What do you get when you cross writer's block with having to write a chapter you're unsure about before a certain date? A chapter that takes 3 fucking days to write, that's what! As I said at the end of the last chapter, I'll be updating this more frequently now that the Persona 5 fic is finished. If you're curious, please go read it because I'm very proud of it. Anyway, I'll be writing performances in this chapter, so be warned that this is brand new territory for me. I've never written something like this before, so It could very well end up being an awful chapter. But I hope it doesn't, so please let me know how I did with them, because if you like them, I will do more, and if you don't, I won't. Anyway, here's the chapter, so I'll shut up now.
Chapter38:
A Show of Pride
Max and Bonnie awaken to loud noises coming from the hallway outside their room. They get dressed as quickly as they can and head out to see what all of the commotion is. The lobby of their hotel is full of women and girls all practicing for the showcase later in the day. The two have to push through large crowds just to get to a table for breakfast, but then Bonnie spots Zoey and Dawn, and her eyes suddenly have stars in them. Zoey is wearing a blue and white three-piece suit, with a blue bowtie. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail, and she's wearing makeup to compliment her orange hair and blue suit. Looking at Dawn, Max and Bonnie can see that she's blushing madly and struggling to keep her eyes off of Zoey, much to Bonnie's amusement. "That's such a pretty suit!" Bonnie exclaims. Zoey chuckles and gives Dawn side-eyes Dawn. "Thanks," she replies. "I picked this suit because it matches Dawn's hair." She pats Dawn on the head at this, and Dawn immediately collapses onto a couch, face glowing red, and her spirit beginning to leave her mouth.
Dawn's gay panic is interrupted by Barry and Lukas showing up. Barry sees Dawn in this state and wakes her up by having his Empoleon shoot her with Water Gun. "Mate, if you don't keep those in check, Zoey mightn't win the showcase" Barry jokes once Dawn recovers. Without missing a beat, Dawn counters, "You're one to talk, I'm amazed you can even win those gym battles with Lukas watching!" Barry goes red in the face while Zoey laughs her head off. Lukas just looks totally confused, which only frustrates Bonnie greatly. "What's her problem?" Dawn asks Max as he and Bonnie join them for breakfast. "She's a huge matchmaker," Max explains. "Seeing Barry being such a mess go over Lukas's head is no doubt driving her crazy." Dawn giggles a bit at this.
As the 6 of them sit around the table and eat, Dawn looks around the crowd at all of the other people who are going to be performing in the showcase later. Suddenly, her head snaps over to someone with long pink hair falling down to her waist. "Chloe?!" she calls. Chloe and Goh look over to see who called Chloe's name. They spot Dawn waving them over and a warm smile appears on Chloe's face. "Dawn! What a surprise to see you here!" she says, coming over to join them. "So, what are you doing here?" Dawn wraps an arm around one of Zoey's, which causes the redhead to go a bit red-faced. "I'm here supporting my girlfriend" she replies, nuzzling her head onto Zoey's shoulder. Chloe beams at this. "Took you long enough!" she exclaims. "I'll be honest, I was getting sick of hearing you gush over this cute redhead that you were so sure would never like you back." Zoey chuckles at this as Dawn goes rather red herself. "Bit rich coming from you" she mumbles, which makes Chloe go a bit pink as well.
After the friendly banter between the two is finished, the talk turns to who Max and Bonnie will be supporting. The two think about that for a few minutes. They're both scared of making the other angry if they choose someone. Eventually, Zoey realises this. "I can't speak for Chloe," she says. "But I won't be angry of you choose her. It's your choice and I won't hate you or think any less of you." Chloe nods in agreement. Feeling relieved, Max decides to support Zoey, since he knew her for longer than he knew Chloe. Bonnie decides to support Chloe because she knew Goh for longer. With that settled, Zoey and Chloe stand up, since they have to be there before everyone else. They both receive good luck kisses from their partners, and are wished luck by everyone else. Then, they and the other girls competing leave the hotel to head to the showcase hall. The rest of them continue to sit and chat for a bit before heading over to the hall themselves.
The sheer size of the hall blows Max away. He'd seen contest halls before, but this blew them out of the water. Bonnie notices his reaction and laughs. "Never seen something as grand as this?" she asks. Max shakes his head. "I haven't," he confirms. "I've seen contest halls in Hoenn and Kanto, but nothing like this." Bonnie laughs again, before taking his hand and leading him to the seats. Dawn notices hoe both of their cheeks go a bit red at the contact and chuckles to herself. "For a self-proclaimed Matchmaker, she certainly is blind to her own feelings" she comments to herself. "What are you talking about?" Lukas asks. "You're not much better" Dawn comments, before leading him, Barry and Goh to the seats as well.
Once the whole crowd had gathered into the seating area, the host makes his entrance. Monsieur Pierre is lowered down from the roof of the hall, and swings around as he greets the audience. "Welcome showcase lovers to this year's Pokémon Showcase!" he announces in his outrageous Kalosian accent. "And may I just say, that this year's shaping up to be big one indeed! We have many young women lining up to fight for their chance to be this year's Kalos Queen! Let us meet them shall we?" At this, all of the contestants come up onto the stage. Max can see Zoey and Chloe amongst the other performers. "Our first round will be Pokémon Styling," Pierre goes on. "Contestants will be given 10 minutes to style their pokémon. Then, they will guide them along the stage. Those who have the most popular costume for their pokémon will move on to the performance round. Good luck!" And with that, Pierre is pulled back up to the roof and disappears. The performers waved to the crowds one last time, before heading back behind the stage.
After waiting for 10 minutes, Monsieur Pierre comes back, this time walking onto the stage itself. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!" he announces. "Let's give a big hand to our performers! 1st, we have a returning face, hailing from Vaniville Town here in Kalos, is performer Shauna!" Bonnie cheers very loudly upon hearing this name, as a girl about 4 years older than her and Max walks out onto the stage, accompanied by her Florges, which she dressed up in a floral crown and wrapped a ribbon around her neck like a scarf. Florges is also wearing something that resembles a coat made out of flowers and leaves. As for Shauna, she's wearing a pink and purple dress that falls to her knees, with yellow frills and red ribbons going around it. The dress strongly reminds Max of a cake for some reason. As for her hair, she has it cut short to her shoulders, similar to how Serena styles hers, except Shauna's hair is brown. Max notices Bonnie's loud cheering and asks her if she knows Shauna. Bonnie nods and explains that she was one of Serena's friends and rivals during her travels with Ash.
After Shauna and Florges are finished, they leave the stage and Zoey comes on next, wearing the same suit she did in the reception of the hotel. She walks out with her Glameow walking beside her, wearing a bowtie the same colour as Zoey's suit. Inside the centre of the bow, Max notices there's an everstone tucked inside of it. The Glameow is also wearing a bunch of smaller bows along its tail, and it's holding a stick that emits a bunch of sparkles as it walks. The crowd cheers with excitement as she walks about. As she does, Max sees Bonnie stare in amazement at Zoey, and starts imagining her doing doing this, in a dress similar to Shauna's, with Dedenne walking beside her as she walks across the stage looking rather cute... "Where did that come from!?" Max asks himself as he shakes his head violently and refocuses on the show, as now Zoey was gone, and Chloe walked on. She's wearing a dress that's a similar length to Shauna, except hers is is half yellow and half green, with fake fur lining the bottom, and fake feathers along the top. She walks beside her Eevee, who's wearing several bows and ribbons along its body. It's also in something similar to a coat, except this one is made of wool, and the same colour as Chloe's dress. The crowd eats these three up, and it comes as no surprise when all three make it through to the next round.
Chloe and Zoey are scheduled to be the last ones to come on, meaning they have to sit through a few more performances before they get to the two they had come to watch. Some of the performances are amazing, especially Shauna's, but they remind Max too much of the contests, and he's grown a bit bored of seeing those thanks to his sister. But finally, it's Zoey's turn (this will probably be crap). She steps forward, with her Leafeon and her Glameow. Leafeon starts off with razor leaf, gently raising Glameow into the air. While this happens, Zoey dances around the two, doing a few spins. Eventually, Glameow is at the right height, and Leafeon lets it go. Glameow falls onto Zoey's head, and she picks it up and continues dancing with it. While the two do that, Leafeon runs around them, spreading more leaves with razor leaf, only this time these leaves are covered with sparkles. Then, Zoey stops and Leafeon picks Glameow up again, before placing it down and finishing the set.
The crowd goes wild for her, and Barry has to pour a bit of his water bottle onto Dawn's face, because she just fell into another gay panic. By the time she had come to, it's Chloe's turn to perform (once again, this will probably be crap). She and her Eevee step forward, along with a Chespin. The Chespin starts off with pin missile, shooting a bunch of its pins into the air. Eevee runs up Chloe's back and leaps into the air, before hitting the pin missiles with swift, creating a mini fireworks display. While this happens, Chloe takes out a ribbon and starts twirling it about. As Chespin and Eevee continue to make their fireworks, the two also start jumping through the ribbon along with Chloe. They keep this up for a bit longer, before finishing off with Eevee and Chespin standing on Chloe's shoulders as the last of their effects go off. Once again, the crowd goes wild, with Goh somehow managing to cheer louder than anyone. Chloe steps back as the rest of the performers come on stage, eager to see who will win. Everyone casts their vote, and they see that Zoey is the one to come out on top, meaning she wins the first Princess key.
They all meet up outside, where Dawn rewards Zoey with a kiss on the lips for winning. Goh does the same with Chloe for doing so well. As they talk, Shauna approaches them to congratulate Zoey and to introduce herself. She's accompanied by a heavyset boy with brown hair, who she introduces as Tierno, her boyfriend. Bonnie wants to know how the two began dating, but Shauna explains that she's rather tired after the performance and wants to go to her and Tierno's room. "But, if we see each other during the Coumarine festival tomorrow, I'll tell you," she promises. "And you can tell me how you met yours." Bonnie goes very red in the face and explains that Max is just a friend. This causes everyone to laugh and Max to go just as red.
Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I was totally stuck for one, so I just decided to end it there. I'll be touching up a lot more on Tierno and Shauna next chapter, don't worry, I just wanted to bring the two into the story here as well, because I liked their dynamic with Ash and Serena. Just to be clear though, I'm not bringing Trevor in, at least not in Kalos. He was the most forgettable of the three imo. Now, because the Pledging Tree thing reminds me a lot of Christmas, and Christmas is 4 days away, I decided to upload that chapter on Christmas Day, so look forward to it. I have a lot more of a plan for it than I did for this. I genuinely do not think I did very well with them, so if anyone would like to help me write anymore performances in future I'd appreciate it so very much. I won't be able to pay you because I recently lost my job, but I will give you full credit for the performance. Anyway, with that, see you all on Monday with the next chapter.