Cynthia's done some pretty bad things. She messed things up for Elaina, but she's trying her best! Hopefully she can apologize and make Elaina feel better. Today's been difficult for Elaina, but I hope the girls will be able to come back and become friends. Elaina needs a lot of care after all if she wants to feel better. Remember to review!

The Final Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has begun! Get the votes going in soon! There are three girls in the finals! Who's going to win? Chloe? Cynthia? Or Vic? One of those girls will become the third best girl, so get those votes in as soon as possible! You've only got one vote this time, so make it count!

Finalists: Chloe, Cynthia, Vic

KedharS: Cynthia's that kind of girl. She does bad stuff, but when she does, she makes sure to apologize for how badly she screws up.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Yup, Elaina fans eating good tonight.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1038

Cynthia walked down the hall with Blake at her side and smelled the savory aroma of her grandparents' dinner, almost ready to be served. Her mouth started to water but she shook her head. Now wasn't the time. They could all get something to eat later, but right now there was something more important that she needed to deal with.

"I hope you're up for this," Blake said. The coldness in his voice stung. Cynthia still liked Blake, even though she knew she shouldn't. So for him to be upset with her like this was painful. But she pushed past that pain and continued on, hoping that she could make things right. Not just so he'd like her again, but because she felt bad about slipping back into her old habits and hurting Elaina the way she would have done months ago.

"I'll do it," she mumbled. "I'm sorry."

The door slid open on the five girls playing cards. For a moment, Cynthia's heart skipped a beat. Caelia was with them! She was playing as well!

It was something to be grateful for. While the brunette had an empty look on her face, she was still in a circle with the rest, which gave Cynthia some hope.

Meanwhile, the girls themselves all reacted with surprise at Blake's presence. With one girl in particular having a stronger reaction than the rest.

Elaina was mortified. She gasped in shock, pulling her bathrobe tightly up to conceal her cleavage, which had the unfortunate downside of pulling the hemline up. Her face burned crimson as she tried in vain to conceal her body from the boy she liked, while Blake just stared at her in shock.

He turned on Cynthia with an icy glare.

"So this is why you were getting her a bathrobe?" He growled.

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Cynthia weakly protested. He could smell the obvious lie.

"…Apologize for that, too," Blake muttered.

She weakly nodded.

"Wh-What's going on here?!" Elaina demanded, her anxiety and embarrassment rising.

"What's going on here is that Blake thought it would be cute to come in on us girls," Julia answered her. She was smirking. "Even though for all he knew, we could be busy getting changed right now. Quite a guy."

"Julia!" Kitty exclaimed, her pale cheeks pinkening. She swatted harmlessly at her taller friend. "Stop joking around like that! Stuff like that isn't funny!" She didn't want to think about Blake walking in on her changing clothes. She would have died of humiliation.

And she wouldn't have been the only one. Elaina was already practically dead from shame, and she wasn't even naked. Yet.

"It-It's nothing," Cynthia stammered. "Hey, listen… Elaina?"

She held up the bathrobe. Elaina sighed in relief. Then her eyes slid over to Blake. Blake's cheeks turned red. He was having a hard time figuring out where to look when it came to Elaina's body. He silently cursed Cynthia.

Cynthia handed over the bathrobe and Elaina gave a cautious glance over at Blake, who was still standing there awkwardly. He realized a little too late what was going on.

"Okay, get out of here," Sango snapped, getting up and dragging him to the door, sliding it shut behind him.

Elaina began to strip her too-tight bathrobe off, when she paused. She glanced at Cynthia, pausing. Her eyes were suspicious.

"…Okay," Cynthia said, dutifully turning around, even though it wouldn't be anything she hadn't seen before.

Elaina was surprised, but didn't push her luck. She finished changing, relieved that the bathrobe was a much better fit. There was nothing she could do about her cleavage, she was always going to show a little. But at least it didn't look like it would fall off of her with a passing breeze, which was an improvement.

"Hey, Elaina…" Cynthia's mumble reminded Elaina that the other girl was still looking away from her and staring at the wall.

"…You can turn around now, I'm done changing," Elaina said. But that wasn't what Cynthia was going to talk to her about.

Cynthia turned around, and Elaina was surprised by the guilt on her face.

"Hey, um… can we go outside and talk?" She asked. The girls were all surprised by this (with the exception of Caelia who didn't care) but none were more surprised than Elaina. She stared at Cynthia in confusion.

"Talk… about what?" She asked, narrowing her eyes with suspicion. She couldn't think about what business Cynthia would have with her. But she wasn't saying no. This was part about making friends, she supposed.

"I want to apologize," Cynthia said.

"…You already kind of did that…" Elaina said.

"Not very well," Sango coughed. Cynthia shot her a dark glare. Then she turned back to Elaina with a wary expression.

"So… what do you think?" She asked hopefully.

Elaina let out a long sigh, and nodded reluctantly. She headed out of the room after Cynthia, to where Blake was waiting obediently.

"…Does he need to be here?" Elaina asked, glancing cautiously at him.

"I asked him here to help me apologize," Cynthia said. "He's… well… I think you know what he means to me."

Elaina didn't say anything, she just crossed her arms over her chest. "…It's okay I guess," she mumbled, shrugging. "So… you wanted to say sorry?"

"Yeah," Cynthia nodded. "I'm sorry for what I did. You know. In the bath."

"You mean how you touched me all over?" Elaina scowled. It had been the first time someone had touched her body like that. And even if it was only brief, it still made her skin crawl. "That was… horrible."

"I know!" Cynthia exclaimed. She lowered her head. "And I'm so, so sorry! I was just playing around! I know that doesn't make it better, but I'm sorry for hurting you! I didn't want to do it, but I couldn't control myself!"

Elaina was still scowling. That didn't make her feel any better.

"I'm sensitive about my body," she said. "I don't… I'm sure you realize that I'm not the kind of person who winds up in situations like this very often. I came on this trip because I wanted to change that about myself, but if I'd known that you would do something like that-"

"I know, and I'm sorry! I swear, I didn't invite you just to do perverted stuff to you!" Cynthia tried to reassure her, but everything she said was falling on deaf ears. "I just… I wanted to make you more comfortable!"

Blake sighed, rubbing his forehead. That was possibly the worst thing that she could have said. "Cynthia… try again."

Cynthia straightened up. Elaina flinched. The redhead was actually crying.

"I'm a really physical person," Cynthia mumbled. "I always hug my friends close, that's how I'm friends with them."

Elaina had noticed that.

"Well, I'm not," she said, shifting her stance so she was a little further away from the other girl. "I've never been the sort to put much stock in contact with others," she asserted. It didn't help that there weren't a lot of people who would be willing to touch her, or even get close to her.

But at the same time, there was a trace of lie in her words. She did like being hugged. Even by someone like Cynthia. But when it came to other parts of her…

Elaina shook her head. No. That was different. Touching her in that way wasn't okay. It was important for Cynthia to recognize that. And fortunately, it seemed like she did.

"I know, and I'm so sorry," Cynthia said again. She'd be apologizing for the rest of this trip if it would make Elaina feel better. "Listen, I don't know how I can make it up to you, but if there's anything you want, please let me do it!" She pleaded.

Elaina stepped back instinctively. Cynthia's expression was so earnest she didn't know how to respond to it.

"W-Well…" Elaina was upset, but she didn't know what to make of this. She may have been the kind of person to hold a grudge, but it felt almost silly to keep holding a grudge over a situation like the one she was in. Groping her was bad, of course, but considering the limited amount of social interaction and contact Elaina had, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. If Cynthia was really feeling this bad about it, then maybe…

"…Look!" Elaina shouted, clearing her throat. "If you really feel bad about what you did, then just make sure you never do it again, okay?" She demanded. "If… If you do that, then I'll be okay with forgiving you, alright?"

Truthfully, she didn't want to stay mad at Cynthia. She'd actually felt joy back in the bath. Before the groping, back when they were bonding together over their feelings for Blake. It had made her feel like she had a real friend.

At the end of the day, what saved Cynthia was the fault in Elaina's character. Gerard had long-proved that she was the sort of person whose loneliness and desperation for acceptance would lead her to cling onto anyone she could, even the most toxic influences. So even if Cynthia wasn't exactly toxic, Elaina would still hold onto her.

So she forgave Cynthia… provisionally! She was provisionally forgiving her! She wasn't going to let Cynthia get away with groping her without a sternly-worded chastisement! After all, Elaina wasn't a pushover!

Cynthia was so grateful for the fact that Elaina was forgiving her that she completely forgot the lesson that she'd just learned. She leapt forward and hugged Elaina, burying her face in the other girl's chest, much to Elaina's shock.

"Oh, thank you Elaina! Thank you!" To Elaina's minor relief, Cynthia wasn't motorboating her. She was just hugging her tightly. But that was completely out of her thoughts as she pried the clingy redhead off of her.

"Yes, it's fine, whatever! Let go of me!" Elaina hissed, pushing Cynthia away. Her face was scarlet. She turned to Blake, and saw that he was looking away, his face pink with embarrassment. She turned even redder with shame.

"Uh… Blake…"

"Ahem," Blake cleared his throat, still not making eye-contact with her. "Come get me when it's time for dinner, okay? The guys are getting hungry over here."

"R-Right," Cynthia nodded. She turned to Elaina, relieved that she wasn't making everything worse. "So… should we go?" She sniffed the air and smiled wistfully. It was suppertime, and now that this was resolved, she wanted to eat.

Elaina nodded. She was so used to eating meals by herself, it would be nice to eat around a table for once.

The two headed back to their room.

Dinner was a masterpiece. There were mountains of food on the long table, and even the people who weren't hungry when they entered suddenly found their appetites, with the exception of Caelia. Sango in particular was thrilled by the display.

"This all looks great!" She gushed, plopping down into a seat with Silver floating down beside her. "What is this? Teriyaki? And all that rice! Thank you!"

"Why, thank you dearie," Grandma Rose giggled. "When Roland and I heard you were coming after the last time you stayed with us, I made some special preparations. After all, it wouldn't do for you to eat us out of house and home again."

"Oh, thank you so much!" Sango grinned.

The others all sat down and began to eat. The food was delicious.

"Those baths were as comfortable as I remember," Will said.

"I thought it was great too," Nick nodded. "Nice and relaxing."

"That's great to hear," Roland smiled. "What about you, missy? How was your private bath?" He turned to Caelia, who was absentmindedly eating rice.

"…Huh?" Caelia asked, looking up.

"That private bath is one of the nicest ones," Roland said. "So how was it?"

Cynthia glanced at Caelia, urging her to at least say something nice.

"…Okay," Caelia muttered, turning back to the food that she couldn't really taste. Meanwhile, the others continued eating, talking about what they planned to do for the trip.

"…What about you, sweetheart? How are you enjoying things?" Grandma Rose, kind as always, turned to Elaina, who was occupying herself with eating dinner, and hadn't expected to engage in any conversations.

"Uh… huh?" Elaina set down her fork, confused.

"This is your first time staying at an inn, right?" Roland asked. "So, how are you enjoying things?"

Elaina blinked. "It's… nice, I suppose," she murmured, a little embarrassed to be put on the spot like this. "To be honest, I… I… liked it."

"It's the best! Grandma, grandpa, we had a blast!" Cynthia giggled. "Thank you for letting us all come, guys!"

"Anything for our little Cynthia," Grandpa Roland said, patting her on the head.

"We're so happy to see you this happy," Grandma Rose agreed.

Elaina stared across the table at Cynthia, who was bright and smiling, being doted on by her loving grandparents.

She glanced down at her food, and trembled. She reached in for another forkful, and her face lit up as she took a bite.

Tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"Elaina?! Are you okay?" Blake asked.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Rose gasped. "Is the food not to your liking? It isn't too spicy, is it? I know us Lavaridge folks put a few spicy seasonings in our teriyaki, but if that's a problem…"

"No, it… it's not that…" Elaina sniffled, wiping her eyes. "I just… I'b sho habby!" She sobbed, dropping her fork.

She stared at Cynthia through her tears.

"This warmth… I've never felt anything like this before," she said. "It's… a homecooked meal, this feeling of family…"

Elaina had never had a family dinner before. She'd never shared a meal around a table before. She spent most of her time eating takeout in her room playing video games and watching anime and tv filled with people living happier lives than she ever had.

Today, she'd gone through so many things for the first time, it wasn't even funny. And it was all too much. She broke down crying, feeling love with every bite of food.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Sango murmured, glancing at Elaina. She had a far more massive mountain of food on her plate than the girl who was sitting next to her. "Not just because I'm pretty hungry. But this… yeah, I get it."

Sango knew the score without even having to ask. It wasn't her first dance with the "eating dinner all by herself" crowd.

"You know… it's been a really long time since I've had a family meal, myself," Sango said. "In fact… it was the last time I was here, actually. But with my family, well…"

It felt a little awkward to talk about her family situation given Elaina's own circumstances. But she couldn't help herself, it was just the truth of the matter. She might not have had things as hard, but she definitely had her own issues.

She continued regardless. "My step-mom wants me to come over sometimes and have a meal with her, you know, for break," Sango said. "In fact, well… she actually wanted me to come have spring break with her, too."

"Oh, really?" Cynthia asked, surprised. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Sango sighed. "I guess… well, I wasn't sure if I wanted to. My dad won't be there, after all, and just me and Elizabeth…"

Sango had long-since moved on from disliking her step-mother. She even kinda loved her. A little. In a "not mother" capacity anyway. But that was a different story from staying with her for the break, and being… ugh. A family with her.

"So what, you came here because you didn't want to spend time with your step-mom?" Cynthia asked. "Are you sure that's… okay?"

"What about it?" Sango sniffed, scowling. "I don't want to make a problem out of it. She's great. But you know how it is. Elizabeth is just… well…"

"Tsundere," Reiner coughed under his breath. Nick snickered.

"Hey, come on guys, if Sango doesn't want to hang out with her stepmother she doesn't have to," Aidan frowned.

"Shinx!" Arion called up from the floor.

Cynthia rolled her eyes. What a shock, Aidan was defending Sango.

Sango, to her credit, ignored what the others were saying and turned back to Elaina. "Look. My stepmom is great, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for family bonding time with her just yet. But if I'm being honest…"

Her cheeks flushed and she looked down at the ground.

"Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad? Spending time with her…"

Elaina stared enviously at her. "You're lucky. Even if she's just a stepmother… at least you have someone precious to you."

"…Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry," Sango apologized.

"N-No!" Elaina gasped, shaking her head. "I didn't mean to blame you or anything like that! Or trying to say that my own situation is worse, I just… well… I might have said too much."

She sighed, wiping her face. It was hard to make friends with people.

Well, at least she's trying. And poor Elaina, she's been through some rough times. But I hope she'll be able to make things better by bonding with the others. Her family issues, and her friend issues, and her issues in general, they're hard. Can Cynthia, Blake, Sango, and the rest help?