My heart pounds in my chest as I walk along the street, even through the there is not a single cloud in the sky and the festival is in full swing I find myself unable to join in the celebration. My nerves prevent me from enjoying the festivities as my mind turns to tomorrow and what might happen, what Pokémon and moves should I use seem to come to the front of my mind as I walk past the festival stalls that are calling out to every to come and have a go. I walk past everyone without a single glance, my face must hold some kind of emotion as no one bothers me as I walk by beyond the odd wish for good luck and the encouraging smile from strangers. As I give them a small nerves smile I find myself finding it easy to work out just who would be taking part in the big event tomorrow, unlike those who are just here to enjoy the festival and the big event tomorrow with a carefree and excited look on their faces those who are taking part have a hard thoughtful in deep thought look on their face with fear and excitement mixing in their eyes.
As the sun shines down upon me I find that the sweat pouring off of me like a waterfall is not all from the heat of the summer day but from the nerves that grab hold of me as I try to think which Pokémon I should chose to use tomorrow. As I turn around the corner, passing by an interesting stand that I promised myself to visit in between the busy events of the main event that I will be taking part in. My chance at passing by unnoticed by the stall owner while the tall man is busy helping another person is shot down through as he notices me slowing down to look at his various colourful objects on his stall and offers me a smile.
"Are you interested in anything Miss?" he asks me with a large welcoming smile, his shoulder length straight black hair framing his tanned face and his well muscled body making him the object of any girls or boys wet dreams.
"Sorry but I cannot stop now, I might come back later to have a look around and at your stall through," I tell him with a nervous smile as I try to hide my nerves from him, "I am a bit busy at the moment you see, I am-"
"Ah! You are taking part in the Pokémon Grand festival!" the store holder said in a joyful tone making me want the earth to open up and swallow me whole as everyone stops what they are doing and turn to look at me with wide calculating eyes that clearly told m that they were messuring me up to see what my chances were, "Well at this stall and almost every stall here you will find that Pokémon Co-ordinaters get free idems as we believe they have worked hard to et this far!"
Without giving me chance to respond to his words he reaches under his stall and pulls out a plain white plastic bag and holds it out to me, unsure what to do I simply stand still and watch him. He must of understood my actions for the next moment he spoke.
"If you can show me all of your ribbons you have won so far to get to this amazing stage than I will give you this amazing free item!" he tells me while his customers all ooh and ahh at his words making me wish I had kept my dear little blue penguin Pokémon out in my arms after the last battle instead of letting it rest in its Pokeball until we reach a Pokecentre.
Looking around at the crowd that had been brought by the man's words I take a deep sigh and pull out my ribbon case. In a well praticed motion I press the button on the side of the case and watched as it opened up to show all of my hard earned ribbons. With my hands carefully cupped around my ribbons in a protective manner as I knew how easy it was to get your ribbons stolen by sour co-ordineters that did not get this far I allowed every to see my ribbons.
"Amazing! Your ribbons are beautiful!" the stall owner says with a grin while the crowd nod their heads in agreement, "You must be proud of your hard work!"
"I am, I replied with a weak smile as I close my ribbon case and slip it back into my pocket where I knew it would be safe, "It has been nice meeting you but I have to go now, I have to-"
"Prepear for the Grand Festival!" the stall owner says as he quickly gives me the white bag of free items with a grin, "You will be happy to know that the festival goes on for two days after the end of the Pokémon contest, the officals made sure of it so that everyone no matter what they are doing will be able to enjoy this wonderful festival!"
"Thank you," I reply, I hold the bag close to my chest as I wish for my starter Pokémon to be in its place offering me comfort instead, "I must get going now..."
With a final chorus of good luck from the crowd and stall owner as they return back to their previous activites I find myself suddenly feeling worse. This little run in with the stall owner and crowd has only made me realise how far I have come and what awaits me around the corner. Taking a deep breath to try and prevent myself from being sick I straighten myself out and quickly turn and walk the rest of the distance to the large statidum where I would register for the Grand Festival.
My heart pounds in my chest and my legs turn to jelly as I get closer and closer to the large stadium, each step I take gets harder and harder. I find myself wishing that my two dear friends where besides me once again and they were cheering me on, I have no idea how I managed to get this far and through so many Pokémon Contests without their support. I must be growing up without realising it.
In what feels like hours I finally walk into the large stadium and take a deep sigh of relief as I find myself walking through a wall of cool air and out of the blistering summer heat. As I look around the stadium I find it to my happiness much calmer than the festival outside, it is easy to see that almost everyone in here has a role to play in the Grand Festival be it Co-ordinator or judge or stage hand. Trying not to let my nerves show I walk through the stadium heading towards the double door with the sign of the Pokecentre on it.
Taking everything in as I walk past I spot several co-ordineators looking thoughtfully at their Pokeballs in the relaxing lounge area and muttering to themselves while the large open shop was filled to the brim with co-ordinaters wanting to buy berries and various items to help them in the Grand Festival. Just as I make it half way through the stadium, past the man in a posh suit handing out free vouchers to anyone taking part in the Grand Festival a familiar voice calls out to me making me come to a stop and a large relived smile on my face appear, it seems I finally have someone I knew well to be with during this Festival and to add to my luck it was the person who I had a secret crush on.
"I knew I would find you here!" my secret crush tells me with a large smile as her soft brown hair frames her face making her look like a fallen angel from the sky, "I have been looking all over for you since yesterday!"
"I am sorry, I only just arrived," I answer with a shy smile only for me to gulp as she shot me a smile that I knew would be haunting my dreams for several nights, "I did not know that you would be taking part in the Grand Festival, I thought that you was in another region."
"I was but when I found out that they did not have any Pokémon contests in that region I decided to come here and then when I found out about you getting all the ribbons you need I started to search for you as I know you would not pass up a chance to enter the Grand Festival," She replied to me, her praised gave me a bad time trying to keep the blush off of my face, "I was sort of hoping that you would not mind me sticking with you for this whole festival, even though I have taken part in one before..."
"It was with our friends behind us," I reply with an understanding smile as I hold out my hand, she accepted my hand and shook it before quickly pulling it away much to my disappointment.
"Talking about friends I have someone I want you to meet," she says as she gives me a nervous look, "I know the two of you know each other really well."
I blink in confusion as I try my best to work out just who she could be talking about while also doing what I can to silently keep the spark of hope that my crush has cruelly half stepped on from hurting me too much. I watch as she gives me one last friendly smile before turning and looking around as if searching for someone only for her eyes to light up in such a way I knew I had loss my chance with her as they found whoever she was looking for.
"Over here!" She calls out happily, her face shining with love making my hope for any chance of us die out and be replaced by emotional pain to unbearable to describe, "I found her!"
'Her? I am just a her?' I thought to myself as I placed a fake smile on my face to prevent my pain from showing.
I did not have to wait long for her lover, for how could it be anyone but a lover with how her face lit up when she laid her eyes on whoever she was looking for, as they came walking towards us as soon as my now taken and never possible to be with crush had called out. As I laid eyes on them I felt my heart and mind twist into a jealous pain filled rage as I take in the familiar orange hair and orange waist coat and black bag.
"It is great to see you again," the orange haired woman who has stolen my crush away from me tells me as she gives me a smile which I felt like wiping away by slapping her across the face, "Are you here for the Grand Festival too? Do you want to share a room with my sexy girlfriend? We have a bed spare as we only need one.
"Why?" I find myself asking as tears ran down my face causing them to look at me worriedly, "Why did you have to hurt me like this for? Why?"
End of Prompt.
