A/N: Chapter… erm… six. Wow. More than AOTCS. Then again, these are very easy to write, since I've had this story planned out in my head for a while. It's still way longer than I expected.
I know Souriee is a bit of a bad name, but he's actually called that on my Ruby game, and I wanted to keep him like that (although the Ruby Souriee is actually female..).

Dedication: This chapter's for one of my best friends, Alex. If he's reading, that is. Hey Alex, I've dedicated a chapter to you! Look, darn it!

Disclaimer: Do I own Pokémon? Nope. But right now I'd settle for a nice thunderbolt to smite whoever it is that makes us do exams all the time. I'm being driven to sanity by it all…

Sianne's Story

By Dannichu

Chapter 6

About fifteen minutes later, Souriee, Sianne, Luke, Russell, Sarah and I were all splashing around in the water, having an absolutely great time, despite the fact the water was freezing. Terra, who wasn't particularly fond of the water and couldn't swim, as her body wasn't made for it at all, fluttered above out heads, watching while enjoying every minute of it. Then she dived down and grabbed Souriee. She then flew up, carrying him with her feet and then asking him something. He nodded and Terra let go, with Souriee about ten meters above the water.

"WHOOHOOO!" he screamed, before putting his hands together as if he were praying, putting them above his head and taking a diving stance. As he entered the water there was a huge splash, and then we saw Souriee bobbing about, grinning ecstatically at us.

After about an hour of swimming in the sea, we all decided, even Sarah, that if we didn't get out then, we would perish through hypothermia. Not to mention it was getting dark and cold earlier, as we were in the last days of summer. I found my large Porygon2 washcloth at the bottom of my pack and used it as a towel to dry off my Pokémon before wiping my face, putting it back in my bag and then squeezing out as much water as I could from my t-shirt. Once again I was glad I was wearing a dark blue shirt; I my white one had a horrible habit of going see-through when it was wet. Terra flew down to see us, and together the seven of us made our way back to the Lilycove Pokémon Center for a rest and a nice warm shower.

I never knew how nice a bath could be. We went into the room with the biggest bath in the entire Pokémon Center and shared it. Of course, I wore my swimming costume the whole time, but it was so relaxing, soaking in the foamy bubbles surrounded by my friends. Terra was, I think, sleeping on the bed in the other room (the Lilycove Pokémon Center had the largest rooms, all of them with an en-suite bath or shower, and quite a lot of them with small kitchens. Of course, it was still all free, sponsored by the League and all that). After fifteen minutes, we all got out and dried ourselves with the thick fluffy towels on the towel rail. I squeezed my hair until it stopped dripping and then made a kind of turban using a smaller hand towel before going back into the bathroom to change into my newly-cleaned clothes that were looking a little worse the wear after the various escapades I had been on during the day.

Even though it was only about nine PM, I was exhausted because of all the emotions that I had felt that day; regret, anger, disappointment… and, of course, a whole lot of happiness. I was about to recall all the Pokémon into their respective balls when I saw that the bed was big enough for all of us to sleep comfortably.
"Hey," I said to the Pokémon, a couple of which still had wet fur; Luke and Russell particularly, but I really didn't care. "Wanna share the bed?"
There was an immediate scuffle and within thirty seconds we were all in the double bed; it was a bit of a squeeze, but we were all snuggled up warmly. Russell and Souriee were curled up at the foot of the bed; Luke, Sianne, Sarah and I were all snuggled up in at the top, while Terra was asleep on my stomach, moving up and down with my breathing. I smiled widely before reaching up and pulling on the light cord, causing darkness to flood the room. I don't think any of us stayed awake for very long that night.

The next morning I groggily awoke and found myself in a huge bed with a couple of Pokémon around me. In my state of semi-consciousness, I looked down and saw a Pikachu. 'Where on earth did a Pikachu come from?' I inwardly asked myself. 'and why am I not camping?'

"Finally decide to get up?" Terra asked, grinning at me from the other side of the room. I sat up and saw not only Terra, but also Luke, Russell and Sianne were already up and ready to go. Only Sarah, Souriee and I were still asleep. "Uh, yeah." I said, embarrassed, while waking up Sarah and Souriee, "sorry about that. I was just tired, I guess."

"Murgh…" murmured Souriee blearily, "I HATE mornings…"

"Come on, come on!" Russell said excitedly. We're in Lilycove, and there's so many things to do!"

"There is?" I asked, smiling at Russell's enthusiasm. "Like what?"

"Well… " he began, taking a deep breath, "there's a HUGE Pokémart, which is worth a look even if we can't buy anything, as well as a Trainer House, a lighthouse, the Move Deleter…" he looked at me, and I grinned. We could finally get rid of that stupid Cut HM! I didn't even mean to teach it to him, the stupid box-CD thingy had fallen out of my bag while he was still a little Zigzagoon, and the dust inside had gone all over him, making his brain learn it. It was only those who had learned a form of psychology-hypnosis that could make Pokémon forget their HM moves. That was why HMs were rare; even though they could be used repeatedly, many trainers didn't think it was fair to give their Pokémon something they could never get rid of. It was like having a tattoo on your back; not seeing it, but knowing it was there and knowing you could never get it off. "…and, best of all, there's the Museum!" Russell exclaimed.

"Of course!" shouted Terra, looking delighted, "the Museum! I heard about that, but I forgot it was in Lilycove!"

"Art?" said Sianne, her ears perking up, "can we go and see it?"

"I don't know." I said, "is there an entrance fee? And are Pokémon allowed inside?"

"I don't think there's a fee." said Russell thoughtfully. "I heard that is was run off donations, and sponsored by the League."

"Is everything run off the League?" Sarah asked.

"Pretty much," I said, grinning, "It's just that the majority of people in Hoenn are trainers, all with a varied amount of money. So people with lots can give donations, which makes the journey much less strenuous for those without so much."

"And as for Pokémon being allowed in," the Linoone continued happily, "I should think they would be, especially since loads of the exhibits are of the Contest Pokémon, so the trainers can bring along their Pokémon and look at their pictures!"

"Contest Pokémon?" Souriee inquired.

"Yeah." I said, "you can enter a Pokémon in a Contest and the audience will vote on their favorite. That's the first stage. Then the Pokémon does its appeals and tries to impress the judge. The Pokémon that does the best between the two stages wins!"

"Have any of you won any Contests?" Sianne asked, looking at my four older Pokémon, impressed.

"Yeah." I said. "Both Sarah and Terra have a Tough Contest Normal Rank ribbon, and Russell both a Normal and Super Rank Cool contest one!" I took the ribbons out of the front pocket of my bag and showed them to the two Pikachu. "Luke could have easily won the Cool Contest too, but he didn't want to, which was can all respect. Right guys?" I said, looking at Sarah.

"Hey!" shouted the Marshtomp indignantly. "I said I was sorry!"

"And there's the Master Rank Contests!" Russell added. "All the Pokémon that take part there are prizewinners! They'll be amazing!"

"But they'll have been bred for it." I sniffed. "Think about the Pokémon that whoever bred but didn't have the right personality or moves or whatever! I'd never breed Pokémon to win some Contest. Besides, you're all the coolest, cutest, smartest, toughest and most beautiful Pokémon I've ever met." I said proudly, drawing them all into a hug. "But even so, what say we go and be part of the crowd today?"

"We really could?" asked Souriee, his face lighting up. "We could be part of the audience?"

"Sure; why not?"

"Oh WOW!" he shouted, leaping out of my arms, looking ecstatic, squealing happily and then jumping back into them for a hug. "Thank you, thank you!"

"You mean it?" Russell asked, looking hopeful.

"Of course! We're not in a hurry to go anywhere, are we? We can have a wonderful day free of battles and stress, where we can wander around being tourists!"

"All right!" Russell, Sarah and Souriee chorused.

"…The participating trainers and their Pokémon are as follows!" said the announcer, a woman in a bright red dress who looked ready to explode with excitement. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, and had a grin that, were it any bigger, probably would have split her face in two.

"Hey, Danni," Sarah whispered in my ear, "do you think that woman could be any happier if she tried?"
I had to stifle a laugh; the last thing I wanted was to get kicked out. I had already had a bit of an argument over whether or not Pokémon were allowed in.

"Janelle and her Luvdisc, Luvis!"

The woman exclaimed, indicating to an older girl with a pink headband, who opened a Pokéball, releasing her poorly-named Luvdisc. Now I wasn't a particularly large fan of Luvdisc myself, to me they had always looked a lot like haricot beans, but it was, truth be told, the first time I had ever seen a real one close up. And it was pretty cute, with its big eyes and little mouth. I cheered along with quite a lot of the crowd, and, I think, all of my Pokémon. The girl smiled confidently.

"…And here we have Sling, a Slaking belonging to Keaton!"

The small boy sent out his Slaking and, I had to admit, I really had seen cuter things in my life. It was far cuter than most Slaking I had seen; it wasn't like most Slaking, lying down on one side with a grumpy expression, looking like a lazy slob, but its eyes still made it look bored. I saw the look on Keaton's face, he looked so proud of his Pokémon. On his belt, where he clipped his Slaking's Pokéball, I noticed that there were no other balls on it. So his Slaking, Sling but have been his only Pokémon. I just had to cheer, not very loudly I'll admit, but I still cheered him on. The boy's face lit up.

"…Now Camille with her Utan, a Xatu!"

I looked up expectantly. I just loved Xatu. Still do. The girl took out a Safari Ball and opened it, causing a magnificent Xatu to burst forth. I'm not sure why I just love Xatu so much, I guess it had something to do with them being birds, or maybe their spectacular colors. But this one was just… amazing. Its colors were so prominent; it looked like it had flown though a rainbow. Its eyes were big and innocent, it looked so well-cared for, with neatly clipped claws, a beak just the right size, all feathers so nicely preened. It was also larger than most Xatu, about a head taller than the mousy-haired girl who had sent him/her out. Ironically, the girl herself looked like she had been through a mudslide, with dirty clothes, messy hair and it was hard to tell whether her skin was tanned or just dirty. Not that I could really talk, I looked like something dragged through a hedge backwards, even though my clothes were newly washed, they still looked worn out. My hair was, again recently washed, but it never looked 'nice'. Heck, I had a job making it border on 'presentable'. I cheered as loudly as I could, and I could hear Souriee, who was on my shoulder, Terra who was on my head, and Sarah who was directly next to me doing the same thing. The rest of the crowd seemed rather impressed. The girl, Camille, blushed with a lopsided grin on her face.

"…And last, but by no means least, we have Nigel and his Kullusk!"

The guy was also older, he looked as if he were in his twenties, and he was wearing an assortment of combat-style clothes. He sent out his Pokémon, a Duskull. My first reaction upon seeing it was something along the lines of 'How on earth did that Pokémon scrape the Normal Rank?' It wasn't that it looked ugly, it was just… a Duskull. How on earth are Duskull meant to be cute? They're ghosts with one eye! This one had a really sweet scarf on though; embroidered with tiny hearts. It looked a little odd on the Duskull. Still, I murmured along with the cheering that the other people were making.

The rest of the Contest passed brilliantly. We would cheer whenever a Pokémon put across a very Cute appeal. My personal favorite part was when that Xatu used Return. The look in its eyes as it thought of all the times it had been though with is trainer before turning it all into energy and releasing it. It was just so special. After the last appeal had been performed, the Pokémon returned to their original positions and awaited the results. Eventually, the judge stood up. He was a very old man. He looked withered almost, like a plant starved of water; you could see by looking at it that it was once proud and strong, but now it was wilted and droopy. Nevertheless, he was very good at what he did, I guessed he had been doing it for a while, and was never biased toward or against any of the Contestants. When he stood up, the bustling crowed suddenly became as silent as the grave, all attention focused on the frail old man before us.

"The Judge looks ready to make his announcement!" said the excited woman, bouncing on the spot.

"I will now declare the winner!" said the judge in a loud voice.

Everyone in the room waited with bated breath.

"Utan the Xatu and her trainer Camille!" he shouted before the large crowd before him erupted into cheers and shouts. Camille and her Xatu walked over to the judge, who gave the trainer a gorgeous pink ribbon, far more elaborate than that which Russelland the othershad won back in the Verdanturf Contests. I, of course, joined in the deafening cheering along with the rest of the crowd, which was far bigger than that of any contest I had previously visited. This one was nearing eighty or so people, nearly full to capacity.

"That was great, wasn't it?" Souriee said in wonderment. After we had gotten trampled by the onslaught of people exiting the Contest hall, we walked outside and were wandering around aimlessly, mostly discussing that Contest. "But I really think that Slaking should have won."

"Really?" I asked.

"Sure." said Terra, joining in the conversation, "It looked so well cared for, and so loved. And her trainer wasn't one of those people who breed for Contests, he just wanted to show his appreciation to his partner."

"Really? Wow, I didn't know that. I just loved the Xatu."

"Tch. Humans." muttered Souriee under his breath, so quietly I didn't really catch what he'd said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sarah shouted, suddenly turning on the Electric mouse. "Are you in any way implying that my trainer, my best friend is small-minded?"

"No!" Souriee shouted, holding up his little hands in defeat. "Not at all!

"Good." Sarah said, giving him one last glare.

"Sarah!" I said, shocked.

"Yeah?"

"What was that about?"

"He was accusing you of being shallow! I wasn't going to stand for it!"

"Sheesh Sarah, I appreciate it, but calm down!"

"Sorry."

"I have an idea!" said Terra suddenly, either struck by a sudden thought or wanting to change the subject. "How about we go and look at the museum?"

"Yeah!" agreed Sianne, "I'd love to see those pictures of the prizewinners!"

"And those ancient statues!" added Russell, "Some of them are thousands of years old!"

"I heard that they now have loads of exhibits on conservation!" Souriee exclaimed, "I really want to see them!"

"Okay with everyone?" I asked, looking to see all six Pokémon nodding. "Right then. Next stop, Lilycove Museum!"

A/N: I know you're thinking "What the heck does this chapter have to do with anything!". How do I know? I'm thinking the same thing. Ah well. I love contests, so I had to put one in. Review!