Chapter 47: Ready to Begin

     I had been up for three and a half hours already. It was quite
unusual for me to wake up at nine-thirty in the morning, but I had also
laid in bed until noon, thinking.

     I couldn't believe that Nathan and I were still fighting. We were
around each other all of the time, and usually, that alone was enough
for one of us to apologize. Mind you, I was waiting for him to apologize
first, since he started it. But apologizing to Nathan sounded pretty
damn good about now.

     It was twelve-thirty, and my battle had been moved up to two
o'clock. My FINAL battle. And if I won, then I was officially the new
Hoenn League champion.

Wow. That was scary.

     I gazed outside the window, and the rain was falling pretty hard.
Nathan had been stupid to go outside in it, even if it was just for a
walk. I wouldn't have gone.

     The minutes ticked by, and soon they became thirty minutes, and
then an hour. It was one-thirty, I had to leave in fifteen minutes and
he hadn't returned yet. I was ready to leave, pleased at the outfit
change. Sure, it was still a skirt and heels, but the heels weren't as
high and the skirt was a bit longer. And the shirt wasn't a tank top. I
was rejoicing.

     "Have you seen Nathan?" I asked Vicky worriedly as she searched
around for her shoes. She held them up with a victorious smile.

    "No, actually I haven't. You don't mean to tell me he's not back
from his walk?"

     I shook my head. "Maybe he went straight to the stadium," I thought
aloud. "Yeah, that had to be it."

     Vicky slipped on the summery pink flip-flops. "Let's go!" she
exclaimed. The boys were already at the stadium, and I was hoping that
it included my boyfriend too.

     To ease my tension, Vicky relived some of the funnier moments of
our journey, but my mind was on Nathan the whole time. He HAD to be
there. I mean, I couldn't end my journey without him, could I?

     I entered the arena in a hurry, and scanned the crowds for him. I
looked up at their usual section, and Sam, Zach, Taylor, Bobby, Brooke
and Vicky waved to me- and my Johto buddies were with them! I waved them
them all, and then my worry over Nathan turned into fury. Why was he not
here? It was SO like him to miss the most important moment of my life.

     Five minutes before the battle. Beautiflys fluttered in my stomach,
and I was nervous for two different reasons. Could I win? And where was
that damn boyfriend of mine?

     "Jenifer Frost, please report to the arena entrance," announced a
voice over the intercom. Puzzled, I listened to the directions. Two men
in navy blue suits were already there.

     "Jenifer Frost?" one of them asked and still confused, I nodded.
"I'm Detective Thomas and this is Officer Fraiser. We're with the
Evergrande city police station." This was still making no sense to me.

     "You ARE the girlfriend of Nathan Pickens, right?" asked the other
one and I nodded. "We're sorry to inform you that Nathan was hit by a
drunk driver, who is now in the custody of the police station. He was
killed instantly, ma'am."

     Something clicked in my brain. This was a joke! Nathan was pulling
some kind of prank on me, but I wasn't going to fall for it. "You know
what?" I said angrily. "You both are sleazy ass actors."

     Both looked surprised. "Huh?!" questioned the first one who had
spoken.

     "Yeah, that's right! I don't know who hired you to pretend like my
boyfriend was dead, but I'm not going to fall for it!" I was furious. At
both them and Nathan. 

     "Miss Frost, this isn't a-" started the other one, but I proceeded
to walk away.

     "I need to go complete the single most important moment in my life,
thank you," I snapped. "I have no time for your lies!"

     The whole stadium seemed to burst into either cheer or dismay when
I entered the arena. "Welcome to the final battle of the Hoenn League!"