Hello, it is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter! Once again it is another Ash and Misty themed story and following the themes of PokeShipping Week over on Tumblr. Like the title suggests, this one revolves around Ash's hat. But I have to say, I cheated with this one a little bit because most of the story revolves around how the design of that hat came to be and it is because of Team Rocket's very own Jorginho! Very early in creating this character, I sent Shannon a photo of a young Pedro Pascal (who is a prominent ingredient to the character) wearing a red baseball cap facing backwards. She came up with the idea that he was the one who designed the official Pokémon League hat after entering a competition, similar to the one that Ash entered and won to win the actual hat. When I saw one of the prompts of PokeShipping Week was Ash's hat, I knew I had to make a story of that old idea! I hope you enjoy, even if we learn a lot more about Jorginho and his mother, Jennifer, before getting to the Ash and Misty bit :P
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
The vinyl record continued to spin on the record player and Jorginho darted around his bedroom, using a duster to flick away speckles here and there, pushed his shoes underneath the bed for better organization at a later date and he organized his laundry into colors, balling up the garments as if they were basketballs and launching them into their correct laundry bin.
He wasn't like his friends who were the same age as him. He wasn't becoming like them either. For all his rambunctious charm and energy at the age of seventeen, he tried to keep as neat as a pin. Organized. Too much clutter was bad for the mind. He would never let a messy bedroom give away his messy heart.
Jorginho wasn't like other teenagers his age. But perhaps he didn't have the freedom to behave that way. He didn't have a mother who would fondly shake her head and roll her eyes, telling him that she would wash his sheets for him. Even if she had promised that the last time was the last time.
He didn't have a father either. Certainly not one who would tell him to never mind the mess and encourage him to kick a football in the fields instead. He didn't even have one to lead by example, one that had a place for everything and kept everything in its place, reminding him that a good man took responsibility for his thoughts, his feelings, his actions, and his space.
Jorginho had learnt all these skills mostly on his own. Through his own strength of character, as well as a special few stars shining in his life. Shining temporarily. And then burning out.
Jorginho continued getting his bedroom all neat and tidy. That was one of the rules that he had to obey if he wanted to stay. But even if it wasn't, he would've kept it a priority that his room was a welcoming space. He didn't just have to fret about himself anymore. He had other people to consider. To impress. To work hard for.
He grinned and accidentally tossed his yellow duster into the light side of his laundry bin as his record player drew the needle along the next invisible indentation of the record, singing aloud for him his favorite song on the record. But it just wasn't loud enough!
Jorginho collapsed into his desk chair, accidentally spinning around in it for a few turns just like his player was doing before he cranked up the volume and leaned back appreciatively. He wondered if he would stumble into new friends who liked the same songs as he did. He was sure that he would.
For the time being, he would just have to enjoy the raucous sounds on his own. But that fact didn't dishearten him. He wasn't very lonely in his tastes. Little Sammy who also lived in the house was becoming a right music appreciator at the tender age of three years old and his discoes brown eyes practically lit up the room – just like Jorginho's - when he heard a riff or a brilliant vocal or a creative use of a synthesizer.
For all the burdens in the world, they could not touch Jorginho in that moment. He sat further back in the chair and craned his neck backwards, even shutting his eyes for a second or two. The rest of the cleaning could wait. The proving that he could continually be responsible just had to wait.
His favorite musical duo was singing just for him. And he just had to let them, their words melting into his skin as if the lyrics had been concocted for him and him alone.
Of course, as romantic of a notion that this was, this was not the case. And Jorginho learned this when he was suddenly not alone in his bedroom anymore. His music really was loud. He hadn't heard the person knocking on the door from the other side!
As soon as Jorginho's eyelids fluttered open, he became painfully aware of the silhouette standing in his doorway and he jolted into action, intending to turn the volume knob down but accidentally having a bout of clumsiness. The back of his hand brushed the arm of the record player, scratching the needle backwards against the gloss of the vinyl.
Jorginho's eyes had only just fluttered open, but they were now widening.
"Shit!" Jorginho exclaimed. The person welcoming themselves into his bedroom might not have been the person that he initially thought but he knew that he needed to apologize as she shut his bedroom door behind her. "Lo siento." he said, and then once he checked that his record was somehow unscathed and he resumed it playing, he properly interacted with the other member of the household. "Was the music too loud?"
Jorginho forwent saying the obvious, that he hadn't heard her come in. In the same way, Jennifer didn't tell the teenaged boy that the music was undoubtedly too loud if he hadn't heard the way that she had knocked from the other side of the door.
She had done it politely at first. And then with some gusto.
Jennifer's hand left the knob of Jorginho's door as if she was only just relaxed enough to leave it and she broke a little more distance with the teenager. She shook her head.
"No." she told him, privately relieved that no damage had been done to his record. Jennifer never would have dreamed of telling him, but she loved hearing music pouring from his bedroom. How funny that his favorites were always songs from her own youth. "Well, you should turn it down a little bit now. I need to speak with you."
The volume had already been turned down since the incident, but Jorginho did not point this out, instead nodding his head and doing what was suggested of him. He might have put up a fight if her husband had commanded him.
But alas, it was Jennifer. And after observantly spying the wad of envelopes in her hand, he acted like he needed to keep busy in between conversing with her.
"Well, you can speak with me all that you like." Jorginho began as he rose from his seat to fetch the yellow duster that he had previously chucked into the laundry bin by accident. "But if you don't wish to choke on all my dust then I would suggest waiting for five minutes."
Jorginho's mouth stretched wide into a youthful grin, and he prepared to flick his duster along his windowsill, the last of the places in his room that needed his attention during his weekly dust.
He had more reasons to keep his bedroom tidy, even if he told himself that he wouldn't change even if Jennifer's husband, Peter, stopped running such a tight ship. Jennifer would have usually showed off a diamond in her eye even if she didn't muster a full grin of her own and would have joked back about her husband while they were alone.
But for some reason, on that day, Jennifer's face contorted, and her own brown eyes darkened rather than softened at the sunshiny smile of the teenaged boy. With her right hand, she clenched the wad of envelopes as if they could be stolen from her. And with the other, she pointed to Jorginho's now empty swiveling desk chair.
"Siéntate, Jorginho." Jennifer commanded. She did not bark quite like her husband, but her tone and her expression left no room for arguing. Not even light-hearted one. Jorginho tossed his duster onto the bed and did what he was told, settling himself down back into his chair. "Do you have any idea what I wish to speak to you about?"
Some adults liked to ask this question but if the question was answered then it would be classed as talking back. Jennifer wasn't like that. She wasn't like that as a mother to Sammy. She certainly wasn't as an aunt to Jorginho.
Jorginho could have pretended to be clueless, but he wasn't like that either. He had spotted the wad of envelopes in her fist earlier and he had wanted to get back to his chores for something to do while he inevitably got told some new rule that he must obey – or hear an old one being reenforced.
Jorginho could have come out with a jokey response. But he was no fool. Jennifer's neck was growing mottled, burning through her tawny beige skin and her collarbones jutting out of the collars of her modest dress.
He could see that it was serious. He didn't wish to get on with it. But there was no point postponing the inevitable either.
"Is it something to do with what's in your hand?" Jorginho replied, not really needing to but for something to do his own right hand rose out of his lap and pointed to Jennifer's one.
For half a second, he wondered how on earth she was holding such a wad of envelopes in her hand. He didn't remember ever holding her hand, not as a child and certainly not since he had been given permission to live with his relatives. But he could tell from his gaze that it was much smaller than his own. Mighty, however.
Her grip on that day proved exactly this!
Jennifer's own hand moved forward in response, a faultless mirror of Jorginho's.
"Si." she confirmed coolly, her grip not yet softening around the wad. "It is impolite for me to give private mail more than a second glance." Jennifer stated. Before Jorginho knew it, her whitened knuckles had set the enveloped free and she had chucked them towards his lap. "So would you read the address on the front for me?"
Jorginho had to react quickly to prevent any of the mail from fluttering down onto the floor. For some reason he found it imperative that he did this. In his large hands, he scooped all the mail up and with a knot forming in his brow, he looked down at the handwriting on the front and prepared to grant Jennifer her wish.
He knew the mistake that he had made from the second that he saw the brown pile in her clutch. Heck, he knew that he would regret it when he had filled his name and address into all those forms that he had sent off!
Jorginho had a feeling that Peter would have been the one to give him his comeuppance. He could not yet tell if it was worse or better that Jennifer was the one handling his mistakes.
He didn't bother reaching for his glasses. Not that it would take much time; they were lounging in their usual place on his desk. But for some reason, Jorginho wanted to go through holding the mail in front of his face, squinting, adjusting how close the envelopes were to his vision before finally granting Jennifer her wish.
She waited, patiently, her arms wrapping around her bosom for something to do now that her hands were the pair that were empty.
"Master Jorginho Sastre." Jorginho began to read, believing that the sigh that accidentally escaped Jennifer's lips as her arms tightened around her chest was due to the pause that he took to focus his eyes. "17-"
One of Jennifer's arms uncoiled from around her. She held her finger up.
"That'll do." she told Jorginho. "Could you just pursue the others and confirm to me that it's the same address on each?"
Jorginho's eyes then on Jennifer rather than any of the different envelopes in his hands, he noticed her wrong choice of wording but didn't say anything. He only liked to do that if he was asked. Certainly, in the situation that they then found themselves in, any sort of grammar correction could be seen as a degrading tactic.
Jorginho wasn't like other boys his own age. He wasn't like Jennifer's husband, Peter, either. He would never be like him, he vowed.
Jorginho's eyes took in the addresses on the other bits of mail. He did not have to squint hard to look because he remembered where he wrote that the forms should be returned to.
"Yes, ma'am." he answered, shuffling the wads of paper into his hands and them all fitting snugly against each other except from the one at the back that was slightly larger. Bulkier. Perhaps they sent more films for him inside to fill in.
Jennifer chose to ignore his politeness with the second sigh that escaped from her like a hot air balloon deflating. Her hands were continually empty, so they chose to rest on her hips, squeezing her own hip bones beneath her pleated skirt.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush, Jorginho." said Jennifer and despite it all, it was a challenge for him to keep the smirk from his face. And it wasn't because he longed to tell her that she had been putting on quite a show thus far. Jennifer struggled with sayings like that. But she had used that one correctly. "Next time that you are fortunate enough to have mail sent here, what are you going to do?"
Jorginho had been fighting to keep a smirk away from his face and he had succeeded. He was now up against the opponent of frustration. He was not as successful at squaring up to this as he was the last.
Jorginho had fought to keep the smirk distanced from him. But frustration was calling his name and he answered, suddenly jolting up in his seat and this time not caring that all the mail fluttered down to the ground.
He was clearly unwelcome to have any delivered anyway.
"I don't know, I guess I'll just not apply for any jobs and my half of the bargain will be off so Peter will probably show me the door." Jorginho's eyes widened even more into discs and somehow didn't become slits despite his emotion. "And I suppose that will make you very happy."
Jorginho set free these words before he could stop them. He, however, knew what he had done and knew what he had said as soon as they had spilled out of him, and his mouth clamped together. His taut jawline cut a sharper shape around his face. And he waited for the devastation.
But it did not come.
Jennifer was used to the men in her life spilling all sorts of venom towards her and her not quite taking it, but just breathing through it and waiting to see if it diffused on its own. Somehow, she could tell that Jorginho did not mean this. Or rather, she prayed that he didn't.
But she still didn't do anything to question him on it. Jennifer instead took his outburst for what it was. He was a teenager, and he was going through all sorts of things. And it was bloody unfair that he couldn't write his own name and his address and have mail sent to him.
But there wasn't anything that she could do about it. Rules applied to Jorginho. But there were rules that applied to her too.
Jennifer managed to force the hot-headed young girl from Paldea be only a memory who danced across her mind, and she encouraged herself to breathe through everything. With a silent gesture, she pointed for Jorginho to sit down.
And once he was begrudgingly seated, she moved the conversation along once more.
"Next time you are fortunate enough to have mail delivered here, what are you going to do, Jorginho?" Jennifer's words repeated, looking down at the teenager and waited for him to erupt all over again.
What she didn't realize is that this wasn't what he really was like. It would be her young son who grew into that sort of person!
Jorginho heard the words next time you are fortunate enough all over again and they wounded him just as much if not more even though Jennifer's voice had softened down into a commanding wisp. His room was kept tidy because he wanted to prove to himself what kind of man he could be. But a tidy room made it easier to pack things up when he was inevitably sent on his way.
He had been passed from foster home to foster home since he had been even younger than Sammy. Every time he waited to be moved on again. It happened eventually. It was always just a matter of time. And even if he was now living with family, that didn't mean that the door wouldn't suddenly swing open on him, and he would have to march out with his tail between his legs.
Jorginho considered hitting Jennifer with venom again. But it wasn't really her that he wanted to hiss and spit lava onto. She was like him in a way. She didn't have any say either.
The consideration of breaking the atmosphere with a jokey response found him. But then a sigh that he did not know he was holding onto suddenly escaped out of his nostrils and he told Jennifer that he was listening.
He wasn't going to be another man who didn't listen to her, didn't value her.
"I'll say that it's to be sent to The Henriksen Household." Jorginho murmured reproachfully. While Jennifer nodded her head, seeing that they were getting somewhere but her arms were back around her body. She was onto something when Jorginho's voice rang clearer. "And I guess Peter can find out if I've been offered a job or not before me."
Jorginho smiled. But it wasn't his usual kind of smile. It was a concocted one; a rehearsed one. You could almost imagine the puppeteer that oversaw the elevation of his eyebrows and the dimple slicing his cheek like a ripe piece of fruit. No doubt did they have sore arms from the effort that it took.
Jennifer saw right through this look. She didn't have it in her to do the same, but she did have it in her to break more of the distance with him, reaching her hand out to him even if she did not touch him before he thought about ignoring her for chores all over again.
"Jorginho." she began. From the tone of voice, Jorginho believed that he was going to be scolded for the answer that he had given. He was starting to think that a scolding from Peter was preferable! At least he didn't value his opinion. "Why is it that you think that no one will accept you?" Jennifer wondered. Jorginho's heart forgot how to beat. "You're a very charming and hard-working young man."
Jorginho's heart had only just forgotten how to work and now it was being sent into overdrive, hammering in the center of his chest and inside of his cheeks too, turning them into obvious crimson because he was paler than Jennifer.
He, however, like the other person, could breathe through anything and everything and he couldn't stop himself from cooling himself down from the momentarily lapse, talking through it too as if he had all the confidence in the world.
"I suppose it's not exactly a good omen for getting hired, is it?" Jorginho smiled a smile and this time it was less falsified than before. But his crow's feet did not appear, his sturdy nose in the center of his face did not creasing either. "Guys like me don't get given chances. Let alone somebody who belongs to no one."
This time, when Jorginho heard his name being sounded by Jennifer, he was certain that he was going to receive a telling off. And he was right about that. But what he was clueless about was that Jennifer longed to tell him that he was a child of God – and that made him belong to everybody. And even if he did not believe it, and even if certain things got in the way, he was part of the family and he was part of the house.
He was part of the building as much as the walls that showed off a tired smile as they had had paintings and posters hung on them for years. As much as the sheets on the bed that welcomed you after a long day. He was as much part of the building as the garden, so full of promise and so close to nature.
But instead, Jennifer reminded herself of her place and she said Jorginho's name. Among other things.
"Jorginho." she spelled out first, clueing the teenager into the inevitable. "Why must you always push for more?" Jennifer asked before she could stop herself. And she pushed out the image in her mind that she could be talking to a younger version of herself. Or she was suddenly her parents. "Peter is good to you in his own way. He gives you a room. A home. And what he asks in return is just a few rules."
Those few rules in Jorginho's mind were like asking for the world. Sometimes Jennifer could find it in herself to be honest with herself and she would confess to Jorginho that these rules made her feel like she was drowning also. But those moments of honesty were few and far between.
And when Jorginho looked at her there and then from sitting in his desk chair, he could see that there was no point in arguing. She was having one of those days where she was blindly going along with her husband's wishes. He did not feel anger. He just felt sadness. And that was worse, really. Because it never spilled out of his eyes. It just lingered in his heart, weighing him down.
Did Peter realize that the household that he prided himself in reigning over were all suffocating in separate ways? Did Jennifer ever look at things long enough to realize that this was true too? Or did she just like to tell herself that Peter served with a kind of knowledge and power that no one else could comprehend?
Jorginho didn't know why it was this word that tumbled out of him when it escaped from his lips. But it came. And he realized that – like a sigh – he had been holding onto it too.
"Sorry." he muttered. He did not wholly know what he was sorry for. Whether he was sorry for nothing, or he was sorry for ever such a lot that he did not know where to begin.
Either way, the word was like a switch inside of Jennifer as much as it was inside of him. It's true when people say that words are a spell. That they have the power to alter minds, let alone paths.
Suddenly, Jennifer was making her way towards Jorginho even more. Jorginho did not know why. But he told himself not to believe that things were changing with the way that she started talking to him.
"When are you going to learn that you must listen to my husband?" Jennifer began. She did not have to say it like that, did she? Jorginho started to feel like the chair was moving away from her even though she was making strides towards him. "At least obey the small things." she added, deciding to hitch herself up onto one of Jorginho's empty shelves. He wasn't surprised that it could carry her. She was always cooking for others rather than herself. "And then he believes he's won your compliance and there's more wiggle room on the big things."
Jennifer suddenly whispered to Jorginho, shielding the side of her mouth with her hand even though they were then alone, and the record was spinning aimlessly on the needle, needing to be flipped over to the other side to be able to sing again.
Jorginho was continually feeling the remanence of everything else that had been said and indeed not said so he did not catch onto Jennifer's antics right away, let alone her words. But once he had allowed them to wander through his mind and even roll silently around on his own tongue, he realized what on earth she was getting at.
When he gave her a second glance, he could see a diamond in her eye that had not been there before. Jorginho leaned back in his chair, finally able to grin properly again and feeling like the weight had been lifted off his shoulders that she was still up for a bit of fun. A bit of mischief. A bit of non-compliance.
She was still herself. Even if she could not wholly be. Even if he could not one hundred percent be himself either. They were both on the same page enough to share some sort of something.
Jorginho's head swung from side to side. He supposed that he could tolerate Peter looking through his mail if he might be allowed to take Sammy for a ride on the back of his bike like they had both been begging to do since little Sammy had been big enough to talk.
Jennifer was the next one to speak again even if it was Jorginho's turn. It was as if she could see things from a whole new perspective as she swung her legs off his shelf.
It was like she really could be a different person.
"So, this mail of yours is most likely from potential employers letting you know if you've impressed them or not?" Jorginho nodded his head. Jennifer didn't give him any flattery this time, instead nudging her foot against his kneecap while he still sat in his desk chair, clearly forgetting the rest of his chores. "You should probably go ahead and open it then, should you not?"
Jennifer forwent pointing out that it was like Jorginho himself had said – that he needed to hurry up and get himself a job now that he was out of school otherwise Peter really would give him the boot. She didn't mention that he needed to get a job for other things. He had that one thing weighing on his mind enough.
Whether it was tugging his mind down like an anchor there and then or not was unclear. Now that Jennifer could try being somebody new, Jorginho could be too, and he suddenly nudged his own foot against her kneecap, making sure to not do it too hard in case his energetic self accidentally knocked her off his shelf like she was an unwanted book!
Jorginho humorously gasped, forgetting about clutching into his mail and holding a hand over his chest. He should have properly gone into theatrics. That was a job that he could have easily secured!
"And here I was thinking that it would be Peter rummaging through my mail. Now I realize that it will most likely be you!" Jorginho gasped a second time and then he took a chance by leaning forward in his chair, purposely squinting his eyes in a way that was even more severe than when he forgot to wear his glasses. "Tut, tut. What would the big man say?"
Jorginho forwent tutting his tongue and instead made this sort of noise in unison with the single finger that he pointed towards the ceiling twice, indicating to Jennifer who she would be letting down if she was caught being dishonorable.
It was only a joke. But Jennifer took this kind of thing very seriously. Jorginho was left squinting for a different reason when the back of her hand collided with his forehead. Unlike him, Jennifer had not held back.
"Ay!" she exclaimed before cooling herself down, privately glad that this was all she had spewed out otherwise Jorginho could point out that the big man had even more of a reason to shake his head down at her. "You are going to open them eventually, aren't you? So, no time like the present, eh?"
Running his hand over his forehead but using it as an excuse to push his hair back, Jorginho remembered that there was little point arguing with Jennifer. Sure, he would have much preferred to open his mail all on his own, he was not meant to receive any so opening it huddled in a corner felt like the right thing to do.
He also was sure that he could console himself better all alone when he was met with unanimous rejection. But then again, it might have been nice to have someone by his side. He went through most things on his own. So even though no doubt that Jennifer would tell his results to everyone, he was glad to at least have someone.
Jorginho took his time but he at last selected which envelope that he wished to open first. He stared at the offensive addressed for a couple of seconds first but then he flipped the envelope round, using his finger to unhook the seal of the letter.
He was taking a bit of time. But for once, Jennifer didn't want to hurry him. Perhaps she was as anxious as he was about it all, even if they both showed it in the same way – by not showing it at all and only feeling it.
Not that she would have told anyone but seeing him go out there and sign up to jobs and wear his heart on his sleeve was like having her own heart out in the open and vulnerable to heartache. It was bad enough having a son that she could openly love fall victim to criticism. But when it was someone in your life in a way that you could only put down to chance – well – it was even more complicated.
Jennifer wanted the world to love Jorginho in the ways that she couldn't.
But she could not say this. She could not say anything. She merely waited with bated breath, anticipating when Jorginho grinned as he got accepted by the first job that he applied for and the first envelope that he opened.
She silently prayed for this to be the case. She imagined it in her mind's eye. She was sure that it was going to happen.
After a few motions of the clock hand that clung to the wall, the flap of the envelope was finally open and Jorginho pulled out the letter contained inside. Jennifer continued to watch as he ripped the paper away from being folded in half. She could swear that his digits were trembling like autumn leaves awaiting their fated tumble towards the ground.
Jorginho did not read the letter aloud, but he sounded the words in his mind, his brown irises darting left and right as he took in as much information as possible in the smallest amount of time.
Dear Jorginho, we regret to inform you that although...
He did not waste his time confirming that it was a no. Jennifer could tell that this was the answer from the way that the pads of his fingers flushed as they started to tremble more and that same knife the usually sliced a dimple in his cheek tore lines between his eyebrows.
Jorginho raced onto the second letter, not spending so much time on running his thumb along the seal and instead tearing open the envelope itself, somehow not damaging the letter inside. Another folded piece of paper was yanked open from being halved.
Dear Jorginho, we really enjoyed meeting with you and getting to know you. You were a strong candidate, and you should be proud of that. However...
His second no.
Jennifer fought with all her might to keep her breathing silent though her chest was beginning to privately heave as her legs stopped swinging over Jorginho's shelf. She spied him tearing him into the third and fourth letters too.
Dear Jorginho, thank you for applying with us and taking the time to travel to the city to meet with us. After a tough decision...
Jorginho let a grunt slip from his throat, but it wasn't over yet. It wasn't over yet. Couldn't be over yet. His rapidly blinking eyes took in more words in front of him as the other rejection letters fluttered down to the floor like wingless butterflies.
Dear Jorginho, we cannot offer you a position at this time.
Ouch. That one didn't hang about, did it?
Two more letters tumbled down to the floor and this time Jorginho assisted them with a push before his balled fist pressed against his throbbing forehead, trying to hide the lines slicing through the middle of his brow as much as he was trying to conceal his emotions.
In the end, however, he didn't act like he was okay. Feebly, he managed to meet Jennifer's eyes and learnt that she had already been looking back at him, his own breathing quickening as his mouth struggled to stop trembling to speak.
"Nobody wants me." he said. The invisible knife moved onto a new target. It paired together with those words and sliced Jennifer's heart into messy halves. "I'm never going to be given a chance, am I? Never going-"
Jennifer moved to stand on her feet. She did not know why she did this when her knees privately buckled underneath her light weight. Fortunately, the shelf was still right behind her, and she could subtly reach behind it for comfort.
As she was trained to do, she forwent saying the words that struck her at once. How she longed to tell him that he was being watched over, guided, and the right position would fall into his lap where he could truly shine. That anybody would be lucky to employ him. To give him a chance. To know him.
Jennifer's hand that was not steadying herself pointed to the last, unopened envelope in Jorginho's lap.
"There's still one more." she informed him. Jorginho's gaze did not need to drop down to learn that she was telling the truth. He could feel the gentle weight of it against him as much as he could feel the growing heaviness of his heart. "That could be the one."
Jorginho's words slipped out before he could stop them. He didn't mean to be pessimistic; it was just that he was used to geeing everybody else up, telling them that they would be okay and that things were going to be fine. He would find a job. He would make more than just himself proud.
He didn't have the energy to act like he could lie to himself any longer. He muttered from in between sad, swollen lips.
"I doubt it." Jorginho spoke before his feeble hands could even have a chance to clutch onto the slightly weightier envelope and see the oh so familiar logo of the Pokémon League stamped onto the front. With a sigh, he grew more certain that the next envelope didn't hold a job opportunity. "This isn't even a job that I applied for. It was a competition thing. It was... kind of stupid, really."
Jorginho's cheeks began to warm and even though her legs felt tender underneath her, this piqued Jennifer's interest enough for both her hands to join each other in front of her side and to look at Jorginho with a crane in her neck.
She didn't often see Jorginho blush out of something that wasn't repressed emotion. Not even when a pretty girl swanned into his peripheral or a particularly pretty boy, for that matter. He was usually too busy asking for their number to blush!
"What kind of competition?" Jennifer just had to ask. While her head remained tilted, her own brow furrowed but with a lot more gentility than had taken over Jorginho's, her hands beginning to play with the belt of her dress.
Jorginho's focus swiveled around the room when he knew he would have to explain, a smile taking over his face for the first time in a good many minutes but not the joyous kind. Jennifer could tell that he was embarrassed. And her heart ached once again as he looked like that mischievous toddler that he had once been.
And so, Jorginho explained. He explained to Jennifer that he had seen an announcement on the television a few months back that the Pokémon League all the way in Kanto were holding a competition to design by drawing an official league hat and the winner was going to have their name and drawing announced by a man called Professor Oak live on the television. But not only that, they were going to turn the drawing into a hat that only one hundred people could win by entering a second competition!
Jennifer's lips tried not to quirk upwards as Jorginho explained, seeing his cheeks get redder as he filled her in. Fortunately, his hands had stopped trembling, but they had also sprung into showing off erratic gestures, speaking a language of their own as he explained.
Once he was done, Jennifer wanted to say several things. But instead, she went with just the one.
"I didn't know that you could draw." she stated. As soon as these words tumbled out of her, oh how she loathed how anticlimactic they were! She could have chosen anything to say but she just had to say that!
Luckily, Jorginho did not seem offended. He appeared to relish in forgetting about his dastardly job searching for another minute or two. Both his cheeks and his eyes glowed with shyness.
"I don't! I don't know at all." he confessed before another; bigger truth slipped out from him. He played with a fraying edge of the envelope that had obviously been torn from the long journey from Kanto to Kalos. "I don't even know why I entered, really." he fixated on the edge of the envelope rather than the lump that was gravelling his voice. "I just... wanted to feel like a kid again. Everything has been so complicated lately."
In Jennifer's mind, Jorginho was still a kid. Heck, she had been a kid at heart at his age, let alone much younger than him, even though she had had to make a lot of adult decisions. Part of her mind couldn't stop seeing him as a little chubby cheeked and brown eyed thing.
But she understood where he was coming from.
She, however, didn't touch on this and instead absentmindedly touched her hand against her own heart. She encouraged Jorginho to seize that little bit of happiness – that playfulness – by opening the letter.
"So, let's see what you've won then." Jennifer's own eyes darted down to the envelope, feeling that it was okay for once to go with her own instinct and making it clear that her interest was more than just mere curiosity.
She privately longed to celebrate Jorginho's success!
He didn't think that he was being contacted for the same reasons that she did. The envelope then fully in both of her hands, Jorginho was beginning to grin more relaxedly and less sheepishly as he had yet another explanation for her.
"I don't think I have won. I think it's probably just a letter to say thank you for entering." Jorginho looked at her before back down at what he was holding ahead of tearing it open. He received the shock of his life when he held a letter in his hands and something else tumbled onto his lap. This time, he read aloud: "Jorginho, a big hello and a massive congratulations to you. We are delighted to inform you that..."
Jorginho continued to read the whole letter aloud. He had won! For the first time in his life, he had won something! A silly little drawing that he had made on a particularly bewildering day had led him to success!
He told himself that it was not the kind that meant everything on his death bed. But he knew that it was a small reason to smile.
His cheeks warmed for a different, new reason once he had read the whole letter out to Jennifer and saw that a child was alive inside of her own gaze too. He was surprised that she didn't snatch anything off him from the vigor that she used to spring towards him, slapping her hands together.
"Well let's see it then!" she exclaimed before remembering her place, looking around the room and most importantly towards the door. Fortunately, Peter wasn't due home for a little while longer and wouldn't shake his head at her outburst. "Let's see how it looks."
This time, as Jorginho was finished with a letter, he didn't send it fluttering down towards the floor. It rested neatly on his desk and his hands moved to pick up the red and white hat that had made a home on his lap.
His palms were sweating as he reached for it. He really couldn't believe that he had actually won something. And he couldn't believe how brilliantly the designers had transformed his silly little drawing into something that he could hold in his hands.
Jorginho lifted the hat up by its red sides, its snow-white front patch winking at him, and he placed it on his head back to front. Jennifer had to control her hands this time, for she nearly whacked him across the forehead again for wearing it the wrong way around!
"Not like that!" she scolded, Jorginho not jumping at the way that she barked at him and instead beginning to smirk. Perhaps this was his ploy all along. "You have to show the design to the world and wear it with pride."
Jorginho's hands were not occupied with any more mail or anymore official Pokémon League hats. They were occupied with nothing. But they still, however, did not move away from his lap so it had to be Jennifer to swivel the hat to face it forward.
This wasn't even a ploy of his. He would've moved his own hat eventually. But it sure put another, different kind of lump in his throat when Jennifer did it for him, even taking the time to brush hairs of his out of his forehead even though most of it had been slicked back with gel that day.
Jorginho fought to meet her eyes as she fiddled with him, swearing that her own brown eyes were softening as her touch lingered on him. When his hands reached back towards the letter for something to do and he flipped it around, he realized that where was one small sentence on the back that he had not read.
He was glad that he could use his wobbling tone to recite this aloud rather than using his words to ask Jennifer if she liked what he had designed.
"Sharing is something that makes the Pokémon World go round! Gift this hat to someone who makes you feel like a champion when you are just getting started." Jorginho said word for word before deciding to translate it into the language that they both spoke to each other just for something to do.
He wanted to see if he liked it like that. He did! But even more so, he liked the hesitant smile that he elicited from Jennifer, watching her fuss over him for a few more seconds, running her smooth fingertips over the white of the cap before tracing the green embroidered L.
It seemed that after they had shared this moment, Jennifer could share a whole lot more. Still not everything. But more. And that in itself was everything.
Her smile was somewhat sad. Jorginho guessed why. But she breathed through it and blinked through it. This time, she needed to say the truth.
"You are just getting started but you are very much a champion." she told him, taking a step back and figuring that she had already taken up enough of his time. Had already hung out too long in his room. She needed to get back to reality. She picked up the discarded letters on the floor. But she wished to say one more thing. "I look forward to watching you succeed from a distance."
And with that, Jennifer went ahead with leaving the room with the letters in her hands, knowing without needing any words that they were destined for the shredder. Meanwhile, a lump began to take over Jorginho's throat, slowly at first, and then all at once.
He suddenly needed to take the hat off, looking back at the design as it smiled wanly back at him, running a hand through his hair. Then he flopped backwards in his chair and shut his eyes, showing off a different kind of emotion even though it was the same actions as when he had appreciated the music of his heroes.
He didn't want Jennifer to watch him from a distance. Sure, he longed to succeed but he wanted her right there. He knew that that couldn't be the case. Why it couldn't be. But still, the heart wanted what it wanted, and he wanted her right there.
She had always been there for him. Even when they didn't know each other anymore. Even when she was not allowed to be. She had remained in his heart as the ghostly memory as someone singing to sleep and the sensation of the softest pinkie finger in the world to grip onto as he took his first steps.
To Jorginho, Jennifer was a champion too. In spite their differences. In spite their forced distance. She was the main reason he wanted to do well. She was the main reason for everything. And though he was sure that he could not say these words either, he hoped that actions were okay.
Jennifer was thinking all kinds of things later that night when she kept tossing and turning in bed and eventually decided that she should head to the kitchen for a glass of water before she woke her husband. He was stern at the best of times but certainly when he lacked sleep!
She had been thinking all kinds of things – how empty her heart felt even if Jorginho was in it – it made her sick to the stomach that she couldn't love him in the way that was natural. Her mind had been in quite the quiet frenzy. But then she got the shock of her life when she opened the door and as her eyes were already staring straight down, she saw the red and white thing with a dash of green waiting for her.
Jennifer let out a strangled gasp, one hand falling to her lips as her knees worked instinctively and squatted her down, her other hand reaching outwards. She forwent taking a hold of the hat that had been left for her at first. Instead, she reached for the postcard that lingered in front.
She could tell Jorginho's handwriting straight away. And she needed to clutch onto the door when she realized that he had reiterated to her words that had been sent to him, as well as adding a sentence towards the end.
Gift this hat to someone who makes you feel like a champion when you are just getting started. You make my world go round just by being in it.
And with another emotional gasp, Jennifer didn't hesitate to bring the hat into her hold and instead of placing it on top of her head, she clutched it against her chest, her eyes squeezing shut. As she embraced it, she sent towards it all the love in the world that she had for Jorginho but was not able to share.
She hoped one day that she could embrace him fully while he wore that hat. But one step at a time. She had to remain strong. She had to move forward. She had to show him that he was worthy of those words.
Those words rang truer as time went on and just as much as they did on that day. They became true for more than just Jorginho and his family. You see, this story is not just about them. The design of the official Pokémon League hat of course ties into someone that we all very much know and love – and who has trademarked the hat as his own really!
And we shall get to a little bit of that now before we unwind for the day.
Misty was extremely disgruntled when she returned home to the Cerulean Gym from a day of fishing and could hear the phone ringing and ringing and ringing. Somehow, she could tell that this wasn't the first time in her absence that it had been doing that.
However, rather than racing to answer it, she merely curled her lip up on her face and kicked off her shoes in the hallway. Big mistake.
No sooner had the ringing of the landline ceased into nothingness, Misty's phone in her pocket began to buzz in her shorts. She openly groaned aloud and cursed for good measure! She swore even more so when she ripped it out from her pocket and saw the name on the screen.
But then she took a big, long breath and decided to answer. She shouldn't live in avoidance forever. Voices from the other end barked at her as soon as she pressed the button to accept the call.
She was beginning to quickly regret doing what she once had believed to be the right thing.
"Misty! Oh, my goodness, you are such a pain in the neck for ignoring us like this!" Lily bleated into the phone from the other end of wherever she was in the world. Misty had a feeling that it was a spa based on the unusual music she could hear in the background. "We've been trying to get hold of you all day!"
For no reason other than to put on a show for the invisible audience and to procrastinate speaking to her sisters, Misty held her phone away from her ear for a second or two and to revolve her pupils around in her sockets.
When she put her phone back against her ear, one hand lulling against her narrow hip, Violet was speaking to her from the same device as Lily had bleated into.
"We were so so so worried about you!" Violet whined to her youngest sister. Misty's eyes rolled even further at this. A likely story, she silently mused to herself. "We thought that Gyarados had eaten you or something!"
Chance would be a fine thing, Misty's inner dialogue was alive and well at the best of times, certainly when she was speaking with her sisters. Anything would be better than dealing with you guys.
She was about to stop conversing with herself and begin to explain herself to her sisters when a third sister grabbed hold of the phone and piped up. It was Daisy. She was the only one with real concern in her voice. But this for some reason angered Misty more than Lily and Violet's whining tones.
"Misty, are you coping with everything okay?" Daisy wondered. She was clearly stopping Violet and Lily from piping up again from the shushing sounds that Misty could hear in between her sentences. "We saw on the news that the Cerulean Gym was shut this week."
Misty needed to take a sharp intake of breath so as not to bite her oldest sisters head off down the line. Heading into the pool room for the gym for a bit of calm, she managed to say words that, in her mind, were reasonable.
"Well, today is Sunday so it's a little late for you to ring and tell me to get back to business when I will be doing so tomorrow." she quipped to Daisy, feeling lighter at the chlorine scent all around her but the atmosphere still not bringing her to a state of nirvana. That would be hard to achieve with sisters like she had! "Everything is fine."
From the other end, Daisy wanted to be the one to have a handle on things. She, however, wasn't always brilliant at controlling the two middles of the sisters and before she could cover a mouth with her hand, Lily was crowing into the microphone again.
"Oh my gosh, everything is clearly not fine!" she pointed out. She had to trot after Daisy in her high heels when she tried to get away from her to speak with Misty on her own. "You clearly aren't managing the gym well on your own if you needed a weeklong break!"
Misty had moved herself into the pool room and intended to go sit up on the diving board while she answered her sisters' probing questions with as much dignity as she could falsify. But then Lily had struck. She had struck a nerve.
All emotion and all frustration – all rage – that she had suppressed came torrenting out of her there and then like a whirlwind. How dare they insinuate that she could not cope! Misty stomped up the ladder of the diving board.
If she was lucky, she would drop her phone in the water and not have to hear their voices again.
"I am coping just fine, thank you! A lot better than you all because all you would do is give out free badges left right and center!" Misty roared, the echo of the pool room working to her advantage. "I just needed a week off, okay?!"
It was Daisy's turn to hold her phone away from her ear. She had to apologize to the other people in the spa room of the cruise ship when they looked up from their pampering, hearing a voice echoing through the device even though she was not on loudspeaker.
Lily and Violet gave each other looks and then Daisy gave them a look, cooly warning them not to anger Misty anymore.
Holding her phone back to her ear, she tried to meet her baby sister's temper with rationality.
"What did you need a break from, Misty?" Daisy wondered. She was only asking a question. But this question somehow cut Misty deeper than any of the other remarks and of course this pain was shown by raising her voice.
She was overlooking the pool from a great height now. Her voice screamed all around her but did not stop.
"I don't know, a break to have a life, okay?! To go fishing, to see Sakura, to do a bit of shopping, to train my Pokémon, to do whatever the hell I wanted! Is that allowed?!" Misty bellowed. Somehow Daisy managed to resist holding her phone away. She was surely going to have tinnitus when she got off the phone with her sister. But then, something clicked inside Misty. "Things have been tough lately, I just wanted to feel like a kid again... I don't know..."
But clearly Misty did know. After the banshee that was her temper had gotten itself all out of her with angry words, the truth had come out. She hated that she was struggling. Hated even more so admitting that she was struggling. But that was the truth.
It was hard enough getting used to not travelling with Ash and Brock anymore, let alone suddenly having the responsibility of one of the best gyms in Kanto piled on top of your shoulders. It was a lot for anyone. It was certainly a lot for a thirteen-year-old.
Misty didn't feel any better after her conversation with her sisters. Even though she had to admit that Daisy especially had been fair and even though she had been one of the three to abandon her and leave her with the responsibility of the gym, she still wanted to know that she was okay.
She had even told Misty to take another week off if she needed to. That made Misty angry again. Angry at herself. She needed to calm herself down. And she needed to calm herself down properly before she took everything out on something or someone that she really cared about.
Misty almost took it all out on something that she cared about when she opened the front door again to go for a walk and nearly stepped directly onto a delivery waiting for her. Misty cursed all over again! She glared at the passersby staring at her and snatched the parcel, bringing it inside.
She hoped that it was worth it if it was interrupting her walk. Oh boy was it worth it. But she told herself that it was probably a bill or something. She had had a lot of those delivered lately.
Misty held the parcel inside of her hands for a good few moments. She didn't mean to. But when she saw the writing on the front – the thick, heavy handed inky sprawl on the front – she did not know if she could handle the disappointment of it not being from who she hoped.
In the end, she just had to be brave. She didn't feel very brave running a gym on her own. But she had to try and muster up some of the traits that had been shown to her so well.
Making a sudden tearing motion with her hands, Misty yanked the packaging apart. She was lucky that she didn't do any damage to the letter inside. Thankfully, she couldn't do any damage to the hat that had been tucked inside. But while using one hand to hold the letter to read it, she held the hat in her left one as if one wrong move could break it.
One wrong move could certainly break her heart these days. But she found it getting stitched back together again when the letter opened with one particular word.
Mist,
Just a quick one from me even though I'd love to write properly soon. I'm heading off to the Hoenn Region and Mom was cool enough to get me a new hat and I didn't like the idea of this one sitting around and gathering dust, so I thought maybe you'd like it. Maybe you wouldn't. It's kinda old and unwashed. But I thought maybe it could remind you of me. Or at least our memories together.
I hope you're making new brilliant memories at the gym! And like I said, I'd like to hear from you properly soon.
From, Ash.
Misty allowed a sigh to tumble out of her.
From, Ash. Mist. Those words had never sounded so sweet.
With trembling hands, Misty allowed the letter to tumble to the ground now that the words had made a home in her heart, and she raised the hat closer to her. Ash was right, it was very unwashed! But something that she would have berated him for weeks ago, she suddenly didn't care about.
Tears filled Misty's eyes even though she tried to blink them back. She wondered what it would be like to put the hat on her head, let alone twist it backwards and behave as confidently as him. But still, she did not do any of these things.
Instead, Misty picked the letter back up off the floor and traipsed with the hat as well towards her room, forgetting about her need for freedom and the urge to go walking. When Misty made her way to her bedroom, she still did not place the hat on top of her head. She did not embrace it either.
Misty instead cleared the top of her shelf and put Ash's hat there in pride of place and the letter too. And then she sat down on the edge of the bed and hugged her arms around herself. Ash had never even been there with her. Had never been up to her bedroom. Had never sprawled on her bed, leaving his clothes messy on the floor or otherwise.
But still, he had followed her there, in more ways than one. And as she smiled for the first time that day as the evening sun set outside of her window, illuminating the hat on her shelf, she hugged her knees tighter and it was like those two friends were hugging each other.
She would keep going for him. She would keep making him proud. Wherever he was. Hoenn wasn't too far, was it? His memory was even closer. They would always be friends. He would always be her champion, even if he never won a league.
How funny that Misty had these thoughts. And how funny that Ash was trying to say all this of Misty even though he had long forgotten that this was the purpose of the official Pokémon League hat.
Gift this hat to someone who makes you feel like a champion when you are just getting started.
And as I recount this story, I can't help but feel equal parts glad and saddened that I don't have somebody to gift one of these hats too. The truth is, I wouldn't know where to begin. All these people make me feel like a champion, even though my days of just getting started are long behind me now.
But still, I smile at how connected everything is, how connected everybody is. The league wrote that it was sharing that makes our world go round. And I would agree. But I would also argue that it's connecting too. True connections are sometimes hard to find. But once you stumble into them, you must never let them go.
I will never let these stories go either. Except into your lap. They are just as much yours as they are mine. Just like the friendship that Ash and Misty went on to portray for many years. And of course, the love story too.
But that gets covered in enough stories, doesn't it?!
The End.
There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) While yes, Jorginho and his mother (who have to falsify a nephew/aunt relationship because of Jennifer's young son, Sammy, and the fact that she had Jorginho years ago out of wedlock) took a lot of the spotlight here, there were many things that I wanted to tie into Ash in general, as well as Ash and Misty. Of course there's the obvious one of the message of the hat being shared between both, but I also think that Jorginho and Ash have some similarities in their character. I think that if Jennifer had kept Jorginho from birth then their lives wouldn't have been dissimilar to Ash and Delia's. What with both being devoted single mothers and dealing with the loss of a partner in different ways. I had to include some sweet, classic PokeShipping by Misty having the hat. I certainly think the motto of it all applies to her - and to Ash and Misty together - very well :3 Thanks again for reading and I will be back again on the 28th to upload Rocket Daze for some more PokeShipping fun! See you over there perhaps :)
Amy signing out!