Big Man on Campus
Jeremy Lynche took a seat at one of the tables in the Cold Shoulder store of Louhearst and felt a bit nervous. Due to the mysterious Pokémon virus that had been spreading, trainers were prohibited from allowing their Pokémon out of their Poké Balls without special permission from Professor Pine.
"I'm glad you accepted my request," the woman said as she took a seat across from the young man. "I know it must be hard for you with everything going on, so if there are any questions, you feel uncomfortable with, let me know."
Jeremy smiled apprehensively as he nodded his head. This woman seemed to be more trustworthy than the other reporters that had been scouting the campus over the last several weeks. "Can we start?" he asked.
"Sure," the woman replied. "Now, I heard there was a 'war' between the students of Louhearst and the students of Seathroul? Do you know who or what exactly caused this conflict?"
Jeremy sighed. "Honestly, it was just a bunch of kids with nothing better to do…"
The woman nodded her head as she wrote down the information and prepared the next question. "Do you believe that Emma Jacobs might have somehow been a target?"
"No," Jeremy answered clearly. "I don't think Emma was a target. Those Seathroul guys were really just messing with anyone from Louhearst. That psycho, Vic, clearly had a bunch of issues going on in his screwed up head and he was bound to blow up eventually. If it wouldn't have been Emma, it would have been someone else…"
Despite his words, Jeremy knew that the tragic incident could have been completely avoided, but the truth was that no one knew how unstable Vic Lawson truly was until it was too late. Jeremy himself had thrown Vic out of the party which eventually led to the stabbing and it had haunted him ever since. His mind would also drift to the situation with Logan and the virus as well. However, he was determined to keep a composed demeanor and so far, he seemed to be coping well. The woman asked him a few more questions before the interview ended.
"Thank you for your time, Jeremy," she said in a genuine tone. "I know things are dim right now, but a strong leader can make a world of difference…"
To say the dining hall at Louhearst had become completely chaotic would be an understatement. With the Seathroul integration along with the restraint on Pokémon being outside of their Poké Balls, Zack Winters and his gang had been up to all sorts of mischief all over campus. The students in the dining hall were loud and rambunctious, food was flying from table to table, and Zack's gang continued terrorizing the students all while he looked on in disinterest.
"It's like a warzone in here!" Rietta complained to Jett as she barely dodged an incoming milk carton. Jett didn't respond and Rietta frowned as she realized why. "Are you staring at my eye again? Does it look that bad?"
"You want the truth?" Jett asked her as he tried to remove his gaze from the bruise. Rietta nodded her head and Jett took a deep breath. "Honestly, it looks gross. Why don't you at least try to cover it up by putting some makeup over it or something?"
Rietta groaned. "You know I don't like makeup."
"Why not? Are you just trying to be like a non-conformist? Those kinds of people are annoying as hell. Always ranting about how they want to be different which is cool and all, but sometimes they just want to be different for the sake of being different and not because it's something important to them."
Rietta rolled her eyes at him. She knew that Jett was having one of those moments where he'd actually say something intelligent without realizing it. "Well," she started as she tried to explain herself. "I-"
"Look who it is? Stella Swanna haunting the dining hall with her disgustingly pale skin…"
Breezy shot Rietta a smirk as she and her friend, Mikayla approached the table. Rietta tried to ignore them, but they kept intentionally egging her on.
"Stella," Breezy taunted as she pointed at her face. "What's black and blue and red all over? Give up? It's your eye!"
The two girls howled in laughter as Rietta stood up to face them. "Listen, Breezy," she told the shorter girl. "I don't want any trouble."
"Too bad," Breezy replied quickly as she let out a laugh. "I do!"
She grabbed Rietta's lunch tray and slid it off the table. Due to the general disorder within the hall, the situation went completely unnoticed. Rietta's first thought was to strike Breezy, but she held herself back. She already had a month of detention and she knew that Breezy was way too quick especially with Mikayla at her side. She glared daggers at Breezy who seemed completely unfazed.
"Alright," Jett said as he stood up. "Let's all just relax…"
"We were just playing with our friend," Breezy replied innocently. "Come on, Mikayla, let's get something to eat." She stomped on Rietta's apple that had been knocked on the floor. "I'm in the mood for applesauce…"
The two girls laughed as they walked away and Jett and Rietta retook their seats. Soon afterwards, they were joined by Jeremy.
"What's up, Mitchell?" he greeted. "Mackenzie? Mind if I sit here for a bit? I need to ask you guys a question or two about Logan."
"Rus already started on the get well card," Jett told him.
Jeremy shook his head. "I-"
He was interrupted by the sound of Jett's phone going off. Jett excused himself and walked a couple of feet away. "You can go ahead and ask me," Rietta mumbled.
"Okay…" Jeremy replied. "Did you guys get any updates? I know with this virus going around, you've all been busy, but I just wanted to know if he was getting better or what."
"Sorry, Jeremy, we haven't heard anything else…"
At that moment, Jett came rushing back to the table. "No time to talk!" he said as he quickly grabbed his belongings. "Superego's got an appointment with the Kooley Brothers!"
"Are you serious?" Jeremy told him in disbelief.
"Dead serious," Jett replied. "Rietta, have fun in detention!"
She shot him a quick glare as he scurried off before she headed outside to the courtyard. Jeremy made his way over to his friends, ducking and dodging the flying food that was coming from all over the dining hall. He arrived at his usual table, the so-called "cool crowd" by the other students. Jeremy certainly didn't think of them as anything more than normal, but an outsider's point of view was always different.
He looked around the table at his friends. His best friend, Blake, was in a conversation with Jeremy's brother Aiden over the recent Pokémon virus. Kaylee was helping Nina with her homework while Audrey, Eden, and Nikki were busy texting and Eliza was staring at her food in disinterest.
"Nice to see you guys are handling eating in the zoo that is our lunchroom," he joked as he took a seat next to Kaylee.
"As if," Kaylee replied immediately. "Those Seathroul guys are all chaos every single day."
"There's nothing wrong with a little chaos," Nina chirped in.
"You know," Nikki began as she locked gazes with Zack from across the lunchroom. "There is one good thing about Seathroul coming here. Lots of hot guys…"
Eliza stared at her best friend in disbelief. "You do realize that guy you think is so hot pretty much got off for being an accessory to murder? Jeremy, don't you think she's being ridiculous?"
Jeremy peered over to the Seathroul crowd and saw a familiar face. It was Melanie Garcia from the peace summit between Louhearst and Seathroul back in Violet City. He remembered having a small conversation with her that day, but he had been in a rush to get to the concert that she had completely slipped his mind. Now that he had seen her again, she was pretty much the only thing on his mind.
"Ooh," Eden teased. "Someone's been smitten by the Luvdisc…"
"I just have to figure out a way to talk to her…" Jeremy replied rubbing his chin.
"Just go over there and start up a conversation," Audrey told him. "Not that hard."
"You know what," Jeremy said as he stood up from the table. "You're right. That's exactly what I'm going to do."
Fixing himself up, Jeremy began walking to the opposite side of the dining hall. The chaos had simmered down a bit, but things were far from under control. He still had to dodge all the flying food and make sure he didn't slip on anything that was on the floor.
"Hey…" he greeted as he took a seat across from Melanie.
"Hey yourself," she said while smiling at him. "Jeremy Lynche, right?"
"That is correct," he replied. "So, are you having fun at Louhearst?"
"I can safely say that it's a lot better than my old academy," Melanie told him. "Even my brother sort of likes it here and he has a gripe about everything."
As she continued talking, Jeremy looked over her shoulder and gazed at the scene that was going on. Zack had grabbed the ketchup, mustard, and barbecue bottles and had squirted each bottle onto a large tray. Zack's friends, the heavy-set blond Percy and the frizzy-haired Tifatillah, had snatched one of the first years and were trying to push his face onto the condiment soaked tray.
"Excuse me," Jeremy told Melanie as he stood up and made his way over to the spectacle. He pushed Percy and Tifatillah's hands off of Asher and moved him out of the way.
"May I help you, Sir?" Zack remarked sarcastically as he and Jeremy stood face to face.
"Come on Zack," Jeremy replied calmly. "All this is unnecessary. Just put the tray down and chill…"
By now, the entire room had gone silent, each student looking on at the altercation. Percy and Tifatillah moved closer to Jeremy, but he didn't back down or even shift his glare from Zack. However, he knew that he was causing a scene and wanted to find a way to deescalate the situation before it got out of hand.
"Look," he continued. "I'm not trying to start anything. It's just that you guys are all acting like a swarm of Beedrill. All I'm asking is for you to chill out."
"Chill out?" Zack said as he turned to Percy and Tifatillah. "He wants us to chill out." He grinned and patted Jeremy on the shoulder. "Alright, we'll chill out…"
Zack turned in the opposite direction, before suddenly throwing a punch at Jeremy. The other boy reacted quickly, having expected a sucker punch, and caught Zack's fist in his hand. There was a brief struggle before Jeremy managed to overpower Zack and lock his hand behind his back. Zack winced in pain as Jeremy pulled tighter before finally letting go. The two boys glared at one another once more before Zack and his cronies walked off.
"Thanks man," Asher remarked.
"No problem…"
There was a round of applause throughout the dining hall for the fourth year and he simply smiled humbly at the crowd before dusting himself off. He hadn't exactly plan for his day to happen like this, but he simply did what his old friend, Malcolm Meladeo, would do…
Jeremy, Nina, and Kaylee made their way down the hall towards Astronomy with Nina and Kaylee still talking about the events that had transpired at lunch. Nina had been congratulating Jeremy on his actions while Kaylee had been going on about how he should have taken a different route.
"What was he supposed to do?" Nina told her. "He tried talking things down and you saw what happened. Zack tried to sucker punch him."
"I'm just saying," Kaylee replied. "Those Seathroul guys are dangerous. Emma Jacobs wouldn't hurt a fly and they still killed her. You just need to be more careful with how you deal with people."
The two girls entered the classroom and Jeremy looked over his shoulder. Kaylee's words had got to him and made him realize that Emma's back was turned when she was stabbed and the same thing could easily happen to him. Before he could clear his head, he was approached by Blake.
"Lend me twenty dollars," Blake told him nonchalantly.
"What for?" Jeremy asked with an annoyed expression on his face.
"I'm hungry," he replied simply. "I'm going to go to Goldenrod café since it's our last week before we move on to Ecruteak City."
"Dude, we just had lunch."
"Yeah, but I'm hungry again…"
"Jeremy!"
Jeremy sighed as he heard the familiar voice. He turned around to see Professor Pine walking towards them with a very serious look in her eyes. Blake smoothed his hair down and grinned.
"Hello," he began. "Professor Pine, you look beautiful today."
"Blake, go to class," Professor Pine replied immediately.
"Yes ma'am…"
Jeremy slipped him the twenty as he made his way down the hall. He turned to Professor Pine and tried to give her an innocent smile, but he knew that she was having none of it.
"Jeremy," she sighed. "Why did you get in a confrontation with Zack Winters earlier today in the dining hall? You know that solving your problems with violence is not the answer."
"Come on, Professor," he reasoned. "All I did was put a stop to the situation. It's the same thing Malcolm would have done."
"Listen, I appreciate you taking charge. You're a very popular young man and a lot of the younger students look up to you as an example. If they see you doing something, they'll likely try to do it too, so just make sure you that you're a positive role model. Can you do that for me?"
He nodded his head and she smiled before she headed down the hallway. "I'll tell Professor Bourne that you stopped by!" he called after her.
Though he was making jokes, Jeremy knew how serious the situation was and that it was best to just take Kaylee's advice and ignore the Seathroul Gang…
Jett paced back and forth as he waited for Roux, Ethan, Rolen and Mike to arrive. He was bored out of his skull and had spent most of the time in the small meeting room texting Sonia. With the Pokémon lockdown, there was no way he could call Magmar or any of his other Pokémon out to keep him company.
"Damn it…" he cursed to himself. "Where are they?"
One by one, they began filing in. Roux was the first one to arrive followed by Rolen and Mike and lastly, Ethan. He seemed to be in a somewhat better mood since Togepi was recovering from the virus, but it was easy to tell that there was this sort of hidden anger manifesting inside of him.
"Alright," Jett began. "I know you all heard the news, so before we do anything, we need to remember that we got this far together and we're going to keep going further and further together. Deal?"
"Deal…" they answered in unison.
"Alright then," Jett said. "Let's head out to my car. Ethan, come here for a second."
Ethan made his way over to Jett as Roux, Rolen, and Mike headed out. "What is it?" he asked.
"I just wanted to know if you're alright."
Ethan nodded his head. "I'm fine. I mean, we have a chance to become famous. It's like a dream come true. Togepi's getting better too, so I…I think that maybe things are finally starting to turn around for us…"
Before Jett could say anything else, Ethan walked out of the door. He had wanted to tell him some more things, but it was obvious that Ethan wasn't up for it. Jett made his way towards the exit, only for the door to suddenly slam in his face.
"What the hell…?"
"Froooo…"
"Togeeee…"
Jett looked up to see a Froslass and a Togekiss staring directly down at him from the ceiling. His immediately reached for a Poké Ball only to be stopped by a strange voice…
"You don't want to do that. The virus is still going around and you wouldn't want to infect your Pokémon. Jett, is it?"
Jett slowly turned around and his mouth dropped open when he saw the white-haired man standing there peacefully, his ocean blue eyes staring directly at him. However, Jett stood his ground and wasn't the least bit intimidated.
"I know who you are…" he started. "So let's skip the introductions. Lord Monsiadem, right?"
The man nodded his head and smirked. "Samuel said you were supposed to be the…unintelligent one. I am quite surprised. Don't worry, Jett, I did not come here to kill you. That would be as Samuel would put it…inelegant."
"Logan told me you were pale," Jett shot back. "But damn, you make Rietta look like she took a dip in a tub of chocolate."
"And you have a sense of humor…" Lord Monsiadem replied. "That is delightful. Very well, let me see if I can come up with a joke. I think I have one and I think you will find it very funny…Emma Jacobs. Wait, I think I have another one and I think you will definitely enjoy it…Carla Mitchell…"
Jett froze and at that moment, he knew Monsiadem had got under his skin. Not only was he taunting him about the death of his friend, but he even went as far as taunting him about the death of his mother. "If you ever say anything about-"
"Your mother?" Monsiadem interrupted. "Well, I did not come here for that. That business is strictly between you and Zaria. I just wanted to finally meet you. It's a shame what happened to Emma Jacobs. She was a very kind-hearted girl. Of course, she would still be alive if it weren't for Logan. Or maybe she would still be alive if it weren't for Henrietta? You certainly aren't the best at picking friends, Jett…"
"Listen," Jett said in a low voice. "I'm not Logan. You're not going to trick me. Those 'voices' Logan was hearing before he attempted to commit suicide belonged to the Soul Destroyers. You were the one who told him all that shit and you're the one behind the virus. Bet you didn't know that I knew that?"
Monsiadem's eyes widened. He had to admit, Jett had caught him off guard in both instances relating to Logan's suicide attempt and the virus. However, he didn't let it bother him and almost immediately regained his composure.
"You are certainly smarter than we gave you credit for…"
"You blew up Mt. Moon and you killed Don Meladeo," Jett continued. "Yeah, I'm certainly not as stupid as you thought!"
"Correction. Beauty and Beast blew up Mt. Moon and Luther Kross killed Don Meladeo. I didn't authorize either incident. The Soul Destroyers gave Beauty and Beast the command to destroy the mountain and Don Meladeo simply jumped in front of an attack that was headed for Logan…"
Jett frowned at him. "You know what I mean…"
"Indeed I do, but that is beside the point. I want you to know something, Jett. When I destroy Logan Martin's soul and wipe him from existence, I will unlock the key to creating a new world. Something even Team Galactic could not accomplish. I will give you a chance to live in my new world, Jett. What has Logan Martin done for you so far? He is sending your friends to their deaths. Eventually it will be your Pokémon and finally, it will be you…"
"You actually think destroying someone's soul to where they won't even be able to move on after they die is worth your new world? That's bullshit and you know it. I think I'd rather be by Logan's side if…no, when he kills you…"
"Very well. We shall meet again…
Jett was immediately blinded by a flash of light and when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the couch in the meeting room. "Woah…that was one messed up dream…"
"Jett!" Roux yelled at him as she entered the room. "What are you doing lying down? Come on, we're going to be late!"
Professor Tallow glanced at the clock in the classroom and stood up to face the students who were serving detention.
"Detention is over…" he stated clearly. "Get out…"
The students began filing out of the classroom as Tallow grabbed his belongings. He looked over to the desks and noticed that Rietta had her head down. He thought of waking her up, but then he realized that he really did not care if she sat there all night. He figured she could leave when she woke up so he decided to leave the door unlocked.
"Professor Tallow," Becca said as she passed him. "Um, Rietta's asleep. Aren't you going to wake her?"
"I have to pick up my dry cleaning…" Tallow answered simply as he walked out of the room.
Becca rolled her eyes as she made her way over to where Rietta was sleeping. She was hunched over the desk, her eyes squeezed shut and her water bottle held tightly against her chest.
"Rietta!" Becca shouted as she began shaking her. "Wake up!"
Rietta's eyes shot open and she jerked her head up. Looking around the room, she noticed that everyone had left and that she had lost track of time. "Becca…" she started. "What time is it?"
"Around six," she answered. "Hey, if you aren't in a hurry, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."
"Go ahead…" Rietta replied as she took a sip of her water bottle.
"Okay, there's this…person who I really like, but they've been avoiding me for a while. I mean, I understand that things are awkward between me and this person, but they haven't even tried to talk to me."
Rietta arched her eyebrow at her and gave her a confused look. She knew that she wasn't exactly the person to go to for romantic advice, but she was going to try her best to help out.
"Maybe you just need to find a place where you can meet this person where they won't be able to avoid you and then, just talk to them…"
"Alright," Becca replied as she headed for the door. "I'll see if I can do that. Thanks."
She walked out as Rietta began gathering her belongings. Glancing at the bottle in her hand, Rietta slowly walked over to the mirror and took a look at her face. Nothing seemed too out of order, but she did notice the glassy look in her eyes and cursed herself for not being more careful. She took a deep breath before heading towards the exit, only for the door to slam in her face.
"Ouch!" she screamed as she put a hand over her injured eye.
"Froooo…"
"Togeeee…"
Rietta frantically looked around the room as she tried to detect the noises she was hearing. "Who's there?" she shouted. "Show yourself!"
She was immediately circled by what she identified as a Froslass and a Togekiss. The two Pokémon flew around her for a moment before retreating to the other side of the room. Rietta quickly reached for a Poké Ball, only to be cut off by a strange voice.
"You really should not do what you're thinking. Your Pokémon could be at risk. There is a virus going around after all…"
A man with long white hair and ocean blue eyes dressed in all white approached her. A shiver ran up her spine as she backed up towards the window.
"N-No way…" she said quietly. "It's you…"
"Lord Monsiadem," he greeted politely. "Henrietta Mackenzie, we meet at last. But why do you seem so distressed? I'm not here to harm you at all. Perhaps, you are not distressed. Perhaps, you are just too drunk to comprehend what is going on right now."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Rietta stammered. "I-I don't drink…"
Monsiadem simply smirked and snatched the water bottle out of her hand. He unscrewed the top and poured the contents onto the floor. "Vodka?" he questioned as he examined the inside of the bottle. "Classy enough for someone like you, yet not classy enough for someone like me…"
"If you came here to kill me…" Rietta told him. "Go ahead. It's not like I have anything worth living for…"
"On the contrary," Monsiadem replied. "You have a lot to live for. If I wanted to kill you, we would not be having this conversation. You remind me of myself at your age. Much like you, I was constantly surrounded by idiots like my uncle, I was never appreciated for my genius, and I was generally being overlooked in favor of everyone else. However, instead of drinking and whining, I decided to do something about my situation. It has taken me over a quarter of a century to get this far and I've almost completed my goal…"
"I swear, if you go anywhere near Logan, I'll-"
"You'll do what?" Monsiadem interrupted, a smirk crossing his face. "It's inevitable. I will kill Logan Martin, I will wipe his soul from existence, and I will create a new world. It will be an era of peace and kindness…"
"And in order to get to your era of peace and kindness, you command your terrorist organization to murder thousands of people and Pokémon? You want to prevent someone from going to the afterlife simply because you think your new world is worth it?"
Monsiadem nodded his head. "Utopia justifies the means. We shall meet again…"
Rietta was immediately blinded by a flash of light and when she opened her eyes, she found herself sitting in her seat with her head on the top of the desk.
"My head…" she groaned. "Ugh, that was crazy dream…"
Jeremy couldn't believe his luck. He had managed to convince Melanie to hang out with him and the Goldenrod Café and so far, things were going excellent. They had a lot of things in common and Jeremy felt that Melanie was nice and intelligent girl, even if she was a bit headstrong.
"I just wanted to thank you," Melanie told him suddenly.
"Thank me?" Jeremy asked curiously.
Melanie nodded her head. "The Seathroul students haven't exactly been welcomed here after what happened. I wasn't at the party, but I heard what happened. I…I think you handled it really well…"
"Someone got killed," Jeremy mumbled. "I hardly call that handling it…"
"Well I call it not handling it at all…"
Jeremy let out a groan as Zack, Percy, and Tifatillah approached the table. Each of them had a grin on their faces and it was obvious that they were in the mood for causing trouble. Jeremy didn't flinch at all as he stood up and glared directly into Zack's eyes.
"You're not too innocent yourself," Jeremy told him clearly. "Now just leave us alone…"
The trio surrounded Jeremy, but took a step back when Blake suddenly approached the scene and stood beside his friend. "I think we should make it a little bit more even, don't you think?" he remarked.
"Let's battle," Zack said simply. "Behind the café. No one will catch us. And Big Percy's hungry, so maybe after we're finished, your friend here can try and take him on?"
Percy grinned at Blake and let out a growl. "When I get hungry, I get a little…feisty…"
"Alright," Blake shot back. "But I'm hungry for some pork chops and I'm looking right at a pig…"
He let out a howl as Jeremy tried to stifle his laughter.
"So what's your answer?" Zack questioned.
Jeremy simply shook his head and made his way over to Melanie's side of the table. "There's a virus going around and I'm not going to endanger my Pokémon just so I can battle you. Come on, Melanie, let's get out of here…"
"Looks like the big man on campus isn't such a big man…" Zack taunted as Jeremy, Melanie, and Blake headed for the exit. "Because maybe if he was, he would have faced me and Vic back at the party last month instead of chickening out. And maybe…Emma Jacobs would still be alive…"
Jeremy stopped in his tracks and Zack knew he had gone too far by mentioning Emma, but he wasn't thinking about that at the moment. Jeremy had made him look like a fool in the dining hall earlier that day and he wanted retribution. Jeremy slowly walked up to Zack until they were barely a few inches apart.
"Meet me in twenty minutes behind the café," he told him. "It's about time someone shut you up…"
Zack smirked and gave him a shove. "We'll see…"
Alright guys, no excuses. I was gone for too long, but the baby is three months old and she's growing really fast so I'm probably going to have more free time to write. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Go to my forums if you want to submit any OC's for any of my new stories that I hope to begin soon. If you want to read funny Louhearst parodies, check out Sebastian's Corner at the forums. Also, be on the look out for...
"The Louhearst Expedition: Year Three!" Coming soon! :D
Later!