The month passed without much development. Othello was told to stay in his dorm for the most part because they didn't want him to get lost. He spent most of the days rambling to Cyril and Mythos about the Dusknoir that "haunted" Scolipede Hall. One day he decided to ask them.
"Why do some ghosts haunt places?"
"That is a bit complicated. Some have a strong connection to the place; an Affinity but for a location and not a human. Some lack the power or will to move very far and become trapped. Others are cursed."
He nodded at Mythos' reply.
"How can they be cursed?"
"Not sure."
This time it was Cyril chipping in.
"Curses are kinda complex. Most of us ghost types don't even understand how they work."
Othello was a bit disappointed by the lack of an answer but disregarded it when there was a knock at his door. He opened it to see a Chatot, a Pokemon he had learned the name of by looking over the textbooks he had been given.
"Want to meet the other first years?"
It squawked it out in a voice similar to Ava's.
"Come to the Theater, the other first years are having their orientation."
It flew away down the hall after delivering its message, leaving Othello to ponder whether he wanted to go. After a few moments, he decided learning more might do him some good, so he changed into the academy's uniform, put Cyril and Mythos back into their Poke Balls, and made his way to the theater.
– Chapter Four: Eclipsed –
By the time Othello reached the theater, it was packed to the brim with other students. Most of them ignored him as he walked by, but one girl scoffed in disgust. He glanced back at her and saw that she was still scowling at him. After this, he became more self-conscious. Most ignored him as they did before, but the tumult nagged at him.
My parents told me he's an experiment and that's the only reason he's here.
"Othello, could you come here for a second?"
It took him a moment to register the voice as Ava's. He looked around and saw her sitting off to the side of the room.
"It's kind of overwhelming, isn't it?"
"Y-yeah…"
"I figured," she sighed, "I'm sure some of the kids aren't going to like you being here because of their parents. This had to be approved by the board and some of them weren't happy to be outvoted."
Othello nodded hesitantly, unsure of what a "board" was, but, again, he didn't want to seem unintelligent in front of Ava.
"You know you can ask me questions. I won't think less of you."
Othello was dumbfounded for a moment, unsure how she continued to seemingly be able to read his mind.
"What's the board?" he asked after a brief silence passed.
"They're the ones that choose how to spend funds for the school," she waved her hand as if trying to shoo away the concept of the board, "It's a lot of political mumbo-jumbo that you don't need to worry about. If you don't want to deal with their kids, I can tell you who you should avoid."
"How do you know what I'm thinking about?"
The question surprised Ava, "I'm just reading your facial expressions."
Ava seemed to be only sharing part of the truth, but Othello didn't have the courage to ask about it, so he returned his focus to the room. There were easily thousands of students in the theater, much more than he thought should be able to comfortably fit in the building. He tapped his fingers on his knees as this number only grew and grew. If this was like any time he was in a crowd, it wouldn't end well.
Greetings students! It is my pleasure to welcome you to Price Academy, not only one of the most prestigious trainer schools in Unova, but one of the greatest in any region!
The incoming students all cheer, clearly aware and energized by this concept.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate you all on your attendance here. We, the staff, know how difficult it is to reach this goal and are very proud of your progress to this moment. Now, I am Principal Owens. Today myself and some of our top seniors will be helping you with what your next years will entail.
At this, Ava and twelve other students stood up from their spots on the side. As Ava sat back down, Othello worked up the courage to finally ask something.
"Who are those twelve?" he whispered.
"Oh, I never told you?" Ava pondered for a moment, considering whether or not she had said something about it before, "Us thirteen are what's called 'The Senior League.'"
"What's that?"
"Well, you know how a region's league works, right? Eight Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and a Champion, right?"
Othello nodded. He'd never known a lot about Pokemon Leagues, but it was impossible not to know at least that much.
"The Senior League has a really similar hierarchy. The top student is the Champion, the next four are the Elite Four and the next eight, the Leaders."
"So…are you the champion?"
"Me? Oh, no," she chuckles a bit. "I'm number four, so I'm in the Elite Four. I was just the one most eager to help you out."
This left Othello with more questions, but he hesitated.
"You can ask. Principal Owens is just talking about some of the stuff Mr. Leone already told you."
Othello nodded slowly, "So…why aren't you the Champion?"
"Because the way they decide the Senior League is through a competition at the end of our junior year. It's a round robin…" she glanced over and noticed the look of confusion on Othello's face, "That's when you face off against everyone once to see how many wins you can get. Except they don't have time for that, so you just go against a lot of people. Then, the person with the most wins becomes the Champion, the person with the second most becomes the fourth Elite Four, and so on."
"But what if students get stronger?"
"We can be challenged for our spot at any time, but people rarely do it. There's a reason us thirteen are where we're at."
"What does the league do?"
"It's a combination of a student leadership council and a sports team. We compete against other schools to try to be the best."
"And it's just the seniors?"
"Yeah. All the underclassmen have their own league, but because it's for all three years, it's usually dominated by juniors. Occasionally a sophomore will sneak their way in as a Leader, but there hasn't been a freshman in for over a decade. Unlike the Senior League though, the Minor League usually holds the competition at the end of the first semester. Most Gym classes use it as the final since the teachers would have to do a monumental amount of organization to come up with their own."
"Does the Minor League compete with other schools?"
Ava nodded, then pointed to Principal Owens, "We're getting to some new stuff, so you might want to pay attention."
Now, we have some new teachers who have agreed to teach some electives this year!
Three adults took a step forward. A man wearing armor, a man wearing camouflage, and a woman wearing red with long, black hair. The woman scanned the crowd before her eyes settled on Othello. The stare caused his heart to skip a beat and he couldn't hear anything Principal Owens was saying. The woman looked familiar, but every time Othello thought he was getting close to her name, his mind went blank again. The voices around him morphed from background noise into static with one voice cutting above the rest.
"Join. Visit. B-182. May 20th."
The voice was low and rumbling, yet a quiet whisper, barely audible in the back of his consciousness.
"Othello?"
He looked around, his vision coming back into focus. He rubbed his eyes, not even realizing he had zoned out, and looked at Ava who looked confused. He glanced around the room and saw everyone filing out of one of the doors.
"Ms. Owens said they're going on a tour. Do you want to meet some of them?"
Othello was sweating bullets. He was sure this wasn't a normal thing, which only left his ability with ghosts. It made him unsure of whether to push his luck with questions. He wanted to keep any opportunity for friendship clutched close to his chest…because one day he might wake up without it.
"Is something happening May 20th?" he tried to ask without giving away anything about his weird hallucination.
"I think that's the last day for the year," Ava stretched as she stood up, "Don't quote me on that. Why do you ask?"
"I…uh, thought I heard Ms. Owens mention it," he was clearly lying and wasn't very good at hiding it, but Ava dismissed it without much thought.
"Maybe. I kinda zone out when she talks for a few minutes," a switch seemed to flick internally and she stood up straighter, "We should follow them. You might be able to make some friends."
Ava, hurry up with the kid.
Ava turned around, "Why don't you shut the fuck up Arthur? Unlike you, I'm actually doing my job of helping and getting to know our fellow students instead of acting all high and mighty for no fucking reason!"
The senior, Arthur, opened his mouth to speak but decided against it and just walked out.
Ava sighed, "I'm sorry about that. He's a prick."
Othello slowly nodded, unsure what to make of Ava's outburst and equally unsure if he actually wanted to meet any of his fellow classmates.
"I'll come with you," Ava added, "You don't need to be nervous. Everyone's new here and shouldn't act out right from the start."
Othello wished he could have protested a bit more, but his anxiety at rejecting the proposition prevailed and he followed Ava. Outside, Arthur was waiting with a group of what Othello assumed were freshmen. Despite them trying to ask Arthur questions, he ignored them, leaving Ava to pick up the slack.
Is this Academy really as prestigious as Blueberry Academy?
"An odd question," Ava said, "Especially when you look at some of the teachers here."
Yeah, but most of our Gym Leaders send their kids to Blueberry.
"It's a matter of if they have the better teachers, we put battling into practice better. Now, we should get started with the tour-"
Did you have to bring that kid?
Arthur pointed at him as he said this, causing everyone in the group to turn and look at Othello.
He's already gotten the tour, he could be doing something better with his time.
"He agreed to come and he's as much of a student as everyone here," Ava rebutted.
Still looks like his Pokemon could use a few battles.
Arthur smirked as he glanced at the other students.
What if…we have an exhibition match? Don't you kids want to see how the strongest Elite Four member of the Senior League battles?
This sparked excited murmuring that Ava immediately tried to quiet.
"Arthur, professionalism would do you some good. We're on a schedule-"
I heard quite a bit of the word "yes" from the crowd. Don't worry, "second-in-command," I'll just use one of my weaker ones.
Othello's heart was pounding throughout this whole exchange. He had never owned Pokemon before, much less battled with them. His breathing accelerated as his anxiety picked up from its already high level, when he heard a faint buzzing from the back of his head
"Don't worry!" it was Cyril, "We can do-"
"I absolutely fucking refuse."
This shocked every student who instead pivoted to the new voice: Ava.
"If you're battling anyone for these students, it's going to be me so I can show them just how pathetic of an excuse for an Elite Four member you are."
W-what?
Arthur was barely able to stammer it out.
"You fucking heard me," Ava's tone was so cold, it chilled, "If you want to ditch professionalism, let's fucking go. I could single-handedly take out your team with Donner, but I'll offer you some grace and not use him. Five against six."
Ava's confidence and cruelty once again scared Othello. She was a force of nature, a hurricane that swept up the tiny dust devil that Arthur was.
Well why didn't you lead with that? I'm always game for a FAIR match
The way Arthur put emphasis on "fair" caused Ava to whisper, 'ironic' but it gave Othello pause. He said it as if a fight with Ava normally wouldn't be fair, which made no sense. Wasn't he higher ranked?
I was expecting a shorter match though, so why not two versus three?
"You want to play that card now?" Ava hadn't lost her cold edge, "Fine. I'm using Carlos and Maylene."
I don't have all your stupid…uh, nicknames memorized, but I'll be gracious and tell you the species names. I'll use my Scizor, Lurantis, and Roserade.
"Volcarona, Flygon."
Much better! Thank you, Ava.
Othello's heart rate had slowed slightly, but he was still anxious. Why was Ava this confident? Were Pokemon battlers really like this? Did everyone have this level of confidence?
Isn't this exciting?
The voice startled him, causing him to flinch. He had been so absorbed in his mind that he hadn't noticed a student from the group walk up to him.
I thought it was a bit weird he wanted to battle you, but seeing a battle between two Elite Four members?! On our first day too?! I'm so excited for this!
Othello stayed silent, unsure how to respond to the girl.
I'll lead…
Arthur took his time picking one.
Scizor.
"Maylene. Strategy B2."
The Flygon was barely out of its ball when Ava said this, yet it understood completely, kicking up a sandstorm and firing off a bloodcurdling boom of sound. Othello and everyone around him quickly covered their ears except for Arthur and Ava, but when they looked up again as the sound subsided, the Scizor had fainted.
W-wait, I couldn't-
The baffled look on Arthur's face became evident as the sandstorm died away, revealing his immense confusion.
ARTHUR.
A shadow appeared above them and quickly grew in size until a Metagross impacted with the force of a meteor. On top of the Pokemon was what looked like another student, but his height and face made him look like a 15-year-old. Once again Othello was left confused, what freshman could have this kind of Pokemon?
C-Cannon! Ava and I were just-
I know what you were doing.
He hopped down and from on top of the Metagross, more students clambered off, looking sick.
You were showing off instead of doing your jobs and leading the first years around our beautiful campus.
M-Mr. Cannon? I think I'm gonna-
The voice from behind him abruptly cut out and was replaced by retching and vomiting. Cannon turned around and sighed.
I'm sorry, Kara. I promise I won't go nearly as fast on the way back, but this was urgent! I'll walk you to the nurse if you think riding on May-May will make you even more sick.
Cannon continued to comfort the girl while Arthur attempted to exchange a nervous glance with Ava who was still glaring daggers at him.
Okay. Okay. Now, back to you two. I'm going to let you off the hook Ava since you volunteered to take care of the new transfer Othello when I had some business come up. I know you really do enjoy this type of thing and take pride in raising the new class up. Arthur, to put it blatantly, you're an asshole.
Th-that's not-
It's not at all a good influence for the freshmen. Principal Owens won't appreciate it, but I'm not going to tell her. Instead I told your mentor and I'm sure that'll be much more interesting for you.
Arthur went pale.
Ava can take care of this group on her own. I think you should fix that problem.
Y-yes sir, Champion.
Arthur sprinted away, but his pale complexion transferred to Othello. This was the Champion? Having Arthur around was distressing enough, but to have an even more powerful trainer right-
Oh! He's right here! I thought you already gave him the tour, Ava? Don't tell me I was wrong to assume you cared.
"No," Ava's voice was still sharp, but much less cold than before.
Clearly she held the Champion in high regard, but was not about to allow slander toward her character.
"I gave him the tour a month ago."
Really? Principal Owens dropped the ball on telling me I guess. Glad I wasn't wrong! So, Othello, what was your favorite place?
The Champion was standing a mere three feet from Othello–an action which he was sure his blood pressure was protesting–yet there was a comforting quality about his presence. Maybe it was the fact that he was just about Othello's height or his nonchalant attitude-
"The Falinks Cafeteria."
Othello was surprised that it came out without so much as a single stammer.
Huh. I mean it is a pretty nice place and the Falinks are so cute! Yeah, that's a pretty good choice, Othello!
Cannon glanced back at the students that had climbed off the Metagross.
Well, I should get going. I still have to show these first years around. If you ever need anything or if Ava isn't doing her job, just let me know. I'm sure you'll see me around. Alright everyone! We're going to walk from now on. I know I pushed it a little bit, so sorry!
The whole group stayed silent as Cannon walked away with his Metagross and the other students.