Yes, I gave this one shot this title because of the episode Misty Meets Her Match. I thought it was cute. It's also a spin off of sorts to chapter 14.
Aiden and Michelle: 6 years old
Elizabeth: 6 months old
Michelle Meets Her Match
Michelle Ketchum was a passionate little girl. There were quite a few things she really liked: reading, drawing, music, and of course, swimming.
She had inherited her mother's love of the water and had always been an extremely skilled swimmer. Several weeks prior, Ash and Misty had signed their young daughter up for a competitive swim team at the Cerulean City Aquatic Center. Michelle had only attended a few practices so far, but she already loved it. It was really fun to swim with other kids her age, and it didn't hurt that she was faster than most of them either. Winning races only made Michelle love swimming even more!
Misty had just dropped the girl off for practice, and Michelle was immediately drawn to the pool. Though she was usually shy, Michelle really opened up when she was with her swim team, and that made Misty beyond grateful.
"I'll be back once practice is over, okay?" Misty called after her daughter.
Michelle stopped in her tracks and spun around to smile at her mother. "Okay, Mommy!"
Misty giggled quietly to herself before heading out. It was very hard for her to trust her children with anyone who wasn't her, Ash, a family member or very close friend, so the fact that she never hesitated leaving Michelle with her swim coaches spoke volumes about them.
Turning back towards the pool, Michelle began scurrying towards the water, taking a seat on the edge of the pool beside one of the girls on her team who she'd started to become friends with. The other young girl looked over and smiled, her orange eyes lighting up.
"Hi, Michelle!" She greeted.
"Hi, Quinn!" Michelle returned, her own smile widening.
"Are you excited to race today?" Quinn asked. She and Michelle had decided last practice that they'd like to race each other to prepare for their upcoming meet. Both girls had approached Coach Mira with the idea, who happily agreed to it.
"Uh huh!" Michelle confirmed. "I've been practicing in the gym pool! I think I got faster."
"Everyone! Look who's back!"
Michelle and Quinn whipped their heads around to look over their shoulders. Mira had just walked in with a girl strolling next to her who Michelle had never seen before. Quinn had, however, and sheepishly pushed her short, dark brown hair behind her ear.
"Who's that?" Michelle whispered to her friend.
"Kylie," Quinn replied just as softly. "She's the best swimmer on the whole team."
Michelle furrowed her brow. "Really?"
Quinn nodded her head.
"Is she mean?" Michelle nervously questioned. Quinn's whole demeanor was indicating to Michelle that something was off.
"Oh, no," Quinn refuted, now shaking her head. "Kylie's nice. But none of us can ever beat her in a race! And she knows it."
Michelle grimaced. Ever since she'd joined the team, she'd been the fastest! But apparently, this girl was considered the fastest.
"Michelle, Kylie, you two haven't met yet!"
The redhead stiffened as Mira walked towards her, gently guiding Kylie by her shoulders.
"Kylie, this is our newest teammate, Michelle!" Mira continued, smiling at the blonde girl before turning her attention onto Michelle. "And Michelle, this is Kylie. She and her family just came back from a trip to the Sinnoh region!"
"Hi," Kylie chirped, appearing a bit standoffish.
"Hi," Michelle parroted, feeling just about as uncomfortable as Kylie looked.
"You know, Kylie, Michelle is also a really fast swimmer," Mira commented, causing the blonde girl to raise an eyebrow. "What do you think about a friendly little race between you two? It'll be good practice for our next meet!"
"Do I still get to race Quinn too?" Michelle timidly asked.
"Of course!" Mira replied.
Michelle thought about it for a moment before deciding, "okay."
"I'll do it," Kylie declared, suddenly sounding much more confident. That led Michelle to grimace and pull her shoulders back.
"Great!" Mira cheered. "Into the pool!"
Kylie wasted no time slipping into the water. Michelle, who had still been sitting on the edge, followed suit. Neither girl had pulled on her goggles or swim cap, but Michelle was just fine with that. She knew she could swim plenty fast without either of them.
"Get ready," Mira instructed the girls. Kylie and Michelle both turned their backs to the pool wall, pressing their feet against it in order to propel themselves as Mira lifted the stopwatch she used to time each race. "Go!"
Each girl pushed off, moving through the water as quickly as they could. Michelle flipped her head left to right in order to breathe, and to catch glimpses of Kylie out of the corner of her eye. She could tell that they were about neck-and-neck, and that she'd have to push herself harder if she wanted to win. Michelle began to kick faster, paddling her arms more quickly to keep up with the pace of her legs. She began to inch ahead of Kylie, which did not go unnoticed by her teammates. The rest of the kids gasped, leaning in closer as both Michelle and Kylie got closer to the other end of the pool.
As soon as the wall came into view, Michelle gave one final, powerful kick, throwing her arm out in front of her. Her palm hit the concrete and she popped up, looking over her shoulder just in time to see Kylie reaching the wall right next to her.
"That was a close one!" Mira marveled, lowering the stopwatch. "But Michelle wins by five tenths of a second!"
Michelle grinned excitedly as her teammates murmured in awe. Kylie, on the other hand, was less than thrilled, and had set her narrowed gaze on the redheaded girl beside her.
"You two are going to make each other so much better," Mira added, sounding quite happy about the fact. "A little healthy competition is never a bad thing, after all!"
XXX
That night, at dinner, Michelle couldn't stop raving about how great practice had been. She told her family all about how she'd been the fastest at practice, and how great it was. That confused the rest of them, however.
"Michelle, sweetie, haven't you always been one of the fastest kids at practice?" Misty patiently asked.
"Not one of, the fastest," Ash corrected her, proudly grinning at their daughter.
"Hush," Misty sighed, warningly wagging her fork at him.
"Yeah, but it turns out there's another really fast girl on the team!" Michelle stressed. "Her name's Kylie."
"Kylie?" Misty repeated. "I haven't heard that name before."
"She just came back from a trip," Michelle explained. "So today was the first time I met her. Quinn told me she's the best swimmer on the whole team. And she was right! Kylie's really fast! Coach Mira said we should race, and we did, and I beat Kylie! Not by a lot, but I did."
"That's awesome, Shelly!" Ash cheered.
"I'm just happy she's beating other kids –sides me," Aiden commented, stuffing a forkful of noodles in his mouth. Elizabeth, who was sitting in her high chair, giggled and clapped her hands together.
"Look at that," Misty crooned. "Lizzie is happy that you won too, Shelly!"
"Thanks, Lizzie!" Michelle laughed, smiling at the baby.
"This is great!" Ash suddenly crowed, startling the rest of the family. "Michelle's got her first rival!"
"Ash, she's not a Pokémon trainer," Misty hissed, narrowing her eyes. "She's a six year old girl! And this is one of her teammates we're talking about!"
"So?" Ash prodded. "Rivalries are good as long as they're healthy. They push you to be better!"
Michelle gently tilted her head as she began to think. "Kylie makes me want to swim faster."
"See!" Ash boasted. "Good! Not promoting any murderous tendencies or anything like that."
Misty groaned and smacked a hand against her forehead.
"But I don't think Kylie was really happy that I won," Michelle continued with a frown. "She seemed kinda grouchy afterwards."
"Well, that makes sense," Ash replied. "No one likes to lose! But I'm sure it fired her up just as much as it fired you up."
Michelle shrugged. She didn't really understand the concept of rivalries. Or a rival. Or any of it, really. She'd heard her father talk about such things before (he seemed to have quite a few rivals, though they were pretty much all friends) but Michelle never thought about having her own.
"It's okay, Michelle," Misty assured her daughter, sensing the child's misperception. "You don't have to worry about having a rival or anything like that. You just have fun swimming with your friends."
Michelle smiled and nodded her head.
"Aw, come on Mist, it's fun to talk about that kind of stuff!" Ash cried.
"Maybe for you, but for Michelle, it's confusing," Misty patiently responded. "Just let her be a kid."
"Alright," Ash relented, sheepishly grinning. "Guess I did get a little carried away."
"You're just passionate," Misty reasoned, smirking at her husband. "That's not a bad thing."
"Yeah!" Michelle agreed. "You like having rivals, Daddy! I don't really know what it's like, but maybe Kylie's my first one! And then I can know! And then I can talk about it too!"
Ash chuckled at his daughter's enthusiasm. "Sounds like a good plan to me!"
XXX
Michelle's next practice was two days later. She was excited to see and potentially race Kylie again. She may not have fully understood the concept of a rival, but Michelle was willing to give it a shot. If her father was so excited about it, after all, it was probably a good thing. He certainly knew a thing or two about stuff like that, after all.
As soon as she walked into the pool area, before she could even put her swim bag down, Michelle found herself face-to-face with Kylie. The young girl had swooped in right in front of her, and was wearing an unrecognizable expression on her face.
Suddenly, Michelle wasn't so excited to see her.
"Um…hi?" Michelle squeaked nervously.
"Hi," Kylie tensely replied, her aqua blue eyes practically burning.
"Um…" Michelle stammered, trying to avoid making direct eye contact with Kylie. "Are…are you excited for practice?"
Kylie shrugged her shoulders.
Michelle groaned internally and allowed her shoulders to sag. "Are you mad that I beat you in that race the other day?"
Kylie suddenly appeared surprised. "Huh? No way!"
Michelle blinked and tilted her head. "But…you seem mad."
Kylie smiled meekly. "I'm not. People tell me that a lot. I think that's just my face."
Michelle started to giggle, but stopped almost immediately. "Sorry."
"Nah, it's fine!" Kylie chirped, suddenly seeming far more upbeat. "I should know better. My mom always tells me to not have that kinda look on my face."
Michelle smiled, until confusion hit her again. "But if you're not mad, how come you came up to me like that before?"
"Oh, I wanted to race you again," Kylie replied. "I was trying to look really tough and serious! But I think I scared you. So…I'm sorry."
Michelle felt a bit embarrassed. "I wasn't scared!"
Kylie raised an eyebrow. "But you sure looked scared!"
"Like how you looked mad?" Michelle questioned.
Kylie thought about it for a moment before letting out a small giggle of her own. "Kay, that's fair!"
Michelle started to giggle too, until both girls finally settled. "You know, I told my Daddy all about our race, and he said he thinks we'd be good rivals!"
"Rivals?" Kylie repeated.
"Yeah, apparently Pokémon trainers do that a lot," Michelle explained. "They have rivals, I mean. My daddy has a bunch of rivals! But…they're all friends. So they're like…nice rivals! He says it's just to make each other better."
Kylie's eyes lit up. "Your daddy is a Pokémon trainer?"
Michelle hesitated for a moment before coyly replying, "uh huh!"
She didn't like to tell people at first that her father was the Pokémon Master. Even at her young age, Michelle had learned that a lot of people would easily take advantage of that. She'd met one too many kids who only wanted to be friends with her because of who her father was. Luckily for her, Kylie didn't seem interested in asking any other questions. Her eyes were just as bright as they'd been before.
"Pokémon trainers are so cool!" Kylie fussed. "I want to be one when I'm older!"
"Me too!" Michelle agreed.
"Alright everyone! Let's get ready to hop in the pool!"
Michelle raised her eyebrows, while Kylie looked over her shoulder. Coach Mira had just made that announcement from the head of the pool, an excited smile on her face. When Kylie looked back around at Michelle, they both had similar smiles on their own faces as well.
"So, you wanna race again?" Michelle challenged.
"Yeah, I do!" Kylie chimed. "And this time, I'm gonna win!"
Michelle smirked, her father's excited face flashing in her mind. He was right; a rival was a good thing. She and Kylie would make each other better…but they would still be great friends.
"Not if I win again!"
