Chapter 12

"I Hope This Will Protect Her!"

            The Next Day after Rosella had woken up and gotten dressed she began to arrange her dolls in the order she liked them.  While she was doing that, the Elite Four was holding a meeting to decide what they thought would be the best plan of action to keep her safe from Team Rocket. 

Bruno suggested, "What if we were to have a news session on the news one night?" 

Lance replied, "That's a good idea, Bruno, but the only problem with that is I don't think Team Rocket watches the news.  So I don't think that idea will fly." 

Then Agatha suggested, "Would it work better if we placed an article in a magazine?" 

Lorelei replied, "That's a good idea too, but again there's a problem with it because most people don't really read magazines.  They just flip through them and skim articles and only read ones that are of some interest to them." 

I thought, "Hmm, what could we put an article in that people would actually read?" 

Suddenly an idea hit me and I exclaimed, "I got it!  What if we put an article in the newspaper.  People read the newspaper a lot more than magazines." 

"Yeah, Lance has a point.  Now there is an idea that will fly, and will make sense to people when they read it."  Bruno said. 

So it was decided that a newspaper article was the best idea to let people know about Rosella's adoption.  With that decided upon, they began to write the article.  When the article was written it said basically that Rosella had been an orphan for several years, and it also stated that Rosella had been adopted by Lance and Lorelei of the Elite Four.  Now that the article was written, Agatha took it to the place where it would be published in the newspaper the next day.  Then Lance went upstairs to see if his daughter was awake yet.  He knocked on her door before he came in, and he saw that she had arranged her doll collection.  Lance liked the way she had arranged her dolls. 

Lance said, "Good morning Rosella, looks like you've been busy this morning arranging your dolls." 

I replied, "Good morning to you too, and yes I was busy this morning arranging those dolls." 

Lance then said, "The reason I came up here was to take you back downstairs since I don't think you know your way around this place, and also because I needed to tell you something." 

Rosella asked in a very cute manner, "What did you want to ask me?" 

I smiled Rosella was a genuine treasure. 

I replied, "Rosella, we are going to put an article in the newspaper to see if that will help to keep Team Rocket from going after you again." 

I went on and said, "This article just states that Lorelei and I adopted you and that you're no longer an orphan.  We're hoping that by putting this article out it will protect you, since I doubt Team Rocket would want to capture you again if they knew that we would trounce 'em again if they did." 

Rosella then asked in a quiet tone of voice, "You'd do all this for me?" 

I replied, "Yes Sweetheart, we would do all this for you because we care about you and we don't want to see anything bad happen to you.  Another reason is that Lorelei and I love you, and Bruno and Agatha think of you as a grandchild.  None of us would ever want to let anything bad befall you." 

"I know." Rosella said. 

Then Lance said, "Come on Rosella, I'll take you back downstairs to where the others are." 

He took my hand and we starting walking toward the place where we would meet back up with the others. 

As we were walking, I asked myself, "What exactly do I think of the others anyway?  Well I think of Lance and Lorelei as my parents of course, Agatha as a grandmother, and Bruno as an uncle.  At least that's how I see them right now.  Also, from how concerned they all were when they saw my wrist after Team Rocket had kidnapped me and had treated me very cruelly when they did.  I don't know what I would have done if Lance had not rescued me from them.  To me in that one moment, Lance became my hero and he opened my eyes to the fact that I really and truly could trust him." 

I came to the realization that the Elite Four really cared about me. 

It was then that Lance lightly squeezed my hand and then released his hold on my hand before he said, "We're here now Sweetheart.  We have a lot of things to go over with you." 

We walked inside the room and as soon as we did, the others looked up and when they saw me they smiled and nodded to let me know that they were glad to see me.  Lance sat down on the sofa next to Lorelei, and

Lance then motioned for me to come and sit beside.  I decided to do as he had beckoned and to sit beside him on the sofa, and soon after I was seated a discussion followed.  The first plan of business they had was to decide where to put the rest of the furniture that had been taken out of my old home when I had been given a new home with my new parents. 

Lance began the discussion by speaking up and saying, "Most of the rooms in our Palace are fairly well-furnished, but there is one room I think we could put her former living room furniture." 

Bruno then asked, "Which room are you talking about, Lance?" 

I replied, "The room I'm talking about is our meeting room because it only has five chairs in the whole room.  So I was thinking that we could put the table and four chairs from her old living room in there to make our meeting room a little less bare." 

Lorelei then said, "What Lance said really makes a good deal of sense." 

"It sure does."  Agatha agreed. 

Then Bruno said, "All in favor of putting the furniture in our meeting room please say so now." 

The Elite all agreed and everyone left the room to get the rest of the furniture except for Agatha and Rosella. 

Now that the others had left, Agatha turned to me and asked, "You're anxious to get back on your journey, aren't you?" 

"I am" I replied. 

"That's perfectly understandable, since after Team Rocket kidnapped you your whole journey got side-tracked." 

Then she said, "Don't worry, I'm sure that after the others are done with arranging the rest of the furniture Lance will let you go back out on your journey." 

As soon as Agatha had finished her sentence there was a shriek.  It came from Lorelei.  What happened was a chair slipped out of her grasp and fell to the floor with a thud. 

Then we heard Lance exclaim, "Lorelei, please be more careful chairs are not pin cushions!" 

Lorelei and Bruno laughed at the humor in his warning before she bent over and lifted the chair again.  That was all we heard as their voices trailed off down the hall.  Not too long after they rejoined us in the room. 

Agatha was the first to see them and she asked, "What was all the noise out there?" 

She asked with a funny sort of look on her face.  It was almost the kind of look you'd expect her to give if she thought something was true or even funny, but she just wasn't exactly sure what had had happened out there in the hall. 

"Oh that."  Lance said sounding slightly embarrassed.  "Well what happened is we were carrying the chairs up the stairs and halfway up them, Lorelei dropped a chair and it clattered to the floor." 

Then Rosella who rarely spoke up unless she was directly spoken to broke the silence and said, "Sounds to me like Lorelei shouldn't be carrying chairs if she's just going to drop them." 

Everyone looked at Lorelei and then burst out laughing. 

Bruno then stopped laughing and said, "I think Rosella just may have you there Lorelei." 

"I know she does, but I'm worried about whether the newspaper article will work." 

"That's a good point to wonder."  Bruno said. 

"Hopefully it will work and we won't have to worry about them going after her again."  Agatha said. 

"I hope so, for her sake."  Lance said.