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Chapter 4: Football Fallout

Friday, September 19th

I was currently fixing the last of my battle suit accessories, my blonde fur necklace and my special lucky black leather gloves without fingers on them. Suddenly, my friends were rushing into the bathroom, all screaming at me. I understood nothing any of them were saying.

"SHUT UP! What do you guys want?"

"What the hell are you thinking?" Felicity hissed at me while Athena covered up V.V's big pink ears on top of her head, no one wanted someone as innocent as V.V to hear swearing.

"What do you mean?" I played dumb, which sometimes worked, but not in this situation. I was too smart about battles to play dumb about something like this.

"You just challenged Brandon Crandoll to an all out battle!" Rocky shouted. "You're going to get pummeled!"

"I'll have you know I'm one of the best battlers the Woodmond district has ever seen! Mr. Hike told me himself!" Rocky smacked me on the head.

"Who freakin' cares what our middle school gym teacher said about you!? Bran is not only a senior, but he's the football captain! He will crush you Subaki!" Felicity informed me. Old news Felicity, old news.

"I'll be fine you guys, he's never killed anyone before. Besides, it's too late to back out now."

"It is never too late, now let's leave right now!" She and Rocky started to drag me out of the bathroom.

"No!" I yanked my arms out of their grip. "I'm doing this, whether you guys like it or not."

"Subaki-"
"No! This is my life, and my highschool years, and I'm going to make the best of them. And beating the football captain in a battle is on that list!" I told them, crossing my arms. There was no way I wouldn't battle Bran now. Felicity sighed, just like the parent she acted like.

"You're really going through with this?"

"Duh!" She sighed again, annoyed.

"Fine, but if you break something, don't come crying to us!" Now she was pissed. Her, Rocky, and Athena stomped out of the restroom.

"Good luck Subaki!" V.V exclaimed, skipping away.

"Thanks V.V." Before she exited, the Skitty turned around and gave me the peace sign, then was promptly dragged away by one of my friends. I then exited as well, making my way towards my place on the football field. Bran was already standing smugly in his place.

"Looks like challenger and challenged are ready! Ref?" The ref, a Hitmontop, nodded, ready to start the battle.

"Alright kids, let's have a clean, fun battle. Ready?" He looked at Bran, who nodded, still looking smug. Now the ref was looking at me, and I nodded as well. I saw Felicity glaring at me out of the corner of my eye, but I ignored her. I needed to put all of my concentration into this battle. "Begin!"

Before I could even make a move, Bran had gone into a full out Whirlwind attack, and the wind knocked me backwards and into the air. Then, suddenly I hit the ground, hard, after he'd used Aerial Ace on me. I coughed on my knees, trying to get up when Bran landed in front of me swiftly.

"You know girly, it's not too late to back out." I tried my hardest not to spit in his face, instead keeping my eyes on the ground. Suddenly I jumped up and kicked Bran right in his left side, knocking him to the ground. Hey, you don't always need to use a move to do damage! I'm a prodigy karate student, and am currently working on my black belt.

"Not a chance." The crowd had suddenly gone from roaring with excitement, no one expected me to win at all, and this kick had surprised everyone, except of course me. Bran jumped back up and came at me with a Brick Break attack, which I dodged with a flip. But before I hit the ground flipping, I used Dig and disappeared underground. My excellent hearing allowed me to hear Bran's slow, cautious, quiet footsteps above ground. Then, I burst out, punching Bran square in his jaw.

"Ugh," Bran groaned, rubbing his chin. He then looked at me with sharp green eyes. I was in for it now. Suddenly, Bran's fist began to glow purple. He came at me swinging, and I was struggling to dodge and get away. If I was hit with Payback it would do some serious damage. Turns out Bran has some martial arts training as well, and with a sweeping kick I was falling down to the ground. To bad I wasn't that lucky, and Bran brought his fist towards my gut. I was fast enough to block it with both of my hands, but it still hurt, a lot, and I hit and slid across the field quite a bit. The fake grass stung more than any natural ground. Before I could get up, Bran was above me, coming in for another Brick Break attack.

I sucked in deeply, having no time to use my hands, and blew fire as hard as I could. It looked like an enormous explosion of fire, but then again most of my Flamethrowers do. Bran was smart enough to jump off to the side, so only his left shoulder got caught in the blaze. That Flamethrower blew nearly thirty feet into the air, and everyone watched it, mesmerized.

I heard Bran swear softly, and looked up to see his left shoulder badly burnt, the jersey in that area completely destroyed.

"I'm going to pound your face in for this Growlithe." Now it was my turn to smirk.

"Good luck with that." Bran roared, then came at me with a full out Aerial Ace, which I side stepped and grabbed onto his right arm with Fire Fang.

"OW! GET THIS DOG OFF OF ME!" He roared, I refusing to let go and putting more fire into my bite. He yowled at this, and flung me off of his arm. He swore again, much louder this time, because now both arms were burnt, and it would not only lessen his attack's strength but probably make him slower with the pain that came with it.

"That's IT!" Bran put his hands together and out of them blew an enormous flurry of very sharp leaves. It was his signature attack, Leaf Storm. I used Flamethrower to burn away some of the leaves, but there were too many of them, and I was hit over and over again, and it hurt. By the time the attack was over, I was covered in hundreds of little cuts. I shook when I stood up, but Bran wasn't doing so well either. Those burns were working their magic, and Leaf Storm lowered his stats and made him tired as well. We were both panting like Poochyena.
"You're better than I thought you'd be Growlithe." Bran said in between breaths. "But you're still going to lose." I chuckled.

"In your dreams Shiftry."

"Please, like I'd lose to a freshman girl."

"What? Girls can't battle too?" His only response to that was a smirk. Then, with speed he shouldn't have had left, Bran came at me with Payback again. I grimaced. I knew there was only one way I could win this, and I hated using that attack. It made me feel girly, stupid, and cowardly. But it would be the only way to win now. I used a slightly weak Flamethrower to throw Bran off, so when he went right to dodge it, I used the attack as a cover up and went left. When Bran next caught sight of me, I winked in a ridiculously cute way, little hearts coming from me and surrounding him, and before ya know it Bran was forcefully and temporarily in love with me, hence the abilities of Attract. I saw Mitchell out of the corner of my eye, laughing his freaking head off. That just made me even angrier.

I put my hands together, and blew as hard as I possibly could. A direct Flamethrower like that from me, no one could endure, no one that I'd met anyway. Bran lay unconscious on the ground, and the whole football team ran out to help him to the infirmary. He needed it. Everyone was silent as Bran barely managed to stand, then fell only to be caught by one of his teammates. Before they walked him off the field, Bran turned around enough to give me the death glare. I was in for it now.

"W-wow, what a shocker!" The MC began, just as shocked as everyone else was. "I-it appears that freshman Subaki DeCosta has beaten football captain Brandon Crandoll! Kudos to you Subaki!" At first the crowd was silent, and beleive me was it awkward having so many people just staring at you. Plus, there was also the fact that I'd probably just lost the football game for us. There was no way that Bran would be allowed back on the field after all this. Then, someone started clapping. I had to turn my head to see them, but it wasn't super surprising when I saw who it was. Mitchell, not afraid to be as different as everyone else, was clapping his hands and smiling at me. I smiled and waved a little bit back. And before I knew it, a couple thousand people were cheering me on. And it felt awesome. I threw my hands up grinning, loving the attention. Then, some kids hoisted me up onto a chair and proceeded to parade me around the field. Suddenly though, I felt like I was about to fall over. That battle had really done a number on me, and I wasn't feeling so hot. The kids let me down, and the football game was getting started up again, but I had to get away from all the noise and people.

I stumbled past one of the many soccer fields, the one nearest to the pond, and sat underneath a huge tree, and closed my eyes. I just wanted to sleep.

"You did good." I groggily opened up my eyes and saw Mitchell standing there.

"Thanks." I mumbled turning my head to the other side.

"You okay?" The Lucario kneeled down next to me and placed his hand, with the spike on the wrist, on my forehead. "You're burning up." I managed enough strength to smack his hand away.

"I-I'm fine. J-just tired is all."

"We should get you home." I tried to stand up, failing miserably, but tried again anyways. "You're all cut up and you're running a fever." I ignored Mitchell, and managed to take a few steps forward before I fell to the side. I fell into someone's warm, muscled chest, and was supported by two strong arms. I was too out of it to even look up to see who it was. I fell asleep right then and there.

Mitchell's POV

After several minutes of Subaki lying in my arms unmoving, I made the conclusion that she wasn't going to wake up, and I sighed because of that. It would be a pain in my butt bringing her home, wherever that was, and explaining her condition to her parents. I carefully hoisted her up into my arms, not wanting to wake Subaki, my arms beneath her knees and shoulder blades. Subaki was lighter than I imagined she'd be. She was short, not super short, but you know what I mean.

I promptly avoided the crowd in and around the football stadium, heading instead around the school and towards my car, a black Jeep Wrangler. I set Subaki down in the passenger seat and buckled her up. I felt bad for it too, she had looked so comfortable and sweet before, and I was ruining it for her, but she needed to be safe. I got in the car and turned the ignition, not really knowing where I would even be going.

"I hope you live where I remember you living, otherwise, we're both screwed." I told her softly. Ten minutes later, I was pulling into the driveway of a small house, very cottage looking, white and brown. It appeared that there were two floors, though the second was very very small, but several lights on the first floor were still on. I got out of the car and came to Subaki's side, opening up the door and unbuckling her. I felt even worse, gently trying to shake her awake.

"Subaki, Subaki get up." All I got out of her was a grunt as she turned on her side away from me. I sighed and realized that I was going to have to do this the hard way. I made my way up to the door and knocked quietly three times, not wanting to wake anyone already sleeping inside. A short woman who looked nothing like Subaki, but was about the same height answered the door. I think she was an Ursaring, what with the short brown hair and brown little ears poking up out of it.

"Can I help you?"

"Um, yes, does Subaki DeCosta happen to live here?"

"Yes, but she's not in right now. Do you want me to take a message?" I sighed, both in relief and dread of what was about to happen.

"Uh, no, but I was at the football game with her and she had a battle with someone and it got pretty rough." She nodded knowingly.

"Subaki does take her battling very seriously."

"Yes, well she fell asleep and is actually in my car right now," I used my thumb to point behind us.

"Oh, well this must be awkward for you." I could feel my cheeks getting red as this woman smiled at me. "But thank you for bringing her home. Sometimes her father gets... worried, when she doesn't come home at night."

"Is her dad here right now?"

"No, he's on a business trip at the moment." Suddenly she was holding her hand out at me. "By the way, I'm Sandra, Subaki's stepmother." I took her hand, I was starting to like this woman.

"Mitchell Balan." Sandra smiled at me again, but this time I smiled right back.

"Well, you go grab here and bring her in here." I nodded and headed back to the Jeep and picked Subaki up again bridal style, and brought her into the house, feeling much more comfortable than before.

"Just set her right there on the couch."

"She doesn't have a room?"

"She does, I just wouldn't want anyone in her room that she doesn't want in her room." I nodded. Sandra was right, Subaki would kill me if she'd found out that I was in her room. I set her down on the leather couch, and Sandra tossed me a blanket which I spread over top of Subaki.

"Thanks again for bringing her back home." I nodded.

"No problem. I wouldn't want anything happening to her if she slept alone like that in the woods."

"Right. I'll be back in one second, would you like anything to eat, or drink?"

"Uh, no thanks, I'll just stay here with Subaki for a while."

"Shouldn't you be getting home yourself pretty boy?" I blushed a little at her unexpected comment.

"Ah, they'll be fine without me for an hour or so more." Sandra nodded, heading into what looked like the kitchen. With Sandra gone, I took this chance to look around the room. There was a TV of course, it was no flat screen though. There were art projects on the walls, but very few actual pictures, opposite of my house. I did see one picture though, of a young Subaki holding an actual Growlithe. I easily recognized Subaki though. No one else had that kind of long, mangy, light blonde hair. And standing next to her, another Growlithe kid. Younger, and a boy. His blue gray eyes clashed with his light blonde hair. I assumed that this was Subaki's younger brother, but I'd never heard her talk about having one. Other than that, there wasn't much else interesting at all about the living room. There was clutter on the coffee table, two clothes baskets, one with unfolded clothes and the other with folded clothes, and even some clothes hanging over the reclining chair. I almost jumped when Sandra came back into the room.

"Having fun?"

"Oh, I uh, sorry."

"It's fine, I invited you into our home, so you have the right to look around."

"Yeah..." I mumbled. No one said anything for a few minutes, then I suddenly stood up from the stool I'd been sitting on right next to Subaki on the couch.

"I should probably get going then. Uh, goodbye Mrs-"

"Please don't call me all that Mrs. crap, just Sandra." I nodded.

"Well, bye Sandra."

"Good bye Mitchell." And with that I was getting back into my black Jeep, ready for the drive back home.

Friday, September 19th

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