Hello, mother. How are you? I called you today because I'll be participating in the Master Class, where if I win I'll become Kalos Queen. I know that I haven't done any of the things you've planned for me, and I know that you probably don't believe I've done anything during my journey that is worth being proud of, but I'm here to contradict that. Petilil and Meowstic have evolved, and so have I. I want you to see our evolved forms onstage in the Master Class in Kiloude City. -Millie.

To think that I didn't have the courage to call her....

Bothered me, so this is the day I stand before the computer to speak to my mother for the first time in almost a year. "Hello?"

Before my mother's broad and serious face even appears on the screen I check the hand that's finger turned the machine on to see if I'm quivering like I am inside, and I find with little surprise that it's not. If I can face my mother, then I have no worries!

"Hello?" I hear my mother's voice again, growing impatient this time. I pull my eyes away from my empty hand to face her, her deep purple eyes meeting mine. We look so similar to most, but to me we don't have a single thing in common. Even people that were made to look exactly the same, whether it be grunts of Team Flare, twins, or even a mother and her daughter, can be completely opposite to each other.

"Hello, mother." Lilligant and Meowstic are eating with Lennie at the moment, so here I stand to speak with my mother alone.

I then bow as if I'm an official behind a counter speaking to a regular customer, and I begin to feel bad at the fact that our relationship has long lost its affection. "I would like to request that you attend the Master Class Showcase in Kiloude City."

"I see." I don't like the way our relationship is, but my entire journey has circulated around getting my mother to be proud of me for what I do now, not for what she's always wanted me to do.

"I'm hoping that you attend. If I win, I will take the role as Kalos Queen, the Pokemon Performer's equivalent to the Champion."

"Right." She scoffs at me, then closes her eyes with a sigh."I will be there."

Really? That's the only thing that unnerves me. After all there's only one person that could ever make me nervous during a performance. When I'm doing it for her. But I have to be able to do it for everyone, just like Aria.

"Thank you." I bow once more before saying goodbye and turning off the machine. I almost fall to my knees after the screen goes black, but I quickly regain my composure. We still have time, and I've already gotten the hang of our performance, so all I have to do now is walk towards the Master Class with my head held high. I can't give up now.

"Millie!" Right when I'm reviewing our performance with Lilligant and Meowstic, Lennie bursts outside to join us, as if the events of last week had faded from her memory.

"Look!"

I look up from the ground I've been drawing on, and the further my eyes get away from the more messy my circle begins to look.

Lennie's hair is shorter, but seeing as how it wasn't much longer than mine to begin with lightens some of my shock. In her hair is a pretty bluebell flower, and in a tuft of Braixen's ear fur is a little sunflower.

The both of them are bright as the sun overhead. Their smiles bring the same to me and my Pokemon, and I feel as if just being near these two can compel me to my very best to keep those smiles.

"I was thinking a lot about what you said." Lennie's voice is sweet, and for once it doesn't sound as if she's letting all her regrets cave into her. I wish my own transformation happened that fast.

"So you didn't forget?"

"Of course not! You really inspired me, Millie."

Millie... So many people by now have heard my name, and so many say that I've encouraged them, but most were performers. Could that mean...

"So I wanted to show you a performance I've been working on."

"Yeah?" I knew it! I don't know why, but there's a tingly feeling taking over my whole body, my heart slowing a bit, putting pressure on my chest. Could it be that I've always felt that Lennie would make a good performer?

"Braixen?" The both of them have definitely brightened. They're much different from the sad, gloomy things they were when I met them again.

"Braixen!" Braixen sings her name, tossing up her wooden stick, with bright orange flames dancing on the tip. It lands on her head, something I remember from one of Aria's old exhibition performances.

Braixen balances the stick until Lennie takes it, and the two begin to dance together. It's cute, although it looks a bit wonky. In a Showcase, people would definitely notice how off the two seem, and if music were playing along with them, their individual movements and pacing would suggest that they'd been listening to see completely different songs.

"Done!" Lennie and her Braixen, paw in hand, hand in paw, bow as if they were on a stage.

"Lilligant?"

"Mrow?"

Lilligant and Meowstic exchange worried glances, and Lennie's sparkling eyes are fixed on me, waiting to shine like stars once I tell her every perfect detail.

"May I offer some constructive criticism first?"

"Yes!" They both vigorously nod, and at that moment my Pokemon pull Braixen to the side and begin it Pokemon chatter in a manner that seems to be saying,"That wasn't bad, but this is how you can make it better."

Since my Pokemon already have more than an inkling of what I've been thinking, it's time to follow suit. After all, honesty in any friendship is just, right? Is a dishonest friend even a friend?

Of course! Still as contradictory as ever, I resist the urge to yell aloud at my inner thoughts. I grab Lennie's hand and give her an honest look.

She draws back a bit, a nervous smile wrinkling her lips until it her mouth opens to speak, but once I start they're sealed shut.

"You and your Braixen should be very close, and so your performances should always reflect that. You have to not only put your all into every movement, every lift of your fingers, but you have to do it as one. After all, your performances should show all your experience and all that you've learned, and I'm sure that Braixen has been with you long enough to feel all those things with you."

Why am I speaking so passionately? To anyone else watching or listening in, they'd probably just think that I have an unhealthy obsession, but performing is my lifestyle, the way I myself have chose to live.

Aria is who she is because of all she's gone through in her own life, be it when she was training with Palermo to when she failed on the stage many times. Sometimes I ask myself that if a documentary were ever made of me, what would be in it? My improvement. My ups and downs.

"Well, I hear what you're saying, but...." Even after my long speech I've found that I haven't helped in making her performance any better, only telling her how to be a performer.

"Well, all it takes is practice with your Pokemon." Pokemon. I spend so much time absorbed in my own life that I hardly ever take the time to notice things in other people's. The only Pokemon Lennie has is her Braixen, but the more I think about it, and when I bring Aria into mind, having just Braixen should be fine.

After all, I've gotten so Mich accomplished with just Lilligant and Meowstic alone. I truly am glad where I stand with them. All any performer has to do is be happy, and that's what really spreads.

"Could you...." Lennie begins, nervously folding her fingers.

"Oh! Of course." Assuming she wants me to leave and let her handle things solo, I beckon my Pokemon with a hand before taking a few steps back.

"Where are you going?"

"Huh?"

Lennie turns red in an instant, bumping her index fingers together before opening her mouth to speak, only to stutter to a point where I have no clue of what she's trying to say. "I wanted you to perform with me?"

She finally speaks clearly, and her request makes my heartbeat double in speed.

"Why didn't you say so, then?"

"Lil!"

We've never performed with another performer before! Funny. I've already begun to view Lennie that way. Then again, a performer isn't defined by their amount of Princess Keys, just like a Pokemon Trainer with zero badges.

"I wasn't sure if you'd want to do anything with a noob like me." She seems embarrassed by her own words, and having been almost entirely the same way, I go on to ensure her that it's not an issue.

"Great!" Immediately lit up by my approval, Lennie turns to her Braixen before pointing to my Pokemon after exchanging some excited whispers.

"Okay, Lilligant and Meowstic." I hardly need to advise them, since it's almost as if they've become veterans. Not overnight, but each time we stepped on stage, whenever our progress was shown in that way.

"Ready?"

But how do we go about this? Without even knowing what I'm supposed to do, I take Lennie's offered hand without hesitation. I bet I'll have to do this in the Master Class. Improvising a performance.

"Mrow!" Meowstic hops on Lilligant, neatly perched on her flower crown.

Lilligant bravely takes Braixen's paw, not at all intimidated by the Firetype. "Lilligant."

I'm so close to Lennie that I can feel her heart beating extremely fast, so I tell her to relax a bit. I'm glad I do, because now our dance will flow much better.

"How about we get the Pokemon involved a bit more?" I suggest, my gaze landing on the darkening sky above our heads. The orange has mixed into purple, ams everything looks like a painting.

Without another thought I spin around, pulling Lennie closer to me with my gaze falling on Lilligant. "Seed Bomb!"

"Lil!" Lilligant spins with a delightful chirp, taking Braixen by surprise.

Large brown seeds land around our feet, almost as big as our heads. "What do I do?!" Lennie clings onto me for dear life, as if we're high in the sky and I'm the only thing that can keep her from falling.

I lightly grab her hand and pull it away from my shoulder. "Go with the flow," I purr, twirling away to dance with Lilligant.

Lilligant takes my hands, and Meowstic clutches my pigtails as we waltz around. Braixen walks over to Lennie, holding out her stick.

Lennie looks worried for a moment, and then her eyes brim with excitement. "Braixen!" She calls to her trusted partner.

Braixen's bushy tail flares up in surprise at her owner's sudden change in tone. "Braixen?"

Lennie holds out her arm, extending it to the night sky. "Your stick!"

"Braixen!" Braixen, having picked up on the idea, does a flip and lands beside me after tossing her stick over to Lennie with a flick of the wrist.

As soon as it reaches Lennie's grasp the tip of the stick lights up again with a small orange flame, the fire on it burning intensely, creating a glowing light.

Lennie spins the stick and runs around in a circle, the side with the flame faced towards the ground, igniting the seeds with the sound of matches being lit.

"Whoo!" I exclaim as the seed shoot into the air, bright colors blooming from each as they pop and spread to stay suspended.

"It's as if a beautiful yet dull painting has been colored over with colorful crayons," I gasp just as tiny shimmering stars appear and take their seats to watch the show.

"It's amazing!" Lennie and her Braixen stand beside me and my Pokemon, who have stopped dancing to marvel at the magical sight before us.

"This isn't the first time I've seen fireworks," Lennie begins,"but it never ceases to amaze me."

"Oh, really?"Something about fireworks are really magical. "Maybe it's because they all look like blooming flowers, and I remember watching them as a girl and wanting to be just like them. Free."

At first I expect Lennie to think weird of me, but when I glance over at her her smile is the brightest I've ever seen."Really? Then I guess we have that in common. "

A small giggle escapes me, and I blush after realizing it. I cover my mouth to stop myself, but I just can't! "So, these fire flowers really inspired you? Oh!" Did I just call fireworks fire flowers?

But Lennie doesn't seem to mind. She just keeps on smiling, Braixen's paw tight in her hand. "Well, sort of."

"Sort of?" As Lilligant and Meowstic fight over my left hand, Lennie slowly grabs my other one until all of us are linked.

"Not as much as you inspired me."

Chapter 23.... End! :)