Ranger Records

Making Friends

Dear Diary,

I wouldn't even be writing this right now if I hadn't been lucky enough to find a pen in the grass. It's been two days since I've arrived at Ranger School and guess what? I. Am. Still. Outside.

I've had to resort to bathing in the fountain when no one is looking, sleeping in a bush to keep warm, and relying on Pikachu to get me through the days without starving to death. Yes, the same Pikachu I was assigned to capture. We're great friends, really. He'll dance and make faces to keep me entertained, sleep with me to give me an extra burst of warmth, and pat my shoulder when I have one of my increasingly worse break-downs. It's all very nice and good.

But I really wish I could just capture it. I really, really do.

I haven't had to go to a class yet. The first three days that school is in session, including orientation day, are given to students to get settled into their dorms and make friends before classes begin. I was hoping to have caught Pikachu by the end of this grace period, as to avoid the embarrassment of greeting my classmates from a two-by-four foot window.

Unfortunately, my hopes have crashed to the ground louder than an earthquake.

They'll probably think I'm an intruder when they see me, Diary. I don't even have my uniform yet. They leave them on your bed, so I was told by an albino boy who thought I was mentally retarded and couldn't figure out where my clothes were.

(He caught me in the fountain.)

I'm very tired, Diary. Very, very tired. I'm about ready to go home. If I can't catch Pikachu after class today, I very well might.

Wish me luck.

I had arrived at the classroom before anyone else. It wasn't surprising, really, since I had nothing better to do but go to class. Everyone else was probably finishing breakfast or talking with friends, fixing themselves up or getting their school supplies.

Me? I was trying to fashion a chair that I could sit in for the next three hours of lessons that was high enough to see through the window.

Out of leaves.

Regrettably it wasn't going very well, and so I decided to think of standing through the lesson as a slow and painful workout. I leaned against the window frame; my arms folded under my chin, and hummed the alphabet as I waited for my classmates to file in. When they did, I straightened up immediately, subconsciously batting at my hair and clothes. Not that it mattered. Anything I did probably wouldn't make my clothes any neater nor get any more blades of grass out of my hair.

Most of them raised an eyebrow at me but decided against questioning it, and simply sat down in their seats. These people were my favorites, God-sent angels, here to bless me in my misery.

There was one boy who kept staring at me, though. He was tall, around 5'11, with shaggy brown hair and playful blue eyes. I hoped and prayed he would just sit down.

"Hey, homeless chick, what are you doing?"

Everyone looked at him, as he spoke loud enough to catch the whole class's attention, and then they all looked back at me. My first thought was to let my knees buckle beneath me and fall to the ground, out of site. My pride wouldn't let me, though. My pride had just taken an atomic bomb to the face.

"I'm not homeless," I said, crossing my arms. "I'm a student here. I just…can't enter the building yet."

A blond girl spoke up this time, her uniform in perfect form, unlike the rest of my classmates. She brushed her stick-straight hair behind her ear. "Why not?"

My arms broke apart, and slowly fell to my side. "Uh…well, I haven't passed the capture test yet, so Mr. Dolesbury isn't allowing me into the building."

A chubby black-haired boy from the front row was the next to speak, bellowing as he munched on what I assumed to be a snickers bar. "You haven't passed the capture test yet? Ha! I tell you, it takes skill to catch a bidoof, but it takes real skill not to catch a bidoof."

The brown-haired boy, my current #1 Hated Person, spoke again. "Oh? So you're one of my classmates?"

When I nodded, he smirked and made his way over to the window, and, leaning out of it and making sure to peer at me right in my face, his eyes moved up and down, and he leaned back into the classroom, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Three."

"Huh?"

"I give your face a three, on an attractive scale of one-to-ten."

My fists balled at my side. "Excuse me?"

A brown haired girl with a bow in her hair piped up this time, a lollipop hanging out of her mouth. "Just her face? What about the rest of her?"

The brown-haired-boy ran a hand through his hair, sighing. "Well, if I were to rate that as well, it'd no doubt bring her grade down. I was trying to be nice."

"Two."

The boy blinked and looked at me, tilting his head. "Say what?"

"I give your self-centered, egotistical, shallow, cliché personality a two."

Everyone stopped talking, but I pressed on. Enough was enough. The day before I got to this school I was bustling with excitement and anticipation. I thought it was going to be great. But I was like a nail getting hammered into a board of utter suckage. Old Lady? Bang. Mr. Dolesbury? Bang. Albino boy catching me naked? Bang bang BANG. But this kid? This jerk? He hit the nail for the final time. The board had cracked and left him with a dozen splinters. "And you're right; it does take skill not to catch a bidoof. But it doesn't take skill not to try. I was assigned the capture of a Pikachu, which is harder than anything any of you had to do, so I don't see a reason for you all to get so high and mighty."

Some people were still staring at me, surprised I had spoken to them all that way, some looked away, probably feeling guilty for ganging up on me, and a few just looked like they didn't care about the situation at all, like a longish-black-haired kid in the back corner listening to his iPoké.

Brown-haired boy looked peeved, though. What, he can dish it out but he can't take it?

He smirked a moment later, which caught me off guard, and then advanced towards me, stuck out his tongue, slammed the window and locked it shut.

I blinked and banged on the glass, yelling, "hey!" and, "open up!" as loud as I could, but he cupped his hand around his ear, as if to say, "I'm sorry, what?" and drew the curtains.

What a jerk.


I had given up on getting the window open after an hour of banging and yelling, and I was sitting under the apple tree Pikachu got our food from. It had joined me now, dancing around and trying to lift my spirits. Me? I was preoccupied with tearing grass out of the ground.

I threw the grass up into the wind and watched it as it was scattered around, then turned my attention back to my yellow friend. "Hey, Pikachu, how about we go a few more rounds? I really need to catch you soon."

It nodded as if it understood, and ran about ten feet away from me, in battle position. I smiled weakly and rose to my feet, digging my Styler out of my pocket. Closing my eyes, I whispered reassurances to myself. Lame, I know, but if I didn't give myself a boost of confidence, who would?

"Don't be quick to break your capture line. Watch Pikachu's movements and try to see a pattern. When you understand the pattern, you'll see the opening you need. Trust your gut, not your nerves."

I nodded to myself, opened my eyes, and pulled my Styler's Antenna to full length. "Shall we, Pikachu?"

"Pika."

I launched my capture disc the moment it agreed, but I didn't have it circle Pikachu immediately, deciding that it would be better to first watch its reaction. And it reacted the same way it did every other time—it launched itself up into the air, curled its body, and released a thunderbolt.

I yanked my Styler back and the disc followed my movements, moving out of the way of the Pokémon's attack. I waited for the shock to leave the air and then sent the disc straight for Pikachu, figuring that since it couldn't move mid-air now would be the best time to try and capture it. I twisted the Styler madly, and ended up closing my eyes in the midst of my own assault. Would the capture line break? Would Pikachu attack it? Would I break my Styler and face the humiliation of having to beg Mr. Dolesbury for a new one?

But…nothing happened.

I stopped twisting my wrist and opened my eyes, only to see the capture disc stop spinning in the air around…nothing. Pikachu was sitting in front of me, staring up at me with one of its ears perked up and the other folded lazily.

"Pikachu? Is something up?" I asked, lowering my hand and watching the capture disc fall silently to the ground.

"Pi, pika pi pika chu."

"…Did I…capture you?"

"Pi."

I blinked and called the capture disc back without even realizing what I was doing. "I…captured you?"

It made a motion that seemed as if it were sighing and said, "Pi chu pika pi."

"…I captured you!" I exclaimed, swinging down and taking the Pokémon up in my arms. I danced around, hugging it tight to my chest, and although it writhed against me uncomfortably, I didn't care. I had captured Pikachu! I could finally go into the school—I could take a hot shower, sleep in a warm bed and eat a hot meal. I could eat something other than apples! I could talk to my roommate and not worry about that jerk shutting me out of the classroom and—

"Pikachu, I captured you! I really, really did!"


It took me fifteen minutes to find Mr. Dolesbury, five to make him stop scolding me about sneaking into the school, and ten to explain to him that I had captured Pikachu and passed the capture test.

He had a skeptical look on his face, but upon seeing the Pokémon run around my feet and climb on me happily, he seemed to have accepted the fact that I wasn't lying. He gave me a key to my dorm, a map of the school, a list of extra curricular activities, a copy of the school rules and a full schedule of class subjects.

Then, since he seemed to have spoken to me for as long as he could handle, he marched off to do whatever it was that he was paid to do. Considering there was only ten minutes left to classes for the day, I decided to go to my dorm, take a long, hot shower and change into my uniform.

The school itself looked pretty ordinary. It wasn't spectacularly beautiful, like the kind of schools you see on TV. It was all brick walls and tiled floors. But even though it wasn't the most impressive thing I had ever seen, it was special. Being allowed to walk those floors was an honor, no matter how grimy the floors were.

There were four classrooms. Besides Mrs. Corder and Mr. Dolesbury, I didn't know who taught here, seeing as I missed the orientation ceremony. All I knew is that they were both women. There was also a large library, which resided on all three floors of the school and had a staircase separate from the one in the main hall, a cafeteria which tables were divided by class, a staff room, two bathrooms for each gender, a gym where all target clears and capture practices would take place, as well as PE, and a floor reserved especially for the dorms.

The girl's dorm was on the right side, and the boy's dorm was on the left, next to the library. After I trudged up the stairs, I ran into a woman who was carrying a large bucket of laundry. She smiled, welcomed me, and told me that her name was Ms. Rader. She said that she would be watching after me, kind of like a nanny. I smiled and asked her to please take care of me, and then made my way to my room—Female Residence Number 18.

It was a simple, small room. It had white walls, hardwood floors, two desks and a single window. My stuff was already on my bed, considering you had to send your belongings a week before arriving at the school. It was great to see that everything had made it, and that my roommate had been kind enough not to touch my stuff. Knowing that I'd be living with someone who respected others' privacy was a huge relief. I looked over to her side of the room, examining her stuffed animals, the clutter of papers, pencils and pens that were scattered across her desk, and the posters hanging on the walls. She had a small bulletin board hanging next to her bed, and I saw a picture labeled "Aria (Me!), Sue and Chase."

After closer inspection I noticed that she was one of the girls I had spoken to in class earlier—the cute brown haired girl with the lollipop. My heart sank a little. We started off on a bad foot.

I made my way over to my bed and fell back onto it, sighing. It was like floating on a cloud, compared to sleeping on the cold ground with an itchy bush on top of me. I was so tired, but I was also happy. This would be the turning point—I just knew it. Things had been hard, and there was probably going to be more difficulties to come, but my adventure had now officially begun. I wouldn't be depressed anymore. I'd face the challenges head-on, and I'd hopefully have a couple of friends to support me through the tough times. I knew I would. Everything would be alright.


"Hey, hey! Wake up! Come on, come on!" I heard someone whisper nervously in my ear. I moaned and rolled over, attempting to pull my pillow over my head to cover my ears. Whoever it was decided that that wouldn't do, and stole my pillow away from me, but not before hitting me with it a time or two. "Wake up, Prophet-girl!"

"Phay," I cried, rubbing my eyes and summoning enough strength to sit up. "Call me Phay."

"Oh, that's a lot better. I was going to have to make fun of you if I actually had to call you 'Prophet' for however long we'll be together. Who names their kid 'Prophet' anyway? It's like taping a message on their back that says 'Please-Tease-Me!' Jeez."

I pried my eyes open to get a better look at whomever it was that decided rambling on to a really tired, cranky girl was a good idea. 'Whomever it was' turned out to be my roommate, Aria. "Was there something you needed?"

"Uh, yeah. You," she said, walking over to her desk and grabbing her Styler. "I have somewhere I need to be, and you're the something I need to bring."

I yawned. Rather loudly. And I didn't bother covering my mouth. "Can't you 'be' and 'bring me' later? It's really late."

"That's the point, kid," she replied, smirking at me in a mischievous manner that couldn't help but make me nervous. "You weren't here on the first night so you don't know—we all had to do tests of courage. Tonight, now that you're finally in the dorm, we're going to have yours."

"A test of courage? Why do I have to do something like that?"

"Well, you don't have to. I'll still talk to you no matter what—I'm not up for a whole awkward hate-hate relationship with the girly I'm rooming with. But, kid, none of the others will accept you if you chicken out on something like this. Your social acceptance odds, which are already rather low, considering the sitchy you got into this morning, will take a head-first suicide plunge into the negatives. If you're cool with that, then we can sit here, chill, get to know each other and go to sleep. If you're not so cool with making everyone your arch-nemesis, I'd get off your butt and change with the speed of Superman, because it's time to face your enemies head on."

"…Sitchy?"

"Shorthand for situation. I abbrev a lot. See there? I just abbreviated abbreviate. That there's called skill."

"Do you always talk like that?"

She cocked her eyebrow and rested one hand on her hip. "Gotta problem with it?"

"No—no! Not at all. I just think it's kind of…unique. In a good way. It's funny."

She flashed a smile. "Good. Cuz if you gave me problems over the way I dialogue we'd be getting into one-too-many drama scenes. Life is all one big movie, and we're in the genre of action-comedy. People can take their drama-Miltanks to graze in a different part of the region."

I laughed. Her smile grew. "So, you coming? The others are all waiting downstairs, and I've gotta give them an update."

I sighed and stood up. "I'll go," a pause, "But I'm not promising I'll do whatever this 'test of courage' entails if I don't feel comfortable with it."

"That's fine, that's fine," she said, grabbing me by my shoulders and pushing me out the door, her Styler digging into my back. "If you've got the guts to go in the first place I doubt you'll Cumbusk-a-busken-busk and run away. The test isn't so terrifying."

"Cumbusk-a-busken-busk?"

"Torchic out."

"Combusken make that sound, not Torchic."

"Whatever!"

We trudged out of the dorms and into the connecting room, only to find a group of ten-or so of my classmates standing there, all looking straight at me. I gulped a bit—I had yelled at all of them this morning. This probably wasn't going to go well.

"Well, it seems that the homeless girl thinks she's up to the challenge," said none other than brown-haired-boy. I dug my nails into my palms.

"Tell me what I have to do before I agree to do anything."

He snorted and crossed his arms. "It isn't that hard. It's not even that scary—all you have to do is go outside and catch a Pokémon that none of us have caught before. Pikachu is out, as well as bidoof, and I believe that you caught an Oddish, didn't you, Riley?"

A girl nodded and I noticed it was the organized looking blond from this morning. I smiled weakly at her. Her mouth twitched in what I assumed was her attempt to smile back, but she quickly looked down and straightened out her skirt. Well, at least she hadn't completely ignored me.

"It's sorta dangerous," Aria said from beside me, her hand resting comfortably on my shoulder. "So we're going to put a blind fold on you."

"…And this makes it less dangerous because?"

She raised her eyebrows at me. "We're not sending you out there with it on, kid. We're gonna spin you faster than a whirlwind and let you latch on to two poor shmucks, and they'll trudge through the mud of your little midnight adventure with you. They're going along to help you in times of dire need, so you should need it. One acts as an assistant—they can give you advice and such. The other is a witness, since we don't want you bringing the Pokémon back inside. Dolesbury knows you only caught a Pikachu, and everyone knows that you fell asleep immediately after coming in the building. You randomly having another Pokémon the next day will raise suspicion, so you gotta send the little critter on its way after capturing it. Okay?"

"…Fine." It didn't sound so bad, so I agreed.

"Awesome sauce," she said, and blindfolded me without any warning. I flinched a bit, but otherwise I was fine. I'd have to get used to this girl's weird way of doing things. I felt a dozen hands begin to spin me around, and after I started spinning on my own, they let go. My hand brushed against a whole bunch of people's shirts. I felt a large stomach through one of them and immediately knew it was pudgy-boy from this morning. Him, I refused to grab. The only other distinctions I could make were boy and girl, and only because the girls were smaller in such an obvious way compared to the boys. Boys would probably be better, I figured, considering if something dangerous did happen they'd be faster, stronger and hopefully able to protect me. I didn't know any of them well, so trying to figure out who was who and grabbing on to a certain someone would be pointless. I just latched on to two random people, both of them on opposite sides of the circle. One didn't move, and I heard a groan from the other. Then, Aria's voice piped up. "And there you have it! Shade, Josh, take care of Phay, alright?"

I let go of their shirts and pulled the blindfold off my head, only to see that everyone other than the two boys and Aria had backed away. One of them was the 'I-don't-care-so-I'm-going-to-listen-to-my-iPoké' boy from this morning. The other was brown-haired boy. Upon seeing him, I also groaned.

Aria laughed. "That one is Josh and Mr. Oh-so-silent and mysterious is Shade. Their personalities are difficult, but they're both decent at capturing! I'm sure they won't be a leech seed in your side."

"Hey, you haven't even known me for a week! What gives you the right to call my personality difficult?" Josh said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Two reasons: the fact that you've hit on every girl here, including me, and the fact that even though you very well know Phay's name you're still calling her 'homeless girl.'"

"Only one of those things is true. I haven't hit on homeless girl, so I haven't hit on every girl here," he said. Then, smirking, he added, "I'm sorry though, baby. Did I make you jealous? I have eyes only for you, I promise."

Aria rolled her eyes and shoved him towards the door, then turned to me. "You'll be fine. Don't worry. If he makes an advance on you, either hide behind Shade or scream 'rape!' The last one works really well. I did it to him two days ago. We had to have a sexual harassment conference with the principal. It was lovely."

"Oh, yeah," Josh snorted. "Lovely."

I laughed and thanked Aria, turned to Shade, bowed, asked him to please take care of me, and made my way for the door, brushing right past Josh and not saying a word.


Sneaking out of the school was easier than I expected. No one was patrolling the halls, and there weren't even any Pokémon keeping watch. I didn't know if this was because the teachers trusted us students too much, or that they didn't think anyone would have the audacity to sneak out of the school in the middle of the night. Either way, it made this whole thing a lot easier.

The people accompanying me, however, did not.

No one was speaking. I was happy not to have to talk with Josh, and I had already pegged Shade as a quiet guy in the morning when I glimpsed at him in the classroom, but the silence was weighing heavily on my shoulders. Even when I was outside alone, I always had Pikachu to talk to. These two were ridiculous.

We weren't really getting anywhere—just wandering around the grounds, searching with our eyes for the slightest sign of a Pokémon. And we did see some—but they were all Oddish, Pikachu and Bidoof. Not a single other Pokémon to be found. I turned to Shade. If we were going to be out here for a while, I might as wellhave tried to start a conversation. "Um, so, what are you going to be after we graduate—" But before I had a chance to finish my question, he reached over and tugged me back, just in time for me to see a poison sting attack fly in front of my face.

My eyes became as wide and round as a Jigglypuff, and I fell back onto the ground with a loud thump. Josh had fallen back too, after screaming and dodging the attack in a clumsy manner.

"Dude," he yelled, glaring up at Shade while letting out a shaky breath. "If you knew that was coming, how about warning me, too, instead of pulling only her out of the way!"

Shade ignored him and glanced at me before pointing to a tree. Under it was an Ekans, looking at us rather spitefully while slithering in a tangled lump near the trunk.

"There's an injury," Shade said, lowering his hand.

I blinked and looked from him to the snake, examining it from a distance. He was right—there was an injury. Three long slash marks near its head. "It must have gotten into a fight with a Zangoose…"

"We must have wandered too close and scared it." Josh said, getting up and brushing himself off. I sat there a moment, staring at it. It did look scared. Angry, frightened, pained…helpless.

"Let's keep going—we don't want it to attack us again. We can find you a low-level Pokémon, let you capture it, and get back inside."

Josh began walking away, but I stayed where I was on the ground, staring at the Ekans. It needed help, didn't it? Was it okay to just…leave?

"You could leave," Shade muttered, standing next to me, eyes fixed on the Ekans. "You could go find a weaker Pokémon and capture it instead. You could rationalize it by saying things like 'I wouldn't be able to capture it. I'd do more bad than good. It'll be fine even if no one helps it.' But I wonder…" He then switched his gaze to me, and simply gazed. It was a monotonous look—adorned with an emotionless expression and blank eyes. "A Styler can only be used by those of just heart. Would yours still work for you were you to leave?"

"What are you going on about," Josh sighed, waiting for the two of us about ten feet away.

Shade shrugged, looked at me once more and made his way over to Josh. I just continued sitting there, staring.

"Homeless girl, I know this has been your like, home for the past few days, but I can guarantee your bed will be a lot better than the ground you're currently sitting on. So could you get up so we can get this over with?"

I complied. I did get up.

But I didn't go over to him.

Instead, I took out my Styler and launched the capture disc.

Josh groaned. "She's going to try the Ekans? Dude, what did you say to her."

"Nothing."

The Ekans hissed and coiled up against the tree. I told myself to remember how it felt to capture Pikachu earlier that day; how I went about capturing it and how I kept it from breaking my Styler.

I began circling my wrist, having the capture disc float near the Ekans before pulling it back just in time to miss another poison sting attack. It was scared, skittish—it was acting on instinct alone, and not rational thought. It probably feared that I was trying to hurt it.

I'm not, I thought, rushing the disc over to it and circling it quickly. This disc is supposed to channel my feelings. If it can really do that, then I hope you can feel this, Ekans. I'm not trying to hurt you. A twist, a pull, a spin. I want to help. I just want to help you, Ekans. That's all I want. I know you're scared. A few rapid circles, a jerk away from an oncoming attack. I know you're in pain. I can help you. Trust me.

The capture line disappeared and the disc flew back to my Styler. I glanced from it to the Ekans, wondering if it had broken the capture line—instead, it was slithering towards me, a vulnerable expression gracing its otherwise ferocious features.

"…She actually captured it?"

"Mm."

I fell to my knees and stroked the poor Pokémon on the head before letting it twist around my waist and arms. I looked towards the boys, smiling.

"Anyone got a Super Potion?"


After we had healed the Ekans and went back to the dorms, Josh, although begrudgingly, admitted to everyone that I had successfully captured an Ekans. Aria had nearly knocked me over with the force of her hug, while others smiled, congratulated me and patted me sportingly on the back.

The day had started off really tough. The school year in a whole did, really--but today had turned out to be amazing. I had passed my capture test and my test of courage. I had accomplished the task of earning my classmate's acceptance and respect. Things were finally looking up.

I could only hope they stayed that way.


Authors Note: And there you have it! I finally finished chapter 2. I'm really sorry for the wait! Although there was actually only one person waiting for this chapter to come out xD;

So, a special thanks to my one and only reviewer, ravengal! Thanks so much for your kind words and for your favorite. It means a lot to me, especially coming from you.

I hope I get more reviewers this time around, though ;