CHAPTER 117

“Grace!” Cecilia called out. “What do you think about this?”

Cecilia exited the bathroom in a beautiful cable-knit knee-length skirt, tights, and a fancy wool sweater that slightly covered her wrists. She was wearing make-up, too, including lip gloss, and her hair was styled into a chignon updo. Needless to say, she’d been getting ready for multiple hours at this point.

“You look gorgeous as always, but I told you that he won’t care,” I said. “Plus, we’re going to bake. Even with an apron, our clothes are going to get dirty.”

“I consider that a small price to pay if I can have a good first impression,” she said, stepping back into the bathroom.

“Dad said he’s coming around with the car soon,” I yelled. “His hotel is like fifteen minutes away, we should probably start going downstairs.”

“Five— two minutes! I’ve got to get everything right!”

As for myself, I still felt sad about dad making me cut my hair, but I did have to admit that hair that long was a hassle when I traveled. It got caught on everything, and it had reached down to my lower back. Now, it was a more appropriate shoulder length.

I liked my hair long, though.

I was just wearing normal day clothes, because we were going baking. I didn’t have that many fancy clothes to begin with, but I wasn’t about to get them stained. After dragging Cecilia out of the bathroom, we finally left and got on the elevator. It was cute to see her this nervous, but I couldn’t help but feel responsible. It had been one day since dad had arrived, and I had warned her that he wanted to talk one-on-one about something. That had sent her anxiety into overdrive, and no matter what I said to quench her worries, nothing worked. Meanwhile, my only goal today was to keep dad from embarrassing me or pulling any stupid tests with Cecilia. He was definitely the type to say something stupid, like, ‘prove that you’re good enough for my daughter’ or something.

At least I could be happy that I was sure he wouldn’t act like a greedy man. Some parents definitely would have tried sucking up because Cecilia was rich, even with the problems with her parents that he obviously knew about.

“There he is,” I declared, pointing toward the white car dad had rented. I turned to Cece. “Will you be alri— oh.”

She was her cool, calm, and collected self. Of course, that meant that she was incredibly nervous, but dad wouldn’t know that. Probably.

“Relax,” I smiled. “It’ll be fine.”

“I am perfectly fine,” she lied smoothly.

Dad honked, and we hurried into the back of the car.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” dad said as he looked into the rearview mirror. “Cecilia, it’s nice to finally meet you. Grace’s talked a lot about you.”

“It is my pleasure to meet you as well, Mr. Pastel,” she smoothly said. “I hope my baking today will be to your standards.”

“She’s a bit nervous,” I added. Of course, the hidden message behind those words was be easy on her.

“Call me Arthur,” dad said. “Mr. Pastel makes me feel old.”

“You are old,” I snarked.

“You wound me, daughter,” he laughed. “But I’ll let this one slide.”

After doing some small talk that I expertly steered toward topics Cecilia would be comfortable with, dad hit her with one I couldn’t possibly help with.

“So, Cecilia. Tell me a bit about yourself.”

“What is this, a job interview?” I sighed, looking out the window longingly. We were still only halfway to the Poffin House.

“Well, I…”

I frowned. “Cece?”

I knew it was a difficult, open-ended question, but I hadn’t expected her to not be able to answer.

“Why don’t you start small? A hobby you like besides Pokemon battling?”

“Oh. I enjoy… staying and traveling with my friends. But if I had to pick a hobby besides battling, I suppose it would be dancing.”

“Dancing? You never told me that!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“I haven’t done it since the Circuit started,” she explained. “My mother usually signed me up for these lessons. Dancing was the only one I enjoyed from all the ones I had.”

“Grace here is a terrible dancer,” dad said. I immediately turned red. “She has two left feet, and she can be clumsy as all hell. She had this phase where she blasted music in the entire apartment. You should have seen how many complaints I got from the neighbors. I used to catch her dancing alone in her room when I got home from work—”

“You are lucky you’re driving. I’m going to poison your poffins.”

I continued berating dad, but I stopped after noticing that Cece was smiling.

She was having fun! Her mask was slipping.

——

They… they were the same.

They were the same!

They were the same!!!!!

Arthur and Grace had the same mannerisms, the same humor, the same way of speaking. Cecilia watched in awe as the two bounced banter off of each other like they were friends, not father and daughter. She had never even thought this type of relationship was possible. She had always been so distant with her parents that they might as well have been three strangers living in the same property— and even that wasn’t always the case. The only times her and her father usually met were when he needed to scold her for messing up, when he needed to order her around, or the rare times when they ate dinner together as a family, although that had mostly been done in complete silence.

“Did you finish grounding the Pecha berries?” Grace asked. “I’m done beating this… sugar paste thing.”

“Just a second. This takes a lot more energy than I thought,” Arthur panted.

“What? That’s nothing! Just give it to Cece, she’s done with mixing the flour and baking powder.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re a kid full of energy. I’m forty-seven and I work in an office most of the time.”

“Berries are actually surprisingly tough,” Cecilia said. “I think you’d struggle, Grace.”

“What a complete betrayal. Just finish it up already, I want to eat!”

They were in an enormous room with around thirty cooking stations that anyone could use as long as they were booked ahead of time. The Poffin House was originally the first establishment to have invented the world-famous poffins, and they were still famous for making the best ones, but they had diversified their business by giving people the option to come to bake some too, so long as they paid an exorbitant price. She couldn’t really blame them, though. They had to make a profit somehow, and every single ingredient was already provided to them ahead of time. Cecilia stared at the recipe the Poffin House had issued them and nodded. They were doing all the steps right so far. There had also been an option to get into a poffin baking class, but Grace and Arthur had opted to do it alone, because the feeling of adventure would apparently be more fun.

How would it be more fun if the end result was bad? They were supposed to eat it afterward! Their mysterious ways of thinking still eluded Cecilia, but she was having a lot of fun.

“Grace, you forgot to pre-heat the oven!” Arthur panicked.

“That was your job! I told you I didn’t know how to do it, I’ve never used an oven before! All you ever taught me was using an Arceus damned microwave.”

“Come on, kiddo, it’s intuitive. Just twist the dial to one hundred and eighty.”

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“Oh. Wait, really?”

Cecilia laughed, not caring about the flour that was getting on her clothes. It looked like Grace’s father didn’t share her terrible obliviousness about the most obvious things, but that was a very charming side of her that she was glad she had.

“Grace can be very blind,” Cecilia smiled.

“Tell me about it. One time, when she was eight, she—”

“Dad.”

“—followed another man around a store for at least ten minutes. Gave me a real scare, let me tell you, but we weren’t even wearing the same colored clothes, or anything. When I got her back, did you know what she told me?”

“Dad, don’t you dare!”

“She told me that she didn’t even think about that. That’s it. There’s no punch line, or anything. She just started following another man around because she was spacing out. Luckily, he brought her to an employee, and we were reunited soon after, but—”

Arthur weaved to avoid a hit to the gut. He was surprisingly more agile than he looked, and Cecilia held her girlfriend back while she cackled in her ear.

“I bet you were dumb when you were a kid too!” Grace yelled.

“That’s the beauty of it, kiddo, you’ll never know because you weren’t there. Now let’s get these poffins done.”

“The next step is… in a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder— wait, I did that already. Um, Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until the batter is smooth…” Cecilia muttered. “Then we can add the ground berries to the mix and put the whole thing into molds.”

“This is going to be horrible for my sugar intake,” Arthur groaned.

——

“These taste so good!” Cecilia squealed as she chewed on the pink poffins.

“I told you we didn’t need any instructor!” Grace grinned. “Dad, eat another one.”

“Two are enough for me. When they said human poffins, I didn’t know the main difference was that they just added a boat-load of sugar.”

“You’re no fun,” she pouted. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom, I’ll be back in two minutes. Don’t be weird!”

“I’m not weird,” her dad said.

The blond girl ran off, leaving only Cecilia and Arthur. Cecilia felt a surge of nervousness as she finished up another poffin, but she decided not to hide it this time, despite how unnatural that felt. She felt vulnerable. Too vulnerable.

“So, Cecilia, I wanted to talk to you a little bit,” Arthur started. “If you don’t mind, of course.”

She definitely minded, but how could she even refuse? “Of course, go ahead.”

“It won’t be anything bad, don’t worry. I just have a favor to ask of you. This might seem selfish of me, but take care of Grace. She went and saved you in Mount Coronet, so I want you to make it so she never has to be in that much danger ever again. She’ll probably have other dangerous ideas during her career, and when she does, I want you to stop her. Please.”

That hadn’t been what Cecilia had expected at all. She thought that Arthur would attempt to trip her up with questions about Grace, or test her to see if she deserved his daughter.

“My daughter’s ambitious, perfectionist, and even though she likes to pretend she doesn’t have one, she does have an ego,” he continued. “She’s already promised me that she wouldn’t take any more needless risks, but I know it’ll be hard for her. I want you to be there to keep her from… relapsing.”

“I’ll do it,” Cecilia said, feeling more resolute than she ever had. “I’ll make sure she stays safe.”

Arthur smiled. “Thanks. I can tell you’re a good kid, and that you love her. Just make sure to find joy in other things too.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I asked you to tell me about yourself,” he specified. “You couldn’t say anything, like there was a lack of identity there. That dancing answer felt like a cop-out too, although I’m sure there was some truth to it. I’m rather straightforward, so I’ll tell you that overdependence on one person is never a good thing, dating or not.”

Cecilia stopped breathing for a few seconds. How astute.

Right now, the only person that made life worth living to her was Grace. Even if acknowledging that could be considered mean to her friends, she couldn’t deny the truth. Without her, Cecilia would be completely and utterly lost.

“I’ll… think about it.”

“Good, at least you didn’t brush me off,” he said. “Ah, she’s back.”

Grace ran back toward their cooking station, and she panted, leaning against her knees.

“You didn’t have to run back here,” Arthur said.

“Cece… did he tell you anything weird?” Grace huffed.

“No, he was very nice about everything,” she hurriedly replied. “We should take some of these back to the group.”

——

All things considered, Cece’s first meeting with dad had gone very well, and they seemed familiar enough with each other. He also greeted all of my friends when he drove us back to the Center. Denzel seemed very happy to see him, and he thanked him again for letting him stay at our apartment all those months ago. Even Pauline was polite, funnily enough. I almost expected her not to be, but maybe I had underestimated her. I didn’t stay long, though, and after giving away most of our poffins, Justin and I hopped on a bus to route 208. His gym battle was fast approaching, and I could tell he was getting nervous again. This was the first time he’d try out his new style of battling in a high-stakes battle, so I couldn’t blame him.

Plus, there was also his new rivalry with Pauline. The two had battled a few times before arriving at Hearthome, and the score was currently 3-2 in Pauline’s favor, but funnily enough, the coming gym battle would probably count as a battle too, and the winner would be the one who dealt with Fantina the easiest.

“So you’ve got the whole plan down, right?” I asked him. “No holes?”

“None that I can see,” he nodded.

“Okay, but things will go sideways, so don’t get too comfortable,” I warned him.

It was a plan he had made himself, and I had been very impressed. Plus, he had taken to my method of studying a gym leader’s Pokemon in-depth before the battle after I helped him transcribe it all on paper since he found it easier to focus and learn that way. It wouldn’t be as good as watching the videos themselves, but at least he’d know the moves she’d use, and I had spoken to him about some of the different tactics ghosts could employ.

“Rain Dance still needs a lot of work since I taught it to Lombre via TM, but it’s enough for Swift Swim to activate,” Justin remarked. “Growlithe managed to learn Agility and Crunch, and I’ve perfected the trick with Sandile to hit flying opponents.”

“Great! Can you show me Audino?”

He nodded and immediately released the normal type, which greeted us with a happy cry. The Pokemon was shorter than I thought it to be, but from my few interactions with him, he was an absolute sweetheart.

“We couldn’t get Wish down, but that’s fine.”

“Right, because he’s a pivot,” I nodded.

Audino was a pivot. A Pokemon that could be used to switch up the tempo of the battle and buy precious time while Justin could think of something on the fly if anything went wrong. The fact that he had the Regenerator ability and that he was a normal type meant that he was perfect for the role in this battle. Audino smiled and did a little twirl to celebrate, something that seemed to be his signature move.

“At least we’ve got Life Dew, although he came with the move. That means we can buy even more time if needed.”

“Don’t forget to win, though,” I grinned.

“Of course. I’ve got a plan. A path to victory.”

The words gave me goosebumps. Seeing Justin like this when I knew what he had been like before the battle against Gardenia was astonishing, but I was proud of how far he had come. All he needed to do was prove himself out there, and I was sure he’d succeed. I watched as he trained his team, and I used the occasion to train mine too, although I mostly spent the time perfecting the moves we had instead of teaching new ones. Only Larvitar was attempting to learn new ones, which were Rock Slide and Crunch, a natural progression from Smack Down and Bite. I was hoping that I’d be able to use her at the Solaceon tournament, which meant I needed to be a little harder on her than usual.

When Justin and I reached the Center again, Pauline had summoned us all to her room, which she was now sharing with Emilia since she wasn’t a trainer anymore.

“So what’s going on?” Denzel asked. He’d been the last one to arrive. “Another party?”

“No. Mommy’s coming to Hearthome to visit next week.”

“Another parent?” I said. “Your mom’s cool, right?”

“Of course she’s cool, she’s the coolest mom in the Arceus damned world,” she affirmed loudly. “She had promised to come see me, but something else must be going on. She wouldn’t say what it was over the phone, but I could tell.”

Cecilia’s expression turned somber. “Harvey and Clarence.”

“Yes,” Pauline nodded. “I think she’s coming to warn us about them.”

“Should we stay hidden, then?” Emilia asked, her face wrought with panic. “Something terrible could happen again!”

“We have Candice’s number… maybe we can ask for help?” I asked. “It’s probably a long shot, though.”

“No, don’t worry,” Pauline said, grabbing Emi’s hand. “If it was really that bad, mommy would have said something right away. I think there are just a lot of moving parts right now that we’ll have to deal with soon.”

“Plus, it’s me they’ll be after,” Cecilia said. “Potentially Grace.”

“But they might target your friends to make you do what they want,” Denzel added, causing her to wince. “What about Abel?”

“Still no signs of him anywhere, it’s like he disappeared from the region,” Cecilia said. “Could he be working with them again?”

“This is mostly a vibe-based thing, so it could be wrong,” Pauline started. “But from the short interaction I had with Abel, it seemed that he was the type that prioritized money over everything. He said that it was just business. Harvey and Clarence won’t be paying him anytime soon, that’s for sure.”

“So we won’t have to deal with him, at least,” Justin sighed in relief.

“Look, I know it sucks that she wouldn’t say anything on the phone, but the best thing we can do for now is wait for her to come and explain,” Pauline said. “And it’s not like they can come after us publicly. They’re under a lot more scrutiny than before. If they’re too blatant about it, they’ll be arrested, important CEO or not.”

I sighed. It would have been too easy if they had just given up. I clenched a fist and stared out the window.

Something was brewing.

That night, the Poketch Company contacted me, and our meeting would take place three days after Justin and Pauline’s gym battle. A few days later, the day was finally there. Not only would they be battling Fantina, but Chase would also be back. Unfortunately, we had gotten no signs from Louis, and we were getting very worried, but there was nothing we could do. I could only look forward.

My own battle would be very soon.