Jirachi's Twin

Memory Four: Morning Madness

Bede blinked awake early the next morning. It was 7:00—almost time for him to head over to the fairy gym in preparation for the festival. There was a requirement that each gym participate in the festival by handing out their league cards to anyone that came to the gyms. Each gym leader was also allowed to sign autographs and take pictures as well on this day. The biggest hype for the festival, however, was undoubtedly the evening event at Wyndon stadium. In the evening, each gym was supposed to put together a presentation of some sort, showing off their skill as gym leaders. There were also a variety of musical acts, and for the opening, all gym challengers that participated that year were supposed to march across the field and wave to the audience.

Bede had never truly been a big help for any past festivals, since he was still considered a trainee, but this time, Opal allowed him to take over preparations for their entire performance block. He'd already planned and mapped the whole demonstration—all that was left was to endure the day at his gym, forcefully signing autographs and posing for pictures.

He sighed, got up, and headed to the bathroom to prepare for the day ahead of him.

"Hopefully nothing goes wrong today—" he dropped his toothbrush, "Oh... oh no... is that me?"

He stared at his reflection. It hadn't really occurred to him what he looked like the night before. It was all such a blur, he could hardly really recall what had gone on. But in that moment, staring at his reflection, he could remember absolutely everything.

"That's me..." he panicked, "Oh... my... gosh..."

His face was bruised in multiple places, and his hair was a tangled mess from sleep. Though most of his bruises appeared to be minor, the original spot where Hop had begun their brawl was extremely opaque. There was a thin cut on his left cheek that ran in-between his jaw and his nose, and it was shaped perfectly like the imprint of a fingernail. Surrounding that cut was a massive, purple bruise resembling Hop's right fist. Overall, it wasn't pretty...

"Oh no... oh no..." Bede lifted up his bangs as he observed his face in the mirror, "The one day I have to present myself to the entire region, and I look like THIS."

Bede paused. He started pacing around his bathroom uncertainly, thinking desperately for a solution.

"What do I do... shoot—what in the bloody name of Arceus, am I supposed to do about THIS!?" a queasy feeling rose in his stomach, "I'm screwed no matter what," he realized, "I'm utterly screwed."

Bede slumped to the floor, defeated, "There's only one thing I can do now..." he sighed.

Bede walked back into his bedroom and picked up his phone. He put in Opal's number and waited for her to pick up.

"Hello, this is Opal?" she answered uncertainly.

"Hi, miss Opal—it's Bede."

"Yeah I know it's you. Your picture came up when you called," she grunted, "Now mind telling me where you are, sonny? You're about to run late, here."

"Actually that's why I'm calling..." Bede sighed, crossing his fingers his plan would work, "See—I woke up a bit sore this morning, and I'm suspicious that I might be coming down with something... I don't think I'm fit to see a bunch of people today—"

"Are you trying to call in SICK Bede!?" Opal suddenly roared. Bede had to move the phone away from his ear to keep from going deaf.

"Well—I—" he stammered.

"Listen here, sonny boy! You sound fine enough to me. Today is going to be a VERY stressful day, and I will NOT tolerate your absence. You should've thought about this BEFORE you went and got yourself sick, you hear me!?"