The familiarity of the surroundings on landing shocked Selene. It was that uncomfortable reminder of one's own destiny, one's own ultimate inability to choose that that mattered most dearly to them – their direction in this world forward. The buildings, their shape, size, once so daunting and full of whispered promise stirred sentiments of restive nausea, memories locked in a casket believed to be lost at sea not at all accidentally. To even the masters and mistresses of reinvention some places have the ability to strip away all facades and expose one's original state, as though an unbreakable snapshot of history, as a basis for the individual, that comes rushing back on the mere crunch of gravel under a sneaker.
On facing these feelings, there is but one option for the practiced master of reinvention – to take a deep breath, swallow down the discomfort to the pits of one's stomach and employ that tactic known as the 'game face', stride ahead with one's head held high, unrelenting in the facade.
They do say that if you tell yourself something enough, you'll start to believe it, right?
"What are you thinking of?"
That voice that had grown as inevitably familiar to Selene as the buildings around her startled the girl out of her reverie. A strong hand clasped on her shoulder. A scent of musk, of home, washing through her nose like a tidalwave, instant relaxation.
"Not much, strangely. I should feel more, coming back after all that has happened I suppose. But I don't. I'm looking forward to getting back into training, but that's all. As soon as I can leave I'll be off, the pokemon league isn't going to defeat itself, and I'm not exactly one for wallowing in the same pit for too long as you well know dear brother," said Selene, her husky voice almost wistful as she patted her brother's reassuring hand briefly before gently shrugging it off her shoulder.
Her Father's death had affected the whole family, and it took time for them to grieve, some more than others but Jake had been hit particularly hard like Selene. Two years older than her, Jake had passed up the opportunity to take on a pokemon journey of his own to partake in the family transport business, but the death of a Father brought Swellow home to roost and he couldn't justify living on that island for any longer. The family unit was tight, there was no need for either of the siblings to worry about their Mother and Grandparents being cared for, so it was time for elder to follow younger and start out on his own journey. Selene was reluctant at best to return to the trainer academy, but following various heartfelt and well reasoned arguments from Jake as to why the Academy would be a great place to start, or return to, she found herself quickly using up her store of answers and excuses and deciding on two words of compliance: 'ok then.'
Perhaps not a ringing endorsement, but it did the job.
"Well, now that we're here...I'm completely starved. Did you say there was a cafeteria in this place, or just a communal kitchen?"
Selene looked at Jake. Her brother seemed perpetually hungry, and she wasn't sure why it irked her, but it did. Not everything had to have rhyme or reason...
"A cafeteria. Do you really think the powers that be would trust a load of hungry teenagers with a kitchen? The whole academy would be burned to cinders before you could say Charizard. Come on, I'll show you. As long as it hasn't moved it should be this way," Selene began to walk in the direction of where the cafeteria was in her day, trusting that such an integral feature of the Academy wouldn't be moved...too far...
"You'll have to introduce me to all your buddies, Sel. Despite the fact that I don't know any of their names, or even if they exist, I'm sure you must have made friends. With your natural charm and wit I don't see how you couldn't, hey," he held his hands up, dark eyebrows raised above eyes that were identical to his younger sister's, as Selene punched him in the arm with a grunt. "You heard what Mum said. No fighting, unless it's with pokemon, no squabbling and look after each other. I may well be the older brother but that goes both ways kid. Or do I and my pokemon need to teach you a lesson...again..?"
"I told you, that was a one time slip up. I wasn't expecting your Steelix to have aqua tail. You still haven't told me how you pulled that one off by the way, how do you teach a Steel- Ground-type a Water type move?" she questioned, brows furrowed into a slight scowl. Jake laughed heartily and the scowl on Selene's face deepened.
"The same way you managed to teach your Electric mouse Surf?" he retorted with humour in his face and Selene was silenced for a moment.
"Fair enough, it doesn't matter anyway. I still won that battle, you beat Aitken with Steelix but I think you'll find that my Ryan floored 3 of your team in the space of 10 minutes, so I wouldn't get too over-confident. You have a long way to go, but Beginner Trainer 101 will teach you the basics," Selene quipped, a confident smirk returning to her face.
She had ensured that she kept up with her training whilst away, using her Brother as the ideal sparring partner. He was easy to convince, she merely argued that he would need to train well before reaching the academy, and as a direct result of their sparring sessions his Onyx had evolved into Steelix, his Machop into a Machoke, his Slowpoke had had a bizarre encounter with a King's Rock mid-battle and had evolved into Slowking, whilst his Munchlax remained a cute, chubby Munchlax and his Karrablast was a freshly-caught pokemon. As much as Selene urged him to rethink his team and plug some of the obvious gaps that left him weak and vulnerable, Jake insisted that these were his pokemon and he would stick with them win or lose. Selene often laughed at this assertion. A few losses in the Academy would soon beat that attitude out of him.
"Ok, food, in here" said Selene, her hand resting on the handle of the cafeteria door, pushing firmly as Jake almost bundled past her in his rush to reach sustenance.
Selene froze as Jake strode right on over to the serving area as though he ate in that cafeteria every day. Her eyes had found the one person she was hoping to avoid for as long as she possible could, with a Zorua and some other people who, to be frank, were just shadows with outlines at that moment in time. Valorie. Darn.
Awkwardness engulfed Selene and she quickly took a seat, turning so only her back was visible should Valorie look over, busying herself with her Xtransciever.
Great start, Sel...
