Chapter 3

When she first entered her homeroom/first period, the only thing she saw was paper, rather, they were magazines to be more precisely.

'Yep, definitely wearing glasses tomorrow,' she thought to herself as her fans pushed her back.

She felt her back touch a chest and for a minute there she thought it was one of her fanboys until an arm wrapped around her shoulders protectively, "Alright, enough everyone!" The besiege crowd fell back a bit.

Julie looked up to see Lucas, "Come on, everybody, you heard your president, back off," continued Leaf as she shooed the class back.

Lucas let his hold on her loose, and she stepped back as he stepped forward, "In case you haven't noticed, Juliette Starlight it trying to become one of us, a normal teenager with normal problems, haven't you read the magazines in your hand?" he asked firmly, "If you have, shouldn't you be ashamed of yourself? Don't you think being bombarded by people isn't normal?"

"Well, I know for us it is," murmured Leaf.

"Um," said Julie, "thank you, Leaf and Lucas, but it's alright."

"What?" "Huh?"

"If anything, a little bit of autograph signing is nothing, believe me, so if they still want one, I'd be glad to give it to them," she replied a bit less confident than what she was expecting.

"O-okay," said Leaf, "if that's what you want…"

Julie smiled, "thank you."

Lucas and Leaf looked at each other warily before moving back a bit and leading Julie to her desk. The crowd of students separated to them pass through and followed Julie's every movement. She sat down and put her bag next to her, "If you'd like I can start signing now before the teacher enters," she said.

The students looked at each other before whispering to one another, Julie murmured to herself, "maybe this wasn't such a good idea…"

"Um," a girl said in front of her, Julie looked up at her, the girl had red hair and aqua eyes, "can you please sign my CD?" she asked timidly.

Julie smiled softly, "of course, what's your name?"

"B-Brianna," she replied.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Brianna," she said as she took the CD from her hands, she looked at the cover, it was her very first album; Safe and Sound. She signed it and returned it to her, "I hope you and I will become good friends, Brianna."

"M-me, too!" Brianna replied while smiling brightly. She went back to her friends and soon enough there was a line of people lining up to properly welcome her to the class.

So far her first day had been going extremely well. She learned halfway through the day that contrary to the 9 period class schedule they only had 5 classes in the day, and it seemed that all of the high school division had Pokémon battle at the end of the each day.

During this time, she also found out that she had at least one class with one of other officers thanks to Leaf and she was more than glad that she had only 3 classes with Prince Charming (not counting their last hour). Although that glee died quickly when he walked her to her every class even if his classes were on the other side of the building, his only response, "it's my job, don't think much of it," and walked into their 5th period together.

Her fellow student body officers by now knew there was a tension between the two. I mean you had to be oblivious to not feel the cold air between the two; heck even Ash knew there was something going on between them!

It was during lunch that they confronted the two.

The group of friends and Julie were sitting under one of the big trees that could be seen from the large windows in the Student Government Office.

They had brought a large picnic blanket that they kept in the office and spread out the food they brought, Julie felt out of place. She wasn't used to this kind of intimacy between friends, she was from a completely different world. She had already known this but it had never hit her hard as it did now.

"Hey, how come you aren't eating anything, Miss Julie?" Asked who she remembered was Lyra, "is the food bad?"

"Oh, no - it's delicious! I just don't have much of an appetite is all," she said convincingly.

"Don't lie," said Lucas.

"I'm not lying," she replied

"Yes, you are," he contradicted, "you're a pretty bad liar you know," he said staring directly into her eyes.

She looked away from his eyes, afraid they might see what was behind hers, "I-I know that! I don't need you tell me something I already knew!"

By now the two were glaring at each other, to the rest of the gang it would have been comical, like those times Gary and Leaf fought, however the playful bickering wasn't there, the was only tension.

They all kept quiet until Lucas broke the silence, "what's wrong?" He asked firmly and tenderly.

Julie made the mistake of staring into his eyes when she heard his tone of voice and sighed, "Fine, you win," she looked down to her hands, "I...I'm not used to this sort of intimacy between friends." She knew she should stop there, but she couldn't, "I've never had the chance to be, you know me, I've always been different from everyone, I guess that's what happens when your father looses all hope."

She felt like crying, but she dared not to. She suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her shoulders, "That's so sad," said Leaf.

Julie felt Leaf shake above her; it didn't take Einstein to know that she was crying. She wanted to cry along with her, but she didn't let her tears spill, she wouldn't let them. When Leaf pulled back she noticed that the girls either had teary eyes or red eyes from crying.

"God, you girls are so emotional," said Drew.

He was then smacked in the face by May who was teary eyed, "Shut up, Drew! Can't you see we are bonding!"

The group chuckled and Julie couldn't help but let out a small laugh of her own. The bickering couple or yet-to-be couple rather, stopped their bickering to look at her. She suddenly felt a bit self-conscious and blushed as she felt the eyes of her new friends on her, "I-is something wrong?"

"No," said Lyra, "except for the fact that you are just adorable!" She exclaimed as she tackled Julie into a firm hug. "Oh Silver, can we keep her?" She pleaded to her boyfriend, "Please!"

"Sorry, Lyra but you know the rules; you can't keep famous idols to yourself"

"But Silver~!" She whined.

"You know the rules, now let go of her before she stops breathing," he said prying her arms off Julie, who indeed had a hard time breathing.

"Oops, sorry, Miss Julie," she said when she let go.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," she said reassuringly, "but just Julie is fine."

"Okay," replied the bubbly brunette.

During this interaction, Lucas looked away; he was looking anywhere really just not anything near her. It was only the first day and he had done it again, 'Arceus, help me what is wrong with me,' he thought to himself.

"Lucas?" asked his sister, "is everything alright?"

'I honestly don't know,' was what he wanted to reply but settled with, "Yeah, why?"

"I don't know, you seem kind of guilty."

Curse their weird twin instincts, "I'm fine, really."

"You know Julie isn't the only bad liar here, now spill," she retorted back.

By now, the group was watching over the twins, it was rare to actually see them fighting let alone argue about anything, sure there was the teasing and playful bickering between the two; but this was serious.

"Lu-cas," she said holding out each syllable.

"Da-awn," he said the same way.

She crossed her arms, "Spill."

"Spill what?"

"You know what."

"Nooo, I don't know what."

"Lucas Berlitz, I'm not letting you move from here until you tell me!"

"Well, then I suppose we'll be here for a while, Ms. Dawn Berlitz."

The two stared at each other, well actually, Dawn glared while Lucas just teased with his eyes, "Agh! You're impossible!"

"Why thank you!"

"Shut up," she murmured before pouting.

"I'm guessing this happens often?" suggested Julie to Leaf, who was closest to her.

"Yeah, although it never starts out as something serious," she replied, "mostly it's about Dawn'ss hair or Lucas's fans. But never about lying."

"I see," she somehow felt as if the twins had been leading their 'argument' about her, it made her feel guilty.

"So what's the deal between you two?" Leaf finally asked, the curiosity was eating her up.

"Huh?" said Julie snapping out of her thoughts.

"You heard me," the brunette gave her a knowing smile, "What. Is. The. Deal. Between. You. And. Lucas?"

"T-the deal?"

"Yeah."

Julie looked at her stupidly, "I'm sorry what?"

"Oh come on!"

Julie blinked back, "I-I'm sorry?"

"Lucas has never walked a girl to all of her classes, so what's the deal?"

By now she felt cornered, why? She didn't know, it was not like she was hiding anything, except for the fact that she might not like a certain Student Body President just a tiny, little teensy-weensy lot, "Uh…"

Leaf's eyes were expectant with what seemed like…hope?

"Well," Julie drew out, how did she put this without making it seem awkward, 'He protects me from all my fans?' 'He's my protector?' no, what was another word for protector? The one Professor Oak had used, "He's my bodyguard?"

"Huh?" replied the brunette, confused.

"What do you mean 'huh?' It's pretty self explanatory, if you ask me," said Gary.

"Well, guess what? I didn't ask you," she replied sticking out her tongue.

"Ay, women," he sighed.

Lea rolled her eyes, "Anyway, what does he being your bodyguard have anything to do with taking you to every class if one of us has class with you?"

That was a pretty good question and she didn't have a good answer for that. Now that she thought about it, Leaf was right, whenever they changed classes someone (aside from Mr. Perfect) took her to her next class.

'Huh,' she thought to herself, 'why does he walk me to every class?'

As she pondered for the answer to a very good and insightful question, said person in question jumped in,

"It's to make sure that nothing happens," was his response.

"But we're right there with her too, you know," replied Leaf.

"Yeah, but if anything were to happen to her while we're switching classes, I'll be the one getting his head on a silver platter."

Julie made a face, "Geez, I'm not that fragile," she pouted while crossing her arms.

"Yep, but fragile none the less," he smirked at her.

"Hmp," she turned her head around before anyone could notice the blush creeping up on her cheeks.

Moments later the bell rang signaling the end of their lunch and the beginning of their 7th period. Out of all the classes she had chosen to take, the Classical Arts was for sure her favorite subject. She didn't quite know what they would be doing for the course but she didn't care; she was there to have fun.

Julie made to help clean up but the others were already doing everything, she just stood there holding the basket that contained empty bento trays. Moments later, that was taken away from her as the group split up into two groups.

One going left (her group) and the other going right (the rest). She felt bad considering yet again that she felt out place. Apparently being normal was a lot harder than it looked.

As they made their way through the now filled hallways, she knew she would have gotten squished if it hasn't been for a strong arm shielding her from harm. As much as she hated to admit (and she really did) she was...glad he was there to help her; however, she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

When they reached the classroom, like hours ago, the Elites went in first, followed by Julie and Lucas leaving until she had sat down. Now normally one would leave as soon as they reached their destination, but nope, not him. He would stand outside the door and wait until she sat down, he refuse to leave until he was sitting down.

Oh, how he irked her, more than once she received a few glares and lots of squeals by what she supposed was Lucas Berlitz's fan club. Now wasn't any different, she normally blocked him out completely but after hearing him in lunch, she couldn't help but let her eyes travel back to his retreating form. She looked away quickly when her brain registered her actions and somehow found herself counting the hours until she was able to go home so she could avoid seeing a certain someone.

'So much for enjoying this class today,' she thought to herself as she sighed.

Dawn looked to her side and saw a rather unmotivated Juliette Starlight at her left. She didn't say anything at the beginning but then saw the idol's air go from unmotivated to anger followed by confusion and ending in gloom.

'Wow, I wonder what's happened to her?' she thought to herself, 'I mean it's been only 5 minutes since we've gotten here and she's turned into me during Math and Pokémon History.'

Dawn looked to her right to see if any of the others had noticed the poor idols attempts to cheer herself up while being surrounded by her fans, they hadn't – which in a way was good since she didn't think Julie would want to talk about what was happening in her head right now.

Dawn got up from her seat and helped Lyra and Leaf get the watercolors they were going to use that day while Drew – being Drew – entertained his fans in the class while keeping an eye out for the famous heiress.

Soon Nando entered the class, and everyone was sitting behind a blank canvas with watercolors at their side.

"Today class," he said standing in the middle of the circle they had created, "You will paint something – anything – that you believe reflects you as a person. It can be a items, places, Pokémon – anything that you believe reflects you."

He looked around expectantly before raising his hands and saying, "You may commence."

Dawn set to work at once, she didn't know what she wanted to paint yet, but her best pieces of arts came out when she didn't know what to draw. She let her brush do the work and followed her hand with close eyes, changing color occasionally. Before she knew it; class was almost over and she was basically finished with her piece, but a great artist is never satisfied.

Five minutes before the bell rang; Nando started walking around the class - having sat most of the time playing his small harp to set a nice mood for his students. He stopped at every one of the painted canvases and admired each; sure, some were better than others, but he would not say that; instead he would compliment on their good points and make suggestions for further improvement. Many people drew themselves as a specific item: a book, a trophy, a basketball.

When he reached the last five people, his expectations were a bit high - not because they were his favorites (he didn't believe in favoritism) but because they always exceeded them.

His first stop was Leaf, who painted a Mew playing outer space with what seemed like pink bubblegum bubbles.

Next to her was Drew who had a Beautifly perched on one of a Roserade's bouquets in a garden of blooming flowers.

Followed by Lyra, who was putting the final changes on small pond where a Marill was playing with a Feraligator in a game of volleyball? Nando shook his head lightly, always letting her imagination run wild, that was Lyra all right.

Lastly came Dawn, who was too intrigued in her painting to even notice Nando behind her. She was painting beautiful shapeless clouds in the sunset beach setting she had painting.

"Wonderful as always, Dawn," he said before he said, "make the sun's shadow appear on the water, it will give it a much more romantic feel to it."

"Okay," she replied, "Thanks, Nando."

He nodded in reply and moved towards the last person in the room, the famous Juliette Starlight. Considering the class was a bit (okay maybe a lot more) advanced than his other classes, he had asked for a portfolio of her work - yes she was quite talented in music but his class was composed of art, music and history. He would be lying if he said that her art was amateur, but Nando wasn't a liar - her work had left an impression; however as pretty as they were they had no actual emotional attachment.

He moved behind her and saw the most emotional piece he had ever seen. A beautifully painted Altaria was trapped in a golden cage while it appeared to be singing a sad tune.

"My word," Nando said, almost touching the canvas, "how...beautiful..."

Upon hearing those words everyone looked towards the back and straight at dark haired girl, who was too preoccupied in painting music notes flowing out of the Pokémon's beak.

Dawn leaned over and felt her eyes widen as her jaw dropped open. It was so beautiful, so real, so...sad. She was amazed that such a person existed, normally you would think that something so magnificent was made by someone going into a crisis - but not by a rising star.

By the time they knew it, the bell had rung and it was time for them to leave class; although no one did. Noticing this, Nando cleared his throat and dismissed the class. Before Dawn and the others left the room, Nando called out to Julie,

"Excuse me, Julie," he said politely approaching their group, "would you mind if I had a word with you?"

"Um, sure," she said as she approached the Arts teacher, "is something wrong?"

"Oh no, on the contrary my beautiful child. I was just was wondering if you would allow me to hang your work up for display in the back."

Julie was taken a back, "M-my artwork?"

"Yes, you see it holds a lot of depth that a lot of students or rather people aren't willing to express."

She saw were this was going, "sure, I don't have a problem. I'm glad you enjoy such a piece."

After signing her name at the bottom corner of the canvas, she bowed to the teacher and left the room. She saw Dawn, and what appeared to be the rest of their group, waiting for her.

"Everything okay, Julie?" She asked.

"Yep," she replied, "everything's just fine; Mr. Nando just wanted to talk about my painting that's all."

"Wow, Nando took interest in one of your paintings? That's hard core right there," said Ash.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you see Nando doesn't normally select out students that much or have any favoritism towards people," said May, "so just him pointing out a painting from you is pretty big."

The group peeked in to see Nando hanging the caged Altaria painting. They were all shocked and amaze at how beautiful and sad it looked. The one who took in the sadness the hardest was Lucas, who was having a hard time not let him his guilt not eat him up.

"Kya!"

They all turned around and saw a group of girls with club banners.

"Uh, I think that's our cue to leave," said Gary, and with that, the group split up in the sea of students while trying to make it to the stadium in the back of the school.

They all managed to enter as soon as the last bell had rung.

"Glad to see you all decided to join us," said Professor Oak smiling.

"Sorry, professor," they all said.

"Right, now all of you go find a seat," he replied before searching for Julie, "except for you, Ms. Starlight."

Julie froze, had she done something wrong? She looked at the Professor uncertainly, but he only smiled. She nodded and walked towards him.

Once the group had found a spot to sit, they looked down below and saw Julie standing between Professor Oak and Nurse Joy.

"As you all know, Ms. Julie Starlight here is an uprising star; however that does not mean you should underestimate her in battle," he said a bit sternly before smiling, "Now, who would like to be the first to go against her?"

There were murmurs all around them, Dawn turned to the rest of the Elites – should they be the ones to go first? Before she could even ask that question, a hand raised up and said, "I'll do it, Professor."

The murmurs stopped, Dawn turned to see the person standing up from their seat and make their way down to the stage.

"Paul, my boy," said the Professor as he walked past the stairs and wide eyes, "thank you for being our trial."

"It's no problem, sir," he replied.

Once he was up on stage in front of the idol, Professor Oak told him in a low voice, "now, don't hold back, or else she'll think of it as pity." The professor straightened up as the two shook hands and went to their positions.

"Trainers, please send out your Pokémon!"

Julie took out the only Pokémon she could rely on during a hard battle, "Alright, Espeon battle stage!"

"Torterra, stand-by for battle!"

The purple feline Pokémon and gigantic continent Pokémon stood face to face.

"Battle begin!"

"Torterra use Stone Edge!"

From the stands, Dawn and the others saw two blue rings surround Torterra's body before glowing white and turning into chunks of stones circling it. Soon its eyes glowed green and the stones fired for Espeon at a fast speed.

"Dodge and use Iron Tail!"

Waiting until the last minute, the Feline Pokémon jumped to side and basically teleporting behind Torterra before its tail glowed a bright white and hitting it in its blind spot.

"Woah, that's quick!" remarked Ash.

"And strong," commented Silver, who normally sat quietly while watching others battle; however the battle had intrigued him enough to make a comment.

"Coming from Silver that must mean a lot," said Dawn, "the only other person I've seen Silver comment on was Lyra."

"You're telling me Dane," said the brunette.

"Though I can see why," said Gary, "I've never seen an Espeon move so quickly without using Quick Attack or Agility and to land such a powerful attack…"

"Looks like the singer is getting a fanclub here," said a voice behind them.

"Misty!" said Dawn noticing the orange-head in the stand above them for the first time.

"Nice to see you, too, Dawn," waved the water Pokémon trainer.

"We're just not forming a fanclub, we're analyzing her battle," replied Lucas.

"Right~," she replied while rolling her eyes before looking down at battle field, "oh well looks like it won't last long."

They all turned back to battle and saw Espeon trapped in a body of green beams coming from Torterra's back.

"Guess Paul isn't holding back," said Drew.

"And seems as neither is Julie," said Leaf grinning.

"What are you grinning about, stupid?" said Gary.

"Don't call me stupid, stupid," glared Leaf, "and it's obvious that Julie isn't fazed by it one bit, look for yourself."

Gary focused more on the girl in question and to his surprise, Leaf was right. The young idol wasn't shocked, surprised, or in any way taken aback by Paul's Torterra's use of Giga Drain.

"She's...smiling," he gaped.

And true to the fact she was, she wasn't mocking him or happily grinning like an idiot, she was smiling confidently.

"Hmm, that's a pretty nice tactic to use there, Paul," she said.

"Thanks, it comes in handy when Torterra can't stand," he replied.

"True, but I'm afraid Torterra isn't the only one with a regenerating health move. Espeon use Morning Sun!"

"What?!"

"I would have thought Paul would've seen this coming," said Gary a bit disappointed.

"What do you mean?" asked Dawn tearing her eyes away from the glowing Sun Pokémon.

"Well," said Lucas, "Considering Espeon is known as the Sun Pokémon, it's pretty obvious that its signature move would be that."

"Really, I didn't see it at all," said Ash totally oblivious.

"And we wouldn't expect anything more than that, Ashy-boy," chucked Gary.

"I hope you know that this means the battle will last longer," said Paul from the other side of the battlefield.

"And why's that?"

"Because as long your Espeon can regenerate its health back, Torterra can heal itself as well," he smirked confidently.

"Then I guess, I should put a stop to this before you can put a stop to me," she replied lightheartedly, "Espeon use Psybeam!"

The red gem on its forehead shined and released a multicolored beam towards the Continent Pokémon.

"Use Hyper Beam to counter!"

Torterra opened its mouth gathering orange energy before firing an orange beam to the incoming Psybeam.

"Woah, I've never seen a Hyper Beam generate so fast!" exclaimed Dawn.

"Looks like Paul has been training," said Gary.

"Yeah, and holding back on our battles too," replied Ash with his hands gripping his school pants as they turned white.

"Guess he sees her as a formidable opponent," added Silver.

The field at the bottom was covered in a black smoke cloud from the explosion when the two moves collided.

"Looks like Paul is lucky that explosion has covered Espeon's senses," said Leaf, "It's given Torterra a chance to recharge."

"Alright, let's wrap it up using Psychic!"

"What?!" exclaimed the group along with Paul.

"How is that possible!"

"She can't use Psychic if Espeon's vision is blocked!"

"More like she shouldn't be able to use Psychic," intervened Silver.

"You lost me, Silver," replied Ash whose head was spinning.

"While Psychic is a move that requires the user to see the object, it's not necessary if you know the distance and shape of the object. A Pokémon small such as Piplup and Pikachu can be hard to spot in a covered field, but Torterra on the other hand…"

"Is much larger than most Pokémon," continued Lyra, "So that means that Paul isn't as safe as he thought! Right?"

"Right," he replied patting the brunette's head with a smile on his face.

Soon they could see the smoke clearing up, but more importantly, they could see Torterra rise higher and higher from the ground.

"Even if Psychic is a strong move, it can also put a strain on Pokémon's mind if the object is heavy enough," said Lucas who was looking directly at the Feline Pokémon who was having a hard time lifting up the almost 700 lbs Pokémon, "her attack might just backfire."

The blue light surrounding Torterra started to fade and Julie had noticed, "Espeon don't lose control, focus on my voice!"

That had taken aback mostly everyone on the stands including Paul who was right across from the field, 'What is she thinking?'

'She has officially lost it,' thought Lucas as he saw her take a deep breath and start singing.

'Where there is desire
There is gonna be a flame,
Where there is a flame
Someone's bound to get burned,
But just because it burns
Doesn't mean you're gonna die!
You've gotta get up and try, and try, and try,
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try!
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try...'

Much to everyone's surprise, Espeon's hold on Torterra strengthened, lifting the humongous Pokémon a good 15 feet in the air before sending it crashing to the ground. The crowd stood silent as the dust cleared and revealed a defeated Torterra much to everyone's dismay.

"This match is over; the victory goes to Julie and her Espeon!" Exclaimed Professor Oak.

Slowly but surely the stadium was filled with claps and cheers, Julie turned to them and together with Espeon bowed.

Julie lighted petted Espeon's head, "Thank you, I knew I could always count on you!"

Back up in the stands Lucas was in shock to say the least.

"To think she would use her own voice as a way to gather Espeon's focus to a central point," said Gary.

"Just who is this girl?" Questioned Silver.

"I think it's time to do a thorough background on our new member," said Drew.

"No," said Lucas his eyes still focused on the girl below as she crossed the field to talk to Paul, "that won't be necessary."

"But Lucas," said May, "you've never said no to identifying everyone else's past and stuff."

"I know," he replied turning to the group, "but not this time, I'm afraid of what we'll uncover if we do."

The group looked at him warily; it was odd that their leader (at least of the Student Body) had refused a well thought out idea.

"I think we know enough of her to know she isn't a threat to rest, right?" He asked finally looking away from her, "I mean, Professor Oak wouldn't have let her in if not."

"Well yeah," said Dawn as the others nodded, "But-"

"Then that should enough prove for us," he cut in and looked away.

He was hiding something, and even though the others didn't know it, Dawn did and she was hardly ever wrong when it came to her twin instincts.