The next morning all of Rustboro was buzzing. Word had gotten out that there had been a battle on the outskirts of town and Stella Stone had been involved.
"All of Hoenn is watching you! No. Not all of Hoenn, the whole pokemon world is watching you!" Mari was flaming. She had brandished a bamboo stick and was hitting Stella's palms until deep cuts started to appear. "How many times have I told you not to do anything stupid?!" Mari fumed. "Will this be another episode like the one you had in seventh grade?"
The words cut Stella more than the bamboo lashings did. She vividly remembered the seventh grade fiasco, where she and Brawley had flooded Rustboro.
"Just five minutes ago, I got a call from the Slateport ship department asking if we could cancel our orders. They don't want bad press, you understand?" Mari had stopped hitting Stella.
"I understand, Grandmother." Stella muttered. Silver strands of hair were slipping out of her messy bun, covering her face.
…
"Are you okay?" Roxanne bent over the little silver-haired freshman.
"Hmm? Yeah I'm fine."
"All of Rustboro's been talking."
"Yeah tell me about it." Stella muttered sarcastically.
Why wasn't Gardenia at school yet? Was nidoran that badly hurt? Either way, Stella couldn't bear talking to Roxanne, especially not after what she saw last night.
"Hey Stel, hey Roxie." A husky voice came from behind her.
"Brawley!" Roxanne jumped into his muscular arms and hugged him tightly. Although Roxanne was showing him lots of affection, Stella could feel his eyes on her back. They should have been on Roxanne.
"Stel, what's up? I heard some news." Brawley almost shoved Roxanne off of him.
"Whatcha hear?" Stella turned around to face his ice blue eyes. They were so frosty that she couldn't really bear to look him straight in the eyes.
"Just…there was some brawl by the flower shop." Brawley showed no hint of fear or knowledge that she might have seen him there.
"Yeah. I was there. I was having tea with Gardenia." Stella said. "Don't trust the media though, I wasn't involved." It was partly true. She did not tell Brawley that she stepped out of the house and chased members of Team Aqua, she absolutely couldn't.
Brawley stood in thoughtful motionless for a split second which to Stella felt like an eternity.
"Hey Rox, wanna get us all a drink or something? Looks like it's been hard on Stella." Brawley turned and smiled to Roxanne, who happily obliged.
As soon as Roxanne was out of sight, Brawley sat behind Stella and wrapped his strong arms around her.
For a moment, Stella wanted to melt into them. She felt so familiar with Brawley, having spent a majority of her life with him.
"WOAH! What are you doing?!" Stella immediately jumped.
"Relax. I'm just comforting you, dude." Brawley seemed a little hurt, but mostly confused.
"Sorry it's just…" Stella had no way of telling him the honest truth, "it's just…you know I've already had a scandal, and people seeing us together could just lead to more trouble."
This was partly true. But she mostly was now afraid of Brawley. She was now convinced she had seen him. She was also afraid of Tate or Roxanne finding out, two friends who she held dearly on to.
"Yeah, you're totally right. I'm totally sorry, bro" Brawley put his hands up in defeat.
"Hey…this might seem random but…where the heck have you been these past two weeks?" Stella regretted it as soon as it came out of her mouth.
"Ha! You've been worried huh?" Brawley, however, did not seem to notice that her question had a goal. "Just been helpin' my dad on the small island. Hey Dewford ain't as mighty and good as Sootopolis or your hometown, Mossdeep." Brawley laughed good naturedly.
"Huh…yeah…" Stella laughed a short and sharp laugh.
Stella needed to get rid of her feelings for Brawley. Although he laughed it off most of the time, she knew he too could feel the tension between them. They had had a fling back a year ago, which wasn't much since Stella was still in eighth grade.
The two had been friends for so long, that they were starting to fall for each other, but Stella had to stop it. She had Tate, Brawley had Roxanne. Stella also knew that her father and grandparents would be angry if she dated Chris's son. Media would cover it, it would be an even bigger mess than the bitter court case that involved both their fathers. She could not lose control of her life like this.
…
Stella walked to the Devon Corp from school completely alone. Gardenia had not shown up all day. The tall brown building loomed ahead, cold and unwelcoming. Only her pokemon, who raced out of the building stuck a smile on her face. Her happiness was cut short when she saw her grandmother walk out with an emotionless face.
"I've decided to send back your pokemon" Mari stated.
"WHAT?" Stella quickly bent down and held her arms protectively over them.
"It's punishment for you. I've decided that there is no other way." Mari and her flaafy waited in the doorway for Stella to give them up.
"No wait…I need them for battle class. Do you want me to fail?" Hope began fluttering in Stella's heart.
"Fine. Only keep one" Mari said.
"I can't" Stella wrapped her arms tighter
"Then fail your class" Mari retorted
Stella looked at her friends. She could see all three had been miserable in Rustboro. There were no open spaces like there were in Mossdeep. The salty air did not exist either, even though Rustboro lined the coast. She had to make a choice. Sending them back would make them happier.
"Which of you guys is the most homesick?" Stella expected an immediate answer, but all three just shifted around slightly. It was clear they would rather be homesick than leave Stella.
Sandshrew had been Stella's first friend. He was a gift to her from Sandie, Stella's mother, for her eighth birthday. He would accompany her on archeological digs where Stella helped her mother. During one of those digs, Stella had found lileep's fossil. It wasn't until a couple of months ago that Stella had gotten beldum from her father. Her father worked closely with the breeders in between Verdanturff and Mauville to breed his world famous metagross.
"Your decision?" Mari was losing her patience.
"I'll keep sandshrew" Stella was going to write a note to her father to send beldum to the breeders where it could level up and train. She planned on giving lileep to her mother for a year, so lileep could help with the digs. Lileep loved the digs and Stella could tell that she was really missing them.
Stella returned both pokemon to their pokeballs and handed them to Mari. She was sad but she knew it had to be done.
…
It was about a month later, and Stella had not seen Brawley since she gave her pokemon to Mari. Today, however, she spotted him hanging near the pokemart.
"Hey Brawley, what's up?" Stella and Gardenia approached him.
Gardenia had been keeping tabs on Brawley's activity. She had seen him on the edges of the Petalburg woods several times, but curiously he had never shown up to school.
"Uh, nothing much actually. Hey bro, I really gotta get going. I'm going to Slateport and it would be a bummer to miss my bus." Brawley waved friendlily to the duo and jogged over to the bus stop.
"Why Slateport?" Gardenia asked, scrunching her nose.
"Why not? We're going there too!" Stella and Gardenia had planned their trip to Slateport a week earlier. Gardenia had never been, but Stella had been plently of times.
"Yeah…maybe he just wants to catch some waves" Gardenia was still not convinced of Brawley's motives. He had plenty of waves on Dewford.
…