Red P.O.V.

It's Thursday.

The past few days have been…an experience to say the least. Amarillo constantly fights with Chuck, only a faraway voice and Blue seeming to have an effect on calming him down. I still can't believe gentle, sweet Amarillo constantly gets into fights with big, blustery Chuck. Though, Chuck can be super annoying at times.

It's one of those Battle Group A training days. I have a feeling this isn't going to end well…

"Ama, you do realize Chuck constantly gets like this?" It's Blue. I still can't believe that rowdy troublemaker is so good at reasoning with Amarillo. "Just lay low for today. I'll get you out of Battle Training A, and once Chuck finishes sulking, he'll come find you and apologize."

Amarillo smiles. It's a bright, cheerful, sunny, smile. I like it. "Okay! Thank you Blue!" There's a tug on my heart. I don't know why. That boy reminds me of someone…

Just then, Chuck enters, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"EVERYONE! TODAY WE'RE DOING ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE TEACHER! WHICH MEANS ME!" Chuck booms.

Amarillo sighs, his smile turning upside down.

"ALRIGHTIES! WHO'S GOING FIRST?" Chuck asks.

No one raises their hand. Experience from last year says that Chuck is a harsh one-on-one teacher. Emerald and Amarillo, the new ones, also don't seem inclined to go first.

Then Blue steps forward. "I'll go first!" she announces. What? Why? She never goes first! Could this have something to do with that plot of hers…?

"EXCELLENT, BLUE, YOU'RE GETTING AN A!" Chuck grins, rubbing his hands together.

Blue loses. Badly.

"WHO'S NEXT?" Chuck asks as Blue slips back into the shadows with Amarillo. The two of them have a low-pitched, rapidfire conversation.

No one steps forward.

"THEN I'LL PICK! AMARILLO, YOU GO!" Chuck booms.

For a moment, I'm sure Amarillo has run off. But then he reluctantly steps out of the shadows to battle with Chuck.

Uh-oh. This might get…messy.

Amarillo and Chuck battle again, but this time, Amarillo loses by the teeniest of margins.

"GOOD WORK," Chuck praises, and Amarillo nods before stepping back into the shadows and disappearing. A few minutes later, Blue appears, followed by Amarillo, and they plop down by Silver.

Wait…Amarillo didn't really seem like Amarillo when he fought, now that I think back on it. What…I KNOW! They're sneaky—Blue took Amarillo's place during the battle! It's better that way though, so I'm not saying anything.

"OK, NEXT!" Chuck roars.

No one steps forward. Everyone's scared. Chuck must've done some hard-core training to have beaten Amarillo. And Blue. Though really he just beat Blue twice…and Blue's good.

"THEN I'LL PICK! AMARILLO, YOU'RE NEXT!"

Uh… didn't Amarillo just go? "I already went," Amarillo says, brow furrowed.

"YOU'RE NEXT!" Chuck insists, ignoring Amarillo.

Blue steps forward, flashing a brilliant smile, and says clearly, "Chuck, I think Amarillo already went. How about Green?"

Green glares at Blue, eye twitching.

"Oh," Chuck deflates, then bounces up again. "GREEN! YOU'RE NEXT!"

Green glares extremely hard at…thin air? Blue appears to have (wisely) disappeared.

"GREEN," Chuck repeats, "YOU'RE NEXT."

Green reluctantly stands forward to face his former (and current) mentor.

Green's battle with Chuck just goes to show just how hard Chuck trained. Green lost—by a tiny fraction. Just like Amarillo—I mean, Blue the second. Blue the first was horrible. Blue the first lost on purpose, because there's no way she improved that fast. Was she trying to make Amarillo look good…?

Battle Training A was harsh. I huff. I won by just a tiny degree. Everyone else lost, and no one was as good as Green or Blue the second. Silver was close, though, and the rest didn't really try (Sapphire was still sulking from a fight she had with Ruby, and same for Ruby, Emerald was distracted by their fight, and Crystal was distracted trying to figure out where the nearest earthquake shelter was).

"We're going to do homework, Ama, wanna come?" I hear Blue saying.

"Sure!" Ama replies, and the two plus Silver run off.

Then Crystal heads off to the forest too. "I'm gonna go scout through the forest to see where the nearest earthquake shelter is."

"I'll come with! I need to figure out the nearest tsunami shelter!" Sapphire yells, running after her. Maybe she's still paranoid after that fight she had with Kyogre.

"Great idea! C'mon, let's go," Crystal says.

The two of them are paranoid.