Valentine's Day is fun and people are enjoying themselves, but it's a day filled with important things, too. There are some people who need to take their day seriously, and just because it's Valentine's Day, doesn't mean everyone can take it easy!

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

Rowlets and Oshawotts: He's way too shy for something like that, though, and doesn't have enough confidence in his relationship skills.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Hopefully she won't have such a problem, this should be fine, it's just water after all. Even if she is a Fire type.

KedharS: It definitely would, but Marion's what we have to work with, so there we go.

JoshGamerV: Or maybe she won't be fine, you never know.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 662

Caelia couldn't remember the last time she had fallen into water before. She must have been very, very young.

It had been ingrained in her to not go near the water, because she couldn't swim. It was simply impossible for her to balance herself in the water, because there was nothing that she could find purchase on. She couldn't feel the water that surrounded her, and so she would thrash around helplessly and sink.

But now she was back into the water. It was a strange experience. She couldn't feel anything around her, of course, she had no idea what it was like to be wet and cold. She didn't even feel the sensation of water filling her lungs, she had no awareness of the fact that she was currently aspirating it, and drowning.

The only thing she noticed was that there was water swirling in front of her eye, blurring her vision with a curtain of dark blue.

Caelia began to panic. It wasn't total darkness but it was quickly becoming real enough for her. Her world was getting dimmer and dimmer and she thrashed, trying to find a way out, but she couldn't get a grasp on anything; and even if she was holding onto something, she had no way of knowing because everything was falling into darkness.

On deck, Marion was a little surprised, but didn't get the full context of what the issue was here, because she had no idea just what sort of condition that Caelia was actually in. She didn't really get that Caelia couldn't swim, and Cynthia was surprisingly the one thinking quicker on her feet in comparison to the other girl.

"Shit!" Cynthia shouted. "She can't swim!"

Cynthia moved to jump into the lake, and as she hit the water Marion was already taking what she'd just heard into consideration, and doing it FAST.

Marion focused her harmonia and directed it through the late. Every Luvdisc in the water snapped to attention, turned, and swam towards Caelia as fast as possible, grabbing onto whatever they could with their tiny mouths and swimming towards the surface.

Caelia emerged, her eye closed, and Marion pulled her from the water and out onto the dock.

"Caelia?! Where are you?!" Cynthia gasped, her hear surfacing as she looked around frantically for the other girl before seeing that Caelia was sprawled out on the dock. "Caelia!" She cried, pulling herself out of the water and running over to the girl, nearly falling in again due to her carelessness.

Cynthia regained her balance, staring down in horror at Caelia. She wasn't moving, she didn't even look like she was breathing.

Cynthia feared the worst.

"Is… Is she…" Cynthia swallowed, going pale. She didn't want to even say it, but seeing her laying there made it impossible to ignore. "Is she breathing?" She finally managed to ask, with a gasp like a choked whisper.

Marion's face was solemn.

She shook her head.

"She's not," Marion said quietly, all business. "I'm going to have to perform CPR. Get back, all of you! I need space!"

There were only a few people on that section of the dock, many had come to see what was going on. But when Marion told them to clear, and they heard just how serious she sounded, they cleared. Boy, did they clear.

Cynthia only took a few steps back, unwilling to get too far away from Caelia. She felt horrible, this had all been her fault. She had tried to bring Caelia out of her shell and had taken her to the water, even knowing about her condition, and now the girl might have drowned.

She had to calm herself down, she was starting to hyperventilate. Please be okay, Cynthia silently pleaded as Marion knelt down beside Caelia to begin. Please be okay!

Cynthia didn't pray for much, but she was praying for this with everything she had. Caelia had to be okay, she just had to. Cynthia couldn't live with herself if something horrible happened to her, she would just die.

"SANGO!" Marion roared, shouting loudly enough that Cynthia fell on her ass in shock. Sango jumped up, startled. She wasn't used to hearing Marion sound so serious. She whirled around to the look at the lake. She was only mildly curious before about what all the commotion was about, but hearing Marion's shout had made her legitimately worried.

"What?!" Sango shouted back.

"CALL CAMPUS SAFETY, WE NEED EMS! NOW! TELL THEM THERE WAS A DROWNING VICTIM!" Marion shouted, the panic in her voice calling Sango to action in a heartbeat. She quickly pulled out her phone and began to call.

Sango, having received much of the same training as Marion in first aid response due to her aspirations to be a Pokemon Ranger, knew that this was an emergency and was relieved when she heard that urgent care was on the way. That was no reason to rest easy, though. She turned back anxiously to the lake, terrified.

Meanwhile, Marion was beginning emergency CPR. She tore open Caelia's sweater because the bulky thing was clinging to her and restricting her airways. This inadvertently revealed her burns to everyone. It was convenient that Caelia never wore a bra, because her chest was perfectly exposed to work on, even if that wasn't totally necessary. Modesty wasn't at issue here anyway.

Marion had to work fast. She needed to keep Caelia alive until the paramedics arrived. She tucked two fingers under Caelia's chin, tilting her head back and opening her lips. Making a circle with her fingers over Caelia's mouth, she pressed her lips against it and gave a quick breath to keep from catching anything. Marion waited for a moment before giving a second, trying to clear her airways before moving onto the next step.

Next, she moved onto the chest compressions. Running her hand along Caelia's chest she placed both palms flat and began to press hard, ignoring the cracking sounds she heard from Caelia's ribs. CPR wasn't some delicate affair, hesitation was lethal. Every second counted. After thirty compressions, she moved back to blow air into Caelia's airway again, before going onto more chest compressions to keep the girl alive as long as she possibly could.

Cynthia watched Marion with bated breath. This… this was good, right? Marion was doing CPR, and that was a good thing. It wasn't like Caelia had been in the water that long, there was no way she could have swallowed that much, right?

So why wasn't it working?

In the movies, whenever someone gave CPR, it was some mouth to mouth, and some chest compressions, and then they would spit up the water and sit back up, good as new. The fact that that wasn't happening was really starting to make Cynthia panic, so much so that she barely even noticed that Marion was shouting for her.

"Wh-What?" Cynthia muttered numbly, shaking her head. Marion was glaring at her while giving chest compressions.

"I said!" Marion shouted, pausing to match her rhythm, "Get! Sango! And! Aidan! They! Were! Trained! I! Need! All! The! Help! I! Can! Get!"

Cynthia took a second to realize what was going on, and then realized that time was of the essence. By the time she was shouting at Sango and Aidan, a lot of other people were doing it too, and both parties were running to come help.

Caelia began coughing, and Marion tilted her head to the side to let some water and vomit flow out. But while Cynthia was sighing with relief, Marion knew she was nowhere near done. She leaned down and cleared Caelia's airway again, and resumed her chest compressions.

"Oh no!" Sango gasped. "Caelia! Is she-"

"CPR! Now!" Marion barked, and Sango nodded, kneeling on the other side of the girl. She swallowed, watching Marion's chest compressions. This was the first time she would be performing CPR on something other than a dummy. She was starting to panic, and knew that Aidan had to be freaking out, too.

But she didn't let it faze her. If they wanted to save Caelia's life, it was essential. When Marion removed her hands, Sango immediately knelt down and put on her CPR mask (luckily having brought it with her after the calls for help) and began clearing Caelia's airway, praying that the girl would recover and they weren't wasting their time.

Relieved of duty, Marion collapsed backwards. CPR was one of the most strenuous things you could do, and she was lucky that there were other students in the Ranger Course here who could help. If she was alone, then Caelia might have been doomed for sure.

"M-Marion…" Cynthia whispered, her face ashen with fear. "Is… Is Caelia going to be… okay? She's not, gonna like… you did CPR, right, so shouldn't she…" Cynthia just couldn't find the words, and Marion couldn't blame her.

Marion looked up at the girl and saw how terrified she was. She wished that she could give Cynthia some reassurance, but this wasn't some movie.

"CPR has the highest success rate with drowning victims," Marion replied cagily. "The odds are good. But we aren't out of the woods yet."

The sound of sirens in the distance brought a sigh of relief to Marion's lips, mingling with the sound of Caelia coughing into a harmony of possibility that brought a spark of hope into the beat of Marion's heart.

Please… Marion silently begged, seeing Sango pass things off to Aidan as she took a break as well. Now, all that there was left to do was-

"She's conscious!" Aidan shouted, and Marion felt all the tension in her body drain away. She slumped back and collapsed on the dock, taking a few deep breaths. Good. Conscious was good. It wasn't full recovery, but it was good. It meant that they'd staved off oxygen depletion to the brain, and that was the best they could hope for.

The paramedics would handle the rest.

Needless to say, things were still tense when the ambulance made its way of the mountain path, and the paramedics rushed out to get Caelia. She was conscious but nonresponsive. While that was a perfectly apt way to describe Caelia on any given day, right now it was still a sign of worry. But the paramedics seemed relieved, and they took her away quickly.

Marion just hoped that she'd be alright.

Cynthia, on the other hand, was devastated. While the paramedics had said that Caelia was probably going to be fine, it didn't change the fact that in her zeal to get Caelia to appreciate the beauty of life and find something worth living for, she had nearly ended up killing the poor girl instead by pressuring her into going fishing.

So yeah, Cynthia wasn't in a very good mood. The way that Caelia had stared at her as she was lifted into the ambulance hadn't made things better.

This really had been shaping up to be a crummy Valentine's Day.

Meanwhile, Marion, Sango, and Aidan had all collapsed from exhaustion at administering CPR, completely out of breath and ignorant of the applause from the audience that had gathered around them.

Cynthia had a newfound respect for how difficult that must have been, and she was in tears as she thanked them for saving Caelia's life.

With a shaky smile, Marion assured her that it was no trouble at all.

"You're not the only one who pressured her, you know," Marion said, trying to make it sound like not that big of a deal but completely failing. She let out a long sigh and flopped back down, wanting nothing but to get back to fishing.

Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards.

Callie passed the ambulance as she walked up to the lake, an irritated scowl stretched over her face. This was not the kind of surprise she had been hoping for when Nick had called her up there. On her way, she had received a message informing her of what had happened, and it had put her in a pretty sour mood.

It didn't help what she would have to do, either.

"What the heck's going on here?" Callie demanded, stomping towards the water, catching the attention of everyone on the dock pathway. Cynthia helped Marion to her feet and she stumbled back to shore, putting on the most laid-back grin she could manage for the pissed off girl.

"Yeah, so there was a little bit of an accident, and we-"

"Oh, I heard all about your accident," Callie interrupted. "Someone drowned! What's going on here, someone explain, in detail!"

Needless to say, the Luvdisc Fishing Day didn't last for much longer after that little show where one of the students almost died.

Marion would have a lot of explaining to do.

But the good thing was, a lot of people who had been there were recording the event, which proved just how professional Marion, Sango, and Aidan were. The videos documenting their CPR routine were quickly posted on the school forums, with a lot of people praising them as heroes.

A few girls missed the message completely and said that they wished THEY had drowned, so they could get mouth to mouth from a hunk like Aidan.

The three of them were in for a lot of fame in the days to come, but at the moment they had no idea what was happening.

And where was the Pokemon Academy's (self-proclaimed) greatest reporter while all of this was going down?

Dakota was waking up from one of the most restful naps she'd ever had, just in time to see Serefina walk in, fresh from her morning shift at the caretaking facilities on campus. She looked run-down, but had a beaming smile on her face.

"Well, someone looks like she's in a good mood," Dakota yawned. "That's a 'hot date' sort of smile, if you ask me."

"Well, no one asked you," Serefina snapped, her pleasant mood quickly deteriorating, much to Dakota's shock.

"Whoa, Seri, sorry!" Dakota apologized, startled to hear this much vitriol from the other girl this early in the morning. Well, actually, it wasn't that early in the morning, Dakota had been sleeping for nearly 8 hours, and it was almost time for lunch. "I didn't mean anything by it."

Serefina shook her head, quickly clearing her thoughts. "No, no, I'm sorry," she apologized, she hadn't meant to be snappy. But she wasn't happy that Dakota was already awake. "I guess I'm just in a bit of a bad mood."

"But you seem so happy," Dakota noted worriedly.

Serefina sighed.

"You're the reason I'm in a bad mood," Serefina grumbled. She picked up a pillow and flung it gently at Dakota. "Go back to sleep. You've got a date tonight, remember? Now's not the time for you to be pestering me, Dakota."

"My brain works differently than yours," Dakota said, hopping out of bed and smiling cheekily at her friend. "Even though I got like no sleep for the last two weeks, one good rest and I'm back up at 100% Don't worry!"

Serefina rolled her eyes. That was ridiculous.

But Dakota was adamant. Besides, there was something else that deserved her focus, something that she'd been putting off.

When the Phantom Cup had ended, Dakota was in a bit of a bind. Not only had she written an article detailing the Phantom Cup, but she had also had to work with Olivia Himeko's task. That meant that she hadn't had the time to clear her camera feed. She'd taken the photos she'd needed for her article, but she still had to upload the rest to her computer before clearing the data on her camera.

It was a tedious thing to do, but probably for the best, since she needed to be taking a break and relaxing, not getting involved in a bunch of serious shit. She wanted to relax, and this was the perfect way to do it. No more research for her.

Serefina saw Dakota hop out of bed and walk over to her camera and computer, and sighed in resignation.

"Well, if you're gonna get up anyway, want to go get lunch first?" Serefina asked. But Dakota wasn't listening, she was already scrolling through the camera feed, totally tuning out the rest of the world. Serefina let out another sigh.

As Dakota scrolled, downloading massive chunks of pictures onto her computer, she paused for a moment. Something wasn't right. She squinted at the tiny file, and opened the picture. There was something bothering her, something that had been needling her in the back of her head for weeks, something important.

She had noticed something at the Phantom Cup, but in the chaos that had ensued, followed by Olivia's request, it had totally slipped her mind. She had forgotten it completely and not done her diligence as a reporter.

But now that she was looking at it clearly, captured by her camera, it all came rushing back to her like it had just been yesterday.

That strange stone that the Phantom had put up for a prize for the Phantom Cup, the stone that the Commander had won…

It had started glowing during the battle between the Commander and the Phantom. How could she have forgotten something so crucial?! She was slapping herself for her carelessness, she'd been too entranced with the fight.

But seeing it there was reminder enough.

It wasn't just some reflection or trick of the light. No, it was a glowing light, shining ominously with a golden hue.

"How odd… I wonder what this is…" Dakota mused.

Serefina let out another sigh. She could see where this was going, and it wasn't going somewhere good. Dakota was a lost cause.

Dakota realized that this object looked familiar.

"Where have I seen this before…" She mused. Then she gasped. She had read about it, somewhere… in one of the old artifact textbooks she'd been looking at for Olivia's task!

"Oh, shit!" Dakota sprung up out of her seat and grabbed her laptop, shoving it into her backpack. "That's totally it! Sorry, Seri, I gotta go! This is important!"

Dakota was in such a hurry, she forgot her phone.

"…What about your date?" Serefina asked, rubbing her temples in frustration.

Well, Dakota has found something new to look into! What's this going to result in? Valentine's Day is just getting started.