We learned a lot about Ange in the last chapter, as well as the Oracles. But there are a few other people we have to check on before we can get to the Orre Region, and this is someone who definitely needs a little bit of support for the coming troubles. Poor little thing...

KedharS: We'll have to find out.

The Harmonium: Well… in a manner of speaking, I guess.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Ange is definitely an important character, and she's going to have a major role in the Orre Region storyline.

JoshGamerV: No, I guess we can't. Quite unfortunate, isn't it? They just can't catch a break.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 810

Alcea wasn't having a very good day. Or a good week. The Miss Pokemon Academy Contest had been stressful, but she had surprisingly enjoyed it due to the fact that she had performed excellently, showing off her abilities to Kanone Harker.

Ever since she was a kid, she had wanted him to look at her and acknowledge her strength. It was the reason she trained, her desire for his acceptance and respect.

And his love.

She had been a foolish, stupid girl in love with a man far too old for her. But her rational side had kept her from seeing it, telling that her feelings for him were those of admiration, not infatuation. Those lies she told herself had been the way she had protected her pride.

But she couldn't lie to herself anymore.

She didn't feel comfortable telling Kate what had happened. What a hypocrite that made her. She had been perfectly fine accepting Kate's comfort. And she was grateful that her friend hadn't pried any further into what had broken her up the other day.

But her pride had kept her from telling Kate the truth. Because in spite of her words about wanting Kate to be her friend. She wanted Kate to confide in her and be honest with her, but she didn't have the strength to be honest with Kate, herself.

Because as much as she didn't like Kate putting her on a pedestal and treating her like she was someone perfect, a dark part of her did still relish the admiration. She DID want to look perfect in her eyes, just as much as she didn't.

That was her vanity speaking. And her cowardice. She wanted a real friend, but was too weak to do what was necessary to embrace her.

And that right there was the kind of weakness that she was terrified of showing to Kate. Her weakness made her want to scream.

Those were only the light parts of her darkened heart, though. The appetizers to the main course of her broken heart.

What hurt her the most, what had sent her crying into Kate's arms, the dark secret that she could never confide in anyone, was what Kanone had told her.

The initial conversation was anything but light, of course. But when he had moved onto something new, he had said something she had never expected.

"I wanted to talk to you about your feelings for me, Alcea."

She didn't know what he meant at first. Her feelings had been locked up so tightly she couldn't even confront them herself.

The ensuing conversation brought Alcea into a whole new way of seeing the world. He had explained what he had seen from her, how he had gotten to know her, and eventually realized that the feelings she had for him weren't just respect and admiration, or a competitive rivalry.

He confronted her with the truth that she had tried so hard to hide.

She was in love with him. She wanted to be with him. It was scandalous to say, he was 25 and she was 17, for god's sake!

That had just been the first of his many arguments why the two of them would never be together and why she needed to get over her crush on him, for both of their sakes.

He respected her skill as a pokemon trainer and admired her convictions, and he looked forward to seeing how she would develop from here.

But as a romantic partner, he told her plainly that that was out of the question. Or, in his words, "you're far too lovely for someone like me."

It was politeness of course. How could a celebrity like Kanone Harker, one of the strongest trainers in the world, a man who was adored by everyone, not be good enough for someone like her? It was a sweet lie, but a lie all the same to spare her feelings.

The fact of the matter was, she was a child. Her feelings for him were childish infatuation because he was kind and handsome, and a powerful trainer. Now that she was aware of them, she could see her love for what it was.

Weak and pointless, and fragile to the point of breaking at a touch.

Just like her heart.

Alcea had been crushed that day. She'd sought solace in Kate's arms as her world came tumbling down, and hoped that everything would be okay in the morning. But it wasn't. And it wasn't okay the next day, either.

Things were just miserable for her ever since their conversation, that was the truth.

She wished that she could go back to that innocent time, when she was completely unaware of her feelings for Kanone. When she thought that she just respected him, and saw him as an obstacle to overcome. When she fought for herself, and felt like everything was okay.

Back to before she had to confront the fact that she was in love with someone who would never love her back, and that even as a pathetic child, she still couldn't get over her broken heart.

If only it had happened after the trip to the Orre Region. Then she might have been able to enjoy it with a smile on her face. The Orre Region trip already promised to be hard on her, with its tough terrain so devoid of greenery and with such a lack of friends to accompany her. There would be no Kate at her side, nor many other members of the Gardening Club. She would have even settled for Naya, as sad as that was.

But she was headed for Orre with a heavy heart shattered to pieces, and expected to present herself as one of the faces of authority at the school while she kept her pride intact and acted like nothing was wrong.

It was the sort of act she was used to as a noble. But certainly not something she would desire.

As time drew closer to that eventful trip, and even Kate's visits became more infrequent due to her preparations for a trip of her own, she found herself filled with loneliness and despair, and she hated the feeling.

She certainly wasn't in any mood for the guest who showed up at her doorstep.

Even though she was crushed inside, Alcea still needed to do her work. She had a duty as the caretaker of the garden, and she was going to do it. She needed to make sure that everything was prepared for her juniors during the period she was gone, so that there wouldn't be any problems. The only thing worse than her heartbreak was the thought of arriving back at the Pokemon Academy to see the beloved garden she'd cultivated over the years having wilted.

Alcea wanted to do nothing more than hide away in her room and cry until the trip. But she was Alcea Vermeil, and being Alcea Vermeil came with duties. So she diligently went about her working day as usual.

And then Sylvia Driscoll had the nerve to walk into her garden like she owned the place.

"So! This right here is the fabled garden of Alcea Vermeil, huh?" She said, looking around at the hedges with a wicked grin. "I've been here before, but I must say, it looks a lot better in the spring than it did with all that snow coming down over it."

Alcea was in no mood to treat her guest with politeness, but again, that was a luxury she couldn't afford. So even though it disgusted her, she forced a pleasant smile across her lips and rose from the bush, turning to greet her unwelcome guest.

"Welcome," she lied.

Sylvia smirked back at her, strolling over to Alcea. She had something in her hands, covered with a tarp. Alcea was wary of it, but didn't bring it up.

"What can I help you with today?" Alcea asked. "You may not be aware of how busy things are right now, but as a junior and the president of the Gardening Club I have a lot of duties that I owe to my club members before I go on the trip to the Orre Region. If you would please make this brief, that would be for the best, is it?"

Sylvia shrugged. "Sure, that's fine. I only came by to check up on you and see how you're doing, Alcea. This is a stressful time, after all, and I would hate for one of my fellow members of the Eight Leaders to burn out due to overworking herself."

Alcea cracked an eyebrow. She wasn't amused. To Sylvia Driscoll, things like camaraderie were a funny joke. She certainly wasn't here out of any goodness of her heart, she was here because she wanted something.

Or maybe she was just here to torture Alcea. One or the other.

"Well as you can see, I am doing quite fine, is it?" Alcea calmly replied, taking care not to let any of the turmoil raging inside of her bubble over onto the surface. Sylvia was the kind of girl who would notice even the slightest hint of weakness and use it as a weapon. "Oui. But I will say, I am overworked as you surmised. But as you do not have the talent to help me with such matters, I must ask you to please allow me to return to my work."

Sylvia grinned. "I've gotta say, Alcea, that politeness of yours, even to someone like me, is quite respectable. It's something I've grown to appreciate from you. It must be that noble upbringing of yours that makes it come so easily."

Alcea decided to let out some of her fire. "Believe me," she carefully replied, keeping the rage in her voice to just the faintest of hairs, "politeness does not come as easily to me as you might think it does, is it?"

Sylvia narrowed her eyes. "Oh, I can tell. You're just brimming with frustration, aren't you? But at the same time, you're trying to pretend you're not. Quite impressive. And sure, maybe you can fool the idiots like your friend Kate, but someone like me can see right through your façade, little miss 'Queen of Queens'."

Alcea gave her a stoic look. She couldn't let herself blink, or twitch, she couldn't do anything to show that Sylvia's words stung, not even indirectly. She had to be like a tree during an earthquake, riding through the shockwave without falling.

"If there is nothing else you need of me, I have work to get back to," she calmly said. She didn't move to go, however, knowing full well that Sylvia wasn't the type to just end things here.

And indeed, Sylvia had her own plans. A smirk crossed her face and she walked closer to Alcea, holding the covered object up to her.

"I came here because I wanted to show you this," Sylvia explained. "Contrary to your statement about me not having the talent to help you with your garden… it seems that I have quite a green thumb, in fact. What do you think?"

With that, she pulled the cloth off and revealed what it was hiding to Alcea, causing her façade to break for the first time.

What was she looking at? It couldn't be real. A few weeks ago, during Valentine's Day, Sylvia had come to Alcea in search of seeds, and some portable flower incubation pots to grow them in. Frustrated and eager to just be rid of her, Alcea had reluctantly acquiesced, and that was the last she ever heard about it.

But she was staring at one of those pots right now, filled with soil, and a large stalk sticking out of it, topped with a bud that looked ready to bloom any second.

The answer was obvious. Sylvia had already been growing a flower for some time, and moved it into the incubator to throw Alcea off. It was a childish prank, and a harmless one.

But Alcea knew it wasn't that. Not at all. That was certainly the plant she had given Sylva not even a month ago, and already looking ready to bloom.

What flower had she even given her? For the life of her, Alcea couldn't remember. And more importantly, and strangely, she couldn't recognize it. The plant growing out of that soil was as green as any other flower stem, but the shape of the bud was like nothing Alcea had ever seen before. What had Sylvia done?

"What… what is this?" She knew that responding to Sylvia's provocations was a bad idea. But in this instance, her curiosity was too thirsty to not quench. She looked up at Sylvia expectantly, and saw the shine in her eyes.

Sylvia pulled the flower back from the Grass type trainer, satisfied that she had her on the hook now. "It's a flower, of course," she mocked. "I would have thought that someone like you would know that, Alcea."

Alcea was too stunned and intrigued to fall for the taunt. Her thoughts of a broken heart were set aside, displaced by the curiosity of this flower mystery Sylvia had presented her with. She was staring at the bud, almost willing it to bloom with her thoughts.

While Alcea was enamored, Sylvia continued to spout off against her. "You see, this flower is something quite special, I feel. I don't quite know what it is, of course, because I grew it from those seeds you gave me. What even were those seeds, anyway?"

Alcea shook her head numbly, her eyes never leaving the pot. She couldn't hazard a guess. "What… What did you do to it? No seed of mine should have grown this… expediently."

Sylvia smirked. Boy, Alcea really did have it bad for this flower, didn't she? Well, that would make things all the better.

"Oh, you know, the usual stuff," she shrugged. "I just exposed it to sunlight, read it bedtime stories, gave it water, everything you would do with a flower."

She decided not to mention the… unusual nature of the water she had used. It was much better to let Alcea torture herself with curiosity.

Alcea shook her head. "Impossible. I don't believe a flower of this size could have grown in such a short span of time. You must have… done something."

Sylvia smirked. "Or maybe I'm just better with plants than you ever were, Queen of Roses. Isn't that a possibility you should consider?"

No, that possibility wasn't worth a second's consideration, and Alcea let her know that with a shake of her head.

It was enough to snap her out of her curiosity and begin engaging Sylvia with full faculties again, which was good. "What did you want?" She asked again, glancing up at Sylvia with suspicion in her eyes. There was no way Sylvia just came here to show off a flower.

"Oh? Like I said, I wanted to show this to you," Sylvia said. "Not to brag or anything, I just thought you would be fascinated by it."

"Well, you were right, is it? I am indeed fascinated," Alcea said, continuing to glance at the unusual plant out of the corner of her eye. With how fast it had grown, she was afraid that if she turned away it would bloom in an instant. "Now, is there anything else."

There it was. Alcea had tried to keep her voice calm and even, but Sylvia had picked up on it. It was a lovely mixture of envy, impatience, and eagerness, wrapped up in a throaty timbre that Alcea was known for. As cool as she tried to play things off, she wanted that flower. And she wanted it badly. She wanted to see what it would bloom into, and she wanted to make more of them somehow, it was obvious.

And Sylvia was happy to fulfill that wish for her.

"Well, see, the thing is, as much as I love this flower, and would like to see it bloom, you aren't the only one who has a trip coming up," Sylvia said, trying to make it sound like she was disappointed. She was a marvelous actress, but she didn't really need to be. Alcea would fall for even the easiest surface-level story.

"Oh? Yes, you are traveling to work at one of the gyms, is it?" Alcea had momentarily forgotten that Sylvia was only a sophomore and that, like Kate, she was taking the class on pokemon types and would be going to serve in a gym for her practicum.

"Yep, that's exactly right," Sylvia nodded. "And see, the thing is, I'm not exactly fit for caring for this thing while I'm on vacation. It's one thing to leave it beside my dresser and water it every morning, but my schedule is going to be a lot more hectic when I get to Kanto, and I don't think I'll be able to fit any gardening into it."

Another obvious lie, and once again, Alcea's willingness to believe was her greatest asset. They both wanted the same thing, the trick was to make Alcea think she didn't want it.

"So I was thinking, considering you're such a green thumb and all, would you mind looking after the little guy for me? Heck, at the rate it was growing, you might see it bloom before I do!" Sylvia laughed, expecting that possibility.

Alcea was stunned. As much as she was hanging off of Sylvia's every word, she would never have seen an offer like that coming.

Sylvia was giving her the chance to look after a miracle of the plant world? That easily? No, there had to be a catch somewhere, but as hard as she looked she couldn't find one. Unless this was some complicated plan to mock her again, which was unfortunately not something she could dismiss as a possibility.

But even if it was, so what? A chance like this wouldn't come every day. Whatever Sylvia had done to that flower, Alcea would be the one to see the results for herself. She was interested. Beyond interested.

But she also had her pride. She knew that if she seemed like she wanted it so badly, Sylvia would give it to her- and she would make a great show of it, too. So she played it calmly, trying to seem as cool as possible.

A futile gesture given that Sylvia was well-aware of exactly how much Alcea wanted the flower and was counting on it, but Alcea couldn't have guessed that.

"You realize that you are not the only one who is traveling in the coming weeks, is it?" Alcea asked. "What makes you think I have any more free time than you do?"

It was a bluff, and a sloppy one, to make it seem like Alcea wasn't as overwhelmingly excited as she obviously was.

For a second, Sylvia considered torturing the poor girl by rescinding the offer, but as amusing as that would be, Alcea was doing what she wanted. If she did rescind it, as great as the torment it would inflict on the pompous girl, it would also cause her to back down out of pride, and then Sylvia couldn't get what she really wanted.

She wanted Alcea to get the flower. Because whatever it was, she could sense something from it. Something that told her this wasn't an ordinary flower, not just because of how fast it had grown. And while normally Sylvia would have been excited to see it bloom for herself…

What Alcea did with the flower would be something else entirely. And that was something she would enjoy quite a bit.

And if she also did a teensy-weensy little job for the Phantom by installing a tracking chip into the soil so he would know her every location when they got to the Orre Region, well, that was just an added side bonus.

Alcea "begrudgingly" accepted the flower from Sylvia and tried not to look too engaged as Sylvia explained her caretaking ritual. She was out of the water so Alcea would have to use normal water, but that was fine. She didn't want to let on the secret anyhow.

Alcea felt a smile spread across her face as Sylvia left the garden, looking down excitedly at the flower she cradled in her hands. She may have lost her first love, but Sylvia had given her something else to be passionate about.

And while she still did not hold any warmth for the wicked girl, she could at least appreciate the gesture.

More things are building up. Now we've got Sylvia's mysterious flower grown with water from another realm added to the mix! How many plotlines will be coming to a head in the Orre Region? It's certainly going to be a packed arc!