Pokemon School Days: Giratina Rising

Chapter 5

Sounding alarm slowly tugged Joe out of the state of sleep. A hand shoved in his face sped up the process of waking up for him this morning.

"What", the weary voice next to him rang.

Shifting his body around, he wrapped his hand around Sam's mouth: "don't yell, you'll wake everyone up". Sam whispered a weak apology, and Joe released him. Quickly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he sat up straigh, managing pull his body over Sam. "I'm going for a run", he says, "you go back to sleep, it's 5 AM".

"You always go running this early?", Sam wonders still half-asleep, while Joe starts changing into his running clothes.

"Right, well, I'm used to it, and I need training", the boy notes shortly, "and Riolu needs it as well".

"That's cool", Sam says, shifting around in bed, "is that why you're so good at battles?".

"I don't know", Joe admits, "probably a part of the reason".

"Hey", Sam suddenly sits up, his eyes still brimming with sleep, "is it cool if I come along as well? For the run I mean, I don't think I can fall back asleep".

"Well, I thought you guys didn't want me telling you what to do all the time", Joe said tying his shoes.

"Well, I asked you", Sam scratched his head insecurely, "so it's not like you're bossing me around".

Joe thinks about it for a second: "alright, you can come along, you getting some training would be beneficial for all of us anyways".

"Thanks", Sam insches in a bit closer. Joe had an impending feeling that the boy was trying to make a friend out of him.

"Just get changed quickly so we can leave", he reminds Sam. Friends were not exactly his forte, but if letting Sam think they are close leads to him getting his act together and training, then Joe had no problem of tolerating that sort of behaviour. That said, Sam joining on the run with him didn't exactly excite him. Running was his way of clearing out his mind, and having company did not help with that. Still, Sam was in desparate need of training, so he'd have to manage. The other boy was surprisingly quick to change, and they were both out of the room in the matter of mimutes.

The edge of the plato in front of the dormitory was Joe's imagined starting line. Leapping off of it onto the gravel path, he started picking up the pace, Riolu keeping up with his rhythm easily. He liked Riolu for his ability too keep up with him. The slight worry that came with recieving a fighting type as his partner dispersed quickly. Working with Riolu came so easy. The blue dog asked for no special treatmant, he was smart and capable, but most importantly. He had always liked running by himself, but Riolu was an amazing company for him. The pokemon didn't slow him down, and allowed the boy to just run through his thoughts. He couldn't say the same thing about Sam. His teammate changed his pace constantly, getting ahead of Joe and Riolu one second, then fall back behind them the very next just to let Yamper catch up with him. The small brown dog was not built to be a runner. His legs were too short. Joe almost felt bad about it. Maybe it wasn't fully Sam's fault he was the weakest link on their team. He was stuck with the worst partner Pokemon out of all of them, when it came to battle prowess at least.

Slowing down a bit to accommodate Yamper's pace, Joe stopped Sam from running further in front of him again. "Let's just keep a steady rhythm", he said, "we'll stop soon to do some special training, alright, I'm sure Yamper will do better with that".

"Right, sorry for slowing things down", Sam says sheepishly, turning around to look at his partner, "Yamper's not exactly fast".

"No worries", Joe says out of culture.