Oak Leaf Academy

I summoned back my Squirtle pokemon, satisfied that i had won the battle. The kid i battled was maybe 17, and had thrown quite a fit. But that didnt matter. What mattered was that i had a test on water type pokemon, since those were the ones i mainly used, and i hadnt studied at all. Crap. I rushed to my book bag, grabbed my book on water type pokemons.

Matt couldn't believe it. A Squirtle? Beating a Ferroseed? "This...this doesn't make any sense. I resisted everything you had. How the hell do I still lose?" He returned the beaten grass/steel type to the safety of his ball and dropped to his knees, gently sobbing as he tried to not regress to a full-on tantrum. This was the tenth lost battle in a row. "Mommy, please don't make me go to remedial classes. I know the types and everything, but I'm just so weak because I can never win..."

The kneeling position soon gave way to the fetal position as the waterworks started.

"Hey, I didn't mean to upset you. Maybe some other time you'll beat me" I suggested, walking up to him kindly. There was no reason to be rude. I got bullied in primary school by assholes and this kid sure looked like he had too. But then again, he wasn't a kid, but a boy her age.

"Shut up, shut up, shut UP! You beat me, just leave me alone!" Matthew pushed Emma's hand away and continued sobbing. It was going to take a while. It always did. The kid just didn't have any successes from which to build.

"Why the hell am I cursed to never win a single fucking battle?"

I pulled my hand back quickly. "Train more" I muttered whilst walking away.

Matt finally seemed to pull himself together and rose to his feet, though he definitely looked more brittle for the ordeal. It was just easier and easier to break him...even Emma with a type disadvantage was able to break through because nobody ever trusted him with powerful Pokemon lest they turn on him. He was nowhere near good enough to even think about challenging for a gym badge.

"Great. What the hell's next? Some freaking Bug Catcher that's going to leech life me to death?" He closed his eyes and waited for the familiar tug on his shirt collar to haul him off to the hell that was remedial lessons. People had told him this was going to work. That she used a Squirtle, something that had nothing on it. That Ferroseed was super defensive, and any hit would hurt the enemy thanks to Iron Barbs. That Leech Seed would keep him in top shape while the enemy continued to suffer. Turned out Ferroseed was so weak it only had the gambling Rollout and the ineffective Metal Claw. After repeated defensive drops from tail wag, all Squirtle had to do was land a Bite to win it...

Seriously, what sort of grass pokemon didn't know Vine Whip?!

I scrambled into the classroom, prepared for my test. Wait. Scratch that. I was not prepared for this test. And I'll probably fuck it up anyway.

Good news: Matt got to skip the test. Bad news: It was because he still had to win a battle. Off to detention. Or something like it. After being forced to return his loaned Ferroseed, it was off to the gulag again. Granted, the older kids picked on him a lot because it was an easy win, but this was different.

It started with having to run laps while trying to rattle off the answers to various trivia problems. Things like how Ice beats Dragon and whether Charizard was faster than Blastoise. He hadn't earned his trainer license yet because he hadn't shown the necessary level of competence required to handle Pokemon responsibly. Caring and feeding was all well and good, but being unable to navigate a battle? He'd never get anywhere in life like that!

His legs were rubber. Finally, he got one wrong about the fastest Pokemon native to Kanto. "Voltorb! No, Electrode...GAH!" And there was the punishment. A brief electric shock. One would think that special ed would be a thing in the technologically advanced world of Pokemon. This was sadly not the case at Oak Leaf Academy. The kid was weeping on the track, only to be hauled off to the time-out room.

I zoomed through the test, 26 questions long. Until I got to the last one, the easiest question there. And I didn't know the answer. How can a Ferroseed possibly have a chance of beating a Squirtle?