A/N: I have a plan for this. This is both to convince you and me. Hopefully I'll be able to convey everything I want to with this story.

"Hey, are you gonna take next year's course?"

"Probably." A pause. Thunder boomed outside, and the connection cut out for a moment.

When her xtransceiver connected again, he was going on as if he hadnt even heard her. "All the stupid people are not gonna take it next year. They either won't be in a high enough math class or leaving to train pokemon."

Another bout of static.

"Of course, by the time they all quit and come back to school, they wouldn't be able to join anyways."

Elena leaned back and rested her head against the wall.

She was dumb according to Julian. And wasn't she? Elena hated her friends. Hate was a strong word, she loved them to death actually. She hated the fact that they were all smarter than her and weren't shy in rubbing it in her face.

They weren't doing it on purpose.

She knew that.

Then why did she still get so jealous? She wished she could have Julian's life, or Adrienette's life, or anyone else.

Terrified of bug pokemon, allergic to most pokemon with fur. Flying type pokemon required a tenacity that she wasn't ready for. Dark, psychic, and ghost would cause her parents to flip if she ever tried to train one.

So yeah.

Training pokemon would be out of the question for a potential career.

And now she's here. Taking the first level course for engineering. A field she doesn't actually want to join but it's a very rare not pokemon related thing offered by her school. She took the chance.

With the whole incident with the missing champion Hilda, Unova had bumped the age to embarking on a journey from 11 to 15. Elena and her classmates were almost all 10 at that time. They missed the cutoff by a year.

A fact that very few appreciated.

Now that the year they could leave on a trainer's journey was fast approaching, come fall, the classrooms would probably be empty.

"Elena? Hello? You there?" Julian's voice, was cutting in and out of static, and he had pulled up screen share. Elena could see a computer program being run, and realized that there was an assignment that she needed to help him with.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm here, just zoned out for a bit."

"Did you apply for the traveling internship Professor was telling us about?"

"Huh?"

"The internship. Where you got to travel the region."

"I thought that you didn't want to travel."

"Thats not. What I'm asking you."

Why was he so goshdang persistent for an answer?

"Right."

She didn't really want to admit to saying that she did apply. If she did get in the program and get to go, it would put major brakes in her plans for school.

"Elena? Are you okay? You've been acting kinda weird lately. . ."

He trailed off and for a second Julian actually sounded like a genuine caring person. Which was weird.

"Huh? I did apply."

This was going downhill. Alarms were going off in her brain telling her to disengage. And disengage she will.

"Well wouldya look at the time! I have to leave … and uh walk the- the pokemon."

"Your family doesn't have any pokemon."

At this point in time Elena's brain was taken over by the tiny, persistent, and annoying crush she hadn't been able to get rid of, no matter how big of a jerk Julian was. Elena's thought process was: He remembered? Thats so super sweet! He's not so bad deep down!

Along with her brain shutting down, her face became uncomfortably warm, and if it wasn't for her dark skin a blush would've shown.

Fortunately, the larger, and rational part of her brain kicked in and she was able to feasibly come up with a lie.

"Mrs. Madrid, my neighbor, her Budew, needs exercise, and I need experience with handling grass types."

A pause. Was he even listening?

"She's busy so it's a good exchange for us."

"Well if your parents had just gotten a pokemon when you were younger, you wouldn't be having such a problem."

How rude.

"Sosorryhavetogookaybye!" She hung up and sunk into the pillows on her bed.

Why, why, why? Why did she need to have such persistent feelings for him? When she finally was gonna get over him, and call Julian out on jerklike tendencies, he did something nice, sweet, or just something. And her heart went 100 mph.

It wasn't even on something sensible or smart!

Like the time at the symphony performance. She was finally getting over Julian, was gonna just think of them as friends, and only friends.

Unfortunate.

She was wearing a cute outfit for the concert, a short skirt, suit jacket, tux shirt. The works. Along with it she was wearing pretty cute heels, with bows on it and everything.

And it was a great feeling, cuz she was way taller than all her friends. They were all good at being smart, she was good at walking in heels. And being tall.

Then Julian came over when she had her arm on her friends shoulder, in a teasing manner.

Then he put his arm on her shoulder.

It lasted for only a few seconds but still.

100 mph.

He was not good for her health.

Alas, Elena's hands were tied, and she needed to use the ways of forbidding parents and every dramatic movie plot ever. The best way to get rid of a insistent and unwanted love.

Distance.

The internship.

Traveling the region, learning how to keep the human part of the pokemon scene. No one wanted those jobs so it was very lucrative.

She had the brains to make it there.

Jumping into action she grabbed the application packet.

"Don't worry Unova! I'm coming for you!"