Chapter 30 – Daddy's Little Girl!

"Congratulations on advancing in the tournament, Kid," said Leader Dempsey. "It was a tough Battle but in the end you managed to pull through. You and your Pokemon's fighting spirit was what made you the stronger team last night."

Kay and Teppo were currently in Dempsey's office, with Dempsey sitting at his desk as usual. At first he looked to be satisfied and calm, but once he said his words the old, bearded man suddenly had a vein pop out the side of his head.

"But even so…" Suddenly, Dempsey stood up, slamming his fist onto his desk. "… YOU AND YOUR POKEMON SHOULD KNOW BETTER AND REST FOR THE DAY! There's a limit to just how in-sync you two should be!"

"S, Sorry, Leader…!" Kay cried out, quickly bowing her head in forgiveness.

"N, Nite…!" Even Teppo did the same, considering it was the one that was eager to do some exercise in the first place.

Kay knew they needed to rest for the day, but after helping out her father with the farm work in the morning, she and her Pokemon still had plenty of energy to spare. They figured there would be no harm in just doing their roadwork and visit the Gym… but then Tessa and Parker saw them during their own jog. Before Kay and Teppo knew it, they were pushed right into the Gym… and were called into their Gym Leader's office.

"But we were just doing some roadwork…" said Kay. "We didn't even run so-…" But the frown she saw Dempsey was giving her quickly put her back in place. "I, I understand… We won't be doing any more of that today."

Dempsey sighed. "Honestly, how many times must I repeat myself on that…?" Then he slowly leaned back on his chair. "But being in-sync with your Pokemon was also what decided your victory last night. I could even say that we were lucky. The Pokemon you two faced was definitely a high-leveled Battler, but it didn't always think the same way as its Trainer." He recalled the time when the Makuhita was facing Teppo's Ember attack: it looked like it was going to try something else until its own Trainer called it to just charge forward. "In fact, if it was just the Pokemon battling, then the Makuhita could come out the victor."

Kay nodded softly; she didn't like to think that her Pignite was 'weaker' than another Pokemon, after all.

"But," Dempsey continued. "Pokemon Battling will always be a Battle for both the Pokemon and their Trainers. If only one of them is doing more work than the other, then there will be no balance and in turn, no teamwork. That's why you two need to continue to support each other the best you can, and as your Gym Leader I will definitely make sure of that."

A smile started to form on Kay's face.

"And that's why YOU need to make sure your Pokemon gets rest whether it wants to or not!" Reminding them why they were sent here quickly shot both Kay and Teppo's smiles down. "You can stay at the Gym if you want, but I don't want to hear either of you doing any sort of Training for the time being, understand?"

"Yes, sir…"

"I can't believe we got scolded…" groaned Kay as she and her Pokemon walked down the stairs and back into the main room. "Then again, Leader Dempsey does have a point: we were pretty beaten up from last night's Battle." She turned her head, looking at her Pokemon. "Well… mentally beaten up for me, that is. And you took quite a lot of the punches from Iva Parish's Makuhita too, Teppo. The Pokemon Center managed to heal the swellings and the bruises… but I guess we shouldn't just push ourselves to train right away."

"Pignite…" said the fire pig, rubbing its face a little.

Kay flashed a smile and then knelt down in front of Teppo. "I mean, that means we have plenty of free time in our hands, right? We can do other things today." But then there was a pause… and she turned her head to the side, looking a little puzzled. "…. what exactly DO we usually do on our day-offs…?"

The two of them started to muse over it: normally they would either help out at the farm or Kay could catch up on her school work… but she neither had any farm OR school work to catch up on today. In fact, whenever they had this much of free time, they… normally catch up with their Training.

The realization hit them hard.

"Hey, you over there with the Pignite."

An unfamiliar voice called out to them; they turned their attention to the side to see who it was: a girl, probably around Kay's age. In fact, she was even around Kay's height too. Her black hair was tied into two ponytails, and she had an adorable Pikachu-themed ribbon clipped on her hair holding her fringe to the side and off her face. She wore simple clothes – a simple top underneath an unzipped jacket, along with a pair of tight jeans – but for some reason she also wore a frown. With her arms crossed, she looked over Kay and Teppo, as if sizing them up.

'Who's she…?' Kay wondered. 'A new member…?'

"So you're Kay Planer, huh?" the girl asked, her tone strong and strict.

"Y, Yes," said Kay, quickly standing up. "Um… May I help you…?" But instead of a verbal response, all Kay got was the girl sizing her up again – this time, REALLY sizing her up; she suddenly started walking around Kay, musing soundly to herself the whole time. "Uh… Excuse me…." Kay was trying to keep her eyes on the girl the whole time. "… what are you doing?"

"Huh…" was all the girl said first as she returned to standing in front of Kay. "You're not much to look at compared to the other one…"

"W, What's that supposed to mean?"

But then the girl suddenly pointed a finger directly at Kay's face. "Your face looks plainer than I imagined; you don't look like a strong Pokemon Trainer." Then she turned her attention to Teppo, who flinched as their eyes met. "And this Pignite doesn't look that powerful either." Teppo lowered its head in shame as the girl turned her eyes away and back to Kay. "But you ARE Kay Planer, right? You're the only one with a Pignite here after all."

'Who is this girl…?' thought Kay, frowning slightly – though she quickly shifted to a more neutral expression shortly after. "Yes, I'm Kay Planer… and you are…?"

"I wanted to see what the big fuss was all about; at first I thought I was going to meet someone amazing but now…" She looked at Kay with doubtful eyes. "… are you really a Pokemon Trainer? You don't really look like one."

"S, Sorry..." said Kay, lowering her head in shame.

"Hailey?" Right then, Charles just walked out from behind a corner, carrying his digital clipboard as usual. He approached the two, looking somewhat puzzled, but his eyes were fixed on the girl. "I didn't know you were coming to visit today." Then Charles shifted his eyes towards Kay and Teppo for a moment. "Are you bothering one of our Trainers?"

But Kay wasn't the type to put all of the blame on one person – even IF she had no blame in it whatsoever. Even though she didn't know this girl, Kay felt like she needed to defend her and not embarrass her in front of Charles, who obviously knew her.

But before she could even say anything…

The girl, Hailey, suddenly stepped forward.

"Of course not, DADDY~!"

Kay froze. In the blink of an eye, the girl went from 'rude and tough', to 'girlishly affectionate': a big smile replaced that frown, and her eyes twinkled heavily. And no doubt the pose Hailey was doing – putting her hands together close to her chest while raising one leg up backwards – was supposed to make her look 'cute'.

That… and it turned out that the girl was Charles' daughter!

''Daddy'?!' thought Kay, watching the sight in disbelief.

"I just wanted to come over and see how you're doing at work, daddy~!" said the girl with a now high-pitched tone. "And I wanted to see who this 'Kay Planer' you're always talking about at home~! She looks like a strong Pokemon Trainer to me too!"

'But you just said the exact opposite earlier!' thought Kay – how she wished she could say that out loud. Though, Kay was a little surprised that Charles actually talked about her at home.

"You're always like this, Hailey." Charles smiled as he sighed, patting the girl on the head. "What am I going to do with you? But I tend to be busy here so you really should call me if you were coming over."

"Okay~!" said Hailey, raising her hand up childishly. "Hee hee, I must have forgot about that~."

Kay had no idea what to say or think about all this – it was the first time she had actually seen someone her age behaving… in that way. But then she noticed someone from the corner of her eyes: it was Tessa, who was hiding behind one of the punching bags, and she was beckoning her over. Kay looked at Charles and Hailey, who seemed occupied talking to each other for the time being, before proceeding to approach the hiding Tessa along with Teppo.

"What's wrong, Tessa?" asked Kay. "Why are you hiding…?"

"Why else?" she said. "Because THAT girl is here." She pointed obviously towards Hailey. "You probably know this by now but she's Charles' daughter, and she ALWAYS acts that way around him. BUT, whenever he's not around, all she ever does is talk down to us and criticizing how we do things here at the Gym. Last time, she kept complaining how I was training Peaches… but it's not like I can say anything because she's Charles' kid." Kay could see why that could be difficult. "But she hasn't been visiting for a long time… so why now?"

Kay flinched.

"What?" But then it hit her. "Wait a minute… Oh crap, this is exactly like last time…" Tessa's expression hardened. "It's YOU, isn't it?"

"S, She only said she wanted to see what I was like…!"

"That's what she said about Inez too."

"Inez? She came to see what Inez was like back then too?"

Tessa gave a solemn nod. "That's right… Last year, she came to the Gym with Charles – it was her first visit. Apparently she convinced Charles to bring her along because she was interested to see what Inez was like. Apparently Charles is the type of person who talks about his work at home… At first we didn't see anything wrong with it and Inez didn't seem to mind. We all thought she was just a cute girl who wanted to spend time with her father… But then…"

Kay gulped.

"One day, Charles had to leave the Gym for a while with Leader Dempsey and asked us to look after Hailey. As soon as they left… Hailey approached Inez while she was training."

Flashback to a year ago…

"So this is what you're like, huh?" Hailey asked, now wearing her usual frown instead of her smile, crossing her arms and facing Inez and her Torchic, who were busy with hitting the punching bag. "You're not THAT amazing."

"…?" Inez, dripping in sweat, blinked, turning to face Hailey.

"And you're all covered in sweat…!" said Hailey, apparently unaware that Inez and Torchic had been Training for a long while now. "Why don't you keep a towel nearby or something? And I really do hope you shower after every time you train your Pokemon though."

At first, Inez didn't say anything, but then she gave Hailey her trademark cold glare. "Please don't bother me while I'm training my Pokemon." The glare and the unwavering tone of Inez's voice froze Hailey on the spot, but Inez simply returned her focus back onto training her Torchic.

Hailey frowned furiously… and then turned her sights on a younger Parker and Tessa.

And Tessa continued. "That time Inez scared her, but unfortunately that got Hailey to set her sights on us instead. The only other person she never dares to talk to around here is Sodo… For me and Parker, however…" Just the very thought of it sent shivers down her spine, and Tessa suddenly scowled at Kay. "This is your fault! Why did you have to get Charles talking about you?!"

"H, How was I supposed to know that?" Kay snapped.

"I… I got it…!" said Tessa. She straightened up, and then pressed her hands on Kay's shoulders, giving Kay probably the most disturbing grin she had ever seen on Tessa. "Why don't you quit the Gym? Just until all this dies over and Hailey loses interest!"

"I can't quit for something like that…!"

"Pignite…!" Teppo cried out angrily in turn.

"Huh?" another voice spoke out. "What was that?"

It was Hailey!

"HEEE….!" Tessa shrieked, but then quickly stepped away from Kay to force herself to smile at Hailey, who was now back to her frowning self now that Charles had apparently left. "W, Why, if it isn't little Hailey…! H, How have you been doing? Good, I hope…?"

"I'm doing alright." Hailey crossed her arms once more, giving Kay, Teppo, and Tessa a look of disinterest. But then her eyes gleamed, right before she pointed right at Tessa, who flinched right away. "Why are you still wearing your bracelets around like that?" She pointed at the several rubber bracelets around Tessa's wrists. "You could easily lose them or worse, ruin them while you're training your Pokemon!"

"I, I must have forgotten to take them off after I was changing…"

"You need to take better care of your belongings!"

"Y, Yes…!"

At that time, Parker was walking in their direction, holding onto his mobile phone while playing some tunes on it. "Hey, Tess, did you see my- HEEEE…!" Spotting Hailey standing near Tessa and Kay, Parker let out a girlish shriek, with Tessa giving him a look as if telling him to run away as fast as he could. But before he could even try, Hailey spotted him. "O, Oh, little Hailey, is it? Wow, I uh… I haven't seen you for uh… for a long time…!" Like Tessa, Parker was putting on the best smile he could make.

"Why is everyone calling me 'little'?" asked a frowning Hailey. "I see your hair is still dyed."

"O, Oh, this…?" He quickly brought a hand up to his hair. "I, I guess I must have forgotten to bleach it…! You know, Pokemon Battles keeping me busy and all…! H, Hahaha…."

Hailey's eyes gleamed again, but this time her sights fell on Parker's phone!

"What's with that!" she snapped, pointing right at it. "The music is way too loud…! Don't you ever consider the possibility that it could bother other people here! People come here to train their Pokemon, not to listen to some pop idol singing!"

"A, Ah…!" Parker flustered and in his panic almost dropped his phone before finally turning off the music. "Y, You're right… I guess I wasn't thinking… hahaha…."

'Poor Parker…!' thought Kay.

"But the music is really popular, you know?" Parker added. "It's ARIA's new music…! It hit number one on the—" But Hailey did not care; all she gave him was a bigger frown. "… I, I'll make sure to wear some headphones next time…"

'This girl is really something else…' thought Kay. 'Tessa and Parker look like they just got scolded by Leader Dempsey…!'

"And you over there…!" shouted Hailey, pointing at another member of the Gym. "Don't go running around with an open bottle in your pocket…! What if it falls…! And you: make sure to put the weights back at their places once you're done…!" And for the time being, Hailey left the first three to go lecture some other unfortunate souls.

"You see what I mean?!" said Tessa to Kay, looking mentally drained already. "She's always lecturing us on this and that…! Even telling us how to do our training, even…!"

Parker put on a serious face. "There's a rumor going around that she's thinking of taking over as this Gym's Manager once Charles retires. Charles is strict, but with that girl around, it'd be like dealing with TWO Leader Dempseys!"

Kay couldn't help but imagine that… and imagined just how scary it would be if both of them got mad at the same time.

"But we know why she's here…" Tessa continued. "She's very clingy to her 'daddy', and Charles seems to have no problems spoiling her. But why is her reason to come here always something to do with meeting with Trainers that Charles talks about at home? Back then it was Inez… and now it's Kay." She turned to look at Kay for a moment, before looking away again. "… but there's no way Hailey could get intimidated, let alone scared from a face like that…!"

"Hey…!" exclaimed the 'plain-looking' Kay. "What's that supposed to mean!"

"She's nothing but a 'Daddy's Little Girl'," said Parker. "She loves her father and she probably gets away with a lot of things. If you ask me… Hm…?" But for some reason, Kay and Tessa were waving their hands at him. "What the heck are you guys doin-"

"Who's a 'Daddy's Little Girl'?"

"GAH!" It turned out to be Hailey, apparently back from lecturing others! Parker once again let out a girly shriek, and quickly stepped away from the girl, moving closer to the other two girls behind him. "W, We uh… We…" He glanced to the side. "… W, We were talking about Tessa…! You probably don't know, but Tessa's quite the Daddy's Little Girl…!"

"W, What?!" snapped Tessa. "I-…!" But then she sensed the urgency. "I-… Y, Yeah…! I guess I am, huh?" Tessa forced a smile on herself. "I'm always going on and on about my… dad…! He's the best…! But Parker's a real Mama's Boy, you know!"

Parker twitched at that. "Y, Yeah… I guess I am… a Mama's Boy."

Hailey sweatdropped. "… who the heck would outright admit all that anyway…?"

"…!?" And that shot Tessa and Parker like a blade through their chests.

"W, Well…!" Tessa said, clasping her hands together and forcing herself to smile. "I guess we should go back to our Training…! Oh, I think Peaches and I still have our roadwork to do for the day! Well, I gotta go! Laters…!" Just like that, Tessa jogged – rather quickly – out of the Gym.

"O, Oh, right…!" said Parker. "Me too…! Well, it was nice seeing you again, Hailey…! See ya…!" Like Tessa, he fled rather quickly.

Hailey sighed. "Are those two really partners…?" And then – quickly – she set her eyes back on Kay like she was her next meal.

Rather, that was what it looked like to Kay herself.

"What about you?" Hailey asked, crossing her arms over her chest again. "Are YOU some kind of Little Daddy's Girl too?"

Unfortunately, Kay had no idea what exactly was a 'Daddy's Little Girl', but judging from Parker's reaction earlier, it must not be something good. "N, No….?" she said, shifting her eyes to the side. "At least… I don't think so. I mean… I do live with my dad and all, but…"

Hailey tilted her head to the side. "A Daddy's Little Girl is someone who gets whatever she wants handed to her by her father." She didn't seem at all bothered stating that though… "You say you live with your dad?"

"Yes…"

"Does your dad love you?"

"Uh… I would think so, yes…"

"Let me guess: he was completely okay with you deciding to become a Pokemon Trainer?"

"… yes…"

"Then you're a Daddy's Little Girl." Hailey shrugged stating that.

"W, What…? No—But that makes it sound like it's a bad thing! My dad just wanted me to do what I want…"

"Hmm… Well, has he actually ever said 'no' much to you before?"

"That's-…" But then Kay started thinking: she never really had the habit of asking her father for anything, especially things she could get or do on her own. But the times she did remember asking him for something – directly or indirectly… Him agreeing with her decision to become a Pokemon Trainer; that time she asked him if she could excuse herself from helping out at the farm to attend a group study with Terry; asking him for his permission to do some Pokemon Training at the Gym during both weekends and weekdays…

What was common? He never said 'no' – in fact, he hardly even questioned her on those things!

'I'm…' Kay thought. '… a 'Daddy's Little Girl'!'

And she looked like she just realized the most important thing in her lifetime.

FazzEagle: Here's a little chapter where we're away from the Pokemon Battles for the time being, and it brings up the question: is Kay Planer actually a Daddy's Little Girl? Think about it.

Whenever I write things about my characters, there are lots of times when I'd like to put attention to the little things about them. Kay Planer (in my opinion anyway) is far from a 'perfect person'; in most anime and manga I've read, the main protagonist is usually depicted as 'handsome', 'beautiful', 'cute', 'talented', or even 'mary-sue/gary-stu level of perfection'. Recent anime I've watched can play around with this by giving the character a personality trait that 'balances' out, like the main female protagonist from Seitokai Yakuindomo, who is described as 'perfect', but has a heavily perverted personality. The type of characters I do tend to hate, however, are characters who just 'have it all'.

Like, no weakness whatsoever.

I don't know: in my opinion, that can stop the character from being three-dimensional.

I have not perfected this with Kay, but I'd like to think I'm going in the right direction at least. I will TRY to draw just a bust of Kay and show you how I imagined her 'plain looks' one of these days. For now, I hope you all enjoy the read!

Please leave me a review!