Alex walked into the kitchen with his school bag along with his hockey bag. He was dressed in basketball shorts that were orange, a plain black shirt, and black and orange sneakers.

"What time are tryouts over after school?" Ash asked as Alex poured some cereal into a bowl.

"I think the poster said five." Alex answered, walking to the fridge for the milk.

"Okay, I'll be there by five."

Ash grabbed an apple that was in the bowl and took a bite. Alex started eating his cereal and soon he was finished.

"Ready to go?" Ash asked.

Alex checked his hockey bag and then he checked his school bag. "One second, dad." he said, running to his room.

Ash grabbed Alex's hockey bag and slung it across his shoulder and waited. Alex returned and Ash didn't notice anything different.

"Let's go, then." Ash said.

After a short drive, Ash was pulling to a stop in the drop-off line.

"Bye, dad. See you after tryouts. Love you." Alex said, adjusting his bags.

"Love you, too. Good luck. And remember, have fun." Ash said.

Alex opened the door and hopped out. "Later!" he called as he closed the door.

In the short amount of time that they had lived here, Alex had come to like the school and looked forward to going.

Alex walked through the halls and to his classroom. He walked in and saw that Julia wasn't there yet. He put his game bag against the back wall after asking Miss Vickers if he was allowed, and sat down.

Miss Vickers walked over to him and handed him the last of his books and things he needed for school.

"Now you're all set." she said.

Alex looked to see that it was an English workbook. He glanced at the clock and then the door. Miss Vickers began writing on the board. Julia walked into the classroom nearly dropping the book she was holding. She was wearing a purple plaid button up shirt, jean shorts, and purple boots to her knees.

"Hey!" she greeted, sitting down.

"Hey," Alex greeted.

The bell rang, signaling school had started now.

"Good morning, class." Miss Vickers greeted.

"Good morning..."

"Today, we're having a spelling test. I hope you all studied the words I asked you to."

A few groaned and Alex laid his head on the desk.

"I forgot to study." he muttered.

"Spelling tests are easy in here. It's not really hard." Julia said as she wrote her name on her paper.

"Easy for you to say. You're good at spelling." Alex mumbled as he wrote his name.

"There are ten words. Number one through ten."

"Number one is freshly. The boy couldn't help but grin at the freshly baked bread. Freshly." she said, using the word in a sentence.

Eventually, she reached the final word. "Number ten is joked. The kids joked around. Joked. Now, does anyone need a word repeated?"

Nobody raised their hand.

"Pass your papers up to the front, then."

Julia tapped her pencil against the table out of boredom.

"How did you do?" she asked, glancing at Alex.

"I think I made a B."

"That's good. Tryouts today?"

"Yeah, I'm ready for school to be over with so I can go."

Miss Vickers had the papers in her hands now.

"Okay, now I would like you all to read your book until I get these graded."

After reading for a little while, it was time for a worksheet on Pokemon history.

"You may go to P.E." Miss Vickers said afterwards.

Alex and Julia walked calmly to the gym even though Alex wanted to run. The two entered the gym and the teacher was talking to someone, but basketballs were laid out. Julia grabbed a ball, unnoticed by anyone, and walked back over to Alex.

"Want to play Around the World?" Julia asked.

"Yeah!" Alex cried.

"Have a great weekend. See you all on Monday." Miss Vickers said.

"Good luck with tryouts." Julia said as she gathered her belongings.

"Thanks, see you later." Alex said, slinging his bags onto his shoulders.

"Bye,"

Alex walked to the gym and walked inside. There were around 40 boys ranging from grades one to three. He put his bags on the bleachers and spotted Gregg.

"Well, well, look who wants to try out." Gregg said, approaching Alex.

"What do you want, Gregg?" Alex asked as he removed his hockey stick.

"Just letting you know, you won't make the team. I'm the best there is in second grade."

Alex smirked and glanced at Gregg.

"Well, not to burst your bubble, but...I was the best that Kanto Elementary had."

"How's that?"

"Last year, I was the only first grade boy on the whole team. It was mostly full of second and third grade kids. That says how good I was. We didn't win the championship, but we came close and my coach said that in a few more years of playing, I could develop into a powerful scorer."

Gregg scoffed and walked off. A whistle was then blown and the kids stopped talking.

A man in his mid thirties with spiked blonde hair walked to the kids. He was holding three bags, which he dropped on the floor beside him.

"My name is Craig. You can call me 'Coach Craig', or just 'Coach'. This is my first year as coach of the Twinleaf Weaviles. Now before we get started, I have some things to tell you. In Twinleaf Elementary, all of our sports teams are divided into two groups. One team for grades four to six, one team for grades one to three, which is the one you'll be playing in, if you pass.

"I won't lie to you, this won't be easy. While the three older grades have had some success, winning eight hockey championships in the last 25 years, our younger team - or your grades, to be more specific - haven't won in 25 years. I was one of the players on that team, long before any of you were born. Our team used to be a force to be reckoned with. Nowadays, the team is only average compared to the other school teams in Sinnoh.

"No go and put on your hockey equipment. On your way, take a jersey from the bag. Grade ones wear white, twos wear red, threes wear black. That way, it'll be easy to know which grade you're from and who to pair. They're also suitably sized for your boys your age."

Alex grabbed a plain red jersey and then walked to the locker room to put on his arm and chest pads. They were the same pads he wore when he played back in Pallet Town. He hadn't worn them in almost a year and amazingly, they still fit him. He then pulled the large jersey over his head, covering the equipment he was wearing, strapped on his black helmet, put on his gloves, grabbed his stick, and headed back out into the gym.

Once all 40 boys were ready, their coach said, "Now to get you all warmed up, give me 20 laps around the gym! Go!" He blew his whistle and they all took off.

After they finished, some of the boys in grade one looked exhausted. So did a few grade twos. Alex didn't feel winded at all, since he had done this sort of thing before back in Pallet Town.

Without giving them a moment to catch their breaths, the coach said, "Line up on this side of the gym in front of the net and face the other side of the gym." The boys did so. "Next drill, run as fast as you can to the blue line, and back. Then the center line and back. Then the far blue line and back. And finally, all the way down to the other side of the gym and back. Get used to this drill because we'll be doing it a lot in practice if you make the team. I call it, 'The Line Run'.

"This drill will sharpen your stamina and endurance and speed, strengthening your legs. Before we move on to anything else, you need to show me if you can push your body as hard as a game will demand it when you play against the other schools. I can't promise you we'll be the best team, but we will be the best-conditioned team. That, I CAN promise you."

As they were doing so, he yelled to them, "Be prepared to grow through pain, boys. You're going to run faster and longer than you've ever ran in your lives every minute of every day that you're here with me! The fastest way to make it onto this team is by being the fastest!"

After doing the run four or five times, most of the younger kids looked ready to collapse. Alex had to admit that he hadn't felt this tired in a long while, but he didn't show it. The last thing he wanted to do was show a weakness to his coach, fearing he would cut him from the team, or to Gregg, fearing he would rub it in his face.

As the afternoon went on, they did more practice such as weaving through pylons, weaving while keeping the ball in control, target practice at the net, and many more.

At five o'clock, Craig finally let his players go after some parting words. "Today was just to get you in shape, see who could keep up with the drills, and what players I can work with the best. I'm going to cut ten of you from the team and if you're cut, you'll be getting a phone call tonight saying that you didn't make it. If you don't, then I'll see tomorrow on Saturday. Then the real training begins."

Alex was almost ready to collapse when Ash picked him up. He slept like a log that night, and didn't get a phone call saying that he was cut from the team. He was back the next morning on Saturday, since the school was remaining open over the weekend for the tryouts.

Alex noticed that Gregg was still there, so he had passed the first round of cuts, too. Nearly all of the first grade boys were gone, along with a few second grade boys. With ten players gone, the group had shrunk to 30. But Alex knew that there could only be 23 players on a hockey team.

They started with more running to keep them in shape and more Line Runs. All that practice from the day before seemed to have worked, since Alex wasn't as tired this time. For the main leg of the training for the day, the coach kept rotating players for offense and defense drills to see who worked best with who and which position they should play. Alex wasn't very good on defense, but his passing was clean and crisp and he nearly always managed to score when he shot the ball.

"Twenty-three of you are going to play for the Weaviles, seven of you are going home." Craig said to them after they finished that day. "Who that is, believe it or not, is up to you. But there won't be anybody cut today." He was impressed about the players he had to work with and today, he couldn't make any final call on who stays and goes since they were doing everything he had asked and then some. He thought that if they could keep this up, they just might have a chance to win the championship!

On Sunday, they tried more combinations of players and went home very nervous, since the coach had said that he would post the list of players who made the team on the school bulletin board on Monday.

Alex had done all that he could. He could barely sleep that night. On Monday morning, he headed to see the list. The other boys were crowding around to see if they had made it. As Alex looked at the list of 23 players, he scrolled through the list to see his if his name was there.

The names he saw were listed in no particular order: Jake, Alan, Anthony, Ryan, Gregg, Peter, Brett, Jon, Josh, Rob, Steve, Mark, Mike, Russell, Jeff, Chris, Justin, Patrick, Eric, Matt, Daniel, Edward, and...Alex.

Alex sighed in relief and walked to the classroom. He walked into the room to see that almost everyone was there already. He sat down beside Julia who was drawing on a piece of paper.

"Hi, Alex. How were tryouts?" she asked, glancing at him for a second.

"Pretty good. The first day nearly killed me. It was the hardest that I'd ever pushed myself in my life." Alex replied.

"So? Did you make the team?"

The bell rang before Alex could say anything else to Julia and Miss Vickers started class.

All day, Alex couldn't tell Julia he had made the team. At P.E., Julia stayed in because her head was killing her. Now it was time for lunch. Maybe he could tell her now.

"Guess what," Alex said.

"What?" Julia asked.

"I made the team."

Julia stopped walking and looked at Alex. "That's awesome!" she cried. Alex noticed that she sounded like the girl she was when they had first met: loud, not quiet.

But Julia quickly regained the quiet demeanor. "That's great, Alex. Really great."

"What are you doing after school?"

"Nothing, just going to finish the homework we have. Why?" Julia asked, glancing at Alex.

"Wanna come over after school? I can help you with the Math and you can help me with the English."

"Sure! Oh, and I finished the English."

"And I finished the Math."

Alex and Julia walked to Ash's car since Ash was picking up Julia today and bring her to her house, for Dawn had to run a few errands and couldn't pick Julia up.

"Hi, Mr. Ash." Julia said as she buckled her seat-belt.

"Hello, Julia." Ash greeted.

Alex closed the door and buckled up.

"Was the team list up?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, it was." Alex replied.

"And?"

"I made the team!"

"That's great! Any of your friends made the team?"

"No one I know, just a guy that is a bully named Gregg."

"Gregg made the team?" Julia asked.

"Yeah, he said he's the best in second grade. None of the first graders who tried out made it. I guess the training was too much for them."

"Oh, yeah. Mr. Ash, we're going to work on our homework together." Julia said, unbuckling her seatbelt since they were at the house now.

They walked into the Ketchum house and the two went to Alex's room.

"Julia, does your mom know you're over here?" Ash asked.

Julia hadn't told her mom and she looked at Alex, silently asking for help.

"Yes!" Alex cried.

"Alex..." Julia trailed.

"Your mom will come over here to find you. I mean, my dad brought you home." Alex said, shrugging.

The two started working on the homework and halfway through the back of the Math worksheet, the doorbell rang.

"Hi, Dawn." Ash greeted.

"Is Julia over here?" Dawn asked.

"Yes, they're working on homework. I'm sorry I didn't come over and tell you."

"Oh, it's fine. I thought she would be over here when she wasn't home by three-thirty."

"Come in and I'll go see if they're done."

Dawn stepped in and closed the door while Ash walked off to Alex's room. He looked at the two from the doorway. Alex was laying on the floor holding the worksheet in the air looking at it while Julia was on her stomach working on the worksheet.

"You two done?" Ash asked.

Alex rolled his head and looked at his dad. "No. We have the back of this worksheet and then half of the other worksheet left." Alex replied.

"What are you two doing in here?"

"Working. She's slower at Math and I'm slower at English. One works on their sheet and the other checks it. If it's wrong, we fix it together."

"Okay. Well Julia, do you want to give your mom your bag or anything?"

"My mom's here?" Julia asked, sitting up.

Ash nodded his head and walked off. The two kids followed him into the living room where Dawn was standing.

"Hi, mom!" Julia said, hugging her mom.

"Hey, sweetie. You done or no?" Dawn asked.

"Not yet. We should be done by four thirty."

"Alright, then. When you're finished, you can walk back."

Alex and Julia went back to the room to finish their work, leaving Ash and Dawn alone.

"Thanks again for taking care of Julia for me." Dawn said to Ash. "It's good to know that there's someone in the neighborhood that she can go to for anything if I'm not around."

"Don't mention it, I'm happy to help." Ash replied. "And I think Alex enjoys having her over here, and I'm sure that she enjoys it, too."

"They make quite a team when it comes to schoolwork. Ever since they began helping each other, Julia's grades have really been improving."

"So has Alex's grades."

An awkward pause followed until Dawn said, "Well, I...I guess I'll head home and wait for Julia."

The next day at school, just before the bell rang for lunch, the principal announced that all members of the hockey team had to meet for a brief meeting.

Once all 23 of them had gathered in the gym, Coach Craig said to them, "Well, congratulations on being selected for the team. I pushed everyone as hard as I could, but you boys made it through everything and came out in the best shape. Throughout the years, it's usually been almost all grade three boys with just a handful of grade twos. But things were a little more even this year. There are thirteen grade threes and ten grade twos."

"But coach, you missed some of the best players!" a boy exclaimed.

"I'm not looking for the BEST players, I'm looking for the RIGHT players. If you don't like it, you can quit anytime and I'll just bring in someone else."

He then looked at the group and continued. "Now, the reason I called you all here is because the school needs to order your hockey jerseys and they'll be here in about a week. So fill out this sheet and include your first and last name, and the jersey number you want to wear. If any of you pick the same number as another person on the team, one of you will have to change it. When you fill it out, pass it back to me and you're free to go to lunch."

He handed out the sheets and Alex began filling it out. When he got to his jersey number selection, he decided to use the same one that he had worn while playing in Pallet Town. Number nine. He wrote a "9" in the blank and handed back the sheet to the coach.

On his way out, he was stopped and pulled to the side by Gregg, who said, "Look Alex, you don't like me, and I certainly don't like you. But if we're going to have any chance of winning any of our games, I guess we need to put aside our differences for now."

"Truce?" Gregg asked, holding out his hand.

"Truce." Alex agreed, shaking his hand.

To Be Continue...