"Aaawww..."  Cassidy sighed, putting down Jesse's story.  "Jess, that was so cute!  This story could definitely get you into Pokémon Tech!"

        Jesse, now sixteen, took back her long essay and beamed.  A compliment coming from Cassidy was a very good thing, especially considering that the orange-haired girl only thought of herself most of the time.  The essay was her entry into Pokémon Technical School, her one shot at winning the scholarship and making something out of her otherwise dead-end life.  She couldn't remain the oldest orphan at the orphanage, avoiding adoption and waiting for a six-year-old promise that was probably forgotten to be fulfilled.  At least that promise would make a good entry.

        "So, did you ever find out who he was?"  Cassidy's question snapped her back from her thoughts.

        "No.  All I know is that his name is James and he ran away from home when he was ten."  She smiled humorlessly.  "The day after he left, I went around looking for the missing person posters, but every single one of them was gone."

        "And you never saw him again?  Oh, Jess, that's so sad!  Maybe you should stay here in Sunnytown and wait for him."

        Anything to get that scholarship for yourself, huh, Cass? Jesse thought.  "No, I think I've waited long enough.  And who knows?  If I get this scholarship, I may wind up finding him."

        A week later, a letter came to the Sunnytown orphanage from Pokémon Tech, addressed to Jessica Lillis.  She opened it, trembling, knowing that her whole future could be determined by the contents of that letter.  Everyone crowded around as she read it, and they cheered for her when she announced that she had been accepted.  The next day, Cassidy came after school to help her pack, and that weekend, she left to start a new life.

        Jesse was lost.  Utterly and hopelessly lost.  She knew Pokémon Tech was a big school, she just hadn't realized how big and confusing it really was.  And the uniforms, from what she had seen, were horrible.

        Most new students were accepted in pairs; that was how roommates for the dorms were chosen.  But she knew no one at the technical school and knew that she'd more than likely be stuck with someone she would hate.  Looking for someone in a red jacket who was assigned to help new students, she saw one up ahead.  The woman was talking rather loudly to another student with longish lavender hair.  She fell into place behind the two of them.  The lavender-haired boy's voice was deep and suave, but squeaked in the oddest places, like he was either squealing or whining.  Something about the voice and the hair was extremely familiar to Jesse.  Suddenly, her mouth dropped open.  Could it be...?  There was only one way to find out.  She stepped closer to the two, and in a soft, shy voice, said, "Double trouble time?"

        The boy stopped in his tracks while the red-coated assistant continued on, talking to herself.  He turned around slowly, his bright green eyes wide.  If she still doubted who he was, what he said next erased every trace of uncertainty.  "Are... are you an angel?"

        A choking, sobbing noise that would have been embarrassing in any other situation escaped from her throat, and she threw herself at him.  "I can't believe it's really you!"

        He laughed and hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.  "Jess!  I was going to look for you after I got out of here...  Mom and Dad have been sending me to boarding school after boarding school in England!"

        "England?"
        "They don't know that I'm here.  I ran away again.  Jess!  This is amazing!  How did you get into Pokémon Tech?"

        She blushed and stared down at her feet.  "I wrote an essay about when I met you."  He was quiet-- so quiet that she wondered if he was still standing there and looked back up at him.  He was smiling at her, so she smiled back, and they stayed that way for what seemed like forever, as if they were in a trance.

        "Hello?"  Jesse snapped back to reality.  The woman in the red jacket had come back and was looking at them expectantly, waiting for an answer to a question they didn't hear the first time.  "Are you two friends?" she repeated.

        "Old friends," James laughed, hugging her again.  "Jess saved my life a long time ago."

        "Jessica Lillis?"  The woman checked a clipboard she was carrying.  "You won the scholarship because of your essay 'Double Trouble Time'...  I was one of the judges.  Is this the James you wrote about?"  Jesse nodded.  "I suppose there's no other way to do this.  You two will be in room eleven in the co-ed dorms."  Another lost student caught her eye then, and she headed over to help him.  Jesse turned back to her long-lost friend, only to see him frowning at her braided red hair.

        "What'd you do to your hair, Jess?"

        Jesse and James were, just as they had been before, impossible to break up.  They were each other's only friends in the Tech school.  All their classes were at the same time, and they sat together in every one of them.  At lunch, they broke off from everyone else and into their own little world while other students watched them and laughed.  Rumors were flying that they were more than friends.  Jesse knew about those rumors and ignored them.

        On her seventeenth birthday, James was in all of her morning classes, but by lunch time he had disappeared and she sat by herself, wondering where he was.  She didn't see him again throughout the day, he wasn't in their dorm room, and when night fell, it fell without him.  She changed into her long pink nightgown and fell asleep, staring at his empty bed across the room and trying to come up with some excuse as to why he wasn't there.

        She awoke later that night to a hand touching her cheek, and she knew it was James.  She froze as his fingers ran through her loose hair.  "Jess?"  he called to her softly.  "Wake up, Jesse."  Her eyes opened narrowly, but flew wide open when she saw him.  His Pokémon Tech uniform was a tattered mess, his pale blue hair was disheveled, and his skin was bruised and scratched.  Still, he smiled and sat down beside her on the bed.  "Happy belated birthday... but only by a few hours."

        She looked at her alarm clock, then immediately back to him.  "What on Earth were you doing out at three a. m.?" she hissed, touching a large bruise on his cheek.  "And what happened to you?  Oh, please don't tell me you got into a fight!"

        "I did.  But it was worth it."  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small sphere that grew in his hand.  A Pokéball.

        "How... did you get that?"  She eyed the red and white ball skeptically.  "You do know you're supposed to fight Pokémon against Pokémon, right?  Not humans against Pokémon."

        He smiled and handed the ball to her.  "Yeah, but since I don't have any Pokémon with me, I had to use the hard way.  I'm just lucky I didn't get bitten.  Go on, open it."

        She carefully took the Pokéball and tossed it down by her feet.  A red swirl of energy rose from it with a click, forming a long, purple shape.  The Pokémon stared at her through yellow eyes and slithered closer, satisfied with its new trainer.  Jesse was almost in tears.  "An Ekans... Oh, James, you remembered..."*  She looked back at him.  He was sound asleep, leaning back against her headboard with a small smile on his face, and she knew that he really did remember.  Not wanting to wake him up, she pulled her blanket across him and rested her head against his chest.

        Winter came, and Jesse and James focused their time on finding Christmas presents for each other.  James had no idea what Jesse wanted, other than the Ekans he got her for her birthday.*  He knew that he had to find something for her, something big and expensive that she must've dreamed of having as a little girl.  Every day until December, he saved every penny he found for the gift he picked out, and he finally had enough by Christmas Eve.

        "There's no way this can be a better present than Ekans," Jesse said, scratching the snake Pokémon on its head and looking at the small wrapped box in his hands.  "Maybe you shouldn't have outdone yourself the first time."

        "Oh, and you think your present is better than this one?"  He rattled the box in front of her face sadistically.  "Too bad you can't open it until tomorrow."

        She yanked the box away from him.  "Who said?  That's a pretty stupid rule."
        "Okay," he said, giving in with a smile.  "If you can open yours, though, I can open mine."
        "Fine.  I have no problem with that."  Without hesitating, she tore through the red wrapping paper to the small velvet box underneath.  He watched her face intently as she opened the box.  Her mouth dropped open.  "James, they're beautiful!"

        He pulled the circular emerald earrings out of the box and attached them to her ears, staring at her the whole time.  Her expression phased from happy to confused to something else, the same way she had looked at him when they found each other a month before, and he leaned down towards her face...

        "James?"
        "Yes, Jesse?"
        "What about your present?"

        The moment completely shattered, he moved away.  Jesse got him a Koffing, a Pokémon his parents never would have allowed.  She explained, step by step, the battle between Ekans and Koffing, but he barely heard a word of it.  He loved his new Koffing, but now he realized that he also loved Jesse.