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Tristen couldn’t help but to stare in confusion for a second, only to quickly look around the cafeteria to see if anyone else took notice to the mood shift out of the twins. Seriously, how old were these two? Tristen then just looked back, giving a bit of a slight nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head. All the same, apparently mission accomplished. At least for the time being. It at the very least allowed Tristen to get into his own sandwich.

As he had his sandwich, he started to try to think about what was to come. Mr. Jacq in Sciences wasn’t going to be anything major, presumably. Matteo wasn’t in that class with him, but he is without Fela today. Hopefully Mr. Jacq doesn’t throw a proverbial wrench in any works for at least the next couple of days leaving him to catch Fela up with what she missed out on. He already had to work with Spewpa, which he planned on doing after classes today, but hopefully there wasn’t going to put anything else on him. But then there was the final class, Ms. Dendra for P.E…where Matteo is a class mate. It was probably safe to assume that he wasn’t going to show up there either considering the day so far. At that point, why bother showing up only for the last class? He only wondered if he should try his hand tracking Matteo down and figure out what was going on with him. It was only a mild wonder, however. Considering Matteo’s conduct on Saturday, Tristen figured that he needed to leave Matteo to actually man up and come forward to at least apologize. It shouldn’t have mattered if Tristen was better than him at something or not, there was no excusing how Matteo was over the past week.

The three would partake in their lunch and before anyone really knew it, it was close time for the next class. Tristen would end up taking a different approach to Fela, having the twins clean up after themselves as opposed to really helping them. Similar approach to how his adoptive father done him growing up, and still does for the most part. At this point, Tristen was convinced these two were young prodigies, definitely more so than how he was. Their Pokémon battling and their understanding of class materials put them at borderline geniuses, it felt like. A little harrowing, now that Tristen thought about it. Once he saw the twins off, Tristen would make his way off for a restroom, then Mr. Jacq’s class.

Tristen perked up and once he took notice to the mirror, Tristen quickly turned around towards the door, staring in absolute confusion. A bunch of questions cropped up, like why is this girl in the men’s room and what was with this get up she is wearing? Her derogatory remarks were lost on him for only a moment until he shook his head once he realized the girl was leaving the restroom. Quickly, he made his way away from the sink, following her out, trying to not lose her in the sea of bodies trying to find their way to their next class, only for him to be too late. “…the heck was that?” Tristen asked himself, confusion still abound. ‘Nemona’s pet rival’? ‘Enjoy the fame while he could’? Tristen never wanted that to begin with, but still, this was all manner of weird. Never mind the way she looked…

Tristen had the feeling that it was not going to be the last she saw of her. Tristen adjusted the pack on his back then went on towards Mr. Jacq’s science class.

Tristen on the way started to look about on the way to Mr. Jacq’s, wondering if he was going to get encountered by another weird student like the one that wanted to talk to him all of a sudden in the bathroom. Fortunately, there wasn’t another weird encounter such as that. He made his way over towards his seat and got ready for the class. Materials at the ready. He did, almost instinctively, look over towards the seat where Fela had sat at before, as if he needed a reminder there was still another day to go before she comes back. At this point though, with how things are going, he started to feel like he needed someone to confide in again.

Tristen perked up seeing Mr. Jacq make his way in and once again, this guy was unprepared as can be. Tristen almost was left to wonder how does this guy still have a teaching job here. He takes so much of a laid back approach in his class as far as what he could tell, and he wasn’t quite sure as of yet if it was to any students benefit or detriment. Regardless, he would do as told and pulled out his science book, but as soon as he was ready, he was asked by the teacher to pass out the worksheets. Tristen would get up and start handing them out to everyone, returning the extra to Mr. Jacq and letting him know Fela wasn’t here today and wasn’t going to be back until Wednesday. He wasn’t sure that if he already knew, but considering how this guy’s head is apparently constantly distracted in something else, he’d figure to bring it up.

Tristen would then have his nose in his work once again, not that he minded it at all. In fact, this was similar to how he ended up getting taught by Freth at Snagem. Unlike most students, however, who probably just didn’t bother reading the material and just skimmed for key words based on the question, maybe perhaps wonder if the questions were verbatim exact sentences in the text book, Tristen actually got down and read the material. Back in Snagem, he actually tried to do the same himself at one time, only to find that it didn’t work as well at all with Freth. She usually threw the proverbial curveball to make sure Tristen was actually reading the material because if he wasn’t careful, it usually got an earful out of her for being careless. While she didn’t expect perfection, she did expect diligence; actual trying of understanding the material instead of breezing on through. At this point, admittedly, given what he was told about Mr. Jacq and what he’s dealt with first hand so far, while he doubted that he was going to be that strict on the matter, he wasn’t going to take any chances. Not to mention it was a case of instilled habits dying hard. Imagine his surprise when he saw close by when he barely got into the work good and Penny was already done.

He'd finish the assignment and turn it in to the teacher, and just at the nick of time. The bell rung for the final period of the day. Tristen would collect his things and find his way out of the classroom and off for Ms. Dendra. It wasn’t long until he found his way through the halls and off to the rec fields. Tristen would see B and E as expected, but still no Matteo, also as expected. He wondered if he couldn’t find out just what happened to him at this point, just to sate a curiosity.

Football…or…rather soccer? Tristen couldn’t help but to sweatdrop out of nervousness. More so considering the entire side was in agreeance that he needed to be the team leader. This…was not exactly something anyone in Snagem prepared him for. He never played before. The most he could gather was what ever he managed to see on TV, which was a rare occasion in and of itself. The most he could say was they had to kick a ball across the field into an opponent’s goal and no one could use their hands, other than the goalie guarding the goal. Beyond that? Any strategy or rules or anything pertaining to that? Not in the slightest. The Manetric hybrid tried to play it off that he never led a team like that before, which wasn’t a lie, and didn’t really think he was ready to lead anyone, but apparently everyone else disagreed, only basing it on his know-how in a Pokémon battle. Apples and Oranges, much? While it also wouldn’t be a lie, he couldn’t bring himself to bring up that he’s never played the sport either, which he feared might throw a lot into question. Though this was all under the assumption that kids played this sport all the time.

Worse, however, was when he was given a jersey to put over his shirt, more specifically, without his uniform jacket. Up until this point, he managed to keep himself covered up so he didn’t show off what definition he had from the time he spent training over the years, let alone what cropped up when he evolved. While he wasn’t body builder material by any means, the fact that he had a pretty noticeable set of ‘guns’ for someone his age was probably going to be a little hard to ignore and it made it fairly easy to imagine what the rest of him probably looked like. Maybe avoid going to the beach again, Tristen thought to himself. Resigned, he finally took the jacket off to put the jersey on over his uniform shirt and put it on. It didn’t take too long before some took notice. B and E namely. In fact, the twins were the first, and without them really meaning to, brought attention to it to effectively everyone. It made some of the other male teens in particular feel slightly inadequate. Tristen, in particular, while one wouldn’t be able to see it, he was nervously blushing under that blue fur. While he wasn’t ashamed of what he looked like, it wasn’t something he wanted to actually flaunt either, willingly or not. Especially when B and E started to question just how strong was Tristen. Others found that ‘brawns’ was aptly given to Tristen.

The game would finally get on its way. Tristen only knew the rules of not touching the ball with his hands and arms and that the point was to get the ball into the goal the other team was defending. Tristen would try to participate where he could just so it didn’t look like a pro by accident, even though he wasn’t one by any means anyways. For the most part, he made it a point to let the others carry the weight of actually scoring and trying to win the game as opposed to him. Every time that he ended up the ball in front of him, he was desperate to find someone else to pass the ball to almost immediately. He found in some cases that he outclassed his fellow peers; his awareness honed from being in one battle after the next led him to actually keep the ball out of the opposing team’s control extremely well, so as long as he had a hold of it. Tristen was quick to see it was a bit of an unfair advantage on their team’s part, rather his coordination or just his strength to kick the ball downfield, let alone into the goal. With him effectively sending the ball elsewhere to another teammate, he took the attention off of him. He made sure that he didn’t score any goals or stay in any proverbial spotlight in fear that it would raise the suspicions of Tristen all the more.

The only thing that was to Tristen’s ‘advantage’ was his overall skill at the game, which wasn’t much anyways. Sure, he could keep the ball away from the opponents when he had it, but on more than one occasion, if he didn’t overshoot his mark by putting too much force into his passes, it was that he couldn’t pass in a straight line directly at his teammates a lot of the time anyhow, leaving his teammates to run after the ball and hope that the other team didn’t get it. Defense was another issue, because while he probably could have taken the ball right back fairly easily, the Manetric hybrid was too scared in either tripping members of the opponents’ team accidentally or maybe with his coordination, effectively steal it too well and make everyone question Tristen’s history some more. Because of Tristen’s shortcomings, both of the self-inflicted and otherwise, the game actually ended up a lot closer than it probably had any right to be if Tristen simply knew how to play the game better in any capacity. Being team captain was effectively lost and wasted on him, not sure how to direct his team mates other than passing the ball to them and hope they knew what exactly what to do with it. This was a sport for fun, as Tristen figured, but it was a little hard when he was trying to be mindful of a lot of things and hold back his natural hybrid strengths that probably would have helped him a lot in this game and maybe sooner had him questioned.

It was perhaps the longest 40 minutes that ever to seem have existed. When Ms. Dendra blew the whistle to call time, the game was a loss for the Brawns team, but only by one mere point that was managed to be scored by the Brains team at the last minute. Tristen was quick to take off the loaned jersey and put his jacket back on, returning the jersey back to Ms. Dendra. Tristen wasn’t sure how much of his ‘fame’ would take a hit from the performance here today, but one thing was for certain, this was not how he wanted to de-escalate the issue if this was any sort of problem to anyone. One thing that didn’t escape a couple of peoples’ notice was that unlike both of the teams, Tristen was perhaps the only one that didn’t seem all that tired at all, while the rest was giving their all at every moment of the game. Well…other than B and E, anyways. Then again, those two were always seemingly full of energy, so it was sort of expected for those two. Tristen felt as if he needed to get out of here and just get on with the day again.

Once Ms. Dendra dismisses the class, Tristen would start to make his way off on other things on the itinerary. Namely, get some training in for Spewpa before dinner tonight…

As Tristen started to leave the inner courtyard, he was deep in thought about as to where to go. Tristen figured to go back out to the fields south of Mezagoza as he has been doing with Fela and Spewpa. Between Spewpa’s insistence of not training on one day, followed by Tristen being preoccupied with his agility training the next, he still haven’t gotten Spewpa used to being in its evolved state as of yet, something that he figured to go ahead and take care of before he got back at it with more rigorous training to finally push Spewpa over and evolving, finally achieving its wings. He thought maybe to have Spewpa spar with Wimpod for a little bit just as he originally intended on before he went on to actual battling. He had effectively a good chunk of the afternoon and maybe a couple of hours into the evening before the sun finally set and it was time for supper. Seemed like a plan.

Plans however might be tentative. As he cleared the threshold out of the courtyard and on into the halls of the academy, he took notice to the three students, one of which was that girl that decided to show off all manner of bravado in the men’s room. However, they’d leave without saying a word. It got Tristen to raise an eyebrow, feeling a hair suspicious about something. He’d make his way off down a different hall, trying to find his way off to get another Pokémon exchange done. He hadn’t intended on it today, but seeing the girl with like dressed people had him suddenly cautious. He wasn’t sure that he was going to be in for a fight here very soon, but he wasn’t going to show fear to the likes of them. That said, he knows that they know his reputation by now. The girl stated as such. If they were to start a fight of some kind, they’d have to pack some serious proverbial heat otherwise he’d steamroll all over them. Before finding his way back out of Mezagoza, he’d make a quick change, depositing Rookidee, much to his chagrin and withdrew another Pokémon in his place. He didn’t want to take any chances any more than he wanted a fight with that shady bunch, but he was going to do what he had to. He'd at this point probably would have deposited Wimpod as well, but if it weren’t the fact that he needed to help Spewpa out, he’d probably would have done that too. Hopefully they’re smart enough not to try anything. He’d then start his way off out of the academy and off to train Spewpa.

Tristen kept a little alert as he started his way off the academy grounds and off into the main city parts of Mezagoza, making his way down the grand stairs and started his way off to the city. Tristen wasn’t even sure as to why that girl was trying to intimidate and made those cryptic threats like enjoying his fame while he could. It left him to wonder if she was the one who actually spread the rumors that got him on Matteo’s bad side, but to what end? He doesn’t even know her any more than 99% of the rest of the student body at this point. What did he do to her? Nothing that he was aware of. Thoughts for some other time…he had a bug to help out.

As Tristen continued on, Tristen perked up. A familiar face, one that he was relatively happy to see. He hadn’t seen much of anyone else since the team went their separate ways when they chose their various paths to appease the suits back at home. Tristen practically had a bit of a grin on his face when Sub spoke up to him. “Sub!” Tristen spoke up, approaching him, but then took noticed to the weirdly dressed person he had in his company. Seems like there were a lot of people like that now for some reason. “Everything is going alright. I…kinda though turned everything upside down though without meaning to…or wanting to…” Then something he was reminded of. He made a quick look around to see if there were any other students about. It was one thing that no one recognized him as a Snagem, Sub however was a whole other issue. Him conversing with Sub was going to probably trip a lot of suspicions, if there wasn’t enough going against him as is trying to keep his tenure with Snagem a secret. Right at the moment, there didn’t seem to be anyone that he could tell close by. Unfortunately, unlike his adoptive parents, there was only so much that he could tell. Not that he wasn’t happy to see Sub, quite the contrary, but he didn’t want to stick with the Snagem leader for long.

“Um, yea, anyways…the class material isn’t all that bad and there was Pokémon tournament within the school over the weekend that I took second place in. There was a girl named Nemona that is actually super tough. I think you might even have a hard time against her. She is really that tough. But because I guess I gave her the best battle she had in a long time, she let me have this…” he said, taking out the Tera Orb that was bestowed by Nemona. “A tera orb to use the terastal phenomenon like everyone else here. I’ve…been kinda busy. I was on my way to go out to work on a science class project speaking of. What about you…and…who is this?” Tristen asked the leader, staring at the weirdly clad person in confusion.

Tristen listened intently, giving a slight smile for the praise he was given by the Snagem leader, trying to stay modest in it all, however. That said, something caught his attention once the topic came to the apparent Team Star leader…or…one of them. When then asked by Sub of any other students that he may have seen, he instantly started to piece the picture together. “I think I have.” Tristen said. “At least a couple of them. One of them, a girl, wearing a bicycle helmet and an academy uniform that’s all messed up…she for some reason wanted to act tough to me while I was in the men’s room. Saying stuff like to enjoy my fame while I can…like that really mattered to me.” Tristen said. “In fact, saw her and a couple of others dressed like her while I was finding my way out here. I don’t know why she’s trying to act tough and stuff to me; I didn’t do anything to her. I didn’t even know her.” To say this whole thing still confused the living daylights out of him.

Tristen watched as Sub made his way off taking his newfound captive to face the head of the academy. As great as it was to see Sub, all it accomplished in the end made Tristen feel a bit uncomfortable in the matter. First Matteo issues now he’s got Team Star looking at him for some reason? He hadn’t been in the base raids at all and tried ever so hard to disassociate himself with Snagem as long as he was taking classes by not bringing it up and making sure that anything outright Snagem related was out of sight, something almost ruined by Leslie last week incidentally. Or did she ruin it after all? Did Tristen screw up somehow? Was getting arbitrarily famous the proverbial death knell of trying to have what he assumed to be a normal life for someone his age? Too much speculation to make a conclusion. Tristen once again took a look around, making sure that there wasn’t anyone close by that may have overheard that conversation between him and Sub, then he went back down the ways off towards the southern gates of Mezagoza.

As he went off, he thought about what Sub said. Let him know if Team Star started to get on his case? It made him worry that doing so would also draw suspicions that he was a Snagem. Let alone the fact that Tristen wondered if he couldn’t handle himself. Actually…he probably couldn’t, and not for the obvious reasons. Beating them in a Pokémon battle or preventing himself from getting beat up probably wasn’t the issue. These were effectively bullies that were his age. If they were adults, it would have been a different issue; he’d probably have that proverbial license to drop a Thunder Wave and go about his business. He remembered his adoptive father telling him about the headaches of dealing with his own schooling growing up alongside life as an apprentice of the Mahogany Gym. If a student wanted to mess around and subsequently find out, his adoptive father was more than happy to show them. Unfortunately, this scored him in about as much trouble as the alleged offenders and there wasn’t any telling how those in Paldea would take it if they found a random student on the ground under the effects of electricity-induced paralysis even if it was meant to defend himself or someone else. The only lesson that was imparted to him was make the most concise judgement of what was actually right. Forgiveness over permission, in some cases. All too often that things happen because those capable of doing something stand by and do nothing which only emboldens the wrong-doers to continue. Then again, such a lesson was imparted by one that is shown to have too much of paranoid-yet-heroic complex so…who knows.

Tristen continued on forward and out the gates of Mezagoza…