A/N — Before we start, to my always beautiful reviewers!
darkdemon5 — Aw thank you! Sorry this one took almost a month! I'm in a slump right now :/
mysteryreader6626 — Haha, yeah XD Thanks! The plot is going ahead now!
Just Another Kid — Yeah, that could happen to Sapphire XD But you gotta love her anyways! Also, about Pearl, yeah I'm wrong I think. When I searched it up afterwards, I didn't see any version of it, so you're right.
Pokémon Luminous — Thank you XP
LazyCat0621 — Aw thank you so much! I hope you keep liking it :) Also, answering your question, I have the perfect lover in mind for Pearl XD I'll set them up soon just cause. But for now, i'm not going to reveal it. Sorry XP As for the characters' ages, I will answer that at the bottom of the page along as why they know each other. &' it's fine!
a Lights Shadow — Thank you :)
Pale1357 — Hmm... wonder what could happen, huh? You gotta find out later though XP ... or now.
Shidake — WOW. You are so good at guessing XD I'm pretty predictable lol.
justsomerandompokemonguy — Haha, justice? Thanks! :) Soul & Silver is an interesting thing in my opinion lol.
Valkeyrie's Servant — I always thought of Soul as Mario all the time, seeing her big white hat (even though he wears a red one) XD &' yeah, contests are my thing XP I get bored a lot, and I try to do goals in the game like winning them.
THANK YOU SO MUCH XD In the last chapter, y'all broke the record with eight reviews, but now ten?! I love y'all TT^TT~ I am so freaken sorry that this took a month too! I was supposed to update it yesterday too, but then I forgot! Sorry and thank you!
Chapter Eight — Preparation Problems
Soul whirled around in her pink fairy costume, admiring the piece. "This is like Halloween! I love it!"
Currently, preparations for the school festival was going under way. Even though they just had decided the theme yesterday, the school already began ordering the materials for the classrooms overnight so they can start preparing the festival quicker. And because they wanted to start off the event quicker, all classes were supposed to build the sets and plan it during seven class periods, so they got to take a break from their traditional schedule. Though it was nice, it was super tiring since the school gave them a very tight deadline to prepare everything. In addition, during their last period, they have to attend a meeting for the second part of the festival where they're doing the all-grade level event next week. It was really busy, so they were exempted from their after school punishment for the next couple days.
Right now, to have more options aside from the costumes Ms. Janine bought, Crystal and Soul were tasked to borrow some from the drama club as well. After trying on a fairy costume she saw, she started to change her mind about the haunted house thing— maybe, it wasn't so bad.
"I don't think you're supposed to wear something like that," Crystal said, gesturing towards the costume.
Contrast to the brunette, her sister was dressed in a black puffy dress, accessorized by a broom in her hand and a pointy, striped black and white hat on her head.
"It's supposed to be supernatural, isn't it? Why can't I wear it?" Soul questioned, not really seeing the problem.
"Because it's not scary at all."
The new voice surprised the twins, making them stiffen up because they weren't expecting it. Whirling around to the source of the voice, the pair saw a familiar redheaded boy dressed in a mummy costume with his usual frown and his best friend behind him in a grim reaper costume. Or, at least that's what Crystal assumes him to be since he had a black cloak and a scythe prop.
"Hey Super Serious Gal and Mario!" Gold greeted them, waving the scythe around. "We came over to the drama club room because Ms. Janine was wondering if you gals needed some help carrying the stuff back!"
"You can't wear that costume," Silver continued, looking at it with a grimace. The hot pink and sparkles on the skirt was kind of hurting his eyes.
"I think it's cute though!" Gold complimented her, receiving looks from Crystal and Silver to shut up.
"Well, obviously, I can't wear anything else. I don't see any costumes that fit my size," Soul lied, not wanting to try something else. Her lie was seen through by everyone else quite easily.
"Good thing we have this then," Silver said.
The brunette looked at him in confusion. Her puzzled look was quickly answered when Silver threw a scary chainsaw killer mask at her and a bottle of fake blood. Soul caught the items clumsily, and it took a second to realize what they were.
"I'm not wearing this! It's not cute at all!" she protested, continuing, "I'm not putting on fake blood either! It'll mix in with my moisturizer and ruin my face!"
"You don't even use moisturizer, what are you going on about?!" Crystal said to her.
Soul rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, lotion," she corrected. "Point is, I'm not going to wear this stuff!"
Silver wasn't going to lie— he honestly did not care. However, Ms. Janine is getting up the class's ass about the arrangements and treating this attraction's success as a group project. Meaning, it's a grade. Silver could care less about Soul's feelings at this point, he wasn't going to go down with her just because she didn't feel like putting on the appropriate costume.
"Relax," Gold cut in. "You don't have to wear it—"
"Thank you, Gold," Soul interjected.
"—now. You can wear it when it's your turn tomorrow," Gold finished.
Soul frowned, upset that Gold took Silver's side. She looked over to Crystal with the last bit of hope. Unfortunately, Crystal loves her sister, but not enough to risk her grade.
"Soul, you're not wearing that," Crystal told her, shredding her last bit of hope. "It's too flashy anyways."
"Ugh!" The brunette let out a groan as everyone turned on her. "I'm not going to change, and you all can't make me!"
Before any of them could say anything, Soul scrambled out of the room, running away in her bright pink fairy dress. Crystal let out a sigh and started to rub her temples, attempting to console herself and deal with Soul's dumb antics.
"Well, it's a good thing we're here, Super Serious Gal! Your sister ditched you, but luckily, I'm here to save the day!" Gold said, breaking the silence.
Oh right, these delinquents, she remembered, looking at the two boys. Honestly, she didn't hate the two, but she could sense they always brought trouble everywhere they went. Everything always went wrong when they showed up in her and Soul's lives, and she was not for it. Because it was Soul's fault that they were here, she tried to let it go.
Crystal picked up one of the boxes of costumes and gestured to them to get the other boxes. "Alright, help me carry this to the classro—"
Gold and Silver exchanged confused looks when she stopped talking mid-sentence and looked shocked all of a sudden. Crystal dropped the box of costumes and with a shaky hand, she pointed towards the door, behind them. Gold and Silver whirled around to see what caused her to look so shocked, and was met with a purple monkey with a grin on its face and a tail that looked similar to a gloved hand. It was standing in the hallway, jumping around elatedly.
All three of them stood frozen for a second.
"A-Aipom?!" Crystal exclaimed, receiving looks from both Gold and Silver. They were surprised that she knew the name of the creature.
"U-Um!" Crystal continued in a frantic manner, not knowing what to do. "H-Hold on! You guys watch it, I'll call animal control on the monkey!"
She hurriedly scrambled through her blazer pocket for her phone quickly so she could call.
"No! Don't!" Gold cried. "It's Silver's pet mouse!" Now this earned a skeptical look from both Crystal and Silver.
"Don't be ridiculous," she mumbled, ignoring him.
Right when she took it out and began dialing, Gold suddenly grabbed her phone and chucked it out of the open window in the room. Crystal ran over to the window sill, trying to look where he had thrown it. After she saw it on the concrete outside, completely smashed because it fell at a tall height, she spun around and began glaring daggers at Gold.
"What is wrong with you?!" she screamed in his face angrily, grabbing his shirt collar and tugging on it. "That was my emergency phone! That thing is not cheap!"
"Y-You're c-choking me!" Gold managed to say while she shook him furiously.
Crystal threw him to the side, finally letting go. She folded her arms, still retaining her glare. "Why did you do that?" she asked him, demanding an answer. Though she stopped screaming, it kind of scared Gold (and Silver, not that he'll admit it) because her voice went super low.
"M-My hand slipped," Gold squeaked out, giving her a lame excuse.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" she screamed, losing her patience and lunging at him again. Gold barely dodged her kick, letting out a small gasp when she saw it made a crack in the wall.
At the corner of Gold's eye, he saw that the monkey had started to run off to the right. He watched Silver ran out of the room quietly after Aipom too.
"Um, I'm going to see you later, Super Serious Gal! I gotta go get Silver's pet mouse! Hope you can carry those boxes on your own!"
Before Crystal could attempt to clobber him again, Gold had rushed past her and out of the room. Crystal quickly chased him, but once she was at the entrance, Gold was already pretty far in the other direction (those football practices really helped). She was about to follow him out, but then she remembered the boxes of costumes she had to deliver to the classroom. She didn't know how or when, but Silver was gone too, leaving her to be the only one left. Looking at the boxes and then back at Gold who was already at the end of the hallway, Crystal let out a small shriek to show her frustration. She knew she had to be responsible.
"GOLD, YOU OWE ME A NEW PHONE!"
After leaving a furious Crystal behind, Gold tried sprinting in the direction of where ever aipom ran. Gold wasn't sure which way to go since the path split into two after he reached the end of the hallway. Man, having to deal with a magical (or, in his eyes at least) creature was not what Gold had in mind today. He was sure he locked the closet well, how did aipom get out and enter the school?
"Idiot."
While looking for clues to find out the direction where aipom ran towards, a voice called out to him. He saw Silver standing at the entrance of a classroom, his body half out. He nodded his head, gesturing to Gold to come in. Gold slumped his shoulders, sighing. He didn't want to lie to his best friends, but times are tough, and he had no choice. Well, that was his initial thought until he entered the classroom and saw Silver holding aipom by its tail and dangling it while it was thrashing around and trying to escape.
Gold looked around and realized it was an empty, unoccupied science lab, so it was just the two of them.
"Oh my gosh, is that a rare purple monkey that only lives in America?! How'd you find it?!" Gold gasped dramatically, pretending he didn't have any connection to the creature.
Silver saw through him immediately. "Cut that stupid act out. I saw how you reacted, and I'm not dumb, I know it's an aipom."
"I can explain," was the only Gold had to say.
"Save it," he said, tossing the aipom over to Gold. It flung mid-air for a few seconds before Gold successfully caught it in his arms. After receiving such harsh treatment from Silver, aipom clung to Gold and hugged him.
"Hey! Be gentle with Ataro!" Gold snapped, hugging it back.
Silver arched an eyebrow. "You gave it a nickname?"
"He's practically family already to me! I plan to keep him!" Gold announced.
"You literally just got him last night!" Silver grumbled.
"Yeah, and I cherished those hours together— wait, how did you know?" Gold asked, warily, realizing what Silver had just said.
"Last night, it came out of mine and my sister's screens too," Silver explained.
"What?!" Gold shrieked, his eyes widened. "Really? And you didn't tell your best friend?!"
Silver narrowed his eyes at him. "Are you really the one to be talking now?" he snapped, nodding his head towards aipom.
"Okay, I was planning to tell you later when I had time," Gold defended.
"Oh shut up," Silver responded, seeing through another one of his lies. He literally just pretended to not have any relationship with it. "Hurry up and put that thing in the cage before someone sees it! I can't believe you just let it roam around!"
"Technically, I locked it in my closet. I didn't purposely let it go around school where people can call animal control on it," Gold argued.
"By the way, nice way of handling that," Silver said sarcastically, thinking back to what happened with Crystal.
Gold let out a groan just thinking about the price. Crystal seemed super pissed off too at what he did.
"Don't even mention it," he muttered. "It's fine! I'll deal with that later! I'm sure super serious gal will forgive me! Anyways, back to the main issue, if you and big sis have Pokémon too, we should meet up after school and talk about it! One came out of Yellow's screen too!"
Silver nodded, agreeing. "We should discuss it," he said. "Come over our apartment after school."
"Oh wait," Gold suddenly remembered something. "Don't we have to go to some homecoming strategy meeting after school?"
Yesterday, Gold and Silver made plans with the other football players to meet up during the eighth period when they make the whole school get together in the auditorium to announce whatever the all-grade event was. They were planning to have a strategy meeting for the upcoming football game for homecoming, which happens to be a big deal at their school since it introduces the season off. It was coming up pretty fast too, right after the school festival activities came to an end.
"I'm pretty sure we'll finish the meeting during eighth," Silver replied. It's not like any of them actually participates in the all-grade thing anyways. Every year it happens, they usually talk through it and ignore whatever's on stage because in the end, only the eager students want to be involved.
"Okay! Your place after school then!" Gold announced. He looked at the aipom in his arms. "Man, I wonder how I'm going to keep you hidden until then, Ataro. We can't have super serious gal calling animal control on you!"
Silver looked at the aipom then back at Gold. "Find a cage."
Yellow's POV
I just couldn't stop thinking about last night.
The whole after school punishment was exhausting because everyone kept arguing about decorations or were nitpicking each other's work (which was surprising since I'm pretty sure everyone didn't care). There was also Green and Blue. I wouldn't really call their interactions as arguing, mostly because it was more one-sided from Blue's part, but the tension was just weird. I was sure Green was going to punch her at this point. I wouldn't put it past him, he punched me before, though it was an accident when he tried teaching me self-defense because I asked him to for fun. Lesson learned, I'm never doing that again.
I just came back to my apartment with Gold, and I was ready to play some Pokérune to blow off some stress. However, after I logged in, the screen suddenly turned black. What the heck? The first time I log in after a while this happens, just my luck, ugh. Right when I was about to give up and get some food instead, I noticed something bright in the corner of my eye. An icon of a pokéball icon popped up, or at least I didn't see it earlier. I clicked on it because maybe it'll bring me back to the homepage.
But that was a big mistake.
Just when I clicked on it, the computer screen started to emit some bright light and I felt my vision blinded. I closed my eyes to avoid the light, and while they were closed, something hard smashed into my nose and my mouth. I flew back onto the floor and choked on whatever shot into my mouth. Accidentally, I swallowed it because I couldn't push it up my throat.
I tried to regain my senses after being pushed out of my chair, blinded, and choked, but once I opened my eyes, a yellow mouse was in my face.
"AH!" I suddenly screamed, scrambling over to my bed to get away from it.
I'm pretty sure it looked a lot like pikachu, the in-game avatar Pokémon I used. Not really sure though, considering they're not real and I'm out of my mind right now.
"GOLD!" I shouted, hoping he would come in and help. I know he's home because we walked together.
Just when I thought my cousin came to help me, I was wrong.
Gold came tumbling in with something purple attached to his face. Because his vision was obstructed with the thing attached to his face, he kept falling and knocking stuff over my stuff, saying something incoherently. I didn't know what he was saying because his voice was muffled.
When I looked closer, I realized the thing on him was alive. Quickly, I rushed over and as hard as I could, I yanked the thing off, the force making it fly over to my wall. It smashed against it and fell next to the pikachu that came out of my computer earlier. Once it stood up, I recognized what it was.
"An a-aipom? Pokémon?!"
After that incident, we managed to subdue the two in Gold's closet. The pikachu seemed more or less obedient, however, the aipom that came out of Gold's computer was harder to control. It took awhile and almost all night, but finally it tired out and Gold shoved the two in the closet and locked it. We didn't really know what to do, but Gold was supposed to go to football practice in a couple hours because they switched from afternoons to mornings, and we decided to keep this hidden and figure out this issue regarding them later.
I barely got any sleep last night and I felt dead inside. It took way too long to calm that aipom down.
"Oh gosh!" I heard someone shout from right beside me, making me snap out of my thoughts. I glanced over to see Blue covering her smile with her hand, trembling with amusement as she tried to hold her laughter in. She looked really pretty in her costume for the cafe we're doing. She was dressed in a maid costume like every other girl in the classroom, along with an eevee headband to go with the theme. At times like this, I kind of wish I told everyone I was a girl, but it was hard to, especially since it didn't go too well with Red. Well, I'm fine with my pikachu costume, it kind of matches my hair and it's comfy. The only problem was that it kept reminding me of the pikachu last night.
Oh! I wonder what she's laughing about though— No way.
It was Green... in a charmander costume. And not going to lie, though it was weird, I want to give him a big hug. Of course, I wouldn't since he would probably kill me. He was already shooting glares all around the classroom because girls (I wonder if it's his fans) were gushing. Feel kind of bad for him, honestly.
"This is just too good," Blue remarked, secretly taking a picture with the camera meant for class photos. She volunteered to be in charge for fun.
"Blue! We need you to take pictures over here!" A classmate called her from the other side of the room.
"Alright! Coming!" Blue told them, walking over.
Huh, I wonder if she gets tired of being involved in nearly every school event. It seems like a lot to be in charge of photos.
"Hey, look! We're matching!"
I recognized who said that immediately and turned to my right, only to see Red jumping around happily in an oversized pikachu outfit himself. Wow, I thought Green was cute in his charmander outfit (though he was grumpy and clearly upset), but with Red's bubbly personality, he took the cake. He looked like a little kid, so cute!
"Y-Yeah," I replied to him nervously. Ugh, I don't know why I'm nervous. I swear our conversations are so awkward, I'm always embarrassed by something.
"Oh yeah, speaking of Pokémon things, I wanted to ask if you played Pokérune last night," Red said.
My heart dropped when I thought back to what happened last night. Why was he asking about it?
"Why?" I inquired. Did something happen to him too?
Before I could get my answer properly, Gold came bursting into the room, catching everyone's attention. I swear, I can never get a proper conversation with Red.
"Hey guys!" he greeted the whole room when he realized the attention was on him.
What was he doing here?
I went over to him and I saw that Red followed me from behind.
"Gold, what's up?" Red greeted him, friendly like always. I just love how he's so nice.
"Hey! I came to talk to my cousin," Gold replied, pointing at me with his thumb. He looked at us up and down, amused. "Nice costumes!"
"Thanks!" Red said, happy about the compliment. I couldn't really tell if it was a compliment though, Gold sounded like he was teasing.
"Where's Green? I want to tease him if he's wearing the same one," Gold joked, looking around the room. It was hard for him to find Green though because there were numerous students dressed up in costumes.
"I suggest you don't," Red warned him, smiling nervously. "I feel like he's going to pop one of these days."
I kind of agree with that. I'm surprised Green didn't strangle Blue by how much she was laughing.
"Let's talk outside in the hallway," I suggested, changing the subject. I was kind of curious why Gold was here too. "It's kind of noisy and busy in the classroom."
"Okay, I'll leave you two alone and be over there," Red informed, gesturing over to the side of the room Green was in.
I went out to the hallway with Gold, and found it empty. It was probably because everyone was too busy with preparations that no one was in the hallways. Gold looked left and right anyways, making sure that it was empty before he could tell me the news.
"The aipom escaped and it's in the school," he told me quietly.
I widened my eyes. "WHAT?!" I shrieked.
Gold quickly shushed me to lower my voice. Oops, I got so excited I totally forgot.
"How could you let it escape?!" I whisper-scolded him. I told him to make sure the lock on the closet was properly placed!
"It was not my fault," he said, frowning that I put the blame on him. Okay, it probably wasn't his fault, but I was freaking out.
"Well, I have good news and bad news."
I looked at him eagerly. "What's the good news?"
"I caught the aipom, so it's not running loose."
OH, GOOD! I let out a sigh of relief. He really scared me there for a good second! Oh, wait! I almost forgot!
"Wait, what's the bad news?" I asked, remembering that he mentioned it.
"Super serious gal saw him and was about to call animal control on it."
WHAT?!
"What do we do? Oh gosh!" I mumbled. Ugh, I don't even know how to explain that.
"Don't worry, I took care of that too," Gold reassured, waving a hand.
"Really? How?"
Crystal seemed like the type that's hard to convince. I'm pretty sure she called animal control because she thought it was the right thing, so I highly doubt Gold would be able to get in her way. I'm impressed if he did though. Gold sometimes surprises me, I wonder how he stopped her.
"I threw her phone out of the window and broke it before she can call them."
Oh, Gold.
Normal POV
Green's vein was on the verge of popping. Blue was pretty sure it would just burst— she was the one causing it, after all. Green inwardly cursed whoever thought this was a good theme. Don't get him wrong, he loves Pokérune and the whole concept, but never in his life would he just go around wearing a Pokémon costume. If it wasn't for the fact participation was counted as a grade, he would've ditched the embarrassment a whole long time ago. It didn't help that Blue kept laughing and taking photos of him either. He made a mental note to burn them when they get printed.
"Don't you get tired of this?" he snapped at her.
Blue wiped a tear that she got from laughing too hard. "Get tired of what?"
"Tired of whatever you do," he replied.
"And that makes me want to tease you more~!" Blue responded cheerfully, not really affected by his insult.
At this, Green rolled his eyes. He didn't know she was out to get him, but he was hoping to avoid her. He didn't know how he would, but after they finish that stupid detention thing, he was ready to avoid her for the rest of his life.
"Huh?"
Suddenly when he was in his thoughts, Blue brought her face up to Green's. He was caught off guard at how suddenly close she became, and when noticed her bright blue eyes, he moved back suddenly, accidentally smashing their foreheads together. Green pushed her away quickly and backed up.
"What are you doing, you pesky woman?" he snapped, fighting a blush creeping up his neck. It was so sudden, and for a second there, he thought she was trying to kiss him or something. Blue's face was originally really pretty, so when it was close up in his face and he saw it more clearly, he acknowledged it. Though, that doesn't excuse the craziness that came with it.
"Ow!" Blue cried, rubbing her forehead. "Hey, I was being super nice!"
"By shoving your face in mine?" Green interrogated.
"You look like you have a fever! I kept calling your name and you kept ignoring me, so I went to check on you!" Blue explained. "By the way, you have a fever!"
Green rolled his eyes. "I've never been sick in my entire life, I'm not sick."
"Yes, you are! Your forehead is super warm too!" Blue told him, reaching out her arm to touch it once more. "You should be careful!"
Green swatted her hands away. "Stop coming close to me!" he snapped.
Seriously, why does she keep— Green stopped his thoughts when he realized the answer to his wonders. He knew Blue was messing with him because she like his reactions (and because she's crazy, or at least that's what Green thinks), but after noticing some glares headed towards Blue's way from the other girls, Green finally figured out why she would always try to mess with him no matter how much he tried to get rid of her. She was trying to drive everyone else nuts too by sticking around their crush, him. He wasn't conceited, he just wasn't dumb, and he knew those girls like him. Of course, it was ignored.
He let out a sigh. "Look. If you're trying to get back at those weirdos who threw food at Yellow and got us all in trouble, then don't."
Blue looked at him with a confused expression, having no clue what he's talking about. Green saw this and continued, "I know you're hanging around me because you want to make others mad. Just saying, it's not a good look on you."
At this, Blue's face dropped. "I'm not hanging around you for some petty revenge! I want to be your friend!" she said innocently.
She didn't have an exact reason to hang around Green (except mess with him because she thinks it's fun), but one of the reasons was not revenge. In fact, she had forgotten about those girls that started the food fight.
Green gave her a skeptical look. "Do you really think I'm dumb enough to believe that? Maybe Red, but not me."
"Wow," Blue said, folding her arms. Green was surprised she dropped her annoying playful act all of a sudden. "And to think, I was worried about you for a second! I was right from the beginning! You're a jerk!"
"Hey!" Suddenly, Red came waltzing over to them in his pikachu costume, cheerful as always. "What are you guys talking about?"
"We're talking about how Green is a huge jerk!" Blue replied to him in an upset tone, walking away upset.
Red arched an eyebrow and looked at the brown-haired boy. "Woah, what's up with Blue?" he inquired. "She seems kind of mad."
Green gazed at Blue walking away, her feet slightly stomping, showing that she was angry. A long tired sigh escaped his lips.
"I honestly don't know, and I don't want to know."
"WHAT?! Mmmmrg!"
Immediately after Soul shouted, Crystal slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to make the brunette shut up. When Soul finally stopped talking and calmed down a bit, she continued in a whisper, "Do you think someone else at this school plays the game then?"
"I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised."
Moments after the incident with Gold and Silver, Crystal delivered the costumes and props to the classroom and rushed over to meet up with Soul who finally returned. She pulled the brunette into an isolated hallway and just finished explaining to her what she had just witnessed earlier.
"What?! No way! An aipom? Are you serious, Crys?" Soul asked in case.
Crystal nodded in reply. "Why would I lie about this?" she snapped. "It was just so weird... I tried to call you and inform you secretly while pretending you were animal control, but then Gold happened to throw my phone out the window."
Black had given Soul a new phone as a gift from America when he visited their apartment the other day. Since the emergency phone was always with Crystal and she didn't need a new one, Soul was able to have full ownership of the new phone.
Soul gasped, giving a look of confusion. "He did, what?"
"Yeah! My thoughts exactly!" Crystal grumbled. "Our emergency phone is broken. I tried getting the pieces after it fell out the window to reassemble it, but it looks beyond repair."
"You should ask Rald for help," Soul suggested.
Though they didn't seem like it, the twins were very close to Emerald. Well, mostly Crystal, specifically. Crystal used to volunteer at some orphanage Emerald was at, and after getting to know the girl, he became an admirer and friend of hers while Soul is just the random sister who visits sometimes and yells at the kids because they put snot on her overalls. He entered the same high school as them when he grew up a bit, getting into the Prodigy Program by being talented at robotics. Soul was pretty sure he could assemble the phone again.
Crystal shook her head. "No, it's fine. I don't want to bother Rald, he looks busy lately," she said. "I'll just get Gold to buy a new one, it's his fault this happened anyways."
Soul shrugged her shoulders. "I guess. So what are we going to do with the aipom? I didn't think other people experienced the same thing as us last night, but it seems like someone in the school did."
"Well, honestly, I don't know what to do," Crystal admitted. It's not like she could just snatch the aipom up and take it with her. Even if she did, what then? Is she going to keep it as a pet forever? Dealing with the arcanine and marill that came out of the computer last night was already too much already.
"We should catch it," Soul suggested.
Crystal gave her a look. "What do we do after though? I'm sure it belongs to someone."
"If it really belonged to someone, then they should've taken better care of it," Soul said, not really caring about taking it away. "I say we go on a hunt for it."
"We're not doing that," Crystal waved it off, deciding for both of them. "We're way too busy dealing with the ones we have already and the stuff going on in school right now. Looking for it would be too much. I just hope no one bad finds aipom. It shouldn't be too bad since it's a normal type."
When her growlithe and Soul's marill came out of the computer last night, it was a huge mess. Not only were both of them running around, they were both able to use fire-type and water-type moves. Crystal got a hold on her growlithe easily so the fire damage wasn't too bad, but Soul's marill made the whole apartment wet. It took them a while before they finally got them under control.
"Yeah, you're right," Soul agreed. "Hey, I bet Rald plays the game."
The brunette was given a skeptical look, so she continued, "He seems pretty geeky to play this stuff."
"Soul, you're forgetting that we play this 'stuff'," Crystal reminded.
Crystal never understood why people would degrade the game or lie about it. Sure it was dorky and something she wouldn't be caught wearing merchandise of, it's not like it was a bad thing, especially since she enjoys playing the game. Soul always acted like it was social suicide and kept it her deep dark secret (despite bringing a DS around).
"Still!" Soul responded. "I'm going to ask Rald right now!"
"No, that's weird, don't do it," she told her.
Before Crystal can stop her, Soul started running off in the opposite direction, not caring.
"Hey wait!" she called after her sister, running after her. "That isn't even the way to his classroom!"
"This is so lame," Sapphire grumbled, watching everyone set the obstacles up.
She thought the idea of a couple's challenge was decent and it grew on her after she found out the challenge was an obstacle race since that was cool. But when they were setting up the obstacles for the event, she realized how lame it was. Instead of the hardcore rock climbing challenges and military crawling net she expected, they had noodle feeding events and questionnaires about their lover. This was not what she had in mind when they mentioned obstacle race. Though she was fine with romance and the idea of it, these challenges sound boring. Honestly, she thinks they should change the name.
"Well, it would be better if you would help."
Sapphire looked up to her side to see Ruby next to her, placing his hands on his hips with a frown. She was about to retort, but then she noticed something dangling on his fingers.
"Why do ya have Pokémon stuff?" she asked, pointing at the half-made bulbasaur costume.
"If you must know, I'm making it because our seniors asked me to make more costumes," Ruby answered. "They're doing a Pokémon cafe, apparently."
Hearing about the Pokémon cafe made Sapphire immediately know what seniors Ruby were talking about. She vaguely remembers Red talking all about it after school while they were decorating City Hall. She found the concept cool since she likes Pokémon herself, but she's surprised they would make it a cafe theme.
"Lucky them. They have a fun concept while ours is borin'," Sapphire grumbled sulkily.
"The least you can do is be useful and help instead of just watching," Ruby snapped.
Sapphire raised an eyebrow, shooting him a look. "What am I supposed ta do, Prissy Boy? Everyone has it under control! Even yer not helpin' the class!"
Even though she found the theme boring, it was true. The obstacles barely needed preparations and the class looked like they were already done with more than half of the work already. Sapphire would've help, but they didn't really want her helping because she would cut the decorations funny or mess something up. Plus, they respected Sapphire enough to let her rest since they knew she was up in the morning before school at football practice.
"I'm doing something useful unlike some people," he shot back.
"What did you say?!"
"You heard me!"
"For the love of, stop flirting!" Emerald cut in, screaming at them.
"WE'RE NOT FLIRTING!" they yelled back in unison to the blond.
"So noisy..." Emerald grumbled to himself, returning to what he was doing before he interrupted their conversation. Like Ruby and Sapphire, he was doing nothing to actually help the class and he was assembling something again.
Sapphire let out an annoyed huff and rose up from her seat. "I'm going ta use the restroom. Tell the teacher if she asks where I'm at!" she told them.
As she exited the classroom, Ruby and Emerald watched from behind.
"Ugh, I just wish she'd brush her hair more and clean up," Ruby mumbled, shaking his head disappointingly.
"Yer always annoyin' about these type of things," Emerald said, somewhat sympathizing with Sapphire.
"Again, I'm surrounded by people with no taste," Ruby grumbled, letting out a sigh. "Hey, I'm going to go out too. I need to ask the seniors how many costumes they need me to make, so make sure to let the teacher know when she comes back from the office."
"Whatever," Emerald replied absentmindedly, completely focused on the parts on his desk.
"Rald!" Ruby called his name when he made it to the entrance, breaking his focus.
"I'll tell her, just go!" Emerald yelled back, annoyed.
"Soul and Crystal are here for you!" Ruby responded.
"What?" the blond mumbled to himself confused, making his way to the door.
When he went there, Ruby had already left and only the twins were left. Soul waved at him happily while Crystal seemed to greet him with a nervous smile. Of course, he didn't notice the uneasiness in his idol.
"Hey Crystal!" Emerald greeted politely, beaming at the senior.
"Hello," Crystal replied back.
Soul dropped her smile and placed her hands on her hips, her eyebrow twitching. "Thanks for my warm greeting," she said sarcastically, a bit upset that he ignored her.
Emerald just ignored her because he found her annoying. "What are you doing here?"
"Um," Crystal mumbled, still unsure to ask him.
"We wanted to know if you play Pokérune!" Soul cut in, bluntly asking.
At the mention of the game, Emerald felt sweat go down his back. "N-No," he answered, hesitating.
He didn't want to lie, but playing that game could make him uncool to some people. Crystal was his role model, so of course she was the last person he'd want to think he's a weirdo.
"Oh, I see! Sorry for bothering you when you're so busy with preparations," Crystal apologized. "Alright, we should get back before the teacher realizes we're missing, Soul. Rald, I'll see you in eighth period when we meet up in the auditorium?"
Emerald nodded shyly in reply.
The twins bid their byes and left the boy. Emerald watched them leave, thinking about how he'll see Crystal soon.
"Bye Crystal," he muttered to himself, absentminded.
"AND SOUL!" the brunette yelled from down the hall, turning around. He could see Crystal jump beside her from her sudden shouting.
"Geez, she's got the ears of a bat..." he mumbled.
"I CAN HEAR YOU!"
"AREN'T YOU OUT OF EARSHOT ALREADY?!"
"What are you doing, Ruby? You are like four minutes late! You know how much time you wasted?!"
"Uh... sorry, White?"
It was the eighth period, so everyone was expected to come to the auditorium to discuss the event for the second part of the festival. Ruby came with his class as well, but someone had motioned him to come backstage, and when he did, he immediately got scolded by White. White Touko was in the program as well, being gifted in the theatre and business section. However when it came to theatre, she would handle the plays more and direct them while Ruby dealt with the fashion and costume part since he was more into fashion designing than anything. Even though the girl was in middle school, she would come over sometimes to help give her opinion on school plays, so Ruby met her once or twice. When he had first met her, she was all professional, bubbly and nice even though she was kind of strict. But now she's like one of those crazy, over obsessed, people who care about how many seconds he's late. He can see the pressure and the tight deadline create panic, so he didn't blame her.
White sighed, frustrated. "Don't let it happen again," she warned, sending him a threatening death glare.
"Yeah, of course," Ruby replied uncertainty.
White let out a long, stressed sigh and went over to go discuss something with the teachers. Ruby still didn't know why he was called to backstage.
He suddenly felt a slap on his back.
"Sorry, looks like she's stressed out from her business. I hope you cut her some slack!"
And then there was this loud weirdo. A brown-haired boy with a baseball cap appeared to his side, grinning from ear to ear and finding the scene kind of amusing. Ruby noticed his japanese was kind of off and it had an accent, but he didn't know where. He also observed that the boy was much younger than him, probably the same age as White.
"Who...?" Ruby inquired, not recognizing the stranger.
"Oh, the name is Black! I'm Prez's friend from America! She was supposed to do some business with me, but your school requested her to direct a play, so now she's kind of stressed out," Black replied.
Ruby didn't know what to ask first— what play was he talking about or why was he here? Well, he can figure out the first question. Mr. Wallace mentioned something about the all-grade level event being a play when Ruby had suggested it earlier.
"BLACK!" White screeched from the other side of the stage, capturing the attention of everyone behind the stage.
"COMING!" he replied, his voice booming. Bidding goodbye, he sprinted over to White.
Man, kids are so loud lately, Ruby thought, watching the pair together. Then he stopped those thoughts when he remembered something.
"Can someone tell me why I'm here?!"
"Are you paying attention?"
Pearl snapped out of his daze and looked up to see mean green eyes staring down at him. Currently, he was in the auditorium, sitting in the corner with the other sport prodigies, specifically the football team. He didn't know why they wanted to do the homecoming game planning during eighth period in the auditorium of all times and places, but they suggested to do it now since they were free for once from their after school prison. Because most of their best players were absent from eighth period due to the punishment and lots of players skipped morning practice because it's too early, Green figured it would be the best time to discuss their game plan since the whole team was here.
"Yeah, I am," Pearl responded, listening to Green again. "By the way, are you sure it's okay to do this meeting now? Don't we have to pay attention soon to help out later?"
"You're a first year student, so you don't really know," Green replied. "The all-grade thing is usually optional every year. Only the people who want to be in it are needed, they usually don't care about everyone else."
Red nodded from beside him. "Yep! We usually just hang or talk during this time! They only call everyone for the first meeting, but after that, they only call the volunteers and we have eighth period off as a rest period for the week."
"That's nice," Diamond remarked, his voice a bit muffled up because of the snack he was eating.
"I guess..." Pearl mumbled. "It still seems kind of weird though!"
"Don't question it too much, Hasty Kid!" Gold told him, laying back in his chair comfortably. "Enjoy it while it lasts! We're always busy practicing anyway."
"And now we're wasting time and decorating a wedding because of someone," Silver piped up from the side.
Gold shot him a look. "Again, not my fault."
"Oh, but since we're talking about this, I wonder what they're going to do for the all-grade event this year," Red cut in.
"Red, no one cares," Green interjected before anyone else could carry on his conversation. "Back to what I was saying earlier—"
"—Sorry, I'm late guys! Stupid prissy boy kept slowing me down!" Sapphire said, arriving onto the scene.
Green's eyebrow twitched, upset that the meeting got interrupted again.
"Oh, nice costume, Green and Red!" Sapphire complimented, finally noticing what they were wearing. Her comment earned snickers from the football players and she gave a puzzled expression, wondering why they were laughing when she genuinely meant it.
The brown-haired boy let out a long sigh and started to rub his temples. It was hard to restrain himself from attacking everyone.
"You've been sighing a lot, you know that?" Red pointed out, not helping.
"Shut up, Red."
Platinum sat in her chair idly, waiting for whatever they were going to announce. This was her first year at this school, so she didn't know how this went down, but she knew it was an event that happened from hearing it from others. Obviously, she was not going to partake in the event, so she wanted to leave.
Looking around the auditorium, she realized it was more filled than before as more people kept coming in. She was here earlier than everyone else because first years did the most minimal part of the festival and just manned the food stalls outside instead of a whole attraction like the rest of the school.
Hm, she thought, looking around and observing how many students were hanging with their friends or in groups. At times like this, she felt lonely again.
"Hi, is this seat opened?"
Platinum snapped out of her thoughts and looked up to see who had asked her that.
A/N — Thanks so much for the compliments, reviews, favorites, and followers! As always, I love you guys so much! :)
P.S. Here's the relationships of the peoples & how they met along with how they met as promised to mysteryreader6626!
Red & Green & Gold & Silver & Sapphire & Diamond & Pearl — Football buddies & they met on the field being on the same team, of course. Green & Red are childhood friends though, same with Diamond & Pearl.
Blue & Yellow — Blue tracked Yellow down from the internet, and used her skills to find her. After that, they became friends when they were second year students.
Emerald & Crystal & Soul — Crystal works at a daycare/orphanage that Emerald used to go to, and Soul helped as a volunteer too sometimes.
Ruby & Emerald — They had the same class for years, and gradually became friends.
White & Ruby — Both help out with the theater club from time to time.
The characters' ages & years —
Seniors — Red (18), Green (18), Blue (18), Yellow (17, skipped a grade)
Juniors — Gold (17), Crystal (17), Soul (17), Silver (16)
Sophomores — Ruby (14), Sapphire (14), Emerald (15)
Freshmen — Diamond (14), Platinum (13), Pearl (13)
