Chapter 5:
The Rhodes Not Taken
Mt Moon was everything Ivy had anticipated, and also dreaded. Charcoal black and dark to the point she couldn't even see a hand in front of her face, and with a strangely musty and oppressive atmosphere. The various caverns and tunnels moulded into the thick, strong body of the mountain were cast into a perpetual muffled silence; the kind that would make one unsure if they really had just heard something or if it was just their imagination. Ivy wasn't all too sure what kind of Pokemon lived in Mt Moon, but she somehow managed to convince herself it would be filled with nothing but horrors like Rhydon, Golem, Machamp and Onix, and quickly worked herself into a panic. That was, until Sebastian assured her that the worst they would find in Mt Moon would be an irate Geodude, and that the Pokemon found here would be more of an annoyance than a danger.
Sebastian's words did little to reassure Ivy, who was still nervous about having to creep through the winding tunnels of the inky black cave, initially thinking without any kind of map or even torch-light to aid them. However, Sebastian knew Mt Moon like the back of his hand, and the light coming from the mouth of the cave was enough for the first five minutes of walking. Eventually, the light diminished, casting the travelling party into perpetual darkness. Sebastian however, had a solution.
"Bit dark in here, don't you think?" He said lightly, fiddling at his belt for the Pokeball he needed. "I think we need a bit of light."
Ivy squeaked inadvertently as the unmistakable noise of a Pokeball opening suddenly sounded out. Then Sebastian's voice reverberated out strongly, echoing down the empty tunnels, sounding almost like the commanding voice of a seasoned army general.
"Exeggutor, use Flash!"
Even unflappable Jack let out a cry of surprise as the dark, oppressive surroundings were suddenly lit up with a beam of light so powerful both young adults likened it to the strong beam of a lighthouse, guiding ships to safety. However, even more remarkable than that was the presence of the giant, tree-like Pokemon causing the bright light.
"Exeggu-tor!" the giant Pokemon drawled lazily.
"Good work, Exeggutor!" Sebastian praised his Pokemon warmly, and the Pokemon swaggered proudly at the kind words from its trainer.
"Show off," Robert muttered.
Sebastian shot his cousin a dark look, before turning to Ivy and Jack and motioning for them to keep close. Even with the powerful source of light, there was an easy chance of getting separated if someone lagged behind. Especially the girl, Sebastian thought to himself. She seemed to have a short attention span… "Ditzy" didn't seem to cover it.
They walked in silence for a few moments, thankfully managing to stick together, before the eerie quiet eventually got the better of Ivy, who hated silence at the best of times.
"So…" she began hesitantly. ""Why are you guys going to Viridian?"
"Gym battling," Sebastian said in an off-hand sort of way.
"Gym battling?" Ivy said, wrinkling her nose. "Aren't you cutting it a bit close for entering the Indigo League? There's only a few weeks before it starts up again…"
"I'm not entering the Indigo League,"
"Oh." Ivy hadn't anticipated that answer. "Why?"
Sebastian smiled privately to himself. "Because I've been down that road once before…"
"You have?" Ivy cried out in surprise.
Sebastian nodded. "It was about three years ago, I entered. I didn't get very far; the Elite Four are tough opponents. They're not to be trifled with."
Ivy sensed a further story behind what Sebastian was saying, but she certainly didn't want to pursue it. She had sensed a peculiar reluctance in Sebastian's words, and she didn't want to make her chaperone uncomfortable. Jack however, either had no such qualms or no such sense.
"So, if you've already won at Viridian, why are you going back to the Gym?" he asked in an unusually blunt manner.
Sebastian forced out a short laugh. "I have a bit of a tradition with Viridian's Gym Leader. I have a rematch with him every year."
"Oh, wow." Ivy couldn't deny she was impressed. The idea that any ordinary trainer had such a tradition and some kind of personal relationship with the rumoured strongest Gym Leader in all of Kanto and Johto had left her flummoxed. Evidently, she thought to herself, there was more to this boy than at first met the eye.
From nearby, Robert muttered under his breath. "He talks too much…"
"So, what about you?" Sebastian asked breezily, eager to move the conversation along. "You guys seem a bit… old to be just starting out as Pokemon trainers."
Ivy tensed, praying that Jack would keep his mouth shut, but of course, she had no such luck.
"We are." Jack said with a humourless smirk. "We're both students at Saffron University."
At this particular bit of news, Robert could no longer maintain his stony silence. "You're University students?" he said incredulously, shooting them both accusing glares. "What the hell are you both doing starting out a Pokemon journey when you're at university?"
At the question, Ivy immediately clammed up. She shot Jack a look that even he couldn't mistake for anything else apart from "don't say a word!" and this time, he knew she was serious and managed to resist temptation. With his mouth safely clamped shut, Ivy managed to squeak out "I had to. But I don't want to talk about that…"
"Why?" Robert asked at once. "It can't be that terrible,"
"It is." Ivy said, perhaps more sharply than she had intended. Even the idea of her having to spill out the insecurities surrounding her failure and the reason she had for having to undertake this stupid journey in the first place made her feel physically sick. A cold sweat broke out over her body. "I just don't like talking about it,"
Robert opened his mouth with the intention of asking more questions, but Sebastian, sensing hostility in the girl standing near to him, quickly intervened with a not-so-subtle subject-change.
"University students, huh?" To his credit, Sebastian was also able to summon up enough genuine interest in his voice to defuse Ivy's agitation. "That's pretty cool. You must both be very clever,"
Jack coughed deliberately, catching Ivy's eye in the process and winking cheekily at her.
Sebastian did an excellent job of ignoring Jack's dig at Ivy, and put forth another question, hoping to bring back a sense of calm. "What are you both studying?"
Ivy stopped glaring at Jack just long enough to answer Sebastian, whose friendliness was quite a shock to her, especially considering his rather aloof appearance. "History." She replied, fighting to keep her voice level. Even the mere mention of her degree was still enough to upset her. "And that one's actually training to be a teacher, believe it or not."
"Thanks, darling, love you too." Jack said dryly, before offering a smile to Robert and Sebastian. Only Sebastian returned it.
"A schoolteacher, hmm?" Sebastian would be lying if he had said he had expected that from the boy standing in front of him. With nothing else to say on the matter, he plumped for "You must be very good with children, then."
"I'd like to think so," Jack said with a wry smile, before inclining his head in Ivy's direction. "I get a lot of practice, after all." He said pointedly.
"Yes, quite…" Sebastian said, before being forced to turn his attention back to his Exeggutor who had become stuck in a previously unseen hole in the soft earth. While his back was turned, Ivy turned a furious glare on to Jack, punched him square in the arm and stalked forward, flushing slightly.
The odd little party continued in silence for quite some time. Both Jack and Ivy had their eyes peeled for any Pokemon, horribly conscious of the fact they were already a few days in to Ivy's course and she still had no Pokemon to show for it. Robert and Sebastian however had their attention solely on looking for any wayward trainers, knowing that with a Pokemon of Exeggutor's size and strength walking around with them, they would be an easy target for any trainers passing through and hungry for a battle.
No trainers, or Pokemon, were happened upon however, and the party moved on with no disturbances. The silence however was unnerving Ivy, and she tried to inject conversation back into the small group.
"So…" she ventured as conversationally as she could, hoping at least one of the three boys would pick up on it.
Her efforts, however, were rewarded with stubborn silence. Not even Jack would entertain her.
Ivy sighed and kicked half-heartedly at a rock, booting it to the end of the cave. She hated silence. She hated it more than she cared to admit. But she wasn't about to waste her breath and effort on people that evidently didn't want to talk.
This continued right up until the four young adults (and Exeggutor) cleared the entire length of Mt Moon. It had been a longer, more tiring trip than both university students had anticipated, and both were surprised to see the skies darkening as they left the dark expanse of Mt Moon. They had also been highly disappointed that they hadn't found any Pokemon to capture but they suspected thay may have had something to do with Sebastian's Exeggutor intimidating any Pokemon that would be likely to be hanging around. As they emerged onto the route that would lead them up to Pewter City, Ivy turned to Jack, a thought striking her.
"So… what are we doing? Are we staying in the Pokemon centre tonight?"
Jack shot Ivy a look. Sometimes his best friend's idiocy really flummoxed him. "Ivy… are you forgetting your family lives in Pewter City?"
This, of course, hadn't occurred to Ivy. "Oh yeah!" she said brightly, and Jack could practically see the proverbial light-bulb turn on over her head.
From nearby, Robert slammed the heel of his hand into his forehead. "She's a University student?" He remarked to his cousin in disbelief.
Sebastian said nothing. He actually was privately very amused by the nineteen year old's extreme dizziness, but chose to stay quiet on the subject altogether.
"Do you think your parents will let us stay?" Jack asked as patiently as he could manage.
"I don't know," Ivy said truthfully, while mentally cringing at the thought of her small, unimpressive family home. She was lucky that she and her two sisters and Lewis were able to have their own rooms, but the rooms were tiny, no bigger than cupboards, and big enough only to hold a bed and not much else. There'd be no way she could put up Jack, and as for Sebastian and Robert, it was impossible. Besides, she reasoned, she wasn't exactly all that keen on having to endure the passive-aggressiveness of her older sister Lily-Mae, or the irritating, childish annoyance of her younger brother, especially if she pulled along two other boys in tow. She winced at the thought. Her siblings would be insufferable, and her parents, likely worse.
"Well, we're staying in the Pokemon Centre," Sebastian put forward, seeing Ivy's sudden hesitations.
"I think that's a better idea!" Ivy added immediately, shooting Jack an apologetic look. "Sorry, it's just, well… you know how small my house is…"
Jack smiled. "It's all right. Pokemon Centre it is."
"Great…" Robert deadpanned, privately wishing that he and his cousin could just get rid of the annoyances that seemed to insist on following them around. It only made it worse that Sebastian acted so pleasantly to them, perhaps, dare he even say it, enjoyed their company?
For Ivy and Jack, who had never done it before, their first time staying in a Pokemon Centre was certainly a novelty for them. They watched wide-eyed as Sebastian and Robert handed over their Pokemon licenses, signed for a room and deposited six Pokeballs each to the Pokemon nurse for healing. And judging from the way both cousins dilly-dallied over the computers that allowed trainers to swap party Pokemon for any reserve Pokemon, they deduced the cousins must have had a lot more Pokemon that just the six they had on hand…
After being assigned room 27B, and finding out that Sebastian and Robert were to be staying in 32B, literally across the corridor from them, the two sets of trainers headed down for a modest dinner in the Pokemon Centre canteen. The canteen was awash with Pokemon trainers, all of varying ages and of different descents, but Ivy noticed nervously that every single trainer besides herself, Jack and the Rhodes cousins seemed to be around the ages of fourteen to sixteen. She was suddenly very very conscious of her nineteen years of age and the fact she still had no Pokemon to call her own yet.
She poked at her leek and potato soup slowly with her spoon. "I feel really awkward when everyone else here is so young." She stated, a little nervously.
"You should be feeling more awkward about the fact you're in a Pokemon Centre and you don't even have any Pokemon," Robert cut in darkly, moodily spearing bits of tomato pasta on his fork.
Jack, who at this point was about to say something to a very similar extent, choked on the mouthful of potatoes he had just taken. Robert raised a disapproving eyebrow, mild concern appeared on Sebastian's face and Ivy shrieked and banged down far too heavily on Jack's back in an attempt to dislodge the food from his windpipe. This only caused Jack to yell out in pain, start choking all over again and caused every single person in the canteen to slowly turn to look at the loud scene unfolding in the cramped canteen. Sebastian began spooning up his rice calmly, looking at the others as if challenging them to say anything, and Robert let out a haughty sigh before continuing to violently impale the shells of pasta on the on the spears of his fork.
After dinner, the four reluctant travelling companions didn't quite know what to do with their time. Ivy had taken a liking to the boys, despite Sebastian's quiet aloofness and Robert's sarcasm, and wasn't quite ready to say goodbye yet. Fortunately, Sebastian, who remembered that the two young students had only one (very weak) Pokemon between them for protection decided to offer his help to show Jack the best ways to train up the tiny Pidgey.
So, while Jack and Sebastian drilled some basic exercises with Phoenix the Pidgey, that left a rather nervous Ivy and an inherently bored Robert to make small talk by the side of the Pokemon Centre.
"So…" Ivy murmured softly, watching the darkened shapes of Jack, Sebastian and Phoenix flit around in front of them. She was desperate for some topic of conversation, and landed on the first thing that came to her mind. "How long have you been a Pokemon trainer?"
"Ten years," came the flat, disinterested reply.
"Ten years!" Ivy repeated in disbelief. "How old are you?"
The boy shot her an indignant look, but chose not to pursue the obvious jibe. "I've just turned twenty-one."
"Twenty-one?" Ivy shrieked. She almost shot away from him in her shock. Robert's youthful appearance, down to his shorter stature, rounder face and larger, watery eyes had given Ivy the distinct impression that Robert was younger than her! To find out he was actually older than her by almost two years shocked her into rare silence.
After a few moments of stunned quiet, Ivy plucked up the courage to speak again. "And what about Sebastian? How old is he?"
Robert cast Ivy a disapproving look. "Why?"
"Cos I thought Sebastian was older than you…" she admitted, a little nervously.
"He's not." Robert deadpanned. "He's turning twenty-one in November."
Well that was it. Ivy's jaw dropped straight to the ground. She couldn't believe it. Robert was older than Sebastian! In fact, Jack would turn twenty-one before Sebastian did. But Sebastian looked like he was in his mid-twenties at least, and his cool, sophisticated air and easy good looks only seemed to cement this idea.
Robert shook his head at Ivy's amazed expression, sat down heavily on the grassy ground and let out a deep sigh. Ivy, still flummoxed, cast a glance at Sebastian and Jack. Their dark figures had moved further away now, and she could only vaguely see them moving by the faint golden illumination coming from the familiar streetlamps that lined the grey streets of Pewter City. The noises of the cawing Pidgey reached her ears just fine however though, and something else that surprised her.
Laughter.
Jack was laughing.
"How strange…" Ivy thought to herself, but she was cut off from her thoughts abruptly when Robert's voice sounded in her ear again.
"So, you never said why you're a trainer now."
"Huh?" Ivy swung her head around to look at the young man.
"You never explained why you "had" to become a trainer."
"Oh…" she faltered a little. "Well, it's kinda a long story."
"I got time." Robert said gruffly. "Those two look like they're going to be at it for a while, anyway." He added, jerking his head in the direction of Sebastian and Jack.
Ivy found she couldn't say anything. This time, it wasn't all down to her reluctance to tell a total stranger all about the embarrassing story that had led up to this whole situation, it also had something to do with the fact that that Robert was actually attempting to engage her in a conversation. Ironically, she had lapsed into speechlessness once again.
Eventually she found her tongue. "Just… just circumstances." She said, rather stiffly.
"What kind of circumstances?"
Ivy had to give the boy credit. He was at least trying to sound like he wasn't bored and disinterested; however it wasn't encouraging Ivy to open her mouth on the subject any more than she was comfortable with saying. The thought of explaining all over again, to a person who obviously loved Pokemon training, that she was only doing this because she wasn't clever enough to pass her degree made her cringe with embarrassment. She'd barely even known these boys a day, but yet she found herself strangely caring about their opinion of her.
She maintained a silence, hoping that Robert would understand and stay quiet.
No such luck.
"So, are you just going to sit there and gawp?" Robert said, a few moments of uneasy silence later. "Or are we going to indulge in the miracle of speech?"
Ivy jumped. "Uhm…"
"You never seemed to shut up until now," Robert said scathingly, shooting her an incredulous look. "
Ivy stiffened. "I just don't like talking about all this."
"All this? All this what?"
"Having to become a Pokemon trainer."
"Having?" Robert repeated, wrinkling his nose. "You had to become a trainer?"
"Y-yes…" Ivy said nervously, wishing she could just run away from Robert and the whole conversation. "I had to."
"Why?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Why not? It can't be that bad."
Ivy sighed and wrapped her legs around her knees, resting her head on her folded arms. "It is bad. It's embarrassing, it's demeaning, I never wanted to do it in the first place, and I hate it. And I don't want to talk about it."
If Ivy had been watching Robert's reaction, she would have seen his face slowly twist with every new sentence she spat forth. She didn't however, and as such, could not prepare herself for his reaction.
"Oh, don't be such a baby," Robert suddenly said, rather standoffishly. "Listen, I'm not gonna pretend I know why on earth you "had" to become a Pokemon trainer so late, but I'm not gonna lie either. I don't think it's all that bad. I think you could have it a lot worse than Pokemon training."
Ivy flinched, turning a shocked face to Robert. It took her a few moments to process what he had just said and to find her voice again. "You don't know that!" she said, angrily. "You don't know the circumstances of it all!"
"Only cos you won't tell me," he deflected calmly.
Ivy flinched again. "I have my reasons,"
"Oh, grow up, Ivy." Robert looked at her angrily, his watery eyes hardening. "I don't know why you had to become a trainer, but you really should be a little more grateful. A lot of people want to become trainers, and hardly any of them ever will. So many people who really want to become Pokemon trainers are never able to! They never get a chance! You should be grateful to get the chance to do something so many people will never get the opportunity to ever do."
Ivy recoiled sharply "But I don't want to do this!"
Robert shook his head. "Ivy—"
At the mention of her name in such a hardened tone, Ivy eventually lost what little hold she had on her patience. And as her temper snapped, so too did her inhibitions and every detail came spilling out her mouth without any consent whatsoever.
"I failed my degree, okay?" she cried angrily, glaring furiously at Robert. "Okay? You happy? I failed my degree and I had to do a summer course if I want any chance to come back and keep going. And the only summer course I could do was this stupid Pokemon training course! I've got to get six really rare Pokemon, train them up and bring them back to Saffron in three months to their exact specifications! And if I don't pass this course, I'll get thrown out! And I can't fail, okay? I just can't!"
"I see," Robert's faced showed no outward display of emotion. "And your friend? He failed the course too?"
"W-well, no…" Ivy said, blushing fiercely. "He's passed everything. He's just along to keep me company."
"Huh," Robert said, crossing his arms. "Well, I still say you're lucky. At least you have another chance to pass. Not everyone's that lucky. And you've got a friend, who doesn't even need to be there, helping you along the way. I'd say that's pretty damn good luck already."
"But you haven't even seen the Pokemon I'm supposed to capture! In three months! All those rare Pokemon I'm meant to capture without being given any Pokemon to catch them with!"
"You've got that Pidgey, haven't you? That Pidgey Sebastian is helping to train up."
"But it's just a Pidgey, I—"
"Ivy." Robert said seriously. "Fair enough, I'll admit that this situation you're in is difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. You've already got more advantages than you think. But I don't think you whining and complaining about it all the time is going to help. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, why not get up off your backside and put all your effort into it to make sure you pass. Sitting around whining isn't going to help anything."
Ivy recoiled back, a little wounded. She opened her mouth as if she was about to protest again, but seemed to think better of it. Instead, she snapped her jaw shut, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes, scrambled clumsily to her feet and ran back inside the Pokemon centre, a hysterical sob sounding as the door swung shut behind her. Robert let out a tired sigh, not even bothered by the fact the girl was upset, and went back to watching his cousin and the apparent teacher-in-training work with the baby Pidgey.
Over by one of the rare gardens in Pewter City, Sebastian laughed as the baby Pidgey zoomed past his head in a perfect display of a Tackle attack. Jack grinned happily as the Pidgey slowed to a stop just in time, turned around and faced him, cawing happily, looking for praise. Jack was more than willing to comply.
Sebastian drew himself up to his full height, letting out a smile and stretching, his joints cracking satisfyingly. "You're pretty good at this Pokemon training, Jack. Why did you wait this long to start?"
Jack shrugged, holding out his hand for Phoenix to land on him. The Pidgey did so, and Jack tickled its chest. It chirruped happily, pleased with the affection from its trainer. "I don't know," he said airily. "Guess I just never got the opportunity."
Sebastian frowned. "So, you would have wanted to start earlier?"
Jack hesitated. Sebastian was touching on a slightly sensitive subject here, but he wasn't keen on telling someone who was still practically a stranger to him about it, especially when even Ivy didn't know. Not wanting to draw any more attention to the matter than he thought necessary, he compensated by shrugging again. "You could say that,"
"I see," Sebastian said slowly, although he didn't. Feeling slightly awkward knowing that Jack obviously didn't want to pursue the subject, he looked around for his cousin and Jack's friend Ivy, who had been watching them. He was surprised to see that Robert's attention span had held out long enough for him to still be there, but he couldn't deny he was worried to see that Ivy was no longer there, especially when he considered the short temper and cutting tongue of his cousin.
Jack noticed Sebastian staring, and turned around to look. He blinked in confusion at the absence of his friend, and turned to Sebastian. "Did you see where Ivy went?"
"No," Sebastian said carefully. However, judging by the badly-concealed look of thunder on his cousin's face, he quickly came to a rather worrying conclusion. He wasn't eager to tell Jack this however and simply suggested that Ivy had perhaps just gone to bed.
"Ivy? Gone to bed?" Jack laughed. "Are you kidding? That girl would stay up all night and sleep all day if she got the chance."
"Huh," was all Sebastian could say.
"I suppose I better go and see where's she gotten to," Jack excused himself tactfully. He recalled Phoenix to his Pokeball and jogged inside the Pokemon Centre, barely even stopping to acknowledge Robert as he stepped inside.
Sebastian waited until the door had long swung shut before slowly walking up to his cousin. He raised an eyebrow at him. "Did you say anything to Ivy?"
Robert shot him an indignant look. "What makes you think I did?"
"Cos you can never keep that big mouth of yours shut," Sebastian's tone was light and teasing, but there was still a hint of disapproval laced within it.
"She was whining. I just told her to grow up a bit."
Sebastian sighed wearily, running a hand through his shocking red hair. "You're not exactly a people person, are you?"
Robert glared at his cousin. "I don't know what her problem is. Yeah, it's difficult what she has to do, but it's not impossible. I just hate people who complain and moan all the time instead of shutting up and getting on with it,"
"Yeah, and you're a fine, up-standing example of someone who doesn't moan, aren't you?" Sebastian asked, folding his arms tightly.
Robert grunted. "I'm not as bad as her."
"Pfft. I just hope you didn't upset her."
"Of course not," Robert said primly, whilst privately thinking "For Arceus's sake, if she's that thin-skinned to get upset by that she has no business being a Pokemon trainer."
But of course, Ivy had been upset by this. By the time Jack eventually, after being distracted by the local news for a good ten minutes in the lobby of the Pokemon centre, found his way back to their shared room, he was surprised to see their room still locked, dark and untouched, like no-one had even been in it. At first he wasn't too concerned, assuming his friend had simply gone in the shower before bed, even though showering at night wasn't a habit of hers. He went down to the lobby once again, bought a can of lemonade and a couple of late night snacks from the vending machines, bade goodnight to a rather bored looking Robert and an indifferent Sebastian and headed back upstairs to his room.
Ivy still hadn't returned by the time he undressed and slipped into bed. He was starting to get worried, but he tried to rationalise with himself. Pewter City was Ivy's home; she knew it like the back of her hand. If she had gone for a walk like he was beginning to suspect she had, there was no way she could get lost. His mind somewhat at ease, he settled into bed, aware of the fact that it only was a little after ten at night. Ivy was a perpetual night owl, who seemed to function best in the evening and at night. She was active at night; it was just in her nature. Jack knew she liked late-night walks anyway; it was entirely possible she just wanted to be on her own for a while.
Keeping these thoughts in mind was the only reason that stopped Jack from reaching for his phone and calling his friend to make sure she was safe. He reluctantly prised himself from his bed and unlocked the door of their room just in case she came back when he was asleep and didn't have her key, and slipped back into bed.
He had originally intended to lie awake until his friend returned, but the warmth and comfort of the soft bed, accompanied by the hours of strenuous travel and the heavy training session he had undertaken with Sebastian quickly got the better of him. Within minutes of lying down he slipped into a deep, comforting sleep and barely moved position at all during the night. If a bomb had gone off right outside his window he wouldn't have awoken, much less picked up on the gentle noise of a door opening or the soft creak of a bed being crept into.
When Jack awoke lazily the next morning, on the dot of eight o'clock, as he always did, he almost forgot where he was for a moment. He was used to sleeping in strange beds, having been in and out of various university residences the past couple years, and from a lifetime of flitting between his father's house and his mother's house, but it took him a few moments to process the fact he was in a Pokemon Centre bed. A little smile crept across his face and he rolled over, stretching his long body luxuriously under the sheets, meaning to wish Ivy a good morning.
He stopped in his tracks the moment he turned over.
Ivy's bed was still perfectly made. It hadn't been slept in.
His heart thudded.
Ivy had been gone all night.
Author's Note
Well, that's me back with another update.
I was quite proud of the pun I was able to make in this chapter title :)
For those of you that don't know (those who don't read Free Spirits) I've recently announced my upcoming retirement from this site coming in July, but I assure you, I will do my utmost to finish Master's Degree before then.
I have had a couple of people who have concerns over Ivy and Jack's characterisation, but I assure you, as unlikely as it may seem, these characters are realistic portrayals of uni students. Like Jack and Ivy, I'm in my second year out of four in Uni, and I'm also nineteen going on twenty, so take it from someone who knows. I've met a lot of students who are just as dizzy as Ivy at that age, and even more who are slightly pretentious and serious, like Jack. I do try my utmost to make my characters likeable and believeable, so I just ask for your patience while the characters develop over the course of the story.
Special thanks to my regulars - MasterFreezeman, WildCroconaw, Shadow Serenity 57, Internal Winter, Sniper Mudkip, Kopycat101, mel0215, and Zoeten. And thanks to everyone who reads, too :)
Please read and review if you get the chance. And drop a wee comment or concern or whatever into my forum (link on my profile) if you have a question you want answered quickly.
Thanks guys :)
