Hey! *Waves*

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, it belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics, but I do own all my writing, which is non-profit, and does not infringe on copyright.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

I’ve noticed that in all the fics I read, the characters in high school don’t seem to do much but flirt and pass love notes. I am attempting a more realistic approach, at least at my high school…

Chapter 4

“Huh?”

“I asked you what the capital of West Virginia was.”

“Um… Charleston?”

“Correct.” Sofia moved down the list. “Texas?”
“Houston… no, Austin.”

“California?”
“L.A.?”

“Satoshi, have you been studying at all? This is a very important test! The answer is Sacramento.”

“…Oh.”

He had, but his mind had flickered back to the dream, maybe even a bit wistfully. If only someone like Lance did exist…

He needed a friend to protect him.

“What about Hawaii?”

“Honolulu.”

“Good. Ohio?”

“… Columbus?”

“Good. South Dakota.”

“I have no idea.”

“Pierre.”

“But how am I going to remember that?”

“Keep cramming.” Sofia suggested. “You still have lunch to study.”

Satoshi sighed. “Hai.”

He idly noticed a torn flyer fluttering in the wind, but ignored it and went back to staring at the printed words, states and capitals.

Did it even matter in the long run?

Wataru looked at the progress report. Nice… four A’s and two Bs… hopefully that was good enough.

Biology, Calculus, English, and Business were fine, but he had to work on Spanish though… Spanish and History.

But that class was so boring, the teacher just played videos all the time and told them to take notes in pitch-black darkness.

How did that help with learning?

He rubbed his eyes a bit irritated.

Satoshi rapidly penciled in answers on the test, frowning, as he had left two blank but hopefully if he got the others right, he would get an A. She was asking for forty capitals…

So percentage-wise, it should be fine…

As long as his dad left him alone, he was fine. It was a good thing he was usually passed out and stayed that way.

Satoshi usually fixed himself sandwiches for dinner and did the shopping. He didn’t mind; the man usually wasn’t home.

Besides, it made him feel better.

He wrote in the last one – Washington D.C., for the entire U.S., and handed in his test.

Stupid Clarissa was trying to cheat off his paper again. Last time she had been caught, but the teacher had only given her a zero and not taken her to the principal.

She still tried to cheat.

I hate her.

She doesn’t deserve the D she has now… I hope she fails and has to retake this class when I go on to high school.

That would be fair.

I don’t care about evening the playing field, if I study and work hard then I deserve the grade and not some moocher.

I have no moral reason to help her get an A she doesn’t merit.

He fell asleep while watching a video on the 1920’s, but after class, Natsume lent him her notes to copy.

“Arigato, Natsume.”

“It is nothing, Wataru, but shouldn’t you sleep more?”

“Last night I was busy doing Calculus.”

“You should have taken Statistics AP like me, it has a lot less homework.”

“True, but it is already second semester. I can tough it out.”

“I hope so, for your health.”

Wataru smiled a bit wanly. “I’ll live.”

That was all that mattered, right?

He quickly ate his school lunch – it was edible and supposedly nutritionally balanced, that was good enough – and walked off to the library.

It was time to scour FastWeb.com for more scholarships.

His mom wasn’t going to pay full college tuition; she had made it quite clear. So it was either scholarships or a job.

Personally, he didn’t think he had time for a job, so he was writing essays all the time to win money.

So far, he had won $500 from the Atlas Shrugged essay scholarship, but every little bit helped in this case.

And after school, he went off to the convalescent hospital where he volunteered. Preparing food wasn’t too bad.

It was mostly filling little bowls with pre-prepared fruit and jello, and unidentifiable mush. However, the director appreciated his work.

That was good.

He had written several recommendations for Wataru already, to apply to different community service scholarships.

It was a sign of mutualism.

Wasn’t that good?

Still, second semester brought on another wave of worries. He still had to take one more SAT II test.

Math IIC and Writing were passed, now should he use Biology or Chemistry as his third?

Life was so reckless, but he had to stay focused on his goal. He couldn’t let anything distract him.

Not even those pleasant dreams. They were only dreams, anyway.

Satoshi quietly opened the door to his house and glanced around. Good, his father wasn’t home…

He had stayed late after school to practice clarinet, as he usually did. After all, he took his position as third chair clarinetist in band seriously.

He still had to work on the fourth chapter of the story he was writing for Literature, but that was fine. Since it was based on his dream, he didn’t even need to really think up plots, just recall. Convenient.

Still… it would be very nice if it were real.

End Chapter

Completed 7/16/03