When Ashley turned to the screen she saw Mikki bowing, signalling the conclusion of her performance. She thought, 'That was quick. I didn't take that long changin…' she looked at her watch and her eyes widened. It had been 12 minutes. She shook her head and thought, 'Great, now even I'm doing it!' then focused back on the screen…

Cerian said, "Now, time for the judges' comments! First up is Nurse Joy."

Nurse Joy said, "I was impressed by the dexterity and control that your Ninetails has over its tails. Unfortunately, the culminating display resembled Ashley and Leaf's performances, which I hope you were aware of going in."

"I was," Mikki said, having been more than aware of the fact.

Nurse Joy smiled condolingly as Cerian said, "Now, Mr. Contesta."

Mr. Contesta said, "As Nurse Joy pointed out, your performance was similar to Leaf and Ashley's. Given that, you should have saved the performance that you just gave for a different time and done something else instead."

"Well, I would have if it weren't a prerequisite that we register the Pokémon that we will be using before we enter the waiting room. I actually have a number of other workable performances with my other Pokémon. But, as I said, I had to use Ninetails for this one, and I'd used up almost my repertoire of performances with Ninetails. Now I have."

"I see. Well, in any case, it's time for the mayor's comments."

"I don't have much experience as a Contest Judge, but based on what I've seen today, it was a good performance. But, like my fellow judges have asserted, taken by itself, it would normally get you better marks that you likely have."

"Thanks," Mikki half-heartedly said, a smile on her face that told all the judges that she knew what was coming. As soon as the judges had seen the resigned acceptance on her face the numbers appeared in front of their desks. All three judges gave her 8.5, for a total score of 25.5. Mikki closed her eyes in relief at the score that she received as she had been expecting much less, a score that she would lay right at Ashley's feet. She still, rightfully, did, but less than she otherwise would have.

When Mikki was back in the competitor's waiting room she sat down next to Ashley with a humf and crossed her arms as she blow a lock of hair that had fallen over her right eye off of her face. She said, "So, what'd you thing?"

Ashley looked apologetically at Mikki and shrugged, saying, "Sorry, but I only got to see the judging at the end."

"Eh?" Mikki said, before taking a look at Ashley and noticing that she had changed out of the dress that she had been wearing during her performance.

Mikki sighed as she hung her head and laughed. As she was about to say, "Of course you didn't," she saw a mass of blue stand in front of her.

As Mikki looked up she heard a voice say, "Well I sure did."

Mikki looked up and exclaimed, "Leaf!"

Leaf smiled at Mikki and said, "Hey, how are you?"

"Heh, how do you think?"

"Well, don't let it get you down too much. Trust me when I say that it's not that bad."

"Not that bad? Are you kidding me? I didn't even get twenty six!"

"Most of these guys here are going for their first ribbon, a lot of them are competing because this is their home town. Sure, there's the odd professional coordinator, like us, but the average score so far is 24. Ashley and I are just the outliers here. Speaking of which, just who are you, and what is your relationship with Ash Ketchum?"

Ashley looked up at Leaf and said, "You mean my cousin?"

"Your…Ash doesn't have a cousin named Ashley."

"Then how else would you explain my existence?"

"I don't know, but I will be getting an explanation," turning to walk back to her seat, having accomplished what she had set out to do.

"What, are you still sore about that Swalot?"

"The!" Leaf's face lost all colour before switching red in an instant. "How do you know about that?"

Ashley stood up and said, "Remember, I'm Ash's cousin. He told me."

"Rubbish. Ash isn't the type that would brag like that. Besides, our class did that 'Me' project just before I had to move and, according to what he said in it, Ash doesn't have any relatives in Sinnoh. So I'll say again, how do you really know about it?"

Ashley thought, 'I knew that no good would come of that project!' Then, Ashley shrugged her right shoulder and said, "It's simple really, beat me, and I might tell you," Leaf saw a translucent image of her old friend superimpose itself over Ashley as he had said the exact same thing, the exact same way, when she demanded to know how he managed to use Swalot and win.

Leaf's expression told Ashley that Leaf likely wanted nothing more than to inflict mass amounts of pain on her before she sighed, letting the tension fade from her face. She said, "Fine," her face telling Ashley that she would undoubtedly be facing her old friend at some point during the Battle Rounds.

XXXXX

About an hour later the Performance Round concluded, with the coordinator getting a score of 3 as he had used a Mantyke that could only use Splash and the judges would have felt guilty giving him nothing. The kid walked back into the competitor's waiting room, hanging his head, causing some of the girls to exclaim over his cuteness. Ashley had a sneaking suspicion that he had failed so miserably on purpose, as some of the prettier girls rushed over to console the boy. Ashley sighed and rested her head on her hand, and shook it in exasperation, and annoyance, that someone would do something for such a ridiculous reason. She sighed, attracting Mikki's attention.

Mikki looked at Ashley when she heard her friend's sister sigh. She asked, "What's wrong?"

Ashley nodded in the direction of the cluster of girls and said, "Look at his face." Mikki looked at the kid that lost and saw a self-satisfied, supercilious, smirk on his face.

Mikki saw red and stood up to march over there and give the kid a piece of her mind, but felt a hand on her shoulder and looked at the owner and said, "What are you doing Ashley?"

"I know what you're going to do, but don't. It's not worth it."

"Not worth it! But that kid's abusing his Pokémon along with disrespecting both them and this contest, along with the coordinator's participating in it!"

"Yes, but, unfortunately, I've come across a lot of people like him before and the only way to disabuse them of their preconceived notions, is to challenge them. Which, in this case, would mean that happening again without the flock of girls rushing to him. It will happen sooner or later, but for now, there's nothing to be done about it." Mikki groaned in irritation at the logic that was being presented to her, as it was probably right. Before Mikki could say anything further, Ashley said, "Well, it looks like it's time to tell us who's going through."

As Mikki turned to look at the screen to see who got through, she saw her face, along with Ashley, Leaf and Marina's. Alongside their faces, was the gaudily dressed redhead that had gone before Ashley, Jessiqua, a blue haired coordinator that Mikki vaguely recognised from a couple of Contests in the Kanto Region, Alex, who put on a dazzling display with his Bellossom. There was also a local girl that got through, named Helena, with a Ledian, that had long emerald green hair. There was also a boy, with a Heracross, that must have been her twin.

Once the all of the Coordinator's had checked the screen, even those that knew very well that there was little chance of them going through, the one's that didn't get through to the battle rounds left the room. Each of them grumbled to themselves about what they did wrong and what they could do differently the next time. Though some of the males were grumbling about their girlfriend's rushing over to that kid.

Once the room was empty of all but the finalists the remaining occupants of the room took a look at the competition. Ashley, saw that she knew two of them already, and knew of Marina by both her reputation and through Jimmy and knew that she was facing stiff competition from them. Then she saw the redhead and thought, 'Hey wait…don't I know her?' she squinted a bit and saw an image superimpose itself on top of the woman. Her eyebrows rose up in surprise as she realised where she'd seen her before and walked over to her and said, "Hey, you're Jessilina, right?"

"Uhh…No!" Jessie said as she thought, 'Oh no! Someone's seen through this disguise already! I thought it was too close to my Jessilina one! Damnit James! I'll get you for this!' Jessie said, "You must have met my cousin from the Sinnoh Region," as a few sweatdrops started to appear on her forehead as she started to pray for the girl talking to her to believe her lie.

"Huh…well, I guess that makes sense. Though to be quite honest, you look more like twins to me."

Jessiqua sighed in relief and said, "Yeah, we get that a lot."

"I bet you do. You also resemble another Coordinator I met when I was travelling with a friend…what was her name again?" Ashley paused and frowned, thinking back. She rubbed her forehead, easing the stress out of it and esclaimed, "Jessebella!"

'Oh God!' Jessie thought. 'It's gotta be one of the twerps! But who? I've never seen this girl before.' She gulped and said, "That's my sister," hoping to get the girl off her back.

"Seriously! Wow, you must have Coordinating in your blood too then. Well, good luck."

Jessiqua said, "I don't think I'm going to need it," as she battle pairings were arranged on the screen. She thought, 'I've got to beat this girl good, then I can forget this ever happened.' She brushed past Ashley as she walked towards the door leading to the arena floor.

Ashley whirled around, demanding, "What the hell's your probl…" then she saw the matchups and exclaimed, " It's me!" and ran after Jessiqua.