Neither one of them wanted to challenge Kirralie first.

After the morning's performance, both were still feeling pretty embarrassed. Kirralie had had a spectacular battle against Eric and his two grimers. Her togepi's metronome move was very useful, randomly choosing offensive moves that dealt great damage to the poisonous blobs. Her pichu was a great aid too, using his dizzy punch to confuse Eric's remaining grimer.

After that battle, both Kelsie and James were understandably nervous.

"Oh come on." Kirralie urged, impatiently. "It marks a great end to a brilliant day."

"For you." James moaned.

"And the pokemon." Kirralie glanced at Rex, a smile on her face. "They're getting kind of chubby, turning into a slobs, like their trainer."

"No they're not! And I am not a slob!"

"Fine!" Kelsie shouted, fed up with the bickering. "I'll go first, just shut up, the pair of you." James gave her an odd look; she never acted like this when he argued with her. Kelsie selected a pokeball, her annoyance distracted her from remembering which one, and out came Polly. Unfortunately, she wasn't Kelsie's first choice, as Kirralie had a bellsprout, and a pichu. Kirralie smirked, thinking this too.

"Looks like you're up pichu." He leapt forward, the red pouches on his, dark yellow, cheeks crackling with electricity, much like flaaffy's wool did. His black-tipped, pointy ears twitched eagerly, as did his tiny, lightning-bolt tail. Polly danced happily.

Kirralie was kind enough to let Kelsie go first. She called for Polly to use doubleslap, and Polly swung her tail at her opponent. Pichu darted out of the way, but wasn't quick enough to avoid Polly's frantic wagging. He rolled backwards, landing at Kirralie's feet, and bounced back up, looking slightly worn.

"Thundershock!"

"Dodge it Polly!" There was no use in ordering her to attack; water would make things worse, doubleslap involved Polly making contact and being put in harm's way and hypnosis would mean that Polly would have to keep still, meaning that the thundershock could strike her as she was putting the pichu to sleep.

Polly rolled to the side, just avoiding the bolt of electricity which hit the pavement where she was just stood. Pichu, released another one, it also missed. He was panting by the time he released his third, evidently wearing out. "Pii-" It cried, flopping down onto its rear. "-chu."

Kirralie returned him, looking disappointed. Bellsprout took his place and Kirralie yelled out; "Vine whip, now!" before Kelsie could even open her mouth. Two long vines produced from under bellsprout's leaves and whipped Polly in the face. She slammed into the ground, crying out, and struggled to get up. "Yay! I won one!"

Kelsie was down to her last pokemon. One that wasn't very effective against grass types. Flaaffy jittered about, energetically, causing bellsprout to sway as she tried to keep up. "Nice on flaaffy!" Kelsie cheered. "Just keep that up and we'll win in no time." Kirralie growled. She seemed to take her battles, no matter who she was against, exceedingly seriously.

The gloves were off, both trainers issued commands at the same time; flaaffy-thunder wave, bellsprout- poison powder. The glittery dust sailed through the air, looking inescapable. Flaaffy released her electrical energy, striking her target, just as the dust passed her. Amazingly, none hit.

Bellsprout shuddered, her movements restricted. The vines came out again, just as flaaffy slammed her body into the plant's. Bellsprout staggered back, stumbling, and fell on to her back, unable to get up. Her eyes remained staring at the sheep, the vines slithering across the floor. However, bellsprout had no strength to lift them, let alone use them to strike flaaffy's body.

"Good luck." Kelsie patted James' shoulder, grinning. Her voice was light, almost like she was singing in joy.

"Cheers." James sighed. Kirralie had a face like a dog chewing a wasp. "You've made things harder for me."

"Sorry."

Being as James had three pokemon, he could only use two. His choices were Rex and oddish. Kirralie chose togepi next, being as Rex had an advantage against her hoppip. She had lost all of her confidence, mainly because she was left with her weakest two pokemon. Partly because she had wanted to impress James.

Choosing tactically, James chose oddish. She was only just taller- due to the shoots growing out of her head- than the egg-encased pokemon. Only its head was free, shaped with five spikes. Stubby arms and legs poked through the white shell, which was patterned with blue and red shapes.

"Priiiii!" She cried, waving her arms about. They glowed white and, suddenly, togepi self-destructed, knocking herself out, but only knocking oddish back. Not the outcome Kirralie wanted. Her frustration flared up and a very audible 'grrrrrr!' escaped her lips.

Hoppip and oddish took to each other right away. They happily smiled at each other and started talking, instead of battling. Until Kirralie stomped her foot. Both pokemon seemed to realize that they were supposed to be battling.

James laughed, mostly at Kirralie's face. A laugh that hastily turned into a cough with one look from the girl opposite. Oddish's absorb wouldn't do much damage against the other grass type, so James was left with stun spore. Kirralie opted for tackle and the little tomato-like plant rammed into oddish, pushing her over.

"Dish!" She jumped back up and released the dust particles into the air. Hoppip rammed into her again, braving the dust, and this time oddish stayed down.

"Ha!" Kirralie jeered, despite knowing she was done for. Rex produced his fiery embers and hoppip was down too.

Kirralie left with a rather sour mood, but she promised them she would meet them in Ecruteak, if she was still around by the time they had caught up. Kelsie worried about her safety, leaving this late at night, but after a lot of reassurance, Kirralie disappeared into the distance, Kelsie and James waving after her.

"She sure was shocked when we beat her!" James crowed, a wicked grin on his face. "Teach her for thinking we were weak!" He hugged his pokemon, oddish squealed in delight, but Rex and spearow wriggled uncomfortably. Kelsie giggled at the strange sight.

James decided he wanted to challenge Whitney, the next day. He entered the gym and found it packed. Groups of giggling girls were standing in clumps, absolutely everywhere. "Eurgh, it's a girls gym."

Kelsie, who had gone along for moral support, not to challenge Whitney herself, as she didn't feel prepared enough, dug James in the ribs, shushing him. It didn't matter anyway, the shrieks of laughter were too high-pitched for anyone to hear his words.

"Are they challengers or what?" James asked, nervously approaching the first group he reached and tapping the closest girl on the shoulder. She turned, blushing, and giggled again at the sight of James.

"Oh, a boy." That set the rest of them off. James rolled his eyes, waiting for them to cool down. "What do you want?"

"Are you…?"

"What are you doing here?" His question was cut short by some short, ditzy woman, with vivid pink hair and a lot of skimpy clothes. She acted like a child, even pouting at the sight of James. "This is a girls only party!"

"A party?" James spluttered, Whitney huffed. "In a gym?"

"It's my gym and I can do what I want!" Her lower lip was wobbling, a tantrum was about to be thrown. James scarpered, pulling Kelsie outside with him. "Challenge me soon, 'kay?" Whitney called after him, waving.

A/N- Sorry it's short and it took a while to update, I had nothing planned and I've been pretty busy. So busy, in fact, that I'm exhausted : ( early night for me :P

Anyway, I promise I'll have the next chapter up soon, I know what's going to happen in that one. And if you're missing Scott, he'll appear soon.

I would also like to let you all know I'm in the process of writing a new pokemon story, but I promise it won't distract my attention from this one- I'm not uploading it till this one is finished. I've written the first chapter so far and if any of you are interested in reading, I'll email it to you, or upload the first chapter or something. Otherwise, you can just wait :P

So anyway…. Enjoy, thank you for reading and reviewing (if you do).

Define-originality. (Almost wrote my real name :S) lol.