| Pokemon Conclave: the Orange League
Part 1: Admiring the View © 1999-2001 Willow McCall “Tadaaaaa!” Aoife cried, emerging into the living room, where her friends were already eating breakfast around the couch. Aoife had traded in her usual blue and white outfit in favor of khaki shorts and an orange tank top. “Like my new Orange Islands gear?” Ferio buried her face in her hands. “You are going to look like SUCH a tourist when we get there…” Misty came out of the kitchen and thrust a plate of pancakes into Aoife’s hands. “Here, Aoife, have some breakfast and then we’ll go to the ferry.” “YAY!” Aoife said, leaping into the couch next to Sora and almost spilling her pancakes. “Are they chocolate chip?” “Of course.” “YAAAAAAY!” Once finished with breakfast, Mrs. Ketchum drove them to the harbor, where, much to Aoife’s surprise, Fawn was waiting to wish her goodbye. “Aoife,” Fawn said, launching for the thousandth time that week into her “acceptance speech”, “I just wanted to say, thank you so much for making me your second at the gym. I’ll make sure to take care of it while you’re away.” “OKAY, Fawn, you’ve told me that a million times,” Aoife said, waving it away. “It’s nothing. Besides, uh…you do realize that you won’t even be able to take challengers for at least two months because of the reconstruction, right?” “Of course I know that,” Fawn said. “I’m not stupid.” “Could’ve fooled me.” “WHAT WAS THAT?” Ferio sighed. “There goes the olive branch…” *** “This ship sucks compared to the St. Margaret,” Aoife whined, as they took their seats. “It’s just like…this one big ROOM. And there’s just one gift shop, and not even any rooms or restaurants or anything.” “There’s a restaurant.” “Yeah, McDonald’s,” Aoife said, sticking her tongue out in the general direction of the fast food chain. “And the deck is really small too!” “Hey, Aoife,” Petra said, trying to cheer up her friend. “I saw a Ben and Jerry’s back there. Want to get some ice cream?” “Hmm…” Aoife said. “That miiiiight make it better…” The two headed off, and Sora rested her head on the table, sighing. “I really miss Aidan.” “Yeah,” Ruari said consolingly. “I know how you feel. Well, I mean, I don’t know how you feel actually, because I didn’t like him as much as you do or anything…it’s kinda hard to think of a guy like that when you and he both have crushes on the same other guy.” Sora looked alarmed. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Geez.” “Oh, great,” Sora muttered. “Now that he’s on Cinnabar, there are TWO other people he could possibly be with, Maeve and Bill.” “She was joking, Sora,” Ferio reminded her cousin. “I’m pretty sure Aidan doesn’t go for that stuff, so it’s just Maeve you’re competing with.” “Unless…” Sora said. “They’re having a THREESOME!” Several passengers looked at her strangely as she exclaimed this. “Don’t be ridiculous!” Ruari hissed. “That would be…very un-Aidan-like.” “We’re back!” Aoife exclaimed, balancing three cups of ice cream while Petra held three herself. “Why’d you get six?” Ferio said, as they set the cups around the table. “Aidan isn’t here anymore, remember?” “Two for Aoife,” Petra said, placing two cups of ice cream in front of Aoife: one chocolate fudge, and the other…chocolate fudge. “Very diverse ice cream choices, Aif,” Ruari commented, taking a bite of her chocolate peanut butter ice cream. With her free hand, Ruari whapped Petra. “What did you do that for? Now she’s going to be hyper all day.” Petra shrugged. “Oh well. She’ll probably find a bunch of people to battle once we get over there, and she’ll work off all her energy. So, did I miss anything while I was up feeding Aoife’s chocolate addiction?” “Sora thinks Aidan, Bill, and Maeve are in a threesome,” Ruari reported gleefully. Sora kicked her under the table. “Ruariiii! I wasn’t serious about that, you know.” “You sounded pretty serious.” Aoife remained clueless. “What’s a threesome?” “What does it SOUND like?” A pause. Then, “Ohhhhh.” “Yeah.” “AIDAN? Doing THAT?” “See, Sora, even Aoife realizes that’s ridiculous.” “Whaddaya mean EVEN Aoife?” Aoife demanded, attempting to headlock Ruari for that comment. “Hey, cut it out!” Ruari said, ducking away. “I just meant…you know, you’re only eleven—“ “TWELVE.” “…twelve, and you really shouldn’t do any of that stuff, much less THINK about it, until you’re…way older.” Ferio glanced at Ruari slyly. “And you should talk. You’re only two years older—“ “And a half. I’ll be fifteen in five months.” “Okay, two and a half years older than her, and you’re not exactly a virgin yourself…” “AM TOO!” Ferio snorted. “Yeah right. Then explain, if you will, what you and Petra were doing when I—“ “Okaaaaaay Ferio that’s enough,” Petra broke in, not wanting any “personal details” about her relationship with Ruari to slip out. “I’m still a virgin,” Ruari explained defensively, “because I’ve never done it with a guy. Just girls. I—“ “Girls, plural?” Petra interrupted, looking hurt. “You mean there were others? Ruari, why didn’t you tell me that?” Ruari blushed. “Can we change the subject now, please?” But Aoife wasn’t interested in changing the subject, her interest had been piqued. “No, no, I like the subject where it is. Go on.” “Anyway, FERIO,” Ruari said, casting a significant look at Ferio, “I’m not sure if you’re one to talk about the virgin stuff…” Ferio gave Ruari a Death Glare. “That’s none of your business.” “Neither is my sex life!” “But you make it other people’s business.” “I do not.” “Then why do you talk about it all the time?” “I don’t! If I remember correctly, SORA was the one who started all this stuff about threesomes and--" “Guys,” Sora interrupted. “Drop it, okay?” “Sorry, Sora.” “’S okay.” Aoife wiped a smudge of fudge off her nose. “Good ice cream.” (Who's that Pokemon? It's Cyndaquil!) First stop on Aoife’s Orange League journey: Tangelo Island. “Vini vidi vici!” Aoife cried, leaping off of the boat triumphantly, the others trailing behind her, carrying her luggage along with their own. “For your information,” Ferio said, “’Vini vidi vici’ is past tense. You haven’t conquered or even seen all of the Orange Islands yet.” “Don’t be a killjoy,” Aoife said. “Come on, let’s go! I wanna battle with someone.” “How about let’s get a hotel first,” Sora said. “Maybe a map while we’re at it.” But Aoife was off, having already found a trainer. “You there! Let’s battle!” Her unfortunate victim, a young indigo-haired man, sweatdropped. “Okay, I guess if you want to…” “Great!” Aoife said, already ready with her Pokeball. “Cubone, I choose you!” “Go, Cyndaquil!” the man said, unleashing his first Pokemon, the same one the girls had seen in the Cinnabar labs. “Cubone, Sand Attack!” Cubone puffed out its cheeks, then blew sand from the ground into Cyndaquil’s face. “The second best thing to water for putting out a fire, right Cubone?” Cubone growled in agreement. The man commanded, “Cyndaquil, Flamethrower!” but the sand from Cubone’s attack made Cyndaquil miss. While its back was to Cubone, Aoife’s Pokemon jumped over Cyndaquil’s head and knocked it over the head with its bone. As the triumphant Aoife collected her winnings from the man (approximately four dollars), a bluenette girl who had been watching the battle from the sidelines broke in. “You call that battling?” She stepped forward into the light and flipped back her layered hair. “Where you from, anyway?” Aoife looked at the girl, offended. “No one asked you.” The girl raised an eyebrow. “Too bad. So where did you learn how to battle like that, anyway? Oh wait, don’t tell me: some hick place like Fuchsia City, right?” “Fuchsia City,” Ruari interrupted, stepping forward, “is not a hick place.” “You’re right,” the girl said, “it’s worse. Saying that about Fuchsia City is an insult to the term ‘hick’.” “Well, I’m not from Fuchsia, I’m from Pallet Town,” Aoife said proudly. “AND I’m the gym leader there.” “Pallet Town?” The blue-haired girl snorted. “Even worse. Those Indigo League gyms, they have no standards whatsoever. Not nearly as good as the Orange Crew.” Ferio’s eyes narrowed. “Say that again.” Aoife, however, was interested in other things. “Who’s the Orange Crew?” “Only the most elite gym leaders in the Orange Islands,” the girl replied. “So you’re the leader of the Pallet Gym, you say? Guess you’ll be disappointed to know that Pallet Town doesn’t even HAVE a gym.” “It does so!” Aoife said defensively. “It’s brand new. The competition was just last week. Of course, there was an accident and the gym was destroyed…but it’s being rebuilt now.” The girl sniffed and turned up her nose at Aoife and her gym. “By the way, who do you think you are to criticize my battle technique? I haven’t even seen your Pokemon yet, so you might not be any good.” “Let me tell you something, pal,” the girl said. “There’s no gym on Tangelo Island, too many tourists—hicks like you from Kanto. The closest is on Mikan Island, a real Orange Crew gym. And guess who the leader is?” “You?” Aoife said. “YOU’RE a gym leader? You’re in the Orange—“ “No, you idiot, not ME!” the girl fumed. “My older sisters, and my mom. I’ve learned everything there is to know about Pokemon from them. They’re geniuses, no exaggeration. They could even beat the Elite 4…but then, that’s not saying much, as any Orange Crew member could do that.” “Uh-huh, sure,” Aoife said. “I’d like to challenge you—“ “Uh, Aoife?” Sora interrupted, pointing off into the distance where Petra was chasing around some Orange Islands beauty, with an enraged Ruari on her heels. “We have a crisis situation here. Can the battle wait?” “I guess,” Aoife said, disappointed. But she turned back to the bluenette as she left, eyes fierce. “I’ll see you at your so-called gym, and THEN we’ll see how good you really are.” “Whatever,” the girl said, flouncing off arrogantly. “I’m not scared of anybody from Kanto.” “Grr,” Aoife muttered, before turning and stomping off to where the group was gathered, around Ruari beating Petra with a convenient mallet. *** “Isn’t this a beautiful hotel room?” Ruari flung open the curtains in their hotel room, letting in the light and allowing them a view of the beach. “And all to ourselves, what with the others staying across the hall.” “And check out this view!” Petra said, rushing to catch a glimpse out the window. “I could sit here all day just watching the girls in their bathing suits…” Ruari snapped Petra out of her reverie, putting herself in between Petra and the window. “Okay, that’s enough of the peep show now. God, Petra, that’s the second time today. Aren’t I enough for you?” “Ruari,” Petra said consolingly, lifting up Ruari’s chin gently with two fingers. “You know you’re the only girl I want.” She leaned in to kiss Ruari, but the latter turned her head just in time, and Petra’s lips landed just beneath her ear. “I’m not convinced.” Ruari slipped out of Petra’s grasp and strode over to the bed, digging around in her backpack for her swimsuit. “I think I’m going to go for a swim…” “I’ll come with you!” Petra volunteered. “…by myself,” Ruari finished, pointedly casting a pissed-off glance at Petra before heading off to change. “Ruari, wait.” Petra grabbed Ruari’s arm, and Ruari turned back around, impatient. “What?” “I’ll go to the beach with you,” Petra said, locking her gray eyes on Ruari’s green ones with a sincere gaze, “and I promise, if I so much as LOOK at another girl while we’re there, you have my full permission to throw me off the balcony when we get back.” Seeing the completely honest, truthful look in her partner’s eyes was like looking into her soul, and Ruari knew Petra meant it. Ruari looked as if she were threatening to melt into a puddle on the hotel room floor at any second, and she dropped her swim gear. “Maybe we can go swimming later…” *** About one hour and several very rumpled bedsheets later… “By the way, Ruari…” “Hmm?” “When you said you’d never done it with guys, just girls…did that ‘s’ at the end of the word just slip in there by accident or was it true?” “What, that I did it with someone before you?” “Yeah.” Ruari looked evasive. “There was…one girl.” “Oh…” “But we didn’t sleep together or anything,” Ruari added hastily. “We just, you know, went out a few times, when I was thirteen.” “So we were both each others’ first, I guess.” “And believe me, after this I never want _anything_ to do with any man, ever again, because I KNOW it wouldn’t be this good.” “Really? Thank you.” A moment of silence. Then Petra spoke up again: “What was her name?” “Oh…Andrea. Why?” “Just wondering.” Author's Notes Okay, this episode mostly consisted of...Petra and Ruari sitting around in their room being mush-heads. I liked their little conversation on the boat, though, that was funny. Sora seems pretty interested in Aidan's sex life, or possibly lack thereof, doesn't she? Well, if you were Sora wouldn't you be? And Ruari was...just being Ruari. And I didn't name the bluenette (hehe, cool word hey? And so useful in anime) but you know who she is. ^-^ back |