Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Pokémon, or Pokémon Special. -weeps in corner-
- - x x x x x - -
I sat back as far as I could, finally conceding defeat; the big fat textbook on the theory of Pokémon evolution was seriously starting to hurt my knees, and despite the fact that I had been sitting here for the past two hours or so during my so-called 'private study' class with Crystal, I had made about as much progress as a Slowpoke. "This is hopelesssss," I moaned, throwing my head back, only to have it thump uncomfortably against the bark of the tree; before I could even blink, an angry chitter exploded from the topmost branches of a tree, and, had I not speedily jerked forwards, doubtless I would have ended up knocked out cold by a well-aimed apricorn thrown by a grumpy Pachirisu. "Great, now even supposedly cute Pokémon are against me. Right, that just about made my day."
Sprawled out in front of me upon the grass, Crys surveyed me over the rims of her glasses, looking uncannily Professor Oak-like in her disapproval. "You would have made much more progress if you hadn't been ogling the boys doing phys ed," she said pointedly, nodding towards the playing field, to where the male specimens in question were busy strutting their stuff—er, I mean, working out. "Pay attention," she sighed, snapping her fingers in front of my face. "Exams will be upon us soon, and if you don't try a lot harder, Norman would find an excuse to hold you back another year. You don't want that, do you? Also, it'd probably make Green a lot less impressed with you."
"Ugh, of course not. Wait. What would you, the Stuffy Academic, know about impressing boys? That's my field. Leave the flirting to a professional like me, and the statistics, probabilities and whatnot to labcoat-wearing smartypants like you." We had known each other for so long that these jibes had become more of a term of endearment, and she was all-too-used to my 'ways of showing I cared'.
"You learn things," she said primly, in a magnificent imitation of Platinum. "Now hit those books, and don't let them – or the likes of a running Green, or, for that matter, unhappy Pachirisu – deter or distract you."
Time seemed to stop. "Green's got P.E. right now?!" I yelped, turning my head so fast my neck cricked; rubbing it gingerly, I peered through the sea of students, attempting to pick out his trademark spiky hair. Crys rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath, 'typical'.
"I don't see him!" How could I possibly have missed him? That probably spoke volumes about my current mental state, jeesh. "Ohhh! I see him now. Ahhh, why does he have to look so damned good dressed in the P.E. uniform and even after half-drowning himself in the drinking fountain? Envioussss."
Crys sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. "Blue, if you don't concentrate, your chances of getting him sufficiently interested to ask you to the ball is less than zero. How's this for motivation? Picture him in a tuxedo or suit instead. Makes better eye-candy than a rumpled P.E. uniform, yes? That's the reward that awaits you at the end."
- - x x x x x - -
He looked me up and down with a less-than-impressed look on his face. "What?"
Well, wasn't he just Mr. Gracious and Charming. "Oh, nothing," I said brightly. "Just thought we should get a rendezvous point or something." Watching as he turned scarlet and almost had an aneurysm on the spot, I relented. "For today's revision, I mean." It was almost comical to see the way he reacted to…I don't know. The implications? No, the subliminal messages I hoped I was conveying. Aww, it was almost cute, if it weren't so hilarious.
It took a while for him to recover his composure. Still rather red in the face, Green refocused his attention to his locker, shoving in a load of books, and crumpling some of them in the process. "Where do you want to meet? For goodness sake, not anywhere noisy, and don't make me waste my precious time looking everywhere to find you."
"Tsk tsk, how rude. Are you like this to all girls? Or just special treatment reserved for me?" Again, I grinned broadly as he glared at me, slamming his locker shut with more force than was strictly necessary. He looked rather antsy, and I wondered what had transpired yesterday after my little ambushing stunt. "Anyways. So, I was wondering. Where should we meet?"
He pulled a face, hoisting up his bag. It looked terribly heavy, and I wondered how many AP courses he was taking. I'd seen – and weighed! – Crystal's textbooks for some of those particular courses, and boy, they weighed tonnes. They could be used for paving-stones, really.
"How should I know? You were the one who suggested this. At least have the decency to have your little details figured out. What about, oh, gee, I don't know, the library? Isn't that where normal people go to study?"
If I didn't know better, I could have sworn he was alluding to my plan. Nah, can't be. The whole thing's hush-hush, though it needed some fine-tuning. "Ooh, sorry to thwart you, but the library's booked out for the whole of this week for Fantina's sixth-form French students. Don't know about next week, though I heard Lucian say his students would be taking up the place for a literature assignment." I could almost hear the cogs in his brain whirring into indignant overdrive. "What about the cafeteri—"
"No way," Green replied flatly, glowering down at me. Stupid tall boy.
"Ugh, fine, spoilsport." I pouted at him, to be rewarded by an impatient sigh. "What about the field? There are some nice shady trees far away from where the P.E. classes are held, what about that?" Of course, this was all part of my plan. It was a nice, pretty secluded spot, and who knew? Perhaps before long he would be playing into my hands, and all the pieces would fall neatly in place. I assumed he was like most boys in the respect that he did not like showing signs of weakness in front of anyone, and would therefore be less inclined to angry protesting for the sake of saving face. But then and again, if we had company, he'd be subjected to more peer pressure. Ooh, what a dilemma.
Suddenly aware of him waving a hand in front of my face and saying something, I blinked, staring up at him. "What?"
"Aren't there any other less-out-of-the-way places to go for a simple study session?"
I crossed my arms. "Well, ex-cuse me for not having a say in the planning of the school! It's either the trees by the playing field, or the cafeteria. Take your pick."
Green scowled. "Fine, whatever. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for class."
- - x x x x x - -
"I don't want to admit it," Sapph chortled, "but it actually looks like your plan's working. Still, I don't see that great a chance of success, so ya better have my Pokédollars ready. Because ya know what? I hate to break it to you, but it looks like he's just not that into you."
"Party-pooper," I snorted, lobbing a ball of tissue paper at her; she caught it with ease, tossing it into the air as she grinned. "Where's everyone at today, anyways?"
Despite the fact that some people were missing, the cafeteria was as noisy as ever: Gardenia was agonising over a last-minute assignment, with Candice attempting to calm her down by offering to go over her work. Maylene, it seemed, was looking rather put-out, and I suspected it had to do with Wallace gently explaining to her that her handwriting was notoriously difficult to read, leading to her deciding to re-do the entire assignment. Oddly enough, most of the art students were missing, though Sidney and a few other guys – music students, most likely – were engaged in a rowdy round of singing and typical male camaraderie, and Sabrina looked like she was having her ear talked off by Bill. Fancy seeing those two sitting anywhere near one another. Really, the wonders of oblivious teachers, projects and assigned partners, they never ceased to amaze me.
Sapph sipped on her soda, absently scrawling a few words onto Agatha's homework project. "Um. Platina's got her debating competition today, remember? Dia and Pearl went to cheer her on or something. Not that she needs it, she'll do just fine, but ya know them." She set her drink down, grabbing some fries and stuffing them into her mouth, as I uh-huh'd and nodded at appropriate intervals. "Crys is still in science, I think. They had a mighty interesting-lookin' experiment there today. Art students went on an excursion, Red and Gold went to the library…an' the swim team's off in an inter-school event or something. Dunno why Brawly's still here, though, I'd have sworn they had a water polo match today, too. Urrr. And, well…I dunno where everyone else is. Though later us athletics and Pokéthlon people will hafta go for trainin' at four. Ish. So everyone should be back by then." Hm, no mention of Ruby. Wonder what he had done this time. Perhaps he had tried teaching her Blaziken how to preen its feathers, and pruned her Tropius or something.
Her long speech had evidently exhausted her momentary inspiration; chucking her pen down, she transferred her stare over to one of the other tables, where Brock was arm-wrestling Brawly, surrounded by a gaggle of onlookers. It looked like they were pretty evenly matched.
"Ahhhh. Kinda wish I took art. Then I could skive off the rest of today," I sighed. Sapph smirked.
"Why, can't wait until this afternoon?" she cooed slyly. I snorted.
"Sapphy, honey, don't use that tone. It's…somewhat freaky coming from you."
"Whatever." We subsided back into a comfortable silence, though Sapph's expression remained thoughtful. I chucked another paper napkin ball at her. "Hey! Stop that. Ya know what? I've been thinkin'."
"What, really?" I said jokingly, only to have her accidentally-on-purpose jab me with her pen. "Ow! Jeez, I was kidding!"
"Well, I dunno, but I've been thinking'," she steamrollered on, "about how ya seem to be growing soft in yer old age."
Oh. That. Well, to be honest, I thought so too. Endeavouring to sound offended, I swatted at her; she dodged nimbly. "Old age? How rude." However, my curiosity was piqued; straightening my face, I turned to face her fully. "Why is that?" My tone was casual, though she knew me well enough to know I was fishing for more. She shrugged.
"I dunno," she repeated vaguely, "it's just that you haven't really been…'kay, y'know what? I don't really know how to explain it. But, like, since Grumpypants transferred over, you haven't looked at another guy, not once. That's quite a change, y'know. All through last year, you talked quite a bit about whether you should hook up with such-and-such, if they were going to be interesting, an' all that. But now…" Her voice trailed off. I nodded.
"Yeah, I get."
"Come to think of it, that Victreebel nickname ain't so accurate anymore," Sapph giggled, "I mean, the only ones who ended up so much worse for wear were the…er, especially sensitive ones. Though they tended to mope around quite a bit after you ditched them. An' it wasn't really nice of you to go out with 'em and get their hopes up if ya were gonna dump 'em soon after."
All this talk about my past relationships was making me highly uncomfortable. Gosh, just listening to her talk about the past me was making me feel so wretched. To think I used to tut-tut at girls just like that. The players, the man-eaters, the shameless flirts.
In my defence, it was entertaining. However, come to think of it, it was a rather weak defence.
The bell rang, and the cafeteria slowly emptied out; I traipsed towards my next class with a horde of chattering classmates, too lost in thought to know where I was going.
- - x x x x x - -
Despite the fact that I had told him to be there at four, Crystal told me it would make a far better impression on him if I turned up early and waiting, than to be late; she for one, was a stickler for punctuality, and everybody knew I had the tendency to rock up fashionably late for everything, as anyone who knew me even vaguely could attest. At three-fifty, and without much further ado, I bid Sapph and Crys farewell – they were on their way off to their cross-country and Pokéthlon training, whilst I had a very important date to keep.
As I made my way across the field, dodging the discuses and shot-puts and whatnot that were being hurled around, I fervently hoped he would turn up. It didn't seem like he had taken too kindly to being pigeonholed like that, but Red had reassured me Green was unlikely to hightail it home. I waved at Sapph as I passed – in the midst of warming up, she gave me a thumbs-up, before resuming her stretching.
However, as soon as I turned back to face the trees, I immediately knew something was wrong. My heart lurched. Why was he so early?
Sitting there with arms crossed and head tilted back, staring up at the branches of the tree and looking as though he owned the field, was a certain someone known as Green Oak. What did he have against actually getting somewhere on time? Rather unreasonably, I wished that Pachirisu from this morning would reappear to conk him on the head or something.
I strolled towards him, placing my hands on my hips. "Someone's awfully keen on this," I informed him, simultaneously trying to hide a wide grin – and failing abysmally. "Been here long?"
He opened one eye to appraise me. "Not really." He sat up straight, resting his arms on his knees.
"Well, all the more time for us to study! I can't thank you enough for being nice enough to tutor me." I set my bag and books down, batting my eyelashes at him. He looked away and coughed.
"…um. If you don't mind, maybe we can actually get something productive done." Was I imagining things, or was he starting to get flustered? Perfect. I scanned his face for any hint of what he might have been thinking, but got nothing. Stupid Mr. Poker Face. Well, that will soon change.
Drat. He was staring at me oddly, and I realised I had missed something yet again. "W-what? Sorry, didn't quite catch that. You've got to speak up a bit more, and mumble a bit less."
"Tch. I said, is there any topic you're especially unclear on?" Ugh. Was it possible for him to sound even more bored?
"Ahahaha, well, lots, actually." At this, he let out another cough which sounded suspiciously like 'I'm not surprised'. I punched him on the shoulder. "That wasn't very nice!"
Poker Face didn't smile. "I said nothing," he deadpanned in response. This was going to be hard. Absurdly so. But it'd be worth it, oh-so-much.
I leaned back against the bark of the tree and kicked off my shoes. It was a nice day today, not quite hot, and not quite cold. Perfect autumn weather. He proceeded to sit back as well, thumbing through a textbook on regional history and Pokémon myths, with the beginnings of a frown creasing his brow.
"Anyways. One of the things I'm a bit unsure about is…this chapter in Evolution Theory."
"Oh? And why is that?" He reached across to extricate his textbook from his bag; when he flipped it open, the margins were crammed with writing and assorted annotations. I peered over his shoulder, scanning his notes. Looks like he was Professor Oak's grandson, through and through.
"I mean, I know when they reach a certain level of strength, their physical appearance also changes to…umm, reflect that new level of experience they have reached? Like, say, if you compare a Togepi and a Togekiss. You can see the difference in maturity and, errr, power…right?" He seemed startled by how close I was, not that I blamed him. Invasion of privacy and personal space. Yet another one of my skills.
He listened without interrupting, and nodded curtly. "Right. So that is evolution by way of level-up, yes. But that's elementary stuff, so what's the real problem?"
Time to cut to the chase. Besides, I really had no idea why this happened, so all the better if I actually learnt something today. "What I'm stuck on is this: why do Pokémon like Magneton and Nosepass evolve only in Mount Coronet? Why does Eevee evolve into Leafeon or Glaceon, based on where they are? Why does location affect how a Pokémon evolves?"
The first hint of a smile I had ever seen appeared on Green's face. If I thought he looked quite the looker before, seeing a smile on his face made his eye-candy worth soar. "Now things get interesting. The Sinnoh region's an interesting place, isn't it? Such a phenomenon has not quite been documented in other regions, I don't think. There isn't really a conclusive answer behind this, though—"
Before he could continue, a sudden shout cut through his explanation; the faint smile vanished, to be replaced by a scowl of exasperation. "What now…?"
A distraction – and complication – came in the form of a rather displeased-looking Silver, who was stomping across to us with a grimace rivalling Green's on his face. Gold followed a close distance behind, looking both amused and at a loss; upon sighting me, he raised a hand in a jaunty wave. "Hiya, pretty lady! What's a-shaking?"
His friendly greeting only caused Silver to shoot him a glare over his shoulder; Gold shrugged, merely trotting along in the wake of his friend. The red-haired boy raised a stiff finger to point at Green, a distinctly suspiciously accusatory expression on his face. "What're you doing with her?!"
"What I'm doing?" Green echoed, looking affronted. "What does it look like we're doing?"
Ah, his logic seemed to have felled Silver there. Poor thing, he looked rather puffed out after doing some sprinting, and that, coupled with him marching up here…well, it was only understandable he was feeling out of breath and perhaps somewhat out of the loop.
"Silver," I interrupted, as the two boys frowned at one another, "I appreciate your concern, but Green here—" I waggled a hand at him, "—is helping me revise for the exams. Hey! Wait! Where are you going?" Great. Just great. When it seemed as though things were going along perfectly, problems like this had to arise. I loved Silver to bits, I really did, but it didn't help that he took to glaring at every male who so much as glanced at me with the baleful stare of an enraged Gyarados. Really, he's like the kid brother I never had. Only also playing out the role of the shotgun-toting father, who threatened to do bad things to anyone who came back after curfew.
Green stared down at me. "Well," he smirked, "it looks as though I have overstayed my…er, welcome. I'll leave you to sort things out with Silver, and maybe I'll finish explaining that particular issue to you tomorrow, if there's any time between classes."
Silver looked triumphant, yet slightly guilty. I supposed this was a bit of a conflict of interest for him, since he apparently looked up to Green, yet at the same time wanted to look out for me. Boy, this was going to be a pain to sort out.
Gold, who had been unusually silent so far, scratched his chin in a thoughtful manner, gazing into the distance. "Aww, poor Whitney. Looks like she took a bit of a tumble in the hurdles." Momentarily distracted, we all turned towards the field, where the athletics people were busy training. One of the hurdles had fallen over, and Whitney was being helped to her feet by Surge, who was inspecting her ankle. "A-ah! Jeez, I forgot, I'm up next." He turned to wallop Silver on the back. "Moron, why did you drag me over? Now I have to run back!"
Forgetting about why he was here, Silver shoved the other boy. "Idiot! You followed me over. And if I were you, I'd be hurrying back now so as not to miss my relay, instead of wasting time yapping about it!"
"You're the idiot. Come here and I'll slap you silly."
"Oh? Is that a threat? Come closer and I'll rearrange your face for you."
"Yeah? Bring it on," Gold sneered. "I'm shaking in my cross-country trainers!"
"What's all this posturing and huffing for, anyways?"
Green rolled his eyes, and shouldered his bag, ready to leave. Ugh, this was such a pain. "Hey, he didn't mean it! And I still need to know why—" Okay, this was hopeless. I needed to resort to drastic measures.
Silver's tirade continued in the background. "It's not like she's here to watch you. Not that an intellectual like that will be impressed by the likes of you, overinflated with ego as you are and full of nothing but hot air, just like a Drifblim, only worse—urkk."
I lunged forwards to grab hold of Green's wrist before he could escape; for a moment, Gold and Silver were too wrapped up in their arguing to notice Green turning scarlet – he was just like a traffic light, with the speed at which he changed colours, ha ha ha. I tugged pleadingly at the cuff of his sleeve, staring up at him. "C'mon, you still need to teach me stuff," I wheedled, pulling a bit harder.
"Maybe she happens to like Drifblims," Gold retorted huffily, "and has caught several already, so taken up by their charms is she." Silver stared at me, agog, quite unable to process what he was seeing, no doubt. Catching sight of us, the other boy tapped his nose with a knowing air and, grabbing hold of his friend, waved at me. "Catch you later, Blue, we won't interrupt your revision anymore. Right?" he added as he began to shepherd Silver back towards the training field, just as Surge's shrill whistle cut through the air.
An awkward silence rushed in to fill the space left behind by Gold and Silver. Sneaking a glance at Green, I decided I had enough of teasing him for today; we would gradually build up to the rest, and right now, it seemed best to let him recover from his little shock. I released his hand, and he dropped his bag, flopping down beside me. For several moments, he didn't speak.
"…please don't do that again."
I smiled innocently at him, leaning in uncomfortably close. "Now, what were you saying about location-based evolution?"
- - x x x x x - -
The rest of the study session had passed with little event, which was a shame. However, glory of glories, I actually managed to learn something, and the fruits of my labour were currently sitting in the middle of my file: page upon page of notes, all full of actual meaningful content.
Boy, was I proud of myself. I was more productive during these two hours than I was for a whole day! Of course, it sort of helped that I had a hidden agenda concerning my tutor. After Gold and Silver's departure, and after he had some time to compose himself and recover from the shock of my little impromptu attention-grabbing stunt, Green had proven himself to be surprisingly…gee, I don't know. Conversational, even, though he still remained somewhat tetchy when I stopped paying attention, or started asking silly questions.
It was already getting dark outside as I let myself into the house; dad was still at work, and I as proceeded to rummage through the fruit bowl for something to munch on, mom poked her head out of the pantry. "How was school, honey?" I shrugged.
"The usual. Though half the year was missing today because of some arts thing."
"What about your little tuition session?" mom asked distractedly, now opening the fridge to haphazardly chuck things onto the kitchen bench.
I grinned at the memory. "It went really well, actually. I absorbed more in the space of a few hours than I did during the whole week." Helping myself to an appl, I picked up my bag from where I had unceremoniously deposited it by the dining table. "Be down soon."
"Dinner in half an hour, okay?"
"Right."
I made my way upstairs, flinging open my room door and dumping my bag on my bed, before proceeding to flop down beside the jumble of books which spilled onto my quilt. An unfamiliar textbook caught my eye, and, sitting up, I yanked it from my bag. This wasn't mine. Since when did I take AP chemistry? The only thing I knew about gold was that it came in nuggets, was obnoxiously rare, and cost a bomb. And that a certain friend of mine fancied a certain boy who went by the same name, though she would never admit it to me in a billion years. Flipping the covers open, I scanned for a name, though I was pretty sure I knew whose this was.
Why on earth did I have Green's textbook with me? And what kind of working habits did he have? Curious, I thumbed through the pages, though it didn't take long for me to be bored to tears with the complex strings of equations which were scattered throughout the pages, accompanied by even more notes in his surprisingly legible handwriting. So much for my theory that all boys had messy writing.
I suppose I could always return this to him tomorrow…and somehow find a way to incorporate it with my plan in such a way that I could get one step closer to my goal. Hmm. What could a textbook do to lure someone over? Now I really regretted not taking down his Pokégear number or something. At least if I called him…
The sudden ring of the doorbell surprised me; I checked the clock. It couldn't be dad, because it was still a bit early for him. Besides, he had his own set of keys, anyways. Just who was this rather late visitor? I sat on my bed for a while, staring into space, running my thumb against the unfamiliar textbook; my little reverie was interrupted by mom suddenly summoning me downstairs, which made me even more confused. This definitely wasn't part of our usual daily rhythm.
Traipsing downstairs, I made my way towards the front door, just in time to catch my mother saying something to the mystery visitor; hearing my less-than-quiet approach, she turned to me and raised her eyebrows. "Blue! You didn't tell me you had a friend coming over."
Friend? Peering over her shoulder, I found myself nearly face-to-face with the last person I expected to be here in the immediate future: Green. "What're you doing here?" I demanded, sounding horribly ungracious. Clearing my throat, I waved mom away; she gave me a last, questioning look, before taking the hint and leaving the two of us alone.
I smiled quizzically at him. "I didn't know you missed my company so much. Was I a good student?" I added, despite myself.
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking tired and crabby. "I came to return this," he responded bluntly, holding out my biology textbook. "How and why it even came into my possession, I don't know. I just thought I'd return it before tomorrow. I assumed you might have needed it for something or another." He waited until I took my book back from him, before turning to leave.
"Hey, hold your horses. How did you even find my address?"
Mr. Poker Face looked rather amused at this. "Why?" he said sardonically, green eyes glinting in the evening gloom. "I'm not some lovestruck stalker, if that's what you're thinking. Sorry to disappoint. After you left, I found your book in my bag. I just asked Red where I could find you."
Ah, Red. Figures. If my sources were correct, the two of them walked home together every day. Well, sort of. "Aww, that's awfully sweet of you. Thanks a bunch."
"No problem." Again, he spun abruptly, and I wondered why he was so keen to hightail it out of here. Also…his book. Hmm. I had an idea brewing.
"…say, I just remembered something."
He stopped short, glancing over his shoulder at me. "What's that? Got another weird question for me to try to answer?"
"Oh, goodness, no. Just now, I found your chem book in my bag. I suppose you want it back," I grinned slyly at him. He raised an eyebrow.
"That would be quite nice, actually." Despite his perfectly still face, I sensed more than just a teensy hint of sarcasm in his voice. No, actually, that was an understatement.
"All right, then. Hold up while I go get it. No, actually, it's getting a bit chilly out. Would you like to come in?"
"No. I'm fine out here."
Ugh. Stupid Grumpy Boy and wanting to make my life even more difficult. If he didn't budge, so help me, I was somehow going to drag him in, whether he liked it or not.
"Ah, just come in. If my dad comes home and sees you loitering out here, he'll be asking questions." I wondered if I should repeat this afternoon's cajoling-wrist-tug. Probably not. He might have a heart attack on the spot. Not that there was anything I could cling on to, though: it seemed as though he was determined not to repeat what happened earlier, and now had both hands shoved resolutely into his pockets.
"Loitering," Green repeated with an air of disbelief. Finally, he relented, and nodded. "Fine."
Well, it was high time he gave in with some degree of grace. "Excellent." I stepped aside to let him in, before shutting the door. I flounced upstairs in high spirits, pleased at how well my little coup was going. He followed rather uncertainly, looking distinctly ill-at-ease.
When we reached my room, I made a great display of digging his book out of my bag; handing it to him with a flourish, I surveyed his face for any hint of an expression. If anything, he looked vaguely surprised, and a little annoyed. "How did you get this? No, wait. I amend that question. How did we even end up switching books? They don't even look that much alike."
Boy, this was tempting. Ah, what the heck. Might as well. Just to gauge his reaction. "Fate," I deadpanned, watching closely as he frowned suspiciously at me.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Gosh, can't even take a joke. "I was kidding," I sighed. "Honestly, though, I don't know. I found it when I came back, and if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that I sure as heck don't do AP chemistry. Looks like very invigorating reading, by the way."
"Indeed. Well, uh. Thanks."
"Oh, no, thank you for returning mine to me. If you hadn't come over, I would never have had any idea you had my book. And I have a bio test soon, so it'd have been awful if I didn't have anything to revise from."
"Yes, well. I'll…see you tomorrow. Don't forget the Lorelei's design tech portfolios, like you did the last time."
"You underestimate me," I laughed, and he merely raised his eyebrows in a challenging manner.
"We'll see."
Oh, Green. This was well and truly game on.
- - x x x x x - -
BACKCHAT!: Okay, I lied. There wasn't quite any hyperventilating, but there were the other two! BUT STILL. For once we had quite a bit of interaction between the two, at long last. Watch the sparks fly. Oh ho ho ho.
Mmkay, well, I'm aware of the fact that I didn't end very well, but then and again, I really suck at ending things. Fo' srs.
Once again, great love to all you wonderful readers who have the patience to continue with this seemingly neverending fic, and a huge and heartfelt thanks to those of you who spared the time to give me reviews; I enjoy reading what you guys have to say, and can't thank you enough for all the useful pointers and hints to help me improve.
So, on the most part, I suppose I've got some pairings figured out, for the Dex holders, and a few of the gym leaders and whatnot. Though it's really on the latter that I'm stuck on, ahahaha. Once again, if you like to see your favourite gym leader, Elite Four member or Champion paired up with someone, feel free to drop me a line x) Psst. I think even if Flint isn't a student anymore, he'll still gatecrash for the heck of it. And maybe accidentally-on-purpose set fire to the venue. Again. I'm a bit surprised they haven't banned him from the school premises yet, actually 8')
The upcoming chapters might take a bit longer than the past few, mainly because exams are right around the corner, and like the master procrastinator that I am, I really ought to be starting to study :'D Keep your eyes peeled for updates, though, because knowing me, I'll be attempting to finish this first. REVISION IS FOR WUSSIES.
I jest.
Until next time!
