Ten minutes later, Heather stood in front of a jumbo-sized screen, waiting for the tournament bracket for the first event to show up. She was hesitant to see who she was competing against, and she prayed that it was not Spade, Lilith, or Lauren so early on in the competition. Finally, the screen pinged, and the five brackets dividing the twenty competitors into groups of four appeared. Pictures and names with lines in between them and squares around them popped into view, and Heather's eyes frantically searched the board.

Heather was in the second bracket, with, to her dismay, Spade. She sighed, telling herself he might only be in this event with her; he could be placed in another bracket every other event, even though she knew it was more than likely for her to be placed with him again.

The other two competitors were both boys around her age like Spade. One competitor, named Free (she was informed by the bracket), was the boy she had seen chasing after his Wooper. She hadn't gotten a good look at him earlier, but if he wouldn't have seemed like such an idiot, Heather would have found him cute. Gibby was the other Pokéathlete, a plain-looking boy with a chubby face and curly, dirty-blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail, whom she had competed with before. She knew he only competed with Teddiursa and its evolution, Ursaring.

"Hey, that's you on the screen next to me!"

Heather's thoughts were interrupted as someone tapped her shoulder. She automatically stepped away and looked for the speaker. It was Free, holding his Wooper.

Surveying the trainer, Heather stuck out her hand and Free shook it, letting go over Wooper with one arm and holding him tighter with the other. "I'm Heather Glacies. I saw you chasing your Wooper earlier."

Free laughed nervously, "Ha! Yeah. Wooper gets into all sorts of trouble—don't ya, buddy? At least he didn't try to get a peek up your shorts like those girls over there." He pointed at Lauren and Rachael who chatted animatedly on a bench. "Oh, by the way! I'm Free. Free Flarez."

It was Heather's turn to laugh now. Suddenly, things got quiet and awkward. Heather sighed, "Well, I'm going to head off to competition field. I guess I'll see you then, Free."

"Yeah, see you," Free sighed as well, taking a separate way to the field.

The first event in the competition was the Snow Throw. Being in the second bracket allowed Heather to watch the other competitors in the first bracket compete first. Lilith was in the first round, along with Clover's brother Deka, and Clover herself. The fourth competitor, Heather didn't recognize. He was thin with a little muscle, and had inky-blue hair that was spiked up at the front. It made Heather smile to know that Lilith was up against two of her friends, and by the looks of things, the trainer she did not recognize seemed to have exceptionally skilled Pokémon. Could he be the Hoenn champion?

A loud buzzer went off, ending the event. Deka's Toxicroak was the first to freeze, followed by Lilith's Typhlosion, and each trainers' Pokémon dropped any snow they were holding. Deka and Lilith looked like they could have tied, but a video would have to be reviewed after the event to see just how many hits each of their Pokémon got. After a few minutes, the trainers and their Pokémon were off of the field, and the second bracket competitors were allowed to enter the field. Heather watched as Spade sneered at Free, who looked just as confused as Heather felt about why Spade would already be glaring at him. Gibby stood off to the side, looking at the fans crowding the stands.

"Pokéathletes, choose your Pokémon!" the Pokéathlon's announcer's voice boomed across the stadium, interrupting Heather's thoughts.

From the bag on her back, Heather retrieved the Poké Balls of the three Pokémon competing in this event. "Let's do this, guys!" Heather shouted, tossing each ball in front of her. From the Poké Balls brilliant light emerged Sneasel, Gengar, and Muk.

The Pokéathlete glanced at her competitors, and saw from Free, a Bayleef, Heracross, and Poliwhirl; from Spade, an Electivire, Infernape, and Machamp; and from Gibby, two Teddiursa and an Ursaring. Free was glancing nervously at Spade's Machamp, and Spade stared ahead, looking bored. Gibby was hugging both of his Teddiursa, while Ursaring quite literally bear-hugged the three of them.

"Pokémon, take your places!" the announcer continued. Heather gave her Pokémon a reassuring smile, which they returned, before they stepped forward. The other trainers were lead to their own sides of the square, snow-filled field and settled behind the line. Free was to her left, Gibby to her right, and Spade straight across from her. "You may begin in three...two...one!"

"Let's go guys!" Heather shouted as her adrenaline hit her. Her Pokémon cheered in response, each packing together a snowball.

Spade's Machamp had an advantage, being able to gather two snowballs at once with his four hands, but Heather's Pokémon were exceptional at dodging. With Sneasel's speed and Keen Eye ability, she was able to dart to the sides and hurl a snowball, hitting each opponent without fail. However, if a ball did hit, it took a moment for Sneasel to recover. Muk, although slow, was an amorphous being and could adjust his size to duck an incoming ball. Each snowball Muk gathered was also unintentionally coated in thick sludge, securing harder hits. And as a ghost-type, Gengar was also able to phase from place to place, although some Pokémon guessed correctly and were able to secure a hit while he became translucent.

Gibby's Pokémon seemed to be getting hit much of the time without returning any of the hits. His Teddiursa had weak throws, although they had very good aim. Ursaring could land big hits, but was a large target.

Spade seemed to be taking advantage of Gibby's disadvantage by aiming for him fifty percent of the time. His Infernape and Machamp were able to quickly pack the snow into balls and hit often, while Electivire was a power-thrower.

Free didn't aim for anyone in particular. Instead of throwing snowballs, Poliwhirl quickly packed dozens of balls, loading them into two piles for Bayleef and Heracross. Bayleef was able to launch ball after ball with a Vine Whip attack, and she had impeccable aim. Heracross used his horn to launch a multitude of snowballs, more than three balls often hitting his target.

From Heather's right, she heard Gibby talking to his Pokémon, "Alright, Ursaring, Teddiursa! Remember what we practiced!"

"Ursa!" Ursaring replied scooping two Teddiursa, both a couple snowballs, into his arms and tossing them into the air. From the aerial perspective, the two short, bear Pokémon were able to aim better and land several hits to Spade's Pokémon before falling to the plush, snowy ground.

"Damnit!" Spade growled, realizing that Gibby wasn't as disadvantaged as he had thought.

Heather couldn't help but admire Gibby's strategy, as her main strategy for almost all events was speed and power, much like her Pokémon were demonstrating now.

After a particularly hard hit consisting of two snowballs from Machamp, Sneasel fell to the ground. Sneasel scoffed, and Heather knew her Pokémon wanted revenge.

"Sneasel, you gotta keep cool," Heather said calmly, trying to sooth her hot-headed Pokémon. Sneasel scoffed again, but nodded. She dodged an incoming snowball quickly before taking a deep breath and hurling a well-aimed ball directly at Machamp's face. The ball hit square on, and Heather cheered.

Almost too soon, it seemed, the buzzer went off and the Snow Throw event had ended. Heather was pleased with her Pokémon's performance, although she couldn't help but worry that her competitors had done better. Free had undeniably scored high, as much as she hated to admit it. He had seemed like such an idiot earlier. His strategy was almost fail-proof. Before returning her Pokémon, Heather hugged Gengar, and then Sneasel as much as Sneasel would let her (she really wasn't a touchy-feely Pokémon). She reluctantly high-fived Muk, which was an unpleasant experience, but it was the best she could offer, besides her words of praise, to her beloved pile of sludge.

Twenty young trainers stood nervously in front of the jumbo-screen, waiting for their scores to be posted. Most were standing in groups; almost everyone had found someone friendly to have a conversation with. As her girl friends squealed over the looks of one of the competitors, a tall boy in a green sports jacket with straight, dirty blonde hair, Heather was taking her time to scope out the other competitors.

Out of the twenty, she had only known, or known of, eleven of the competitors previous to this competition. Out of the other nine, one could be the rumored Hoenn Pokéathlon champion, but Heather was having trouble picking out the most likely candidate. Free—the only new competitor she knew the name of—seemed like an idiot, but he was talking to a bulkier boy in a red t-shirt she did not recognize. There was also the boy with the dark hair who had competed against Deka and Clover during their Snow Toss who seemed to be flirting with a thin girl with long, black hair. The boy seemed to have skilled Pokémon, so he might be the champion. Standing alone, scribbling in a small notepad, was a boy with hair so light, it almost looked white. Heather had also never seen him before.

"How do you think you did?" Deka interrupted Heather's thoughts, stepping forward next to Heather and nudging her side with his elbow.

"Well enough," Heather grunted, snapping her attention to Clover's brother. "You look like you killed it out there."

"Yeah, I guess I kind of am pretty damn good," Deka smirked cockily. Heather smacked his arm playfully. "Kidding, kidding. Geez, no need to get violent. I think you might have won your round. But that boy with the Bayleef was pretty good, too. Not to mention Spade…"

"Thanks, Deka" Heather replied. She paused for a moment before continuing, "Did you hear there was a Hoenn champion competing today?"

"Yeah, I heard," Deka groaned. "I don't know who it is, though. Hoenn has plenty of Pokéathlon champions, I'm sure. And I don't exactly follow Pokéathlon news from other countries. Who'd you hear it from?"

"Trina," Heather answered, tilting her head in her cousin's direction. "She was spazzing earlier in the locker room."

Deka cheeks pinked at the mention of her cousin. He had always had a small crush on the blonde girl, especially since she was friends with his sister and Heather, so she had always been around. "I bet she was," Deka sighed, looking away to hide his face. Luckily for him, the jumbo-screen blinked, and the scores were on the board.

Heather's eyes jumped to bracket two and instantly groaned. She hadn't done bad. In fact, she had done better than she ever had. But, above her name on the list by two points and one snowball hit, was Free with a perfect score of 200 points and 67 hits. Under her name in third place was Spade with 165 points and 55 hits, and then in last, Gibby with 96 points and 32 hits.

Next, Heather looked for her friends' names on the lists. In the first bracket, Deka had gotten first, followed by Trix—the boy with the inky-hair. In third, to her disappointment, was Lilith, and last was Clover. In the third bracket, Brogan had come out on top of three competitors she did not recognize the names of: a boy named Sin, a girl named Blaire, and another boy named Freddy. Bracket four's point leader was a boy named Stets. In second was a boy named Kageon that Heather saw every now and again around the Pokéathlon Dome but had never talked to. After Kageon was Lauren, and then a girl named Abby that she did not know previously. Finally, in bracket five, was Trina at the top, followed by a boy named Track, another boy named Raver, and Rachael—a girl Heather found rather obnoxious.

"Hey, you did fantastic!" a boy said from behind Heather, gripping her elbow lightly. She turned and found Free, who was holding a squirming Wooper with his other arm. He released her arm and returned it to his chest to keep Wooper in his arms better.

"It really was a close one, wasn't it?" Heather smiled genuinely. "And you got a perfect score! That's incredible."

"Well… it was nothing really," Free mumbled shyly. "Really, it was my Pokémon who did it all. And you've got some amazing Pokémon."

Heather opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by Trina, "Hey, Heather. We're all heading out to eat. You coming with?"

"Sure, just a second," she answered her cousin. She smiled at Free again before following after her friends. "I'll see you next event, Free."

"Yeah," Free nodded, returning her smile. "Later!"