Three days later, Finnick, Anna and I had brunch at a quiet café downtown that allowed our Pokemons to eat at an open area near us. We stayed an extra two day in Rustboro because we wanted to watch Mari's match using the Pokemon Center's free WiFi (Eddie was a Lombre now). She won rather spectacularly.

'I have decided,' Finnick declared. 'I'm going back home to train for a while. Where are you all going next?'

I was surprised at this decision. I hadn't thought about it, but I thought we would all be travelling to Mauville City. It's the closest city, now that there was a tunnel connecting Route 116 and Verdanturf Town. Though home sounds good…

'I might go home too, there's a gym there.' I said.

'Oh really?' Anna poked her Blukberry on her pancakes. 'Where do you live?'

'Mauville City,' I sipped on my chocolate milkshake.

'Where are you going, Anna?' I asked, though I feel like already knew the answer to that.

'I don't know…' She said.

I nudge her under the table with my knee.

'I think maybe I will travel to Lavaridge,' She nudged me back, harder. 'I can travel with you, is that's ok?'

'Of course!' Finnick said, waving his pancakes in the air.

I eyed him. Is he dense or does he like Anna? I can't read boys.

We said our goodbyes after our brunch. I headed out to Route 116, feeling a sense of excitement laced with trepidation. This is going to be my first time travelling alone! At the entrance of Route 116, I saw a familiar girl leaning on a tree with a half smirk, dressed in black hiking pants, a form fitting tank top and a dark green rain jacket.

'Hey, hot stuff. Look who decide to show up,' Ronnie drawled. 'What happened to training every morning?'

'I ran in the morning!' I protested. 'Besides, it's good to take a break once in a while.'

'Uh huh,' She pushed herself off the tree.

'What are you doing here?' I demanded.

'Travelling with you,' She said as if I should know this.

'Remember? I texted you and ask if you want to travel together sometime and you said yes?' Ronnie reminded.

'Yes, sometime! Not now!' No no no not now, not when I still have a crush on her.

'Why not?' She asked.

'Because!' I cast my mind around for a good reason. 'Because I'm a trainer about to gain independence!'

'You can be independent and still travel with a friend,' She raised an eyebrow at me.

'You cut your hair,' I said, because I just noticed this. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail

I liked her long hair. It is still long, probably slightly below her shoulders when she let it down. But it used to be longer.

'I… huh?' Ronnie fingered her hair. 'All the better to travel with!'

'Oh no no no, why are you travelling anyway? Don't you have 8 badges?' I asked her.

'I still need to train. I plan to challenge the Elite Four!' She announced. 'Come on, it'll be fun!'

'Oh no. No.' No no no. She has a girlfriend!

'I'm just going to follow you anyway, whether you like it or not!' She declared.

And follow me she did. The next two days, she stalked me through the woods. Whenever I rested, she'll be sitting there, sitting a part away from me. Whenever I trained, she'll be training next to me not near enough that we are travelling together, but near enough that I can hear the clash of Pokemon moves being executed. And oh man when I sleep, she'll be sleeping near me. And she's adorable when she sleep. Her face transform and she looked so innocent and cute. Not that I look at her when she sleep.

On the third day, I gave up and started talking to her. This was partially because she was being annoying. But also, my Pokemons were intolerable around her. Estelle was just cool with it, thank Arceus. Dawn keep turning to growl at her, wondering why there was a stalker. Neo kept sniggering at me. Lexy, oh dear sweet Lexy. He kept stealing my cap and running off to Ronnie, who would give him chocolate. Which was what she was doing at the moment.

'Oh for Arceus' sake, stop bribing Lexy with chocolate!' I whirled around.

'Are you acknowledging me now?' She raised an eyebrow.

'Ughhh,' I growled.

This prompt a wide smile from her. The other side of her mouth almost went up in a smile. Almost. She quickly strode to my side, as if taking this opportunity to wiggle her way into being my travelling companion.

'So, where did Finnick and Anna go?' She asked.

I told her, jerking my cap back from Lexy, who was preoccupied with chocolate at that moment. Thank Arceus he didn't get any on the cap.

'Why didn't you go with them?' I saw her sneak another piece of chocolate to Lexy and I punched her in the arm.

'Ow…' She said monotonously.

'I wanted to go home,' I shrugged. 'And Mauville is closer than Lavaridge.'

'Oh you live in Mauville? Goody, I can see your childhood bedroom!' She clapped her hands.

'No you're not going into my bedroom!' I can feel a blush rising at the thought of her in my bedroom.

'Come on, you're not going to throw me out on the streets are you?' She begged, giving me puppy eyes.

Ugh, I don't know what to do with this stalker.

'You are a stalker,' I told her.

'Ah, but have you seen any stalkers as hot as me?' She spread her arm, gesturing to herself.

'Yes, you,' I pointed out, referring to the fact that she had been stalking me for the past 3 days.

'So, you admit I'm hot?'

'No! You manipulated me into that!'

'Nah uh you said it. No take backs!' She half grinned. 'Chocolate?'

I took a square and stuff it into my mouth so I don't have to talk to her.

In the next few days, I got to know all her Pokemons, whom she named by their characters. There was Rogue who was mischievous and likes to play planks. Galene the Shiftry, the first Pokemon she ever caught, was quiet. Theodore the Meowstic was her starter and was always serious, which is a characteristic, I'm starting to find, common between psychic Pokemons. Serena the Milotic has a calm, gentle presence, but I only ever see her during meal times or training times because she doesn't like travelling over land. Enyo the Rapidash was brave, strong and beautiful, with a spirit that can't be tamed. And she has a love for galloping and a need for speed. She'd always race ahead, then back and whined that we were going too slow. And of course, Mirabelle who was a princess. She also has two other Pokemon, Thanatos the Krookodile was always so moody (he's like a teenage boy! She swore) and Gareth the Lucario, who was modest and brave, yet the most caring of them all. They were left at home because each Pokemon Trainer can only have up to 6 Pokemon with them while travelling.

There were perks to travelling with her, I have to admit. For one, her Pokemon were ridiculously high leveled, except for Mirabell who was still leagues above Lexy. Whenever we trained together, my Pokemon were left in the dust. But it gave us a role model to push ourselves. Lexy evolved on the second day I decided to travel with her. Or rather, when she bribed her way into being my travelling partner.

'Wow!' Ronnie came over. 'Shelgon huh, by Arceus he is huge!'

Actually, Lexy didn't grow much in terms of height, maybe 10 cm or so, but his width quadrupled. He now had a shell covering his body that was almost as wide as he was tall. He now stood on four legs instead of two, the inside of his legs has streaks of red scales. The shell glittered bluish grey, like the ridges on his head previously. Two yellow eyes peered out at us from inside the shell.

'Trainer?' He asked. 'Did you grow shorter?'

'I'm not short!' Ignoring Ronnie's 'Yes you are' (she has been teasing me for two whole days), I told Lexy. 'You grew taller! You evolved!'

I couldn't keep the happy grin off my face and so did Shelgon. Ok, I couldn't really see his mouth, but he was really happy. Ronnie gave him chocolate for evolving, the really nice kind, and he was over the moon. And he said so.

'I am happy! Trainer friend is the best. I like her!' He declared.

'If only your trainer feel the same, huh,' She nudged Lexy.

I snorted. Did I seem like I was hating her? She's been the one teasing me the entire way!

After Lexy evolved, he seemed much slower. Maybe his shell was extremely heavy or something, but he plodded along almost at the pace of Finnick's Barbeque. This caused Enyo to complain and curse whenever they were out at the same time so Ronnie and I tried our best to rotate our Pokemon so they wouldn't be travelling together. Actually thinking about it, her Pokemon were all very speedy. And I said so to her one night.

'What can I say? I love it fast,' Ronnie shrugged. 'Your Pokemons are very speedy too, once Lexy evolve that is.'

Lexy, who had been munching on a Zigzagoon, looked up at his name. In the distance, Mirabelle and Dawn were done with their meal and were play fighting. Surprisingly, the Ice and Fire Pokemons clicked very well. Rogue gave a grunt when the both of them tumbled into him.

'So what does R stands for?' Ronnie stopped scrolling through her Pokedex, gesturing to the Lexy's Pokeball that I was cleaning.

'Not telling you,' I stuck out my tongue. 'What is Ronnie short for?'

'I'll tell you when you tell me,' She smirked.

'Why do you want to know?' I shot back. 'You really are a stalker!'

'I'm not a stalker! Stalkers only prey on cute little girls,' Ronnie exclaimed.

'So I'm a poor cute little girl.'

'You're not cute,'

I snorted.

'You're hot' Ronnie finished.

I peered at her, but she only went back to scrolling her Pokedex. She had been making all these sort of off handed comments and I can't tell if she was flirting with me. She had a girlfriend for goodness' sake.

The next day, we finally got out of the forest in Route 116 but decided to spend the night outside of the tunnel because Ronnie said that the tunnel was dark, and it was long. When we actually entered the tunnel, it wasn't as dark as Ronnie claimed it to be. It was dimly lit, sure but we still could see. The tunnel was massive though, more like a cave. It was meant to be a one way tunnel, but somehow, we still managed to find ourselves slightly lost. On the third night, we finally burst out of the tunnel, smelling fresh air, seeing night sky, feeling grassy field. Wait, grassy field?

'This isn't Verdanturf town, is it?' I asked Ronnie, who had taken to exploring our surroundings.

'Nope,' She said, climbing up a flight of stairs.

We were in a small space of grassy field. Further out, I could see rocky walls that surround us. There was a flight of stairs on the side we exited, and another one after that, but I couldn't see anything beyond that.

'So?' I asked Ronnie, who had came back from climbing.

'Nothing, just flat surfaces,' Ronnie flopped onto the floor. 'Let's spend the night here.'

'I thought you travelled through this tunnel before,' I half complained, taking out a packet of ramen.

Being on Route 116 for more than a week, we had long run out of fresh food, and there was nothing to eat in the caves. Except Whismur, which tasted ok. But oh Arceus, they were annoying to hunt, because once one of them got frighten, which is very easily, it'll let out a ear splitting cry, which will scare other Whismurs, and soon the entire tunnel will be echoing with their cries. So we resorted to eating ramen and the Whismurs stayed away from us.

'I've never came here,' She shrugged.

I poked the fire.

'It must be you,' She decided.

'Hey!' I complained, throwing a packet of ramen at her. 'You know what I mean!'

'I don't know, seems like I'm always lost with you,' Ronnie muttered.

'What?' I said.

'Nothing,' She poured the contents of the packet into the now boiling water. Soon, ramen was ready to eat. We released all our Pokemon for the first time in a while and they seem delighted that they were not in the tunnel anymore. Except for Rogue, who seemed to like the dark cavern. And Lexy.

'Oh, hey girl' Ronnie exclaimed as Dawn leapt onto her lap, not that she fit.

Dawn, who started out wary of Ronnie, is now extremely friendly with her. She decided that Ronnie was not some weird stalker (Traitor!) and is always seeking attention from her. I read somewhere that abused animals display attention seeking tendency and wondered if this was what was happening with Dawn. I don't exactly know how to raise a Pokemon that had gone through what she did. I admit, I'm sort of afraid with her. Ronnie though, was good with her. She was good with Pokemon in general, I realized, staring at her as she scratch Dawn under her chin causing her to purr. Honestly don't know if Dawn was a feline or canine. I quickly looked away as she looked up, not wanting to be caught staring at her. Damnit. Soon, Mirabell was also pawing her for attention. Damn why did none of my Pokemon do that to me? I looked at Estelle, who was quietly eating. With a jolt, I realized Lexy used to do it to me, until he evolved. I looked over where he was snoozing, his food mostly untouched. Neo seemed to realized this as he swiped Lexy's portion.

'Don't worry,' I looked up. Ronnie was looking at me, her hand stroking Mirabell and Dawn. 'Shelgons tend to sleep a lot, and they hardly eat. It's part of their preparation for their next evolution.'

'I uh… Thanks,' I wondered how she knew what I was thinking.

It took us another two more days of turning and bumping into walls and Ronnie's exclaimation of 'I've seen that rock before!' (they all look the same to me) before we finally reached Verdanturf town.

'What do you mean there's no more rooms?!' I exclaimed.

We didn't see that many trainers in the tunnels, or we wouldn't have been so lost. I get that it's a small Pokemon Center but…

'Grooooowl,' Dawn, who was with me, let out a whine.

She liked sleeping on beds, I learnt in Rustboro. I released her in the room to give her a bath and after she jumped on my bed, she refused to leave it.

'I didn't say that,' Nurse Joy said calmly.

'Oh good,' I can't stand the thought of spending another night in my sleeping bag.

I don't understand how I thought off roading was good when I started out.

'But there are no rooms with two single beds,' Nurse Joy continued. 'But there is a few rooms with a double bed. Unless you want to wait till tomorrow, when four guests are checking out.'

'We'll take the double bed.' Ronnie took the keys from Nurse Joy.

That was how I found myself in the same room as my crush, having to sleep on the same bed. I thought this kind of things only happened in fanfictions!