We continue with the exploration into the greatest love story of Valentine's Day, the story of Caelia falling in love with fishing! Will it have a happy ending? Or will it end tragically, like Romeo and Juliet? We'll have to find out! Remember to review!

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 Semi-Final Round of the second Pokemon Academy Best Girl contest has begun! Which three of these six girls will make it to the Finals? So far we've only got a few votes in, so show your support for your best girl and vote on the poll in my profile! We want this competition to be close, after all! Who's going to win?!

Semi-Finalists: Ayame, Sylvia, Marion, Sango, Elaina, Valerie

KedharS: Marion is a great role model, as long as you're following her advice and not her actions.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Sango is caught in the classic "love someone while oblivious to the feelings of another" situation because she's an absolute dunce at romance.

JoshGamerV: Press "X" to doubt.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: She can be mature sometimes. Just not often.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 661

Caelia stared at the fishing rod in her hands and thought hard about the decision in front of her.

Marion and Cynthia were both asking her to fish. No, they were BEGGING her to fish, and they wouldn't stop, even though Caelia didn't care about fishing and was fine with just standing around doing nothing until Cynthia let her go.

It wasn't like she had any faith at all that Cynthia could ACTUALLY find some way to bring hope back to her and draw her out of the prison of a world she was trapped in. Caelia had nothing to hope for. Nothing that she sought.

Simply put, the idea that fishing, or anything else, would unlock some new view of reality to Caelia, who understood completely how truly meaningless her existence was, was simply laughable. Her body was an empty shell, just like her heart.

She wasn't a person. She couldn't have dreams.

She didn't have a future.

All she could do was just keep going for the pokemon that she treasured, no matter how it tormented her to keep living in this husk.

Cynthia wouldn't change her mind, this was pointless. Caelia just wanted to go back to her room and live her empty life. Not stay here and fish for things that didn't matter and wouldn't help her. What was the point?

If only Cynthia had been Blake. If Blake had come to her and told her he wanted to fish with her, she would have fished with him for as long as he wanted. Because then, she would be doing something meaningful. Blake was a part of her world. He was the one who brought color into her life and freed her from her bonds.

But Blake wasn't here. He wasn't with Caelia, because he didn't love Caelia. No matter how much Caelia cared about him, and wanted to be with him, NEEDED to be with him so that she could truly find worth in this empty world, he wouldn't be there for her.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. But at the same time, it was what she expected. No one would love someone so broken, after all. It was her fault, for thinking that Blake would care about her and want her to be happy.

He said he did, he always treated her gently and cared for her, and that's why even now she couldn't help but want him.

She knew that she couldn't change anything. But that didn't make it any easier. She still wanted him, wanted him here. She wanted those sensations that she had felt for the first time in eternity, those sensations that she desperately tried to recapture in every waking moment, and then again in her dreams.

But she didn't have Blake, and she never would. Instead, she had Cynthia, and Cynthia was certainly no Blake. She brought no color to her world, she was just another person who existed around Caelia, who interacted with her and didn't matter. The same with that other girl, the fishing one, who she had just met.

Caelia just wanted to go.

But the problem was, Cynthia wasn't letting her, and neither was the other girl. She didn't want to fish, but she didn't feel too strongly about fishing, either. It wasn't as though she hated it. She just honestly didn't care, even as disrespectful as Marion made it sound.

And that was why she had no real problem agreeing to fish with them.

"Okay," she said, nodding slightly. Her voice was so soft and her nod so subtle that neither Cynthia nor Marion were sure they had heard her at first.

Marion decided that she was sure in about two seconds.

"You'll do it? Really? That's great!" She cheered, even if she hadn't quite made out what the brunette said. The fact that she wasn't snapping the fishing poll in half was answer enough in Marion's book, after all!

Caelia nodded again, all the confirmation that they needed.

Cynthia felt her heart swell with joy. What a great sign! Caelia was actually going to give fishing a chance! And if Marion was right, then this might actually help her find something that she could enjoy doing!

Of course, neither girl fully realized (or at least hadn't accepted) that Caelia wasn't giving fishing a chance at all, she was just going along with it so that when it was done they wouldn't bother her about it anymore. She didn't care about fishing, and she didn't hate it enough to keep refusing, so she simply chose the path of least resistance.

While Marion was blissfully ignorant of the possibility that someone could try fishing and not like it, Cynthia was a little more rational about the whole thing, which was certainly an odd feeling to be having.

In Cynthia's case, while she figured that Caelia was probably thinking something like that, she still believed that as long as Caelia was doing something, even if it WAS just to get it over with, she could still realize that she actually enjoyed the activity, say, fishing, after all and would have a change for the better.

A slim hope was better than none. Always.

Of course, what neither girl could have foreseen, was just how utterly HOPELESS Caelia actually was at fishing.

While Marion had just learned something new about the girl she barely knew, Cynthia certainly understood that Caelia couldn't feel anything with her body, and was very careful around her because of it.

But she didn't truly realize just what that meant until she saw Caelia attempting to follow Marion's instructions.

"Okay, so what you want to do is pull your rod back, and cast out your line, like this," Marion said, raising her fishing pole and casting it out, the hook skirting through the air and touching the water, bobbling up and down with the lure and float.

Caelia looked at Marion and did the same, pulling her rod back, flinging it forward.

"Aaah! My shirt!" A girl cried out.

"No, Caelia, that's not right," Marion said, shaking her head frantically. "No, you gotta feel the line when you… err… I mean…"

Marion realized what she was saying and glanced at Cynthia, who sighed in resignation. This was probably going to be a lot more difficult than they had initially realized. She walked over to Caelia and tried to help her cast out her fishing line again.

Caelia caught someone's arm this time, drawing blood.

This was going to be quite a struggle.

While that carnage was going on, the misfortune of one party was resulting in boons elsewhere on the lake, as Nick finally fished up a rather large-looking Luvdisc. He stared at the pink pokemon flopping around on the deck, its scales shining like a rainbow.

He sighed in relief. That was one job down.

Pulling out his phone, Nick knew that the next course of action was to get hold of his rather demanding girlfriend, Callie, and call her over so he could give her the present that he had promised her. He couldn't help but smile at the thought of how happy she would be when he gave it to her, he really wanted this day to be special.

She'd been waiting for this for so long, it seemed. The way she'd made it out, she was hoping someone would do something like this for her practically since she had first started attending the Pokemon Academy, if not sooner.

Nick was happy to be the one to make her hopes come true.

The overjoyed cheer she let out in her texting coupled with her proclamation that she would be right over made his smile break even wider, knowing that he'd certainly made the right decision. He knelt down and picked up the Luvdisc from off the dock, turned, and navigated through the linked pathways towards the shore.

Maneuvering through them was quite a feat, not the least bit because of who it was that was doing the fishing. The chain of docks was filled with desperate singles who were more interested in picking each other up than they were with actually fishing, so he had to move around several incredibly awkward conversations that just made him embarrassed.

Not to mention the girls who were actually trying to pick him up, seeing him walking with a Luvdisc in his arms and practically throwing themselves at him to be the one that he would give it to, which only made him even MORE flustered.

Some of the girls he was actually surprised were single, given how attractive they were. And all of them were certainly desperate.

Some of them were even offering things that Nick couldn't in good conscience repeat, and couldn't even really think about without turning bright red and quickly rushing past them. But in spite of the offers, he wasn't tempted in the slightest.

After all, this Luvdisc was for one of the best girls in the world, and the only person he would ever even consider doing… those sorts of things with.

Not that they'd even gotten close to that point! Nick was perfectly happy with where they were, and so was Callie, he was pretty sure. They were both a little new to this whole relationship thing, even if Nick had been dating her since practically starting school (apparently, according to Reiner, he had actually been dating Callie about a month before he had THOUGHT he had started dating her, much to his surprise).

But it didn't matter that they'd been seeing each other for that long, because neither one of them were all that comfortable with taking things any further than they had. Kissing and holding hands was about the level that they were comfortable with, or at least, that Nick was comfortable with.

He really liked Callie, he did, but doing other things with her…

Okay, fine, he was nervous and scared to move things any further due to his inexperience. It didn't help that, while both of them had zero relationship experience, Callie was still older than he was, and that put certain pressures on him that he wasn't sure if he could satisfy.

For now, he was just going to try and be the best boyfriend he could be, and hope that the rest sorted itself out on its own.

It may not have been the BRAVEST thing to do, but it was the clearest option that a guy like Nick with zero prior experience being in a relationship had available, so it was the one that he decided to go with, and hope that they would just get there at their own pace.

Then, Nick thought of something else romantic he could do. Callie hadn't said anything about it, but he had heard Sango explain before that there would be heart scales given as sign-up prizes for the contest. Which meant that if he submitted the Luvdisc he caught, then he could take that heart scale, and maybe give it to Callie as a reminder of their first Valentine's Day.

It wasn't like he actually expected to win, he saw the size of some of those other Luvdisc, he was happy with just getting a heart scale.

Nick made it to the shore and went to go show his catch to Sango, so that she could call over Marion who would judge it.

As he got there, he noticed that things were going pretty well, actually.

Earlier, Sango had come across as rather surly in her interaction with Nick, even though she'd hidden it decently well, with a big smile on her face.

Right now, though, she was actually smiling for real, and looking a lot more relaxed. She was talking with a guy Nick vaguely recognized from seeing him in their friend circles, Aidan, and the two were having a pretty good time.

For a moment, Nick wondered if Sango, of all people, had actually found a date for Valentine's Day, but decided that was none of his business. As long as she was in a good mood, that was enough for him, so he waited for Callie to arrive while he waited in line, and soon he had reached the front, walking up to the stand and presenting his Luvdisc.

"Hey Sango, I wanted to enter this into the contest," Nick explained.

Immediately, Sango's face went sour, much to Nick's confusion.

Sango let out a sigh and shook her head, reaching up to rub her temples. "Yeah, okay, so you want to enter your Luvdisc," she grumbled, and it looked like all the fatigue that she'd fought off just from hanging out with Aidan had all fallen back down upon her, and she wasn't happy about it. Nick swallowed, feeling a little nervous.

"Oh, um… sorry, if this is a bad time, then I can always come back-" Sango didn't even let Nick finish with his stammering attempt to back out, sighing and clarifying that she wasn't actually upset with him, just frustrated in general.

"No, no, it's fine," Sango assured him. She let out another sigh. "See, the thing is, it's not that you can't enter the contest, it's just, well…"

She glanced over her shoulder at the lake, where Marion was off getting busy with teaching fishing to Caelia and trying to keep her from destroying everything by accident with her clumsiness. She let out another sigh.

"…Marion's the one in charge of doing all those records, and, well… she's a little occupied at the moment," Sango explained. "So, if you want to enter the contest, that's okay, but it's probably not going to happen the way you want it to. It's going to take a long-ass time for Marion to be done over there, so if you're okay with waiting…"

Nick wasn't really that okay with waiting. Callie would be here any minute, and he had hoped that this would be some sort of fast thing.

Then he had another idea.

It was the kind of idea that Nick was surprised he had actually had, considering how unlike him it was. It was downright devious!

"Hey, Sango, how about this?" Nick asked, looking around nervously like he was about to suggest performing a heist. He was about to suggest fraud of a certain kind, though not one that would actually hurt anybody.

Sango raised her eyebrow, curious. "What?"

Nick swallowed. "Okay, so, like, what if I ask you to take a look at my Luvdisc, and you agree to say that I fail the contest, and I just leave with my heart scale?"

Sango blinked.

"Wait, what? What would be the point of that? Why do you want a heart scale?" She asked, not sure what the value of a heart scale actually was on the open market. She wasn't sure if this was all in keeping with the spirit of the competition, either.

"W-Well, see… Callie really wants me to show how much I love her by catching her a Luvdisc," Nick explained. He glanced aside, a sheepish smile crossing his face as he thought of his girlfriend's happy look of exuberance when he would give it to her. "But I was thinking, well… if we wanted to make this really special, I could give her a heart scale, too, that way she'd have something to remember it by, don't you think?"

Nick thought it sounded romantic, but he didn't have much experience with that.

"That sounds totally amazing!" Aidan said, his eyes brightening. "Dude, you should totally do that! It sounds like the most romantic thing in the world!"

Sango was less impressed. "That just sounds dumb," she replied, and Nick visibly shrank with that declaration.

Sango wasn't exactly the number one romantic guru, if there was any doubt left in anyone's mind about that.

Nick sighed. So much for that idea.

While Nick was dealing with his romantic woes, back on the water, things had finally settled down to some degree of sanity.

Caelia was not a fan of water. A big part of that, besides being a Fire type trainer, was the fact that she had never learned how to swim.

How could she? She couldn't feel the water, hell, even walking was difficult with her body, swimming just meant she would sink like a rock.

So she wasn't exactly a fan of fishing, or the idea of being this close to the water. But Marion convinced her that it was better than standing, so Caelia sat on the dock with her legs dangling listlessly into the water below, much to Marion's amusement and Cynthia's irritation.

"Are you sure you don't mind getting your shoes wet?" Cynthia asked. Caelia didn't mind, it's not like she would notice wet clothing. Caelia didn't want to bother with arguing, so she just stood up instead, hoping it would get them to shut up.

And besides, right now, Caelia's mind was elsewhere. She sat on the dock with her fishing pole extended in front of her, having finally managed to get it into the water. She was gripping it as tightly as she could, at least, she assumed she was.

She couldn't feel it, after all.

Another thing she didn't find appealing about fishing. She was just supposed to stand here and wait? For what? She just clutched her rod tightly in front of her and waited for everything to be over so she could go home.

"Caelia, is there a tug on your line yet?" Marion asked. "Because when there is, you're supposed to reel it in."

If Caelia cared, she would be annoyed. How was she supposed to know if there was a tug on her line? She couldn't feel it, and she couldn't even see the line in the first place.

What she did notice though was the rod was shaking in her hands. So she held it even tighter, not really sure how she was supposed to reel it in.

So she decided to just pull, instead.

That ended up being an even bigger mistake, because the force of her tug caused her to lose her balance, slipping on the water dripping from her clothes, and she tumbled into the lake below.

Oh no! Caelia's fallen in, and she can't swim! What's going to happen?! This could be really bad!