Of all the rigor and hardship the API brought, of all the things I disliked about it, and of all the reasons I had at one point considered leaving the academy altogether, the core curriculum always had to be the worst offender. While the intelligent would scoff at the "easiness" of the four classes, and the uncaring would just barely scrape by with their phoned-in grades, Pokémon like me just found their difficulty unbearable. I mean, it's not like anybody wanted to take them; they were required regardless of one's major, and since the, er, "science of athletic training" had little to nothing to do with them, you can imagine that they wouldn't exactly be my strongest suit.

And of course, they began almost immediately.

Not even a week into our return to the API, we were already starting on the steep slopes of the core classes: Tapu Koko's science, Lele's mathematics, Bulu's history and Fini's literature, and let me tell you, not one was remotely pleasant. Well, maybe except for Koko's course...until he started assigning things, that is. Although he did a remarkable job at making the writing of a several-page essay on how Evolution Stones triggered immediate physical and chemical changes in a Pokémon's genetic makeup seem exciting during class, even going as far as to grant us human contraptions known as "computers" to take notes (though I'd argue Pokémon like Metagross or Alakazam could compute such things much more effectively), the second I left the room I felt utterly defeated by the amount of work I had to do. And, by the sun and moon, that wasn't even the end of the day!

"Look, man, it ain't much," my friend Passimian slapped my shoulder in condolence after class, when I told him of my grief. I hadn't yet told him, or much of anyone, about what had happened back in the summer, so I pardoned his obvious misunderstanding. "Just blow through it quick. Don't say no more than what's gotta be."

"Yeah," I agreed. "But I gotta keep my grades up if I want to wrestle, y'know? I can't just turn in what I've thrown together in five minutes." Passimian said nothing, only giving a single, solid nod. As was his way, I guessed. "You got math next, too?"

"Nah," the Teamwork Pokémon shook his head. "Gotta go to the gym. Good luck with Lele, though, man."

"I'll need it!" I called after him as he took the stairs down to the ground floor, then I turned to head toward my next destination. Probably the only good thing about having math when he had physical education was that Lele's room was literally one door down from the laboratory; all four core classes were held on the second floor, actually. Above, a flight of stairs led to the deans' office that I had been in just a few days before, leaving the second floor to be some awkward space between the ground and the sky. As such, it was necessary, but that didn't mean anybody paid it any positive heed. Especially when they were on their way to math class.

I entered the classroom and immediately brought my eyes to the rows upon rows of desks, waiting to be claimed or defended or saved for friends like a pack's fresh kill; we were all guilty of doing it in one way or another. Every Pokémon was a savage at heart. Even so, our attempts would likely be futile the second Lele flew into the room and put her favorite students in the back while everyone else was forced to the front of the room, or so I expected. I'm sure you can guess who was in the "everyone else" category, and let me tell you, his heart sank into his tail the second his suspicions were proven correct.

"Best of mornings, everyone," Tapu Lele entered the classroom with a concise voice that feigned sweetness, only to see that the majority of us, myself included, had yet to find a seat. With a poorly concealed roll of her eyes, she continued, "You may all take a seat, but do not depend on keeping it. A seating chart will be assigned next week to ensure..." Her playful eyes swept around the room like a hungry Flying-type's. "no cheating."

I did as I was told, though such restraint still irked me, and found a seat in the second-to-last row with my friend Crabominable on my left, and an empty seat on my right. I threw my bag down next to me and sighed. Of course, I thought as I took my forehead up in my paws. Not a minute into class and the pressure's already on.

As Lele prepared the final few things regarding her lesson, I took the precious time to peer around the room at the Pokémon who would be my classmates. There were a few I knew, like Crabominable, Primarina's friend Ribombee, and Midday Lycanroc to an extent, but other than that I felt utterly alone. Sure, I remembered most of my class's faces from last year, but I had never bothered to talk to any of them. They probably thought themselves too good for me. I didn't blame 'em.

I turned to Crabominable and nudged him, then followed up with, "Hey, buddy. Heard you'd Evolved, but, uh, I guess I didn't fully believe it until..."

"Oh, yeah," the Woolly Crab Pokémon replied in a deeper voice than I was used to, coming from him. "After me fam and I saw that eclipse on Ula'ula, I went up to Lanakila to get stronger for wrestlin', and this happened!" He laughed a bit, and I smiled knowing that my friend had retained his Crabrawler peppiness upon Evolution.

"Well, I hope it'll make you all the more ready to kick Kalos's butt this year," I sneered.

"Oh, sun and moon, Incineroar. I—"

"Alright, alright! No time can be wasted!" Tapu Lele cut Crabominable off with her misleadingly sweet voice. "It appears that everyone's here...except for Lycanroc, of course, but that's to be expected." For a second, she looked right at me, and my heart froze until I realized she was staring not at me, but at the vacant seat next to me. A few rows in front of me, Midday put his head in his paws as a few Pokémon let out nervous laughs.

"Yes, poor Midnight Lycanroc will miss out on the fun this week," Lele sighed in continuation, twirling one of her two long strands of pink "hair" (or so it appeared to be). "I will say nothing about the matter, except that battles of informal, unprovoked mannerisms will not be tolerated, and you're all to expect that. Just consider yourself lucky if you missed out on the latter hours of this year's reunion."

Puzzled, I looked to Crabominable, who simply mouthed the word "later", then turned back to Lele.

"Now that that's out of the way, we can get into the first math lesson of this year: determining Shininess!" Lele's eyes lit up like blue fire, and suddenly a giant projector screen fell from the ceiling in front of the room, only to come to rest inches above the ground, guided by the professor's psychic power. With another flash of Lele's eyes, the screen lit up with images of Shiny Pokémon, with a singular equation in the center. "I'd like you all to write this equation down someplace where you won't lose it; it will not be shown again."

At once, we all scrambled to find some sort of notebook and writing utensil buried within our bags; some from hide, others from sticks and leaves, and others still from the silk of Ariados. Flipping to the very first page of my book, I jotted down the formula, meticulously making sure I didn't get a letter wrong:

(TrainerID xor SecretID) xor (PersonalityValue31..16 xor PersonalityValue15..0)

Of course, I'd no idea what any of it meant, and even if I once had, it would've inevitably been forgotten by the summer's brainwashing by now. So, as you can imagine, I began to seriously stress with each variable I put onto paper. What in Alola was a Trainer ID? Secret ID? Personality Values? Weren't Shiny Pokémon Shiny just...because?! I almost had to tell myself aloud to calm down, that Lele would help me through it and all would be fine, but it proved pretty hard when so much new information was being bombarded at me all at once.

"Not until the extinction of humans did we Pokémon know about the genetic formula used to tell whether or not we carried the rare condition known as Shininess," Lele said, forcing me to look up from my writing right as I finished. "But, through the years, old documents were uncovered and philosophers were hard at work, and we found what was long used to determine such things: one of the most important expressions yet known to Pokémon to date. But," she yawned. "ask Tapu Bulu for such historical enlightenment, as I'm only willing to teach what I must: how such math is done. So..."

She went off on how to utilize the formula, leaving us all to madly jot down whatever notes we could grasp. I was able to keep up with the first few projected slides, if only barely, but it wasn't long before my claws couldn't guide my Tentacool-ink pen fast enough, and my brain started hurting to the point where I just zoned out. There was no way I could ask the professor to slow down or go back; she was Tapu Lele, and I sure as the Reverse World knew she would only speed up for the likes of me. And so, there was nothing to do but sit there, dumbfounded, like I was stranded on some tiny island. Not even the occasional tiny glances at the papers of my classmates could save me. I gulped.

"By applying that logic, we can say..." Lele droned, though I wasn't listening. I tried to occupy my wandering mind with thoughts of Primarina, the beach I wouldn't see for seemingly ages now, and the wrestling ring, though the heat of the fight only reminded me of the tiny interrogation room, and worse things I'd tried all summer to suppress. I felt sweat beads form on the back of my neck and my red, furry beard, leaving me to only pray nobody saw them, and if they did, simply think it was because of class's pressure. So much as I wanted to break down and lose my dignity in a fit of tears right then and there, I couldn't let such weakness show. Nobody understood. Nobody except Primarina.

"Incineroar," a voice shook me out of my thoughts and nearly made me jump out of my seat. Only then did I realize that Tapu Lele was looking at me dead in the eye with what seemed to be some sort of schadenfreude, though it may have just been my imagination. "If a Caterpie has the Trainer ID of 24292, a Secret ID of 38834, and a personality value of 2814471828, is it Shiny?" The last three words were emphasized as if to intimidate me further, though even without it I'd already flushed redder than even my fiery fur. Oh, Reverse World. She was going to make a fool of me. I was going to make a fool of myself. Everything she said just went over my head, higher than the legendary Rayquaza in the clouds...

Why do I have such a hard time simply listening?!

"I-I...uh, lemme think..." I babbled, trying desperately to come up with something to say, but Lele only raised her pink eyebrows. She knew I hadn't the slightest idea, didn't she? She had only asked me to make a mockery of me! "Ma'am, I—"

"Yes, the Caterpie is Shiny," Midday quietly cut me off, with more shame in his voice than anything else. Though I couldn't see his face from where I was positioned behind him, I could practically hear the redness on his normally calm, even emotionless face. "When the given information is input into the determination formula, S is less than 16; the Caterpie is therefore Shiny."

Lele said nothing, moving only her eyes from Midday to me and back several times. I scoffed under my breath at my interruption, but part of me thanked every higher power that the Wolf Pokémon was there to spare me from too much embarrassment.

"Very well," Lele spat when she finally collected herself. "Just...expect harder on the tests!"

As we were assigned problems to solve in textbooks and class finally concluded, we dispersed and met up with our friends once more to discuss our days. Other Pokémon from math clapped Midday on the back and slapped his paw for his "epic" answer while Ribombee fretted over her assignment to the point of nearly dropping her book.

Me, I just grumbled to Crabominable, "Sun and moon, that was embarrassing. Why's it always gotta be me?"

"Not like I woulda known it either!" my friend consoled—er, tried to, anyway. "Don't let Lele get'cha down, ruin your day. You know how she plays favorites!"

"Whatever," I sighed. "I've got other things to worry about, anyway. You seen Primarina yet today? I've yet to find her..."

"Nope, but I'd trust she's around somewhere. Listen, I'd better get this math stuff done before it gets to be any bigger a problem, so I'll catch ya round, man. Good luck!"

I nodded as Crabominable scuttled off, likely toward the dormitories, and then I was left staring at my textbook, with problems I couldn't begin to understand waiting to claim victory over me inside. Both Passimian and now Crabominable had wished me good luck, but I still felt like it was a match I couldn't win.

"I'll...need it..."