Chapter 2 – My Friend, The Training Freak
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Here is the first of the new chapters from a different character's POV! Let me know what you think!

Chapter 2 – My Friend, The Training Freak

POV Lara Ketchum - 2 Weeks Later

"I made these for you all!" Finn says with a big goofy grin on his face as he hands us each a binder. 

It was after school and Finn had gathered us at the school field with a "Special Surprise" as he called it. 

Jess, Courtney, Kimmy, and I looked at each other before looking back at Finn, confusion clear in our eyes.

Jessica Holren was slightly taller than the rest of us at 4'2" and she had shoulder-length forest green hair with sparkling blue eyes. She tended to wear long-sleeve hoodies and jeans most of the time, and she was typically a very quiet person. This had been changing a bit over the weeks as we got closer to her and brought her more out of her shell. 

Spoiler

Jessica Holren - The image is her in a couple of years

https://wallpaperforu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/anime-wallpaper-20052818504791280x1280.jpg

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Courtney Spindle was a short girl of about 3'8" and had long brunette hair with dark brown, almost amber, eyes. She wore rimless glasses and was the smartest girl in our grade. If we were struggling with something in class, chances were that she knew about it and could teach us. 

Spoiler

Courtney Spindle - The image is her in a couple of years

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6b/79/79/6b7979840bfc2a3da0925c66b9c407da.jpg

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Lastly, Kimmy McMillon was a fiery redhead with an even more fiery personality. She was the same height as me at 4' and had emerald green eyes with long, wavy, red hair that fell to the middle of her back. She was the daughter of a business tycoon and a successful supermodel. Kimmy was often prim and proper, but she took no crap from anyone. She also had the most vicious tongue of any girl I have ever met, and she was not above making her enemies cry with her words.

Spoiler

Kimberly McMillon - The image is her in a couple of years

https://i.pinimg.com/550x/e3/e8/49/e3e8496a437f72b807648efae14fdde0.jpg

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Seeing Finn just smile at us, we gave up on waiting for him to give us a hint and inspected the binders he gave us. 

'Did he want us to study together or something?' I wonder as I look down at the cover.

It had a printed picture of an artistically drawn Eevee on it. I notice that the others had the same, but for their Pokemon: Machop for Jessica, Chansey for Courtney, and Vulpix for Kimmy.

I open the thin, light-blue binder I was given - My favorite color, by the way - and see several sheets of paper with hand-drawn graphs, Pokemon move directions, and a list of suggested TMs. 

I flip back to the first sheet which had the words, "Eevee Training Guide - By Finn Cambridge" written at the top in nice, clear handwriting. 

I stare back at Finn in shock, and my surprise seems to be shared by the rest of the girls surrounding me. 

Finn's cheeks redden and he looks away while scratching his head. 

"I had a lot of fun putting Pyra's together...So I thought I would make them for my friends as well..." He mumbles out.

"You...made these for us?" Jess asks, hugging her royal blue binder to herself as tears start gathering in the corner of her eyes.

"This must have taken hours of work..." Cortney says with a concerned frown as she continues to read through her fuchsia-colored binder.

"Yeah," Finn says with a sheepish smile, "I thought we could all train together if you girls wanted? I know our first school tournament isn't for a couple of years, and I know that no one expects much from us in the first year...But I want us to win. I know we can! ...So I put these together for each of you..." He trails off before waving his hands frantically as he continues to explain.

"Ah! But you don't have to use them if you don't want! I am not trying to force you or anything!"

We girls share a look once again, before nodding. I am the first to step forward and hug him. The rest quickly followed, with me having to pull the reluctant Jess in with us in the end. 

"Thank you, Finn. I can see you put a lot of hard work into this." I say, smiling and feeling a fuzzy sensation in my chest.

Finn can be a bit odd sometimes, but he can also be so thoughtful!

"Shall we sit down and have Finn explain it?" Kimmy asks, pulling away from the hug and opening her red binder. 

"Totally!" Me and the two remaining girls cheer. 

We had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into...

* | * | *

Finn was amazing. 

I couldn't believe the details he went into when planning these training guides!

From diet, to exercise, to move repetition to build endurance, to tactics on how to use moves effectively, Finn had planned for so many different possibilities!

...I was still proud of the drawing of Pikachu I did for my dad a few days ago, and Finn goes and does this! 

He sat with us all patiently and went through the binders, pointing out specific things for us to work on and his thoughts as to why they were important. 

Courtney caught on quickly, but the rest of us were confused over the complexity of it all. Plus we had no idea how to interpret the graphs he drew. Where did he even learn all this from?

It took well over an hour for us to have some semblance of understanding and by that time we all felt like our brains were going to explode. 

Seeing this, Finn ended the little group get together and asked if we wanted to meet up twice a week to train with him. We all agreed, of course. How could we not after seeing all the effort he put into these guides?

After saying goodbye to everyone, Finn and I walked home together like usual. On the way, he went on and on about the guides and the documentaries and videos he watched to create them. 

If I am being honest, I am not really interested in training very much, but when he speaks about it...It's like his whole being lights up and I can't help smiling with him. I haven't ever seen him like this and I quite enjoy it, for some reason.

Again, I experience a fuzzy feeling in my chest and end up having a blast just listening to him. 

When we get to our street, I ask him to come over to play for a bit, but he says he is going to do some training with Pyra. 

Not really wanting to go home and do homework, I offer to join him and he sends me a brilliant smile.

* | * | *

"Tell me again *Pant* why do we need to *Pant* do endurance training *Pant* with our Pokemon?" I whine as I finish my third lap around the flat field where Finn does his training with Pyra. My hands are on my knees as I wheeze my lungs out.

Pyra and Grace pass us once again, completing their 11th lap in the time it took us to do 3. Grace seems to be having fun running, however, so I won't tell her to stop.  

Finn passes me a water bottle as he calls the last lap for our Pokemon. He then takes out two bowls from his bag and fills them with water from another water bottle as I flop down on the soft grass of the 50x50 ft field. 

"It's because, as trainers, we need to keep up with our Pokemon and be able to travel long distances in a single day." He explains, not even out of breath in the slightest as he joins me on the grass. "Better to start early than pay for it when we begin our Jr. League Route."

"Finn...We have 11 years before then..." I try to reason with him. 

"That means we only have 11 years to prepare!" He says with a laugh as he lays back fully on the ground. 

I give him a blank stare, but say nothing else as our Pokemon finish their last lap and move to drink from the water bowls. 

'Finn is really serious about training...' I think as I reach forward to pet Grace who is panting slightly from the exertion. 

She licks my hand with a cold tongue from the water and I giggle at the cute furball. Pyra finishes her water and walks up to Finn before flopping down beside him, making sure to keep her tail tip in the air so that the fire doesn't burn the field.

He told me that the reason they train here is because Pyra accidentally burnt down a few rose bushes in their backyard a week ago. His mom wasn't too thrilled about that, obviously, and asked him to train here instead. 

The field was a stretch of open space between the corner walls of our gated community. Finn's house was right next to this field so it worked out perfectly for him. 

"Alright, 5-minute break and then we will start on move repetitions!" Finn calls and Pyra answers him with a simple, "Char."

Grace tilts her head in confusion as I consult the binder Finn gave me and instruct her on the moves to do. We don't have a lot right now since our Pokemon are not very experienced and haven't learned any new moves yet. 

In fact, Grace only knows Tackle, Tail Whip, Growl, Sand Attack, and Helping Hand, though Finn says that she should be able to learn Covet as well if I train her for more physical attacks. 

"So how does this work? Do we just have them do the moves a couple of times and then let them rest?" I wonder aloud as I look at the binder in confusion. 

Finn chuckles, so I look up at him. 

"Lara, Lara, Lara." He chastises with a finger waggle, "We have them do one move until they can't any longer, then we move on to the others. After they are all spent we rest and repeat!" He finishes with a happy smile. 

'Yup...Finn is really serious about training...Perhaps he's a little too serious?' I wonder as I give him another blank stare.

* | * | *

"Grace, use Tackle!" I yell as I face Finn on one side of the field.

The sun is starting to set and we have been out here for over 4 hours now!

"Pyra, dodge and try to use the smokescreen just like we practiced!" Finn counters my command. 

I watch as Pyra dives to the side to avoid my Pokemon and then breathes out a hazy black smoke from her mouth. She then moves diagonally as she continues to use the move and starts to coat the field in it. 

The wide area Smokescreen is not perfect, with patches of viewable area in between, but it is enough to confuse my poor Eevee. 

Grace tries to follow my last command and continues her tackles, but she can't see anything around her and stops after a bit to look back at me.

'W-What do I do now?' I wonder as I bite my nail. Nothing she knows can clear this Smokescreen and it is only a matter of time before she is hit!

I consult the guide Finn made for me real quick, reviewing her known moves once again and trying to find one that might help.

'Ah! Let's go with that!'

"Grace, Come in front of me and use Tail Whip to clear the smoke around you!" I yell, following one of the "Alternative Uses" listed in the guide under the move.  

She does as I command and just in time too as Prya launched an ember right where she was previously. 

When she is in position, she spins around herself quickly and uses her tail to create a small air current. It is nothing that would clear the entire field, but it does clear space immediately around her. 

I consult the guide again and go with a recommendation Finn wrote near the bottom for when you are backed in a corner.

"Hold your position and prepare a Tackle for when you see Pyra. If you see fire, jump out of the way immediately!" I send out the command and watch with bated breath.

Luckily, the space Pyra chooses to attack from is one that the Smokescreen is splotchy in, so we can both see her as she takes in a deep breath to launch another Ember.

Grace doesn't give her a chance, however, and jumps forward with a powerful Tackle, knocking the unprepared Charmander on her back. 

"Don't give her time to get up! Do another one!" I cheer as Grace bounces back a short distance and charges up for another Tackle.

"Shit! I can't see!" Finn yells from the other side of the battlefield, "Pyra, try to dodge and use Scratch!"

Pyra rolls out of the way of the follow-up attack and slashes her clawed hands towards Grace's back. 

Grace manages to barely dodge out of the way of the Scatch by rolling deeper into the now dispersing Smokescreen. Pyra, on the other hand, has come completely out of it and tries her best to look through the haze and spot her opponent.

Without prompting, Grace leaps from the other side of the black smoke from where Pyra was looking and lands another solid Tackle onto the fire Pokemon's stomach, knocking her over once again. 

Pyra seems a bit stunned from the attack and that allows Grace to land one final Tackle that knocks the cute baby dragon out of the battle. 

"YES!!!!" I yell at the top of my voice, jumping up and down as Grace bounds back towards me. 

I catch her and spin her in my arms as I pet her head and body, giving her as much praise as I can. 

Finn rushes up to Pyra and sprays her mouth with a Potion, which quickly wakes the sleeping Pokemon up. 

After making sure she is alright and petting her scaled head with a smile, they walk up to us.

Grace hops down from my arms to nuzzle Pyra, who does the same to her, showing they are still friends and there are no hard feelings. 

"That was excellent! Great job, Lara!" He exclaims as he picks me up in a bear hug. 

We laugh for a while and discuss the battle as he lets me down. I smirk at him and throw him a peace sign. 

"Finally got you!" I announce proudly.

"You did! And that makes it...7-1." He snarks back.

I send him a play scowl and announce, "Soon to be 7-2! Let's do another round!"

"I think you kids should come home for dinner." A male voice calls from the side. 

I look over and see my Dad, Ash, standing there with my Mom, Serena, along with Finn's parents, Jessie and James. They all have big smiles on their faces as they walk up to us. 

"That was a great fight, Lara! I'm so proud of you." My Dad says as he pulls me in for a hug. "I can hardly believe you got your Pokemon 2 weeks ago! You must have been training really hard! Tell me all about it!"

He spins me in his arms and then returns to hugging me tightly when he puts me down, gushing over the battle he just witnessed and bombarding me with questions. My mom smacks him on the back and he lets go with a sheepish grin.

"Yes, that was very well done, Finn," Jessie says going over to ruffle his hair. "But you get no dessert tonight for cursing."

Finn pouts as we all laugh. 

"Come on kids, say goodnight to each other. I am not sure your Dad can wait until we get home to talk all about your battle and your training." My Mom says as she kisses my forehead and grabs my Dad's arm to pull him away.

James is busy hugging Finn and crying about how boys grow up so fast, so Jessie drags him off as well. 

We both laugh awkwardly at our parent's antics before facing each other smiling. 

"Same time tomorrow?" Finn asks me.

"You know it!" I answer. We smack our hands together in a high-five before saying goodnight and heading to our own houses. 

As I am walking back with Grace in my arms, I can't help but think that maybe training isn't so bad after all. I did manage to have a really good time with it and Grace improved so much after a few hours of work!

But one thing is for sure...

'Finn is 100% a training freak.' I think with a nod to myself as I look back over my shoulder at him. 'And that makes him really cute.'

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you did like it, please consider leaving a heart, rating, or review!

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