With a little bit of rough bumps along the way, Blake and Ayame's date is ready to resume in full! But in the meantime, there are some other people here with some troubles of their own, and hopefully they'll be able to fix their issues as easily as Blake and Ayame fixed theirs.

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: It definitely would.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Just for that, have some nice, juicy drama.

Aquahaze675: Welcome back! Yes, things are really getting heated here!

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Marion and Callie just became best friends. Callie just doesn't know it yet.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 668

With Aidan's help, Sango packed the last of the wooden planks onto the truck, and looked up, stretching. She felt exhausted, and it was barely past lunch time. Today had been stressful for a number of reasons, far more stressful than it had any right to be.

And coming off of an even more stressful last two weeks, that was saying quite a lot. She let out a sigh, and turned to look at the water one more time. There should at least be something to relax her there, considering that they were nowhere near finished. She deserved it, honestly, and she wasn't disappointed by what she saw.

The image of Blake and Ayame fishing together was what she needed to see. It wasn't anything major. They were just sitting on folding chairs, with fishing poles on loan from Marion, who was newly-reborn with excitement at the prospect that this festival wasn't a total loss, there was nothing particularly romantic or special about their little impromptu fishing session.

But the looks on their faces, it showed anyone who cared to look that they didn't need anything more than this. Ayame was smiling, her face bright as the sun, and Blake's eyes were shining with affection as he responded with a smile of his own.

Sango's heart was healed by seeing that smile. The force of it seemed to blow away all the fatigue she had accumulated over the course of February, and in the place of that stress, here heart was filled with warmth and happiness.

But those joyful emotions came with regret and pain of their own.

Seeing Blake like that, so deeply in love with Ayame, it made her finally have to confront the issue that she'd been putting off for so long that she'd managed to even convince herself.

She was still in love with Blake.

She had tried so hard to not be, tried to convince herself that she wasn't, that there was nothing going on in her heart, that she had moved on from him and only thought of him as a friend now, but she could tell that she was fooling herself.

She wouldn't be so happy seeing him this happy if she didn't care deeply for him. But because of how much it hurt her heart to see him like this, she knew that it meant her feelings weren't just platonic; there was jealousy there, seething beneath the surface.

And there was only one reason for her jealousy.

Sango had been trying to convince herself that those feelings, whenever they reared their ugly heads, weren't how she really felt. That was just her stress or her anxiety convincing herself that she was still in love, and she "knew" that as long as she was thinking clearly she wouldn't ever have those feelings for him.

That wasn't clarity of mind, though. She was looking at things clearly now, and could understand fully well that her "clarity of mind" was just her being trapped in a state of denial, refusing to accept that she was in love with him because of how inconvenient it would make her life, critically messing with her relationships with Ayame and Blake.

But now that she could see how she felt clearly, she knew that her feelings for Blake were just as strong as they had been since he and Ayame first got together.

But she also knew that her life wasn't that easily fixed. Her feelings for Blake were something that she could never act on. Her relationships were precious to her. Even if by some miracle of miracles Blake would look away from Ayame and turn his eyes her way, she could never go through with it. Knowing how much it would hurt her, how large of a betrayal it would be to a girl who treated her with nothing but kindness and friendship, Sango knew she would never be able to live with herself if she actually tried to steal him away.

Why won't these horrible feelings just die?! She demanded of her heart, but the blasted thing refused to listen. All it would do was continue to send her images of Blake that she wanted to block out, push away, and bury under rubble to boot.

She hated feeling this way, even if she loved it at the same time. She bit her lip and clenched her fists in frustration at the shitty situation that she found herself in. Why did love have to be this miserable? It just wasn't fair.

I thought I had gotten over him, but I really am just a fool, she bitterly noted, despising how pathetic she was to still be in love with the same boy as before, a boy happily in a relationship with someone else. If I knew I would be this miserable afterwards, how hard it would be to get over him…

She hated that she knew exactly what the problem was. She had expected that Ayame and Blake getting together would have erased her doubts and her pain. But she had been proven painfully wrong on that front.

Certainly, when the two of them had started dating, it had stung just as she had expected it would. They had been so happy together, and in those first weeks just seeing them in love had felt like a dagger in Sango's heart. But she'd pushed through it, and tried to move past it, and by the time the new semester had come, she thought she had put her feelings behind her.

Blake had been her first love. Before him, there hadn't been even the slightest bit of interest in another person. And that inexperience was why she had so badly burned herself. Because she had thought that everyone was making a big deal about love.

Painful love songs? The Sango of last semester had laughed all that off. She had expected that, after Blake got together with Ayame, she would hurt a lot, feel pain for a while, and then end up moving on with her life.

But no, she was stuck. Her love was digging into her like a thorny briar, carving her heart open and forcing her to bleed out all over the ground. It was agony, she couldn't stand it! If she knew that it would be like this, she never would have fallen in love!

Except, even Sango knew that wasn't at all how it worked. There was nothing that she could have done to stop from falling in love with Blake.

With that in mind, there was something that she could have done, should have done, that would have made her position easier, her relationships in a more stable condition.

I should have told him how I felt, she silently admitted to herself. If I had, maybe I wouldn't have been feeling this painful agony right now.

She had missed her chance. She didn't know when it had happened, but she had missed it without even realizing. Even though she had to admit to herself that there was probably not a future where she could have drawn Blake's eye and gotten him to fall for her, there was certainly an opportunity for her to tell him how she felt, and then to be rejected.

But she'd missed it, and now she had to spend who-knows how long living a lie, pretending that Blake was just a friend, all because she hadn't been brave enough to confess when the opportunity had presented itself.

Ayame knew, and that was a slight comfort to her, but only slight. Ayame surely thought that Sango had already moved on, and Sango was afraid about how she would react if she found out that that wasn't the case.

No, don't think that way, that's an awful thing to think, Sango reminded herself, shaking her head frantically to clear her mind of those horrible thoughts. Ayame isn't like that. If I told her how I felt, then she would understand, and she wouldn't treat me any differently.

Sango knew that Ayame was just that kind of person, the sort of girl who would care for her friends, even in a situation like that.

I know that, but… why am I feeling so nervous and scared about what could end up happening? Sango grabbed her wrist, suppressing the shake of her hand. She had to move past that and not give into the worries that were bubbling up right now.

She just wished she could be over and done with those feelings of hers. But at the same time, a part of her didn't want to. Because she did still love Blake, even if nothing could come out of it. She'd tried to tamp down on those feelings, but that hadn't made any difference.

No matter what I try to do, I can't get over this feeling. Nothing will change, Sango realized. It was a painful realization. Her feelings had come and went, and nothing was going to happen. What was even the point of having them, then?

When she thought about it that way, her heart felt even heavier. She was never going to act on her feelings, she was sure of that. Not so long as Blake was with Ayame, smiling the way that he was. That smile was precious to her, and she would never to anything to take it away.

But she wasn't getting over her feelings, either.

It just felt like such a waste. Like those months spent pining for him had all been for nothing. Blake was the first love of Sango's life, and that love had slipped away from her without her even being able to tell him how she felt.

And now what, she was supposed to sit back and get over him? Stop being in love, because he had someone else?

At a time like this, Sango needed Silver more than ever. Her sweet little Castform wouldn't be able to help her, of course, but just having him there, comforting her when he saw the state that she was in, that would be more than enough. But Silver was sleeping right now, resting after all the hard work he'd put into making sure that this day was going to be a success.

Sango couldn't bother him, this was something that she would have to take care of for herself. These were her feelings, after all, and she was the one who had to do something about them, before they ate her up inside or made her do something that she would regret.

Sango knew what she was supposed to do, but she also knew that it just wasn't fair.

I thought that Cynthia was being selfish when she continued to confess to Blake even after knowing that he was happy with Ayame… and even now, she still has feelings for him. But that hasn't ruined their friendship, she's still able to go along with respecting their boundaries and keep loving him from afar, even if it's painful.

Sango wished she had that kind of strength.

Blake can never know, she promised herself. She wasn't going to tell him, not ever. She wouldn't do that, she couldn't live with herself if she did.

But was it so wrong to treasure these feelings, just for a little while?

Sango felt that if she let them go now, after trying to hide them for so long, then that would mean that her feelings had really and truly meant nothing, that there was no point to any of it, and all the time she had spent loving him was a waste.

And that was a thought that killed her inside.

It didn't mean nothing, she vowed, shaking her head. My feelings were… are… real. I really do love him, and even if I can't ever tell him that… I can at least hold my head up with pride and try to love him in my own way, can't I?

"Hey, Sango, what do you think?" Snapped free from her musing by Aidan's voice, Sango raised her head and turned to the boy, confused.

"H-Huh? What are you talking about?" She asked, not quite sure what he had just said. She had been a little preoccupied, after all.

"I was just saying, is this truck good to go to storage?" Aidan asked. "I mean, we still have a lot left to clean up here, I'm pretty sure I can load a few more on, don't you think?" He stared at her eagerly, like a cute little Growlithe, and she couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks Aidan, but that's enough," she laughed, patting his arm reassuringly. "There's no way you can get all of it in there, right?"

Aidan blushed a little and nodded sheepishly. "Well… yeah, you're right, I can't," he admitted. "There's still going to be some left over, sorry."

"Then don't worry about it," Sango said, shaking her head. "If he's going to be making two trips anyway, you don't need to break your back trying to make this load a little more full, we'll just pack that stuff away in the next one."

"I guess I'm a little eager," Aidan laughed, scratching his head and looking down. He turned to the truck driver and slapped the side of the truck loudly a few times to signal that it was full, and the storage man drove off.

Sango was so grateful for Aidan. He had been such a great help today. The boy was always so nice to her, and even though this had been one big fuck-up in the end she had nothing but appreciation for his hard work.

"Thanks, Aidan, you were a lot of help," Sango confessed. "You can take a break for a while, I have some stuff that I need to take care of."

"Yeah, no problem," Aidan said, kneeling down and picking up Arion. Sango watched him walk over to a chair to sit down, and her positive attitude slipped away as she turned her attention to the issue at hand. It wasn't going to be easy, what she had to do.

Letting out a sigh, she gave one last parting look at the smiling face of the boy she loved, chatting happily with his girlfriend. Keeping him precious within her pain-stricken heart, she turned away and brought her attention to someone who was more in need of her than Blake was.

Earlier, she had envied Cynthia's strength. Well, there wasn't a lot of that strength to be seen now, in the position that she was in.

Cynthia was practically catatonic. She was curled up in a ball and not saying a word to anyone. Blake and Ayame had been worried at first when they had arrived, and had gone to try and see if they could help, but Cynthia hadn't responded to them. She hadn't done anything but make a few grunts and tighten her grip on her legs even harder.

It broke Sango's heart, seeing her friend in this state.

"Hey there, Cynthia," Sango murmured, sitting down next to her friend in the grass. "Are you doing okay?"

What a stupid question. It was obvious that Cynthia wasn't doing okay at all. The fact that she hadn't even bothered responding to Sango answered that more than enough. Sango let out a sigh, and placed her hand on Cynthia's shoulder.

"I know what you're probably thinking," Sango admitted. "You're probably feeling really guilty, like if how you had just not done anything and left Caelia alone, none of this would have happened, isn't that right?"

Cynthia let out a grunt that sounded somewhat like a yes.

"It wasn't your fault, Cynthia," Sango tried to assure her, at least making sure she was keeping up her side of the conversation with her friend. "It was an accident. You had no idea that was going to happen, and you did the best you could. And didn't you jump right in to save Caelia? You have nothing to feel guilty about."

"I should have just minded my own business," Cynthia said, raising her head to look at Sango, her face filled with sorrow. Her eyes were as red as her hair, puffy and swollen. Sango sighed, and draped her arm over Cynthia's shoulder, pulling the girl in close for a seated hug. She heard the sniffles of Cynthia beginning to cry.

"Maybe you should have," Sango admitted. "But what are you going to do? Beat yourself up over it forever? You were trying to help her. Even if it ended badly, what's done is done. Blaming yourself for being the wonderful girl you are and trying to help your friend isn't helping anyone. So why do you want to punish yourself?"

"It's just like with Maddi," Cynthia muttered, her voice filled with bitterness. "Remember? She warned me to stop butting into people's lives when they don't want me there. And I ignored what she'd told me, and did it again. I didn't learn a damn thing from Maddi's warning, I made the exact same mistake. And here I thought I had changed because I had been trying so hard with Maddi, but really I'm just as selfish and insensitive as before."

Sango frowned. That was wrong. That was absolutely wrong.

"You aren't," she assured Cynthia, squeezing her shoulder tightly. "Maddi and Caelia, their situations are different."

Cynthia blinked away her tears, curious.

"What do you mean?" Cynthia asked.

"To tell you the truth, Caelia… I'm scared," Sango admitted. Scared wasn't a good word for it. Terrified. That empty look in the other girl's eye, it was terrifying, and Sango wanted no part of it.

"I know she's intense, but I don't think she's dangerous," Cynthia said. It was rather hollow coming from her, given what she'd heard about Caelia's actions involving the Phantom.

"I'm not scared of her," Sango corrected, "I'm scared for her. Cynthia, do you remember the Pokemon Festival? Halloween?"

A guilty look passed Cynthia's face as she squinted, that night lost in a haze of booze and bad decisions. "Um… barely. Wait, you weren't even there, how do you remember it?" She asked, confused.

"That's not what I meant," Sango said, shaking her head. "Remember what you told me? About how Caelia broke down screaming when the lights went out?"

Cynthia remembered that unpleasant feeling. It made her shiver.

"Yeah?" She asked tentatively.

"And then, there's the stuff about, well… her burns," Sango quietly added. "And her other… condition, too."

"What does that have to do with feeling scared for her?" Cynthia asked.

"You said it yourself, Cynthia, you were looking for something for her to find enjoyable," Sango reminded her. "That girl… I'm afraid that she might go down a dangerous path. That she might even end up harming herself. And I don't want that to happen."

Cynthia respected Caelia's privacy enough to not confirm that as a possibility, but she didn't deny it, either.

"That's why this is different," Sango explained. "With Maddi, you were just being kind of an insensitive jerk. But with Caelia? You were really trying to help her. Someone who needs an incredible amount of help, and you were trying to help her. So I don't think that's such a bad thing, even if something bad came out of it."

Sango hoped that her words would help ease some of the burden on Cynthia's heart. And by the looks of her smile, it was working. It wasn't a big, beaming, "Cynthia-Fafnir-original-smile" but it was a real smile, shaky as it might have been.

It might take some time to get Cynthia back to 100%, but right now, things were looking pretty good, and that made Sango happy.

"Thanks, that makes me feel a little better, I guess," Cynthia murmured, although she clearly wasn't feeling that much better.

But still, it was better enough to bring a smile to Sango's face, as well. She let out a sigh. She could give such good advice to her friends, but why couldn't she find any advice to give to herself? She really loathed her position, but she couldn't do anything about it.

Well, a nice introspective chapter from Sango, and some bonding between her and Cynthia at the end. Hopefully, both girls will make it through Valentine's Day without going through anymore heartache. But I doubt it.