didn't leave. Seriously? But I didn't want him. I only caught him to save us all from embarrassment. Pepper must have felt the same way by how much she was oinking.
"Go. Please. Now."
"Ah..."
"I'm too tired for this!" Could he take a hint? "Oy vey. If your gonna get stuck again, just come."
How did this come to be? Why did I think he was going to be a parasite or something? I started walking away, Pepper following closely. Munna drifted in our general direction slower than my brain was operating at the moment. Slowing down to a crawl, I waited for him to catch up to return him. "Sylviana will like you. Pink and cute. She'll take you off my hands."
"Ah..." He either didn't understand or was extremely indifferent.
"Pick up the pace. I don't care how, just get here." I stopped walking. This was torture in its own right.
My wish was granted in a way. Loud cooing came from nearby. Pepper oinked in that direction. An alert one was she. A pidove perched on a tree with its wings spread open.
"No, get away, you vermin." The pidove that marked my balcony every year made me sick whenever I head a coo. Every time they landed there, I had to be the one to chase them away because I was the only person in my family bothered by them. They exhausted me. And they were loud. I got jump-scared when they started crooning. Every single damn time. "Fuck off!"
It left the branch it perched on and soared towards me at mach speed. I gained the courage and stupidity to take a stance ready to punch it if it came near. Except it didn't. Munna stood between us, and the pidove aimed right for him.
Pepper oinked with urgency. Sounded like a warning, one that Munna didn't process in time.
It cooed, then became a gray blur charging at Munna like he was some toy, leaving behind a white speed trail.
"Pepper, do something." I sure as hell hadn't a clue.
Too late. The rat with wings collided with Munna and sent him flying in my direction. At least he came closer faster than he would on his own. My reflexes kicked in for once and I managed to return him just before he hit me.
Pepper cried out. "I know, right?" I pretended she complimented me.
The bird flew a small distance away. But when I looked at it, instead of being annoyed, I started laughing. Probably because Munna annoyed me more than it.
"Thanks. Less work for me." I shook his ball in the air. But then, Pepper assumed a battle stance.
"Wait, you wanna battle that thing? Let's just run away. I don't wanna do this." She didn't move.
So she was like that, huh? Unable to come up with a way to get out of this mess, I scanned the pidove. Ms. Pidove, it turned out. The dex portrait was pretty cute. The actual thing? Not so much. "How'd we piss you off? You're not even native to this area. Do I have a pidove curse or something?"
Not missing a beat, she flapped her wings, strong enough that a small whirlwind formed and aimed for Pepper.
"That's gust? Well, then… Dodge?" Assertive was not in my vocabulary. All I could do was pray Pepper could execute my commands excellently.
Pouncing into the air with leg strength I couldn't have guessed she had, Pepper just missed getting grazed by the wind. I had to dodge myself since I was the next thing in the gust's line of fire. And by dodge, I meant stiffly run about three steps to the left.
"Tackle." Pepper dashed towards the dove and leaped at the last second, bumping into the bird. Pidove fell out of the air and splat to the ground. Following this, her eyes narrowed and she charged for Pepper. No light stream followed her, meaning that she wasn't using that move.
"Do we do anything about this?" Although not apparently a move, Pidove's full-body hit pushed Pepper back. It looked really stupid, quite actually, like a balloon bouncing off a wall. I didn't bother suppressing the laugh coming out. What was she doing? We only hit her once. Could she be any less threatening right now? "Tackle."
Back and forth, back and forth they went. Pepper was doing alright, so I didn't say anything. Exchanging hits was all it was. It got old fast. "Okay, just end it. Ember."
Instead of going in for another charge, Pepper hopped back and took a deep breath. Similarly, Pidove took flight and charged a move herself. Cloaked in white the next instant, Pidove swooped in with what I assumed was quick attack. "Any time now." Pepper was going to get hit no matter what with that move. If ember got out, it would at least cushion the blow.
Luck shone through for us in the middle of Pidove's attack. Once she made it to about two yards from Pepper, she stopped for some reason. Recovering from her dead stop seamlessly, she spun around in what I thought was her checking her surroundings. Pepper relaxed and forgot about ember as she watched Pidove in intrigue alongside me.
"Another space case?" Disappointing. Wasn't she just super hostile?
She lost me with this. After going for a second spin-around, Pidove did a slow, clunky, 360-degree rotation along the vertical axis. A pompous chirp escaped her, followed by a shaky descent to the ground. Once landed, she took a bow for no one and tilted her head up in the air as if she pulled off some badass stunt. Which she didn't.
I reopened Stat Star. "Yup, they've got bad memories." That didn't really explain her behavior, but whatever. Pepper looked at me with her head tilted. "I feel you deeply, man. So what to do about her?"
Pidove stretched her wings like a human flexed their muscles. We were completely forgotten. I wasn't aware this could happen. "Hey, uh, is it bad if I kinda wanna catch her right now?"
Cheeks puffed out and twitching her right ear (which I just noticed had a small scratch on it, most likely from Pidove's beak in their bumping match), Pepper nodded. Cut me some slack.
"I mean, that's kinda charming in a way. I like her better than Munna, at least." I disliked him more than I should have. Empty poké ball in hand, I took aim at Pidove. "Hold still. Or fly away. Whatever you want."
I waited a good minute for the bird to move, but she didn't. So, I flung the poké ball through the air, hitting Pidove square on the head. "Oh, no, you need those brain cells!" Should have aimed lower. "It's fine..."
Without issue, Pidove went into the ball to stay. Hey, I was doing pretty alright. Was this a proud moment? Either way, I made sure my two newly-occupied poké balls went into my bag safely, then took out another potion Sylviana gave me to heal Pepper. "Not too bad today."
"Why are we here?" Maverick crossed his arms and glared at Sylviana.
He took the words right out of my mouth. After yesterday ended on a nice note for me, I didn't expect to find myself seated in the Striaton gym on only the second day of my journey. But, Sylviana insisted, constantly assuring me that it would be fine. Easy for her to say. I hadn't even had my first real trainer battle yet. As if I stood a chance of winning. But, Sylviana sure loved pushing me to my limits.
"Battle, duh." As careless and lackadaisical as ever. Sylviana turned her attention to me. "Don't be so nervous, El. When the waiter comes, just ask for a gym battle."
"Gym battle? Wait, isn't this place-"
Maverick got cut off by a man in a tux with blue hair in strands like they were made of clay approaching out table. He bowed and offered a smile. "Hello. I hope you are all doing well today. Welcome to Striaton Restaurant. My name is Cress, and I'll be your server today. How may I help you?"
Instead of giving an order, Sylviana elbowed me and nodded. "I got you." She winked, then turned to the waiter. "Excuse me, but my friend wants to challenge you to a battle."
As expected, Sylviana had said that loudly. Her voice commanded attention. I darted my eyes around as Sylviana put her arm around my shoulders, noticing a few people staring at our table. At least I didn't have to say it myself now, which I was thankful for.
"Is that so?" Cress lowered his arms which had been holding a pen and notepad.
"Mm-hm, a gym battle!" Sylviana was more excited for this than me.
I felt my face set ablaze and looked straight down. What a nightmare this became. Sylviana elbowed me again, egging me on. "Y-yeah, I-"
Before I could muster the ability to speak properly, Cress looked at me and gave a professional smile. "I apologize, but I believe you are mistaken. Striaton City no longer has a gym. We are not registered with the League anymore."
His smile was too perfect, and so were his words. Who knew what he was actually thinking. Probably what a dumbass. Putting me down gently? No matter how he phrased it, I just felt like an idiot in that moment. Why did Sylviana have to speak for me, and so definitively?
Awkward silence overtook us until I realized Cress was waiting for a response. "Y-yeah, I understand and apologize." Hopefully I said it loud enough so I wouldn't have to repeat it.
"No worries at all. However, although we cannot offer a gym match, we do offer regular battles if you wish. We encourage them to entertain all parties in Striaton Restaurant."
"No, thank you," I forced myself to say.
"With that out of the way, may I take your order?"
Wallowing in embarrassment and misery, I paid Sylviana no mind as she spoke. I wanted to leave so badly. Was I the only one feeling like shit?
"El, I'm sorry. I really didn't know about that."
Oh, Sylviana. How I wished she would think before she acted on my behalf. As much as she meant well, I wanted nothing more than to disappear. "It's fine."
Shortly after, Cress came back with a basket of cookies and a pot of tea. Indulging myself was the last thing on my mind. I couldn't bring myself to eat in public, anyway. The moment the cookies hit the table, however, a stinging sensation traveled up my nose to my throat. I could tell there were peanuts in them, and I was badly allergic to them.
"Won't you have some, El?" Sylviana waved a cookie in front of my face.
I covered my nose and looked back down. "I'm allergic."
"Oh, yeah. Whoops, I'm sorry. I always forget!" On the flip side, Sylviana loved peanuts.
Peanuts were the least worst thing to happen so far today, though. Breathing shallow breaths through my mouth while turned in the other direction made them a nonissue. "Sure."
"Ooh, you know what?" Dropping her half-eaten cookie, Sylviana waved Cress back.
"Is there anything else?" he asked.
"Are we done yet?" I caught Maverick groaning across from us.
"Yeah, there is. I wanna have a battle!" Sylviana proclaimed while standing up. Heads turned to the bold girl wearing a confident smile. Excited murmurs broke out, even.
"Really? We haven't had a battle here in a while." Cress waved at two other waiters at this news. This wasn't how he reacted to my supposed challenge. Or was it?
"Yeah, and I want a challenge. Is there a rotation field here?" I had a textbook definition of what that meant.
"Yes we do. Why?"
"Let's have fun. I wanna have a rotation battle!" Again, she was loud. More people struck up side conversations pertaining to battles.
"How interesting. We've never had to break out our rotation field before!" Cress looked back at the two waiters he addressed before. "Why don't we up the ante? How about me and my brothers against you in a three-on-three rotation battle right now?"
Cress knew how to work a crowd. Several cheers burst out, and I saw a banner drop down from the balcony seats, which must have been there the entire time. They had a home team fan club here? Way to bully someone into not backing out.
"Okay!"
The next thing I knew, I saw two large metal disks rise from the ground in the open space at the back of the restaurant. It was then that I noticed white tape set up to mark a battlefield on the floor. Sylviana skipped to take her place. Cress and the two men he kept glancing at stood opposite her.
Was this seriously happening? So convenient, like it was a cartoon. How serendipitous it worked out like this. I knew this to be true: Sylviana thrived in the spotlight. Attention fueled her. When eyes fell on her, she was invincible. So unlike me. She would do a lot of things to be noticed, and she loved every second of it.
All I could do was sit back and see what would happen. That was all I really knew how to do well.
Somewhere in the notebook I carried around with me, hidden in my bag was this poem:
Sylviana, I'm sorry I feel this way about you. You're just too good to be true. But, like my thoughts and words, it'll be kept under lock and key and never see the light of day again.
Warnings: Nothing comes to mind except some swearing.
Chapter 1: Start of Something Different
I felt indifferent towards pokémon, really.
My first real interaction with a pokémon was in third grade. It was me and some other kid's turn to care for the class petilil after school. Instead of excitement, I felt endangered as the grass-type shot shaky leech seeds at the both of us when she got startled at my presence. One wrapped around the both of our ankles and wouldn't let go for a while. Didn't hurt or scar, though.
The next year, someone accidentally kicked the class lillipup, causing him to run around the room and tackle everything in sight, including me. The hit actually made me fall down and kiss the floor. And the next year? The class purrloin stole my pencil case and almost gave me a panic attack when I told my teacher, who shamed me for being a tattletale and not trying to ask the dumb cat nicely (which I actually did. I never got it back, by the way). These three incidents happened to other classmates, of course, but I carried a particular lasting annoyance from the experiences. Those three pokémon were selected for the classroom setting, and I managed to get on all of their bad sides. What did that say about me?
My friend Sylviana said it was because I didn't smile that every class pokémon didn't really like me. My brother said that it was because I was fat and made the floor shake with every step I took, making each pokémon scared of me. If I had to guess, they both were probably right.
The last major interaction I had with a pokémon of similar nature was about five years ago. My brother, halfway through college, depressed, moody, and directionless, came home with a pawniard he caught. It was right after our mom gave him an ultimatum of going on a pokémon journey or getting a job, both of which he had never experienced before. He chose the former after a bunch of arguing.
The night he brought the pawniard home, the thing took an interest in me. He stared me down despite me being well bigger than him, and kept faking stabs at me with his sharp arms whilst laughing. Or whatever that weird breathy noise he made was. My brother kept watching his first pokémon and, at my pain, smiled continuously for the first time since entering college.
After that, I didn't have to deal with annoying pokémon in my life at all, except for the dumb pidove that tried to make a nest on the balcony outside my window every summer, or when my brother visited home and sent out one of his seemingly sadistic pokémon whenever I went into the room. I still felt indifferent to pokémon. I just didn't really care.
Despite that, I somehow wound up in this situation: standing opposite my friend Sylviana on a battlefield with a tepig as my partner. At the upper end of seventeen, I was starting my pokémon journey about eight years above the national average age of ten. Sad, ain't it?
I managed to win a school raffle that allowed me to go on a journey in place of a year of school, held every year with one winner. I would have called myself the ultimate lucky student, but I wasn't. The pool of students included only those who never went on a journey before. This year, I ended up being the only person in the school who never attempted going on a journey somehow. I should have just lied on that survey I had to take on the first day of school. Thus, I won. And they wouldn't take no for an answer.
The tepig was part of the deal, but really? A tepig? How cruel. They had to give a pig a pig, of course.
It wasn't like I was going to reject it, though. After what happened at the end of last year, I was too scared to go back to school.
"I'll go easy on you, El!" Sylviana threw her hair over her shoulder. For the first time this year, it was back to her natural blonde. I guessed she got bored of glitter green.
"Not like it'll make a difference," I said to myself. The tepig looked raring to go, not realizing how hopeless this battle was.
By Sylviana's feet was her dearly beloved sylveon. Although she never told me much about the journey she had a few years ago, I did know that her pokémon were unusually strong. Something about intense training with the guy she toured Unova with, I recalled her telling me. The pink thing beside her was no exception.
With the snap of her trainer's fingers, the sylveon leapt forth, face morphing from angelic to smug. "You can go first. Remember, whoever gets a good hit in first wins no matter what."
Ah, the little game of "one hit outs" or whatever it was called, meant to serve as our handicap. It still wouldn't help, I knew.
This tepig knew ember and tackle, and was a girl. That was all I was told when I was given her. The only chance we had of winning was spamming ember and hoping it landed. There was no way anything else was going to work.
Sylviana shook in anticipation across from me. I took a deep breath and tried to bring myself to shout. Right before I opened my mouth, everything hitched in my throat, and all I did was say quietly, "Ember."
"What was that, El? It's not fair if I can't hear your commands." Actually, wasn't that legitimate strategy in battles? There was no official rule against it, as far as I knew. And I read the basic trainer's manual last night, so I knew. Anyway, the tepig drove home Sylviana's point by turning around and tilting her head. She hadn't heard me either? This would be a problem. I couldn't bring myself to speak any louder if I wanted to. It was too embarrassing.
"Em-ember." I tried again. At least this time was a little louder and steadier, ignoring the stumble. But, it still sucked. The tepig looked at me again with lost written all over her face. I went to try again, but didn't get to.
"I guess we'll go, then, El. Don't have all day!" Sylviana had no patience. I knew this to be true. As well as that she would jump at any opportunity to win. "It'll be fast. Celeste!"
It was my turn to look confused. Last time I heard, Celeste was Destiny, and that was a week ago. Last month, I think she was Valentina. Last year, probably Penelope. Anyway, in the beginning, she was Angel.
"Grab that tepig, then use swift!" Celeste's ribbons shot out across the field and wrapped around the tepig, holding her in place. I would admit that I blanked out right there to rack my brain and ponder, What the hell move is swift?
It sounded familiar, yet I hadn't a clue. It couldn't have been a buff given the context. It didn't matter since I found out the hard way. Celeste yanked the tepig closer to her as she charged some move. The next thing I saw was a string of sharp stars shooting out, straight at the tepig. The first one hit and the tepig cried out in pain. I could have sworn Celeste started reeling her in faster at that. All I could do was stand awkwardly and let it happen. And let that be seared into my mind as the move swift.
The second star landed, but elicited no sound other than a solid thump. The next however-many followed suit. What was left on the battlefield was a tepig crumpled on the ground and a sylveon wagging her tail, waiting to be doted on. Celeste clapped her ribbons together behind her as if they were dirty.
Sylviana jumped to shower Celeste with affection. Meanwhile I walked over to the tepig the slowest I could while biting my lip. Once I stood next to her, she groaned and rolled over. Her eyes opened, and, instead of glaring at me or any angry reaction I expected since I kind of let her get hurt, she softly oinked and tried to stand.
What did I feel from that? Well, what was I supposed to feel? I felt pretty shitty since she got hurt, but what was I supposed to do about it? All I did was pull out the potion Sylviana gave to me earlier and spray it all over the tepig. Once I used the whole bottle, she sprung up and wagged her tail like nothing happened. Well, potions only provided temporary pain relief, so let's see her energy in about an hour.
Hoo, boy, if this tepig's personality was going to be like Sylviana's, like it looked like, there would be a problem somewhere down the line.
"You did great, El." I stared at Sylviana and slouched further over. That couldn't have been farther from the truth. Though, even though I accepted that as fact, it didn't really light a fire under me or anything. It was just a little frustrating that this was going to be harder than it seemed.
"Sure." The tepig kept distracting me by bumping against my leg. I kept taking small inches away from her, but she stuck to me like a magnet. No one was this friendly or nice in reality. Something had to be up with her. Why couldn't she just have been as bland as I was?
Sylviana tapped her Xtransceiver, reminding me that we had to finalize the results of our battle. I pulled up mine and stared at the screen, an application called Spar Star opened up. Two icons, a blue Battle Completed and a gray Forfeit, appeared. I selected the former and was taken to a confirmation screen, then a screen with a green Winner and a red Loser icon.
"I won," she sang and tapped away. Then, Sylviana looked at me expectantly.
I slowly chose Loser and watched as the icon filled the screen, the red background and black text creating a haunting sensation. My win-loss ratio of 0-1 came up next. Sylviana gave a small cheer and flashed her own screen in front of my face, her 74-5 ratio dwarfing mine. I should have been happy for her, but all I felt was bitterness. What other damn result did she expect?
Immediately, I was sent to a national victory leaderboard ranking all trainers in Unova registered to the app. Talk about insult to injury. I ranked 309,026,154th in the region, apparently, tied with a bunch of other people with the same or equivalent win ratio as mine. I didn't even think about checking out the cross-regional leaderboard. And that number, as absurd and specific as it was, kept repeating in my head.
"And now we wait." Sylviana bounced on her heels as she wore a satisfied smile.
"For what?" I managed to ask.
"Never mind." She pointed to the sky. A huge bird pokémon soared above, diving straight at us. It cawed just as I realized that there was someone holding onto one of its legs.
Closer and closer the two came until they were nearly on top of us. The pokémon was a braviary; I at least knew that. When he was about twenty feet above the ground, the person clutching the bird let go and started dropping down. The guy landed a few yards away from us on a knee and a hand in a pose that tried too hard to be cool. I kept wondering if he pulled anything and didn't want to admit it since he wasn't standing up yet.
"Ricky!" Sylviana walked over to the guy and drummed his shoulders. I was more worried about the fact that some random dude just dropped from the sky, and that his braviary was making his way towards me. Sylviana pulled the guy up while his pokémon stood just a foot away from me and kept cocking his head.
I took a small sidestep, nudging the tepig along with me away from the bird. He came closer and shoved his face in mine, beak nearly piercing my glasses and gouging my eye out, tongue wagging like no tomorrow. Wow, was this thing huge.
"Bomber, don't bother her." The guy yanked the braviary away by the neck and shook his head. "Sorry, he likes people." He returned Bomber to his poké ball after the bird whacked him on the back with a large wing in a come on type of manner.
"Uh-huh." I slowly nodded like an idiot to glaze over that.
"This is my friend." Sylviana slapped the guy on the back right where Bomber had, then did the same to me. Boy, did she hit hard.
"Sure. Maverick." He stuck his hand out while staring off in some other direction. That was seriously his name? How hipster.
Reluctantly, I met his hand with mine and twitched it in the guise of a handshake. "Eloise."
"Lois? Nice meeting you." So close, yet so off. He turned around and didn't give me a chance to correct him. Not that I had the balls to do so, but still. Guess it was my fault, really, since I tended to slur and speak quietly. But he couldn't have at least pretended to care a little more?
"So-"
Maverick held a hand up and stopped her. "I'm going ahead. This is boring. Need to train more." He sure made a great first impression. "If you wanna follow me, go ahead, but I'm not holding your hand through Unova again, Sylvia."
So, he was the guy she traveled with before? I hadn't a clue why we encountered him, but I knew I didn't really want to see him again. Sylviana did, though. She pulled on his arm and groaned. "Stay and travel with us for a while. At least till Striaton."
"I'm not slowing down."
"You're not saying no. But hold up!" Surprisingly, Maverick stopped. "Let's have a battle. I'm bored. Let's give El a show, too."
He turned around and crossed his arms. "Seriously?"
"Yup. One hit outs."
"Hurry up." His words were curt. The way he held his forehead probably meant he didn't want to deal with Sylviana's pestering. When she wanted something, she usually got it.
"Not recording this one." Sylviana stood opposite Maverick and covered her Xtransceiver, screen still displaying her 74-5 ratio.
Wait, why did our battle have to be registered to Spar Star? Oh, yeah, I accidentally pushed buttons since I never used the app before and ended up pairing us together somehow.
"Fine by me. Just don't complain when you lose."
"Here we go, Dean!" Sylviana hurled a luxury ball, and out came her hydreigon. He hung his jaw loose and hovered surprisingly steadily considering his wing-to-body size ratio. "Who's a good boy?"
Dean let out a roar and smacked his lips. The sound caused the tepig by my leg to cower behind me. I shook my head as I heard the crinkling sound of a plastic wrapper. Sylviana whipped out a small cake to feed Dean. No wonder I caught that one huge filling in the biggest of his tiny teeth when he opened up.
"Whatever. Edge." Maverick lazily tossed a poké ball, and out came a bisharp. I couldn't put a finger on it, but this particular pokémon seemed kind of familiar. And not just because my brother had one. Something about the scratch on his head-axe.
~X~
The battle was riveting. I couldn't put it into words, but knew that Maverick won in just one move. Okay, actually, while Sylviana ordered Dean to charge in, Edge moved to use sucker punch and landed a hit, so he won. I would note that my brothers' bisharp was much faster and more precise than Maverick's appeared to be. From what I could tell, at least.
Maverick returned Edge and walked on after winning. Sylviana hurried to follow him, dragging me with her by the sleeve, yet pouting and grumbling to herself.
"This sucks." I hid my words in a sigh. I really didn't understand why I had to go all the way to Nuvema Town from Opelucid City to get the tepig for my journey instead of the school. At least when I got my eighth badge in Opelucid, I could head straight home and forget it all ever happened, if I planned things right.
It was a surprisingly short distance to Accumula Town. The whole trip, Sylviana and Maverick walked ahead side-by-side while talking about something I couldn't hear. I trailed them and tried my best to not lose them or look like a creep.
"No stopping," Maverick announced as we first stepped foot in the town. No issue there, except that my legs burned since he walked faster than I did. The tepig kept up without complaining.
As we walked on, I pulled some candy out of my bag. I really liked gum. I was known by my classmates as the person who always had gum to spare if asked for some. Not that I really wanted to share, but how rude would I be if I said no? It would be a weird flavor marketed to hyper kids under the age of ten, guaranteed. A hefty stash of the stuff nested in my bag, hiding from shame. The dense block-type gum called my name this time. Unwrapping it and discreetly tossing it in my mouth distracted me for about a minute.
The tepig squealed. I nearly forgot about her. Maybe I should have put a bell on her. Or just return her. The way she stared up at the wrapper in my hand made me stop chewing. She wanted a piece? Did she really? I shook a new block of gum in front of her to test my hypothesis. Again, she squealed.
Okay, maybe this tepig wasn't that bad. I kind of wanted to laugh.
It was artificial blue and smelled like chemicals. Was it even safe for her to try? I really didn't know what I was thinking, but to get her to stop bumping against me, I stopped walking, unwrapped the gum, and tossed it in her mouth. "Don't swallow it. Please just don't."
I shouldn't have given it to her. Who knew if she would listen to me, much less understand me. A wet smacking from her at least meant she didn't eat it yet. But, all things went wrong eventually. Not even a minute later, she cringed and groaned.
"Wait." The wrapper was in my hand, prepared for this very moment. "Here."
Before I could squat down and hold out the thing for her to spit it out in, she coughed and sent a small fireball shooting out to the stairs I saw Sylviana and Maverick finish ascending. Gum was at the center of it, soaring an unusually long distance.
A passing person almost made it into the line of fire. But it was too short to be a person. There was a mohawk, though. The gum flew just luckily enough to barely miss hitting the guy's hair.
"Too sour? Just hope he didn't notice that!" The flavor was sour blue raspberry. Xtreme, according to the package. All I could do was quicken my pace, hold the wrapper in my hand, and try to avoid meeting the person we almost set ablaze. He didn't actually get hit, though, so he wouldn't make a scene, yeah?
They guy stopped walking to roll his shoulders. As I passed him, I realized it was not a man, but some pokemon. With weird skin-pants and bared teeth for whatever reason.
I hadn't a clue what it was, but something else intrigued me more: it had a tattoo on its head, right under the mohawk. It was a black gyarados coiled into an infinity symbol. I stopped walking to ogle at the thing. On top of the tattoo, it even had a gold chain and bandanna around its neck. In its hand was one of those trilby hats, too. How that worked with the hair, I didn't know.
Swag. It had to have had a trainer. I needed to see the trainer so I could laugh at them. So badly did I want to laugh at the poor little guy, too. Someone had to tell me that I would see more pokémon like that in the future. Maybe then I would like them more.
Catching up to Sylviana came back to me, so I reluctantly turned away from the stunning specimen in front of me and went on. At the bottom of the stairs, the fireball sizzled out and a wad of half-chewed gum remained. One swift motion later, I climbed the stairs with an unusually warm blob of gum pinched between its wrapper in my fingers. The tepig groaned.
"Just hurry. I have other flavors." What an amazing sequence of events. With a spring in my step, I clamored up the stairs to keep up with Sylviana. Really, though, I wondered why I bothered saying that. How stupid did I sound?
She cried out with what I guessed was glee? What I said worked? Speed must have been this tepig's boon. Practically flying up the stairs, she made it to the top well before I did.
"Just follow them." Pointing at Sylviana's slowly disappearing back, I couldn't bring myself to return the tepig. We're gum buddies? I thought, trying to make the best of my situation.
~X~
Striaton City was a step up from Accumula Town. The feeling I got when I entered it was much better, too. That was because Sylviana got tired and called a car service to bring us here shortly after I caught up to them (wasted gum disposed of properly, of course). She sure knew how to work her silver spoon.
"Let's go to the center." Pinching my sleeve, Sylviana dragged me to a large building with a red roof. We entered together through its automatic doors, Maverick leaving us to go wherever it was he wanted to. "I'm gonna go with Ricky for now. You can get your own room and do whatever you want. I'll find you later. Be back soon."
Sylviana left, and so did the excitement. As well as my lifeline. With the tepig by my side, I joined the line at the front desk. When five people stood in front of me, my heart started pounding. What was I supposed to say to the receptionist? Just room for one, please? That had to be it, right? But what if they were completely booked already? What if she couldn't hear me? Should I just have waited for Sylviana to come back to help me?
The woman first in line approached the desk. Then, in a flash, the man in front of me went up. Everyone in line had requested rooms, so I had to have been in the right place. My slouch became more obvious despite that knowledge.
"Can I help you?" The woman behind the desk looked straight at me. The tepig nudged me and I dragged my feet to meet the lady.
"I'd like a single room." What happened? Like every other time something like this happened, I changed my answer last minute to something even wrong-er. My everything became numb. It suddenly became hot. I dug my fingernails deep into my palms and tried to ignore my blunder. Did what I say even make sense?
"For how long?"
There was more to this exchange? How long should I have expected to stay? Sylviana told me there was a gym here, but… "Three days." It was more of a question, but I couldn't bring myself to say any more.
"At 1,000 poké a night for private rooms, that'll be 3,000 poké, please."
I just nodded and mechanically took three 1,000 poké bills out of my bag's inside pocket. Without any slip-ups, to my benefit. It was a good thing Sylviana told me that in centers, pokémon healing was free, but food and board was not; otherwise, I would have frozen like an idiot at her response. I didn't even remember what happened after I took the money out, just that I wanted the exchange to be over.
The tepig got me out of my daze again. I found myself in a hallway lined with rooms by some miracle. In my hand was a card key and receipt for the room I got. Well, the purchase could have been more painful. And the room was pretty cheap. But, I was pretty sure that poké centers were in cahoots with whatever luxury hotels existed nearby them in terms of profit, so that probably evened it out. Either that or taxes.
I was only left with 7,000 poké that my mom gave me, though. According to my brother and Sylviana, I was supposed to win battles to get more money. But I was already exhausted. I checked my Xtransceiver, and it was only just past noon; I got my tepig in Nuvema Town at around eight this morning.
Finding and entering my room, ignoring some flyer posted on the door, was much easier than paying for it. I let the tepig in first. Order existed in the room. No dust or stains showed themselves from what I could see. Not even thinking, I turned the television on and sat on the bed like I did at home. The tepig managed to hop up beside me, and wagged her tail while watching the TV.
"This is gonna be a long day," I said to myself. The gum in my mouth muffled the words. Now I chewed two blocks.
The tepig… That bothered me. I couldn't even bring myself to think of her as my tepig. I also couldn't come up with a decent name for her. Everything in my head was either predictable, too cutesy, or too edgy. Sylviana loved naming her pokémon. She said it was her favorite part of getting a new partner.
Her Dean's name came from the fact that she got him as a deino. She was still young when she got him, so his name wasn't too fabulous, and he got too attached to it when she came up with something better. I was pretty sure she named Celeste (or Angel or whatever) based on whatever name she wished she had herself. The sylveon always reacted positively to her new names. Like trainer, like partner, I assumed.
My brother called his pawniard, now a bisharp Miles. Apparently it was because when they started out on their journey, they passed by a gym with people running on treadmills facing the street. Miles went through the open door and tried running on a treadmill himself. Of course, he couldn't turn it on, so he ended up running into the window. It left an impression on my brother. He decided on Miles, and the pawniard liked it.
So what about this tepig? We had done nothing together, and the only thing I knew of her was that she didn't like sour gum. Speaking of, I opened a different flavor of gum and held a piece out to her. "This one's sweet, I think." Who didn't like strawberry?
If I was to be stuck with her, we might as well have found a common ground. To my surprise, she whipped her head away from the gum. So she didn't want any more? Guessed "Gummy" was out of the question for a name. And a word to the wise: strawberry and sour blue raspberry was not a good flavor combination.
I didn't bother going any further with that and instead changed the channel on the TV. Boring news, cartoons, and the like flashed by as I flicked stations to find something.
The tepig sat and watched the channels fly by. Hope she wasn't impressionable. "When I come up with a name for you, we'll go out and train." I decided on that. But since I was horribly indecisive, that declaration was just an excuse to procrastinate. "Probably."
A minute passed and I landed on Cooking Network. Any show on these food channels was entertaining, so I left it there. I checked the door and made sure it was closed. How embarrassing if someone walked in and saw us watching cooking shows.
The tepig hopped off the bed and plopped down right in front of the television, tail wagging and eyes glued to the screen. We had this in common, then.
A couple of commercial breaks later, I actually felt like going outside. The tepig, on the other hand, was enchanted by the cooking show.
"The mystery ingredients were a doozy, but I'm pretty confident I can take that gross canned soup and turn it into a delicious, spicy broth. So I decided to make ramen for my entree," the chef on TV said. "I love, love, love spicy food. And the pantry had a bunch of beautiful peppers begging to be put in my soup. After I dumped the canned soup into a pot to heat up, I ran to the pantry."
I sat back down to watch at least until the next commercial break. The tepig kept crying out. She sure was hype for something.
"The pantry was pepper paradise. I took a big green bell pepper-"
She oinked. I had to admit, her squeal was pretty cute.
"-a few jalapenos-"
Another oink.
"-some poblanos-"
Again, an oink.
"-and serranos. Plus a lot of chili powders from the spice rack." That was a pepper paradise to the chef? Had he never gone to a supermarket before?
A very loud oink.
I really didn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. So she liked peppers? Or maybe just the way they sounded? Maybe she liked the chef? Some commercial interrupted the show, but the tepig kept staring at the TV.
I had nothing to lose, so I played a little game. "Ghost."
An oink.
Quieter than it was, but I still got a reaction. "Cayenne."
She oinked again.
So I wasn't exciting enough? "Guajillo."
A flat oink.
Sarcasm or waiting for the show to start again? "Shishito."
An excited oink.
That was exotic-sounding enough for her. "Tabasco."
An explosive oink.
The commercials were still running, so she was reacting to me, yeah? My whole repertoire of pepper names exhausted, I then knew she liked peppers. That had to be it. I was too lazy to come up with anything else. So, I moved to stand next to her. When she looked up at me, I pointed at her and said lamely, "Pepper."
That was a legitimate name for some people. The tepig saved me grief by smiling and oinking.
"Sure, let's run with that." So there I was with my tepig Pepper. Damn, I came up with a name for her. And it was a food. I said that thing before, so we had to go try training now. "Let's go out now."
She shook her head, eyes still glued to the screen. How was I supposed to react to this?
"And there are ten minutes left on the clock, chefs."
Okay, maybe after the show was over would we go. Some forest stood to the east of Striaton, so we would be fine on time.
It was hot, humid, and grody in the forest beside Striaton. Deciding to just go in a straight line to not get lost, Pepper and I currently stood in an empty patch of land. "And there are pokémon where?"
At least no trainers showed themselves. On cue, I heard rustling in a nearby bush. Out came some rodent. I scanned it with the pokédex app Stat Star (sister app of Spar Star) on my Xtransceiver and knew it to be a patrat. He paid us no mind, however. "Come on, the only battle we had was with Sylviana. That doesn't even count."
"Go instigate that thing," I said with weird breaks between each word. Was this seriously how training went? Might as well just sign her up for a gym membership. Pepper snapped up and ran a small lap around the patrat.
He growled. We were just a nuisance to him? Not like I wanted to do this either.
What I thought didn't even matter. The battle started as Patrat charged at Pepper. Was this tackle? "Ember?" I said it at the same volume I had during out bout with Sylviana. But, I guessed since the area was so quiet, Pepper heard me this time around, even with the gum in my mouth. I still didn't know what I was doing. She only knew two moves, though, so how badly could this go?
Pepper took a deep breath, then sent out bits of fire, halting Patrat in his tracks. He ran in again, then leapt in the air with his mouth agape. His gnarly tooth glowed as he fell towards Pepper.
Pity I sucked under pressure. "Tackle?" Her ears perked a little. Was she straining herself to hear me? Or unwilling to follow my command? Boy, oh, boy, I was going to have to get used to not just talking, but talking loudly.
I meant my command, though. If this were like a video game or something, the bashing tackle would at least stun Patrat. Hopefully Pepper knew to avoid his tooth.
The tooth was of no worry as Pepper smashed into Patrat right after I blinked. Bouncing back and landing perfectly, she wore a satisfied smile. Meanwhile, Patrat grumbled, rubbing his face where Pepper nailed him. Running away became his next move.
"Wait-" I cut myself off. I intended to stop Patrat from escaping to have Pepper wail on him until kingdom come? "Forget it. Who's next?" I asked no one.
Pepper cried out. In the direction she faced was another patrat. "Here we go again."
~X~
A pink blob drifted behind a rusted chain link fence we walked along to get back to the city just as the sun started setting.
"What a space case." It floated into the fence, bounced off of it, then changed its path by a 30-degree angle. They collided again shortly after. "Is it brain dead?"
I scanned it with Stat Star and learned it was a munna. "Do I do anything about this?" He kept ramming into the fence like he was programmed to. "There's a hole for him to get out through like a foot away from him. Just get in there!"
"Ah..." he droned. What a strange sound.
Such a travesty, one that I kept watching for some reason. Just until he gets out, I told myself.
Finally, Munna adjusted himself to bump through the hole in the fence. Except it actually was just too small for him to get through. If he actually tried to squeeze through it, he probably would have made it, but it was like he was being pushed by the wind and nothing more. "Good God, are you alive? How haven't you died yet?"
The brainless smile he wore didn't help him. He just kept wiggling against the hole. "No, wait, he's actually stuck." Indeed he was. The munna was just barely moving, not even worried about being trapped in there. "Do I do something about this?"
I meant, it wasn't my job to do that. Plus, I didn't want to touch him, period. Who knew if I would hurt him, gross myself out, or agitate him. Pepper jumped and hit my bag with her head, specifically the side pocket I put her poké ball in.
"Do what now?" So I was listening to Pepper? How the tables had turned. Next, she rubbed against a hole in the fence on the ground.
"Don't you get stuck too."
Contrary to my prediction, Pepper squeezed through to the other side with ease. I stood juggling Pepper's poké ball and an empty one Sylviana gave me in my hand. Pokémon got sucked into poké balls when returned. If I caught this munna, at least temporarily, could I "save" him?
I almost wanted to walk away (hooray for inaction), but Pepper waited on me. And the sight was too sad to leave alone. "Prepare thyself."
"Ah..." he droned. Still pretty empty up there.
With no grace or sense of urgency, I tossed the poké ball at Munna. He went in without trouble, and the ball traveled through the hole, landing right beside Pepper. "Why didn't I just hold the ball? That would have been easier. But then it wouldn't have been cool!" What a revelation.
Pepper didn't complain as she nudged the ball and pushed herself through the hole she entered. I took it and sent Munna out. Immediately after coming out, he started drifting back towards the hole. In a panic, I returned him, did a 180-degree turn, and sent him back out again. "Well, see ya. Don't get stuck again."
For some reason, he stopped moving. "You can go if you wanna now." Pepper grunted in what I assumed was agreement.
Still, he didn't leave. Seriously? But I didn't want him. I only caught him to save us all from embarrassment. Pepper must have felt the same way by how much she was oinking.
"Go. Please. Now."
"Ah..."
"I'm too tired for this!" Could he take a hint? "Oy vey. If your gonna get stuck again, just come."
How did this come to be? Why did I think he was going to be a parasite or something? I started walking away, Pepper following closely. Munna drifted in our general direction slower than my brain was operating at the moment. Slowing down to a crawl, I waited for him to catch up to return him. "Sylviana will like you. Pink and cute. She'll take you off my hands."
"Ah..." He either didn't understand or was extremely indifferent.
"Pick up the pace. I don't care how, just get here." I stopped walking. This was torture in its own right.
My wish was granted in a way. Loud cooing came from nearby. Pepper oinked in that direction. An alert one was she. A pidove perched on a tree with its wings spread open.
"No, get away, you vermin." The pidove that marked my balcony every year made me sick whenever I head a coo. Every time they landed there, I had to be the one to chase them away because I was the only person in my family bothered by them. They exhausted me. And they were loud. I got jump-scared when they started crooning. Every single damn time. "Fuck off!"
It left the branch it perched on and soared towards me at mach speed. I gained the courage and stupidity to take a stance ready to punch it if it came near. Except it didn't. Munna stood between us, and the pidove aimed right for him.
Pepper oinked with urgency. Sounded like a warning, one that Munna didn't process in time.
It cooed, then became a gray blur charging at Munna like he was some toy, leaving behind a white speed trail.
"Pepper, do something." I sure as hell hadn't a clue.
Too late. The rat with wings collided with Munna and sent him flying in my direction. At least he came closer faster than he would on his own. My reflexes kicked in for once and I managed to return him just before he hit me.
Pepper cried out. "I know, right?" I pretended she complimented me.
The bird flew a small distance away. But when I looked at it, instead of being annoyed, I started laughing. Probably because Munna annoyed me more than it.
"Thanks. Less work for me." I shook his ball in the air. But then, Pepper assumed a battle stance.
"Wait, you wanna battle that thing? Let's just run away. I don't wanna do this." She didn't move.
So she was like that, huh? Unable to come up with a way to get out of this mess, I scanned the pidove. Ms. Pidove, it turned out. The dex portrait was pretty cute. The actual thing? Not so much. "How'd we piss you off? You're not even native to this area. Do I have a pidove curse or something?"
Not missing a beat, she flapped her wings, strong enough that a small whirlwind formed and aimed for Pepper.
"That's gust? Well, then… Dodge?" Assertive was not in my vocabulary. All I could do was pray Pepper could execute my commands excellently.
Pouncing into the air with leg strength I couldn't have guessed she had, Pepper just missed getting grazed by the wind. I had to dodge myself since I was the next thing in the gust's line of fire. And by dodge, I meant stiffly run about three steps to the left.
"Tackle." Pepper dashed towards the dove and leaped at the last second, bumping into the bird. Pidove fell out of the air and splat to the ground. Following this, her eyes narrowed and she charged for Pepper. No light stream followed her, meaning that she wasn't using that move.
"Do we do anything about this?" Although not apparently a move, Pidove's full-body hit pushed Pepper back. It looked really stupid, quite actually, like a balloon bouncing off a wall. I didn't bother suppressing the laugh coming out. What was she doing? We only hit her once. Could she be any less threatening right now? "Tackle."
Back and forth, back and forth they went. Pepper was doing alright, so I didn't say anything. Exchanging hits was all it was. It got old fast. "Okay, just end it. Ember."
Instead of going in for another charge, Pepper hopped back and took a deep breath. Similarly, Pidove took flight and charged a move herself. Cloaked in white the next instant, Pidove swooped in with what I assumed was quick attack. "Any time now." Pepper was going to get hit no matter what with that move. If ember got out, it would at least cushion the blow.
Luck shone through for us in the middle of Pidove's attack. Once she made it to about two yards from Pepper, she stopped for some reason. Recovering from her dead stop seamlessly, she spun around in what I thought was her checking her surroundings. Pepper relaxed and forgot about ember as she watched Pidove in intrigue alongside me.
"Another space case?" Disappointing. Wasn't she just super hostile?
She lost me with this. After going for a second spin-around, Pidove did a slow, clunky, 360-degree rotation along the vertical axis. A pompous chirp escaped her, followed by a shaky descent to the ground. Once landed, she took a bow for no one and tilted her head up in the air as if she pulled off some badass stunt. Which she didn't.
I reopened Stat Star. "Yup, they've got bad memories." That didn't really explain her behavior, but whatever. Pepper looked at me with her head tilted. "I feel you deeply, man. So what to do about her?"
Pidove stretched her wings like a human flexed their muscles. We were completely forgotten. I wasn't aware this could happen. "Hey, uh, is it bad if I kinda wanna catch her right now?"
Cheeks puffed out and twitching her right ear (which I just noticed had a small scratch on it, most likely from Pidove's beak in their bumping match), Pepper nodded. Cut me some slack.
"I mean, that's kinda charming in a way. I like her better than Munna, at least." I disliked him more than I should have. Empty poké ball in hand, I took aim at Pidove. "Hold still. Or fly away. Whatever you want."
I waited a good minute for the bird to move, but she didn't. So, I flung the poké ball through the air, hitting Pidove square on the head. "Oh, no, you need those brain cells!" Should have aimed lower. "It's fine..."
Without issue, Pidove went into the ball to stay. Hey, I was doing pretty alright. Was this a proud moment? Either way, I made sure my two newly-occupied poké balls went into my bag safely, then took out another potion Sylviana gave me to heal Pepper. "Not too bad today."
~X~
"Why are we here?" Maverick crossed his arms and glared at Sylviana.
He took the words right out of my mouth. After yesterday ended on a nice note for me, I didn't expect to find myself seated in the Striaton gym on only the second day of my journey. But, Sylviana insisted, constantly assuring me that it would be fine. Easy for her to say. I hadn't even had my first real trainer battle yet. As if I stood a chance of winning. But, Sylviana sure loved pushing me to my limits.
"Battle, duh." As careless and lackadaisical as ever. Sylviana turned her attention to me. "Don't be so nervous, El. When the waiter comes, just ask for a gym battle."
"Gym battle? Wait, isn't this place-"
Maverick got cut off by a man in a tux with blue hair in strands like they were made of clay approaching out table. He bowed and offered a smile. "Hello. I hope you are all doing well today. Welcome to Striaton Restaurant. My name is Cress, and I'll be your server today. How may I help you?"
Instead of giving an order, Sylviana elbowed me and nodded. "I got you." She winked, then turned to the waiter. "Excuse me, but my friend wants to challenge you to a battle."
As expected, Sylviana had said that loudly. Her voice commanded attention. I darted my eyes around as Sylviana put her arm around my shoulders, noticing a few people staring at our table. At least I didn't have to say it myself now, which I was thankful for.
"Is that so?" Cress lowered his arms which had been holding a pen and notepad.
"Mm-hm, a gym battle!" Sylviana was more excited for this than me.
I felt my face set ablaze and looked straight down. What a nightmare this became. Sylviana elbowed me again, egging me on. "Y-yeah, I-"
Before I could muster the ability to speak properly, Cress looked at me and gave a professional smile. "I apologize, but I believe you are mistaken. Striaton City no longer has a gym. We are not registered with the League anymore."
His smile was too perfect, and so were his words. Who knew what he was actually thinking. Probably what a dumbass. Putting me down gently? No matter how he phrased it, I just felt like an idiot in that moment. Why did Sylviana have to speak for me, and so definitively?
Awkward silence overtook us until I realized Cress was waiting for a response. "Y-yeah, I understand and apologize." Hopefully I said it loud enough so I wouldn't have to repeat it.
"No worries at all. However, although we cannot offer a gym match, we do offer regular battles if you wish. We encourage them to entertain all parties in Striaton Restaurant."
"No, thank you," I forced myself to say.
"With that out of the way, may I take your order?"
Wallowing in embarrassment and misery, I paid Sylviana no mind as she spoke. I wanted to leave so badly. Was I the only one feeling like shit?
"El, I'm sorry. I really didn't know about that."
Oh, Sylviana. How I wished she would think before she acted on my behalf. As much as she meant well, I wanted nothing more than to disappear. "It's fine."
Shortly after, Cress came back with a basket of cookies and a pot of tea. Indulging myself was the last thing on my mind. I couldn't bring myself to eat in public, anyway. The moment the cookies hit the table, however, a stinging sensation traveled up my nose to my throat. I could tell there were peanuts in them, and I was badly allergic to them.
"Won't you have some, El?" Sylviana waved a cookie in front of my face.
I covered my nose and looked back down. "I'm allergic."
"Oh, yeah. Whoops, I'm sorry. I always forget!" On the flip side, Sylviana loved peanuts.
Peanuts were the least worst thing to happen so far today, though. Breathing shallow breaths through my mouth while turned in the other direction made them a nonissue. "Sure."
"Ooh, you know what?" Dropping her half-eaten cookie, Sylviana waved Cress back.
"Is there anything else?" he asked.
"Are we done yet?" I caught Maverick groaning across from us.
"Yeah, there is. I wanna have a battle!" Sylviana proclaimed while standing up. Heads turned to the bold girl wearing a confident smile. Excited murmurs broke out, even.
"Really? We haven't had a battle here in a while." Cress waved at two other waiters at this news. This wasn't how he reacted to my supposed challenge. Or was it?
"Yeah, and I want a challenge. Is there a rotation field here?" I had a textbook definition of what that meant.
"Yes we do. Why?"
"Let's have fun. I wanna have a rotation battle!" Again, she was loud. More people struck up side conversations pertaining to battles.
"How interesting. We've never had to break out our rotation field before!" Cress looked back at the two waiters he addressed before. "Why don't we up the ante? How about me and my brothers against you in a three-on-three rotation battle right now?"
Cress knew how to work a crowd. Several cheers burst out, and I saw a banner drop down from the balcony seats, which must have been there the entire time. They had a home team fan club here? Way to bully someone into not backing out.
"Okay!"
The next thing I knew, I saw two large metal disks rise from the ground in the open space at the back of the restaurant. It was then that I noticed white tape set up to mark a battlefield on the floor. Sylviana skipped to take her place. Cress and the two men he kept glancing at stood opposite her.
Was this seriously happening? So convenient, like it was a cartoon. How serendipitous it worked out like this. I knew this to be true: Sylviana thrived in the spotlight. Attention fueled her. When eyes fell on her, she was invincible. So unlike me. She would do a lot of things to be noticed, and she loved every second of it.
All I could do was sit back and see what would happen. That was all I really knew how to do well.
~X~
Somewhere in the notebook I carried around with me, hidden in my bag was this poem:
You call me your friend,
I pretend to be.
You hold my hand,
I let you, reluctantly.
You tell your stories,
I pretend to listen.
You take the spotlight,
I see you as a work of fiction.
Behind you, you leave many doors open,
and instead of slipping in, I close them.
You're so far ahead, chasing dreams.
I stay behind, again and again.
You say you got my back
and hold your baited hand out to me.
I tell myself you're lying
and throw it all away.
I pretend to be.
You hold my hand,
I let you, reluctantly.
You tell your stories,
I pretend to listen.
You take the spotlight,
I see you as a work of fiction.
Behind you, you leave many doors open,
and instead of slipping in, I close them.
You're so far ahead, chasing dreams.
I stay behind, again and again.
You say you got my back
and hold your baited hand out to me.
I tell myself you're lying
and throw it all away.
Sylviana, I'm sorry I feel this way about you. You're just too good to be true. But, like my thoughts and words, it'll be kept under lock and key and never see the light of day again.