Chapter 9 "School's Out for Summer"

The next day John, Gary and I met up early in the morning. Gary and John had talked last night, and while they weren't the best of friends right now, they were willing to still be friends.

Surprisingly, when it came to training, Gary was actually really motivated. He already had a plan for his Squirtle, focused around increasing it's defenses and it's special attacks like Water Gun and a move I hadn't heard of before, Brine. His goal, as he said, was by the time Squirtle evolved into Blastoise to have a walking fortress with cannons included.

So it ended up all of us getting up for a morning run around the camp arena. Granted, the sun was just rising when we started, not like our runs back home. But it was still good. And while we ran we talked. A lot of back and forth about what resources we might need and the best diets for them. John wasn't kidding when he said that Gary scored the worst in that section. But that's not just his fault. Apparently Gary's cooking skills were nowhere to be found in the first place.

But we also talked about what we had learned the day before, if anyone at the camp was doing something interesting. I did find out the Cynthia Shirona didn't take one of the Sinnoh Royals. Instead, her Grandmother apparently gave her a Gible. While it's an adorable pokemon, that thing will bite ANYTHING. Gary was laughing about it because when she first arrived, she came with her grandmother and Professor Oak greeted them. When he asked to see the Gible, Cynthia obliged and the little guy promptly launched himself at the Professor's head!

After the run, we all hurried up and took a shower. The cabin's are really rather nice in that regard, as they have semi communal showers. Basically there are metal dividers between each of the shower stalls. It all drains out at the same place, I guess to keep the required plumbing down or something. But once we get done changing, we group up to head to the Mess Hall. I noticed that Justin Ruby and the rich kid that were following behind Gary yesterday are now glaring at all three of us.

"Gary, what exactly did you say to them yesterday?" I ask.

"I told them that you had a point. They were trying to ride my coat tails, and my Gramps' coat tails, to get what they wanted. But they needed to figure out something else, cause I wasn't having it."

I sigh, "Well, I don't know about Justin…." I start.

"Nah, I do." John says. "He was hoping that by staying close to the Oak Family, and by extension the Lab, that they would hook him up when he goes to try and become a Contest Star. He's really big into that whole scene."

Gary looks at John sympathetically, "Your sister?"

"My sister." John says, with a note of finality.

I quirk an eyebrow at the two of them.

Gary chuckles, "John's sister, Eleanor, is a contest star. Not one of the big names, but big enough. I think she's gotten some commercials now too. But the point is, Eleanor doesn't like John's dad, or trainers in general. Says something along the lines of 'they're all brutes who can't do anything graceful'. John's dad kicked her out a while back. Told her she needs to go ahead and do her journey and find her own way. I know there was more, cause everyone could hear the argument. Problem is, no one could understand the argument, because her voice was so shrill I swear it was like a Twin Needle attack to my head."

John nods, "Dad told her that we are a clan of trainers. If she wants to only be a television star, do it somewhere else. Pokemon Contests are fine, but she kind of crossed the line with my dad. Repeatedly."

Ouch. I am kind of glad I don't have siblings now.

John's sister aside, we start into a regular schedule. Every morning we'll start off with a run. After the run, we'll wash up and head to breakfast. Then we either have class or practice. I found out that Magical Leaf can be learned by having Danu focus the grass type energy into the leaves and then controlling that energy as they fly. So that's what we're working on.

After Morning Practice, we head to the "hobby" classes. These are things like How to make Poke-food, basic battle tactics, and Contest basics. Gary took the last one and Battle Tactics, while John took the Poke-food course and a course on how to identify eggs. I took Poke-food and Basic Battle tactics.

After the hobby classes, we have our afternoon training before dinner. This is more focused on building strength instead of moves, so our pokemon do things like sprints, weight lifting, and even climbing. It also gives me and John a chance to make dinner for our pokemon. Gary would, but we banned him from helping. So now he brings us the ingredients and we make Squirtle's food as well.

Then it's dinner. After Dinner we join everyone else for campfire stuff. Typically making smores and telling different stories. This also serves as the evening check in before bed, so we know nobody got lost or anything.

And this goes on for several weeks. The summer camp is a total of 12 weeks long, with parents day being right at the end. In fact, the entire last week of camp is mostly dedicated to either finishing projects or the parents.

What none of us realized, because Professor Oak hadn't brought it up to Gary, was that halfway through camp was when the invitees from other regions would show up. And while this normally wouldn't have been a problem, as both invitees were adults, they brought their own group of kids with them.

From Unova, we got this green haired kid named Cilan. Apparently, his brothers asked Mr. Lightfeather to bring him along to try and get some experience before he joins them as a Gym Leader. Don't know any more than that, as Gary was told not to ask about the kids parents.

Then there is the Kalos group. Mr. Glace apologized profusely, but his government wanted him to bring five kids with him. Serena Dumont and Calem Blanc are okay. Calem mostly keeps to himself and does some training with us. Serena has a Fennikin though she's a little more interested in Contests. However the other three are where problems cropped up.

Tierno, Trevor, and Clemont are three boys who seem to radiate trouble. Tierno likes to dance, which wouldn't be a problem on its own. However his starter is a Spinda, who he likes to dance with, while the pokemon is using the move Teeter Dance. Which of course, confuses everyone who is watching.

Trevor and Clemont are kind of typical nerds. Nothing wrong with that, however Trevor will do the research and Clemont will try to build things based on that research. Which isn't great. Thankfully none of the inventions work, but in the first week they managed to cause three different explosions. Trevor's starter is a Pikachu, while Clemont's is a Shinx. Apparently the people who get the Royal starters of Unova are required to go through some course. Serena has already done the course, as her mom had her attend when she was younger.

Oddly enough, Calem has also done the course in question. I don't know what the course is actually about of course, but Calem said it was a Kalosian thing. Apparently Kalos still has aristocratic ranks, but who gets an aristocratic rank is decided by pokemon and some other factors. It's weird.

But really, besides Ash we didn't much communicate with any of them. Ash was happy to make new friends of course. He might be an idiot, but he does have a certain amount of personality to him. The defining moment was about a week after the Kalosians got here, and Ash and Serena were missing from the evening campfire.

Of course, we all went looking for them. Gary was the one who found them almost an hour later. They were trying to follow a creek back to camp. Problem was, Ash being Ash, he decided to go the wrong direction. But, as they were basically okay, it was overlooked. Apparently Serena saw a Poliwag that she was trying to play with, and in chasing it fell down and scraped her knee. Ash was in the area and heard her, so him and his Pikachu investigated. He took all of the correct steps after that, just decided that going up stream was the route back to camp, instead of down.

However, during this time I did get to meet Lucy. We both decided to search near the lake for the two, and just in case we teamed up to look. It was actually Lucy who gave me a great idea.

We were talking about when school was starting and what we planned on doing.

"Of course," she said, "My plan will be a little bit different. I plan on attending school here in Kanto."

"Huh," I replied, "But don't you have to go to school in Sinnoh?"

"Nope. The Alliance Scholarships are good for any Alliance funded school, as long as I pass the entrance exam. Which I've already done. Honestly, I wanted to get away from my parents who see me as an easy meal ticket. So I'll be attending the Oak Pokemon Academy. I'm not even going to go home, I brought everything me and Iwazaru need with us. And the Academy has dorms for students as well."

"Okay. I'm not sure what my plans are right now. But going to the Oak Academy would be interesting. What are you planning on studying?"

"Well," she replies, blushing slightly, "I plan on studying business. I've been poor since I can remember, and with Iwa, I think I might be able to start my own company. Then I wouldn't ever have to worry about money again."

"That's cool. I honestly haven't given it much thought, but I always have some questions running through my head. So I think I'll study nutrition, but aim to become a Professor."

She smiles, "That sounds awesome!"

Years later, I would treasure this moment. The moment I decided to become a Pokemon Professor.