Forum Thread

Niwa

"A-Anyway!" Icy! Icy! Very icy! More icy than an icy Ice Type! Niwa put a smile on his face. "We should probably- ahem- find our schedules, right? Then sync up." A pause. "Right? Yeah. That should be the case."

The Riolu shook the anxiety off his back and let the door swing shut. He hurried after the two, springing forward on each step until he fell into an easy pace alongside them. No words came to his mind, so he just kept his mouth shut. Ah, gosh, this was so awkward- What was he doing? How much would Isla be laughing at him right now?

---

Isla

Isla sneezed aloud.

"Someone's talking about you!" Luther called obnoxiously from the kitchen. "Betcha it's bad!"

"Shut up!" she yelled back. The Glameow gave a giggle that was quickly cut off by the slam of the kitchen door. Isla heaved an annoyed sigh. Why was her family so idiotic? But she couldn't deny the twinge of affection she felt at their antics.

Rosii popped their head out. "Don't mind Luther. He's mad because his boyfriend stole his poffins."

Sputtering. "He's not-"

"Sure, sure, you hate each other." Isla smirked. Revenge. "Kinda weird how obsessed you both are, though. Is there any particular reason you didn't want him to read your poetry? Some love poems, perhaps?"

"He would've made fun of me!" Luther raged. Isla could hear his pout from over here. And the purrs rumbling in his chest.

"Sure," Isla drawled. Luther was muttering something furiously to Rosii, so Isla took the minute to focus on the power sizzling in her chest. She managed to draw up the leaves on the ground for the briefest second- Razor Leaf! she cried internally. But the leaves just slumped downward.

With a hiss, she sent them flying. And not with any magical power lurking within her. Stupid. Didn't work yesterday, wouldn't work today.

Exactly why you couldn't win for them, her mind whispered. Exactly why all of them are in pain while the rat lives in luxury-

Her jaw clenched.

She didn't need to be reminded of him.

They had Niwa. They didn't need a traitor amongst them, looking down on them for being weak pre-evolves, like he was so much better-

"Are you heading out, Isla?" Rosii asked, popping their head out of the kitchen. Isla let a brief smile grace her face at the sight of the Oddish, blinking curiously at her. She could never hate Rosii, no matter how much she hated everyone else.

"Yeah." She nodded softly. "I'd better."

"Bring back more poffins!" Luther called. Isla snorted, throwing her head back.

"Go ask your boyfriend for his," she retorted, leaving out the front door.

She didn't wait to hear Luther's snarky return. This was a long-rehashed conversation.

He probably wouldn't have one.

---

Kitty took the lead just by a little. "If I remember correctly, it's just down this hallway." She leads the rag-tag group towards the gym, where a large group of pokemon talk excitedly.

Almost immediately, Kitty's confidence vanishes.

She nibbles on her lip a little, and her tail twitches slightly. She really did not want to go in there.

She looks at the Riolu again and frowns again. "I guess I'll go first."

Niwa

Niwa almost said yes.

He came very, very close to it.

But... that wasn't the impression he wanted to give. Hadn't he promised Rosii? Hadn't he sworn he'd do it best to save them all? How was this going to bring him closer to the goal? Flinching back at the sight of a few Pokémon, the ones he'd have to push past to top?

His teeth set together.

No.

"I'll go first," he blurted.

---

Kitty looks at the Riolu. She had no idea what caused him to blurt out like that, but she assumed it had something to do with pride.

That, she could understand. Especially with the way things were back at home...

Kitty flicked her tail, then grabbed the Riolu's paw again. 'Man, I look really clingy right now....' she thought.

Niwa

Niwa startled at the grip. Should he pull back? He bit the inside of his cheek, debating it... But as his tooth pierced, and the heady taste of iron flooded his tongue, he gripped back harder. This was fine. He could wean himself off for now.

"Thanks," he whispered to her. He guided her into the flocks of Pokémon, making their way towards the lines. He hoped his palm wasn't too sweaty. Oh gosh, it was, wasn't it? Oh gosh, he was going to lose his one and only new friend on the very first day he met her-

His scrambled thoughts were interrupted as a Chikorita swept by them. He winced and ducked, narrowly avoiding having his shoulder clipped. His grip tightened on Kitty's tail.

---

Kitty looked at the Niwa again. His nervousness was starting to wear off on her.

'Start a conversation, you Idiot!' She scolded herself.

She never had a friend before, and had no idea what to say. 'Start with names, Kitty'

Kitty gave a light cough. "I realized that I didn't get your name. Mine's Kitty. What's yours?"

'Smooth... Real smooth...' She could feel herself blushing heavily. She hoped her fur would cover it.

Niwa

He barely kept his face blank. A name? Name? What's that? Is that thing wants? Or gives or- Okay, that was enough of that. Niwa ducked a little.

Hello, Kitty. I'm Niwa. Nice to meet you. That's what Rosii would say. That was what Niwa would say in a totally calm way. He would not do the Isla thing and threaten her livelihood in several different ways before two words had even come out regarding her identity which she would never disclose. He would not do the Luther thing which constituted passive-aggressive comments and threatening to steal someone's whiskers.

Do the Rosii one.

Do the Rosii one.

You fool, do the Rosii one!

"I am not Niwa, give me your whiskers!" he blurted out.

And immediately died inside.

"Um! I mean- I'm Niwa, and I don't have whiskers."

An improvement.

"I'm Niwa. Nice to meet you." There we go. Aside from the three introductions, that was totally fine. Everything was totally fine. Nothing to worry about.

---

Kitty chuckled and brushed her tail across his cheek again, then patted his head. "Ni-wa" She repeated. "Should be easy enough to remember."

They finally made it to the table were they were passing out schedules. A chansey and an audino looked at the pair. "Names please?" The chansey said. "Niwa and Kitty." Kitty replied.

The audino set two schedules on the table, and Kitty immediately swiped them, looking for similarities.

Niwa

Niwa craned overtop the Torracat to peer at the classes listed. Oh. He deflated. Only one or two classes in common. That was too bad...

But then again, if she's weak and you need to abandon her... He ground his teeth together, chasing off the insidious thought. That didn't matter. Even if she couldn't help him, they could still be friends, right?

Tears stung the corners of his eyes. Arceus, I'm a terrible Pokémon.

"That's too bad," he said, digging down onto the old pain, attempting to stifle it before he burst into tears in front of a whole gymnasium of Pokémon. "Looks like we'll be in separate classes most of the time."

---

Moon also looked at her schedule, which didn't look that bad, just your average school schedule. She didn't bother to look at her 'friends' schedule s for same classes.

---

Kitty felt guilty for not trying to talk to Moon.

"What's your name?"

Niwa

Niwa shifted his weight, feeling more than awkwardness weighing down his shoulders. "Uh- right. The Mismagius." He hoped his face didn't show how displeased he felt. "I'm Niwa. Sorry, forgot to talk to you."

You just had to be mean, didn't you?

I can't help it! he argued back. And anyway, she seems fine! She won't take this in a weird way at all. Nothing like Isla. He cleared off his brain. That was over, now. It was time to focus on the moment, and stop worrying about Isla. Rosii could deal with that.

Boom! Freed!

He turned his attention to the Mismagius and gave her a slight smile.

---

Moon stared at the two Pokemon asking her name. "I-its moon" she answered, not even bothering to say anything else

---

Niwa

"Moon?" Niwa echoed, cocking his head to the side. It rang in his head. He liked it. "Moon. Yes, that fits. Suits you."

Now that that was out of the way...

"What's your schedule?" he blurted out. "This- is mine-" He practically thrust it in her face. His face flushed with heat. Oh gosh, this is awkward- "See? We can um- compare."

---

Moon stared at Niwa's schedule, before pulling out her own schedule and showing it to Niwa without saying anything.

---

Niwa

Niwa gave it a quick look over. Not too bad. They shared a few classes, at the very least. Maybe he would have a friend here. He felt hope ebb in his heart, but it was quickly stifled when he met Moon's eyes.

No.

Not friends.

Allies, perhaps. He doubted that those cold eyes were capable of anything else.

Niwa gulped a little. Oh gosh, is it just me, or did it get more awkward?

"That's good!" he tried. "We have more classes shared- um, you could compare with Kitty, now? I think we'll all share at least one."

---

"Huh, what? Oh yeah..." Kitty turned around guiltily, and handed her schedule to Moon.

Without saying anything else, she turned back around. She was admiring a Lucario from afar, and her cheeks were heated as she watched him pad about.

'Lucarios are the coolest!' She thought.

Shade just took a sip of a tea, He clearly wasn’t knowledgeable of what the **** is going on but was just there to vibe

---

Moon looked at Kitty's schedule, which had a few shared classes. After looking at it for a while, she handed it back to Kitty

---

Kitty didn't notice Moon. She was still watching the Lucario.