(jazz hands)
Ayyyyyy, chapter two! Some of this dialogue was basically me trying to remember what the heck the actual dialogue was in the game.
I'm not sure how long it'll take me to write chapter three, but since I've started this I'm pretty determined to see it through to the end (not matter how long it takes).
(...though, considering how I'm writing at the moment I'm pretty sure this is going to be one annoyingly long story)
Having just finished capturing the pikachu, and watching on in confusion as Mr. Kaplan started to cackle about some secret, inscrutable school (that, for a moment, made him wonder just what exactly he had gotten himself into), he was startled as the doors suddenly opened behind him, a loud, female voice echoing throughout the room.
"Mr. Kaplan, please don't tease my student like that." There was the sound of high heels on the wooden floor, and Kellyn turned to look behind him. He was met with the sight of a tall woman, with brown hair and intelligent eyes, smiling down at him. "You must be Kellyn, correct? I'm Ms. April; I'll be your teacher here."
"Ms. April!" Mr. Kaplan seemed panicked for a moment, before he coughed sharply. "Uh, as I was saying: you passed our entrance exam with flying colours! That really was an amazing capture, Kellyn. Maybe the best one I've ever seen here."
Ms. April laughed lightly at that. "Don't let Keith hear you say that," she advised the man, and Kellyn wondered just who this "Keith" was. Was he another student? Ms. April placed a hand lightly on his shoulder. "Follow me, Kellyn. I'll direct you to our dorms so you can drop off your belongings."
"Uh, right, yes, thanks," he responded, stumbling over his words, and tensed his shoulders as his face flushed in embarrassment. What was with him today?
Ms. April laughed softly, motioning to the door. Heeding the unspoken command, Kellyn nodded slowly before making his way over, followed closely by the brunette teacher. The doors slid open with a quiet hiss, and Ms. April brushed past him to walk outside. He put one foot out, before turning quickly to give Mr. Kaplan a smile and a small wave.
The man smiled brightly. "Enjoy your school life, Kellyn!"
And as if on cue, the giant bell on the roof of the massive building began to chime.
The school was even bigger on the inside. He walked a few steps behind the teacher, their footsteps echoing in the wide, empty hallway, but he could faintly hear talking in the rooms on either side of him. He followed Ms. April, sighing quietly when he again had to heave his suitcase up yet another flight of stairs. Ms. April stopped at the top with a smile, before directing him to one of the two doors in the room. The blue one he guessed was the boy's dorm, whilst the pink was most likely the girls.
The blue door slid open with a small scrape of wood on wood, and he scanned the room for any free space. He caught side of the bed just to his left, one that looked completely untouched, and a quick check around the bed told him that it was indeed free. He pulled his suitcase to a stop by the bedside, before slipping his backpack off his shoulders and letting it fall onto the bed. He paused, brows furrowing, before realising that he was still holding his school styler in his hands. He briefly berated himself, shaking his head at his own forgetfulness, before holstering it. He exited the dorm with another smile, and Ms. April nodded before leading him back down the stairs again.
"…I forgot to tell my students you were coming," she commented with a half-worried expression. She looked down at him. "I'm sorry. Your arrival is probably going to be a bit rowdier than a normal one would."
"It's fine," he responded with a shrug. The two of them turned a corner, before Ms. April came to a stop and turned around.
"Wait here," she instructed, her voice firm, and Kellyn stopped immediately. She gave him a smile he guessed was supposed to be comforting, before turning to open the door. "Good morning, class!"
There was an explosion of noise that made Kellyn reel back slightly with a wince. It was followed by a harsh shushing sound from Ms. April.
"Sorry for being late, but there was a matter I had to take care of." There was a pause, and Kellyn shifted so he could lean against the wall. "I didn't tell you before, but there's someone new who's joining our class today."
"Is it a guy? Or a girl? Which is it?" A female voice piped up.
"Are they cool? Cute? Or do they look like a celebrity?"
Kellyn stifled a laugh. Wow. What kind of question was that?
"You'll have to see for yourself," Ms. April replied, and he could hear the laughter in her voice. "Come on in!" she called, her voice increasing in volume as she addressed him.
Exhaling quietly, Kellyn pushed off the wall, reached forward, and pulled open the door. There was a rustle of movement, but other than that it was unnervingly silent. Clenching his free hand unconsciously, the brunet stepped into the room and quickly made his way over to where Ms. April was standing. Upon reaching her side, he spun on his heel and crossed his arms over his chest on instinct. His gaze flickered to the floor, then to the door, and then finally to Ms. April. Evidently sensing his unease, she smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder lightly.
"This is Kellyn. He's joining our school to become a Pokemon Ranger," she explained. "I expect all of you," Kellyn's stare became a mixture of confused and wary as the teacher's voice grew stern for a split second, "to treat him nicely."
He glanced over to the right-hand side of the class. A young boy and two girls stared back at him. He swallowed lightly, growing increasingly uncomfortable under their blank stares, until the girl closest to him, the one with puffy blonde hair, smiled at him. Something in his chest seemed to loosen, and he felt a bit more at ease.
"Now, about your seat…" Ms. April's flickered over to the left-hand side of the room. Her expression seemed to freeze, and Kellyn watched as it became a mixture of incredulous and questioning. "…What is it, Keith? Why the big grin?"
Kellyn's gaze snapped over to the left, and his blue eyes met brown. A redheaded boy sat a metre or two away from him. He was resting on his desk with his elbow, and was leaning on his hand with a grin that bordered more on a smirk than a smile. As their gazes met, the boy's – Keith's – eyes narrowed and his grin morphed into a smirk that promised trouble. In return, Kellyn narrowed his eyes right back.
Ms. April sighed next to him, though Kellyn wasn't sure if it was because she had noticed their silent exchange or if she had just been watching the redhead. "Kellyn, you can sit next to Keith."
The brunet frowned as the boy's – Keith, god dammit, he reminded himself – expression became smug, and an uneasy sense of dread settled in his gut. He slowly walked forward and quickly sat himself down in the empty chair.
Ms. April clapped her hands together, startling him (and Keith, he noted, as he caught sight of the redhead jumping at the abrupt noise). "And that's it for treating you like a new student. From here onwards, you're all my students who I take pride in teaching." She paused, and then smiled. "As for today, it'll be a free lesson."
An extremely quiet "yes" was hissed somewhere to Kellyn's right.
Ms. April turned to the blonde that Kellyn had been looking at before. "Rhythmi, would you mind showing Kellyn around the school? He hasn't had enough time for proper introductions, and the last thing we need is a new student getting lost around school."
"I'd be happy to," the girl – Rhythmi – replied cheerily, her voice light and friendly.
Ms. April nodded, before making her way towards the door and out of the classroom. Kellyn looked on nervously, and cringed when a cacophony of chairs screeching on a wooden floor reached his ears. He immediately found himself surrounded, and, in an attempt to calm himself, got to his feet.
"Hey, new kid," a voice started, and Kellyn's eyes narrowed as he turned to look at Keith. The redhead was grinning and had crossed his arms over his chest. "How long did it take you to capture pikachu? An hour?"
He opened his mouth, a retort on the tip of his tongue, when a voice rose on the other side of him. "Keith, don't be mean!" The voice he had come to know as Rhythmi defended him, and Kellyn allowed himself to be turned around to face her. "You should be paying attention to me anyway. My name's Rhythmi, but I'm not here to become a ranger. I want to become an operator."
Operator. Works with rangers in order to guide them in the field and have the ability to recharge a ranger's styler. The explanation came to him without much thought.
"That means when I graduate, I can order rangers like Keith around like my servant," Rhythmi continued, smiling innocently despite the mischievous tone her voice had taken on. Kellyn found himself smiling in amusement.
"Hey!"
"Anyway, we should start our tour. You've already met our teacher: Ms. April. She's nice enough, but if you make her mad…watch out." That small piece of advice was sort of unsettling, but somehow extremely amusing at the same time, so Kellyn decided to just nod and keep a neutral expression. Rhythmi beamed at him, before grasping his wrist and tugging him towards the door. "Come on! You can talk to the others later. Right now you're with Rhythmi amazing and informative school tour!"
He couldn't hold back his snort even if he'd tried. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
"Hey, new kid! Try not to get lost in the doorway!"
Kellyn turned sharply, furrowing his brows as he caught Keith's impish expression. He frowned slightly, before resorting to childishly sticking out his tongue. The muffled snickers of his new classmates and Keith's slightly surprised expression at his unexpected response made his frown flicker up into a grin for a moment.
If this Keith guy wanted to play, then he was game.