Hello everyone! It's been a while since I updated any of my stories so I'm slowly working on them one by one... and to make it up for not writing as much, I tried to make my chapters longer. This one is about 14-15 pages long. Of course, there's a lot of group talking, but hey, it works well.

I also tried to make it serious, but with some silly sections to make it less boring and paranoic. (Is that a word?) I also know that Spyk hasn't showed up at all in this episode, but worry not! He's going to be the main focus of the next one, I promise you!

I also did a new summary. Does it work better? Worse? No comment?

I also realized that the previous five chapters have all writing centered. Is that normal? I don't remember doing it that way, so has ff changed it, or have I been blind this entire time? (I personally don't like centered texts so this is freaking me out.)

R&R please and thank you! Feedback is appreciated!

The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2

Mother a contest champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer.

Everyone calls me a danger magnet—but it's not my fault. I try to stay out of trouble all the time, and yet it still manages to find and catch me. It doesn't help that my sister is somehow related to the Rocket mayhem that's been whirling around, nor does it help that my closest friend started to act suspicious. With ties made, others broken, and old scars struck, who am I anymore?

006. Hope stays strong.

When I woke up from that horrible mess, I heard my name being called.

"Maia!"

Okay, that was Ivey. I knew that because she's that annoying person who wanted to travel with me. But why did she sound so distressed? Had something happened?

I forced my eyes open, trying to move and stretch my body while I was at it, but something was holding me back. I felt extremely fatigued and heavy at my current moment, my arms as if they'd just worked an entire day swimming its muscles out. I couldn't do much with my face either; it was in a lot of pain. I could feel my hand twitch though, and I tried to move or flail it, but something was blocking my path again. I gave whatever it was a small shove, and I heard the sound of rolling and clacking objects as it shifted away.

That's when I remembered what happened. I was in a cave, watching over Ivey who was sleeping, when these guys came to me for directions, so I gave it. They called out their Pokémon at my demand, and then they flooded the place, causing a cave-in. We ran away in time, the guys teased us, and in anger, I caused another cave-in.

Well that wasn't good at all.

I must be still in the rubble, I realized when my eyes could only register darkness and dust, closing them again really fast afterwards. I resisted the urge to cough, realizing that the barrier over me must be the rocks that had fallen on me. How in the world am I even still alive after a cave in? There were so many cases of death that it all just seems like some crazy dream. I'm never lucky, so why am I still alive?

"Maia!" There's Ivey again. She still sounded the same as usual.

I closed my eyes.

When I came to again, there weren't any rocks covering me and the air was fresh.

I tried to take the biggest breaths of air possible, but that only caused me to cough my lungs out.

"Maia!"

There's Ivey, still calling me. She sounded relieved though, unlike before.

My body was still sending me crazy signals of pain and thirst and hunger and the need to urinate. I just wanted to go back to sleep though, but I couldn't when I just joke woke up coughing hard. I wondered if I had gotten sick or something, but then if I had, why wasn't my nose running? My body fell horrible though, and I was sure that was the first sign of an illness. I tried to push myself up with my arm, but it shook weakly under my weight and I dropped back down on the bed with a flop. I could already tell this was going to be a horrible morning.

"I'm going to go call the nurse!" I heard Ivey's heels clack away from the room, closing the door behind her as she left. Nurse? Oh great, what did I do this time to land myself in a hospital?

I tried to open my eyes to see if it was true, but they immediately hissed at the bright white and closed on themselves again. A low buzzing noise was creeping in my ears and I deftly wondered who'd left a venonat in my room. I turned in the direction it was coming from and peered open my eyes, trying to see what it really was. I caught a variety of colours and images coming from a somewhat small screen in the corner of the room, facing me diagonally. It was a television, I realized. Ivey must've been watching it.

"…five young trainers were found in Diglett's cave early yesterday morning, two of them, a young couple, caught under a pile of rocks as the path had an unexpected cave-in..."

Unexpected was right. I closed my eyes against the television. I did not want to hear the news right now. I've had a bad enough morning as it is.

"…here's one of the five trainers, Ivey…"

My eyes snapped open in alarm. Ivey went on television? Why didn't she tell me?!

The Ivey on the television looked like she hadn't showered in a week, plus she was almost completely covered with dirt, even if she was still wrapped in her blanket. This must've been just as she'd left Diglett's Cave. "…yes. The girl who got caught under the rocks is my best friend. We were heading to Vermilion to catch a boat to visit some family members, but our trip stopped short when Diglett's Cave caved in on us so suddenly."

"What about the boys? Do you know them?" The reported asked, quickly pushing his microphone back in Ivey's face afterwards.

"Sortof, we met them along the way. Since we were heading in the same direction, we decided to travel together."

"And what about the unexpected cave-in? What do you think happened for the cave to suddenly collapse on your group?"

She laughed. "I'm not a geologist or anything, so I really wouldn't know anything about that."

"But it was your group that destroyed Digett's Cave, right?"

I saw one of Ivey's eyebrow twitch, but her smile stayed intact. "I don't know how you could've assumed that. We were resting in a small crevice, and when it started, we ran for our lives. Not all of us were lucky though. But still, none of us caused it."

"Are you absolutely sure about that? Evidence shows signs of a Pokémon battle happening."

Ivey paled at this and she looked horrified behind her still-there smile. "W-what?"

The news reporter had a smile on, but you could tell he was pretty confident that he had won this round over Ivey. "Water, mud, puddle, grass, and large petals that could only be created by pokémon. You guys had a battle, didn't you?"

Ivey scowled at the man, no longer caring about staying pleasant on camera. "Our group got along pretty well, thank you very much. There was no need for us to start a battle in the middle of Diglett's Cave!"

"But if I'm correct, Ivey, you hold in your possession many grass types—"

The television was abruptly shut off. I turned to the perpetrator and found Ivey with the remote and the nurse next to her reaching down at the end of my bed to press a few buttons. When she was done, the head of my bed started lifting up until I was into a semi-resting-semi-sitting position. This forced me to be able to feel the muscles in my legs, butt, and abdomen as they adjusted with me, and it did not feel great. After a few blood pressure checks from the nurse, some water, a slice of bread, and an examination from the doctor, they said I was free to go whenever I felt good enough to walk.

As soon as they were gone, I faced Ivey. "Why did you lie to that reporter?"

"I had to!" She hissed back, voice low to avoid rousing suspicion for anyone that would be passing our room. "You don't want to go to jail, now do you?"

I jolted in surprised. "Jail? Why would I have gone to jail?"

"The cave-ins! If they started naturally or by wild pokémon, we're fine. But that's not what happened." She tossed me my bag when I asked for it. "Andrew caused the first one, and you the second one."

"I-it was an accident! I didn't think it was going to cause another cave-in!" I pulled myself out of bed and started searching through my stuff. My legs shook a little for not being used for a while, but they eventually straightened out. My muscles weren't happy with me though.

"Your flashlight got destroyed, by the way." She told me quickly before continuing on with the main point of conversation. "I know that it's an accident, but no one else cares about that! All they care about is putting the blame of what happened to Leon against you!"

I'm assuming here that Leon is Leader. "What happened to Leon?"

He took my previous spot and braced himself against the falling debris, moving his arms to hold himself against the unsteady wall. I dropped dead to the floor under him.

Everything started collapsing once again.

Ivey looked away. "The doctors won't affirm anything until he's woken up. He's been in a coma from the second they found him. His body was in a horrible state."

Here comes the guilt. "So the blame's all on me, huh?"

Ivey nodded reluctantly. "It's getting pretty controversial though. Some say that you caused it, others that he caused it, others that he was trying to protect you, others that the rest of us wanted to get rid of you two, etcetera. It's pretty hard listening to it all."

"They're right about the protecting part." When I found nothing wrong with the contents of my bag (except more of my snacks vanishing via Ivey's stomach), I started preparing an outfit to leave this place with. I wasn't going to wear these stupid butt-showing hospital gowns outside of this room, that's for sure. "And that I caused the cave-ins."

Ivey didn't respond and let me sneak away to the bathroom to change (of course, it took me a while since my legs were still weak and I had to cling to the wall the entire time). When I came back, I found her rummaging through my snacks again. She didn't even bother trying to look guilty or have that deerling-in-headlights look when I plopped back down on my bed and swatted her hands away. She refused to let go of my food.

"Why don't you try to look good, Maia?" She asked through bites, putting her free hand (the other still clutching my bag) in front of her mouth to stop food-debris from flying out. "You're a girl, and yet you wear unfashionable clothes that are too big for you."

"I don't need to look good." I muttered crossly, wondering why she would want to talk about that of all things at this time. I yanked my bag from her hands and zipped it shut. She pouted at me but didn't argue. "I need to wear something practical so that I can last longer in the wild. And stop eating all my food."

"Being a pokémon trainer is not just about being in the wild, you know." She returned, ignoring the part about my snacks. I really hoped she wasn't going to continue doing that, or else I'm going to have to leave my bag empty of emergency foods just in case she'd go back in it, and I don't want that. Emergency food is emergency food, for goodness sake.

"Most of the time, yes. I'm going to be training my face off soon."

She grabbed my arm and sent me a stern look from under her golden bangs. "Excuse you, the doctor told you to take it easy. Your body was in a state of exhaustion when they found you. You needed rest, and days to stop and relax. Going into a cave the day after our great adventure in the forest wasn't such a good idea at the time, especially since I'm the only one who got to relax and have some sleep."

I yanked my arm free. "So we've been walking and running and doing too much. It doesn't matter to me. I can relax later, when I'm done."

She got a glint in her eye. "Done what?"

Good thing I caught her look. I heaved my bag on my shoulders and swatted her hands away from me as she tried to get into it again. I'll be protecting my food from now on. "Nothing important. Let's go."

"At least let me make your hair presentable!" She cried suddenly.

I stared at her in surprise. Presentable for what? "E-excuse me?"

"Please! I'll stop bugging you for the rest of today!"

That actually looked like a good idea right about now. And I also wanted to avoid future arguments with her, considering she just saved my social life's butt. "…fine."

An hour later found me finally leaving the hospital with my uneven hair out of its ponytail and curled and shiny, my face dusted with makeup, and a miniskirt instead of my favorite jeans. Thank Arceus she let me keep my hoodie and sneakers on. I don't even want to imagine how I'd look like in the skimpy top she had planned for me. And, oh Arceus, don't get me started on the heels.

"I thought it was only hair!" I hissed at her, but she wasn't listening. She was twirling around my person and taking pictures with her phone, muttering something about a "successful makeover" and letting all her friends know about it. I was going to pummel her soon if she didn't stop it. "Ivey!"

"Relax, Maia! This is so much better!"

"I feel like an idiot." I grumbled, tugging the skirt further down.

Ivey swatted my hands away. "Stop that! You look cute!" And then she smacked my butt for further emphasis. I shrieked and covered my butt, face red from both embarrassment and frustration. "Look at you! So innocent! It's like you never had someone touch your butt before!"

"W-what's wrong with you?" I whispered harshly, looking around to see if anyone had seen. From what it looked like, the only attention that was brought was because of my scream.

"Nothing's wrong with me!" She laughed, wrapping an arm my shoulders.

I shoved her away as hard as possible. "Yes there is!" I huffed, blowing at my hair that went to stick in my newly acquired lip gloss. It had to be the sixth time this happened to me today. How did Ivey handle it without looking like a fool? "Anyway, let's just get to the docks and leave."

She furrowed her eyebrows at me, "What are you talking about?"

I slammed my hands on my hips. "Boats. Hoenn. The plan, remember?"

A giggle broke on her lips. "Oh! Pfft! You're so silly! How can we get to the docks when we're not even in Vermilion city?"

My blood ran cold. Have I been kidnapped while I was out of it? "We're not?"

"We're in Celadon city! The biggest town with best shopping center!" She spread her arms wide and spun circles in the middle of the streets. I had to duck to avoid getting hit. A few pedestrians weren't so lucky. I apologized to them in her place.

It took me a while to register that we weren't where we were supposed to be. "Doesn't Diglett Cave finish in Vermilion City?"

"Yes, but the cave collapsed in the middle of route 16 and emergency troops had to come save your hide from there. That road is off limits now, until they can fix the cave or create an alternate crossing route to Pewter city."

"That's crazy," I watched as Ivey skipped ahead and took a seat at the benches surrounding the fountain. I didn't bother following her example, crossing my arms as I stood in front of her. "Speaking of which, what happened to the guys?"

I spotted yet another evil glint in her blue eyes. She was getting too many of those for comfort. She leaned forward, sending me a worrisome grin. "You'll see." And then she jumped back up to her feet, grabbed my wrist, and dragged me to the stores.

A long shopping trip inside the huge department store later, we were on the roof of said building. And although Ivey did all the shopping (I didn't buy anything, even if she insisted), I had to carry most of the bags. I dropped them in a corner along with the rest of our stuff when I realized we were going to hang up here for a while. With a sigh, I gave Ivey a defeated look, just wanting to rest. Wasn't she the one who insisted I take it easy? Why would she make me do all the hard labour?

The space of the roof was wide, open, and loomed all over the city. We could see every little detail of Celadon city and we could even spot Lavender town's Pokémon Tower from over the trees—it was that tall. There were about five vending machines and a lot of picnic tables on this rooftop. I spotted a few spots where the tiles looked worn out, tired, almost destroyed, with faded blue and red mark on two sides of the mess. I had to assume that it was an impromptu battle field. Ignoring the scenery, I focused on the people around us. There were trainers, lots of them at that.

"Everyone, this is Maia!" Ivey introduced with the loudest yell I ever heard coming from her. I got a few cheers and hellos in response, but nothing really else. Ivey proceeded to drag me again to the corner where there was approximately five guys throwing items off the building. A scowl immediately threw itself to my face. How come they got to have all the fun and I had to carry shopping bags of all things?

"Julian! Andrew! We're here!" Ivey said the obvious, tapping both boys on the shoulder. Now that there was daylight and we were no longer in a dark cavern, I could tell how they looked and spot nearly all of their details. Julian—I know him by his nickname, Jul—was a short boy around his late teens, with short floppy brown hair. He really did seem like the self-conscious and cautious type, now that I had a good look at him. He nodded at us timidly, rubbing his hoodie-covered arm and looking away quickly afterwards.

Andrew simply raised his hand in greeting, still looking as apathetic as he could possibly be. This guy was older, looking to be in his twenties, I think, and yet he was still pretty handsome. It was a shame for his lack of voice. He had long black hair pulled back behind his ears and matching eyes. Both of them looked like siblings, or related of some sort. They had the same nose and shape of chin, though Andrew's was more defined, being older. It was odd having both of them here like this and seeing them side by side and making the comparison. I was kind of hoping they'd be closer to my age. Not that it was much of a big deal. I didn't need to concentrate on love when I'd be moving away to Hoenn in a few days, and there'd be no chance of me keeping in contact with them, but I still wanted to hope. I made sure to get my hopes up before addressing them again.

"Um!" I grabbed their attention just as they were about to turn and continue what they were doing. I checked to make sure no one was listening in our conversation before leaning closer and whispering to them. "I wanted to apologize for what happened." Andrew's eyes narrowed while Jul's widened. It was yet another odd mix coming from those two. "I didn't mean to cause all that destruction for you all. I'm really sorry about what happened to Leon. It wasn't my intention." Andrew silently huffed and turned around, storming to his other friends. I turned my focus on the last one of their trio. "I'm sorry."

"I-it's okay." Jul looked kind of scared, and checked over his shoulder at Andrew a few times before his eyes flickered to the other trainers around us. He must be in on the whole don't-tell-the-world-the-truth deal with Ivey. "I feel like I should apologize too. You two did nothing wrong. We came to you for directions and it lead to this. Plus, we provoked you afterwards. I'm the one who's sorry!" And he bowed to us, nearly knocking his head into ours. If he had, I bet he'd start on another wave of sorries, not that I'd mind that. It was a little fun getting apologies for once instead of the other way around.

I looked at Ivey, wondering why she was being so silent. She usually would be the one talking her head off and laughing and giggling. That's when I realized that she was texting someone on her phone. When she noticed I was looking at her, she waved at us goodbye and turned around, heading to another group. I suddenly felt like I've just been ditched. Well, I was, but that's not what I meant. I watched her until I was sure she was fine with her new friends. I hoped this ditching thing of hers wasn't consistent. She still owed me for eating all my snacks!

"Where is she going? Did I say something wrong?" Jul looked worried out of his mind, voicing my thoughts.

I felt the need to cover for her, even if I had no idea why she would leave me here of all places. I waved away his worry. "Nah, she's just meeting with a few friends of hers."

He didn't look too convinced. "Okay…"

"Yup." I inched to the side and glanced behind him at the rest of the group of five people. "So what are you guys doing?"

He followed my example and looked over his shoulder, observing the three. "They're throwing different kinds of liquid-filled balloons and trying to figure out which goes faster."

"Oh!" That brightened up my mood, and I bounced to his side to get a better view. "What are they trying now?"

He inched closer to the huddle the guys were having, trying to peer inside. "I think its lemonade vs. the insides of an egg."

I pushed myself to the tip of my toes to see as well, shifting my weight so I didn't fall over. "Who's winning?"

"Uh…" Just as he was about to retort, the gang of five (six if you count me) spread apart and moved to loom dangerously over the side of the building. One person held a stopwatch, one a balloon filled with one of the liquids, and another the other balloon. Andrew raised one of his arms high above his head, standing near them, kinda like the starting flag for a race, and the balloon holders stretched their arms out, holding the items in questions in tight fists.

"Jul!" One of the guys barked at him. "Come on!"

"O-okay!" He stuttered, surprised, before scuttling closer. He stood next to his relative. "T-three! Two! One!" Anticipation grew. They were watching him with beady eyes. Everyone was tense. Jul made sure to stretch out the moment. "GO!" And Andrew's arm swiped down and hit the waiting wrists at the same time and they let go or their balloons instantly (probably because it looked seriously painful, geez). Thankfully, the guy holding the stopwatch wasn't also holding his arm out, so he could avoid the attack. The dude pulled binoculars from his back pocket and stared down, focusing hard. Five faces were staring at him expectedly, unable to follow the little dots of bright red and blue rubber themselves.

Before he could open his mouth and convey the results, a loud shriek echoed from bellow.

A mix of exited hollers and disappointed sighs came from the guys around me.

"Ah yeah! It hit someone!"

"Aww, we have to start over!"

"That's the beauty of it!"

"Why does it have to hit someone?"

"For science!"

"Huzzah!"

"Again!"

I didn't want to be a party pooper or anything, but it sounded as if they planned to do this for a while. "If you keep that up, won't the authorities come up here and catch you guys?"

Three heads snapped in my direction.

"Hey look, a girl!"

"Duh genius, what did you think it was?"

"Well, I don't know, a coconut or something?"

"Doofus!"

"But it's wearing a skirt?"

"It?" I echoed, but they didn't hear me.

"If I wear a skirt, that doesn't mean I'm not a guy!"

"I don't know man, I'd think you look great in a skirt!"

"Oh my gosh guys, really?"

"Yeah dude! You'd look hot!"

"I have to try one on dude!"

They inched closer to me.

"Hey girl, let him try on your skirt!"

"Yeah girl! Do it!"

"Don't be a pussy!"

Reasoning with them didn't seem like a good idea, but it was the only thing I could do to avoid letting them have a good look at my butt. "I-I don't really think that's a good idea…"

"Come on, we won't tell!"

"Please!"

"Pretty please!"

"No one will know!"

"If it's being naked you're worried about, then we can totally lend you some pants!"

I didn't actually hate the idea of a guy wearing my clothes, I mean, a great artist needs even greater blackmail. But I wasn't so keen on having to wear their clothes. Sure, I probably look older than what I may appear, but these guys were at least six years older than me and wear two sizes longer pants. I won't be able to even move in them, if I dare put them on. "Sure, but only on one condition—" I glanced at my two friends in the group. Jul looked mortified and was sending me secret hand motions to not go along with it, and Andrew was rubbing his temples and shaking his head at us in utter disbelief.

A got some nods of agreement for having conditions from the trio.

"—we go downstairs in the department store's changing rooms to do it—"

I got some understanding nods back. These dudes were actually pretty cool with this.

"—AND—" I got an evil glint of my own. "—I get to take pictures."

"Group huddle!" The three of them turned on themselves and forcefully tugged Jul and Andrew in with them. There was a bunch of whispering, Jul refusing to go along with it, Andrew's silence, and the other three sounding like they were wondering if the value was equal to both parties. After a few minutes of waiting, they finally broke it up and turned back to face me.

"We'll agree to it if we get a matching girly shirt to go with the skirt—and not that hoodie!" He dramatically pointed to my less-than-appealing (to them!) hoodie.

I resisted the urge to bite his finger off and warn him that my hoodie was awesomer than all of them combined plus one. "Fine, you got a deal!"

And we shook hands on it.

One fast sprint down the stairs, two bathroom trips, a little stop at Starbucks, and some fake-shopping later, we were huddled in front of the changing room of the wardrobe section of the huge department store. Unfortunately, Jul and Andrew refused to come with me, so I had to deal with the trio of hyper boys on my own, but it wasn't that hard, as long as I could figure out a way to manipulate them into doing what I wanted.

"Hey, stop ringing that bell so much! It's getting annoying and I'm pretty sure the clerk already heard you!" I smacked the poor guy with the shorts I chose to bring with me into the changing rooms, along with two other shirts, instead of having to change into guy clothes. They had offered, again, for me to wear their clothes, but I made sure to tell them that I couldn't fit in them, and that the clerk wasn't going to let us in the rooms unless we had something to change into.

"How can I help you?" It was a female clerk, and she was having a really good time ignoring me and leering at the three boys surrounding her. They shared glances with each other and then pointed to each other as they communicated without words. After a lot of head shaking and refusal, one of them finally shrugged and then nodded. The rest were cool with it and nodded back in agreement, stepping back and backing off to let him at it.

He took control of the situation, wrapping an arm around the clerk lady and slowly inching her closer to one of the locked stalls. "Yes, we'd like to try on some clothes…"

"Okay," she breathed, looking to be in heaven, happy to be as close as she was to him. He must be really handsome to have that effect on women. Too bad their immaturity is what turned me away from falling for it, since they rudely demanded I strip for them so that they could try on my clothes. That doesn't sound too handsome to me.

While the woman fiddled with the keys at her belt to unlock the doors, I slid back to stand near the closest guy. "What was up with your finger pointing and nodding there earlier?"

"Guy code." He answered, trying to look as cool as possible. "Guys can't tell girls about the guy code."

I didn't want to argue about their logic, so I just nodded. "Sure."

One changing room open later, the female clerk was gone and I was in the changing rooms. Oh, and the guy managed to steal the clerk's keys, so they were starting to plan out their next adventure of sneaking inside the "Employees Only" door. I changed into the shorts I pulled in with me and left Ivey's skirt on the bench, getting out afterwards. As soon as one of the guys entered the room and closed the door, I slipped to the next one.

"Why did I even have to change? I mean, we could've just grabbed a skirt from the store."

He looked awe-stricken. "Dude, that's smart."

"I'm a dudette."

"Dude!" He yelled to the other guy even though he was less than five feet away. "We should've just got a skirt from the store instead of borrowing one from her! It would fit more!"

An impressed "Dude!" was the reply. They kept repeating the same thing for at least five minutes afterwards. My brain felt like it was being fried my all the dudedom it was receiving, dude. I also felt like slamming my head multiple times against a wall.

"Guys, I look hot in a skirt! But the shirts don't fit! " The guy in the changing room cut off the 'duuuuudes' going back and forth next to me. My brain had a hard time comprehending how the skirt fit, and hot the shirts picked from the store didn't.

"Don't forget to get him a bra." I muttered crossly under my breath just as the guy to my left turned around to fetch another shirt.

He slapped my back. "You're a genius!" And he was off on his mission for more clothes.

The dude to my right was either texting or readying his phone to take pictures of the poor unfortunate fellow changing in the small space in front of us. I inched closer and saw he was playing Tetris. And losing. How do you even loose at Tetris?

"What are your names, anyway?" I asked after watching him failing his game in horror.

"I'm David," he had messy black hair, red eyes that had to be from contacts, and a matching red, yellow, and black outfit, "the dude in there is Zack." He pointed to the changing rooms. If I remembered correctly, that one had dark brown hair slicked back with a few longs locks still dangling in his eyes and he wore the typical plaid-shirt-over-a-t-shirt outfit.

He's not wearing that anymore though, if you know what I mean.

"And he—" The last guy showed up, jumped, and tossed a neon pink shirt into the stall as if it were a basketball. "—is called Lucy."

I blinked. "That's a girl's name."

Lucy shrugged. "My parents are crazy. I have a sister called Doug."

I snorted into my hand, but then I quickly apologized for laughing at it. He dismissed it almost immediately, being used to it. This guy had brown hair as well, but it was cut really short at the back, and a bit longer at the front, spiking upwards. His eyes were the most sparkling brown I've ever seen. He was slightly shorter than the others, but looked way cooler.

"Are you almost done in there?" David yelled to the poor unfortunate soul that had to try on women's clothing.

"Yeah!" With an unceremonious shove of the changing room door, the young man came prancing out, my jean skirt looking like it was squeezing him blue and the pink shirt working well enough to cover any shape of deformities that is body could lead to thinking was a boy. We had the frills to thank for that.

"I was right—you look hot!" Lucy responded with an appreciative whistle. I nodded in agreement and pointed to the mirror down the changing room hall. The man turned and looked at himself, did a few twirls and suggestive poses before he yelled out; "I am the hottest being to live on earth!"

And as usual, the other two guys took that as a challenge.

"No way!"

"I'm way hotter!"

"Talk to the hand!"

"Your hand isn't hot enough!"

"It's way out of your league!"

"Go back in the room and let me try those clothes on!"

"Why wait?" Lucy gave an evil grin, twirling the employee keys he had snatched from the girl that came to help us earlier. A few minute later found me enjoying a male-disguised-as-female makeshift catwalk down the small hall. I took as many pictures as I could with my phone I magically found from within my backpack, and as soon as the guys each did a turn, we'd huddle around it and judge who'd make the better female. This happened a few more times with different outfits before we finally got caught. The girl employee from before was back, but only this time with her evil-looking manager standing right next to her. We gulped hard.

"We can explain—" One of the guys started, but the woman held up her hand, not wanting to hear it.

"Feel free to try on whatever you like," she started, voice oddly friendlier than I expected. "But!" She snatched the keys from Lucy's wrist. "Next time, instead of stealing our keys, simply ask us to open the changing rooms." She sent a sharp glare that had us hurrying to nod in understanding. She cracked a smile. "Good!" And she was off with a swish of her invisible cape, the girl confused but still running to catch up behind her.

"Well that was scary…" I muttered, but then I saw who was coming to us next and I backed up. "But she's even scarier!"

"Don't try to hide, Maia, I can clearly see you there." She rolled her eyes at me, before turning the pair of blues to the confused guys next to me. "Who are—" she caught herself off, eyebrows rising, before she lifted her phone and took a few pictures of her own. When the guys realized this, they started doing poses again, just for her. I snorted into my wrist.

After taking as many pictures to her heart's content, she suddenly turned to me, grabbed my arm, and pulled me aside. "What have you done? How? Why? And why's that one wearing my skirt?"

"Relax, Ivey. They wanted to try girl clothes for some reason and it turned into a women competition." I waved her off.

"It's a big deal though!" She shook me. "They might rip my skirt!"

"Fine, fine," I turned towards the guys, who still had my phone between them and were looking through the pictures. "Lucy!" The head of cool brown hair popped up in my direction. "Change your skirt!" He nodded and skipped over to the changing rooms.

Ivey raised an eyebrow. "He has a girl name?"

I nodded. "His parents are like that. His sister's name is Doug."

"Must be a hard life for them."

"Preach it sista."

"Hey Maia!" Zack cried to me, holding out my phone. "Is this a picture of you when you were a kid?"

Unfortunately, that got the attention of the other two males, since David got sparkles in his eyes and kept pestering him to see the picture, and Lucy bolted out of the changing room in his boxers and jumped for the camera.

"Guys! No! Stop that!" I was the next one going for my phone. "That's not me!"

"Sure it isn't!"

"Look at that cute face!"

"And the chubby cheeks!"

"G-guys!" I shrieked, getting red in the face. The phone was old, having been previously owned by my parents, but I didn't expect them to have kept some baby pictures on it! This was my own fault for not checking the files before lending my phone to these pesky boys. "Stop that! Give me back my phone!"

It was only edging them further though, and Zack, after making me jump like bunny for it, tossed the phone to David, who cooed. "Aww baby Maia is so cute! I could just eat you up!" As soon as I went to snatch it from him, my phone moved to Lucy.

"I could care less about baby pictures," he dropped it into my hands like a gentlemen, and the others started yelling protests. He leaned down to whisper into my ear, "I only care about the present you," and I went further red, feeling my blush on my ears. The other two started booing him when he returned to them, and he shrugged nonchalantly.

I saw Ivey's eyebrow twitch when I joined her. "Such cavemen." She shook her head at them before making her way to the changing rooms where Lucy had changed. I followed her there, and she picked up her skirt, it looking unnaturally stretched for being worn by men. She whined, measured it on me to see if it would still fit, and then dropped it in her backpack when the answer was a negative.

"Just wear out those shorts," she told me. "I'm sure the people here are used to trainers buying what they leave on."

"Yeah, okay." I was glad she wasn't harping on me that I had chosen an ugly pair. The guys had made sure I chose something appealing for their eyes. Cavemen indeed.

"Hey—where are you going?" David was the first to notice that Ivey was leading me away from them and the changing rooms.

"Sorry boys!" Ivey gave her best innocent smile over her shoulder and linked her arm in mine. "I'm kidnapping Maia for the rest of the day!"

The boys pouted but bid me farewell anyway.

"Don't be afraid to come hang with us again!"

"We're usually at the fountain!"

"Don't be a stranger!"

"Bye bye!"

"You were really cool to hang with!"

"Your friend is really cute!"

"Have fun with whatever!"

"Hey wait," Lucy suddenly appeared behind us, and I whirled around, only to find him with my phone already in his hands again. He started pressing a bunch of buttons before handing it back. "Now you got my number, so now you can't ever forget about us."

"Sure." It made me sad. While I did want to hang out with them again, there was no chance for it. I was going to leave Kanto for Hoenn, and I'm pretty sure none of us would be willing to jump to the other region. I guess we could still call each other though?

"Okay, bye!" Ivey abruptly cut the moment and yanked me further away. Once we were sure to be out of earshot, she hissed at me. "I don't trust those guys. Delete their number!"

"That's only because they stretched your skirt!"

"It was one of my favorite skirts!"

"Then you shouldn't have lent me it!"

"I didn't know you were going to give it away!"

"I didn't give it away, I lent it to them!"

"Same thing!"

"No its not!"

"Miss?" The cashier looked confused at our banter. We quickly bought my shorts, pulled off the price tag, and left running to the rooftops so that we didn't forget to bring our bags to wherever Ivey wanted to kidnap me to.

"Where are we going?" I asked once we entered the empty elevator.

"First floor." She answered.

I pressed the designated button. "Okay, done. But now seriously, where or what are we doing?"

She crossed her shopping-bag ridden arms and leaned back against one of the walls. The machine around us rumbled to life, and she waited a few seconds, thinking about her answer, before she finally spoke up. "I planned for us to go out and eat, visit Leon, and then head out for Vermillion."

I glanced down at my phone's time. It was already getting late, and who knows how long a visit would take. "By the time we're going to leave, it's going to be dark out. Traveling at night isn't always the best idea, you know."

"I know." Ivey looked dead set though. I doubt talking with her would change her mind. "But we can't afford to stop at the Pokémon Center tonight."

A smile cracked at my lips, teasingly. "Afford? It's free."

She gave me an amused look. The doors dinged open. "Yeah yeah, I know. Let's just go—" She grabbed onto my arm and tugged as hard as she could. I was in no mind to argue with her, and mindlessly went along in confusion. I was pulled out of the store and into the streets.

As soon as I realized where the road was leading to, I started resisting. "Come on, Ivey! The Pokémon Center is over there—"

"Stop that!" She swatted at my arms and dug in her heels into the ground. "I said we're not going to the Pokémon Center!"

I growled and managed to tug my arms free. I didn't really understand why I had suddenly changed my mind—I'm completely fine with skipping a night at the Pokémon Center—but at the same time, I didn't know how Spyk was, and I needed to ask the nurse about that. "Then I will! You don't have to go if you're that horrified about going there! You can wait outside for all I care!" I started backing up, and her eyes went wide and she reached for me again. I managed to duck her arms and spin around to a run, going straight for the red building in the distance. I could hear her shrieking behind me, but I couldn't care less. I wasn't going to travel in the middle of the night—that's completely crazy. Plus, I had to check in with my emails and missed calls—my parents had probably called nonstop if they had heard what had happened to me—and I did promise my sister to call her every night and completely forgot about that promise. I realized I was making a bunch of excuse—I didn't want to talk to my parents or check my emails—but it was suspicious why Ivey wanted me to avoid that place. I needed some sort o reason to go there, even if it was just checking in on my Pokémon or being scared to travel at night.

As soon as I was within a few meters of the center, my eyes locked in on it and what I saw made me freeze in my steps.

The Pokémon Center was completely surrounded by men and women alike, all holding microphones, cameras, phones, anything that could record. There were news crews, paparazzi, a whole crowd of strangers waiting there. Life was buzzing frantically. Questions and sentences were being yelled and slurred together at an unhealthy pace to the people inside the closed doors. I could barely make out the words. This is what Ivey wanted to avoid? It was pretty scary. I started to understand her reasoning.

"Ah shit." Ivey stopped next to me. "I didn't want you to see this."

"Didn't want me to see what?" Her fingers were around my arm and pulling me away, but she refused to answer my question. I looked at her, the rest of my body rooted to the spot, wondering why the onslaught of people affected her. Although my mind was yelling confusion at me in every way possible, the back of my mind was hissing out the possibilities behind the large crowd. I refused to believe it though. I had to hear it from Ivey. My imagination had to be playing tricks.

The crowd there couldn't be for me, could it?

"People have no lives." Ivey eventually said, shrugging nonchalantly, though I could see the nervousness under it. She kept flicking her eyes back and forth between the large group of people and I. "Let's just go and find another Pokémon Center for you to do whatever at."

"Ivey." I couldn't feel my feet under me. "Explain."

"After effects of the Diglett Cave cave-in." She spoke quick, still yanking on my arm. She caught my horrified and guilty look and tried to wave it off. "Don't worry about it. Let's go!"

A few heads from the crowd started to turn and look around, having heard us.

Ivey noticed it and started pulling faster. "Come on, Maia, move your feet or what happened to me on TV is going to happen to you too."

"What are you talking about?" The few people who turned their heads around were looking at us now. Their eyes widened. They turned back to their people and started whispering and not-so-secretly pointing at me and Ivey.

"They're going to ask you questions and twist the truth around and made you look bad. You don't want that kind of press!" She moved in front of and pushed at my chest. I wouldn't budge. A part of me wanted to run and hide, and another part of me was yelling at me to check it out, that there was nothing to fear and that they weren't here for me, that I was safe from trouble.

I lifted my foot to take a step forward.

And Ivey decided to take that to her advantage and shoved me to the ground, since my balance had shifted.

The outcome wasn't what she wanted though—my fall created a loud thudding sound, along with the collapse on my backpack on the ground, haven fallen on my back. I heard my box of granola bars splitting open. Looking down at myself, I found myself lucky to be wearing shorts. What I wasn't lucky for, however, was attracting the attention of the crowd. Many heads turned to look at the fall, gasps and more pointing ensued. I heard them instantly recognizing Ivey and making the link that I was, well, myself. They started in our direction.

Ivey grabbed a Pokéball from her belt and tossed it to the ground like a smoke ball. "Vivian, use Wrap on Maia!"

The ball exploded in bright light and temporarily halted the onslaught of people. They waited as the serpent the size of half a person came out, looking on in wonder. My eyes widened as it turned on me, paws outstretched and pointing straight at me. Not a second later, out of its golden neck band, came the long thick wines, wrapping around my waist and using the strength of a thousand men to lift me up in the air. I shrieked in horror, not trusting the creature, and it feeling terribly unsafe and unsteady. I felt the flashes of cameras go off, blinding me, and the sound of the crowd trying to understand what's going other than asking around to make sure that I'm me.

"Move it or lose it, Vivian!" Ivey started running away, and the servine dropped on all fours in order to run faster and keep up. I was dangled in mid-air, forced to go along, and I could distinctly hear the footsteps and voices fade in the background. I was forced to stare the moving greenery at my side, as if I was a kid bored out of its mind and looking out of the window of a car.

I could already imagine the deadlines of tomorrow's papers: "Girl Causes Diglett Cave-In and Goes on a Wild Ride" or "Natural Disasters: Learn How This Girl Got Crushed and Wrapped" or even "I Bet You Wish You Weren't This Girl" (newspapers oddly don't often put names in headlines, which is odd.)

"Was that necessary, Ivey?" I shrieked as soon as her Pokémon dropped me like a hot potato on the ground, my face red with humiliation. She did this when Ivey found that we were far enough and we weren't being followed anymore, outside the city walls and almost deep into yet another forest.

"Yes!" She yelled back, hands on her hips and sassiness at its maximum. "You weren't moving! I just saved your butt! You should be thankful!"

"Saved my butt from what? Being on TV? There's nothing wrong with that!" I tried back, knowing I sounded like a total newbie.

"There is! Everything is bad press!" She threw out her arms. "Think about it! There's never good news anymore! It's always one person ripping on another person!"

"The news isn't real anyway." I mumbled crossly, not really knowing what points to defend myself with anymore.

She loomed dangerously over me. "Oh, so news about you destroying Diglett Cave isn't real news?"

"Excuse me?" A small voice piped in.

Ivey mistook it for me and elaborated. "You slammed Leon against the weakly-left walls of the cave and that caused another part of it to collapse!" She pointed down at me, face contorted with fury.

I slapped her hand away and jumped to my feet in order to meet her head on. I glared right back. "If it weren't for Leon's friend or cousin or whatever, the caves wouldn't have collapsed in the first place!"

"If you hadn't spoken to them!"

"If you hadn't insisted we stop!"

"Excuse me?" There it was again.

"If you hadn't made us chase after Sam!"

"If you hadn't showed me up in the gym!"

"If you hadn't gone to the gym in the first place!"

"If you hadn't just up and ditched me in the Pokémon Center!"

Ivey went to open her mouth for another retort, but then shut it closed, instead trying to burn a hole into my forehead with her eyes. I mimicked her, standing my ground and crossing my arms. Vivian looked worriedly between us, not knowing what to do in order to help.

"Excuse me?" The little voice was still there.

We snapped our faces in its direction and yelled at the same time: "WHAT?"

The person squeaked in fright and hid behind a tree, small face inching out to look at us, though I could tell he was still scared. I instantly felt bad for being so angry and scaring the little boy.

"What is it?" Ivey put on a sweet honey voice, moving forward and bending to her knees to meet the height of the kid's. I was about to snap at Ivey for never being nice to me like that, but kept my mouth shut. It would probably scare the kid further if we bickered in front of him. Vivian followed her owner, peering closer as well, and it frightened the kid further. When Ivey realized this, she called back her Pokémon and repeated the question. The boy inched closer once more and spoke.

"I-I'm lost…" He peeped. I inched closer for a better look at him. Like Ivey, he had long blond straight hair, only his was a little mop of a thing, and blue eyes, but these were tear-stricken and hidden behind glasses. He had clothes that looked to be a size too big on him, knee-length brown khakis, a blue t-shirt and a large orange backpack.

"Where are you headed?" Ivey was good with the questions, so I let her take care of the kid. I backed away and watched from a distance, feeling like a stranger forced to watch the interaction. I wasn't good with kids—given I am a kid too—so I could only make the situation worse if I tried to help as well. I wasn't good with the whole consoling and helping others thing. I'm not saying that I'm selfish and could care less about someone—no, that's not it. I have no trouble giving advice or doing easy things, but if I have to go out of my way to search the whole city for a lost toy, then I would prefer to avoid that situation.

"I-I was following my brother …" he hiccupped into his sleeve and pushed back his thick glasses with the other, "…don't know…" he wiped his eyes this time, and smacked himself in the face with the glasses and then winced, "…the place…"

"Oh boy." I voiced my displeasure out loud and Ivey sent me a look to shut up and keep quiet. I held up my hands in surrender and turned away. I turned back when she turned her back to me again.

"Have you ever been there before? To the place you're going to?" Ivey coaxed gently, and the kid slowly started coming out from behind the safety of the tree. If I were him, I would've just stayed there or ran away. Ivey was scary and bossy when she wanted to be.

The kid shook his head, face still in his overly large sleeves. I felt like ditching the two and heading out on my way to Vermillion city to head to Hoenn. This was a waste of my time, I realized as soon as the kid said he didn't know where he was going. I wasn't going to waste my time traveling around the entire continent to figure out where his brother was. If the kid has never been to the city, then there was no way to recognize which is the right one as we pass through it, which is why it'd be more important to find the brother, and Arceus knows where he's at.

"Where are you from?" Ivey tried, and I bet it was because she was desperate for a straight answer from the kid.

"Pink flower city…" was the answer. Ivey looked up at me with wide eyes, asking for help since she didn't know what the kid meant. Kanto didn't have a hometown of pink flowers, unlike in Sinnoh, where Floaroma Town was the place to find any flower in the entire world.

I rolled my eyes at her. "He means Fuchsia City."

"Oh! Thanks!" She turned back to the kid. "Fuchsia City?"

He nodded, but wasn't calming down as much as we needed for him to give us a straight answer. Ivey put a hand on his small back and started rubbing circles. His hiccups instantly stopped and he curled up into her arms. She cradled him in her arms and stood to her full height, rocking him on her heels. A few seconds later, the kid was sound asleep in her arms. Ivey cooed in delight at the cuteness he was emitting.

"We're not going to Fuchsia City to deliver this kid back to the parents that thought it was okay to let him leave home prematurely." I crossed my arms in defiance, showing I mean business. "We have our own plans, and this kid isn't going to ruin them."

"I'm not going to leave him alone out here!" Ivey defensively into mama ursaring mode, protecting the child. "Look!" She nodded down at the boy in her arms. "He's really tired, and crying like he had takes a lot out of someone, and there's wild Pokémon everywhere, and I'm not saying we have to bring him back!" Her shoulders were raised to defend her point. If they weren't currently busy acting like a berceuse for the kid, they would be extended out in the why-not pose I know I use too much against my parents when I try to convince them.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" I said in exasperation, glancing up at the sky. "It's getting really late and we can't afford to dawdle. We have to keep moving."

"Tomorrow will be better." She tried to convince. "He'll feel better with rest and food and then he can give us more details and we can try to help him out then." She bounced the kid a little bit higher on her shoulder. "He's kinda heavy." She muttered to herself.

"You want to help him, you carry him." I answered her comment before finally shrugging. "Fine, he can stay with us for a few days, but we're going to have to drop him at some city, okay? Vermillion City is our last stop, and if we can't set him back on the right track before then, well too bad. We did what we could."

"Fine!" Ivey was just happy I said yes. "I never knew you could be so cold."

"I'm not cold!" I defended myself, though it just sounded like I was in denial, since I had, in fact, been frosty with helping out the poor lost kid. "His brother is going to get an earful." I added as an afterthought.

A sly smile was on Ivey's lips. "I think I understand you. You're the secret type?"

I blinked, baffled. She was throwing stereotypes at me now? What the heck? "What?"

"You know, the secret type!" She moved her head in the direction of a small trail for us to start moving along and so I followed. She explained herself: "You try to appear tough and bold, when in reality, you're soft and girly inside!" She freed up one of her arms and poked me in the side.

I squeaked, moved away, and flushed red when I realized she had just seen through me. "A-am not!" I quickly remember our old argument and tried to use it as a conversation changer. "And the subject of you what you and Vivian did is not closed!"

"Yeah, yeah," she waved me away, too amused to care. "You're too cute, Maia!"

"S-stop that!"

"Nope!"

"Ivey!"

"Don't think so!"

The little boy in Ivey's arms suddenly whined and grumbled, shifting in her arms to get into a comfier position. Ivey and I shut our lips when we realized we were being too loud and shared a mutual agreement to continue on another day.

"It's not over!" I whispered to her.

"Whatever, I was winning anyway!"

I stuck out my tongue at her, and although I knew she was right, it didn't matter. The little lost boy had managed to save us from exploding at each other, and I sure hoped we weren't going to go at it again. Arguing with Ivey was easy, but didn't feel nice afterwards. It was like me and my parents; it was like I couldn't help arguing with them all the time. I guess I couldn't help myself. I was the type to argue and annoy the people I liked to be around.