A Simple Start

Rising Action

"I-uh.."

I'm lost for words!

A young shiny Tepig sees me and smirks evilly.

"Uh.."

"George, what are you looking at?" Ms. Aloe, an Alolan Ninetales, called out.

George, the shiny Tepig looked up innocently. "Nothing!"

"Tide? Dianna?" she calls.

"Here!" Tide says.

"I-I'm h-here.." I stutter.

"Come in." Ms. Aloe orders, for I bumped into Tide right outside the classroom door.

The Oshawott picks up his stuff and hurries in. I blink and snap out of my trance before also picking up my papers.

I sit down in my seat. A pidgey sits there, whistling a horrible tune. A Chatot at the front of the classroom begins to hum the tune too, along with a Spearow. The others, not to be outdone by bird Pokémon, begin whistling the tune until their all in chorus. Ms. Aloe whips around angrily and stares at her class.

"DETENTION, FOR ALL OF YOU IF I HEAR ON MORE PEEP OUT OF THIS CLASS!"

They all shut up.

"Peep," A shiny Torchic dared.

Ms. Aloe turned to the Torchic with a stone-cold glare. He shrank back into his seat.

"I'm sorry," He squeaks.

"Detention, two days, Mrs. Kaa's room. Starts this afternoon, go get a slip from the principal."

He waddles away sadly and Ms. Aloe continues the lesson. George is still evilly smirking at me.

Weird.. What's wrong with Chad's little brother?

As we leave class, I pass that Oshawott again. I feel my face getting warm and turn away.

Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder. I jump and see the Oshawottg holding a couple of papers in his hands.

"Here; these are yours. You left them at your desk."

"Th-thank you," I say shyly. Chad walks by and spits angrily, muttering to a Grumpig and a Pillowswine. They nod and glare at Oshawott.

"Don't mind them," I say.

"Never have, never will." The Oshawott responds coolly.

"Never say never," I mutter darkly under my breath. Chad and his Piggang were sure to go after Oshawott now.

"Hmm?"

"O-oh, nothing.."

"Y'know, Dianna is a nice name." Oshawott said.

"Thanks, and um, you name is nice too."

"Do you even remember it?"

"Uhh.."

Ride, Slide, Bide.. Biden? T..t..Ti..Tyson!

"Tyson?"

"No, it's Tide. Tyson is my older brother's name."

"That can get confusing.." I murmur sympathetically.

"Yeah. Well, I got to head to class. I got math, then gym, art, and stations with Ms. Aloe again."

"Oh! I've got Art, gym, math, and ELA!" I reply enthusiastically.

"Cool. See ya in class." Tide says, walking off.

"See ya round, Tide!" I exclaim, waving until he disappeared into the crowd of Pokémon in the halls.

Art class passed by in a doozey. I normally was the most experienced artists there; Today, my butterfly looked like a sideways eight with a line in the middle.

"Dianna! This is 6th grade! Not pre-school! I expected better from this class' TOP artist." He scoffs, exasperated.

I barely heard her until I hear someone hiss, "Snap outta it," In my ear. I jump to see JJ, an Ekans, behind me.

"Dianna?" Mrs. Spout called. A Wartortle walked up to me with an expectant look.

"M-Mrs. Spout?" I whisper.

"Get. To. Painting. Unless you want to join Henry in detention."

The little Torchic from earlier!

"No ma'am," I say, but its too late. Mrs. Spout was already back at her desk.

I painted beautifully, my butterfly whisking sparkles of gold behind it. Its wing delicately gliding on a soft summer breeze, a meadow of flowers below it.

"Much better," Mrs. Spout agreed.

I nodded absently. As that dried i began to gently paint a picture of a Snivy and an Oshawott under a moonlight night. Mrs. Spout turns to me and I quickly hide the image, pretending that i was sketching the whole time in my notebook. She walks around the rest of the class and I only then realize that I'm holding my breath and sigh, ruffling the pencil-marked pages of my notebook..

Tide.

Tide..

Tide...

I shake my head and try to picture Chad and I instead. I even sketch Chad and I, put only a disgusted feeling replaces the one free feeling I felt when drawing Tide and I.

Uh, that Oshawott and Snivy.

Ugh! Get your brain straight Dianna, and stop thinking about him.

But no matter what, I knew I could not escape the pull of this ocean of love I was drowning in.