"Sonia!" a childish voice shouted from the opposite side of the classroom, grabbing the attention of everyone but the person he had called for. Oliver pouted at the lack of attention, oblivious to how much of it he was getting from everyone else. Grabbing the sleeve of his friend, who happened to walk by at that moment, he dragged him across the room to the female named Sonia.
"Sonia-" Oliver whined, poking at the platinum blond hair of the girl. She ignored his pokes, choosing to finish reading the last page of her book. Eric, the unfortunate friend that Oliver had dragged over, looked over Sonia's shoulder with interest. He had been reading that same book earlier in the week, but had somehow managed to lose it before he could finish the last few pages. He skimmed over the page, curious about how it ended. Even though he missed a few pages (due to the book 'disappearing'), the ending seemed to satisfy him.
"Sonia!" Oliver called again, sounding somewhat desperate. She placed the book on the table, a sigh signaling her defeat, and looked up at the green-haired boy blankly. His blue eyes seemed to get brighter as he realized she had finally acknowledged his presence.
"Finally! Sonia, guess what!" Oliver started, excitement dripping off his words.
"What is it?" She asked after a long pause.
"Today we get to do practice battles!"
The school has a variety of Pokémon that it lends out to certain classes for 'practice battles'. The pokemon they receive are completely random. This allows the school to see how much each student has learned about each type and all of the possibilities. If the student shows an outstanding performance, they have the chance to move up a grade or two. If they are even better than that, they are given the chance to graduate early. Each battle takes place in separate rooms, the only spectators being the supervising teachers. The opponents and the results are also kept secret to prevent any unwanted humiliation, but the students who took part in the battles may discuss the results of their match freely.
"Oh, really. Maybe they'll allow us to double battle." Sonia said, staring at the sheet of paper hanging off of the wall.
Eric never understood the friendship between the two. From what he could see, Sonia seemed almost annoyed at the constant presence of the green-haired boy. Even so, the two had a friendship that was unbreakable. They were partners and best friends. It made no sense.
"Ha! The school would never be that nice!" Oliver said with a lopsided grin.
"I hope I get to battle you though! Who do you think would win?" He asked, a questioning look appearing on his face. He had never considered the possibility of battling against Sonia.
"You would." Sonia stated immediately, still staring at the paper on the wall. Eric glanced over at her, shocked at her automatic answer. Was Oliver that good or…?
The silver-haired boy decided to finally speak, breaking the strange silence that had lingered after Sonia's answer.
"I think they're deciding the matchups now…" Eric said, pointing at the line of students grabbing paper from the box in their teacher's hands. Oliver sprung to his feet, his previous question being something in the distant past to him, as he grabbed Sonia's wrist and dragged her to the line. She muttered some incoherent protests and didn't even bother to fight back. Eric followed soon after, a sigh managing to escape his lips.
The line was surprisingly short, a few students choosing to sit off to the side and avoid the practice battles. It was optional whether or not one wanted to participate, so they just continued on with their business. Sonia zoned out somewhat, staring at the light above her.
"Number 12!" Oliver shouted excitedly, holding up the small piece of paper in the air. Sonia looked at the large black number on the paper in his hand and hoped that she would not go against him. Reaching her hand into the box, she grabbed the paper on top and unfolded it. The number "11" stared back at her as she cringed. They might have to go against each other after all. Eric noticed how uncomfortable she seemed and drew his own number from the box, "13". What a coincidence.
The lineup on the board showed Sonia's fears to be true. 1 against 2, 3 against 4…it was a simple lineup that paired 11 against 12.
Oliver's face brightened at this as he excitedly hopped towards the silver-eyed girl, pointing happily at the lineup.
"Look, look! We get to battle!" he grinned, happy that he could finally witness Sonia battle. However, as soon as he said that, Sonia raised her hand.
"Excuse me, can I forfe-" She was cut off by another teacher running in, a somewhat worried look in his eyes.
"Mr. Harlan!" the teacher called out, his breathing heavy. It seems he had run a long way.
"Yes?" Mr. Harlan asked, worried about the situation.
"Lanna! She was just robbed by Team Rocket!" he said, his breath back to normal.
"No one was hurt, but she asked me to tell you she wishes to drop out of the practice battles so she can check on the situation."
Mr. Harlan thought about it for a moment before nodding, allowing the other teacher to leave and return to his own class.
"This is a problem…No matter. We will continue." With that, he crossed out the number "6" and drew an arrow along the bottom of the matchup diagram that pointed towards the left.
"With this, the amount of people participating is equal and a teacher does not need to participate. 5 will now face 7, 8 will face 9, 10 will face 11, etcetera." He said, motioning towards the diagram.
"And—Oh! I'm terribly sorry, Sonia. I got a bit caught up there. You were asking something?"
"…No, sir." Oliver's head turned sharply to face Sonia, knowing what she had been in the middle of saying. She ignored his stare as Eric went over to introduce himself as Oliver's new opponent. With a clap, Mr. Harlan directed each pair to their respective battle rooms.
Oliver continued to stare at Sonia as the group of students walked down the stairs to their destination. She ignored him, though it was difficult to do so in such a cramped space.
Sonia entered her room with her partner, a bubbly boy named Jeff, and their supervising teacher, an elderly woman that Sonia was not familiar with. The woman held out a tray with about 20 pokeballs on it.
"Choose 2. This is a double battle." She stated simply in a voice that sounded surprisingly young. When the two had chosen which ones they wanted, they stood opposite to each other on the (surprisingly) large arena.
"You may release your pokemon."
Sonia released the pokemon, revealing them to be a Totodile and a Gastly. She made a noise of approval, looking up at her opponent's pokemon.
An Electabuzz and a Mightyena stood on his side causing Sonia to narrow her eyes. There was a clear disadvantage here.
"In a real battle, you would have pokemon you are familiar with. Therefore, you would not need the time to consider your choices. Remember this. You may begin!"
Author's Note: This is just an I've had for quite some time. I know where I want this to end up, but I'm not entirely sure about everything in between. As a warning, it will get much darker later on in the series, but for now it's relatively safe. I plan for this series to be quite long as well...and by that, I mean I plan for it to be more than 20 chapters. I'm not very good with this kind of stuff. It's a risk, I suppose.
Also, a bit more info. This story is based off of the game (mostly) and will not follow the anime (except for maybe how battles work). There will be noticeable differences, but I am going to try to stick to the general game plot(s). Whether or not this story will include Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh I cannot answer. Also, this is generally pre-black/white, so I won't be mentioning them much. If I do mention black/white, it will be in a part of the series that will take place in that region. K?
And the beginning is slow (and not very good, really). My apologies.