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Waxing Moon

_ DISCLAIMER: All characters and properties are copyright their respective owners. All writing and original characters are copyright 2010 Zephyr Paws. The author is in no way associated or affiliated with any third-party. This original fiction was created with no intention of any copyright infringement against any third-party, and is purely for fan enjoyment. _

-~ Chapter 3: Those Feelings... ~-

The next few days passed in mostly the same manner, having breakfast in the morning with Scotch, and then going out into the field outside of the Pokemon Center to work on my contest techniques. Jack taught me a lot of combos and moves to hopefully help me win whatever it was that he wanted me to win.

As the deadline for the Pokemon Contest in Solaceon Town was drawing closer, Jack led Scotch and I along a peaceful route with lots of tall grass and some various Pokemon around the area. It was quite relaxing.

We finally arrived in Solaceon Town after walking for a few hours and Jack put both Scotch and myself into our Poke Balls while he handled registering at the Pokemon Contest Hall in the town.

After registering, he let the two of us out to look around the city and to get in some last-minute preparations.

"Okay, so you know what you need to do for tomorrow, Brandy? Start with the Ice Beam, then Pound into the ice, and then use Doubleslap to juggle the ice? You know, like you did yesterday."

I nodded, remembering learning that technique just the other day. I was fairly sure that I'd be able to do it again.

"Great, now after the performance rounds, you'll need to be able to win a battle or two, but done in contest style. That means that you'll be graded on how well you pull off your moves in addition to how much damage you do."

Wait, what? My eyes lit up in nervousness. He didn't just say 'battle,' did he? I couldn't actually battle anyone... Sure, I may have learned a few moves, but just because I knew some attacks didn't mean I could actually use them against other Pokemon.

"Jack, I can't battle!" I exclaimed to him in a desperate way. I really didn't want to have to battle.

"Don't worry," said Scotch, "you'll do fine." He still seemed a little bitter about not being able to talk to Jack as often, though thankfully Jack did remember to send him out for a bedtime chat with the three of us at least twice - though it didn't feel as deep as when he was just talking to me...

"I don't know how much experience in battling you have, Brandy," said Jack, looking down at me and putting his hands on his hips. "But I do know that you'll be able to do your best! I think when you battle, you should use Sing to put the enemy to sleep, then Ice Beam and Pound to hit them for some damage."

I still really didn't like that idea at all. No way was I going to be able to actually win a fight against another Pokemon... I'd never done it before, and, not only that, I was really weak. I couldn't fight! I simply couldn't!

"I'm going to have you try that out on Scotch tonight for some practice. Tomorrow's the big day, after all!" He looked over at Scotch, who looked rather freaked out himself.

"M-me? Wait, I can't fight Brandy, Jack!" The Charmeleon was shaking his arms and looked really quite nervous about fighting me. Probably just as nervous as I was about fighting him, to be honest.

"I- I don't want to fight J-Jack...!" I said, practically shivering. I mean, I knew that he was a friend - which felt nice to be able to say - but he was also strong and could really hurt me. I didn't want to get hurt or hit again...

Jack leaned forward and looked right at Scotch. "Come on, buddy, you can fight her. It's just to help her practice anyway. Sound good?"

Scotch and I looked at each other and blinked. It was pretty clear that neither of us really wanted to fight each other. We just wanted to get some sleep for the next day, maybe some dinner before that or something. We didn't want to fight each other...

"Fine then, I'll call out the orders!" exclaimed Jack, stepping back and pointing a finger forward. "Brandy, use Sing to put Scotch asleep!"

I looked over to Jack, then back to Scotch, and finally back at Jack with a rather unwilling expression on my face.

"Brandy, come on! You want to win tomorrow, right?" He gave me a look that made me feel like I had to do it. I didn't like that feeling, but I also didn't want to disappoint Jack...

With that, I turned around to face Scotch, sort of gave him an uneasy look, and then started singing. I sang for several seconds, closing my eyes the whole time. When I heard a thump hit the ground, I opened my eyes to see the Charmeleon sacked out on the ground, snoring loudly.

"G... great, Br- Brandy..." Jack let out a yawn mid-sentence. "Now use P... ound...!"

I knew how to use Pound, but I didn't want to hit Scotch that hard... I didn't really want to hit him at all. It didn't feel right! I knew that I wouldn't like to be hit, so why should I hit him?

"Brandy, come on!" ordered Jack, looking increasingly impatient with me.

That caused me to act against my feelings and run towards Scotch. I pulled my arm back, then slammed my clenched fist down onto the Charmeleon's back, hearing a bit of a crunch and seeing him react a bit, though still remain asleep.

"Great!" exclaimed Jack from behind me. "Now use Doubleslap!"

I looked back at him and meekly asked, "Really?" I didn't feel good about doing that at all. Trained Pokemon or not, it just didn't feel right, particularly because he was defenseless and couldn't even fight back. Though, then again, if he could fight back, I would probably be running as quickly as I could just out of instinct.

"Come on, Brandy! Doubleslap, now!"

I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth before willing myself to strike the sleeping Charmeleon several times across the face. Hopefully it'd wake him up and he wouldn't be too upset with me for it...

I reached down and started slapping Scotch across his face, slapping it back and forth, causing him to wake up but also doing quite a bit of damage, undoubtedly. Well, at least I hoped so... well, wait, maybe I didn't hope so... I didn't really want to hurt him...

"A-ah!" exclaimed Scotch between slaps as he started getting up, then fired a few embers right at me, singeing me a bit. "You're gonna pay for that!"

Hearing that worried me. Even though he was a bit shorter than me, Scotch was definitely rather fierce and intimidating, and I knew that he could easily make me pay for that series of attacks I just launched at him.

"Don't let him intimidate you, Brandy! Jump backwards and hit him with Ice Beam!"

I still felt guilty for attacking Scotch like I was, but I wasn't about to let myself get hit again, so I followed Jack's orders. I jumped back and then launched an Ice Beam at Scotch's chest, sending him back a few feet.

"B- brrrr!" The Charmeleon shook his body a bit and gripped his chest with his arms, probably to try warm himself up. "Y- you're pretty good with that Ice Beam!"

"Oh, um, t-thanks..." I said back to him, forgetting for a moment that we were battling.

"Alright Brandy, now I want you to try dodge Scotch's attacks, okay? Use Minimize to make yourself smaller and more evasive!"

Scotch looked at me with a bit of a reluctant look on his face. "Ah, um, sorry, I think I'm supposed to try and hit you..." He blushed a bit and looked increasingly uneasy about it. "I don't want to, you know... but, ah, it'll help you in your contest..."

Hearing him say that really brought a bit of comfort to me, because I could actually tell that he didn't want to hit me, which was very unusual because it wasn't what I was used to from any attackers in my past. They all had every intention of hitting me.

The Charmeleon then charged right at me and swiped his claw forward several times, missing me by a long shot for the first few swipes. Maybe it was just to let me know that he was going to attack me and that I should start dodging.

I used Minimize, as per Jack's orders, to make myself a bit smaller and more capable of dodging Scotch's attacks. With every swing, I'd use my ears to hear it coming and allow myself to react accordingly, jumping backwards sometimes, jumping to my side other times, and just trying my best to avoid getting hit.

During one of his strikes, he lunged both claws forward at me, forcing me to duck to successfully dodge it. The good thing was that I successfully dodged his claws; the bad thing was that he hit me with an Ember attack to the face right afterwards.

It burnt a bit, but it wasn't too bad, although it did stop me long enough for him to hit me with a slash of his claws, scratching my chest a bit and knocking me back several inches.

"A-ah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you!" exclaimed Scotch, looking rather apologetic.

Though it did hurt, it actually wasn't so bad because I knew he didn't really intend for it. It wasn't like the fights I was used to, where I was literally fighting for my life or getting hit because I was abused... it was just a battle in the name of practice. My life really wasn't at stake and I knew that Jack would save me if things got too bad.

I guess it wasn't quite as bad as I thought...

"Well, u-um... now you're going to pay for that!" I exclaimed teasingly at Scotch, actually laughing a bit as a lunged forward to try hit him with a Pound attack. My fist smashed right into his stomach and knocked him to the ground.

"Hey, good job, Brandy!" exclaimed Jack as he ran over to give me a quick hug. Afterwards, he walked over and helped Scotch up, giving him a pet on the head. "We'll get you two healed up, alright?" He looked back towards me. "I think you did great, though, Brandy! You're going to do awesome tomorrow!"

"You think so...?" I asked shyly, feeling increasingly more confident in myself.

Scotch nodded his head and walked over to me, grinning. "Yeah, you're actually a pretty good fighter. And you've got one hell of a punch!"

"T-thanks, Scotch... I'm sorry, I- I didn't mean t-"

Scotch interrupted me. "Ah, I understand. Don't worry." He nodded. "It's what trained Pokemon like us do. We have to battle each other sometimes to stay on our toes. It's never anything personal!"

"I- I guess you're right..."

"Hey, well let's get some food, guys!" exclaimed Jack, pulling us both in for a hug and hearing our cheers in approval of his proposal.

We went to a nearby restaurant and had some delicious food. Jack even had us at the same table with him, though he didn't do all that much talking. Instead, he was just looking over at a lady and a man at another table.

Jack definitely seemed to long for a connection like that. I guess it was a lot like those two Sneasel I saw way back and how they fascinated me so much. Watching them mate so lovingly, so passionately... so free of fear, control, or anything other than desire. That was how it was supposed to be done... Sometimes it's the things you see that you want the most, as seemed to be the case with Jack.

***

We finished dinner and he took us to a hotel room, seeing as the Pokemon Center was all full up due to the contest in the morning.

"We're gonna need to get our rest for tomorrow, alright! So get to bed, you two!" He looked over at one of the two beds in the rather small room. "You can share a bed, right?"

Hearing Jack say that seemed to freak Scotch out a bit. He was waving his arms and looked to be almost sweating after Jack said that. "W-wait! I- I can sleep on the floor, it's okay!" He was tugging on Jack's leg. "B- Brandy can have the bed, d-don't worry!"

"Whoa, there, Scotch! It's okay, if you don't want to share, it's fine." Jack pet the fiery lizard's forehead, though it didn't seem to calm him down that much.

"I'll... I'll sleep on the floor, d-don't worry." He walked over to a little corner on the floor and curled up, looking back at Jack and I near the beds. "See? I'm okay here."

"Scotch... you don't have to..." I said to him, feeling bad that he'd be sleeping on the floor over there. It didn't look that comfortable and I knew that I was far more used to sleeping on the ground than he was. "You can have the bed. I'll, um, take the floor. I'm more used to it anyway..."

"I can't hear you! Zzzzz...! I'm asleep!" he said back to me in a rather sarcastic tone. "See, I'm comfy here...! Besides, you're the one entering the contest tomorrow, so, ah, you should get the best sleep you can..."

"You're real nice, Scotch," I said, at least wanting to acknowledge that much. "T-thank you." I hopped up on the bed and sat on the edge of it.

Jack walked over and then helped tuck me in to bed. "Well, I'm glad that you two have that settled for now, at least." He looked over at Scotch. "I'm sure you two will be able to learn to share sometime. You know how often we wind up in hotels, Scotch!"

Scotch didn't have any response and appeared to be snoozing rather peacefully in his little corner, snoring a bit and breathing in and out as evident by his inflating belly.

"Alright, let's get some sleep," said Jack as he got into his own bed and pulled the sheets over himself. "Good night, Brandy, Scotch."

"Good night, Jack," both Scotch and I said in unison.

***

It took me awhile before I felt calm enough to fall asleep. I was getting excited about the contest in the morning. Never having participated in a contest - or really anything normal that humans do with their Pokemon - I wasn't sure what to expect. I mean, I knew that I had to use a bunch of moves and possibly even fight some Pokemon, but I still was nervous that I wouldn't be able to win it for Jack.

Jack made it sound like he really wanted to win. I didn't want to disappoint him. I wanted to make him happy so that maybe he could see that someone does care about him. Though, there it was again... I found myself thinking of Jack as more than just my Trainer...

He was a really good person. I realized that I hadn't had all that many thoughts of Tom, Whiskey, or Gin since I'd been with him. Instead, my mind seemed preoccupied with trying to please Jack. It felt preoccupied with a purpose again, something I'd been lacking for so long. I really had a purpose... I really had something that I wanted to wake up for.

What if I didn't win tomorrow, though? Would Jack be upset with me? Angry? Disappointed? He said that he was going to give up being a Coordinator as well as a Trainer if he didn't catch another Pokemon or if Scotch didn't win his final contest... If I let him down, will he still give up?

It had me worried...

My worry increased as I heard Jack get out of bed. It sounded like he walked over to the little table in the room and had a seat at the chair there.

I wasn't sure if I should have gotten up or not, but I decided that I would try... he seemed to enjoy talking with me and I wanted to make sure that he was okay.

I got up out of bed and walked over to him. Before I got to him, he noticed me and smiled.

"Oh, hi, Brandy," he said in a quiet tone. "Guess you couldn't sleep either?"

I nodded at him and tugged on his leg. "Are you okay?" I knew he couldn't understand me, but I wasn't sure what else to say.

"I'm anxious... I'm really hoping that tomorrow will be different." He sighed and looked away from me, staring forward at the wall in front of him and the table. "I wasn't any good as a Trainer... I only got one Gym Badge. And I've been even worse as a Coordinator..."

I wasn't sure exactly what a 'Gym Badge' was, but he didn't sound too pleased with himself for getting only one of them. It sounded like he was under a lot of pressure for tomorrow, too. Though that certainly didn't help my pressure... in fact, in just made it worse.

"I just want to be noticed... I just want to feel like I'm good at something." He looked back over at me, though looked like he was starting to cry. "Maybe then someone will notice me..." Jack took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with his arm, letting out a little snivel to indicate that he was crying. "I'm a g-good person... r-right, Brandy? I just want to be loved..."

"J- Jack!" I exclaimed as I tugged more vigorously on his arm. "You're a great person!" I knew that he couldn't understand me... and that was probably what gave me the courage to say everything I felt that I had to say. "I wish I were a human or that you were a Pokemon... because you're an amazingly caring male that makes me so happy..."

"Aww... Brandy... you're trying to cheer me up, aren't you?" He said, sniveling once more while petting me on the head. "You're a sweet Pokemon." He reached for his glasses and looked right at me through them.

It felt like my heart skipped a beat when he said that about me. I knew I had to have been blushing after that remark, too. "Jack... I... I..." I wanted to say it so badly, but I wasn't even sure myself what love was. My only instances of it were tainted. Maybe I never really loved Gin and just thought I did... Maybe I never should have been so foolish to 'fall in love' with him in the first place.

Jack reached down for my chin and lifted it up to guide my eyes to his. They looked so beautiful in the dark... His face was slightly illuminated by the light shining in from the window.

It was like Jack was waiting for a response from me... or for me to finish. He did that when I was talking... even though he didn't understand what I was saying, he could tell that I was still talking somehow, so he must have been able to sense that I was having difficulty saying something important to him...

Blinking and finding myself crying as well, I knew that I had to say it. If not to make him feel better, then just to make me feel better. "I... I- I... l-lov... I..." I gulped, still finding myself struggling to say it over subtle fears that it would somehow turn out like it did with Gin.

"It's okay, Brandy, you can let it all out..." He pet my forehead with his other hand while still resting my chin on the other. "I'm here to listen." He smiled.

"J- Jack... I love y-you..." There, I said it... but I felt like I couldn't just stop there. It was those words that broke the emotional dam that had been building for far too long... "You're the nicest male I've ever met... I... I've been raped, abused, beaten, hit, lied to, and unappreciated... all by males who didn't care at all about me or how they treated me..."

I looked up at him, seeing his face light up a bit, but I couldn't tell exactly why. Maybe it was just my imagination... or maybe he actually heard me. But he was definitely waiting for me to say more, which was good, because I felt like talking more than I'd ever talked before in my life.

"My daddy abandoned me and told me to grow up... then I was caught by a human who molested me, forced me to evolve, and then he and his Nidoking raped me..." Despite the flood of terrible memories, I felt too empowered to start to cry.

"I was saved, but then I ran from them because they only cared about fixing me and not about taking me home... that was when I met this Gabite... Gin... he saved me from a Machoke that raped me while I was asleep...

"He told me that he loved me... and I felt so appreciated and important that I instantly fell in love with him. I did everything for him... I cared so much about him... but he didn't care about me... he hit me, he yelled at me, and he lied to me... he m-mated with another Pokemon, twice, at least twice that I know... and then he told me he never loved me...

"All I wanted to do was go home... but then you and Scotch came along and caught me. I thought that things were going to be horrible again... but... but... you were so nice to me... you're such a sweet male... I... I know that I'm not a human... but... but... I... I love you, Jack... I wish you knew that... I wish you knew that I care..."

It took a lot out of me to say all of that. I'd never actually told my entire story like that to anyone before. It'd all stayed in my mind, locked away, though emerging every so often to torment me. But to let it all out like that... it felt... both overwhelmingly sad and overwhelmingly empowering at the same time. It was like I was putting it all behind me so I could focus on Jack and making him happy.

My life had a purpose again thanks to Jack. I wished so hard that I could return that favor to Jack and give him a purpose as well. The one thing that he wanted so badly was something that I also longed for, at least in its real form... love.

"It's okay, Brandy, it's okay..." Jack pulled me in for a hug after I kept quiet for a few seconds following my outburst. He lifted me up on the chair he was sitting on and hugged me tight. I wasn't exactly sure what kind of a hug it was or just how much he meant it... I mean, I knew he didn't understand anything I just said... but it still felt really nice.

"You know, Brandy," said Jack, looking at me while holding my back with his arms. "I'm really glad I caught you. We were meant to be together." He smiled. "Now let's win this contest tomorrow, okay?"

I closed my eyes, then opened them with a big smile on my face. "Okay!"

"Hey, not so loud- Scotch is still sleeping."

Whoops. I guess I was a bit loud... Hopefully I didn't wake him up.

Jack then carried me over to my bed and tucked me back in, petting me on the forehead before going back into his own bed. "Let's get some sleep now. This time, for real... Good night, Brandy."

"Good night, Jack. I... I love you..."

***

After getting some sleep, I was awoken by the sound of an alarm clock after just a few hours. Guess I stayed up a bit longer than I should have... but it was alright.

Jack put both Scotch and I into our Poke Balls, saying that we'd need to stay inside of them for the Pokemon Contest until I was sent out. I guess I'd have to understand, even though I much preferred being outside of the Poke Ball.

A bit of time passed, warping and bending in that weird way that it does while in the Poke Ball. The next thing I knew, I was sent out in the middle of a big stage.

"...Jack Rose and his Clefable, Brandy!" That voice resonated all throughout the giant dome I found myself in. There seemed to be a lot of clapping and cheering, though I couldn't quite make out from where, since it seemed to be from everywhere.

As I looked around nervously, I noticed that Jack was dressed up in a suit to my side, there were three people sitting behind podiums - one looked like a nurse from that Pokemon Therapy Center, while the other two looked like older men - and I was in the middle of a stage that was elevated up a bit from the podiums.

Not only that, but all around me there were people. Those weren't just trees in a background. It was almost surreal - I'd never seen that many people in my entire life! They were literally everywhere! Some had their Pokemon out, others were waving big signs, but all of them seemed very enthusiastic.

The lights were shining down on me brightly. I tried blocking them out with my hands, but it was still really intense.

"Brandy! Come on, show 'em your stuff!" ordered Jack, pointing forward towards the crowd with a nervous smile on his face.

I blinked a bit. I wasn't thinking that I'd have to do it in front of so many people... it was extremely intimidating!

It took me a moment to remember exactly what I had to do. I used Ice Beam to freeze the ground beneath me, but I found myself slipping on the ice as I'd accidentally frozen it under my feet rather than just in front of me like I usually did.

As I tripped and fell onto my butt, I heard the audience break out in laughter. Jack smacked his forehead and groaned a bit. "Brandy! No, not like that! Use Pound, come on!"

I blinked again and tried getting up, though found myself slipping on the ice again, falling down onto it and smashing some of it up into shards. Not quite the Pound that Jack was looking for...

The crowd laughed even more as I fumbled, grabbing some of the shards and then starting to juggle them with my hands. However, I found the light terribly blinding, so I dropped most of the shards on either the ground or on my head.

"No... Brandy... t-try use, um..."

"It looks like Mr. Rose is having some difficulty coordinating his Pokemon's moves! This could cost him!" boomed the woman's voice in the speaker.

"Use... uh... S- Sing!"

I shook my head to dust the ice off of it, then started singing, raising one of my arms up to the crowd while closing my eyes. I could only hope that it would work well enough to make Jack and the rest of the audience happy.

DING! A loud bell sound could be heard while I was singing. "Time's up!" spoke the speaker.

I stopped singing and looked over at Jack, who was nervously looking over at the three judges. I looked towards them instead to see what he was waiting for.

"You need to work on showing off your Pokemon's inner beauty, Mr. Rose, not to mention coordinating your moves much better," said the nurse.

"Nurse Joy is right. You need a lot more practice," said the man in the middle podium.

"Not quite remarkable..." said the man on the far right.

The three of them held up signs with numbers on them. They read '3.0,' '3.5,' and '2.0' respectively.

"Ouch!" boomed the speakers. "Those are some of the worst scores of the day! Let's see how our next performance goes!"

Both Jack and I were escorted off of the stage by some of the officials. One of them said, "Better luck next time," in a bit of a quiet way to Jack, though Jack seemed thoroughly disappointed by what happened.

We were led to a back room where they had a TV screen showing the rest of the Coordinators and their Pokemon. Jack wasn't even watching them, though, and was just sulking in the corner instead.

He looked completely crushed by our performance out there... he was just staring off at the wall, hanging his head low and keeping completely silent.

I walked over to him and looked up at him, but he didn't even seem to notice me. I really let him down... I felt so awful for that... All I wanted was to make him happy, not make him disappointed in me... but I couldn't even do that right.

As I glanced over at the TV screen hanging from the ceiling, I saw one performance with their three numbers as '9.0,' '10,' and '9.5' respectively... which meant that my scores were abysmally low. No wonder Jack was so sad.

I essentially humiliated him out in front of all of those people. Without even battling, something I knew I'd be bad at, I completely froze up and messed everything up for him. He just wanted to win a contest for a change... and I let him down...

"I-... I'm s- sorry... I'm so s-sorry..." I said to Jack, crying into the side of his pants.

"I... I don't know if I can go through that again." He sighed.

It made me feel absolutely horrible about myself. I was the reason he was so sad. Maybe if he used Scotch instead he would have won it. Maybe, right? "I'm sorry... Jack... I'm so sorry..." I couldn't bring myself to do anything else but apologize profusely to him for letting him down so much.

He held up a Poke Ball and looked at it. "I'm almost a little nervous to tell Scotch how we did... I mean... you gave it your all, Brandy, and I know it was a lot to hope for that you could win your first contest..."

Jack then went ahead and let Scotch out of his Poke Ball anyway. The Charmeleon looked up at him, cocked his head, and then seemed to figure out what happened judging by the changing of his expression.

Scotch looked over at me. "Ah! What happened?" he asked nervously.

"I... I let him down... it's all my fault..."

The fiery Charmeleon walked over to me and gave me a hug, putting me even above Jack for a moment. Why he chose to do that rather than comfort Jack first, who was probably even more hurt than I was, was beyond me... but it felt really nice to have him comforting me.

"I- I'm sorry, Brandy... you deserved to win..."

"N-no..." I said back in a depressing tone. "H-he... he deserved to win. Not me..."

Scotch held me even tighter and rested his face on my shoulders. "No! You deserved it, too!" he exclaimed. "You're a good Pokemon...! You have everything it takes to win a contest! You have the moves, you have charm, you have personality, and you have dedication..."

"Guys," said Jack, causing Scotch and I to break our hug to look up at him. "I... I don't think I want to be a Coordinator anymore... what girl would want to go out with me after that...? You did great, Brandy, I'm proud of you, but I just don't think I can do this again..."

Scotch stood forward and placed his claws up in front of him, boldly trying to persuade Jack. "Jack! You're better than that! Don't you give up on me now!" He slammed his tail on the ground. "You have us, Jack! Ah, we'll make sure that next time will be even better! Brandy and I will train together every day if that's what it takes!"

"Scotch... don't be mad at me... I said I wanted to do just one more contest..."

"No! Don't give up on me!" He let out a bit of a roar and tried looking even more persuasive. "Jack, we care about you! We both care about you! We'll do everything it takes to help you win! And besides... you said you'd just enter me in one more contest unless you caught another Pokemon. You have Brandy now!"

"J- Jack... I- I'm sorry... I'll do better next time...! Now I know what to, um... what to expect...!" I said, chiming in and trying to emulate Scotch's persuasiveness, though doing a far worse job at it, I'm sure.

"Guys... you really don't want me to quit, do you...?"

"No!" "No!" we both cried out.

"If we have to lose a million contests so you can win one, we'll do it!" exclaimed Scotch. "We'll do anything to make you happy and show we care about you!"

"Y- yeah! I'll do better next time, or- or you can try let Scotch do it!"

Scotch looked over at me and let out a light sigh. "N-no, Brandy... You... you need to be the one to do it."

I looked over at him, wondering why he was arguing with me on that. "But what about you? I'm sure you could do better than... than I did..."

Scotch shook his head. "Ah, well, no... not really. Besides... it would make him feel better if he won with you than me, anyway." He cocked his head and gave a smile, though I could tell that there was something he wasn't telling me... I just wasn't sure what.

"Maybe... the next contest is in a week... it's in Hearthome City, so it's going to be a big one..." said Jack, looking at the two of us and starting to calm down a bit. "Can we do it...?"

"Yes!" "Yeah!" we both exclaimed together once more, cheering our Trainer and Coordinator on.

Jack pulled the two of us in for a hug and held us close. "Thanks guys..."

He ended up walking with the two of us out of the Contest Hall and into the streets of Solaceon Town. After healing us up, he wasted no time in walking towards Hearthome City, letting us walk at his side.

To my left, I had Jack, the Trainer and Coordinator I'd just let down... and to my right, I had Scotch, perhaps the most supportive Pokemon I'd ever known.

I had one week to get better. I had just one week to try learn how to become much better at Pokemon Contests so I could make Jack happy again and hopefully redeem myself. I knew that after that disaster of a contest I just went through, there was no way he'd be able to feel the love for me I hoped to feel from him unless I did better in the next contest.

No... not just better. I had to win it. I wanted to win it. I wanted to prove myself to Jack, to prove to him that I'd do anything for him to make him happy. Whatever it took, I wanted to do, because I knew how much it meant to him.

One week... just one week... I could only hope that I'd be good enough by then to win it for Jack... I could only hope...

-~ End of Chapter 3 ~-