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High school so far had been the biggest adjustment of the Growlithe's young life so far, even more so than when his family moved back in elementary school. Getting up early enough in the morning was just rough, no matter how you cut it. Classes were... also rough, way more intense than his middle school classes were. Just keeping his head above water seemed like such a struggle as he was flooded with so much more material than he was used to getting - and it kept flowing every day.

It certainly didn't help that he had become a bit of a pariah among his fellow ninth graders. Shana hadn't exactly gone blabbing around outing him, but she had vented to two of her best friends, one of whom mentioned it to her boyfriend, who had made a quick joke with his buds... Thankfully coming out to his parents had gone fairly well, so being out at school wasn't as intimidating as it might have been, but one by one news had still spread, and he could feel the stares happening far more than he was used to.

It wasn't that people were bugging him about it at all - in fact, quite the opposite. He felt like people were avoiding him now. Not everyone, of course - several of his friends still regularly said hi as sat by him in classes, and in fact most students would interact with him normally while in class. But it was all those other students, the ones who were known but weren't quite friends, who seemed to have stopped acknowledging him directly in the halls or at lunch anymore, and even some people he thought he was close to had suddenly only considered him from a distance any more.

Still, socially awkward as it made him feel, high school life was just now beginning to feel normal and somewhat under-control for the young Growlithe. So, of course, after one full month of high school, tryouts for the school's competitive battling team were today.

Kyle entered the school's main assembly gym and scoped out all the guys already there, most of whom he recognized either from the middle school team or from summer leagues but he saw a few new faces there as well. He assumed most of the new faces were guys from other middle schools, though some might've been upperclassmen still trying to get on the team...

He climbed up to the second row of the gym's bleachers and sat quietly, just waiting for coach Costales to show up and get all the guys organized. The Marowak was the varsity head coach, though he would be surprised if any of today's trialists actually made the varsity team. They were mostly freshmen here, after all.

As they all waited, the young Growlithe could feel the other's sidelong glances at him. Like it had been for most of the month, everyone seemed to be cautiously avoiding him, or at least eyeing him suspiciously. He had, occasionally, received a sidelong comment in the halls, too; he wondered idly if all the testosterone here would make such a comment or two inevitable.

He felt someone vault the first row to come sit next to him before he looked over to see who it was - an Aipom named Patrick he knew fairly from summer league. The normal-type had been home-schooled up through middle school but was now at the local high school, and by and large had seemed to settle in to public school life surprisingly well, probably because he was always so energetic and engaging. Kyle had a sneaking suspicion that this conversation had a high chance of getting awkward, though, considering Patrick always liked being up to date on everyone's relationship statuses...

"Hiya Kyle!"

"Hey, Pat. What's up?"

"Not much! Well, unless you wanna count high school in general. It's a lot to take in! Been the craziest month of my life so far. I hear yours has been weird, too; did you really break up with Shana because... well..."

The Growlithe rolled his eyes, though made sure to keep his tone in check for someone who still seemed to be willing to chat with him. "Yes, I'm gay, but I didn't break up with her. Heck, I'm not even one hundred percent sure that she broke up with me; she just kinda stormed off without saying anything when I came out to her."

"Oh... Well, that might have been ambiguous, but from word going around I don't think she has any intention of getting back with you, sorry to say."

"Oh, that doesn't surprise me at all, from the reception I got."

They were silent for a moment after that. Kyle thought to himself that conversation hadn't been so bad.

Pat then offered "So you excited to get on the high school team?"

"Yeah, looking forward to tryouts here."

"I thought you would've wanted to go to the musical auditions down the hall!" a voice interjected. The Growlithe and Aipom looked over to see it had come from the other side of the bleachers from a Murkrow named Avin, several of the flying-type's buddies apparently joking around with him.

"Wait, what? Why?" Patrick asked, innocently confused by the other guys' smirks.

"Yeah, no, not my thing," Kyle quickly cut off, looking away and hoping that was the end of it.

Patrick switched tacks, though, deciding to "support" the Growlithe. "Yeah, we're just here to battle."

"As long as Kyle doesn't do any inappropriate groping in the ring!" another bro, a Marshtomp named Xolo, quipped back to chuckles and cajoling.

Thankfully, the fire-type thought, that comment was clear enough that Pat got what was going on and just frowned at the other guys before also looking away, saying quietly "jerks". Kyle just shrugged at that as it seemed like the guys had gotten their teasing out of the way and were back to joking around amongst themselves.

After a few moments, the gym door opened and coach Costales came through with a clipboard in hand, getting everyone's attention. Most of the guys, Kyle included, who had worked with him before stood up as he approached, but he waved them off. "Keep a seat, everyone, I have to drop into my office over here," he motioned to one of the doors on the other side of the gym, "and get a few things taken care of before we start." He then passed into the gym offices and everyone relaxed and sat back down.

The murmur of milling about slowly started up again and a few more guys trickled in, everyone slowly but surely converging on the center of the bleachers. Kyle sat by as he listened to two conversations on either side of him, one speculating about how this tryout would go down, the other talking about recent and upcoming evolutions among the students, of which conversation seemed to center on Xolo.

The former conversation somehow drifted to type matchups, and apparently someone in the second conversation though Kyle (sitting between the two) was actually part of the former as the Growlithe heard a call-out of "Looking forward to when I evolve and gain Steel-type - isn't that right, Kyle?"

The fire-type (and several guys in the former conversation) looked over to see the comment had come from a Riolu named Lucas. Even though Kyle was rather tempted to take the bait, if only because he didn't know where Lucas was going with his comment in this case, he held back, though someone behind him from the former conversation was curious enough to respond.

"Steel is weak to fire..."

"But super-effective against faaaiiiries!" Avin answered without missing a beat, causing several guys to start laughing rather loudly, among other side comments of "buuuuurrnn!" and such things.

"Alright, boys and girls, settle down, time to get started," came a gruff comment from off to the other side, causing all the students to look over as the office door closed behind coach Costales and his assistant, coach Oslo the Heliolisk. The Marowak holding up his clipboard as he surveyed all the students. "I count twenty-two of you here, and there are just twenty-one on my list here... There's always one. Who didn't sign up?"

A Linoone meekly raised her hand and the Marowak went over to get her information. Once that was done, he came back in front of the bleachers to survey the bright, young faces there before launching into a short introductory speech.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, glad to see all of you here! Always nice to see you young-'uns excited to join the Westside Warriors. We've had someone go deep at state for the past four years in a row now, and I don't see that changing this year or next either. After that, it'll fall on you all, so I hope we have some potential college recruits sitting on the bleachers here today! I've already worked with a fair amount of you before, so I'm not too worried about that. Now, we didn't have many seniors graduate last year, on top of having one of the strongest JV squads I've seen in a while, so I'm going to say right now that you shouldn't be go getting your hopes up for making the Varsity squad right off the bat... Possible, but you're gonna have to really blow my socks off today to do that. But don't let that discourage you! I'm sure you all love battling and the fun stuff that goes along with it, right?"

"Yeah, gets you all the girls!" Avin piped up, clearly emphasizing the last word for Kyle's sake, though he turned it around quickly by adding "isn't that right, Sarah, Cassidy?" addressing both the Linoone and a rather butch Marill, respectively.

Neither coach looked impressed at the response, but seemingly let it slide for now.

"Anyway. As I said, we didn't have many seniors graduate last year, just four, and we had only one other person say they wouldn't be rejoining us, so you twenty-two are competing for five spots on our JV squad. Hopefully those of you that don't make the cut come back and try again next year - I'm glad to see several sophomores here from last year already. We usually have one open practice a month for non-team students to see what it's like and, for those interested in trying out, staying in shape and making an impression. But I bet you all want to make an impression right now, don'tcha? Like Manny, back for a second year, itching to prove yourself!"

"Very much, sir!" a Kirlia responded.

Coach Costales nodded. "Yup, yup... Kyle, how about you, ready to beat up on some of these guys?"

"Yes coach!" the Growlithe barked back excitedly.

The Marowak smiled a bit at that. "Yeah... Patrick, you look like you're just itching to get going, practically bouncing over there."

"I bounce a lot..."

"Alright everyone, let's circle up in the middle of the gym!" coach Oslo called, getting everyone to jump up and shuffle to the gym's center circle. "This is how today is going to go. Bigger circle, guys. Coach Costales here is going to call out two of you at a time to enter our battle ring here. I'll time out two minutes for the battlers to have at each other. When I call time, or decided one person has taken enough beating, the two battles go back to the circle and Costales will call out two more people. We'll keep cycling through everyone until we see people getting tired or too worn-out. Hopefully you all get at least three goes in the center of the ring. After that we'll take a short break, maybe send a few people home, and then I'll do some one-on-one training tips, which will be an interview of sorts to see how you might fit in our squads. While I'm doing that, Costales will give everyone a quick quiz/survey, and when that's done switch to basic workout techniques to give you an idea of what a normal practice for us could include."

The Marowak then clapped his hands together. "That sound good to everyone?"

"Yes, coach!" came a chorus from the students who'd worked with him before with some spattered affirmations from the others.

"Great! Kenneth, Valur, you're the first up! Let's see what you've got!" The Sandshrew and Poochyena tussled for their two minutes, Kyle trying to gear himself up for whenever his name would be called.

"Time!"

"Okay, Avin, Kyle, go!"

Kyle glanced at the Maroqak in surprise for just a split second, not noticing the ground-type's smirk, before jumping into the ring from the circle of students, not wasting any time as he body lit up in a Flame Charge. Avin, for his part, was apparently expecting an "entrance time" and was completely taken aback, taking the fire attack to the face as Kyle tackled him to the ground and rolled back up to his feet, leaving the Murkrow flailing a bit on the ground from the surprise.

The ring of spectators certainly livened up at the sudden attack, hooting and hollering as the flying-type tried throwing some Night Shade, which hit but didn't feel to Kyle like it did all that much damage. He then threw a Body Slam to the still-grounded Murkrow, almost completely knocking the wind out of Avin, though he did manage to throw the Growlithe off with a wing attack.

Avin had trouble getting up after that; Kyle smiled as he realized he must've stunned the bird. This would've been a great opportunity for him to use Morning Sun, except he hadn't quite mastered that yet... Instead, he decided to wrap the Murkrow up with a Fire Spin, further restricting his movement as the close-knit ring of onlookers cheered the battle on, some more than others.

Avin jerked out of the way to miss an Ember, but couldn't get his Ominous Wind going before a Flame Burst hit him square in the chest, knocking him down for the count.

"Time!" called Oslo.

"Someone - Kenneth - help Avin to the side. Patrick, Sarah, your turn!"

As the next few battles went on, Kyle noticed that he had left Avin in a state clearly not ready to come up for a second fight in their ring. In fact, none of the other fights seemed to be as one-sided or as... well, destructive, as his had been. The second time he was called in, he went back and forth with a Axew with no real participant coming out ahead. There was one fight a few minutes later that coach Costales called off to being too one-sided, Valur the Poochyena unable to continue anymore after falling to Lucas, but most were on the level of simple sparring.

The one thing that was going to start taking people out, though, was exhaustion. Kyle could see people starting to pant a little bit as pairings swapped out, the Growlithe taking a little solace in the fact that he seemed a little better-conditioned than the others, at least not feeling or outwardly showing the same level of fatigue that he was seeing. His third fight in the ring, against Manny the Kirlia, ended when the fairy-type essentially tripped over his own feet, making Kyle choke back a Flame Burst as he didn't want to hit someone for a klutzy mistake like that. Coach Costales declared Manny done for the session, as he had done for Patrick the fight before and Sarah the fight following.

"Time!" Oslo called a few fights later.

"Nice bout! Kyle, Xolo, you're up next!"

The Growlithe's ears flattened as the bulking Marshtomp lumbered into the middle of the thinning ring of students. Kyle gulped and tried his best to get a Double Team going, but it was another skill he hadn't really had time to work on. As such, it was mostly unsuccessfuly, as Xolo managed to hit him with a Water Gun fairly easily. Granted, it only clipped Kyle's shoulder, but the Marshtomp clearly hadn't put much effort into his aim - and it still hurt.

Kyle tried a Will-o-Wisp, but failed to hit Xolo with it, and before there was time for him to really think of what to do next, the Marshtomp was barreling down on him with a Bulldoze. The Growlithe only had time to get his arms up in front of him before Xolo collided with what felt like the force of a semi-truck. It felt like the water-type's momentum kept pushing forward even as they stood arms braced, faces inches from each other.

Kyle got to watch, eye to eye, as Xolo's expression slowly went from cocky to confused to worried, his Bulldoze still trying to roll Kyle over. The fire-type's own bulk hadn't quite failed him yet, though, as he suddenly yelled out and released a Reversal.

The Marshtomp went flying backwards, causing some of the students in the ring to jump out of the way as he went tumbling, leaving Kyle standing but hunched over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily.

"Whoa! That was quite a response, Kyle," Coach Costales commented, checking his clipboard. "Also very quick; Lucas, your turn against Kyle."

"Wait, what??" the Growlithe wheezed out.

"Sorry Kyle; the next three pairings on my pre-generated random list here were Manny-Lucas, Patrick-Ben, and Ryan-Xolo, but all of those aren't open anymore."

"Arceus," Kyle swore as he tried standing up straight, seeing the Riolu already running at him with a glowing palm.

Kyle didn't remember at all how this fifth fight went, but apparently he had slightly outperformed Lucas in the spar, at least according to coach Oslo in his one-on-one session later. The Growlithe guessed that he didn't so well on that quiz thingy, since that entire time between his fourth fight and his one-on-one time was blank to him, but as he went out back out to the general conditioning the Heliolisk dismissed him with "Thanks for the chat, Kyle, and great job today. See you at JV practice Friday."