Hellooooo all you wonderful readers!
Yes, it is true: I somehow managed to update within a week of the last chapter! Have I suddenly learned how to organize my life to give weekly updates?! (No, haha, but I'll try my best!)
Anyways, happy reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size!
Yours Truly, Paul
Grade Three
Paul (8), Dawn (8), Gary (8), Misty (8)
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Today in school I learned how to write formal letters. I am not talking to you so from now on you have to write me a letter if you want to talk to me.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Heyo Paulo,
You're seriously still not talking to me? Come on, I already said sorry! Haha, I guess at least this way, you can practise your letter writing?
Sorry again,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
No I am still not talking to you. I did not like what you did and I do not forgive you.
Yours truly,
Paul
PS. Do not call me Paulo.
-;-
Heya Paulie ol' bro of mine!
Aw man! I mean, okay, I get it - I probably shouldn't have told all your friends, but they'll forget about it in a week! Trust me, I should know - I've goofed up plenty of times, and as long as you don't make a big deal out of it, everyone forgets eventually.
Hoping you'll forgive me,
Reggie
PS. See? I didn't say 'Paulo' this time, haha.
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Yes, you should not have said that. And they all still remember. Gary calls me a scaredy-meowth all the time now. He still didn't forget and no one else forgets because of him.
Yours truly,
Paul
PS. Do not call me Paulie either. If you keep calling me different names I will stop writing letters to you too.
-;-
Hi Paul,
Listen, forget about what Gary says. There's really nothing wrong with being afraid of needles - heck, even some grownups are terrified of getting injections! I mean, you know I get nervous when it comes to shots. And you're plenty brave with a bunch of other stuff and Gary knows it.
Your brother,
Reggie
PS. Okay, sorry, won't happen again!
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Yes, I know. I don't care Gary's making fun of me. I can still beat him up. But he keeps reminding everyone and D thinks I'm sad and keeps trying to make me feel better. I am not sad and I don't need anyone to make me feel better but D is being very annoying and acting like I need someone to talk to about it. If you didn't say anything, D would not keep doing this.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hey Paul,
Hold up, who's D? You mean Drew?"
A bit confused,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
No, it is not Drew. I don't care if Drew acts that way because I can make him stop. I don't know how to make D stop. She just keeps talking and talking and talking.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hello Paul,
Oh, is she that new girl who hangs out with you guys now? What's-her-face, Diane? Dawn?
Talk to me soon,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Yes.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hiya Paul,
Oh I see. Why don't you just talk to her and explain?
Your bro,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
I don't know how to talk to her! She gets mad whenever I'm talking to my friends and then I don't want to talk to her and then she tries to talk to me and I don't feel like talking and she gets even more mad and it's annoying!
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hey Paul,
Okay, I think I see the problem. You guys just don't get along, huh? Why don't you do what you're doing with me: since you don't feel like talking to me, we're writing each other letters. Maybe it'd be easier for you to tell her if you write to her instead.
Hope you stop being mad at me,
Reggie
PS. Wait up, why does she get mad at you when you talk to your friends?
-;-
Dear Reggie,
That sounds like a good idea. Maybe I'll try that.
Yours truly,
Paul
PS. I think she doesn't like my jokes. And she doesn't really like it when I say things that are true but she doesn't want them to be.
-;-
Hi Paul,
Good luck, lil' bro!
The best big brother in the world,
Reggie
PS. Ah. Well, your humour can be a bit mean. And your honesty is kind of... blunt... Anyways, try to go easy on her, 'kay?
-;-
Dear Dawn,
Stop trying to talk to me about needles. I don't care that I don't like them. I don't care Gary calls me a scaredy-meowth. I'll beat him up later when I feel like it. It's very annoying when you keep talking to me so stop.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Paul,
I was just trying to be nice! You don't have to be so rude about it! Also what do you mean, you'll beat up Gary?! What kind of friend are you?!
-Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
First of all, you didn't write your letter in the proper letter format Mrs. Primm showed us. Write it properly next time. Second, I am the kind of friend who is Gary's friend but not yours.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hello Paul,
I didn't actualy mean to read the letter you gave Dawn, but she left it on her desk and it had my name on it so I wanted to see what you said so please don't get angry and look for me and beat me up. Okay I don't know what you were talking about but why did you say you're my friend and not Dawn's? I think she's really upset. May said Dawn was almost crying after she read it. Dawn won't tell us what it was about but Misty told me to ask you and make you say sorry or else she woud beat you up.
Bye,
Gary
-;-
Dear Gary,
It's not your busness or Misty's or May's. And Dawn started it.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Okay, Paul,
Gary says Dawn's so upset because you said you're not her friend anymore. Until you say sorry, we all desided we won't talk to you.
Sincerely,
Misty
-;-
Dear Misty,
I already wasn't her friend. And I don't care.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
You know, Paul, you really make me want to beat you up sometimes. But I'm not gonna because I'm not going to even look at you now.
-Misty
-;-
Dear Misty,
Still don't care.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Reggie,
I don't know what's going on or what to do.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hey Paul,
Whassup lil' bro? What's wrong?
Sad you're still not talking to me,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
No one's talking to me or even looking at me. They've been ignoring me for days!
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hi Paul,
Why? What did you do?
Your curious brother,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Nothing! I wrote to Dawn like you said and she got upset but then Gary snooped and read the letter and now everyone hates me.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hey Paul,
...Okay, what did you write in that letter?
In all seriousness,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
I told her to stop talking to me about needles and I don't care what Gary says because I can beat him up. She got mad at me because she said I was being rude and said what kind of friend are you. So I said her letter format was wrong and I'm Gary's friend and not hers. Gary saw the last letter and told everyone.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hi Paul,
Um Paul? I get you guys don't get along, but maybe she still thought of you as a friend? I mean, you hang out in the same group, right? You must have hurt her feelings when you said you weren't her friend.
Sincerely,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
But we're not friends! She doesn't like me either! And she always says stuff like I'm a bad friend to the others. She doesn't want to be my friend. I don't get why she's upset.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hey bro,
Have you tried talking to her about it?
Sincerely,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
No.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hey Paul,
Well, then you should try talking to her about it.
Sincerely,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
I don't know what to say.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hi Paul,
Say what you said to me. Say, "I don't get why you're upset." Exactly like that. If you still don't want to talk to her, you could write it like you did last time.
Sincerely,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Okay, I'll try.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hello bro,
Gook luck!
Missing talking to you,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Dawn,
I don't get why you're upset.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Um, what? Who said I was upset?
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
You're not upset about the letter, then? Everyone else is saying you're really upset about it.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Okay, maybe I was a little upset.
Sincerely,
Dawn
PS. Wait, how does everyone else know about it?
-;-
Dear Dawn,
I don't get why. You don't like me and we're already not friends.
Yours truly,
Paul
PS. Gary snooped through your letters.
-;-
Dear Paul,
Oh. Um, yeah. I guess. I just... I guess I just thought we could be friends. You know, we're everyone else's friends, and we already hang out together so I feel like we should be too.
Sincerely,
Dawn
PS. Ugh! That Gary! 😠
-;-
Dear Dawn,
Why? We don't like each other. We can still hang out with the same people and not like each other.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
I don't know. I guess you're right. May and the others have just been my first friends since I came to this school, and you're one of them too so I thought... But I guess it's okay to not like some people. As long as we're not mean about it. (You're kinda mean sometimes though.)
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
So you're not upset anymore?
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
I guess not. I suppose it's not such a big deal after all.
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
Good, so go tell the others you're not upset at me anymore.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Um, tell them yourself?
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
I can't. They're not talking to me because you're upset at me.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
What, really? I thought you were staying away from us because you're mad at me.
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
No, THEY'RE the ones staying away from ME.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Because of me? Sorry! I didn't know they were doing that! I'll tell them!
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
Good.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Hey Paul? Sorry for the times I kept saying you're not a good friend to the others. I just... I don't know. But I guess if they're not upset by the stuff you say, then I shouldn't bother you about it. I mean, if they did get upset, they would've just ignored you like they're doing right now. Maybe they don't because they don't have a problem with you.
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
That is exactly why they don't. And apology accepted.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
I still don't think I really like you. But maybe I could one day.
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
I don't like you either. But I can hang out with you when we're with the others.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
You know, I feel like we can talk better when we write letters to each other. Can we keep writing letters to each other?
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
Okay. Then I can ignore them when I don't want to talk.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Ugh you're so mean!
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
And I can also write back when I do feel like talking.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Less mean :) And Paul? If you ever start thinking I'm you're friend, can you tell me?
Sincerely,
Dawn
-;-
Dear Dawn,
Fine.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Heyyy Paul!
So? Did you write to her? How did it go?
Your wonderful brother,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
She's not upset at me anymore. And the others aren't ignoring me anymore either.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hi Paul,
See? What did I say? Isn't your big bro great!
Glad things worked out,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
I think they forgot about the needles too.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Heyo Paul,
Ah, I'm right again! See? They forget about this kind of stuff! So... are you ready to stop being mad at me? I miss talking to you.
Hopeful we'll make amends,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
I think so. I like talking to you too sometimes when you're not annoying.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Hello Paul,
So I can talk to you again? :)
Eager for your answer,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Okay. But not too much.
Yours truly,
Paul
-;-
Dear Paul,
Yessss finally! We have a lot to catch up on!
Your forever loving bro,
Reggie
-;-
Dear Reggie,
Oh no.
Yours truly,
Paul
Aaaand done!
This chapter was fun to write! I always absolutely love the brotherly relationship between Paul and Reggie - I seriously wish they'd put more of it in the anime. We only get very few instances of them interacting face-to-face, but it's clear that even though their personalities are opposites and they have different views, they really care for each other. And there's just so much story/character development potential there! I know the anime focuses on Ash, but I wish there was a spin-off series like Pokemon Chronicles that gave us a bit of the daily lives of other characters. With the most recent Pokemon Journey series, though, there's a lot of potential old characters will return, so hoping for that! (I've been following the Japanese, but they put it on hiatus right now :( ...)
This chapter also kind of connects to one of the earliest chapters, "Picture Perfect." I remember that even after I posted it, a part of me felt something was... missing about that chapter. Something just didn't feel right. But as I wrote more chapters, I started to understand Paul and Dawn's relationship more, and it started to feel more complete. I think what was bothering me was that that chapter kind of showed the culmination of their relationship (them finally acknowledging their friendship), but since it was one of the earliest chapters, there hadn't been anything leading up to it. This chapter, on the other hand, kind of shows the beginning of their relationship (them finding a way to communicate and establishing the non-friendship-ness of their relationship). Haha, after all these years, by posting this chapter, I finally feel much more okay with the "Picture Perfect" one!
And now I will stop rambling and let you guys carry on with your lives, haha.
So what did you think? Let me know it your reviews!
Oh, and speaking of reviews, I just wanted to say, I have reached over 500 reviews for this story. 500! And that's not even mentioning the over 100 favs and follows. I am so grateful to everyone who's been reviewing, faving, or simply reading this story. I started this nearly six years ago, and, wow, it's still going strong. A massive thank you to all you readers and supporters: you're all awesome!
Bye bye for now! Stay safe, and have an excellent day, and be sure to smile all the way! :D