Jessie

I stepped onto the campus of Pokemon Tech with a feeling that came from my gut. This feeling told me that this place was going to be terrible. I surveyed the grounds and saw three buildings, which (from what I gathered by the map) were the main classes building, the girls' dorm, and the boys' dorm. Sighing, I looked around. Everyone seemed to be in groups of at least two… except for me and a few of the upperclassmen, who sat under trees, studying. No one had bothered to talk to me on the bus. I suppose no one would ever talk to the weird girl with the long red hair. Accepting that fact, I went toward the girls' dorm to check in.

James

Oh, great. Another year here. I sat under a tree, watching people pass and wondering if this year was going to be as bad as last year. I had really tried to pass the entrance exam last year, but it was just too hard for me. But this year, I vowed, I'd study really hard and pass. As I was telling myself this, my eyes fell on a girl that was waling across campus, toward the girls' dorm building. She reminded me of Jessiebelle, only prettier. Her hair was longer than Jessiebelle's, too. I watched her until she disappeared into her dorm. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, Jimmy." a voice sneered. It was Jared. I knew it had to be. Jared and his buddies Matt and Chris delighted in torturing me. My one ally against them was the fact that they were even dumber than I was. They had been held in the beginner's class for about 3 years. Jared lifted me to my feet by the front of my shirt and said, "Were you checkin' out one of our girls, pretty boy?" I shook my head and replied, "Probably not. This girl was good-looking." While Jared tried to figure that out, I bolted.

Jessie

Sitting in class, I looked around nervously. The teacher of my Pokemon Attacks 101 class, Miss Stanislaus, was calling roll. I was so busy trying to memorize everyone's names that I almost didn't hear her call my own. "Here!" I said, a little too loudly. Everyone giggled a little. I blushed and slid down into my seat. Most of my classes were awful. Then I got to Battle Techniques class. The first thing that caught my eye was a boy… with a head full of bluish-purple hair. We were the only ones in class so far. No one else had come in yet. He was sitting at the very back, farthest corner of the room, his head buried in a textbook. "Probably a nerd," I thought. I sat down at a desk on the side of the room and brought out a magazine. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw his head come up and his gaze turn on me.

James

"Oh, wow!" I thought. "She's in the class too!" I looked at her. She was reading a magazine, but I could tell that she was watching me out of the corner of her eye. When she didn't meet my gaze, I went back to my book. I couldn't believe my luck, my incredible luck. I was just about to go over to her and strike up a conversation when Matt (of Jared, Matt, and Chris) came into the room. Now, I'm no judge of guys, but I think girls like Matt best out of those three dim bulbs. So I waited to see what the girl would do if Matt started hitting on her. "Hey, hey! Whadda we got here?" he said, sitting down backwards in the chair in front of her. "You new here, doll?" The girl gave him a cool look and said, "Who wants to know?" I grinned. Matt was going to get shot down, I could feel it. "I do." he said, looking her up and down. "And you are…" she replied. "Matt. Matt Kane." He answered. "What's your name, chick?" The girl narrowed her eyes and closed her magazine. Then she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest. "Well," she began, "it's not 'chick', or 'doll', or any other names you were planning on calling me. It's Jessie. Plain and simple. Now, " she picked up her magazine again, "go away." I wished I had a camera. The look on Matt's face was priceless. It was a Kodak moment. It was all I could do to not stand up and applaud Jessie. She told him off good

Jessie

I was really pleased with what I said to that loser. I looked at the blue-haired boy from the corner of my eye and saw that he had a huge grin plastered on his face. Obviously, he didn't like this guy much. The feeling was mutual. Then the chunkhead spoke. "Oh, I see you. You're lookin' Jimmy over, ain't 'ya?" Jimmy? Was that the boy's name? I looked at Matt and frowned. "What's it to you if I am? I said go away." But he just stared at me with this dumb grin on his face. So I got up, picked up my bag, walked over to the blue-haired guy, and sat myself down. "That's what I thought." Matt said, and began to talk to someone else. More kids were starting to come in. (I probably should have mentioned that this classroom was laid out with two-person tables, instead of desks. I was sitting at a table with "Jimmy") "So, you're name's Jimmy?" I asked. He shook his head. "No. It's James. That boy, Matt, and his group just call me Jimmy to be mean. You're Jessie, right?" He held his hand. I accepted it and replied, "Yeah. Glad to know 'ya." I let go and jerked my thumb toward Matt. "So you know that guy? He seemed to know you." James' gaze dropped to the floor. "Uh-huh. Him and his buddies, Chris and Jared, bully me all the time. They're two years older than me, but they're flunked three times." "Does that mean you've flunked once?" I answered pointedly. He blushed. "Yeah. See, what they do is, you go to class for three months. Then you take an entrance exam and if you pass it, you go on into some more classes. If you don't, you start over. That's what I had to do. I almost passed, too." James slumped over in his seat, looking glum. I was about to say something when Mr. Tanner came in. He was a tall, thin man with a beakish nose and wire-rims that kept falling down onto it. He looked to be about 35, and had wild green hair and brown eyes. "OK, class. I'm going to pair you up with a partner that you'll keep the whole time you're in here. Alphabetically."

James

That meant that Jessie and I would be sitting together, if there weren't anyone's name that cam in between us. No one did. So we were "study buddies". That was OK with me. Jessie was the only person who had really talked to me since I got here, besides Jared and his gang. I had the feeling that she and I were going to become good friends. "All right, class, listen up." Mr. Tanner said. "I expect you to come in quietly everyday and talk only to your table partner. We'll have no nonsense in this class." Oh, no problem there. Nobody but Jessie would talk to me anyway. Not that I minded or anything. "Have you had him before?" she asked. I nodded and she said, "He looks like a Fearow, huh?" I looked at Mr. Tanner and snickered as I saw the resemblance. "Do you have something you'd like to share with us, James?" Mr. Tanner asked. I shook my head and, to my surprise, Jessie said, "It was my fault. I made him laugh." Mr. Tanner looked at her over the rims of his glasses and said, "Then you can both spend your free time laughing it up… in detention! Congratulations, James. You're off to a *fantastic* start." Everyone laughed as I blushed. They all knew I had flunked. Jessie gave me a sympathetic look and slipped me a note that said, "It's OK. I'm not planning on passing." I gave her a thankful look and Mr. Tanner said, "Now everyone get out your books."

Jessie

The next day at lunch, James and I sat at a table in the corner. No one bothered to talk to us. We just talked about classes and people we don't like, mainly Matt, Jared, and Chris. "Weren't we supposed to go to detention yesterday?" I asked. "Probably," he replied with a shrug. "That only means that we'll have tit for two days now." "We won't get in trouble?" I asked. Not that it mattered to me. It seemed that I was always in a pair with someone and we were always getting into trouble. First Cassidy (yuck, by the way), now James. "Probably. But who cares? At least now I don't have to go to detention alone!" James grinned (rather stupidly), and I couldn't help but smile back. He seemed really happy to have someone to get to detention with. I decided I like seeing him happy. "Yeah." I replied. "You do. And I have the feeling that every time one of us gets in trouble, the other will, too." "Double trouble." James remarked. I laughed. That had a ring to it…

James

Yep. It was official. I was in love. I just knew it. Jessie and I were *perfect* for each other. This had promise…

Three Months Later

Jessie

OK, so we failed. And got kicked out for missing too much detention. So what? We still had each other. Yes, even after we got booted out, we hung out together. So here we are now, coming upon a bridge. There's a bunch of kids on bikes riding toward us…

And the rest is history.

JessicaVance@lovelornpoet.com