"Before I Turn this Tassel," written by Freedom Fighter Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of the characters associated with the show. All names and likenesses are copyrighted by Nintendo, 4Kids Entertainment, and anyone else who had a hand in creating the show. ====== Chapter Three - An Invitation to My World (10.21.02) Professor Mariner stood off to the side as the Astouding Mandy took control of the class. The six students, including Giselle herself, all stood in a line as he looked them over. "The Pokémon League tournament is single-elimination. One loss and you are out. Therefore, in order to make a good impression for your school, the three Pokémon you choose in your first match must be able to take out anything your opponent throws at you." A few of the students nod in agreement. "Of course, if you're as good as I am, then you don't have to worry about that." "This guy can talk like a pro," Giselle thought, "but can he really battle like one?" "Now, please present three of your Pokémon so that I may inspect them." The trainers head to their backpacks and pull out three of their Pokéballs. One by one, Mandy watches the trainers as they release their Pokémon. Richard has a Wartortle, a Nidorino, and a Weepinbell. "Second stage evolutionaries? That won't get you past the second round!" Nobosaku shows off his Butterfree, Natu, and Golbat. "Those Pokémon won't last if they stay in the air during long battles." Aaron presents to Mandy his Slowbro, Kangaskhan, and Snorlax. "Too slow! Your opponent will attack you five times before you hit the ground." Jordan reveals his collection of fighting-types: Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, and Hitmontop. "My psychic ability tells me that you won't last with just fighting Pokémon!" J.B. throws out his Pokéballs, revealing Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile. "A collection of starter Pokémon. Any fool knows how to beat those three!" Finally, it's Giselle's turn. But before she can begin her Pokémon ballerina throwing pose, Mandy walks away. "Hey! What about me?" "Why bother? I'm sure any Pokémon you have won't stand any chance at all." Jordan and J.B. begin to snicker. Until Giselle shoots them an angry glare, that is. "Mandy!" Professor Mariner exclaimed. "It is The Astounding Mandy! That is the ONLY name I wished to be called!" "The Astounding Mandy! This young lady deserves to have her Pokémon examined just like the others. She is the student aide, and the top student in her graduating class." "Fine." Mandy rolled his eyes before heading back towards Giselle. "Let's see what Pokémon you've got." Giselle goes into her ballerina throwing pose, twirling around and ending the sequence by throwing out three Pokéballs. "Pokéballs, go!" Out of the Pokéballs come an Electrode, a Golem, and a Marowak. Mandy starts looking the Pokémon over. "You can't judge a trainer on looks alone," Giselle lectured. "That's a mistake that any novice trainer would fall into." Not really paying attention, Mandy stops examining Giselle's Pokémon and instead starts to examine the trainers themselves. "I'm impressed by your Pokémon," Mandy complimented. Giselle cracked a smile, but she was trying to hide her beaming perfection from the others. "That means a whole lot, coming from you." Mandy turns towards Professor Mariner and turns serious. "If she's the best you've got, the school will be a laughing stock at the tournament once again." That made Giselle slip back into her old persona. "Our graduating class is the best the school's ever had! And we'll show up every single trainer at the tournament! Including you!" "No one likes a person who spews out promises that they'll never fulfill." Mandy then sighs as Giselle growls angrily. "But, I was hired to teach you the training techniques of non-Tech trainers. And so I shall. Not that it will help any of you." ====== Two hours later, the class came to an end. Professor Mariner is talking with the Astounding Mandy while the students head back to campus and towards the cafeteria for lunch. All except for Richard and Giselle. Richard was feeding his Pokémon their lunch. And Giselle was rewinding her camcorder to make sure that the small amount of footage she had gotten for her project came out right. "Working on your final project?" Richard asked, glancing at Giselle. "None of your business," Giselle shot back, not turning around to shout it at his face directly. "I'm just asking!" Richard then slides his backpack on and starts walking back towards campus. His Wartortle, Nidorino, and Weepinbell follow right after them. "As if he genuinely cared about me," she huffed as she pushed play and began to watch the tape on the viewing window. "Being a student aid for this experimental class is the best thing that could have ever happened to me," the recorded version of Giselle told the camera. "There's no one better than me to assist the professor. After all, there isn't a student here who could match my beauty and brains!" "There I go, ranting again. I'd better make sure to cut that out of the final version." "There's this trainer who calls himself The Astouding Mandy. He's providing advice on how to approach the Pokémon tournament. He's a really good trainer." "Hey you!" Mandy called from off-screen. "I have a name!" "This isn't the time to be making a dating service video." "Why would I even stoop that low?" "Just come over and train like the good little girl you're supposed to be." Present-day Giselle stops the tape and closes the viewing window with her free hand. She then glances over at Mandy, who's still talking with the professor. "I don't have one second of usable footage from my introduction thanks to that creep!" she grumbled, clenching her left fist with all of her strength. "I hope there aren't more trainers like him at the Pokémon League." She then gathers her belongings and heads back towards campus. ====== After lunch and then returning to her room to drop off her backpack and her camcorder, Giselle heads across the hall to knock on Angela's door. "Hello? Angela?" She knocked on the door continuously for a minute. She then glances onto a nearby billboard, where Angela uses has a laminated piece of paper telling where she was. But it happened to be missing. "How does she expect someone to find her in case of an emergency? Some resident manager she is." She then glances over the announcements billboard. One flyer in particular catches her eye. "This is the last week to submit lists for invitees to this year's graduation ceremony," she read aloud, remembering that she hadn't done such a thing yet. "In all of my haste to prepare for finals, I must have overlooked that. I'd better get my address book." ====== Giselle heads to the adminstration office with her address book in hand. Once there, she talks to the secretary, who hands her a form to fill out. "You can invite up to five people," the secretary informed Giselle. "Five? I only need two spots for my parents. And one for an old friend of mine." "Just list their names and addresses. Don't forget to include your name as well." Giselle took the form and a pen and sat down on a nearby bench. She began to fill it out, using her address book to make sure she got her friend's address right. "I just hope he's still not out on a Pokémon journey." Giselle put the pen down and examined the form once more. But she didn't feel comfortable leaving two spots empty. She opened her address book and began to leaf through it. A few minutes later, one of the two spots was filled, but only with a name. The name of Ash Ketchum. Giselle began to tap the pen against her chin. "I don't know his home address, so how am I going to reach him?" Giselle then got a brainstorm. "Say... he's from Pallet Town, where the great Professor Oak lives! In a small town like that, the professor probably does know Ash. He might have even given Ash that Pikachu of his. I know I have the address to Oak's lab somewhere..." She leafs through her address book again and does find an entry for Professor Oak under 'O.' Taking her pen, she scribbles down the laboratory's address. "I just hope he gets the message. Knowing that scrambled brain of his, I hope he remembers where this place is." Giselle gets up and hands the form and the pen back to the secretary, who nods in reply. She then exits the room and heads back to her dormitory. ====== Back at Giselle's dorm building, Angela had just returned from class and was going to get ready to tape Giselle for her project. She unlocks her door and throws her bag in before turning around and knocking on Giselle's door. "Hello? Giselle, are you in there?" Angela reaches for the doorknob and turns it, finding it unlocked. She pushes the door in slowly and peers inside. "Giselle? Hmmmm... that's so unlike her. Leaving the door unlocked." She closes the door and looks down the hall, towards the door leading into the floor's restroom. "Maybe..." ====== Downstairs at the building's entrance, Giselle pulls the front door open and walks in. Upon entering the lobby, she sees a crowd of girls waiting for the elevator. She scoffs and heads for the stairs. "I swear, they're lucky that they're all still in good shape. Don't they realize that walking up a flight of stairs is good exercise?" Giselle kept the comment to herself as she pushed the fire-protected set of double doors that separated the lobby from the stairwell. But she's surprised as to the two people she finds waiting for her there. "We didn't appreciate you embarassing us this morning," one said. "You humiliated Pokémon Tech's top two members of the beginners' class!" the other exclaimed. "Why are you two in the stairwell of a girls' dorm?" Giselle asked, putting her hands on her hips. "You're not allowed in here without an escort... Joshua and William!" "You still owe us a date." "That was IF you beat me. And you two failed miserably." "Don't you realize how much of a laughing stock we are now?" "None of the girls in our class will look at us the same anymore!" "That's your fault. You should've have known better than to challenge a member of the expert class. But you wouldn't know that, would you? You're just beginners!" "You've got a lot of spunk, you know that?" "That's bad. Joshua hates girls with spunk." "You want to know what I do to girls with spunk?" "Trust me," William shook his head quickly, "you don't want to know." "I have a feeling she's gonna find out anyway!" Joshua and William begin to advance on Giselle, eager to exact some revenge in another way... Preview of Chapter 4: "Chivalry is Not Dead" - Just what do Joshua and William have in store for Giselle? - Will Angela come to her rescue? Or will it be someone else? - And Giselle tries to get the message out to two different guys in her life. Moving on with Chapter 4 next Monday! See ya then!