I'm pretty sure that I was about twelve years old when I got the letter accepting me to Almia Ranger School. My dad flipped, and my brother was pretty happy—although he was probably just elated that he now had our room to himself.

Anyways, the day before I left my dad made me sit down to tell me something. The only thing he said was this:

"Keith, you're stubborn, and if there's one thing I know about you it's that you never admit a weakness easily. But always remember that there are some weaknesses you might not want to overcome."

Needless to say, I was stumped. The only weakness I knew of was my hatred of vegetables, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be encountering any giant man-eating broccoli on the job. I left for Almia without taking that much notice of my dad's words.

School was fun. I made a bunch of friends, like Ponte the marshmallow boy and all the other few male students there were, but I also made enemies, like that one bossy Rhythmi girl. I don't know why, but I think it was her hair that intimidated me. How was it so… poofy?

Months passed, and eventually I turned one year older. The words my old man had said to me so long ago hadn't once occurred to me during my time at school. Then spring came around, and we heard from Ms. April—thank Arceus I was placed with her and not Kincaid—that we would be getting a new transfer student in a few weeks. Needless to say, I was psyched. A new student was loosely translated as a newbie, which meant that I, with all my Capturing experience, would be able to be their mentor! It was a whole new experience to me, and I looked forward to it happily. Leave it to me to automatically assume that the student would be a boy.

Three weeks passed, and then one day Ms. April announced that the transfer student was here. I grinned. Let the fun begin. I saw Ms. April gesture to the classroom door, and the student entered.

A small, brunette girl—wait, hold up, girl?—stumbled into the room. Her light brown hair was pulled up into two very spiky pigtails, but two sections of her hair were left framing either side of her face. She had slightly pale blue eyes, which stood in sharp contrast with her skin, which was flaming red. She looked lost and uncertain and maybe a little confused. But I can tell you that right off the bat I knew that she was really and I mean really shy.

I wanted her.

Even now, I have no idea how to explain it. All I can describe feeling at that moment was this weird, uncontrollable emotion of want. And it wasn't just my mind. My entire body, for some strange out-of-this world reason, infinitely desired this awkward, blushing girl.

I needed a vacant, Keith-like expression to stop anyone from reading my face to tell what I was feeling inside. I settled for grinning like an idiot at her and Ms. April. I could tell that the red-head teacher was more than a little ticked at my facial expression, but it was either that or make the entire class think I was some kind of nut. Ms. April said that the girl's name was Kathy. No wait, Karina. Never mind that, I would remember later!

Eventually, Ms. April declared that it was a free study day, and the minute—no, the very second she left the room, the four students that weren't me or K… K… the new girl had surrounded the poor kid.

I joined the party and asked her how long it took her to capture the Pikachu. She blushed slightly, but smiled and answered that it hadn't been hard, it had only taken her a couple of minutes. The funny thing was that she didn't sound as if she was bragging at all. The tone of her voice made it seem as if she was trying to make this as small a deal as possible.

Eventually, Rhythmi took her away, following through on her task to show the new girl around school. I killed time reading in the classroom, but if you're reading this then you probably know that I'm not a book-learner like Isaac. So that plan to keep myself busy died and became roadkill pretty fast.

I put the book back and killed some more time talking with the other students, sometimes about the new girl. I avoided those conversations.

Eventually, I became bored again. Thankfully, the bell rang at that moment, so I wasn't subject to letting my brain rot indoors anymore. I ran towards the front door of the school.

Ran.

In the halls.

Past Mr. Kincaid.

Which, of course, led to a twelve minute and thirty-six second lecture on why running in the halls was supposedly illegal.

By the time Mr. Kincaid let me go, I was itching to get outside. When I exited the school, though, I was greeted by pure chaos.

Bidoofs. Bidoofs EVERYWHERE. There had to be at least ten or fifteen of them, running around the school grounds like someone had force-fed them blazing hot Tamato Berries. I looked towards the middle of the courtyard to see Janice, the caretaker, panicking. With her were Rhythmi and New Girl (yes, that was her name now to me) trying to calm her down?

I rolled my eyes and called out to them. Then, without really thinking about it, I challenged New Girl to a Capturing contest. She seemed confused at first, but then smiled and gave the OK.

About fifteen minutes later, I had won. I bragged and made a fuss about it, but for some reason it wasn't satisfying. Why? New Girl didn't seem upset that she had lost in the least. Sure, I heard disappointment in her voice for a moment, but she wasn't mad at me. She didn't glare at me in jealousy or throw a hissy fit like my other Capture contest victims.

Instead, she smiled happily at me and held out a hand in congrats, saying how she had had a lot of fun. I hesitated for a moment before accepting the gesture and taking her hand in mine, and wondering how that small, girlish hand of hers could have come close to beating me—which it had. I voiced my opinion on how good she was, and how I had thought I was going to lose, Kate.

Kate.

Kate.

Ohhhhh. So that was her name again.

Rhythmi the Irritating cut in, of course, nagging about how I had known Kate's name the whole time. I felt my face go slightly warm as I thought to myself how I hadn't really known her name, it had just been holed up in the back of my head for a bit where I couldn't find it. Things did that to me sometimes.

So how did I end up going with them to Ascension Square?

…Thought I as we all arrived at our next destination, the large symbol of our proud school. I heard Poofy Hair blab on for a minute about her Tour of Wonder and Excitement, but I immediately snapped back into reality when she tried to get Kate to be her friend.

I don't know why I cut in there, but I did. I told Kate to be my friend, not Rhythmi's. The girl seemed torn for a minute, but then she burst out and asked if she could be friends with both of us.

…Well. That was new.

Rhythmi didn't seem to mind, though, and for some reason, neither did I.

And so my hell of a school life began with Kate and Rhythmi.

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Believe it or not, Rhythmi was actually pretty cool once you got to know her. She was a lifesaver when me and Kate had to study for tests, and she did help me out more than one—alright two—OK, seventeen times when I had gone a little too far in my pranks.

Kate was everything I had expected her to be and more: Shy, modest, and a good friend all around. She never really seemed to mind when I would storm up into the common room yelling about how much of a jerk Ms. April/Mr. Kincaid was about giving me a detention. Everyone else would dart into the common rooms when I went on these tirades, but Kate would stay and listen to me rant. She would agree on some things, and scold me on others.

She did enjoy a good prank however, along with Rhythmi as I soon found out. It all started one spring day, maybe about two weeks after she transferred. I was in the common room planning my next attack on Mr. Kincaid: He was getting a whole new shipment of strawberry-scented hairspray bottles in two days, and my scheme was to replace the contents of every bottle with—wait for it—green spray paint. Yep. I was a genius.

Anyways, while I was planning out this brilliant advance towards the evil teacher, Kate walked in and asked what I was doing. I hastily gathered up my papers and maps of the school, saying, "Nothing".

Her eyes narrowed. She didn't believe me.

Eventually, she forced me to tell her about the layout of my idea. Her eyes widened and she ran off into the girls' dorm, calling for Rhythmi. I groaned as the blonde came with her. I was finished, cooked; there was no way now that I was going to—

They wanted in.

I blinked. "What?" I asked my two best friends. The girls then proceeded to complain about how they had been late to classes the other day and had to run for it, and Mr. Kincaid had seen them and given them a double detention. I winced. Double? Man, the guy must've been in a bad mood.

Once they were finished with their dramatic tale, I grinned evilly, and said the more the merrier.

Needless to say, the deed was carried out quickly and silently, and for the next two months we enjoyed seeing our favorite teacher with alien-green hair.

No one knows who did it to this day.

Except maybe Kincaid, who probably suspected us.

But he has no proof whatsoever.

…Hopefully.

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For some reason, during my school life with my two friends, I just couldn't say no to Kate.

It didn't matter what the favor was, from simply giving her my cookie at lunch to literally stealing half the cookies from the kitchen pantry—which actually wasn't hard at all, and me, Kate and Rhyth did enjoy a good illegal cookie picnic at Ascension Square every once in awhile. But back to the point, I couldn't say no to her.

It wasn't as if she nagged me until the deed was carried out—it was quite the opposite, in fact. She would just look at me with honest blue eyes, and right when the name "Keith?" left her pink lips I knew that whatever the favor was, I was going to do it.

Maybe it was the way she asked me, like I knew she was going to be disappointed if I refused. Maybe it was the reward of having her smile at me and seeing her be happy over whatever it was I had done. Or maybe, just maybe it was because she was simply too cute to turn down.

Yes, I admit it. Kate was—is—cute. Just ask any male student who went to school with her. However, most of them ranked Rhythmi as the prettiest in the school. Sure, Rhythmi was pretty with her big, vividly blue eyes and her platinum blonde hair, but for some strange reason she never held that much attraction from me. For some strange reason I found Kate's pale, quiet blue eyes much more tempting than Rhythmi's violently azure ones, and Kate's spiky brown hair always seemed better than Rhythmi's large blonde hairdo to me.

…But Rhythmi's hair does still fascinate me. I'm sorry, but how is it even remotely possible for hair to be that poofy?

Ahem. Back to the point. Anyways, yeah, I found Kate more attractive than Rhythmi. So? That didn't mean anything. And now onto our next topic.

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Kate and Rhythmi were—and still are—my best friends. Sorry to all the guys out there, but to me having girls as your best buds are better than guys. But that's just me. Either way, since they were my friends, it was natural that I feel protective of them, right?

Picture this: You're in your classroom studying for the next test, minding your own business, when you see a group of kids your gender creating a top 10 list of the kids of the opposite gender. And in that list, the top two are your best friends of the opposite gender.

Well, that's what happened to me. I was spending my free time in class, studying for the next Pokémon test. It wasn't as if I wanted to be in there, but Kate had insisted that I stay in and study since I didn't score exactly perfect on my last test. And as preciously stated, I can't say no to that girl.

Anyways, I happened to look up and notice that although all the girls in the class had decided to go outside and play in the snow during free hour (Arceus forbid Kate fall asleep out there), all the boys were inside, gathered around a desk. They seemed to be making a list. Being the curious guy I am, I walked over to see what it was of.

It was a top 10 list ranking the School's girls in hotness.

And guess who were in the top 2?

You guessed it: First was Rhythmi Song, followed closely by Kate Lovett.

One of the boys looked up and grinned, saying, "Hey, Keith! You're best friends with the top 2, right? Which girl is better in your opinion?"

I snapped. I completely blew up at those guys, yelling about how it was disrespectful and an invasion of space to be making a top 10 chart of girls in school. Maybe it was the fact that the top two were my best friends. Or maybe it was the rather disturbing fact that Ms. April was rated number 5. But anyways, I wasn't happy.

When I was finished with what had to be the longest lecture in the history of lectures, I stormed outside, determined to find Rhythmi and a most likely sleeping Kate, take them both inside and hopefully sneak a decent amount of cookies out of the kitchen for snacks before free time was over.

That night, I tumbled into bed, trying not to think about the answer to the question that one boy had asked me.

That answer was Kate.

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Weeks passed, and eventually me, Kate and Rhythmi graduated the Academy and were placed in Vientown. Despite my denying attitude, I just couldn't stop myself from thinking of Kate every freaking minute of the day. Sharing a room with her definitely didn't help.

I didn't know why, but I wanted to protect her. Of course I wanted to protect Rhythmi too, but this was somehow different. Like that one time that creepy stalker guy in his 20s tried hitting on her. My blood just boils thinking of that, and it took all my energy that day not to punch that guy in the face. Hard.

Anyways, why did I feel so strongly about this girl? She was just that, a girl. Just a girl that was shy, stubborn, modest, kind, courageous, easily confused, unconfident, and cute. Really, really, insanely cute. But that had no effect whatsoever on my growing emotions towards her.

Right?

A few weeks ago I was lying in bed with Tempo, my Buizel, dozing off on my chest. I couldn't sleep. It was then that I remembered my dad's words:

"Keith, you're stubborn, and if there's one thing I know about you it's that you never admit a weakness easily. But always remember that there are some weaknesses you might not want to overcome."

I didn't know why those words popped into my head. I barely had any weaknesses except, as previously stated, vegetables. What, was Kate a giant man-eating broccoli in disguise or something? I highly doubted it.

And then it hit me like that frying pan over the head I got from Rhythmi the other day.

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Fast forward to now.

WOOOOOOOOSSSHHH!

Sorry. Sound effects amuse me.

Ahem. Fast forwarded to now. I think I know now what my dad meant when he told me those words.

Weaknesses are usually there to overcome. You stand up to them, clear the hurdle, and then move on with your life. But no matter what, there's always a weakness or two that stays out of reach. You can spend your whole life chasing it, but you'll never overcome it. So why is that weakness there?

It's there so you can keep chasing it, and thus become stronger.

Kate. Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate. For me, she is that weakness.

"How is that even possible?", you ask. The answer is: I said before about how I always want to protect Kate. Well, there's always going to be someone after her. She's just that great. However, she's also my rival. And every day she's getting stronger, so I have to keep on top of that too.

Kate is my weakness that I can't overcome.

Kate is my weakness that I don't want to overcome.

…But that doesn't mean I have a crush on her.

No freaking way.