Hey everyone. I'm so happy to be getting both reviews and OC submissions, with a thanks to the people who submitted Archer and Zac. I could use another three OC's that will be playing more of a major role in this, but keep sending them in. In addition to basic information, I'd like to know what Legendary Pokemon they like (Minus Suicune, Raikou, Giratina, and Mew) as well as which cabin (1-13) they wish to be in. You'll see soon enough where this plays in…
To Archer and Zac's creators, if they could answer the Legendary question, I'd appreciate it, otherwise I'll assign one for them. Thank you and enjoy this update.
-Drachesoul
The sky had darkened by the time our entire cabin met back outside. Little lights illuminated the well-worn path to the mess hall.
"Come on, we don't want to be late," Malik dashed to the head of the line and started leading us away.
I sighed. Malik could always get a little excitable when he experienced new surroundings, but I'd never seen him like this, so carefree and happy. He wasn't even paying attention to his clothes anymore.
"Wonder what the other cabins are like?" I asked, thinking back to our uniforms. "Are they all as cool as ours?"
"Probably," Dante added nonchalantly, "Though I would like to see how jealous they'd be if things weren't the same."
Olivia smacked him. "Dante, don't say things like that. We're all lucky to be here, so don't go putting down the other twelve cabins."
She paused mid-step, "Even if we are cooler," Olivia added.
We approached the mess hall, and we could already hear people talking inside. The whole hall had a warm and friendly atmosphere as we walked inside. My mouth started watering when I smelled the food.
The mess hall was open and bustling with activity. A small stage took up one end of the hall, opposite the kitchen, a podium and microphone standing at the ready.
There were thirteen long tables with numbers hanging from the ends of them. Malik bounced over to the one labeled with a blue thirteen and waved us over.
"I guess we sit here," Dante said, picking out a seat, taking off his jacket and placing it over the chair. "Let's go get food, I'm starving."
I placed my own jacket next to his and walked to the line that was quickly forming by the kitchens. The smells wafting from the kitchen were heavenly and I could tell that I wasn't the only one who felt the same way.
The line moved without too long of a waiting time, and soon I was piling up my plate with as much food as I could get my hands on. I ended up leaving with a fairly large bacon cheesburger and some salad, ranch dressing poured liberally on top. Two chocolate chip cookies and a lemonade rounded off my dinner.
Winding my way through the mess hall and back to our table, I saw Dante and Archer already sitting and eating. I saw that they too had a huge amount of food on their dishes.
"Doesn't this food smell great?" I gushed, sitting down and taking a bite out of my burger. Oh my God, that was delicious. Dane told me that the food here was so-so, and I vowed to slap him once I got home.
"Tell me about it," Olivia said, setting her food down next to me and taking her seat. I waited until she had turned around to wave Malik over before pilfering a french fry from her plate. Yum. "I always thought camp food was supposed to be bland and uninteresting," she commented, dipping another fry into some ketchup and eating it. "But this is really good."
We all just murmured in varying degrees of agreement before returning to our dinner, all conversation ceasing. It was a comfortable silence, made all the better by the casual chatter around us, from people comparing Pokemon to raving about the food here like we had a moment before.
I was about halfway through my food when another boy set his tray down next to Archer's, who had stayed as silent as he was when I met him. "Do you guys mind if I sit here? You seem like the interesting ones from our cabin."
I looked up and saw a boy about our age, though he was a bit taller than Malik. He looked kind of quiet, but nice enough as he ran a hand through his disheveled brown hair. His blue eyes betrayed a little bit of unease, but that was to be expected. I mean, our group had only known each other for a few hours, and even I had been a bit nervous.
"Yeah, no problem. I'm Kaelen, nice to meet you," I greeted. Olivia waved from next to me. "That's Olivia," I said, gesturing to her with my hand, "And that's her friend Dante." Dante merely nodded before returning to his food. The boy had already gone for seconds and was already almost halfway done.
"My name's Malik," my friend introduced himself, offering his hand, which the other boy shook.
"Nice to meet you all. I'm Zac Bowman." He smiled brightly and sat down next to Archer. "I didn't catch your name, I'm sorry," he said to the green-haired teen.
Archer swallowed his food before responding in much the same matter as he did with me. "Archer. Archer Gersone."
Zac waited for more, but after nothing but silence came from Archer he shrugged and turned to me. "Are you guys excited?" he seemed to lack the confidence Dante and Malik had but I didn't see a problem with that, after all, hardly anyone could compete with those two in terms of confidence.
"Oh yeah, totally!" Olivia piped up. "Our schedules have some of the most interesting topics I've ever heard of. Did you get the Legendary Bonds class?"
Zac nodded. "I have no idea what it's going to be covering but it looks really interesting."
"Doesn't it?" Olivia said excitedly. "Anyway, everybody I've talked to either has no idea what I'm talking about, or has no clue what the class is about," she huffed.
"I guess that's the air of mystery we're going to be encountering," Malik sighed. "You know, the more things become unclear, the more I want to know why."
"Curiousity killed the cat," I joked.
"Not if the cat looked both ways before crossing the street," he shot back with a smile on his face.
"That assumes the cat was run over by a car," Zac added thoughtfully. Malik glared at him, and threw a french fry at his face. Zac dodged it with ease and it hit a girl from the table next to us.
"Sorry!" They both called, before bursting into laughter. I could see they would get along just fine.
Camp was turning out to be one of the most entertaining places, and I couldn't believe that it was only the first day. As people started to finish up their dinners and returning the dirty dishes to the kitchen, silence gradually began to fall over the rest of the campers.
Professor Iris walked onto the small stage and tapped the mic, resulting in a blare of feedback that made everyone wince and cover their ears. "SO sorry," she apologized, blushing lightly. She coughed once before digging a piece of paper from her pocket. "How was dinner?"
A raucous cheer roared through the mess hall, apparently much to Professor Iris's delight. "That's good, I'm glad to hear you all enjoyed it. Now for a moment you all have been waiting for…" she paused for dramatic effect before saying, "It's time to meet the head counselors!"
Everyone started clapping as thirteen counselors jogged onstage, wearing a variation of the clothes Austin Hale had been wearing. They all wore the exact same outfit, with the exception of the shirts. Each counselor had a different color shirt with the Pokemon Camp logo on it. Spotting a flash of dark blue as they made their own way onstage, I realized that each cabin would have a counselor.
"As you may have figured out, there are thirteen cabins, each with their own counselor, team color, and Mascot Pokemon. These counselors will be in charge of keeping everything running smoothly, including refereeing battles and classes. So without further ado, let me introduce the counselor from Cabin One."
Austin Hale stepped forward this time wearing a red shirt, and a shrill cheer echoed through the room again, distinctly female. "I'm Austin Hale, but I think most of you know that already. My team is going to be the awesome Cabin One, also known as the Charizard Team. I'll also be teaching Beginning Battle Techniques and Double Battle Basics, so I hope you guys are ready!"
An entire table, which I assumed was Cabin One stood up and cheered. They looked a bit younger than the rest of the campers, though not by much. Maybe a year or two, I guessed. He stepped back and gestured for Professor Iris to continue with the intros.
Every time a counselor introduced themselves and what cabin they would be representing along with what classes they'd be teaching, a different table would stand up and cheer. I learned that our cabin, thirteen, was the last one, and the only one represented by a Legendary Pokemon.
Four of the cabins, Charizard (1), Serperior (2), Swampert (3), and Pikachu (4), were comprised mainly of younger campers, from ages twelve to fourteen. The other eight, Absol (5), Ursaring (6, which I noticed Finn was a part of), Braviary (7), Drapion (8), Lucario (9), Leafeon (10), Gengar (11), and Crobat (12), had campers around our age, from probably fifteen or so to around nineteen.
When the counselor for our cabin stepped forward, my jaw dropped to the floor.
"I am Lance, and I am the counselor for Cabin Thirteen, or the Suicune team, as they like to be called." I couldn't believe it. A former Champion from the Kanto Region was going to be our counselor? The table stood as one and all started cheering, with the other twelve cabins even joining in.
Beside me, I could literally feel Olivia quaking in excitement next to me. Even Archer and Dante looked amazed, eyes wide with wonder.
"What?" Zac breathed in astonishment. "No way, I must be dreaming."
"Than this is one hell of a dream," Malik said giddily. Great, yet another thing to make him even more hyper than usual.
"Breathe, Malik, breathe," I told him. He took several shaky breaths to calm himself down, then flashed me a thumbs-up.
"In addition to being a counselor, I will be teaching the Advanced Battle Techniques and Legendary Bonds class," Lance said before stepping back and letting Professor Iris take the floor again. I could hear the sighs of disappointment from the younger campers, who wouldn't have any classes with the dragon master.
"Thank you so much to our dedicated staff, who have worked tirelessly to make sure everything this year is up and running and ready to go. Before I dismiss everybody to make their way back to the cabins, I'd like to reiterate what was stated in the letter you received earlier regarding uniforms. On weekends, when no classes take place, is when your regular clothes are allowed, and at all other times, you are expected to wear your uniform."
Hardly anybody complained, which I took as a good thing. Professor Iris wished us a good night and walked off the stage, the lights that lit up the podium dimming as people started to leave. Chairs scraped all around us, and people were wishing their friends from other cabins goodnight before exiting.
All of us Suicune Campers were the last to leave, huddling close and talking about Lance. We were so incredibly lucky to have a counselor of his standing basically living with us for the next month. Oh boy, would Dane be jealous.
Crickets chirped as we all filed outside again for the walk back to the cabin. Olivia and Dante were whispering to each other and laughing. I hadn't heard Dante laugh yet, but he seemed truly happy hanging out with Olivia. I wondered if they were something more, and made a note to ask Olivia later.
Archer had called out Xatu and the two were walking side by side, taking in the scenery silently. They seemed to fit really well together, and Archer looked quite satisfied with his partner. Taking a leaf from his book, I called out Arcanine so we could chat.
"Things look really exciting here," I said to my partner. "Our counselor is Lance the dragon-master!"
Yes, I am familiar with him. He has been the counselor of Cabin Thirteen for several years now.
I frowned. "And you just decided to leave that tidbit of information out?"
Arcanine blinked. You never asked and I didn't think it pertinent information.
I sighed, knowing Arcanine didn't mean to leave that part out. Hell, it probably had so many secrets to tell me, if only I asked correctly. "Well we better get ready for tomorrow. I have a feeling we will both end up exhausted once the day is over."
I quite look forward to it Kaelen. We will battle together and win. I loved Arcanine's confidence, even though I knew we were bound to lose sometime. Not even Champions could win every single battle.
"We won't always win, you know that right?"
Of course, but that doesn't mean we can't go into every battle doing what it takes to win.
"You know, I like that thought." I recalled Arcanine once we reached the cabin again.
My cabin-mates were all huddled around the luggage pile. Olivia stood at the front, reading the names on people's luggage tags as Dante handed them to her.
I watched as Archer and Zac got their things and walked up the left staircase to the second story.
"Where are we supposed to go?" I asked as Olivia handed me my duffel bag.
"Lance said that the girl's room is up the right staircase and the boy's room up the left one. After that, he just retreated to his room and said that he would see us in the morning."
"Total jerk," muttered Malik, dragging his huge suitcase towards the stairs.
"I don't think he's a jerk at all," retorted Olivia. "We've all had a really long day and I just think he was willing to let us go."
"So you say," he replied, tugging his luggage up the stairs.
Olivia and I watched him go. "I think he's a little tired," she said.
"Yeah, but Malik isn't a fan of people that brush others off, you know, act like they don't exist," I had known Malik for long enough to know that he hated people like that.
"Dante doesn't like people like that either," she pointed to her friend, who was helping one of the girls carry her luggage up the stairs to the girl's room. "Hey, do you think it would be too much to ask if you would take my stuff as well and find me a bed next to yours?"
"Not at all, I actually was about to ask you the same thing," I took her rolling suitcase along with my bag and headed upstairs.
The room upstairs was cooler than the one downstairs in my opinion. The walls were painted blue, and a drawing of Suicune wound around the wall. The beds were twin sized and spaced apart enough to fit a small nightstand. Fitted with sheets in different shades of blue, I set my luggage down by one of the unclaimed corner beds before placing Olivia's on the bed neighboring mine.
She came up a few minutes later, after the last girl had found her things and was settled in. Together we unpacked our luggage, and we were now seated on her bed, talking.
"So, I want to know if there was anything going on between you and Malik," she said.
I blushed. "There's not anything going on at all, we're just friends, honest. I could ask the same about you and Dante."
She laughed. "No, we aren't together romantically, we've just been best friends since we started on our journey together back in Hoenn."
"It's the same story with Malik and I. Traveling the region always seemed a lot more fun and exciting when he was around."
"Did you get any badges? Me and Dante got all eight and challenged Hoenn's Elite Four."
"Wow, you guys must be really powerful then," I gasped. Malik and I were on our way to challenge the Elite Four in Sinnoh, but had heard about camp and got delayed.
"I suppose you could say that. We ended up in the top five, but backed out to come here before we got the chance to battle the Champion."
"Alright everybody, lights out!" Lance's voice called from downstairs. Immediately there came complaints from the direction of the boys room, Malik's voice leading the charge.
"I guess we should go to bed then," I said, a little disappointed that I didn't get to learn more about her.
"I guess so." She pulled a small Suicune plushie from her backpack. "Dante got this for me at one of the gyms. He knows its my favorite Legendary Pokemon," she explained when I looked at her.
"I'm not looking at you in disdain or anything," I corrected my look, and pulled out a Raikou plushie from my own luggage. "Raikou's my favorite. I got it from the eighth gym leader, Volkner, after I beat him."
We giggled as someone shut the lights off, plunging the room into darkness, though sparse whispers still punctuated the darkness. I was suddenly drained, as if all of the days events finally caught up to me.
It only took me a few minutes before I started to drift off, thoughts of Arcanine and what the hell 'Legendary Bonds' meant invading my mind. Tomorrow looked like a lot of fun based off of the brief descriptions of the classes.
"Good night, Kaelen," Olivia said.
"Night."
