[PKMN OPEN] The Pokémon Trainer Academy (T) [Best Veteran 4Q '11]

Valorie didn't seem okay, Selene thought with a frown. She stood up and walked over to her, careful not to seem as though she was pushing her presence on her, and caught her eye. She gestured with her head towards the sea, wordlessly asking Valorie to walk with her. Once they were out of earshot she stopped walking and looked out at the sea.

"You okay, you seem...really subdued. Is it just tiredness, it has been a ridiculously long day, or is it...you know, something else? You can tell me to mind my own business if you want, that's cool, I'm just...I don't know, concerned for you." She noticed a small patch floating on the sea that was a different colour to the water and frowned. "Hold on a sec," she said, wading in to the shallows and looking down to see an injured Horsea. She started, "It...it's a Horsea! It looks hurt...umm...right," she took a pokeball and pressed it against the injured pokemon, watching as the pokemon was swallowed by the ball. It quivered once, twice...then was still. Right, she could take it to the centre now. "Valorie...I may have just caught a Horsea...in what was quite potentially the easiest capture ever," she frowned, turning and splashing back to Valorie. "I really need to take this Horsea to the pokemon centre on campus...and I need to pick Blu up too...but can we talk later?" she asked, placing her hand on Valorie's arm lightly.

Well it seemed like eveything was back to normal so Jack was relieved happy that everything had turned out right "Yeah no problem Mark" Jack didn't care anymore that the battle was interrupted so he just went back over to his beach towel and his bag and just laid down trying to relax after that hectic situation. Now everyone was doing their own thing Selena and Valorie were off doing whatever, Mark was recovering and Brian was being Brian. It was finally a chance for Jack to lay back and just do nothing not interrupted by sounds of pokemon battles just the calm ocean breeze.

Valorie didn't seem happy and that didn't exactly make Mark feel any better about himself. Was it the whole mouth to mouth thing? It was kind of emberessing but... eh. Selene soon walked off to the beach signaling Valorie to follow her. He wasn't exactly sure what was up... was it something he said or some way he acted? He hope she didn't think baddly of him. Maybe she needed some time to herself... Once the two girls walked off, Mark weakly got up onto his feet, slumping a little. He noticed that Valorie's Dratini stayed behind and was looking at Mark curiously.

"Oh. Hehe. Guess I should thank you as well. You really saved my butt out there." Mark said, petting Dratini happily. "I'll be sure to make it up to you and Valorie sometime in the future." Mark got up to his feet and stretched out.

"...Hey guys, I actually brought along some food myself. Anybody want some watermelon?" Mark offered to the rest of the group.

Snype overheard Duster's comment on Bri's smile and let off a loud laugh. He willingly jumped up onto Bri's shoulder and gave off a similar smile for Duster to compare the two. ["Kehehe. How similar do our smiles look?"] He joked.

Picking up her beach bag, Sel smiled at Mark, Jack and Brian and returned Ri and Ryan to their pokeballs, despite protests from the former. "I just caught a Horsea!" she exclaimed happily, holding up the ball and grinning, "but it was injured...I think it had been paralysed by Ryan's thunderbolt from before...so I'm going to take it up to the Pokemon Centre and pick up Blu while I'm there. But I'll be back shortly, so don't leave!" she crouched down next to Mark under the pretence of folding up her beach towel. "And Mark...Valorie still seems rather shaken by the whole thing...just, take care of her yeah?" she gave him a last smile and walked off towards campus.

What a day, she thought as she walked. So much drama...who'd have thought it! A good day overall, despite the attack, a new pokemon and getting to know everyone that bit more - had to be good! And she couldn't wait to pick Blu up and introduce Horsea to the gang...they'd love her, she knew it. Her team had been quite sorely missing a water-type for a while - Blu's ice attacks didn't carry the same type weightings - and so she was looking forward to training with Horsea. The afternoon was moving into evening, and there was a cool breeze around the school - Sel had her shorts and a loose cardigan in her bag, so she decided to change in the bathrooms at the Centre.

As she walked through the automatic doors of the Pokemon Centre, Nurse Joy smiled at her. "He's ready for you!" she said, as though reading Sel's mind, looking confused as Sel placed 3 pokeballs on the desk. "Thank you Nurse Joy, but these Pokemon need healing too, if you wouldn't mind." she said and Nurse Joy nodded, taking the pokeballs and placing them in her healing machine. "They'll be a couple of minutes, if you could take a seat," Sel nodded and went and changed in a bathroom, pulling her shorts and cardigan on over her bathing suit. When she emerged, she noticed that Nurse Joy had a rather large box for her next to her pokeballs. "All done...and this, this box has a couple of disposable barbeques and some sausages, burgers, chicken and some food for your pokemon. I heard that you and your friends had had a pretty tough day, so I sent over to the Mart and got these packed up for you." Sel was touched and thanked Nurse Joy wholeheartedly, releasing Ri to carry the box. Well-rested, Ri was full of energy and grabbed the box, rushing out of the Pokemon Centre. "RI! WAIT UP!" Sel shouted, saying goodbye to Nurse Joy and running out of the Pokemon Centre after Ri.

At Ri's pace, they were back at the beach in no time. "Hey guys! Look what Nurse Joy sent over," she set about unpacking the box, "BBQ's, sausages, chicken, and even some pokeblocks!! Umm..." she hesitated, looking at the barbeque with a frown, "does anyone know how to work these things..?"

"Haha! Snype is prettier than you Bri!" Duster said laughing aloud at them.
"That's cause he's a pokemon!" Brian said. He kind of agreed with her though. He wondered what happened to Drizzle and Snivy. He looked around and saw them in the water. She was, with great difficulty and lots of complaining, swimming. Kind of. Drizzle was floating right next to her, with one paw under her, coaching her along gently. Selene ran back to the group with lots of food, right at the same time Mark announced he had brought some too.
"Huh, I didn't even notice you had gone anywhere," Brian said, flushing a little bit. Duster laughed her head off at him. He had no idea how to use a grill or anything like that. His father was the one that grilled! Jack had apparently forgotten all about their battle, andf Bri was certainly not going to remind him!

Jack hopped up off his beach towel and walked over to the food Blaze following behind him knowing that he would be needed. "OK why don't the ladies relax and we take care of this" Jack took the box from Selena and gestured to Brian and Mark to come over and start helping. It wasn't a everyday thing for Jack to barbeque but he knew the basics and was more than willing to help out.

"Yeah, I had to nip to the Pokemon Centre, speaking of which," Selene dropped her bag on the ground and ran into the water, staying in the shallow end. "Go, Horsea!" she released her new pokemon and gazed at it adoringly as Horsea watched her intently. "Ohhh!!" cooed Selene, gathering up the little water pokemon in her arms and cuddling it tightly. Apparently, Horsea did not appreciate this, and she smacked Selene in the face with her tail, twirling out of Sel's grasp gracefully and falling into the water with a plop. Sel frowned, and ran a hand through her hair. "Huh...early days hey? Okay then...well, we'll just get to know each other..." she paused, deep in thought. Then, suddenly, brainwave! A group next to her had a large paddling pool, and she walked over and grinned at them. "Excuse me...could I please borrow this? I've just caught a Horsea and...well, i think we need to get to know each other before she's happy with me holding her...but we're up the beach there and I'm not leaving her in the sea." The group agreed, and Selene released Ri and Ryan to help her drag the paddling pool over to the others. Selene then ran back down to where Horsea had been watching and scooped her up, "it's only for a moment," she said quietly, walking back to the group and placing her in the paddling pool softly. She watched as Horsea swam backwards and forwards, stopped and watched Sel, and suddenly chirruped her name. If she could, Sel would've sworn that Horsea was smiling.

Looking up at Valorie, Sel nodded. "Hey, all okay?" she didn't want to seem too pushy, but she wanted Valorie to know that she could talk to her whenever she wanted to. She watched as Dratini cuddled up to Mark and her eyes widened, she couldn't help but laugh. "Looks like you have an admirer Mark!!" Selene looked at Jack and grinned, giving him the thumbs up. "Yeah, you go ahead Jacky-boy, if you know what you're doing and won't burn the beach down then please, please whip these lazy boys into shape and get us some chow!"

Mark nodded at Selene as she walked off to the Pokemon center.

As Mark walked over to grab the food out of his bag he noticed Dratini was following him, Rubbing up against Mark affectionately. Mark crouched down to his bag and petted Dratini again. Reaching into his bag he had quite a bit of snacks inside. Mostly chips, some Pokemon food, that sort of thing. One he pulled out the snacks, Mark began to carry a Large watermelon, hopefully enough for everybody.

Mark put the watermelon on the empty box. Not like he had anywhere else to place it. "Hey Jack, could you use your Scyther to cut up this watermelon for everybody?" Mark requested. Dratini was still following Mark cuddling up against his Leg. Snype hopped off of Bri's shoulder and crawled off to join Mark.

["Kehehe. This kid sure is taking a liking to you Mark!"] Snype said. Mark smiled down at Snype. He began to open up the various bags of chips and other snacks that Mark had placed down. This has been quite a day...

Mark walked over to Selene and Valorie. "Hehehe. Valorie, Your Dratini seems to really like me!" Mark said cheerfully

Jack had started barbequeing everyone finally looked like they had returned to normal except Valorie who was still acting weird but that really was none of his business. Jack heard Mark request Blade's services and complied as he sent over Blade to Mark and his watermelon, slicing it with skill and accuracy showing off a bit after not getting the chance to finish his battle earlier. "Hey Valorie if your Charmander helped out we can finish this alot quicker" Jack was requesting some help since Blaze was already there providing the heat needed to cook the meat.

"Yep! I never felt better! Thanks again by the way..." Mark said to Valorie. Snype was back with everybody else helping in whatever way he could with the BBQ, mostly doing small tasks that he could handle. He reached into Mark's bag and pulled out a few Poke Snacks and Pokeblocks.

["Kehehe! Bottoms up!"] Snype said as he put a Pokeblock into his mouth. Mark looked over the the group and smiled. "Hey um... you alright Valorie? You seemed kinda down back there..." Mark said scratching his head nervously. "Anything I can do to help out?" He asked, smiling.

Brian made himself as busy as he could helping everyone out. He got out some paper plates that Duster apparently snuck in his bag. He smiled at her, and put slices of watermelon on some of them and began handing them out to his friends. He smiled good naturedly and passed some pokeblock out to all the pokemon.
"So Snype can't eat it all!" Brian explained with a grin. After everyone had some watermelon, he watched Jack with interest.
"Um... Would you teach me to do that?" Brian asked.

Mark smiled at her in response. "Well, hey! We got some food over there if you'd like to join us. We got Watermelon and everything!" Mark said trying to not make things seem awkward at all. He looked back at the group. Several pokemon we enjoying their food. Commodore, not needing to eat, simpily sat there and watched everybody else until somebody would need his help. Snype was munching on a slice of watermelon that Bri had handed out to him. He made short work of it.

"Comon Valorie! Let's grab something to eat!" Mark said cheerfully. He signaled her to follow him and walked to where all of the food was. He was eying the watermelon sharply... he would usually try to eat the whole thing when given the chance. Resisting the temptation, he grabbed two slices. One for himself and Valorie. "Here." Mark said, handing Valorie a slice.

Watermelon was being shared, pokefood was being shared out and the food was going on well thanks to the two Charmanders. Even Blade was getting in the mood eating and finally relaxing for a change. Brian had requested Jack teach him, obviously talking about the barbecue. "Sure dude" Jack brought him a little closer to the action where the heat really was. "Its nothing hard just have to make sure that neither side of the meet is burnt and you'll be all good" Jack placed the spatula for flipping the meat that was in the box in Brian's hands "Good luck" Jack went off and took up some of the pokemon food to feed Rocky. "Its been a good day, you would know that if you weren't sleeping all day" Jack joked as he leaned on the big rock type.

Skye smiled from a distance as he stood by Alice. He wasn't sure if he should bother them or not. He only knew Bri and Mark. The others seemed different, he saw from his one glance, while he himself was just plain shy. So he quietly sat down, carefully tending to Rama's wounds, even as Mark was injured. He believed they didn't need his help and they hadn't. Ellie walked over to him as he began to hum again, loving the sweet melody his mother had taught him. It always calmed the others, particularly Rama and his thrashing. He began to sing the words quietly, without a hint of a stutter. Skye wasn't sure why he didn't stutter when he sang but he was happy. Ellie purred lightly, nuzzling his arm as he worked.