Chapter 19: Adaption
"Let's travel more ground today," I said. I was getting tired of this part of the forest. It now held too many memories of being frustrated at Dawn and to start over as best as I could, I needed to move and really start from a fresh slate.
"Ok. I'll be ready in a couple minutes," Dawn called, packing her bags swiftly.
As we began heading east, I ordered my Pokemon to run in front of us again, back and forth, just like the last time we had taken the day to travel instead of train.
"Do you ever train with them, Paul?" Dawn asked from besides me, her boots wading through the tall grass.
"Not that it's any of your business, but I do. And I train my mind, unlike most people, so that I can better assist my Pokemon's training."
Dawn stared at me and I remembered that she had been using her Pokedex to help her train. I added, "It's a good thing you're learning to do that on your own. I don't wipe drool off of people's chins for a living."
"Does every sentence that comes out of your mouth have to be offensive?"
"I thought you knew you what you'd signed up for, friend," I used her term now, smirking.
She scowled. "You're not acting like a friend."
"How would I know how to act like a friend? I've never been one before." I shrugged.
"Did you grow up under a rock!?" I noticed she went straight to yelling furiously instead of using reasoning. How unlike her. "How can anyone not know how to be a friend? I mean, seriously?"
"It's simple. I focused on things that mattered instead of childish things like friendship."
"Friendships aren't childish! They're supposed to be about trust and fun and happiness and being there for someone when they're not feeling that great. No matter if you're eight or eighty, you need friends," Dawn finished urgently.
"All I've seen in my years are people gossiping behind their supposed friend's back and a load of drama, especially in groups of more than two people. Do I really want or need that? No. So, like I've said and demonstrated by my years of practice, I like being alone." I was surprised that I was even bothering with giving her such descriptive answers. I normally hardly talked.
"Well, not all friends are like that! I'll prove it!" Dawn scowled again. I raised an eyebrow as she continued, "I'll just prove that you and I can be friends without any problems!"
Oh, Arceus. What hell had I released from its dormancy?
"No, that's ok. I'll just take your word that my research was not taken from a large enough pool of observations."
"I'm still going to prove it!" Her eyes were determined. "I will show you the power of friendship!"
"What does that even mean? Sounds like a motto from children's television."
"You'll see," Dawn muttered, ignoring me. I didn't know friendship required so much concentration, silence, or plotting, but that's what Dawn did for the next hour of the walk.
After returning all my Pokemon to their Poke Balls from their two hour jog, I looked over at Dawn, who was still concentrating fiercely. I smirked and asked, "Am I going to see the power of friendship anytime soon?"
Before she could respond, she whipped her head to the left, looking at something I couldn't see.
"Look out, look out!" A voice hit me before a body did. My breath left me and I slammed into the ground, coughing as dust erupted on the path, forcing its way into my lungs as I gasped.
I stood up quickly and snarled, "Watch where you're going!"
A boy our age was dusting off his pants. He had sandy blonde hair, energetic blue eyes, and a dopey grin that I wanted to smack off his face. "I'm sorry about that! I was chasing a Mightyena and, well, it gave me the slip."
"I don't care." And with that, I began walking away.
"Wait, Paul! We didn't even get his name!" Dawn grabbed my arm and I irritatingly swatted her hand away. "My name's Dawn. It's nice to meet you."
Nice to meet him? He freaking almost broke my arm! I wanted to yell at Dawn and force her away from the lumbering idiot, but it looked like she wouldn't budge in her exchange of formalities. I swore in my head.
"My name's Joey! I'm from Johto. Johto Joey. Nice sense of alliteration, don't you think?" Joey grinned.
I almost swore. Dawn laughed at the joke, which made me want to pull my hair out.
"Is that a Piplup?" Joey asked Dawn.
"Yep!"
"Cool! I have a Raticate. It's, like, in the top percentage of Raticate."
This noob seemed familiar. It was hard to place him since I met so many noobs.
"Hey, purple haired guy? What's your name?"
"None of your business."
"His name's Paul," Dawn answered for me. I suppressed the urge to shoot them the finger before starting on my way again.
"Oh my gosh, you're that Paul I battled in Johto! I mean, you're that Grotle Trainer, right?" Joey put a hand on my shoulder, which I brushed away.
I shrugged. It was now officially true. I'd seen this kid before and battled him- if it even was qualified to be called a battle. I'm surprised his stupid Rattata hadn't died from the abuse Grotle had given him.
"It's so good to see you again! Because of you, Raticate and I have gotten so much tougher!"
"I highly doubt that."
"Paul!" Dawn gasped. "Be nice."
"Oh, I am being nice," I said smoothly.
Dawn forced a smile at Joey and said, "So, what brings you to Hoenn?"
"Oh, I'm challenging all of the gyms. I'm still pretty new here. I caught a Wurmple, which evolved into a Dustox, which is cool. I've been trying to catch that Mightyena, but it keeps running off. How about you guys?"
"I want to be the best Coordinator, so I'm trying to enter as many Contests as possible, but right now I'm taking a break to train. Paul just caught a Bagon and is trying to make it evolve into a Salamence."
"Sweet!" Joey exclaimed. "Wow, you sure have come a long way since we last met, Paul. You have a Bagon AND a girlfriend."
My anger flared. "She's not my girlfriend."
"Oh." Joey frowned. "You act as if that's an insult."
I decided to remain silent and not tell him that yes, he was insulting me.
"He's just tense, Joey. Don't worry about him," Dawn said gently, and then she whispered to me, "Power of friendship."
I ignored her.
"Ok." Joey shrugged. "Hey, I'm going to catch that Mightyena now. I'm staying in Gleyling Town about a half hour east from here. It looks like you're going in that direction. Maybe I'll see you there!"
And with that, Joey ran into the underbrush, searching for Mightyena. Without a word, I headed east again.
"He seemed nice." Dawn ran to catch up to me.
"Grotle defeated his Rattata with one attack," I said curtly.
"So does that mean he's not a nice guy?" Dawn asked incredulously.
"It means he's a jello filled weakling who doesn't deserve to call himself a Trainer." I stuffed my hands in my pockets. "And he definitely doesn't know anything about relationships."
"What makes you say that?"
"He thought we were together. His brain must be made of goo." I wrinkled my nose.
Dawn laughed. "So what, he thought we were together? We're a guy and a girl, traveling together. Seems like a pretty logical explanation to me."
I shrugged, mentally flinching at how many people in this so called town would probably think we were a couple as we gathered supplies. It was bad enough being "friends" with Dawn, much less anything more.
Joey, even though he was a dunderhead, did know what he was talking about when it came to how far away Gleyling Town was. We made it there in half an hour, though it was easily more of a village than a town. A few cabins were set up in a clearing- maybe ten, including a Pokemon Center and grocery store which seemed to be the biggest buildings. A few elderly people sat on their porches in rocking chairs, watching the couple of people walking down the main dirt road.
"How quaint," I said sarcastically before making my way to the Pokemon Center. Dawn followed, smiling at everyone she made eye contact with.
We dropped our Pokemon off at the front desk with Nurse Joy and decided to have lunch, which Dawn seemed ecstatic about. "Finally, someone else is cooking our food!"
We grabbed trays of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, not particularly something I enjoyed eating, and sat down at one of the few small tables in the cafeteria area. Dawn focused on her food instead of me, which I was grateful for.
After lunch, we headed to restock our supplies at the grocery store, carefully selecting what we needed. I stocked up on medicine, grimacing as I heard Dawn comment to Piplup about how they sold something related to Pokemon Contests at the store.
Without further ado, we went back to the Pokemon Center to rest. Dawn decided to go to a terminal and call her mom because it was "Easier to handle than the PokeGear" and I went to the small library, consisting of only a shelf in the lobby. I opened a book, trying to get lost in something to calm myself.
After what seemed like an hour, the front doors to the Pokemon Center opened again, emitting Joey who stared around. I hid my face as best as I could in my book, but he spotted me anyway.
"Paul!" He roared with delight. "Long time no see!"
"Could've been longer."
Joey laughed. "Hey, so where's Dawn?"
"How should I know?" My eyes narrowed.
"Well, she's your friend, isn't she?"
"Loosely speaking, I suppose."
Joey gave me a funny look. "You're weird, man. If I was traveling around with her, I'd be like-"
What he'd "be like" I had no idea, because he looked up, eyes warming, as Dawn approached. "Hey, guys!"
"Hi!" Joey grinned.
I wished I could have escape inside my book, where words remained unspoken and quiet, whispering in my mind and not dancing in my eardrums.
Dawn and Joey decided to talk in the lobby where I sat, attempting to ignore them. And yet I couldn't. I had to listen to Joey recall how he captured the Mightyena, how he'd defeated three gym leaders in Hoenn, and many other apparently amusing tales of Johto. In return, Dawn recounted many stories of her days of traveling around with Ash, which I actually listened to while pretending to read.
Their interaction was never ceasing- every moment someone was making some sort of remark. They seemed to thrive with each other's company, which made me even more frustrated. Dawn kept trying to drag me into the conversation, but I declined comment and usually answered with a flick of a page. She soon learned to just not bring me up at all.
"So there I was, at the Lake of Rage, and this huge Magikarp slams into me! I mean, it was ten feet long! I'd never seen one like it before. I tried pushing it into the lake since it couldn't breathe on land, but it was no use. I had to get a couple of Hikers to help me out, but then they all started fighting over who should be its Trainer because they thought it'd probably be the largest Gyarados ever once it evolved." Joey paused. "But then I said, 'Wow, that'd be a pretty big Pokemon. How would you feed it?' and they just stood scratching their heads and ended up releasing it into the wild to avoid getting holes in their pockets."
By the end of the story, both Dawn and Joey had collapsed in their chairs from laughing. I saw Dawn wipe away a few tears as she caught her breath. With that, I stood up, leaving their rambunctious immaturity behind, and went to sit on the stairs outside.
Ah, fresh silence, how I missed thee.
After an hour, Dawn came to sit outside next to me. "How's the book?"
"Quiet, unlike you." I closed it and looked at her, seeing the pain in her eyes. I looked away. "Sorry."
"Why do you act like that, Paul? You've just been really tense lately."
I shrugged.
"We were getting along ok for awhile," Dawn said hesitantly.
"Like any person, my well of patience only runs so deep." I tapped the book against my knees. "I must admit, Joey's thirst depletes my reserves far faster than you do."
"Um, thank you?"
"It was a statement, but also a lesson for me to learn from," I said, feeling frustrated.
"You talk in riddles, Paul. Can't you just be straightforward?"
"Every time I've said what I truly feel today, at least when it comes to Joey, I've been glared at. Now why would I be straight forward?"
Dawn frowned, knowing this was true. "You said you'd never lie."
"And I don't lie. My words just cause people to use their heads, which is something people suck at. It's not my fault." I shrugged indifferently.
"I guess we have to adapt to each other, then."
I nodded slowly. "I could work on that, but there's no way in hell I'm adapting to having Joey with us."
"He's seriously not that bad."
"He's still not coming with us like some lost Growlithe pup, Dawn. I already accept having you around. That's enough for anyone to deal with."
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Fine. We'll leave tomorrow before he notices."
"Good."
"You know, you can make friends too. I don't have to be the only one to talk to people." Dawn grabbed my book from me. "Next time, instead of being jealous and pretending to read, you can join in the conversation."
And with that, she stood up and walked back in the Pokemon Center, leaving me to think over what she'd said.
Author's Note:
Yes, the Joey in my story is Youngster Joey from Gold/Silver/Crystal/Heart Gold/Soul SIlver.... You know he's given you a call at least once in your life to chat about his Rattata.