Squirtle Girl

Louis's POV


I groaned loudly as I stared down at my phone. The damned gym at Saint John’s Baptist on 22nd Street that I could reach without leaving the park had instantly turned blue. That Mystic player, SquirtleDick, had yet again stolen my gym. Other Mystics were already lining up to help, contributing Snorlaxes, Laprases, and eeveelutions. I looked around the park, trying to find the fiends. A car drove by, screaming the team name and that’s when I saw it. A girl waving to the others with the Mystic salute.

I huffed and started approaching the girl. She had red hair that seemed to fade to blonde, a tiny figure dressed in tiny denim shorts and a Rob Zombie tank top. Old grey Vans kept her pale frame firmly placed on the ground, feet spread at shoulder width as she leaned back so her spine formed an acute S shape. The chimes of potions sounded from her phone which irritated me more. I tapped her on the shoulder only to be met with cold grey-blue eyes.

“Can I help you?” she wondered. Her voice had a twang to it, like a Southern kind of thing.

“Yeah, are you Squirtle Dick?” I demanded.

She shrugged. “What about it?”

“Stop stealing my gym!” I pleaded.

Squirtle Dick laughed. “I’m guessing you’re General Tommo?” she mused. “Stop making it so easy and I’ll stop stealing it.” I stared down at her as best I could, she was maybe a head shorter, but she just seemed to laugh that much more. “Why do you look so angry?” she smirked. “I thought everyone in One Direction was supposed to be nice!”

“You recognize me?” I wondered.

She glanced back down to her phone to tap on a Golding that had appeared. I looked to my own and did the same. “Yeah, you’re Louis Tomlinson”, she informed. “It’s a little hard for me to NOT know who you are when your face is plastered everywhere all the time.”

“Well, if you know me, then I should know you”, I reasoned.

“Squirtle Dick, nice to meet you”, she chuckled.

“No, what’s your real name?” I asked. “It doesn’t hurt to know your competition.

She stared at me after flicking her left index finger over the screen of a broken iPhone. “You can call me Ciel”, she said.

“Seal.”

“See-Elle.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ciel”, I smiled, trying to hold out my hand. I might’ve been upset she’d taken my gym but truly, it didn’t hurt to know who you were challenging.

“Likewise.” She ignored my hand. “You know, if you want that gym, Tomlinson, you’re going to need a ground type. Best start working on getting an Onix or kick ass Graveller. Otherwise, it’ll be hard beating my Jolteon and we both know that.”

I nodded and Ciel started walking off, presumably to the next PokeStop before I called her. “Hey, could you...teach me?” I asked. “So I-”

“I don’t associate with Valor players, bro”, she shrugged. “Sorry.”

“It’s just a game!” I whined.

“Says the guy who came at me first”, Ciel scoffed. She stopped walking, posed with her hip jutted out and phone cradled delicately in her tiny hands. “But you do have a point. C’mon, ya loser.” I beamed and jogged after her. I don’t know what possessed me to ask her to teach me, I mean I’d downloaded the game as soon as it came out. Ciel waited before ripping my phone out of my hands. “Dude, you got this all wrong”, she sighed, opening my egg collection. “Two k’s go in the orange incubator. Do you even have a CP calculator app?”

“What?”

Ciel stared at my phone and didn’t look at me. “Dude, what are you doing?! And why don’t you have a buddy?”

“Buddy?”

She rolled her eyes and began explaining, everything down to secret teams and country specific pokemon. “Don’t tell me you’re playing this and DON’T know”, Ciel said, looking at me with those grey eyes. “Tomlinson, bro…”

“I got other things to do”, I protested.

“Like catch that Mr. Mime when you get home, right?” she scoffed. “You gotta be dedicated, mate! How are you supposed to be the very best if you’re twiddling your thumbs instead of doing in depth studying?!”

“It’s just a game”, I said.

Ciel smirked. “You know kids in Japan were supposedly already reaching level 30 the first day it was released there, right?” she quipped.

“You sure have invested a lot of time into this”, I noted.

“It’s what happens when you don’t have a life.” Ciel turned and pointed to shelter where people liked to hold kids’ birthday parties and smiled. “This way, General Tommo”, she purred. This one was a Mystic gym, another one she owned. Ciel made me promise that if she was going to be teaching me that I couldn’t take Instinct gyms until they were just as rampant as Valor and Mystic gyms. “A lot of people underestimate the power of the Instinct player”, she stated, standing boredly as I furiously tapped my phone screen. I wasn’t even fighting her Raichu yet. “They’re actually quite dedicated, especially because they’re so small. It drives the team to work harder to compete with the mass amounts of Valors and Mystics. When you find an Instinct gym, expect either a joke like a magikarp or something there’s no hope of beating.”

“Why margikarp?” I wondered.

“It’s all about sending a message”, Ciel smiled. I glanced to her, seeing another girl walking a dog that she was waving at.

“Do you know her?” I asked.

“I’ll have you know, that’s a him”, Ciel corrected, pulling out a portable charger from her pockets. “Francis is one of our best dogs and has remarkable breathing for a pekingese.”

I looked up from my phone and stared. “You were waving at the dog?” I questioned.

“You should always be polite to your best patients.”

“You’re a vet then?”

Ciel shook her head. “Vet assistant”, she stated. “My friend Truth runs a vet clinic that helps the SPCA downtown. I just help her with paper work and the boring stuff.”

“That’s...really sweet, Ciel”, I smiled.

She turned almost the same strawberry her hair was. “It’s just a job”, she said quickly. “I just...you know. And it pays well.”

“Ciel has a soft spot for animals!” I beamed. “And that’s why you play Pokemon! To help save the little animals from the cruelty of the wilds or else Cubone will forever be the lonesome orphan!”

“So I can catch another one and turn it into the Pokemon version of Soylent Green”, she scoffed. “I’m a college drop out but my mom bred dogs. So my friend Truth gave me a job based off of my own prior knowledge. Saved me from that dumb job I had at Penny’s.”

“Truth sounds like a good person”, I said. “Obviously she has to be if she’s your friend. Where’s her clinic? Do you guys do adoptions?”

“Paw Spa. We do groomings, training, keep a breeder around for appraisals, the SPCA is a block down the street and we do a lot of business with them. Truth gets so many high end clients willing to pay outrageous bills that she makes enough money to be sure the animals at the shelter live better than at most. In fact, I think it’s because of the one in our home town that she insisted on doing this.”

“What was so wrong with that one?” I asked.

Ciel shrugged. “Nothing, it was just crowded. We come from a more rural area which means lots of strays, lots of people unwilling to fix their pets, or bleeding hearts dropping critters off so they have food. And with only a few people working for them, they weren’t getting the attention they needed. Truth wanted to do something about that.”

“So why come to LA?” I wondered.

“Business. Plus a lot of families in the upper class only want the puppies so they get dropped off when they get older… We take those biggies, put them up in the shelter, and try getting people involved or whatever. Why do you care so much?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” I asked. “Cute girl teaching me a game. Doesn’t fan girl when she recognizes me. Has a cause. Tries to help the literal underdog.”

Ciel stared at me under her bangs before laughing. “Louis, you lost the gym!” she cackled. “I have to get home. Truth and I are holding an event tonight so I have to get ready. It was nice to meet you.” Ciel began walking away for the second time.

“Well, what’s your number?!” I called.

“18”, she answered, continuing on her way. This time, I didn’t try again. I don’t know what 18 meant but that seemed like a good number. Wasn’t the number I was looking for but it was something. I stayed by the gym but I didn’t try it again. In fact, I decided to look up events being held by the Paw Spa tonight.

Notes

I had this idea while at work because yes, yes I do play Pokemon Go like any other mature 21 year old.