If I Could Reach You
.
.
Summary: She was clumsy, airheaded, useless and unworthy of becoming a ranger; but then why couldn't he stop caring about her? That reckless, carefree, selfless idiot.
.
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except the general storyline.
.
Categories: Romance, Friendship, Adventure, Drama, Humor
.
A/N: Hey guys, the ranger school arc is almost over! This will most likely be the one of the last chapters of this arc before I dive straight into Kellyn's ranger duties at Vientown. Enjoy~
.
LucidClockwork
.
.
Chapter 4
…(x)…
Dear Hajime,
Things haven't gone as planned. Everyone is unharmed but they found out. Please be careful.
From Sugihara
…(x)…
"Keith isn't here today?"
"No, he isn't."
"Neither is Kate." Rhythmi frowned.
It was Spring in Almia, a time when Almia was blessed with stunning sights of nature. The region was home to the exclusive Almia willow, the sight of the beautiful trees blooming their unusual bluish-green tinted leaves always brought tourists to Almia. These plentiful trees made beautiful mirages of the salt sea, a splendid sight to behold. Kellyn was not native to Almia, this was his first time seeing Almia in the Spring. Needless to say, Kellyn was delighted with mother nature albeit he didn't show it outwardly.
"Do you think Keith's cold finally caught up to him? It's been a month" Rhythmi asked curiously.
Kellyn snorted and shook his head. "Not yet.
The morning was crisp and cold, with the temperature predicted to rise considerably as the day went on. It made sense that the weather was still so gloomy in the Spring, it was only early-April afterall. Most of the students all dressed lightly and although shivering, knew that they would not regret the decision. Even Kellyn had only put on a scarf for an extra layer of warmth.
Kellyn breathed out a puff of air, watching his breath steam before his eyes into white mist before dancing out of existence. His nose and his cheeks were pink and warm, though Kellyn insisted that he'd lost most feeling in his facial features. It wasn't his fault that he was sensitive to the cold. Kellyn slouched in his chair and buried the lower half of his face into his black, wool-knitten scarf.
Kellyn was grumpy because of the weather yet pleased about the scenery the weather had allowed. He must be bipolar.
As Rhythmi finally retreated to her own seat, sensing Kellyn's wish to be left alone, Kellyn allowed himself to glance over to his left where the table was vacant and strangely neat. Knowing Kate to be a individual who would rather let things remain lost than to find it, the missing uncleanliness urked Kellyn despite the fact that he was a 'prick who had a stick in his ass' as Keith had kindly put it.
Kellyn found it strange that out of the two vacant seats beside himself, he was grimacing over one more than the other.
"Everyone, your attention, please."
How Ms. April managed to not shiver in her pencil skirt and sleeveless top was a question Kellyn desired to know the answer of.
"Do you remember that Mantine Crawford went to rescue during our Outdoor Class?" Ms. April asked.
The class nodded in unison.
"The Ranger Union took it in and nursed it back to health. This morning, the Mantine was safely returned to the sea!"
The class broke into a flutter of chatter and conversations. Ms. April smiled before reminding the class to quieten down.
"Now that we're all feeling good about that news, let's get our lesson started. Today, as scheduled, the topic is the teamwork between rangers and operators."
Ms April lay down a bright red styler with a yellow stripe on Rhythmi's table, the latter whom's eyes shone in awe and excitement.
"If there is no trust between a ranger and the operator, it's disasterous. Even a simple Mission could become impossible to manage."
Next, Ms. April pulled out a similar looking styler and placed it on Kellyn's desk. It was expected, both Kate and Keith were strangely missing and Kellyn was the only student left in the classroom that was taking the ranger course.
"Rangers go where there are no roads to guide them. It's the job of the Operator to light the way for rangers where no roads exist." Ms. April continued.
Ms. April strolled back to the front of the class and gestured to every student in the class. "Of course, that doesn't literally mean holding a flashlight for rangers in the field." Ms. April joked. The class chuckled lightly before allowing their teacher to continue.
"Operators support rangers in other ways, like recharging their stylers. Not only that, operators provide rangers with information and advice. The operator reach out to rangers all over from the Union's operation room. Does anyone know that they call that communication system?"
Kellyn raised his hand automatically, "It's called voicemail, Miss." He recited.
"Correct!" Ms. April grinned from ear to ear, and Kellyn felt his ego inflate from the praise. "However, your school styler is not fitted with the voicemail feature."
Ms April kept her gaze on Rhythmi and Kellyn. "Kellyn, Rhythmi, I gave you two stylers with the voicemail feature turned on. The Ranger Union kindly let us borrow them for this lesson. This would not be possible if not for Principal Lamont, who was there on business and personally asked them himself. We'll use them today to demonstrate the field operations of rangers."
Ms. April's smile twisted into a frown, "I'll have to ask you, Kellyn, to take part in all the practicals we'll perform today. Everyone will get a turn but unfortunately Kate and Keith will not. I wouldn't ask you to continue doing this if those two were present; I'm terribly sorry for the inconvienence."
Kellyn shook his head pleasantly, "It's alright. I'll get more experience from this anyway."
Ms. April's frown was replaced with a light-hearted smile.
"It's not like either of those two to miss classes, especially on the same day. Well that's fine, we'll get Kellyn to play all parts."
Rhythmi pulled out the styler excitedly. "Oh, wow! I can communicate using this!" She cleared her throat before holding the styler close to her lips. "Hello? Can you hear me? This is Rhythmi. Come in, Ranger!"
"You don't need to shout!" Kellyn hissed, rubbing his earlobes in irritation.
Rhythmi's face twisted in confusion. "How else will you hear me?"
"We're in the same room and we're too close! I can hear you loud and clear without the styler!"
"Oh…" Rhythmi's brow scrunched up in realisation but it disappeared as soon as it came, replaced with the usual glint in her eyes. "Well, then, we should get farther apart and try again!" Rhythmi seemed a little too pleased about a her idea, Kellyn wondered what kind of technology she was raised with. Had she not ever used a cell phone?
As Rhythmi retreated to the outside of the classroom, her pace accelerated with an extra skip in her steps. Unfortunately, as Mr. Kincaid burst into the room, he translated this to running.
"Hey!" He growled, his booming voice startling Rhythmi as she stood stiffly straight. "No running in the classroom, either!"
"Yes sir!" Rhythmi saluted.
Mr. Kincaid narrowed his eyes. "Are you mocking me?..."
Luckily, he seemed to have business with Ms. April, completely forgetting Rhythmi's presence as he roughly pushed past her. "Ah, Ms. April, I'm awfully sorry to disrupt your class." Kellyn thought he didn't seem sorry at all.
"There is a small matter about which I would like to speak with Keith."
Ms. April's interest seemed to perk up as she made her way to a friendly distance from her co-worker. "Oh, well.. Both he and Kate are running late today. It's not like them, but-…"
"Late, you say…" Mr. Kincaid's voice raised an octave, though neither the students or Ms. April were even slightly phased. "You see, we have a problem on our hands." His voice was smug even and something unpleasant churned at the pit of Kellyn's stomach.
"We had a number of stylers stored in the staff room. Had, I say. Now the entire lot of them has disappeared." Kellyn didn't like where this conversation was headed, not one bit. "I've already confirmed the innocence of all my students regarding this. But that Keith boy is uncharacteristically absent from class, you say… And that strange Kate girl is too…"
"Perhaps it's taking them time to find a place to "stash" all those stolen stylers?"
"Mr. Kincaid." Kellyn wasn't one to usually interrupt conversations between teachers, nor one to eavesdrop. He liked to think of himself as cooly detached and never wasted his energy on trivial things such as gossip or small talk; but when he'd heard the teacher say Kate's name in such a distasteful manner and suspect her of all people to be a thief, a boiling fury overloaded his senses and his blood fumed in rage.
"How could you suspect two people of a crime if you have no evidence to prove so?" He asked coldly.
Rhythmi seemed to snap out of her daze as well and immediately jumped to her friend's defense. "And Keith is a prankster, but he's no thief! How could you even suspect Kate when she hasn't done a single thing for you to suspect her?"
Mr. Kincaid regarded the two teenagers in disdain and annoyance. "Oh, do be still!" He snapped, "Keith runs in the hallways, he sneaks into my office where he's not permitted… That other girl snuck into the basement the other day too! It doesn't matter how you think about them! It's only natural that they should be viewed with suspicion!"
As Rhythmi was about to interject Kellyn snorted, shaking his head with mock disappointment. "You fail to provide a motive to why they would want to steal the stylers in the first place. Sure, they aren't perfect but you can't blame a petty thief for murder. Like how you can't blame a rule-breaker for thievery"
"Mr. Kincaid." Ms April cut in before the other teacher could retort. "Isn't this what you always preach? It's wrong to cast suspicion on others without proof?" She asked.
"May I have a little time? I will go look for Keith and your missing stylers." Ms. April said.
A beaver-like boy Kellyn learned was named Tim jumped out of his seat to Ms. April's side. "Ms. April, I'll help, too!"
Two other girls joined the boy.
"I'll go look upstairs!" One said.
"I'll look, too!"
Ms. April nodded her head graciously at her students.
Mr. Kincaid only glanced sharply at Kellyn, glaring harshly as the latter returned the favour. No more words were said as Mr. Kincaid pivoted on his heel and left the classroom with a loud slam of the sliding door. Kellyn's classmates and Ms. April also vacated the room, leaving Kellyn and Rhythmi alone together.
"Kellyn! Let's scour the schoolhouse from top to bottom. We have to prove Keith and Kate's innocence." Rhythmi added worriedly, "If anything comes up: voicemail. Okay?"
Yes, he would definitely prove Kate was innocent and rub in that haughty man's face. He would dig Mr. Kincaid's grave to the Sinnoh region for spitting on his friend's name like that.
Oh yeah, Mr. Kincaid suspected Keith too. For that, Kellyn would add spikes to the bottom of his grave.
…(x)…
When the familiar beeping sound of a styler snapped Kellyn out of a daze, he was reading someone's letters. More specifically, Kate's.
He was embarrassed to say the least, fumbling with the letters Kate had written to her younger sister and clumsily picking up the syler. Although it was only the styler, Kellyn felt as if he'd actually been caught in the girl's dormitory, invading his crush's privacy.
Wait what? Kellyn didn't have a crush on Kate! Shut up!
"Voicemail! Voicemail!" Rhythmi's voice boomed through the styler, Kellyn winced at the sheer volume of her voice.
"Oops that's right, I don't need to yell." Rhythmi giggled before she hurriedly continued on, "This is Rhythmi on the ground floor. Please come down to the front door! And hurry!"
"Roger that." Kellyn muttered lowly into the styler, hastily stuffing the letters under Kate's mattress where he had found them. If Rhythmi noticed any background noise, she didn't say a thing as the call disapated into static.
At the entrance of the school house, Rhythmi bowed low to Janice the caretaker before catching sight of Kellyn. She turned to him, face twisted with concern.
"I was getting set to feed the Bidoof in the school yard when I found a styler. Did either of you drop yours by any chance?" Janice temporarily paused, scanning Kellyn and Rhythmi's wrists, "…Nope, you've got yours on."
"Kellyn," Rhythmi said. "We should go look in the school yard." She turned to Janice, bowing in thanks once more as she followed Kellyn out to the icy school yard that wasn't quite snow but rather like a tundra in the Spring. The first thing he noticed was the literal sea of blueish-green leaves that captivated him but there was no time to admire the beauty of nature as Rhythmi tugged him across the field. She crouched to brush aside some ice to reveal the school styler, half-buried in the grass and dirt.
"Oh! Hey! Look at that!" Rhythmi whistled. "Isn't this one of the stylers that went missing from the staff room?"
Kellyn grabbed the styer, cleaning off the dirt and raised his brow. "You've got surprisingly good eyesight, I didn't see that at all."
Rhythmi faltered at his compliment, blushing in embarrassment, "It's an honor, I can't believe Captain Cold would compliment me. I'm flattered." She said, emphasising the word.
"I hate the cold." Kellyn deadpanned, he buried his face further into the scarf to prove so.
Rhythmi giggled, "How ironic." She heaved herself off the ground, brushing off stray pieces of wet grass amd dirt off her clothes. The ground was damp, Rhythmi tugged her sleeves over her hands to wipe the residue of melted ice off her skin. Kellyn followed suit. "There could be more on the ground, let's look around."
Kellyn nodded, "Let's. I'll be counting on your sharp eyes though."
Rhythmi smiled warmly, her eyes crinkling in appreciation.
"Another one." Rhythmi muttered, pointing at the pathway leading out of the school. Rhythmi picked up her pace, running toward the school styler. Kellyn could deduce it wasn't a great idea as Rhythmi slipped on the stone pathway that had been ice over in the frigid weather.
She squeaked, bracing herself for impact only for Kellyn to grab her wrist and tug her hard enough for her to regain her balance. The situation faintly reminded Kellyn of the test of courage he had done with Kate almost two months ago, although he had swept Kate up into his arms that time.
He didn't do that this time though, the fact that it was Rhythmi who stood in front of him rather than Kate had stopped him from crossing such boundries. That time was an automatic response, a reflex really, but then why didn't those reflexes kick in this time?
Why did he hold Kate like that if he could've just stopped her from falling by catching her wrist? It was strange that he was thinking about such things now of all times.
"Whew, thanks Kellyn." Rhythmi breathed, gently pulling her wrist of Kellyn's grasp. "A fall on hard stones wouldn't be nice."
Kellyn chuckled lightly, "You're almost as clumsy as Hitomi."
The tips of Rhythmi's ears burned bright red, "N-No one can be as clumsy as Kate!" She stuttered.
"I agree." Kellyn replied jokingly.
They were interrupted by a shrill scream and a loud crash. Rhythmi's eyes shot up in wariness and her head whipped around to face the bottom the stairs leading to the gates of the ranger school, her pale blonde curls bopping alongside her head.
"Let's go check what that was!" Rhythmi said as she leapt down the stairs in a flurry.
Kellyn couldn't resist grinning. "Slow down before you slip off the stairs into your grave!"
Rhythmi stopped, glaring over her shoulder, "Oh, shut up Kellyn!"
Kellyn only laughed lightheartedly in reply.
…(x)…
Kellyn and Rhythmi were greeted with a unfamiliar man cornered to a tree by Keith and Kate. Well, only Keith was really cornering the man, Kate stood to the side of the man and regarded him with her usual airiness, lacking the intimidating aura Keith had. Despite this, she was still preventing the man's escape by blocking his path.
"Keith! Kate! What are you two doing out here?!" Rhythmi asked in stunned surprise.
"Who is that?" Kellyn added, his eyes narrowing down to slits. He didn't like how shifty the man was, how his eyes darted left and right and how he was sweating bullets. He was definitely hiding something.
Keith turned to them, stupefied at their appearance. Kate welcomed them warmly and greeted the two as if it were any other day.
"Good morning Kellyn, Rhythmi."
"The guy's a stinking thief!" Keith interrupted, glaring angrily at the man who shifted backwards in wariness.
"Keith, calm down." Kate reprimanded, reaching out to grab his shoulder. Keith shook her hand away though as he huffed.
"He came creeping out of the staffroom so I called out to him. Then," Keith made a gesture with his hands, sweeping the air dramatically. "Bam! He was off and running!"
The man finally spoke up but something about his voice made Kellyn falter, this man sounded much too immature and childish to be an experienced thief. "Four on one's not fair!" He cried hysterically. "I'm scramming! Adios!"
Then he ran headfirst into a tree, stylers spilled out of his pocket like a water fountain and scattered across the icy grass. The man slipped and fell on his rear, wailing as he clutched his head in pain. "Dwah!"
To make matters even more hilarious, a Slakoth belly flopped tight on top of the man's face who started rolling in the grass to pry the pokémon off his face. "Bweh! Waaaaah! I can't see!" He screamed. "It's heavy! It hurts! It stinks! Heeeeeeeeeelp!"
Keith only collected all the stylers scattered around the man and held his stomach in laughter. "A Slakoth fell out of the tree!" Keith gasped and breathed, attempting to stifle his laughter. "It serves you right! That's what you get for being a thief!"
Keith's words stirred unpleasant memories for Kellyn, he found himself feeling sorry for the man. The thief was probably both embarrassed and ashamed. Kellyn knew that feeling very well, when he was called out for stealing an apple from a merchant instead of quietly going hungry and getting called out for it, his punishments were so severe that Kellyn shuddered just from the memory of it. And the fact was that it had happened no less than five times.
"Keith…" Kellyn said anxiously, "I don't think-…"
"Please!" The thief cried in agony, Kellyn could see blood leaking from under the Slakoth's claw and he cringed. "I won't do it again! Heeeeeeeeelp!"
"Let's go." Keith said, ignoring the man's pleas for help. Kellyn felt physically sick, frozen to the spot. "Who cares about a guy like that?"
"Keith!" Kate ordered, her voice stern, loud, firm and unwavering. Kellyn blinked in bewilderment, Kate was acting uncharacteristically mad. "What the heck are you saying? It's a ranger's job to help people in trouble!"
Keith's shock disapated into shame as his lip trembled, he dipped his head in shame. Rhythmi turned to Kellyn.
"Kellyn! Ple-… Kellyn? Hey! Kellyn, are you alright?"
He only gazed down at the man rolling on the ground with the Slakoth still clung to his face, frozen in horror.
"I'll capture it instead." Kate said, her styler shot from her wrist. Kate leapt past Kellyn and swept her arm across the air. A bright light emerged as the capture line faded, the Slokoth now laying passively on the grass next to the man who clutched his glasses and wiped the blood off his cheeks. Kellyn was brought back to his senses as soon as the man was no longer in pain.
"Whew… Aah… Fweh… Saved at last…" The man huffed. "Thank you for saving me."
"What's going on here?" Ms. April emerged from the base of the stone staircase, staring back and forth between her four students and the mysterious man lying next to a Slakoth with dried blood running down the side of his face. "You disappeared as well, so we were looking for you two, Kellyn and Rhythmi."
Ms April seemed to finally notice Keith and Kate's presence and the surprise showed on her face, "Oh, and here's Keith and Kate! And the stylers too!"
"Ms. April," Rhythmi said, glancing pointedly over her shoulder to the collapsed man lying against the tree. "This man is the thief who took the stylers."
Keith seemed to recover from his shame and instead, looked rather puzzled. "Yeah, why'd you steal our stylers? Do you know how important they are to us?"
The man's lip quivered and the corners of his eyes built up tears, clearly looking guilty for the hassel he had caused. "I… I'm sorry… I've always had this dream of becoming a ranger, but I grew up without doing anything about it…" The man began to blubber, his voice quaking with each word. "I had so many other dreams that I wanted to follow, but… I could never decide what I really wanted to do with my life, but the one dream I could never give up was to be a ranger…"
"I thought, maybe, if I had a styler, then I could do something about it, but-…"
"What are you saying?!" Ms. April interjected incredulously. "Please don't make me angry here! It doesn't matter how old you are. Even an adult can join our ranger school. With enough effort, even you can become a ranger."
"If you have a dream you can't let go of, it's up to you to make it real." Kate said, smiling carelessly and pleasantly. Ms. April looked to her in surprise, but grinned nonetheless.
"You took the words right from my mouth."
The man was now a blubbering mess of tears and smiles as he grasped Ms. April's shoulders in shock and happiness. "T…Teacher lady…" He cried. "I also got bewitched when I saw all those styler just sitting there… I was only hoping to get one but I ended up scooping the whole lot of them…"
Ms. April chuckled slowly and shook her head, "Just like the way it is with you and your dreams… You're greedy, aren't you? You should go home and really think about what you want to do."
Rhythmi tugged the man away from her teacher and gazed up it him with no ill intent. "Why not think about how you could become a ranger properly?"
The man sighed, rubbing his swollen forehead. "I'll do that."
"…"
"W-W-Wait a second?! G-Go home?! You'll just let me go home? Without any punishment or anything?"
Ms. April smiled agreeably, "I don't see anything wrong with that."
The man pulled himself out of Rhythmi's grip and launched himself back onto Ms. April who laughed sheepishly as the man sobbed heartily. "T-Teacher lady… I can't believe it…" He sniffled and sobbed harder.
"Wahhhhhhh!"
…(x)…
"There are shadows always lurking in all of our hearts." Kellyn said to the air.
The night air was much warmer than it had been in the morning, Kellyn thought that the Almia willows looked better in the night than they did in the light of the sun. Maybe it wasn't so bad to sneak out of the dorms in the middle of the night.
1:36AM. Kellyn found that the eventful day kept replaying in the back of his mind and especially those terrible memories he had strived to supress. He idly scrunched his nightwear in his fist before unscrunching it at the place under his heart, where a scar ran deep from his hips almost to where his heart was.
He didn't ever want to remember the days when he'd be rewarded with whips lashes across his back and when he stole food to survive.
"Kellyn?"
He whipped around almost instantly, how had he not noticed someone standing behind him? He was getting far too relaxed in Almia. Luckily, it was only Kate, who yawned quietly.
It was almost… Cute.
"Hitomi." Kellyn greeted gruffly.
"I didn't think anyone would be out at this time. What are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same thing." He retorted.
"I came to see the stars." Was her dreamy reply.
Kellyn faltered. "The… Stars?"
Kate nodded, seating herself beside him on the grass that had long dried from the ice that coated its surface in the morning the day before. Kellyn shuffled sideways to allow her some room. " The unchanging stars and the constantly changing moon." She echoed and Kellyn raised his eyebrow at this.
"Why would you want to see the stars that never change?" He asked. Kate was now lying flat on her back, her hair spray out onto the grass behind her head. Kellyn noted that she didn't have her hair up in her usual spiky buns. She looked nice with hair that only barely passed her shoulders.
"If the stars never change," Kate started, lifting her hand into the air as if to grasp the orbs of light millions of miles away. "It means that the people I love are looking at the same sky as me."
"Your family?"
"Yes." Kate agreed and her hand dropped onto her stomach.
Then there was peaceful quiet with only the chirping of Kricketunes and Kricketots as well as the occasional hoots of Hoothoots and Noctowls. Not long after, Kate propped herself on her elbows, peeking at Kellyn through weary lashes.
"I could tell that you were distressed yesterday." She said in a faraway voice. "Did that scene remind you of a bad memory?"
She was almost too observant. "Yes…"
She didn't say anything, urging him to go on. Kellyn shifted uncomfortable, shifting himself to he was facing away from her and into a particular clearing where the Almia willows were blooming more beautifully than the others. He crossed his legs, peeringat Kate through the corner of his eye.
"I wasn't born into a happy life." He said simply. "My parents were… Gone… I suppose you could say. So I grew up in an orphanage owned by an old woman and an old man but they didn't exactly treat me kindly so I… Uhm… I had to do things to survive. I became a ranger to escape it and live a better life."
It wasn't exactly entirely false, Kellyn had left out a few details he didn't feel comfortable sharing with Kate. It wasn't like someone like her could ever understand what things happened to him in that orphanage anyway.
"I can tell you aren't telling me everything." She said in that dreamy way of hers. Damn. "But I won't push it, I'm just honored you even told me anything."
It wasn't like she had said anything particularly heartwarming, but Kellyn felt his brain shut down and all he could say was a measly thank you.
She smiled back in that heartfluttering way anyway.
"There are shadows always lurking in all of our hearts." Kellyn perked up, she must have heard him talking to himself earlier. "But we should never give in to that darkness in our hearts. It's a well known quote from the the history of Almia, from the hero of Almia himself."
Kellyn never thought Kate would be one to know the tale, 'Shadows of Almia'. It was an interesting fact to think that she did know.
Kate continued dreamily. "The ancient word 'vatonage' means 'to reawaken light that has been submerged in darkness.'" She even knew the textbook definition, Kellyn reminded himself to never underestimate her intelligence despite how airheaded she was.
"I never thought you would know the history of Almia." Kellyn commented.
Kate shrugged. "What about you? I know you're not from Almia. How do you know?"
Kellyn chuckled fondly, remembering himself ten years ago begging Sugihara to read him the tale of 'Shadows of Almia'. "Someone I care about a lot read it to me when I couldn't read for myself. I haven't seen him for years."
Kellyn had said his last comment in melancholy, he hoped that Kate didn't pick up on it but it was likely that she had but just chose not to make him elborate any further.
"I see." She hummed. "Is this your first time seeing the Almia willows?"
"Yeah."
"Mine too," She replied. "I though they were all lying when they said that the trees looked like the ocean when they bloomed. I guess they weren't."
Kellyn wasn't one for small talk. He was coolly detached and only wasted his energy when he needed to. How Kate had somehow dug her way under all the rules and boundries he had set up, he did not know.
He was starting to change.
Edited: 29.04.2017 (minor typo-fix)
Approximate Word Count: 5400 words
A/N: This chapter was so fun to write, in fact I wrote it all in one day. Today was a parent-teacher interview day so everyone has a day off school. I used it to type up this chapter. I was also motivated by the fact that my dad FINALLY got a new mac computer so I wanted to use this computer as much as I can. I finished Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild last night and it was a wild ride. I didn't know what to do with my life afterward because it became such a huge thing for me.
Anyway, this chapter gave me a lot of opportunities to add in my own style to the story rather than last chapter that was basically copy and paste from the games and gave me little to no room to do anything. Rhythmi and Kellyn had a lot of interaction in this chapter, not because they're going to add a wrench into Kate and Kellyn's budding romance but because I absolutely despise characters that have no other purpose than to exist as a love interest or a love rival. I intend to make the trio or the main cast (in this case, Kellyn, Kate, Keith and Rhythmi) much tighter than they were in the games. No, I have not suddenly decided to make this Kellyn/Rhythmi, I simply wanted to establish the type of relationship they have. Not every girl that is friendly with a guy will fall in love with him and vise-versa.
Oh also, before anyone asks me why I used the word 'cell phone' instead of 'smart phone' or 'iPhone' is because this game was released 11 years ago. That stuff didn't exist at the time. The fact that I have to explain this makes me feel old.
Anyway, this is so far the longest chapter I have typed and I have poured my blood, sweat and tears into this and I quite enjoyed doing it. I hope you'll stick around to read the next chapter of 'If I Could Reach You'.
-LucidClockwork