How we meet

Chapter 15

Life is a fickle thing, you realized it quite early on too. Your daily reading only proved this more. How easy people turned on each other. How fast they kill the world that birthed them. You became confused by how people didn't seem affected by the things on the news. Then you realized maybe it was just the people you were around.
Your father loved to watch the news, but it was always in the background. You stared at the screen every time. While your father did whatever he did. You sat there as they announced the arrest of criminals, monsters among humanity.
You only found out later that other kids never watched it. That the parents would sit there and hide their emotions, while the kids played with their toys or whined about wanting to watch something else. Unlike your father they were reactive. You saw their eyes widen a fraction of an inch. How they turned the volume up just a bit more. How the book they were reading was now set aside.
You were never quite sure what went on in your father's mind. When sitting in the meeting room surrounded by gym leaders and other strangers you didn't know. Seeing N walk-in made you feel comforted. Then you were extremely confused. Why was he here? Why was he picked? Oh god was he some fancy rich hotshot? Is that why Burgh had greeted him as if he knew him?
    "Okay, Introductions!" Burgh spoke, placing his hand on your shoulder. "The lady in pink is Champion Iris, the old man beside her is Drayden." You nodded along, "The one in the hat is Clay, and that lady in pink is Caitlin." he pointed to a woman wearing a large pink hat. "Lenora should arrive in just a few seconds." he waved away his thoughts before speaking again, "Then N over there is the former Champion." Then Burgh was gone, a lady who had poked her head in had dragged him away, something about the budget cuts.
    You stood awkwardly as the people in the room quietly conversed. The one girl, Iris? She was loud, she seemed very happy to be talking with Drayden. She seemed to look up to him a lot. Caitlin sat there silently. You couldn't really tell if she was awake or not. She looked ethereal, her clothes looked like they were made for flower petals; you couldn't help but admire them. N was talking with the other guy... You forgot that one's name.
    With a light wave, Caitlin motioned for you to sit beside her. "You are?" She had the most beautiful blue eyes.
    You introduced yourself, stumbling slightly over your words.
    "It's a pleasure," she smiled and stroked Venipede's head. "You have a wonderful Pokemon."
    "He's not mine." you corrected her. You had no pokemon. Venipede just followed you around so much most people just assumed he was. "He's wild."
    "I see." her voice was smooth and silky, you knew she had to have been raised like some sort of princess. "Do you have any pokemon then?"
    "No." you had never been able to approach Pokemon like that. Venipede is the only one you have ever gotten this close to.
    A woman and Burgh walked in followed by a woman in a white lab coat and an old man. When they walked in and stood at the front of the room the others who were talking found seats at the large table. N sat in the chair on your left while Caitlin stayed in her spot on your right.
    You felt strange sitting in a room full of well-distinguished people. You didn't even know that N was the former champion for crying out loud. Finding out that you've humiliated yourself in front of the former Unova region championship was too embarrassing to even think about.
You wanted to go back home, to fall asleep back in bed. Cuddled up and dancing in your dreams with that unknown person. As the meeting started you almost wished that you didn't have to be here.
    Yet as you sat there you thought back to your childhood. The memories flooded, a broken dam that could no longer hold them back. The cool wood on the door to your father's office. The voices muffled by dark spruce. The way they yelled at the mention of certain things; mostly money.
How peculiar it was, to be in the room now. Now you had the information you never knew as a kid. You had the discovery date, the amount killed in the cave-ins. Then the one thing you had never understood; the caves don't show up in any tests.
    "We're walking in completely blind." You phrased it like a question, but it was a statement.
    "Yes," the lady presenting the information confirmed, 'We'd like you guys to manually map out the caves and to record and obtain information on what's inside."
    "That's about," You paused counting on your fingers, "15 miles of undiscovered caves?" Going off of what you remember from being a kid, the mountains were about 14,000 feet above sea leaves; they had about 30 miles of caves discovered that seemed to be following a bit of a pattern.
    "We only estimate about five miles," she corrected you.
    You looked at the map and you could call her bluff. There was a waterfall found near the peak a while ago. The government deemed it too dangerous to explore and blocked off the area. It's considered one of the only ones to have not yet made it outside of the mountains.
    You looked away, "Did I do my math wrong?" You moved your hand in front of your face pretending to hide your flushed cheeks.
    She continued on and you watched her closely. You knew your numbers weren't wrong. N knew your numbers weren't wrong either. He had to admit that he didn't know nearly as much about the geography of the area but the numbers didn't seem to add up.