After the party, moving onto the presents! It took longer to get through the presents than I expected, so we won't get to the game until the next chapter. That just means more time to come up with more good ideas for truths and dares!

KedharS: Thanks, but pretty sure Maddi doesn't have a crush, lol.

Rosealine gold: Well, how did she come up with the nickname for her Eevee?

Thunder Fire: …Strip how far, though?

Aquahaze675: The current game plan is for Carrie to have a new job in each appearance, having been fired from the last one. Will she ever find a steady paycheck?

Pokemonking0924: Nice. Some of those are downright evil.

Kunoichi69: Those seem fun, any others?

Big Eater: Lol, some of those are great, thanks! Any other ideas?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 474

Cramming 19 people into a three-person dorm room was clearly going to be an exercise in futility, so the afterparty celebrations were held in the common room instead. Blake was relieved at that, since it meant Cynthia would hopefully be a little more restrained in her actions when they got around to truth or dare.

It was probably a pipe dream, but he could hope, right?

One thing he was grateful for was that the tension around Sylvia Driscoll's presence had been alleviated since the restaurant. The people who were on the fence had come around and were tolerating her, and the folks like him, who had deeper grudges towards her, were at least willing to not make any waves over the issue.

No one LIKED her being there, but no one was going to raise a stink over it, either.

Meanwhile, Cynthia was having the time of her life, sitting alone on the couch that she claimed for herself using the right of the birthday girl, in the center of a mountain of presents. As was to be expected, she started with the biggest ones, first. It was a large box, almost as large as her. That was Julia's present, and it had been sitting in her room for a few days now, driving Cynthia up the wall with excitement wondering what it could be. She tore open the wrapping and then dug into the box itself, pulling off the lid to reveal…

A pokedoll.

And not just any pokedoll, either, but a big Breloom pokedoll. When Cynthia laid eyes on it, it was love at first sight.

"OOOOH!" Cynthia gasped, squeezing it tightly to her chest. "It's Tristan! It's the best!"

"That doll's almost as tall as you are!" Blake laughed. He wasn't wrong. It was proportional to a real Breloom, about three feet tall, which was over half Cynthia's height.

"I love it," Cynthia cooed, hugging the Breloom like a body pillow.

"I saw it in a store over break, and remembered your birthday," Julia laughed. "So I got it delivered, it seemed like it was your style."

"Absolutely!" Cynthia nodded eagerly. Julia relaxed a little, Kitty patting her on the shoulder and smiling at Julia, happy for her.

The next gift was from Kitty. It was a long box only about six inches tall, which told Cynthia that it was probably clothes of some sort. And knowing Kitty, she had a good idea just what clothes the girl had bought for her. She pulled the lid off, revealing, indeed, a black Gothic Lolita dress with white trimming, all ribbons and lace and frills.

"It's a style that I like…" Kitty blushed, smiling at Cynthia from where she sat next to Julia on the couch, hoping that Cynthia would like it. "I just, you know… I thought that since you like clothes-"

"Now we can be twins!" Cynthia gushed, leaping to her feet and clutching the dress to her chest. "Quick, hold on guys, I'm going to go change!"

Cynthia dashed into the common bathroom, leaving the other guests sitting there, stunned.

"…I should probably help," Kitty said, hopping off the couch. "Those dresses are hard to put on by yourself without practice."

A few minutes later, two girls came out of the bathroom, wearing stylish black dresses with white frills. They looked similar on the surface, but there were clear differences. Cynthia's dress had a white front with a section cut out that revealed her collarbone, and Kitty's was sleek and black up to her neck, with a white lace collar. Kitty's skirt also had layers that ended in lace every few inches, while Cynthia's was long and ruffled with lace at the trim. Kitty was also wearing her trademark black cat ears, while Cynthia wore a black headband with white lace like that of a maid.

"Not bad, girls," Sylvia said, applauding them. "Two girls after my own heart!"

Neither girl was particularly pleased with the association, but they were happy with the looks they were getting.

"It's like they're dolls," Giselle said, finding two short girls in Gothic Lolita to be an incredibly adorable sight.

"Kitty, come over here!" Cynthia led Kitty over to the couch she was sitting on, enjoying the bonding experience with the matching girl, Kitty feeling a little special about being able to sit with the birthday girl on the couch.

"Okay, the next gift…" Cynthia tried to find the next largest one. It was a long, thin box, taller than her. Intriguing.

"Oh, that's mine!" Sango said, raising her hand, a big smile on her face. Cynthia opened the box to reveal…

"A fishing pole?" Cynthia glanced up at her friend in confusion.

"Yup!" Sango chirped, her eyes bright. "It's a fishing pole! Now, we can go fishing whenever we want, Cynthia! Isn't that, like, just the bestest thing? It'll be a great way for us to bond!"

Everyone stared at Sango like she was mental.

"…What happened to her over winter break?" Blake asked, glancing at Cynthia, who shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

The specter of Marion Rivers hung over Sango's shoulder, reflected in the smile on her face. No one said anything else, though, wondering if this pro-fishing attitude was maybe just something she had to work through for herself.

Cynthia, reading the confusion of the room and feeling it herself, gave a noncommittal nod, before moving onto another box, this one from Giselle. It was heavy, so much so that Cynthia couldn't even lift it. Which was rather concerning, considering Giselle wasn't exactly the most physical girl in the world. How'd the cutie even get it in here? But she put that thought out of her mind as she tore off the shiny wrapping paper to see what was underneath.

Fresh from the store, it was a portable oven, pink and cream-colored, but not like any she'd ever seen. It was a mixture of a blender, a stove, and an oven, some sort of multipurpose cooking implement. She looked at Giselle with confusion.

"It's a portable Poffin Blender," Giselle explained. "You mix together the berries and the batter while it's cooking and then put it in the oven to finish. Remember? I mentioned when we met before that we could make poffins together, and, well…"

Cynthia held her hands to her mouth, touched by the gesture. She had expected the girl to cook with her, but buying her a blender of her very own?

"Thank you, Giselle? Absolutely-totally! We gotta do it, soon as possible!" Cynthia nodded eagerly. She wasn't all that interested in Pokemon Contests (though Giselle and the Empress had made them look pretty amazing) but she did appreciate the gesture, and maybe it would be nice to give it a try, something fun and casual.

"Sounds good," Giselle said, smiling back.

In a good mood now, after the weirdness of the fishing pole and the general presence of Sylvia, Cynthia hummed to herself as she moved on to a box that was about a foot in every direction. She checked the card, seeing it was from Ayame. Opening it up, she found a bunch of plastic cans filled with powder, and some bottles filled with suspicious liquids.

"Is this where you tell me you're a drug dealer?" Cynthia asked hopefully, glancing up at Ayame.

"They're supplements, not drugs!" Ayame sputtered. "Protein, Zinc, Iron, Calcium, Carbos, HP UP, all the stuff you'll need to really boost your pokemons' stats! Also, some Apricot Juice, hand-blended by me, to work on your pokemons' conditions."

"Whoa, really?" Cynthia asked, her face lighting up. "That means we'll totally be able to take on Blake and a bunch of other trainers! Thanks, Ayame!"

"Plus, I included a super-training regimen for you to follow, based on what I've observed of your pokemon's conditions," Ayame explained. "If you really want to train 'em up to be fucking awesome, that is, I put some real elbow grease into it!"

"…Hey," Blake said, turning to her, disappointment clear on his face. "So where's this dedication to helping me raise my pokemon, huh?"

"W-well, your pokemon are already pretty good," Ayame said, blushing a little. "…And if you spent all your time training, well… we would have less time to hang out together…"

Everyone else snickered at that.

"What? What? You wanna say something? Huh?" Ayame demanded, turning and glaring at everyone, but the embarrassment on her face took a lot of the edge out of her anger.

"Thanks, Ayame! Love it!" Cynthia grinned.

"Hey, open mine next!" Callie said, hopping off of where she was sitting on Nick's lap and rushing over to Cynthia, pushing a box up to her. "Trust me, it goes along really well with hers!"

"Uh, okay," Cynthia said, taking the box from the blonde and opening it. It was filled with strange gear that she didn't know the use for. It looked familiar, though. "This is…?"

Blake peaked over her shoulder, and recognized what it was immediately. Callie had given him the exact same thing for HIS birthday.

"It's a macho brace," Callie explained. "Use it in conjunction with those supplements that she gave you, and your pokemon will get really bulky really fast."

Cynthia pictured Rose and Ruby all buff and muscular. It was distasteful. She made a face, but tried to keep a smile as she accepted the gift.

"Thank… you?"

"I'd listen to her," Akira volunteered. "A macho brace buffs the stat gains a pokemon receives from each battle. It's a really good item for training."

"…Oh!" Cynthia said, brightening, turning to Callie with a renewed sense of gratitude. "Thanks, Callie, I'll make great use of it!"

If Blake was bothered by his rival getting all these tools to help her become a better trainer, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

With that, all the big presents were out of the way. The ones left over were all smaller. Cynthia took the first one, from Aidan. She glanced up at him.

"I, uh… I don't know you very well," he admitted, still not entirely sure why she'd invited him. "So, I mean, I got a book for you."

"Thanks!" Cynthia grinned, opening it. Regardless of the present, she was just enjoying the eye-candy. It was a fantasy light novel, one she hadn't read before. She wasn't much of a reader, but the hot girl on the cover made her a little hopeful that it would at least have some sex scenes in it.

"Mine next," Reiner said, holding his up.

"No, mine," Nikita said, holding a gift the exact same size up. The two glanced at each other.

"…Did you guys buy the same book again like Blake's birthday?" Cynthia sighed, taking the books from the couple.

"No, no, we coordinated this time," Reiner assured her.

"That was really embarrassing," Nikita admitted, blushing.

Cynthia peeled off the wrapping paper and checked the books' covers. Well… they were books, alright. Textbooks.

Her favorite.

Reiner's was "Legends of the Hoenn Region", so at least he was thinking about her interests. Nikita's book was a lot more broad, "Pokemon of Legend", the same book that she had given to Blake (which he already had two copies of).

"…Thanks," Cynthia smiled, resisting the urge to comment on Nikita's lack of originality.

"Legends of the Hoenn Region?" To everyone's surprise, that voice belonged to Kate, everyone turning their attention to her.

"O-oh, just… I haven't read that one yet," Kate said, looking down sheepishly, a little embarrassed by her sudden outburst of excitement. She glanced at Cynthia. "Hey, um… do you mind if I borrow that from you sometime?"

"…Sure," Cynthia said, nodding, not exactly expecting to get a lot of reading of that book done herself. She set the books down on the table with Aidan's.

"Here's mine," Akira said, reaching over and handing her another "obviously a book" present. She took that one, and opened it, a little more interested. It was a book on gym leaders, their pokemon, battling strategies, a lot of good tips and tricks for a trainer. Just the kind of thing she was looking for, a book she could actually read and enjoy.

"Heh! With this, I won't lose to you next time!" Cynthia cackled, smiling victoriously at Akira.

"I have a copy too," Akira informed her, her face falling. "And I've already memorized it."

Cynthia grumbled, throwing the wrapping paper away and tossing the book onto the pile with the others.

"Who else gave me a book?" Cynthia asked, glancing around the room. She didn't want to look upset, and when she saw a tentative hand get raised, she felt immediately guilty.

Maddi looked at her, and Cynthia thought she could see sadness in the girl's stoic expression.

"Sorry, Maddi, I didn't mean… well, no, sorry," Cynthia said, shaking her head. "That was rude of me." She looked for Maddi's gift and unwrapped it, her eyes widening. It was a book on type specialties, going into detail about which types worked well against which and the pros and cons of each. Another useful tool in a trainer's arsenal. Maddi had given her something very nice. She glanced up at her, and smiled, tears in her eyes. "…Thank you. I really love it."

Maddi smiled a little and nodded.

There were only a few gifts left. Cynthia moved onto Nick's, which was a video game, a fighting game where all the characters were hot girls in skimpy clothing. She wiped the drool from her lips and glanced up at him, smirking.

"From your private collection? Callie making you get rid of all your dirty stuff?" She smirked.

"It's not mine!" Nick insisted, his face bright red. Whether his indignity was out of guilt or embarrassment, no one could tell.

Cynthia moved onto the next gift, Serefina's, which, much to her disappointment, was not a set of "do what you want" tickets. It was a hand-knit beanie. Which, honestly, was touching.

"Wow, seriously?" Cynthia said, glancing up at Serefina, who nodded. "Thanks, Serefina."

"Wanted to give something genuine," Serefina explained, smiling. Internally, she hoped that it would lead Cynthia to be a better person, though she doubted it.

The next gift was Kate's. It was thin, it looked like a CD. She unwrapped it, and found that it was actually a few disks, in a case of 4, all of them purple. Cynthia looked at Kate with a questioning eye.

"They're, well… they're Poison Type moves," Kate explained. "TMs. I know you don't have any Poison Type pokemon, but I think you might still have a use for them?"

"Seriously?! Awesome!" Cynthia gushed, nodding eagerly. "Which ones?!"

"I labeled them," Kate explained, Cynthia checking the slips. Toxic, Poison Jab, Sludge Bomb, and Venoshock.

"Huh," Cynthia said, nodding.

"I don't know if you'll have any use for them, but there they are," Kate shrugged.

"Thanks," Cynthia smiled, her face bright. "I'll do my best to make use of these!"

Kate smiled a little, sitting a little taller.

There was only one gift left, and it was from Dakota. Cynthia glanced at Caelia, who was sitting by herself in the corner. The girl hadn't brought anything.

"Don't be too harsh on her," Sylvia said, stepping into Cynthia's line of sight. "She didn't have time to buy a gift, and she wouldn't really know what to get you in the first place."

Sylvia glanced over her shoulder at Caelia, a troubled look on her pretty features. It was odd to see Sylvia look so genuinely remorseful.

"Besides, she probably hasn't been to a lot of birthday parties," she said just quietly enough for only Cynthia and Kitty to hear. Cynthia glanced at her and frowned, her mood sufficiently brought down from before. She reached for the last gift. It was pretty small, a package that was small enough to fit in her hand. She unwrapped it, to reveal… a flashdrive?

Cynthia glanced up at Dakota in confusion.

Dakota smiled, rising to her feet and standing proudly.

"That right there? That's the best of the best," Dakota declared. "The best pictures of Serefina, creep shots, cosplay photos, video feed, you won't find any pictures of comparable quality, I promise you that! And it's all yours!"

Well, THAT turned Cynthia's mood around. She held the flashdrive before her like the holy grail, basking in its heavenly light.

But before she could rush off to a computer and plug it in, it was snapped out of her fingers, much to her stunned surprise.

Serefina, emanating an aura of a demon, stared down at Cynthia with a smile on her face that made Cynthia's blood run cold. She turned her cold gaze onto Dakota, who shivered.

"What made you think this was okay?" Serefina asked, the tone in her voice making it absolutely clear that several lines had been crossed.

Both girls gulped.

Serefina clenched her fist, the flashdrive shattering into pieces.

Dakota and Cynthia nearly pissed themselves.

"S-s-s-sorry…" both girls stuttered.

"Okay, all's forgiven!" Serefina said, her smile turning bright again. "Now then! Anything else?"

Cynthia shook off her momentary panic, her face brightening.

"Time for Truth or Dare!"

Serefina turned a little pale, but nodded her head.

"As long as everything is kept above board," she said, the tone of her voice clear. "I don't want this to turn into anything… erotic."

Cynthia nodded. "O-okay-"

"I haven't ever played before," Kitty said, raising her hand shyly. "How do you play?"

"Very simple," Cynthia explained. "You call on someone, and ask them 'truth or dare'. If they choose truth, you can ask them any question and they have to tell the truth. If they choose dare, you can make them do something and they have to do it."

"And it has to be something within the grounds of common decency," Serefina reminded her, Cynthia rolling her eyes.

"Yes, that. And then, after you do your dare or tell your truth, it's your turn to pick on somebody," Cynthia explained. "And we just keep going, well, until people are done, you know?"

"How about some ground rules, too?" Serefina asked. "To make sure that things are actually good."

Cynthia blinked.

"What did you have in mind?" She asked.

"Three rules, very simple," she explained.

1, you can turn down a truth or a dare, and face a punishment game.

2, you can't pick the person who just picked you.

3, you can't pick the same person as you picked last time, unless someone else has already picked them.

"What do you think?"

"Why the last one?" Cynthia asked, confused.

"To keep certain people from perpetually hounding the same person over and over," Serefina said, already suspicious of Cynthia's intentions.

"Everyone's okay with it, right?" Cynthia asked.

A lot of heads turned to Sylvia. Not many of them were ready to play truth or dare with her. But the hopeful look on Cynthia's face, like she couldn't wait for the game and was excited to play, was hard to argue with. They all slowly nodded in agreement.

"Great!" Cynthia cheered, leaping off the couch, her new dress flaring with her swift movements. "As the birthday girl, I'll start first, sound good?"

"Sure, good idea," Blake said, nodding.

"Now then!" Cynthia declared, turning to Serefina, her intentions obvious. "Serefina, Truth or-"

"Truth," Serefina said icily.

Cynthia pouted. This wasn't how she had wanted things to go.

"Oh, come on, be fun, just do a dare," Cynthia begged.

"Truth," Serefina repeated.

Cynthia hung her head, clearly defeated. Everyone else was trying not to snicker.

So the games begin! Last chance to get some truths and dares in! Well, not really, the game might last a few chapters depending on how things go.