What is Kitty's plan for dealing with Nikita's relationship issues? Will she be able to come up with a romantic idea for her friend? We'll get a taste of what she's got cooked up for our cute non-romantic couple in this chapter!

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, and by that, I mean only four people have voted! We can do better than that! 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: Yeah, sorry, though I had already answered this. No, Serefina has not had a boyfriend before.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Serefina just has very good instincts.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Hopefully, Nikita will get a lot more characterization over time.

Aquahaze675: It's Valentine's Day, definitely need cute moments.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 681

"…You want me to do what?" Cynthia asked, looking up from her magazine.

Kitty raised her eyebrow, surprised. Cynthia had practically jumped off her bed when Kitty had entered her bedroom, and now she was looking around the room with a rather shifty look in her eye, like she was suspicious of something.

But Kitty didn't have time to think about why Cynthia was behaving so oddly, she had a favor to request, for Nikita's sake.

"I want you to cook a romantic dinner for Nikita and Reiner," Kitty said. "You're a great chef, right? Nikita wants a romantic date with her boyfriend, and all the restaurants are booked up, so I was wondering if you could help?" She blinked her eyes hopefully at Cynthia, who found it rather hard to resist such a pure gaze.

Under normal circumstances, anyway. But today had been filled with surprises, and not many of them were pleasant.

"So, let me get this clear," Cynthia said, straightening herself up in bed and giving Kitty her full attention. "Knowing that I am currently single and alone on Valentine's Day, you came to me and asked me to spend my Valentine's Day night slaving away in the kitchen for the sake of another couple's romantic date, is that right?"

Okay, when Cynthia put it like that, it seemed like a kind of scummy thing to ask.

But Kitty wasn't discouraged.

"Please?" She begged. "This is really important to Nikita!"

"Can't she just invite him to the Star Dance, or something?" Cynthia griped. "Heck, those two aren't going, Callie and Nick are having a romantic date instead, and Blake and Ayame have decided to change their plans after Blake's disappearance and are spending the evening together, in private, so not even they're going, it was a complete waste to even think about!"

Kitty began to wonder if Cynthia's current irritation was a little deeper than just not wanting to cook for the couple.

"Cynthia, is something wrong?" Kitty asked. Cynthia winced and glanced down at the floor, the guilty look on her face confirming her suspicions.

"Don't worry, Kitty, she's just being difficult." Julia's voice from behind Kitty caused her to let out a little gasp, jumping into the air. She whirled around, her eyes wide, her jaw hitting the floor. Julia was right there, sitting up in bed and typing on her computer. How had she missed her?! Kitty hadn't noticed Julia when she'd come in, but she'd been here the whole time?!

Kitty became immediately aware of the fact that she'd been spending the morning mucking out caretaking stalls. She probably stank of pokemon, and her clothes and hair probably looked awful, oh, gosh, this was just the worst! She should have taken a shower before she came here, or at least gotten changed!

"O-Oh, I… I'm so sor- err, I didn't mean… um…" Kitty was flustered, and had nearly forgotten her purpose in coming here in the first place.

"I'm not being difficult," Cynthia snapped. Kitty sighed in gratitude at the fact that the attention had been taken off of her.

"Yes, you are," Julia sighed, closing her laptop and climbing off her bed, walking across the room to Cynthia. She stared up at Cynthia's bunk, and her face was surprisingly soft. "Look, I understand that the past few days have been… emotional for you."

"You're one to talk, miss 'flying hug'," Cynthia dryly remarked, raising her eyebrow. Julia's face flushed and she cleared her throat, glancing away.

"Yes, well, that's true enough, I suppose," Julia admitted. "But I think your position is a little more… difficult than mine is."

Now it was Cynthia's turn to avert her eyes.

"Look, it's just… I've been having a rough day," Cynthia said. "And yeah, I know things have been emotionally difficult for me, but… it's a little more complicated than what you're thinking, Julia, you don't understand what it's like to be in my position!"

Julia crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You mean the position of having a crush on a guy with a girlfriend?"

Cynthia winced.

"Yeah, I know," she said, hanging her head in resignation. "Julia, what… what do you know?!" Now she was defensive. "I mean, you're not even interested in dating! Have you ever even had a crush on someone before?"

Julia's only response was a snort that nearly broke Kitty's heart in two.

"It's not just the crush though, is it? It's the fact that after Blake came back, he wanted to spend the day with Ayame, his girlfriend, instead of you. And then, on that date, rather than going to the Star Dance like they planned, they decided to have a nice, private, romantic dinner date in Sylvia's private dining room."

"Julia, I was just complaining! I didn't…" Cynthia gasped. She hadn't expected that Julia had actually been listening to her gripes.

Julia chuckled. "I know you were just complaining, because that's the issue, isn't it? That's what's dragging you down, Cynthia, getting you feeling all mixed up and worried, your feelings for Blake, and his relationship? What he's planning with his girlfriend."

Cynthia winced, shaking her head. "No, that's not what I…"

"Because you know that there's only one reason that the two of them would forego a romantic dance, the last dance Ayame has a chance to attend, for a private romantic dinner not far away from Ayame's bedroom."

Even Kitty got what Julia was implying. Her face turned bright red.

Cynthia looked rather pathetic, not even able to look Julia in the eyes. But she couldn't deny reality. Blake and Ayame were probably going to sleep together tonight. She'd seen the way that the two of them were looking at each other while they were fishing earlier this afternoon.

There was nothing she could do about it.

Julia saw Cynthia's face falling, and she grabbed the ladder, climbing up and flopping down next to Cynthia on her bunk, startling the other girl.

"Julia, what are-?!" Cynthia thought Julia coming up next to her was a surprise, and what followed was definitely a shock. Julia pulled her into a hug.

Julia, a hug.

Kitty stared in shock. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"It's okay, Cynthia, I know it must be hard," Julia said, her usually-strict voice surprisingly calm and soothing, even tender as she comforted her friend. "I don't really do stuff like love, but seeing you like this, even I know how much it must hurt."

"I'm happy for them," Cynthia sniffled, trying hard not to cry. It was the only thing she could say. She could never say what she actually felt.

Julia didn't believe her for a minute. "Sure you do, sure you do," she said, patting her friend on the back. "You don't need to say anything else."

Cynthia's grip on Julia tightened, and she bit her lip to keep the tears from spilling out. Unfortunately, she was failing.

"So I'll say it for you," Julia decided. "You're in love with Blake, and even if you're happy that he's happy, you don't want him to be with Ayame. You want him to be with you. You don't want him to have sex with her, you want-"

"No!" Cynthia exclaimed, pulling away from Julia and wiping her eyes frantically. "I don't, I don't!"

Julia sighed. "I know that you have to say that," she said. "Because that's who you are, Cynthia, you love Blake, and you want him to be happy. But you're still human. You aren't so altruistic that you want to sacrifice your happiness for his. And that must make you feel pretty guilty and miserable, I would imagine."

Cynthia nodded glumly.

"It's something that you have to put up with, I guess," Julia sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry, Cynthia, I know that this isn't something that you want to put up with, but that's the situation that you're stuck with."

"I know," Cynthia sighed.

"So, what's the plan?" Julia asked. "Are you going to sit in your room all night and mope about something that you can't change, or are you going to do something nice for somebody else? What do you think?"

Cynthia nodded, and smiled. She still felt like crying, but she knew that she should put that feeling into something constructive.

She took a deep breath, and exhaled.

There wasn't anything she could do. Blake and Ayame were Blake and Ayame. And as much as it hurt her, she was happy about the two of them together.

Yes, it still hurt.

Cynthia turned to Julia. "Thank you, Julia. That makes me feel better."

Julia nodded, and gave her a small smile in return.

Now, Cynthia only had one other thing to think about. The reason why she was so startled when Kitty had come into her room in the first place.

Cynthia was a gossip, and usually, she couldn't help herself. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to tell Julia and Kitty all about the delicious secret that she'd learned about Sango. Sango was in love with somebody. Cynthia didn't know who it was, but she knew that it had to be the truth, because that's who Sango was like.

She had told Aidan that she couldn't go out with him, because she had someone that she was in love with. A lot of the time, when a girl said that, it was because she was trying to let the guy down easy, and just didn't like him.

But Sango wasn't the kind of person who would do something as insincere as that. Sango was the kind of girl who, if she didn't like someone and didn't want to go out with him, would say that directly. She was honest to a fault, even if she was keeping her feelings a secret.

So while Cynthia wasn't sure who the secret target of Sango's affections was, she knew that it was someone important to her.

And god, she wanted to talk about it so badly! But she couldn't. Cynthia wasn't the kind of girl who would hurt her friend like that. Sango had kept this secret for who knows how long, and didn't give even the slightest hint about her feelings to Cynthia. Which was probably because she didn't want Cynthia to tell everybody.

It was a fair decision, Cynthia had to admit. And yes, the fact that one of her best friends didn't trust her stung, but Cynthia could understand why. Sango clearly wanted NO ONE to know about this, and as far as Cynthia could tell, she was succeeding.

So Cynthia was going to do what a good friend would do in this situation, and keep her mouth shut until Sango was ready to talk about it.

Sango hadn't told her, after all, Cynthia had overheard the conversation. She wasn't supposed to know a damn thing, and was still pretending that she didn't. This was Cynthia's chance to prove to Sango what a good friend she was, and that was why she wasn't going to tell ANYONE what she had heard, even if she really, really wanted to.

And GOD did she really want to.

Talking about Sango and her crush was the perfect draw away from her own miserable love life, letting Cynthia keep her mind off of Blake and Ayame. But she couldn't do it, and it pissed her off! Why did she have to be such a good person?!

Of course, Cynthia didn't even think about confessing the truth to Sango, telling her that she had overheard what Sango had said, and knew that she liked someone. Well, Cynthia had considered it, and sadly dismissed it.

Because she didn't want to wreck things with Sango. If she told Sango that she knew about her crush, that would make things awkward and uncomfortable between the two of them, and Cynthia didn't want that. So she was going to take her secret to the grave, at least until Sango had confessed and gotten together with her boy.

When that happened, it could be a funny little story. But until then, Cynthia was going to guard it with her life!

…

Cynthia was in for a very, very rough life, unfortunately. Her impulse control was shit, and she knew it. She couldn't help it, she wanted to tell EVERYBODY! This must have been what it was like to be Dakota Evans.

"Cynthia, are you okay? You seem a little nervous." Julia asked, studying her. Cynthia was behaving kind of strangely, squirming around on the bed. Julia had noticed that ever since she came back she had seemed somewhat suspicious, like she had a secret to hide. Julia thought that it was because of guilt about her feelings for Blake and Ayame's relationship, but if that wasn't it, then what was the problem? Julia wasn't sure but she wanted to help.

"Huh!?" Cynthia's loud gasp as Julia drew her attention confirmed what Julia feared. "Yeah, like, of course I'm doing fine, why wouldn't I be doing fine? Why do you think I'm not doing fine? I'm perfectly fine, nothing to see here!"

Yeah, Cynthia was definitely not fine.

Cynthia was definitely having an issue of some kind, and Julia wanted to help, if she could. It wasn't like she was doing anything better with her Valentine's Day, that was a day for couples and romance, and she couldn't be bothered with that. Heck, this was probably related to that, if Julia had to guess. Another romantic secret, if only Cynthia could understand that something like that was just a normal thing. People treated romance like it was everything, but… come on. They were in their first year of high school.

It wasn't like they actually needed to worry about their love lives like it was the end of the world, or something. Julia expected that she would eventually fall in love, but for now, it wasn't something to get worked up over.

No, Julia was the kind of person who treated Valentine's Day like any other day, not anything to get concerned about. She thought that Nikita and… ugh, Reiner, were the same, but apparently even they were focusing on romance.

Sango was exactly the kind of girl that Julia was trying to emulate. No feelings of love at all, just focusing on her work. Just like Kitty!

Julia felt lucky that she had Kitty in her life, to show her just what it was like to be so caring and devoted, without getting drawn into dramatic stuff like romance. Her best friend had spent her day working with the caretakers, she knew how Julia felt perfectly! Valentine's Day and romance was for chumps. If Cynthia hadn't caught the love bug, then she wouldn't be feeling so upset earlier.

Yeah, Kitty definitely understood how unnecessary worrying about all this romance was. That's what was so great about her. Even though she didn't have anyone she liked, she could still empathize with those who did. Kitty was lending a hand to someone like Nikita, trying to help her out with her relationship.

Julia was trying to do the same, and she wasn't going to let Cynthia blab her way out of this mess. The redhead was still talking!

"Okay, you got it, you're fine," Julia agreed, not believing her friend for a second. "Anyway, you just seem kind of… wound up. You're not hiding anything, are you? It's okay if you are, but don't worry, you can trust Kitty and I."

"Nope! Hiding nothing!" Cynthia exclaimed, a little too loudly. If Julia had somehow not been convinced already, Cynthia was only making it more and more obvious.

Of course, Cynthia herself was just trying to find a way to end this conversation. She didn't want to let the truth come out! Sango was counting on her! She wasn't about to spoil Sango's first crush like this, not a chance.

It would be awkward, for one thing! And Cynthia wasn't going to let Sango feel embarrassed, especially considering how embarrassing the girl had been while dealing with Aidan. It was definitely going to take Sango a long time to confront her feelings, and until that happened, Cynthia was going to be cheering her on secretly from the shadows.

After all, Sango was… well, she was Sango!

Cynthia had teased her friend a lot about looking like a boy and not being pretty. But when Sango had confessed to her how uncomfortable that made her feel, she had stopped those jokes completely. She had no idea that she was hurting her friend's self-esteem.

How was she supposed to know that? Sango was cute, Cynthia never would have thought that she would be insecure!

Did she look like a boy? Yeah, but that wasn't so bad. She was still cool, and if she put on makeup she definitely had the potential to look appealing. And she was a lot of fun to be around, filled with energy and coming up with new things to do, even if they weren't things that Cynthia found all that enjoyable to do.

Any guy would be lucky to have a cool girlfriend like Sango, just like they would be lucky to have a cool girl like Cynthia as a girlfriend.

Cynthia couldn't help but smile. Now that the awkwardness and shock were starting to wear off, the happiness at knowing that Sango had a crush was starting to set in, and her stomach was getting all bubbly with glee.

Sango was a pretty smart girl, after all. Unlike Cynthia, she wouldn't be dumb enough to fall in love with a guy who had a girlfriend. Sango was going to confess, and it was going to go great! Cynthia was certain of it.

Until that time came, Cynthia was going to ignore the pain in her heart and turn her attention towards her friend, and support her as best as she could.

I believe you can do it, Sango, because you're great. I can't wait for you to get a guy, even if that means I'm going to be, like, one of the only single people left.

Cynthia never would have believed that Sango would get a boyfriend before she did. But that was just the way it worked sometimes.

And Sango definitely deserved it.

Overflowing with happiness thanks to Julia and Kitty, Cynthia gladly agreed to lend her assistance to Nikita.

At least she could do SOMETHING good today, to assuage those feelings of guilt she felt in her heart.

Yeah, this chapter is a little short, but nice and dripping with irony, which is good!