Cynthia is facing some serious pressure from her family, and is relying on Blake to support some of the burden. But she's not the only one in a difficult place, emotionally-speaking. Sango's not doing so great, either. Hopefully she can also get some help from her future step-mother, Elizabeth. But will Dr. Skye be able to support her? And more importantly, is Sango even in the right state of mind to accept that support from her in the first place? We'll have to see.

KedharS: Yup. Cynthia's family isn't the most dysfunctional one we have in this story, but they definitely have their own issues.

Hyphenman: I think if any more pressure is put on Cynthia, then she'll do something really crazy and stupid that she's going to regret.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1069

While Cynthia was revealing her deepest emotional insecurities to Blake, Sango was in another part of the inn exposing some vulnerabilities of her own.

"…Haaaah…" She let out a long sigh, staring at the phone in her hand. She knew she was going to have to call Elizabeth at some point tonight, it was only right. But she couldn't work up the courage to do it. Not because she thought that the other woman would be upset with her or anything, just the opposite I fact. She knew that Elizabeth would react with kindness and understanding to whatever Sango had to say, and that would probably make her feel even more guilty for not wanting to spend her spring break with her.

But she couldn't put it off forever. So she turned to look at Silver, sleeping by himself beside her futon, sighed again, and stepped outside to make the call.

"Hello? Sango, is that you?" Elizabeth's cheery voice made Sango flinch. She still wasn't used to the other woman's perkiness.

"Yeah, it's me. I just… you know, wanted to talk, or whatever," Sango mumbled, not sure how to bring up the situation.

"Aww, thank you! I love talking to you!" Elizabeth giggld. "So, how's spring break going for you? You said you were staying you're your friend Cynthia, right? Are you having fun?"

"Um… yeah, I'm having fun," Sango admitted. "Actually, we, uh… w went to a water park today in Slateport City, me and everybody else. It was the first time I've ever been to one, actually…"

"Oh, really? Sango, that's amazing!" Elizabeth cried. "So tell me, why'd you call so early? Do you need something? If you want to talk to your dad, he's not here right now, but-"

"No!" Sango exclaimed. She calmed down a moment later and admitted the truth. "No, I… I wanted to talk to you, actually."

It took a second for Elizabeth to process that. "O-Oh, I see," she said. "Well, thank you! That really means a lot to me. What would you like to talk about?"

"Um, just…" Sango didn't know quite how to say it. "Elizabeth… the offer you made, for me to stay with you over break, why, um… why did you do that?"

Elizabeth was silent again, thinking over Sango's question. "…What do you mean?" She finally asked, confused.

"W-Well, I mean… you've gotta be really busy… wait, where are you again?"

"The Ruins of Alph, in Johto," the archaeologist replied. "It's where I spend most of my time these days. We've uncovered some interesting murals and a puzzle involving etchings on these strange moving tiles."

"Oh, cool… but yeah, I guess… I'm just a little confused, you know? If you're so busy, why would you invite me to stay with you over break? I'd just be getting in the way of all your stuff, after all…" Sango was slapping herself internally as she was saying that. What sort of way to start a conversation was this, anyway?

"In the way? Oh, dear me, you wouldn't be getting in the way at all!" Elizabeth assured her, which definitely came as a surprise to Sango.

"Oh, r-really? I wouldn't? Are you sure?" She wanted to believe the other woman, but at the same time…

"Sango, honey, I invited you to stay with me because I would love to spend more time with you!" Elizabeth had the sweetest way of laughing Sango had ever heard. "I thought that if we spent the holiday together, you and I could really get to know each other a little better. I would never think of you as being in the way!"

"Oh… I-I see," Sango mumbled. What Elizabeth was saying should have made her feel better, but honestly it just made her feelings of guilt balloon even more, since Elizabeth had clearly wanted to spend time bonding with her, and she'd turned her down.

It wasn't like Sango ACTUALLY thought that Elizabeth was just being polite and didn't actually want her to come when she made the offer. It was clear as day that the woman desperately wanted a relationship with her future step-daughter. Sango would need to have some major cognitive dissonance to not see that. But Sango still felt, well…

"Look, um… I'm sorry I couldn't come," Sango apologized. "The truth is… maybe spending the break with you wouldn't have been so bad after all."

"Oh, no!" Elizabeth gasped, her voice taking on a concerned edge. "Is something the matter? Are things not going well after all?!"

"W-What?! No, everything's going fine, why would you think that?!" Sango exclaimed.

"Well, when people say stuff like that, it's usually because they feel like they made a mistake," Elizabeth explained.

"…Oh. Well, um…" Sango wasn't sure if she should call it a "mistake", as much as it was a shame. "It's nothing like that, really. I just think that maybe spending break with you would have been fun, you know? And that it's too bad we didn't get a chance to try it out."

Elizabeth was quiet for a while after that. It went on for so long that Sango began to get uncomfortable standing there.

"Sango, are you telling the truth?" She asked quietly. Sango flinched.

"Y-Yeah, of course I am," she said. "I'm having a great time here, and I know I would have had fun spending time with you, too!"

"Well, that's sweet of you to say, but I think there's something else going on here," Elizabeth said, frowning. She could tell something was off about this whole thing. "Are you sure that there's nothing bothering you? Don't feel like you have to lie for my sake, honey. I'm happy that you're having fun you're your friends, that's more important than the two of us hanging out. So if you're just pretending that coming up to visit me would have been fun for you-"

"I'm not pretending, it would have been!" Sango might not have thought so at the time, but that was because she was stubborn. Now she really did feel bad, not just because of what it must have done to Elizabeth's feelings, but because she actually might have enjoyed herself and didn't give spending time with her a chance.

"Then are you saying something's going wrong up there?" Elizabeth asked, and Sango realized she'd been caught.

"N-No, that's…"

"Sango, you called me for a reason. And not only that, but you're clearly feeling uncomfortable about something, aren't you? So go on, tell me. I'd like to help if I can," Elizabeth pleaded with her. Her voice was deep and soft and made Sango's heart skip a beat.

She couldn't help but feel a little awkward. Elizabeth was being so kind. She really, genuinely wanted to help Sango, and that made Sango feel…

"Look, it's, um… it's not like…"

Sango sighed. "It's not like things are going awful or anything. There's just, well… there's some awkwardness going on."

"Awkwardness? Like what?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well… friend stuff, you know?" Sango sighed. "My friend Cynthia… she's really great, honestly. But it feels like recently, well… we just haven't been getting along. And I don't really know why, it just feels like whenever I'm around her these days, I'm in a bad mood."

"Are you mad at her for something she did?" Elizabeth asked. "Because you seemed really excited to get to spend the break with her."

"That was… well, it wasn't about her in particular," Sango sighed. "It was really about spending time with my other friends, too. The trip she proposed sounded like fun, so I wanted to go do it, that's all there is to it."

Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. "I see… well, you seemed just as excited… no, more excited, to spend winter break with her as well, isn't that right?"

"That was… I guess so…" Sango could hardly remember that far back. "But I mean, Maddiwas coming too, so…"

"So you're not really friends with Cynthia, then? You just likeyou're your mutual friends?" Elizabeth asked, her voice taking on a disapproving tone.

"No!" Sango exclaimed. "Not at all!" She began to pace on the balcony, keeping her voice low. "It's just… I don't know, something feels different."

"Hmm… well, I don't know what that could be, so I don't know if I can help," Elizabeth admitted. "Why don't you tell me why you keep getting upset at her?" She suggested.

Sango sighed. "Well… Cynthia's already a pretty difficult girl to deal with," she admitted. "She likes messing with people, causing problems, teasing… but those things are just a part of her, and I've never been bothered by them before, even when I was on the receiving end of her jokes!"

"Well, a little teasing is okay, but could it be that you're bothered because it crossed the line into bullying?" Elizabeth suggested.

Sango thought about all the times Cynthia had teased her on the trip, usually about the insinuation that she and Aidan were a couple. Compared to how much she used to get teased about hr and Blake, as well as a bunch of other things like her looks and her flat chest and her eating habits, Cynthia had actually lightened up recently instead of the other way around.

"No… I don't think it's that," she said, shaking her head.

"Then why do you think you're feeling this way?" Elizabeth wondered. "Could it be because you're getting tired of the friendship? Is she no longer as kind?"

"No, she's as great as always, and she even tried to make sure we could all have fun at the water park today," Sango assured her. "But then… I guess it has been a while since the two of us have ever done anything together, now that I think about it…" When was the last time that she and Cynthia had just hung out together as friends? It must have been weeks. Not since all the seniors and juniors left, at least, no, maybe even longer… since Valentine's Day, maybe? No…

"I… I don't remember," she admitted.

"Hmm…" Elizabeth murmured to herself, as if she was lost in thought. Sango squirmed, increasing the pace of her pacing. She knew that the archaeologist must have something on her mind, but she wasn't saying what it was. Sango was starting to feel nervous. Like maybe it was her fault.

No, who am I kidding? It's definitely my fault… Sango didn't know who else she could blame for this. Whenever things didn't work out between her and somebody, it was usually because of her. This should be no different.

But then, Sango wasn't the only one who was being distant recently, was she? No, Cynthia had been weird for a while, too. She wasn't suggesting things for them to do together, it was like she was only hanging out with Sango when she knew other people would be around. But why would that be? It didn't sound like the Cynthia she knew…

"Wait!" Sango gasped. "Could it be that she's jealous?"

"Jealous?" Elizabeth asked. "Jealous of what?"

"Well… I mean, I did win the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest, so-"

"Wait, you won?!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

Sango winced. "Oh… um… I didn't… tell you about that?" She asked.

"No! When was this?! What happened?! Tell me everything!" Elizabeth exclaimed, her voice so loud Sango had to hold the phone away from her ear. She hoped she didn't wake anybody up.

"Look, it's not that big of a deal," Sango groaned. "Cynthia just nominated me for this dumb contest, I won, and we kind of had a fight about it, but it wasn't anything serious! Really! You don't think that's the reason, do you?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "It could be. What do you think?"

Sango sighed. "Honestly? I still felt kind of weird about her even before then."

"…I see," Elizabeth frowned. "So… what do you think the reason is? Can you pinpoint when things changed between the two of you?"

Sango thought for a long time. She looked back on all her interactions with Cynthia, searching for any turning points where their relationship went from being something she enjoyed to something that, while she didn't mind, felt more like an obligation.

She thought for a long time, sifting through all of her memories. Then she found one in particular, and when she reached out to see what it was, it led to more, and then more, and by the end of it, a picture had been clearly painted for her, and it wasn't a pretty one.

"…It can't be," she whispered.

"What? What is it?" Elizabeth asked. "Did you remember something?"

Sango remembered everything, actually. She could pinpoint exactly when it was her feelings for Cynthia had become so complicated, and it made her sick t her stomach.

"…It's Blake," she said quietly.

"Blake?" Elizabeth asked. "You mean the boy who you liked? The one who chose another girl over you, and was taken away for a little while by the Tablet of Hungry Ghosts?"

After all she'd done to help, Sango had let Elizabeth know when Blake had returned, and of course the archaeologist had wanted to interview him, but she'd declined on his behalf. That was unrelated to things now, though.

"Yeah. Him."

"Well, what happened? What does he have to do with all this?" Elizabeth asked.

Sango sighed. "Cynthia, she… she has feelings for him. And she confessed. A few times, actually. She's totally in love with him."

"Oh, my," Elizabeth gasped. "Yes, that's quite something. But is he still seeing that girl, Ayame, was it?"

"Mmhm. Well, they're going through a rough patch right now, but it's nothing to worry about," Sango said. "That doesn't stop her, though. She still made it clear that she likes him regardless."

"I see… so she's trying to mess with his relationship? I can see why that would cause you to be irritated…" Elizabeth mused.

"No, that's just the thing!" Sango groaned. "She's not! She's honestly supporting him, even though she likes him, that's what's so weird about all this!"

"Oh… well, that would definitely lead to some awkward moments between friends," Elizabeth agreed. "And what about you?"

"Hmm? What about me?" Sango knew full well what Elizabeth was insinuating, she was just playing dumb. She desperately hoped the other woman would just drop it, but of course, no such luck.

"Do you still have feelings for him? Or have you moved on? I remember you were crushed when he disappeared…"

"That's… I don't…" Oh, why bother denying it?

"…I do," she admitted, hanging her head in shame. She kept her voice just barely above a whisper out of fear someone else might hear her.

"…That must be very hard for you," Elizabeth said after a pause. "Still having feelings after all this time, and this boy having so much female attention around him…"

"It… I don't… I don't expect anything from him, you know?" Sango sighed. "And I'm trying to get over him, I really am, it's just…"

"It's not that simple, is it?" Elizabeth sighed, shaking her head.

"…No, it's really not," Sango shook her head as well.

There was a lull in the conversation, and then Sango said something else she'd been hiding. "You know, Elizabeth… I actually… I was confessed to, did you know? By a boy. On Valentine's Day, a friend of mine, he told me he liked me, and wanted to go out with me."

"Oh, really?" Elizabeth brightened. "And what did you say?"

"…I turned him down," she admitted. "I told him that I had someone else I liked… and I couldn't return his feelings. But the truth is… I just don't feel about him that way. Even without Blake, I just… I don't know if I could have liked him, but… maybe I could have, you know? Maybe if I'd said yes, that would have helped me move past this whole mess."

"…I think you did the right thing," Elizabeth said. "You were honest with him, you weren't playing with his feelings. You have nothing to feel ashamed of, Sango. There's nothing wrong with not having feelings for someone, right?"

"I guess," Sango agreed. "But still… if I don't get over these feelings, then…"

She didn't know how to end that sentence, so she did the only thing she could, and sighed.

"Is Blake on this trip with you?" Elizabeth asked suddenly.

"What? W-Well, yeah, but why does that matter?" Sango asked.

"Well… I'm wondering if maybe part of the problem you're having with Cynthia… could it be because Blake's here? You said that's how this started, right?"

"That's… it's complicated," Sango sighed. "I didn't start feeling this way about Cynthia until, well… until I knew she liked Blake. That's when it started. But for me, acting like this because… I'm jealous of her? It can't be, right?"

"Why not?" Elizabeth shrugged.

"Because… because she's not dating him either!" Sango hissed. "So what's there to be jealous about? They're just friends, nothing more."

Even as she said that, though, she could feel the seeds of jealousy. It was just like before, with Ayame.

"Blake's treating her the same way he's treating me, even though he doesn't know I like him," Sango said. "So I promise, this has nothing to do with jealousy."

Even as she said that, she knew it wasn't true. And Elizabeth probably knew it, too. She could pinpoint when her feelings for Cynthia had cooled, but she still didn't know why.

All she knew was that she wanted to get her best friend back.

So things seem to be getting really awkward with Sango. What's going on between her and Cynthia? And how can they fix this issue? Is there anything they can do, or are their feelings for Blake going to drive a wedge between the two of them? Hopefully with Elizabeth's support, Sango will be able to move on from her issues, here's wishing her the best!