Normal POV
"Well, today's the day, everyone." said Adrian.
It was the day immediately after he and the Hayden sisters had arrived at the Hoenn Grand Festival site in Slateport City. And with the entirety of their group having had breakfast and readied themselves for the day, the time had now come for them to start on their way to the stages where the events would occur.
They were all currently gathered right outside the front door of the dorm building. Naturally, the girls were excited and nervous about the whole business. But if Adrian had similar feelings, he was doing a good job at hiding it.
"We're making especially good time right now." he continued. "The way that things are currently looking, if we start on our way now and don't get delayed in the process, we should reach the stages with an hour and a half to spare."
"Plenty of time for me to have a quick talk with you here, then."
Hearing this, everyone looked to Christina, with the boys all looking confused.
"About what?" Jason asked.
"What do you mean?" Adam asked.
The girls, however, looked mildly concerned.
"Are you sure that you're ready to tell them about that?" Megan asked. "Especially so soon, after yesterday?"
Christina nodded her head and confirmed, "The sooner I tell them, the better."
"What's going on?" Adrian asked.
"Remember what the other girls and I told you yesterday about our encounter with my father?"
"Yes..." Adam said, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Well, there's one thing that I came clean about to the girls after that encounter that I didn't feel comfortable sharing with you three until now. The primary reason why I was so quick to try and mend fences, get in your good graces, and befriend you after the truth about my father manufacturing a false affair between my mother and Drew...wasn't actually to genuinely befriend them at the time. It was to salvage my own personal reputation."
"Excuse me?" Jason asked, a noticeably irritated tone in his voice as he glared at Christina.
"What do you mean?" Adam asked.
"Look, there WAS a small part of me that genuinely wanted to make amends and prove myself better than my father. But at the time that I first set the ball rolling on my efforts at befriending Megan, her sister, and the rest of you guys...my desire to salvage my reputation and self-image by aligning with the 'winning side' was what had taken higher priority." Christina then raised her hands in a placatory gesture. "For what it's worth, the part of me that genuinely wished to atone and befriend you all has since gotten stronger and overtaken the more selfish part of me that only cared about salvaging my reputation. But even so, my original and selfish primary reason for working to befriend you guys is something that I feel you should all know. And if you three no longer feel like I'm worth trusting, I'll completely understand."
Jason still had a withering glare on his face and Adrian didn't look entirely pleased. Adam, however, nodded his head in an accepting fashion.
"I'll admit, the fact that you had a selfish ulterior motive to your initial efforts at making amends is disheartening." Adam admitted. "But at this point, with how much you've since migrated away from that ulterior motive, and especially after the scummy move that your father pulled against you yesterday, I'm willing to let the bygones be bygones."
"Thank you, Adam." she said, sighing in relief.
However, Jason and Adrian were still glaring at her in disapproval. Adam, noticing the direction that Christina was looking, turned his head to face Jason and Adrian as well.
"Come on, guys." he said patiently. "All things considered, what she's just confessed to us now isn't really that serious. And she's already been through enough."
Jason directed his glare towards Adam and said, "And I say that you're being too nice. With the knowledge that she apparently still had dishonest motives, even at a time when circumstances should have already had her humbled enough to know better than to be plotting stuff behind the backs of those who she was now actively wanting to be in her corner? Color me skeptical, but I say that she should, at the very least, be made to beg for forgiveness."
"I will admit that Jason's suggestion may be a tad extreme." Adrian stated before looking at April. "But all things considered, I can agree that forgiving her for what she's now told us about isn't something that we should be doing so lightly."
Christina directed a nervous gaze at the rest of the girls, clearly uncertain about how to react to what Adrian and Jason had just said. Megan and April placed a hand each on her shoulders and nodded reassuringly before looking to Jason and Adrian.
"I understand what you're saying, Adrian." said April. "But I'm willing to believe that you won't have any need to worry about continuing to trust Christina after this revelation."
Megan nodded her head and added, "I know that you have good reason to be upset, Jason. And under different circumstances, it's entirely likely that I'd be feeling the same way that you are. But let's be reasonable here. I'm sure that you haven't forgotten what we told you about yesterday's encounter with Harley. And like Adam said, hasn't she's suffered enough at this point?"
All eyes looked to Jason, who sighed and nodded his head in a "fair point" fashion.
"Well, okay. I won't deny that what her father pulled yesterday could be considered suitable punishment in its own right for what she's now admitted to. But even so, considering what she's now come clean about, are you absolutely certain that we should be letting our guard remain down around her? That she won't take advantage of us trusting her and cook up some new plot against you, April, and the rest of your friends?"
"She's already admitted to have been hiding one unpleasant thing from us during the time that she was supposed to have become your friend." Adrian stated. "And those who can successfully hide one unpleasant thing tend to be perfectly capable of hiding more such things. And considering the time of the Grand Festival now upon us, she'd certainly have the ideal opportunity to strike out with a hypothetical new unpleasant plan that she could have easily made behind our backs."
April shook her head and insisted, "Let's be reasonable here. It's been months since she first extended an olive branch after Harley's trumping up false evidence about my dad's actions. If she'd wanted to enact an unpleasant plot against us, she'd have already done so by now. And even if she did want to pull something unpleasant against us today, I doubt that she's in any condition to successfully do so, after her encounter with Harley yesterday."
"And besides, she's always been the more direct and unsubtle type when it comes to expressing her emotions. She may have been able to hide her more selfish motive behind befriending us, but that's probably all that she could manage. And at any rate, she's said it herself. She did eventually have a true change of heart about us. Not to mention that she willingly came clean to us about her original selfish intentions and genuinely apologized for it all, over the course of both today and yesterday." Megan added. "You can stay wary of her if you want, Jason. But I'd say that Christina's more than proven herself worthy of our trust at this point."
Jason and Adrian looked at each other, silently considering what Megan and April had said.
"I'll admit, you and Megan have put up a convincing argument, April." Adrian said with a smile after a minute, clearly having not taken too long to come around to April's way of thinking.
Jason sighed and said, "Alright, we'll trust her. But if she does end up plotting anything sinister against us, she'll need to work extra hard to regain our trust."
Christina nodded her head, an equally relieved smile on her own face as she said, "Believe me, the fact that you're all still willing to trust me, even after what I've just come clean over, is most definitely not something that I'll be taking lightly."
And so, with Christina having finally come clean to the boys and full trust in her having been firmly established among the entire group, it was off to the main arena for the group. They arrived with an entire hour to spare before the appeals were set to begin. And as Adam, Jason, and all of their coordinator friends joined up with the other assembled coordinators and spectators outside the main arena, they took notice of the massive outdoor screen that everyone was looking at.
"Presumably, that's gonna be what the announcer uses to broadcast the knowledge of who's gonna be performing on which stage." Jason explained.
At that very moment, the screen suddenly began broadcasting footage of the announcer for the Grand Festival.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!" Sofia said excitedly on the screen. "I hope you're all ready for a glorious day! Because today's the day that you've all been waiting for! It's the start of the Grand Festival! So let's not keep you waiting any longer than you already have. At this time, pay close attention as I show you which stage each coordinator shall be performing on today."
In a flash, a picture of one of the stages appeared on the screen, with the words "Stage A" shown right at the top. Photos of various coordinators from the gathered crowd then started appearing on the screen and shrinking to fit the designated space. It wasn't long before it became clear that there were enough coordinators for their to be fifty assigned to that stage! The 25th and 26th coordinators to be assigned to Stage A were none other than April and Adrian.
The group continued watching the reveal of the coordinators assigned to Stage A. And with the reveal of the final coordinator to be assigned to that stage, they couldn't help but nod with a shared impressed look on their faces at the sight of a picture of a familiar yellow-eyed and white-haired boy being shown on the screen.
"Well now." said Adrian. "Looks like Ramsey made it to the Grand Festival."
April nodded her head, clearly remembering Ramsey from the Mossdeep City contest.
Next up was Stage B. This time, the group didn't have to wait long to see photos of its members flash on the screen, with Megan being the 12th coordinator shown as one of Stage B's performers, and Amber being the 13th.
And once all of the Stage B coordinators had been identified and sorted, the remaining 150 coordinators were sorted onto Stages C, D, and E in short order, with Christina being selected for Stage C, Ashlyn for Stage D, and Skye for Stage E.
"Best of luck, everyone!" Ashlyn said to her friends.
"At this time, all coordinators will be splitting off into their respective stage groups. And to all spectators, all five stages will be hosting their appeals simultaneously, so you'd best make sure that you have a good idea as to which coordinators you want to watch!" Sofia announced.
Adrian and the girls all looked at Jason and Adam, silently asking for confirmation as to which stage they'd be in the audience for. It took only a minute for Adam and Jason to make their decision.
"We'll watch Stage B." Adam said, directing a meaningful look towards Megan and Amber. Jason nodded in agreement.
"No surprise there." said April.
Adrian also nodded his head, a clear "no hard feelings" look of acceptance on his face. Skye and Ashlyn also nodded in acceptance. Christina chuckled nervously before also nodding her head. Everyone in the crowd then started to split up and head to their respective stages. The group knew that it was time for them to do the same. Plus, they still had to get dressed in their contest outfits, which would take some time.
"We'll meet back somewhere around this area after the appeals performances are over." said Megan. "That way we can all be together to see who makes it into the top 64, and the battle rounds."
"Works for me." said Jason.
"Best of luck, everyone." said Adam.
And with that, the group split up, with Adam and Jason accompanying Megan and Amber to Stage B while the rest headed off to their own respective stages. One way or another, even with only slightly under an hour left before the performances officially began, the Hoenn Grand Festival had truly begun!
A decent period of time after the appeals had begun, April and Adrian waited patiently for their turn in the backstage area of Stage A. At that moment, the 23rd coordinator of their group was performing, allowing them some time for further talking before their own respective performances.
"I do hope that we both do well today, April." said Adrian.
"Right back at you." April chuckled. "Especially considering that I'm sure you've once again pulled out all the stops to ensure that your Kadabra has quite the roster of moves for today."
Adrian couldn't help but chuckle at the reminder of just how often he'd had his Kadabra show off a different collection of moves for every contest, even back when it had still been an Abra.
After another few minutes, it was April's turn.
"Prepare to be amazed!" Sofia said in excitement. "As witnesses the very first Hoenn Grand Festival performance of April Hayden, the eldest daughter of Hoenn Top Coordinators Drew and May Hayden!"
April chuckled nervously and said, "Here goes nothing."
"I believe in you, April." Adrian encouraged her.
And so, eager to please, April went rushing out onto the stage, the Pokeball containing her chosen Pokemon already at the ready.
"Roselia, spotlight!" In a flash, Roselia materialized from her Pokeball as she was released into the open. She raised her petals skyward with dazzling flower petals hovering in the air around her.
"Alright, Roselia! Let's start with a bang! Jump into the air and use Energy Ball on the stage to propel yourself even higher!" Roselia jumped into the air while charging up an Energy Ball between her roses, which were now glowing with a light green light. She then sent the Energy Ball down hard onto the stage, with the resulting explosion sending her sky-high!
"Good job, Roselia! Now let off a nice Petal Dance while you're up there!" Roselia did as asked, spinning herself rapidly around in circles while spouting out multiple pink petals from her roses. And right as Roselia was starting to descend back down...
"Time to end this on a high note, Roselia! Use Magical Leaf on the petals!" Roselia eagerly did as asked, the roses on her hands glowing with white light before she started spinning around once more while still descending, with the glowing green leaves that came bursting out of the roses as a result flying through the air and then rocketing at the petals in pursuit. By the time Roselia finally landed and stopped spinning, the audience had already started going wild, complete with a standing ovation!
"Let's give it up for April, everyone!"
April gave a bow, with Roselia doing the same in perfect sync with her trainer. As this happened, April looked towards the judges and her smile widened at the sight of them showing her score to be a respectable 95. April then returned Roselia before departing back to the backstage area.
"Next up," said Sofia, "The golden-haired and golden-hearted young man who appears to have successfully swept April off her feet: Adrian!"
The crowd cheered once more as a visibly excited Adrian came rushing out onto the stage, Pokeball already drawn out and at the ready.
"Showtime, Kadabra!" he yelled with glee as he summoned his faithful Psychic Pokemon. In a flash, it materialized, surrounded by dazzling light sparkles.
"Alright, Kadabra. Time to wow these people! Use Calm Mind!" Kadabra obliged, grunting in acknowledgement as he clasped his hands together upon the handle of his spoon and concentrated, with a sphere of white light taking shape around his head as he relaxed his mind.
"Now get yourself in the air with Teleport!" Kadabra vanished in the blink of an eye. Mere seconds later, he re-materialized in a flash of white light, high up in the air above the stage.
The audience was quick to respond in awe of Kadabra successfully pulling off the trick, and alarm at just how big of a fall Kadabra now seemed to have. But then, right as gravity finally set in and caused Kadabra to start falling back down...
"Slow things down with Psychic!" Kadabra's eyes glowed blue before that same energy spread to encase his entire body. What would have been a very alarming fall slowed down to a graceful levitating descent as he gently started lowering himself safely down towards the stage. And once he'd levitated down to the exact height of the stage's arch...
"Time to blow their socks off, Kadabra! Fire off a Psyshock and spin around the remainder of the way down!" Kadabra snarled as he clenched his hands tightly upon the handle of his spoon, his eyes glowing purple, even as the blue aura of Psychic remained around the rest of his body. He then lifted his spoon skyward, with the tip of it now becoming encased in a massive beacon's worth of purple light. Kadabra finally snapped his arms downward to unleash the resulting purple beam of psychic energy, while at the same time spinning himself slowly around in clockwise fashion!
The audience immediately went wild as they watched the resulting spectacle, continuing to cheer even as Kadabra safely landed upon his feet on the stage and stopped spinning and firing off the Psyshock beam.
Nodding his head, Adrian directed a brief glance towards the judges, mentally cheering at the sight of them showing a respectable 94 as his score. So far, he and April had good reason to feel confident in their chances.
"I hope that Megan and Amber do alright today." Adam said to Jason as the two boys sat patiently in their seats among the rest of the Stage B audience.
"Look on the bright side, Adam. Megan's up next, and Amber performs immediately after her." said Jason.
And it wasn't long before they heard Sofia say, "Let's give a warm welcome to Megan, the youngest daughter of May and Drew Hayden!"
Megan came strolling out, Pokeball in hand.
"Espeon, curtain!" Megan yelled as she tossed the ball to summon Espeon. Espeon promptly materialized with a shower of hearts materializing into view all around her.
"Let loose on those hearts with Swift, Espeon!" Espeon purred determinedly, her forehead gemstone glowing with white light before firing out a barrage of stars that she masterfully aimed to strike at all of the hearts around her.
"Don't stop there, Espeon! Fire off a Psybeam and combine it with Morning Sun!" Espeon's forehead gemstone began to shine with almost blindingly bright white light that encased her entire body before a dazzling multicolored beam of light shot out from her forehead gem like a lightning bolt and rocketed up into the sky.
The audience went wild for this display, with Adam and Jason naturally being especially loud as they gave a standing ovation. This was something that Megan was especially happy to see as she curtsied for the crowd, but not without taking a subtle glance at the judges, nodding in approval at the sight of her score being a 91. She then returned Espeon and departed from the stage. And mere seconds after Jason and Adam had sat back down, it was Amber's turn.
"Next up, meet our next dazzling star for today's appeals: Amber!"
The audience cheered as Amber sashayed into view onto the stage, a kindly and humble-looking smile on her face as her golden yellow hair dazzled in the light of the sun and stage lamps.
"Jigglypuff, spotlight!" In a flash, Jigglypuff was released onto the stage, giggling adorably as dazzling stars materialized into view around her.
"It's been a while since we last saw her use Jigglypuff." Adam whispered to Jason.
"Should be interesting to see what she has planned for Jigglypuff this time." he replied.
"Time to wow these people, Jigglypuff! Roll around the stage with Rollout, combined with Defense Curl!" Jigglypuff obliged, curling up into a ball while glowing with yellow light from Defense Curl and then sending herself rolling rapidly in circles across the stage floor with Rollout. Amusingly, the stars that had been surrounding her during her release from her Pokeball went flying along by her side as she rolled along.
"This is definitely more creative than what she had Jigglypuff do during the previous times that we saw her use her." Adam whispered to Jason.
But Amber wasn't done yet! Right as Jigglypuff slowly started coming to a stop at the center of the stage, complete with all of the stars starting to conveniently bunch up together in a single large mass in front of her...
"Time to end this with a bang, Jigglypuff! Use Hyper Voice!" In a flash, Jigglypuff exited her curled-up state and screamed, her eyes glowing bright solid blue as multiple ring-shaped bright blue energy blasts exploded from her mouth, blasting the stars into glimmering light particles.
The sight of this caused the entire audience to explode with applause, with 90 percent of the audience giving a standing ovation.
"Bravo, Amber!" Adam yelled joyfully as he clapped.
"You can say that again!" Jason yelled as he clapped.
Amber chuckled at the sight of just how enthusiastically Adam was clapping, a look of humble joy on her face as she curtsied for the audience. Amber directed a subtle glance toward the judges out of the corner of her eye, mentally cheering at the sight of how she'd scored a solid 92.
"Just one point higher than Megan." Adam stated.
"Indeed. Although, that doesn't make Megan's appeal any less spectacular, does it?" Jason asked.
"Of course not." he chuckled.
This is so nerve-wracking! Christina thought to herself as she waited nervously for her turn to come.
She was the 43rd coordinator set to perform on Stage C. And in all the time she'd spent waiting, she'd had plenty of time to let her mind wander and her nerves to charge up and frazzle. Rather annoyingly, she hadn't felt anywhere remotely close to as nervous as she now was, in any of her previous contests.
Of all the times for my dad to show up and throw me off my game. she thought bitterly.
While the reaffirming of her bond with the rest of the girls had certainly helped cheer her up after what her father had said, she'd nonetheless still remained fairly shaken up. Even now, she had a very uncomfortable feeling that her current state would potentially have a less-than-ideal effect on how well she performed today.
Did my father actually hope that this would be the case? she thought worriedly. That him saying those devastating things to me yesterday would throw me off my game and that I'd end up not even making it past the appeals? All so that he could claim some level of victory in the event that I continued siding against him?!
She then shook her head, trying her best to clear her thoughts.
Focus, darn it! FOCUS! she thought to herself, trying her best to avoid freaking out. Remain calm. You can do this.
After what felt like an eternity, it was finally her turn.
"Let's give a warm welcome to Christina, ladies and gentlemen!"
Here goes nothing. she thought to herself as she hurried out onto the stage.
"Showtime, Shuppet!" she yelled as she released her Pokemon. Shuppet materialized onto the stage, complete with what looked almost like a small ring of smoke surrounding him.
"Start things off with a Will-O-Wisp!" Shuppet conjured up dark purple fireballs. This move, in conjunction with the smoke around him, made a pretty decent display.
"Now use Shadow Ball on the fireballs!" Shuppet obliged, charging up and firing off multiple orbs of darkness that crashed into the fireballs conjured up by Will-O-Wisp, with the resulting bursts of smoke completely covering up the stage.
The audience and judges all let out mild applause, but sounded noticeably subdued, due to having both noticed the seeming limited confidence in Christina's tone, and also feeling curious as to what she was going to do now.
"Time for the grand finale, Shuppet! Use Hex!" In a flash, a gigantic version of Shuppet's eyes seemed to materialize upon the smoke, glowing with a very ominous dark purple-red. Then Shuppet's low moan split the air before bursts of purple and blue arcane energy began spouting out from behind the smokescreen, almost like fireworks. And when the Hex had finally finished, incidentally removing the smokescreen in the process, Christina put on a "ta-da" pose.
The audience applauded, genuinely pleased with the end result. Christina nodded and curtsied, with Shuppet bowing his own head at the same time. As this happened, Christina directed a subtle glance towards the judges...and just barely managed to avoid visibly wincing at the sight of how she'd ultimately earned a score of just 79.
It's alright. My score could have been a lot worse. Well, nothing to do now but wait for the final results. I hope that the other girls are doing a better job out there than I am! Christina thought.
As it so happened, Ashlyn was feeling more confident than Christina as she waited patiently backstage for her turn to do her appeal on Stage D. And in that moment, as the 26th and final coordinator to perform before her engaged in her appeal, she was feeling very confident indeed as she held the Pokeball containing her chosen Pokemon for her appeal. And considering how long it had been since she'd last used this particular Pokemon for a contest, not to mention all of the hard work that she and the Pokemon in question had put into training for this day, she most definitely wasn't feeling such confidence lightly.
"Not much longer now." she said to herself and her Pokemon. "Sooner or later, our show will be well on the road."
Sure enough, once the coordinator before her finally finished...
"And now, let's see what Ashlyn, daughter of Johto's Top Coordinator Marina, has in store for us today!"
"Oh, I'll gladly show you." Ashlyn whispered to herself as she rushed eagerly out onto the stage with her Pokeball at the ready.
"Time to shine, Misdreavus!" Misdreavus was quick to materialize as she was released from her Pokeball with what looked a ring of small silver crescent moons spun in a ring around her.
"Fire a Shadow Ball into the sky!" Misdreavus obediently fired off a Shadow Ball upwards, with the resulting explosion of dark energy attracting oohs and aahs from the crowd.
"Use Psybeam and combine it with Double Team!" Misdreavus obliged, firing off a Psybeam while using Double Team so that the resulting clones she produced seemingly fired off Psybeams as well.
This display brought out an even louder round of applause from the audience, which brought a big smile to Ashlyn's face.
"And now to end this with a bang, Misdreavus! Use Mean Look!" In a flash, the entire "swarm" of Misdreavuses turned to directly face the audience, screaming in unison while letting a truly terrifying stare appear on their faces.
This proved startling and exciting to the audience, who began to applaud once more as Ashlyn curtsied and checked her score, which turned out to be a decent 89. She then returned Misdreavus and departed from the stage.
Skye could hardly believe how excited she was feeling as she waited in Stage E's backstage area. The fact that she was the final coordinator of her group to perform on Stage E didn't even faze her.
"I'll definitely give Mom and Dad even more of a reason to be proud of me today." she whispered under her breath as she waited. She also couldn't wait to show the audience at Stage E what she had to offer for this year's Hoenn Grand Festival.
"And last but not least, let's give a warm welcome to the daughter of Wallace and Winona: Skye!"
Skye rushed out onto the stage with her Pokeball at the ready.
"Breloom, charm up!" Breloom materialized upon the stage with what looked like jungle tree leaves materializing into view around him in the process.
"Use Bulk Up!" Breloom used the requested move, the audience nodding in intrigue as they waited in curiosity to see what would happen next.
"Alright, Breloom! Propel yourself skyward with a Dynamic Punch and then use Mach Punch to spin yourself around in the air!" Groaning with effort, Breloom slammed the tip of his tail onto the stage with a Dynamic Punch strong enough to send him flying into the air. And upon coming to a stop at a decently high height, he used Mach Punch to send himself into a spin.
"Excellent job, Breloom! Now finish things with Seed Bomb!" Breloom spat the explosive seeds down onto the stage floor where the jungle leaves were still present. The resulting makeshift "fireworks" went off, much to the excitement of the audience.
"Let's hear it for Skye, everyone!" Sofia said as the applause continued to unfold.
Skye curtsied with a smile, with Breloom taking a bow immediately after landing smoothly on his feet. And as this happened, Skye looked at the judges, smiling happily at the sight of her score turning out to be 85.
As she returned Breloom and departed from the stage, she couldn't help but feel proud of herself. Gone were the days where she barely had the confidence to even make it through an appeal and doubted whether she'd ever make it to the Grand Festival at all. And while all of the progress she'd made in gaining ribbons had certainly helped her to reach the point that she was now at, her reforged relationship with her parents had been what had well and truly mattered the most. Now here she was, having successfully performed a high-scoring appeal at a Grand Festival, and she couldn't be happier.
Once the appeals were over, the group proceeded, as promised, to gather together back at the spot where the coordinators had watched themselves get sorted into the groups for the appeals.
"Good to see you all again." said April as she and Adrian walked over to the rest of the group.
"Right back at you, Sis." Megan said, before looking at Adam, Jason, and Amber. "I'm feeling pretty confident about our chances."
"Me, too." Amber agreed.
"Here's hoping that we won't have to wait too long to find out who made it into the top 64," said Skye.
"Agreed." said Christina, slight nerves still present in her voice.
"Regardless, at least we all put on a good show today." Ashlyn said.
"That's the spirit, Ashlyn." Adam agreed.
The entire group then looked up at the giant outdoor screen as they waited for the moment when the top 64 would be announced. Finally, after about five minutes...
"Good afternoon, ladies and gents!" Sofia announced as she appeared on the screen. "Here's hoping that you've all enjoyed what we've seen here today, because now's the time to let you all know the lucky 64 coordinators that will be progressing to the battle rounds tomorrow!"
All of the assembled coordinators and spectators held their collective breath. Then the pictures of the coordinators started getting shown on the screen, starting with the one who'd scored the highest of them all: Ramsey.
"To absolutely no one's surprise." Adrian muttered with a bemused shake of his head.
"As you can see, he got a 97 on his appeal." April said to the group. "And from what Adrian and I saw of his appeal, his skills definitely haven't waned since the last time we saw him."
"We'll keep that in mind." Megan stated.
Three more coordinators were presented after Ramsey, all of whom had scored a 96...and then there was April!
"Well done, Sis!" Megan cheered.
"Thanks, Megan."
Another three coordinators showed up on the screen, all of them having earned a 95 like April had. Then came the 9th coordinator of the top 64: Adrian!
"Didn't have to wait long for you to show up on the list." Ashlyn stated cheekily.
Adrian rolled his eyes in mock annoyance. April chuckled at this and gave him an affectionate punch on the shoulder.
Another seven coordinators had their pictures shown on the screen, with the first four having scored a 94 like Adrian, and the next three scoring a 93. Then the 17th coordinator was shown to be...Amber!
"I had no doubt in you whatsoever." said Adam.
Amber blushed at his comment.
Megan nodded in agreement, though not without letting a brief twinge of jealousy appear on her face at the reminder of how Amber had scored just one point higher than her and how she and Amber were still competing for Adam's heart.
After another three coordinators, the first of the coordinators who'd scored a 91 appeared on the screen: Megan!
"Took you long enough." Jason stated with a cheeky grin on his face to show how he was speaking in good fun.
"You're #21 in the top 64." Adam added. "Maybe that will be a sign of triple good luck for you."
"That's certainly an optimistic point of view to take." Megan replied.
Another five coordinators were shown on the screen before another member of their group appeared on the screen as #27: Ashlyn!
"Alright!" Ashlyn yelled in delight as she clasped her hands together.
The rest of the group nodded in approval before continuing to watch. Quite noticeably, a much larger number of other coordinators appeared on the screen before another member of their group finally showed up at #43: Skye!
Skye visibly gasped in relief and muttered, "Thank goodness."
Christina was noticeably starting to look even more nervous than before, due to the fact that her picture still hadn't appeared on the screen. Another eleven coordinators showed up on the screen before Christina, at last, flashed on the screen at #55!
"Alright!" Megan yelled exuberantly as she snapped her arms around Christina in an abrupt hug. "We all made it!"
Christina briefly winced, gasping in surprise and brief discomfort at the sudden embrace before nodding her head in agreement with visible joyous relief on her face.
"Indeed we did." she admitted.
"If your mean old father was hoping that you'd end up losing today after what he said to you yesterday, then you can consider this a double win!" Amber added.
None of them could have felt happier at that moment. Regardless of what happened over the remainder of the Grand Festival, all that mattered at the moment was that they'd all made it through the appeals and would have the chance to continue showing what they were made of in the battle rounds to come!
But as happy as they all were, they were also well aware that this was only the first hurdle, and the hardest part was still to come. The battle rounds would begin the next day, and any coordinator worth their salt knew that this was always when the real challenge began!
Author's Note: Megan, her sister, and all of her friends have made it through the first stage of the Grand Festival.
Which of them do you think will emerge triumphant in the end?
Keep reading to find out as the battles begin in the next chapter of Pokemon NG!