It was a special day. Yes, indeed—a very special and significant day. You see, today is the first day that I was not awoken by Loudred shouting at a normally impossible volume. Instead, I was awoken (multiple times, no less) by my dear friend, my stomach, which insisted on reminding me that I was hungry every few minutes.

"Shut up," I griped when the infernal thing grumbled for the umpteenth time. I scrunched my eyes shut and tried to ignore it, but apparently my stomach didn't like that because it growled even louder. "Fine!" I snapped, dragging myself into a sitting position. "I give up. You've woken me up for good this time. Are you happy? I still can't feed you, you know!"

"K-Kai…w-…what are…you d-d-doing?"

I looked over my shoulder to see Rita watching me, half-dazed. Seemed neither of us had gotten much sleep. "I am yelling at my stomach. It keeps complaining that I'm not feeding it. Well, too bad for you, stomach!" I declared, glaring down at my belly. "You're just gonna have to suck it up and wait!"

Looking as if she couldn't care less if an explosion went off right under her nose, Rita just yawned, stretched, and looked up at the window. It was still dark, but something about the hue of the sky implied it was early morning and it would soon be time for Loudred to come storming in and shout at us. Daylight was coming later than usual now that the season was changing, but the early morning wake-up calls kept coming right on schedule.

"I wonder if Chatot'd still let us snack on the leftovers from last night…," I thought aloud as my stomach growled again. The leftovers were normally set out in the morning for anyone and everyone to pick at, but knowing Chatot "no dinner" might very well mean "no food for you until tomorrow's dinner." By that time we'd have been going on more than thirty hours without a proper meal, not counting whatever we could spare from our supplies.

"I d-don't…knnnow…," Rita muttered, with the air of someone who had convinced herself of the worst possible outcome and was mentally preparing for it.

A few minutes passed in miserable silence, as if food was just going to magically appear in front of us if we sulked long enough. Finally, I was at the end of my rope. "That's it! I can't take it anymore!" I whined. "I'm tired, I'm really hungry, and I don't have any patience anymore. I'm going to get food whether Chatot likes it or not!"

"Okay," Rita sighed. Evidently she was just in too much of a bad mood to care what either of us did anymore, and I was in too much of a bad mood to care that this was odd behavior. She dragged herself to her feet and slowly shuffled out the door. It wasn't much better than my jerky, angry movements as I led the way out the door and towards the dining hall.

Halfway there, we were startled by a voice suddenly calling out, "And where are you two off to so early this morning?"

Rita and I exchanged mystified glances before looking around the room in search of the mysterious voice. Was it Wigglytuff? A ghost? A legendary Pokémon, descending amongst us mortals? No, it was only Chatot, peering at us through one eye where he was perched up on the beams that kept the ceiling from caving in.

"We're hungry," I complained, shooting him a miserable look. Of course he would be up on the ceiling, watching our every move. Chatot always ruined everything; why would this be an exception?

To my surprise, Chatot rolled his eyes in the direction of the mess hall. He sounded rather rueful as he said, "Well, you won't find a thing in there that's not already rationed out for future meals. All of our guests have rather large appetites…."

I pleaded desperately, "Not even any leftovers?"

"None that we can spare," he said, and this time there was definitely a note of displeasure there. "You'll have to make do with whatever food have amongst your supplies."

"Great," I muttered.

"In the meantime," Chatot continued, glancing at one of the windows, "seeing as Loudred should be waking the others momentarily, you may as well wait here for the morning assembly."

True enough, Loudred was up and about within a minute or so, screaming his usual fare, and another five before everyone (including the guests, who liked to join in even though they weren't obligated to) had gathered in the main room. Chatot and Wigglytuff went over what everyone should do today (lots of us were set for food-gathering duty, but, shock of shocks, Rita and I weren't among them), a reminder about working cooperatively with our guests for another such-and-such amount of time, the morning cheers, yada, yada, yada.

"One last item," Chatot said over the first hints of dispersion. Everyone shifted back into place. "Tomorrow, or the day after…or perhaps in several days time," he added thoughtfully, "we plan to announce the members of the expedition party."

"Hooray!" Wigglytuff burst out from the front of the room, throwing his arms up in the air.

There was a flurry of movement, and excited remarks flew in every direction. I looked over my shoulder at Rita and whispered, "Do you think we're even an option now, after what happened?"

Rita cast a bleak glance in Team Skull's direction and shrugged. "I hope so…," she whispered.

"Settle down, settle down! Remember, this is your last chance to make an impression," Chatot told us once we had sufficiently calmed down. "Work hard and impress us if you want to be chosen."

"Yes!" the rest of the guild called out, and scurried off as a giant mass towards the ladders. Blastoise was looking on with a vaguely amused expression, his students bouncing around with excitement, while Team Skull grinned pointedly at us.

"Skitty. Chikorita. Come here, please."

Chatot's summons distracted me from sending a look back at them. Rita and I turned away and walked up to Chatot just as Wigglytuff disappeared back into his chambers. "Yeah?"

"There's something I need to explain to you," he told us.

"O-…okay…," I slowly replied, feeling nervous in the face of whatever he was about to say. A glance at Rita told me she was equally, if not more, concerned.

He fixed us with a serious look. "The two of you should give up on being chosen as expedition members."

I felt my stomach drop. It was a harsh revelation, even if Rita and I had been half expecting it.

"As you know, it's difficult to tell what the Guildmaster is thinking with his constant happy demeanor, but there's no doubt that he's…highly disappointed with what happened yesterday. You have worked hard up until now, but your failure caused him a lot of distress and inconvenienced the other apprentices who had to redo your mission today. I have very little doubt that you will be passed over when he makes his decision…so when the time comes for him to announce his decision, don't get your hopes up." He turned away, shaking out his wings. "That's all." And off he flew to the upper floor.

After a long silence, I suggested, "Should…should we prove him wrong?" Rita sighed and said nothing, a hopeless look on her face. I glumly turned away. Though she hadn't meant to point it out through her silence, that was the problem; how were we supposed to get motivated after that news?

"Hey, you two!"

I turned my head at the sound of the rather loud whisper. "What do you want?"

"Shhh! Golly, not so loud!" the voice pleaded. I looked over towards the mess hall, where Bidoof, Sunflora, and Chimecho were standing only slightly hidden by a corner. Way to be sneaky, guys. "Come this way," Bidoof insisted, tilting his head towards the mess hall.

I looked at Rita for confirmation and she just shrugged. "Fine, then." We slowly hauled ourselves towards the dining hall; halfway there Sunflora got impatient and pushed us from behind to make us move faster.

"You really don't need to push," I commented irritably.

"I do," she replied, still shoving us onwards, "or else Chatot's going to spot us and we'll be in big trouble."

As Rita and I were unceremoniously shoved down onto a bench, I asked, "Why would you be in trouble?"

"Shh!" Sunflora hissed at us and Chimecho squeezed herself behind a cabinet and emerged levitating two small containers in front of her.

"Here you go!" Chimecho trilled, using her telekinesis to place a container in front of each of us. Berries and some bits of apple filled them almost to the top; they looked like they'd been sitting out for a while, but entirely edible. "You both must be very hungry," she said with a grin.

My mouth was already watering and I wanted nothing more than to dive right in, but I forced myself to ask, "Can we really have this? Chatot told us there wasn't any food to spare!"

"There isn't," Chimecho said; "not from what we're serving for dinner today, at least."

"Team Skull was looking so smug we knew they must have had something to do with that mission you failed and all that commotion in the Guildmaster's chambers last night!" Sunflora explained. "Oh my gosh—we couldn't just sit around and watch you be punished for something they caused!"

Bidoof smiled shyly. "We couldn't risk getting caught by Chatot, though, so we all set aside bits of our dinners to give to you this morning after he left!"

Rita looked as if she were about to cry, she was so touched. "Th-thank you!" she stammered.

"You guys are amazing," I said, shoveling mushy berries into my mouth.

"Of course we are!" Sunflora preened.

Chimecho watched me with a strange expression. "You eat very oddly…."

"Do I?" I asked, berry juice staining my mouth and paws.

"I don't think Skitties usually eat using their paws," she explained in lieu of a confirmation.

With a shrug, I told her, "I do," and returned to inhaling the rest of my meal. "Man, this is like heaven. I'm feeling awesome already!"

"Well, I guess Kai likes hers….How is yours, Rita?" Bidoof asked Rita.

Rita looked up from the berry she was much more daintily eating. She replied with a surprised smile, "It's…it's g-g-good. Thhhhank you."

Chimecho smiled back. "You're welcome!"

Sunflora nodded, adding, "No one can work hard on an empty stomach. We can all use help when we're down."

"And every one of us needs to be able to work hard in order to be picked for the expedition!" Bidoof cheered.

Rita froze, her mood visibly plummeting at the reminder. I slowly retracted my paw from the last dregs of berry juice that I was dipping my paws into and licking off. "I wish we could agree to work at one hundred and ten percent, but…before you all called us over, when Chatot was talking to us…he said we're probably not going to be chosen because of our failure yesterday. He said the Guildmaster is probably going to be too mad at us." I sighed. "There's no point in working hard anymore. We're not going to get to go, so why bother?"

"How could you say that?" I glanced at Bidoof in surprise. "That's no reason to give up!" he insisted, a determined look on his face. "No sirree! There's no telling what could happen, even now!"

"That's right! Chatot's just being a pessimist, or a realist, or whatever it is he likes to call himself. The members haven't been picked yet, whatever he may say!" Sunflora exclaimed.

"B-but…even if…if w-we were…ch-chosen to…g-g-go…w-…wouldn't that mmmean…others c-couldn't?" Rita asked anxiously. "I…I d-d-don't…w-want to…t-t-take it aw-w-way from…others w-who are…b-better and…d-d-deserve it mmmore."

Sunflora frowned. "I can't say I would be happy being left behind, but…well…." Evidently not sure of how to word her thoughts, she looked to Chimecho for help.

Chimecho's eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh! I think I know where you were going with that." To us, she said, "If someone is chosen, someone else can't go. That's just the way it works!"

"Oh my gosh, yes, that's exactly it!" Sunflora exclaimed. "That's the way it works; so if you don't get picked for the expedition, you should cheer for those who did!"

"Yup yup! And everyone wants to go on the expedition with you two," Bidoof added. "Golly, if we're talking about talent, I don't know who deserves to go more than you two do. Hardly any of us lasted that long before failing a mission."

"I failed on my very first mission," Sunflora reflected. "I was really clumsy back then. Oh my gosh, I messed up so badly that day! I'm sure Chatot was really regretting our policy of accepting everyone."

"You two are really good at what you do!" Chimecho encouraged us. "To you it might look hopeless, but this is nothing you can't fix with some extra effort! You shouldn't give up so easily!"

I blinked in disbelief. "Well…I guess we can't stop now. Shall we keep trying, Rita?" I asked her.

Rita looked totally overwhelmed by their belief in us, but it seemed to have done her some good. She was looking hopeful again. "Y-yes….I…I w-won't…g-give up y-yet!" she vowed.

Chimecho laughed. "Yeah; that's the spirit!"

"Let's promise to try hard so we all can go!" Sunflora decided. "And if we break our promise and stop trying, well, we'll…we'll…we'll have to do something to knock the sense back into each other!"

"That's a good idea! I promise!" Chimecho instantly agreed.

"Me, too!" Bidoof chimed in.

"Me three!" I cheered. "I'll work so hard my tail'll fall off!"

Rita smiled. "I…I will, t-t-t-too."

"It's settled, then!" Sunflora announced. "We'll all work really hard, and if only some of us get picked, we'll just have to cheer them on!"

"Deal." I grinned at Rita. "Starting now, no more negativity! It's not over yet, so let's think positive until the end!"

Rita smiled back. "Of c-course."

AN:/

So yeah...hi, everybody. Long time no update, huh? Long story short, I found out I had a tumor (think of the pink ribbon symbol) and I had to get it removed and stuff. It wasn't cancer (thank goodness, since that could have been VERY bad), but I didn't know for sure until about three weeks ago and after all that I was really stressed and in desperate need of a nice long break. But I guess I feel cool now that I can tell people, "Hey, I'm not even twenty yet and I've had a tumor; ain't that awesome?" Always a better way of thinking than "now I'm at more risk of cancer, yay."

This is a short chapter, but I thought you needed something to tide you over and let you know I'm not dead or anything.

The part where Croagunk's Swap Shop is introduced comes right after this, FYI, but I don't think I'll be bringing it up in this story since I know I won't do anything with it. Hope that doesn't bother anyone.

In other news, this story is about two years old now (from the time I started writing it-not necessarily when I first posted it).

I'll do my best to get back into the swing of things soon. Though I have to warn you, my sister is not in a very good place now and we're also trying to decide whether or not she needs to be tested for Asperger's, so this story is going to come second to that. I'll try not to make the wait as long as this last one, though.

Reviews!

Cardcaptornicole: Thanks!

TwewyReaperGirl: Haha, nice game time. I'm pretty good, considering. Thank you for asking!

Mystery-Bright: Exactly! I've always thought it was unfair of people to hate Chatot for that. Glad you liked that Kai did the explaining. Always thought it was weird that Chatot did in the game.

TobyTse99: Glad you've caught up, and thanks for all the comments.

Team Dasher: Welcome back, and happy very belated birthday!

saturday101: Thank you for the punny comment. XD

Random Fact #28: If Kai had a theme song, it would be the Nyan Cat/Poptart Cat's song. Annoying, obnoxious, gets stuck in your head, and humanly impossible to sing, but weirdly catchy. Plus it's a cat with the body of a poptart that leaves rainbows behind as it runs across the sky. Kai would think it was amazing to share a theme song with a poptart cat running in the sky expelling rainbows.