7. Of Preparations and Contests
"Welcome to Petalburg City!"
"Thank Arceus," Paul mutters. He was beginning to get sick of the noise - if he thought Dawn is loud and obnoxious, May is worse (at least by a factor of 10). Paul prefers silence, and though Dawn is a little talkative, he enjoys her companionship more than May's.
"We're finally here!" May cries out happily, as her legs push her forward, and Paul is pleasantly surprised to see her immediately take off towards the gym.
Maybe she wants to immediately meet her father, who Paul learned from Dawn was the gym leader of the Petalburg Gym, but Paul will make use of this opportunity.
The last time he was here, he had fought a gym leader named Ashley, so he intends to battle Norman this time.
.
"M-Mom! I've told you that he's just a friend!"
"May, you've kept all of the roses he's given to 'Beautifly.'" Caroline holds up her fingers to gesture quotations at "Beautifly."
May flushes red, but rolls her eyes and huffs. "Mom," she whines.
Dawn lets out a laugh. Though Paul was hesitant to stay the night at the Maple house after his battle against Norman, Norman insisted that he and Dawn rest before heading out the next morning. After all, May and Drew are headed back to Johto tomorrow. Dawn was so surprised when he readily agreed to Norman.
Caroline laughs, before turning to Dawn. "Dawn, sweetie, do you and Piplup mind getting the milk and cookies I've left in the kitchen?"
"Y-Yes, of course, Mrs. Maple." Dawn takes the hint and scrambles to leave the room and give May and her mother some privacy. "Come on, Piplup."
"Pip-lup!" he answers, as he jumps into her arms.
Dawn and Piplup make their way out of May's room and into the kitchen, where Dawn places Piplup on the kitchen counter and opens the fridge.
"Pip, lup?" her Pokémon questions, waving a flipper towards May's room.
Dawn giggles, but still carefully pours milk into a few glasses. "No need to worry, Piplup. Mrs. Maple is probably helping May realize her feelings for Drew."
She continues preparing a tray full of the milk glasses and a plate of cookies. When they're ready to go back into May's room, Piplup gently climbs onto Dawn's shoulder, seeing as her hands are full.
"Hey."
"Pip!"
"Aah!" Dawn shrieks in surprise, almost dropping the tray as she whirls around to see Paul. Piplup, too, steadies himself on Dawn's shoulder. "Paul, you scared us!"
Wordlessly, Paul takes the tray from her hands, giving a flustered Dawn a moment to restart her heart.
After a moment of heavy silence, she speaks, shifting her weight on one foot to another. "Um . . . it's cool that Espeon evolved during the battle with Mr. Maple. You'll have to tell Professor Rowan that the sun shard had no effect in his evolution."
He only responds with a gentle shrug, before handing her back the tray and turning around towards the corridor bedrooms.
She begins to follow Paul. "Nice use of the spin and dodge trick, too." As the heat on Dawn's cheeks fade, she gives herself a satisfied smile. "You're picking up techniques very quickly. You'll do great at the contest!"
He stops, and turns to face her. "Thank you," he says kindly, and then takes a cookie from the tray before walking away.
When he approaches Max's room, he is surprised to see Max himself leaning against the door, with his arms crossed over his chest and his glasses ominously glowing from the reflection of the moonlight.
Paul swallows down the last bits of his cookie and stares at Max pensively. "What?" he finally demands, after receiving no response.
He shakes his head, and Paul suddenly feels stupid , as if Max is actually the adult and he is the kid. "Oh, nothing . . . nothing at all."
.
"You aren't going to fight Roxanne?"
Paul looks up from his book, with Shinx sitting next to his chair, to regard her for a moment. "No," he responds. "I want to focus on training for the contest right now." He reaches for his cup and sips at his orange juice and resumes reading.
Dawn purses her lips, suppressing a sigh. What's so special about the Rubello Contest anyway?
Shaking her head, she turns to walk towards the open field and reaches for a Pokéball on her belt.
"Mamoswine, spotlight!"
Dawn hears a soft, "Hmm," from behind her. Paul must be expressing curiosity on Mamoswine's performance in contests.
Paul comes up to Dawn, Shinx following. "What is your strategy?"
She winks at him, which he is taken aback by. "You'll just have to wait and watch to see it."
"Hmph." He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, but his cheeks redden.
Dawn shows Paul some Appeal Round moves for almost an hour before Mamoswine's stomach growls loudly and she announces it's time to eat. So, they both send out the rest of their Pokémon, and she reaches into her backpack to retrieve poffins along with the Pokémon food she learned to make from Brock.
She is about to politely request Paul to set down the bowls for their Pokémon, but is pleasantly surprised to see that he already has the dishes in hand and has started to line them up on the table and the grass.
"What are you doing?" Paul asks her later that night, once they have eaten their dinner and cleaned up after themselves. All of their Pokémon are in their Pokéballs, with the exception of Piplup, who is sound asleep in Dawn's sleeping bag.
Dawn's eyes don't leave the cubed contraption in front of her. "Making Pokéblock. It's Hoenn's equivalent of Poffins." She is hunched over the table where they ate, her hands picking out berries from a basket full of different types.
"It's getting late, and you're supposed to train with me early in the morning," he reminds her, frowning. "You should go to bed. You can make these tomorrow."
She shakes her head. "Paul, I won't have time to make these then," she insists. "Different Pokémon like and react to different types of Pokéblock, and, between the two of us, we have so many Pokémon."
He doesn't understand what she is mumbling about, but she looks rather determined with her tongue peeking out between her lips and her face settled in concentration, so he decides that it is best to leave her be.
"May said that it will help us for Pokémon Contests, so I need to try as many combinations of berries as I can." Her voice is a soft murmur, as if she's talking to herself, but the words make Paul pause and turn back around.
His legs draw him back to her on their own accord, but his mind seems to agree to their actions as the words, "Let me help you, then," come out of his mouth. It's the least he can do for all of her help.
Dawn finally looks up from the blender in surprise. "Okay . . . I mean, yes!" She pushes back a few locks of stray hair before smiling amicably at him. "That would be great, thanks." She pats empty space next to her on the table, welcoming him in assisting her.
.
"Oh, not again! My hair won't stay put!"
Sitting in the dressing room of the Rustboro Contest Hall, Dawn realizes that it has been a while since she has felt like this - actually, the last time contest Dawn had participated in was the Grand Festival, but she doesn't remember panicking over her hair before her loss against Zoey. It occurs to her only then that, along with that battle, a part of her confidence has also been lost.
Paul, leaning against the doorway of the dressing room with his arms crossed over his chest, rolls his eyes. "Why are you worrying about your dress and hair?" Shinx, who he has released out of his Pokéball, scampers over to Dawn.
Dawn's hands hold down her hair almost defensively as she speaks. "Presentation is important for contests - not just for Pokémon, but for Coordinators, too." She groans. "Ugh! If only my hair would be presentable!"
He sighs, and to his surprise, so does Piplup.
"Piiiip, pip!" Piplup, who is dressed in a cheerleading costume, releases a gentle stream of bubbles at Dawn's head.
Paul blinks. He might have let out a laugh at Piplup's unexpected Bubble Beam if it weren't for the fact that the frizz from her hair has actually flattened, and her hair looks shiny.
Dawn is taken back momentarily, but then her eyes light up. A wide smile stretches across her face. "Oh, Piplup! Thank you!" She lifts her starter Pokémon up and nuzzles his cheek with her own. "I know it's been a while, but I needed that."
"Luup!" Piplup chirps happily back at her, a satisfied look on his face.
Dawn places Piplup back onto the floor and begins to clip part of her hair back.
"It looks better down," Paul comments, surprising himself and Dawn both.
Dawn blushes at his blunt words, but sets her clips back on the dresser. "Um, if you say so, I'll leave it down this time."
"Pip, piplup!" Piplup cheers.
"Shini!" Shinx also adds in agreement.
"Yeah. You look . . . nice." Paul hesitates at the use of the word. "Good luck."
.
Paul and Shinx watch as Dawn loses in the semifinal round.
Paul has to admit, the combinations she used were spectacular. Treecko's appeals' performance, which she had practiced in front of Paul and Shinx before, had managed to calm and entrance the entire hall. Even in the semifinals, right before her loss, when Piplup was up against a Mr. Rime - a Pokémon that neither he nor Dawn have ever seen before - Dawn tactfully ordered him to use BubbleBeam against Mr. Rime's Ice Shard. Her training session with Paul and Froslass came in handy, as she used the temperature difference between the two moves to her advantage. BubbleBeam was warmer than Ice Shard, so their collision resulted in a sparkling mist.
Paul was so impressed that he had Froslass come out to see the battle for herself.
The battle was neck and neck at that point, but that Mr. Rime was powerful, and its coordinator oversmarted Dawn.
As someone who comes from competitive battling, Paul believed that she baited Dawn into ordering Piplup to use Whirlpool, which Mr. Rime froze with an ice beam. As a result, Piplup slipped from the whirlpool and lost control of it, causing it to fall and shatter, and Dawn lost a significant amount of points as the timer hit zero.
Regardless, Paul was able to see Dawn in action, and learn for himself that she did not reach the finals of the Sinnoh Grand Festival on a mere fluke.
At the end of the contest, he meets her at the exit of the participant dressing room, he doesn't expect her to look as forlorn as she does.
"You were impressive." Though his voice is not enthusiastic, he tries to maintain an earnest tone. "I had Froslass watch that last battle. We learned a lot."
"But . . . I lost."
"You also lost the Grand Festival," he states. It is rather harsh to say to her face aloud, but it is not his intention. "Yet you were still determined to learn from your mistakes and become stronger. You've come so far, so why are you crying over a small contest?"
Dawn blinks in disbelief, which surprises him. But even more surprising is that he's right - her eyes are shining with unshed tears. "You don't think I'm not good enough and that you'll need another teacher?"
His brows furrow in confusion. So she was hoping this was supposed to be an example to show him how to win?
Suddenly, Paul feels abashed. Does he really come across as someone who would drop Dawn upon seeing her lose one battle? Or at the very least, is that the way Dawn sees him?
"Losing doesn't define you or your capabilities," he answers back defensively, looking away, but quickly peeks at Dawn's reaction to see that she stares at him with a look he can't discern. He continues talking anyway. "I've lost many league conferences, one being to Ash. I've also lost to Brandon twice now. But I haven't given up. I'm still determined to win, and so should you."
Dawn realizes that this is probably the most he has spoken to her in one breath.
"Dawn." He finally turns to look at her, his eyes full of intent. "You can't keep doubting yourself every time you take a step forward, even when you fall." He pauses before a twitch of a grin appears on his face. "No need to worry, right?"
Hearing the phrase come from Paul sounds unnatural, but the effort is heartwarming.
Dawn blinks back her tears, straightens her back, and slaps her cheeks with her palms. She looks at Paul with determined eyes and nods.
.
"Thank you for the meal."
Dawn smiles shyly at Paul from across the table. "I should be thanking you, and my Pokémon, for encouraging me, Paul. I wouldn't have been able to win the Fallarbor Contest otherwise."
He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. "Sure, but we can't be spending your prize money on an expensive dinner every time you win a contest."
"Well, it's your turn to win a contest, and then you can return the favor," Dawn replies cheekily, as she hands their waitress the check folder full of Pokédollars.
Paul grows pensive at her words. "I'm confident I can participate in a contest with Luxio, but LaRousse City's contest is a 1-Ribbon Costume Contest. Luxio needs experience, which you can give."
" Me ?" Dawn is incredulous, even more incredulous than when she and Paul looked at the bill for their meal. This was a topic of conversation Paul had brought up when she first met the Pokémon as Shinx, but after their training sessions, she didn't think he would follow through with it. "Paul, Luxio is your Pokémon!"
"There's no rule against this. And I told you before, it's just for one contest. He just needs some experience."
Though Dawn is initially very hesitant to participate with Luxio, she has to admit that she had so much fun preparing with Luxio. And Paul. She insists that Paul come up with the appeals and combination ideas, as well as battle strategies for them to implement, so that he also comes out of this with more experience, too.
And so they end up winning the contest.
Paul was correct in identifying Luxio - he has a natural inclination for contests. It didn't take much practice on Luxio's part to execute Paul's idea for the appeal: set up a Light Screen, release a Discharge while spinning (an idea inspired by Dawn and Pachirisu), and then Double Team. And though Paul's plan did have some flaws, they were able to practice and correct the routine for Luxio and his illusionary copies to be encased in a green electrifying glow, as a result of the blue Light Screen and yellow Discharge.
Dawn almost feels as though she robbed a victory from Paul - if he had been able to enter the contest with Luxio, they might have won.
A part of her mourns that she may not have an opportunity to perform with Luxio in a contest again, but she knows that Paul and Luxio are more than ready for the Rubello Town Pokémon Contest.
"I wonder what will be the bad luck to put an end to your flukes."
A confused "Huh?" falls from Dawn's lips as she is broken out of her thoughts. She looks up to see Ursula standing in the doorway of the changing room.
Dawn hoped that things with her had ended on a good note after the Grand Festival, but perhaps, she was wrong.
"Ursula!"
"We meet again, Deedee."
Dawn smiles brightly at her, as she arises from her seat and walks to her. "I saw your battle in the semifinals - you and Wormadam were great!"
She shakes her head and smiles haughtily. "I wish I could say the same for you and that Luxio of yours. Like I said, just a fluke ." Before Dawn even has a chance to respond, Ursula turns right on her heel and heads up the stairs to the main hall.
"Grr," she growls lowly. Some things - and people - just don't change.
"Who was that ?" Paul's voice questions beside her, startling Dawn.
"Oh, Paul, she's actually - " Dawn stops, seeing Paul watch Ursula sashay away. "No one of importance!" she suddenly snaps, annoyed that her own travel partner seems to be giving Ursula unnecessary attention.
Paul rolls his eyes. He recognizes her rivalry attitude all too well. "Calm down. Let's go back to the Pokémon Center. We have to leave for Lavaridge Town tomorrow morning."
In spite of her anger, Dawn can't help herself. "Fine. I call top bunk," she grumbles, as she follows Paul out of the dressing room.
He simply shrugs as he walks, but holds back a smirk at the intended effect. "Whatever."