Hard Enough-Chapter 198: Feedback

Everyone happily munched away at their lunches while the pokemon chowed down. A few people were talking, causing a soft susurrus to fill the room but otherwise, it was quiet for the most part.

That didn’t stop me from feeling the very ‘loud’ stare Yolanda was directing at me.

I looked up to see what she wanted.

Yolanda shot Anita a look before flicking her eyes to me. Then she repeated the gesture. I rolled my eyes, well aware that she wanted me to have a conversation with Anita, and not just about the anxiety she displayed.

I suppose from Yolanda’s point of view, she might be afraid that I was being taken advantage of with a sob story.

I had to admit that… that might be a possibility, but it was unlikely. If Anita had been the sort she would have taken the badge then and there, unknowingly earning herself a black mark on her record from me to the effect of not wanting to grow.

Trent? If she’d chosen the badge at the end there? I’d have dragged him into a conversation straight away. I’d have talked a lot, and perhaps some of it might have resonated with him, but perhaps it wouldn’t have. I couldn’t detain kids for being kids. I could warn them of poor behaviour and if they did something warranting it I could arrest them, but kids being kids wasn’t bad.

The Journey was about growth and sometimes that meant growing to understand feelings and how to deal with them

If Anita hadn’t been able to calm down and had continued to lash out… Yes, she’d tried to push, but in doing so she’d revealed how out of her depth she was, and that she had a much deeper story than I’d been expecting.

For example, who had given her the Slaking? She’d mentioned a sister? What were the circumstances? I’d need her calm and willing to listen to find out more.

Honestly, I was just glad she hadn’t been able to get it to fight, cause if she’d been able to get that Slaking to follow her orders?

Well then.

If she’d wanted to push me, the kid gloves would have come off fast.

There was a reason I always kept at least three of my Elite pokemon on hand at any given time.

But they hadn’t been needed.

This time.

Still, Yolanda wasn’t entirely wrong, I did need to talk with Anita. I also needed to talk with Trent. I needed to capitalise on her calmer state of mind and expand the story.

I considered Anita and Trent for a while, taking in their postures. They were still a bit shy, with how they were hunched in on themselves. They listened, laughed and were happy to be included, but they were still slightly on edge.

I considered the issue as I ate through my ‘jelly donuts’, a smirk playing across my lips as I licked up any stray rice.

I looked over to Alexa. “What’s my afternoon look like?” I asked, knowing exactly what she was going to say

Alexa hummed, her eyes flicking to me before darting to the young duo. She brought out her tablet to scrutinise my schedule. “You have two later this afternoon,” she announced, earning a thoughtful hum from me.

“Hmmmmm, it’s been a while since I’ve done a patrol of Pewter City,” I said, faux casually.

“Say,” I slowly turned my gaze to Anita and Trent, as though I hadn’t just planned out this entire discussion. “How would you like to come with me on patrol?”

When they frowned, I dangled the pokeblock treat in front of them. “We’ll probably have to swing by some places like the playground, the race track, and the shops,” I said.

Both of the kids blinked in surprise at that. “The race track?” asked Trent.

I nodded. “Oh yeah, there are sometimes races there on the weekends, but they also have a lot of speed work for pokemon that need training in that,” I said, alluding to a certain speedy raccoon.

Zigzagoon didn’t even lift his head from his bowl of pokechow. It might have been empty, but the little pokemon was licking it clean for all it was worth. Anita however perked up. “That’d be interesting! Can we?” she asked and I grinned.

All according to Keikaku.

I ambled along, with Anita and Trent walking alongside me. They stared openly at Gawain as he marched along next to them. On my side, Link happily skipped along. Three other pokeballs rested on my belt for later release, but for now, I just let things progress naturally.

“So, LaRousse City?” I asked leadingly. I frowned when both Anita and Trent twitched and shot me worried looks.

I tilted my head. “I never got the chance to visit during my Journey when I was in Hoenn,” I said, dodging around the topic. The kids both relaxed slightly.

“I think it was known for the waterway and the two rivers meeting up in it, no?” I asked.

Anita nodded, her eyes darting off to the side while Trent stepped slightly forward, almost shielding her from my view, but only drawing further attention to there being an underlying issue here. “Yeah, it’s known for the meeting points of the Liomo and Tico rivers. People like to say that makes it the place where Milotic likes to visit, and that’s true. It has a really well-established contest scene, but it is also known for being highly advanced,” he elaborated further with the air of one that knows how to sell the City.

I nodded along. “Huh, Contests? I would have liked to attend that,” I said, noticing how both of them relaxed as I was drawn away from the other feature that LaRousse City was known for. The Battle Tower.

The Battle Tower was a site that was developed by the various battle clubs of Hoenn and La Rousse. LaRousse was a confluence point for many different factors had a lot of people and therefore trainers moving through, resulting in it being a great place to hone yourself. I had been planning on taking a pass through there towards the end of my pokemon Journey to sharpen up my team.

Usually, it was the feature people mentioned when talking of the city, therefore making it glaringly obvious that these two were avoiding mentioning it.

I played along, allowing myself to be drawn into discussing how the city got when it was time for the contest.

When we reached the first destination for the day, I grinned as I grasped the three pokeballs I’d brought along just for this. “Teddiursa! Gible! Cranidos! Come on out!” I shouted as I released the three pokeballs for some of my youngest pokemon.

All three appeared and blinked at what they found.

The playground closest to the Gym didn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles that other playgrounds did these days.

It was simple plastic and steel, with a structure with swings, slip and slides, sandpits and open areas leading into a jungle gym.

All three of my pokemon stared at it, unsure what to make of it. Gible and Teddiursa turned to me while Cranidos turned to headbutt Gible. I leaned down and intercepted the headbutt, nudging it off so that Crandios slammed into the soft sandpit, causing a small dust cloud to billow out.

I coughed and waved my hand back and forth before nudging the top pocket. “Zubat girl? Think you can blow away this dust?” I asked.

Zubat, who was happily nestled in my breast pocket, popped out and blew away the dust to reveal a very dirty-looking Anita and Trent, who hadn’t been prepared for a sudden Sand Attack.

I bonked Cranidos lightly on the head causing him to bray in challenge and attempt to nail me in the shin. “Sorry about him, he’s a young pokemon,” I said. “He takes a bit of care—” As I said that, I reached out and grabbed Gible to stop him from biting a hole in the jungle gym.

“None of that either,” I said. “No biting here, this is a playground,” I said, gesturing around us. I got back a round of blank stares. I turned to Anita and Trent. “I think I’m going to need your help for this,” I said.

They blinked and pointed at themselves. “Yup! I need you to help show my pokemon how to have fun.” I waved a hand towards their belts. “You should do the same.”

I smiled as the pair of them released their pokemon, bar Slaking. I gave Anita another look. “Not going to include him?” I asked.

She paused and shot the very delicate-looking playground a look as she chewed on her lip. “He might wreck it?”

I nodded. “He might, but tell you what, anything he wrecks, you can blame on me,” I said. Mentally I was banking on Slaking’s rather well-established species trait of being rather lazy. Less so than Snorlax, but still, they were known to laze around a lot.

Anita’s had eaten with us, but food was usually one of the best ways to motivate any lazy pokemon. When he’d been done he’d curled up on a couch by himself and gone to sleep.

Anita swallowed, straightened her spine and threw out her Slaking. Her pokemon appeared already in a lazing pose. He gave the playground a disinterested look, yawning.

I watched Anita fret and hummed. The most powerful pokemon in her team was both a shield and a weight to her, it would seem. It alone, along with the single comment earlier, made me wonder about other aspects of her past for a moment.

Eventually, Anita spoke up. “W-want to play with us?” she said haltingly.

Slaking gave the playground another look, then gave Anita a look over before grunting and shaking his head. Anita looked toward me and I gestured to the shaded bench off to the side.

“W-well, maybe you’d like to have a rest?” she said, waving frantically at the bench.

Slaking gave her another look before looking at the bench. Then it tilted its head and looked straight up at the sun for a long moment.

After probably giving itself sun blindness it looked down and blinked a few times, before rising to its full height to amble over to the bench were it lay down and scratched its back.

I shot Anita a thumbs up. It was baby steps, but it was still something Slaking would have wanted to do, which helped. “Alright!” I said regathering the energy. “Let’s play!” I said dragging Gawain and Link into the game by tagging Link with a light slap.

“Tag you’re it!” I said as I ran toward the playground.

This caused the other pokemon to sprint away while Link pursued, resulting in a rather fun game. When it was obvious none of the pokemon were going to be able to catch Zubat I accepted a tag from Gawain only to jump as high as I could to lightly tap her. “You’re it!” I announced triumphantly.

Zubat chose to chase Anita then and the young girl sprinted her heart out, diving through obstacles, scurrying through tunnels and faking out like a champion tag player. I made a gesture to Link and Gawain notifying them of my intentions and for them to distract Anita. They nodded and prepared themselves accordingly.

I decided to use the moment to sidle up to Trent.

“So, you’ve obviously been friends for a while, yeah?” I said, watching Anita finally get tagged, only for her to seek out Cranidos who was more than happy for an excuse to ‘tag’ someone else. Sadly for him he barely got any steam up in his charge before Gawain ‘mistimed’ a jump to get tagged.

Gawain turned his gaze upon Anita and the girl cursed before taking off again. She had impressive cardio, I had to give her that.

Trent nodded. “Yeah, we grew up together,” he said easily.

“Ah, childhood friends,” I said with a nod before continuing. “How long has she been putting you down for?” I asked nonchalantly, like I wasn’t interested in the answer.

Trent stiffened. “She doesn’t—”

“During your match, she was very much bullying you, I’m sorry to say. It looks even worse after her… well, collapse.”

I waved a hand. “Now she doesn’t have any pokemon that are mistreated or injured, which are the usual indicators for a bully or person that is far along on a spectrum, shall we say, but she does deride you and put you down.” freewebnøvel.coɱ

“It’s not…” Trent started to say, only to grimace. “She’s just under a lot of pressure.”

“Hmmm, nah,” I said in response.

“Nah?” Trent parroted back at me.

I nodded. “Yeah, nah,” I said, enjoying the oxymoron and how it caused Trent to look at me in dumbfounded disbelief, now clearly unsure what I meant. Good, he was willing to listen.

“Her acting like that to you is bad, and I’m sorry to say you laying down and supporting it is enabling it. You need to call her out if she does it to you.” I raised a hand. “It doesn’t need to be in public, it can be in private,” I suggested. “Consider how it makes you feel and tell her, but! Also consider that if she is using it as a method to calm herself down or build her own confidence, it’s only a weakness for her.”

The source of this c𝓸ntent is freewebnøvel.coɱ.

Trent stiffened, “A weakness?” he said.

I mentally rolled my eyes. Trust a young kid in a pokemon world to focus on that and not on his own feelings. I’d probably have to circle around to that again if I got the chance. “Yes, she’s introducing a weakness. For instance, what happens if she tries to do that to someone else?”

“She wouldn’t!” said Trent firmly.

I nodded along, letting myself be seen agreeing with him. “Yeah, most likely… but… what would happen if you weren’t with her? Would she act out more? Or worse? She’d have an established habit of doing it that might make her fall back into it. So, if you were required to end your Journey…. Or you fell sick for instance… what might happen?” I said, painting some generic but still possible situations for him.

Trent frowned, his jaw working as he chewed his lip. We watched as Anita was tagged and began chasing Link, only to find him teasing her with jumps that carried him away with deceptive speed.

“What should I do?” Trent said after another few moments in which Anita, tired beyond belief, gave up on tagging Link and instead moved to take a drink from the water bubbler in the shade.

I grinned.

“Right, you need to draw a line in the sand and make sure she knows that you’re worried about her behaviour. How it could affect her, and you. Make sure you stress your feelings on the matter,” I said, trying to edge things back into the correct path.

“Yeah, she’ll listen better if I do it that way!” Trent said with a nod.

I held in a sigh. Alright, not how I wanted to help foster a healthy relationship, but—

My thoughts were derailed as Slaking, who’d been watching Anita from the shade, sauntered over to her, and offered his hand. She blinked and then hesitantly tapped him on the hand, causing him to become ‘it’.

Slaking turned his gaze upon all the pokemon that had been toying with Anita and grinned. Gawain took off and Link hustled as fast as he could, while Zubat went high.

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Slaking charged after Link, causing the other pokemon to get out of the way.

Thankfully Link was caught before anything could be damaged or injured. Slaking slapped Link and a sound like a balloon being struck sounded out, with Link floating up and away only to drift back down with a bemused look on his face.

Slaking snorted and raised his chin. The powerful normal type gave the others a look before huffing and proudly stalking back to his bench. When he got there he nodded once at Anita. Then he lay back down and went back to dozing.

Huh… alright, that was another thing I hadn’t been aiming for but had gotten.

I guess that makes two tasks… failed successfully?

…

Right, a win was a win regardless! I thought to myself as I ignored Link hopping his way back to tag another pokemon.

I decided to cash out now so I whistled, “Alright gang! That’s long enough, let’s keep moving!” I called out.

Gible jumped out of the sandpit, having been hiding himself there only to crow with delight. The other pokemon blinked and I saw a wave of surprise ripple through them. I frowned for a moment, only to realise that in the entire twenty minutes that they’d been playing, none of them had been able to tag Gible. He’d been too good with Dig to get tagged.

Huh, that was neat to know. He must be watching my other pokemon like Sanchez when he practised more than I’d realised.

Hmmm, clever little guy. I gestured for him to hop up into my hands and he did so like an overeager puppy. Trent, seeing the leaping mass of teeth, did the smart thing and bolted away. I merely reached out, catching Gible with a twist and flick of my hands to turn him before any teeth could latch onto me.

I returned my other pokemon and tapped my shoulder for Zubat to land on. “Alright gang! Forward to the race track!” I called out.

Anita returned most of her pokemon, leaving only Zigzagoon out to run around, while Trent simply returned his entire team. He was clearly still locked in thought, something that Anita didn’t notice as she skipped along.

“Did you see that, Trent? I had Slaking playing along with the rest of the team!”

“Hmmm,” muttered Trent.

“If I get him following commands, I might be able to use him soon!” she continued.

“Yeah,” said Trent, his eyes distant.

I decided to step in a little. “So, Slaking? You said your sister gave him to you? Is he your safety pokemon?”

Anita nodded, suddenly much shyer. I tilted my head. “I gather there’s a story there? Did you not want Slaking?”

“What? No! I wanted Slaking! It’s just… well my sister is…” She shifted about and glanced around before whispering. “Gladys, my sister is Gladys!” she said with a put upon expression. Zigzagoon must have realised that his trainer was feeling down as he jumped up on her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek

I raised an eyebrow and for the next minute nothing was said as Anita avoided looking at me.

Anita must have taken the silence the wrong way as she huffed. “See? That’s the issue, she’s famous, and that causes—”

I coughed. “Oh, actually no, I was waiting for you to elaborate, I… have no idea who your sister is,” I admitted.

Anita’s head snapped up and she stared at me in disbelief. “You? What? No! You have to be lying!” she shouted.

Trent roused from his internal turmoil, realising that something had occurred while he’d been lost in thought. He glanced at me, then back to Anita.

In the meantime, I merely gave Anita a blank look.

“You… you’re not lying? You don’t know who my sister is, do you?” Anita asked as realisation slowly dawned.

“I take it I’m supposed to? What is she famous for?” I asked.

“She’s the current undefeated Queen of the LaRousse Battle Tower!” Anita said. “I can’t go anywhere in town without people asking after her! Everyone wants me to be just as good!”

“Ah,” I said as some of Anita’s hang-ups made some sense to me now. She was a younger sibling living in the shadow of her more famous sister. Hmmm, now that sounded a little bit familiar to me. Only I was on the other side of the equation.

“So…” I rubbed my chin in thought on how to broach this topic. “Fame… is relative, like a lot of things in life. Your sister Gladys? She might be a local celebrity, but that doesn’t mean much when you travel further afield than home. You’ll probably find there aren’t many people that have heard of her that aren’t from LaRousse, or that are dedicated to the Battle Club scene.”

“We call them Battle Towers in Hoenn,” Anita corrected me absently. She then stared at me in shock. “You’ve never heard of Gladys Gulfiefort? Truly?” she asked again.

I chuckled. “I’ll repeat myself, fame is relative. Your sister is famous in LaRousse, but let me ask you this: Who would win between her and Steven Stone?”

Trent and Anita both opened their mouths, only to pause and tilt their heads. I chuckled and began rattling off other famous names of Hoenn. “Drake, Glacia, Sidney, Phoebe?” When they shook their heads again, a look of understanding began to form in both of their eyes.

“What about the other Gym Leaders? Wattson, Winona, or Wallace?” I asked.

“She can beat them!” said Anita firmly.

I chuckled. “Don’t rate them by the pokemon you face at the typical Journey match level, but what they would bring forth if this was an exhibition match at least. Think about it like how my match with Lance went, if that helps. Everyone knows that it is easy to get my badge if you come to my Gym first, but what doesn’t get mentioned to young trainers on their Journey is that we all have much stronger teams than are usually advertised,” I said.

Anita and Trent shared a glance. “We knew that!” they said, only to then refuse to meet my judgemental gaze.

I chuckled and lifted up Gible to rub his belly. I was far too used to the problems that young trainers caused or got themselves into with their ignorance. They just didn’t quite realise what they didn’t know and how big the world was, even inside only the known three regions.

It was a funny thing to be on the cusp of the internet age, knowing that the world was still going to get bigger while at the same time, much smaller.

Hopefully it would lead to more well informed ten-year-olds challenging me.

When we reached the racetrack, the kids forgot their existential revelations about the world and their places in it, as pokemon that were truly moving became visible.

I watched a pair of Rapidash pacing each other, while on their backs jockeys urged their pokemon on. On the side of the track a trainer barked orders on how to improve the riders, stances or how to eke out another stride every ten metres for one of the blazing fire pokemon.

They cleared the straight only for a herd of Rhyhorn to rumble past, making it seem like tanks were on the march with how they moved. On their backs trainers jostled and elbowed each other as their pokemon fought their way forward as much as they ran forward.

Interestingly enough, for this type of race, most of the riders wore thick padding which made them look much bigger than they actually were. They all also wore some form of headgear, either a hardened riding helmet, or for the more savage trainers, a proper sports headgear that kept them as streamlined as possible.

Something about watching the Rhyhorn herd fighting it out twinged something in my brain. Something about Ash and a Rhyhorn… but that didn’t sound right. Ash caught a herd of Tauros in the canon cartoon timeline.

Still, there was something there.

I eyed the lead rider-Rhyhorn pair break away for the final hundred metres to ‘win’ the training bout. I chuckled as they bucked and played up their victory more like you would expect from a Tauros rider.

Speaking of which, I noted the other part of the track that was a round arena where Rapidash and Tauros were ridden, only in this case it was for buckjumping and bullriding, which, with pokemon involved, was a much more deadly affair.

I watched one rider get hurled across the arena, only to land on the ground and roll to their feet. “Ole!” they shouted, but a moment later a small man marched out and began chewing them out. Hmmm, it seemed they were in training just as much as the pokemon were.

I rubbed my chin. I hadn’t realised there was a Rodeo and CampDraft equivalent for pokemon. Nor did I realise that they were being run from a site next to the racetrack.

I frowned. Hang on a second, I’d been here… I tilted my head. When was the last time I’d gone on patrol? Like a proper patrol?

“Gym Leader Brock!” called a voice, causing me to snap out of my thoughts and find myself with a small crowd of people approaching. The man who spoke was the one that had previously been shouting at the rodeo bronco rider, or was it called something else?

“Hello there!” I said as I shifted into my public presentation mask. “I have to say, I must have missed this facility the last time I came around on patrol,” I said, indicating the arena.

“Heh! No! You wouldn’t have missed it!” the man said with a nod of his hat. “That there is an as yet unopened centre of roughhousing!” He grinned and winked, “I like to think of it as Tough Tech, where we take young lads and lasses and give them an education into some of the harder sports around!”

I nodded slowly. “That being… Rapidash buck jumping, Tauros riding…. And other events?” I said, unsure how to explain my understanding of a rather niche sport.

What I’d said seemed enough to stun the short man and his entourage for a moment. “I say! I didn’t know you were a fan! Most people aren’t too aware of our sport!” He adjusted his bolo tie and nodded in a pleased manner. “Well, if Gym Leader Brock is known to be a fan, then I think we’ll do a bit better than anticipated!” he said.

I blinked. “You’re not well established and yet you have… a new arena?” I said tilting my head. Something didn’t make sense here. I decided to dig deeper. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch your name, either.”

The man chuckled “My apologies! I’m Clark Candor! President and founder of the Rough Riders Association in Indigo! We’ve been something of a niche sport for a while, but the recent fairs that have been sweeping around Kanto this season have seen people reaching out for new attractions. Our sport is just that!” he said, lacing his hands into his belt as he puffed up proudly.

I nodded slowly, adding two and two mentally to get four. “And that has led to a surge in popularity and money which allows you to do more,” I said, glancing at the new ‘unopened’ arena.

“What about barrel races and flag events?” I asked, only to draw blank expressions. I glanced at the arena and saw some barrels. Perhaps they called them something else?

“You know? Where you set up three barrels in a triangle shape and have the riders go through them from a standing start to demonstrate acceleration and agility? Or where you have a line of flags in a row and the rider and pokemon have to weave through them?” I offered, recalling events from my first life.

When I continued to draw blank looks I realised I might have made a mistake.

Clark Candor however beamed at me. “That sounds like a swell event! Agility and speed all in one!” he said. “Where’d you ever catch sight of that?”

I waved a hand. “Oh you know, around.”

Clark grinned. “Seen anything else that would work for our sporting field?”

I hummed, relaxing at his welcoming attitude. A few of the people, pokemon riders or event organisers judging by their attire, all seemed much more interested in what I had to say.

So I decided to run with it. “What about flag events? Where you have rider and pokemon dart out to poles that are further and further out, grab a flag off the top while making a turn and then stashing the flags in a small catcher at the starting point?”

“Oh! I like it!” crowed Clark.

I smiled, pleased that he was onboard with the idea. “When is your official opening?” I asked.

“A few weeks, we’re doing a soft open now to check the facilities over and iron things out a bit, then we’re going to have a big rodeo! Should be a real drawcard for Pewter, I reckon!” said Clark.

I nodded, agreeing with the idea. “Well, be sure to invite me along, I’ll bring my family and some friends,” I said.

“I’ll be sure to send you free tickets!” Clark said proudly.

I smiled and nodded in thanks before glancing at Trent and Anita. “What do you two think about that?” I said, prompting their input.

Anita blinked, having not expected to be called out. “Uh?” she said.

Trent coughed, stepping forward slightly. “Uhm, will younger people be able to take part, or is it only professionals?”

Clark whistled. “Now there’s a good idea!” He snapped his fingers and one of the suited individuals who’d been jotting down things the entire time we’d been talking continued to write. “Write that down,” said Clark.

“I have been, sir,” said the woman and I blinked, realising she’d literally been copying my ideas. Huh, looks like I’d started a Gymkhana event that was going to be for all ages, Suzie was so going to want to join when she saw it.

I couldn’t wait to see her zipping around on the back of a little Ponyta. She’d be so cute.

I coughed, noticing the time. “I need to keep moving, I’m sorry to say, but definitely contact the Gym, I’d love to hear more about this,” I said as I waved goodbye to the group.

I nodded my head towards the race track. “Sorry about that, let’s go check out the race track and see if anyone can help out with your Zigzagoon’s speed issue,” I said.

Anita nodded along slowly, her eyes tracking me in a very unsubtle fashion. Ah, she must not have thought about how I was somewhat of a local celebrity. Now she was experiencing it again.

“Sorry if that raised some bad memories,” I said.

Anita blinked. “Hmmm? Oh, no, you’re nothing like Gladys when talking with the public,” she said. “You also… asked for my opinion, that doesn’t happen… ever with her.”

“Hmmm,” I said. The more I learnt about her situation the more I pitied her and wanted her to avoid the pitfalls she’d been sprinting at. I glanced towards Trent, hopefully a softer approach might be all that is needed.

I could show them part of the way, but I couldn’t always hold their hands.

When we reached the race track proper, it was quite easy to talk to one of the race trainers into watching Zigzagoon and Anita to get an idea of what was wrong. The man quickly had some ideas and was already working with Anita to deal with the issue.

I sat off to the side with Trent, more than happy to be a spectator to a different style of training.

Overhead a trio of Pidgeot flew, with two of the birds twirling around each other in a tight helix. I frowned when I spotted both trainers hop from the backs of their pokemon.

I rose, instinct warning me to get moving now, I’d only have seconds to intercept them from that height—

Before I could do that, both riders landed on the other person’s pokemon and raised their hands. Oh, it was stunt flying. I sat back down and calmed my racing heart.

Trent glanced at me. “You’ve never seen that trick before?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Haven’t seen the stunt displays much to be honest,” I said. “Have to say that was rather scary to watch,” I confided.

“Hmm, it wasn’t very good,'' Trent said with a shake of his head. “They need to be tighter, it’s actually easy to do it as a jump, really skilled riders can lock into a spiral and go back to back and sort of counter roll to put them in opposite saddles.”

I blinked, picturing the acrobatics and how tight the margin for error would have to be. “That would be impressive to see.” I glanced at Trent. “Do you have much experience with it?”

“My cousins are stunt flyers and riders,” he said.

“Riders too, huh?” I said with a whistle of appreciation. “I really need to get out more if I’m missing those sorts of shows,” I commented. And didn’t saying it make it feel true?

I sighed and shook my head, deciding to sit back and enjoy the show while I had some free time.

For a short walk around Pewter, I felt like I’d gotten a lot out of it.

When I got home at the end of the day, everyone was in the dining room eating dinner. As I took a seat, Nanny Grav quickly slipped a plate in front of me. I raised my fork only to spot an undercurrent of tension in the room. I put the food back down. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t want to go to school tomorrow!” said Cindy with a grimace as she nudged around the food on her plate.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“We have swimming class tomorrow and I suck at it!” said Cindy.

I tilted my head and shot Flint a quick look. “But you’re a really good swimmer?” I said.

Cindy huffed. “Yeah, but we’re not doing it for fun today, we’re going to be competing in the swimming competition and this year I got signed up for the long-distance events! I have to swim a whole one hundred metres! That’s four whole laps!” she said waving her hands about.

I hummed. “You didn’t get any of the shorter events?” I asked.

“No, they went to other kids… well, I do have the relay and the single twenty-five-metre swim but everyone’s doing them! I just don’t like swimming long events! Can I call in sick tomorrow?” she asked, looking at me hopefully.

“Don’t quit!” chimed in Flint, cutting off Cindy’s attempts to get to me with her refined in-strength baby doll eyes. Flint pumped his fist. “You just need to push through! This is a good chance to show your grit!” he said with an upbeat attitude.

“I can’t do it!” Cindy wailed.

“You can’t with that attitude,” Flint and I said at the same time. I held back the shiver of uncanniness at us jinxing each other.

From the side of my peripheral vision I saw Tommy straighten, excitement in his gaze as he opened his mouth to shout.

I touched my nose and pointed at Flint. “Jinx! You can’t speak until someone says your name!”

“Daddy got jinxed!” cheered Tilly, only to gasp, “Oh no! I said Daddy’s name!” she said in horror.

I snorted. “Daddy isn’t his name,” I said, only to earn a wall of incomprehension from the younger kids.

Yolanda giggled while Salvadore looked up, tilted his head and opened his mouth. “Oh right, his name is—” he started to say, only for Cindy to lunge at Salvadore to silence him. She shot Flint a gleeful look.

I chuckled, only to realise why Cindy was doing this.

I coughed, ignoring Flint pretending to open and shut his mouth without saying anything as he played along with the game. “We are right though, Cindy, you shouldn’t just give up and say you can’t. Instead you should be like the Can Do—” I cast around for an appropriate pokemon and paused on Magikarp. “—the Can Do Magikarp!” I said with a winning smile.

Cindy and all the other kids stared at me. “The Can Do Magikarp?” they asked.

“Munchlax?” said Munchlax, leaning back and staring at me with interest.

I coughed, “Yeah? The Can Do Magikarp, have I not told you that story before?” I asked, knowing that I obviously hadn’t.

Cindy shook her head and I realised—judging from the looks I was getting— that I would need to perform the story now.

I stood and began to wriggle and wiggle like a Magikarp would, all while laying out the story of the Can Do Magikarp.

I wiggled my arms in a fish like motion, spearing them upwards while writhing. “And the little Magikarp continued to swim! Up and up the waterfall! Nothing could stop him! Not the rushing waters or the jeering pokemon below or around him!”

“Nooooo! Swim Magicup!” said Tilly with a passionate wail, waving her hands like she could urge on the fictional Magikarp.

I smiled, but didn’t chuckle like I wanted to. “So that little Magikarp continued to swim! With each slash of his tail the top of the waterfall grew closer! But! The water grew faster as it rushed over the edge! And it grew harder and harder! But in his mind, he stuck to the thought! I can do this! I can do this! And he began to inch his way up the waterfall!”

I writhed my arms about and squirmed my body, deeply amused to see so many eyes watching my impromptu performance.

“And then! When he reached the top he leapt one final time, clearing the Torii gate at the top and silencing all the pokemon that doubted him!”

“Woah!” said Suzie and Timmy together.

“And with his strength proven to all! He evolved into one of the most powerful Gyarados of the land!” I said with a fist thrust upwards.

“Woah? Really?” said Salvadore.

I coughed. “Maybe? It’s a story, and the point is to not give up, if you push yourself you can do more than you realise!” I said, giving Cindy a soft smile.

She chewed her lip and nodded. “Alright… I think I can do it,” she said with a small nod.

I sat back down feeling all the better for how I’d motivated my sister. I noted that Flint still couldn’t talk and decided to take mercy on him. “So, Flint, are you going to the swimming event tomorrow?" I asked.

Tommy, realising what I’d done, threw up his hands. “Argh! You ruined it!” he said, causing a chuckle from the older kids, myself and Flint.

I shook my head and decided to just enjoy my dinner.