The second story of the 2012 season is the second chapter of Project P.I.K.A.C.H.U! Hopefully, now some people that aren't my regulars will begin to notice this story. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 2: School Shocker

There was only one reaction suitable for Teresa to do when faced with a situation like the one at present: Yelp in surprise, jump up off the bed, and back into the dresser, knocking over a small mirror in the process.

"W-W-What the heck?-!" She took a second to rub her watery eyes, seeing if the Pikachu before her was merely a mirage. It wasn't. "Why are you here?-!"

"Pi-pika! Ka-pikachu-pi-pi-pikachu, pika!"

"Wait-wait-wait! I have no idea what you're saying!" Ironically, the 'no idea' actually gave her an idea. "That's it! A few simple yes-or-no questions!"

"Pika?"

"I'll say questions that can only be answered by a nod, yes, or a shake, no." Before she could start, she heard the sound of footsteps on the staircase. "Eep!" She quickly grabbed Pikachu, and hastily placed the Electric Mouse Pokemon in the top drawer.

"Pi?-! Pika-!"

"Quiet! My mom's coming up, so stay hidden." Before Pikachu could protest, Teresa shoved the drawer into the dresser. At the same time, Bridget opened the door to Teresa's room, and entered inside.

"Teresa, are you okay? I thought I heard you fall just before."

"I-I-I'm fine, Bridget!" Teresa hastily replied. "J-Just a bit jittery over today!" In the midst of discovering Pikachu, she had almost forgotten that she had a horrible relationship only hours ago.

"Are you sure? Being beaten on the first date is not something you can take lightly. Trust me, I've had that happen to me more than a few times."

"Yeah…I guess…" Bridget sat at the foot of Teresa's bed.

"Speaking of that, don't you have something to say to me?"

"I'm sorry for shouting at you before. You never passed your luck with boys to me." A wry smile formed upon Bridget's lips.

"That sounded a bit reluctant…should I accept it? I can't have some delicious, hot tortellini pasta dish sit on the stove uneaten…" Teresa gasped.

"Y-You wouldn't dare!" Bridget made no response that she wasn't. "Y-Yes! I'm truly sorry! Please forgive me!"

"That sounds legitimate, so I'll let you have dinner. And I should apologize, too." Teresa blinked.

"Huh?"

"I know how much you admire Greg, especially since he gets to go down to Walt Disney World every year, but I shouldn't presume that it would lead to love and romance. Jerry, on the other hand…"

"Mom!" Teresa made a face of half-disgust, half giggle, and the two friends, who just minutes ago were yelling with each other, were now laughing in happiness.

"I guess I'll give you dinner tonight; it's your favorite four-cheese stuffed tortellini dish. Come down in twenty." Bridget turned around to leave, but then stopped. "Oh yeah, I noticed some footprints out in the snow just before, so there might be a raccoon or a bear cub that woke up from hibernation too early. Be careful going outside." She walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. When the teenager heard her walk down the stairs, she turned back to the drawers.

"I don't think that what Bridget saw out there was a raccoon was, do you?" She opened the drawer – and couldn't help but giggle. Pikachu had been hastily moved into the drawer, and as a result, had not really chosen a proper landing spot. Currently, the Electric Mouse Pokemon had a pink sock over the top half of the tail, and the white shell of a brazier sat awkwardly over the Pokemon's ears.

"Pikachu?"

"I'm sorry, Pikachu. But you look like you had a fashion disaster worse than Brittney Spears's!" The joke was lost on a mouse who had no idea who Brittney Spears is.

"Ka-chu?" Pikachu hopped out of the drawer, shedding his extra layers, and settled on the shelf of the drawer. "Pi-pikachu, pi-pi-chu!" Teresa finally stopped laughing, and dried a tear from her eye.

"Alright, I'm good." She paused, realizing what just happened. "Whaddya know, Pikachu. You got me cheered up after today's events." The Electric Mouse Pokemon cheered with her.

"Pikachu!"

"Now that we have no more interruptions, we can get to where we were going at before! First, you are a male Pikachu?" Pikachu nodded his head.

"Chu."

"You definitely are real, right?"

"Chu."

"Do you know how you got here?" Pikachu shook his head.

"Pi-ka…"

"Do you have a trainer?"

"Pika-pi! Pika, pikapi-pika-pikachu-pi-pika-!"

"Slow down, Pikachu! I can't read lips!" She paused. "I'm guessing that you love your trainer a lot, huh?"

"Chu!"

"You must also miss him or her, is that right?" Pikachu's ears drooped down, and a melancholy look fell upon his face.

"Chuu…" Teresa picked up the Electric Mouse Pokemon, embracing him in a tight hug.

"You poor thing…I know how you feel. I don't remember who my real parents are. All I've known to be family is Bridget. Don't worry, Pikachu; I'll personally see that you get back to your trainer. I don't know how to do so, or where to look, but I won't stop looking for the world, yours and mine." The Electric Mouse Pokemon looked at her with contemplation, before breaking into a large smile.

"Pi-pikachu!" Teresa giggled.

"I guess you're onboard with that, huh? Alright, I'll see if there's any snacks left over for the two of us. It's definitely not PokeChow, but I imagine you're starving." Consequently, a loud gurgling noise sounded. But it was not from Pikachu, who was trying hard not to laugh. Teresa, meanwhile, went flush red.

"Pi-pi-pika-pika-pi!"

"Hey! I haven't had dinner yet, so don't start going all lol on me!" She turned, heading downstairs with a small smirk on her face. Clearly, this house was going to have to endure a rather cheeky mouse.

One rather uneventful weekend of bonding with her new rodent friend later, Teresa was ready to return to the one place that every young adult hated: school.

"And I forgot to do my Algebra work that was due today. Lovely." Poor Teresa groaned, as she pulled her golden top shirt over her head. "Alright, Pikachu. You can come out now." The drawer to a nightstand opened up, and a familiar yellow mouse popped his head out of it. The drawer had never been used before , so it was an easy task to convert it into a living space. Using an old pillowcase stuffed with cotton, a small bed was created, with enough material left over to fashion a cover to provide some protection, should Bridget decide to open the drawer up. An old Game Boy Advanced SP was turned on inside, plugged into its charger in order to provide a source of inside light.

"Pi…kapika-pika-pikachu-pika-ka?"

"It's not your fault, Pikachu. We don't know how you got here, so the best thing for you to do was to experience as much of my world as possible without arising suspicion. Besides, it was nice to actually hear responses from a Pokemon, instead of imagining what Chu-chan here would say." She held up the aforementioned Pikachu doll for the real Pikachu to see.

"Pika…Pikachu."

"Now, I don't know if you've been to a school before, but it's an institution where people learn life skills and lessons needed to succeed in life. I can't take any animals into school, much less a Pokemon, so you're going to have to stay here, out of sight. Be good, okay?" She gently rubbed Pikachu's head, before putting on her blue coat. She grabbed a blue and cream messenger bag, and was just about to head downstairs, when Pikachu hopped into her bag. "No, Pikachu! You've got to stay here." The Electric Mouse Pokemon shook his head.

"Pi! Kapika-pika-pikachu-pi!"

"You don't want to be left all alone here. Is that what you're saying?"

"Chu!" Teresa pondered this quandary for a second, before reaching a decision.

"Alright. But you have to stay absolutely quiet, like a church mouse…which you don't know about. Anyway, be silent, and stay in the bag at all times, okay?"

"Pika! Pi-Pika-!"

"SSHH!" Teresa placed her hand over Pikachu's mouth. "There's still Bridget in the house, remember?"

"…Pika…chu…"

The ride to school wasn't too bad While a nice coat of snow covered the surrounding landscape, it had not snowed in a few days, and the roads were perfectly plowed and salted. As a result, the school bus that whisked Teresa and Pikachu to Paladin Central was right on time in both the pick-up and the drop-off. It was the drop-of location that Pikachu was amazed at. He had seen a school building before, back in the Pokemon world, but those were all small homes meant to educate young trainers. Paladin Central High, meanwhile, was at least two stories tall, and at least five hundred feet across. For the first building. When they entered the institution, Pikachu discovered that the building went back much further, with enclosed hallways connecting other buildings on the campus.

Teresa made a brief stop at her locker, before heading to the music room. For any Paladin Central student taking music, they were required to take two classes of concert band – a zero period before regular classes start, and an eighth period timeslot. Along the way to the music room, a boy walked up alongside her. He was rather tall and lanky, over six feet in height, and had curly dirty blonde hair.

"Hi, Teresa!" The boy greeted.

"Hey Jerry!" Teresa replied. "How was your performance at that Honors Society induction?"

"It went well, although Brittney lost her voice in the minutes before we started. We got lucky, and were able to crank up the speakers for her microphone at the last second."

"That's good…"

"I heard from Britt what happened with that DeJesus guy. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I had a little bit of a distraction that was needed to take care of, so I haven't had too much time to reflect on it."

"How so?" Teresa pondered on how she would cover her rodent friend.

"I got a new pet," she declared.

"Really? What is it? A dog, or a cat…?"

"A mouse. I named it Pikachu." Jerry took a double take.

"You named a mouse after a Pokemon?" Teresa made a face.

"It's my pet; I didn't need your approval!" The two laughed, while Pikachu took silent resentment at being called a pet. They reached the music room just as the low brass was beginning to warm up the band. Jerry went off to the trumpet section, while Teresa went to the front of the room, where the woodwinds and flutes resided. Her seat was in the aisle, so she slipped into her chair, placed her bag underneath, got out her instrument, and prepared for her turn to warm up.

Soon, the band was in full swing, playing a wide list of musical scores. However, Pikachu quickly became bored. Sure, listening to selections from Harry Potter, Phantom of the Opera, and Coldplay was interesting, even though he didn't know who or what they were written for. However, it was rather annoying hearing them stop and fix little tidbits that the Electric Mouse Pokemon knew the average human couldn't hear clear enough to care. So, like any person who would be bored, Pikachu decided to explore. When Teresa looked away to chat with one of the other flute players, he darted out of her bag, and disappeared under the seats.

It was much easier maneuvering around the room than he thought. Backpacks and instrument cases provided an easy cover for the rodent, who scurried around, unseen to the other students. He ran all the way to the end of the row, waited for a violinist to look away, and moved to the next. He repeated this strategy with a clarinetist, and again with a Saxophonist. With only one more row to go before the percussion section in the back of the room, he was almost home free.

!THUNK!

As he passed an open trumpet case, Pikachu felt a sharp pain come from his tail. He bit his tongue, shoving the desire to yelp deep within his body, and looked behind to see what had happened. The lid of the case had fallen down on its own accord, and was now pressing down on his tail. The Electric Mouse Pokemon whipped around, and quickly opened the case just enough to free his tail. Breathing a sigh of relief, Pikachu looked up, and quickly froze. He had just gotten stuck in an area where there were no bags to shield him from the eyes of the back row of low brass instruments. And with the music temporarily stopped for the woodwinds to work on a particular section, there was nothing preventing one of the brass players from looking at him.

A pair of brown eyes peered out of a pair of glasses, and fell directly upon Pikachu. The Electric Mouse Pokemon traced the eyes back to a slender, brown-haired trombonist boy that was right in front of him. The boy had the build of a senior, with a full face, and a look of complete surprise as he saw Pikachu.

"Greg, what are you looking at?" Another trombone player began to turn his head in the same direction. Inside his mind, Pikachu cringed. He was about to be discovered by more than just Teresa. The question of why he ever wanted to explore the area came quick into the Pokemon's mind.

"Ah, i-it's nothing!" The first boy, Greg, leaned forward, obstructing the line of sight between Pikachu and the other trombone player. "Now Sean, I want you to look into The Weasley Stomp. You still aren't getting the position on that A-flat right. It's done in position three, not two." As the other player fiddled with his slide, trying to get the positioning correct, Greg turned his head back two Pikachu, and mouthed out a "go!" Pikachu didn't need to be told twice; he scampered back the way he came, running straight into Teresa's bag so fast, that it fell into the aisleway. A quick shuffle re-righted the bag, but not before Greg took notice. He was on the end of the aisle as well.

The end of the day. When everything grinds to an absolute halt in the hallways. Throngs of students clamor the hallways in search of their the lockers before scrambling to their busses. For the lucky ones who don't have to rush to public transportation, it can be a very rough time to travel. If you're in the music program as well, the stampede to the watering hole serves as a nifty excuse to loiter around in the band room after school.

That's where Teresa and Jerry were at the end of the day. More specifically, they were in the equipment room, which was a side room for the storage of larger instruments such as saxophones, trombones, and drums. It was quiet most of the time, which was good for more personal conversations to flourish without interruption, or, in their case, homework to be completed.

"...so if the value of X is 34, and 4X + 12X / 32 = Y, then Y would be…" Jerry crunched the numbers into a calculator. "…17."

"Gotcha," Teresa said. "Number 15 in the vocabulary homework is 'anarchy'." With every answer came a "Thanks," along with the jot of a pencil. A few minutes into today's session, Greg walked in from the hallway entrance, and reached for his trombone case.

"Got a lesson with Coach Geno?" Jerry asked. Greg took the case off the shelf, opened it, and took out a small, clear, empty bottle.

"Nah. Replacing the slide oil." Greg placed a full bottle in the case, before closing it up, and placing it back on the shelf. "Hey Teresa, did you get a chance to read that Kingdom Keepers book I lent you yet?" Teresa nodded.

"I was able to read the first chapter," she told him. "You're right when you hyped up the book; it's really good! I'm reading the next part tonight."

"I thought you would!" Greg smiled. "You are almost as much into Disney as I am!" He then walked into the main band room. Teresa and Jerry went back to work. It should be noted that the three of them were the only people in the music wing at the time. A minute later, Greg returned to the room. "Jerry, Tyler wants you in the choir room. Says that he has video of sorts he wants to show you."

"Oh god," Jerry groaned, stifling a laugh. "What could it be now?" He got up, and left the closet room. That left only Greg and Teresa in the band room section.

"Good. Now that he's away, I can get some answers…" Teresa was confused.

"On what? You've already taken these courses." Greg shook his head, and procured Teresa's bag.

"Not homework answers. I want to know why I had to bail out your little yellow friend here. Oh, and the reason why he exists in the first place." At that, he dumped the contents of the bag. Teresa paled as Pikachu rolled out onto the floor. He looked at Greg, then Teresa, before putting on a sheepish grin.

"Pi…pikachu-kapika-chu?"

For Your Information…

Can anyone find Pikachu' s Pokespeak for Teresa? Speaking of Pokespeak, it reveals a little spoiler regarding his background. Let's see how long people can find this; it took six months for them to find the principal villain hiding in plain sight in PWS C2.

Yes, there will be a lot of stories in the future containing the Paladin Central High School set, using a general pool of characters.

So the cat…er, mouse, is out of the bag. What will Teresa and Pikachu do now that the Pokemon has been discovered? And why is Greg acting so cool about it? Find out next time, so please read and review all my stories in the meantime! Ja ne!