Chapter 12

When the girls entered the classroom; or more like the gym room, there were quite a few students already seated on the bleachers, eagerly waiting for their class to begin. Zea was amazed at the amount of students who was already at class.

"I guess this is the class that everyone can't wait for everyday, huh." Zea giggle, "No surprise there,"

"Well, almost everyone," Gemma whispered to Zea, while looking in May's direction. Zea followed her gaze and realized that May's happy mood had turned back into one of uneasiness. This got Zea confused and even more worried about her new friend.

She approached her and was about to say something, but was interrupted by someone who had just entered the class.

"Well, if it isn't the newbie and the loner," the student said. It was Misty, and of course, tagging along behind her, were her companions Dawn and Zoey, along with their pokémon.

Zea sighed. "Nice to see you again Misty," she said, with no emotion whatsoever, not bothering to turn and face the orange haired teen.

Zea's tone, once again, pissed Misty off as a vain popped up on the right side of her head. After a few seconds of being steamed up with anger and annoyance, she gave a huge sigh and relaxed herself. She figured it was best not to start a scene at the beginning of her favourite class, so as to not get into trouble and get a detention. Especially with the new student because she knew that new students got passes with a warning for getting in trouble on their first day.

Misty then smiled towards Zea, which earned her a raised eyebrow with means of her confusion and suspicion toward the hot headed teen.

"I'm looking forward to having a battle with you." Misty told Zea. "I'll be payback for what you did to me and my friends in the girls' locker room earlier." She finished saying, then continued on into the gym to find a seat, her friends following close behind. Gemma looked to Zea, confusion plastering her face about Misty's last statement.

"What did you do to them after I left?" Gemma asked.

"Nothing," Zea replied, with an amused smile on her face as she remembered how Misty and her friends ran out of the locker room.

"Didn't sound like nothing; knowing Misty," Gemma said.

"All that happened was that Eve gave them the scariest face they've ever seen and they run off. No big deal," Zea shrugged.

"To Misty… it is a big deal," Zea and Gemma heard a soft voice say. They turned to the source and realized that it came from May. She was holding Eevee in her arms and kept tightening her grip little by little, as a sign of her nervous and uneasiness. This caused the little fox pokémon to cry out and alert her trainer that she was wrapping her arms around her too tight. "Sorry Eevee," she apologized to her pokémon. Zea and Gemma looked at her worriedly.

"Come on May." Zea said, resting her right hand on May's left shoulder. "Let's find a seat so you can calm down and relax."

May nodded in agreement as the three began to head towards the bleachers.

--

"I don't know why we even bothered to run and get our pokémon. I should have known the students would step aside for us to collect our pokémon," Ash said, his Pikachu now resting comfortably on his shoulder.

"Yea; you should have known Ash," Gary sarcastically replied, his Umbreon now walking loyally by his side.

Ash was about to protest upon catching his friend's sarcasm but was interrupted by another one of his companions.

"All that matters, is that we got our pokémon; end of argument." Lucifer added, Vee now resting on his shoulder. "Now let's get to class, or we'll be late."

"We tend to have been getting a bit late for classes a lot today; have you guys realized that?" Richie asked, realizing their off time schedule for most of the day. Sparky was also resting on his usual spot on his trainer's shoulder

"I wasn't with you guys for most of the day, so I wouldn't know." Gary calmly replied.

"You're right Richie we have." Ash agreed. "I guess having a new student around has had us a little bit sidetracked,"

"A little bit?" Gary emphasized, eyeing his friends.

"Whatever Gary; let's just get to class," Lucifer suggested to avoid any further arguments. The group nodded in agreement.

"I swear, Gary can be such a jerk sometimes. Hah, well I guess that's what makes him, Gary, and we've learned to deal with him," Robert thought, his pokémon, Star the shiny Eevee which Eve had met at the daycare, now perched on his left shoulder.

Vee kept eyeing Star throughout most of the trip from since when their trainers had collected them from the daycare, but Star didn't seem to notice. And even if he did, he just couldn't be bothered.

"My class is over this way guys, so I guess I'll see you later," Spud said, pointing towards a different direction of which the group was walking, his Staraptor walking (yes, walking) closely behind.

"Ok bro. I'll see you later," Robert replied.

Spud nodded and broke into a sprint towards the direction he had pointed to while waving towards his companions. Staraptor was now flying behind him in order to keep up. The boys waved back towards him and then continued their walk towards their class.

--

5 – 10 minutes later, everyone was now seated and settled on the bleachers in the gym room. The boys had not yet seen the girls from since they entered the class, but the girls had seen them when they entered. But there was so much noise, that they weren't able to call out to them, so the two groups were seated in different areas of the gym.

"Ok students; now that you are all settled down, I will now start calling out the pairs of those who will be battling each other." The Battle class lecturer, Mr. Goodshow announced,

"The lecturer chooses who goes up against whom? We can't choose who we want to battle?" Zea asked, Eve now sitting on her lap.

"That's how it used to be." Gemma replied, as she began to explain. Her Flareon also resting on her lap, "Before, students would choose who they would want to battle against, but there were always problems with that. Sometimes, more than one student would want to battle one student in particular which often had that student doing numerous battles. Some students however, would use that as an opportunity for them not to battle at all. So when the teachers realized how some students never got to battle during class, they eventually came up with a scheme to be able to have everyone battle at least once before the class is over."

"I see. So everyone gets a chance, even those who don't want to," Zea clarified, while eyeing May from the corner of her eye. Zea was seated between the two girls, so she was able to talk to either of them when she wanted to. Gemma nodded towards her in agreement.

"So what happens to the student who doesn't end up going against someone when there's an odd number of students?" Zea asked again.

"That unlucky soul goes up again the lecturer," Gemma replied.

"Yikes," Zea stated. Gemma nodded. The girls then returned their attention to lecturer in the middle of the gym.

"Ok now, you all know the rules. Everything goes, except cheating," Mr. Goodshow emphasized.

"Well that's kinda obvious," Zea stated, folding her arms across her stomach. Gemma giggled at her statement, while May continued to sit in silence.

"Ok now, our first two battlers are…" Mr. Goodshow started.

"Please don't be me, please don't me, please don't be me." May thought pleadingly, her eyes tightly shut.

Zea sat with her arms still folded, an expression on her face saying how she couldn't care less if she went first or not. Gemma too sat petting Flareon, her face showing that she wasn't worried one bit.

"Hmm, well it looks like we have a new student with us today, so how about we start off with her," the lecturer stated, while looking at his list of names on a sheet of paper. Once the students heard this, chattering began to boom throughout the gym. "And she will be going up against… Misty." He finished, and that's when the chattering got even livelier.

Gemma and May looked to Zea upon hearing that she was up to battle first, as well as who she was battling against.

"Hmpt. Looks like Misty got her wish," Zea said with a very confident smile, her arms still folded. With a silent gesture, Eve hopped from her trainers lap to her usual spot on her shoulder, allowing her to get up and walk down to the field. May watched Zea in admiration to how confident she was, and going up against Misty at that.

--

"Zea's up to battle already?" Lucifer stated in surprise, while looking around to see where Zea was seated at. Vee, following his trainer's motions while seated on his lap.

"And against Misty, of all people," Ash added in, he and Pikachu also looking for their new female companion.

"I wouldn't be too worried about her," Gary stated, bringing his hands behind his head and leaning back a bit, in relaxation.

"I'll have to agree with Gary," Robert added, while Star also look around for the trainer, or more so, her pokémon, since he hasn't met the trainer yet, "If she's as good as you guys say, or most likely think she is, she shouldn't have a problem," he finished.

"That's right guys," Richie said to Ash and Lucifer, "We may not know much about her; but from what little we know, I can tell she can handle anything that comes her way,"

Ash and Lucifer for a fact knew that their friends were right, but couldn't help worrying. Especially Lucifer. The boys then heard Pikachu and Vee cry out their names, causing them to look towards the pokémon and see them pointing in the direction of someone higher up on the bleachers. The group of boys and the rest of the pokémon followed the two pokémon's indicated direction and spotted Zea getting up and begin to walk down from the stands. Of course, this caused them to also spot May and Gemma as well.

--

"Looks like your battle came up a lot sooner than you hoped, huh Misty?" Dawn said to her friend. Misty grinned in response.

"It couldn't have come any sooner Dawn," Misty replied.

"And you get to go against the person you wanted to battle," Zoey added. "Just make sure you teach her who's in charge,"

"I repeat: it couldn't have come any sooner," Misty repeated, "And don't worry; I will," she said, getting up and walking down towards the field as well.

--

"Well… looks like Misty got the match she was hoping for," May finally said, throughout her silent treatment.

Gemma nodded in agreement, "But I wouldn't worry too much. Zea seems to already know what she's going up against; even though she has no idea what pokémon Misty contains."

--

The two students had finally made it down to the field and approached Mr. Goodshow. He gave the two a briefing and then stepped off to the side of the field, while the two teens walked out to the two opposing ends of the field, and turned to face each other when they reached their destination.

"Ok students, which battle field would you like?" Mr. Goodshow asked.

"It doesn't really matter to me," Zea replied.

"O…k… A water field as always Misty?" he asked the other teen.

"Yes please Mr. Goodshow," Misty replied.

Mr. Goodshow nodded and pressed some buttons in a box on the wall. This caused the battle field, which was a normal battle field, to open up from the center and disappear into the walls on the side, leaving room for a water field to move up from underneath.

"Ok. The field is ready, now students reveal your pokémon," the lecturer announced.

"Ok Gyarados, let's show this girl who's boss around here!" Misty called out, releasing her pokémon. The pokémon roared upon release towards its opponent.

There were sounds of gasping coming from everyone in the class upon seeing which pokémon Misty had released. And the chattering started again amongst the students.

Ash and Lucifer groaned upon seeing which pokémon Misty called out.

"They must have already met," Lucifer said, his tone having the groaning sound in it. "Misty only uses Gyarados when she wants to get back at someone. This can't be good,"

The other boys nodded in agreement.

-

"Gyarados huh." Zea stated, looking up at the atrocious pokémon.

"Yea," Misty replied, "Are you scaaared?"

"Eh, not really," Zea shrugged.

"Hmm, let's see. Gyarados are able to use attacks against opponents even if they have the type advantage. Vaporeon would be ok since water attacks can't touch her. Jolteon would make this battle end before it started, but I want to have some fun with her first. Flareon's a definite no-no, even if he has won his fair sure of battles against water types. Espeon and Umbreon are at their best in double battles. So that leaves me with Leafeon and Glaceon. Hmm… Leafeon would have an advantage as well as disadvantage against Gyarados, and my pokémon and I love a challenge, so Leafeon it is," Zea thought in conclusion.

"Please release your pokémon, Zea," the lecturer called out to her. Zea nodded in response and reached into her bag pocket and pulled out a pokéball. Fortunately, it was the one with a sticker of a leaf on it, verifying that it was Leafeon's pokéball.

"Ok Leafeon, let's show them what we've got!" Zea called out, releasing her grass type evolution pokémon.

"Leafeon!" The pokémon cried out upon release, landing on one of the stable pads on the water field.

--

Updated 29/07/09

Hmm… can't say much except that I hope you guys liked this chapter. It might not be what you guys were hoping for, but it's got a start I guess.

Umm… the next chapter might be very long, because I'm hoping to put everyone's battle into one chapter; you'll see what I mean once I've completed it and put it up.

… I guess that's about it. Still working on my art stuff though,

Please review. Loved the ones I got last chapter. ^^