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Stella Lorren was lying back on a lawn chair in her backyard, sipping a glass of lemonade that her mother's Machamp had brought out for her. She uttered a brief thanks to him and clinked her glass against his. The Machamp gulped down the lemonade in one swig and went back inside the house.
With a sigh, Stella put her glass down on the grass and sat up. She glared at Machamp's back as he went inside the house and changed rooms through the sliding door. She and the buff Pokémon were in a small fight, each annoyed at the other tendencies around the house. That was usual, though, but Stella's mother thought it was cute. After all, there's a fine line between love and hate, she'd always say. The two of them had that sort of teasing relationship.
With Machamp gone, Stella decided she could spend a bit more time with her favorite Pokémon. She glanced around the yard, which was full of Pokémon, some wild and some hers, and her face lit up when she spotted a Pachirisu eating berries from her mother's prized Oran berry bush.
"Pachi!" Stella cried out, not leaving her seat. The Pachirisu turned around dashed to the lawn chair. It chattered in Stella's ear excitedly.
Stella picked Pachi up and cradled her in her arms. "Hehe, you're not supposed to eat from mother's prized Oran berry bush!" she scolded lightly, not caring herself. Pachi licked its lips unconsciously and hopped down to the ground.
The lean girl stared up at the sun with a hand over her eyes. "It's a nice day out, huh? Let's go for a walk." She lifted her legs over the side of the lawn chair and stood up to stretch. She was of average height, five feet, three inches. Sixteen years of age.
She yawned as she stretched and then looked down at Pachi. Pachi was staring up at Stella expectantly. Stella slipped on a pair of flip flops that were lying around and walked across the grass to the patio space. A leather handbag was perched next to a stone water fountain, mocking the faux fur wallet that lay on the grass that belonged to Stella's mother.
Stella picked up the leather handbag and motioned for Pachi to follow her. She walked past the sliding door and down the carpeted hallway. Machamp was watching TV in the living room, and Stella looked the other way. She couldn't believe the things her mother would do to insult her. Machamp didn't even like TV. He probably bitched to Stella's mother and she told him to steal Stella's TV time. But Stella tried not to let it affect her; she was going out with Pachi.
The two of them went out the front door and walked down the cracked summer sidewalk. Kids were playing in the street with garden hoses stretched to the last bit of rubber, and a serious looking man in a business suit was sweating insanely as he dashed down the street towards his car. Stella's street was pretty quiet, most of the time. It was one of those side streets so not many cars went down it.
Stella waved to the kids playing in the water and kept walking. She glanced at her wrist where the sun shone piercing light onto her watch. "Right on time…" she muttered under her breath, and quickened her pace. Pachi followed along at her ankles.
And right on time she was. Just as she turned the corner towards a quaint area with a park, she saw him. He was there every afternoon at the same time every day. Stella wondered if he was ever there at another time of the day, and where he was when he wasn't at the park. She figured he was homeless, as he was always badly shaven. He looked young though, maybe in his twenties or early thirties.
Stella walked up to him casually and sat down on the bench he was sitting at. He hardly looked up. Today was the day, she thought, that she would finally speak to him.
"Um, hi." Stella said quickly, letting Pachi crawl onto her lap. The man looked up at her. He looked down at Pachi, and then looked away again.
"Go away." He mumbled.
"What's your name?" Stella didn't back down. She figured she could try being the annoying brat type, and that might get something out of him.
"Get the hell away from me." The man growled, stood up, and walked away. Stella scrambled up off the bench and tailed him. Pachi squeaked along at her feet.
"Wait! I only want to know your name. I see you every day here at the park, and I wondered maybe if you were homeless or something… oh sorry I didn't mean to say that! I just meant, um…" Stella blurted out, failing miserably at being stealthy about it, but gained a check on the annoying brat scale.
"Earl. Mr. Wavers to you. Now, get outta my way." Earl hissed, and picked up his pace, holding himself back from kicking the blue creature that chittered away at his heels. He liked to feel his boot hit soft, warm fur. It gave him comfort, in a way.
"Mr. Wavers… okay, um, I won't bother you anymore! Come on, Pachi." Stella mumbled, picking her Pokémon up just before Earl lost his nerves. She walked back in the opposite direction, taking in the experience.
Earl only grouched about it to Margot later.
With a skip in her step, Stella was already planning to talk to him again at another date. Her mind was up in the clouds, thinking about homeless men and benches when she knocked into something cold, and flailed her arms in apology.
"Ah, I'm so sorry… oh," Stella began, but quickly realized she was apologizing to a pole. Laughter erupted from behind her, and Stella went red. She turned to see a little girl laughing her head off at Stella. Pachi hissed in annoyance at the small girl, and wrapped around Stella's legs in a move of comfort.
"Haha lady! You ran into a pole! What kind of trainer does that?" The little girl giggled, pointing to Pachi. "My Azurill knows I would never do something stupid like that!" A bouncing blue ball of energy hopped up from behind her, squealing in its own tongue.
"Want to battle on that?" Stella's voice grew cold, taking her job as a trainer seriously. She would be teased by her mother constantly on this factor the most, and she was always ready to prove people wrong, even if it was just a little girl.
"Sure thing, lady! My Azurill would beat your stupid Pachirisu any day!" The girl stuck out her tongue in defiance. Her Azurill charged forward at Pachi, who nimbly dodged the mediocre move.
"Agility." Stella said coolly, and Pachi raced forward and batted Azurill's tail. Azurill bounced backwards in pain.
"Pachi, use Spark!" Stella commanded before the little girl could even respond with a move, and her prized Pokémon rushed in for the fainting move. The Azurill went down in an instant. A crowd had gathered to watch the small battle, and cheered momentarily before leaving. The little girl looked in tears, and Stella approached her.
"It's okay. You had an obvious type disadvantage. Maybe when you're older, you can carry a few more Pokémon on you and defeat me." Stella comforted her. The little girl sniffled and looked up, eyes wide. She opened her mouth to say something, but kicked Stella in the shin and ran.
Stella cursed loudly at the little girl, vowing not to let that slide, and Pachi bit the escaping wounded Azurill for effect. With annoyance, the two of them huffed off back home. Machamp was still watching TV, a bit saddened.
"Really?" Was all Margot had to say when Earl explained his afternoon trip to the park. She had cooled off from last night when she criticized him for going out every day and night.
"Yeah. Crazy girl. How many skins have you done so far?" Earl asked, changing the subject.
"Only a couple. It's hard and dirty work, ya know? Why don't you do a few and see how you like it? They smell disgusting too. I'm taking a break right now." Margot said in a stream of words.
"Great, great… I'll get on that." Earl sighed and turned around. "Where are the bodies? In the back?" Margot nodded and he went to fetch the dark plastic garbage bag which held bodies of at least thirty Pokémon. Earl donned a pair of gloves before reaching into the bag.
"Could you do that somewhere else? It smells like shit." Margot commented, petting a furry skin she had removed earlier and put on the desk.
"Too bad, it'd smell back there anyway." Earl retorted, placing a corpse on the floor. It was a Raticate. He began work with a scalpel and a few surgical tools and scraped its organs out into a clear baggy. Margot held her nose and shuffled through papers on the desk.
It took Earl a good twenty minutes to scrape the majority of innards from the body without wrecking the skin. He took a few more minutes washing the skin out and sewing the skin back up. He threw the see through baggy in a dark garbage bag with other baggies of guts in it, and went to wash his hands.
"Why are you stopping, Earl? I did like, a billion corpses, and you did one! Not fair." Margot complained, but Earl ignored her.
"I'll do more later. I need a nap." Earl insisted and headed upstairs.
"Nap my ass! You take way too many naps, in my opinion, and…" Margot shouted, but Earl tuned her out and drifted away into dreamland, dreaming of zombie Pokémon and bags of organs.