Lacey POV
“Hey dad, I’m home,” I said, waving at my father from the entrance to our house. He was dressed in his usual cowboy-esque outfit, a bit of mud splattered on the cuffs of his pants indicating he’d been in a heated battle in the Gym just before I came back.
“Honey!” He exclaimed, rushing over to give me a hug. It was nice. Some people say he looks gruff, but Dad gives the best hugs. “What’s wrong?” He asked as he let go of me, looking me over.
“What makes you think something’s wrong?” I said with a pout. How can he just tell that instantly? Maybe it’s like that Aura stuff Nemona talks about? Thinking about that just made me feel worse, so I tried to push that outta my mind.
“Hmm, can’t rightly say,” my father responded, frowning. “You doing alright in school?” He asked as he picked up my bags and led me into the manor. Dad had put most of his money from the mine and Gym into the World Championship arena, but that still left (and was slowly generating) a decent amount of cash for us to live comfortably.
The mansion had a foyer with doors leading to the kitchen, dining room, living room and more, with a set of sweeping staircases at the side that led to the second floor, where the bedrooms were. It was all richly furnished and ‘posh’ (according to Kieran), but probably not as expensive as Nemona’s place. Also, we only have a house cleaner come by once a week, cause Dad wants to ‘do things on his own’. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live with a bunch of staff in your house all-year long.
“I’m… doing fine,” I said hesitantly. My father didn’t turn around, but he did grunt, indicating he’d heard the hesitancy in my words. “It’s harder than I thought it would be,” I admitted after a second. “Nemona and Carmine arranged some study sessions and they helped, but I didn’ realize just how hard these classes would be. It took a lot of studying just to get in but the classes are getting tougher and tougher,” I groused. “I’m passing everything at least?”
He stopped by the door to my room. “I know- nah, I can guess that it’d be tough, but I never got that same education, and I certainly didn’t apply to school early.” Dad let out a self depreciative chuckle before continuing in a softer tone. “This is gonna be a trial, but I know you can do it. You’re the smartest, best girl in the world.” Don’t think the first one is true; Carmine gets straight As and Nemona’s already discovering new Pokemon variants, while I’m just… me.
That bit of discomfort he didn’t notice, so my father just continued, telling me to, “Relax. You’ve worked hard, and I’m sure you’ll work just as hard after the break is over. Shaymin Break is a time of renewal, you know.” I smiled placidly as if I was five and he wasn’t telling me stuff I already knew, nodding before tossing my stuff into my room and throwing myself on my fluffy, Jigglypuff patterned bed. Ahh, this is nice.
My room had plenty of other decorations about it, the majority pink (my favorite color!). Around the bed were several Pokemon stuffies I hadn’t been able to take with me to Blueberry Academy. Sorry, Bidoof I thought as I turned the stuffed animal over in my hands before releasing my team. There was plenty of space on the floor for them to roam, my wooden block castle was placed in the corner and some beds at the base of mine.
Whimsicott in particular was eager to look around, being the newest member of my team and never having been here before. I wonder if she considers my room back at the Academy to be more like home? I watched as she curiously poked and prodded at everything, taking it all in. Drilbur and Snubbull ignored their Pokebeds and instead crawled up and lay down beside me, while Carbink and Alchremie just kinda drifted around.
The first thing Whimsicott checked out was the desk. It had a computer and some stationary supplies made of a very solid material but wasn’t too flashy. The pens and colored pencils were gifts from over the winter break I’d barely opened. No time to do any sketches. I didn’t consider myself to be a great artist, but I liked it, and occasionally, Nemona asked me to do some pictures for the stories she posted online. At least before that challenge to the League Club took up most of our time. Is she still posting? Probably, she’s Nemona after all. She posted her stories in the Blueberry Academy forums and I knew they were decently popular there, though no one knew that she was the author.
Whimsicott poked and prodded at my Switch for a moment looking at the games on the tv screen before putting it down. Most Pokemon weren’t very interested in video games, and Whimsicott was the same, gravitating more to the hula hoops, hackysacks and Elgo building bricks, though even those lost her interest after a while.
I remember Nemona and Carmine debating why Pokemon didn’t tend to be too interested in video games over more physical activities. Nemona said it was about a lack of Aura causing ‘subtle disconnect with what’s on the screen and their physical senses’ while Carmine felt it was because they often lack the fine motor control and proper appendages to hold the controls properly. I wasn’t sure if it mattered (half the times I thought they would argue for the fun of it), but I had looked into the controls afterwards, and there were some specialized controllers people could buy for their Pokemon, though none of my team had been very interested.
“Hey, no Tailwind in the house!” I told Whimsicott as she picked up a hacky sack, a mischievous look in her eyes. “All the same rules for the dorm room apply here too,” I told her, and she drooped, but quickly perked right back up.
“Whims?” My newest Pokemon asked, pointing up at the walls, or rather what I had covered them with.
On the walls, posters were hung of my favorite movies. There were classics, like Brycen-Man (signed by Brycen himself!) and Yamask of the Opera, more niche films I enjoyed such as Love and Battles (was considered strange by some, but I loved the talking Smeargle) and Chariots of Undead Fire Versus Sharpedo, and newer films like The Legend Returns: Enter the Urshifu and A Hero’s Journey. Nemona said that A Hero’s Journey is ‘good but not entirely accurate to Ash’s travels - apparently he met even more Legendaries than the four in the movie! I wonder how many he must have met. Six, or maybe even seven? I also wondered how Nemona knew so much about that stuff, but she was evasive to those kinds of questions, or would mention sources that didn’t entirely explain her knowledge.
“Oh, those are movie poster. Big promotional stuff to get people interested in the films. Like the battle recordings but for other stuff,” I explained, feeling a bit guilty. I’ve had her for a while yet she doesn’t know about any of this. But we’ve just been so busy with schoolwork and training.
Whimsicott seemed particularly interested in one of them, hopping up on a shelf to point at it. “Oh, that’s Enter the Urshifu! Some people say that Enter the Beartic was better, but I think that’s just nosta- nostril? No uhh, whatever thinking about the past too fondly is called! Enter the Urshifu had better effects, a deeper script, and I think Brycen did a better job in the mentor role here than he did in the original. Hmm, what’s that? No, you cannot ‘take him’ that’s one of Mustard’s Legendery Urshifu! He’s not even here and-” I cut myself off before I caught Alchremie giggling and realized Whimsicott was having me on.
“You silly billy,” I said, grabbing her close and nuzzling her. The others on the bed were annoyed at the jostling at first, but happy to lie upon her floof as I put her down, with Alchremie and Carbink moving closer to show togetherness too, even if they didn’t feel like joining the cuddle pile.
It’s good to be home.
***
That moment didn’t last forever, though. After a nice night’s rest, I woke up and felt anxious. The sun was only just rising, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. Getting dressed quickly and grabbing my Pokeballs, I headed down to the Gym. When I got there, an unfamiliar young man in Gym Trainer clothes stopped me at the lift.
“Whoa! Don’t know how you got in here young lady, but the Gym isn’t open yet,” he began.
“I’m the Gym Leader’s daughter, and I know that. I just want to use the arena to practice.” He looked a little skeptical at my explanation, but a tall woman stepped up and confirmed my story.
“Yup, this is Clay’s little one,” Rena said, the other Gym Trainer said, leaving the Gym Pokemon to their own devices for a moment (though still in line of sight). “Not so little anymore - you’re shooting up like an evolving Bellsprout!” She teased and I rolled my eyes. “What are they feeding you at Blueberry Academy?”
“Just regular food,” I said. “ And please, I’m not that tall - Nemona and Carmine are both way taller than me.” And smarter, and better trainers and- ahh! I shouldn’t be wasting time here, I’ve got to start training if I’m ever going to catch up.
“Huh, didn’t know that Clay had a daughter,” the other Gym Trainer said, and Rena just sighed.
“I know you’re new, but do you not listen when Clay goes on and on about his darling baby girl?”
“... I thought he was just referring to one of his Pokemon in a cutesy way…”
I rolled my eyes at that exchange, walking onto the lift. As it carried me down, I noticed the layout of the walkways was different. Huh, dad changed things around, plus he has a new hire. It wasn’t a huge change, but it was different from even how it had been when I was over for the winter break. With that and what Rena mentioned about me being taller, it made me wonder how different things would be the next time I came back here, and how much I would have changed.
Nemona must be rubbing off on me, that’s the kind of stuff she wonders about. Almost word for word, if I remembered right, though the context was slightly different. “Something about her wondering how much of Uva Academy would be recognizable to someone from when it was first created?” I said aloud, trying to remember.
“Drill?” My starter said as they popped out of their Pokeball, watching the lift go down and down, and down.
“Nothing, just… stuff.” I told her, waving a hand in front of my head, as if that could somehow physically clear the doubts in my mind.
“Burr,” my starter said, nudging me. Prompting me to continue. I don’t know what good it will do, but it probably won’t hurt either. As the lift stopped and we walked off of it, I began talking.
“It’s Nemona. Or maybe me wanting to be like Nemona? But not like Nemona, you know? Cause she’s weird.”
“Rill…” She commented and I gave an exasperated wave of my hands.
“Yeah, I’m probably weird too, all us Gym Leader kids are, but it’s different with her. And I still like Nemona, she’s my friend! But you get she’s weird too, right?”
The Ground Type nodded her head, understanding what I was getting at. As we stepped onto the arena, I released the rest of my team. Alchremie, Snubbull, Carbink, and my latest catch, Whimsicott, alongside Drilbur. The five of them cheerfully greeted me and each other, so I couldn't help but snap off a few pics of them.
“Drill drill,” Drilbur prompted after a minute, not letting me get off track, on our training or the conversation we’d been having. I organized my team into light warmup exercises watching them before explaining further.
“Drayton can be waaaaaaaay too lazy, Kieran gets a bit obsessive, and Carmine gets angry and flustered too easily,” I said chuckling as I remembered some of the times she had gotten upset. It’s kinda funny - when I first got to know her, I was kinda scared of her, but even if she yells a lot, I can tell that she doesn’t mean it. “So we’re all weird, I guess, but Nemona… I don’t understand her.”
“She’s smarter than me, than all of us, even Carmine, no matter what she might say. But sometimes, she looks at something in a way that’s just… I dunno. Different.” There was a pause while I watched my team.
Alchremie was cheering the others on, before remembering she had her own drills to run through. Snubbull worked so hard and it was super cute to see him trying and giving it his all (even if I needed to tell him to take it easier with these exercises as they were just supposed to be warmups). Carbink worked with steady determination, not letting anything distract them. Drilbur did them with trained ease, well and used to my training. Whimsicott was the newest, so she tried to copy her.
“She’ll make references? To things that nobody else gets, but then doesn’t try to explain it ever, just moving on. The times when she’ll assume something, but it’s not quite how the world or laws work, but it’s not an assumption anyone else makes. And how angry she got when talking about the poachers, I almost thought she killed them!” I couldn’t help but shiver remembering that. They were bad people, but I can’t picture my friend doing… that.
“Whims?” Whimsicott suggested, and I gently shook my head.
“I’ve tried talking to the adults, but they don’t see it like that. The teachers say she’s mature for her age, but it’s not like any of the older students act like she does. And I don’t think it’s just because of how smart she is, or how strong! That’s just why the adults excuse Nemona for acting like that. Like, because she’s so strong and tough, that they don’t want to think there might be something wrong.”
“And there is. Sometimes, rarely, she’s really, really quiet, and sad. Like she’s lost the whole world, or maybe isn’t a part of this one. Despondos?” That doesn’t sound right. Drilbur didn’t know how to pronounce the word either and just shrugged.
“Despondant,” my father’s voice came from behind me, and I jumped up.
“Aaah! I mean- Daddy! What are you doing here?” I said, my voice a little high as I turned around to face him.
“Well, last I checked, I work here,” he said with his arms crossed as he stomped forward. “And why d’you reckon your friend is so sad?”
“I dunno,” I mumbled, suddenly self-conscious now that my Dad was asking questions. “Just, a couple of times, I thought I caught her looking really sad, but then Nemona immediately hid it as soon as anyone spoke to her. And it’s not like after that time the Elite Club beat us, it’ll be when she’s really happy. Like, right after her first game session, I doubled back into her room to grab some snacks, and I thought I heard her crying in the bathroom. Do you know why that might be?”
He frowned before exhaling heavily. “No, I can’t say I know exactly why that is, but some people… some people have a lot that weighs them down, even when they should be happy. Just… just try and be there for her if she wants to open up about it. And tell an adult if you notice things getting worse,” he added quickly.
“Yeah, sure,” I agreed. “Now I feel kinda bad about…” I trailed off, wondering how much he had heard before.
“‘Bout being jealous of yer friend? I heard, the sound carries,” Dad pointed at the lift. I was so focused on myself I didn’t even notice it coming down. “You don’t need to be bad about how you feel. The only thing that matters is what you do with those feelings. I reckon that’s why yer training so hard, even though you said you were going to take it easy.” There was a hint of accusation in his voice and I looked down at the ground.
“Nemona and the others are busy fighting the League Club, and I want to too! She beat that jerk Atticus before I could, which is fine, I could still challenge him for his current rank but- but I-” I wouldn’t win. Not right now. “And it’s not just Nemona; Drayton’s team is weak to mine and I can’t beat him. Kieran and Carmine are way too strong too; and they don’t even have any special teachers like Drayton has!” Like I have; Dad gave me a bunch of tips already on how to teach Fairy Types and he promised to find even more for me.
My dad nodded. “You don’t need ta push yourself so hard. I told you before, but you’re already doing great. I don’t want to see my little girl burn herself out fighting so hard. So don’t worry about it. I’ve met yer friends, they’ll understand it might take you a bit longer to catch up. You’ve got years left and that’s just at Blueberry Academy; I’m sure you’ll remain friends after school too.”
I let out a sigh of relief. Just hearing him give me permission let me relax and I hugged him. “Thanks, Dad. I was worried about letting them down, but I didn’t want to end up like Kieran was.”
“Oh? Sounds like there’s a story there. Why don’t you tell me all about it over breakfast?” My stomach grumbled at the reminder of food, and all of my team who had been listening in let out a cheer.
“Sounds good- oh!” I let out as I felt Drilbur at my side. I turned to her. “Thank you for all your hard work. All of you, it’s been a lot and I really appreciate it. And we’re gonna keep on fighting, till we’re the strongest, cutest team around!” They all cheered at that. “But we can take some breaks too, and you’ve all earned one.” I don’t know how Nemona has the drive to do this for six to eight hours a day.
Drilbur pointed at me, and the meaning was clear that she thought I did too. Then, she hugged me as well, being careful with her claws, and I reached an arm around her. Then I felt my starter begin to grow underneath my grip. Opening my eyes, I saw her glowing brightly. In a flash, she finished her evolution, more than doubling in height, gaining a sharp hood over her long face, and her becoming drastically longer and more deadly.
“Ex? Excadrill!” She exclaimed, waving her hands in the air, and I rushed in to give her an even tighter hug (careful not to cut myself though).
“You did it, you evolved!” I exclaimed, shouting with glee alongside her.
“Tha’s wonderful,” Clay said, wiping a tear from his eyes. Then he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Remember this moment. If you ever feel like your friends are blasting off ahead of you, just know that you’re growing at your own pace, and that’s an incredible thing.” There was a note of awe in his voice, and I nodded.
“I will, thank you.” I think there’s a lot of things I need to figure out, but I can do that. I’ve got time, and wonderful friends and family to help me.
A/N: This interlude shifted a little from what I originally envisioned, but I still like showing Lacey’s side of things. She’s not a super genius prodigy, but she’s more aware than people realize. I also liked having an evolution that was less action triggered but more around the emotion and resolve shared between Trainer and Pokemon.
I’ll also clarify here that Lacey is indeed quite skilled and advanced for her age - she’s just comparing herself against some very stiff competition. Drayton is a genius who’s been trained by Dragon Tamers from a young age, Kieran and Carmine are rare prodigies, and Nemona is a cheating cheater who cheats (isekaid). The fact that she’s able to keep up in a competitive school like Blueberry Academy six years early is impressive in its own right, but I wanted to show that there were still some difficulties in trying to reach the top there, and Lacey was the one who would be struggling the most with that.
With this, she’ll still be around, but she isn’t aiming to get onto the Elite Four of the club any time soon.