font FACE=arial,helvetica>Hey, everyone.  By request from Kenta Maccautum, we will be posting the name of the character between perspective changes. We both suggest you read his Dratini adventures. Thanx so much. '_~

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*
Matthew*


       I walked away from Medical Care and started for Grooming. From what I'd heard, it was the best class. I was the first one there and sat down at a desk. Splash hopped down from my arms and onto the desk. "Seel!" he called energetically. I smiled and softly rubbed his head.

       Soon, Ace Furlong arrived. He was staring into space, wide-eyed and his hair was sticking up. "There's a g. . .ghost," he murmured and walked blankly to the back of the room, where he sat down.

       Annie soon arrived, looking absolutelny disgusted, "Breeding was awful! A whole hour of absolutely nothing, and a test to flavor it. I can't believe it!"

       I smiled and shushed her, "Be quiet! The Grooming teacher's gonna hear you." She blushed and sat down beside me, setting FoxFire on the floor.

       "Well, still, a test? I was hoping you were joking," she shook her head in disbelief.

       I reassured her, "Trust me, I don't lie about homework."

       She started to say something, but then the teacher walked in. She had a pretty appearance and gave off a friendly atmosphere. She introduced herself as Ms. Dennis. "This is a class where I like my students to have fun. You may talk, but let's keep it at a reasonable level, okay?"

       "GHOSTS!" Ace suddenly stood up. Some of the students snickered, thinking he was playing a joke on the teacher. He played a long and bowed before he sat. I rolled my eyes.

       "Um, all right, that wasn't exactly reasonable, but if you're inspired, go for it, I guess. Now today we will be doing trims on your pokemon. Some of you may have something like a Grimer of a Koffing, who obviously have no hair. So, you'll be giving them a massage," she explained.

       I examined the fur on Splash's head. It was fine, white hair and there was a lot of it. It was a little on the lengthy side, so a haircut would work out. Ms. Shimizu handed Annie and myself each a pair of grooming scissors. She went over how to hold the scissors, which length was acceptable, and some safety rules. After a few minutes, we began having fun. I took the first snip on Splash's forehead causing a small clutter of fur to fall to the floor. Pretty soon, I discovered this was easy.

       "Annie, that's a wonderful job!" Ms. Dennis beamed. She looked over at me, "Very nice, Matthew."

       Splash smiled and began posing in the reflection of the waxed desk. I smiled and laughed patting his head. The bell rang all-too-soon and we scattered out and headed for supper. I smiled when I saw that hamburgers and french fries were being served.

       I sat down and immediately started eating. "I cannot believe I skipped lunch," I groaned and bit into the hamburger again. Soon, Peter, Annie, and Brittany sat down. Kangaskhan towered beside Brittany, waiting impatiently.

       "There," Brittany simply said. Kangaskhan almost inhaled the food. Brittany sighed and turned away.

       Peter beamed, "I'm going outside to do some serious pokemon battling after this. Shadow can beat that girl's Caterpie with ease!"

       "I can't wait," Annie grinned.
      
       "Oh I can! This food is great!" I smiled and dipped a french fry in ketcup. Splash winked at me and I winked back.
       Brittany stood up, "Sorry no wannabes at this table."
       Suddenly another tray crashed down at the table beside me. I looked up to see Ace Furlong. "Ace? Jerk section's over there," Annie rolled her eyes.

       "Shut up, dork. I'm talking to rich boy," he shrugged it off.

       Ace shook his head, "Fine, you all can leave. But let me talk first. Pierce, I know you know something about that ghost."

       "You see ghosts, Ace?" I asked, playing dumb.

       Ace glared, "Yes, Matthew, there are ghosts in this school."

       Peter piped up, "Oh! I saw this movie. You see dead people, right?"

       "I'll find out and, when I do, the four of you are adios," Ace almost blew up.

        I smiled and waved, "Meanwhile, give the ghosts my regards." Ace grunted and took off for another table.

       I gave Peter a high five and we took our trays up. "Let's go outside now," Annie suggested. She picked up FoxFire and we, with our pokemon, went outside for a battle.

       The sky was just beginning to pale and the clouds in the distance were brilliant mixtures of pink, purple, orange, and yellow. A refreshing breeze swept past my face, making me even more ready to battle. Suddenly, Brock Demont approached me. "Vampire can take your little Seel," he boasted. His Zubat fluttered just above us. 

       "I'll take that bet," I grinned and we headed for Battlefield # 3.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*Annie*

       I didn't watch what next happened to Matthew. I was more concerned in finding my own opponent. Not a lot of people in my year were out yet. I glanced down at FoxFire and she gave her pokemon version of shrug. I sighed a little and decided I actually would watch Matthew.

       "Vampire! Leech Life!" Brock ordered. His Zubat obeyed and launched himself at Splash and attached himself by sinking his fangs in the pokemon. The little Seel reacted before Matthew did and rolled over and began pushing himself along the ground. It seemed he was attempting to scrap off the Zubat as if it was no more than a bug. I burst into a fit of giggles at this ridiculous sight. Matthew didn't know what to do for a couple of seconds, but then ordered.

       "Uh, good job Splash. Keep doing it and get him off," he said, a little stunned. It worked after a couple of seconds. The bat detached himself and rolled out from underneath Splash, then frantically pumped his wings to get back into the air. I stopped watching the battle for a second and turned around. I spotted Brittany challenging a tall, skinny, boy with blonde hair. He looked like he was in his second year and I didn't recognize him. Pretty soon the battle commenced, Brittany sending out her Kangaskhan and the boy sent out a. . .Steelix? I blinked to make sure I hadn't just seen something. Nope, I didn't imagine anything. The steel snake was still there. FoxFire and I wandered over to their battle.

       "Okay, Steelix, let's start with a tackle attack," the boy ordered. That's all it took and Brittany's pokemon was thrown out of the arena. The boy blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that. He's a little stronger than I thought," he said as Brittany recalled Kangaskhan. Brittany didn't even look up at him as she stared down at the pokeball. The boy started towards her but she took off at a run. I caught a quick glimpse of a tear, rolling down her cheek. Oh no, I thought. The boy looked up at his Steelix, slightly ashamed.

       "It's okay, Steelix, we didn't do anything wrong," he told his pokemon. I decided it was the right time for me to walk over.

       "The next time you see her, you might want to make her feel better," I told her. FoxFire nodded in agreement.
      
       The boy turned and face me, "Uh, are you her friend?"

       "Actually, we're her friends," said Matthew, approaching from behind.

       "Victory?" I asked Matthew. He nodded, smiling widely. Splash gave FoxFire a high-five.
      
       "Um, I'm Will, and this is one of my pokemon, Steelix," said the boy. I grinned sheepishly.

       "Matthew and Annie," Matthew said, giving me an awkward smile.

       Will turned to me, "Um, hi. Can I ask you something?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*Matthew*

      
       "Have you guys heard about the funds? Supposedly, the school's going to close down," Will lamented.

       Annie looked concerned, "We've heard rumors about it. . .but we can't really verify it. People talk, you know?"

       "So you think it's a rumor?" Will asked.
      
       I stepped in, "She didn't say that, and neither did I. In fact, we were actually trying to come up with a way we might be able to save the school."

       Will was skeptical, 'Uh, don't you think that's a bit unreal? Adults are trained for this kind of stuff. If they can't handle it, do you think we kids can?"

       "That's just the problem," Annie explained, "We kids don't believe we can do it. I think if we put our heads together, we can work something out."

       Suddenly a whistle blew from the second-year building. Will looked at Annie and then me, "I've got to go. Listen, if you ever need help on this project, look me up, okay?"

       Annie grinned, "We will."

       He returned his Steelix and broke into a run back into the second-year building. Annie's expression changed quickly to concern. "Brittany," she murmured and took off for the academy, leaving me behind.

       "Where's Peter?" I asked myself and looked around the battlefields. I smiled and watched as his Spinarak covered his opponent in many tiny spider webs.
      
       "Okay, Shadow, one more hit! Night Shade!" Peter commanded with an enthusiastic tone. In an instant, the Beedrill collapsed onto the ground. A dismayed trainer returned the pokemon and took off.

       Peter turned and gave me a thumbs-up sign. Picking up Splash, I made my way to the victorious trainer. "Congrats, man," I congatulated him.

       "Shadow rocked man! Did you see his Night Shade technique?" Peter boasted proudly.

       I nodded, not really saying anything. "Come on, let's go find Annie and Brittany."

       "How'd they do?" he asked, picking up Shadow. I explained as we hurried back inside and to the commons area. We found Annie putting a hand on Brittany's shoulder at a table.

       "Hey guys," I said, really just to tell Brittany we were there.

       Brittany looked up, "You saw the battle, didn't you Matthew?"

       "Yeah, but he was a second-year kid. How would you expect to beat him?" I tried to console her.

       Peter nodded, "And you were at a double type disadvantage. Trust me, this loss don't mean nothing."

       "That's a double negative," Brittany corrected him and we burst out laughing. After that, it got better. We decided to go back outside and hang out in the bleachers for a while.

       Ace Furlong arrived soon with Brock Demont who looked over at Splash bitterly. "Those guys are trouble," I whispered over to Brittany, who nodded.

       Ace smirked over at Brittany, "Hey baby, done crying yet?" Brittany blushed, rather embarrassed, and looked away.

       Annie's face heated up, "Well how `bout you, Furlong? YOU done crying? I know you've been bitter since Matthew literally whipped you this morning. Running off like that. My two year-old sister's more mature."

       I felt a keen sense of respect for Annie at just that moment, "Don't worry about it, Brittany. Just because two losers with the combined brainpower of a goat are trying to outwit you, doesn't mean you're down, all right?"

       Brittany started laughing again, "Right, Matthew."

       Brock rolled his eyes, "Look Ace, geeks travel in groups.'

       Peter stood up, "You want to go, loser?"

       "Come on Brock, let's not waste time on those geeks," Ace said and they walked away.

         I think Annie sensed the unease in the conversation. She quickly changed the subject, "You guys, I've been thinking. I want to wake up an hour early to go train in the forest everyday. We'll be WAY ahead of the class."

       Peter shook his head, "I need more sleep as it is."

       "Well, I'll do it," I shrugged.

       Brittany was in thought, "I really should train, but I get enough of Kangaskhan during the day."

       We all broke into laughter. Finally, she was able to joke about her pokemon. Splash clapped his flippers while he giggled, "Seel, seel! See seel."

       The next morning, Annie and I met in the Commons Area and went jogging outside to the forest area. Wild pokemon instantly started jumping out of trees, grasses, and holes. FoxFire glared at a Growlithe, ready at any minute to flare an Ember attack at him. "All right, FoxFire, let's do it!" Annie smiled and FoxFire took position. A clash of fire from the two pokemon immediately started the battle. The two fires met in the middle and both died.

       "Use an Ember, FoxFire!" Annie commanded, taking stance. FoxFire released another jet of fire that Growlithe quickly matched. Annie ordered for another ember, but the Growlithe once again pulled it off. "FoxFire! We've got to slow him down! Use a Confuse Ray!" I was stunned as I saw FoxFire's normally amber eyes glow an illuminous blue. Soon, I noticed Growlithe beginning to act dizzy. "All right! Now, let's use an Ember!" Annie called. FoxFire let out a bright blaze of fire that engulfed Growlithe. When the fire was gone, Growlithe was trying to shake off the confusion. "Let's finish this. . .QUICK ATTACK!" Annie called. FoxFire raced up to the Growlithe and slammed into him. He flew through the air and smashed against a tree. He fainted on the ground. "YES!" Annie cheered, giving FoxFire a hug.

       Splash got a gleam in his eyes. "You wanna battle, man?" I asked. He nodded. "All right, let's find you an opponent!" As if on cue, a deer-like pokemon emerged from the tall grasses. Splash took battle stance. "All right, Headbutt!" I ordered. Splash jumped ahead and headbutted the unexpecting pokemon in the side. The deer, which I now realized was Stantler, seemed to glare at Seel. I started to feel sleepy, staring at the pokemon's face. Annie slapped my face.

       "Wake up, Matthew! Stantler have hypnotic powers. Tell Splash to look away!" Annie told me.

       I smiled, "Splash! Don't look at it. It's using a Hypnosis attack!" I'm afraid it was too late, because Splash couldn't hear me. All it took was one Slam from Stantler, and Splash was gone. I pulled out a Revive I had bought at school and made him drink it. He got back up, shaking his head. The Stantler snorted and ran back into the tall grasses.

       Annie patted my back, "It's okay, Matthew. That's a tough pokemon. You too, Splash."

       Splash slumped back to the ground. "Seel," he sighed. We trained a little more, Splash getting several victories. Much to his dismay, the Stantler didn't return for a second go, but I had a feeling we would battle again.

       "Students of the Pokemon Academy! Breakfast is being served!" the PA rang from outside. Annie and I quickly grabbed our pokemon and made a mad dash for school. There was no way we were missing breakfast!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

       "I totally failed the test," Peter whined. It was the end of the day's classes and we were all looking forward to supper which, I might add, was two hours later. Our teachers had been merciless and had piled on the homework. Mrs. Brinamm, our "favorite teacher", had assigned a three-page essay due the following day on our pokemon's type. That meant I had to write about fire-type pokemon.

       Ms. Dennis had given us a stuffed animal that resembled our pokemon. We were supposed to practice haircuts on them. The only difference between the fake and real pokemon were the colors. They were way different than the normal pokemon was. My stuffed Vulpix, for example, was a greenish brown and pink. FoxFire didn't approve at all of this flashy impostor. She growled at it for a full ten minutes, until I stuffed back into my backpack. But on the bright side, I understood her when she said, "Go away!" Her mood was considerably brightened and I felt we were finally making progress.

       "Come on! I mean, we have TONS of homework. . .and it's only the first week," Matt groaned. We had also received homeword from Mr. Smith, the battling teacher. Because we were studying type alignments, we had to make a chart showing weaknesses and strengths of different types.

       We all trudged down to the library, our homework in tow. It took me almost an hour to finish the essay alone. With that out of the way, though, I decided to take time to read my letters.

       My oldest brother, Adam, wrote a short note asking how I was doing with my first pokemon.

       My second brother, Alan, who is younger than me, told me excitedly about how Grandma planned to have him take the test to get into the academy. He was nine so it was possible for him to make the academy next year. I grinned at the thought.

       "Hey, my little brother might come to the Academy next year," I announced to Matthew. He looked up from his vomit orange Seel.

       "Really? How old is he?" he inquired.

       "He's nine years old and his name is Alan," I answered him. I shuffled to the next letter. It was a drawn picture of stick people that I quickly identified as Alex and myself. Drawn, of course, by the master himself.

       "His name starts with an 'A' too. . .that's ironic," Matthew observed.

       "Actually, all of us have an 'A' to start our name. There's Adam, sixteen, then Alan, and then Alexander, who's four," I said, putting the letters back in the envelope. I would read my mother's later.

       "You have a big family," he commented, returning his attention to the puke Seel.

       "Not really," I shrugged.

       "Well, maybe it just seems big to me because I'm an only child," Matthew decided.

       "Yeah, I guess," I smiled, once again looking at my stick-person self.

       "Did you get any letters from your parents?" he asked.

       "Um, yeah, from my mother," I told him.

       "You didn't get one from your dad?"

       "Uh. . .see, he died two years ago." Matthew returned his attention to me. His face was turning red.

       "Sorry Annie, I didn't know," he murmured.

       "Don't be," I said as I gathered up my stuff and ledt. FoxFire trailed behind me without saying a word. I headed to the Commons alone for supper, giving myself time to think. FoxFire chatted to me contentedly as she ate a bowl of pokechow and some fruit; I only half-listen. After supper, I headed to the library again and wrote my responses to my letters. Gengar must have been watching because he arrived as soon as I declared I was done.We headed back to the Girls' wing and pulled out a photo album from my dresser drawers/ There were pictures of me growing up. . .when my Dad was alive. My short talk with Matthew sparked memore of him. I was in such deep thought that FoxFire had to ram into me to get my attention.

       "Vul?" she asked with a paw on a picture of my family. I understood her question.

       "That's my family. . .there's my parents and my brothers and there's me," I said, pointing to the picture. She pointed at my dad and asked a different question. Once again, I understood.

       "That's my father, you see, he died about two years ago. He used to work at the Indigo Plateau. He was a dragon master, just like Lance. His pokemon are all gone now. Two died, two ran away, and three. . .three we just don't know what happened to them," I said quietly. "I was close to Dragonite. . .he's gone and I don't know where he is. But he promised he would come see me. Dad made a promise too. Dad said when I turned ten he would give me a dragon pokemon of my own." Then, I started to cry uncontrollably. I put my face in my arms and FoxFire tried to comfort me.

       The next morning, I awoke for the training session. I threw on some clothes, showered, made an attempt to fix my hair, and ran out of the door with FoxFire sleeping in my arms. When I met Matt outside, he apologized several times, until I threatened to give him a black eye.

       "I should realize your not psychic, and you might not have known about my dad's death," I said in a concluding tone.

       With that over, we started to jog. This was our warm-up, even though it made me really sore for the remainder of the day. I expecially felt sorry for Splash. The jog was extra hard for him because he was a water pokemon.

       After our jog, we headed to the forest where we had FoxFire and Splash work physical attacks against each other. It was pretty clear that FoxFire's strengths were speed and attack, while Splash's were defense and special attack. When the PA rang, we, once again, dashed for breakfast.

       This became a pattern for the rest of the week. The only thing special that happened twas on Friday. We were supposed to give our pokemon baths in Grooming. Even though she was a Fire pokemon, Ms. Dennis told me should could bathe in steaming water. This didn't go well and FoxFire knocked over the basin of streaming hot water. Embarrassed, she let herself in her pokeball. She didn't come out until nighttime. We began to work on her insane fear of water in our training exercises. Eventually, our training sessions began to take shape. We made a training schedule. We always started out with a jog for the first twenty minutes. The schedule went like this:

Sunday- Day of Rest
Monday- Defensive Training
Tuesday- Special Defensive Training
Wednesday- Attacks
Thursday- Special Attacks
Friday- Speed
Saturday- Endurance/Accuracy

       The days soon fell into a pattern I soon got used to. Even though I ached, I knew the training was much harder on FoxFire. She was sore throughout the day, and then had have Battling Technique first thing in the morning. Mr. Smith was getting harder and harder on us. We were always paired up with a school-owned pokemon that had level, type, and evolution advantage. I normally battled against a Cloyster. He battled independently. Only on certain days would Mr. Smith take command of him. It didn't really matter, though, because we never won. FoxFire was too afraid of water. I didn't have a clue what to do about it. Then, I remember Will. . .he was in the second year. . .maybe he could help somehow. . .

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

       "Pierce. . .this essay is incredibly dull. I mean it's one hundred percent boring," Mrs. Brinamm shook her head in disapproval at my essay. "Maybe you'll do better next time." She handed me the essay. In big red letters, I could see my grade. C- I looked over my paper. I had rewritten it to make it neat and had even proofread the paper almost six times. If she thinks this essay is boring, I thought, she ought to meet someone like her. 

      
"Ace Furlong! Your effort absolutely shines through this essay! It was a great read and I had a wonderful time reading it!" she boasted over Ace as she handed him his essay.

       "Pierce," he whispered. With a smirk, he lifted up his "winning essay." It was a paper that must have been crumpled up at one point. It had scribbles from where Ace had made an error with a non-erasable pen. His writing was HUGE, as each new line took up three of his notebook paper lines. I scowled and looked away, refusing to look for the A+.

       "Peter, I was looking on my grading scale for a "G" but this is all I can do," she said quickly and threw his paper in the air. It floated aimlessly down to the floor. Ace Furlong purposely stood up and, when Peter's hand was on the paper, stepped on Peter's hand.

       "Sorry, loser," he whispered and made a jeering face. Peter mumbled something I couldn't hear, but I think I felt the nature of his words.

       On Ace's way back, Peter made Shadow shoot a web that Ace stepped into and tripped over. Peter stood up, "Oh my gosh, Ace, are you all right?" When he was down to Ace's face, "helping him up", I heard Peter whisper, "You're forgiven, loser."

       The bell finally rang and I raced out of Mrs. Brinamm's class, Splash bounding with me. When we were far out of Brinamm's sight, Annie came up to me, "Hey, Gengar's here and he has a letter for you. Come on."

       Yanking my arm, Annie pulled me up the staircase and into the abandoned schoolroom where I had first met Gengar. I saw his mischievious red eyes glowing in the corner. "Gengar, how's it going?" I smiled and walked over to him.

       "Things are a little boring up here, but I had some fun watching Peter trip that Furlong boy," he whispered with a playful smirk.

       I grinned, "So, Annie said something about a letter."

       He handed me a yellow envelope. I opened it and five twenties fell out of it. Annie picked them up for me, wide-eyed. "Whoa! Somebody loves you, Matt."

       I had never gone by Matt before, but Annie seemed to have given me the name. I unfolded the letter, and saw in familiar handwriting:

        Dear Matthew,
Things are going very well at home. We just went on a luxurious cruise. We sailed to SeaKing's Island and had a wonderful day. Hope this "School" you had to go to is entertaining. Your grandfather insisted we send the money.
That's all,
Barbara and Patrick Pierce

       Yeah, I thought, somebody really loves me. Annie handed me the money and I put it in my wallet. "Thanks, Gengar. I really appreciate you bringing my mail for me."

       "Your parents wanted to send it through air mail. Do they not know how close Ecruteak is to Crescent City?" Gengar rolled his eyes.

       I shook my head, "Actually, as long as I'm here, they don't know anything about Ecruteak."

       Annie patted my back, "It's okay, Matthew. You got your friends."

       I looked up at the clock, "Two minutes until our next class starts!" I yelled and Annie and I took our pokemon and bolted away. Gengar disappeared into the darkness, and Ace Furlong stepped from the closet with his camera and his audio recorder.

       "Pierce, you're gonna be outta here faster than a piece of steak in a tank of Gyarados!" he laughed and put his things away.