I don’t think I’ve ever felt this tired before, it’s easy to understand the reason for having just one class on Tuesdays. From our little group of three, Melody is the only one looking in a somewhat decent condition, while Flavio looks completely defeated.

“I didn’t think you were so weak”, says Melody while gazing at Flavio’s sorry condition and holding back a smile.

He looks at her, but our friend doesn’t even have the energy to answer, who would have known? Flavio here can keep quiet sometimes.

“Don’t be mean, I’m barely walking and I was amongst the top five in our group”, somehow I manage to answer, “You are the monster here, you got the top record amongst all hundred of us, getting an additional point for showing off”.

She smirks, “years of training my friend, following around a professional trainer does have its perks, besides, my brother’s routine is way harder than any of this”.

“Don’t let our teacher hear you say that, she seems like the kind to take it as a challenge”, I shiver thinking about our physical conditioning instructor.

While we were talking it didn’t take long to reach the cafeteria, I thought about going back to my room first and taking a shower, but hunger wins every time. We grab some food and take seat on what is turning to be our regular spot.

“Can’t you at least try to chew your food? I don’t understand how you can eat like that”, Melody says while I wolf down my lunch, it takes me a moment to answer.

“Sorry, my stomach can’t seem to wait, it’s grumbling at me and I just can’t control it”.

“Are you really referring to your stomach as a different entity?”, she looks at me perplexed and even Flavio turns his head towards me.

I refuse to answer and keep eating my lunch, and soon finish everything on the tray. I’m still hungry, I wonder if I can convince the lunch lady to give me seconds.

“Be right back”, and I leave in my quest for more food.

When I come back, there are some other people sitting in our spot talking to Melody and Flavio. Okay, hear me out, I’m not the most social person and being with at most two or three people around is my limit, now, our table is going to have seven people.

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“Gabe! Looks like we are not outcasts anymore”, for some reason Flavio seems to have recovered his usual level of energy.

I take a seat right next to Melody, by my other side some kid I don’t recognize by name, I’ve seen him in class but I have yet to hear his name.

“You all might have already heard his name, my friend here is Gabriel Santos”, Flavio speaks with his deep voice, “And Gabe, the one next to you is Hugo King, by his side is Lidia Betti, here next to me is Alicia Young and by her side is Max Anderson”.

They all greet me, I don’t see any hint of hostility or disdain from them, so I wave my hand and say hi.

“Lidia is the fourth and last legacy of our generation, she and her group decided to join us last night when you weren’t here”.

“I was keeping quiet about it while trying to meet some people”, says the white-haired girl who I now recognize as the one who tried to answer the question from Instructor Knight, “But yesterday after battling Melody, I felt we could get along”.

“And the others?”, I ask while glancing at the rest of the group.

“Lidia, Max and I are childhood friends, our parents work together sometimes”, Alicia Young’s voice is very soothing, and I feel myself staring at her, noticing the freckles on her face.

“We met Hugo during the entrance exam and quickly became friends upon earning our place at the academy”, Max says proudly, the only thing I know about the entrance exam is how hard it’s supposed to be.

Melody seems to be thinking something similar, as she decides to ask, “What was the exam like?”

“They weren’t anything out of the ordinary”, answers Hugo.

“At least the first two”, says Alicia after him.

“We had a written test for knowledge and a standard psychic evaluation”, explains Max.

Can’t just one of them tell the whole story? This many people speaking at the same time freak me out.

“Guys, let Max explain and you can add your own experience later”, it looks like Lidia is used to dealing with their group dynamic, as both Hugo and Alicia remain quiet and wait for Max to continue.

“So, first test was basic knowledge and the second one was a psychic evaluation”, says Max, “They were hard but not uncommon”.

“What is a psychic evaluation?”, I ask without realizing I was thinking out loud, they all seem to look at me as if wondering which planet I came from.

“I forget your knowledge is a bit off”, answers Flavio while the other group looks confused, “A psychic evaluation is done by using psychic type pokemon to test your personality, how an individual reacts upon certain conditions, the standard test is done by using illusions on the subjects and having them experience a determined setting”.

“Almost every kid is evaluated using this method before receiving a pokemon companion at ten”, whispers Melody next to me, and realization hits me, I don’t remember being tested.

“The third exam was brutal, there were more than a thousand of us, we were all taken to this location filled with combat fields, they gave us six pokeballs and one badge”, Max continues his explanation, “and then we were told to battle each other until reaching eight badges like some sort of battle royale”.

Well, that sounds fun, I wish to participate in something like that.

“It was quite the experience, facing other kids our age knowing that losing meant we could lose our chance to come here”, Hugo adds once Max is done with his explanation.

“Did any of you see that girl Irene there?”, I notice the anger in her voice, it seems like Melody won’t be forgetting the little redhead anytime soon.

The other group glances at each other, they seemed hesitant to talk about Irene, until Alicia decided to speak up.

“Irene is a monster”, she says, “We all had the same level of pokemon in our teams with an even distribution of types, yet Irene dominated every battle, her instructions decisive and precise, no hesitation at all”.

“I watched her win with elemental disadvantage”, adds Max, “it’s known how hard it is to overcome elemental weakness with low level pokemon, there is not enough versatility in their moves and they have yet to build any resistance, but she did it”.

As we were talking about her, I see the little redhead coming into the cafeteria, she is by herself, her clothes are clean and she shows no evidence of the torture we all went through in the morning, probably went to take shower before having lunch.

She notices I’m looking in her direction and our eyes meet, she no longer looks at me with disdain or anger, just a confident smile on her face.