Jirachi's Twin Bonus Stories (btyu and others ♥)

VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL | Just a Little Longer

At the sound of her reassurance, Team Yell dispersed a bit to relax back into Spikemuth's alleys, leaving Marnie alone in the center of the court. The kid's rude remarks weren't original, but even now they still hurt to hear. She sighed bitterly to herself and began to walk off the field.

You just can't please all of 'em.

Then, pulling out her phone, Marnie decided to dial up Gloria's number.

The two of them were very different people. Gloria was sweet and open-hearted, always in the mood for fun, while Marnie was often more laid-back and level-headed—with a dash of salt, of course. Despite their contrasts, the two girls were genuine friends by now, hanging out on every weekend they could manage—often also accompanied by Bede.

Gloria's perky voice immediately popped up in the phone's speaker, relieving Marnie of all her pent-up annoyance dealing with barrages of rude challengers.

"Hey Marnie!" she beamed, "Finished with your challenges today, have you?"

"Yeah, pretty much. After this jerk of a challenger showed up, I'm ready to close up the court early today."

A sympathetic sigh filtered through the phone, "Again? I'm so sorry Marnie... some people are just sore losers."

She dismissed it quickly, "It's fine, really. I've seen it enough to be pretty callous to it if m' honest now."

"I'm sorry to hear that... want to hang out to make up for it?"

Marnie smiled, "Sure, why not?" then, twiddling with a split end in her hair, she went on, "Can we invite Bede too? He always seems to be with us these days."

"Oh? Bede?" she could hear Gloria grinning on the other side, "Wow I never thought I'd see the day when you invite him!"

Marnie rolled her eyes, but there was a secret smirk on her face.

"Alright, alright. I'll call him. Meet me at Hammerlocke then—we'll all get ice cream at Hammerlocke like we usually do."

When they said goodbye, Marnie stared for an extra moment at the screen.

"Bede..." she mumbled, the consonants of his name imprinting on her lips as she thought of him momentarily.

Then she smiled, and turned towards her house to change out of her uniform.

*     *     *

Naturally, Marnie was the first one to Hammerlocke. After all, she only lived a bike ride's distance away, and she was the first to know where they were all going. This early arrival gave her extra time to sit down on a park bench and observe the children as they lackadaisically romped about on the jungle gym.

I invited Bede myself this time, she realized, tucking her hands into her jacket pockets, Is that a good thing?

Bede was such a strange case. Out of everyone she'd ever hated, no one got under her skin the way Bede had. He was flamboyant, egotistical, rude—all the traits that green-eyed blond boy had proudly worn whenever he strutted about the school halls. When Marnie saw Bede for the first time, she vowed never to cross his path—fearing the incident long ago in her middle school days.

But of course, Gloria had to go and befriend him for some reason.

Though she sympathized with her after losing touch with Hop, Marnie detested the idea of Gloria befriending Bede. She envisioned nothing good coming from their friendship—assuming he'd belittle and disappoint them over and over again, but she couldn't have been more wrong.