Disclaimer: same as on Chapter 2
"All right ladies, here's how we're gonna do this. You're gonna do splits, you're gonna do flips, me and you are going to fly, and you four will catch us," the captain of the cheerleading team said to the large group of girls trying out for the cheerleading squad. Many of them wearing short-shorts and tank tops on the scorching summer day.
"You're telling me that you guys practice right next to each other every day?" Tommy asked to a slightly shorter member of the Battling team, he and several other male teammates standing on the grass practice field, watching the cheerleaders doing their practice on the other grass field.
"Yea man, it's great. You must be a freshman, I've never seen you before, I'm Coli-," the 17 year old Senior started. He had on a black baseball hat, athletic shorts, and a blue t-shirt.
"More like awesome," Tyler butted in, standing off to the side next to Barry, Barry copying the way Tyler was standing, arms folded across his chest.
"Yea, that too. Anyway, I'm Colin Campo," he said, shaking Tommy's hand. Colin had light brown skin and dark brown eyes and buzz-cut hair.
"Hey Colin, what time is it?" someone asked from his other side.
He checked his watch, "It's 2:58pm Freddie, 2 minutes til we start."
"Aren't you a little hot man? I'm Tommy by the way," he asked Freddie, looking at his red turtleneck under a black leather jacket and tan jeans.
"Nope, I run cold, this is perfect for me," Freddie replied, pulling his brown hair to the side. He was almost the same height as Tommy and had bright blue eyes.
"You know what else is going to be perfect? This team," Tyler said smirking, "You know why?"
"Because we're-" Colin cut off his reply as he 'whewed' at several of the cheerleaders who did the splits at the same time, a few of the other guys commenting to themselves quietly in admiration.
"Hey frosh, who's the other frosh?" Tyler said, nodding his head towards Karim, who was sitting down next to his Spoink off to the side.
"Oh I met him earlier today, that's Karim. From what I saw of him, he's not the most social guy," Tommy replied.
"What's Coach doing recruiting loners for the team?" Tyler snorted. His Pokégear beeped in his pocket and he took it out, checking it.
"He's all alone," Barry added, stating the obvious, his usual.
Over on the sidelines of the field, most of the girls were sitting. Some grooming or talking to their Pokémon. One girl, a junior, was going around to all the potential walk-ons and freshmen, introducing herself. She had on a pink sundress and gold gladiator sandals, her long aquamarine-blue hair in a high ponytail. "Hi there, I'm Megan Bower," she said happily, greeting a newbie, who introduced herself as well, complimenting Megan's large almond shaped emerald green eyes.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Tyler yelled to everyone, he quickly walked over to the girls, "Chat time's over ladies, we're going in to the stadium." All the members of the team and newbies got up, some of the guys reluctant to go because the cheerleaders were holding their attention well. Tyler walked over to Tommy, putting his arm around his shoulders. "Hey man, what's the haps?"
"Just going to the arena..."
"Oh, good. Well, just a fair warning, we do haze freshmen. WAM! See?" At 'wam' Tyler yanked Tommy's jeans down and ran away laughing.
"Booyah!" Barry chimed in, getting close to Tommy, who pulled his jeans back up, then joining Tyler.
"Wha- Who is that guy? And what's with the black guy?" Tommy asked Colin who was standing next to him.
"That's Tyler and Barry. Last year when Barry was a freshman he viewed Tyler as his idol pretty much," he said.
"Man, now your pants are all dirty. Candy anyone?" Freddie asked from the side, holding out a bag of gummies.
"Nah, I'm good. And Tyler is?" Tommy asked.
"He's a junior. And team captain," Colin replied, he and Freddie continuing the walk, Tommy freezing up for a second then following.
Everyone followed Tyler into the giant stadium. They walked through the tunnel-like hallways where fans would be pressed wall-to-wall and all the snack bars and merchandise vendors would normally be busy serving fans, but now it was silent and lifeless and their footsteps echoed. They went into a 'authorized personnel only' door and walked down several flights of stairs into a dimly lit hallway. It was pointed out that the men's and women's locker rooms, as well as trainer's office, were right here. They rounded a corner and continued walking, the hallway growing brighter and brighter, one slight turn later and the sun beamed brightly ahead. The sun was soon in their eyes and after a little adjusting realized that they were walking out onto the official field of the arena.
The freshmen's eyes were radiant with awe as they took in the scene. The arena looked big from the outside, but standing on the field itself, the grass perfectly sculptured and weed-free, and looking up to the stands, it was massive. Empty gray rows piled on top of one another, reaching all the way to the top of the arena, a press box was directly above them, giant unlit TV monitors where the score and replays were shown were to the left and right, about three-quarters the way up, and large bunches of lights were scattered around the very top wall of the arena. The returning students always enjoyed that first step onto the field, but it was something they were accustomed to.
"Glad you all could make it, huddle up over here," one of the coaches called from the middle of the battle field, standing with several others around him. The group assembled in front of the five member coaching staff, some taking a knee.
"As you all should know, but if for some weird reason you don't, I'm Marshall Barkley, your head coach. This will begin my ninth season here as head coach. Over to my right is your assistant coach, Kent Sanders, then there's your athletic trainer, Kevin Barrett. And to my left is your other assistant coach Lesley Michaels, and the athletic director of the school Daniel Bell. And amongst you is Eric, he's a senior and the student manager of the team," he pointed to each member as he introduced them. Marshall was wearing his usual coaching attire: khaki pants, brown leather shoes, a blue polo with the HHH logo, and a blue athletic jacket with orange stripes down the sleeves, also with the logo. He had brown hair with small hints of gray and brown eyes.
"Now, to begin tryouts, I'd like to say something that's always been stuck in my mind. Once upon a time, some weak, pathetic pussy coined the phrase 'winning isn't everything'," Coach Barkley began.
"HA HA HA, yea...some moron," Tyler said while laughing heavily.
"Thank you Tyler. Well, for most people at most schools, that pussy was correct. But not here. Humilau High has won eleven World championships, four under my coaching, and nineteen Unova championships, seven under my coaching," he gestured his hand at the plethora of blue and orange banners hanging on one end of the arena,
"Last year we made it to the World semi-finals, and the year before we were the World champions. And ladies and gentlemen... we don't just beat our opponents, we destroy them. We make them wish they had never set foot in a Pokemon stadium or field ever. And we never, ever, lose on this field. Humilau High currently has the longest consecutive home game winning streak set at 66... and I don't intend to have that end anytime soon. Now that you know that this isn't some limp fish operation, let's go back to the practice fields and put in some work," Coach Marshall finished. He and the coaching staff began leading the way back to the fields.
"Coach, we're short one person," Eric said showing Coach Marshall his clipboard.
"Who is it?"
"Kirk Lazarus."
"My top recruit? You'd better find him Eric, you'd better find him now!" he said sternly, pointing at Eric's chest, and continued on his way.
"Yes Coach," Eric stepped to the side and took out his Pokégear to contact the absent freshman.
AN: And that's Chapter 3! Another quick update because I had nothing better to be doing haha. I hope you all enjoyed it, I sure did. Let me know what you think :) There's a lot of OC's to be seen, so if yours hasn't made an appearance yet, just wait, they all will, I'd rather not OC-bomb you guys xD The next chapters will be much longer than these first ones
OC's: Colin Campo belongs to CaptainPrice, Frederick "Freddie" Viceman belongs to Moth's Aflame, and Megan Samantha Bower belongs to Fizzy Starburst
