The High School Life of a Pokémon Collector

Bus Ride

Lavra started to panic the night before the trip. She still hadn't chosen her Pokémon to bring, and she still hadn't caught Cyndaquil. But she couldn't very well leave her alone. She was still a little weak.

Luckily, when it was almost time to leave the house the next morning, Cyndaquil was fast asleep. So, Lavra picked up the bed it was sleeping in lightly and put it in her bag. This should be a good measure. 

When she got to school, she still heard Cyndaquil's breathing. Even as she impatiently waited for the bus doors to open with the other students, Cyndaquil was still asleep. Lavra got onto the bus and immediately saw Terri sitting alone near a window in the back. She navigated her way to the seat where Terri was and sat right next to her.

But, then... 

'Let me out! LET ME OUT!' Cyndaquil woke up and started kicking.

"Ah, ok, ok, just give me a second. I thought you were still asleep." Lavra mumbled to the baby.

All of the students finally noticed the kicking of the bag and started crowding around the seat. Lavra unzipped her bag and out jumped Cyndaquil.

Everyone was surprised, "What Pokémon is that?"

"It's a Cyndaquil, you moron!"

"Now, now, let's all settle down. You're allowed to have a Pokémon at camp, so having one on the bus is perfectly fine." Mr. Tamaka decided to intervene.

Lavra was embarrassed. She couldn't bring herself to scold Cyndaquil, though. She DID bring it without its permission.

"Yeah, this is a Cyndaquil I found a few weeks ago. She was being attacked by some asshole with a Granbull when I saved her." Lavra explained to Terri when the ruckus calmed down.

"Poor thing. People are the worst," Terri replied.

Did that also mean me? Lavra asked herself. She had become a little more dubious of her advances towards Terri after the shopping trip- so much so that Lavra doubted everything she did.

She was about to ask her about that when a Pokémon came out of its Pokéball. It was a Zorua? The Zorua got onto Terri's lap.

"You little gremlin," Terri smirked.

Yeah, I think I'm just imagining things. Lavra thought.

"A Zorua? Don't they normally hide their appearance?" Lavra tried to confirm the Pokédex entry with Terri. 

She had never seen a real Zorua before.

"Yes, but this one isn't as shy as others. Sure, he is a little, but he's more excited," Terri explained as she petted Zorua.

"By the way, the Pokédex app on your phone? How do you get it?" Lavra was always really interested in the app, but never could bring herself to ask until just then.

"Oh. Here, I'll show you." Terri said as she pulled out her Rotom phone. Lavra did, too. 

Terri showed Lavra the app and Lavra downloaded it onto her phone.

Lavra was delighted! She just had to see how many Pokémon she had across the regions!

After Lavra downloaded the app,  Zorua saw Cyndaquil.

"Cynda?" she tilted her head.

"Zoru?" Zorua did the same.

"Cyndaquil!" Cyndaquil seemed to like Zorua.

"Zorua!" It seemed mutual.

They were seemingly chatting with each other, but then Zorua started to stare.

"Don't scare her Zorua," Terri told her Pokémon.

Zorua triggered Illusion and transformed into Cyndaquil! Man, they looked identical. Lavra had never seen that before!

"Wow! I've never seen a Zorua do that in real life! That's amazing!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, he does that all the time. The worst is when he turns into me. You can actually see his tail when he turns into humans. It's funny." Terri smiled, and Lavra laughed. 

She could see how.

A few hours later, there was a beep from a phone.

Was it Lavra's? No, it couldn't have been. She didn't have anyone who would text her.

She looked around, and nobody else was looking at their phones. The one who did was Terri.

Now Lavra was curious. She waited until Terri put down her phone for a little and asked,

"Who was that?"

And Terri jumped. Lavra didn't know why, it wasn't like she was reading the texts. She was curious, but she wasn't so cruel to look at texts or eavesdrop for her own gain. She had good hearing, though, so sometimes she eavesdrops without wanting to. 

"Oh, I was texting a friend that I talk to online. Her name is Sasha." Terri replied.

"Sasha?" 

"Yeah, she's from the Unova region. She's a pretty big name from Pokémon contests." Terri flipped through her phone and showed Lavra the pictures of Sasha performing. The next line really got to Lavra.

"She, I, and our friend named Justin have big plans to go to Naranja Academy to learn as much as we can to further our careers with Pokémon. It's kind of funny, we only met in real life once, and we already feel this way about each other." Terri smiled in a way Lavra had never seen before when she looked at a picture with them when they were kids.

Lavra was dumbfounded.

Terri has friends. Not only that, but they're best friends with whom she shares dreams. She wasn't a loner like me. Did I misjudge...? I thought I could be her first friend. Turns out she doesn't even feel that way about me. She won't smile for me like that.

Lavra pulled herself down the rabbit hole of regret as she realized how stupid she was for assuming Terri had no friends like herself. She projected herself onto Terri, and she was too aggressive in her attempts to become friends. Maybe... she wasn't needed. 

Lavra kept quiet the rest of the way. Despite wanting to cry, she bit her lip and held back the tears. That revelation was too much for her. 

Once they all got off the bus, Lavra was more irritated than usual. She was assigned to Cabin 4 along with Terri. Earlier, she would have been ecstatic. Then, she wasn't too happy about it. She'd much rather have been alone for the camp at that point. It didn't help that Claudine was making a scene. 

"You have to be kidding me?! Me, camping with you? I already don't want to be at this camp, but to be with a total nerd as my camp partner!'

"Would you shut up?" Lavra couldn't help but reply to Claudine's obnoxious rant. Hell, she wanted to be in a different cabin just because she didn't want to face Terri already.

 "He-Hey, Mr. Tamaka, There's only three of us for cabin 4." Terri noticed.

"Yeah, there's only 3 of us for cabin 6." A male student said. It seemed that Ven was in Cabin 6, too.

Mr. Tamaka nodded, "Hm, I knew you would figure that out, yes, yes. Well, we have some surprise visitors who are joining us for camp this week!" Everyone was curious.

Who was this mystery person?

Terri was first to enter, and she stopped right away.

"Your eyeballs are MINE! Caught in my Electroweb!"

Despite that famous line, it wasn't Iono. That voice wasn't hers. Lavra cranked her neck to see a sight that finally made her cry. She dropped her stuff and ran to the forest because Lavra didn't want to show anyone how vulnerable she was at that point.

It was Sasha, one of the two friends who Terri truly loved. Lavra knew this would be an excruciating and lonely trip.