Chapter 21

Ignoring all the decorative doorways, archways, and stairways leading to other areas of the tower, Mara and Carrie led Spike and Flannery to a rustic circular receptionist desk in the center of the hall and pulled enrollment papers for them out of their travel bags. The receptionist received the papers and reviewed them.

After reading through everything, she nodded. Then, she looked up at the Lucario standing behind the boy with a surprised expression and asked, "It says here that Dilon has a Lucario and a Ralts, and Flannery has a Slugma and a Numel. Is that correct? No additional Pokemon?"

"That's correct," Mara replied. Carrie affirmed the statement with a silent nod.

Turning her gaze back to Ares and Aria, the receptionist asked, "Do you have Pokeballs for those two?"

Lips curling downward ever so slightly, Spike shook his head and answered, "No."

The receptionist looked Spike in the eye and said, "Pokemon need to be in their balls during lectures and are not allowed to wander or loiter without their trainer. We can provide a few pokeballs here as part of enrollment for students who normally can't afford them."

Spike's eye twitched, and he immediately responded, "I don't really like pokeballs."

Surprised by the statement, the people around him stared at him like he was an alien. Even Mara couldn't help raising a brow despite knowing he had never bothered to use pokeballs before.

[If it's a problem, I don't really care whether I'm in one of those balls or not.] Ares said.

Sending a concerned gaze in his partner's direction, Spike asked, "Are you sure about that?"

[Yes.]

Spike scratched his head and looked at Aria.

"What about you?"

Aria blinked at him and tapped his shoulder a couple times as though reassuring him that she didn't mind.

Sighing, Spike grumbled, "I still don't like it."

"Do you really dislike pokeballs that much?" Mara asked.

"I don't hate them, but I don't really want to use them either. They feel like portable prison cells to me."

"Huh."

Mara frowned. Similarly, Carrie also adopted a thoughtful expression. Even the receptionist raised a brow.

After a few moments of silence, the receptionist said, "If it makes you feel any better, having a pokeball for each of your Pokemon can prevent other trainer's balls from capturing them against their will."

Forehead wrinkling, Spike fell into silent thought and imagined a situation of a criminal kidnapping one of his precious partners. Just imagining the scenario pissed him off.

'Lesser of two evils, I guess,' Spike convinced himself.

"Fine. I'll take the pokeballs."

"Good. One moment."

With that statement, the receptionist tapped a button sitting on her desk. Not even a second later, a purplish aura twirled in the open space behind her, and a Gardevoir flashed into existence there. When Spike saw the Gardevoir, he couldn't help raising his brows.

'It's wearing glasses? Does a Gardevoir even need glasses? Is it trying to look smarter or something? That's… weirdly adorable.'

The glasses-wearing Gardevoir briefly glanced at him with an amused grin while simultaneously pulling the papers over with telekinesis before teleporting away again. Spike furrowed his brows for a moment before sighing.

'Did it read my mind just now?' He wondered. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided not to care since he couldn't do anything about it for now anyway. Turning his head, he looked at Aria and thought, 'Should I buy her some glasses when she evolves one day, too?'

Feeling that her master's gaze was a little strange, Aria tilted her head.

A few seconds later, the glasses-wearing Gardevoir teleported back into the hall and dropped two student ID badges onto the counter along with two Pokeballs. It then bowed politely to their group before teleporting away again. The receptionist handed over their student ID badges, the two Pokeballs, two lanyards with keys attached, and two folders containing introductory material and class schedules.

"Registration is done for these two. Their assigned dorms are noted on their keys. The blue one is for the boys' dorm, and the red one is for the girls' dorm. You can take them over to get them settled in now. Classes will begin in three days, so we recommend staying with your children for at least a week until they adjust to life here. If you need overnight accommodations, we can help you with that, too."

Mara and Carrie received the items, and Mara replied, "Thank you. We've already got a hotel room booked, so we're fine on that front."

The receptionist nodded and resumed reading whatever paperwork she had been working on earlier.

With the registration taken care of, Mara and Carrie led Spike and Flannery to the dorms. They stopped at a circular fountain located between the male and female dorms, set a time to meet up again, and separated to take Spike and Flannery to their respective dorms.

Inside the male dorms, Mara, Spike, and Ares walked down the main hall of the first floor looking for room 154. Some open doors they passed by allowed them to see other first-year students moving in with their parents' help. Eventually, they found room 154. Mara unlocked the door and pushed it open. As soon as they stepped in, they halted in their tracks.

Three boys seated in a circle in the middle of the room stared back, two with startled expressions, and one with a curious expression. Each of them held a different number of cards in their hand, and they seemed to be playing a bastardized version of old maid. The only problem was that the boys were all playing in just their boxers. A box fan blew the fabric of their boxers like a tumbleweed in a desert within the silent atmosphere.

Once it clicked in the boys' heads that a woman had entered the room, one boy with spiky steel-blue hair and similarly steel-blue colored eyes and another boy with black hair and brown eyes jumped up and bolted to a chair that had a bunch of wrinkled clothes sitting on it. They hastily put clothes on. On the other hand, the third boy who had straight shoulder-length turquoise hair and bright turquoise eyes waved and said hello. A Shroomish sitting on one of the two beds in the room also glanced at the newcomers without much of a reaction.

The boy with steel-blue hair and eyes grimaced at the turquoise-haired boy's shamelessness and said, "Put your clothes back on, Wallace. There's a lady here."

"It's hot, though," The boy named Wallace casually replied.

Although amused by the trio, Spike blinked a few times and quietly observed the three boys. Two of them looked eerily familiar, and the name Wallace rang several bells for him. He found it hard to believe that he would meet these two here.

Not particularly caring about the boys' attire, Mara asked, "Are you all my son's roommates? What're your names?"

"I'm Wallace," The turquoise-haired boy replied with a friendly smile and wave.

The boy with steel-blue hair finished putting his shorts and t-shirt on, nodded cordially, and answered, "I'm Steven. Wallace and I live across the hall. Nice to meet you."

Behind Steven, the brown haired boy tripped while pulling his pants on and groaned, "Ugh. I'm Tony. Sorry about not wearing my shirt before."

'What about your pants, though?' Spike wondered.

Mara smiled, placed a hand on his head, and said, "Nice to meet you boys. This is my son, Dilon."

"'Sup. Nice to meet you," Spike said while nonchalantly waving as a greeting.

The steel-blue haired boy named Steven nodded in affirmation, but quickly locked his sight on Ares. His eyes flashed with excitement as he asked, "Is that a Lucario?"

"Yeah. He's my partner, Ares."

Following his partner's actions, Ares calmly nodded in greeting.

"Wow! So cool! I'll go get my Pokemon to introduce to you!" Steven exclaimed before sprinting past him into the room across the hall.

Meanwhile, the brown haired kid stumbled over to Spike after pulling his pants on and said, "I guess we're roommates. Nice to meet you, Dilon."

Spike nearly corrected him to ask to call him Spike from now on, but then shut his mouth. Lips curling into a wry smile, he said, "Let's get along this year, then, Tony."

'I'm honestly getting tired of correcting people all the time. Maybe it's about time I stopped clinging to my old nickname. Dilon's not a bad name, either.'

Mara raised a brow at the fact that her son didn't insist on being called Spike again, but she didn't say anything about it.

Unaware of his mother's curious gaze, Spike thought, 'Maybe I'll have a more interesting school life than I expected.'

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Author Note: Would you guys want me to write a few extra chapters of the school arc to expand on lore and characters more, or skip right to Spike/Dilon's ranger training after he turns 15. There will already be at least a couple of such chapters after this, but I thought I could add 5-10 more school-life chapters giving some lore and info if you guys are interested.