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The bushes that bordered the edge of Naranja Academy were not dense. Not at all. Especially at this time of year, when the leaves were decaying on the floor. You would have to be an absolute idiot, a fool of the highest order, an image of ridicule and mockery to even consider using them for cover-
“Juliana! Psst! Juliana!” came a voice that was sadly all too familiar to the passing Pokémon trainer. Looking down to her left was the barely hidden shape of her classmate, friend, and long-time terrorizer, crouching behind a bare rose bush.
Thank Arceus it was late in the day- if she was seen talking to a bush, even if it was clearly Nemona-filled, when the student body was out and about, it would be social suicide.
“Nemona? What the fuck-” she began to say before a strong hand reached out and pulled her down. There, half-mauled by the briars, she saw, in perfect view, the eager, near-sparkling eyes of Nemona in all their glory. This was a worrying development.
“Want to help?” Nemona asked, as Juliana got back on her feet. Her friend was dressed in the same outfit she usually was, bar the strangely large binoculars that hung around her neck.
Juliana righted herself and looked at the girl opposite her strangely.
“With what, exactly?”
“I’m matchmaking.”
“Like, with Pokémon battles?”
“No, with people! See?” she said, pointing towards the gangly, awkward shape of their favourite gym teacher, Miss Dendra. Her hair was a little messier than it usually was, but even from this distance, it looked like she had taken slightly more care with her outfit. That is, her usual black tracksuit was washed of all the mud that usually covered it.
She had had a small crush on Miss Dendra in the past, but Juliana was surprised that this slight reconfiguration had reignited a passion once thought dead. She blinked a few times.
“Miss Dendra?”
“Urgh! Looks, here’s the deal.” Nemona turned to Juliana, hopping to the side. “Are you blushing?”
“N-no!” Juliana said, trying her best to avoid Nemona’s peering eyes. She hated blushing in front of her. It did not help that it was Nemona who normally, unwittingly, left her going a particularly demure shade of red.
“Okay! Well, I’ve told Miss Dendra that Nurse Miriam is coming over to say hello. And that she should take the chance to invite her out on a date.” The battle-crazed trainer placed her arms on her hips and looked suspiciously proud. “I bought them tickets to the opera. Aren’t I good? Aren’t I?”
Juliana, still slightly in a state of shock, blinked a few more times. “The opera?"
"Yeah! Your favourite! You have the best taste in things, so I thought they'd like it too!"
Juliana could feel the blush quickly returning. Trying to avoid making eye contact, she looked back out at the nervous woman just a few dozen feet away from her.
“O-okay, I suppose that works." She paused. "How did you get Nurse Miriam to come out over here?”
“I told her that I’d arranged a little gift as a thank-you present for all the hard work she had done and that she should come dressed up nice!”
This was batshit insane. “Uh-huh. And are you sure this’ll work?”
“Yes! When have my plans ever gone badly?” Nemona replied, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Juliana grimaced.
“How about time you made Arven host a dinner party and then he nearly killed us all? Mostly because you dropped all the food. Or that time you and Penny tried to hack into the computers AGAIN just to try and edit the logo on the school website with a slightly darker shade of orange? Or that time you tried to prank La Primera-”
“I get it! I get it, jeez. Talk about friends…” Nemona said, huffing in disappointment. “You always fail to mention me getting Mr Hassel and Brassius together.”
“Nemona, they were already engaged!”
“Semantics.”
“You don’t even know what that means.”
“Yeah, but Penny says it all the time!”
Juliana sighed into her hands. This could go one of two ways. And one of those ways was very bad indeed.
“Look, let’s just tell Miss Dendra that now might not be-”
“Shh!! Here comes Nurse Miriam!” Nemona shouted, completely oblivious to the objective of the task being largely to hide away. Juliana turned, cringing slightly. Nurse Miriam was indeed there.
And she was not in her usual nurse’s uniform. Instead, it was a loose, leafy green summer dress, that seemed to reflect her bouncy hair in its curves. She seemed genuinely happy to see Miss Dendra, and skipped towards her.
Even from here, Juliana could begin to hear Miss Dendra start to hyperventilate.
“Can you hear what they’re saying, Juliana?”
“I think Miss Dendra’s having a panic attack.”
“Nonono, that’s her psyching herself up. She does it every time she sees me.” Juliana decided to watch in total amazement as Nemona rose above the bushes and leaned forwards. To hell with pretending to hide, she thought.
She followed suit and craned to hear. The two staff members didn’t even notice. Miss Dendra was too busy staring into the nurse’s eyes and also ogling perhaps a bit too much at the dress. It was a very nice dress, to her credit.
Then, suddenly, the two of them parted. Nurse Mariam waved, her face a little sad, and began the slow amble back to her office. Miss Dendra just stood there, shaking slightly. It appeared as if she hadn't actually said very much, bar hello.
“Erm, Nemona…”
“Already on it!” she shouted, vaulting in one impressive leap over the bush, whereupon she began to charge towards the forlorn gym teacher. Juliana sidled around, trying very hard to remain as incognito as possible.
“Nurse Miriam! Nurse Miriam! Miss Dendra has something else to say!” Nemona shouted, and Juliana nearly gasped as the nurse turned around and began to walk back.
Maybe this was going to work. She moved nonchalantly closer, trying to get in earshot. It was then that she noticed the particularly angry expression that seemed to cover the marching nurse’s face.
“Nemona! Are you responsible for this?” she admonished, looming surprisingly well over the student. Nemona shrank under her gaze, putting her hands together, fingers tapping together over and over. She always did that when she was nervous. Which wasn’t often, to be fair.
But Juliana had seen it a few times.
“I-I can explain, Nurse Miriam…”
“You convinced Miss Dendra to do this, did you? I mean, look at her!” she said, pointing towards the gym teacher who was now vibrating at such speed it was a wonder she did not pneumatically drill into the ground.
“I-I suppose it was…”
“Well, apologise to her. I’ll see you in my office later.” The nurse began to walk away, turning towards the school again. Nemona looked more than defeated.
Juliana watched as the student, so often brash and indifferent to other people, settle a hand on the teacher next to her, looking pitifully at her. Miss Dendra returned the look.
Juliana could not stand this. She ran after Nurse Miriam.
“Nurse! Wait up!”
“Juliana?” she asked, looking sternly at her. “What is it? You weren’t involved with Nemona’s little plot, were you?”
“N-no, not quite. But I did see it. Look, Miss Dendra has tickets to the opera for you. She thought she’d invite you out. Hence, all,” Juliana said, waving with her hand in the general direction of Nemona and Miss Dendra, “this palaver.”
Miss Dendra looked sadly at her. “Well, that’s nice. But if Dendra- I mean, if Miss Dendra wants to do that, she should do it herself. She should know better than to ask students for help. It’s not very professional, is it, Juliana?” she said at length, and Juliana could have sworn she saw the glimmer of a tear form in the corner of her eye.
The nurse quickly took off, and with pace, near ran back into the building.
Juliana walked back to the two of them, still left in the cold of the orange evening.
“Alright, you two. Let’s fucking do this.”
It was about an hour later when the three of them turned up outside the nurse’s office. Miriam was still in, clearly. The crying wasn’t that quiet.
Juliana beheld her masterwork. Gone was the black tracksuit. Instead, they raided Arven’s room and stole a few of his nicer clothes. He wouldn’t mind. Probably.
And anyways, the gym teacher was practically the same height as the surly youth. It just made sense.
With surprising alacrity, they decided on an outfit. She was now in dark black pants, a lively floral number on top, and a pretty bow tie sealing the deal. Her long black hair was set free at last, framing her face in its lovely curls.
Juliana was only slightly jealous.
“Okay, we’ve practised it, right? Sorry, then the tickets, then maybe hold her hand if the mood is right. Yeah?” Juliana began. Miss Dendra nodded her head furiously.
“And we’re here if you need us! Remember all those lines we practised together?” Nemona followed up.
Juliana regarded her suspiciously. Nemona had never asked anybody out in her life, so Arceus only knew what she was feeding the poor woman.
“I-I do, girls, thank you…” she trailed off, before slapping her face hard. “Hoo-rah! Let’s do this!” she shouted, definitely too loudly. The door to the office swung open.
“Dendra?” Nurse Miriam said, wiping her puffy red eyes.
“M-M-M-M-Miriam!” Miss Dendra stuttered out, taken aback. Like shadows under the summer sky, Juliana and Nemona hasted away. They always did have a surprising knack for getting out of trouble. From behind the staircase a few metres away, they watched the unfolding scene.
“What is it you want? Another injury you need me to look at? Or I am just going to terrify you into silence again?”
“N-n-n-no, it’s not that, it’s just you’re s-s-s-so…”
“So what? Come on! I’ve had a bad enough day already.”
“You’re s-s-s-s-so….”
“What? Annoying? Brash? Stupid? I’ve heard it all before, so if this is another stupid prank-”
Miss Dendra took a great big breath in, and stared straight ahead at the nurse, her hands gripping the smaller woman by the shoulders.
“Beautiful.”
Nurse Miriam gasped upon hearing the word. So did their two poorly hidden observers.
Juliana looked at Nemona, mouth open.
“Wow. Did you teach her that?”
“No. Mine was better. It went like ‘Hey you’re so pretty let’s go out!’. I read that in a book about dating. But that’s clearly an original invention. Rookie error.”
“You think yours was better? That checks out.”
“Hey!”
The two teachers hugged tightly, and then Dendra whispered something into Miriam’s ear, causing the nurse to go a bright shade of pink. They giggled.
“Get closer, Nemona!” Juliana hoarsely whispered, pushing the other girl.
“Hey, I’m trying- WHOAH!” Nemona shouted, stumbling onto the ground. Juliana, who was leaning on her, soon followed suit. The two teachers shared a knowing glance between themselves, and then at the sprawled mess before them.
“Isn’t it time you return to your dorms, girls?” Nurse Miriam asked, tittering.
Nemona was the first to speak, despite being slightly crushed by Juliana’s sprawled body. “Y-yes, Nurse! S-sorry, Nurse!”
“Good! Because if you keep wasting our time, we’ll only go and miss the opera, won’t we, Miss Dendra?”
“Y-yes! Off to dorms you two!” Miss Dendra hastily followed up. The nurse smiled, and laughed again.
“In any case, shall we?” Nurse Miriam asked, offering out an arm. Miss Dendra took it gleefully, and two traipsed off down the corridor, whispering to one another.
After a moment’s rearrangement, the two youths stood up and dusted themselves off. Nemona beamed from ear to ear.
“See! They always work out. My plans that is.”
“Yeah, sure. I think you’ll find it was my excellent outfit coordination.”
“No, it was my plan!”
“My outfit!”
“No-” Nemona began, before stopping. “I guess it wasn’t either of us really. It was Miss Dendra who finally said it.”
Nemona had a point. This was shocking in and of itself. Juliana sagely nodded.
“I suppose you’re right. Hey- maybe our plan helped?”
“Yeah! I think it did! But credit's due where credit's due for Miss Dendra.” Nemona looked furtively down the corridor. “So, like, want to follow them on their date?”
Juliana playfully hit her friend’s head with a disciplining fist.
“No! Let’s leave those two alone. We’ve meddled plenty.”
“I-I guess you’re right, Jools.”
“I always am. It’s a blessing and a curse,” Juliana said with a smirk. Nemona grinned. The two of them walked down the corridor the other way, laughing.
Juliana wanted to say something, but she wasn’t quite sure what the words were at this present moment of time.
She looked up at her friend and gripped her arm. Nemona smiled and continued talking, blissfully unaware of anything and everything, caught up in some errant words about the nature of battle, and of far-flung strategies she had heard.
Nemona's eyes were bright and cheerful, her voice full of exuberance, and her smile as charmingly inviting as always. Juliana could watch her talk about anything forever.
Juliana softly smiled. She wasn’t as brave as Miss Dendra. But she hoped that someday, she would be.