(Serena's POV)
In the theater room, we began our first meeting of the semester. Since Aria returned to her duties as Kalos Queen, Madame Pierre assigned me and the other members to help out with the new members.
"That's enough practice for today, girls!" Madame announced.
"Yes, ma'am!" we exclaimed.
Before I excused myself with everyone else, Madame Pierre stopped me.
"Serena, may I have a moment of your time?" Madame asked.
"Of course, Madame," I replied.
When I approached her on stage, she had a huge smile plastered across her face.
"I've noticed that you have improved significantly during your time at this academy," she remarked.
"Really? I... haven't really noticed it myself," I blushed.
"You're almost on the same wavelength as Miss Aria! In fact, I'm considering on having you as our new club president."
"Me? As the new club president? But I don't think I'm a suitable candidate to be this club's president. And I'm not as influential as Aria."
"Nonsense, Serena! You have a much more unique charm and personality that differs from Miss Aria, which makes me believe you have potential to be the next Kalos Queen."
"Thank you, and I wouldn't have gotten this far without my friends."
It was thanks to Ash and the others for supporting me through hard times. And if I have the chance to see Aria again, I want to thank her for teaching me the ways of being a performer who makes everyone smile.
"But you know, I was more surprised that you've performed with an injury during your end-of-the-year performance," Madame pointed out.
"Oh, so you noticed my injury on stage," I said with a feeling of guilt in my voice.
"Even though you did marvelous on your performance, it was really reckless. And I'm sure Miss Palermo wouldn't agree to see you perform with an injury."
Miss Palermo? Where have I heard that name from?
"Serena! They're waiting for us with Mairin," Shauna informed.
"O-okay, Shauna. Just give me a moment with Madame."
"No, I don't want to keep your friends waiting," Madame said. "I'll let you think about the club president position, but I would need your answer by Monday."
"Okay, I'll let you know," I waved.
After finishing our conversation, I grabbed my handbag and left with Shauna.
~~~~~~~~~~
Since Mairin was feeling down from yesterday, May, Dawn, Shauna, and I took her to the dessert cafe to cheer her up.
"Delicious! This is the best dessert cafe ever!" May exclaimed, stuffing her face with cake. "Why didn't you tell me about this place, Serena?"
"Well, I only knew about this place from Ash. But Leafia recommended this dessert cafe to him in the first place," I stated.
"Leafia?! How could she not tell me about this place?" May complained.
"Because she knew you would eat everything," Dawn joked.
"Yeah, I heard your stomach is like a bottomless pit," Shauna laughed.
"Very funny," May took another bite.
Everyone laughed except Mairin, who was staring silently at her chocolate cake.
"You're not going to eat, Mairin?" I asked.
"Huh? Umm... yes! Of course!" Mairin replied forcefully.
"Now, now, there's no need to force yourself, Mairin," Shauna said. "You're actually worried about Alain, aren't you?"
When Shauna said that, Mairin went silent again.
"Well, if it isn't May and Dawn," a voice called out.
A red-haired girl wearing a male school uniform approached our table.
"Oh, Zoey!" Dawn exclaimed.
"We didn't expect to see you here," May smiled.
"My roommate dragged me to go shopping with her after school," Zoey explained. "I wasn't really ecstatic about trying on dresses with her, so I suggested that we should try out this dessert cafe since I heard a lot of good things about it."
"You made the right choice because it's really good here!" May exclaimed.
Zoey noticed me and Shauna and introduced herself.
"Hey there! I'm Zoey and I'm a Pokemon Coordinator like May and Dawn."
"My name is Serena and this is Shauna. And we're both Pokemon Performers."
"Ah, so you're Dawn's roommate! I'm surprised to hear another Coordinator/Performer duo as roommates since my roommate happens to be a Pokemon Performer as well."
"Speaking of roommates, I don't believe we actually met her," Dawn remarked. "What is she like, Zoey?"
"Umm... well..." Zoey hesitated. "She can be a little... nasty towards some people. But I swear she's a good person once you get to know her."
Then she noticed Mairin and smiled.
"Hello, I haven't caught your name yet," Zoey said.
"S-sorry, my name is Mairin, and umm... your roommate wouldn't happen to be a girl named... Amelia?" Mairin asked anxiously.
Zoey was surprised by her question, but laughed it off.
"You mean that very stuck-up elite from the Performer Class? No, she's not my roommate. Though I can't deny that my roommate is also kind of stuck-up, too," Zoey admitted.
"But that's good," Mairin sighed in relief.
Zoey was starting to realize Mairin's strange behavior towards Amelia.
"Hmm... Are you afraid about something... or someone?" Zoey pointed out. "Because I feel it has to do something with Amelia."
"Eh?! Am I really obvious?" Mairin questioned nervously.
"Zoey is really perceptive on others' behaviors and problems," Dawn remarked. "Why don't you tell her your problem, Mairin? I'm sure she can give you some advice like she does for me."
Mairin thought carefully and agreed. "Since everyone is worried about me, I guess it wouldn't be fair to keep my problems to myself."
Mairin admitted that she was constantly bullied by Amelia and her friends, which explains why she didn't want to tell us how she got her knee injury from them.
"So you were being bullied by them because of your relationship with Alain?" I questioned. "But why didn't you tell us about this?"
"Yeah, we could've defended you from them," Shauna added.
"Because I didn't want to be a burden to anyone, especially Alain," Mairin answered. "I know I have been following him around, but I was just worried about him."
If I recall correctly, Calem mentioned that Mairin and Alain were involved in an incident that caused her Chespin to fall into a coma. He didn't know much about the details, but I think it's better not to ask for her sake.
"Listen, Mairin," Zoey placed her hand on Mairin's shoulder and smiled. "It's not a bad thing to ask your friends to help you in this kind of situation. But no matter what the circumstances are, you have to stand up for yourself."
"That's what Alain told me yesterday," Mairin mumbled.
"Then he's not wrong. Because if you depend on others too much, then you're the one who will get hurt the most."
"I-I suppose you're right about that, Zoey."
Zoey sounded a little harsh, but Mairin seems to get the idea of what she means.
"By the way, where's your roommate?" May inquired. "She's been gone for a while."
"She's currently waiting in line to get one of those famous chocolate cakes," Zoey informed. "They're limited each day, but out of all of the desserts available, she wanted that one in particular."
"Zoooooey~" a voice cried out.
A blue-haired girl with her head hanging low walked sluggishly towards Zoey and cried over her shoulder. And that girl was none other than Miette.
"They ran out of their famous chocolate cake!" Miette cried.
"I told you should've gone for something else," Zoey sighed.
Then Miette realized me and my friends were watching her and she quickly recovered from her vulnerable state.
"Wh-what are you doing here?!" Miette asked angrily.
"Obviously, we're enjoying ourselves until you came," I glared at her.
"Whatever, we're going home, Zoey. I can't stand them, especially that clumsy girl!"
Miette starts walking away, but Mairin stops her.
Mairin spoke, "Excuse me, Miette?"
"Huh? What do you want?" Miette asked bluntly.
Mairin offered Miette her chocolate cake.
"You were waiting in line for this chocolate cake, right?" Mairin inquired. "I haven't touched it, so I want you to have it."
Miette was speechless, but she retained her haughty attitude.
"Y-you're probably trying to taunt me because I didn't get a slice," Miette retorted.
"I'm not tricking you," Mairin shook her head. "But if you're not hungry, then I can ask the waiter for a box."
Miette was taken aback by Mairin's kindness and became flustered.
"I-if you insist, then I'll accept it," Miette muttered.
Mairin called for the waiter and he placed the cake inside the box.
"Here you go!" Mairin smiled.
"Thanks, I guess..." Miette looked away.
I noticed Miette trying to stifle a smile and she leaves with Zoey, who apologized for her behavior.
"Why did you give your cake away to Miette?" I inquired.
"Yeah, she's not really a nice person," Dawn added.
"Like Zoey said, I don't believe she's a bad person," Mairin stated. "I... I'm going to follow her advice and stand up against Amelia and her friends because just maybe... they're not bad people either. And of course, I want to show Alain that I've grown stronger as a person!"
As Mairin declared her new objective, she began to smile again, just what we're hoping to see from her.
~~~~~~~~~~
(Ash's POV)
At the library, I wanted to start my investigation about the previous Champion of Kanto, who turned into a criminal for reasons unknown. I'm not really knowledgeable about the Pokemon Leagues, so I invited Max without letting him know my real reason.
"So what are we looking for, Ash?" Max inquired.
"Anything about Pokemon Champions from Kanto," I replied.
"Shouldn't you know your own regional Champion?"
"Err... actually, I wanted to do a research paper on previous Champions, but I don't know much about them."
"Alright, there's a ton of articles about Champions, so I'll look through them."
"Okay, then I'll start looking in this section."
~~~~~~~~~~
After an hour of looking through articles, I haven't found anything regarding the Champion of Kanto.
"Did you find anything, Max?" I asked.
"I found articles for other regional Champions, but not for— Hold on... Hey, Ash! I think I found a good article for your paper!" Max exclaimed.
"Really? Let me see!"
Max handed me an old newspaper article about Lance, who is the current Champion of Kanto and Johto. I skimmed through the pages until I caught my eye on something interesting on the last page.
The Champion of Johto, Lance, becomes the new Champion of Kanto after the disappearance of the former Champion of Kanto, R... ..e..ch...
Damn! His name was faded and barely legible. But why is there limited information on Champions from Kanto?
"Sorry, it's only about Lance, but I think it's a good reference for your research paper," Max informed.
"Thanks, I'll make good use of this information," I smiled.
Then a question popped into my mind, why did Max come to Kizuna Academy? Was he also lured by the letter's contents?
"Hey, Max, what made you want to attend Kizuna Academy?" I inquired.
"When Sis and I came back to Hoenn, we received acceptance letters from Kizuna Academy," Max explained. "We were planning to go to Sinnoh, but instead, we agreed to attend the academy because our parents thought it might benefit our goals."
"And it's not because of what's written on your letters?"
"What do you mean, Ash?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
So Max doesn't really know anything about the school's intentions. But I guess it's better this way since I don't want him to get involved with this so-called dangerous situation.
"To be honest, I didn't want to come here because a private school on an uncharted island sounds pretty sketchy," Max admitted. "But maybe I'm just being paranoid because I don't want to get caught up in someone's scheme."
"Probably because of Team Rocket, right?" I laughed.
"Yeah, they're always pulling off some stupid plan to steal your Pikachu."
"I haven't seen them since they attacked the Unova region, but I hope I don't run into them again."
~~~~~~~~~~
(Third Person View)
"Achoo!" the Rocket trio sneezed.
"My goodness, did we catch a cold from a customer?" James rubbed his nose.
"Nah, I have a sneaky suspicion that somebody is talking about us," Meowth looked around.
"Maybe the love of my life is making his friends jealous by talking about the most beautiful girl in the world. Me!" Jessie squealed.
James and Meowth sweat dropped at Jessie's response.
"Perhaps the enemy knows we're here?" James pondered.
"That's impossible because our security would have detected anyone holding holo casters or other electronic devices," Meowth stated.
Then they noticed Espurr walking around the cafe.
"It's that Espurr again!" James shouted.
"Grab it!" Jessie yelled.
While Team Rocket chased Espurr around the cafe, Silver got a call from Leafia.
"Hey, Silver, I'm letting you know that I have everything ready for tonight."
"Okay, did Ethan give you the equipment for disabling the school's security?"
"Yeah, and Crystal gave me the map of the security system, so I can disable the alarms in the principal's office"
"Good, we don't want any risks of being caught by the school."
Silver watched Espurr avoid Team Rocket by jumping over tables and going through small areas.
"Could you do me a favor, Leafia?"
"Anything for you, Silver~"
"Can you find the girl with the Espurr in the student records?"
"Oh~ So you want me to find a girlfriend for you?"
"... no, Leafia. But you mentioned that there was a girl with an Espurr from our school."
"Yes, she's from the Kalos classroom. I don't know her name, but I remember her dressing up as Espurr in their play."
"Don't tell me you thought she has an Espurr because she dressed like one."
"Of course not! She does have an Espurr and her name is Mimi."
"Hmm... interesting."
"Are you worried that this girl might be a spy?"
"I'm not entirely sure if she is a spy for them, but I want you to confirm it in her records."
"Alright, I can get information on the girl."
"Thanks, and be careful."
"And one more thing, please don't tell Gary about this because I'm sure he will try to stop me."
"Sure, I promise I won't say a word to the spiky-haired nerd."
"Thank you, Silver."
Silver hung up and looked at the Espurr standing on his table.
"You're Mimi, aren't you?"
~~~~~~~~~~
(Serena's POV)
During our Saturday date, I told Ash about how Madame wanted me to be the next club president of the performer club.
"That's great news, Serena! You're getting one step closer to becoming Kalos Queen like Aria!" Ash exclaimed.
"Yes, but I don't know if I can," I said as I wreathe together the flowers Braixen collected for me.
"Trust me! I know you can do it! Don't give up until you try, Serena!"
His motivational never-give-up attitude always gets me to smile.
"Well, I am finally confident in my own abilities, but I don't know if I'm confident enough to be an influence to other performers," I stated.
"Then why don't you show me your performance right now?" he looked at me in the eyes.
"N-now? I do have a dance routine in mind, but I haven't tried it out."
"Then I'll be your judge. How does that sound?"
"If you put it that way, then I guess I can show you my performance."
With that, I finished wreathing the flowers together and placed them on my head.
"Come on, Ash! I know a perfect place for you to watch my performance!" I exclaimed.
I took his hand and led him to the flower fields.
~~~~~~~~~~
When we arrived to the flower fields, I looked around for a specific area.
"Where is the place, Serena?" Ash asked.
"It's around here somewhere," I replied.
"Well, what does it look like?"
"It looks like a stage formed by rocks."
"Cham!" Pancham called out.
"Did you find it, Pancham?" I asked.
We followed Pancham towards a hill, and we found the stage-like rock, except we didn't expect it to be occupied by a lovely dance performed by an Eevee.
"It's an Eevee!" Ash exclaimed.
"Yes, and it has such a lovely dance," I said in awe.
We watched Eevee danced beautifully on the stage until it noticed our presence and fled.
"Aww, it's gone," I sighed.
"I'm sure it hasn't gone too far," Ash reassured me. "And I think it could be a good addition to your team. Don't you think, Serena?"
"You're right, Ash! Let's go look for Eevee!"
~~~~~~~~~~
In Orre Forest, Ash and I decided to split up to cover more ground for Eevee. He took out Fletchinder and Noibat to help us look for Eevee from the skies.
"I'll let you know if we found Eevee," I said.
"Okay, then I'll go check on this side," he replied.
But after hours of checking all the possible places, we couldn't find Eevee. I called Ash to see if he found Eevee, but he had no luck either.
"We should head back before it gets late, Serena."
"I guess you're right, Ash."
"We'll meet you back at the stage from before."
I hung up and looked at my Pokemon.
"We'll check one more time before we meet up with Ash."
While Braixen and Pancham searched somewhere else, I walked into the long grass for Eevee.
"Eevee, are you here?!" I shouted.
"Ee-vee!" a voice cried out.
"Huh? Eevee?"
When I heard Eevee's voice, I stopped and realized that I almost walked off the cliff that was hidden beyond the grass. I backed away safely and noticed Eevee was hiding in the tree.
"Did you saved me, Eevee?" I asked.
Surprised that I noticed it, Eevee ran away again.
"Wait, Eevee!" I shouted.
I decided not to follow Eevee, and instead, I left my flower crown for Eevee as a thank-you gift.
~~~~~~~~~~
After I left Orre Forest and returned to the stage-like rock formation, Ash embraced me with a tight hug.
"Serena! I got really worried since you haven't returned," Ash said.
"I'm sorry, Ash," I apologized and returned his embrace.
If I told Ash that I almost walked off the cliff, he will absolutely freak out.
"So did you find Eevee?" he asked.
"Umm... about that... I've decided we shouldn't force ourselves to find Eevee," I said.
"Huh? You don't want Eevee as part of your team?"
"Nope, I just have a better idea."
I walked over to the stage with Braixen and Pancham.
"Ah, you're going to perform for Eevee?" Ash inquired.
"Since Eevee enjoys dancing, I thought we could tell Eevee our feelings through dancing, too. And you finally get to see my dance routine," I winked at him.
With that, I curtsied to my audience and we began our performance. Braixen made a spiraling Flamethrower, and then Pancham jumped through and used Dark Pulse, creating a sparkling explosion.
"And finished!" I announced with a finishing pose.
And from the corner of my eye, I can see Eevee watching us from behind a rock.
"Good job, Serena!" Ash applauded. "You do have what it takes to become the club president."
"Thank you, Ash!" I smiled and turned towards the rock. "And did you like our performance, Eevee?"
Eevee was surprised that I noticed her and she appeared wearing the flower crown that I left for her in the forest.
"Ah, it did show up!" Ash remarked.
I slowly approached Eevee with a smile.
"Eevee, as a performer, we work together as a team and compete with other performers in the Pokemon Showcase, which is really fun," I explained. "I really love your dance, and if you're interested, I would like to have you perform on stage with us."
Then I held my hand out to Eevee.
"Will you come with us? I think it'd be more fun if we all danced together."
Eevee hesitated, but eventually, she walked towards me and nuzzled against my hand.
"Thank you, Eevee!" I smiled.
I took out my Pokeball, and Eevee allowed herself to be captured.
"Yay! I caught an Eevee!" I exclaimed.
"Congratulations on getting Eevee, Serena," Ash said.
"Thank you, Ash! And..."
I gave him a kiss, which really surprised him.
"Thank you for giving me that little push on doing my performance for you," I smiled.
"I haven't really done anything but watch your performance," he blushed.
"But if you haven't done so, I wouldn't have met Eevee."
"That's great, but did you think about Madame's offer?"
I paused at his question and smiled.
"What if I told you that the performance just now didn't help me make a decision?" I asked him teasingly. "But rather, I made my decision when I saw Eevee's dance."
When I saw Eevee's dance, it made me feel a little more confident about accepting the club president position. And with Eevee as part of my team, I can't wait to see how our performances will bring much more happiness to everyone.