My story begins after the Wallace Cup.

After losing to May in the final round, Zoey and I took a flight back to Sinnoh together. We watched the heartwrenching movie Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. The ending with Lucario learning the truth and making the ultimate sacrifice gets me each time. How cool would it be to meet an aura guardian!

Zoey travels with class, too. When a passenger's baby wouldn't stop crying – even with the man's Bronzor trying to soothe her – Zoey had her Glameow use Hypnosis to soothe everyone. She's super popular; lots of people recognized both of us as Top Coordinators. For the rest of the flight, Zoey taught the man's Bronzor how to use Hypnosis. She's such an awesome Pokémon trainer.

When we arrived at Hearthome Airport, all the billboards were promoting a poffin-making class taught by none other than my old friend and rival: Kenny!

Zoey whistled. "The guy's making a name for himself—you too, Dawn. I heard you taught classes to kids in Fortree City to get more trainers interested in Pokémon contests."

"I wanted to inspire kids to become Pokémon coordinators," I explained. "Kenny's teaching current trainers concrete skills that will help them improve their relationship with their Pokémon. When I travelled with Brock, he was a Pokémon breeder, and he knew how to cater to every Pokémon's unique tastes."

Zoey bought a couple of bags of frozen pecha and mago berries and stuffed them into my backpack. "These tourist prices are only tolerable because I make good money as a decent Pokémon trainer. Why does everyone think Sinnoh is all about pink berries, anyway?"

I giggled. "None of your Pokémon like sweets, right?"

"Exactly!" Zoey stuck out her tongue playfully and clapped me on the shoulder. "Go share those with Kenny. I'm sure his poffin-making class will appreciate the gift, too."

"Will you join us?"

Zoey shook her head. "Ever heard of too many chefs in the kitchen?"

I remembered my first time making poffins without Johanna's guidance. "Only when someone like Ash Ketchum is in that kitchen."

Zoey laughed and put her sunglasses down. "Well, I'll be in Solaceon Town. I want to browse for more seals."

"Oh, right! I should get more seals for Ambipom later. The only seals I have for him are the ones I used when I was a novice Pokémon coordinator. Will I see you in Solaceon Town after Kenny's poffin-making class?"

"Don't count on it. As soon as I find the seals I'm looking for, I'm heading straight to the Veilstone Contest to frighten some rookies."

"You wouldn't."

Zoey lifted her sunglasses for an instant to meet my gaze. She smirked. "I'm dead serious. Catch you later, Dawn."

I wandered around Hearthome City with Piplup for a while. "Look, Piplup. That's where we had the Hearthome tag battle tournament with Ash and Brock." I shuddered. "I can't believe I was partnered with Conway of all people." Piplup patted my head and chirped his condolences. "I guess Ash had it worse, though. And look, that's Fantina's gym. Is she renovating it?"

Workers directed a Kirlia to levitate the ghostly lanterns out of the gym. Meanwhile, a group of Machoke poured vats of bubbling purple fluid into indoor pools. A drop of purple liquid landed on a potted plant outside; the plant wilted right away. Piplup cried out in horror.

I ran toward the workers. "What do you think you're doing?"

"We're renovating, miss."

"You're ruining Fantina's gym!"

"It's not Fantina's gym anymore."

Another worker joined in, leaning on a storage tank containing more of the poisonous fluid. "Fantina retired from being a gym leader so she could focus more on Pokémon contests."

His colleague nodded. "Yeah, I guess she must have been upset about not being able to participate in the Wallace Cup. With the Sinnoh League coming up at the time, she had a lot of challengers."

I stood firm. "Well, you're ruining the new gym leader's gym."

The workers laughed. "Miss Coordinator," a third worker cordially explained, "the new gym leader is a poison-type specialist. He requested these as decorations."

I flinched. This new gym leader sounded like an awful person to succeed Fantina. Without another word, I spun on my heel and marched toward the contest hall. Piplup leaned over my shoulder to shout at the workers, who kept laughing.

Kenny was having a better time in Hearthome City. He had a room reserved for his poffin-making class, which was much fuller than my more modest classes in Fortree City. The room was packed to standing, and reporters tried to get footage from outside. I wasn't sure I'd be able to enter, but Kenny noticed me and waved. "Dawn!" His voice squeaked a little. He must have been under a lot of pressure with all these people around. When he beckoned me over, the crowd cleared a path for me.

"Wow, Kenny, you're like the poffin-making master!"

"Yep, that's me—Kenny the Poffin Man."

Man—yeah, right. He was 13.

Kenny wrapped an arm around me and addressed the crowd. "Hi, everyone, this is Dee—"

"Dawn," I announced, loud and clear for the reporters and barely restraining myself from stuffing my fist into Kenny's mouth. "I'm Dawn, a Top Coordinator from Sinnoh."

Piplup grabbed the mixing spoon from Sunkern, a small, bud-like grass type that Kenny caught just before the Grand Festival in Johto.

I opened my backpack and pulled out the bags of berries from Zoey. "As many of you know," I said, pitching in without asking, "many of our region's cultural foods were made from sweet berries like pecha berries and mago berries. Pokémon coordinators in Sinnoh like to maintain that tradition by making poffins using these berries, which also help improve a Pokémon's agility in a performance." I popped open the bag of pecha berries and poured them into the mixing bowl that Piplup had claimed. "Pecha berries are super healthy. They can even cure a Pokémon inflicted by poison!"

Kenny took the bag of mago berries and added them into a separate mixing bowl. "Dawn's right. As for these longer ones, mago berries give Pokémon more energy—but for some Pokémon, they cause confusion."

A reporter raised her hand. "I have a question! How do you know which Pokémon would get confused?"

Kenny answered, "A Pokémon's nature determines how it responds to different flavors of berries. Generally, mago berries tend not to be good for slower Pokémon. For example, my Alakazam likes mago berries, but I wouldn't feed them to my Dusknoir."

I stared at Kenny, impressed by his knowledge of Pokémon.

When the poffin-making class was over, Piplup and I stayed behind to help Kenny and his Sunkern clean up. "You're a great teacher, Kenny. You explained berries and poffin-making techniques really well."

Kenny rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks, Dawn. I think you're an awesome teacher, too. I didn't know about Sinnoh cultural food using pecha and mago berries." He grinned. "That explains why people think Sinnoh is all pink berries and stuff."

"What, did you think it's because everyone in Sinnoh likes pink?"

He laughed. "Yeah, something like that." He reached for a bowl, but we were done cleaning up. He looked at Sunkern, who stared intently back at him, as though prompting him. He turned back to me. "Hey, Dawn, are you free tomorrow?"

I thought of the seal shops in Solaceon Town, but those could wait. Maybe Kenny was teaching another poffin-making class tomorrow. I nodded. "Mhm. Why?"

"Do you, ah, want to go out with me? To Amity Square. I hear it's a nice place for a da—uh, for hanging out with our Pokémon and stuff. Yeah, and stuff. Actually, forget that last part." He looked at me. His face looked a little like a pecha berry. "Want to hang out at Amity Square?"