Are we on chapter 4 already? Well, I'm sorry for the late update, but like I said I can only update every few weeks, which means 1-2 updates a month.
Chapter 4
A woman with coral-pink hair walked up to May, but she perked her brow when she saw Drew there as well. Drew wasn't exactly the talkative type. He always liked to keep to himself, especially with strangers…
"May, I know this is sudden, but I won't expect any less from the top coordinators. Will you choose someone to train with? You have 5 minutes to get ready." The woman with the pink hair informed.
"Oh, okay, but aren't you Solidad Saori, the Hoenn Grand Festival winner?" May asked her eyes filled with excitement.
"I am, but right now what's important is that I'm your new coordinating teacher." Solidad said.
"You are?" May gasped excitedly. A grand festival winner was going to be her teacher.
"Right, but I have other students to attend to, so find a sparring partner and get ready." Solidad walked toward a group of students, who May recognized. Every single one of them had been on front covers of, Coordinators' Weekly Magazine, The Next Teen Hottie, Gossip Magazine, and so on.
May saw the trainers feeding their Pokémon Poke Blocks and poffins and some practicing moves. Flames, beams, leaves, punches, and kicks were everywhere. "I know it's amazing and all, but it's still not nice to gape at everyone." Drew snickered.
"Oh, be quiet. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to find a partner." May said storming off. She spotted Lisa and…Felicity. Oh, great, she groaned. Lisa spotted her and waved. Felicity looked back and her confused face turned into a slightly hurt one, "Oh, hey May."
"Hi, guys. Look, I'm really sorry for ditching you at lunch, but I forgot, sorry." May apologized.
"Oh, okay. Then I forgive you." Felicity brightened up quickly. That was WAY too easy… May thought. These two girls were just a whole level of weird to May, but yet she oddly felt compelled to them.
"May! Over here! It's us." Dawn's perky voice called. May turned around and found Marina and Dawn waving her over.
"You better go. The highnesses await." Lisa scoffed. May gave a puzzled look, but she walked over anyway. A Mamoswine and a Misdreavus stood by the two. The mammoth Pokémon glared at May as she carefully walked toward the two. Its sharp tusks pointed directly at May.
Dawn must've noticed May's wariness because she gave the Mamoswine a sharp look. "Were you talking to Lisa and Felicity?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah, why?" May asked.
"Well, it's just that Felicity's mom is the woman who designs our modeling clothes and Lisa sometimes designs some of our clothes, but it'd be better not to talk to her because of work. We're not exactly always on equal terms with the two. It's not that they're mean or anything, but it's bad when we bring work into school. A lot of paparazzi would find out and business people." Dawn explained.
"I actually love Lisa, Felicity and Felicity's mother, Lucia to death, but our relationship between work and school are a bit more complicated. You see, Simon's parents' company rival Dawn's mom's." Marina added.
"That doesn't mean I can't talk to them." May said.
"Well, true, but that means we can't talk to you during school…" Dawn pouted.
Honestly, it would've been an obvious choice to anyone, but this was still her first day! It was obvious that the three girls were gorgeous, which meant they were probably popular and everyone wants to be popular, but the other three were a lot more unexpected. Although, she didn't want to she needed to.
"Fine, I'll stop talking to them during school." May said glumly.
"We're sorry for making you choose someone over us, but we have to go. Marina and I are going to practice. I wish Leaf were here, so you could have a partner too." Dawn apologized.
"It's okay." May said. They left and May went in search of a partner. By now almost everyone already had a partner, "May, are you still looking for a partner?" Solidad's voice came from behind.
"Yeah, I am. Is there anyone left?" May asked. Solidad nodded.
"You know I almost forgot. Before you came this class had an odd amount of students and I always had to train with one of them, but now I can finally watch how much my students improve. In fact, there's one student that I have in mind. He always waits until everyone else is partnered up and then I end up battling with him. Ah, there he is now." Solidad gestured toward the green haired boy who recently got on May's nerves.
"Drew?" May inwardly groaned. Of course he would be cocky enough to think he deserved to take on the strongest coordinator in the room.
"You know, I was kind of hoping I would've gotten a decent coordinator as a partner. I guess I'll just have to make-do with you." Drew shrugged.
"Solidad, do I have to?" May would've begged if it meant she could have a different partner and then he came. He came in skipping and with a Cacturne by his side squealing, "Solidad, cookie! I want to battle May, darling!"
"Harley, aren't you teaching a class?" Solidad asked.
"Well… I left one of my students in charge. She was really feisty –not to mention adorable-and made everyone do 100 laps in the pool. She was such a darling girl!" Harley put a finger to his chin. Solidad laughed,
"That's just like you. Well, if you went through all that trouble just to battle one of my students then I'm more than happy to let you. Drew, it looks like you're my partner again." Solidad said.
"May, hun, how about a battle! I just know you've heard of me!" Harley flipped a lock of his hair behind his shoulder. May laughed nervously. She didn't even know he was a coordinator. He was pretty memorable, he did have long wavy purple hair and not to mention the way he dressed. May would've definitely would've recognized him if she had even seen him.
"Okay, sure." May said ignoring his second statement completely.
"Hooray! I get to battle Mayzie! Just let me change into my new costume!" Harley skipped off somewhere while May was left utterly speechless. She stalked off to watch Drew and Solidad battle. A Slowbro was using a Psychic attack on a graceful Roselia. The rose Pokémon crashed to the grass battlefield, harshly.
"Roselia, use Petal Dance!" Drew's voice commanded. Roselia rose from the ground and unleashed pink flower petals from its rose hands creating a powerful blast nearly missing Slowbro's ear. The said Pokémon howled in pain. Solidad smiled as if she were pleased,
"Good job! Taking account my Pokémon's speed was a smart move. Slowbro, use Fire Blast." Solidad stood confidently as her pink Pokémon released a scorching blast of fire straight at Roselia.
"Roselia, dodge it and use Seed Bomb." Drew commanded. Roselia jumped to the side, but scorched her small vine that was used as a foot. She grit her teeth in pain, but unleashed brown lumps at Slowbro and exploded when made contact even with the slightest touch.
"Slowbro, use Psychic!" Solidad ordered. Some of the Seed Bombs that had yet to detonate was fired back at Roselia. The Pokémon –and trainer- didn't have enough time to react was hit with the explosive brown seeds.
"Roselia, use Solarbeam!" Drew instructed. Roselia's rose buds started to glow with the sunlight energy and May had to block some of the sunlight from her eyes to watch the beautiful process of the energy collection. Roselia's roses brilliantly sparkled and showed months of hard training, which made May give a new characteristic to Drew's list of arrogant and annoying. She added hardworking.
"May-bear! I'm dooone!" Harley's sing-song voice distracted May from the battle, but if she had been eating one of her necessary snacks, well, she would've choked on it and then would've spit it out from what he said after,
"Just call me one of your girlfriends!" Harley was in a black sequined mini skirt that went above his mid-thigh, a low purple tube top, black gladiator sandals, a big purple bow, bright red lipstick, bright purple eye shadow, and a Cacturne right next to him. May felt herself cover her mouth as it began to laugh hysterically, but it must've come out as a scream because Harley's next statement was,
"I know I look good, but a fan girl scream will get you nowhere with all this." He then gestured at his body causing May to cry tears of laughter. May finally calmed down after a while when she noticed that Harley was waiting impatiently for her. His Cacturne wasn't looking all too nice either.
"Ready? Choose your best Pokémon! Don't hold out on me just because I'm so good looking! It's the revenge of Harley's Sugar Cookies! This time Poke-edition!" Harley announced making a few trainers look his direction. May blushed and sent out her Blaziken. The fire Pokémon made a fearsome pose making the trainers focus on their own matches.
May noticed that most of them weren't using their best combinations. She decided to do the same and not attract attention to herself. "Oh, lookie! Our ref is here already." Harley said. A man wearing a yellow and black striped shirt with tan cargo pants held a green and red flag.
"You may start!" He declared. Harley and May didn't hesitate.
"Use Sky Uppercut/Sucker Punch!" Cacturne charged at Blaziken with its fist propelled and spinning extremely fast. Blaziken waited patiently and when the cactus Pokémon was close enough he started charging too. His fist shining a light blue. The Sucker Punch thrust came, but Blaziken ducked and uppercut the Pokémon into the air.
"My precious baby! You'll pay! Cacturne , use Giga Impact!" Harley pointed a finger and put a hand on his hip.
"Blaziken, jump high into the air!" Cacturne slammed his body into Blaziken's direction. Blaziken had already begun its jump, but was knocked into the ground with a critical hit. The fowl Pokémon weakly got up.
"Are you okay?" Blaziken nodded and answered with striking a battling pose, "Use Flamethrower!"
A blast of fire came from the fire-type's mouth scorching the nearby grass in the field and full-on blasting Cacturne's prickly body. The cactus Pokémon was harshly burned and was even lit on fire, "Don't worry, Momma'll put you out!" Harley wailed.
"Drop and roll!" Cacturne did as it was told and started to roll on the ground and extinguishing the flames. "Now, use Pin Missile!" Apparently Harley didn't care whether or not he used his signature or not because the Pin Missiles expertly shot at Blaziken in a fast-as-light matter.
Blaziken, as fast as it was, wasn't quite quick enough to evade all the needles. Some of them pierced through its feathers and made it seethe in pain. "Let's finish this, Fire Blast!" A blast of fire in the shape of a skinny star shot at the Cacturne.
"Hyper Beam!" A bright yellow ray discharged through Cacturne's snow man mouth and charged at Blaziken. The two attacks collided and seemed to be even, neither one of the two giving up. As if finally by exhaustion one of them dropped to the floor and was hit full on by the opponent's attack, and leaving behind a fainted Pokémon.
"B-but she cheated! My fabulous Cacturne is unbeatable!" Harley was crying onto Solidad while she silently congratulated May on her Victory. May stood there utterly speechless and a little wary of Harley since he constantly lifted his head to insult her.
"Just you wait! I'm going to beat you and your too flat butt! I'm going to win!" Harley said through his faux tears. Solidad rolled her eyes; sometimes he was a little too overdramatic. Even for her.
"How about you train your strong Cacturne to make his moves even more perfect, okay?" Solidad said.
"Fine, but make sure you save a spot for my return! I have to go cheer on my students now, don't I? I mean I got in this adorable costume just for the purpose! Ta-ta!" Harley winked and sashayed off to the gym. That costume was for gym? I thought it was for the battle… May thought.
"Pfft. I guess there really are coordinators out there you can actually beat." Drew said.
"Like you can talk! You lost!" May argued back. Drew looked away slightly and flushed the lightest hue of pink, but his already pale skin made it noticeable.
"I'd like to see you beat a worthy coordinator with your rash techniques." Drew said.
"Well, at least I don-ARG!" May let out a groan in frustration. And just when she was starting to enjoy her victory against Harley.
"As much as I'd like to continue this, I have places to be. Here. Think fast." Drew threw a red rose in the direction of May and she caught it clumsily. When she looked up, Drew was gone. May added mysterious to the list.
May stared at the rose. This wasn't the first one either. She sighed and gently placed it into her bag. And then Dawn appeared. "Hey, we actually have a photo-shoot today. Want to come join us?"
May's stomach fluttered with excitement. "Yes please!" May threw her fist in the air. She was going to see girls who posed for all sorts of things, commercials, magazines, etc. The only bad thing was that they were all what society considered gorgeous and pretty, making regular girls like May seem like trash while they're gems.
"You might even get to be in some shoots. Let's go get Leaf and Marina. Then we'll get to try on these awesome outfits and then some makeup artist will make us look gorgeous and that's when the photographers take like a hundred pictures of us." Dawn informed.
May now felt hesitant. What if she wasn't pretty enough? What if she accidently set the studio on fire? What ifs ran through her head making her feel small and incompetent. "You look almost as nervous as me when I was at my first shoot. Don't worry; they only hire photographers who are nice. We are a rich studio and can fire anyone who didn't give good service."
"Really?" May asked.
"Yep, now come on! We're going to be late!" Dawn grabbed May's petite wrist and dragged Marina along with her. Leaf was already waiting outside the classroom for the two, but she looked surprised when May was dragged through Dawn's hurricane. Leaf didn't say anything, but smiled in approval.
The four were ushered by a man in black shades. Their agent's black suit making him look mysterious and like a body guard. "Hurry or you girls are going to be late."
"Dad, is that your new character for the spy movie?" Marina asked.
"It is, but right now I need to escort you guys to the studio and weren't there only 3 of you? Never mind your mother already gave me quite the earful about being late this time, so let's go! Go! Go!" He guided them to a truck with the logo of, Petalburg Modeling Company written across it. The letters were painted with decorative purple letters.
The drive wasn't long, no more than 10 minutes, but to May felt exhilarating! She was going to a place where people posed for magazines and stuff! This also happened to be her first time in a limo. "Okay, so what do you think we're going to wear today? I hope it's really cute!" Dawn said stomping her feet excitedly.
"I hope it's comfortable." Leaf sighed.
"Then let's find out." Marina said. A chauffeur opened the door for the girls and Marina's father. They rushed into the large studio passing many models posing in front of green screens, simple backgrounds, and others getting dressed.
"There you are! You're almost late! C'mon we need to get you dressed!" A sharp woman with strawberry blond hair tied into a tight bun shoved them into a room filled with clothes. "Lucia's waiting for you. Today's theme is a formal tea party, which means we're going to have to put you in a lot of dresses. This is the 4th most important shoot of the year. Hurry!"
Lucia was a woman who dressed simply. She wore a white blouse, a black skirt, a pearl necklace, and two pearl bracelets. Her brunette hair was a shade darker than May's and flowed loosely down her back in wavy curls. "Leaf, you get this pretty green one, Dawn, you get this lovely pink one, and Marina you get this blue one. Oh, and who are you?"
"Oh, that's May. We brought her along. Can she pose for a photo or two?" Leaf asked while inspecting her green ensemble. Lucia tapped her finger on her chin and then she nodded.
"Well, this is only the fourth most important, so why not? Here, I think you'd look great in this red one." The dress went flying through the air and landed in May's arms. All of the dresses they were handed were all similar, but with different colors.
The dresses had spaghetti straps, with two pieces of fabric on the waistline; a ribbon was tied onto the side making ruffles across the skirt, the skirt reached to the knee, and on the bottom of the skirt bore small ruffles made with translucent fabric. May's dress was blood red, Dawn's was hot pink, Leaf's was dark green, and Marina's was bright blue. "Although, I still have some extra dresses. We're going to have to bring extras into the shoot. I made 3 more in purple, black, and gray." Lucia said.
"Lucia likes to make extra dresses to include her daughter, but Felicity doesn't really like to, so we usually end up having extras in out shoot. Felicity's been in 5 shoots. Tops." Dawn said feeling the texture of the velvety dress.
"Okay, well, go get dressed while I go fetch some extras." Lucia walked out of the room and into another. She came back moments later with three girls. Each of them looked like they came from modeling shoots and in this case they did. One had wavy brown hair, one had straight red hair, and the last one had blond hair with barrel curls.
"Why are there always so many extras for this group?" May heard one whisper.
"Yeah, I know! Do they really need so many good looking people to make up for their ugly ones?" May heard them giggle. May walked away feeling uncomfortable and a little steamed off at them.
"Dad, can you go wait in the car. We have to get dressed." Marina shoved her father out the door and locked it, but Lucia knocked a minute later with Felicity and Lisa.
"Okay, we're all here! My daughter for some odd reason wants to stay out, so get dressed while we fix any mistakes." Lucia announced making Felicity blush. The girls ran into nearby dressing rooms putting on the dresses.
Leaf came out first and Lucia started to inspect her, Marina came out next and Lisa inspected her, May came out next with Felicity inspecting her, and Dawn and the others waiting.
"May, why are you here?" Felicity asked. Felicity tightened and straightened the ribbon on May.
"I was invited by Dawn. What about you?" May answered twirling the skirt of her dress a little.
"My mom always takes Lisa and me to the studio during shoots, but I usually stay in the car talking to Lisa." Felicity answered.
"Oh." May said lamely.
"Okay, go on to the makeup artists. Next." Felicity said pointing toward a stool with someone next to the stool. The lady had highlights in her brown hair, a purple belly shirt, black skinny jeans, lip piercings, lots of ear piercings, eyelid piercing, and her belly button was pierced.
"Stay still or you're going to look worse than a clown, sugar." She said getting out concealer. Soon enough she was putting mascara on May's short lashes, something she wasn't bragging about.
"You look as good as you'll ever look. I've done my job; now let's hope Lucia thinks so too." The makeup artist shooed May away and started to put makeup on the girl with barrel curls. May noticed that everyone looked better than her in the dress and felt very self-conscious and started smoothening out every invisible wrinkle possible.
"Relax; I think you look better than everyone else. Now, go get your hair done." Lisa soothed patting May's bare back. A soft shove sent May in the direction of a man with bleach blond hair, obviously dyed. "Hm, your hair's a little short, but with my expertise I can make you look gorgeous! Now, stay still."
Curling irons, brushes, combs, hairspray, and bobby pins were used in the process, but in the end he just left May's semi-short hair in slight curls, "There! It took a while, but we made you look gorgeous!"
May looked in the mirror and saw someone completely different in the mirror; she even reached out her hand to make sure it was her. Her hair actually looked what most girls would call perfect and her makeup was applied expertly making her blue eyes look bluer, her thin lips look fuller, and her skin appeared as if it were glowing. Someone even did her nails and painted them ruby red and gave her a simple black ribbon for a hairclip.
But something was missing.
May ignored the instinct and ran off toward where the others were heading, which was the actual shoot. There was a table lined with a red satin tablecloth, a golden chandelier, and a fake background with blurry people in it. "I need two mains and 3 backgrounds!" The camerawoman yelled.
Dawn and Marina stood at the center ready to pose and the 3 snobby girls stood in the back looking as perfect as ever. May and Leaf stood aside watching the photographer pull back stray hairs, slightly tilt faces, move a few pieces of furniture, and then finally taking a few snapshots.
"Great job," her tone was monotone, "Now, I need everyone who's participating to come on up." This time her voice was commanding and forceful. May and Leaf ran onto the set. Beautifly filled May's stomach and made her want to suddenly hurl. It hadn't occurred to her that she might be camera shy.
May was about to walk off the set, but a firm hand held onto her wrist and wouldn't let her budge, "If we get in trouble for bringing you here with us, we're going down together." Leaf whispered.
"You, let go of her wrist. Okay, I'm going to have you, in the red sit down in that chair." The photographer gently, but securely made May do a model pose, which was an elegant face with a teacup about to be drunken out of with pursed lips.
Leaf, Dawn, and Marina were also sitting at the table. In the background the extras were sitting in the back doing similar poses. After a few shots the photographer said, "Okay, now do whatever, but model the dresses would you?"
Dawn jumped out of her seat and did a flirty pose while Marina blew an air kiss. Leaf did a peace sign and May, well; she did an awkward pose that sort of made her look constipated. The photographer didn't care and took photo after photo. Snap! Snap! Snap! The camera's flash went off constantly.
The extras just made the usual poses you'd expect a model to do while the other girls did the creative and exciting. Dawn's poses were girly, flirty, and cute. Marina's poses were mature, appropriate, and gorgeous. Leaf's poses were confident, sexy, and with a touch of rebellion. And finally May's poses were awkward, hilarious, and just plain strange.
May finally got what was missing. This wasn't her.
Okay, well, school has started! And I actually wrote most of this during the last week of summer, but I watched so much anime…
Anyway, the deal I mentioned last chapter is still out there. If anyone wants to be my little helper and spot my mistakes here and there. Well, PM or review if you're interested.
~TDF~
