In this chapter, we return to Kate and Alcea, to see what they've been getting up to in the storm. It's been a long time since we've heard from either of them, hopefully they're still doing okay.

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: Nope. Not happening.

Rosealine gold: Maddi's background will come a little later, near the climax of the arc. Still a little ways to go, don't worry.

Thunder Fire: It is possible to just not be allied with a faction though.

Aquahaze675: It is difficult. It's questionable how far Elaina can fall, but hopefully she can climb her way back, like she almost felt the tug of doing here.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 362

"This is all your fault!" Kate grumbled, turning away from door facing the garden to glare at Gabrielle Breaux. The Roselia Garden, which had looked so wonderously beautiful, not too many months ago, was now covered in a blanket of white, and the blizzard was only intensifying. It had been just as painful last year. Such beauty, all their hard work, destroyed by the weather. And though it would bloom again, that notion was a cold comfort in the winter time. There was an air of futility to gardening, Kate had always thought, something that made her stand out as different from her idol, Alcea.

"I'm an ice type trainer, doesn't mean I make blizzards," Gabrielle coldly replied. Kate scowled. That wasn't what she meant. She was angry at Gabrielle, because it was her fault that they were in the clubroom in the first place, having demanded a meeting with Alcea there, instead of Alcea's dorm. And if Alcea was going to be there, then Kate was going to be there, to make tea. And now she was trapped thanks to the blizzard. She resisted the urge to shout this at Gabrielle though. She was an upperclasswoman, and a guest. She couldn't look discourteous. Right now, the ice trainer and Alcea were sitting at the table, sipping tea prepared by Kate. They were the only three people who had been in the building when the blizzard had started and the lockdown was called. Well, them, and…

"I must say, Kate, you get better and better at this!"

Kate may have been mad at Gabrielle, but the fourth girl was the one who Kate really couldn't stand being around, and one of the many reasons she wished that she could be nice and toasty in her room right now, instead of stuck serving tea.

"Indeed, a little more practice, and it might almost be fit for human consumption," Naya Nadeshiko continued. She was dressed as fancily as always in pure white kimono decorated with black flowers, and her long black hair had been left to fall down her back. "Why, I can practically swallow it without retching!"

She took another sip and gave Kate a composed smile that brought out her beauty.

"Utterly repulsive!"

If not for the fact that she was in the presence of her highness, Kate would have launched herself across the room and begun pummeling the girl.

"Naya, behave yourself," Alcea replied, taking a sip from her tea. She turned to Kate. "Delicious as always Kate, you needn't worry."

Kate let out a sigh of relief.

"Forgive me, milady," Naya said, lowering her head to Alcea, her black eyes shining with excitement. "I am merely passing the time, is all."

"I am not the one to confess to you, is it?" Alcea replied, taking another sip.

"You're right, milady," Naya admitted. She turned to Kate and gave her an elegant smile. "I'm sorry that you are incapable of brewing tea adequately."

Kate's forehead throbbed in irritation and she practically burst a blood vessel, resisting the urge to lunge at Naya.

"Naya," Alcea snapped. Naya giggled in response.

Kate loathed Naya. She wanted to put her fist right through that pretty perfect face of her, splitting her lip wide open and knocking out all those perfectly straight teeth. Kate hated pretty much every girl save Alcea who was prettier than her (which was most) but she hated Naya most of all. She was exactly like those girls who had tormented her all through middle school, smiling pretty faces while ruthlessly cutting into her.

Now that she thought about it, knowing what she knew now, Naya was exactly like Valerie. Affable and polite, even kind, on the surface. But underneath, she was cruel, cold, and vicious. She delighted in hurting others. And even Kate, at her worst, never liked that. It was what she just couldn't stand about the other girl, that she could enjoy being so mean. Kate was mean, surly, rude as all hell to people that she didn't like. She was just a toxic person like that, and she knew it, even if she hated that side of herself sometimes.

But girls like Naya and Valerie, they loved that part of themselves, they reveled in it. And Kate couldn't stand to be in the same room as people like them, couldn't even bare to look them in the eye. Why did Alcea even tolerate Naya's presence in the club? She just didn't understand it. But, well… Alcea tolerated Kate's presence, even at her worst. It was what she admired about her, that she didn't turn people away, rather reaching out to them. (Well, except boys. Boys were turned away. Although that was mostly Kate.)

Even people like Naya, for reasons that remained perpetually unclear.

Kate shook her head, calming herself down. She didn't like Naya. She didn't want to be around Naya. Hell, being civil was difficult enough for Kate on any given day to begin with, let alone being civil around someone she couldn't stand. And the way Naya looked down on her! Kate could tolerate Naya if she didn't aim her wickedness her way, but the girl seemed to delight in making Kate in particular miserable, at least when there wasn't someone else to tear down. She might have been pretty on the outside, but inside she was ugly. Which was only marginally better than being Kate, who was ugly on the outside and the inside.

"…I'm going to get some air," Kate said.

"I hear the garden is lovely this time of year," Naya suggested. Kate leveled a glare at her, which had the same effect as firing a squirt gun at a brick wall. She muttered a string of curses under her breath and stormed out the other door and into the hall, heading into the bathroom. She spent a lot of time in the bathroom these days. Old habits died hard.

Here, she could have some privacy. She could be by herself, without having to put up with Naya's criticisms, or even her highness's sympathy. Especially her highness's sympathy. After what had happened, Kate…

Kate looked at her face in the mirror. She reached up and ran her fingers across her prickly hair, rubbing the purple flower clip that held her otherwise uneven hair off of her forehead. Her hair was messy, sharp, and uneven, exactly like how it had been her whole life. Blake had styled her hair nicely, but that was a long time ago now. It had returned to its original tangled curls, and the only part of that neater, controlled chaos that it had previously been was that hair clip.

Tears began to well up in her eyes.

It had been a while since she had confessed her feelings, and he had kindly turned her down. She had tried so hard to move, on but thinking about Blake still hurt. She clenched her heart and hunched over the sink, crying deeply.

He had chosen Ayame. Her heart had been ripped out when she first heard the news. Blake and Ayame Toujou were together, a couple. It had only been, like, a week after her confession, after he had rejected her, and he had gone for another girl. Of course he wouldn't have chosen her. She was just an ugly, plain girl, not a stunning and cool, charismatic handsome beauty like Ayame. Blake had only been nice to her out of obligation, out of concern for her, and their semi-tenuous friendship. But Ayame? Ayame was the one who he loved. And that thought hurt so damn much that Kate spent most days crying.

A knock sounded on the door of the bathroom.

"Kate?" Alcea called out.

Kate flinched, wiping her eyes. She looked up at the door.

"Milady?"

"Are you okay?" Alcea asked through the door.

"What-what do you mean?" Kate asked, trying to keep the sadness out of her voice. If she worried her highness, then that would just make her more concerned about her, and she would try to be all sympathetic and understanding again. Kate didn't want to annoy her highness with her relationship issues. This broken heart was her own to deal with.

She just wanted Alcea to go away and let her live with it herself.

Considering what Kate had said, Alcea stood silently behind the door. She pressed her forehead against it and resisted the urge to cry in frustration. Kate was one of the most difficult people to deal with sometimes.

"Kate, I know you better than that," Alcea finally said. "You're my friend, Kate. I know that you always do this. Whenever things get hard for you, you run off and lock yourself in the bathroom so you can cry in peace, is it?"

Kate bit her lip, looking down sadly. It was true. This habit of hers, hiding away and crying in the bathroom when things got rough, it was a holdover from her time in middle school, when the girls would bully her. At least when she was locked in the stall, she couldn't be bothered, she could just shut them all out.

"It's okay, I understand," Alcea told her. "You're hurting right now, I know. But you don't have to put up with it alone, Kate. You always put up walls when you're hurt, to keep people out so you don't get more hurt. I know that you had some rough experiences, but you're my friend. Can't you… can't you just talk to me about it? Please."

Kate swallowed back her tears. She couldn't help herself, the emotions she was feeling right now, they were overpowering. She turned, and walked to the door, slowly opening it. She looked Alcea in the eyes and resisted the urge to break down for all of two seconds, before collapsing into Alcea's arms like she had that first night when she'd heard about Blake's new relationship with Ayame, that he had finally made his choice, and it wasn't her. It had hurt even more than his rejection, somehow. And Alcea had comforted her then, too.

"It's okay, Kate," Alcea said, holding the younger girl in her arms and speaking soothingly to her, patting Kate's mussy hair with a gentle hand. "I know you're going through something really difficult right now. I know that you're hurting. A broken heart… it's not easy to heal, it takes time, especially when you see the person you cared for being happy with someone else. I know that I… I know that I haven't felt that way about anyone before. But even I can see that you aren't as okay as you pretended to be, Kate, it was clear."

"I know, I'm not," Kate sobbed into her shoulder. "I'm not, I'm really not. I really… I love Blake. And Ayame… I just, I… I don't…"

Kate let out a painful whimper before continuing to talk.

"I don't want to feel like this anymore, but I can't stop," she said. "I just… I can't even bear to see him anymore, Alcea… I used to like being around him, even though I didn't admit it… I thought… I thought we were friends, I thought we could even be more than that, but now… I care about him so much and just seeing him is killing me…"

"Do you want to stay away from him forever, then?" Alcea asked quietly.

Kate sniffled in response.

"No, I just… I… I don't even know anymore, I just want the pain to stop."

"Well, next semester is your trip abroad, is it?" Alcea reminded her. "Then you won't have to see Blake for quite some time. Until that day comes, you just have to put up with it, and try to hold on. But you're strong, you can get through this."

"How?" Kate asked. She calmed down, recomposing herself, even as she was buried in Alcea's shoulder. She glanced up at Alcea, a little calmer now. "It's so… milady, it hurts so much…"

"Friends are how you get through something like this," Alcea told her. "You can't just hide yourself away, alone in the bathroom. That's what I'm here for. And you don't just have me, either, Kate. Even though you might think that way. I'm not the only friend you have, am I? Because I don't think that I am."

Kate blinked, staring at her club president and idol with confusion filling her face, not sure what she meant by that.

"What do you mean, I… I don't…"

"I'm not your only friend," Alcea repeated. "I know that you don't want to talk to Blake right now, and I don't blame you. But you have other friends too, oui? Sango? Cynthia? Didn't you go on that expedition trip with Sango, Reiner, and Nikita? Aren't they your friends too, Kate? Even if you can't talk to Blake about it, that doesn't mean you have to be alone. And it doesn't mean you need to worry about pushing all of your burden on me, either. If it's too much for you, too much for us, you have friends that can make you feel better."

"They're Blake's friends," she whimpered. "Not… not my friends. They wouldn't… they don't want to hear from me. Someone like me, someone who treats people like I do, I don't… I don't have any friends. Blake was only kind to me because he was that sort of guy. The others, I don't think… I don't think that they would even want to."

Alcea frowned. She doubted that was true. Blake's friends, they were nice. Even if Kate was a little more abrasive than others, she doubted that they would actually turn her away when she needed comfort, as hurt as she was.

But even if she said that, Kate wouldn't believe it. So the only thing Alcea could really do right now was hold Kate close and comfort her, and let her cry her tears until she was all cried out. That was what she could do as Kate's friend.

That's what Kate would do if Alcea needed her instead.

Not long after, Kate and Alcea returned to the Gardening Club's clubroom, where Gabrielle and Naya were waiting for them in peace.

"Long bathroom trip?" Naya asked, raising her eyebrow. "How undignified."

Kate glowered back at her, she was in no mood for any more bullshit. Alcea wasn't in much of a mood for it either, at the moment.

"Gabrielle, you said you wanted us to meet, is it?" Alcea asked. "Is there anything more you have to report? Something new about Gerard, perhaps? I suppose if we've nothing better to do, we can conduct some business, is it?"

Gabrielle looked away from Alcea, much to the redhead's confusion.

"That is why you called me here, is it?" Alcea asked.

"Well, I mean, yes, but…" Gabrielle looked down into her lap, her cheeks turning a slight pink that, while faded, stood out on her otherwise pale skin. "I mean, I didn't exactly want to talk about Gerard, though, not… not that, I mean…"

Gabrielle looked at Naya, who was staring back at her with a knowing smile.

"I did not expect… company," Gabrielle replied. Her voice turned sour. "It appears I am not worthy of a private audience."

"I brought Kate to serve tea," Alcea replied, keeping quiet about the fact that the real reason she had brought Kate was because if the girl had been left to her own devices she would just be crying alone in her room. "As for Naya…"

"Don't mind me," Naya smiled. "I'm just here to take care of my own project."

She glanced at Alcea with a smirk.

"Unlike her highness, I see little value in an outdoor garden. I prefer to do my cultivating in private. I have a little indoor greenhouse set up next door, and unlike her highness who takes the winter off, maintaining its beauty is an all-year-long chore."

Alcea did not respond to the girl's taunts.

"So if you didn't want to speak more on Gerard, then what is it that you wanted to talk about?" Alcea asked, curious.

"That's…" Gabrielle averted her eyes again. "…Never mind. It isn't important."

"…I see," Alcea nodded, choosing to drop the subject. "Well, we may be stuck here for quite some time, is it? In the meanwhile, I suggest we find something to occupy ourselves…"

Kate frowned. Now that she had let out a lot of the tension that had been building up inside, her stomach was rumbling something fierce. That was a problem. The gardening club had tea of all kinds stored, and access to plenty of water, so they wouldn't be troubled for that. But when it came to food, Alcea didn't allow snacking. For tea parties, Kate would always have to bring the food from elsewhere. Right now, she really hated that policy.

"Is anyone else feeling hungry?" Kate asked.

"Not as hungry as you," Naya replied. "Allowing your stomach to rumble so loudly? Quite undignified for a lady."

Kate scowled.

"Oui, I am feeling slightly peckish," Alcea agreed. "Unfortunately, we do not keep food here."

"Perhaps one of the other clubs?" Kate suggested. "They might have some stuff stashed away. I mean it's not like it's an emergency, but we could always check."

"Feel free," Naya replied. Kate rolled her eyes and stormed out of the room, heading to the other clubs in the building.

As Kate walked down the hall, she heard, of all things, a knock?

Kate blinked. What the hell was going on? She turned and looked down the hall, at the main entrance to the club building.

Why would someone be knocking on the door right now? There was a blizzard outside and the campus was on lockdown.

That was the first line of thinking to cross Kate's mind. The second was the thought that whoever it was, they were trapped outside in the blizzard and could use some help.

Kate turned and headed down the hall to the entrance, but before she could even get to the door, it had already opened from the outside, much to her surprise. She could have sworn that she'd locked it when they came in, right?

The door swung open and a figure stepped inside, face covered by a scarf and big goggles, the rest of their head hidden behind a large, fluffy hood. Floating beside their head was… a pokemon? Though not one Kate recognized. It looked like a light blue, swirling snowcloud, with a round body in the center colored a darker shade of violet-blue, with two black eyes staring back at her. Wait, upon closer inspection it almost looked like a…

"Kate?"

The voice confirmed Kate's suspicions. The hooded figure pulled back her hood to reveal a familiar shock of blonde hair, pulling down her scarf and raising her goggles as well.

"Sango?" Kate asked, incredulously.

"I'm glad you're alright!" Sango gushed, closing the door behind her and hugging the surprised girl. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh… this is our club, what are you doing here?" Kate asked, confused.

"I'm working with campus safety," Sango said, shrugging the large backpack off of her shoulders and setting it down on the ground, brushing the snow off of it. "You heard about the lockdown order, right? I'm here to check up on people, make sure everyone's doing okay. I didn't think there would be anyone in here, but I had to check to make sure. Is it just you?"

"No, it's me, her highness, and two others," Kate said. "We're waiting here until we're good to go. But are you sure it's okay? Going out into the snow like that?"

"It's fine," Sango said, unlatching the opening on her pack and flinging it up, rustling through it. She nodded to Silver. "I've got my partner after all, the weather's no big deal with him here."

Sango began pulling packs of beef jerky, cans of fruit, and bottled water out of the backpack, setting them down on the ground.

"They're going to be cutting of the water soon in case the pipes freeze," Sango explained. "So this should be good to get you guys through the rest of the night. I've got other places to check up on, so I can't stay."

"Sango…"

Sango stood up, re-latching her pack, and slung it over her shoulders again. She looked curiously at Kate.

"Are you okay, Kate?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kate asked, blinking in confusion. She tilted her head to the side.

"I just… haven't seen you around, you know?" Sango said. "You just kinda dropped off the face of the earth after the field trip, you know? You used to hang around all the time, before."

"Yeah, I mean, it just… it got a little complicated, you know?" Kate sighed.

"…Because of Blake?"

Kate nodded silently.

"…Well, don't let it bother you too much," Sango said, trying to hide the fact that Blake's relationship with Ayame bothered her a little, too. "And I mean, things might be uncomfortable, but you can still hang out with us, you know? Even if you're a little shaky around Blake right now."

"R-really?" Kate asked, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Sure! Why the heck not?" Sango laughed. "You know Cynthia, the more the merrier. You're are friend, not just Blake's, so just because things are kinda awkward with him right now doesn't mean that you have to avoid us, too."

"I… I guess…" Kate said, putting up a strong face to hide how pleased she secretly was inside, a soft smile pulling at the edges of her cheeks. She let out a little giggle in spite of herself. "Yeah, I'd like that… oh, and, um, thank you for the food."

"Of course!" Sango chirped, giving Kate a little salute that turned into her pulling her goggles down. "Just doing my duty!"

Sango pulled her scarf back up and flipped on her hood.

"You guys take care of yourselves, I'll be back in the morning in case the lockdown order isn't lifted!"

Sango opened up the door, the cold air from the blizzard outside filling the hall as she and Silver pushed their way through the wind and into the night. Kate watched her go and closed the door behind her, kneeling down to pick up the rations left for her. Gathering up the goodies in her hands, Kate turned and headed back to the clubroom, a spring in her step and a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Well, Kate's doing a little better now, thankfully. We can only hope that she continues to keep her positive attitude!