Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Early Years (Ongoing)

Chapter 6: Summer Sins...

Cameron was fuming. Archer, Lewis, and Jason stood back as he did so, stomping back and forth, muttering the worst words someone their age knew, and the Aron may well have had been at his melting point. It seemed that the rejection of friendship—and attack—from that girl hit him really hard.

"Those damn... stupid... idiot losers! Who do they think they are?! They're a bunch of cowards and weenies, that's what they are!" If there was anything nearby to do so, he'd definitely shove something into the river out of anger. They all grouped up where they saw the two swimming away from before. It was a bit of an embarrassment—for everyone, to be stuck up like that and fail to catch Dart.

Lewis seemingly decided that he should try to calm Cameron down. To the best of his ability, anyways. He reached out in an attempt to calm Cameron, patting his friend on the back. "Hey, if she prefers that loser over us, we shouldn't care about her anyways." He muttered just loud enough so everyone could hear. "Besides, she never even told us her name, weirdo."

Cameron's expression wasn't a good sign, but Jason stepped in before anything, and Archer just continued to watch the fiasco. Jason kinda slapped his hand away from Cameron and scolded him. "You woulda heard it if you were actually paying attention! Her name's Lucia, and she can evolve to a powerful Pokémon. Not just anyone can be one of us, you have to be strong, and she brushed us off for some awkward loner nobody likes!"

Archer finally decided to chip in, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he can avert another argument between his friend. "At least we can trust each other, she probably would've snitched or something at some point. I say we dodged an attack there!" 

Thankfully, that seemed to diffuse the situation somewhat. Cameron, while still visibly upset, did like that reason. After all, a snitch was no good in any group, especially with what this one in particular did. "Yeah, yeah. Okay, that loser can have one friend, it's not like she makes any difference anyways. And maybe she'll come to her senses when school starts and ditch him for anyone else." Cameron looked down in thought, then turning to Lewis. "You're right about one thing, let's go down the river. Don't bother with the dweeb and his girlfriend, we'll do something else."

Lewis and Jason both looked at Archer thankfully, and they all turned to go down the river. They didn't really have times to be back home by, as long as they made it there eventually. Or even if they didn't, the only thing that kept them in at night was being afraid of the dark and the patrols meant to keep order and send kids home. The bustling, booming town soon faded into a small swab of suburbs and, eventually, forest.

It was kept up in a way that kept the feral Pokémon away from town, but it was basically a small stretch which few lived in, and turned into a big hangout spot during the summer due to little river traffic most days. As they walked, Cameron still vented. "You guys still think it's stupid for her to see us and decide Dart's the better option, right?"

That got nods and such from Jason and Lewis, and also Archer, though, he didn't really find too much fault in Lucia. Loyalty was a trait that was meant to be prized, right? Well, why not... that's when it came to mind, and Archer decided to toss it out there. "Maybe she's just loyal, and since Dart got to her first... we should just wait until he screws up, and then maybe she'd see us as a good choice?"

Cameron smirked slightly at Archer. "You're full of smart things today, huh? Yeah... won't be long until that loser messes up. We can even help out by doing stuff to make her think of him how he is, a screwup!"

That got agreeing snickers from Lewis and Jason, and a somewhat sad smile from Archer. It wasn't the direction he wanted to go, but... he couldn't do anything about that. Cameron, Jason, and Lewis all tossed around ideas for setting up Dart, to make him seem weak, like he can't be trusted, or just plain humiliating him so that Lucia might just be too ashamed to be seen with him.