You and I. Together - A Pokéspe fanfiction

12. Gift

Immediately I noticed Crystal walking into class. She walked towards us with a smile but I can see that she was trying to hide her annoyance. Why was she annoyed though?

She pulled out her own chair that was located in the row in front of Green and me. She sat down with a sigh, ''Did everything go well?'' She asked, referring to yesterday. I nodded and subconsciously reached for my bag - the place I put the flowers.

She pulled something out of her backpack and asked me: ''How much was it?''

Did Crystal want to repay me?

I guess it was natural for her to feel that way, she was fairly responsible and had a nice personality. But, I couldn't accept any money.

I shook my head, ''No, there's no need to repay me!'' I said with an awkward chuckle. I stood up and held my hands up. Crystal took an urgent step forward and opened her wallet she just took out. ''Come on, how much? I'd feel bad if I didn't help somehow.'' She said while looking at me with a pensive look.

I averted my gaze, ''I-I guess... But it wasn't even that much money so-'' She slammed her hand on my table with a dollar bill in it. I jumped up in surprise and looked over to the money and widened my eyes, feeling a bit of panic rush through me.

''There you go. 20 dollars.''

20 whole dollars?!

That was 5 times the amount I paid! I mean, it's not a ginormous amount but it's still too much for her to pay me. I can't accept that! ''Eh-'' I grabbed her by the hand and pushed it back. ''That's way too much. Please don't'' I said, I looked around the classroom that was starting to fill up with students and saw Blue and Green. ''Why don't you give everyone one dollar? That way you'll pay as much as we did.''

Crystal breathed in and thought about it before nodding. ''Okay then, here you go.'' She gave me a one dollar bill. I saw her walk away and sighed in relief. Crisis averted. I sat back down and rested against the back of my chair, waiting for the teacher to arrive to class. Speaking of waiting for someone to arrive to class... Gold seemed kind of late. I talked to him yesterday and, he seemed kind of weird. Maybe he was sick? Seemed logical to me.

Finally, I saw miss Juniper walk into class and clap her hands, signifying that she wanted to class to be silent. I adjusted my posture and sat up straight.

''Okay, good morning class. Let's start with the class list as always.'' The teacher said as she continued to sit down on her chair. I saw her go through a messy pile of papers. Papers regarding tests, papers regarding students, data, all of that teacher stuff. She found something and pulled it out, a map. She turned the pages and stopped a certain one. She cleared her throat,

''Platinum?''

''Present, miss.''

''Yel- I mean... Sapphire?''

''Here-o!''

''Silver?''

''Present.''

''Blue?''

''...Here...''

''Green?''

''Here.''

''Ruby?''

''Present.''

''Red?''

I looked up and put my hand up, ''Here.''

''Gold?''

Silence.

People looked around the classroom and realized he wasn't here. The teacher also looked up in confusion. So, he wasn't called in sick? If he was, she would've just skipped over his name. Huh, must be skipping school then.

But then, almost as if it was planned. Slow irregular footsteps were heard from outside the classroom. Because of the silence, it was clear of how close they really were. The door swung open to reveal a Gold standing there, leaning on the door frame for support. He was looking quite pale and, out of shape really. he looked up to the teacher and waved a single time, ''Hi teach.'' He said in a raspy whisper.

Crystal stood up, ''What happened to you?'' She asked in concern and taking the words right out of my mouth.

''And why are you here like this? You're in terrible shape, you should be resting at home.'' Miss Juniper told him. Gold laughed awkwardly but the uncomfortable laughter turned into a coughing fit.

''It's not like I have to.'' He said when he was done coughing.

The teacher cocked her head to the side and gave him a look. She sighed, ''It'd be best for everyone.'' Gold seemed to frown in response to that and averted his gaze. Miss Juniper stood up and walked a little closer to him, ''Ah, I'll get someone to bring you home.'' He widened his eyes and shook his head to decline the offer. He took a step back but stayed withing an arm's length radius of the door so he was still able to lean on it. ''N- no no, there's no need. I can just stay her-'' He said before he dry- heaved. The class reacted in either: disgust, concern or amusement.

''No, I don't want to risk you having to throw up in class or hurting yourself.'' The teacher said.

Gold visibly started panicking, ''I can't really go h- *cough* home. My mom and dad aren't there and... I don't have the house keys.''

Welp, that's not good.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Crystal walk forward. ''You can go to my house; my mom can take care of you until one of your parents come back home.'' She told him. Gold's breathing turned funny for a bit and he smiled, ''Oh that's nice. Thanks, Crys.''

Crystal and Gold were excused from the class for a while and the teacher resumed with the class list. Names were flying by and eventually the teaching started (sadly enough). Crystal returned in the midst of miss Juniper's explanation of another controversial topic's origin. Y'know, she's a great teacher and all but, all of that sort of talk can get annoying sometimes. I know racism exists, it's not like I get called Chinese every other week by some strangers from a different class then followed up by them squinting and saying: ''ching chang chong, ni hao konichiwa desu fortune cookie chan.'' or something along the lines of that. I don't even speak much Japanese because I was born and raised in America, I only know a handful of Japanese to talk to my parents (and occasionally my aunts, uncles, etc.)

Okay, I'm getting salty now. I'll stop.

I'm skipping the boring parts now. Crystal got back into class and sat down, got asked a few questions from the other classmates before they were told to be quiet by the teacher. There were more lectures and skip forward some more time before recess happened.

The class left to go outside and now we had privacy for...

I opened my bag and took out the bouquet. I turned around to Green who proceeded to do the same. Blue walked to my side while holding her flowers in a near- death grip like she never intended to let them go.

1135 words

Good day! Haven't seen me in a while, right?

Sorry. I just kept on forgetting to update this and didn't feel like writing at all. I hope you liked it though! I'll try to update next weekend! ^^

Oh, and why is the title of the chapter ''gift''? Well... ich weiß es nicht.

Bye for now!

~Pencil