6:00 AM

"Maylene!" Benji gasped. "Slow down!"

It was a beautiful, crisp autumn morning, and Maylene and her Pokémon partner, Lucario, were headed towards the mall to pick up a delivery order, pounding the pavement at a quick, steady jog. Her apprentices, Benji, Max, and Damian, lagged behind, gasping, as per usual.

"Why does she never wait for us?" Max complained, his breath billowing out before him.

"Why are we even on this delivery run?" Damian wheezed beside him.

"Maybe you wouldn't be if you'd gotten here on time this morning!" Maylene snapped over her shoulder.

"I had to wake up at four to get here at five forty-five!" Benji cried.

"Hey, you know what you signed up for!" Maylene snorted. She'd made the hard work and early morning check-ins abundantly clear when she'd recruited them two months ago. It wasn't her fault they couldn't handle it!

Maylene left the apprentices to catch up and rounded Veilstone City Mall's empty parking lot, moving towards the grayish building sitting in the corner.

POKEPHARM read the front sign.

PokePharm- or the Pokémon Pharmacy- was Veilstone City's largest Pokémon medicinal supply house, even more so than the local PokeMart. It had been founded by Maylene's dad, but Maylene's grandmother, Kristy, had run the place since time out of mind. Kristy been an herbalist in Celestic Town before she'd gotten married and moved to the big city with Grandpa Joseph. Now she mixed highly effective, affordable Pokémon medicines and potions for Trainers. It was here that the Veilstone City gym got their monthly stock of vitamins, sports drinks, Potions, and even their drinkable water. And since Grandma Kristy was family, they got a special discount on all their orders.

Maylene sighed. If only Grandma Kristy was that friendly to her. Personally.

The lights were on when Maylene and Lucario reached the glass front doors; the sign was flashing OPEN, so they walked right on in.

"Hello?" Maylene called as she stepped inside the sterile-white pharmacy. Half of the store was dominated by shelves of pill bottles, potions, and even crushed herbs wrapped in plastic packaging. Near the back was a large counter - the sign hanging above it read "ORDER HERE"/"PICKUP".

"Lia!" A sound came from aisle three, and Maylene spotted a Roselia sitting on the floor, a basket of bottled goods sitting before her. The grass-type Pokémon  waved at Maylene and Lucario as they came over.

"Hey, Roselia," Maylene said. "You seen Grandma anywhere?"

"Li!" Roselia gestured her blue carnation towards the back desk, and Maylene nodded before saying, "Lucario, will you help her with that?" The grass-type Pokémon seemed to be having trouble picking up the medicine bottles with her flower-tipped appendages.

Maylene headed to the back as Lucario stooped to help Roselia out. "Hello?" she asked, a little nervous. "Grandma? You here?"

The side door behind the counter flapped open; Maylene turned, expecting to see her grandmother. Instead a teenage girl, one or two years older than Maylene was, stepped through the door, carrying a box filled with manila files. The girl's hair was pink and long and matched her eyes, which were sharp and haloed by a set of black lashes. She was slim like Maylene, though most of her figure was hidden beneath a flowing lab coat.

Maylene stiffened when she saw her, and the pink-haired girl paused, her eyes narrowing into an unfriendly stare. The two stood like that for a second, gazing at each other, not sure of what to do- on Maylene's end, at least. She struggled to wet her throat, ashamed of how the sight of the girl made her lock up.

"H-hi, Miranda," Maylene stammered.

Miranda slammed the box of files down on the desk, making Maylene flinch. "What do you want?" The girl's voice was harsh.

"I-I just..." Maylene found herself looking down at her sneakers, suddenly at a loss for words under Miranda's penetrating stare. What had she come here for? She suddenly couldn't remember...

"Well?" Miranda snapped. "I have work to do, Maylene. What do you want?"

"U-um..."

The front doors of the pharmacy suddenly banged open, and Damian, Benji, and Max stumbled inside, their faces red, their gi's damp with sweat.

"Sheez, you can run!" Benji gasped to Maylene as they staggered towards the Pickup desk.

"I think I pulled something," Damian groaned.

"Quit complaining," Max said. He elbowed his fellow apprentice before saying to Miranda, "So...where're the boxes?"

"Boxes?" Miranda asked.

"Yup, we're here for the supply pickup," Benji said, still gasping. "Robert couldn't make it, so we're here to carry the stuff back to the gym."

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" Miranda gave Benji a friendly smile before saying, "Your order's in the delivery warehouse around back. It's already open, so you can grab the stuff if you're ready."

"All right, guys!" Damian said. "Let's put the Machokes to work!"

"Hey!" Maylene snapped. "No piling all the grunt work on the Pokémon! If you boys don't carry at least two boxes each back, you'll be doing laps around the arena until sundown!"

Groaning, the boys nodded in acknowledgement before moving back out the glass doors, past Roselia and Lucario, who were still stocking shelves. Maylene turned back to Miranda, whose face had gone cold and hostile again.

"Is that all?" she asked tonelessly.

The side door flapped again before Maylene could answer, admitting a tall, bespectacled old woman carrying a rack of vials. She paused when she spotted Maylene. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

Maylene paled. "H-hi, Grandma...I...we were just coming to pick up the-"

"Where's Robert?" Grandma Kristy barked. She spoke of Maylene's uncle, who helped Maylene run the Veilstone City gym. Usually, he handled the pickups from PokePharm, but he hadn't wanted to risk this morning's icy roads.

"He couldn't make it, so-"

"I see. Well, is that all?" When Maylene didn't answer, she said, "Good. Now, if you don't mind, Miranda and I have work to do." Her lip curled slightly. "You probably wouldn't understand, seeing as all you do is play with those Pokémon at that gym of yours."

Miranda copied Grandma Kristy's sneer.

Maylene pushed from the counter, marching back up the aisle as fast as her sneakered feet would allow. "Lucario," she said as she passed him, and he sharply rose and fell into step beside her, his normally cool eyes concerned as he glanced down at her. Maylene didn't have to say anything, he knew exactly what had happened:

Another failed attempt at warming back up to her sister.