Disappeared Like Air
At long, long last, the day of the 'coronation' had arrived. Cynthia's second villa, rather mansion was absolutely decked up in the best decorations ever with everything in perfection from the swimming pools to the loos- it was clearly a place for royalty; that was the impression she made. At late evening, when the doorbell rang, a long gloved hand opened it. And there she was- Cynthia. This time she was wearing a long orange halter dress with a side split and a tiny jewelled hair band with white stilettos. She looked as if dressed for a prom, but why wouldn't she?
She'd just been elected champion.
"Welcome, please! Do come in!" she greeted all her guests cheerfully and also secretly analysing what each of them were wearing. There were tons of them; the few selected ones seemed so many- Gardenia, Fantina, Crasher Wake, Volkner, Maylene, very young as she was, Candice, then in middle school, Byron and Riley, the previous candidate. No sign of Roark anywhere.
"Welcome to the 10th anniversary of Gym Leader Selections! I am so excited to have all of you over here! I am Cynthia; the new champion! So great to see you!" All of them seemed excited, even Volkner. "Now, as per our rules, you will each have to compete with each other using the classic out of the hat trick. Pick one and see who your opponent is. We'll have the battling in 10 minutes near my pool and then of course drinks afterward!" she instructed. This was pretty exciting of course. Fantina and Crasher Wake were still young, so this was a great moment for them to have fun.
Gardenia on the other hand was worried sick; where was Roark? It was already starting and he was usually punctual. She tried to call him, but Cynthia laid her iron hand in front of her "Sorry miss, no personal calls until the battle is over." Gardenia reluctantly agreed, although she was worried sick too strongly. Where was he?
After sticking in some more hair gel in his lustrous red hair, he took a last look in the mirror. "Perfect. I do look like a ladies' man!" he remarked to himself and then popped his pokeball into his belt. He looked really stunning that day, a dark grey tuxedo with a blue tie and no glasses; a real ladies' man. After stumbling into his door though, Roark deduced that he definitely needed his glasses and then wore them, but he still looked like a handsome devil. Then he went to the door and opened it and smiled; she was here.
A tall model was standing at the door. She had long brown hair, was fair and had eyes of slate grey. It wasn't hard to see why she was a model, she was so beautiful! Her long blue sparkling lace dress made her look like a goddess and she had diamond earrings shaped like Roselia.
"Hello, Luciana. I'm so glad you could make it!" Roark exclaimed nervously giving her red roses. She took them and took a whiff. "Hardly has any smell... Anyway, forget it. You're Roark, right? Boy, you're cute!" she remarked as they walked to his car and drove off to a restaurant not too far from his house. It was a large garden restaurant which had a very Parisian feel to it and wasn't too expensive either. A quaint and beautiful feel was all around and tons of flowers were there. Roark then gallantly let Luciana sit. She rolled her eyes after scanning the place once. "Seriously, what is this place? A restaurant or wedding?" she remarked. Roark blushed "It's a really good restaurant." He replied. She stared at him condescendingly. "I'll take your word for it." She said coldly.
They then took their orders. "I'll have an au gratin, please!" Luciana ordered. "Fish and chips for me. If not fish, put bangers in please!" Roark ordered. Luciana rolled her eyes- was this the unclassiest man she ever met or what?
Gardenia was watching an intense battle. Fantina and Crasher Wake were on their last Pokémon and the battle was so thrilling that Volkner was actually recording it! The last few stages were up and it was still as thrilling as ever.
"Alright, mon ami Drifblim- use Ominous Wind!" Fantina screeched. Crasher Wake smiled. "You really know how to make battles fun, miss. Floatzel, use Razor Wind!" The other face palmed- what was he thinking?
Floatzel jumped high in the air and then whipped up his whirlwind there. Now high up, he attempted to counter the Ominous Wind with the powerful Razor Wind, only to figure out late that it wouldn't affect her, which made Floatzel fall down and hit him quite hard. "Alright, Drifblim- use Psychic!" yelled Fantina smiling smugly. He seemed relatively unfazed by this though, and then instructed and then told Floatzel "Alright, buddy- I want you to use Whirlpool!" The others watched in awe as the attack was then put to use and because of the nature of psychic, the water began to levitate. Fantina was distracted by this sight; seeing this he smiled and then said "Okay, Floatzel- now use Ice Fang and hit the whirlpool hard!" Floatzel did that and in seconds, a large gushing vortex of water combined with a hard, icy bite knocked the balloon out cold.
Fantina was astounded by this- Wake really was clever!
They had a standing ovation and Fantina joined in to; quite contrary to what Wake would expect. "Congrats, Crasher! You are now officially the gym leader of Pastoria City!" Cynthia called out onto the microphone while the others were still cheering the victor. "That was tres fantastique, thanks for the battle!" Fantina commented. "Err... you're welcome?" Wake replied and then high-fived his new colleague. He was really happy- Pastoria had always been close to his heart and Hearthome City was great for Fantina's contest, she'd been tired of travelling anyway.
Gardenia was still not enjoying any of this. It had been hours since this happened and there was still no sign of Roark. Where was that guy? Volkner suddenly walked up to her and said "Wasn't that amazing?" Gardenia smiled "Yeah sure was. Good luck on yours!" Volkner was blushing "Well, I didn't train Luxray for nothing... Wish me luck!" he yelled while running off to Flint for some last minute advice. Gardenia sighed- she liked Volkner, but right now Roark was her priority. When has it never been?
She excused herself and went outside to the garden, which was typical of her, so no suspicions as such. Then she quickly dialled his number and frantically whispered "Come on.. Pick up!"
Roark was meanwhile having a blast with his date that was busy eating and talking to Roark about life in general. "So, what do you think of gardens and flowers?" he asked her. "Gardens, okay. Flowers- they're alright. I don't like them very much." She answered. Roark sighed- was there anything she really liked? Then he popped up "What do you think about Pokémon?"
Luciana stopped eating and said "Pokémon? Wow, what a question! When I was younger, I wanted to be a master trainer myself, you know. I enjoyed being with them, the best being my Budew- she was a real beauty and I wanted her to be a Roserade. But after winning the second gym with a lot of difficulty, I realised that as much I tried to raise them with care, they were heavily under levelled and that my Budew couldn't stand me!" Roark was amazed. "So what did you do next?" he asked after popping down a banger.
"So I just released them and threw away the capsules in the river. Modelling has been my passion since." Roark was astounded. Did people like her ever exist before? Soon, it was time for him to leave and he dropped her off and when he did, he got a call and picked it up. "Hello?" he asked. "Where the hell are you? I've been waiting for you for aeons now, you nuthead! Don't you know how late you are?!" a voice boomed. Roark sighed- it was Gardenia, who else?
"Look, Garda; I'm, busy. Can I call you later?" he said and then cut it. "Hello? Hello?!" Roark then turned his attention to Luciana who spoke "That was a very good date. I like it." Roark blushed. I'm glad you liked it." He confessed. Then he kissed her on the cheek and she didn't protest. "Goodnight." They wished each other and then Roark left for the gym party.
He snuck into the garden with great difficulty- climbing stuff wasn't his forte. He then slipped and fell onto something soft and heard a scream. He turned round and saw he was on Gardenia! "Get off of me!" she yelled pulling his hair. "I sure will if you stop pulling my hair! It's just bogging me down!" he retorted and then got off her in 3 tries. He then helped her up.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked her tenderly only to be responded to with a slap. "You idiot! You deliberately skip this day and go off cruising with someone for what?! Don't you get it- your leader status could have been recalled!" she screamed. Roark shrugged. "I was busy, Gardenia. So stop taunting me."
"Are you insane?! Riley quit because he wanted to give you the gym position! Now we'll have to do this whole thing all over again- in two weeks! And I'd worked and waited so much for this day, which is now screwed up because of you!" she screamed. Roark gulped- what was going on? Gardenia was almost in tears. "Seriously, Roark- what were you thinking?" He sighed and then lay on the grass, following which Gardenia followed suit. "You really wanna know? Okay, I'll tell you. I'm in love." Gardenia turned round in disbelief. "Yes, I went out with the plastic models' sister. Her name is Luciana and she is really cute." He crooned dreamily. Gardenia was seemingly interested, albeit a little disheartened. "Tell me more." She said. "Okay. She is tall, beautiful and looks like an enchanting goddess- like an incarnation of Cresselia herself! We went out to the Flora Wilder restaurant for our date, and I had a great time! I think she likes me too, you know..." he confessed. "Isn't it a bit too early for being in love, it being the first date and all?" Gardenia interjected. "I don't know... I felt really fluttery in my stomach when I saw her, and I think she's really hot. That's sign enough, isn't it?" he replied.
"Yeah, probably." She said sadly and then grabbed his hair. "But I still have to give you payback for that fiasco you caused!" she smirked naughtily and then started pulling it and ruffling it. "Stop it, stop it, Gardy!" he ordered and the found himself chasing her round and ruffling her hair too and just having fun playing until she started to noogie him. "Aaaargh the pain! Gardy, please! We aren't teens anymore!" he moaned. "Come on, I told you, it's punishment! Now feel my wrath!" she scolded and then kept doing this until his face turned red and she left him. "Better." She said smugly, but not for long, for Roark then countered by noogieing her back and it really made her cringe.
"Roark, stop!" she moaned.
"Not until you catch me! Tag, you're it!" he teased while tapping her shoulder and running off. She gleefully joined him and started to chase him till his house. She certainly knew they were to be much more than just friends, that's for sure! But when will anyone learn to see from her perspective?...
