Chapter Twelve:
The battle took place in the nearby park. We were suppose to wait our turn to use one of the battle arenas but Anita and Violet pushed aside a few kindergarteners playing patty cake in the middle. Mason and I refereed. The battle began with Anita sending out Imi and Violet sending out her Torchic named Delia. This was a smart move on Violet's part because Torchic was a fire type and would be extremely effective against Anita's grass type Imi. I watched behind my fingers as Imi, still not accustomed to her newly evolved form dodged extremely powerful fireballs and fell over a lot. Let's just say it didn't take Violet long to come out victorious.
The match was three on three so the trainers sent out their second Pokemon. Anita chose Skipper and Violet chose Totodile. Although the two Pokemon didn't have much of a type advantage Anita's Skipper was more experienced than Violet's Totodile and came close to wiping it out in a few rounds but Violet's Totodile fought back hard and had a water gun almost as good as Bellamy's which I had been perfecting. Skipper, although much bigger than the little blue crocodile was looking tired and was completely wet so one more blast of water sent him skidding out of the arena totally defeated.
"The match goes to Violet," Mason said.
Violet smirked and Anita's face went red.
"I didn't even get to use my most powerful Pokemon," Violet puffed. She looked really embarrassed and sounded a little pathetic.
"Funny how that works," Violet said. "Neither did I. Admit it, I beat you without even going into a third round, you're nothing compared to me. I see you only have one gym badge. It's obvious you need way more work."
"Give me a rematch," Anita demanded but Violet just turned away.
"I'll battle you again someday, but I've got to go win my fifth badge, see you," Violet waved.
"Wait," I said and Violet turned. "Just answer one thing. Why did you leave your friends behind?"
Violet laughed. "Because they were weak duh. Obviously what I want to achieve is a solo job. There is only one champion Penny. What are you going to do when you get to the league and are up against your two friends?"
The words Violet left me with stung because she was right. True, I might find it the slightest bit amusing to beat Anita at the league but Mason I didn't think I could beat anyway let alone knock him out of the competition. Friends just didn't do that to each other.
"Come on," Mason said. I think he could tell Violet's words were effecting me. "Let's do something else."
"Like what," I said glumly.
"Like that," Anita said, she was pointing at a huge window display across the street with a loads of lacy dresses visible from across the road.
"Well you will need to dress up for the competition tomorrow," Mason said.
And so Anita and I spent the rest of the day picking out what we would wear to the competition the next day. Anita tried on over a dozen fancy ball gowns that were way over our budget but I stuck to the first one I tried on. It was a simple pale blue dress that I thought made my dirty blonde colored hair stand out. I realized with hair just about the color of Chloe's electricity we were a perfect match.
We made sure to check into the Pokemon Center early as to avoid the battle for the last ten spots. Even getting there before five didn't guarantee us a room for the night but we got lucky and got one before the late night crowd arrived.
As dusk fell Mason, Anita, Chloe and I sat on the outside deck of the Pokemon center eating dinner at one of the outside tables. We'd bought extra Pokemon food to feed all the Pokemon since they would be tired after a long day. After dinner we retired to our room where Anita and I took the window bed and Mason slept on the one next to the loud refrigerator. The Castelia city Pokemon Center room was a lot smaller than the one in Accumula Town because they had to cram in so many more rooms. As I fell asleep that night I rolled over and stared out the partly shaded window out over the bright city lights of Castelia. Today a gym badge, tomorrow a trophy.
The sun rose and our alarm clock went off. Mason went down for breakfast as Anita and I got ready for the competition. I put on the dress and braided my hair while Anita put on the purple and rather more expensive dress and did her make up. Chloe seemed a little nervous as I brushed and brushed and brushed her hair until it shone even brighter than usual. She looked beautiful.
Anita and I went down for breakfast but didn't have much time. I grabbed a bagel for me and a tin of Pokemon food for Chloe to eat on the way to the competition. Then, we hopped on a bus and waited for it to take us to the beautiful building we had been to yesterday.
"Woah that's a lot of people," Anita breathed.
As we approached the building we saw everywhere kids our age coaching their Pokemon, brushing them and grooming their hair. They were all here for the same reasons we were. This would be some serious competition.
Since we'd already registered we could skip that line and go straight backstage to the dressing rooms. Those were also crowded with people. Anita and I said goodbye to Mason who would be watching from the audience and we pinned out numbers to our stomachs. I felt a little queasy as the next group of people were shuttled to the wings of the stage. That meant we would be going on soon.
"And now ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stage act 106 Anita and her Staravia Flaps."
Anita beamed as the announcer called her name and she walked onstage. As soon as the stage lights hit her though, she froze and looked a little timid. Flaps was wearing a little red bowtie around his neck. It was pretty cute. Next he had to perform his routine. I hadn't seen Anita's routine with Flaps so I wasn't quite sure what she was going to do.
"Knock knock," Anita said and immediately I was confused. Why was she telling a knock knock joke? "Who's there?" Anita said in a different voice and out of the corner of her mouth. Oh no, I thought, Anita wasn't seriously attempting ventriloquism. There was no way the judges would believe that it was actually Flaps replying back. I watched Flaps just sitting there as Anita continued her joke all well pretending Flaps was saying things back to her. This was a disaster. Then Flaps started to caw very loudly.
"Interrupting Miltank Mooo," Anita said, but no one could hear her over Flap's call. The audience was dead silent.
"Thank you Anita and Flaps," the announcer said.
That was Anita's cue to get off stage but she didn't move.
"Get it Flaps?" Anita said. "Sure do Anita!" Anita said out of the corner of her mouth. Someone yelled at her to get off the stage.
"Be quiet!" Anita yelled at the audience member. "I'll get off when the judges decide to give me first place.
"Stop it Anita," I hissed.
"Miss please get off the stage," said an official but Anita remained firm.
"Just as second," she whined and started to tell another horrible knock knock joke. This was a total disaster.
Finally, someone had to come on stage and pick her up by the ankles and toss of over their shoulders all while Anita kicked and protested. Flaps hardly looked phased. With that, the announcer cleared his throat.
"Well then, let's get on with the show," he said. "Please give a warm welcome to act 107 Miss Penelope with her Blitzle named Chloe."
I walked on stage with my Pokemon behind me. She was wearing a blue bonnet with a ribbon that matched my dress and looked absolutely stunning. Then it was time for my routine. Just to be safe, I removed Chloe's bonnet before she attempted anything. I clicked my fingers three times to signal for Chloe to begin.
Chloe reared on her hind legs and shot sparks from her body. That got some oohs from the audience. Then she conjured up a flame wheel and let it dance around her painlessly. Chloe let let the circle of flames widen and aimed it at me. A couple people in the audience gasped but I had planned for this. I easily jumped through the hoop and got a big applause, the audience seemed to like it. Then it was time for the finale. Chloe begin to circle around me and crackle with electricity. This was the part I'd invented and had been planning for for so long. The electricity flew from her body and as she spun faster and faster around me the electricity rose up around me and turned into glitter that fell into my hair and to the ground. I held out my hand to scoop up some of the falling glitter and blew it toward the audience. Chloe slowed down and everyone erupted into cheers. We'd done it. Hard work really did pay off.
After the show I found Anita and was dismayed to find she hadn't even seen my performance. I'd hoped she'd at least have the courtesy to see her friends perform but I guess not and the strangest thing was she still expected that she would get first place. We attended the awards ceremony where everyone gathered on the stage and a podium was raised in the back. Anita and I waved to Mason in the audience as the judges started their speech.
"We're about to announce the ten best acts," said the judge. "Congrats to everyone that makes it into the top ten."
I stroked Chloe's mane as I wanted for the judge to read off the results. The audience was just staring at us and I could no longer see Mason in the crowd. I hoped he was watching. The announcer started with tenth and worked his way up until if I'd made it into the top ten I would be fifth place or higher.
"And our second runner up is Miss Penelope and her Blitzle Chloe," said the man.
I threw my arms around Chloe and screamed. We'd gotten third place in our very first beauty contest. This was amazing. I walked up to to where the other winners were lining up and was the first one to mount the podium. Someone put a bronze medal around my neck and one around Chloe's as well. Around me people were clapping and I looked down to see Anita smiling smugly. She thought she had placed better than me.
"Our first runner up is..." said the judge and another kid joined me on the podium with his Mankey. "And finally ladies and gentlemen, your winner of the talent and beauty stage is Miss Aurora."
"Yes!" Anita cried and she threw her arms in the air.
I stared at her as she took a moment to register the fact in her mind that she hadn't exactly won. She hadn't even placed.
"What's wrong with you people?" Anita said.
The attention went from the girl who was now mounting the podium next to me to Anita who was standing up. Anita put Flaps back in his Pokeball and stormed off stage. Several people giggled but most everyone was quiet. There goes Anita, humiliating herself again, not to mention ruining my moment in the spotlight of course. I was done chasing after Anita. She would have to fend for herself in the next round.
Mason congratulated me when we met up between rounds. He seemed really happy I'd won and also a little fed up with Anita. I could tell the irritation with her had started in him a long time ago but I also knew he was controlling it for my sake.
"Is Chloe ready for the battle round?" he asked.
"We'll see," I smiled and Chloe whinnied. We were going to take it all.
