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

Bri smiled. While he was great with pokemon, he was clueless as to what went on in another human's mind.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" he said joyfully. Thyme tugged on his hair, and he turned.
"Mark is calling you," she said. He smiled. He hadn't expected to run into Mark here!
"Oh! Thanks, Thyme!" he said. He turned and waved at Mark.
"How's it going, Mark! Um... Hi Valerie!" he said, a little nervously when he saw her. He hadn't heard what Mark had said, so he had no idea Mark wanted him to come over to him. He looked around and spotted Selene, and flushed a red that had nothing to do with his sunburn. Thyme sighed and yanked on his hair again.
"Uh... Hi Selene..." He said, still very nervous. He turned back to Skye with a grin.
"I didn't expect them to be here!" he said.

Rama snorted. "Never leave this guy with girls Skye. He's worse than you are with humanity." Skye rolled his eyes. "Kid," he called to Bri. "Breathe. Relax."

Skye laughed gently. "Bri," he mumbled. "I t-th-think Mark wants tuh-to tuh-halk to yuh-you." He would stay away. He was not very good at this sort of thing. Rama took that as his cue and bolted off. He knew he smelled a Pokemon!

Hearing her name called by a familiar voice, Sel looked up, having been startled out of her reverie. She noticed that her hand tightened somewhat instinctively around the Thunderstone she was carrying as she looked over at Valorie, Mark, Bri and another boy she thought was called Skye but didn't know all too well. She paused for a moment, smiling brightly at them all and waving before walking over slowly.

What should she do about her Thunderstone...hide it?? She dismissed that thought with a laugh, what would the guys do - steal it? Nah, she figured she'd ask them about her predicament with Ryan...evolve him now or train him up some more before evolution...either way, she wasn't sure, input from her peers would probably be the best thing for her.

"Hey Valorie, Mark, Bri and um Skye is it??" she greeted them all with a smile and a wave as she walked over, dropping her flip flops on the floor and sticking her feet into them. Her eyes flicked between Valorie and Mark...they looked close...they looked as though they'd been together for a while today...this brought a grin to her face and she looked at Valorie pointedly, as though saying 'We will have A LOT to talk about later," with her eyes.

"How have your classes been?" she asked Mark and Valorie, having been in mining class with Bri and Skye. "Did you learn a lot about pokemon fieldwork and that business?" she figured she'd lead the conversation into classes so she could bring up her mined Thunderstone that way...she didn't want to jump in all 'LOOK WHAT I FOUND' and seem like she was showing off...which was unusual. Normally Sel couldn't wait to show off whenever she felt she had room to brag, but around these guys...well, she didn't really feel the need to try and show off too much. Her tone was, however, somewhat quieter and more reserved than usual due to her thinking about the Thunderstone - she had been lost deep in her thoughts when Valorie shouted her over, and hadn't quite bounced back from that yet.

Bri nodded his head as Rama took off.
"Uh... Ok," Bri said. Thyme was laughing at his awkwardness. Bri pulled himself together and, with a wave at Skye, walked over to Mark.
"Hey guys, what's up?" he asked. He hoped it wasn't another pokemon battle. The only pokemonthat were in any shape to battle were Duster and Nova!

Both Sel and Bri responded to the call. Skye had followed Bri over as well. What a crowd! Either way, This was gonna be one heck of a conversation.

"What? You had mining? Darn it we learned some stuff in the field. Mostly fishing today. I could have caught myself a pokemon but ran into... well... a few problems... I'll explain later. Personally, Mining sounded a bit more interesting to me... but I guess its because I'd have a reason to be up in the mountains looking for Pokemon." Mark replied to Valorie. Then, she pulled something out from her bag. To his surprise, it was a Thunderstone!

"You lucky little..." Mark muttered quietly under his breath. "I mean, Wow! That's awesome Sel! I'm gonna take a wild guess on who your gonna use it on. Haha." Mark said. He finally looked over to Bri.

"Oh, right. Um... could you do me a Favor Bri? You don't have too but Val and I just need your help on this. See, Valorie's Dratini here seemed to randomly really take a liking too me. I guess its normal for a Pokemon to be really affectionate but its only started yesterday... mostly after we left the beach. We were wondering, Maybe you could talk to Dratini and possibly see if you can find out what it sees in me? Or you could ask Snype... he might know about it. He has been talking to her quite alot lately..." Mark requested. Snype looked over to Mark and back at Bri, wondering who he would ask first if he accepted the request. It would be interesting to talk to a human and have a real response from one. In the meantime, Snype went over to meet with Snivy, unaware of her name.

["Hey Snivy! Hows it going?"] Snype said, waving up to her.

"Hello, Snype. By the way... My name is Thyme. It always has been, so don't go thinking I changed it in the last five minutes or something!" Thyme said looking down at the ghost. Bri was stunned. Mark couldn't understand what his pokemon were saying? How could someone live like that?
"Wait... You mean you can't hear them? Wouldn't that make it harder to be a trainer?" Bri asked nervously. Was he the only one that could understand his pokemon? He couldn't be! The others seemed to know their own pokemon so well. Then his mind registered the rest of the conversation. He turned to Selene.

"Wow... That's, um, that's really cool that you found a thunderstone! All I got was a Growlithe that tried to kill Thyme," Bri said, trying to make it sound like a joke. Thyme gave him a reproachful look. Bri turned back to Mark

"Um... I guess I'll do it. And you wouldn't have liked mining class. All it was was digging up stupid rocks. Not very interesting at all. I would have loved to switch with you," Bri said. He bit his lip. For some reason he felt like a part of the circus. Everyone was staring at him. It made him very uncomfortable. Who should he talk to first?
"Um, hey there! What's your name?" he said to the Dratini. He turned to Snype.
"And you, Snype, do you know what's going on?" he asked. Thyme turned to Snype.
"If you don't tell him, I'll... I'll use Attract on you again!" she threatened.

Skye smiled and he went to follow Rama. Bri would be fine now. He'd be fine and not missed. He knew that. Not to mention it probably wasn't his business. He would come back later. Rama yipped and growled as he made it to a meadow where Deerling were grazing. One saw Skye and went over, sniffing curiously. Skye smiled companionably and reached out a hand to pet the wild creature. It was too peaceful to battle. They'd do that later.

Bri noticed that Skye had left, but said nothing. He probably had his own stuff to do. That was fine with Bri. He turned to Dratini, who had answered him first.
"Dratini? That's a nice name! I don't know why you understand me, or why I understand you, but I do. I'm glad we can understand each other. Listen, um, your trainer is a friend of mine, and she wanted me to ask you a question for her. She's seen that you really like our other friend right there. Can you tell me why?" Bri asked, choosing his words with care. He could tell Dratini had a very limited vocabulary. She was probably very young then. Would he have to teach the pokemon in the egg how to speak? He got very excited about that prospect!

Thyme glanced at the charmeleon and saw it staring at her. She began shaking a little, but her attitude came out. So, instead of trying to hide like she wanted to do, she looked at the charmleon and said, "What are you looking at?!"

["Oh! Sorry. Kehehe. Good to See you Thyme. There's a name I can get used to."] Snype replied giving off a large smile. ["I take it you've been busy up in the mountains eh?"]

Mark scratched his head at Bri's response. Not what he was expecting. "Um... not exactly. All I can hear is them saying their names constantly usually... I can sorta understand Snype but its mostly from his gestures. Your pretty good with Pokemon so I figured you could help out." Mark said.

Bri started to talk to both Dratini and Snype. Thyme however threatened to use Attract on Snype if he didn't talk. ["Ah! Nononononono! Anything but that! Listen Thyme, your lucky Duster snapped me out of that little trance before I got really into it! Attract tends to have REALLY long term effects on me... even after battles... But hey I'm gonna talk anyways! Don't get any ideas..."] Snype had a feeling Thyme would really take advantage of this whole Attract buisness. Thyme could threaten him with the move and he could end up doing whatever she asked. Sheesh... If Thyme didn't listen to Snype things would end up getting ugly... and not in the violent way.

["Well Dratini, This guy apparently understands us, though... I can understand humans pretty fine myself... but either way, Guess we should tell em whats going on eh?"] Snype said. Mark looked at both of them curiously, anticipating Bri's translation. ["Well... as much as I don't want to give anything away, Thyme's threat has convinced me otherwise. Kehehehe... Dratini over here... well..."] Snype jumped up onto Bri's other shoulder and whispered in his ear. He didn't want to hurt Dratini's feelings by saying something out of character from the whole family thing.

["Dratini over there believes that Mark is his Dad... funny as it sounds."] Snype said. ["Ask Dratini if ya don't believe me. He believes Valorie is her Mother as well but I think they know that already..."]

Thyme glared at Snype when he brought up the mountains. She continued to glare at him even harder when he climbed up on Brian's shoulder. She was a very jelous pokemon. Brian was hers, and she didn't like sharing. When Sype was done talking, she used her vines and shoved him off Brian's shoulder.
"Off!" was all she said. Bri caught him with practiced hands and set him on the ground.
"Erm... Sorry about that Snype. Thyme can be very... mean," he said. His mind was on what Snype had just said. Dratini thought Mark was her father? Why? His mind blinked back to that day on the beach. If he hadn't known what CPR was, he'd have thought they were kissing. The ramifications of what Snype just said hit him like a ton of bricks. He could follow Dratini's logic very easily. Only mothers and fathers kissed, that was probably what the poor confused little pokemon thought. But, how could he break it to her that Val and Mark were just friends? How could he be sure they really were just friends? From what he had seen, they were really really close. But he had no way of knowing for sure. And there was another problem. Bri couldn't keep this to himself, but if he told them, that would affect their friendship with each other, and maybe him too! Also, Bri had very little confidence that Selene could keep this to herself when she found out. Bri couldn't keep it to himself, and she was just as much a gossip as he was, if not more! But he had to tell someone! He whispered it to Thyme, who burst out laughing and nearly fell off his shoulder.
"Tell them! I want to see the looks on their respective faces!" Thyme said between laughs. She was no help at all. Well, they were the ones that had called him. If they could take it, then he had a responsibility to tell them.
"Um... Dratini says you're her father," Bri mumbled as quietly as he could.

Thyme turned her attention back to the snarling Charmleon. She was shaking hard, but she wasn't going to be intimidated by this fool.
"What?! You got a problem with me?!" she said, sounding a little irritated.

"I understand. I believe you! But, your parents don't understand what you're saying. Don't you feel bad, it isn't your fault. They can't understand any pokemon. Not Thyme here, not your big brother Snype, none of them. It's nothing bad, most humans can't. I'm just one of the weird ones that can. And that's why they asked me to help them understand," Bri said soothingly to Dratini. He had taken a shot in the dark by calling Snype her big brother, but if she really believed that, which she clearly did, then why not? He stifled a laugh. By Dratini's logic, Thyme would be his daughter! When she was the one that acted like a parent most of the time. He cleared his throat and said, "Dratini says you guys are her parents. Sge probably saw you giving Mark mouth to mouth and assumed you were, um, kissing,"

"oof!" Snype said as he was pushed off of Thyme. ["Hey Sorry. Just had to whisper that little detail to him. N...no hard feelings right?"] Snype said scratching his head nervously, afraid of any moment Thyme could use Attract to mess with him. Bri then translated what he said to Mark. Valorie had blushed nervously to it of course, Mark however...

"W...what? Wait... I...if I'm the father t...then... ah..." Mark looked at Valorie and blushed. He looked away and turned even more red thinking about it. Dratini... thought that they were her parents? He didn't even know what to say about that... Perhaps some things were better left unknown... too late now though. That just made everything awkward... It must have been when Valorie gave Mark mouth to mouth... Dratini was there. She thought they were kissing! Mark didn't know what to say. He was playing with his fingers nervously.

(OOC: *Cackles like a maniac at the nice, awkward scene we've created*)

"Yeah, whatever," Thyme said dismissing Snype with a wave of her hand. She stood on Bri's soulder, still shaking like a leaf in a windstorm, glaring down at the Charmleon. Her body language said that she would run at any moment, but her eyes held anger and contempt.

Bri sat there and watched his two friends turning red, and felt he himself blushing too! Why was he blushing? Well, this was a very awkward moment. And he had caused it. Of course he would be embarrassed!

"That's what you get!" Thyme said as the Charmleon was returned. She smiled smugly. That would teach her! Thyme visibly relaxed. Bri shot a quick glance at Thyme. She ignored him.

"Well, every kid wishes that. I know that for a fact!" Bri said to Dratini. He was confident that Val and Mark would have no clue what he was talking about with Dratini now. They could only hear his end of the conversation, and he wasn't going to give them any clues. But, the more he looked at them, the more he thought that they did indeed like each other. And not just like, but LIKE like. Maybe with some gentle prodding, they would spend more time together. Then everyone would win. Mark and Val would be happy to spend time together. Dratini would love the fact that her 'parents' were with each other. Thyme would be able to laugh at their gushy antics, and he himself would be happy because his friends were happy! He saw no downside. But one doubt crept into his mind. What if they didn't like each other like that. What if they just wanted to be friends. Well, Bri very much doubted that was the case. Val was very shy and withdrawn, so she'd never move things past where they were now, and Mark, though Bri liked the guy a lot, was seemingly oblivious to how she felt about him. The same could be said for Valerie, for that matter. As things stood, they would never be anything more than friends. But... He didn't think he could do what he planned alone. And if he told Thyme, she'd just laugh and laugh. He had to find someone that could be discreet.

Mark tried to cover his face to hide how nervous he was but really could not hide it. He looked back at Valorie who had been giving a gesture as if apologizing. There wasn't really anything to apologize for... Dratini was young after all. Mark wasn't sure if he should go along with the whole father act though... Thinking about it made him more nervous. He smiled back at Selene approvingly but looked back down to the ground and blushed even more.

Snype scratched his head again. ["Kehehe... Hey I don't blame the kid. Those two could do a bit more spending time together. We were actually gonna go get smoothies. Lets see if that plan is still in action."] Snype said.

"U...um... thanks Bri... really informative..." Mark said simpily, still nervous from what he found out.

"Heh, don't let what I said bother you. I'm just being strange again," Bri said with a smile. He turned to Mark and Valerie. He stood up.
"Well... There you have it. Snype said something about smoothies. What did he mean by that?" Bri said. Thyme turned to Dratini for the first time.
"Brian wishes his parents would spend more time together. They don't have enough time to spend together. That's what he meant," she said thoughtfully to the dragon. Thyme kind of wished they would too. They desevred more time with each other, but Bri's dad had work, and his mom was taking care of Scott. But they did the best they could.