A Tale of Two Rivals

A Frighteningly Embarrassing Possibility

It was right around then that I remembered the part of our conversation that I actually had to remind Soledad of May's name. I was shocked by her lapse in memory at that very moment. When it came to the names of other coordinators, she usually had enough memory to rival that of even a Metagross' brain power... and that type of pokémon, itself, has enough intelligence to rival that of a supercomputer.

At first, I thought it might have been because Soledad thought of the girl in the red bandanna the same way I thought of her, until I remembered that Soledad was far too humble to think of anyone like that, at all. That was right when I suddenly got the idea that she might have just...

Yours Truly: Soledad, you didn't happen to forget that girl's name on purpose earlier just so I'd have to repeat her name just to correct you, did you?

Soledad: What?! Why would you think I'd ever do a thing like that?

She might have been playing the innocent card, but I knew that she had really done it on purpose to tease me about the girl in the red bandana, of all people.

Yours Truly: Ah ha, I was right. You did do it on purpose after all. You wanted me to remind you of... that girl's name. You wanted me to mention her name to you at that moment. Were you teasing me about girls again?

Soledad: What?! I've never done that with you, Drew.

It was then that a realization of what Soledad thought of my thoughts towards the girl in the red bandana came to me.

Yours Truly: You're trying to set me up with someone, aren't you? You think I can't find my own girlfriend.

Soledad: I suppose that could be a bit of the truth. It's not really that I don't believe you can find one on your own. It's actually more like I'm a bit scared that you'll never find one, especially keeping on the way you are now.

Yours Truly: I told you before; my heart belongs to my life's goal of becoming a Top Coordinator. It always has and it always will.

Soledad: Right, of course. What about when you've finally achieved it and even won the ribbon cup in every region that has a contest circuit like I admittingly said you always could go after, though?

Darn it. Soledad played the 'what will you do when it's all over?' card with me. I know her intentions in these kinds of actions of hers were good, but I did not need, nor did I even want a girlfriend right then or there. Coordinating my own pokémon was hard enough. I did not need the responsibility of a girlfriend to commit to in addition. I had to say something to contradict her, anything that could finally get it to her that I was perfectly fine alone with my pokémon and pokémon contests in my life at the time.

Yours Truly: I'm perfectly capable of finding my own girlfriend...

Soledad: That's great that you have confidence that you can find your own_

This time, I interrupted her.

Yours Truly: When I'm good and ready for one, that is.

Soledad: I guess there's nothing I can do about that, but just know this, at least; love isn't really something you can actually see coming. It does have a habit of striking when and where you least expect it.

Yours Truly: I can tell you one thing that I actually do know about love between humans; my girlfriend will be as good with pokémon and contests as I am and it won't be someone like that girl in the red bandana, that May.

I half expected Soledad's response to be something like 'never say never', 'you never know who it'll be' or even 'you might wind up surprised what it has in store for you'. Instead, she responded to me with...

Soledad: If you say so. I guess that the only other thing I can say about it is 'congratulations on catching that Masquerain of yours'.

It seemed like she finally decided to let it go for real this time.

Soledad (continued): I look forward to seeing it in the contest when it pulls off a better Silver Wind than that May and her Beautifly.

And with that comment, Soledad went right back to teasing me about catching my new pokémon solely to upstage that girl in the red bandana.

Yours Truly: Whatever, goodbye, Soledad. And good luck in the Hearthome Contest.

Soledad: Good luck in Fallarbor to you. Wait a minute. Shouldn't that have been 'break a leg' since in theater speak, it's bad luck to say, 'good luck'?

Yours Truly: I know. That's the idea.

Soledad just shook off my intentional instigation of losing in the Hearthome contest out of spite, though. She was not even that easily intimidated. In fact, since I've know her, she was hardly ever intimidated.

Soledad: Oh, well. I guess that anything'll do at this point. But I'm still gonna win the Hearthome Contest, regardless of your sudden need to curse me for a failure. Break a leg in the Fallarbor Contest, anyway, Drew. Talk to you later.

Yours Truly: I guess I can't live with myself if I were to end this call staying mad at you, so you break a leg in Hearthome City, yourself. From now on, though, stay out of my personal life, if you don't mind.

Soledad: You know that I can't make any promises about that, right, Drew? Bye.

With that, she ended her video phone call with me on a semi-friendly note this time as the screen went black.