A New Dream

Divided Attention: Dawn's POV

The hike down the Volcano in the dark was uneventful and I found myself replaying my dance battle with Traavi. For my first time I didn't think I had done bad, but I wished I had thought to teach Growlithe a showier move like Overheat or something like that. When I got to the PokeCenter I dropped off my pokemon and attacked the dinner selection with gusto.

After downing a whole bowl of delicious udon and drinking two cups of moomoo milk I leaned back, pleasantly full. I felt my eyes wandering among the people in the cafeteria and jerked when I realized that I had instinctively been looking for a flash of purple hair. Slumping back in my seat I sighed, going over our last conversation once again.

Paul seemed to instinctively know the exact buttons to push to make me angry at him and sometimes I wondered if he actually did it on purpose. When he told me to leave him alone I was too upset with him to realize that it actually hurt that he rejected my offered friendship once again. I'd never had such a hard time getting along with anyone before. What really stumped me though was that there were times when he seemed to let his guard down, like on the ferry ride to Akala, and I had seen a side to him that I didn't outright hate.

With a sigh I shook my head, not getting anywhere by thinking about that jerk, and instead I thought about Traavi. From the first time I saw him perform in the Iki Town Showdown he had impressed me. He was obviously a talented performer and his pokemon knew really advanced moves. He also wasn't bad on the eyes and seemed to be at least a little bit interested in me.

What I'm not sure, I thought to myself, is if he is a flirt and acts like this with all the girls he meets, or if he is genuinely interested. 

I didn't have much experience with guys. The only guys I had traveled with were Ash, who was my best friend, Brock, who was a cool older brother type, and Kenny who for obvious reasons I had no romantic interest in. Traavi was attractive, I would admit that in a heartbeat, and dancing with him had been exhilarating... But if I was right and he was interested in me... was I interested in him?

Shaking my head once again I stood up from the table and returned my dirty dishes to the kitchen. No point thinking about it if I don't know how he feels. I need to focus on my performances anyways. I decided and walked towards the nurse's station to see if my pokemon had finished their check-up. 

Nurse Joy was come back from the showdown and told me that all of my pokemon were looking great. She gave me some tips on how to make sure Eevee grew up strong and healthy through her baby stage and recommended I mix in some special vitamin powder with her food.

Traavi still hadn't shown up so I decided to head to my room, asking Nurse Joy to let Traavi know where I was if he ended up asking. Nurse Joy smiled widely at that but simply nodded and I walked away, trying to keep myself from blushing. 

He probably won't come anyway, I told myself to calm my burning cheeks as I headed to the room Nurse Joy had assigned me.

Once I closed the door behind me I released all my pokemon and they pranced around the room energetically, causing me to smile. I did not have a large abundance of energy at the moment so I sat down on a bunk bed and flopped back, sighing lightly. A bounce in the mattress signaled the arrival of someone and I cracked my eyelid open to see Growlithe padding over towards me.

I smiled at him and rubbed his ear affectionately. He stood still and let me play with his ear as Eevee chased Piplup around the room. I let my hand fall back to the mattress after a minute and Growlithe came over to me, pushing his cold nose against my cheek.

"I'm fine, Growlithe. I'm just a little sleepy," I giggled and he barked once before jumping off the bed and joining in on the fun. Listening to the sounds of my happy pokemon I felt peaceful and before I knew it I drifted off to sleep.