Here's another jump, we'll get to see what a few other people are getting up to in this storm! This should have a rather interesting pairing, I'll tell you that.

Also, there are still issues with fanfiction, so I don't know if this chapter is being read, either. As said before, if you can read this chapter, please review so I know.

KedharS: I think that's certainly a possibility.

Rosealine gold: Yeah, uh, about that...

Thunder Fire: Interesting, though I'm not sure if he's necessarily a good fit for the Empress's faction, it doesn't really seem like either party would have much to gain from that, can you go into more detail on that?

Hellraiserphoenix: Yeah, we're going to be jumping around a decent amount.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 361

When the lockdown order ended, Maddi hadn't put too much concern into it. Not any at all, really, all things considered. Maddi wasn't exactly much one for going out and having fun with her friends or going hiking. She was perfectly content with sitting in her room and quietly studying for her exams before going to sleep for the night.

Unfortunately, her newborn pokemon had other ideas.

"Dusk! Dusk!" The ghost pokemon murmured, floating around the room and waving his arms excitedly. He seemed to be trying to tell Maddi something, but what it was, Maddi couldn't be sure. For all she knew, he was just excited.

"Duskull, calm down," Maddi sighed, looking up from her laptop. She was starting to wonder whether or not she should keep calling him "Duskull". She needed to come up with a proper name for him, that was for sure.

"Duskull!" Her baby Duskull replied, flying through her laptop and perching himself over her shoulder, startling her even more.

"Don't… don't do that," Maddi chastised the small pokemon. Too many surprises was bad for her, she didn't have it in her to keep doing this.

"Duskull!" Duskull laughed, flying off from beside her. He floated by the door.

"We can't go outside," Maddi told him. She jutted her head to the side, gesturing at the window and the snowstorm blowing outside.

"Duskull…" Duskull seemed to sink down, dejected. But then, he perked right back up, newly energized. "Duskull!"

Duskull whirled around and flew towards the wall across the room from Maddi… and slipped right through it!

Maddi stared at the wall in stunned silence.

"Hey, wait, Duskull!" She cried out when she realized what had just happened, setting her laptop down and leaping out of bed. But the ghost pokemon was already gone.

"…Oh, no…" Maddi whispered. A scream came from the next room a few seconds later. Maddi banged her head against the wall. "Oh, no…"

Maddi turned and ran to the door, desperate to figure out what mess her newborn pokemon had just gotten himself into.

Elaina was standing in the shower with her eyes closed, letting the warm water rush over her. She had also heard the reports coming from the school website, a report about the overwhelming blizzard outside, and the fact that they were on lockdown. Didn't matter to her. She had no plans to leave her room anytime soon. Maybe ever. The only reason she left now was for the benefit of Blake, helping him win his matches. She didn't fully trust Blake anymore, and she wasn't even sure what she wanted from him… friendship? Love? It didn't matter anymore. Right now, she just wanted to relax, to let the water wash over her, and-

She felt something. What was that? There was a… presence of some sort. Elaina opened her eyes, confused. She glanced at the glass screen door, seeing a shadow moving around outside. What the hell was that? Elaina flinched, worried. The shadow was drawing closer.

Then, the shadow passed right through the door, staring her right in the face.

Elaina blinked.

The shadow's face was a skull. A single red eye moved back and forth in the eye sockets of the skull, and it flailed it's shadowy arms.

"Duskull!" The pokemon cried, circling around Elaina excitedly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Elaina screamed, pushing through the door and running out into the bathroom. She fumbled for her mask, accidentally kicking it under the sink. The Duskull floated in front of it. No luck. Elaina turned and ran, letting out another scream at the sight of the ghost. She had barely enough foresight to grab her towel off the rack and throw it over herself as she ran from the bathroom, and then out into the hall, still screaming the whole way.

Elaina slammed into another girl as she burst out of her room, the two tumbling over onto the ground in a pile.

"Get off me, you're soaking my clothes," Maddi grumbled, pushing at Elaina. Elaina threw herself off the girl and wrapped her towel tightly around herself, panting, her face flushed in embarrassment. No! No, no, no!

This was the absolute worst thing that could have happened. Elaina was currently kneeling in the hall, buck-naked with nothing but a towel to cover herself, and without her mask her face was completely exposed. She was pale with fear, staring at Maddi with bugged-out eyes, waiting for the girl to say something, to out her.

"Sorry about that," Maddi grumbled, standing up and brushing the droplets of water off of her clothes. She offered her hand to the girl who'd just crashed into her.

"Uh…" Elaina looked cautiously at the hand in front of her.

"Come on, need a hand?" Maddi asked awkwardly, feeling more than a little guilty about what had just happened. Clearly, for this girl to have run out into the hall screaming, soaking wet and naked, her Duskull must have done something.

"Th-thanks," Elaina said, taking the girl's hand. She stood up, and wrapped the towel a little tighter around herself, fixing her appearance as best as she could. She realized where she recognized the girl from now. She was Madison Whitmore, Sango's partner in the tag tournament. She had fought against the girl a few days ago. But much to her good fortune, it seemed the punk girl didn't recognize her. That was a load off. Without her mask, Elaina was just another girl right now. And she would have to keep the girl across from her from thinking otherwise.

"Did you, um, see a Duskull?" Maddi asked.

"Mhm," Elaina nodded shyly, averting her eyes. Without her mask, it was really hard speaking with other people, especially people like Maddi. The girl's outfit was loud and intimidating, and she clearly had the attitude to back it up. While Elaina wasn't exactly frightened of her (it was hard to be frightened of anyone when people thought you were a witch), talking with the girl was really difficult, she seemed just so…

Elaina averted her eyes again.

"Um, do you mind if we, uh…" Maddi looked around. "Can I come in to pick up my Duskull?"

"Huh?" Elaina asked, blinking. In… inside? The girl wanted to come in? To her room? No, no, no, that was absolutely not going to happen.

"Yeah, uh, it's a little… uncomfortable out here," Maddi replied. She glanced around again, seeing people were starting to come out of their rooms, and that they were looking at them both. Maddi was wearing clothes, but Elaina…

Elaina drew the towel tighter around her, flinching under the gaze of the other people in the hall. This wasn't what she wanted, either. Plus… it was starting to get really damn cold out here, she was soaking wet in winter.

"O-okay, come on!" Elaina said, still flustered, rushing into her room. Maddi followed after her. Elaina made a quick dash into the bathroom and grabbed her mask, hiding it under a towel so Maddi wouldn't see it.

"Dusk!" The Duskull floated closer to her, and then danced out of her grip, floating out of the bathroom. Elaina sighed.

"There you are!" Maddi's voice echoed from outside.

Elaina let the punk girl deal with her pokemon, while she put on a change of clothes. Just some sweatpants and a shirt, nothing that would call attention to her… actual identity, nothing conspicuous. Right now, until Maddi left, she had to pretend to be a normal girl.

Hopefully there wasn't anything else incriminating in her room. No, scratch that, hopefully Maddi would just be gone when she got out.

She slipped out of the bathroom and saw that, much to her disappointment, Maddi had not, in fact, left, or even managed to get a grip on her Duskull.

"What's the matter?" Elaina asked. "You can't keep your pokemon under control?"

"He's a newborn," Maddi griped. "Sorry about that, I've been keeping him cooped up on my room, but that's just how ghost types are."

Elaina nodded, staring distantly at the Duskull. She was nodding but she didn't really get it. She had a few ghost types of her own, and they were very well-behaved.

"Sorry for the inconvenience," Maddi continued, trying to box her Duskull into a corner so she could grab him. Very difficult when she was dealing with a ghost that could slip through walls, and through her.

"Don't, uh, don't worry about it," Elaina said, watching warily.

"I'm Madison, by the way," Maddi replied over her shoulder, making another grab for her Duskull, trying to not startle the thing. "Madison Whitmore."

"El- Elly," Elaina said, biting her tongue to keep from outing herself to the girl. "You can call me Elly. Nice to meet you, um, Madison."

Internally, Elaina was hitting herself. Now, for the rest of her time here, she would have to keep an eye out over her shoulder to make sure that Madison wouldn't be watching when she exited the room, and spot her with her mask on. It was a huge pain in the ass. If only she hadn't been so frightened by that Duskull and ran screaming from the bathroom without her mask on. But what was she supposed to do? The ghost type pokemon had popped up so suddenly, and it had startled her!

"So, Elly, any thoughts?" Maddi asked, glancing at the shy brunette. She could tell that this girl was clearly uneasy about having her around. She was the wallflower sort, it appeared, and someone like Maddi was making her unconfortable.

And her Duskull wasn't helping things.

"Duskull, come on, just calm down!" Maddi hissed. "Let's go back to our room, can't you see you're bothering her?"

"Duskull," Duskull made a sound somewhat similar to a laugh. Maddi scowled.

"You're, um, you aren't actually bothering me that much…" Elaina lied, averting her eyes from Madison and staring intently down at the floor. "Really…"

Maddi sighed. The lie was as plain as day.

"We'll be out of your hair soon, I promise," Maddi said. "I'll try to keep him a little more under control, we won't bother you again."

"You, uh, you said he was a newborn?" Elaina asked, taking a shaky step closer, her curiosity overwriting her caution. "Newly hatched from a pokemon egg?"

"A few nights back," Maddi said, nodding.

"So does he have a name yet?" Elaina asked. "You've been calling him 'Duskull' but maybe if you call him by his nickname, then…"

"He doesn't have one," Maddi sighed. "I was thinking Grim Reaper, but a friend said that was dumb. And since then I haven't really had the time to sit down and think about it. He's been keeping me up too much as it is, he's always like this, trying to get me to play around even when I have other stuff that I need to do."

Maddi shook her head. It wasn't that her Duskull was a nuisance, it was just, well… she wished the little guy could relax and take it easy for once, rather than spending all his time moving around. Maddi was a very conservative person, she didn't have the energy for a lot of excitement the way girls like Sango or Cynthia did. She was the type of person who would much rather prefer to stay in her room listening to music then go play in the snow with her Duskull, even if a part of her did really, really want to go have some fun with him.

She glanced at Elly, wondering if the girl understood what she was feeling. It was rather difficult raising such an excitable pokemon, especially one that wouldn't always listen when you needed him to sit down and behave himself.

Elaina understood, but she didn't see it as that big of a deal. The Duskull was a newborn pokemon exploring the world for the first time, clearly he was really excited about everything and wanted to share that with his trainer. To Elaina, that seemed perfectly natural. Not a big deal at all. She understood perfectly well what it was like to want to escape from a cage she felt trapped in, but unlike the Duskull she couldn't just slip through a wall into freedom. She was trapped by something a lot harder to escape than four walls. So to Elaina, it wasn't a big deal for her.

"Then, um, I think it's not such a big deal," Elaina said. "I mean, he's just playing around, right? He's not trying to hurt me, so…"

"So you're fine with this?" Maddi scowled.

"Well, I mean, I would like you guys to, um, go, but, but! Not-not because of, like, wanting you gone, but I don't want you to worry," Elaina fumbled over her words. She didn't want to make Madison angry or sad, she just, well…

She just wanted her to be gone. Not in a bad way, just… Madison, or anyone, really, being in her room, potentially finding out who she was, it just… it would be easier if she was just gone, that's what Elaina thought.

"So what do I do, just wait for him to calm down on his own?" Maddi grimaced. "I don't want to make you feel bad, but somehow I doubt that's going to happen. He's a little too energetic for that, as you can see."

"Um… Okay, then." Elaina glanced down. She didn't want to say it, she didn't want to tell Madison the truth, because it would make things… complicated. Besides, Madison probably felt it, too. That her Duskull was just having some fun, trying to play with them, to make up for the fact that he was so cooped up. She could feel it, thanks to her harmonia. But Madison obviously couldn't.

"Maybe, um, maybe he just wants to play," Elaina suggested.

"That's what I think, the problem is that he always wants to play," Maddi griped, making another reach for her Duskull, who continued to slip from her grasp. "Even when I need to study or am trying to get to sleep, he's just trying to play around."

"Pokemon… pokemon like to do that," Elaina said. "Especially, um, especially newborns, I think? They enjoy playing with people and pokemon. It's not that big a deal."

Maddi remembered her own newborn Eevee fondly, and how much the pokemon had run around, wanting to play with her. Elly was right on the money there. Problem was, when other babies played around, it didn't involve phasing through walls and generally making themselves a pain to calm down and get to take a nap.

"I just wish there was some way to calm him down," Maddi sighed.

Elaina could have tried reaching out with harmonia, connect with the Duskull and get it to calm down and return to Madison. But that would… complicate things. If she seemed too suspicious, then, well, Madison would get suspicious, and that would just be asking for trouble. She looked helplessly at the Duskull as he floated around her bed, scanning after him to try and find some sort of solution to the mess that wouldn't involve using her harmonia.

Elaina's eyes widened, it looked like she'd found her solution.

"I just thought of something," Elaina said, walking over to her bag, discarded beside the bed, opening it up and digging through it.

"Oh? What's up?" Maddi asked, taking her eyes off of her Duskull, curious about what Elaina was suggesting.

"Maybe, um, maybe we just need to find a way to calm him down," Elaina suggested. She stood up, pulling a long flute of carved wood out from her bag, showing it to Maddi. "I can, um, play some music, and maybe that'll help soothe him? Get him to calm down a little bit so you can get him under control? It's just a suggestion, but, well, maybe?"

Maddi blinked, staring at the flute in surprise. It looked familiar. It was pretty old, and clearly hand-carved. It was decorated, the finger-holes raised up on carvings that looked like wings, interlocking in different directions. One wing was a light, faded white color and the other was a deeper orange. They wrapped around the length of the flute, giving it a look of texture. The way it was shaped, those carvings, it looked familiar to Maddi, but she couldn't quite figure out why. It reminded her of a flute she'd seen in a book once, but what book?

She shook the nagging thought out of her head and glanced from the flute back up to Elly, interested in what she was saying.

"You can play the flute?" Maddi asked.

Elaina nodded her head.

"I'm a musician myself, actually," Maddi said, smiling. "Although my type of music isn't the flute kind, you know? Heh."

"I just… I like music, you know," Elaina said, smiling, clutching her flute a little tighter to her chest. "It always… it always calms me down, you know? So I guess, I was just thinking that maybe it would calm down your Duskull, too?"

"That, uh… that sounds like it could work," Maddi agreed. "I know what music can do, it's certainly worth a shot. Besides, I'd like to hear you play, if you don't mind."

The kind of song that a shy girl like Elly would make… that was something that Maddi was rather interested in hearing.

Elaina held the flute up to her lips, and began to play. A soothing melody flooded the room, a song that Maddi recognized. She'd heard it quite a lot, actually, over the last few months, and every time she had, it had brought her a bit of tranquility. A relaxing tune, one that she had assumed a neighbor was playing on a record. She didn't expect for Elly to be that neighbor, or for that soothing song to be something she played live, on her flute. A smile tugged at the edge of Maddi's lips as she sat down on Elly's bed and closed her eyes, letting the soft notes wash over her.

Elaina, meanwhile, enjoyed the song for the song. She had been rather stressed trying to keep things secret, and this was a perfect release for her. As for Madison… this was the first time she had played for someone since Blake. She had forgotten what it was like, to have an audience. It really made her feel warm inside, even if this was just a lie, even if she never would be able to really connect with Madison as a friend.

Still… this WAS nice.

Something soft landed in Maddi's lap, and her eyes snapped open. Her Duskull was nestling himself down between her thighs, the light of his eye slowly dimming as he drifted off to sleep. Maddi smiled, running her hand down the side of her pokemon's body. She hoped he would have a nice nap.

Maddi glanced up at Elly and saw that the girl's eyes were also closed, she was enjoying the song just as much as Maddi and her Duskull. The goal had been accomplished, but there was no harm in letting her continue for a little longer, right?

A few minutes later and the song came to an end, a calmed Elaina opening her eyes to look at Maddi, cradling the sleeping Duskull in her arms. Elaina smiled shyly.

"It, uh, looked like it worked," Elaina said, turning the flute over in her fingers. "I'm glad, he seems pretty peaceful."

"Yeah, finally got some room to breathe," Maddi joked. "I love the little guy, but seeing him like this, I'm glad to see him sleeping like the grave. He's really peaceful now."

"It's, uh, it's getting pretty late," Elaina said. "I guess, um… if you don't want to go, then you don't have to?"

"It's fine," Maddi assured the girl, standing up and rocking her Duskull. "I don't want us to be any more of a burden."

"Oh, um, okay," Elaina nodded, relieved and a little bit disappointed. "I'm glad I was able to help."

Maddi smiled a little and headed for the door, stepping out into the hall.

"Wait, um…"

Maddi glanced over her shoulder at Elly.

"Yeah?"

"Grim," Elaina said. "For a name, how about Grim?"

"Grim?" Maddi asked, interested.

"Yeah, I mean, you were saying 'Grim Reaper' before, but, uh, what about just 'Grim'?" Elaina suggested. "Just because, uh, you liked 'Grim Reaper' but that's a little long, and 'Grim', well, it sounds kinda like 'Grin' and I mean, you were smiling a lot when you were playing with him, even though you were so, like, not… not mean before, just, uh… just 'stern' I guess, and, so I think it was something special, well, just, um…"

Wilting under Maddi's silent gaze, Elaina lowered her head in embarrassment, her face hot.

"…J-just, just a suggestion, I mean," she muttered.

"Grim…" Maddi considered it, smiling a little. "Yeah… yeah, I like it. I'll think about it, thanks, Elly."

"Oh!" Elaina blinked, surprised. "Yeah, uh, no problem!"

Maddi headed back to her room and Elaina quickly closed the door behind her, letting out a sigh of relief. It had been… enjoyable talking with Madison, but at the same time it had stung. She had spent the whole interaction on edge, worried about what might happen if the girl found out about her secret. What WOULD happen, she corrected herself.

Elaina's heart sunk in her chest.

Human friends were just not possible.

Well, Elaina tried to get closer to Maddi, but it looks like it just isn't possible right now. She's just too much of a risk to make friends with others. At least she was able to help.