"There, you're all set Fennekin" I said to my trusty performance partner, cutting off the the end of pink ribbon, finishing the last details. 'I hope we will be able to pass the qualifiers with this...' I thought to myself. I could feel my hands begin to shake, but I wasn't the only one to notice. "Fennekin?" the fox pokemon cried out with a worried expression. 

My ears could hear the sound of a ding. Followed by a heavy Kalosian accent "Of course that signals our times up, please proceed to the runway" I stood inside of my capsule, waiting on the moment for us to get out there and present what we've got. 

"And first up" Monsiour Pierre paused, a ding could be heard far away on the left side of me. "Blanch and her pokemon Meowstic" I could hear the crow cheering for her 'She must be well prepared, but I can still do this!' I assured myself, forming a fist full of determination

"Next up, Clarissa and Fletchling" I could hear the contestant commanding her pokemon, my heart began beating faster and faster. I stared at the door, awaiting for my mark. 

"Last, but not least. Serena and Fennekin!" That was my queue "Let's go" I said out loud, to no one in particular, we began walking out of our dressing room "Fennekin" my pokemon said softly. As soon as I made my way out, visible to the spectators, I was met by massive amounts of cheering to the audience.

A smile automatically took its place and replaced my worry. I waved to the audience, walking towards the end of the stage, showing the bond between Fennekin and I, while demonstrating our skills as pokemon performers. 

Fennekin was equipped with a hat, completed with the brightest white and the cutest pink. Below her neck, a bow tie with extended strips falling down to her feet. On the lower region, Fennekin wore a pink skirt, accompanied by white at the top. To finish her design, I added tiny spheres all around her tail.

As for myself, my feet held my crimson red high heels that connected to my jet black tights. At the top of my leggings, my pink skirt which connected to the rest of the dress was found. Over said pink dress, I decided to wear another layer, covered in a lighter shade of red. The shoulders of the dress were white, matching my gloves. Covering my upper chest, was a bow tie same color as the extra layer over the skirt. On the sides of my face were long strips of honey blonde hair, while on the back a large pony tail could be seen sticking out.

The last feature of my outfit, a showcase key was standing out at the left side of my skirt. A gold patterned key, with a heart like gem at the top. On the sides, wings were sticking out showing the freedom of the performer, how we aren't bound to anything and we perform anything we want.

I continue making my way down the stage, as hundreds, if not thousands of people stare at me. All eyes were on me, but it didn't bother me whatsoever. I just focused on the moment. The moment between Fennekin and I. I look down at my partner and express my happiness "Fennekin, I think I'm having the most fun I've ever had!" I yelled out as I extended my arms out.

"Feee" The fox pokemon replied. However, because I distracted Fennekin, and turned it's attention away, time seemed to slow down, and everything but us two became black and white. I watched on, with nothing to do. Fennekin stepped on the ribbon that I cut, but apparently not short enough, causing her to fall to the ground.

The hat fell off of Fennekin, the tiny sapphire spheres danced across the floor and my partner, laying on the floor. I stood there, completely frozen. Out from the crowd, I could hear gasps.

"Fennekin!" I ran up to my performance pokemon, sitting down on my knees trying to comfort it. I picked up my pokemon, and cradled it in my arms. Tears, now beginning to stream down my face. "Kin, Fenne" Fennekin said with a sad look implanted on her face. I sat there, at the end of the stage, accessories all over and the pokemon I failed in my arms. My eyes fixed onto the ground 'This was all my fault, I should've considered Fennekin walking next to me'

I closed my eyes as tears ran down my face. This was the worst day of my life, we've practiced for so long, only to mess up because of me.

I opened my eyes back up, and was met by my room. "Fenne-Fennekin!?" My fire type was sitting on me, directly in front of my face with a worried expression implemented in her cute amber eyes. I sat up and checked my surroundings again.

"Was... was that another dream?" I asked thinking out loud. I brought my hand up to my eyes, to rub myself awake, only to be met by an unknown liquid. I sighed with relief "So it was a dream..." I proceeded to pet Fennekin, and got out of bed. I freshened up in the bathroom and changed my clothing. It was still the weekend, the day after Calem's gym battle. Nothing new happened on that day, of course Calem went to far and couldn't realize his own mistakes.

My thoughts went to Ash. He was there yesterday, and saw the entire thing. However, he never revealed himself to us, he was going to stay hidden. But how did he get there at the time we arrived, we needed to take a bus to Cyllage city. My mind sent an image of Charizard to my mind. "I forgot, Ash has a Charizard and probably flew it there" I face palmed myself for not coming to the conclusion sooner.

I went down stairs, I already finished my homework that I didn't complete the day before, and slouched on the couch. I turned on the TV and began watching different channels. Fennekin came up with me, and jumped up on the seating quarters to lay down next to me, with her head on top of my thigh. My left hand was petting the fox pokemon, while my right hand was holding the remote, skipping channels until one caught my eye.

It was the current Kalos Queen, Aria. She was putting on a pre-show performance. Fennekin and I couldn't keep our eyes off of the television screen. I kept staring in awe at the performance 'Well, I guess that's why she is the Kalos Queen to begin with' I chuckled, continuing to watch on. The performance ended, it felt as if a surge of energy had engulfed my body. I was hyped and ready to begin with our performance. I sat down my the table and began thinking of certain ideas to get the flow of our show going. 

After a while of thinking, I sat up with the piece of paper in my hand and went to Fennekin. She was sleeping on the sofa. I woke her up and told her about the ideas "Fennekin!" She cried out with joy. I smiled at her reaction and picked her up, carrying her with me to the back yard. In the back yard we found a nice open spot in the grassy field and took our positions.

On the way to the spot I had explained to Fennekin what I was proposing for us to do. By the time we had arrived Fennekin was prepared and fired up. We took our stances and got into positions, ready to test out if the ideas could work for a future performance.

"Alright Fennekin, let's do this!" I shouted out, signalling to begin. To start off, we began a dance with each other. I twirled around in circles, while Fennekin danced around my body. "Fennekin now!" The fox type pokemon climbed up to my shoulder, I extended my arm which allowed her to continue running down the path. As Fennekin reached the end, it jumped off performing a circular movement while using the fire type move ember.

It looked amazing, up until Fennekin became confused from the constant spinning and landed on the ground. I ran up to it "Feee..." she said in a sad tone "Fennekin, are you alright? And don't be worried, that looked absolutely amazing!" I said to reassure Fennekin that she did nothing wrong "This was our first time trying this out, and you nearly got it!" I hugged Fennekin, displaying my happiness with her "I'm proud of you. After we get this part set, we can move onto the real deal!" I stood up, with Fennekin mirroring me, and we carried on with our work.

It was now going towards the end of the day, and Fennekin had finally managed to master the move. After she was done using ember all around, I saw as my fox partner landed on her feet in an elegant position. I gasped and not a second later a smile appeared with my mouth open. I ran into Fennekin who hopped into my arms "Fennekin! You did it, I knew you could to it!" I said 

"Fenne-Fennekin!" The fire type cried out. We got out of our clasp and stared at each other, I could see Fennekin's eyes full of determination. I returned the serious expression, before we both burst out laughing and rolling on the ground. I wiped away the tears of joy with my hand and stood up "You ready for this Fennekin?" The pokemon returned a nod.

We stood in our locations, like before. "Go!" I began my dance, and Fennekin soon followed, she climbed up my body and ran up my, hopping off of it and once again repeating the circular motion. I continued myself, now free styling. Soon enough Fennekin finished and landed

"Now or never Fennekin, use hidden power directly above and use scratch on it!" I commanded my dancing partner. It looked great, Fennekin used hidden power into the air and jumped up into the air to scratch the sphere of energy. I could barely hold in my excitement, wanting to see the ball explode into thousands of sparkling pieces, and send them flying everywhere. My thoughts were interrupted by a horrifying sight. 

The moment Fennekin made contact with the move, it exploded. Exploded, but nothing like I imagined. My body became stiff, I could only watch as the ball exploded like a bomb and sent the fox pokemon flying directly into the ground. My eyes were turning wide staring at the scene. I'm shaking, I didn't know what to do. 

I shook my head and immediately ran to Fennekin, picking it up "Fennekin! I'm so sorry!" Tears began forming in my eyes. My partner looked completely out of it, scratches everywhere and she wasn't responding "Th-This is a-all my fault! I hope you can forgive me Fennekin..." Without a second thought I began running towards the nearest pokemon center, in hopes to heal my fainted friend.

The surroundings had been turning a dark shade, and a glowing white rock had replaced the scorching ball in the sky. The sounds of environment hidden back into nature, lights only seen passing by and above.

Not too long after, I finally reached a the building with a red rooftop with a massive white pokeball sign at the front located above. I rushed in "Nurse Joy, please help!" I screamed out towards the desk, Nurse Joy looked at me with a confused face then noticed the injured pokemon in my hands, and came to me. I tripped from my exhaustion, but rotated my body to fall on my back, instead of hurting my partner  once again. 

"Are you alright?" Nurse Joy was standing above me, reaching out a hand which I gladly accepted. I couldn't even answer because of my need for oxygen. I was panting heavily, my legs hurting from pain. "P-Please *cough* t-take care of Fennekin" I managed to get out of my mouth. I handed over Fennekin, who was then placed on a stretcher and taken away by Blissey.

I took a seat on one of the chairs in the lobby, catching my breath and relaxing. Nurse Joy soon came up to me with a glass of water "T-thank you" I thanked her before drinking the liquid and refreshing my throat "What happened to Fennekin?" She asked me, taking a seat beside me. I looked at the ground, drops of water reaching the Earths surface.

"It was all my fault..." I said while letting it all out "I tried to get Fennekin to do a combination for a pokemon performance, but it back fired. Fennekin got shot into the ground and it was because of my stupid decisions!" Unexpectedly and shockingly Nurse Joy pulled me in for a hug, comforting me. "Listen, it's all right. No one knows what the outcome will be, not even you." I sniffed and hugged her back "What's your name?" She asked "S-Serena" We pulled from the hug and she stared at me with seriousness "Serena, don't let this knock you down. Keep on trying, and eventually you will succeed. There is never any gain, without sacrifice" 

I was taken a back by her words. Her words were true, she knew exactly what needed to be said to me. "Thank you, Nurse Joy" I thanked her, rubbing my eyes free of tears. She flashed me a smile, then made her way back to the desk "I'll tell you when Fennekin will be feeling better. You are more than welcome to stay over night" I nodded to her

I stepped outside to get a breath of fresh air. I reached the end of the balcony and put my hands on the fence, my mind constantly playing the video of Fennekin being shot into the dirt. "I hope you'll be fine" I said staring into the sky. The charcoal black sheet was covered in thousands, upon millions of bright specks, a never ending void of light that projects in my eyes, each with their own story. I sighed, my look changing to a determined one 

"Nurse Joy is right, this won't knock us down! One failure isn't enough to bring me down, and neither will it bring down Fennekin. I did mess up, and I will learn from this mistake. Only by performing mistakes, can we hope to correct them, and I will. I will do my best for Fennekin. I will never give up, most of all, I will keep trying harder.  We, will keep trying harder and eventually reach the grand goal of becoming Kalos Queen!" I said my little speech out loud to the sky, while having no awareness of my surroundings.

All of the sudden I heard the sound of two hands hitting each other. Someone was clapping? I turned around and saw a sight I had least expected. The raven haired boy with his electric yellow mouse pokemon was sitting at a table near me. He was the one clapping. My cheeks flared up and I turned my head away in complete embarrassment.

"Don't take it as criticism, quite an inspiring speech." I look at him, who was also staring at the beautiful night sky "Never give up until the end..." I heard him say under his breath, a frown forming on his face. He turned his attention back to me and signaled with his hand to come sit with him. I accepted and walked over to him, taking a seat in front of him. Pikachu stopped eating and hopped on over to me, I got scared and jumped back, seeing as we didn't exactly have the best past experiences together

"Pika..." He said in a sad tone tilting his head to the ground "Go on, he has no intention of hurting you, well unless you cause either me or him harm." Ash explained. I was still being a bit hesitant, until a hand grabbed mine and put it on Pikachu's cheek. My face turned crimson red, as I noticed it was Ash's "Chaaa" Pikachu cried out, causing me to giggle at the reaction.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked him, while still petting Pikachu. "I could be asking you the same thing, I'm guessing you messed something up?" He said, I sighed "Yeah... I tried out a few things with Fennekin, getting ready for a per-" I put my hand over my mouth "It's fine, I can respect if you want to keep it a secret" Ash said, knowing that I didn't want to talk about it "Long story short, I told her to do something and it caused her to get hurt on my account" Tears started forming in my face again, thinking back on the moment.

"Live and learn" was all that Ash said, I looked at him who was staring into my eyes. I gave him a nod and said "I told you what I'm doing here, it would only be fair if you do the same" He looked at Pikachu, then hesitated for a bit but eventually spoke "Well, I stay here. I'm eating dinner" I was a bit shocked by that, he spent his time here, the school isn't even close and he doesn't even take the bus. But most importantly, this is not close to my home, nor the beach. 

"Why don't you stay at the dorms?" I questioned with curiosity taking over. He shrugged and replied "Don't know, much more peace and quiet at this area" We sat in silence, gazing at the night sky, Ash sat up yawning "I'm going to sleep" I followed him to the desk, where we parted way, he went up to his room and I went to Nurse Joy "Could I get a key for a room please?" I asked politely 

"Sure" She said turning around, getting a key and handing it to me "Room 015" She said "Thank you, not only for the room, but also for the uplifting talk. It helped a lot Nurse Joy" She smiled my way "No need to thank me" I returned the smile and made my way to my room.

I took a shower and went into bed, shutting my eyes. I tried falling a sleep, but couldn't. This was the first time I've ever been at a place where I slept alone. I've been to sleep overs, but we always slept in the same room. This gave me an uncomfortable feeling and made me feel fragile. Not being able to handle it, I got out of bed and walked to Nurse Joy. "Nurse Joy" She turned to me, and I hesitated a bit "D-Do you k-know wh-which room A-Ash is in?" I asked suttering "Room 023" She answered "Th-Thanks"

I walked through the pokemon center with my stuff until I reached the room "Room 023, this one" I said out loud. I knocked on the door "What do you want?" A cold voice answered "A-Ash, it's S-Serena" I could hear a slight sigh, and then the door opened "Yes?" I gulped and continued, my cheeks turning bright pink "W-would it b-be f-fine if I-I slept in your room?" I asked, looking at the ground. He raised an eye brow and could see he was slightly annoyed and wanted to shut the door. 

"Y-you see, this is actually the first time I've ever been at a place with no one I knew, and I feel a b-bit s-scared" I tried convincing him. He sighed and opened the door all the way, allowing me to pass. My jaw dropped a bit, because he actually accepted. "You can sleep on the bed, I'll take the couch" He said to me "A-are you s-sure, this is your room Ash" I asked him. He sent a nod towards me. I got in the bed, soon a certain Pikachu ran up to me and curled itself up near me "Thank you" I mouthed to Ash. 

I shut my eyes. Before I knew it the world was dark once again.