We now return to our regularly scheduled Pokemon fanfiction. Field trip preparation!

Hellraiserphoenix: It was a lot of fun to write, especially coming up with which characters were a good fit for which pokemon.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Pft. I was reading it back when it was on like Chapter 10. It just happened to now be in the public sphere when it got an anime, so I can finally do a parody of it.

Duskzilla: Half the fun of this chapter was figuring out which characters would be which pokemon. I think I made some pretty good choices.

JoshGamerV: Interesting seems to be the overall consensus on the chapter, yes.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 141

"Okay, so is everybody here?" Ayame asked. Ayame was the only senior in a room with five freshmen students. Reiner, Sango, Will, Blake, and Aidan all been gathered together in one of the classrooms usually reserved for Pokemon Battle classes, sitting in a ring of desks, with the exception of Will, who was sitting separate from the rest. They were one of the freshman groups made up for the trip. Each group would consist of six freshmen with a senior volunteer to serve as a chaperone. Most of the chaperones were from the Ranger Course, but there were some students, like Ayame, from the Caretaker Course as well. Ayame was delighted that she had been selected as the chaperone for Group 11, Blake and Sango's group. Sango was less enthused. When she'd gotten the email detailing her group number and the other members, she was overjoyed that she'd get to be in a group with not only Blake, but also her friend Aidan. But the fact that Ayame was going to be accompanying them on the hike up Mt. Chimney was a disappointment.

"Cast!" Silver, recognizing his partner's mood, rubbed comfortingly against Sango.

"I think there's still one person missing, right?" Reiner said. Ayame looked over the list again.

"There's supposed to be six of us," Aidan said, glancing around the room. "Besides you, of course."

Ayame nodded.

"Who are we missing then?" Blake asked. "Are you sure it isn't a mistake?"

"All the freshmen are required to go on this trip." Will had been sitting separately from the others, not being much of a "people person" and not entirely enthused about this trip to begin with. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be here."

Blake blinked. Every freshman? Then what about Elaina…?

"It says here that the last member of Group 11 is someone named Caelia Auburne," Ayame said. "Why isn't she here? I sent out the group email saying we'd be meeting the day before we left in order to go over the plans and figure out what we would bring on the trip?"

Ayame's scowl lowered the mood of the room.

"L-let's all calm down, guys, I'm sure she'll come soon," Aidan said, holding his hands up to ease up.

Caelia… Blake vaguely remembered someone with that name. Right! Her! The girl from the Fall Festival Tournament, who used fire types!

"I vaguely remember someone named Caelia," Reiner said, frowning. "She's not in our battling class, though, right Blake?"

Blake nodded. He'd remember is she was.

"She isn't in ours, either," Sango said, the bitterness at having to be in a battling class in the first place clear in her voice.

"That is odd," Ayame said, frowning. "I guess…"

"Ahem."

Everyone in the classroom turned to see the new arrival. Unfortunately, it wasn't Caelia, late to the meeting, but Professor Aoshi Kashita. The professor peeked out at the students with narrow black eyes from behind the bangs of his short black hair, and his stoic expression was unreadable. He walked over to where the students were sitting, staring down at them silently.

"Professor?" Ayame asked, confused. "We reserved the right room, didn't we? Do you need it back?"

"It's not that," Professor Kashita said calmly. "I noticed that the students reserving this room for the planning of the field trip were the students in Group 11, and that Caelia Auburne is one of those students. I came here to talk with you about her."

"You know about her?" Aidan asked. Ayame resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"She's one of my students, of course I do," the professor said. The frown on his face told another story, and it didn't go unnoticed by Blake.

"Excuse me for saying so, professor, but you don't strike me as the kind of person to intercede this far on a student's behalf, just because she didn't show up to a group meeting," Blake commented. "Is there something else?"

"…" Professor Kashita narrowed his eyes. "Perceptive of you. That's right, I'm not just here about the field trip. This is about Miss Auburne's conduct in general."

Sango frowned. Shouldn't this be classified? It wasn't right for a teacher to talk about his students' personal lives and conduct records like this, that was for sure!

"More specifically… at the beginning of the semester, Caelia Auburne was enrolled in the standard course, as a normal student. Unfortunately… she didn't show up to any classes. Not even on the first day. In fact, she was supposed to be in the my Pokemon Battling Class that you, Reiner, and William over there are taking. After the first two weeks of complete lack of attendance, I decided to pay her a house visit. And due to her… circumstances, I agreed that she be allowed to transfer to doing her coursework online. But with this… she can't just sit this out. This trip is a mandatory attendance, except in extenuating circumstances. And not only that…"

His expression shifted to a look of concern.

"As a fellow Charizard trainer… and as a teacher at this school… I don't like the idea of her isolating herself in her room like this. She has a private dorm as well… meaning her interactions with the student body is practically zero."

Sango nodded sympathetically. She could see where the professor was coming from now. This girl, Caelia, she was hardly a student at this school, her presence here was practically in name only.

"It must be so lonely…" Aidan sighed.

"I get you, professor," Sango nodded. "So you want us to drag her out of her room and try and make her have fun on this field trip, right? So she develops some positive school memories."

Professor Kashita nodded. "And hopefully… convince her to come to class as a normal student."

The others nodded in agreement. But Blake still wore a frown on his face.

"Professor… if you feel this way about Caelia Auburne… what about Elaina Bishop?"

Sango winced at the mention of that name, and Ayame looked at him in confusion.

"…" Professor Kashita frowned.

"She's a student here as well, isn't she?" Blake asked. "And yet you don't come to us asking to integrate her into the school."

"Elaina's situation is different," the professor said, shaking his head. "Due to certain… circumstances involving her attendance, not even the faculty can interfere."

Blake frowned. This answer was unsatisfactory, but it was clearly the only answer that the professor was providing them. He shrugged, and let out a sigh. He pushed back his chair and rose to his feet.

"Then we should go see her, don't you guys think?"

"Yeah, I agree," Sango said.

The Professor nodded, pleased at the conclusion they'd decided on.

"Caelia's room is Room 213 of the Single Student Pikachu Dorms. The buildings are public access, but the rooms are not." After explaining the details of where they could most likely find her (particularly because she seldom ever left her room, not even to eat) the professor was satisfied that he'd done all he could, and turned to exit the room.

"It doesn't make sense for all of us to go," Reiner said. "If anything, that might just scare the girl off. Instead, I think it might be better to work out the details of the trip by ourselves, and then have someone go over to explain things to her."

"That does make the most sense, you're definitely right about scaring her off," Blake agreed. Another thought about Elaina popped into his head. If she'd gone to the lengths to isolate herself that she clearly had, too many people confronting her was sure to make her shut down.

"What about Blake and I?" Ayame asked. "Blake seems to have a good thought about how to reach out and get her to open up, and as the senior chaperone, it's my responsibility to make sure we're all on the same page."

"You might be a little too intimidating, though," Sango warned her. "If she's talking with a senior, it might make her too cautious. She might feel more at ease being around other freshmen, especially if she's going to expand beyond her room."

"Intimidating?" Ayame scowled. "You think I'm intimidating?"

"Really, Ayame?" Blake raised his eyebrow. She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, yeah, but you don't have to say it," Ayame scoffed.

"I think Blake and I might be able to speak on her level," Sango said. Her suggestion definitely made a lot of sense, and it was certainly for Caelia's sake, not because of a subconscious urge to not see Blake and Ayame spend more time together if she could help it.

"Sounds like a plan," Ayame said, nodding. "Let's get all the finer details worked out about the stuff we're going to pack and when and where we're going to meet up, and what boat we're going on, you know, all that stuff! Then you can just show it to her!"

Blake and Sango glanced at each other. They both understood that the real difficult part of this was going to be convincing Caelia to leave her room in the first place, and that all these "details" were less than helpful to resolving that specific problem. But Ayame was adamant, and it was an okay place to start.

"So, first, we need to build up a good atmosphere, so this Caelia girl feels included," Ayame smiled. Will rolled his eyes. This didn't seem to be that productive whatsoever. If Caelia didn't want to participate, then it seemed rather futile to force her into doing so. He could certainly empathize with someone who just wanted to be left alone.

The meeting only lasted for about an hour after that, in which time they'd managed to work out all the finer details of what their trip to Hoenn, and then the climb to Mt. Chimney, would entail. Once the information had been worked out, Sango and Blake excused themselves to go find Caelia and hopefully manage to convince her to give the field trip an even chance.

"Do you remember Caelia from the Fall Festival Tournament?" Blake asked Sango. Sango shook her head, frowning. She hadn't paid much close attention to the earlier contestants, and from what she could remember, or more accurately, what she knew to be the case, was that the girl had dropped out in the Top 16.

"She had a very strange air around her," Blake said, frowning. "Like… she was holding something back from everybody, or like she'd put up a wall around herself. It bothered me then, and after hearing about her from the professor… I'm even more bothered."

"Do you think she'll agree?"

"I really doubt it," Blake said, shaking his head. "From what the professor described… it seems like we've got another situation like Elaina on our hands."

Sango looked worriedly at Blake. He was clearly feeling some turmoil, and how much this situation resembled Elaina's was clearly the cause. She bit her lip, debating what she should say. What could she say to comfort him? The sight of him thinking about Elaina, and so clearly feeling pained by those thoughts… it was agonizing for her.

Blake and Sango arrived at the small dorm building, where the single student apartments were located. It was much smaller than the standard dorms. Maybe 30 people lived there, at most? They entered the two-story building, and walked up the stairs to the second floor, stopping in front of Room 213.

The two glanced at each other, Blake knocking carefully on the door. They waited for a minute or so, but there was no response. Blake knocked again, a little louder this time. Again, they didn't hear anything. The lack of a response from inside caused the both of them to jump a little when the doorknob turned, and the door slowly swung inwards. A single blue eye peeked out through the faint crack in the door, staring at the two of them.

"…What?"

"Hi, uh, I'm Blake Harker, and this is Sango Akana…" Blake said, regaining his composure first and introducing himself and Sango. "We were wondering, uh… well, that's to say… we're in your group for the field trip, and we wanted to talk with you about it… so, um..."

The eye said nothing, and the door slowly closed. The rattling of a chain could be heard, and the door opened up, Caelia stepping out of the way. Sango and Blake gave each other wary glances. This was an invitation, right?

The two entered the room, walking past the silent girl. Blake took a moment to get a good look at her again. He hadn't seen her since the Fall Festival Tournament. She hadn't changed much, she still looked… Blake didn't want to use the word "shabby" but it seemed to be the only thing that fit. Her shaggy brown hair stuck out in all directions on her head as it fell down in a tumble, covering the right side of her face and reaching her shoulders. Rather than wearing a uniform, she was dressed in old, faded red pajamas, like she'd just gotten out of bed. She wore thick black gloves that went up under her sleeves, concealing most of her skin from sight. The only part of her he could get a good look at was the left side of her face, her messy hair parted so that a single, dull blue eye could peek out from behind it. There was an inquisitiveness in her expression, almost like she was studying him at the same time he was looking at her. But she seemed to show no signs of responding to his continued staring at all.

It was Sango that broke the ice first.

"You're Caelia Auburne, right?" She asked. Caelia gave her a small nod. She still hadn't closed the door. When she finally did, she remained standing exactly where she was, as though the presence of two new people in her room was of no great concern to her. And what a room it was, too. "Messy" didn't even begin to cover the warzone of empty pizza boxes, food wrappers, and dirty clothing littering the floor, or the moldy plates piled up in the kitchen. Everything had a thin layer of dust covering it, and the entire room gave off a miserable stench of mothballs. It was absolutely stunning to the two of them that someone could live in such a horrifying state of squalor.

"Um, so, like we were saying, today, our group met up to go over a meeting about what we were going to do for the upcoming field trip," Blake replied. "You do know about the field trip, right?"

"I do," she whispered, the first words she'd spoken since they'd entered.

"Well, that makes things easier," Sango sighed in relief. "We wanted to come talk with you, to explain to you what the plans are. Is that okay? You are planning to go, right?"

Caelia nodded. That wasn't the response that Blake and Sango were expecting, and so they were a little unsure of what they should be doing next.

"Tell me where to go. I will be there." Her reply was curt. Clearly, she wanted them to leave as soon as possible. Blake swallowed. The look in her eye… it was devoid of life, it seemed to be staring right through him.

"Um… so we're going to meet at the fountain at six tomorrow…" Sango said, frowning. "But… if you're going to come, then why didn't you come to the meeting? What if we hadn't come to tell you?"

"Then I wouldn't have gone," Caelia explained. "Simple as that." Clearly, she didn't really care one way or another.

"But you could have come meet us," Sango persisted, frowning. "See, it was a chance to interact with your groupmates! We could have hung out together and gotten to get to know each other! That would have been way better than staying around here all day!"

Caelia had no reply to this. Blake shook his head. Sango clearly wasn't getting it. This girl… she was trying to keep herself as isolated as possible. She wasn't rejecting their presence, but she wasn't seeking it out, either. It was like she was just… there.

"Here," Blake said, reaching into his pocket and unfolding a piece of paper. "I wrote down a list of everything we'll need to bring for the trip. If there's anything else you want to bring, then bring it. If you have any questions, you can email one of us."

"I see," Caelia said, taking the paper for him and scanning it over briefly, her eye turning up to stare at Blake again. "I see…"

Sango really just wanted to leave. She knew that it was important to make this girl socialize, but every signal she was giving off just made Sango feel more and more uncomfortable. It was like trying to befriend a brick wall. It all seemed so… wrong. So alien. Sango wanted to get her excited about everything, but… she couldn't. This girl seemed adamant to reject their presence, or more like she was completely ambivalent about their existence entirely.

"So, um, it was nice to meet you!" Sango said, balancing from one foot to the other while refusing to meet Caelia's chilling gaze. "But, um, we have to go, right Blake?"

Caelia's eye turned to Blake, who didn't say a word, but nodded.

"…Bye, he said." The two walked past Caelia. She didn't turn to look at them as they walked past her. She just stared off into space with a vacant expression.

Sango and Blake looked back at her, and then glanced at one another. This girl… it was unnerving to be around her. They both wanted to help her… but what could they even really do, at this point?

Caelia returns, if anyone remembers her. We're setting the stage for the field trip, but how is it going to go, I wonder?