Alex fidgeted. She had her idea, but now it seemed too bold. If she didn't say it, she wouldn't be able to train Yarrow and Rosemary, so she had to say it, but she didn't want to.

"I, um, don't. What I meant was, you train me in the mornings, or anytime you want, and whatever I win from battling, I give to you. I mean, most of it." Alex said, stumbling over her words.

Angel's stare seem far more approving that it had before.

"So, I get money from your battles for training you. And that way, if I don't train you well, I don't get very much money. Clever." Angel said, then turned to look at the sky.

"I…Angel? What…what's your answer?" Alex asked, her throat dry. She felt very out of place with this girl who was better than her at everything, seemingly.

Angel looked back at her.

"Hmm? Well…I guess it's something to do. Meet me here tomorrow at, six. In the morning." Angel said as though she wasn't really thinking about it. "Now scat. I want to be alone."

Alex nodded, but Angel had turned to look at the sky again and didn't notice, so she left.

Alex wasn't sure if she should be happy or terrified that Angel had agreed to help her. She settled for being uneasy, and let Rosemary eat all her food at supper.

###

Alex made sure to get up early and show up at the edge of town. Angel wasn't there, so she paced and waited for about half an hour until she showed up, munching on a bagel.

"Huh. So maybe you're serious about this. Time to start." Angel said, finishing off the last of her bagel.

Alex spent the entire day with Angel, aside from food and bathroom breaks. The day was grueling, for both Alex and her pokemon. Angel believed in training with your pokemon, and it showed. She had no trouble keeping up with her eevee, which Alex found out was male and named Daemon.

Alex followed all of Angel's instructions with a soft determination, while Yarrow seemed to revel in the harsh training. Rosemary hated it, and Alex often had to coax her to keep on going.

At the end of the day, Angel dismissed them, and told them to come back the next day. She trained them every day from the sun's rising to the sun's setting for a week.

Yarrow learned quick attack from Daemon. Rosemary stopped being lazy about training, though she still didn't like it. She made it obvious by trying to destroy the alarm clock several times and avoiding Angel as though she was a disease.

Angel discovered that Alex wasn't 'an idiot, just shy' when Angel explained that eevees could learn moves like thunderbolt if they liked their trainers enough and Alex had said knowing thunderbolt would be useful for a leafeon, or any eevee evolution other than jolteon.

Alex had a talk with Angel about giving her pokemon orders.

"I'm…not very good at it. Can't I just let them work on their own?" Alex asked quietly. She was feeling more assured with Angel now, since she had observed that the older girl was tough but mostly fair and never yelled.

"No. Look, I'm not saying your pokemon aren't smart. But when they fight, they don't see everything. They're too busy fighting. Sometimes they'll miss a good attack chance, or an attack that will hit them. You have to watch for that." Angel explained. "Haven't you ever given your pokemon orders before?"

"Yes, but…never to attack." Alex said, looking down.

"You'll learn. My advice is to tell them to attack if they don't seem to know what to do. Pokemon battles aren't completely dependant on the pokemon, you know."

Alex wasn't sure how to say that she thought she'd be more of a hindrance than a help, so she just nodded and the conversation was dropped.

Her first battle was on a sunny day with someone Angel called 'Rich Boy Winston'. Angel seemed to think he'd be a good first test for her.

"He started the same time as you, he's rich, and he's stupid. Well, not that stupid. He won't battle me anymore, but you look innocent and if you just barely win, he might agree to battle you again."

Alex wasn't concerned that most of her teacher's thoughts were about money. She had gotten used to it.

"What if he hurts my pokemon?" Alex asked matter-of-factly. She wasn't as worried about it as before, but she still didn't want to see Yarrow or Rosemary hurt.

Angel rolled her eyes, acting as though she was annoyed with Alex's childish attitude.

"He won't. It's against the trainer rules to really hurt someone else's pokemon on purpose."

Alex frowned, remembering when she had first met Angel.

"But you did."

Angel waved a hand elegantly at her.

"I was in a bad mood."

Alex knew that was all the explanation she would get, so she nodded and took small steps until she was beside Winston.

"Um, hi. Would…you like a battle with me?" Alex asked softly.

He turned to the side to look at her face. After studying her for a few seconds, he said, "I suppose I can spend some of my time battling you."

It sounded as though he thought having any of his time was a great honor, and Alex found herself wanting to slip away. She hated dealing with people like this.

"Okay, so, one against one?" Alex asked, her voice turning quiet. She really didn't want to be there.

Winston sighed and shook his head.

"Peasants. Don't you know the one being asked sets the terms? And I'll choose two on two, thank you." He said officially. "Now, please stand ten feet away from me."

Alex tried to stand ten feet away, staying a bit farther back out of caution.

Winston threw up a pokeball with a cry of 'Go Flame.'

Flame turned out to be a Growlithe, and Alex swallowed. Flame's teeth looked sharp, but she leaned down to the ground and let Rosemary slide off her shoulder and onto the pavement. She whispered 'Try the strategy you use on Yarrow in practice session.'

"You can't be serious. This will be easy." Winston said, and Alex resisted the urge to grab Rosemary and run.

"Flame, ember!"

Alex stayed quiet, not thinking Rosemary would need an instruction to dodge. She didn't, and became a purple blur of movement.

The purple blur on the pavement turned back into Rosemary as she wrapped around Flame.

Alex let out a soft sigh of relief. This had always worked well enough in practice, but for some reason she thought Rosemary might not move fast enough in a battle.

After that the battle was boring, consisting mostly of Rosemary wrapping around Flame tighter, and Flame trying to get her off. However, Flame's orders were things like 'Roll over' and 'Jump', so it didn't work very well.

Flame fainted about two minutes into the wrap, and Rosemary slithered over to a spot in front of Alex.

Alex wondered if this was how battles were supposed to go when Winston threw out his next pokemon, an eevee named King.

This battle didn't last long either; it was clear that King was too fast for Rosemary to catch and King only hit her a few times before her head hit the ground with a noise that made Alex wince, and she used Rosemary's pokeball to call her back.

Then she looked to Yarrow who had been sitting quietly at her feet the entire battle. Yarrow didn't appear to need more than that look, and trotted out into the 'battlefield'.

"Tackle!" Winston yelled, but Yarrow dodged it easily since King hadn't been in a good attacking position.

"Tackle again."

Alex tuned out Winston's voice and focused on the way King moved. Yarrow was clearly holding her own, but she wasn't winning. King was fast, Alex noticed, almost too fast. Yarrow had more grace on her feet and didn't make such headlong dashes. Yarrow might be able to lure him into a position to hit the wall if he didn't hit her. Now Alex's only problem was how to tell Yarrow that without letting Winston know her plan. Alex wasn't sure Winston would or could do anything about it, but she would prefer him not to know regardless. Angel had said he was stupid.

"Yarrow, there's a concrete wall behind you. And King's too fast." Alex called out, knowing it was somewhat obvious, but hoping Winston would be distracted by the 'compliment'.

He was.

"King's the fastest." He bragged, and Alex felt a little sorry for him. It couldn't have been easy to be beaten by Angel.

Yarrow responded in a different way. It was subtle, but each of her dodges took her closer to the wall. When she was within two feet of it she waited calmly for King's next attack. When it came, she dodged it, and King hit the wall with a thud.

King didn't faint, and watching the woozy eevee Alex knew he would get back up and wouldn't fall for that trick again.

"Quick attack."

Alex's voice was surprisingly calm, considering how much it had taken for her to order the attack.

Yarrow obeyed, and King fell to the ground, this time staying down.

Alex turned to Winston, who looked shocked and upset. He almost seemed as though he was going to cry.

"I think…"Alex said carefully. "That means I won."