Young Writers Society

Chapter Five – Beware the Watchog

When Palday morning dawned, Darren followed his usual routine: he ate breakfast, collected his things, and met Aiden outside. When they arrived at the school, they met up with Raymond and Tyler and chatted for ten minutes before the bells rang, after which they headed for Evolution. When everyone was seated, Mr Williams began handing out their tests.

‘Well done, Minerva!’ he said, placing her paper on her desk. ‘You scored the highest in the class, as usual.’

The Vulpix nodded, indicating she had expected that, but when she looked at her mark, she gasped.

‘Sir!’

Mr Williams started. ‘What is it? Did I make a mistake in counting the marks?’

‘You must have, since I have ninety-five out of a hundred.’

‘Oh! Phew, I thought I had made another mistake. No, that’s right.’

Minerva frowned at her paper. ‘But where did I go wrong?’

‘We’ll get to that later. Well done Aiden, you got ninety-one, the second highest in the class.’

‘At least I beat you,’ Minerva said, smirking at Aiden.

‘We’ll see who’s smirking tomorrow,’ he retorted confidently.

Minerva scowled.

Mr Williams proceeded to hand out the papers. Darren scored eighty-three, which was fantastic, since he generally scored in the seventies, but he was frustrated to hear Malcolm had scored eighty-six. It seemed he was destined to come after those three.

‘We’ll start with the Mankey puzzles. One-point-one-point-one to one-point-one-point-five’s answers are A, C, D, B, and D. One-point-two-point-one to one-point-two-point-five’s answers are only A, neither, only B, only B, and both. Any questions? No? Good.

‘Question two asked for one term to replace the phrase. Aiden, you can read us the answers. Two-point-one: “Another name for Evolution”.’

‘Metamorphosis.’

‘Sir?’

Mr Williams looked at Seamus, who had raised his vine. ‘Yes?’

‘What does that have to do with Eevee, sir?’

The question shocked the Furret so that it took him a second to respond. ‘It’s Evolution, Seamus. It concerns essentially everyone. Besides, there will always be at least one general knowledge question. Now, number two-point-two: “Eevee’s scientific name”.’

‘Evolution Pokémon.’

And so it continued until they reached question three, when the one word answers ceased and the proper questions began.

‘For some reason, most of the class struggled with this question – and it was the easiest one. Anyway, “What is the species and scientific name of Eevee’s Psychic evolved form?” Many of you forgot to add the second one. The answers are, of course, Espeon, the Sun Pokémon.

‘Next, “What is the species and scientific name of the polar opposite of the Pokémon mentioned in three-point-one?” Duncan, why don’t you…’ A loud snore resounded through the class. ‘Or not… Nicole?’

‘Umbreon the Moonlight Pokémon, sir’ the Ponyta replied.

‘Remember that, everyone! Many of you simply said “Moon”, but it’s “Moonlight”. Three-point-three: “What evolutionary stone could possibly be associated with the Pokémon mentioned in three-point-one?” Tyler?’

‘The Dawn Stone, sir.’

‘“And what effect does this stone have on Eevee in relation to the Pokémon mentioned in three-point-one?”’

‘It causes Eevee to evolve into Espeon.’

‘Who would like to correct him?’

‘The Dawn Stone does not cause Eevee to evolve,’ Leslie answered, ‘but since it counts three marks, you have to add that Eevee evolves into Espeon because of high activity during the morning or the day.’

‘Excellent. “Name and explain three physical characteristics which you can use to deduce that this Pokémon is using Psychic energy.” That was a difficult one. In fact, Minerva was the only one who got it completely right. Everybody said that when Espeon’s fine hair moves because of air currents, it can predict the weather. However, few mentioned that its forked tail quivers when it’s predicting its opponent’s next’s move, and only Minerva mentioned that the orb on its forehead glows when using any form of Psychic power.

Everyone was supposed to get at least eleven marks at question three, so I must say I’m disappointed that Minerva, Aiden, and Darren were the only ones who did. Congratulations to you three.’

Darren was belatedly shocked. He actually beat Malcolm? Grinning like a fool, he gazed at Aiden, who grinned back. Minerva caught the exchange, but instead of pursing her lips and shaking her head, like she would usually have done, the corners of her lips turned ever-so-slightly upwards and she nodded.

It took the rest of the period to finish discussing the test, but when the bell rang, Mr Williams remembered that he had not yet given the class homework. Fortunately for the class, they managed to persuade their Naïve teacher otherwise.

‘What do we have next?’ Tyler asked after they were dismissed.

‘After almost a year of going to the same classes, I’d have hoped you would remember that by now,’ Minerva remarked, coming up from behind.

‘Whatever.’

The Vulpix sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. ‘Alchemy & Nutrition.’

‘See, you could just have said that in the first place.’

‘I can say whatever I want. And by the way, did you read chapter seven like Miss Antoinette told us to?’

‘Of course I did,’ Tyler said a little too quickly.

‘Mmm-hmm, I’m sure. I hope the rest of you did.’ She noticed Darren had suddenly looked away. ‘That’s a very interesting wall, isn’t? What do you think, Aiden?’

‘Hey, I actually read the chapter,’ he declared defensively.

‘It seems you’re in luck, Tyler. Had Aiden and I been partners, you two would have been in trouble.’

‘It’s a good thing there’s a zero chance of that ever happening,’ the Axew stated cheerfully.

‘Touché.’