CHAPTER 7: Wrecked Plans


A big thank you to my guest reviewers (I feel frustrated to not be able to message you all^^). Especially 'Guest' for your detailed comment. Like others have said before me, feedback isn't why I write, but it's definitely why I post.

I write from a French keyboard, hence the 'double arrow' (this «») look to some quotation marks. I have no clue why it switches between 'straight' (" ") and 'double arrow' quote types. Any left over «» is an oversight from my part.


March 27th 341 – Friday - 6 weeks before Journey-

"Look at it!" Ann shook from laughter, struggling to keep the vidphone straight as the three men trying to ambush the persian with nets screamed and jumped into the river to escape the furious pokemon. "They never learn!"

'Do not attempt this at home.' The flashing text at the bottom of the video read. 'These are professional teams with backup pokemon for self-defense.'

"They're so silly." Ann rolled over in the grass to a seated position. "I bet they cut the video just before that persian dived in and tried to eat them.»

"They're greedy," Valeria muttered, eyes latched on the screen. "The forest is full of surskit, seedot or budew. Those people's catching tactics, they'd work on those."

Suddenly, Ann was Serious with an S and shoved her vidphone in her belt-pouch. Their eyes met, heavy with understanding. Ann didn't dare ask her parents about starters. She was supposed to be different, like them, and love anything except pokemon. Valeria couldn't tell Mama she wanted to travel. That she loved Mama to pieces, but that sometimes, Mama's hugs were heavy and made it hard to breathe.

"I've still got Skye's pokeball. She never asked for it back."

"We'd train it here, Ann? In secret?"

"Yes. Then we see if we even like pokemon. It's not worth to tell if we end up changing our minds."

Valeria shot a quick look at the empty house. Mama was covering a late shift and Max and Robin would not care as long as she and Ann were back for dinner.

It was now or never.

"We've got our own moves, Ann. We can grab a big stick," Valeria said, doing just that. "We can shout and show them we're tough. We can get them in a bag. It's not so different. We… "

"We'll make them special," Ann finished breathlessly. "Come on!"

Ann held back nothing. Not when she spoke, with that loud voice that rang almost too deep for a child's. Not when she smiled, that disarming smile full of teeth that was happy and nothing else. Ann ran, skipped, jumped, too full of life to simply walk. When she laughed, and she laughed often, it was loud and long and unrestrained. Valeria wanted to bottle that laugh and smuggle it under her pillow, to have it with her always.

"And at worst, what's a couple of scrapes?" Ann said with a grin as they ran deeper in the forest. "If we like it, we'll get more pokeballs, and we could convince a swarm of surskit, a whole family. Won't they like it, to stay together?"

"We won't even need pokeballs then. We'd make them clever, teach them to fight together."

"They'd become the strongest surskit of all the ponds and rivers around here!" Ann laughed triumphantly and grabbed V's shoulders. "And we'd have all our pokeball to catch all the rest !"

Ann held back nothing. She was fearless and invincible.

The girls sighed as one when the first raindrops spluttered against the leaves.

"If they were legendaries, we'd let no rain stop us."

"Ann, surskit are legendaries," Valeria deadpanned. The stream was close enough that they could hear it.

Anabel grinned, breaking into a jog. "They won't hear is with all the rain."

The stream was a brownish green, filled with root bridges from all the moss-covered trees.

Ann grabbed Valeria's hand, jerking her closer to the shore. She pointed. "Look!"

A handful of tiny, blue and yellow surskit skittered on the water's surface, on the other side of the stream.

"The first swim of the year is lucky," Ann declared with a broad grin.

Valeria gingerly touched the water. It was cold. She'd not freeze to death, though. Besides, hardship was part of adventure. She removed her clothes, an over-sized long-sleeved gray shirt on top of another shirt and thick black sweatpants, and tried to slide in without making ripples.

She tightened her grip on the thickest root around as her feet slowly sunk in mud. This had better not be not be quicksand. Soon, shivering with water up to her stomach and slick mud up to her knees, she was stable.

Ann joined her and slowly, they began to cross.

"Wait, no!" Ann gasped. The surskit scattered, running on their thin thin legs that could walk on water.

Valeria pulled on her arms, splashing and freeing herself from the mud to swim for real. No use. The surskit had disappeared.

"Well, that was…predictable," Ann admitted, shooting Valeria a dirty look and shivering dramatically.

So Valeria splashed her.

Foreign voices broke through their splashing and laughter and they turned around in a panic, drenched from the stream water and rain.

A trainer. A real trainer with a backpack and a big-eyed swampert that opened its mouth it what could've been a toothless grin. Or a shocked gasp.

"It's naked girls!"

Two trainers. Boys.

Valeria and Anabel jumped out of the water –proving they weren't totally naked- and dashed for their clothes.

The unvoiced plan was to run as if they were chased by a tyranitar, because what if those two found out they'd meant to catch a pokemon and Valeria didn't even have a License? Twigs and sharp stones dug into their bare feet. They had to stop.

"Dad's going to murder us," Ann said, her horrified eyes going from the pile of wet clothes she hugged to her chest to the mud all over her legs.

"We have to risk it. We can't survive on our own here." Besides, it was raining hard.

"We could, if we had Journey gear… Did you see them, V? That swampert was huge, and those boys... They looked so… confident."

They'd looked terrified to Valeria. 'If we had Journey gear'. She couldn't help her smile, even if was just a dream.

Max didn't murder them. It was close though. 'It was already wet because of the rain anyway' was apparently a terrible excuse to go swimming.

Robin didn't shout. She snapped a picture before they could wash, though, and was still teasing her and Ann after dinner. That stung.

April 5th 341 – Sunday

Valeria's jaw hurt from clenching so hard.

She sat at the edge of her tent, knees tucked under her chin, staring unseeing at the sparse trees struggling to grow over the rocky ground.

Anger she knew well. Anger at Da- Chester. Anger at Chester and his lies, anger because it was so hard for Mama to be happy. Dr. Fiori had said anger was okay, as long as it didn't control her.

Valeria yearned to get out, grab the tent and throw it down the cliff.

It had been like a dream come true. Mama had found a real job, at the pokemart. Mama slept better now. She was less scared of people and sometimes went outside just for fun. They'd have money to rent a house. It had been like the world was back to right and happiness was not just a thing for fantasies in her mind.

Valeria's nails dug into her palms. She owed it to Mama to be strong.

A thousand stars shone through the cracks between the clouds and Valeria tried, she tried so hard, to get back that wonderful excitement about their camping trip in the forest.

A whole weekend, just her and Mama, a few miles south of Verdanturf, to camp in the prettiest hills. That's what Valeria had understood.

If this was punishment, then it was a sneaky, horrible one. Mama shouldn't know yet, though, that Valeria had finally gotten her License; thanks to Dr. Fiori's letter and Mr. C's help.

Valeria had told Mr. C it was to be a surprise.

When Mama had put on nice clothes with color that made her light up and even some makeup, Valeria had found it strange. She'd told Mama she was pretty, though, because it was true and it made Mama smile.

Valeria should have suspected. Catch, she was dumb!

Mama had always made herself beautiful the days she wasn't forbidden her clothes and makeup. Chester would say mean things when she didn't try hard enough. He'd say mean things even when Mama couldn't do anything about it because he had locked her things away. He'd been nuts. Valeria had had very pretty clothes then too. He'd always noticed and she'd loved it. Now she didn't care. She didn't want to care.

'He's got tents and everything. He knows the land. We won't get lost and see the best parts.'

That's the excuse Mama had given. Valeria swallowed down scorching betrayal.

Her mother was in the other tent. With a man. Some delivery truck driver from Mauville. Someone she'd never told Valeria about.

'He's just a friend.'

A friend. Valeria had barely met him and already Mama was lying again. Grownup ladies didn't share a tent with male friends they barely knew. How long had Mama known him and kept a secret? Valeria clutched the sleeping bag harder. She'd borrowed it from Ann. It was the only thing around here which wasn't his.

Catch. Catch it and throw it away forever. Valeria ground her teeth harder to stop a scream from waking Mama.

Some ugly man turning Mama into a liar wasn't even the worst.

'Mauville's a beautiful city. It's going to be much more fun than Verdanturf.' Mama had dared say it with a smile. 'We'll live in a proper house, Treasure.' His house! 'My trial period will soon be over and the permanent vacancy is at the pokemart in Mauville. We can start over, Vali, finally.'

'I want you to call me V.' Valeria had said. And she'd wanted to run away and break things so badly that she'd hurried in the lead as they hiked so they'd not see her face.

"You don't need me," Valeria whispered into the night. "You've got him now."

'I thought I needed him.' Mama had said long ago. 'You… a relationship is when you want to, Treasure. Not need. You've always got to be able to walk away.'

Mama had forgotten all her wise words.

He, Gene, wasn't even all that. He wasn't handsome, or even interesting, or funny. He had half his hair and a thick brown beard, and when he talked it sounded like questions. He didn't talk much. He wasn't skinny or fat. He wasn't tall. He wasn't much shorter than Mama. He wasn't anything. The wildest thing he did in his free time was go fishing.

He was with Mama in the tent and Valeria swallowed back vomit.

Gene wasn't scary. He looked nice. A nervous-nice. If he were a teacher, he'd be the kind everyone walked over. He was Mama's age, and had a grown son who lived far away. He spoke of his son easily, and it sounded like real love. He said his ex-wife had left long ago. He said it because Valeria asked.

Mama had hushed her and said that was no topic for holidays. 'He didn't treat her wrong,' was all Mama said.

Gene's face had gone strange then, though, and what if he was a liar? But Mama's smile had sewn her mouth shut.

Mama was happy. Valeria wasn't allowed to ruin it.

This Gene guy… He made Mama smile. A house. A job. All those things Valeria couldn't get Mama. He had gotten them for her.

And Mama was in his tent.

It was like someone kept kicking Valeria's stomach, again and again. She wouldn't go to Mauville! Ann wasn't there. There was nothing there.

Valeria slipped out of her sleeping bag and into her clothes. She rolled the bag and strapped her backpack on, like they'd taught them in outdoors class.

She stepped out of the tent, her hands shaking as she fastened the straps so they'd not flap with the wind.

She hadn't gone to pokemon camp two years ago because she couldn't leave Mama alone for three weeks, not then. Now, Mama had Gene. Mama didn't need her anymore.

With her torchlight in her pocket, the night was pitch dark.

It didn't matter. This was their forest. Hers and Ann's. Ann's house was just straight ahead. Valeria lived there half the time anyway. She had warm clothes and knew to stay away from pokemon. Tomorrow's sandwiches were already packed in her bag and there were streams everywhere.

She'd run away with less before.

'If you try to take my things again, I'll go so far you'll never find me.' Chester had believed her. He'd never put a lock on her closet after that one time. The memory was powerful enough to help in the worst times. Valeria could take care of herself.

She threw one last glance at the bigger tent.

Mama had dared to say it'd be their weekend, and special.

Valeria had passed her Aptitude Certificate. Mama hadn't dared promise her that she'd make it like Max and Robin so easily promised Ann. But, catch, Valeria had! She'd studied until her eyes bled, catching up on maths and history, with Ann helping out and trying not to say 'it's easy' or 'come on, everyone knows that' more than twenty times an evening. Mama had made her fill in maps of Hoenn, Kanto and just about every place in the world again and again. It was too late to change her marks in pokemon studies and the survival exams, but she'd read every page of the field guide Mr. C had given her. Science and reading had bumped her up from scraped-by to honorable pass and she'd finally heard 'you're smart' without a 'but' afterwards from Mr. C.

She'd done everything like she was supposed to. She wouldn't be going to Mauville, not ever.

Valeria silently slid down the hill and disappeared behind the dark trees.

Mama couldn't take Ann away.

A - Oo*oOo*oO

Five? No way she'd use up all those supplies in just five days. Her maths had to be wrong somewhere.

Anabel tried to cover her work while not looking like she did when Dad's shadow swallowed her whole. He was already done putting away all the water-skiing stuff?

"Right you are to hide it. I'll put you up for adoption if it isn't perfect."

Anabel huffed and lifted her arms to let him check her homework. She squealed and tried to scramble backwards. Aah, Dad was still soaking wet! Seated in the grass as she had been, she stood no chance.

"You'll ruin my maths book, go away!"

"Your second plus became a minus in the third line," Dad said, not listening at all as he threw her over his shoulder on top of a fresh shirt that might have stayed dry if he'd bothered to put a towel around his hair after he'd come out of the lake.

Water-skiing was about staying on the skis, but try telling him that. Paige was no help at all, but that was why she was dad's best friend.

Anabel twisted on herself and ended up seated on his shoulder –not comfortable, but dignified, and the view of the lake was good-. Dad had to dig his feet in the ground to keep his balance. Good. She was not tiny anymore.

Anabel stiffened, the air had gone hard and sharp, fear. It was so rare, to feel it in adults. Except in Grandma when Anabel climbed trees, but that didn't count and it had stopped now that Anabel was big.

"I'm not going to fall," she assured him, her eyes scanning the lake. It was bright green from the algae growing at the bottom and mirrored every cloud. Had Dad spotted somebody drowning? Paige and Paige's dad were tying up the boat in its usual spot, and nothing looked wrong.

"V didn't call you?"

"She doesn't have a vidphone, Dad. And she's camping, remember?" It had to be awesome and V was lucky: it hadn't rained a drop since Thursday's storm.

"Nalani says she went exploring on her own."

"So what? I do that all the time around the house."

Dad seemed to agree as he put her down, but now Anabel was paying attention, and the air around him was still full of little spikes.

Weird. Anabel grabbed her textbook and notebook off the grass went to get her bike from the backpack.

V's birthday was in four days. They'd decided to make it special by getting their starters then. With all their parents working now, it wouldn't be too hard to keep it a secret.

Anabel held her breath. She'd never had such an important secret.

But she had to. Chasing after surskit had been fun in a play-pretend way, but, compared to real trainers, it had been pathetic. If V hadn't shrugged it off, Anabel would have died of embarrassment.

Later in the afternoon, Anabel tugged hard at the weeds in the garden, marveling at how fast they kept growing. She hissed when the air became cutting glass again.

Aha! Mom and Dad had definitely been sharing a glance. "Why are you both so scared? Why isn't it going away!"

So Mom sat her down and told her that Jennys were looking for V. That V had gone off on her own in the middle of the night and wasn't back.

That's when the seconds began dragging by like a whole year. Where had V gone? Why did it have to be a secret? Why was it taking so long? Anabel hoped so hard that V had run into Volbeat and wasn't completely alone.

The rice made wings in her plate as Anabel pushed her fork around. She added a small hat, a smile splitting her lips. Murkrow were smart. It would see that V was awesome, and it would lead her straight here, and then it-

Anabel's hand jerked, and the rice-murkrow became a nothing.

There were no murkrow in Verdanturf forest. V had gotten mostly Cs in survival class, and it was already so dark outside, and she wasn't back. V had no pokemon, no vidphone-

"Bells, please eat. Trainers half as smart as Valeria make it through the wilds just fine. She'll turn up."

Anabel was 'Ann' most of the time now, except when Dad wanted to remind her that she was still his baby girl. She almost burst into tears.

Why, V? Why!

"Nalani needs help, Max," Mom said in soft tones. "The kid's being supportive beyond her years, but she must have been terrified when she saw Gene."

"Who?" Anabel was going to throw up.

A shrill ring - Doorbell!- pierced through the air.

Anabel bolted to her feet. She gasped, stopped short by Dad's grip on her arm.

Mom opened the door. She froze, hiding the view, then moved aside with a strangled laugh. "We were just talking about you."

Valeria stumbled forward. "Was looking for you," she rasped. Ghosts, she was dirty. Anabel didn't care.

She had her best friend pinned against the threshold wall before V could add anything. V sagged against her, her wiry arms clutching her so hard that Anabel almost lost her balance. V smelt of resin, sweat and mud but she was back!

Anabel laughed, giddy with relief. "You need a bath. Don't ever do that again!"

"Ghosts, who cares!" Dad said. "We'll wash everything later. Thank Jirachi. Sit down, Valeria, you gave us the scare of our lives."

Anabel couldn't help but nod along as she helped V to the table. V had the weirdest face, all locked in and not meeting their gazes.

"We need to see if she is hurt, Max. And get sugar in her system. Call a doctor, notify the Jennys. Nalani first."

Mom helped V take a short shower, and the doctor came and checked she hadn't gotten weird rashes and stuff, but what scared Ann was that V still wasn't talking. The short answers to Doctor August didn't count.

"I want to sleep here," V said, wiping apple juice off her lips and pushing the chair closer to Anabel.

"Your mother will be here any minute now. You'll soon be comfortably tucked in bed."

"No."

Anabel whimpered in pain. V was holding onto her arm way too tight.

Her parents shared a long look. "You don't feel safe with Nalani?" Mom asked.

V let her head fall on the table. Anabel winced at the noise it made. Even worse was the sticky, burning fog of wrong that now clung to her tight.

"I do feel safe. It's not that," V finally answered, burying her head in her arms.

"Who's Gene?" Mom and Dad had been talking about him. It had to be important.

V's head snapped back up. "You knew?"

Anabel sucked in a breath. V was going to hate them forever.

"No," Mom replied. "Your mom told us over the phone today."

Anabel was so glad when relief wiped the harshness off V's face.

The door opened.

Nalani strode in, not even taking off her coat. There was no gray in her long hair anymore, just a shiny red-tinged black, but with her had come a gust of wind hot and cutting, worse than anything Anabel had ever felt. She swallowed, feeling increasingly sick.

"How could you do that to me, Vali? What were you thinking?"

V bolted to her feet. She stared at her mom with an expression of such deep betrayal that Anabel couldn't just watch.

"She's sleeping here tonight." Anabel blurted, struggling to hold Nalani's gaze with the silent storm of feelings slashing all around. "You should wait until she's better."

"Excuse me?" Nalani snapped.

Anabel just wanted to scream to get them to stop.

"I want to sleep here." V took a sharp breath. Something hard and frightening entered her eyes and Anabel had to take a step back. "You can go sleep with Gene." Not even June had ever burned up like that. "You don't have nightmares with him. You didn't make yourself all pretty for my sake. You didn't lie for me." V's wasn't shouting, but this was so much worse, every word meant, nailed with a hammer. "You don't owe me a house and a job."

The silence was fire and mud, and shards of glass, trying to get down her throat. Anabel didn't dare breathe, struggling to stand by V instead of running away. Wrong wrong wrong. The feelings were too strong, too black.

"I'll come get her tomorrow after school," Nalani finally said, all color sucked from her face.

She ran out of the door behind her, leaving Anabel staring and scared. Dad shared a quick look with Mom and went running after Nalani.

"Your mother still has night terrors?" Mom said, eyes tight with worry. She shut her eyes briefly when V sullenly nodded. "We… we've been acting as if everything would solve itself. I… I'm so sorry. You… still hungry?" she added with a strained smile.

The searing mud was so thick Anabel could barely breathe. She had to get away from those feelings.

V stared at the ground but she didn't start to cry. "I want to go sleep." Her voice turned pleading, "please."

"Of course," Mom said. "Hurry upstairs. You can brush your teeth tomorrow morning."

Anabel waited for V to be safely in the bedroom before locking herself in the toilet and letting the tears fall.

She forced her breathing steady, her hands balled into painful fists. V, she could have… she'd… V's mom…- Anabel took a shaky breath. She was alright: V was back. V was the upset one. She couldn't go back in the bedroom looking like she'd just cried.

Jirachi was her friend tonight, because V was so tired she barely managed a 'goodnight'.

"Did you see pokemon?" Anabel later whispered in the dark. It wouldn't be dawn for a while still, but the air had sharpened so V was awake. And terrified.

"A zigzagoon got close and followed me for a bit, but it didn't attack." V's giggle was hollow. "I got lucky."

And Anabel had thought the worry might just kill her. "Why did you do that?"

"I've been taking care of her. I'm just so bad at it."

Anabel propped herself on her pillow. She didn't need to see V's face to hear the hurt behind her words. "She's your mom. She should be taking care of you."

"It's different for me. I told you."

Anabel rolled down to be next to V. There had to be a way to fix this.

V began to shake near her and Anabel pulled her into a tight hug, but the air remained thick with invisible glass spikes and that suffocating mud, the guilt, that Anabel wanted to tear V out of but didn't know how.

"She looked so happy," V whispered after a while. "I never made her that happy. I remind her of everything bad," she breathed. "I wanted to put contact lenses so I wouldn't look… but she wouldn't let me."

"That's stupid," Anabel blurted. "You… your eyes are pretty!" She hated that she couldn't find the right words. She'd been jealous of V, her mom had so much time for her, but now…

"She wants us to move to Mauville." What? "Just after my birthday."

"But you can't do that!" Best friends didn't just leave! "You… Stay here! We can give you a room, even two! You can't change schools in May."

"I can't leave Mama. I need to make sure Gene's not bad."

"But… We had plans!" This couldn't be happening.

"Sometimes…" V's voice was so low Anabel thought she was imagining it. She breathed in, struggling to stop her own feelings from making her deaf and blind to V's. "We could run away, Ann."

She made it sound so easy. "We can't. Mom and Dad were so scared. It… it was horrible. I thought you were dead! The Jennys would find us… it wouldn't work."

Tears stung Anabel's eyes as V slumped in her arms. She was just guilt now, sickly-warm, suffocating, thick mud.

"You're right, Ann. I need to be good."


Next chapter: "Time to Go", will be posted on Friday.