BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Aurelie groaned at the sound of her alarm clock going off, then rubbed at her eyes. She glanced over at the clock, noticing it was seven-thirty in the morning. She turned off the alarm and reluctantly pulled back the covers, standing up from her bed. Aurelie then remembered what was happening today, and her immediate excitement quickly woke her up.

"Today's the day!" She dashed for her closet, flicking on the lights. Aurelie frantically looked around, trying to decide what to wear. "Hmm... What does one wear on the day they finally achieve their dream...?"

She rifled through her closet, and all you could see were hangers and shoes flying everywhere. She'd clean up the mess later. Aurelie must've tried on twelve different outfits before finally settling on one: a stylish red blouse, a black pencil skirt, and black high heels. Aurelie dashed for the kitchen, combing through the pantry for something to eat.

Aurelie sweatdropped at how empty it was. "Wow... I forgot that I haven't gone grocery shopping in weeks..." Aurelie grabbed a half-empty box of cereal and poured herself the last glass of milk.

She glanced at the kitchen clock that displayed the time eight-thirty in the morning.

"OH CRAP!" Aurelie frantically ate her breakfast in a rush, then bolted for the door with her laptop bag around her shoulder. She grabbed her coat, scarf, and hat, quickly putting them on as she ran for the elevator.

To her dismay, there was an "out of order" sign taped to it. Aurelie groaned to herself, then began running down the six flights of stairs. She was panting furiously by the time she made it to the ground floor.

Frank shot her a weird look. "Is someone running late...?" He inquired, raising an eyebrow at her.

Aurelie was so out of breath that she could only nod her head in response. Frank shook his head at her, then pointed at the road filled with backed-up traffic. It looked like there had been an accident. Either way, there was no way in all of Unova that Aurelie was going to get a taxi cab.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Aurelie panted, staring at the traffic. You could distinctively see her breath in this cold weather, even though the sun was out. Some of the snow had melted, and that's probably what had caused the accident.

Aurelie reluctantly began sprinting down the sidewalk in her high heels, praying to Arceus that she could make it on time. If she was late, her life was over, simply put.

"Good luck!" Frank waved good-bye to her, hoping that things would go well.

Aurelie ran as fast as she possibly could in high heels; she even took a few shortcuts through some of the alleys. She crossed crosswalks, walking for miles. Finally, she made it to her office building. She ran all the way up to Dean's office, barging in right at nine sharp.

Aurelie nearly collapsed into the chair in front of her boss's desk, panting furiously.

Dean just stared at her in shock. "I'm not even going to ask..." He sweatdropped, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "Well. Let's see what you've got for me."

Still trying to catch her breath, Aurelie rummaged through her laptop bag, pulling out a stack of crisp and un-wrinkled papers.

Dean accepted them from her, then began reading over them. He read over her entire column rough draft with a look of disinterest, skimming through most of it. "Aurelie..."

"Yes!?" She had caught her breath at this point, and was anxious to hear what Dean thought of her column.

"This entire column, it's about...Pokemon." He sweatdropped, flipping over the papers to see if there was anything better hidden on the back of it.

Aurelie pointed her finger at the column she wrote. "More specifically, it's about Lilligants!" She radiated confidence in her work, completely content.

Dean just stared at the article. "...yes. I've noticed."

"Well, what do you think!?" Aurelie asked him; her excitement was radiating from her.

"Aurelie, this is great and all, but..." Dean adjusted his glasses and looked up at her. "This just isn't the kind of thing the column writes about anymore."

The sound of Aurelie's heart sinking sounded like a car crash.

Her smile slid off her face as she just blinked at him. "Umm, what...?"

"These days, the column likes to write about...other topics." Dean was trying to think of a nice way to put this. "...we tend to focus more on celebrity gossip, movie premieres...things like that."

Aurelie choked down her feeling of crushed joy. "So... I have to write about that stuff in order to be a journalist in Castelia?"

"Precisely! I'm glad we're on the same page!" Dean gave a hearty laugh, leaning backwards in his chair.

Aurelie just sighed. "But... What about my father's old column? I don't want to write about these new topics!" Aurelie stood up from her chair, looking off into the distance with an inspirational grin. "I wanted to achieve my dream: continue his column at this newspaper!"

Dean stood up from his chair and smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He began walking her out the door. "You know, Aurelie... I think I have just the position for you."

_________________________________

WHOOSH!

SLAM!

THUD!

"OW!" Aurelie gave out a pained cry when her butt hit the cold pavement outside.

She had been kicked out of the office...literally.

"Hey!" Aurelie stood up and began yelling up at the building. "You can't just fire me after I spent ten years of my life devoted to this place!"

"Sorry, Aurelie." Dean called down to her, sticking his head out the window. "You're just not what we're looking for in a journalist." He grabbed a box full of stuff from her desk, then dropped it out the window. "Don't forget your stuff!"

Aurelie's eyes widened as the box of her stuff collided with her stomach, knocking her butt to the ground once again.

BAM!

"OW!"

The citizens of Castelia walking by just laughed at her, shooting her a sideways glance. Aurelie felt heartbroken when she saw the picture of her and her dad had fallen out and shattered on the pavement. She managed to salvage the picture inside the broken frame and knelt down next to her box of stuff, holding the picture.

Suddenly, someone's outstretched hand appeared in front of her face. Aurelie looked up at the man it belonged to, wearing a bitter look. "What, are you going to just laugh at me, too?" She quirked a skeptical eyebrow at him, still holding on to the picture.

"Actually, I was just going to help you up." The man smirked down at her, making Aurelie regret snapping at him like that.

"Oh. Sorry..." Aurelie looked down at the ground, feeling ashamed of herself. The man grabbed her hand and pulled Aurelie up to her feet, then grabbed her box of stuff. "Thank you..." Aurelie thanked him, still feeling guilty.

The man nodded his head and handed Aurelie her box. "It was no trouble at all."

Aurelie stared up at him, just now getting a good look at his face. He wore a suit and tie, and she noticed that he had short black hair and blue eyes. He couldn't have been any shorter than six-foot two-inches.

The man stared down at the five-foot eight-inch girl with...pink hair, holding his hand out for her to shake. "My name is Cheren."

Aurelie, suddenly feeling timid once again, shyly shook Cheren's hand. "I'm...Aurelie Stone." Aurelie looked back up at her old workplace, then back at Cheren. "...how much of that did you see?"

Cheren noticed how deeply upset Aurelie was, and he felt bad for her. "All of it." He wore a stern look, then relaxed it a little. "They shouldn't have just kicked you out like that..." Cheren frowned, staring down into Aurelie's grey eyes. "You seem upset... Do you want to talk about it?"

Aurelie stared down at the pavement. "Well, it's not as if I have anywhere else to go..."