A.N: Frost is not taking any more characters at this point, but for the cast of characters, see below.

X-X

She sat at the kitchen counter, yawning. She would rather have been asleep. Her dark curls bounced in front of her vision, and, annoyed, she tugged them back behind her ear. She leaned over what she was working on and tried to ignore her stepmother in the background. She knew she had been mostly raised by that woman, but she could only bring herself to call the matriarch by her first name, Amy. That woman was all ice and no movement, but she seemed to be pretty good at giving orders, at least, tossing her blonde head and crowing about something new.

She brushed back her bangs again, leaning over her work. She was spelling her name. It was hard work, being the whole five letters it was. Grace. She hated it. One day, when she was older and it was legal, she would change it. Maybe to something amazing. Something like Indigo, or Wisdom, or June. She paused while considering this and shook her head. Not June. That name sounded like a psychic or something. She drew the brush in red swirls over the 'E' in her still pretty pathetic name while Amy stormed like thunder into the kitchen, her slim Meowth on her heels.

The blonde stomped over to the fridge, yanked it open, pulled out the milk, gave some to the Meowth, poured herself a glass, chugged it, threw the milk back into the fridge, and then finally noticed Grace. Her face lost some of its anger, but it still didn't feel right to her stepdaughter. It wasn't her mom's, was all. Amy looked down to the canvas. She nodded and smiled and stated, "That came out very nicely, don't you think?" Before Grace could reply, her stepmother was flying out of the kitchen and back down the hallway to be someone else's problem. Grace flinched mentally. Those poor construction men. It should have been an easy job. Too bad they weren't planning on the likes of Amy. Normally, Grace's good-natured father would have intervened, but he was in a third-world country helping as both a doctor and a journalist. His avid writing, though popular with all sorts of important newspapers, was to him "just a hobby" even though he was bringing to light things that no one had ever considered.

Grace yawned again. She eyed her work, a waterfall of letters, and shrugged. When it was done that way, with all sorts of artistic bells and whistles, it looked ok. It looked like she was talking about real grace, the sort that dancers are supposed to have. It still didn't look like her, though. She looked at it and decided it needed something else. She padded down the hallway until she found the chaos where Amy was making her vision known.

"Hey, do you think we have any bells I could use?" Grace asked, but her words were swallowed by the sound of a jackhammer. She slapped her hands over her ears, trying not to inhale sawdust. She waited until there was a pause in the constant motion, but when she opened her mouth to talk again, Amy spotted her and started talking first.

"Oh! Sweetie! I left some papers about that new school on your bed, ok? Be a dear for mommy and go read them." Amy paused and dropped the saccharine act for a second. "You know, you really shouldn't be around here without ear protection."

Grace rolled her eyes and muttered a reply, but again her response was swept up in sound. She trailed up the stairs and into her room, promising herself she would just find the bells and leave. That was that. Nothing else. She wouldn't even look at her bed. She wouldn't even think about her bed.

She darted towards her four-poster resting area and yanked the papers into her hands. Sure, she was pretty much terrified out of her wits, but she had so much excitement rolling through her veins that she didn't care. She had been talent scouted. Her. Without Amy's help. Without anyone's help. She got to go to a talent school, and it was all on her own work. She hated that she was leaving her friends behind, but it was the sort of opportunity that people dreamed about in public school.

She threw herself onto the bed and heard a muffled grunt. She laughed and pulled back the covers. "Oh, is that where you have been hiding?" She questioned the lump of white fur. Grace loved her Absol. He was clever and playful and charming. But Amy and her stupid, mean little Meowth hated him. Amy frowned horribly whenever he was around. She thought he was too big and dirty. Grace loved him just for those reasons, but he had taken to hiding under her covers whenever Amy was in a mood, which was pretty much always. She stroked his ample white mane and sighed. "Tabbot, darling, you are getting too big for my bed, I hope you know that," she purred, and then flipped onto her back so her head was resting on his side. He twisted and licked her hair absently, and she laughed. She held the papers up so she could read them to him.

"Alright, Tab, are you listening? No? Good. Now then. Finnegan's School for Talent," she read, and settled in. Around halfway through the informational packet, Tabbot fell asleep, but Grace didn't mind. She figured he was listening in his dreams. Talent school was better than private school. In private school, all you needed was money to get in. In talent school, you actually had to be good at something. Amy had held an art gala, and Grace had slipped her own art in, hoping no one would notice. Someone did though, someone who turned out to be a talent scout, someone her told her that boarding schools would be calling her soon with information, and she had better decide. Amy had almost fainted with embarrassment while Grace had almost fainted from sheer delight. Talent scouts were rare. Being scouted was rarer.

He had been right, though. As if by magic, talent schools across the country had become suddenly very excited about her. Her public school teachers found out, somehow, and had pretty much given up on her. It had been two months until the end of school anyway, and in those two months Grace spent more time visiting schools than attending one. The summer had been a whirlwind of activity, but she'd narrowed it down to three: Finnegan's, Lapis Lazuli, or Frost. She held up the three separate pamphlets and sighed. She had two days to decide. She listened to Tabbot's breathing and said, "Lapis Lazuli School for the Gifted," to him. She felt his breathing pause, and he growled a little in his dreams. She laughed and set it aside. "So, not that one then." She shifted as his muscles twitched, chasing after something. "Frost," she read, and he calmed for a little. She put that one down on the opposite side of her as the Lapis Lazuli pamphlet, and then read, "Finnegan's School for Talent." She paused and waited for a reaction. Nothing happened. She sighed and was about to put it in the pile with the Frost school in it when Tabbot kicked her by accident, running again in his dreams. She shook her head.

"Frost it is, then," she muttered, "Since you're so bossy about it." Frost had been one of her top two choices, actually, that and Finnegan's. The Lapis Lazuli one had been a little too pretentious for her. The only problem was that the Frost school was so far away, tucked up in the Kanto mountains. She knew it had a gorgeous campus, but getting there was a battle. It was one of the only schools she hadn't visited. Finnegan's was closer, but it was also much bigger. She might get lost in the constant shuffle of students. In Frost, at least her stepmother couldn't get to her. But then, neither could her friends. They warned that pokegear service was iffy up there, so staying in touch would be hard. And she loved her friends. Her stepmom was a different story.

She shifted onto her side, using her Absol as a pillow. She put down Finnegan's pamphlet and dug her fingers into his soft, snowy fur. She knew he would love it up there. They stipulated that pokemon were allowed to roam as they wished, so long as there was no unsupervised fighting. Tabbot hated fighting. She hated making Tabbot fight. He was so sweet. She sighed, patting him absently. He would be coming with her, no matter what.

"He's not coming with you," Amy said, a week later, as Grace jostled with her bags in the doorway. It was time to go, and Tabbot knew it. He lay at her feet loyally, his ears against his head. He didn't like the sound of Amy's voice. Grace huffed angrily and dragged her fingers through her hair. She wondered what her father was doing right now. He had written her a long letter, as was usual, and congratulated her a hundred times. He'd sent a picture of him and about forty children, all who he had helped in some way. She had felt guilty about it. Here she was, safe, happy, healthy. It wasn't her place to ask her father to come home, not with children suffering like that.

Grace sighed. "Dad said it was fine if Tab came. He'll act as my protector or something," she told her stepmother, who was glaring at the large ball of fur. Amy's Meowth hid behind her ankles and snarled quietly at Tabbot.

Amy rolled her eyes and stated, "Please. He won't even growl at Muffy. Some protector he'd make. And he's too big. And wild. And dirty."

Grace laid one defensive hand on his back. Even lying down, he came up to her knees. But then, she wasn't exactly tall. "He's clean!" she protested, "His fur is white. You'd notice if he was dirty, wouldn't you? Yeah, you would. Also, he's less wild than your stupid Muffy, you can bet that. And just because he's civil doesn't mean he wouldn't protect me."

"Well," Amy offered, "Why can't you take a different pokemon? You have that little Snubull, or that Houndour…"

In response, Tabbot rose to his feet, shook out his fur, and left the house. Grace lifted her bags and grinned at Amy. "Everything else is in the cab already," she said, "Time to go, I guess." She danced her way down their front steps, ignoring the commands from her stepmother. She fled into the car where Tabbot had already made himself at home across the floor. She settled in and waved jovially to Amy, who was shouting at her. Grace held one hand to her ear and mimed that she couldn't hear, even though she could. The cabdriver chuckled and started the engine.

Amy was still yelling as they drove away. "Yeah," the driver said, his accent twanging, "I had me a mother like that. Can't blame ya for leavin'." He paused. "Although," he noted, "She did make some awful nice cookies."

Grace grinned. "Well," she allowed, "She is good at giving orders."

The look Tabbot sent her made her grin. No, she knew what Amy was best at wasn't commanding. It was yelling. Grace peered out of the back window. From the looks of it, Amy was still employing that talent.

She would be for a very long time, but Grace wasn't around to hear it.

X-X

Cast of characters by order of appearance:

Mika Jones: The Lemonator
First appearance: Chapter Two
Talent: Fighting

Rhyme Genesis: Happy2Bme
First appearance: Chapter Two
Talent: Photography/cons

Caen Marx: A Half-Empty Glass
First appearance: Chapter Two
Talent: Fighting/Krav Maga

Tobi Mizuki: WolfSummoner93
First appearance: Chapter Two
Talent: Filmmaking

Davion Wickins: Absh
First appearance: Chapter Two
Talent: Modeling/dancing/swimming

Tarrow Arcana: Formerly Chilltown
First appearance: Chapter Two
Talent: Tarot/sword handling

Nathan: pepperpizzapal
First appearance: Chapter Two
Talent: Writing

Izamina (Izzy) Tessman: Korona Karyuudo
First appearance: Chapter Three
Talent: Violin/music

Tommi Brace Rua: SoujaGurl
First appearance: Chapter Three
Talent: Writing/leading/hating country music

Kratch Hayes Farcett: Mysterious Panther
First appearance: Chapter Four
Talent: Piano/music

Yuki Koori: Kei's-Girl
First appearance: Chapter Four
Talent: Singing

Will Rio: fgtfgtr
First appearance: Chapter Four
Talent: Photography

Jarel Wayne: Bearded Zeus
First appearance: Chapter Four
Talent: Drawing/writing/boxing

Orson Leander Raymond: tinfoilman4
First appearance: Chapter Four
Talent: Football/people skills

Sage: ultima-owner
First appearance: Chapter Five
Talent: Art

Ike Rend: Arcanine Fan
First appearance: Chapter Nine
Talent: Intelligence/science

Thompson Baltimore: Lucariofan
First appearance: Chapter Ten
Talent: Psychology

Felix Masque: Tyltalis
First appearance: Chapter Ten
Talent: Magic/illusions/fighting

Jason Cyran: TT749
First appearance: Chapter Eleven
Talent: Filmmaker

Tayln Lynch: FFalta
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Talent: Fighting/agility

Spirit Ikusa: Tyltalis
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/Fighting

Cam Blake: Korona Karyuudo
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/Physical education

Justin Montgomery: Juicetin Boo
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/English

Nicholai Finetivus: SoujaGurl
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/English/Pysch

Mr. Grain: Kenzur
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/Science

Richard Lenard: pepperpizzapal
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/Science/history

Mako Wolff: WolfSummoner93
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/Music

Avalon Vera: Korona Karyuudo
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Talent: Being generally awesome

Kaylee Norad: pepperpizzapal
First appearance: Chapter Twelve
Teacher/Photography/foreign language/history

Mi-Yeong (Mimi) Lee: kurochanwithwings
First appearance: Chapter Thirteen
Talent: Music

Walter Garson: Arcanine Fan
First appearance: Chapter Thirteen
Teacher/Science/math/strategies

Patches Lee Brown: DoahShadow
First appearance: Chapter Fourteen
Talent: Dance

Carmen Prescott: WereDragon EX
First appearance: Chapter Fourteen
Talent: Swimming/Psychology

Chapter Fifteen will introduce the rest of the new characters.