"GET OFF ME!" the girl shrieked, pushing his head away. He scrambled to his feet as she did the same.
"I'm... I'm sorry," he said, feeling a little shy as he looked at her. She certainly was pretty. He stared at her long, swept-back red hair and blue eyes for a moment before coming back to reality, realizing that she was glaring at him with one of the most ferocious-looking expressions he'd ever seen on a girl.
"I really... really am sorry," he added again, hoping she believed that he meant it.
"Well, you'd better just watch where you're going, it isn't very nice to go around falling on people's laps," she replied, tossing her head.
"What's wrong with you anyway?" he began, getting annoyed in spite of himself. "I SAID I was sorry, isn't that good enough for you?"
"No, because you don't mean it!" she yelled at him.
"Well, maybe I DON'T!" he yelled back.
"Is there a problem here?" a woman's voice broke in. They both jumped.
"Umm... umm..." was all James could come up with.
"Oh no, there's no problem," the girl said, smiling at the woman, who had lifted an eyebrow and was staring at both of them like they were crazy. She was obviously a teacher or someone in charge.
"Well, there better not be, we don't need any trouble around here. Do you two understand me?" She looked at both of them in turn.
"Of course," the girl said in an assuring voice.
"Yes!" James managed to squeak, blushing a bit.
"Good." The woman continued up the steps and into the building. The girl turned and grabbed the front of James' Tech uniform, yanking him closer.
"You almost got us in trouble!" she hissed, shaking him.
"Me?" he said in a low voice, trying to pry her hand off. YOU'RE the one who wouldn't take my apology!"
"Okay, we're not going to talk about this anymore. We'll just go our separate ways and pretend like this never happened," the girl said, looking toward the door.
"Fine with me," James replied.
"Fine," the girl said, turning and taking the stairs two at a time, disappearing through the door. James sighed. She sure was annoying. But she WAS awfully pretty... He shrugged, heading in the direction she'd gone, determined to forget about the whole thing. For some reason, he found himself wondering what her name was.
Finding his first class wasn't too hard. Once inside the room, he noticed that everyone was standing around in groups talking. He didn't know anyone, so he just looked around. It seemed that there were names on each of the desks, so they had to sit in a certain place. He looked for his name, and found it on a desk in the very back of the room, the last desk in that row, actually. So he would only be sitting by one other person. He was curious, so he looked at the name on that desk. Someone called Jessie.
He wandered around the room some more, taking everything in, then finally just leaned up against the wall to watch people. No one had really taken any notice of him, a few girls had glanced his way, but that was all. He wondered if any of the girls could possibly think he was cute. He tried to brush that annoying strand of hair that always fell in his face back in with the rest of his hair, but it didn't work, as usual.
And then he saw her. That red-haired girl again. She was on the other side of the room, leaning up against the wall, the same way he was. She was scowling like she was going to kill someone, and James got the unfortunate feeling it might be him. They were the only two in the room standing by themselves. He hoped that she was sitting at the front of the class.
No sooner had he thought that than the teacher walked into the room Everyone started drifting over to find out where they were sitting. James went back and sat at his desk in the corner, tapping his fingers as he waited to see who this "Jessie" person was. Without realizing it, his eyes wandered back to that red-haired girl. She was walking down the row in front of his, looking for her name. Either she didn't notice him or she was pretending not to. When she got to the desk in front of him, he suddenly got nervous. Suppose she was... no, she couldn't be.
When she turned around and her eyes landed on him, the look on her face was rather... violent. James just sat, seemingly paralyzed by that look. She stomped around to check the name on the desk beside his. Her eyes bulged, and James got the terrible sinking feeling that this girl was the "Jessie" who was supposed to sit by him. Sure enough, she yanked the chair out and sat down in it hard, shooting him an evil glare along the way. But she didn't say anything, and James was grateful for that, at least.
Yet it was very hard concentrating throughout class with this "Jessie" beside him. For one thing, every time he so much as moved, she'd throw him another one of those dirty looks. And in between those, she'd tap her foot and act like she'd rather be anywhere else on the face of the earth than sitting in a desk beside him. And it confused him quite a bit, why was she still so mad when he'd apologized and everything? Maybe she was just the kind of person who stayed mad about something for a long time. In any case, he felt relieved when the class was over and she was out of the room so fast you would've thought it was a race. He sighed. Maybe she'd be nicer once she got over it...
After a couple more classes (both of which were Jessie-less), it was free time. James wasn't sure quite what to do. He wandered around the buildings, just looking to see where everything was, and happened to come upon the library. Shrugging to himself, he went in.
There must've been thousands of books on Pokémon lining the shelves. He didn't know where to look, but happened to find a book about strategies for using Koffing in battle, and figured it might be useful to look at. He made his way to a table in one of the back rooms while flipping through the book, and sat down. Several minutes later he heard a slight rustling noise from behind him. He turned slowly and came face to face with...
...Jessie. She was sitting at the table behind his, only he hadn't noticed her when he came in, and since their backs were to each other, they'd both been oblivious that the other was there. She had an open book about Ekans in front of her, and was staring at him with the same shocked look that he was staring at her with.
"J... Jessie!" James stuttered, blinking his wide-open eyes.
"You..." she acknowledged him with. She stood up and loomed over him. He cringed. "What are YOU doing in here!?" she demanded.
"Th.. this is a library you know! I can come in here and read if I want! And my name isn't 'you'." He added that last part carefully, hoping she wouldn't get mad. To his relief, she relaxed a little, looking at him with a bland expression.
"It's James, isn't it?" she questioned, sitting down across the table from him.
"Yeah..." he replied, suddenly feeling shy and looking down. When he looked again, she was staring at him with a slight smile on her face. James felt his own face turning pink. He began to talk, hoping she wouldn't notice.
"So... why were you acting so mad at me earlier? I said I was sorry..." He trailed off as she raised an eyebrow.
"You deserved it."
Now it was James' turn to raise an eyebrow. "I don't understand... why?"
"Oh, never mind," she said, continuing to scrutinize him.
James began feeling rather uncomfortable at her gaze. He rubbed the back of his head and asked, "So, what are you here for?"
Jessie laughed. "To become a Pokemon trainer, of course!"
James winced and an embarrassed look crossed over his face. He wondered how he could've asked such a dumb question. But she just laughed a little.
"Oh come on, don't make that face. Why don't we go out and walk around together?" she suggested, already standing up as though he's said yes.
"I... okay." A slow smile spread across his features as he stood up to join her. They walked out of the library together, talking about their favorite kind of Pokémon.
And from that time on, they were friends. Even though neither of them really said they were, and they still had the occasional fight, they were still friends. They were together whenever it was possible, almost a team, of sorts. And because of that, they grew to know nearly everything about each other, from likes and dislikes to even what the other was thinking or feeling. Times had seemed good then...
James came back to reality with a start. He hadn't been aware of it, but it was dusk, and getting darker by the minute. He looked frantically for Jessie, and saw that she was in the exact same spot, watching him. Panic built inside of him.
"Jessieeee..." he wailed, "Meowth's never coming back! We're stuck in a hole, and Meowth's never coming back, and we'll DIE in here!"
Jessie quickly reached across and slapped him in an effort to calm him down. "James, stop it," she said firmly, in one of those 'you'd-better-do-it-or-you'll-be-sorry' tones. He drew his legs up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, hugging them fiercely.
"But... Jessie..." he whimpered, sounding on the verge of tears.
"James," Jessie said softly, knowing how scared he was, "you shouldn't be worrying. I'm sure that Meowth will come back, at least in the morning. And then we'll be alright, you'll see." She hoped she sounded reassuring enough; she hated it when he was this upset, it made her worry.
He sniffled. "Are you sure..." His voice quivered a little, and Jessie allowed herself a small smile.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Okay..." She could see in the dim light that remained that was still hugging his legs, rocking back and forth slightly. It made her want to hug him, or to lay his head in her lap and stroke his hair. She wasn't quite sure why.
"Umm... James? Why don't you try to sleep... I know you must be tired." She could tell that he was thinking hard about that.
"I... I guess..." He didn't sound very sure, but he lay down anyway. "You'll wake me up if anything happens, won't you? he asked sleepily.
"I promise I will."
"Goodnight Jessie..."
"Goodnight James."
About an hour later, Jessie sat looking at her partner, who'd finally fallen asleep. His deep, even breathing was evidence of that. She smiled to herself. He looked perfectly adorable when he was asleep, curled up on his side, strands of blue hair falling down over his face. She pushed back the urge to get up and brush them out of his face, for fear of waking him up. Thinking of how worried he'd been made her frown. She was used to the way his moods worked, but it never failed to suprise her that every time he acted this way, she ended up just as worried about him as she's been the last time. Before she realized it, a memory floated up to the surface of her mind, of another time when he had needed her...
