The typical Gym season in Kanto runs from February to October. February to coincide with the start of the school year. And October because the preliminaries of the Indigo Conference commences in November, running all throughout the month, culminating in the quarter finals, semi finals, and finals in the first half of December, all before the commencement of winter break and Golden Week.

So naturally, there was going to be quite a number of procrastinating trainers who would rush towards the various Gyms in October to get a last minute badge.

Truthfully, there was no need to rush, since a badge would be valid for two years. One could not expect a good showing from a newbie trainer who barely had eight months to train their Pokemon afterall.

But, there was this silly belief that trainers who managed to get into the conference in their first year were bound for success, so most people try to do so. Completely ignoring the fact that they would still have to go through the qualifiers anyway, unless they manage to secure at least three Star Badges.

It was during this October period that Nina started to regret joining the Cerulean Gym as an apprentice.

On most days, the Cerulean Gym would typically stop receiving challengers at around 3PM, closing their doors so that all the Pokemon and Trainers under their employ would have time to rest and train for their own benefit. This was in addition to the weekends where the Gym had its days off.

However, in order to cope with the sudden influx of people during the month, the Cerulean Sisters were forced to operate well into the evening and take one less day of break just to get through all the challenges thrown their way. Even their monthly exhibits had to be canceled for the month of October.

In fact, the Gym and all its trainers were so busy that they needed all hands on deck. So much so that they even called into Nina’s school and pressured them to allow Nina to take leave during those final two weeks just to have her help out.

Nina was honestly inclined to refuse, as is her right as a minor. The preceding few weeks where she only had to help out in the afternoon was hectic enough. She was afraid of how much worse it would be if she had to work the full day. That was, if the Gym didn’t offer to pay her a full wage for her time.

So in the end, she succumbed to her base greed and was now paying the price in sweat, tears and the occasional blood.

“Nina! Ashley’s about to wrap up in Arena 6. Ready up with refreshments and a replacement Starmie!”

Nina jumped towards the rack where they kept all the spare Pokemon in their respective Pokeballs and picked up the last Starmie they had. All the others were either in use or sent to the Pokemon Center.

In order to challenge a Gym Leader, a challenger needed to first go through a battle with a Gym Trainer and win. This was to ensure that anyone challenging a Gym had a minimal level of competency to not waste the Leader’s time. Because believe it or not, there were “tourists” who would go and challenge a Gym with untrained Pokemon just for “fun”.

Naturally, Gyms would cater to the challengers with different sets of teams to provide a suitable level of difficulty. This was another role that the preliminary Gym Trainers played, which was to assess the capabilities of the trainers they faced and gauge the difficulty level that their Gym Leader needed to set to ensure a fair challenge.

In the case of the Cerulean Gym, they employed about a dozen Gym Trainers at any given time. Usually these trainers would take turns, with no more than half a dozen actively battling under normal circumstances with the rest supporting. But in the hellish month of October, all dozen had to be enlisted to handle the immense surge they were facing.

This left only the Gym’s two apprentices available to handle the transfer of Pokemon, since general staff weren’t allowed to. It was one of those dumb technicalities that made no sense, because the longtime staff of the Gym were probably more qualified to handle Pokemon than two underaged apprentices.

“Careful, Nina. Ashley likes her coffee blazing hot. And tell her that we’ve run out of Nanab bread, so she’ll just have to deal with carrot cake instead,” instructed one of the staff.

Nina nodded and slotted the Pokeball in a little divot on the tray. The coffee was sealed tight, but she still gingerly picked up the tray of snacks and power walked her way over to Arena 6.

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The loud humming of pumps and the clanking of pipes could be heard as she took the staff corridor to her destination, her rubber boots squeaking with every step she took. It took a couple of falls for her to wise up and pull the trigger on the ugly looking footwear, much to the consternation of Beverly, her fellow apprentice.

“Eww… Why are they so… yellow?” Critiqued the eight year old girl. As a relative of the Cerulean Sisters, Beverly was very fashion conscious.

After she reached the break room attached to Arena 6, Nina used one hand to prop the tray against her chest and the other hand to push the doorknob. She arrived just in time for a sweaty looking Ashley to walk in with a stretch of her arms.

“Hey Ashley, I brought snacks for you.” The break room that Nina stepped into was quite impressive with an array of healing items lined up at the back for the quick restoration of Pokemon who were only mildly worn from battle.

Ashley’s eyes lit up at the sight of coffee. “Oh my gosh, you’re a lifesaver Nina,” she said as she swiped the styrofoam cup from the tray and began rubbing her palms against its warmth. “Fuck those bitches for deciding that we need to wear bikinis to battle.” She then made a bunch of whiny noises to mock her four bosses.

Nina simply laughed along awkwardly. “By the way, we’ve run out of Nanab bread. So Nanami got carrot cake for you instead.”

“Urgh…” groaned Ashley. “As if today couldn’t get any worse.” But the attractive looking Gym Trainer got over her irritation quickly enough and handed over a couple of Pokeballs to Nina.

“Sorry babe, I know that I only asked for a Starmie but Seaking is looking a little rough too. That Toxic really did a number on him. Could you grab me a replacement as well?”

Nina took in a sharp breath. “I’ll have a look but I’m pretty sure we’re out of Seaking. If so, can I grab you a veteran Goldeen instead? Who knows, maybe they might evolve mid battle. That’s always exciting.”

Ashley sighed. “Exciting for the normies maybe. Newly evolved Pokemon are always a bit awkward,” she paused, thinking through her options. “See if there’s any Seadra available, if not then yeah, an experienced Goldeen will do.”

Nina replied in affirmative then headed back to the logistics room where they were monitoring a feed of all the ongoing battles.

The first thing Nina did when she walked in was to head over to the transfer station where she deposited the two Pokeballs onto the empty slots and had them transferred directly to the Pokemon Centre where they would undergo emergency treatment.

Then she went on over to a supervising staff to report Ashley’s request for an additional Pokemon, enduring the rant of the irritated woman, before grabbing a newly recovered Seaking and headed back out. Only to come back shortly after and for the whole cycle to repeat itself all over again, much to her detriment.

***

“Nins, you should go eat. I’ll sub you for now.” Beverly said, as she placed a bento box in front of Nina who was slumped on a chair.

Beverly was a spitting image of her cousins in terms of looks and style; she had lightly tanned but well maintained skin, hair dyed a strawberry blonde, and seemed to largely have inherited the “bimbo genes” that run in the family. But despite everything, she was a really nice girl.

When Nina had first started working as a glorified Pokemon janitor in the Cerulean Gym, she had thought that Beverly would look down on her. But instead, the eight year old girl was just happy to have someone younger than her around for once. And since then, Beverly had become almost like a big sister to Nina, despite her adult brain.

“What about you Bev, have you eaten yet?”

The older girl nodded. “Yeah I just ate with Nanami. You should go eat with Tini and maybe feed Milotic too. I think everyone’s brains are too scrambled to care about that wuss.”

The second Milotic that the Gym used in their shows was apparently a non-battler that was entrusted to them by a friend. So that pampered little prince was completely idle during this busy period.

“Do you want me to feed Luna while I’m at it?” Luna was the name of Beverly’s Horsea, because she apparently found her on a full moon.

“Aww…” Beverly pulled her sweet junior in for a hug. “Will you, Nins? I was gonna do it a bit later, but if you could that’d be great!”

“Yeah, no worries.” Nina stood up while grabbing her bento, stopping in the pantry along the way to fill up three bowls with Pokechow and topped it off with some berries; Aspear for Milotic, the usual Bluk for her Dratini, and Sitrus and Oran for Kingdra who liked her food zesty.

The three species of Pokemon shared similar dietary requirements so they ate the same blend of Pokechow. Nina even called Masayuki just to make sure that it was fine for Dratini. In fact, during this busy period where the Cerulean Sisters were too busy to train her partner, Dratini was kept in the exhibit where the Kingdra line and the Milotics reside.

Nina never got over the novelty of walking into one of the Aquarium’s exhibits; there were lamps high above to regulate the temperature and imitate sunlight, and on the far side of the room was a one way mirror for guests of the aquarium to look in without disturbing the Pokemon.

Some Pokemon with narcissistic tendencies will often come close to the mirror and look at their own reflection, making it seem as if they were interacting with the humans on the other side.

“Hey Milotic, I got lunch for you,” greeted Nina. The lazy eel was lounging on the artificial stone floor and simply greeted Nina with a melodic tune without stirring. The girl gave a hapless smile and placed Milotic’s bowl of food right in front of him for his convenience.

Next, she struck a tuning fork and placed it in the water to summon the other Pokemon. “Tini! Luna! Lunchtime!” It didn’t take long for a whole bunch of Feebas and Horseas to surface alongside her partner.

“Sorry everyone, I only brought enough food for Tini and Luna. Someone else will be coming by with your food later.”

The Water Pokemon let out disappointed whines and dove back down to continue with what they were doing.

“Tiin!!!” Cried Dratini. The little blue eel leapt out of the water with a splash to come at his trainer

Nina giggled as her partner wrapped himself around her and gave her a little boop in the nose. “Tini… You’re going to get me all wet.”

“Tiin~”

“Hey Luna, Bev’s busy right now so I brought over your food instead. If I remember correctly, you like Oran and Sitrus right?”

“Seaa!” Responded the cheerful seahorse.

Nina sat down with the three Pokemon and enjoyed a brief moment of reprieve, completely oblivious to the fact that there were tourists on the other side of the glass who were swooning at the wholesome interaction between the petite little girl and all the cute Pokemon, cameras flashing relentlessly to capture the moment.