"Great. Paperwork." Alex rolled his eyes. "What is this anyway?"

"Weren't you listening when Brock explained it?" Bella asked. Summer must've been longer than Alex thought if Bella had already forgot how short his attention span was.

"Probably not."

"It's confirming our options for this year. Once we've chosen what subjects we're taking and which ones we're dropping, we can't go back and so we'll be stuck with our choices for the rest of the year." Bella explained. "So basically, take your time. This decision matters."

"Huh. Ok." Alex replied before ticking several boxes immediately and then turning to Bella with a huge grin on his face.

"I swear your only purpose in life is to annoy me." Bella shook her head.

"No!" Alex cried in mock offence. "I annoy other people too."

"You know that's not what I meant." she laughed. They were sitting together on a comfy leather sofa in the Azelf house common room, amongst other second years all clutching pen and paper, trying to make the decision of which subjects they'd want to drop. Bella in particular was having a hard time.

"Still making your mind up Miss Hughes?" Brock asked as he walked around the room, collecting the papers.

"I just don't see why I can't take everything."

"Probably because you're not a time travelling machine." Brock replied. "The workload would just be immense. It'd be too much even for you."

"Fine." Bella reluctantly agreed before she eventually made up her mind and handed her sheet to their head of house.

"Murphy!" Brock exclaimed when he took Alex's sheet. "Dropping Breeding I see? Nothing to do with your teacher I hope?"

"Of course not." Alex grinned. "It was more to do with the fact that I just hate your subject with a burning passion."

"Excellent!" the teacher grinned, walking away to convert the stack of papers into timetables for everyone. His return was met by a loud groan for several people, including Alex.

"Double Williams on the first day?!" Alex moaned, burying his head in his hands after seeing his timetable. He liked it for the most part. With some of his useless subjects now gone, he had a lot more free periods to train and relax in but even so a double period of Battling on the first day of school was painful.

"Me too!" Bella beamed, her voice somehow full of enthusiasm. Alex stared at her timetable in disbelief.

"But how can we be in the same class? I'd have to be in top set and I barely passed last years' exam."

"I guess you've forgotten about the school's ranking system then." Bella replied in her usual condescending tone. Before he could interrupt, she began explaining. "The school has a system where everyone in the year has a ranking. At the beginning of last year, it was based solely on the initial work we'd done in classes, hence you were rock bottom. However, it also takes into account the practical element of battling and given that last year you beat pretty much everyone, that could be enough to counteract your less than impressive grades."

"Still stupid though," Alex mumbled, "I might not even be in the same class as Lenny."

"You'll have me at least." Bella smiled before looking at her watch and gasping. "We have to get going! We can't be late for the first lesson of the year!"

Begrudgingly, Alex and a few others got up and slowly started making their way to the main school building. Despite Bella's cries of urgency, nobody seemed to bothered about hurrying and she soon left them behind. They exited the blue roofed Azelf dorm before heading north along a stream, passing the red brick bridge along the way. Soon the building was in sight and after a few more minutes of walking Alex pushed the glass doors open, entering the familiar corridors. His brain went into auto pilot, taking him through the long hallway until he reached Professor Williams' room.

He entered, seeing only two people had made it on time; the teacher and of course, Bella. Alex walked right past both of them and took his usual seat in the back row, waiting hopefully for Lenny to show up. As other students from all three houses turned up, Williams took a brief moment to look at his alleged best class. His eyes met Alex's and he shook his head.

"Don't get too settled there Murphy." Williams said. "Your friend Mr Leonard won't be joining us and without him to keep you somewhat in check, I can't allow you to sit on the back row. Why don't you come a little closer? The front row appears very empty."

Cursing under his breath, he grabbed his equipment and moved further forwards, slumping down in the chair next to Bella just before Edward could. She shot him a thankful look, after all it was common knowledge that Edward had some kind of crush on Bella but she really hated everything about him. Instead of getting a year of trying to impress a girl, Edward was forced to sit in the back corner of the room by himself but Alex was more focused on the confirmation that Lenny hadn't made the cut. The poor guy's confidence would be crushed after he found out he was in a lower set than Alex and he'd probably get lonely without his best friend to accompany him.

Alex's thought process was interrupted by the lesson, and with it the school year, starting. The whole class suddenly became silent was Williams rose from his chair and began writing on the board. To Alex's left, Bella had pulled out the largest notebook he'd ever seen and she was furiously copying down the teachers' words. As it turned out, it was just a singular word. 'Momentum'.

"This is without any doubt the most important word you will hear this year." Williams announced, turning to face the pupils. "Last year was all about learning about Pokémon themselves. It was about moves, abilities, typings and so on and so forth. Last year was about giving you a solid foundation to build on to help you really nail the absolute basics. This year is more focused on a practical standpoint and it all revolves around momentum. For some it will come very naturally but others may find this concept very difficult to grasp. For now, we'll cover the basics. Does anybody know what momentum is?"

A few hands went up slowly but one clearly stood out, shooting faster and further up than any other. Williams motioned towards Bella, signalling her to answer which she gladly did. "An objects' momentum can be calculated by multiplying its mass by its velocity."

Williams cracked a smile. "Excellent work Miss Hughes... if this were a science class. Professor Khan would be very proud of you. However, we are interested in terms of battling, not in terms of physics. How about we ask one of the less intelligent members of the class what a normal person might define momentum as? How about Murphy?"

"Uh..." Alex said, still trying to get over the look on Bella's face when she'd been wrong. Priceless. Now he wracked his brains, searching for where he'd heard the word momentum before. "Well it's... you know it's... how hard it is to stop something."

"Well, well, well Murphy, that's the correct answer. Perhaps there is a reason you're in this class."

"I think you'll find that the reason I'm in this set is because of the way the school ranking system works." Alex replied, doing his best Bella impression. As usual she wasn't impressed.

"I am well aware of how the ranking system works given that I was the one who invented it." Williams smirked. "I'm also the one who has the final say on what sets everyone is put into. I thought your place was here not because of your ranking, more to do with that fact that I wanted someone I could count on to get the answers wrong as an example to everyone else. Perhaps you can prove me wrong Murphy."

Just as Williams finished his sentence, the door swung open, causing all heads to immediately turn. A boy who Alex had never seen before walked in. He was short but well built and had extremely messy black hair and dull green eyes. He wore a waistcoat unlike most but his recognisable yellow tie gave away that he was part of Uxie house. A slight smirk began to emerge on his face, probably enjoying the attention he was getting.

"Sorry I'm late, I got a little lost." he said, announcing it as though it were a matter of upmost importance.

"Well at least you made it." Williams replied. Alex could hardly believe it. When he'd been late to class he'd been given detention immediately and somehow Williams had glossed over it like it was nothing. "Since you're new why don't you introduce yourself and give us a little background information."

"Sure." the newcomer said. "I'm Cooper McDonald and I just transferred here from Full Moon Academy. Back there I made a bit of a name for myself by being the absolute unrivalled best. That was one of my reasons for wanting to move to a better, more challenging school."

"I think you'll find that New Moon Academy can certainly offer you everything that our Full Moon rivals could not." Williams said. "I do believe there is a seat with your name on it at the back next to Mr King."

Cooper walked to the only available seat next to Edward and set down his bag before unpacking it. Edward did not look pleased to be forced to sit next to this complete stranger. Alex had a feeling they weren't going to get along.

"Anyways, where was I?" Williams continued. "Ah yes, Murphy had just finished explaining to us what momentum is. As I had been saying, throughout this year, you will learn the applications of momentum in battles. You will learn about offensive momentum and you most importantly, you'll learn how to gain and hold on to momentum. Over the course of this year, you'll learn that momentum is the key to winning most battles."

For the next two hours Williams lectured the class on the subject. Nobody else spoke. The students simply just made notes, not even bothering to ask any questions as they were always brushed away. Professor Williams may not have been Alex's favourite teacher but he knew what he was doing. Even Alex had been able to somewhat grasp what was supposed to be very difficult. Then again, maybe that was due to the fact that he'd learned some of what was being taught through experience. After all, gaining momentum in battle was something that he often did in order to win.

Thankfully, the harsh ring of the bell let the class free before Williams had any time to set any homework. The noise caused a slight ruckus as everyone rushed for the door, eager to escape and feel fresh air on the faces once again. Alex however was forced to hang around, waiting for his other friends. Bella was packing her notes away carefully, separating them into different folders which appeared to be sorted and colour coded. Before Alex could ponder for too long about what they could possibly be, a distraction at the back of the room occurred.

"Listen up rookie, you may have been the best at Full Moon but here, you're average at best." Edward shrugged. He was engaged in some kind of debate with the newcomer, Cooper.

"I know full well that this school is greatly superior to my own." Cooper said like he was in total control of the situation. "That's why I moved here. I'm not destined for a run of the mill school. This is the best school in Sinnoh and so it's only fitting that I should go here."

"We'll see about that." Edward smirked. "I can think of a handful of people here who you could only dream of beating. When practical lessons happen, you'll learn the hard way."

"Oh I'll learn alright. Learn how it feels to wipe that stupid smirk off your face."

"I'll make you eat those words." Edward's jaw clenched. He looked ready for a fight.

"Maybe sometime soon Eddie." Cooper laughed. "Wait until I've settled in and then I'll show you what it feels like to cry." Then, he swung his bag over his shoulder and left the room. Edward was furious.

"There is only room for one overly cocky arrogant prick at this school - and that's me!"

Well I finally got my act together and picked up some writing again. Summer was very productive in the form of ideas but my lack of updates hasn't really been good enough. Apologies for that but even so I hope you enjoyed (if you did, click vote and leave a comment) and I really hope I can get the next chapter out sooner rather than later.