In Spikemuth

Broken

Marnie blinked her eyes open and stared up to see a white-tiled ceiling. A pink-haired Nurse Joy stood over her smiling. Marnie tried to sit up and face her, but she felt so tired and lay motionless. Nurse Joy smiled, 

"You're awake! That's brilliant! Miss Magnolia was very worried about you," she said smiling brightly. Marnie mumbled, 

"Miss Magnolia? Who's that?" Marnie strained herself to sit upright, but Nurse Joy gently laid her back down and shook her head with a firm finger-wag. 

"Sorry, but you're too weak at the moment, you'll need to rest here for another three hours to get you full strength back. Marnie gave in and started to close her eyes before she saw a familiar face lean over her with a worried glance. 

"Sonia?" Marnie whispered and scowled in confusion, "what are you doing here?" Sonia frowned,

"You were unconscious in a pitch-black cave and Morpeko called for help, you're really lucky you have such a loyal partner," she said sweetly with a smile and nodded at Morpeko then at her Yamper out of Marnie's view. Morpeko stroked Marnie's cheek with his soft paw and made Marnie feel warm inside, but refused to smile. 

She looked at Sonia and nodded, 

"Thanks," she breathed and then strained her eyes to look at Peko, "thanks." Morpeko squeaked slightly. Sonia gave her a sweet smile and her eyes turned to the top of her smile, her smile fell. Marnie scowled, 

"What?" she asked. Sonia bit her lip and looked back into Marnie's eyes,

"Nothing," she whispered. Marnie blinked and leaned back into the Pokemon Centre pillow with a heavy sigh. 

"Tell me," she said impatiently. Sonia looked away and said nothing. Nurse Joy approached and placed a hand on Marnie's shoulder. 

"Marnie, you took a giant stab to the side of the head and are lucky to be alive and have recovered so quickly, but we had to get under your front hair in order to tend to the wound. And to do that we had to make sure your hair wouldn't grow over our treatment," she said. Marnie's face drained of colour.

"Did you..." her voice trailed off to silence. Nurse Joy nodded solemnly and pulled a mirror out of under the Pokemon Centre bed and hovered it over Marnie's face. Marnie's eyes widened and her mouth slipped open. 

They had shaved a spiked pattern into the side of her head and only half of her fringe still remained. On the spikey pattern, there was a large lump of plastered on treatment. Nurse Joy looked at Marnie's mortified expression, 

"The plaster isn't permanent, so if you come back in a month, we'll be able to remove it. The shave, on the other hand, I'm afraid- we had to kill the hormones that grow hair in that area so that newly sprouting hair wouldn't infect the wound or the plaster, I'm really sorry, Marnie," she explained. Sonia flicked a tear from her eye and sniffed. But Marnie didn't notice. 

And she wasn't listening, the only thing she was doing was staring at the spikes shaved into her head and her fringe being half-sliced off. She wished she could sit up straight and slap Nurse Joy in the face. But she couldn't because her body was so exhausted. 

Morpeko could sense her sadness. He gave her cheek a giant hug. Marnie didn't seem to notice. 

Her fist clenched into a ball. 

"There's no way in Galar I'd go through this and not become a Pokemon Master," she hissed and spotted the Pokemon Challenge leaflet hanging out of Sonia's purse. She snatched it out and opened it up. The challenge was in three months. She scowled and looked at Sonia. 

"As soon as I get out of here, I'm training for this and I'm doing it," she said firmly. Sonia clapped her hands and squealed in delight. 

"Good for you, Marnie!" 

Marnie felt herself burn with determination. She'd become a pokemon master, show up her brother, make her parents proud. 

And make herself proud.