Still early in the morning, the new student got off the plane on the academy's heliport. With his pokemon -a Mawile named Rhea- holding his left hand, while he struggled with their bags in his other arm.
"I hope we are not late... I'm already too worried" his face contorted in a troubled expression "We shouldn't be here, this was a mistake."
The little yellow and black pokemon looked at her trainer and responded with an encouraging smile "Mawile mah!"
"I know I know..." a small smile growing on his face "Thanks"
With some new valor instilled by his friend, they continued out of the heliport -located on a side building- and to the road to the main school building.
"This will be hard"
Rhea nodded solemnly and gave him a little reassuring squeeze on his hand
"Wil ma maw" she looks at him with a little impish smile.
His face relaxed a little and a laugh escaped from his lips "Hahaha thanks, but the academic part is not the problem" with a little pride in his voice and still struggling with his bag he responded "that part I'm almost sure I can handle"
A frown grew on the trainer's face "but we need to defeat teams with years of experience in real life battles"
As his mood got lower his arm grew more tired, and his tone more depressed.
"While surviving with the meager $10,000 father will send us each month"
Arrons arm finally gave in, the bags fell on the floor.
"..And with no servants to help with these little mundane tasks," he said with a 'sigh'
After a little laugh, Rhea decided to help her trainer with a couple of bags, so that they may continue their way into the school main building.
The duo traveled the academy and after what felt like an eternity (more like 15 minutes) they found themselves in the front of the principal's door.
"Mawile wi"
"What? why me? If anything it should be you. You are the cute one, everyone loves small cute pokemons"
She rolled her eyes "...Mah mawi wil" the pokemon deadpanned while holding up her little hands
The two crossed gazes for a second, but the trainer gave up first.
"Alright alright" Then grumbled "freaking opposable thumbs..."
Arron inhaled profoundly and slowly opened the door to find a fairly big room, decorated with trophies of the school on a wall and photos of past generations of students on the other. At the bottom of the room a red-haired woman, doing paperwork on a big black stone desk. An enormous dinosaur like pokemon, blue with a red head sleeping at her left.
At that moment his brain finally worked through the nervousness and told him he was dumb for not knocking before getting inside. "Excuse me" chirped the trainer in a small voice
The woman turned around to see him and gave the student a smile "Oh! I didn't hear you enter. Doing the new year's paperwork always distracts me"
"No problem, it was my fault for not knocking the door"
"Ok then" she gestured for them to sit on the chairs in front of her desk "Where are my manners? my name is Aradia and I will be your director this year"
The duo walked to the chairs and sat down while trying to not look at the giant dino-pokemon sleeping so close to them.
"My name is Arron" he said, doing his best to not sound nervous "And she is Rhea"
"Mah mawile ma!" Added the pokemon enthusiastically
"It's a pleasure to meet the both of you" responded the woman with a smile "But I must ask, are you the son of Victor Howe? He told me his son will be attending my school this year and you have an uncanny resemblance to him"
His shoulders drooped a little "Umm… yes, he is my father"
Feeling how the question bothered him, the director quickly decided to change the subject
Looking at the Mawile she says "I must congratulate you on the way you raised her. Even with a quick glance, I can see she is in exceedingly great shape for her age."
Both the pokemon and the trainer blushed.
"Oh, hehehe thanks"
He gave Rhea a pat on the head and her blush deepened.
"But most of the credit must go to my family's physicians and the breeders, she is the daughter of an ex-champions arcanine and my late mother's own Mawile"
The director's smile became a grin "That is only half the truth my boy, no pokemon can grow like this without a good and caring trainer by her side. But that's enough small talk, I assume you came here to ask directions to your dormitory?"
With a defeated smile the boy responds "Are we that obviously lost?"
She winked at them "The bags are a little give away"
Rhea laughed while Arron took his turn to blush, with that laugh the slumbering mountain at the back woke up, at least two and a half meters tall with a red head and blue body covered with red horns and small blue wings.
The duo lowered their heads as an apology for the Dudrigon
"Mawile ma maw"
"Sorry for disturbing your sleep"
The Dragon looked at them with a still sleepy face for a few seconds, analyzing them and then nodded. "Gon dru dru" responded the Dudrigon with a deep voice before walking to the side of his trainer behind the big desk
"Don't worry" the director said while giving a playful slap to the side of the Dragon-type "in any case it was about time he woke up. His name is Orthos"
Arron visibly felt relieved "That's good to know. And I'm impressed if I remember correctly Dudrigons normally are around one and a half meters tall"
The older trainer proudly responded "He is a mutation from the species, I'm really proud about having caught him, he was my second pokemon"
"Wow, that's impre-!"
At that moment they heard a knock on the door
The red-headed woman looked at the boy "Another visit, sorry Arron"
"No need to be sorry" Responded the young trainer
"You can pass"
Through the door entered a smallish girl, with blonde hair and wearing a uniform just like Arron, blue blazer with a white shirt under that, but with the female versions skirt instead of the pants of the male version. She was being accompanied by a Ghastly, floating by her shoulder.
The girl nodded to them and gave an envelope to the director, who after reading it exclaimed
"Oh! so you are Rowan's little prodigy? You won't believe how much that old man talks about his new assistant. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you, Kate. My name is Aradia" she tells the girl with a smile "And these guys are Arron, another student" Points at the trainer "Rhea, Arrons Mawile" points at the little pokemon "and Orthos, my Dudrigon".
"Nice to meet you," Said the boy in a respectful tone
"Mawi maw!" Said the pokemon with an enthusiastic tone
"Gon" Mumbles the dragon still with a sleepy face
the girl simply respond with a nod that could have been a little bow at the director
The ghastly telepathically responded: [It's an honor to meet you director, my name is Ereb and let me tell you the professor has also told us about you.] And then added in a lower tone that could have been a whisper if it was not telepathically deposited into everyone's head [And also let me tell you that my trainer is a great fan of your adventures] with a wink.
Kate's face grew red as she started to glare to her pokemon. In a small voice, she scolded the ghost "Don't say that!" while trying to grab him, but the gaseous pokemon slipped through her fingers and continued.
[No need to get so worked up, wohohoho!]
Arron and Rhea tried to act in the most sensible way, so they simply did their best to act as if they were part of the furniture.
The director gave the small girl a smile "No need to worry, it's great to know the old professor not only talks bad about me, and it was great luck you arrived! I was about to explain to Arron here about the school dorms"
At that, everyone except the dragon (who still had a face reminiscent of someone that really needs his morning coffee) gave her a confused look
"About them?"
"Yes Mr. Howe, one of the school rules says that a trainer must form a pair with another one and said pair must do all school activities together for what is left of the semester"
Now the expressions changed from confused to alarmed
"You are not suggesting that…"
The director smiled like a cat that's playing with a mouse "No, I'm not suggesting, I'm SAYING that you guys will have a pair"
And with that chaos exploded. Arron began to babble in a fast and barely understandable way, trying to convince the director about the morality of a boy and a girl sleeping together. Ereb got furious and started to telepathically shout about how that's completely irresponsible. Katie grew paler than she already was and her legs gave in, while Rhea went to her side to comfort the girl. In the midst of all that the director simply gave a look at her dragon, whom with a little smile on his face stomped the ground so hard that everyone stopped.
"Now please get out, I have paperwork to do and you guys could use some time to get to know your new partners before the start of the year battle tests tomorrow" after that she simply gave the stunned boy a paper with directions to their new room and unceremoniously kicked them out of her office.