Doris stood quietly in place, waiting for the knight to talk first.

When he didn't, she managed to mumble the word "B-bathroom" and shakily held out the hall pass she now wished looked significantly less crumpled.

"Oookaaay..." said the knight. He raised a light brown eyebrow. Doris felt her cheeks go red. He was wondering why she was explaining in the first place. He didn't care.

"It-it's just that... well... it's just we don't usually see knights. Around here. I-I mean at school." Why couldn't she stop herself from talking?

The knight's expression softened. "I'm doing a guest lecture for the sixth graders. First year we're doing this."

Doris felt herself breathing again and realized that she hadn't been. Had she just made herself look suspicious?

"Uh... you're dismissed?" said the knight. Doris felt the breath that had just returned to her lungs slide out through her nose all at once. She nodded and hurried in the direction of her classroom, looking back just long enough to see the knight continue down the hall.

When she returned to class Doris more collapsed than sat back in her seat. For a few seconds she couldn't even hear her own thoughts. Just silence. But the sensation passed in a moment and she noticed the room around her again. Mr. Reed had moved on to a later event and was beginning to wrap up the social studies lecture to move on to math. Doris shuffled the appropriate workbooks to and from the desk's interior and top and let her thoughts return.

The knight was there for a lecture. He probably didn't have anything to do with the Wilsons at all aside from maybe being involved in the old man's arrest because, and only because, he'd been in town anyway! That would make sense. It was a coincidence that Fran had to go to the office after all! Or maybe it wasn't but maybe it was just something innocuous like her parents letting her know what had happened to her grandpa or uncle or whatever the old man was to her.

But shouldn't something like that wait until after school?

Doris chewed on her tongue. Maybe Fran just forgot homework or lunch or something and one of her parents delivered it to the office. Maybe... maybe it did have to do with Mr. Wilson's arrest but it was just a quick check up to make sure his family wasn't hurt by whatever he did.

This is stupid, thought Doris. I hate this. I shouldn't be scared of the knights. They're the good guys. People aren't supposed to be afraid of the good guys.

Doris noticed her nose tingling and the beginnings of tears forming. She tried to blink it off before the other kids could notice she was being a crybaby again. What would they think she was crying about anyway? Math? Yeah, them thinking she was crying because she couldn't handle math sounded about right. She rubbed at her eyes to try to hide the tears and took a shaky deep breath.

Giggles to her left informed her that she'd been seen crying. Again.

She rubbed her eyes harder and hoped against hope that they'd forget about it by lunch break.

…

Doris's luck held and by lunch she was able to sit quietly at the edge of a table without anyone bringing up her tears. Although she knew it was most likely because her tears probably didn't warrant continued attention, she couldn't help but think this may have in part been because the sixth graders were chattering excitedly about how a knight came to their class. Doris couldn't hear the older kids from where she was but she could easily see Alex, practically standing instead of sitting at the lunch bench, leading the storytelling session those seated nearby were devouring more than their food.

She could also see the girl she recognized as Fran Wilson seated among the sixth graders like nothing was out of place. Doris sighed in relief. She was no longer itching to run over to the sixth grade area of the lunchroom for details. Instead she let her shoulders fall and concentrated on the food in her own lunchbox and listened to her own classmates' chatter. It mostly centered on a popular cartoon about a team of heroic knights. Not the Plasma kind, the kind from olden-days, although like the modern Team Plasma they would liberate magical creatures – none of which seemed to be an actual pokémon from what Doris could tell – from humans and quell the dangers posed by evil spies lurking in the midst of society. They were also lead by a brave, magical king with long, green hair. Doris sometimes wondered if King N acted at all like King Uno in the show.

Doris squirmed uncomfortably in her seat as one of her classmates recited one of King Uno's commonly used lines: "If you're afraid of the good guys, that's the first sign you're a bad guy. Those who believe in what's right have nothing to fear."

The sixth graders had been excited enough about their visitor that Doris and the other fifth graders easily finished their lunch before the older kids, allowing Doris to pass by the group on her way to dispose of her used napkin and empty juice box. She caught a closer look of Fran's face. The girl was smiling but it looked forced and she looked pale. Should she talk to her? What would she even say?

"Yo, you saw them this morning, too!" Alex's voice cut through the air. Doris stopped and looked around but it was clear that Alex was addressing her.

"Uh..."

"I mean she's not gonna add anything I haven't already told ya, but she was there by Old Man Wilson's house too!" Doris noticed Fran stiffen.

"Yeah. I pass it on the way to school," said Doris. She tried not to make eye contact with Fran. Looking elsewhere did not help, however, as she only saw more and more sets of eyes fixed on her.

"So he's not exaggerating? There were really three knights?" asked a girl with dark hair.

"I... I think?" She wracked her memory and recalled the one stationed outside who had shouted at them and the two who went in to retrieve Mr. Wilson and the joltik. "No, wait. Four. There was one who'd been inside before we got there who walked out with..." Doris let her voice trail off and glanced at Fran, whose smile had faded.

Now that she thought about it, the man who had met her in the hall looked very much like the one who had pushed the handcuffed Mr. Wilson toward the car.

"And you're the one who knew what the pokémon was called, right?" More eyes turned to Doris. She pulled her arms in closer to her body, which was impressive as they were already tightly glued to her sides.

"Y-yeah. It was just a joltik. They used to be pretty common household pests..." Was it really that odd for her to know what a joltik was? "It's not like I'm going to forget what it's called just because I haven't seen one in years, you know?" said Doris. "That would be like forgetting elephants were a thing because you only went to Nimbasa Zoo once when you were six."

"I mean, yeah, but..." One of the girls started, swallowed, then lowered her voice, "My parents say you shouldn't say their names. They make me pay a dime if I say any." Some of the other kids nodded along. Others smirked and giggled. At the thought of breaking rules? Or at plans of telling on her?

Doris frowned. "My parents never said anything like that." They didn't say much about pokémon, now that she thought about it, and she couldn't recall them saying any pokémon's name in years, but they never suggested pokémon names were like swears or anything.

Of course, she couldn't remember now if she'd ever said the name of a pokémon species around her parents in years either.

She squeezed her napkin and juice box tighter in her right hand. Looking around, Doris came to the discomforting realization that she was surrounded by curious students.

"What's going on here?"

Doris turned to see one of the sixth grade teachers approaching. She was either saved or in trouble. She squeezed her eyes shut and suppressed the urge to run.

"Alex was talking about the pokémon he saw this morning," one of the sixth graders offered up a little too quickly, pointing in Alex's direction as she spoke.

"No-not just the pokémon. The knights too. They were so cool and..." Alex's shoulders slumped when he saw the teacher's eyes narrow. "A-anyway Doris was there too. It wasn't something you see every day so I thought..." He let the sentence drop. Doris wondered if it was possible to shrink any further within herself.

The teacher pinched the bridge of her nose. "Of course. Well. We were going to address this issue after lunch but it looks like we might have to move the schedule up." She placed a hand on Doris's shoulder and Doris started. "Mr. Clifford, Miss Jaboca, to the front office, please."

. . .

The front office was a little colder than the rest of the building, Doris noted, both in terms of temperature and in terms of metaphorical atmosphere. She stole occasional glances up from the floor while she waited in the uncomfortable wooden chair waiting for whoever she would be seeing.

Alex had already been beyond the door in front of her for a little while, speaking with someone who looked suspiciously like a knight.

Was she in trouble for just seeing something on her way to school? Or was this for making it a big deal in the lunchroom when she should have stayed quiet? Maybe she wasn't in trouble after all. Maybe this was just a debriefing of what she'd observed to give her a more complete story before she started spreading any misleading rumors. You could only really trust the truth of a knight, or so teachers and media insisted.

She found herself wishing that the heat would kick on while she waited.

The door clicked open and Alex Clifford walked out, looking sheepish. He walked past her to talk to the secretary, probably to ask for a hall pass to return to class. Before Doris could see if that was the case, she heard her name called and stood straight up. She felt stiff as she walked into the room.

"Doris Jaboca, is it? Your student ID." Doris quickly produced the card and gave it to the knight. He was taller than the knight from the hallway earlier. Older too. The man in the hall earlier looked like he could be a college student while this guy looked closer to her parents' ages. The knight smiled as he ran her student ID card through a scanner like it was a credit card. Some information came up on the tablet he was holding and he tilted the screen away so Doris couldn't see the display.

"Take a seat." The man continued to smile, but Doris couldn't find it reassuring. She sat, keeping her eyes forward. She waited.

Should she be saying something in her defense? Was she even allowed to talk yet or should she wait? Would looking as nervous as she felt be taken as a sign of guilt?

Was she in trouble?

Minutes passed as the knight looked over the screen. Finally, he looked up and met Doris's gaze.

"You recently turned ten, I see. A month ago. How was your birthday?"

"Huh? Uh, it was good. I had my favorite foods and got some books and drawing supplies..." Doris wasn't sure why her birthday mattered for a moment. Then she realized that turning ten meant something special until not too long ago. Was that what he was getting at?

"And your parents. What do they do?"

If he moved on to the next topic then she should too, Doris decided. "My mom works at Maple Pharmacy and my dad does records processing for a data conversion company. He handles medical records, I think."

"Do you know why you were called in here today?" Before she could answer he continued, "You witnessed an event this morning involving a number of knights and a Lacunosa Town citizen. You were identified as the girl who named the creature taken from the citizen's home."

Was she supposed to say something? Nod? Wait? She wished she'd been taught what to do if a knight asked her something other than the common advice of "cooperate."

"Sorry, sir," she said, more calmly than she expected of herself.

"What do you know about Mr. Bob Wilson?"

"He's an old man who lives in the house on the corner on the way to school. And he's the grandpa or uncle of one of the sixth graders, I think. I didn't talk to him much but I picked up walnuts from his lawn for some money in the fall." She paused, then added "I've never seen a pokémon around his house before today."

The knight's smile twitched at the edges of his lips. "Pokémon aren't supposed to be in town so it was very bad that Mr. Wilson had one. You know what it was called?"

"A… a joltik, I think."

"Now why do you know what a joltik is?"

Doris was ready as she could ever be for this, given she'd answered the same question in the cafeteria not long ago. "I remembered from when pokémon lived with humans. I'd only seen it in books or on TV shows but I'm not just going to just forget what its called. I've never seen a stegosaurus either and I can call one a stegosaurus."

The knight stifled a laugh. "You've got spunk, all right. Just call it a bug if you ever see one again, got it?"

"Why?" asked Doris.

"Look, we're going easy on you, kid. Just call it a bug in the future. You can go back to class now."

That was it? That little conversation was what she was scared of before? Doris began to feel tears bubbling up in her eyes. Why? Why now when everything was fine? Would crying now look suspicious and put her back in trouble all over again? She blinked the tears back and stood, reaching for the student ID card the knight was offering back to her.

"Oh, and just to warn you. 'Sorry' is something you say when you're admitting you've done something wrong. Don't apologize unless you're willing to accept that."

Doris froze with her fingers on the card. Her first instinct was to say "sorry" again but she didn't think that would be wise and searched her now blank brain for something better to say.

"You're not in trouble. I'm just giving you a warning." The knight's smile never wavered. Doris felt herself beginning to shake as she left to get a hall pass and return to class.

Surprise, this fic isn't dead! I just am really bad about updating consistently.