Here's another chapter, let's see what Sango can do to help Blake succeed in getting close to Sarah. Maybe she can even convince the dragon to be a real teammate of Blake's! Who can say?

As for the Best Girl nominations, still going strong. Anyone else left to add?

Currently Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison

KedharS: Quite a few indeed.

Rus4408: Fast pace.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Good luck!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 207


Olivia stood outside of Ayame's door, pinching the bridge of her nose. She took out her spare key and inserted it into the lock, opening the door and stepping inside.

"Aya, you been in here all last night, and all this morning," Olivia said, storming over to Ayame's bed, grabbing her by the shoulder, and flipping her over.

"Olivia…" Ayame said, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Wha…"

"You've been sobbing," Olivia said, staring at the red-eyed girl. "Look at you! You've been locked up in here since you came home from Blake's birthday party!"

"Blake's leaving!" Ayame snarled, glaring at Olivia. "His dad came, and is taking him away! I don't know when, but I know that I'm not going to be able to see him again, because he's fucking getting married, don't you fucking get it?! So sorry if I can't fucking wake up and go get some fucking breakfast because I'm too fucking broken-hearted at never seeing the boy I like again! Do you fucking get it now, Olivia?! Fuck!"

Olivia raised her eyebrow quizzically.

"Well now, tell me how you really feel," Olivia snarked. Ayame sneered back at her.

"Why did this have to happen?" Ayame asked. The anger had drained out of her voice, and now there was only bitterness tinged with sorrow. Couldn't he… couldn't he have stayed here? Why… it… I knew that I wouldn't be with him forever… that I'd be graduating… I knew the day would come when we would have to part ways… but I wasn't ready for it to be now…!"

"Aya…" Olivia winced, stepping forward and sitting down on the bed beside Ayame. She wrapped her arm over the taller girl's broad shoulders, Ayame slumping down and leaning her head into the crook of Olivia's neck.

"It's not fair…" Ayame sobbed into Olivia's shoulder. "I don't want him to go yet… I'm not ready…"

"Aya… I know you don't want to hear this… but it might be for the best," Olivia whispered. "If Blake had stayed here… eventually things… would have gone poorly. You would have had to leave when you were closer and closer… it would have destroyed you, Aya. Better to end things now… before this pain could have gotten any harder. Maybe it's for the best that he leaves now, so you can still forget him and move on."

"Forget him?!" Ayame growled, pulling back from Olivia and wiping her eyes. "I don't want to forget him!"

"Aya, if don't move on and forget him, then-"

"How?!" Ayame demanded, her eyes glistening with fury. "How does forgetting about the boy I love bring me happiness, huh?!"

"You love him?" Olivia exclaimed. "Half a year ago, you'd never met him! A few months ago, you hated his guts! How can you say now that you love him? Like him, maybe, but LOVE?"

"You're wrong," Ayame muttered, shaking her head.

"Huh?"

"I didn't… I didn't hate him back then."

Olivia blinked.

"You certainly acted like you hated him."

Ayame looked down sheepishly. Olivia's eyes widened and she slapped her forehead in frustration.

"If you tell me what I think you're about to tell me…"

"But he was so cute!" Ayame whined, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "A-and he kept complimenting me, so of course I… I mean, just a little! I just… I pushed it down, pretended I didn't feel that way, but… I always found myself thinking about that guy, you know?"

Olivia remembered the various flustered dreams Ayame experienced, and seethed in frustration. This girl really knew how to piss her off sometimes, no matter how much Olivia might have loved her.

"You are the most infuriating woman in the world, you know that?" Olivia asked.

"I'm sorry," Ayame sheepishly apologized. Olivia reached out and brushed Ayame's long bangs out of her face.

"Let's get a ribbon in that hair of yours, sweetie," Olivia cooed. "We'll go pay Blake a visit, and you'll want to look your best, won't you?"

"Wh-what?" Ayame gasped. "Are you sure? I thought you were against me being in a relationship with Blake?"

"Oh, sweetie," Olivia said, shaking her head and pulling Ayame into a hug that would put a Bewear to shame. "That's not it at all. I want to see you smile. So if you want to see Blake, then I want you to see Blake, got it?"

Ayame's eyes had finally started to dry, but Olivia's kind words and warm embrace brought out the waterworks again.

"Aya, you're staining my dress, stop crying," Olivia dryly chastised her. "And a crying girl isn't pretty, so if you want to make Blake stay with that pretty face of yours, you should probably dry those tears, got it?"

Ayame laughed through the tears, nodding her head. Olivia let her go and stood up, helping Ayame to her feet.

"Now, let's get you looking nice, sound good?" Olivia smiled, heading to Ayame's closet to pick out a nice outfit for tonight.


In the meantime, a more dramatic form of bonding was going on.

"Stellar job, Sango, you're doing great," Blake called. A blast of flames roared out over their heads, the two ducking behind a rock.

"Lay off!" Sango snapped, glaring at him. "I managed to help that Salamence during my test! It's not my fault that yours is so…"

"What?" Blake asked, narrowing his eyes.

"…Never mind," Sango said, glancing aside.

"No, I want to hear. What about Sarah?"

"Why is she so… violent?" Sango asked. "I mean, it's not like she's rampaging or anything. It's like she's playing a game of cat and mouse with us. Whenever we peek our heads out, blam! Flamethrower. But other than that…"

Sango took a cautious look out from behind the rock. Sarah was just curled up on the ground, lounging in the morning sun. She looked almost tranquil. Compared to her usual attitude, it was a little…

Terrifying.

"Maybe that is it," Blake murmured. "Maybe you're onto something."

"What do you mean?" Sango asked, looking back at him in confusion.

"She's playing with us," Blake explained. "Maybe it is like cat and mouse to her, she's having fun chasing us around."

Sango looked at him in shock.

"This is some fucking game," Sango spit, shaking her head. "What is the matter with that Salamence of yours?"

"High level pokemon are like that," a voice called from behind Sango and Blake. "Their respect needs to be earned. You think she's just going to let you sit back and tell her what to do, without making any attempts to get to know her side of things? That ain't like ya!"

Sango and Blake whirled around, their mouths falling open.

"Marion?" Sango gasped. "What are you doing up here?" The moment the question left her lips, she regretted it. It was possibly the most idiotic question in the world.

"Fishing, ya little silly!" Marion laughed. "See, up in these valleys there are a lot of great streams to catch mountain fish!"

Marion hoisted up a net filled with squirming Barboach to prove her point.

"But what're ya'll doing here?" Marion asked. "Playing tag, eh? It's a blast, right? Not as fun as fishing, though… oh, wait! What about fishing tag?! Yeah, let's play that, or-"

"Marion, kinda busy right now!" Sango hissed, the noisy girl having caught Sarah's attention. Sango grabbed Marion's wrist and yanked her down seconds before a flamethrower would have turned her skin from a tanned golden-brown to a smoldering charcoal black.

"Yowzers, that was close!" Marion huffed. "What's her problem, anyhow?"

"SAAAAALLL!" Sarah roared. She'd gone from "calm and composed" to "holy shit danger zone" in a second, and Blake knew why.

"Marion, can't you use your harmonia to, I don't know, talk with Blake's Salamence? Let it know we just want to hang out with it?"

"Okay, Sango, honey, first, it's not 'just go talk with it' or something like that, harmonia is a lot more-"

"I really don't care what the correct terminology is," Sango growled.

"…It's about making a connection," Marion finished succinctly before shutting up.

"And trying to use harmonia on Sarah is probably the worst thing we could do right now," Blake replied. "She's had some bad experiences with harmonia users in the past."

"Plus, I can't connect with her at all," Marion added. "You know, 'cause she's a… you know."

Sango and Blake both looked at Marion like she was nuts (which she kind of was).

"What do you mean by 'you know'?" Sango asked.

Marion looked at Sango like the girl had just broken her fishing rod in half.

"Sango, I told you, weren't you listening?" Marion frowned, flashing a wounded look that made Sango briefly feel a twinge of guilt. "My harmonia doesn't work on big weirdo scary dragons! Only the fishy kind, like Kingdras!"

"Wait, what?" Blake said, turning to Marion. "What does that mean? I thought harmonia let you connect with any pokemon you want?"

Marion shrugged.

"Maybe for other people? I don't know, guys! I only know what I know, and I don't know, you know?"

"No," Sango and Blake automatically replied.

"So you can't connect with Sarah at all?"

"Negative, ghost rider," Marion confirmed. "To me, non-fish pokemon are just, like, a big ol' blahdy-blah. All I'm getting from that one is a big blank."

Blake took in this new information.

"If you aren't, I don't know, sending signals or whatever it is that harmonia users do-"

"It's more of a wave," Marion corrected. "You know, like a tidal wave, and then sometimes the pokemon waves back." Sango rolled her eyes at Marion's awful pun, or maybe she really was that dumb.

"…Whatever it is, then doesn't that mean Sarah shouldn't have a problem with you?" Blake asked. "I mean, it's not like you're actually radiating your harmonia aura towards her, right?"

Marion blinked.

"I mean, I guess not?" Marion asked, shrugging her shoulders.

"Cool, let's test that," Blake suggested. "Why not go out there, like, now."

"Uh…"

Another stream of fire roared over their heads.

"Sorry, fishing time!" Marion chirped, turning on her heel and making a break for it.

Sango grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back.

"Lemme go!" Marion whined. "Whatya want from me? I can't help!"

"Actually… I think you can be a lot of help," Blake said. "I'd like your help, Marion."

Sango frowned. Blake was going to Marion for help, when the entire point of coming here was for her to be the one to help him. Was she really so useless? Unable to help Blake at all?

"Marion, please," Sango placed her hand on Marion's tan arm, Marion shining her baby blues on Sango. The desperation on her face…

"Anything for you, Sandy-cheeks," Marion nodded, turning to Blake. "How can I help?"

"Your harmonia lets you connect with fish pokemon, right?" Blake asked, reaching down to his belt. "I've got just the one…"

Sarah sat in front of a large rock, waiting for the three humans who'd hid behind it to come out and play. Blake was one of them, and the two girls were a passing thought. But Blake… she'd been with him for quite some time. He'd always been reluctant to use her. Fitting, of course, she wouldn't have wanted to help him in the first place. But now… he seemed genuine about trying to connect with her. So now… she'd give him a chance to get to know her better. Assuming, of course, he could prove himself.

"Corphish!"

…Well that was a shocker. That was one of Blake's pokemon… his Corphish. He'd popped up from behind the Sarah opened her mouth a fired a blast of flames at the Corphish, just as a warning shot to test his mettle. But the pokemon proved swift, dodging the flames and scuttling forwards towards Sarah.

Cory raised his pincer, and fired a barrage of bubbles that popped in Sarah's face, stinging her. Sarah snarled, roaring at Cory, but Cory didn't back down.

"Cor! Corphish!" Cory cried. Sarah blinked. It seemed the pokemon wasn't there to fight her. He wanted to talk. Sarah's lips pulled back in a snarl to show off her fangs. Talking could prove dangerous to the water pokemon.

"What's she saying?" Blake whispered. Marion rolled her eyes.

"Lookie, harmonia ain't some kind of two-way radio, you know? Cory's gonna do the talking, I can only get a feeling of what he's thinking and feeling, you know? It's not a wiretap or anything."

"Okay, so what are you feeling off of her?" Sango asked.

"She's not angry, it seems," Marion replied. "I think… she wants Blake to reach out to her, you know? Get to know her better, prove himself to her…"

Blake nodded. It was a lot like what Darla had told him several weeks before.

"If that's what she wants, then I can get to know her a little bit better," Blake smirked. "Thanks for your help, guys."

Blake climbed over the rock and walked towards Sarah, waving towards her.

"Sarah!"

Sarah turned to Blake and sent another blast of flames towards him in jest. Blake rolled out of the way and Cory raised his pincers, firing blasts of bubbles at Sarah. Blake stepped up beside her, and placed his hand on her side.

"Hey there, girl," Blake smiled.

"…Sal," Sarah muttered, turning her head away.

"Why did you attack Sango like that?" Blake asked. "You used to be angry, but you've been a lot nicer recently.

"Sal," Sarah grunted, spitting a small burst of embers. She turned away from Blake and let out a threatening growl, Blake staring at her in confusion.

"Cor?" Cory's eyes widened in surprise, Marion stifling a laugh.

"What? What is it?" Sango asked.

"She was jealous that someone else was trying to help Blake connect to her. So she tried to chase you off. She thought you were imposing? Jealous? I dunno, that's just sorta what Cory's feeling from her, y'know?"

Sango rolled her eyes. A jealous girl, huh? That was an annoyance she didn't want to deal with.

"Sarah, I've got a better idea," Blake said. "How about this? Why don't you meet the others? And hang out with them?"

"Sal?" Sarah huffed, tilting her head to the side.

Blake took his pokeballs from his belt, and pressed the buttons on them one after another, calling out his remaining pokemon. Ruru landed on the ground, scurrying up Blake's leg and perching on his shoulder, nuzzling against Blake's cheek lovingly. Rogen rubbed his claws against the stone floor of the valley, and Uni floated nervously away from Sarah. Weiss, on the other hand, advanced worriedly towards her, moving cautiously in front of Blake.

At the same time, Maria and Tara glanced at each other, fixing tight glares.

"Marea!" Maria huffed.

"Sni!" Tara growled, tilting her nose up at the water type.

"Come on, Maria, don't be rude!" Marion called. "Just get along like friends!"

"Mar!" Maria tilted her head away from Tara, smacking her in the face with her tentacles. Tara growled back, smacking her in the face with a vine.

"Maria, Tara, stop," Blake said, stepping between the two. The two let out matching "humphs" and turned away, clearly not interested in getting along anytime soon.

"Scizor." Weiss stepped forward, glancing warily at Sarah. It seemed he was also willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Giving the history between the two of them, this came as a genuine surprise to Sarah. She baulked at his offer, and then looked Blake in the eyes.

"…Salamence," Sarah huffed, turning away from her trainer and spreading her wings, flying up into the air.

"Well, is everything good now?" Marion asked. "Can I go fish?"

Sango rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Marion, go ahead," Sango sighed.

"Okies!" Marion chirped, giving Sango a hug. She ran up to Blake and gave him a hug, too.

"And byesies to you, Cory! Let's play again sometime!" Marion waved goodbye to Cory, and skipped off, her net of fish slung over her shoulder.

"…Sorry I couldn't be more help," Sango said, walking up to Blake after the dust had cleared. "I wanted to help you tame Sarah, but in the end-"

"No, you were a lot of help," Blake said, smiling at her. He began recalling his pokemon one by one.

"No I wasn't…" Sango muttered, looking down and kicking a pebble.

"Come on, just your support here, that's more than enough for me," Blake flashed her a wide smile, one of the most genuine she'd seen from him. "And it all worked out in the end, right? Marion might not have helped if you weren't here."

"I guess…" Sango sighed. She still couldn't help but feel that Blake would have been just fine on his own.

"Well, we might as well get going, then," Blake said, glancing down at the last two of his pokemon he'd yet to return. "Once we deal with these two troublemakers. Tara, Maria, return."

"Sni!"

"Mar!"

Tara and Maria shouted in objection, turning to Blake. The desperation on their faces was obvious. Sanga and Blake looked at each other in exasperation. Silver glanced between the two pokemon and then back to his partner, unsure how to intercede.

"Come on, guys-" Blake reached for their pokeballs, when a loud voice echoed out across the valley, drawing the attention of the five.

"Hold it right there, commoners!"


A newcomer appears! What could this new challenger have in store for Blake and Sango? How will Olivia help Ayame and Blake?