James was starving. He wanted food now! He didn't know how much longer he could carry on without food but there was no good place for him, Meowth and Jessie to build a fire and cook. The worst part was that he knew that Jessie was just as hungry and if they didn't get food soon a fight would break out. Sure enough...
"Have you ever considered that our blasting off expertise comes from your side of the family?" Jessie asked.
"Take that back!" James said. He really didn't want to fight with Jessie.
"I'm just getting warmed up, incompetent, blue-haired big mouth!" Jessie said. She aggressively got closer to him when she said it.
Normally James wouldn't stand up for himself and would just let Jessie prattle on until she hit him and then finally stopped her bullying, but James was becoming more confident and thus more able to stand up for himself. James just hoped he could say something to get her to shut up.
"Oh yeah! Well at least I'm not ugly!" James said with a snicker.
"Now that's crossing the line, buster!" Jessie almost yelled, clearly annoyed.
"Yep, I knew that one would do the trick, ahhh yes... UGLY UGLY UGLY, JESSIE IS SO UGLY!" James started to chant.
"Laaaa la la la..." Jessie said covering her ears with her hands.
"And Pokémon actually take orders from these clowns?" Meowth said.
"But wait a second, Pickachu hasn't eaten." Jessie said.
"Hmm we'll attack while it's weak from hunger," James said.
"Another dirty trick," Meowth said.
"Thunder bolt," Ash said.
This, of course, sent Jessie and James blasting off again.
After Team Rocket blasted off they rested for a bit and then they kept walking and eventually found a camping grounds where James got busy making them a fire and cooking them food. Meanwhile, Jessie and Meowth set up their purple tent. The place they found to camp was surrounded by thick trees. The moon was coming out, so James guessed that it was probably around eight at night.
"I'm so hungry. I'm glad we found finally found a place to cook our food." James said.
"Yeah, I'm just glad I had the clearly brilliant idea to come this way," Jessie said.
James really looked at Jessie for the first time since they had had their fight. It wasn't obvious from first glance, but there was something wrong with her. James had known Jessie for nearly seven years so he could read her like a book. If Jessie was slightly annoyed by anything she would react immediately, even if that meant hitting James with her mallet or a frying pan. However, if she was truly heart broken over anything James might not know for months or even years. Being in an orphanage had taught Jessie to hide her emotions, and she hid them well.
James knew that he had to look for three signs to see if Jessie was sad. The first sign was that her shoulders would get tense and she would hold them more upright. That was the first and most typical way. The second sign was when she would occasionally grind her teeth and James would see her jaw clench. She would also occasionally flex her hands into and out of fists, but she only did that if she thought no one was watching her and she was devastated. Of course, James would never even think of telling anyone about this. If he did it could get out to her and she would probably stop doing those subtle things. Then he would never know.
Jessie's shoulders were back. James frowned he wished he could just ask Jessie what was wrong, but it was never that simple.
"Would you like me to make you some corn bread?" James asked, hoping that having even more food would cheer Jessie up.
"Tat would be great Jimmy," Meowth said, licking his lips.
"Do it now James," Jessie demanded. James didn't miss how Jessie's jaw clenched after she said that.
James immediately got to work cooking. While James was cooking he caught a few glances at Jessie. She was sitting on her sleeping bag and combing her hair, there was nothing new about that. But she was using her free hand to clench and unclench her hand. This was bad, James knew that this was bad.
"Hey why don't I get us some drinks Jess," Meowth said.
"I'd like lemonade," Jessie said and Meowth quickly went off to see if their was a nearby city where he could get them some drinks.
James finished making the muffins and he and Jessie ate them quickly, saving some for Meowth. While he was gone Jessie and James went over another plan to catch Pikachu. Meowth returned quickly and they drank up. Then Jessie took her favorite black blanket away from her teammates saying that she wanted to be alone, which was nothing unusual for her.
"There's someting wrong with Jess," Meowth said. "And the drinks I got didn't help."
"How did you know?" James asked.
"You tink you're the only one who cares about Jessie enough to notice that she clenches and unclenches her fists and grinds her teeth when she's upset," Meowth asked.
"Yeah, I just wish she would actually tell us what's wrong." James said.
"I doubt she'll tell us but let's tak to her. I hate seein Jess like tis." Meowth said.
Meowth and James nodded their heads. They slowly approached where Jessie was sitting.
"Um, hey Jessie..." James said. He really hated confrontations, especially ones with Jessie because they almost always resulted in him being hit.
"James, I said I wanted to be alone. Is the other tent on fire?" Jessie asked.
"No," James said sheepishly.
"Then why are you over here bugging me when you could be in your tent?" Jessie asked.
"Look Jess, there's something Jimmy wanted to ask you," Meowth said.
Of course Meowth would put all of the responsibility on James once they saw how angry Jessie was.
"Then ask it?" Jessie said.
"I...um... are you okay Jess?" James asked.
"Of course I am," Jessie said. She looked baffled.
"Okay, wrong question, what Jimmy here meant was what's wrong?" Meowth asked.
"I TOLD YOU THERE'S NOTHING WRONG!" Jessie roared.
"I'm not buying it Jess," James said.
"I cannot believe this. I treat you both so well. I make sure we always have food and this is how you treat me? By freaking out when I only need one hour of alone time. That's it I'm out of here." Jessie said as she stood up preparing herself to leave.
James was sick and tired of this. He hated how Jessie still wouldn't tell him the truth after he had done everything to convince her that he was trustworthy. He stood up and blocked the door. Meowth did the same thing.
"I'm not letting you leave until you tell me what's wrong." James said, crossing his arms over his chest. "What are you so afraid of Jess? Nothing you say will get out of this tent."
Jessie tried again to leave. She managed to get past James but Meowth was still blocking the door.
"I'll fury swipe ya," Meowth said, blocking the door.
Jessie took out her mallet, about to smack James and Meowth over the head with it until they let her go.
James grabbed Jessie's arms with so much strenght that she dropped her mallet in shock. He gently but firmly forced her to sit down again. Meowth kept guarding the door just in case Jessie managed to escape him again.
"Now will you tell us what's wrong?" James demanded.
Jessie sighed.
"Fine, if it will get you two incompetent idiots to leave me alone, then fine." Jessie said.
James and Meowth smiled at each other. They knew something was wrong.
"I'm just sick of being reminded that..." Jessie whispered the last part of the sentence.
"Jessie, I didn't hear that." James said.
"I said I'm sick of being reminded that I'm not..." Jessie whispered the last part again.
"Jess you're going to have ta speak up," Meowth said.
"Preety, I'm sick of being reminded that I'm not preety," Jessie said just above a whisper.
James and Meowth gasped at the same time. Jessie not thinking she's pretty. How was that even possible? She had such a huge ego, especially about her looks.
Jessie blushed. She felt uncomfortable and weak.
"Since when Jess you've always tought you were pretty." Meowth said.
"No, I've always known I wasn't. My confidence about my looks has always just been an act." Jessie said.
"Jess... how can you possibly think..." James asked. "Don't you see the way guys always look at you. Don't you know that wherever we go guys, and heck sometimes even girls stare at you in awe?" James asked.
"I'm not an idiot James! I know how people look at me." Jessie said. She sounded angry.
"But Jess don't you know tat means you're lovely," Meowth said in confusion.
"No, because those people aren't looking at me with awe. They're looking at me with lust. I get it! Guys want me. That's hardly the same as beauty. When guys see me they want something. But when a guy sees a beautiful girl it inspires him to want to give to her. Besides, no guy would ever notice me if I just wore a beautiful dress and some simple make-up. I need to show some skin to get anyone to look at me twice. Trust me James, I know." Jessie said.
"Well if guys only watch you because tey want one ting than forget them. Why do you care what they tink anyhows?" Meowth asked.
"It's not just random guys on the street, if I'm beautiful someone would have noticed. Someone would have told me. I get cat calls all the time but no one has ever called me beautiful. One of my favoite memories is a lady in an orphanage saying I looked cute in a certain dress and James has called me a great dresser but that's the closest anyone has ever gotten to calling me beautiful." Jessie said.
"Just because no one ever called you beautiful doesn't mean you aren't though Jess." Meowth said.
"Yeah but that's not all. Everyone I ever got close to, and a few people who I wasn't even close to called me ugly. I've never had a friend before you two but I dated a few guys. All of the guys were jerks and they all called me ugly. They called me sexy before we got together but once we broke up they called me ugly. James, you were the only human who never said I was ugly, but today..." Jessie trailed off. She hid her face with her gloves. She did not want James and Meowth to know about the tears that had suddenly started falling from her eyes.
"Jess I'm so so sorry, I didn't mean it." James said. His heart broke when he saw his Jessie crying, because of something that he had said. He gently grabbed her hands and held them. Meowth wrapped his arms around her leg in a comforting way.
"Jessie, I think you're beautiful." James said.
Then Jessie did the last thing that he or Meowth were expecting. She laughed. She laughed and laughed until tears rolled down her eyes. James just stood there and felt incredibly awkward.
"That means a lot coming from the gayest man I know," Jessie said.
"Jessie," James said sounding confused. "I'm not gay."
"You're not," Jessie and Meowth asked at the same time.
"Yeah, I'm seriously not." James said.
"Oh," Jessie said. She sounded shocked.
"And I honestly think you're beautiful Jess," James said.
"It's okay James, you don't have to say that. Thanks for trying to cheer me up though." Jessie said.
"I'm serious, Jess. Do you want to know what I thought the first time I saw you?" James asked.
"Well, now that I know you're not gay, it had to be either that you wanted me or that you thought I was ugly." Jessie said.
"Nope, it was neither. I immediately thought you looked like one of the Barbies I played with as a boy. Once when I was six my mom caught me wearing a skirt and she cried and refused to talk to me for a week. So I needed somewhere to channel all of my brilliant fashion energy. I couldn't hide myself but I leaned that I could hide my Barbies. So I used my large allowance to buy Barbies and I told my mom that I used it to buy candy. I bought several beautiful Barbies and I took great care in making them look as awesome as possible. I learned a lot of my first lessons in style just from making over those dolls. I would dye their hair with hair dye, cut their clothes so they showed their mid-drifts, use markers to put on make-up, sew them new funkier clothes and even buy perfect little shoes for them. Of course, I had to hide my collection from my mom and only make them over during the nighttime when she was sleeping. But with all of my work I was never able to make any of my dolls look as beautiful or as fierce as you look every day. I didn't even know that a woman could look as beautiful as you Jess." James said.
"So what happened to your Barbies?" Jessie asked.
"Oh my mom found them when I was eight and burned them. Wait, that was the week my mom forced me to get engaged to Jessiebell," James said. He looked like he just realized something.
"James, did you mean what you just said?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah Jess, with all of my heart, I mean it. You are so beautiful. You have a killer fashion sense, beautiful red lips, lucious red hair, lovely blue eyes and the sweetest smile." James said.
"Really?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah, Jessie you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I would have told you earlier but you seemed to already know, so I thought it was so obvious to everyone including you." James said.
Jessie was speechless.
"Thanks James," she finally said.
James felt so happy knowing that he could comfort his Jessie as well as she always comforted him.
"You're welcome Jessica, just promise me you'll tell me the next time I hurt your feelings okay?" James asked.
"Sure, James, I promise." Jessie said.
Jessie, James and Meowth talked for the rest of the night about their lives and their dreams until they finally fell asleep in their warm sleeping bags. Jessie's and Jame's hands were only inches apart when they both fell asleep. Meowth cuddled up by Jessie's feet.
The next morning Jessie didn't wake up an hour before James and Meowth did to fix her hair or her make-up like she usually did. When she finally woke up James started to cook breakfast as she got ready for the day. Jessie took a long shower and instead of gelling her hair into a curve she merely brushed it and let it fall into it's natural gentle curls. She then put on a small amount of make-up. Now it was time to get dressed. She opened her suitcase and saw the green dress that she had been too afraid to wear until now. She loved this green dress because it matched her earrings perfectly. It came down to just above her ankle and made her feel like a Celtic godess. She hesitated for a second. She was scared that James was wrong and no one would notice her in this dress. She put it on anyway.
"Hey Jess, your breakfast is getting cold." James said.
Jessie put on some sandles before she completed her outfit with her earrings and a necklace with a red "R" on it. Hey she had to show that she was in Team Rocket somehow.
"What took ya so-" Meowth looked up at Jessie mid sentence.
"Jessie," James said. He felt his heart speed up as he took in how beautiful she looked.
"You-you," James stuttered.
"You fix up good Jess," Meowth said.
"So what's for breakfast?" Jessie asked. She was acting nonchalant that they were noticing her but she was secretly thrilled.
"E-eggs and and..." James stuttered.
Jessie giggled. She had never made any man this tongue tied, in a simple dress. She liked it.
"Jess, you are so beautiful. You're always beautiful, of course, but especially in that dress." James said, finding his words.
Jessie smiled.
"Can I borrow it sometime?" James asked.
"No you can not borrow my only decent dress! You have more dresses than I do anyway and it's not fair." Jessie said as she brought out her mallet and whacked James over the head with it.
It was a different outfit and she may have had more confidence but it was the same old Jessie.
Well what did you think? Please please please review. It would make me super duper happy.