Hello everyone! Sorry for the slight delay! I've been putting a lot of thought and planning into this Grand Festival arc, and it's quite the work in progress! But the first installment of the arc is done and ready to go, and I'm really excited to share it with you all!

Also, I can't believe it, but this story has finally hit 1,000 reviews! I can't thank you all enough for your support for this story over the years. It means so much and really inspires me to continue writing and sharing these adventures with you all! I would also like to give a special shoutout to the 1,000th reviewer: Cat1185!

Now, let's get this Grand Festival arc started!

LAST TIME: Brandon is back in Pewter City visiting his own family. He and his cousin Allan choose to skip out early on the family party, however, to go see Brock at his clinic. There, he's been caring for Brandon's egg, which at the end of the boys' visit, finally hatches into a Cleffa!

Chapter 65: Gather at the Grand Festival!

"I can't believe we're finally here! The Indigo Plateau!"

Michelle's eyes sparkled as she set them on the enormous contest hall that was serving as the sight of the Grand Festival. It was a large white cylindrical building with a red rood adorned by the image of a poké ball. A set of three sliding glass doors with white panels served as the entrance. Three shorter and thinner white cylindrical structures, one on each side and the back, surrounded the main building. Lush trees surrounded the hall, while the clearing area and path leading up to the hall were filled with booths that ranged from merchants to demonstrations to information.

"It's crazy here," Misty commented, glancing sideways at her husband.

"The Grand Festival always draws a huge crowd," Ash replied. "Thanks to top coordinators like May and Dawn, contests have become crazy popular! Even more so than when I was a kid."

"And this is my chance to become just like them!"

Ash and Misty looked towards their oldest daughter, who had spun around and was beaming at them.

"Michelle, I'm so happy that you're confident going into this competition," Misty said, a smile on her face. "But remember: don't let yourself get consumed by it."

"Yeah, you just do your very best and trust in your Pokémon," Ash added. "And know that we'll be here every step of the way!"

"Pi!" Pichu squeaked, bobbing her ears.

"Thanks guys, I will!" Michelle replied. Suddenly, however, her face fell, leaving her parents highly confused.

"Is something wrong?" Misty asked.

Michelle looked from side-to-side before responding, "I just realized we lost everyone else."

"Huh?" Misty breathed, looking all around like her daughter. "Oh no, Ash! Where are the boys? And Elizabeth? And your mother?"

"I don't know, it wasn't my turn to watch them," Ash replied effortlessly.

Misty sighed and arched an eyebrow. "Please don't start with me…"

"Mommy! Daddy!"

Before either parent could react, Elizabeth attached herself to her father's legs, giving them as tight of a hug as she could manage.

"Elizabeth Ketchum!" Misty groaned, glaring down at her younger daughter. "What have I said about running off?"

"I didn't!" Elizabeth squeaked, releasing her father's legs. "I was with Grammy!"

"Oh yeah?" Ash asked teasingly, bending down to lift Elizabeth up in his arms. "And where is Grammy, huh?"

"Right here!"

Delia approached the group with a smile on her face and a gift bag in her hands. Ash immediately took notice of the bag and grimaced.

"Mom, we've been here for less than 10 minutes," Ash breathed. "How are you spoiling the kids already?"

"I didn't buy this here!" Delia giggled, holding up the gift bag for emphasis. "It's something special that I brought for Michelle from home. The spoiling hasn't begun yet!"

Michelle didn't even hear the part about later spoiling, because now she was completely fixated on the gift bag in her grandmother's hands. "That's for me? What is it, Grammy?"

"Michelle!" Misty hissed.

"What?" Michelle whined, looking over her shoulder. "Grammy already said it was for me! I just want to know what it is, that's all."

Delia giggled once again, this time at her granddaughter's eagerness. "You'll find out later tonight, sweetheart. Trust me, you'll want to show it off to everyone!"

"Mom, I hate to interrupt, but have you seen Aiden and Brandon?" Ash piped up. "I was kind of hoping maybe they'd tagged along with you and Elizabeth."

"No, they definitely weren't with us," Delia refuted. "I thought they were with you three!"

"Great," Misty grumbled. "Now there's two boys running around the Indigo Plateau causing who knows what kind of trouble."

"Misty, dear, I wouldn't worry too much!" Delia assured her daughter-in-law. "Aiden and Brandon are both so well-behaved. I'm sure they're just off exploring!"

"Brandon is well-behaved, but Aiden picks and chooses when he wants to flip that switch," Misty sighed. "And considering this is a big, competitive, high-profile Pokémon event, something tells me he's firing at all cylinders."

"Just like his father," Delia noted, smirking at an unamused Ash.

"Guys! Check this out!"

Everyone's heads whipped around to find Aiden scurrying over to them, Brandon following closely behind.

"They have Altaria cotton candy!" Aiden laughed, showing off the food item for emphasis. "I've only ever seen this stuff at the Twinleaf Festival that Dawn took us to!"

"Did you really run off just because you saw cotton candy?" Misty deadpanned.

"I tried to stop him, Mrs. Ketchum," Brandon defended himself. "But then I almost got run over."

Misty returned a narrowed gaze onto her son. "Aiden! You shouldn't be near stampeding your friends for food!"

"Mom, this isn't just food, this is Altaria cotton candy," Aiden stressed, taking another bite of his treat.

"Of course," Misty droned sarcastically. "How could I make such a foolish mistake?"

XXX

Once everyone was back together, Michelle headed into the contest hall in order to register for the Grand Festival. It only took a matter of minutes, and once all was said and done, Michelle practically skipped away from the front desk with a big smile on her face.

"All set?" Ash asked playfully.

"Yep!" Michelle chirped. "I can't wait for tomorrow morning!"

Before Ash could say anything in response, a loud grumble pierced the air. Misty groaned and looked over her shoulder, throwing Aiden an incredulous stare.

"Really? You're hungry already?" Misty complained. "You just ate that entire thing of cotton candy!"

"That wasn't me!" Aiden cried.

Misty blinked hard. "It wasn't?"

"No."

"Heh…uh, Mist…that was me."

Misty sighed and instead turned her gaze onto Ash, who was blushing following his admission. "Ash, you're worse than the kids."

"Come on, it's been a while since we had lunch!" Ash protested. "It's perfectly normal for me to be hungry!"

"It hasn't been long enough for you to be starving," Misty retorted.

"Misty, I could be starving after an hour with no food," Ash replied calmly.

"Don't I know it," Misty quipped, playfully rolling her eyes.

"Mommy, I'm hungry too!"

Misty suddenly had Elizabeth standing right in front of her, the 5-year-old pressing a valiant fist against her chest.

"You are?" Misty asked with a slight giggle, amused that her young daughter had made the announcement in such a determined fashion.

"Yes," Elizabeth replied just as seriously. "I'm ready for dinner now."

"Alright, you heard the kid," Ash jumped back in, clapping his hands together. "Time to eat!"

"Ash…" Misty warned.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!" Elizabeth began chanting, jumping in circles around her mother. Misty sighed and smacked a hand against her face, shaking her head as her young daughter kept up her pleading.

"Nice, Lizzie! I like it!" Ash laughed before following after her, jumping around Misty and chanting "Eat! Eat! Eat!"

"Dad, quit it!" Michelle cried, her cheeks burning red. "You're so embarrassing!"

"Okay, okay, we'll go have dinner!" Misty finally blurted. "Just quit jumping and yelling and making Michelle mortified."

Ash and Elizabeth both stopped in their tracks, exchanging victorious looks as they laughed.

"Where should we go to eat?" Michelle asked. "There are lots of great restaurants around here!"

"Oh sweetheart, don't be silly!" Delia trilled, catching her granddaughter's attention. "You need a nice, home cooked meal before your first day of competition! It's only right, after all."

"That sounds good!" Michelle agreed before falling back. "But wait…where are you supposed to cook?"

Delia giggled and winked at her oldest granddaughter. "You just leave that to me!"

XXX

"Could I have been born into a more embarrassing family?!"

"Not likely."

Aiden and Michelle stood outside the doorway of the kitchen in one of the nearby restaurants. Their grandmother had just waltzed in like it was nothing and began using the appliances and ingredients to begin making her own food.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, she also did this when I was competing in my first league competition," Ash dully stated, a unique mixture of annoyance and embarrassment plastered on his face.

"You mean she's done this before?" Michelle gasped in horror.

Misty grimaced before placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. "I don't think that made her feel any better."

"Well, it's nice to know she'll do anything for you…right?" Brandon tried. Michelle only groaned, however, and buried her face into her hands.

"You must be pretty embarrassed by this too, huh, Lizzie?" Aiden asked, glancing down at the floor. "Uh…Lizzie?"

"Here, Grammy!"

Aiden picked his head back up, watching in stunned disbelief as Elizabeth ran up to her grandmother with a mixing spoon.

"Um, Mom…Elizabeth is in there helping," Aiden weakly informed his mother.

"Oh, I see it," Misty muttered. "I'm just trying to pretend that I don't."

XXX

As embarrassing as it had been to watch Delia march into the restaurant's kitchen and take it over, no one could deny that the food she'd made was absolutely delicious.

"Grammy, this is so good!" Aiden remarked. "You should go into other people's kitchens and start cooking more often!"

"Aiden, don't encourage her," Ash laughed weakly.

"Aw, thank you, dear!" Delia beamed at Aiden. "I wasn't about to let my precious granddaughter go into her very first Grand Festival without eating her favorite meal first! And I'll do the same for you before you start competing in the Indigo Conference!"

Aiden laughed nervously, while Michelle threw him a devious look. "Hey, you did say she should go into other people's kitchens and start cooking more often!"

"At least next time we know to go somewhere else before she starts," Aiden reasoned with her.

"True," Michelle conceded.

"Michelle, have you finished your dinner yet?"

The young coordinator looked up at her grandmother and smiled. "Yeah, I'm all done!"

"Perfect!" Delia crowed. "How would you like to see the special surprise I brought for you?"

"I would love to!" Michelle gasped, her eyes sparkling.

Reaching beneath the table, Delia retrieved the same gift bag she'd been carrying around before, passing it across the table to a jubilant Michelle.

"Go ahead," Delia softly urged. "Open it up!"

Michelle nodded and reached into the bag, sifting through sheets of colorful tissue paper before reaching a white box. Placing it on her lap, Michelle pulled the top off and let out a sharp breath as she saw its contents.

"Whoa…"

"Let us see, Michelle!" Misty insisted.

The young redhead pulled something out of the box, holding it up for her and everyone else to get a better look at. It was a brand new dress: teal in color with a short, flowy chiffon skirt and a cap sleeved bodice covered in silver beading and jewels.

"Oh, it's beautiful," Misty breathed, a huge smile breaking out on her face.

"Pretty!" Elizabeth agreed with a giggle.

"I thought a beautiful girl like you needed a beautiful new dress for the Grand Festival," Delia explained. "As soon as I saw that dress, I knew it was just perfect for you!"

"I love it, Grammy!" Michelle squealed, hugging the dress tightly. "I can't wait to compete in this!"

"There's also some matching accessories in the bag," Delia added, nodding towards the gift bag that still sat on the table. "You may be competing for the title of Top Coordinator, but as soon as you're all dolled up, you'll most certainly look the part already!"

Michelle jumped to her feet, running over to her grandmother to give her a hug. "Thank you so much, Grammy! I love all of it! I think I'll go try everything on now and give you guys a little preview."

Michelle neatly folded up the dress and placed it back in the bag before grabbing it and rushing out of the dining room. Ash had been about to say something, but Michelle had rushed off before he could get it out. The Pokémon Master sighed and lowered his arms, rolling his eyes towards his wife. "No wonder you and Brock would get frustrated with me whenever I got impatient."

Misty smirked and gently pressed her fingertips against her husband's cheek. "Not so easy, is it?"

Ash returned his wife's smirk before reaching for his water glass. "Eh, I'll catch up with her later. She's probably too wound up to really listen to me right now anyway."

XXX

As Michelle ran through the lobby with her new dress and accessories in hand, she nearly collided with another person who was walking through the lobby.

"Whoa! I'm so sorry!" Michelle gasped, pulling herself back.

"Don't worry about it!"

Michelle blinked and looked up, grinning when she realized who it was.

"Clarisse!" She breathed.

"I'll just consider it getting even from when Vulpix ran into Pichu," Clarisse giggled.

Michelle laughed at that. "Come on, that was forever ago!"

"It was," Clarisse sighed, almost in a longing fashion. "Isn't it crazy how fast this has all gone by?"

"Huh?" Michelle murmured.

"It feels like we met for the first time just yesterday," Clarisse elucidated. "And now we're both competing in the Grand Festival!"

"Yeah, that is kind of crazy!" Michelle agreed.

Clarisse suddenly took notice of the bag in Michelle's hands and made a noise of interest. "What do you have there?"

"Oh, my grandma got me a new dress and some stuff to go with it!" Michelle replied excitedly. "She thought it'd be nice for the Grand Festival."

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Clarisse giggled. "I'm really excited to see it! My mom sent me a new dress too. Looking good for the contest is really important! I feel like if you look good, then you feel good."

"I know what you mean," Michelle agreed. "I'm not even a girly-girl but I know what you mean! Before I started entering contests and actually competing in them, I would never wear a dress by choice. But I always loved the dresses my godmothers wore! They told me that once I got older, I'd be able to wear beautiful dresses like theirs. I think I would ask if I could just wear pants instead, though."

Clarisse laughed at that. "But now look at you! I'd say you're one of the most stylish coordinators out there."

"That's really nice," Michelle replied, blushing slightly at the compliment. "I think most of the credit has to go to my mom and grandma though. They're the ones who are always picking out my dresses!"

"What a shocker. The spoiled little princess can't even pick out her own clothes."

Michelle groaned, while Clarisse turned her head and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, you are…?" Clarisse prodded.

"Please, I refuse to believe you've never seen me competing in a contest," the new arrival scoffed.

"Nope, can't say I have," Clarisse calmly retorted.

The other girl growled and placed her hands on her hips. "Fine. Just pretend you haven't. The name is Zella."

Clarisse blinked and looked over at Michelle. "Do you two know each other?"

"Unfortunately," Michelle sighed.

"Honestly, I don't know why I'm wasting my time here with you two," Zella crowed. "We all know that I'm going to win the Grand Festival, and once I become Top Coordinator, I won't have any time for peasants such as yourselves."

"Gee, Zella, that sure is big talk considering the competition hasn't even started yet," Michelle droned.

"You call it big talk, I call it a guarantee," Zella replied easily. "You'd both better pack up tonight, because once the appeals start, I highly doubt either of you will make some big impression."

And with that, Zella turned on a heel and marched away, leaving behind one agitated and one very confused coordinator.

"So…what's her issue?" Clarisse questioned.

"She thinks I'm a spoiled brat or something because my dad is the Pokémon Master," Michelle replied dismissively. "Honestly, I just tend to block her out when she goes off like that so I'm not 100% sure."

Clarisse giggled at that. "There sure are some interesting characters in the contest world, huh?"

"You can say that again," Michelle muttered.

"HI!"

Michelle yelped as a hand came down hard on her back. Grimacing, Michelle looked over her shoulder and found herself staring back at yet another one of her coordinating rivals. "Oh…hi, Eryn."

"Fancy running into you here!" Eryn giggled.

"Well yeah, it's the Grand Festival," Michelle replied, rubbing at the sore spot on her back. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

"I thought maybe you might've fallen off the grid after your big bad battle with Team Rocket," Eryn answered, her voice laced with an unusual amount of sympathy. "But truthfully, I'm glad to see you're still alive!"

"…thank you?" Michelle squeaked.

"So, tell me, just because I have to know…" Eryn began, wringing her hands together, "your brother is safe too, right? And your father?"

Michelle resisted the urge to roll her eyes. After all, Eryn seemed genuinely concerned. "Yeah, they're both fine."

"Oh, what a relief!" Eryn sighed dramatically. "That's the best thing I've heard all day!"

Now Michelle was not about to stop her eyes from narrowing. "You just found out two minutes ago I wasn't killed either."

"Yeah, but I more saw that than heard it," Eryn dismissed the notion. "Anyway, I should be off to get my beauty rest! It would be a pity for me to come out on the stage tomorrow looking exhausted in front of an entire audience, but an even bigger pity for me to look that way in front of your handsome brother! See you in the morning, Shelly!"

Michelle felt an eyebrow twitch as Eryn skipped away. When she turned to look back at Clarisse, however, she was surprised to see the blonde sporting a fairly red face.

"Clarisse?" Michelle questioned.

"Uh…did she just call your brother handsome?" Clarisse asked timidly.

"Oh, yeah," Michelle muttered, shaking her head. "Delusional, right?"

In response, Clarisse just smiled weakly and shrugged her shoulders.

I actually just rewatched Ash's first go in the Pokémon League, so that was really nice to use as inspiration for Michelle's first Grand Festival.

Next chapter, the competition actually begins! Get ready for the appeals, the battles, the Pokémon, and of course the rivalries!