The breeze blew through Gloria's long brown hair as it swept past her, caressing her cheeks as it went by. Gloria was relaxing on the beach, closing her eyes to the feel the sun soak into her skin as the last rays of the sun set for the day. A sigh of content was exhaled through that small pretty mouth of her's as she reminisced the old memories she had at that same beach...

* 10 Years Ago*
Gloria was walking down through the beach, her feet barefoot as she walked through the outskirts of the damp sand. Her mind was carefree, not thinking about any of the summer homework she would have to finish when she went back home for the day. Yes, this was peace: the ocean, quiet, and herself without anyone to bother her...

"GLORIA!"
'Well, at least it was peaceful...' Gloria thought before turning herself around to see who was calling to her... Flint came dashing to where Gloria was currently standing at the beach. When he was finally able to be beside her, he slumped down onto the sand, panting and wheezing as if he just ran a marathon. Gloria patiently waited for Flint to regain his breath with a small smile on her lips.

"Man, Gloria...*pant*...you really...*pant*... need to be...*wheeze*...somewhere I can... *pant*...find you..." Flint rasped as he gulped in huge breaths of air. Gloria just giggled as she saw her friend struggle to find a breather. Don't get her wrong, Gloria loved Flint dearly as a friend, but the boy should have already known that Gloria would be at the beach...it was her most favorite place in the world...

"Well, why didn't you check the beach first? You know I love it here!" Gloria said in jocular manner, giving Flint a little playful nudge on the shoulder in the process. Flint just looked up at Gloria while she did this and playfully scowled.

"Well, maybe you should just make it easier for me next time and just stay in one place for the whole day! I searched everywhere for you! The cafe, the playground, your house..." Flint counted out the places he searched for her with his fingers for added affect, trying to make Gloria feel bad for making him run around the whole day. Gloria in turn just giggled at Flint as he made an effort to stay angry at her, but she knew that Flint could never stay angry at her for too long, heck, the could never get angry at her!

"Does it really matter anymore Flint? I mean, your here now with me."

"Hmmf... whatever..." Flint pouted as he knew that Gloria was going to win any argument that he would come up with. Gloria just ended up giggling again as she saw Flint's lower lip pucker out a little as he tried to hide the signs that he was actually pouting before the younger girl. Sometimes, he didn't know who was older, the 2 years younger Gloria or himself by the way he acted around her.

"If your done pouting Flint, will you tell me what was so urgent that you had to search for me?" Gloria asked in her sweet innocent voice.

"Oh yeah! I'm finally getting my first Pokemon, Gloria! I'm getting it tomorrow, and I was just wondering if you would like to come with me to Pokemon Center to meet with the Professor." with an embarrassed flushed face, Flint asked Gloria in a very cute way, although, Gloria was too young to understand that Flint liked her in the romantic way back then.

"Okay! I'd love to go with you, Flint! I can't wait to meet your new Pokemon!" Gloria almost shouted with excitement, bouncing up and down with the great and joyous news of Flint finally getting his first Pokemon.

"Alrighty then! I'll see you at the Pokemon Center at 8 o'clock then!" Flint exclaimed, happy that Gloria agreed to meet scary Professor Rowan with him the next day. As they parted their separate ways to get home, Flint couldn't help but to have a spring in his step as he leisurely -yet excitedly- jogged back home, while Gloria couldn't help but to hum happily as she couldn't wait to tell her parents about the exciting news about her best friend.

-
The next morning, Gloria prepared for the day as she usually did, but with an extra spring to her steps. She combed her shoulder length hair, and then put it into a neat little side braid. She wore her usual cute knee length sky blue sundress with sandals, went downstairs to have breakfast and left in a nice leisurely pace to the Pokemon Center. Enjoying the nice summer breeze that the season provided, she closed her eyes, but of course, walking blindly has its consequences. As Gloria leisurely walked down the sidewalk with her eyes closed, she was not able to notice the frantic boy coming out of the alley way next to her holding his hurt Pikachu.

*BANG*
Both the boy and the girl were knocked down onto the concrete sidewalk in an instant as the force was too great for the both of them. Not knowing what happened, Gloria slowly got up while rubbing her sore backside. Finally noticing the boy that ran into her, Gloria frantically went over and looked over the unconscious boy to make sure that he was not hurt. In a little while, as Gloria was checking to see if he was hurt, the boy started to groan and began to rub his hurting head.

"Are you alright? You didn't hurt your head too badly did you?" Gloria asked with genuine concern. The boy, still laying down, blinked a few times before being able to register the words Gloria had just said. He just nodded his head to indicate that he wasn't too injured, but then finally remember his injured friend in his arms. Gloria didn't notice the Pikachu since the boy was covering it inside his arms with little room to see what he was holding. Remembering what he was doing before he was knocked over, he quickly scrambled to his feet, said a quick sorry to the girl, and dashed toward the Pokemon Center, leaving a very confused Gloria behind since she wasn't able to see the tiny Pikachu in the boy's arms.

Arriving at the Pokemon Center, Gloria noticed that she was several minutes early from the designated time; Flint wasn't anywhere in the Pokemon Center, and the Professor that was supposed to meet them were not there either. Gloria decided to wait in one of the comfy chairs for her friend, but as her eyes roamed around the neat waiting room, she spotted the boy that she had run into earlier. As curious as she was, Gloria slowly got up from her seat and made her way to the boy across the room.

"Hi there!" Gloria said with happy grin. The boy just looked at her with a confused expression as she greeted him. Noticing the look, Gloria quickly explained that she was the girl that the boy had run into earlier that morning. Finally remembering who she was, the boy scratched his head out of pure embarrassment, and began to apologize again for running into her earlier.
"It's no biggie. I'm tougher than I look, so no harm done." Gloria said with a smile. "Why were you such a hurry anyway? I didn't hurt you when you fell, did I?" The boy just shook his head to indicate a 'no'.

"Not really. I'm fine overall. I was worried about my friend, so that's why I was in such a big hurry."

"Oh, no! Is your friend okay? Who is it?" but right as the boy was about to answer the girl, Nurse Joy came out of the operation room with a smile, and approached the little boy and girl.

"Your Pikachu's alright now! He was heavily exhausted from his previous battle with a couple of scratches here and there, but overall your friend will be fine. Just let him stay overnight, and he'll be in top shape in the morning!" Nurse Joy left right after that, leaving the boy and girl by themselves once again. The boy by Gloria's side looked relieved as he received the good news from Nurse Joy. He let go of a great breath that he didn't know that he was holding as Nurse Joy was telling him the news. Gloria just looked up to him and beamed a smile at him.

"That's great! Your friend is all better now; I'm so happy for you!" The boy just looked startled at the girl for a moment, wondering why she was so happy for a complete stranger, but then just smiled a small smile back to the girl and gave a small nod. He finally noticed the girl's appearance, and couldn't help but almost blush at how cute she was. The girl's face was round and a little chubby, like a little apple, but it was good shape for her. Her eye's were brown, but they shone like stars on a clear night sky, and her braided hair framed her face perfectly. Overall, this was one of the cutest girls he'd ever seen, even if she looked a couple years younger than him. As for Gloria, she also finally noticed the appearance of the slightly older boy she just met. His eyes were the brightest ocean blue she had ever seen, and his hair was a flawless bright blond color. His features were also very handsome, and Gloria couldn't help but to almost blush in the presence of this boy. There was an awkward silence after that, as both the children did not know what to say to the other, since they were too conscious of the others presence; well, until a certain red head noisily and oblivious to the mood of the two children came up to the little.

"Your here, Gloria!" Flint yelled as he came jogging over to the two other children. Gloria just smiled to Flint with relief, since she was being heavily affected by the different aura surrounding her and the other boy.
"Yeah, I've been here for a while now Flint. I came, just like you asked!" Gloria happily said. Flint just laughed and ruffled her hair with his left hand, showing his affection for the girl. The blond boy just looked over at exchange of gestures with a blank face. Flint was the first to notice the boys presence, and looked at the boy curiously.

"Who's this Gloria, a new friend?"

"Hmmm? Oh! Yeah, I guess.. I ran into him on the way here." Gloria giggled at the last sentence, since she literally did run into the older blond.

"Mind introducing us then?" Flint asked with a hint of challenge in his voice. He didn't like it when other boys just started hanging out with little Gloria without his permission.

"Ummm...I guess... Flint this is...ummm..." the little girl was perplexed since she didn't even know the other boys name! How embarrassing this was...

"Volkner. My name is Volkner." said the blond, saving the little girl from complete embarrassment.

"Hmf. Well, nice to meet you Volkner. My name's Flint." The two boys nodded to each other in greeting, but if you looked closely you could see tiny lightening bolt pass through both of the boys' eyes, almost as if they knew they were to be rivals from the very beginning. Gloria, oblivious to her surroundings just smiled at the two boy with a carefree face.

"And I'm Gloria!" Gloria said in a chipper tone, breaking the silent staring contest that the two boys were having. Flint just looked at her like she was crazy, since she was already supposed to know the boy, while Volkner just looked at her and gave her a little nod.

"Wait, Gloria. Doesn't this guy already know your name?" Flint asked with confusion laced in his voice.

"No, not really. Like I said, we just ran into each other earlier this morning, and we just met again a couple of minutes of ago!" Flint could not believe what he was hearing and just smacked his head for Gloria's pure innocence. She was going to be the death of him if she kept acting like this, especially to complete strangers! Gloria just kept on smiling without knowing what she did wrong, while Volkner just watched and smiled at the small exchange of the two other children.

*sigh* "Nevermind..." Flint sighed. Then, turning toward Vokner, "Sorry, but we have to go now. I've got a meeting with Professor Rowan, and I can't be late. Come on Gloria, we have to go." Flint gave one last hard stare at Volkner, but then gave him a small grin to show that he wasn't trying to be hostile to the boy before turning and leaving. Gloria stayed where she was for a few seconds longer before turning towards the older blond.

"It was nice meeting you Vokner, and I'm glad that your friend is all better! I hope we meet again, and maybe we can hang out sometime!" she said with a cheery smile before running off to catch up with her red headed friend. Volkner just watched as she scampered toward her friend, a small smile forming on his face before he turned around and headed toward the room Pikachu was in.

"Maybe.." he whispered to himself, knowing that no one had heard him.

*end of flashback*

"Hey Gloria, what are you doing here for?" Flint asked, startling the younger girl. Gloria turned around to meet the cheeky grin of one of her best friends.

"I'm reminiscing old memories, Flint. It's been a while since I've last been on this beach..." Gloria said with small hint of sadness in her voice.

"Yeah, I know what you mean... We had a lot fun memories here didn't we?"

"Yeah... Hey, do you remember the day when you invited me to go with you to the Pokemon Center to get your first Pokemon from Professor Rowan?"

"Oh yeah! Yeah, I definitely remember that day. Professor Rowan scared the pants out of me, and I remember how much I was trembling by just looking into his eyes." Gloria laughed, saying that she did remember...

"But, there was something else that happened that day... Don't you remember Flint?"

"Huh?" Flint asked with confusion evident in his face. Gloria just took that as a 'no' and just shook it off.

"Nevermind. I'll just keep the memory for myself..." she whispered to herself, oblivious to the extra presence behind the two of them, as they watched the sun go down together.

'I guess everything is still the same...' Volkner thought, as he watched his rival/bestfriend catch up with Gloria, his other bestfriend, on old memories of their childhood.