With Sylvia scheming with Alcea, I think it's time to check up on what another pair of girls is doing for this Valentine's Day!

Also, thank you to everyone who read my story "The Heir to the Dragon". I would appreciate if you continue to read and support it in the future! You can get there through my profile! The story is finally completed! Thank you for reading!

The Elimination Round is reaching its climax! Only two days left! Make sure to get in votes for who you think the best girl is! Also, because it's been brought to my attention that Valerie was indeed nominated to the contest, but was not given a vote, she will be getting a bye to the next round. In the meantime, get your votes in, and we'll determine who will go to the next round at the end of August! It should be exciting! The leading girls may surprise you!

Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Caelia, Cynthia, Dakota, Darla, Elaina, Elizabeth, Julia, Kate, Kitty, Lila, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia

KedharS: Definitely an interesting matchup, that's for sure.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: That would certainly be an amusing thought. Good luck with the flood.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: I'm guessing the wish is for Elaina to have a friend. And yes, Misato's development is very cute. And hopefully natural, even if she's the opposite of natural.

JoshGamerV: It's gotta be the tea. Or, putting up with Kate 24/7 has given her nerves of steel. Okay, really it's that gardening requires a lot of patience.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 657

As Cynthia sat with Caelia in the Snorlax Commons, she was remembering why it was she had inadvertently allowed their "friendship" to lapse.

Caelia was, well, just miserable company. She didn't speak unless spoken to, and when she did talk it was bland, monosyllabic murmurs or grunts, or a mishmash of words that could charitably be called a sentence but sounded more like something that needed a translator to decipher. As someone who gained energy from being around other people, Caelia was practically like a poison to Cynthia, sucking the joy out of her.

But Cynthia wasn't about to let something as insignificant as that get the better of her, not a chance. She wasn't that kind of girl. If she could make friends with Madison Whitmore who used to despise her, then she could make friends with Caelia.

Sure, she might not really like Caelia's company that much, and she may have wished that the other girl spoke up more or was a little happier, but the important thing was the Cynthia LIKED Caelia, as a person. She cared about her.

And Caelia didn't have anyone. Locked away in her room and left to rot, stuck in a situation with a broken heart that Cynthia could relate to all too well, she wanted to be there for the girl, in whatever way she could.

Even if she couldn't help her, that didn't mean she didn't consider Caelia a friend, or that she should just sit back and do nothing.

"So, are you happy that Blake's back?" Cynthia asked, awkwardly trying to make conversation in order to drive off the cloud of discomfort and tension that was hanging over the table. Anything to move them forward and end this awkward silence.

"Yes," Caelia said, nodding briefly, and the conversation died there. Cynthia scowled a little. She was trying to play nice, she really was. But this was clearly something that she would have to be patient with, if she really wanted to get through to Caelia.

It's just like with Maddi. I can't be too forceful in trying to be her friend, I just have to be patient and understanding and let things happen from there, she reminded herself. It was easier said than done. Cynthia wasn't good at patience, or boundaries. And unlike with Maddi, she couldn't even gauge what her actions were doing to Caelia, because the other girl was the definition of emotionless. She simply didn't care about Cynthia, or anything that she was saying.

Cynthia let out a sigh of resignation and looked down at her plate. She had ordered some eggs, but right now she wasn't very hungry. It was kind of a waste to eat, with Caelia right in front of her making zero effort to eat anything at all. It felt wrong somehow, like Cynthia was eating food in front of a starving girl, even if Caelia could have gotten food for herself if she had wanted to.

She knew that Caelia didn't have a very good diet to begin with, so taunting her with breakfast would probably be in poor taste.

And while Cynthia was stewing in her feelings of discontent and frustration with the girl sitting in front of her, what was Caelia doing?

Nothing much at all. She stared at the girl seated across from her, confused about what she was doing and why she was trying to spend time with her of all people, but she wasn't exactly devoting that much care towards it.

Caelia didn't really think that much about Cynthia. The girl tried to be her friend, but what was the point? She couldn't understand her. She said she would try, but try? That wasn't anything that mattered to Caelia. Outside of her pokemon, of course, the only person who really mattered to Caelia was Blake Harker.

Hearing he was gone had broken her heart. She was used to being numb, feeling nothing. It was the horrible state of her existence that she had grown to live with ever since the accident that had set her ablaze in the first place, dooming her to this cruel body that couldn't feel. Caelia's life was meaningless and she hadn't cared for anything.

Then Blake had come, and he'd given her something that she hadn't felt in years. Sensation. The ability to touch. To feel something. It wasn't always, but when it happened, it meant the world to her, it reminded her that she was still alive.

Even if right now the only sensations that she experienced from him were ones of pain.

Caelia hated that Blake was with that other girl. Ayame Toujou. She wanted to hurt her. She wanted to make her suffer. Like Caelia was suffering. Whenever she thought of the two of them together, it made her heart ache.

She hated it.

But she couldn't get enough.

Because for her, any sensation was worth experiencing, even the most horrible feeling of heartbreak in the world. So it may have been foolish, but she focused on those feelings when they rose up, and even tried to summon them herself. The sight of Ayame in Blake's arms, the knowledge that he actually cared for her, and not for Caelia.

Caelia was empty and hollow. She couldn't feel the chair she was sitting on, she couldn't taste the food she ate. Her entire world was what she saw in her one remaining eye.

And Blake. Blake was the thing that she could touch and feel. Blake was her entire world, her sensations were linked to him.

And when she thought he was dead, when she thought that Sylvia had taken him away and she'd never see him again, never get the chance to feel from him again, it was like her entire world had been ripped from her.

So of course she had attacked the Phantom to try and get him back.

And now, by the grace of whatever god there was, Blake was back. He was alive and well, and had even gone out of his way to come see her. She should be feeling elation right now, and she was, in a way. She was certainly happy that he was still here.

But an emotional feeling wasn't the same thing as something running against your skin and filling you with warmth.

When she had hugged him earlier, she had hoped to be able to feel his body wrapped in her arms, to feel the warmth of his presence soothe her, comfort her, remind her that he was still here and that she hadn't lost him.

She hadn't felt any of that. She hadn't felt anything at all. She had hugged him as tightly as she could, as far as she knew, and her world had not changed in the slightest.

She needed Blake. She needed him to be what he had been for her, to fill her world up with warmth and make her feel again.

Because right now, she could honestly say that she was terrified.

With no path forward that she could see, and with Blake having clearly thrown her aside in favor of Ayame Toujou, Caelia had considered ending things for good. Putting the horrible, miserable body she was cursed with to rest forever.

But Sylvia Driscoll, that horrible witch, had tricked her. She had shown Caelia that there were still things worth living for, given her a hope that, in hindsight, Caelia never should have believed in by giving her the lie that she needed to keep going for her pokemon.

And Sylvia had used that lie to fool her into joining up with the Phantom. He had convinced her that he would find a way to cure her condition, to give her a body that was whole, something that could touch and feel love, give love, a body that wasn't broken.

For all Caelia knew, it was entirely possible.

But such a thing wasn't worth much to her at the moment.

Because Caelia had ruined it with the fear that her world was coming to an end. Ayame Toujou had completely tricked her, along with that other woman, who called herself the Empress. The two seniors had led her to believe that Sylvia had abducted Blake, taken him away somewhere, and that thought had enraged her.

The idea that Sylvia had betrayed her? Stolen Blake away? It was unforgivable, and Caelia had set out to find the two of them, no matter what.

That had, of course, led her to the Sandbox, where she had unleashed the rage she had stored out on the Phantom and his people, until he had stopped her, and then that had been the end of it. It had been the end of everything.

How apt that Caelia, a master of Fire types, had burned down that bridge. If she had any sense of humor, maybe she would find that amusing.

But Caelia had no joy in her. She was only concerned with the fact that now, she would probably never get her body fixed. There was no way that the Phantom would help her now, so she was doomed to his miserable existence.

If she was the sort of person who cried, she would cry right now, cursing her miserable existence, and cursing herself most of all. She had let her attachment to Blake and fear of losing her world ruin the one chance she really had of fixing herself.

She really was just a pathetic, miserable person.

That feeling of helplessness was why she'd shut herself away the past two weeks, ready to just let her body lapse. She had kept eating, barely, out of some vain hope that she couldn't die just yet, Sylvia's cruel words ringing in her ears.

She would live for her pokemon.

That was all she had, now.

Now even Blake's return had made her feel better, but now she was dealing with something else, something she wasn't quite sure how to approach.

Cynthia had dragged her here, told her that she could get whatever she wanted as a treat on her, and of course, Caelia had chosen nothing.

She wasn't hungry, after all, she didn't "want" anything.

If she had to name something she wanted, besides a body that would feel and the love of the one person who could make her world seem whole, then Caelia wanted to go back to her room and waste away some more, be somewhere where she didn't have to interact with people or have to do anything at all.

But that wasn't on the menu, it seemed. And she didn't particularly care enough to leave, either, so she would just sit there and do nothing until the other girl was done with her.

It was very strange to Caelia why Cynthia would be so fixated on her and try so hard for someone like her. She didn't understand it.

So she just stared at Cynthia and waited until she was allowed to go home.

Cynthia sighed, and sucked in a deep breath of air. She really wasn't sure how Caelia would respond to this little revelation, but she knew that it was something that she had to get out if she wanted to stay the other girl's friend.

"Caelia, aren't you going to eat anything? I'm worried about you, you know," Cynthia said. Well, so much for honesty. She didn't have the courage to go through with it after all. So she'd taken the easy way out. "We agreed that you'd take better care of yourself, didn't we?"

"No point," Caelia muttered. "Worthless now."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cynthia demanded. She did NOT like the idea of Caelia describing her life as worthless. "What do you mean worthless? You aren't worthless! Now go get something to eat before I cram these eggs down your throat!"

Caelia didn't stand up. She didn't really care either way.

Cynthia scowled. Well, fine then. She'd care FOR Caelia, if that's what was going to happen! She was real pissed off at the girl's attitude, and since she was already in a bad mood in general due to not being able to spend Valentine's Day with the boy she liked, she was going to take it out on Caelia, even if it wasn't her fault.

When Cynthia got determined, there was no stopping her. Caelia was going to be mothered like crazy, Cynthia was going to friend her into the ground!

Seeing that Caelia wasn't listening, Cynthia shoved her plate in front of her and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Eat. Now." Cynthia's tone of voice brooked no disagreements, but Caelia was unfortunately not the kind of person that could be made to see reason. The problem with Cynthia's entire strategy was that there wasn't anything she could do to the other girl that Caelia would actually care about, which was a problem.

Cynthia sighed.

"Okay, fine," she growled. Then she remembered who she was dealing with, and her tone quickly softened. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get angry. I'm just worried about you, Caelia. Isn't that okay? Can't I be worried for my friend?"

"Don't worry. Still breathing," Caelia muttered, her jagged words attempting to sever the conversation again. But Cynthia wasn't going to let that happen, she was going to pry Caelia out into the open and see what was wrong.

Her friend had just said she was worthless. There was no way in HELL Cynthia was just going to let that slide without doing something.

"Caelia, why do you think that you're worthless?" Cynthia asked quietly. "Is it because Blake doesn't like you back?"

If that was the case, then Cynthia was going to smack the girl upside the head. Sure, she wouldn't be able to feel it, but it was the principle of the thing, damn it! If Caelia thought she was worthless without Blake's love, then she was really saying that CYNTHIA was worthless because Blake didn't feel anything for her, either!

But Cynthia was surprised to hear that that wasn't what Caelia meant at all, the other girl's words were rather strange.

"No. Worthless. Ruined myself. No path forward. Hope. Gone." Caelia looked down, and Cynthia saw that her right arm was shaking beneath the glove that concealed her burns. She reached out to comfort it, but caught herself halfway there. Caelia wouldn't appreciate such a gesture, she might even consider it rude or insulting.

"What do you mean by that?" Cynthia asked worriedly. That sounded like something bad, it sounded like how she'd felt when she'd tried to kill herself and Sylvia had stepped in and stopped that from happening.

Cynthia really, really hoped that wasn't the case here.

The problem was, Caelia wasn't answering. Cynthia sighed, and tried again.

"What happened, Caelia?" She asked. "Is it something to do with Blake?"

Caelia nodded slightly. Then she shook her head. "Not Blake. Me."

"Do you… no, can you talk about it with me?" Cynthia corrected herself. She knew that if she asked if she wanted to talk about it, Caelia would say no.

"No point," Caelia said, shaking her head, rejecting the conversation anyway.

"Then can I tell you something?" Cynthia asked. "Something about what happened when I first heard that Blake was gone?"

She took Caelia's silence as an answer. The other girl raised her head slightly to look at Cynthia, and Caelia could see that Cynthia actually looked scared. It was strange.

"When Blake was gone… when I thought that he was dead… a part of me broke," Cynthia said. Somehow, the words were coming out clearer after all. Her mind was a haze. She'd said a lot of things to Caelia back when she was worried about her, and couldn't quite remember if she'd ever confided that one little secret, or if she'd been too scared to do so.

Had she told Caelia that she loved him? She honestly couldn't remember, and the fact that she couldn't was another reminder of what a horrible friend to Caelia she had really been, in spite of how hard she had tried at first.

She was scared. If she hadn't told Caelia before and she told her now, there was a chance that Caelia really would end things for good, that their relationship would be damaged beyond repair, and that she would leave.

They weren't exactly in the best place right now, but at least they were capable of communication, and that was something. Cynthia refused to let Caelia be on her own, she was NOT about to let the other girl cut her out.

But if Caelia began to get jealously violent with her like she feared, that option could end up being taken out of Cynthia's hands.

So yes, she was very worried.

But she was going to keep going. She wasn't going to let those worries get the better of her, because Caelia needed better than that. She needed someone to reach out to, someone to show that they cared, and even if that ended up in a violent assault, Cynthia would power through it. She would drag Caelia kicking and screaming down the road to recovery and stable mental health if that's what it took, ridiculous as that sounded.

"I'm in love with Blake," Cynthia said. It sounded so simple, to say it like this. She glanced at Caelia's face, but she didn't see a single change in her expression, not even a twitch of her eye. Did that mean that Caelia already knew about her feelings for Blake, and that this was old news to her?

Or did it mean that this was new information, and the other girl just didn't care?

Cynthia didn't know for sure, but she pushed through it anyway and continued, she needed to let Caelia know that she wasn't alone, that the pain she had felt wasn't unique to her. They had both been put through something horrible.

"And when I first heard that he died, that I would never see him again… I seriously considered taking my own life."

There it was. She had said it. It was out there, now, and there was no taking it back. It felt like a massive weight had been taken off of her shoulders, revealing that to someone else, like a part of her had been cleansed.

Now all she had to do was wait and see what Caelia's reaction would be.

Wow, Cynthia's dropping some major bombshells with this one, that's for sure.