No Longer the Silent Observer
Disclaimer: Do you honestly think I have anything to do with the Pokemon franchise? Yeah that's what I thought. Anyway, on with the story...
-part 3-
I looked at my young friend warily. "Um, Ash..."
"Yeah, Brock?"
"That idea of yours...that doesn't INVOLVE those berries, does it?" The last time Ash tried cooking, it took the three of us about a week to get rid of the aftertaste.
To my relief, Ash shook his head. "Nope, it's just that we told Misty we were going here to look for berries. She'd get suspicious if we came back without 'em."
I nodded. "Right, let's go."
Later, after I had made the Mint Berry Jam, I fished some bagels out of my backpack and spread the jam on them. My friends loved it, they even offered some to Pikachu and Togepi, who shared their enthusiasm. I tasted it myself and was quite pleased with my cooking.
Anyway, enough about that. You're probably more interested in what Ash's idea was right? OK, let's fast-forward to the next afternoon. We had just entered the Pokemon Center in the next town, Evergreen City, which wasn't far from Cerulean City. We dropped our Pokeballs off to Nurse Joy and got our room assignments, and I vaguely remember saying something to her about how I knew right away that we were made for each other and how I'd gladly stay and help her in her duties. The next few moments are a total blank, though. The next thing I remember, I felt a sharp pulling on my ear and felt my feet scuffing along the floor as I was being dragged off. I came to my senses and twisted away from Misty's grasp, rubbing my ear in silent protest.
"OK guys, if we're going to be here for the night, I could really use a shower," Misty announced, and headed off to her room.
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "That's one less thing I have to do."
"What do you mean?" I asked. He still hadn't told me his plan.
"At least now I don't have to think of a reason to get her out of earshot," Ash explained, heading back to the reception desk.
"Hey, hold up, Ash! I still don't know what your plan is, and I want to help you."
"OK, come over here." He led me to a far corner of the Pokemon Center opposite the reception desk, looked around to make sure nobody was in hearing range, and told me his idea.
"Sounds pretty good," I said, nodding. "But are you sure there's a dance in town tonight?"
"That's why I wanted Misty out of the way. I was going to ask Nurse Joy if she knew of one."
"Good idea," I said, looking forward to being in the presence of the beautiful nurse again.
Before I could make a move to follow him though, Ash held out his hand to stop me. "Better wait here, Brock, it'll be easier for me to get an answer without you asking her to marry you or something." My face fell, but I knew he was right. I just lose all sense of...everything around a pretty girl, and I guess Ash didn't want to have to drag me off before he found out anything about a dance.
I'd hardly finished my thoughts when Ash returned from the desk, looking excited. "There's going to be a dance tonight in the banquet hall of the Evergreen City Hotel. I asked about tickets, and she said it was free!"
"Free? Wow," I said. I didn't expect us to be THAT fortunate.
"Yeah, the hotel's celebrating the tenth anniversary of its opening or something like that. Now I'm going to go tell Misty about it. I can't wait to see the look on her face!"
Ash had good reason for that last comment. The past several times we'd heard about a dance, Misty had wanted to go, but Ash was either too focused on training to notice, or we couldn't afford the tickets. I think that might have been one of the reasons I'd found Misty crying two nights previously. We all knew Misty loved romantic things like dances, so I guess the times that we couldn't go must have really disappointed her. But it looked like all that was about to change, and I was proud of Ash for taking steps to give Misty something I now knew she really wanted.
"I can't miss this tonight," I said. "I'm coming too, but I'll let you two alone. By the way, how do we have to dress for this dance?"
"Nurse Joy said it was just casual, so I guess we can just wear our regular clothes."
"Sounds good, since we can't exactly afford to rent tuxes and stuff," I said dryly.
"Right. You wouldn't catch me at one of those ultra-formal things anyway," Ash said, rolling his eyes. He hated dressing up. "Well, I'm gonna go give Misty the news, then I'll meet you in our room."
"OK. I'm gonna go across to the store, I think we're all running low on lemonade for our Pokemon." With that, we split up, but I hung back for a few minutes, listening for Misty's reaction. Our rooms were near the end of the hallway to the right of the reception desk, and even from that far away I could hear Misty's exclamation of delight at the news of the dance. I was tempted to take a peek down the hallway to see if she was hugging Ash in joy or something, but I didn't want to get caught spying on them, so I went to the store and quickly purchased the lemonade we needed. After discovering not too long ago that lemonade was, dollar-for-dollar, the best healing item for Pokemon available, we all switched to using it instead of Super and Hyper Potions. We also liked to drink some of the lemonade ourselves every now and then if we had some extra.
***
That evening, I arrived at the banquet hall of the hotel. It had been agreed that we would leave separately, since Ash wanted to walk there with Misty alone. They'd even left Pikachu, Togepi, and their other Pokemon in Misty's room back at the Pokemon Center. I'd brought my Pokeballs with me, just in case. I was a little worried, since we were about due for another Team Rocket attack. It had occurred to me not long after my trip to the store that they'd left us alone for the past several days, and while it was a welcome relief, I couldn't help but wonder when their next strike was going to be. Ash would've probably wondered the same thing, if he had stopped talking about Misty at all in the few hours before the dance. The last time he'd danced with her was way back at Maiden's Peak in Kanto, and he was visibly nervous. I suggested that he stick to the easy, basic slow dances, since that's all he could do anyway. For the faster, free-form ones, it was just a matter of getting up and moving to the music. Ash seemed to take in my advice, but I could tell he was still nervous.
But anyway, back to the present. I scanned the banquet hall, looking for my friends. The entrance was at the far east side of the room, and a few feet in front of me was the end of a long buffet table, up against the east wall. The room was rectangular, with the east and west walls forming the short sides. Immediately to my left were a couple of rows of round tables, which stretched parallel to the buffet table towards the north wall. The rest of the room, on my far left, was the dance floor. The place wasn't TOO full, but it wasn't totally empty either. I guessed that the room was at about half capacity for an event like this. Finally spotting my friends seated at one of the tables, each with a plate of food from the buffet, I stood in line, got a plate of my own, and found a seat where I could watch them, but was far enough away that I hoped they wouldn't see me. I figured they'd be too busy talking to each other to notice me anyway.
It wasn't long before they had finished their meal. Misty stood up from the table first and said something to Ash. He nodded and said a short reply, and I didn't need to hear the conversation to know that she'd just asked him to dance. The expression on his face was hard to read, he looked nervous and elated at the same time. A slow song was playing then, but even so, they were quickly lost in the crowd. I was starting to wish I was out there too, so I decided that there was no reason I couldn't be. I scanned the room again, looking for a girl who wasn't with a date. I'd have to be really careful here. My body was telling me to run around and ask every girl in the room for a dance, but my mind really didn't want to embarrass Ash and Misty, so I struggled to keep myself thinking straight.
Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and received quite a shock when I saw that none other than Nurse Joy was standing in front of me. "Are you here alone?" she asked.
I couldn't believe what was happening. My first instinct was to spring forward, clasp her hands in mine, and say, "Yes, but I'll never be alone again if you'll stay by my side forever!" That was what my body wanted me to do. For some reason, my mind was winning the war that night though, so I said, "I came with a couple of friends, but they're out dancing right now. I'm curious though, if you're here, who's working at the Pokemon Center?"
Nurse Joy smiled. "I have to have time off sometimes, Brock. Officer Jenny is covering for me right now, but I'm still on call." She indicated the pager that was clipped to her belt. For this casual dance, she'd exchanged her nurse's uniform for a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans, and I thought she looked great. "Would you like to dance?"
"S-sure," I said nervously. She offered her hand, and I took it as we moved out onto the dance floor. I STILL couldn't believe this was happening! I was actually dancing with one of the Nurse Joys! I suddently realized that my hands were getting sweaty, as was the rest of me.
"You seem nervous...any particular reason why?" she asked as she cocked her head to the side slightly.
"I--I've...never...danced with a...Nurse Joy...before," I stammered. "I usually...get shot down or make a fool of myself before I can even get this far." I hung my head a bit.
To my absolute astonishment, she slowly nodded. "I understand."
I looked her straight in the eye. "You do?"
"The truth is, I was about to tell you off as well for going crazy on me like you did earlier today at the Center. But then...and I'm a little embarrassed to admit, I overheard the conversation between you and Ash. It was pretty slow this afternoon, and you weren't quite talking quietly enough. I didn't intend to overhear, it just happened," she apologized. To my nod, she continued, "Then, as I went about healing your Pokemon, I noticed something. All of your Pokemon, and that applies to all three of you...they all look very healthy and extremely happy. I figured that someone who does as good a job at taking care of both his Pokemon and his friends deserves at least a chance. And you've been a nice gentleman so far."
"Uh...thanks! I don't know what to say." I really didn't.
Nurse Joy smiled again. She had had my full attention during that whole conversation, and it was almost like I wasn't capable of any other conscious thought, but some part of the back of my mind was still working. My subconscious suspected that maybe she didn't get many dates herself because she was so dedicated to her work at the Pokemon Center. I made a mental note to find out about that later.
"Hey, speaking of your friends," she said, "I wonder how they're doing?" she craned her neck to look around for them.
"Right...I kinda lost track there for a minute," I said, blushing. It was taking all my self-control not to gush over this girl like I'd done before. Something about her was just putting me at ease, though, and I was slowly becoming more and more comfortable around her. Looking away from her finally, I let my eyes wander around as well. I finally spotted my friends on the other side of the dance floor from us. "Over there," I whispered, nodding to the spot.
Following my gaze, Nurse Joy stared. "Well, what do you know..."
"You can say that again," I agreed. Ash and Misty had started out dancing almost at arm's length. It was somewhat amusing to see, as Ash was quite awkward and nervous about the whole thing, but they now had drawn much closer.
"They've got it bad..." Nurse Joy said slowly.
"You can say that again too," I quipped. "She really has an effect on him. I've been noticing it for quite a while now."
Disclaimer: Do you honestly think I have anything to do with the Pokemon franchise? Yeah that's what I thought. Anyway, on with the story...
-part 3-
I looked at my young friend warily. "Um, Ash..."
"Yeah, Brock?"
"That idea of yours...that doesn't INVOLVE those berries, does it?" The last time Ash tried cooking, it took the three of us about a week to get rid of the aftertaste.
To my relief, Ash shook his head. "Nope, it's just that we told Misty we were going here to look for berries. She'd get suspicious if we came back without 'em."
I nodded. "Right, let's go."
Later, after I had made the Mint Berry Jam, I fished some bagels out of my backpack and spread the jam on them. My friends loved it, they even offered some to Pikachu and Togepi, who shared their enthusiasm. I tasted it myself and was quite pleased with my cooking.
Anyway, enough about that. You're probably more interested in what Ash's idea was right? OK, let's fast-forward to the next afternoon. We had just entered the Pokemon Center in the next town, Evergreen City, which wasn't far from Cerulean City. We dropped our Pokeballs off to Nurse Joy and got our room assignments, and I vaguely remember saying something to her about how I knew right away that we were made for each other and how I'd gladly stay and help her in her duties. The next few moments are a total blank, though. The next thing I remember, I felt a sharp pulling on my ear and felt my feet scuffing along the floor as I was being dragged off. I came to my senses and twisted away from Misty's grasp, rubbing my ear in silent protest.
"OK guys, if we're going to be here for the night, I could really use a shower," Misty announced, and headed off to her room.
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "That's one less thing I have to do."
"What do you mean?" I asked. He still hadn't told me his plan.
"At least now I don't have to think of a reason to get her out of earshot," Ash explained, heading back to the reception desk.
"Hey, hold up, Ash! I still don't know what your plan is, and I want to help you."
"OK, come over here." He led me to a far corner of the Pokemon Center opposite the reception desk, looked around to make sure nobody was in hearing range, and told me his idea.
"Sounds pretty good," I said, nodding. "But are you sure there's a dance in town tonight?"
"That's why I wanted Misty out of the way. I was going to ask Nurse Joy if she knew of one."
"Good idea," I said, looking forward to being in the presence of the beautiful nurse again.
Before I could make a move to follow him though, Ash held out his hand to stop me. "Better wait here, Brock, it'll be easier for me to get an answer without you asking her to marry you or something." My face fell, but I knew he was right. I just lose all sense of...everything around a pretty girl, and I guess Ash didn't want to have to drag me off before he found out anything about a dance.
I'd hardly finished my thoughts when Ash returned from the desk, looking excited. "There's going to be a dance tonight in the banquet hall of the Evergreen City Hotel. I asked about tickets, and she said it was free!"
"Free? Wow," I said. I didn't expect us to be THAT fortunate.
"Yeah, the hotel's celebrating the tenth anniversary of its opening or something like that. Now I'm going to go tell Misty about it. I can't wait to see the look on her face!"
Ash had good reason for that last comment. The past several times we'd heard about a dance, Misty had wanted to go, but Ash was either too focused on training to notice, or we couldn't afford the tickets. I think that might have been one of the reasons I'd found Misty crying two nights previously. We all knew Misty loved romantic things like dances, so I guess the times that we couldn't go must have really disappointed her. But it looked like all that was about to change, and I was proud of Ash for taking steps to give Misty something I now knew she really wanted.
"I can't miss this tonight," I said. "I'm coming too, but I'll let you two alone. By the way, how do we have to dress for this dance?"
"Nurse Joy said it was just casual, so I guess we can just wear our regular clothes."
"Sounds good, since we can't exactly afford to rent tuxes and stuff," I said dryly.
"Right. You wouldn't catch me at one of those ultra-formal things anyway," Ash said, rolling his eyes. He hated dressing up. "Well, I'm gonna go give Misty the news, then I'll meet you in our room."
"OK. I'm gonna go across to the store, I think we're all running low on lemonade for our Pokemon." With that, we split up, but I hung back for a few minutes, listening for Misty's reaction. Our rooms were near the end of the hallway to the right of the reception desk, and even from that far away I could hear Misty's exclamation of delight at the news of the dance. I was tempted to take a peek down the hallway to see if she was hugging Ash in joy or something, but I didn't want to get caught spying on them, so I went to the store and quickly purchased the lemonade we needed. After discovering not too long ago that lemonade was, dollar-for-dollar, the best healing item for Pokemon available, we all switched to using it instead of Super and Hyper Potions. We also liked to drink some of the lemonade ourselves every now and then if we had some extra.
***
That evening, I arrived at the banquet hall of the hotel. It had been agreed that we would leave separately, since Ash wanted to walk there with Misty alone. They'd even left Pikachu, Togepi, and their other Pokemon in Misty's room back at the Pokemon Center. I'd brought my Pokeballs with me, just in case. I was a little worried, since we were about due for another Team Rocket attack. It had occurred to me not long after my trip to the store that they'd left us alone for the past several days, and while it was a welcome relief, I couldn't help but wonder when their next strike was going to be. Ash would've probably wondered the same thing, if he had stopped talking about Misty at all in the few hours before the dance. The last time he'd danced with her was way back at Maiden's Peak in Kanto, and he was visibly nervous. I suggested that he stick to the easy, basic slow dances, since that's all he could do anyway. For the faster, free-form ones, it was just a matter of getting up and moving to the music. Ash seemed to take in my advice, but I could tell he was still nervous.
But anyway, back to the present. I scanned the banquet hall, looking for my friends. The entrance was at the far east side of the room, and a few feet in front of me was the end of a long buffet table, up against the east wall. The room was rectangular, with the east and west walls forming the short sides. Immediately to my left were a couple of rows of round tables, which stretched parallel to the buffet table towards the north wall. The rest of the room, on my far left, was the dance floor. The place wasn't TOO full, but it wasn't totally empty either. I guessed that the room was at about half capacity for an event like this. Finally spotting my friends seated at one of the tables, each with a plate of food from the buffet, I stood in line, got a plate of my own, and found a seat where I could watch them, but was far enough away that I hoped they wouldn't see me. I figured they'd be too busy talking to each other to notice me anyway.
It wasn't long before they had finished their meal. Misty stood up from the table first and said something to Ash. He nodded and said a short reply, and I didn't need to hear the conversation to know that she'd just asked him to dance. The expression on his face was hard to read, he looked nervous and elated at the same time. A slow song was playing then, but even so, they were quickly lost in the crowd. I was starting to wish I was out there too, so I decided that there was no reason I couldn't be. I scanned the room again, looking for a girl who wasn't with a date. I'd have to be really careful here. My body was telling me to run around and ask every girl in the room for a dance, but my mind really didn't want to embarrass Ash and Misty, so I struggled to keep myself thinking straight.
Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and received quite a shock when I saw that none other than Nurse Joy was standing in front of me. "Are you here alone?" she asked.
I couldn't believe what was happening. My first instinct was to spring forward, clasp her hands in mine, and say, "Yes, but I'll never be alone again if you'll stay by my side forever!" That was what my body wanted me to do. For some reason, my mind was winning the war that night though, so I said, "I came with a couple of friends, but they're out dancing right now. I'm curious though, if you're here, who's working at the Pokemon Center?"
Nurse Joy smiled. "I have to have time off sometimes, Brock. Officer Jenny is covering for me right now, but I'm still on call." She indicated the pager that was clipped to her belt. For this casual dance, she'd exchanged her nurse's uniform for a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans, and I thought she looked great. "Would you like to dance?"
"S-sure," I said nervously. She offered her hand, and I took it as we moved out onto the dance floor. I STILL couldn't believe this was happening! I was actually dancing with one of the Nurse Joys! I suddently realized that my hands were getting sweaty, as was the rest of me.
"You seem nervous...any particular reason why?" she asked as she cocked her head to the side slightly.
"I--I've...never...danced with a...Nurse Joy...before," I stammered. "I usually...get shot down or make a fool of myself before I can even get this far." I hung my head a bit.
To my absolute astonishment, she slowly nodded. "I understand."
I looked her straight in the eye. "You do?"
"The truth is, I was about to tell you off as well for going crazy on me like you did earlier today at the Center. But then...and I'm a little embarrassed to admit, I overheard the conversation between you and Ash. It was pretty slow this afternoon, and you weren't quite talking quietly enough. I didn't intend to overhear, it just happened," she apologized. To my nod, she continued, "Then, as I went about healing your Pokemon, I noticed something. All of your Pokemon, and that applies to all three of you...they all look very healthy and extremely happy. I figured that someone who does as good a job at taking care of both his Pokemon and his friends deserves at least a chance. And you've been a nice gentleman so far."
"Uh...thanks! I don't know what to say." I really didn't.
Nurse Joy smiled again. She had had my full attention during that whole conversation, and it was almost like I wasn't capable of any other conscious thought, but some part of the back of my mind was still working. My subconscious suspected that maybe she didn't get many dates herself because she was so dedicated to her work at the Pokemon Center. I made a mental note to find out about that later.
"Hey, speaking of your friends," she said, "I wonder how they're doing?" she craned her neck to look around for them.
"Right...I kinda lost track there for a minute," I said, blushing. It was taking all my self-control not to gush over this girl like I'd done before. Something about her was just putting me at ease, though, and I was slowly becoming more and more comfortable around her. Looking away from her finally, I let my eyes wander around as well. I finally spotted my friends on the other side of the dance floor from us. "Over there," I whispered, nodding to the spot.
Following my gaze, Nurse Joy stared. "Well, what do you know..."
"You can say that again," I agreed. Ash and Misty had started out dancing almost at arm's length. It was somewhat amusing to see, as Ash was quite awkward and nervous about the whole thing, but they now had drawn much closer.
"They've got it bad..." Nurse Joy said slowly.
"You can say that again too," I quipped. "She really has an effect on him. I've been noticing it for quite a while now."