Kaci’s Story
Chapter 11
“Nurse Joy, could you heal my pokemon please?” Ash asked, holding them out to her.
“Certainly. They should be ready in about an hour.”
“Thanks!” Misty called from a few feet behind him, her mallet still slamming Brock’s head into the ground.
The quartet was walking out, Brock rubbing his head, when Misty ran into a boy. His blonde hair framed his face and his gray eyes were sincere when he said, “Sorry about that, miss.” Kaci gave him a once-over; his blue jeans and elbow-length red T-shirt were spotless, and he was pretty cute, probably about fifteen. Still…
“Oh, no problem,” she replied lightly. The boy seemed reluctant to let them leave, though, and shifted from one foot to the other nervously.
“May I ask where you are going, Miss…”
“Misty. We were just going to the gym to meet up with some old friends.”
“And then have a pokemon battle!” Ash exclaimed, temporarily forgetting about his newfound dislike of this guy.
“But you don’t have your pokemon back yet,” Kaci reminded him.
“Oh yeah…” Everybody, even Bill, laughed at the dejected look on his face.
“Your little friend is funny. By the way, my name is Bill.”
“I’m Kaci, and that’s Ash,” Kaci said, a little less openly then she had when they had met other people in the woods. Brock cleared his throat, and Kaci looked startled.
“Oh yeah! And that’s Brock. Heh, forgot about him for a while.” A satisfied expression appeared on Brock’s face, while Bill was looking amused and Ash was glaring daggers at Bill.
“Well, I am staying there. Because Brock’s dad went out of town, he hired me to watch the kids. Could you wait for me? I was just bringing a package to Nurse Joy.”
“Sure/NO!” Misty and Ash said at the same time.
“We don’t have to wait for him!” Ash said angrily, glaring at her.
“Well, we’re going to. It’s the nice thing to do,” she said, glaring back.
“You can if you want, but I’m leaving,” he stated, and walked off crossly. Brock followed him, but Kaci and Misty stayed.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I seem to have offended him somehow. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Misty said lightly, “Besides, don’t you have too…”
“Ah, yes. That parcel. If you would wait here, I should be back in a minute.”
“‘Kay,” they both agreed, never wondering why they couldn’t come with. Well, the thought crossed Kaci’s mind, but before she could explore the possibilities, Bill came out again.
“Thank you, Misty, Kaci, for waiting for me. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem… You know, Ash doesn’t normally walk off like that. He must really not…” Kaci trailed off, realizing she was about to say something she shouldn’t.
“Not what?” Bill asked curiously.
“Umm… not want to wait. That’s it!”
“Oh. What about your friend Brock? Is this a usual thing for him?” At the look of utter confusion on Kaci’s face, Misty stepped in.
“Nah. I just think that he’d think it would be weird for Ash to show up at his house without him.” Kaci nodded and ran over to the fountain that was in front of the center.
“Does she do that often?”
“What, play in the water?
“No, forget about your friend Brock like that.”
“Oh. Well, we’ve only known her for about five days, but yes, she hasn’t remembered him at first yet. Just me and Ash. Then an, “Oh yeah, Brock!” type of thing.”
“May I ask if you know why?”
“No idea.”
“Hmm… that’s interesting. And you’ve only known her for five days? How’d you meet her, if you don’t mink my asking.”
“We found her unconscious by the side of a cliff. We think she fell off, but all she remembers from the accident is a bunch of Spinarak. And she’s a little vague about the stuff before that.”
“I wonder why…”
“We should go catch up with Ash and Brock. Come on, Kaci!” Kaci shook off the last drops of water on her hands and ran ahead, leaving Misty and Bill a few yards behind her. But not too far, because her legs were short. Still, she wouldn’t be able to hear them, (or so they thought) and Bill took advantage of that.
“You know, Misty, you’re very beautiful. Especially your eyes. They’re like oceans of blue,” he said softly, staring at her. She blushed and turned away, while Kaci scowled.
“No, really,” he pushed, taking her hands and turning her so that she faced him, “I mean it.” She blushed two shades darker and pulled away, not knowing what to say. Luckily, she was saved by Kaci, who was calling to them.
“Misty, Bill, hurry up!” Misty immediately sprinted over, and Bill followed, a little slower.
By the time Misty, Kaci, and Bill reached Brock’s house, half an hour had passed since Ash first stormed away. He was waiting impatiently when they arrived, his foot tapping on the ground, his arms crossed, and a scowl on his face.
“There you are! Do you know how long it’s been?”
“Yes, thirty minutes. Kaci was playing in the fountain for a while. And it’s not that easy to find your way around, especially when you have a seven-year-old who’s never been in the city before insisting on leading you,” Misty replied coolly, embarrassed at her friend’s immature behavior. Kaci, who wasn’t too happy about Bill having taken over the lead and him flirting with Misty the whole way, crossed her arms and mimicked Misty’s last words perfectly, down to the sound of her voice.
“Especially when you have a seven-year-old who’s never been in the city before insisting on leading you,” she muttered angrily. The three teenagers were surprised, but none thought to link in to the upset girl.
“Whoa, is there an echo over here?” Ash asked idiotically. Kaci changed her voice to mimic his.
“Echo over here?”
“Ash, don’t be stupid! Of course not!”
“Stupid! Of course not!”
“Okay, there is definitely someone mimicking us. Duplica?” Ash asked, looking around for their imitating friend.
“Mimicking us. Duplica?”
“Stop that! If it’s you, Duplica, this is getting really annoying!”
“Annoying!” Kaci impersonated Misty, then changed her voice to Bill’s.
“I’m afraid I’m not Duplica.” Misty and Ash turned to him, but with their backs facing her, Kaci said, in Jason’s voice, “You won’t know me…” and changed to her own, “Until I choose to let you know who I am.”
“Misty, what’s going on?” Kaci asked, scared.
“What’s going on?” she emulated herself cruelly, throwing her voice to the side and not moving her lips.
“I don’t know, but I wish it would stop.”
“Your wish is my command,” Kaci said, in Nurse Joy’s voice. The Pewter City’s Nurse Joy’s, to be exact.
“I want to know who it is, once and for all,” Ash said, looking around. Kaci sighed, figuring they had had enough. Besides, it was Bill she was mad at anyway.
“It was me.”
“I told you to stop!”
“Ash, it was me. Kaci. I was mimicking you!”
“Oh, okay then… Kaci!? Why?”
“Cause I was mad at Bill. I’m sorry, ‘kay?”
“How’d you learn how to do that?” Misty asked curiously.
“A family friend taught me how to do that a long time ago.”
“How long?” Bill asked.
“About two years. Can we stop with the third degree?”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you,” he apologized.
“Well you did. And two things,” she said coldly, “I don’t trust you. And stay away from Misty.” Kaci turned and walked into Brock’s house angrily, leaving three very confused teenagers behind her.
“I’ll go after her,” Ash and Misty volunteered together.
“You and Bill go see Brock. I want to talk to her,” Ash said. As much as he hated to leave Misty alone with that slimeball, especially after what Kaci had just said, he really needed to talk to the girl. Especially after what she just said.
“Okay,” Misty agreed reluctantly, and they headed inside, Ash breaking off to go find Kaci. He found her in one of Brock’s sister’s rooms, sitting cross-legged, with CD cases spread all around her.
“Kaci, can we talk?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, what about?” she replied, taking off the headphones.
“Bill.”
“What about him?”
“Why were you so mad at him?” Her face darkened.
“Because he was flirting with Misty. His gonna ruin everything if he doesn’t just leave us alone!”
“What’s “everything,” Kaci?”
“Just… everything.” Ash decided not to push it, because he knew that when she got like that, you shouldn’t push the subject.
“Oh, okay. So whatcha doing?”
“I’m makin’ my own CD. Hey, since you’re here, could you do me a favor? I want you to pick out a song that reminds you of Misty.”
“Sure…What? Why?”
“Please? Just do it. For me?” she begged, clasping her hands together and getting all sparkly-eyed. For some reason he couldn’t explain, Ash couldn’t refuse. Maybe it was the way her eyes resembled Misty’s when she did that… or maybe it was just her childish charm.
“Oh, all right. But you have to promise me you’ll never tell her about it!”
“Okay, I promise. Here!” she agreed, shoving her CD player at him.
“The Lizzie McGuire Movie Soundtrack…” Oh great, what have I gotten myself into? He thought desperately. The league-capped teen suffered through six songs before he found one that wasn’t so bad. In fact, he actually liked it.
“Number seven. It’s pretty near perfect,” he said, handing her stuff back. Kaci quickly jotted it down on a list that already filled up most of the page it was on and slammed her green spiral notebook that also acted as a diary closed.
“C’mon, they’ll be waitin’ for us,” she said, already halfway out the oak door.
“Whatever… oh yeah! Bill!” He sprinted off quickly, blowing past Kaci so that her league cap was nearly blown off her head and her midnight hair, which she had taken down temporarily, whirled around her face.
“This is why I don’t like wearing my hair down,” she complained, struggling to pull a brush through the tangles that had emerged, while she followed Ash to the kitchen.
Bill, Misty, and all ten of Brock’s siblings sat around the table, waiting to be fed by Brock, who was wearing his frilly pink apron again. Ash and Kaci sat down at the worn cedar table, Ash glaring furiously at Bill. Probably because the older boy was sitting next to Misty. Ash didn’t even pay attention to what he was eating, so he didn’t notice when his food was gone. He just kept lifting his fork to his mouth from his plated and back again. After a couple of minutes, Kaci reached over and put her hand on his arm.
“Ash, your food’s gone. And you might not want to make your dislike of Bill so obvious,” she whispered, “I hate him just as much as you do, but tone it down.”
“You do?” he murmured back, surprised. She nodded slightly, leaving Ash to think about it at the table as she helped with the dishes. Ash knew why he hated Bill, and knew that Kaci didn’t like him and was mad at him, but hate? She seemed so friendly to everybody else, but Bill was by far the nicest person they’d met. But there was just something about him. And maybe Kaci sensed it too. Either way, Ash wouldn’t sleep soundly until Bill left, and he was living here. Ash sighed; this was going to be a long night.