"Rgggh, I hate studying, Sasuke," I said, being muffled by the pages of the book as my face was buried in the book.
We were all back in the base, as King, Zev, and I were quote on quote "hitting the books", studying for the written part of the exams. Sasuke had pulled out tons of books from where he and Naruto studied to be a Rescue Team and gave them to us. The three of us sat in a circle around a table Sasuke had brought in for us. As I said, my face was shoved in the book I had been studying about field terrains in battling. Frankly, I wanted to stop studying and just go to bed since it was late in the night, but now, I can understand Sasuke's point that I neededto suck it up, understand that I needed to do this, and continue on through. However, I was not thrilled about it. Zev and King also understood my pain.
Sasuke sighed as he looked up from his teacher's guide book and looked at me.
"Sorry, Thomas, but we need to prepare for this exam or we fail and take it next year. And I for one am not gonna disappoint Whiscash Elder and the people looking at us down by failing," he said, trying to guilt-trip me.
I groaned and nodded as I yawned. You ever get that feeling where you are so tired and sleepy, you feel sort of cold? And the drool in your mouth either feels extremely cold and weird or your mouth has the aftertaste of whatever drink you had last? Well, I felt that and I hated the feeling, especially at night, and I was feeling it right then.
"Oh, Sasuke, come on…" King said, having a face of fatigue yet annoyance, "You've been drilling us into the ground with these notes since 2:30… can't we take a break and carry on in the morning?"
I looked at him and realized what I saw was a teenager with the average studying disability. And some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, especially if you're in school or college. The day that you know an exam is coming, you decide to wait to study every day it comes close. It finally comes down to the day BEFORE the exam. You go 'Oh, crap' and then for the last night, cram for the exam, hoping the next day you will do good.
Well, that was King's face. The eyes had gotten smaller, showing he was annoyed. His eyebrows lowered, his tone of voice and attitude was negative, and the slumping of the shoulders looked exhausting. His head was held in one of his hands and the other held the book he had open. I then looked at Zev to see if he had the same teenage feeling. He did, but was not as aggressive and rude as King. He was in perfectform for sitting, up straight and with a good look on his face. However, his eyes struggled to stay open and he held the book lightly and so gently, he nearly dropped it. And I was not going to even defend myself, cause I probably looked like a sleep-deprived maniac hiding behind a pleasant personality… (you all better say I'm pleasant, cause I'm not fooling about the maniac right now. I'll bust you up…)
"King, do you want to be a Rescue Team or not?" Sasuke asked.
King started to say, "Well, yeah, but-"
"No buts. If you want this badly, you need to make sacrifices in order to get this opportunity," my brother said to his irritation, "Now, let me ask the question again; The following team consisting of a Flaafy, Wartortle, and Geodude are doing a mission in a water terrain place, trying to rescue a hostage who is a Fire-type. They come across the hostage being tied up on a platform that slowly sinks. This requires someone to run over a stone path over a pond to get to the hostage. During the mission, the Flaafy gets shocked by an enemy and becomes confused. This means he can attack anywhere at any time. The team has no more items. What should the team do?"
"Beats me," I said, really confused.
"They all blow up and let me sleep?" King asked, being sarcastic and irritating.
Sasuke gave us a bit of a "teacher is getting angry" look upon his face as then we were surprised at Zev giving the correct answer.
"What the team should do is send the Wartortle after the hostage. He can swim the fastest in the water and grab the hostage before he falls into the water. The Geodude should help battle the enemy with the confused Flaafy, because it's a Rock-type and they don't get hurt by Electric attacks. This will make it easier to fight off the enemy and buy time for the Wartortle's fast rescue swimming," he said.
Sasuke smiled and nodded, "Great job, Zev. That's correct."
King grumbled as he looked at Zev out of the corner of his eyes, "I knew that too."
"Yeah, you clearly showed you know it."
King and I turned to hear Naruto say it with a smirk on his face. He was lying on the bed my brothers and I sleep on. He was on his side, with his eyes closed and smirking. Batsu was resting on his back on his bed on the wall, probably ignoring us altogether for our stupid comments.
King growled at my brother and said, "Shut up before I show you that I know how to beat somebody to a pulp."
Naruto briefly giggled as Sasuke got the Charmeleon's attention, "Focus, you guys. Next ques- King, look to your right."
We all turned to King's right as he looked there. I was surprised to see a little Charmander who was tinted more red than orange sitting next to him. He was fairly young, looking like he was a little child. The Charmander had a cute smile and sparkle in his eyes as he turned to King.
"Brother! I finally found you!" he celebrated.
King chuckled and smiled, "Yeah, you did, Pyro."
So, this little guy was King and the Charizard from Team A.C.T's little brother. Pyro jumped up on the table and started to run in a circle on it, knocking a few books down and causing Sasuke and Zev to groan under their breath. They probably knew the little guy and couldn't take his wired up energy at this time of the day. I watched with a smile, remembering how I used to act like that when I was younger. Pyro then jumped into King's lap, taking him by surprise.
"Bro, whatcha doing?" he said happily as his little tail wagged.
"Ahh, I'm studying for that big exam tomorrow. You know, the one I've been focusing on for a while?" King answered.
"Psshh… you mean you're studying with books?" the Charmander said, snatching the book he had out of his grip and then flinging out away with an innocent smile, "Who needs them?"
The book (which was HARD-cover and BIG) smacked right into Naruto's head. The Poochyena yelped in surprise as he scrambled onto his feet in shock. King slightly grinned, feeling the revenge paid back to my brother. Batsu remained in the same position; I know he was awake though, cause he opened his eyes briefly when Pyro came into the base and closed them again.
"Come on, bro; play with me!" Pyro said happily, grinning.
"Pyro, you know I would love to play with you, but you know I gotta study for this stupid thing… as much as I don't want to right NOW," King said, glaring at Sasuke, who didn't waver in fear whatsoever.
"But, King!" Pyro whined, using the "about-to-cry" voice and looking at him, "You've not played with me for several days! I wanna play!"
It was then he started to flail on King in his lap and start slapping him. This was one of the funniest things I had ever seen in my life. There was King, sitting there with an emotionless yet exhausted scowl on his face, just taking all these slaps and watching his brother flail in his lap. Pyro looked silly to me, as I began to chuckle with Zev and Sasuke.
"All right… All right… Pyro, I'll play with you. Sorry, Sasuke, but my brother needs me," King said looking at Sasuke.
With that sentence and the pressure of the cute look from King's adorable brother, Sasuke buckled and nodded, "Okay, we'll break for the night. But we're picking up tomorrow morning early."
Pyro cheered, "Yay! I get to play with my brother! Yay!"
He then started to run around the base happily, chanted and cheering about playing with King. I closed my eyes and smiled. It made me happy, yet a bit sad. I never had a brother before Sasuke and Naruto came to the island. I was an only child who had to look forward to hanging out with my friends back at the schoolyard at lunch. So, I was happy for King and Pyro to have each other and their older brother. As I was thinking it, I opened them to suddenly see the little guy RIGHT in my face. I jerked back suddenly as Zev moved a bit away.
"Oooooh, who are you? I've never seen you before, Pikachu!" Pyro said intrigued.
Sasuke smiled, "Oh, Pyro, meet Naruto and my little brother, Thomas. Thomas, this is King's little brother, Pyro."
I smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, Pyro."
But as I said that, I lost my smile at the fact that the Charmander was staring into my eyes funnily. He seemed to be lost in my gaze and it looked also to me like he was confused about me. I blinked a bit and backed my head up a bit more.
"What's wrong?" I asked, getting a bit uncomfortable.
"You… you're different," he said, "Your eyes have more of a certain spark in them that I've never seen in a Pikachu before…"
I suddenly felt nervous. Sasuke and Naruto immediately looked up with the same emotion. Was he able to see that I was a human? Luckily, this fear was erased by King, who had gotten up and walked to the door.
"Hey, if you don't stop glaring at the pipsqueak and come with me, I ain't gonna play with you at all," he said.
Pyro immediately widened his eyes, jumped off the table, and ran to King's side. I breathed a breath of relief as Sasuke and Naruto relaxed too. Wow, that was too close, and luckily Zev and Batsu were either too tired or too uninterested to care at the moment. I then saw Pyro wave to all of us.
"Bye, Buizel! Bye, cute puppy! Bye, gecko! Bye, Lucario's son! Bye, pipsqueak!" he said good-bye to all of us.
Yes, he called me what King calls me; a pipsqueak. I lowered my head with a sigh of tiredness and King grinned at his brother, proud of what he called me and the others. He nodded to Sasuke, signaling he would be back later to sleep. As both walked out, Sasuke and Zev put the table to the side of the base and put the books neatly in piles on the table. My brother wrote a note, telling King to lock up once he got back, and taped it to the outside of the door. Soon, all of us got into bed as Naruto and Sasuke happily snuggled me when I got into the bed and was in the middle.
"Well, this is it, Thomas," Sasuke whispered to me, "Tomorrow is the big day."
"Yeah, but I can't help but feel anxious," I whispered back.
I grinned as I felt a nuzzle on my neck from Naruto and he whispered, "Don't worry, brother. We'll be right beside you."
They then hugged me tightly and spoke the words again.
"We love you, Thomas," Naruto said.
"We love you so much," Sasuke said.
I smiled as I snuggled them back and said, "I love you guys too."
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