I Don't Own Pokemon
Summer break was always not the best for me, cause it was never a break at all for me, it was just a return to a tense and uncomfortable place. It honestly felt better going back to the island than it had been to leave, even after everything that had happened the last time I was there. Of course it really helped that I had people there that I actually really liked. They helped me the most I think.
Getting onto the boat to the island was fine, doubly since I could have Khione out with me, on my shoulder with Charon floating around just looking about. I just stood around for a while, waiting for something as I stared out at the water. I had seen enough of oceans in the last few months, but it was better than nothing, it was either that or I start to wander around to use my legs because I wasn't good at sitting still.
Thankfully I wasn't just alone with my thoughts as I just held a conversation with Khione and Charon while Iris was having fun with his new cameras. Right now I just hummed to myself as I looked out at the water, feeling the buffering breeze push past me, the winds were pushing my light jacket up and back a bit as I let my hands rest on the railings. It was warm out here, but I had been in the Johto Summer in the middle of an ocean not to long ago, and while Unova was definitely hotter than that region, I've adjusted enough to enjoy the slight warm breeze.
I still preferred the cold, always will I think, but I also think I've finally begun to really adjust to sweltering heat that other regions have as well which was nice. The first Summer I spent on the island was kind of hell-like cause of how fucking blisteringly burning everything was. It made it real annoying to go outside and deal with exercising and everything. Though admittedly I wasn't really in shape either a year ago and that probably had something to do with it.
I was knocked out of my thoughts as the sound of familiar footsteps moved up behind me, I recognized who it was even before he said anything, a smile already coming to my face as he spoke up.
"Cole?" I turned around with a small flourish just cause and watched with amusement as I took Vale in. He didn't really look at all different. Well, his hair got trimmed up a bit so it was shorter than I remembered, but it was hardly anything at as I just stared at him, looking just like I remembers, while his eyes widened as he did the same to me. I held back from tilting my head to the side as he just kept looking at me.
"Yo" He was still just staring as me, I blinked a bit and then tilted my head trying to get him to say something before he blinked as well before his face turned a bit red... Oh, I wasn't the best with social ques, but I'm very observant, and have dealt with knowing about a lot of relationships I'd rather not. I knew what it looked like when your caught staring. I wasn't sure if that was flattering or not, I chose to not think about it as he blurted out the first thing apparently coming to his mind.
"Hair!" I just stared at him for a moment before I felt my chest shake, as I tried really hard to not, before I gasping a bit in a choked up laugh as Vale turned a brighter red as I took a gasping breath in before nodding with a half gasp as I said.
"I changed it up, yeah. I guess you like it" He was pouting at me making fun of his reaction, but it seemed whatever awkward moment he had when he first saw me was over like run over with a bulldozer over, as he said.
"You look better without it being a horrible monstrosity I guess" He said it so dismissively I just rolled my eyes.
"Yeah sure. You just don't want my ego getting bigger by admitting I'm hot as well as smart" Vale gave me a small look at that, a faint but vulnerable look, as I realized I was teasing the subject a bit to much for him to be comfortable with it with his own internal stuff and so I quickly moved on without anymore comment "But beyond how great I am, what about you? I see you're still the same height"
Just like that it as all over for me as his eyes went sharp and he pouted before giving me a massive rant about how growth spurts just didn't happen all the time and that just cause I was taller didn't mean anything, along with a few other things that were just hilarious, and made a part of my chest taunt with tension begin to unwind and relax. It was great, as just as he began to reach the end of his rant, I just shrugged and said.
"Doesn't change the fact your short" And just like that he was off again as I did my best to try and control my laughter. It was way harder than it had any right to be. It was even more hilarious that he calmed down a bit when I mentioned that there were people shorter than him so it wasn't a big deal. Cause, honestly, someone like Tomson made Vale look tall for his age. I have little doubt that that jackass isn't going to get past one sixty-five centimeters.
"You're a jerk" I just grinned before nodding like it was expected, he smiled back after a moment as we just stood there for a moment before he let out a breath before continuing "So you're doing alright? I know you like to hide things cause your a stubborn idiot sometimes" I just rolled my eyes.
"No faith, come on, the boat has a small snack bar and I have yet to actually find the damn thing even after like half a dozen times on it" If he noticed the fact that I didn't answer his question, then he didn't mention it as he just rolled his eyes before following along. I just smiled a bit to myself as I went. It was painfully nice to just fall back into the conversations with him, in person, like nothing was wrong. Vale hadn't even glanced at my hands, and I think that almost made me double over with a feeling that I'm pretty sure was gratitude.
We had a new room, slightly more space since we were bigger I guess, but the layout was basically the same, as I looked around the space as Richard moved about as well, setting things down in places to get the place back to feeling like ours. I just let him do it all first, he liked his order, no reason for me to mess it up while he was sorting it all out for himself.
It was just nice to see him move about, looking normal and fine, in person, it helped in a way, this was just better than just hearing his voice, not to mention the fact that it calmed my nerves like nothing else to just feel him, it was the same with Vale but I had more time to adjust and figure out what that feeling was now that it had been a few hours later.
I relied on my senses a lot, they were sharper than most people's, that was just common knowledge when it came to me, but it also meant I was a bit dependent on them, without that feeling or presence that I can just detect by another person's presence, it made me feel antsy I guess, mostly for those I know. My friends, Vale, Richard, Jan, etc. It was just better, so much better, to be able to hear his footsteps and the way I could see him in front of me, even the way to powerful deodorant Richard had, it just made him, made them all, just feel more real.
I think I'm going to start hating phone calls in another year or two at this rate. Like I don't have enough strange dislikes, rain, airport security, thunder, direct eye contact, psychic Pokemon capable of killing everyone in a mile radius, time zones, and pickles are the ones that instantly come to mind. Eh, it doesn't really matter I guess, I do my best to avoid those things mentioned when I can, airport security and rain are hard to dodge though, pickles thankfully not so much. And the Legendary Pokemon thing.
I wonder what the chances of all those things happening at once? How would the time zone thing factor in? How would the p- I'm getting distracted.
Flickering my attention back to the room, not much had changed, Richard was setting up the potions machine he got last year, that I still wasn't sure how he afforded to be honest, I knew his family was around midclass and that thing costed a pretty penny... Then again, I happened to buy a few things for him over time, just putting them around and letting him to find them, he never mentioned it, neither did I, but I like to think we bonded over it a bit, cause last year I'd find myself with an extra hand made simple item or two that I hadn't asked for.
It was a nicer thought to think that than remembering that I had to practically burn our kitchen down before we really talked and begun to get along. I really don't like remembering that to be honest, or the second time it happened, mostly cause I have no fucking clue how the second time it happened happened in the first place, cause, like, I was using the oven to broil something and suddenly there was ash on the ceiling and I nearly burned my eyebrows off. Dark blue hair and a patchwork tan doesn't go well without eyebrows.
"Hey Cole?" I blinked away from the mental images of me without eyebrows, which wasn't a great picture, and looked over to Richard who looked about as awkward as he always did when he talked about something he didn't know how to talk about. Meaning everything that didn't have to do with machine parts.
"Yeah what's up dude?" I focused my attention on Richard as he took the moments he needed to come up with his thoughts to ask what he wanted, before finally seeming to grow a tad frustrated with trying to find the right words, which I understood, and just half said, half blurted out.
"Your name's Cobalt Allister right?" I froze, it was a justifiable reaction I feel, as I slowly turned to look at him more fully before blinking to myself, I was doing that a lot more recently, I think it's cause I use to drum my fingers when I was thinking, and well... Anyways, I was shocked, duh, cause... Cause... Huh... I literally can't think of a single reason why this wouldn't be common knowledge by now or at least to Richard. I just hadn't thought about it.
I just hadn't thought about it, more like didn't want to think about it, the end result was the same all the same, but even with the threats my parents did, there was little chance of the media not at least running some story about it, my name just wasn't explicitly mentioned from what I had heard. Cause I had no interest in reading about what I already knew about.
Even then the chances of anyone looking into more information on the matter would no doubt eventually find my name. It was my legal name after all, and the one that was one the police reports that media loved to get their hands on, and on my registry to the school. It wouldn't be hard to find me out that way... Or, you know, having a detective of some kind coming in and questioning the people directly involved about what happened and what everyone else was doing, who didn't happen to know I had a preferred name... I wonder how hard it would be to get a legal name change? Could I change Allister to? I don't like that name much either to be honest...
Shit, right, frozen in place, Richard is looking at me in worry... Fuck I'm really distracted in these last few days. I would blame lack of sleep but, well, I'm too used to that to be believable. Fuck I really hope the attention issues aren't getting worse, I've read- Fuck it's happening again.
"Yeah" ...Fuck I need to say more than that don't I? "Uh, yeah that's my name" That wasn't much better.
We just stared at each other, both of us clearly not having any fucking idea what to do now with that out in the open before Richard just nodded a bit, and said.
"Alright"
And that was it, not much more could be said about it really as he turned away and started to work on setting some machine up that I didn't actually know what it did. Huh, well, I guess out of everyone, he would be the one that cared the least, cause his entire world is kind of wrapped around machines and stuff... I chose to not think harder on the subject and just accept it to try and move my ass along.
Besides, surprisingly enough, and it was very surprising, I wasn't really freaking out, I can't tell it's cause of the thing with Vale where I told him about me and my family so I was more open to the idea of it, or maybe I was finally just getting over myself and the fact that Cobalt Allister is a name with a lot attached to it, and as much as I'd love to punt kick it into the sun. That's not exactly a logically or reasonable option.
With that I just turned and walked off into the bedroom, suddenly feeling like using my hands for something for a while so I could at least try and burn off some of all the excess energy I had lately that was no doubt not helping the attention disorder thing.
I think it was a building up thing from just how little I was able to exercise like I wanted to, I started using that I think to cope with the overwhelming stress from last year to keep my head clear of things at least for a while. Since I was now very limited on that, even with two months passing cause of how annoying and still in pain my right hand is, even though it admittedly has gotten better, I don't have to wrap it up as often unless I do something stupid and the angry red color was more a sick looking pink now.
Honestly I wasn't sure if I liked it more or not, well like was a bit to strong of a word, more like I wasn't sure if I disliked one more than outright hated the other, cause both just- I just didn't like any of it. That wasn't new. But it was different, which was... something, I guess.
I hadn't exactly planned on running into him, honestly a part of me just sort of forgot as I walked over to Vale's new dorm room, and half knocked on the door, cause he got pouty if I just walked in without asking, and waited for him to show up. We still had a day before classes started and I wanted to hang out for a while, he had said he'd like to as well, while I was technically like ten minutes early from when he'd said he'd be at his room, I hadn't put much thought into that either.
I was regretting that when the door opened up and I didn't see Vale as I glanced around with a blink before I saw him. Tomson, standing there, looking at me, as we sort of just stared at each other for a moment before my mind absently noted the fact his hair was in short dreadlocks now. His face was quickly morphing into that general look of dislike that we shared for each other as I took a moment to think about that before saying.
"Oh, you" It could have been more elegant, but I didn't really care about being anything like nice to him, like at all, so I gave him a half-dismissive look out of habit at this point and looked over his head and said "Is Vale here?"
His face twitched a bit as he continued to give e a hard look before.
"No, I don't know where your boyfriend is" Oh, so he wants to start early huh? I felt my own face twitch as I thought of all the scathing remarks I could make back before I took a long breath before saying through gritted teeth.
"Listen, we can hate each other until one of us actually tries to kill the other, but don't bring Vale into this asshole. Cause if you say something like that to him and you hurt him, I will break your arm in half" We just glared at each other for a long moment before something nearly unexpected happened. Tomson just seemed to deflate a bit before sighing.
"Whatever. Are you going to leave now?" We continued to stare at the other, there was so much just in the air to talk about, questions that had been on my mind for ages now. What was his connection to Cottel, why was he involved in any way with what happened at the lighthouse, why was he here, and so many other things. I had no doubt he had similar thoughts about me as well, but we didn't say any of that as suddenly a familiar voice spoke form down the hall.
"Cole? You're early" I took the escape and ran with it as I half spun and gave Vale a shrug before saying.
"I prefer to think of it as you being late" He gave me an unimpressed look at that but I just kept the grin and continued forwards, wanting to not be close to that room anymore as I kept talking like I wasn't avoiding a very clear topic.
"But when you think about it, time is relative and as such not at all important in the grand scheme of things, so how about we just call it on time and not think to hard on it" Vale rolled his eyes, but had an amused look on his face as he followed after me as I continued to try and convince him that I wasn't early, he was late, and that time didn't matter, you know, like you do.
Eventually that calms down as we took to just walking around the island, which was nice, being back here and just moving about. Though we both seemed to keep on the side that didn't have the lighthouse on it. I wasn't sure how I'd be if I saw the place up close at the moment to be honest. Vale seemed to understand that and so we just walked, made passing comments, and listened when one of us wanted to talk about something for a while.
Someone I got to talking about the cruise, and since it was a lovely thing to rant about, I did so without to much remorse, mostly focusing on the only good parts I remembered.
"-And the Pokemon swarm we saw, that was pretty fucking cool, like, I did research on it, we were really lucky to see it, normally those Pokemon go along other air streams along the coasts, to see them so far out was lucky. Bugsy sent me a few papers on it when I asked after the cruise, it was pretty interesting. Bugsy was honestly the only good thing to come out of the trip to be honest. Besides a good chess game I guess but that's about it" Vale nodded like that made sense, before asking with faint hesitance.
"What about your family?" I blinked and shot him a look as he frowned and said "Like, I mean, I know you don't you like your parents, but you have siblings right? Wasn't it nice hanging out with them?"
It was a tense subject for me, I'm not sure Vale really knew what kind of landmine he was stepping on at the moment, he had been nice and waited until we were in person to ask, though I wasn't sure if that was cause he knew I'd probably hang up on him if he asked over a call, while I couldn't really run away right now without looking like an idiot, or because he thought I would be more open if we were in person and had time during the break after I told him about my family a bit. It could be either, Vale could be surprisingly cunning when he wanted to be. I ended up just scoffing a bit and said.
"You really don't want to open that can buddy" He gave me a look at that as I did my best to just stare back without wanting to squirm around, as I tried real hard for a solid ten seconds before breaking as I sighed and looked away.
"Your not fair, you really shouldn't be able to get away with this" He smiled wide at that as I did my best to not look. I wonder why he can get me to open so much? Eh, doesn't really matter, I could chalk it up to a lot of things. It's cause we just talk about everything it feels like, it just feels bad to hide things from him really, like, actually hide things, I'm fine with lies by omission, like not mentioning I have a habit of breaking into people's rooms.
Finally I just sighed and said like it wasn't a big deal as Khione, on my shoulders, leaned down to lean her head onto of mine to let me know she was there.
"It's... I'm a terrible brother, I should probably say that first, cause I don't exactly try to bring us together. But, Jasper was mostly just stressed throughout the entire trip cause it was a business thing not so much a real vacation, so we barely really talked much besides me giving him some advice. Amber, she's a shut in really, doesn't handle the pressure well by herself, so she usually just kept up in the room and didn't talk to anybody the entire time. We barely interacted. It's like that at home to. We all just are around but we don't exactly talk or do anything family like. I don't really think we can you know?"
Vale was giving me that look, not the pity one thankfully, more the sympathy looking one, I recognized the difference from all the times I complained about how I hated school work, and homework, homework is stupid and ridiculous. And I suddenly wanted to talk a lot more about it before Vale does his Vale thing and make me think about things I don't want to. I of course was to late as he said.
"I don't, not really. My family is really close, but that doesn't mean you're terrible or anything Cole, you just got a different family" I scoffed a bit at that, it was a bit more biting than I meant it to be when I spoke.
"You mean I got a dysfunctional family, no need to mince words, we're fucked up, like, all of us" He gave me another look at that. It was the one he had when I said something stupid when I was suppose to be smarter than that. I particularly hated that look. Made me feel stupid, well, emotionally stupid, cause that's usually when I saw the look when I didn't understand a simple thing, like a normal person should. Like social ques and things like that.
"You're parents suck, but that doesn't mean you-" I interrupted that with a roll of the eye.
"I'm anti-social, have emotional response issues, anger issues, attention issues, connection issues, touch issues, I half hate cameras, and am a compulsive liar. That's all before I got here, and that's not even mentioning all the things fucked up with me that I got after first year. Trust me, I know how fucked up I am" He... Fuck, I shouldn't have said all of that, as I looked away quickly as he got that sad look, the one that said he was hurting cause I said something I shouldn't have. Fuck, I'm an idiot. Fuck, uh, ok, topic switch, I can-
"Dude" I did not flinch a bit at how sad he sounded as I turned to give him a look to act like I wasn't slightly panicking at the shit I sort of just piled on him without thinking, which was so fucked of me when- "Are you ok? Like, you sound... Are you ok man?"
I blinked before looking away.
"I'm fine, totally, now come on, I want to keep walking until lunch then I'm going to complain about your regions food portion sizes" He was still staring but I was walking, and he seemed to get the message of 'let's not talk about my emotional baggage' which was a message I wanted to play on blast for a long while until he forgot.
Not cause I didn't trust him with it, or that I thought he'd leave or anything, if he could deal with me for a whole year and from my massive lie I was telling him for ten months, then he would stick around. But he was too nice, there was no way he'd just leave me to my issues where they should be. He'd try to help and spend way to much time trying to fix me or something else and I couldn't just let him waste his time on things I should be able to do by myself.
I felt shitty enough about my shit already, no way was I going to just unload all of that onto Vale like that as well. Thankfully he didn't seem to want to press the issue, or he just realized doing so wouldn't get him anywhere, either way I was glad he let me change the topic as we continued, if with a bit of awkwardness for a while until one of us made a joke that got a big enough laugh out of the other that the matter was forgotten for the time being. I hope.
"You are so lucky we got a new battle teacher" I blinked before shrugging a bit as Jan dropped into the seat to my left as I glanced over and said.
"I still don't think it was my fault that Cantrell got fired, she was trying to kill me" Jan just rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I guess, but still! I hope this new guy is going to be good, Ms. Cantrell might have been a psycho but she was really good at teaching" I gave that to her, Cantrell was a pretty decent teacher, her classes was easily top three, the only one above her two classes was tracking, but that's cause it's tracking. I fucking loved that class, I still can't wait to see what Expert Tracking is going to be like to be honest.
And a bit worried about what it's going to be like in some parts as well, well, that's for all my classes, but I actually sort of care what Smiten thinks of me a lot more than any of the other teachers, and those are going to be awkward enough with what happened this Spring at the lighthouse, not to mention the fact that Smiten was actually there, was even there with Madison fighting Cantrell even.
So all in all, I know most kids won't know what happened, but the teacher do. And I'm not entirely sure I want to know how my teachers are going to me being in their classes after I sort of was involved in a terrorist plot, via figuring out one was happening, sent students in harms way, and got myself disfigured because of it. It'll either be awkward with them avoiding me or I'm going to get a lot of eyes on me and a lot of asking to stay behind after class. Either of which I like the sound of.
I really feel bad for Richard, he was there too, so everyone knows about how he's the main reason the bomb was disarmed, and he was so socially awkward that any of the teacher's doing what I just mentioned to him might kill him on the spot, which would be really unfortunate. I did give him a head's up though, so hopefully he'll manage, though I wish I shared some classes with him now though, just to try at least to act as a buffer, but I only got five classes now that are actually on this island, and I don't have any with him, the only one we could have had was Pokemon Sciences, but he took that last year so he' in the more advanced version this year, so that's out of the question.
"Still, I really hope it won't be boring! Your lucky you know, being able to strong are the principle of this place to do your own classes" I gave her a look at that before asking.
"Would you rather do stuff on your level or take the advance high school junior level classes I'm taking?" We shared a look at that for a long moment before she glanced away with a put out exaggerated sigh as she raised her hands in mock surrender.
"Yeah alright, you got a point there, I would rather deal with Carter's boring English class rather than not having any idea what's being talked about. But I guess that is the perils of not being a freaking super genius... I am totally still going to bug you about double checking my stuff through" I just rolled my eyes.
"I figured as much, you know you could ask your other friends" She gave me a sharp look before giving me a punch on the shoulder, which wasn't overly appreciated but she was a very tactile person and I've had a year to adjust to that, so I just rolled my eyes again at the action while she said.
"You do not get to brag about being half way through high school and not have to deal with me using you like an autocorrect machine" I huffed at that, cause I totally could do that if I wanted to thank you very much! Honestly, you get known as the smartest kid on the island a few times and suddenly everyone wants your help... Not really, according to Vale, I'm apparently really unapproachable to most of the kids in our year... and the year above us, but I personally feel like Jan pesters me enough to make up for that fact!
The thought was amusing enough to crack a smile as I finally turned back to Jan and said with a half curious tone.
"By the way, I know I'm not taking standard classes anymore, but doesn't your first class start in ten minutes?" It was hilarious to see the way her eyes widened before turning without a word to just rush off. The fact that her class didn't start for another half an hour wasn't anything that I particularly let myself think to much of as I let out a small wheeze of a laugh before turning anyway to head back to my room.
I should start working on my own work soon or else I'm going to forget, Iris set an alarm to get my ass in gear before nine at least, but it would be good to try and keep up with it myself... I reckon that'll last about a week at most before I need Iris to remind me about it. I can think of worse things to have to deal with.
So with that I was walking off to head to the room to pull out my laptop to get to work.
I could have made this a bit longer, but if I did then I'd have to put basically all of his new classes in to not make it feel painfully disjointed and that would add a good couple thousand words onto the total and that sounded like a lot of effort, so this is what you get instead. Anyone notice the tone shift? It was pretty fucking noticeable in this chapter and some at the end of the last chapter. Cole is being snarky and making sarcastic comments more now, even if some of the time they are just to himself, not to mention his mind is wandering more, and he seems to have more energy all of a sudden. It's cause he's back with his friends. Nothing is more emotionally draining then dealing with people you hate for months on end with little to anything to really be able to distract yourself with while your dealing with, you know, fresh trauma! So yeah, now that he's back with people he can actually relax around, he's suddenly feeling a lot better and more back to himself. It's called depression people, it has highs and lows, and the last few chapters over the summer break was showing one of those lows. Not a cliche depressive spiral with feelings of worthlessness or just not getting out of bed, but a constant tension, a lot of motivation, constant feelings of sense doubt and self-hate. It's a thing.
Beyond that, we got introduced back to our characters, no one's changed that much. Oh, I should mention, Vale is a hormonal thirteen year old who has unresolved sexuality issues, he sees someone who is attractive and his age, and he's going to have the common teenage reaction of gawking for half a second, epically when that someone is one of your best friends and suddenly looks a whole lot better than the last time you saw him, which was more a reaction from shock at the difference than anything. Cause, I'm going to be honest, Cole's hair in the first year was a disaster of massive proportions, like, it was a uneven mess that made him look a bit like an idiot. That does not mean there are anymore feelings behind it besides surprise and being off footed, cause while Cole isn't hot per say, especially cause he's still a freaking kid, cause that would be so gross, he has the potential to be on the higher side of the scale when he grows up. And beyond that... I can't think of anything else, everything else was pretty self explanatory and I don't see a need to just repeat to much... Yeah, See ya.