Chapter 25: Levitating Gary
The next day, the four of them were late for school. Tim had told Snowy to wake him up at three, but she had heard five-thirty, and didn't wake him up until then. Tim looked at the time and saw that they had already missed the train. He went and woke the others anyway.
"Guys, wake up!" he called to Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin.
"I was wondering when you were coming," said Ben. Tim smiled weakly.
"Time for school," Tim said. The new way to wake Anakin was to say the word "school". The three of them hopped out of bed.
"How are we going to get to school?" asked Jaina sleepily.
"I don't know," replied Tim.
"There are other ways to get to Pokémon," said Damien. He had been woken up when Tim came in.
"Like…" Jaina prompted.
"I don't think I'm going to let you fly to school," said Damien.
"Oh, please! We have to go to school!" cried Anakin.
"Well, I guess, but Pidgeot can't take you all…" His voice trailed off. Then he suddenly brightened. "Wait! I still have Molly's Dragonite!" he said.
Dragonite was the large, dragon-like creature Molly had ridden home the first day of school. It was a large, orange, dragon with small, blue, wings. They would have doubted if it could even fly, except they had seen it done before. Tim got Ryan up, then went back to sleep. Damien let Dragonite out of its Pokéball, and they all clamored onto its back.
It flew quickly, but it was not fast enough to help them make it on time. They were a few minutes late. They knocked on the locked door of the classroom.
Mr. Davis opened the door. "The next time you four are late, you will have to be excused by your guardian." Mr. Davis, having been raised by his four older brothers, knew that not all children lived with their parents.
The four nodded obediently and sat down at their desks.
Meanwhile, Sarah was sitting on the green bench in her cabin, staring intently at Gary. He hadn't woken since he had been there, which was good, because Sarah spent almost all day gazing at him. Cathy and Tim were beginning to notice. Whenever either of them came in, she was sitting, facing him, and every time someone said his name, she perked up from her spaced out gaze.
The school-goers came home and set to doing their homework, which they had a little bit of. Anakin couldn't get past answer three, but the others breezed through the work. When the homework table was deserted, Anakin gave up, and read his sister's paper to find the answers. He quickly copied them down in his own words and ran outside to play.
Cathy was in Sarah's cabin, trying to "sober her up" before Gary woke up, which he was bound to soon. In fact, he was beginning to stir, then sat up his bed.
"Where am I?" he asked. "I don't like the look of this place, ("this place" being a dimly lit cave) I'm getting out of here." He got to his feet, a little wobbly, then went to the door.
"No! You can't leave!" shouted Sarah.
"Why not?"
"You're…" Sarah though of a quick excuse, "too sick!" she came up with.
"I don't feel sick," said Gary. He walked closer to the door.
"It'll get worse once you leave!" Sarah said. Gary thought about this for a moment. "I guess I could stay a little longer," he said.
Cathy left the cabin and went to Tim, who was in Lee's cabin. "Tim, Gary's up now," she said simply.
Lee looked confused, but Tim got mad. "I'll be right back," he said, storming out of the cabin.
"Don't kill him," said Cathy.
An evil smirk flickered across Tim's face. "I won't," he said. Cathy said not to kill him, but that didn't mean he couldn't hurt him very, very badly. He walked into the cabin. Sarah was leaving to go riding with Cathy and Damien. "Can I punch you?" Tim asked Gary when the cabin was empty.
"Um…" said Gary, "why?"
"You slept in my bed!" Tim shouted.
"So?"
"It's mine!"
"If it means that much to you, I'll sleep in this bed." Gary went over to Sarah's bed and fell asleep in it. Tim, neglecting Lee, fell asleep in his own bed, a satisfied smile on his face.
Jacen came in to ask Sarah a question, but she wasn't there. What he saw in her bed was a piece of brown hair sticking out from underneath the blanket. He walked over and poked the body. "Sarah! Wake up!" he called.
Gary flung off the covers and scowled at the boy poking him. "You're not Sarah! I guess she's somewhere else. I'll go now," said Jacen.
"Twerp," Gary mumbled. Jacen spun around.
"What'd you call me?"
"What? How'd you hear that? Well, I don't really care! Go away!"
"I'll go, but it wouldn't be wise to call me anything else. You don't know what might happen to you."
Jacen went, and when he was out of the cave, he heard Gary mumble, "Little jerk!"
A mean smile, one that was rare on him, flickered across Jacen's face. I'm going to get even with that attitude problem, he thought. He held Gary about five inches above his bed. Gary looked down, and saw that he was floating in mid-air. With a yelp, he struggled to get down. After struggling for a while, Jacen dropped Gary, not too gently, back on to his bed.
Gary jumped to his feet. He walked out of the cave.
"What's wrong with you?" asked Turtle, seeing the angry expression on Gary's face.
"Someone, or something, made me float!" Gary exclaimed.
"Oh, it was probably Anakin."
Gary, not knowing who or where Anakin was, called, "Anakin!"
Anakin came promptly to Gary. "Anni," he corrected. "What did I do this time?" He was used to being accused of things, which most of the time he did, but he always acted innocent.
"Did you lift me up back in the cave?" Gary asked. He got ready to punch the little squirt's lights out, when he heard a voice inside his head.
Amazingly, Anni didn't do it this time.
"This is the one crime in a while that I've been accused of and haven't done," Anakin said. He ran off, calling, "It was probably Jacen!"
"Jacen!" Gary called. Jacen came over, smiling wickedly.
"Hey! You're that idiot that thought I was a girl!" Gary exclaimed.
"Yep," said Jacen casually. "I told you not to call me anymore names."
"Whatever," said Gary, walking away and going back to bed.
Gary was soon awake again, and restless, so he went outside. He wanted to leave, but he didn't have any flying Pokémon to ride on. He spotted Damien, coming in early from his ride. Damien stroked his Ponyta's neck and put it back inside the Pokéball.
Gary's eyes widened. Maybe he has some flying Pokémon, Gary thought. He followed Damien into his cabin.
"Hey," said Gary, "do you have any flying Pokémon? Can I can borrow one?"
"Yeah, but not that you can borrow. I don't even know you. You could be stealing it."
"I promise I'll give it back," Gary pleaded.
Damien shook his head. "Nope. Promises aren't good enough. I already had one Pokémon stolen from me by that idiot, Ash."
"You know Ash? Ash Ketchum?"
"Yeah. You're not a friend of his, are you?
"Heck no! I'm his arch rival!"
"Oh, good. You can borrow this then," said Damien, tossing Gary his Pidgeot.
"Thanks!" said Gary. He jumped onto the bird's back and flew off.
"Hey! You're not supposed to leave!" shouted Ember, who had heard Sarah tell him to stay. He flew up and burned Gary and Pidgeot, and they fell to the ground with a crash. People on Pokémon have a very low sensitivity to pain, and so it just felt very hot. Gary got right back up and flew away, and this time Ember didn't stop him. Sarah and Cathy came back just in time to see him flying away.
The next morning, Tim didn't feel like waking up. Damien had to bring them to school on Dragonite again. But they were late. When Mr. Davis opened the door, he asked for their guardian.
"Uh," all four of them said.
"You wanted to see me?" Damien asked Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis hated Damien. Damien knew the reason. When Damien was in sixth grade, he was about as bad as he was when he first entered the forest. But, he had been an extremely good student. He always aced tests, and knew the answer to every question. He just never felt like raising his hand. The problem was, Mr. Davis's son, Harry, was in that class, too. He was the second smartest kid, but still looked like a fool in front of Damien. Damien could be the best in his class, even when he behaved badly. Harry was a goody-goody and a suck up, but he still didn't always get a perfect. Plus, even then, Damien could probably beat anyone on the planet in a Pokémon battle, provided he didn't have to raise the Pokémon, which he hated doing (and wasn't legal to him then).
"Uh, D-D-D-Damien! I-I though you left!" Mr. Davis backed away from the doorway.
"Yeah, I left. Why'd you want to see their guardian?"
"T-They're late."
"So?" Damien asked, kicking over the trashcan. "Have a problem with it?" He scowled at Mr. Davis.
"N-N-N-No."
"Fine then. Bye!" Damien walked out of the school. When he got outside, he started to laugh. He laughed all the way back to Golda.
Mr. Davis picked up the trashcan and the trash spilled around it, and continued the lesson.
That night, Sarah and Cathy were talking, normally this time. "I wish I could go to school," said Cathy.
"Yeah, it would be fun to go to a school on a different planet," answered Sarah.
They argued this issue for a while, weighing the pros and cons, then decided to go, or at least try it out for a while. Plus, it would give Sarah another chance to see the person that both Cathy and Tim now knew she liked; Gary.