Lesson 3: I ain't too proud to say but that's how I'm made
My second day of school was in a lot of ways better and worse at the same time.
Worse because thanks to my little outburst I was officially known as 'The demon of class 1-A'
Trying to make friends wasn't the easiest thing to do when the kids my age believed I once paralyzed a Hydreigon with a single glance from my eyes.
And word spread fast, during recess not only meant looking into my eyes sudden death, apparently I now owned six Hydreigon at home.
A boy twice my size tripped over a basketball because he covered his eyes when I walked passed him.
"Are you alright?" I asked crouching down to offer him a hand.
He stared at my palm as if I was holding out a bomb, "Suite yourself." I mumbled hurt by his rudeness.
After rolling the ball towards him in what I thought made a nice peace offer I walked towards an abandoned bench. It had an old oak tree standing next to it in which a quirky Tranquill was in the midst of building herself a nest. She had picked a thick branch about the size of an adults arm, it gave her an overall view of the playground and possible predators like Purrloin and Liepard, it seemed like a safe hide out and a good place for her to hatch her eggs. However she was clearly visible from the place I was sitting,
"Aren't you afraid someone might climb up to steal your eggs?"
The question had left my mouth before I could stop myself, maybe I was getting lonely or desperately in need of a friend.
Startled she flapped her wings, showering me with feathers and leaves, (I prayed she didn't drop anything else!)
Luckily the snow had disappeared that night, otherwise there would've been a little mountain of snow sitting on the bench instead of me.
"Nice work genius." A voice hissed, surprising me almost as much as I had done with the Tranquill.
Sitting against the tree's trunk Cheren gave me a cold look, he and the book he was holding over his head were covered in feathers.
Judging by the looks of it he didn't like to get dirty, actually it pissed him off.
Adjusting his glasses, while running a hand across his neatly ironed clothes he managed to clear himself from almost all the feathers. An extremely fluffy white one floated through the air settling down in his raven black hair. The contrast couldn't be bigger, I thought biting the insides of my cheek.
I managed to stifle my giggles into a loud cough,
"Is there something funny?" he demanded looking through narrowed eyes.
Before I could come up with some lousy lie his allergy to feathers made him sneeze four times in a row. He sneezed with such vigor that the feather stuck to his hair became airborne again, I counted five, six, seven, eight…
"Whoa eight times in a row, you're on fire!" I congratulated hitting him on the back. "Do you need a handkerchief?" I asked when he reached number twelve.
I dug inside my pockets looking for it, "Don't worry I haven't used it yet." I assured him after producing a red polka dotted (and clean) handkerchief.
"Ugh…Do you realize how dirty it is…Achoo!... to use those things?"
"It's dirty to use a handkerchief?" I asked frowning my eyebrows. "Don't tell me you blow your nose without using one? Cause that would be awesome!"
"That's disgusting. I never understood people who stuffed it back inside their pockets after blowing their nose." He choked rummaging through his neatly ordered bag.
"The amount of bacteria on a handkerchief is enough to get you sick all over again."
Equipped with a paper handkerchief he sat down rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Does it hurt?" I asked intrigued.
Giving me a sideways glance, indicating the patience necessary to put up with me, he said "Course not. If I'm lucky some kids saw this whole scene, they might actually believe that I'm not allergic to feathers but to you."
"I wouldn't be surprised." I replied sitting down next to him, "they might actually believe it. I already managed to train six Deino into Hydreigons, in about…"
I checked my watch, "Two hours! Anything's possible to a person who could do that."
A slight smile betrayed his feelings on the matter, the stupidity of it all seemed to amuse him.
"I'll give you a piece of advice, don't let the others find out your talking to Pokémon. You're already the demon of class 1-A, don't have them add weirdo to the list."
And with that he left me sitting by myself on the bench. When the school bell started to ring ending recess, I quickly snuck inside the school building, I knew from the empty hallway that the teachers were already outside so I entered the classroom stuffing my jacket in the empty desk next to mine. The girl who sat next to me had changed seats so I had it all to myself. After a few seconds students started to rush in, hesitating when they saw me sitting in the back of the class.
I pulled funny faces to those who dared to look at me, I needed a way to vent my anger, since I was too big of a coward to say they should just take a picture since it lasted longer.
"Can I sit here?" A girl wearing a weird green beret asked me.
"Sure if you dare to take the risk that is." I mumbled aware of listening ears surrounding me.
She plunged onto the seat next to me, fidgeting on her chair in a way that made me nervous.
"Err in case you've forgotten my name's Bianca, remember?"
Taking of the green beret she pulled her short blonde hair into two pigtails, "Did that help? I wore pink ribbons yesterday, but after I saw you I decided I was sick of
pink, you know? It's so yesterday, yeah definitely yesterday. Erica the girl who sits,…" she hesitated for a second, her blush growing brighter with every passing second.
"Well.. sat next to you totally copied my hairstyle, she uses ribbons now too! You'd think she'd have the decency to pick a different color from mine, but nooo had to be pink. Now don't think I'm this mean person who gets angry over stuff like that, but when I saw how she refused to sit next to you, I thought what a big meanie!"
I blinked in disbelief, for such a little person she could get pretty worked up.
I shrunk a few inches lower in my chair, when talking Bianca had the habit of waving her arms about, using gestures to stress the importance of her words.
When she started talking about fashion the people within a two meter radius were at risk of receiving a slap in the face or an occasional poke in the eye.
"Could it be your Italian?" I asked bluntly, putting the exciting history of her green beret to an abrupt halt.
Eyes widening with shock she gasped, "O my gosh how did you know? It's the way I dress isn't it? The beret is just an experiment, I made it myself together with a matching skirt, my dad almost fainted when I showed it, said it was way too short."
I felt a grin splitting across my face. There was no doubt that if this girl ever took a tiny sip of coffee or the weird energy drink with an image of a Bouffalant on the can that my mother sometimes drank when she held one of her cleaning sprees she would be capable of moving so fast that it allowed her to travel back in time.
"I know because you move your hands a lot when you talk." I admitted waving my own hands to show her what I meant.
Bianca bit her lip, "I do that a lot don't I?" hiding her eyes by pulling her beret she seemed to scold herself.
"Could be a lot worse." I tried comforting her, "I saw this man once, and he couldn't stop himself from knocking on every door he passed, my mom got really angry when I pointed and laughed at him."
"That's weird." Bianca said, "guess I'm not that crazy."
In the few hours she sat next to me I laughed more than I had expected to laugh during a whole year of school. Her bubbly personality complimented my own defensive one and by spending time in her presence I grew out to be more spontaneous.
In time Bianca's friends approached me. After seeing me laugh and act like a normal person they threw their fear aside, giving me a chance to open up, and discover that I was actually a person who made friends easily. I suspected Bianca had something to do with all this, which was a fact she strongly denied.
Still known as the demon of class 1-A I no longer cared about the older children who avoided my eyes as much as possible. As long as the people from my class knew I wasn't some Pokémon paralyzing freak they could cover their eyes as much as they liked, for all I cared they could run into walls.
On rare occasions other kids asked my help when they were bullied, most of the time simply seeing how the victim talked to me did the trick, the one doing the bullying would be too terrified of my wrath.
With friends to talk to I started enjoying school and time went by fast. Winter went by in the blink of an eye and spring came, it's first signs were huge flocks of Pidove and Tranquill returning from their migration south and heavy rainfall.
On a particular dreary day we all ran outside to stare at two huge Unzefant, it was Cheren who promptly came with the answer when our teacher Miss Warren asked us if we could recognize their gender.
"That's easy." He said whipping the rain from his glasses, "The males are more impressing to look at. In order to attract females they have a more extravagant look and color."
"Correct." The teacher answered with an approving nod, adding that female Unzefant's flying abilities surpassed those of the males.
When the sun came out we no longer required boots and large umbrellas, and winter's cold grayness was replaced with a riot of activity. Unfolding its new young leaves the old oak tree stood proudly after surviving another winter. The Tranquill vacating one of his branches sang happily, her eggs, which were close to hatching moved around occasionally. She had grown accustomed to my presence during recess. Cheren often joined in on my solitude, sometimes fifteen whole minutes went by in which we didn't say a word. At first the Pokémon froze upon seeing us, nervously turning her head to check if everything was alright.
She liked the oak tree and it's thick branches too much to leave her nest and trade it for another more remote tree, the intruders showed no signs of aggression anyway so all was well.
Surprisingly I found my second best friend in the introvert bespectacled boy known as Cheren Kuro.
Without us noticing we were becoming friends already, but it was thanks to my art skills (In your face math!) that Cheren officially acknowledged me as one of his friends.
Not only meant spring new life to creatures like Pokémon. Lots of flowers and plants were now available for observation, and our teacher decided to link biology to the art classes that took place every Friday afternoon. On a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon she took us to a small meadow, here we had half an hour to search one of the flowers we treated during biology and one hour to paint it.
I had just finished my painting of my favorite flower, a lily of the valley. Rather pleased I watched the other children paint, it didn't surprise me to see Erica crouching down next to a pink flower I didn't recognize. My eyes trailed upon Cheren and Bianca huddled together, judging by Bianca's enhanced arm movements they were obviously arguing about something and I moved closer so I could hear their conversation.
"Looks like a Petilil that slammed into a wall." She whispered causing Cheren to bury his face in his hands, "Sometimes I don't know why we're friends." He muttered between his fingers, offending Bianca who crossed her arms in disbelief.
"Oh let me think." She said sticking her nose in the air, "Maybe because if we weren't you'd fail art big time." She snapped puffing out her cheeks with a look of displeasure.
"You're an idiot" the boy said accusingly pointing a brush in her face.
The brush got pushed aside, "I am NOT"
"Yes you are little miss I'm so good at drawing!"
"Well you…you…YOU SUCK AT DRAWING," she hissed, the green of her beret bringing out the redness of her face.
"And don't expect me to help you again, like that time with the drawing of that Deerling mister! You never even thanked me for saving your ass. Now who's the idiot?" she hissed, almost hitting me in the face when I said, "Both of you are idiots, since you're only wasting precious time."
The two of them jumped simultaneously, "Great." Cheren groaned, "here comes Idiot Number Two."
I walked over and sat down, folding my legs under me.
Smiling sweetly I said, "It's Idiot Number Three to be correct." Quickly adding, "Guess you're math is at the same level as you're drawing skills. Which are astounding, I have to say, very charming indeed."
Without asking for his permission I grabbed the painting turning it upside down. Bianca held her breath fearing Cheren's reaction, her eyes flitted between my face and his and she changed her stance, readying herself to stop the black haired genius from attacking me or wacking me with the painting.
"You do realize that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?" the metallic twang in his voice was more prominent than ever.
Nodding happily I tried looking at his painting from different angles, each of them looking worse than the previous.
"Good for me that I'm not being sarcastic. It takes a lot of talent to draw something that looks so much like a,- a,..." I snapped my fingers a couple of times,
"A piece of shit! That was the word I was looking for. It's so very convincing, as if a Pidove only just flew by. What are your thoughts on the matter?" I asked Bianca,who shot me a pleading look which obviously said: Please don't involve me in this mess!
Stammering she muttered something about how pretty dandelion's were. It resulted in me rolling around in the grass laughing until I could hardly catch my breath and an affronted Cheren hitting himself on the forehead with such strength it had to leave a mark.
"It's supposed to be a daisy."
Bianca's eyes trailed off in the direction he pointed, hidden amidst the tall grass stood a single daisy, its white petals opened widely revealing the yellow center.
"You're right!" she gasped crawling towards the little flower so she could touch its fragile petals. "Who would've been able to guess that!" the wronged expression displayed on her face almost reduced me to another laughing fit.
"Ahaha that almost killed me." I giggled whipping away a few tears. Clapping my hands I extended my hand, "Now give me that painting."
"What?" Cheren looked at me puzzled a faint red spot already appearing between his dark elegant eyebrows.
"You heard me, hold my painting while I try to save yours."
Doubt spread across his face, his slanted eyes narrowed, "And why would you do that?"
I had expected him to refuse my help, trailing miss Warren who was walking around helping students made me nervous as did the stubborn air he put on.
"Because, your art classes are like my math classes. A pain in the ass." I spelled out slowly between gritted teeth.
He straightened his back, even when he was sitting in a meadow he managed to look intimidating, the only thing I could do was wait while he took my words into consideration.
Patience would never appear on my personal list of strong points, so when he remained silent I made a bold move by saying "It's what friends do."
Cheren rapidly turned his head, "So now we're friends?" he asked ensuring himself that I had spoken those words out loud.
Bianca who had been watching us like an old lady watches her favorite soap gasped loudly, as if I had just declared myself as his long lost daughter (I knew from my grandpa, who was an avid fan, that those things were considered as everyday stuff in shows like that) She covered her mouth, afraid we would notice her obvious presence. By shielding my eyes from a non-existent sun I managed to avoid his gaze,
"Just give me the painting already." I choked in defeat. He allowed me to take his failed attempt at painting from his hands and with five minutes on the clock I did as much as I could, turning a Pidove's crap/a Petilil's remains into something that even Bianca labeled as a daisy, ("Hah! See I managed to recognize it this time!")
I chucked the painting at Cheren before miss Warren reached us, he used the same white paint to add his name and the weird character in the right and left corner. The corners of his lips quirked with a knowing smile as he handed in his work, "As usual you did great Cheren." Miss Warren complimented him showing the other children the picture of the daisy, "You never fail to surprise me. It's often one or the other, some kids are talented in music or art, others excel in math or English, but you seem to have it all." She whispered crouching down to clean my paint covered face and hair, "I don't know how you manage to get yourself so dirty every time we leave school property." was all the praise I got that day.
"It's a talent." Cheren said, a weird playfulness present in his voice.
I shot him a warning look and nudged him with my elbow as soon as the teacher turned her back on us.
Leaning in closer Bianca whispered, "Did she just use you as a diversion to compliment Cheren?"
"Yeah rudely said she thinks were all extremely dumb, side from Cheren off course" I jumped in with a sideway nod towards the young nerd.
"But that's not fair!" the blonde exclaimed tears glittering from the corner of her eyes.
Cheren sighed theatrically, "In your case it's the plain truth. By the way Ashe did you notice she used an old handkerchief to clean your face?"
The rude remark cost him dearly, first Bianca rubbed her knuckles painfully hard on his scalp, tousling his neatly combed hair in the progress.
Only a second passed, with hardly enough time for him to regain his composure when I appeared in front of him holding a single innocent fuzzy white dandelion.
He managed to utter the words "Oh shit." Before I took a deep gasp of air and blew the feathery seeds in his face.
"Score!" I shouted throwing my fist in the air, sharing a loud and accurate high five with Bianca, the sounds of Cheren's sneezing only enhancing the moment.
"You idiots… Achoo… beter run for your lives!" And off we ran, Bianca happily skipping about not in the least concerned, as if she was enjoying a walk in the park.
I on the contrary ran as if my life depended on it, carefully counting my pulse rate. Being chased always scared the living hell out of me, didn't matter if the one doing
the chasing was friend or foe. Although in this case knowing it was a friend raised my spirits enough to outrun a hayfeverish Cheren.
Hi everybody,
I hope you all liked the chapter, I know this story has been having a slow start, but I wanted to focus on Ashe,Bianca and Cheren growing up just a bit, I hope that I haven't been boring you guys.
In the next chapter I'll introduce some new characters (guess who)
Thanks for reading, and please leave a review, I would really appreciate it to hear some opinions ( and I don't bite :D)
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