Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Pokémon, or Pokémon Special. And this disclaimer business is getting old, but whatever.

- - x x x x x - -

Before I knew it, revision week was upon us. Whilst we had had a few more dance lessons before the full-on, non-stop revision began, those short, fun sessions were long gone, and now I found myself virtually living in the library, doing more studying than I had ever done in my entire life. Now, don't let it be said that I consistently failed all my classes: that was far from the truth. I cheated, yes, but I also made decent grades, occasionally coming out top of the class if it was a topic I was particularly interested in. Not that it happened all-that-often, but, hey, it's the effort that counts, isn't it? Ha ha ha.

Now, rather than just lounging around and having fun, or being dragged out to watch movie after movie with Sapphy, or on the slightly less frequent shopping trips with Platina, I found myself cooped up in my room and poring over stack upon stack of textbooks, making copious amounts of notes which would have made Green proud, and living off midnight mocha lattes, instant-messaging conversations with Yellow and Crys on topics like science and history, and the rare chat with Green, during the few times he logged in. I found myself unable to concentrate properly during those times, though, and more often than not just ended up bugging him on the most irrelevant and random of topics, during which he would abruptly log off again. Typical.

Even though I now spent my time doing little much else, I still made a point of insisting on those weekly revision sessions with Green: after all, it helped quite a lot when I wasn't being distracted by him, and his presence was a good reminder of the promise he had made. That was phase one complete: he was, in his own way, asking me out to the ball – fair enough, I had to fulfil my side of the deal as well, but that was beside the point, I was entirely certain it was a feat I could achieve – and it was hard not to let that little triumph get to my head.

Despite the fact that he was as grudging as ever, he seemed to mind me less now, and even allowed me to pester him about things in general without too much grumbling. He seemed to have more or less accepted me into his 'circle', and as such had pretty much stopped objecting to me being too close, which was a bit of a downer: it was so cute watching him get flustered when I invaded his personal space. It seemed physical closeness was not something he did too well, but being around me so often meant he got used to it. What a shame. He always looked so…I don't know. Oddly vulnerable? When he turned red like that, and coughed that little protesting, indignant cough of his when I got too near. It detracted from the fact that he had the tendency to be just plain mean most of the time.

Of course, he'd probably kill me if I said that to his face. Or have an aneurysm on the spot. Probably the latter, though.

During one such day, in the midst of scribbling an extended-answer response to a question – Discuss, with reference to relevant texts, the Creation Myth of Sinnoh, and present your own opinion and/or depiction of the myth, taking into account your context as a student. – I leaned back against the tree, absently tapping my chin with my pencil. "Say, I know this is a practice question from last year's exam and all," I muttered, letting my head drop to rest against the rough bark, "but how're you going to mark it? It's not like you're an examination marker and know the marking key or anything…"

Green snorted under his breath. "I may not be an examination marker," he began, "but my grandfather is. I get the past papers and marking keys from him, and work to structure my answers in a manner that satisfies the criteria points for all the questions."

I groaned. "Sounds like an awfully tedious process."

"Tedious it may be, but these are skills you really need to work on. Your knowledge of all the main subjects being tested has grown by leaps and bounds, and you can write sufficient short-answer responses. However, when it comes to elaborating upon your own points, you don't do too well."

"Huh." I straightened, and stared down at my notepad in front of me, wondering if my answer was long enough. "Well, at any rate, I've had more than enough of Creation Myths from Hoenn and Sinnoh. You know what? I give up for today. My brain's fried, after you made me go through all of Blaine's equations and Fantina's conjugations again." I yanked off the top sheet, passing it over to him. "Ugh, here you go. I don't want to look at another essay for the rest of my life!"

He didn't answer, and sighed irritably under his breath. "Fine, fine. Just as long as you actually manage to address the question this time around."

"I always answer the question! What are you talking about?" I watched as Green whipped out his intimidating-looking red pen and set to reading through my essay. "Say, I have a question," I began lazily, cupping my chin in my hands as I stared at him; he gave no visible reaction, merely jerking his head slightly to prompt me to continue.

"What do you want to be after you graduate from university?"

"Hnn?" He peered closely at my handwriting, before waving the sheet at me. "What does this word say?"

I scooted over closer, to squint at it. "Uhhh…temporo-spacial?"

"Oh. Right." He lapsed back into silence, twirling his pen around his fingers as he read.

"…Hey, did you even hear my question?"

"What? Oh. Right. That. I'm not sure yet. Probably do some research thesis on evolution theory or something. Maybe become a scientist. Go into R&D. Or, heck, a teacher—no, actually, that's an appalling notion. Forget I said that last one."

"Wow, ambitious. What's so bad about being a teacher, anyways?"

At the question, he glanced sharply at me, before bursting out in a sudden fit of disbelieving laughter. "What's so bad? I have to teach people, that's what. And we all know people don't like being told they don't know everything."

I scowled at him. "Is that meant to be an insult?"

Green raised his eyebrows mockingly at me, a one-sided smirk on his face. "Hnn, I don't know. What do you think?"

"Puh. Obnoxious meanie."

"Stop using my words, obnoxious woman."

Wow, that sure derailed quickly. I attempted to steer the conversation back to less confrontational waters. "So…uh, where were we? Oh, yes. Future career options and all that jazz. I take it you're going to follow in your grandfather's footsteps?"

He scowled slightly. "No, not exactly." Shoot. I remembered. He didn't like being compared to his family. Oh, gee, Blue, way to go. Make an epic blunder like this, won't you?

"Ah…right, sorry…I, um, forgot."

"Mm-hmm. What about you?"

Me? I was momentarily taken aback. To be frank, I hadn't really thought about it. My life up until now had just been about having as much fun as I could, and worrying about the big things when they rolled around. "I don't really know," I answered as honestly as I could; a few possible ideas were rolling around in my head like a bag of marbles, though I wondered if he'd laugh if he heard them.

"You should have some idea."

"Fine, fine, I do. Promise you won't laugh."

"Why would I laugh?" He sounded incredulous, which made me appreciate him all the more; whilst Sapph would have laughed her head off and said something about how something like this didn't suit me, I wanted to try it out, regardless of what everyone else said.

"Uhm…I don't know. Because it's silly?"

"Nothing's silly if you really want to do it."

He had a good point. Damn him and his genius logic! "Okay, well, I always sort of wanted to be a journalist or something. Or, who knows? Maybe even a researcher. Or a designer. Or…" My sudden brilliant burst of inspiration ran out, and I snapped my mouth shut, feeling embarrassed that I had divulged so much to him. I mean, sure, I liked him, he was great company when he actually joked around and loosened up a bit, and was very, very easy on the eyes, but we weren't quite…you know. On that level of comfort yet. Not like Ruby and Sapph, anyways…oh gods, why was I comparing Green and myself to them? We didn't even have a relationship, save for the purely…uh, professional one we were having now. No, actually, that makes it sounds much worse than it actually is. Gah, stupid pretty boy and him messing up my thoughts.

Green finally diverted his attention away from my horrible essay, to stare at me with keen interest, if that's what his expression could best be described as. "Nothing wrong with that. Why do you find it so embarrassing?"

I shrugged. "Because I suppose a lot of people think it's not very…me. Everybody reckons I'm more of a party-girl sort of person, you know?"

He stifled an amused snort with great difficulty. "I don't blame them—hey!"

I gaped at him with baffled indignation. "How awful of you," I sniffed, "to tease me like that. Even though I like to have fun, I have aspirations too, okay?"

Thankfully, his smug grin vanished as soon as he heard the word 'tease'; a scowl replaced his earlier expression, and he snorted under his breath, averting his eyes. "You wish." Before I could open my mouth to object again, and before I could blink, he reverted to his customary look of detached indifference, shrugging noncommittally. "Right, aspirations. As much as the next person."

"Exactly! Hey—" I punched his shoulder as he chuckled under his breath again. "I sort of liked it more when you ignored me" I told him in my most injured tone. "At least you weren't so mean to me then!"

Though I didn't add that his pros far outweighed his cons. Crys, by this point, had had enough of me quite nearly stalking him around the place and watching him during P.E. As a result, she no longer allowed herself to be dragged around, not even if she got the chance to ogle a certain someone – which she always vehemently denied, pooh, as well as informing me I was the only one shallow enough to 'ogle' – and left me alone to watch Green as he went about his usual business.

If I didn't know better, I'd have said I was turning into something of a stalker. Even Yellow timidly told me as such, after I spent one fine afternoon towing her around and using her huge art portfolio as a disguise.

I was jolted from my happy reminiscing by Green suddenly snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Yeah? Well, I sort of prefer those early days too. Back when you hadn't started bugging me every single hour for answers to Wattson's physics project, and calling me every few minutes to tell me what Falkner gave Janine the other day, and why you think Gold and your friend would be perfect together, when clearly it seems as though his feelings are not being reciprocated, understandably enough. And no, I do not need to know what Silver thinks of our study sessions, and I would like you to remind him of the fact that all we do during such times is just that: study."

"Puh," I muttered, attempting to bat him away, "you talk too much, you know that?"

"That's quite something, coming from the likes of you," he told me, now resuming his essay-marking. "I'm not the one ringing people up at twelve in the morning screaming hysterically about overdue homework and demanding – not politely requesting for, but obnoxiously demanding – the aforementioned person to stay up for an additional two hours to help me complete my neglected work. Speaking of which. Your design tech portfolio's due tomorrow, even though it's non-assessment week. Why I even know your homework load a lot better than you, I don't even know. Isn't that what you have your friends for?"

I frowned. "What, you don't consider me one of your friends?"

Green snorted with what most people would have read as disbelief, but was what I had come to know as his version of incredulous amusement. "Friends are, as is often the case, voluntarily made. I don't think you happen to stalk your friends or text them at five in the morning about essays now, do you? I suppose if I were to call you a friend, you'd fall under the 'rather-annoying-but-can't-get-rid-of-her-and-might-as-well-just-continue-to-associate-with-her' friend. No offence intended. Though that said, I don't tend to take complete strangers to something as headache-inducing as a school dance, so…ugh, I don't know. Consider yourself the first and the last. Or whatever."

"No offence taken." Well, at least I knew where we stood now. "It's a level up from 'creepy-stalker-girl-whom-you-have-never-spoken-to-but-see-everywhere acquaintance, am I right?"

"…I have no idea where you pulled that notion from," he said with a remarkably straight face – could he really, really be that oblivious to things other than cold hard logic and whatnot? Oh, what a revelation – "but yes. I'd suppose so. Why? Do you happen to know someone like that?"

"I wonder how I could possibly shut you up at this rate," I said as loudly as I could; he shot me swift glare.

"Whatever it is you're thinking," he began heatedly, "stop it. Now. I don't like it when your voice gets like that. It usually means you have something bad planned for me."

"Oh ho ho, somebody's a sharp one. Now, how's my essay going? It's the stuff of university-level treatises and theses, is it not?"

"Ha, ha, you flatter yourself." Ooh, burn. Not that I minded much, really. If my plan succeeded beyond my wildest imaginations, dreams and fancies, we would eventually have something going on, a something almost maybe on par with what Ruby and Sapph had. Hmmm. That was actually a nice thought, never mind the fact that Green would probably have even greater opportunities to be as grumpy and snide as ever.

All for the greater good, I always say.

- - x x x x x - -

By the time the last class before the exams rolled by, I was in a state of near-panic. Agatha was well-known for being quite the taskmaster, and did not believe in letting any of her students off easy. As I attempted to keep up a written conversation with Sapph, who had already copied down all the notes on the board in her charmingly illegible shorthand scrawl, I silently cursed the difficulty of all my courses, the sheer amount of writing and thinking involved in all of them and the fact that I had yet to develop a system of quick note-taking. Whilst Sapph was now staring at the board with her mouth slightly open and with a slightly dazed, unfocused look in her eyes, everyone around her was still scribbling furiously, wincing every so often when they got to the end of a line.

Never had Sapphy looked more…well, dumb jock-like. Many were inclined to believe she was one, though looking at her grades and at the quality and consistency of her work would convince one otherwise…if they managed to look past the alarmingly frequent spelling and grammar errors, her disdain for proper capitalisation and fondness for gratuitous punctuation usage, and the terrible, terrible Torchic-scratch handwriting.

I shoved the scrap of notepaper back at her. Can I borrow your notes? I have the feeling Agatha's going to wipe the board soon.

No sooner had she read the message when, without prior warning, the elderly teacher erased most of the notes we had been copying, causing a barrage of groans to arise from the front row. Sapph grinned and nodded.

As the grumpy old lady began to produce more complicated-looking hypothesis statements and whatnot on the board, I decided I had had enough of writing for the day and resigned myself to staring slack-jawed and glassy-eyed towards the front, absently twirling my pen around my fingers. Now was a perfect time to plot out how the rest of my plan would unfold – shush, I don't lack organisational skills or foresight, but that's…another story – and perhaps figure out what to do for the rest of the day.

Sadly, Sapph decided to interrupt my contented daydreaming with an elbow to the ribs.

I landed back on earth with a jolt and glared accusingly at her; it wasn't as though she was saving my hide from Agatha asking me some question on philosophy or another, so, really, what gives?

She pointed at the note she had shoved at me. I picked it up, attempting to decipher the hieroglyphic-like scribbling on it. And then it hit me.

Grabbing my pen, I began to write as quickly as possible. Sapphy dearie, are you nuts? You want to go shopping? Today? Seriously? Are you okay? Not sick or anything? During recess…did you taste anything weird in the canteen food or something?

This prompted a rather alarmingly feral scowl from her as she yanked the scrap of paper back and began to write. I peered at her handwriting.

The stupid dance is one week after the exams, right? Well, seeing as how the inter-school athletics tournament is on that week, I won't have time to go shopping and you-know-who is telling me to get a move on or he's going to buy my dress for me…or worse still, make it. C'mon, Blue, you know how he is with these things. She shot me a long-suffering look as she jabbed her pen onto the sheet with sudden force.

I hid a smirk from her. It was true; Ruby was one of the few – or perhaps was the only one, ha ha ha – males who actually cared about appearances. Being the first to see Sapphy in a dress would be quite the experience in itself, and even though my conscience was telling me to gently but firmly turn her offer down and go straight home for more cram-studying, this was too good an opportunity to refuse. Seeing as how she was asking me to come along, it meant she needed help, because the whole world knew Sapphire Birch was horrible at shopping, outfit-picking and colour-coordination, and, as a matter of fact, never went to buy clothes because Ruby usually took care of that for her. Plus, since she had to listen to me and trust my judgment, it meant I could nag her into doing…well, whatever I wanted. Though I suppose Sapphy would draw the line at looking like an extravagantly overembellished pink, sparkly wedding cake.

All right, sure, sure, I'll tag along. I suppose I should start looking for my outfit, too. Are the others coming?

Pffffffft, of course they are. Or at least, I think so. Yellow and Platina won't mind, and I think one of 'em mentioned something about shopping the other day as well. The main problem will be Crys, though. I have the feeling Miss Studypants will be the most stubborn one. Speaking of Studypants. Who crowned you the new Queen of Studying?

I was saved from having to write out a reply by the bell, and Agatha sharply informing the class that even though she wasn't assigning homework this week, that did not mean we could slack off. As an undercurrent of chatter broke out around us, I sighed noisily, stuffing my books into my bag. "Sapphy, didn't you hear? If I want my plan to succeed in all its glorious splendour, I have to ace the exams, big-time."

She raised her eyebrows, blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "Oh-ho? What's this news I haven't heard yet? No little Chatot saw fit to tell me." She pouted a little at that, until I thumped her.

"Are you serious? What rock have you been living under?"

"Shut up, you. Answer my question!"

"We-ell, you see, I got Green to agree to a little bargain." I grinned at Sapph, attempting to gauge her reaction; she raised her eyebrows in response.

"Uh-huh, and so? Oi, spit it out, I'm no mind-reader. Who do you think I am? Sabrina?"

"Our little deal basically goes like this: if I ace the exams like nobody's business, he'll take me to the ball as a…hmm, reward, so to speak. For being a good little student. Amazing, eh? I never really thought he'd be the kinda guy to resort to bribery."

"No kidding," Sapph breathed, shouldering her bag. "He must really, really take this tutoring thing seriously, if he makes an offer like that." A sudden thought struck her, and she frowned, stopping short to stare at me just as she made to push the lecture theatre's door open. "Makes an offer like that…honey, did you…I don't know. Suggest him to do that?"

I ignored her slightly confusing sentence. "Oh, tosh. Of course not. He came up with it by himself! I suppose it says something about him, hmmm? Speaking of which…remind me to go find him sometime today. I need to ask him something."

"No kidding," she repeated. With a shake of her head, Sapph hoisted up her bag, before turning to me. "Wait? Ask him what? No, actually, don't answer that. When you grin like that, it means it's something hush-hush and you ain't gonna tell me. Pft, suit yourself. Now hurry up, I'm starved, and there's sure to be a line thirty miles long at the canteen."

- - x x x x x - -

After school, as Platina, Yellow and myself loitered by the school gates waiting for the athletics people to make their appearance, I found myself attempting to dig a bit deeper into their, uh, plans for the ball; Yellow was surprisingly reticent, if even more so than usual. Even with Platina and me prompting her, she just blushed beetroot-red and vaguely muttered something neither of us could hear; not that the same couldn't be said for Miss State Debating Champion, though. When Yellow attempted to change the subject and divert the attention towards the other girl, Platina just smiled a little and airily waved her hand, telling us we'd find out sooner or later, and refused to say anything more.

Ugh, spoilsports.

Thankfully, this awkward stalemate of sorts didn't last that long before a red-faced Sapph and windswept-looking Crys jogged up, apologising profusely for being late. I noted that Sapphy had been dragging her companion along with no small degree of force, and the dark-haired girl was looking slightly annoyed, as she attempted to disengage herself from Sapph's strong grip.

"Now, really, the exams are just three days away and you all want to go shopping? Don't any of you have any sense of prioritising? At all? Bar Platina, of course. And you guys really shouldn't be dragging Yellow around as well, I'm sure she has much better things to be doing other than shopping."

Sapph and I shot each other guilty looks.

Yellow blinked sheepishly. "Um…well, not really…" Her voice trailed off, and she grinned apologetically. "See, well, most of my courses are arts and design ones, and, um, the compulsories like English and maths and whatnot…so I don't have that much cramming to be doing. Except for perhaps art theory and creative expression and all that."

"…uh-huh. I'll pretend I know what all that's about, then. But, ah, you don't mind joining us, right?" Just to be on the safe side, you know? In case the poor thing ended up having an utterly horrifying time with us. I, for one, did not earn the title of 'She Who Should Not Be Let Loose With A Credit Card Or Too Many Pokédollars' for no good reason. Crys and Platina were okay shopping buddies, they didn't tend to get utterly sidetracked by bargains and all that and could actually resist the urge to buy things, though Sapph…well, she hated shopping on principle.

"Oh, no, not at all! I figured if I was going to go dress-shopping, it'd be best to go with you guys…because I don't really know a lot on how to pick suitable clothes and all that."

"Well, that's settled, then. What're we waiting for?"

- - x x x x x - -

Half an hour later, we had finally arrived at the local mall strip of sorts, and naturally, this was my time to shine. It felt pretty good to be the one in the know this time; after all, this was my area of expertise, as the others knew all-too-well. Before long, I had succeeded in shepherding the others towards my favourite boutique, and, judging from the expressions on Yellow, Crys and Sapphy's faces, they weren't quite sure what to make of what they saw.

"Why do you even have a favourite dress boutique?" Sapph demanded grumpily, as she took in the rows and rows of dresses with a rather sour look on her face; evidently, she was regretting her earlier enthusiasm and wished she was back at home. "It's not as if we have that many functions to wear dresses to…and you don't wear them that often either, do you?" She gingerly poked at a pretty rose-pink satin and tulle masterpiece, wincing slightly. "Not these kinds, at any rate. Who wants to look like a wedding cake every day?"

"Shush you. Wait till you try one on, and then you'll realise why it's such a big deal."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Hey Platina, is she right? Or just babbling another load of Tauros poop?"

"Hmm?" Platina glanced over from the rack of extravagantly expensive dresses she was browsing. "About what?"

"This looking-like-a-sparkly-wedding-cake business. What's so great about it, anyways?"

"Ah, well, it gives you a chance to experience something different, so to speak. Every girl likes being dressed up and looking her finest every now and then…though in your case I'd assume it's leaning more towards the 'then' end of the spectrum."

"Uhh…yeah. Hey, what d'ya guys think of this?" Sapph held up a lime-green number which didn't really suit her all that well.

Platinum glanced over at her. "Absolutely not."

"What? Why? It's nice! It's got a nice, natural colour!"

"…it's green. And not a very flattering shade, I might add. Put it back this instant, Sapphire, I'm sure you'll find other things which will appeal more to you."

"Yes, precisely, it's gloriously green!' Sapph ignored most of what the other girl said, and tugged the dress away from the rack, twirling around with it. "I like it. It makes me feel more attuned with nature, and less like I'm wearing synthetic goods…though the smell of the fabric gives it away." She pulled a face.

At that point, a smiling shop assistant decided it was a good time to approach us. "Do you ladies need any help?"

"Ye—"

"No, we're fine," I said, cutting across Yellow; she frowned slightly, but said nothing.

"All right then. Give me a holler if you have any questions."

As soon as she was out of earshot, Yellow stared up at me, wringing her hands. "But I do need help! I don't know what to get! I can't really find anything I really, really like! D'you reckon I should ask Sapphire?" She gestured over to where Sapphy was arguing with Platina about the merits of how green was soothing to one's eyes and how she didn't care whether it was flattering to her figure or features or not.

"What? Ask Sapphy? Oh, no, no, no. If you're that stuck, ask me! I'm sure I'll be able to find you something nice. After all, this is what I'm a real pro at."

"She has a point," Crys interrupted, sidling between us and studiously ignoring the squabble behind her. "Though her work in history and discrete maths is improving immensely as well. Hmm…anyways, about dresses, ask Blue. She knows what she's doing, and won't give you something horrible to wear." She rolled her eyes a little at that. "If anything, she'll probably view it as a personal insult if you don't get complimented by every boy who claps eyes on you."

"Of course it's an insult! Now shoo, go find some choices and show me when you're done." I watched as Crys disappeared amongst the racks of dresses, before turning back to Yellow. "Now, if you can't find anything suitable here, we could always go to the next shop. Don't let yourself be limited in choice! Though, heh heh, budget's another thing."

"Mmhm," Yellow mumbled under her breath, absently twirling a strand of blonde hair around her index finger. "But, well, I don't really know where to start. What colour should I be going for?"

Sapph chose that moment to sneak up behind us and sling her arms around our necks. "If there's one bit of friendly advice I can give you, it's this: don't go for something as cliché as a colour to match your eyes. Because, for starters, most of us have blue eyes here, and it sure ain't gonna help much if we all turn up looking like…I dunno, freezer-packs and Yellow's in the middle looking like an adorable buttercup. Ugh, talk about an overload of bleh."

"…bleh?" Yellow echoed doubtfully.

"Yeah, bleh! Don't you know? Blue's like, a passive, uhh, depressive-ish colour! That's why there's that term, ya know? 'Hey, why so blue today?' Or, umm, 'Monday blues'! Heh heh heh."

"Hey!"

"Ahahaha, sorry, Blue. But you get my point! And we all know this Blue is the furthest thing from gloomy."

"If I didn't know better, I could swear Ruby was teaching you colour theory or something. Is he getting into interior design or something anytime soon?"

"You know she's just saying that so that she can get the green dress, right?" Platina's voice wafted back towards us; Sapph scowled.

"Whyever not? Besides, won't it be cool if we dress in rainbow colours?"

Judging from the horrified splutter that the usually all-too-composed Platina responded with, Sapph's suggestion was not really met with much enthusiasm. "Are you insane? Do you want to look as though you stole and dressed yourself in Ho-Oh's plumage?"

"No, doofus." It was pretty rich of Sapph to be calling Platinum Berlitz, of all people, doofus. "What I mean is, each of us go in one colour. Of the rainbow. So like, someone wears, blue, someone wears red, someone wears, orange, someone wears yellow…and someone wears green, and so on and so forth!"

"You know…for someone who claims to hate dresses and shopping and girly things like colour-coordinating and whatnot, you sure come up with good ideas," I told her, feeling slightly bemused.

Sapph grinned broadly. "Exactly! So, heh, dibs on green! And, fine, fine, I won't go with the lime green. What about this pretty dark seaweed-ish green?"

Platina groaned. "You're insufferable," she muttered under her breath, before resuming her browsing.

- - x x x x x - -

Surprisingly enough, we had all found a few dresses we quite liked in that one store, and as a result, everyone was trying things on. Seeing as how I had settled on my purchase relatively early – I had called dibs on blue (and all its various shades and whatnot) and found myself a nice dark midnight blue silk and satin number which I had almost fallen in love with at first sight – I now had the official duty of deciding what was 'hot' and what was 'not' for the others.

Sapph had pretty much gathered every single remotely green dress she could lay hands on, and was now cursing and swearing eloquently as she tried to fiddle with all the zippers, ribbons, lace and whatnot which was doubtless annoying the living daylights out of her. Poor thing. She had really been looking forwards to this little escapade, too, though from what it seemed, I could safely assume this would be the first and the last time she would allow herself to do dress-shopping, of all things. After much deliberation, and my having to help her in getting the dress to sit properly, she finally settled on a deep forest-green layered dress; it wasn't so much the colour that surprised me, though. I must admit, she did choose a pretty outfit, but I hadn't figured in a million years she'd wear it: the top half was simple enough, though the skirt itself was another story, literally being made of layer upon layer of chiffon 'leaves' which, if anything, hinted at…I don't know. A wedding cake-y look. I mean, it was a nice dress, but…the layers. From what Sapph had yelled about earlier, and how she vehemently swore not to look like a multi-storeyed cake, I'd never have thought she and layers mixed.

To each their own, I suppose.

Platina chose something really sleek and elegant-looking, all pale periwinkle…or was it lavender? I was never good with all this colour-describing business. Wait. Where was I? Oh yes. Her dress. It was a pretty thing, the sparkly diamantes and whatnot, and fitted her to a T, and not really overembellished, too. But then and again, she had excellent taste, and I didn't expect anything less from Platinum Berlitz.

Yellow and Crys had taken a bit longer; however, it took quite an effort of will to hide my triumphant grin when Crys eventually made her decision – hello, all my suspicions had been confirmed, not that they weren't all that suspicious already; it was pretty obvious, you know, once you looked hard enough…and knew where to look – and poor Yellow almost had a nervous breakdown halfway through the entire ordeal. Not that I blamed her, though. Such intensive shopping for a neophyte was quite tiring. After much deliberation, more fruit smoothies for a little energy boost and a chorus of appreciative 'oohs' and 'aahs' from myself, Platina, Sapph and Crys, she made her purchase, though not before apologising profusely for keeping us there so long. It was worth the wait, though: she chose a black dress which contrasted quite strikingly with her hair and eyes, and after the entire affair, I found myself congratulating…well, myself for the time well spent. Hey, I mean, the black dress is timeless and goes with practically everything. Believe me, I know.

Of course, now was probably not a good time to break the news that we eventually had to buy shoes and all the other stuff as well. All in due course. Heh.

- - x x x x x - -

I must say, for a group of four girls – one a complete and utter, seasoned shopaholic, the other a total greenhorn to this whole business, one who detested dresses on principle, one who didn't really care what she bought and the other who was every bit as efficient as I was, if not more – we got done surprisingly quickly. By the time we traipsed out of the shop – the assistant looked rather relieved to see us out, after Sapph chucked a mini-tantrum when she realised just what the heck she was doing, buying a dress and all that – it wasn't even that dark yet, and as we bade one another good night and set off for home, I found myself feeling oddly relieved, though that pleasant feeling was soon dispelled by guilt: I should have been working on my revision and aiming to secure my place as one of the top students in the year.

Of course, I found it rather amusing that the only reason I was doing this was so that I could go to the school ball with a guy who probably barely even cared about it. But then and again, I had to remind myself that he would doubtless look pretty fine on the night itself…not to mention the fact that I found myself genuinely interested in pursuing him.

…ugh. This should really be the other way around. Since when did girls have to chase after boys? How silly. Since when did nature flip itself right over like this?

As we walked home in relative peace and quiet, Crys nudged me quietly. "Pokédollar for your thoughts."

"Hnn-what?"

"What's on your mind? You're really quiet tonight."

"Yeah…I guess."

"What's up? You look…I don't know. Thoughtful."

I shrugged. "Oh, not much. Just thinking about things, you know?"

She smiled faintly. "Worried about the exams? Eh, well, I'm sure they're not going to be that bad. It's not as if this term's results are going to weigh that heavily on our final grade, anyways."

"No, no, not really. And it's not really my final grade that I'm worried about. It's more along the lines of whether I can keep up my side of the bargain."

"Ah. Right. I must admit, it's rather steep. Even though I don't really want to be discouraging, but, hey, there are a lot of people in this year, and scoring in the very top percentage isn't going to be easy."

"Yeah, I know. Especially if I'm up against people like you, Platina and Sapph."

"What? Us? Pfft, you have nothing to worry about. You're working extremely hard, and anyone can see that. You know, I have the feeling that he agreed to this because…I don't know. He knew you'd definitely be up the challenge, and would be able to do whatever you have to do. Besides, boys…well, you know how they are with deals. Evasive and whatnot."

I stared at her. "Really?"

She nodded, star earrings sparkling as she bobbed her head. "Yep."

"Since when did you become that perceptive? I mean, you were always perceptive, but, like, on the subject of, uhh, males."

Crys sighed shortly. "I'm not really sure. Maybe it's because this guy with the perceptiveness of a sock is…agh, never mind."

I stopped, hiding a grin as I stared her in the eye. "Is this about who I think it is?"

She shot me a sharp glare. "What? N-no!"

"Oh ho ho ho! That confirms my suspicions. That, and the choice of dress you made. I must say, dark champagne silk? I never expected you to go for that! Didn't really quite think you liked that sort of style, really…but I guess you prove me wrong!"

She scowled, though it was hard to disguise the faint flush creeping up her neck and across her cheeks. "Oh, Blue," she sighed disparagingly. "The one time I want you to just drop it, you don't."

"Ah, fine, fine, just for you. But…"

Crys rounded on me, nearly whacking me in the shins with her shopping bag. "But what?"

"I'd say he's pretty interested in you, though."

She crossed her arms and stalked onwards with a grim look on her face. "Stop saying silly things like that."

"But it's true!" I stifled a laugh at her expression. "All the none-too-subtle hints he drops…and from what Silver tells me, even though he's full of hot air, bluster and whatnot, he's rather nervous of…you know. Just asking you out of the blue."

"Hnnngh. Not helping, Blue. I preferred it when you were antagonising Sapphire about that load of green dresses she picked out…and when you were too busy drowning Yellow in a pile of clothes to start nagging me."

"Nagging? Hardly! My dear, I'm doing this for your own good. Someone needs to take the initiative, and if you keep playing shy, and if he keeps acting confused, then I'll take this into my own hands. Tell you what, why don't I arrange a little rendezvous on Monday? Hmm? Hmm? What do you say?"

"I say no!" Crystal snapped as she stopped short in front of her house, fiddling with the gate. "The exams start on Monday, remember? I'm pretty certain you want to pay more attention to seeing your little scheme to the end than in trying to set up not-so-secret meetings for people!"

I sighed. "Darn, you have a point. Can't let all my effort go to waste now, can I?"

She snorted noncommittally under her breath. "Indeed. Anyways, thanks for helping us out today, I don't think we could've done it without you…" Her voice dropped to a bemused mumble. "Shopping, of all things."

"Hohohoho, no problem. See you Monday, all right? And remember, if you two still keep playing hard-to-get, it's time to call in the big guns, that is, yours truly. You know who to call!" With a wink and a grin, I waltzed away before she could respond, waving cheekily at her as she opened her mouth to protest. I proceeded to make a beeline straight for home; pretty lucky we were practically neighbours, I'd say. Then and again, it wasn't that huge a city…town…whatever that we lived in. Everybody was pretty much neighbours with everybody.

After traipsing into the house and loudly announcing myself in my customary, so-called obnoxious manner, I only realised after flopping down on my bed that once again, I didn't manage to corner Green after school and ask him…drat, what had I wanted to tell him?

Ah, well. This could probably wait until next week.

- - x x x x x - -

BACKCHAT!: ARGH. Late chapter is late, a little bit longer than usual, and…what else? Ah, yes. The quality probably fluctuates quite a fair bit, since I ended up writing bits and pieces between my exams. Hahaha. Now that they're over, I look forward to trying to finish this – goshdarn, it'll be the first ever chaptered fic I complete, snnrk – and, y'know, maybe starting on new things! All in due course, though. Also, I lack organisational skills and in general most skills. So, err, yes. Don't mind me too much. ;A;

A huge thank-you to all my readers for your patience, as well as the good luck wishes! (: My exams themselves weren't that bad, haha, though the results…are another thing. Oh dear. Anyways, um, where was I? Oh yes. Also, a huge thanks to my reviewers, too! I find what you have to say very encouraging, and also helps give me ideas.

Uhh, well, if you see any spelling or grammatical errors, continuity fails or anything else, don't hesitate to point them out; as I mentioned, writing this took place over several days – weeks, even – and as such I tend to lose track of what I was supposed to have said, blah blah blah. Terrible, I know ): And I lack proper proof-reading skills. Speed-reading for the win! Not.