Cynthia looked out of her window at the always gorgeous view. Her desk faced the ocean, showing her the soft sandy beaches, the river that flowed by the forest as well as the Azelf dorm in the distance. In the autumn, the leaves of the forest turned auburn, contrasting with the brilliant glistening blue of the sea, giving everything a faint brown feel to it. It looked best in the sunset; with a slight orange glow laid over the landscape, Cynthia never got bored of looking at it.

She gazed out towards the Azelf dorm, thinking back to yesterday when a very peculiar commotion had occurred. The young prospect Alex Murphy had come running over the bridge, his arm severely injured before he was taken to Nurse Joy with the help of his friends and Brock. She thought about the incident very carefully. According to Brock, the poor boy had been assaulted by a Garchomp and it was a miracle that he had survived. Brock did have a tendency to over exaggerate stories, in particular his own heroism and he was always dropping awful pick-up lines so Cynthia wasn't sure if it was entirely accurate. In any case, she'd soon find out.

"Bzzt - Headmistress, are you ready for Murphy?" came a gurgled voice from her personal intercom. It was the nervous voice of Jenkins, her secretary.

"Send him in." She replied. The door to the left of her desk slid open and a scruffy looking student wearing a cast on his left arm stepped in. "Hello Alex."

"Um, hey Miss." Alex Murphy said as he shuffled over to her desk. Cynthia loved the first time she met a student face to face alone. They were always so nervous that they'd say something wrong, treating her as some kind of violent alien species that was ready to attack whenever they made a mistake.

"C'mon Alex, settle down a little, have a seat." She smiled. "Show me some of that feistiness that Professor Williams is always telling me about."

"Williams tells you about me?" Alex grinned back at her as he sat down, relaxing immediately.

"Oh yes." Cynthia said. "Don't tell him I told you, but he thinks you have real potential and considers you to be an excellent battler." She saw Alex's smile widen and his usual confidence that he carried around with him return. Being Headmistress for almost ten years now had taught her a lot about how to interact with students and as unpredictable as Alex was, he appeared no different to the countless others she'd called to her office before, even if she was actually telling the truth to him.

"I won't say a word." He replied. After a moment of silence, he continued."So, why am I here?"

"I think you're clever enough to work that out for yourself. This is about your injury."

"Oh right. Course." Alex said as he looked at his cast. Cynthia detected a hint of sadness in those youthful eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Cynthia asked brightly, attempting to cheer him up a bit. The attack had clearly had some emotional impact on him.

"Good."

"Glad to hear it." Cynthia nodded, not fully believing him, but deciding it would be best to not question him further. "If you don't mind me asking, because you've obviously answered this a million times already with you being so popular and all, what exactly happened?"

"Essentially, me and Lenny went out to catch Pokémon and I caught a Garchomp. Then we battled with our new Pokémon and Garchomp would hardly listen to me before it completely lost control and attacked me."

"Oh, I know the feeling." Cynthia said. She reached for a Pokéball and threw it behind her so that Alex could see its contents. After the usual flash of light, her own Garchomp was revealed, wearing a rugged smile. "I remember the hard work and dedication of raising my own Garchomp. The moment my Gabite evolved, I knew it wouldn't be an easy task but together, we pulled through the hard times, didn't we?"

"Chomp." Garchomp nodded. Every word she spoke was true. Raising a powerful Dragon was no easy task, especially for someone so young.

"But did you ever get attacked by your own Pokémon?" Alex asked. He had a pretty good point. Maybe he was much more perceptive and intelligent than Williams let on.

"Well, no but the two cases are different." Cynthia pointed out. "I trained my Garchomp from an egg whereas you caught yours when it was already a Garchomp. Capturing a Pokémon sometimes isn't enough if it's a very strong Pokémon. You have to earn its respect and prove that you are a worthy trainer."

"I am worthy."

"Then don't be disheartened. Keep trying with your Garchomp and you'll see progress and it'll be the most satisfying feeling in the world."

"Ok then." Alex nodded. "Thanks Miss."

"Don't mention it." She smiled. "I'm just doing my job. You can go now." She gestured to the door. Just as Alex was about to leave she added "Look out for a special announcement soon, I think you'll like it very much."

*

Alex didn't realise just how much he'd like it, until the announcement came.

He'd been relaxing in his bed, allowing his mind to roam completely free, his thoughts whirring around his brain randomly. He didn't even know what half his thoughts were about. Subconsciously, he fiddled with his annoying cast. He knew that the wound had healed, he could feel it but Nurse Joy insisted that he keep it on for another two weeks.

"Alex, I'm not gonna write all of this essay for you." Lenny sighed. "One day, you'll have to give some kind of contribution."

"I can't work." He said bluntly. "My arm's hurt."

"What did you say yesterday when you went out to train?" Lenny quizzed him. Alex knew he'd lost this battle.

"It was fine." Alex grumbled.

"So if you're fine to train your Pokémon, you're fine to help write this."

"Alright, Lenny! I'll try and help out." Alex begrudgingly said, getting slowly out of bed and wandering over to Lenny's desk. His neat operation centred around one piece of paper that had around half a page written up regarding Volt-Turn teams. Alex had never used the strategy so he hadn't really bothered to pay much attention.

"I've already finished the positives because that's easy." Lenny said. "But the negatives I could do with some help on. Or rather, Williams wouldn't expect you to know them."

"Lenny, you know I have no idea." Alex sighed.

"But what if you come up against this in the upcoming tournament?" Lenny asked. "How are you going to know how to deal with it?"

"What tournament?"

"Oh that's right, you've been in bed all day and you haven't checked the notice board!" Lenny laughed. "Cynthia's announced a tournament for any first year that wants to sign up."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Alex grinned. All of a sudden, he was completely buzzing with excitement. He'd have to train extra hard for this, thinking of how to counter his opponents... man, just thinking about competing for the title of number one in the year was getting him pumped up.

"Of course, you won't be able to compete with your arm." Lenny smirked.

"They can try and stop me!" Alex scoffed. Even if Brock gave him a month's worth of detentions, he was going to take part in, and win this tournament. A knock on the door turned both the boys heads. That was strange, nobody ever knocked on their door.

"Erm, who is it?" Lenny called out, unsure what to make of the interesting and unknown scenario.

"It's Megan. Megan Carter." came the reply. Lenny glanced over at Alex and shrugged his shoulders.

"Uh, come in, I guess." Alex said. The door nudged open and Megan's head appeared, her long fiery hair dangling down at an angle as her warm brown eyes met Alex's.

"Hey Alex can I talk to you outside for a moment?" She asked. "Privately." She added, glancing at Lenny.

"Megan, we're in the middle of an essay!" Lenny sighed.

"Hmm, let me think..." Alex said, scratching his chin. "How important is it?"

"Extremely." Megan replied.

"You heard that Lenny? This is extremely important, I really have to go for just one second." As quickly as he could, Alex dashed out of the room, ushering Megan out as well, slamming the door behind him before Lenny could protest. "Thanks for that, Lenny was trying to get me to help do my homework, you're a lifesaver."

"No problem, I guess." She said. Megan was struggling to make eye contact and was fiddling with her hair almost uncontrollably. Maybe she actually did have something on her mind.

"Right, you wanted to say something?"

"Yeah, yeah, course." She took a quick breath. "So, what I was going to say was, well really I was gonna ask you something but it's just kinda difficult to put to words..."

"Don't worry, take your time." Alex said, cutting her off. He could've let her go on for hours, trying to form a sentence. "It's not like I have anything to do right now."

"Ok, you know what? It's easier, I think, maybe, possibly to just go on and say it as it is without beating around the bush..."

As Megan tailed off onto some kind of rant about beating bushes, Alex thought back to the tournament. Who would he battle in the first round? Maybe he'd face off against Lenny! He'd need to prepare a lot for his Chinchou if that was the case. But then again, he could rematch Bella and she'd be determined to not lose to him twice. Just as he could feel the excitement coursing through his body, he realised that Megan was staring at him expectantly.

"So?" She smiled sheepishly.

"Um..." Alex mumbled. He'd got so caught up in his excitement, he'd completely blanked out his conversation with Megan. "Could you maybe repeat the question?"

"Weren't you listening?" She said with a touch of sadness in her tone. Immediately, Alex knew that maybe he'd underestimated how important this was to Megan.

"Sorry, I just zoned out for a minute." He admitted. Thankfully, she didn't seem too hurt.

"That's fine." Megan said. "You paying attention now though?"

"Hundred percent."

"Ok, good. So what I said was -"

"Alex, how long is that gonna take?!" Lenny shouted from within their room.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Megan cried. "All I wanted was to ask if you wanted go see a movie or something! Is that so difficult?!" The two went completely silent for a moment. Megan, embarrassed at her outburst, had her hands over her mouth and her face had gone the colour of her hair.

"You mean, like a date?" Alex asked. He hadn't given any girl so much as a second glance since his arrival at New Moon Island. He'd been way too engrossed in trying to train his Pokémon and be the best at the school that he hadn't had the time to even think about relationships and girls.

"If you want." Megan said, her voice barely audible and her cheeks still burning like fire.

"You know what," Alex said, thinking the whole thing through. Now that he thought about it, Megan was a pretty girl who was intelligent and shared a fair amount in common with Alex. If she liked him, he had no reason to say no. "That actually sounds great."

"Really?" Megan said, her eyes lighting up.

"Yeah," Alex grinned, "But where are we going to go and watch a movie? We're on a remote island."

"There's a cinema in town."

"There's a town?" Alex said, shocked to learn after over two months of living on the island that there was an entire town he'd never seen or heard of.

"Of course there's a town!" She laughed. "It's where everybody goes to do any kind of shopping or to be honest, do anything that a teenager would normally do if they weren't stranded on an island."

"That does make sense." He nodded. "Alright, well in all seriousness, I should at least try and help Lenny out. Why don't you text me the time and meeting place?"

"Ok then." She said before Alex turned to go back into his room. Lenny was watching the door impatiently when he returned.

"What was that about then?" He asked.

"Lenny my friend," Alex grinned, "I just got a date!"

"Sometimes life just isn't fair..."Lenny muttered to himself, sighing. Alex could've felt sorry for his friend but right now he had too much on his mind. An epic tournament to win and now he had a date coming up. Life at New Moon Academy was pretty awesome at the moment. So much so that Alex had completely forgotten about the cast on his arm.