Time to let things ease off a little after the drama from previous chapters. Hopefully, things will go a little bit better for everyone.

KedharS: It should be pretty good.

Rosealine gold: I think she'd make a perfectly adorable cheerleader.

Aquahaze675: Hopefully this chapter will be even better.

Pokemonking0924: Thanks, I've really enjoyed writing these chapters and I'm glad people are liking them.

Hellraiserphoenix: Hopefully the intensity will ratchet down a little bit this chapter.

Thunder Fire: Repenting? Nah, that would require her feeling bad. This is more about simple karmic retribution.

14ofNobodies: I'll consider them for a later time, thank you.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 480

"You can't be serious," Sylvia said, shaking her head, her face going pale. There was absolutely no way she could allow herself to go fishing with Marion Rivers of all people. That sounded like the most boring, grating thing she could ever do.

"Well, fine then!" Sango said, putting a wicked smile on her face. "Then that just means you'll be my maid for tonight?"

That was even more out of the question. Sylvia had no intention of following the orders of anyone like some simpering servant! Absolutely not! But if she didn't, then that would mean…

"…Fine," she snarled, the mask of affability slipping from her face for the first time, revealing the rage hidden beneath. She reached into her purse and fished out her phone. "But I'll need you to tell me her number."

Sango smirked, and recited it from memory. Sylvia was glowering the whole time she typed it in, the phone ringing as she reluctantly held it to her ear.

"Hello-hoo!" Marion's chirping voice came over the line, the bubbling joy in her tone actually making Sylvia wince. "What's the word, mockingbird?"

"This is Sylvia Driscoll," Sylvia said, sounding like she wished she were someone else. "Is this Marion Rivers?"

"Eh? Sylvia Driscoll?" Marion sounded surprised, and with good reason. The thought that Sylvia would call her was a hard one to swallow. "What do you want?"

Sylvia took a deep breath and sighed, forcing herself to go through with it. She put on the mask of a smile, even though Marion couldn't see it. "I was just wondering… would you like to go on a fishing trip, just for a weekend? Just you and me?"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" Marion's cry of joy was so loud that Sylvia had to hold her phone away from her ear, everyone else in the room hearing the joy in the fishing enthusiast's voice, holding their hands over their mouths and repressing their laughter. "YOU SERIOUS?! You want to go fishing?! That's just the tops of the tippity tops, Sylvia my girl! Absolutely! As soon as i get back, you and me! Just one long weekend of fishing! Hey, now that I'm thinking about it, let's go on a three-day weekend! That'll mean a whole three days of fishing, sound like a plan?"

"…Sure," Sylvia said through gritted teeth. Sango smiled smugly, happy that she'd finally "got" Sylvia after all the unchecked destruction Sylvia had caused.

But seeing the smugness on Sango's face put a wicked thought in Sylvia's head.

"Oh, speaking about just the two of us," Sylvia purred, the tone of her voice chilling Sango to the bone, "What if we ask Sango to come along, too? See, recently it seems that she's been getting into fishing herself, carrying a big fishing pole around with her wherever she goes, so I was thinking maybe the three of us could-"

"Wait, no, you can't-" Sango was NOT going to go fishing with Sylvia. She might have wanted to go with Marion, but not Sylvia, never Sylvia. That would be miserable. But before she could correct Sylvia, Marion had already cut her off with an even louder scream.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!" Marion shouted. "That's amazing! Sango's really fishing?! I gotta call her!"

"No need, she's right here!" Sylvia chirped. "I can hand the phone over to her for you, if you want!"

Sylvia turned to Sango, reinvigorated, and offered the phone out to her. Sango sighed in defeat, settling for glaring at the other girl as she took the phone from her and held it up to her ear.

"Hey, Marion," Sango said, trying to sound cheery. "Been a while."

"Sango my love!" Marion cooed. "Are you really fishing? Like, really really? Really really really? Please tell me it's at least five or six really's!"

"Yes, Marion, I'm getting into fishing," Sango said, smiling a little. Even if it was a plot from Sylvia, it was good to talk to Marion again. "After you were gone, well… I felt kind of lonely, you know? And fishing, I guess… it was a way to feel closer to you, so I figured hey, I might as well try it, you know? And you know, I've only been doing it for a few days, but… I really do kind of like it," she admitted. Certainly not to the extent that Marion did (but who could ever come close?) but still, it had become a bit of a routine the past few days, to sit on that dock after the sun set and fish to unwind after the day's end. Even if she never caught anything.

"Then you just gotta come with us!" Marion exclaimed. "I'm so glad! You finally awoke your inner fishing lover! When I get back, we can go fishing with Sylvia, just the three of us and Silver! Then you and I can go together, too! All sorts of fishing! Oh, why can't I be back already?!" She moaned.

Sango smiled. Marion was Marion, after all. It felt like it had been forever since she'd heard the girl's voice, but really it had only been a little over a week.

"I'm looking forward to it," she said, her joy at talking with Marion surprisingly able to overwrite the frustration that would no-doubt come from going on a fishing expedition with her and Sylvia. And the fact that Sylvia would dislike it more than her was just the icing on the cake. "I'll see you then, Marion! I can't wait!"

Sango hung up on the fishing girl and handed the phone back over to Sylvia, who took it from her, giving her a sour look.

"Okay, my turn then," Sylvia scowled. She turned to Ayame and Blake on the couch. "Ayame. Truth or Dare?"

Ayame glared at her in response, not about to put herself at Sylvia's mercy. "Truth."

"What's the most humiliating thing you've ever said or done in front of Blake?" Sylvia asked. "I want you to describe it for everyone here."

Ayame scowled, it was obvious that Sylvia was trying to humiliate her. She sighed, taking a deep breath, her face flushing as she glanced at Blake sheepishly.

"Well? Big girl voice now," Sylvia smirked.

"Uhum, um… doing a high kick and holding my foot to his throat… while wearing a really short skirt…" Ayame admitted, her face turning red at the memory of it, subconsciously tugging her hands down like she was wearing a skirt, even though she was wearing jeans. She glanced down, feeling a little ashamed. That had been their first meeting, and she hadn't exactly made the best impression on him.

Well, not the best impression from her point of view, however.

"I remember that," Blake smiled wistfully. Unlike Ayame, that WAS a good memory for him. She had certainly made a great impression, and looking back at that event with the context of his current memory, it was possible that the strength of their first meeting and the chemistry between the two of them that had resulted from it (more specifically, the embarrassing look on her face when he teased her) had been part of what led him to fall for her.

"Please, please forget," Ayame begged, burying her face in her hands in embarrassment. She was happy that Blake liked that aspect of her, but, well… that being the first meeting with the boy she loved wasn't exactly the most romantic of stories to tell.

Sylvia also wasn't too thrilled, hoping that the most humiliating event would be something, well… humiliating, not a meet-cute. She sighed, scratching her head in frustration and sitting back down in her seat.

"My turn?" Ayame said. "Um… Giselle! Truth or Dare!"

"Me?" Giselle asked, brightening. She was glad that Ayame had called on her, she couldn't wait to see what Ayame came up with. "Dare!"

"Great!" Ayame smiled. "I dare you to hug the cutest person in the room!"

Giselle sighed with relief. That was lucky. If Ayame had dared her to hug the person she liked most here, or hug her crush, well, that would have forced her to hug Ayame herself, and Giselle wasn't ready for that talk. But if it was just the cutest one, that wouldn't be too hard. She got up out of her seat and walked across the room to Kitty, who was still hiding behind the couch.

"Um, hi," Giselle said, waving at the small girl. Kitty eyed her suspiciously, the way a cat would, and backed away slightly as Giselle advanced.

"Nya~" Kitty hissed slightly, not in a hateful way, but in an "I don't fully trust you, so keep your distance for now" way. Giselle smiled, not minding that at all.

"Hug?" Giselle asked, holding her arms up. Kitty blinked, narrowing her eyes, and crawled across the floor, staring tentatively at the girl. She was grateful now that Callie had offered to switch clothes. There was no way she'd be crawling around if she was in her fancy Gothic Lolita dress, but Callie's sweats were totally fine.

Kitty finally let Giselle hug her. The girl wrapped her arms around Kitty, one around her waist and the other reaching up to pat her on her head, rubbing it in gentle circular motions like she was petting a Meowth.

"Nya~" Kitty purred, rubbing up into Giselle's hand. It was a surreal sight to see, the taller, tanned girl treating the small Kitty like, well, the cat she was acting like, but it was also kind of adorable in its own way.

"My turn now, right?" Giselle asked, releasing Kitty, who scurried over to the couch and curled up right next to Callie, leaning her head down in the girl's lap as Callie ran her fingers through Kitty's silver-white hair.

Before Giselle could go, though, Cynthia returned to the common room, tray in hand, a freshly-made sandwich on it.

"Your sandwich, Mistress," Cynthia said, trying to seem cheery about it as she handed the plate over to Maddi.

Maddi took a bite of it, chewing it slowly as she contemplated her response. It was probably one of the best sandwiches she'd ever eaten, but she wasn't about to tell Cynthia that. "…Passable," Maddi admitted.

"Thank you, Mistress," Cynthia tried to keep her mood up, but there was no question that she wasn't feeling too hot. She couldn't believe no one else had turned down a Truth or a Dare in the time she'd been fixing up that sandwich. "Oh, Giselle, finally got called on?"

"Yup," Giselle said, smiling at her friend. She turned away from the maid-cosplaying Cynthia and looked over at another one of the couches, the one Nikita, Reiner, and Nick were sitting on. "Nikita, Truth or Dare?"

"What? Uh, me?" Nikita said, surprised. This would be her first question of the night. "Um… Truth."

"If you had to spend the next 10 days locked in a room with one person here, who would you pick?" Giselle asked.

"Oh, well, let me think," Nikita said. "Cynthia, because she knows how to pick locks."

"That's right," Cynthia grinned, giving her a thumbs' up.

Giselle shook her head, frowning. "That's against the rules. You can't leave the room for 10 days, the lock doesn't matter."

"…Oh," Nikita said. That made things much harder. "Um… in that case… Caelia."

Everyone was surprised by THAT one, to say the least. Had Nikita and Caelia even exchanged one word before?

"Well, it's just… she seems so private, like she wouldn't be a bother," Nikita explained, shrugging her shoulders. "So I figured she would be the best one to spend time with."

Nikita's logic was sound and Caelia didn't really have anything to say on the subject, so everyone moved on. Giselle was a little disappointed her question hadn't resulted in more tension, but she returned to her seat without feeling to sour about it.

"My turn, Reiner, Truth or Dare?" Nikita asked, turning to Reiner.

"Um… Truth," Reiner said, not sure if he wanted to know what kind of Dare that Nikita would come up with. It was something only really known to him, but Nikita had another side to her that she didn't share a lot with others, a playful, mischievous side that made him wary.

Nikita swallowed, flushing a little. This was going to take all the courage she had stored up, but the atmosphere of the room had returned to a more relaxed vibe after the previous tensions had been lifted, and this was the only way she'd get to the truth.

"What, um… what do you love the most about me?" Nikita asked, averting her eyes immediately after saying it. It was embarrassing to ask in front of everyone, but she wanted to know.

Reiner blushed, surprised at something so… forward. He was expecting that Nikita would Truth him about the other girls he had fantasized about, but no, it seemed that wasn't what was on his mind, she was totally occupied with him. That was nice to think about, but, well… couldn't she have asked that when they were in private?

"It's, well… it's how hard you try," Reiner explained.

Nikita blinked, that wasn't the answer she had expected.

"What do you mean?" Nikita asked.

"Well, I mean, whatever you do, you put your all into it," Reiner explained. "Studying, digging pitfalls, pranking people, even, well… trying to be a girlfriend. You always do your best at whatever you set your mind to, and that, well… I find that to be really amazing. I mean, I don't try that hard, you know? I mean, I do, but sometimes I'm not really sure what I should do. And I always know that if I'm stuck, or troubled, you'll be there for me to help me see things clearly, and we can work together to solve whatever the issue is. I know that you're always there to listen to my problems and come up with solutions, and for a guy like me, that's just amazing. I know I could never do it."

Nikita looked at him, her eyes wide. That… wow. That was so sweet to say. She hadn't expected an answer like that.

"Wow, Reiner, that…" Nikita murmured.

"That's so adorable!" Cynthia grinned, seeing how flustered Reiner had gotten by his answer. "I had no idea that you could be so cute, Reiner!"

"That was great," Julia said, resisting the urge to burst out laughing at Reiner's declaration, holding both hands over her mouth.

"Sh-shut up!" Reiner said, blushing, annoyed that his cool demeanor had been compromised by his admission. "We're having a private moment!"

"No, pretty sure it wasn't," Sango laughed, shaking her head. "Anyway, it's your turn, Reiner."

Reiner turned to Julia, who was still struggling not to laugh. "Julia, Truth or Dare?"

Julia sobered up, and rolled her eyes. She should have seen that one coming, of course Reiner would pester her again.

"Truth," she said, not in the mood for whatever Dare Reiner would try to humiliate her with.

"Why don't you tell us about those romance books you're always reading?" Reiner asked. Julia flinched, swallowing.

"Um, I don't- I don't know what you mean," Julia said, shaking her head.

"Julia reads romance novels?" Sango asked incredulously. "Julia?"

Kitty perked up at this, looking hopefully at Julia. She had become a little fearful that her crush wasn't interested in love.

It wasn't an unreasonable assumption. Most people here thought the same. Julia always treated romance as something that other people were doing, but she herself wasn't personally interested in. All the boys of their group had girlfriends, and Cynthia was perpetually on the hunt for anyone interested (when she wasn't pining for Blake) but Sango and Julia were both not interested in love. On the surface, anyway. Few people were in the know about Sango's secret crush on Blake, and with Kitty's feelings for Julia, Maddi and Julia were the only ones who had no real interest in love or dating at all.

Which was why the notion that Julia was secretly reading romance novels was a little hard to believe.

"That can't be real, you're just making it up," Sango said, shaking her head. She'd never once seen Julia even TALK about love or crushes or anything like that. She'd tuned out when the topic arose on more than one occasion.

"It's real, I saw her pulling one out of her backpack yesterday," Reiner explained. Everyone turned to Julia, to see how she would defend herself. The flustered look on her face, so out of the ordinary on her usually-cool exterior, told them that there was nothing she had to say. Reiner had been right on the money.

"Now that's interesting!" Dakota said, leaning in eagerly. Any gossip was interesting to her.

"There's nothing to talk about!" Julia exclaimed. "I just got into them recently, it's not a big deal!"

"Oh, it's a very big deal," Cynthia said, shaking her head, now REALLY interested in what Julia had to say. "You never read stuff like that, so I gotta wonder why you would. And I can only think of one reason why our perpetual 'I'm above mushy stuff like romance and love' cool girl Julia would suddenly become interested in romance novels."

Julia didn't like where this line of thought was going.

"You've fallen in love with someone, haven't you?" Cynthia demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at Julia, stunning her.

"Brilliant deduction, Cynthia," Dakota agreed, rising from her seat and walking over to her, nodding in agreement. She turned towards Julia and reached into her shirt pocket, withdrawing her glasses and sliding them up her nose. "Allow me to continue that line of thought."

"By all means," Cynthia said, turning the floor over to her fellow redhead. Julia rolled her eyes. Akira rolled his eyes as well, knowing his was going to be positively insufferable.

"Now, Julianna Keruz, you've always held yourself as the kind of girl who doesn't give a figy berry about romance, isn't that right?" Dakota asked, pressing up her glasses and narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah, that's why-"

"However, you can't deny the fact that you're currently reading romance novels, can you?" Dakota demanded, pointing right at her.

"No, but what I'm saying is-"

"Cynthia's reasoning is sound. For a girl who has never thought about love in the past, to suddenly begin reading romance novels, there can only be one explanation for it," Dakota continued. "You've fallen in love! Maybe with a boy, maybe with a girl, but it's unquestionably the case! And that's not all! You've displayed no traces of romantic feelings in the past, we've already established that. No one had even the slightest suspicion that you were reading romances in secret. Now, maybe you've always been harboring those feelings, maybe not. Maybe you've been reading these books for years. But I submit that you haven't!"

Dakota held up a thick hardbound book with a cover depicting a handsome, muscled man with no shirt holding a curvy blonde woman in a thin slip of a dress in his arms, standing on the balcony of a castle and looking out at bright scenery.

Julia's jaw dropped and her face went pale.

"That's my-?! How did you-?!" She sputtered, grabbing her bag, and confirming that yes, indeed, her book was missing.

Akira rolled his eyes again. Of course she'd lifted it when Julia wasn't looking.

"As you can see, this book is brand new! No fraying on the edges of the cover, no wrinkles in the page, Bunearied-corners, nothing! It's in pristine condition! So I submit that you've just recently picked this one up! There's no library sticker or anything, so it's clearly your own book! And the fact that you don't have any other romance books in your room-"

"How could you possibly know that?!" Julia demanded.

"She doesn't," Cynthia confirmed. "I would have seen 'em." Sango nodded in agreement, amused by this performance Dakota was putting on.

"…The fact that you don't have any other romance books in your room," Dakota continued, a little miffed at getting interrupted, "informs me that this is a very recent hobby of yours! Do you deny it, Julianna Keruz?!"

"No, but that-"

"Which means that whatever change came upon you that made you interested in romance is a recent occurrence!" Dakota plowed right ahead, ignoring Julia's words. "I submit that you have only recently become interested in romance… because it is only recently that you've fallen in love! How recently? Well, there's only been one major even to shake things up! Winter Break!"

Kitty drooped, disappointed. She really hoped that Dakota wasn't right about that part.

"Allow me to explain! I submit that, over Winter Break, you met someone! Maybe an old flame while you were back in your hometown, or maybe you fell in love with someone you just ran into, either way it doesn't matter! You fell in love over break! And with no experience in romance before, and too afraid to tell your friends, when you've always acted so much better than them when it came to romance, your only recourse for learning more about what to do with your feelings was to begin reading up on the topic! Hence, you bought your first romance novel, and have been reading up on the topic ever since! All to know what to do with your feelings!"

She smirked.

"Simply by the fact that you have a romance novel in your backpack, this level of reasoning is possible for Dakota Evans! What do you think, everyone?" Dakota took a bow while everyone applauded. Even if she was completely wrong, the performance had been something to see.

"…Nope," Julia said, shaking her head. "I just got a little curious about love, is all. Since all my friends seem so bright in their relationships, I wanted to check out a romance novel and see what all the big fuss was about. Not because I had a crush or anything."

Everyone burst out laughing as Dakota flushed a deeper red than her hair, quickly returning to her seat beside her cackling boyfriend and burying her face in her hands.

Whoops. Dakota Evans, master reporter, flubs it again.