Chapter 7: Schooled

"Class, we have a new student joining us today. She's transferred all the way from Hoenn, so please make her feel welcome."

Diana gave the class and teacher an uneasy smile and a shy, involuntary blush. Oh good god, how did I end up here? Why am I here?! All I wanted to do was just get some free pants. How did I end up shanghaied by some truant officer Jenny!? Diana continued rubbing small circles into her other hand with her thumb, avoiding direct eye contact with the hundred pairs of eyes dead-set on memorizing her every detail. And they all think I'm this other student-

"Diane, why don't you introduce yourself and say something about yourself."

-who coincidentally is also named Diane. Either that, or they somehow knew I was coming. Weird... "Okay, umm... I'm Diane Brown, and I... uhhh," drawing a blank, her eyes went to the first thing in the classroom that wasn't a person and admitted, "... I don't have a notebook." Unprepared for public speaking, she had forgone the explanation that she didn't belong here- because that excuse worked out so well for her in the past -and hoped that somehow the fact that she was unprepared for school would be the magic bullet to expel her and give her the opportunity to flee. Never mind she was inadvertently committing identity theft against her will. However, her mindless excuse didn't seem to be the magic words the teacher, who she learned was named Ms. Rosewood, was looking for- in fact, it barely phased her at all. She just gave her a kind, understanding smile and placed her hand on Diana's shoulder.

"Don't worry," Ms. Rosewood spoke gently, "We're all nervous on our first day at a new school, so I'll let it slide for today, but I hope you'll be more prepared tomorrow. Until then, you can pick up one of the extras at the back of the classroom, along with a textbook."

Diana let out a mental sigh. Looks like her mother got her wish after all. Almost a day after she was supposed to set off on a journey, Diana was going to a new school; it just wasn't Berklee, like either of them had intended. To distract herself from just standing there twiddling her thumbs, Diana swung her new backpack off her shoulders and set it on the ground by one of the free desks closest to the door while she chose a hardback titled 'A Pokemon Trainer's Handbook' from a haphazard stack of textbooks on the back table, a three-hole punched notebook, and plucked a dull pencil from a teacher appreciation coffee mug.

"Now that that's settled, we'll continue our discussion of the diverse culture of Sinnoh in how it is the largest concentration of religious groups. Now, the two largest religions, Arceusism and Mewism, have been said to originate in..."

Diana tapped her eraser against the back of her pink College Ruled notebook absentmindedly. I'll just pretend like I'm busy and wait for an opening. Then I'll make a break for it. Since she didn't have an actual workbook to write in, she leaned over in her chair as discretely as she could and peeked at her neighbor's notes. The chicken-scratch was too intelligible for her to make out, so she moved onto her textbooks.

"The difference between the two religions follows the age old question of 'which came first: the egg or the pokemon?' Now some state that the myth of Arceus, the creator of all life, came first, but some theorize that Mew, being the ancestor of the pokemon we know now, was the embryo of the egg that contained Arceus, thus making it the world's first pokemon..."

Judging from how scaled this new world was to her, it wouldn't hurt to have a map on hand, but she really didn't feel like lugging a bunch of textbooks around, especially when she only needed a basic map of Sinnoh. Now which page was it...?

"...Due to a falling out within the group, the Schism created tension and eventually caused the group to break off and form Mewism. This is not uncommon in religion, as it is common for different interpretations to occur within religious organizations, whether it be due to introduction of charismatic radicals or outside religious figureheads or simple, adjunct philosophies. An entire civil war was fought in Unova due to conflicts of interests and separate ideologies of..."

Diana squinted for a few long seconds at her geography book before turning it sideways. What kind of language was this? The whole book was written in scribbles that resembled what looked like the ugly lovechild of Japanese Kanji and American English. The only thing that she could make sense of was the runes written in Unown hieroglyphs displayed in pictures on old ruin walls, and that was only due to the generous amount of lighting from the photographer.

"...Among some of these conflicts, many cults and splinter religions are conceived by conflicting beliefs and discourse, including organizations like the Church of Helix, a cult which revolves around worshiping an Omanyte fossil. Though most are harmless, such as the Shinto practice of honoring or paying homage to mythological and legendary pokemon as nature spirits, organized religious groups created by philanthropists and environmentalists are often corrupt through taking in vulnerable young minds with charismatic leaders and using them for personal agendas..."

Diana spotted a map that resembled the Hokkaido area of Japan, which the aforementioned region of Sinnoh was supposed to based on according to Nintendo, which was a three page fold-out of the land mass. Some of the terms were written in English while others were a little harder to read, being smaller in text and scrawled in that bastardization of 'Jap-English.' Deciphering what she could, she jotted down notes into the blank areas of the page, circling areas and towns with pokemon gyms that she knew of from her memories of the TV series.

"...though a more extreme example would be the two terrorist organizations, Team Magma and Aqua. Their clash and extremist ideals by resurrecting ancient, primordial pokemon resulted in catastrophic weather conditions and damage to various parts of Hoenn, including Sootopolis City, which received massive flood damage and multiple earthquakes, disrupting life for both humans and pokemon and destroying thousands of years of history..."

Done with what she could, Diana was now working on her edging the pages of her Geography textbook's map of Sinnoh before, very carefully, tearing out the paper edges from the base of the spine, periodically checking to see if anyone noticed her destruction of school property. They did not. She was halfway through her task when the class was ready to move onto the next lesson.

"Now class, turn to page 106 in your 'Pokemon Battle Theory & Applications' textbooks." The swishing chorus of students turning the pages of their open textbooks sang through the classroom. Ms. Rosewood then made an about-faced so that she stood in front of the chalkboard- a chalkboard, really? What school still had chalkboards anymore? Everything was either dry erase or smart boards nowadays; the only thing more arcane was an overhead projector. Fortunately, Diana recognized, the blackboard did have a few words that were plainly written in English.

"Now class, we all know that status conditions can be the key to winning battles. Some fade over time while others stay until the pokemon faints or it's healed by a trainer, a pokemon move, medicine, or a professional pokemon nurse or doctor. Now," she then began scribbling words on the blackboard in blue chalk: 'Poison,' 'Sleep,' 'Paralysis,' 'Burn,' 'Confused,' and 'Frozen' while Diana quietly tore out most of the Sinnoh map while her back was turned. "Which one of these isn't a status condition?" She pointed a chalk smeared fingertip towards the board.

A few people raised their hands, but a girl a row over from her was just a bit faster. "Confused." Diana, having just tuned in but was still focused on her task, felt that the other girl's answer was lacking in correctness and had the sudden urge to spew word-vomit.

"Umm actually that's a trick question," she interjected. "Technically, Confused is a status condition, but it's volatile because the pokemon can be confused and afflicted with other status conditions like Sleep or Poison, whereas a pokemon with a non-volatile status condition like Frozen can't be affected by another non-volatile status condition like Poison. It's the same with Attract as well." Yes! Diana cheered mentally after having torn out the last bit of her map with success. Hardly any rips or tears! She then creased the paper back into its natural folds and stuffed her textbook under her desk as discretely as possible, hiding any sign of her vandalism.

"Correct, Diane. Now if your pokemon is afflicted with one of these status ailments, what are the methods of curing it?"

"Using man-made items like Full Heals, certain berries, and having your pokemon healed at pokemon centers," said the same girl from before.

"Very good, Madeline," Ms. Rosewood praised before noticing Diana was raising her hand. "Yes, Diane?"

"Pokemon moves can cure it as well, like Heal Bell and Restore-" Diana explained before correcting herself, "No, wait, it's Refresh. Also, if it's volatile like Attracted or Confused, returning them to their pokeball also works. Even having a pokemon like Nurse Joy's Chansey or my Swablu that have the ability Natural Cure will automatically heal themselves of any status problem after being returned from battle. Furthermore, pokemon with the ability Shedding Skin like Dratini and Dragonair can heal themselves on their own without having to switch out."

"Very good, Diane. You're off to a good start this year," the teacher praised her after Diana finished her long explanation, causing the latter to beam with pride. Maybe sticking around for a little while longer wouldn't hurt...

"Alright, tomorrow I want a five hundred word essay persuasive essay on what makes a great pokemon trainer..."

Before she knew it, class had been let out for lunch period, which was convenient, because Diana was starving by this point, having skipped breakfast. She hadn't meant to stay as long as she did, but there wasn't a good time to leave with more than a dozen pairs of eyes on you, and the class had just gotten interesting. It was rare, at her other school, for a subject to grab her attention for longer than ten or fifteen minutes, let alone be made up of one of her special interests.

Kids of all age groups were piling into lines outfitted by a tray system or eating bag lunch slash bento box lunch they had brought from home. The kids in-line seemed to input some sort of code anytime they got to the end of the line to pay, a code that seemed to be different for each individual. She didn't have a code and the only food she had on her were for pokemon, so she made her way over to raid the salad bar. Select choices of vegetables and toppings were arranged into basins of chilled food under a sneeze-guard, giving her the option of iceberg or spinach, with stacks of plates, bowls, and takeout boxes stacked on the edge of the bar.

Berry Salad. Again. At least this time, she had the option for nuts, dipping large spoon fulls of sunflower seeds and pecans into her takeout box filled with leafy lettuce. After sprinkling in a few pinap berries and sliced oran berries- Diana thought it surreal that what qualified as a mandarin orange was blue instead of, well, orange -she closed her container and shook it. She was about to snatch a couple of rawst flavored yogurt cups when she found her exit was blocked by a trio of teenage girls.

The girls all looked relatively the same, all being brunette with matching eye colors and school uniforms, only contrasting by their hairstyles. The one on the left wore her hair in a ponytail while the girl on the right had pigtails. All of them had some sort of clip in their hair, save the girl in the middle who stood directly in front of Diana. She had her hair down, only going a little bit past her shoulders in a bump-it style, and had a rhinestone headband resting behind her side-swept bangs.

"Hi," the middle girl beamed cheerfully, though the smile didn't quite seem to reach her eyes, which were sharp and focused.

"...Hi?" Diana offered slowly.

"We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Madeline, Madeline Chika. You're in my class." Diana gave her an apathetic 'cool' started edging towards the yogurt cups before she was blocked yet again, Madeline abruptly placing herself between her and the yogurt. "You look like a pokemon trainer. Do you have any gym badges?"

"Well uh-" Diana pulled to loosen her bow-tie, which kept feeling tighter around her neck.

"I got a nifty keen gym badge from the gym leader in Oreburgh City," Madeline then held out a bronze colored metal pin shaped like a construction worker hat while Diana cringed. 'Nifty'? 'Keen? "I got that using only my Psyduck. Do you have any pokemon, Diane?"

"It's Diana," Diana quickly corrected, barely getting a word in edgewise.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So show us your Swablu already." She was just fidgeting with her bow-tie at this point. Why couldn't there be a clip-on bow-tie or better yet, forsake the whole neck-wear all together? She decided to go with that option and pulled the tie off, allowing her neck to breathe. Wait... the girl had said something earlier, hadn't she?

"What? My Swablu?"

"Yeah, I heard you mention you have a Swablu in class, and I've never seen a pokemon from Hoenn before. Mind if I see it?" Diana wasn't sure if she appeared apprehensive to Madeline's request, but she must have because the girl kept trying to convince her. Diana walked a plucking two of them and shoving them into her bag with the rest of her things. giving her a casual eye-roll. "Oh come on. It'll only take a sec."

"Why are you so obsessed to see my pokemon?"

"We just want a peek," chimed in Pigtails, as Diana dubbed her, as she didn't bother introducing herself or the other girl she called 'Ponytail.'

"Yeah! Come on, Diane, show us your pokemon," Ponytail agreed.

Diana bit her bottom lip. She really needed to get out of here and meet up with Aaron. He was probably wondering where she was by this point. But if she didn't indulge in this girl and her friends' curiosity, they would probably follow her and figure out she was ditching school, and she didn't need that kind of attention.

"Maybe she doesn't have one," Madeline sighed with a mock forlorn expression. Diana's eyebrows scrunched together.

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"I never said that," Madeline turned towards her posse. "Girls, did I ever say Diane was a liar?"

"Nope," replied Pigtails.

"Of course not."

"Then you won't mind us showing us your Swablu." A few kids that had their pokemon out- a couple of Abra, some Starly, and a Bidoof -were now starting to look at them.

"Just-! ... Just give me a second," Diana relented, setting down her bag on the tray rail. It took her a couple of seconds of fishing around in her bag to realize that, with all her pokeballs shoved into her knapsack instead of her jean pockets, she couldn't tell which one was Flonne's pokeball- even worse, she had mixed them with her empty ones. Rookie mistake. Seriously, how could pokemon trainers tell all of them apart? They all looked the same- unless you carried only six pokemon and each one of them was in a different ball, like an Ultra Ball or a Lure Ball. In the future, when she had the time and resources, she was going to have to sit down and label these with stickers or something. Going with her gut, Diana picked the one in her right hand and tapped the button on the pokeball for it to expand and again a second time for the release. Empty. She tried the one in her left hand. This time, a pokemon did appear, materializing on the ground in front of the clip cliche, but as Diana soon realized to her error, it was Eve instead of Flonne.

"No- wait! Wrong one." Eve was cut off mid-cry before abruptly being recalled in a red flash of light.

Madeline pressed her mouth into a thin line. "What's the hold up? Do you have a Swablu or not?"

"Just hold your horses, already!" Diana snapped at her, exasperated as she kept fumbling with empty pokeballs.

"...'Horses?'"

Diana frowned with increasing frustration, trying two more times and coming up zip. It only eased slightly the third time around when she finally released of the correct pokemon. Third time's the charm. "There! Happy?" Flonne looked around, noticing her surroundings were different before cooed softly at the three girls. A couple of 'aww's were heard from the two sidekicks as they bent over to get a better look at Flonne, who just happily hopped up and down with a flap of her wings.

"What's wrong with it?" Madeline asked in curiosity, her face straight and impassive, before her friends grew quiet and regained their composure. Diana's shoulders grew rigid.

"There's nothing wrong with her."

"Then why can't your Swablu fly?"

"Maybe she doesn't want to fly. Ever think of that?" Diana defended, crossing her arms. Of course, it only now occurred to her that her pokemon was young and probably wouldn't be pulling any Wing Attacks anytime soon... not that any Swablu could. She would be lying if she didn't expect the Swablu to be able to fly- it was a Flying type -though in retrospect, she should have seen this coming. The whole time she had been around Flonne, she had been carted around in a shopping cart, carried, or clung to her shoulder. She was still probably in that awkward phase of childhood. It didn't exactly fly up to her and Aaron when they first met.

"What kind of trainer are you? Not only can't you do something as basic as call out the correct pokemon," Madeline criticized with a smirk, "but you have a bird pokemon that can't even fly."

"It's only because Flonne's just a fledgling. I'm sure she-"

"'Flonne'?" Madeline interrupted. "That's what you decided to name your pokemon? What is she? A dessert?"

"I think you mean 'flan,'" Ponytail corrected.

"Shut up, Kaitlin."

"Look, I'm sure she'll be able to fly. Nurse Joy said-" Diana finally managed to finish, but Madeline gave no indication of caring what her explanation was. Suddenly, she and her pose surrounded Flonne and began poking and prodding the Swablu with their long polished fingernails. "Hey! Leave her alone! She's doesn't like it!"

"Awww look at the widdle baby pokemon," Madeline's words of praise cut more like daggers of condescension. "The perfect pokemon for such a baby twainer." The girl held out the Swablu's wings, causing Flonne to chirp anxiously.

"Let her go! NOW!" Diana grit her teeth and gripped the girl's arm Swablu with a fierce, possessiveness. She was well past the point of calming down by counting down from ten. Now Diana was in full-on Mama Bear mode.

"Hey, get your hands off of- OWW!" Flonne gave Madeline a sharp Peck with her beak, becoming defensive all of a sudden, like Diana had thrown mud at her Mary-Janes, before backing off. "I just wanted to see your Swablu. Chill out!"

"Yeah," Pigtails chimed in as Diana gathered Flonne in her protective arms, "You both need to be on a leash."

"What part of a Hoenn are you from, anyways?" Madeline inquired, already moving into her next part of her interrogation, like a few seconds ago hadn't happened. "I'm surprised I haven't heard of you. My family knows all the old money, and not just any kid can get into this elite school. Are you perhaps part of the nouveau riche?"

"None of your damn business," Diana hissed as she gently pat Flonne's wings, already motioning to leave. Stick a fork in her. She was so done with these people. If she didn't get out of there now, it wasn't a matter of if she would get away, but if she would get away unscathed.

"Wow, so brisk! Don't tell me they don't have manners where you grew up." She knew she should have ignored her, just turned her back to them like her counselor Debbie would have wanted her and just cool off. But something in her gut convinced her otherwise, reasoning that if she didn't walk away fast enough, they would probably block her or physically prevent her from leaving and make matters worst. Besides, her pride wouldn't let her.

"And you're from where? Wait, let me guess-" Diana snapped back with the quickest comeback she could think of, "-you live in a house all covered with vines and walk with twelve little girls in two straight lines?" All three of the girls gave her blank looks.

"Umm what?"

Guess they didn't get her Madeline reference. "Look, if you're going to give me attitude," Diana continued, "can you just give it to me straight and cut right through the passive aggressive bullshit? I really don't have time for all this middle school drama. I've got places to be."

"Oh ho, the new kid thinks she's all that?" Madeline scoffed, sharing affronted looks with her posse. She leaned in and pointed a bejeweled fingertip, so close that Diana was tempted to snap it off if she actually poked her. "Listen here, know-it-all. Unless you don't want to get along at this school, you better know your place, 'cause when it comes to where you and I stand, I rule the roost. Otherwise, you won't be here for very long."

"That's what I've been trying to do for the past five minutes!" Diana exclaimed with a defeated laugh. "I don't belong here. I'm not part of this school, thus your argument is invalid."

"Of course you don't belong here," Madeline nodded, not understanding her point at all. "That's the whole reason why you and I have to have a little talk. Let's get one thing straight: I run this school. Kids, lunch, classes, even some of the faculty. I have more badges than anyone here in this whole building. Cross me and I can make your life here a living hell."

"Well good thing I don't go here then," Diana refuted with an empty chuckle, which only seemed to piss Madeline off further. This gave her a little ammunition to push her point further. "I borrowed this stupid outfit from a thrift shop, genius, like the rest of your trashy uniforms."

"Oh emm gee, did you hear that girls? She got her outfit from out of the trash. No wonder she smells so bad."

"You want to go, Headband?! I'll go right now! I don't give a flying f-!" Diana snarled and launched herself at the prep but was abruptly held back by a strong arm.

"Alright! Break it up!" demanded the Officer Jenny, who now stood between Madeline and ninety five pounds of fury. Diana couldn't tell if she was the same Officer Jenny from before or if she was a separate clone that was part of campus security, but she was all that was standing between Diana force-feeding Madeline a knuckle-sandwich. The policewoman eyed Madeline and her friends, who immediately went on the defensive and had looks of horror and disgust that just screamed 'victim.' "You girls know the rules. No fighting outside of gym class. Save the battling for the pokemon. And you!" she directed her attention towards Diana. "I've already had enough trouble with you, so if you don't cool down and return your pokemon, you're going straight to the principal's office and have your Trainer license suspended. Is that clear?" Guess it was the same Officer Jenny, judging by how familiarly she addressed her. In the heat of her rage, Diana had forgotten about Flonne, who was still huddled in her arms. "Is that clear?" Jenny repeated, Diana not having heard her.

Diana stood there in silence, having tuned out before the world became less red in color before spitting out a "...yes, ma'am," and returned her pokemon inside its pokeball with a reluctant grumble. She probably looked like a threat by how she had let her anger takeover, and she was the only one with her pokemon out, though she hated how smug Madeline was. She could spy the teenager from over Jenny's shoulder, beaming with this a massive shit-eating grin while the cop's back was turned, acting all high and mighty like she had won the fight because she was reprimanded the least.

"Seriously, what kind of barbarian fights with anything but pokemon nowadays?"

"Let it go, Natalie," Jenny warned 'Pigtails,' who bit back whatever insult she was going to say and pressed her lips together. "I don't know what happened between you two girls, but if you have disagreements, either talk it out or duke it out on the battlefield. I will not tolerate brawling in my school, from either of you."

"...Come on, girls. Let's go," Madeline ordered and the rest of the sheep followed, but not before turning towards Diana with a jaded smirk, "We'll settle this at gym class next period."

"Can't wait," Diana glowered. It wasn't until the girls had gone towards the other end of the cafeteria that Jenny finally removed her hand from Diana's shoulder and moved onto patrolling the rest of the halls, having sensed the tense situation pass. Finally, Diana realized, the path to the pecha yogurt was unhindered.

Stashing the two yogurt cups and a set of silverware to boot in her pack, Diana began packing up the rest of her bag, piling in tons of empty pokeballs back into their special compartment after pocketing the two that contained actual pokemon, once she figured out which one contained which pokemon. She really needed to go now.

As much as she wanted to pound Madeline's face into the dirt and turn it into Swiss cheese, ditching the pokemon battle would have been the better option. Diana let out a heavy sigh. It's a shame. She really wanted to show that bitchy prep a thing or two, but having only just become a trainer with only two pokemon with little to no real battling experience, she most likely would have lost the fight and injured her pride further. She probably ended up saving herself from a ton of humiliation by picking the higher road... at least, that's what she kept telling herself.

Shuffling and getting lost in a crowd of adolescents choosing various areas to eat both on and off campus was the perfect opportunity for her to blend in and sneak away from everyone else when they went outside. After what happened in the cafeteria, she waited at least until she was two hallways down from the cafeteria and when she was positive no one was looking, Diana crept into the girl's bathroom and locked the stall door and began changing out of the second-hand school uniform.

She shimmied on her second-hand pair of cargo pants and pulled on a grey Dark-type t-shirt and bedazzled Gyarados jacket. Straightening her black, jean jacket, she posed in the mirror. The fact that should have washed these clothes was a fleeting afterthought, not having a lot of other options. At least they didn't smell. She bunched her discarded school uniform into a tight ball before shoving it into the wastebasket. Diana then tugged a bunch of paper-towels from the dispenser and arranged them so that they covered her buried school uniform. Even if it still fit, it was what caused her to end up here in the first place. Better off without it... except for the skirt. The accordion skirt was cute.

Goodbye, Jubilife Trainer School. I will not miss you, Diana thought bitterly, exiting through one of the side doors of the bathroom. Her disguise gave her a bit more cover, now looking like a Visitor instead of a Student. She hadn't seen any teachers or Jennys patrolling the hallways she briskly paced, so when she was given the all-clear for the front office, ie the middle-aged secretary leaning down to pick up a dropped pencil, she quietly pushed open the metal door handle with shaky hands before silently sprinting towards the school gate.

Meanwhile, while sneaking past the front office, she just missed a girl coming from the other hallway connecting, a girl with a medium bob hairstyle and two decorative hair-clips. "Hi," she spoke up, her voice awkward and shy. "Is this the front office?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear," spoke up the flustered secretary. "Yes it is. How can I help you?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, this is so embarrassing... being late on the first day. I'm Dianne Brown, the new girl. I just transferred here from Rustboro Trainer Tech," she gushed before beaming a bright smile. "You can call me 'Anne,' though. I hope we all get along."

The receptionist just sat there with a blank expression. If she was the new transfer student, then who did Officer Jenny bring in earlier this morning?

Author's Note: Man, I can't believe there's already a Gen 8 on the way. As far as having the amount of pokemon limited in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, Nintendo will essentially be committing suicide if they don't have Pikachu or Eevee in the Galar region (though I have a feeling since Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee came before, they will probably have the entirity of Generation 1 in the game).

Also fun fact: Natalie, Kaitlin, and Madeline are all based on Lass Trainers situated around Jubilife, and Madeline's last name is her Japanese name counterpart. And yes, the Church of Helix cult is based off of the Lord Helix fossil mythos from Pokemon Twitch. I give credit to the pokemon fan wiki for all the pokemon religion names and philosophies. They helped me a lot in trying to differentiate and come up with a system that Sinnoh can live under, which I am trying to explore in this story, as the info-dump pertains to a particular evil team.