Olive's Change Part 1

Olive walked down the hallway.  He carefully balanced a stack of books in his hands, silently praying every few seconds they wouldn’t topple over.  It was a particularly cold day and students ran by him were caked with layers.  The funny thing was that Olive didn’t feel a thing.  He happily kept a warm, consistent body temperature while other pokemon around him hugged each other to stay warm.

He heard whispers coming from behind him.  He turned around to see a group of three students talking and looking in his direction.  At the sight of Olive face they all scrambled and ran off down the corridor.  He darted his eyes around.  A few students kept look at him while others tried not to acknowledge his presence.  Feeling uncomfortable and tearing up, Olive ran away.  BAM!  Down went a few books, but he didn’t care.  He ducked into the boys’ bathroom and slammed the door.

Olive took a few, heavy breaths.  He knew his peers couldn’t help it; if he was in their place he would stare as well.  He put down his books and went to the sink to wash his blushing face.  As he wet a paper towel and wiped his tears he reluctantly looked into the mirror, only to quickly look away again.  His skin was furry and a pair of tall ears jutted out from his head.  Two, long flaps of fur hung down from his face, blowing in the breeze.  A faint aurora of white radiated from his body and all of his clothing, from his red scarf to his brown boots, had turned white and frosty.  No matter for how long Olive was out in snow he never felt cold or tired.  And if he ever got near a heater or submerged himself in a hot bath he’d feel like his skin was on fire.

Olive was a glaceon.  And he had no idea if he would ever turn back.

~~A FEW WEEKS EARILER~~

It was a stormy winter afternoon and all of the Armonia School population was huddled onto the school’s football field.  It was so snowy to the point that everything seemed to be behind a white curtain, but that didn’t stop various ice-type students continuously try to throw various objects at the huge, legendary bird flying above them.  His name was Jack and he was the articuno who lived on the top of the mountain outside the school.  As a cruel practical joke he had turned all the students into ice pokemon for the last few weeks.  Through a rigorous chase by a few brave volunteers the school had finally cornered their source of their annoyance.

Olive stood among the mass of students, watching the bizarre spectacle happening in front of him.  Olive and his friend Nutmeg (who had been turned into a speal) clapped with glee as students continued throwing things in hopes of tiring Jack out.

Rhiannon threw a chair.  Leory threw a few juggling balls.  But it was Professor Butterfield, who had heaved one of the school cafeteria tables and swiftly threw it at the flying legendary, who got the last throw.  As the table whammed into Jack, sending him backwards, all of the students erupted into cheers.  Olive was so overjoyed he picked up Nutmeg’s circular body and threw her up into the air.  He despised being a glaceon and he was happy to get back to his regular marill-self.

Jack quickly recovered and flew down to face the students.  Olive stopped cheering and looked closely at the articuno.   While he had on a proud, cunning exterior, in his eyes Olive could see that he was…hurt.  And sad.

“ALRIGHT FINE!”  Jack screamed.  “I’LL CHANGE YOU GUYS BACK!”  The roar from the crowd was deafening.  Olive had to put his hands over his ears to protect his hearing.  The legendary flew a few times around the students and zoomed off back toward the summit of the mountain.

Olive looked up to see glistening, luminescent snow falling down from the heavens.  He looked over to see that Nutmeg had started to glow bright blue.

“EEEE that tickles!”  She yelped as the light died down to reveal a small spinda with frazzled hair.  Nutmeg stood up and felt her face.  “Hey!  I’m back to myself!”  As if on cue dozens of students suddenly started to glow blue and revert back to their normal forms.  They screamed and hugged each other with their regular bodies, overjoyed to be rid of Jack’s curse.  Olive looked up at the sky and closed his eyes.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.  He open his eyes looked down and saw that he was still a glaceon.  He nervously looked around but to his horror it seemed all the students had turned back to normal.  The teachers were back to their old selves as well, and they had even started to corral the students back into the school.  Olive pushed through the masses of excited children, toward the nearest teacher he could find.  His paws reached into the crowd and he found himself grabbing Mr. Summers’ shirt.  The hypno looked down to see Olive’s panicked face.

“Hey little dude.  What’s wrong…”  He trailed off when he saw Olive’s glaceon body.  Mr. Summers’ eyes grew wide, as if he knew what the glaceon was going to say next.

“M-Mr.Summers.”  Olive sobbed as he choked back tears.  “I-I’m not changing back.”

~~~

Olive stood as the Nurse Micky checked his pulse and told him several times to relax.  Olive tried, but he found it hard to do when he knew that all the teachers a large group of students was watching him.  After a few more tests consisting of a thermometer and a tongue depressor the audino stood up to face the teachers.

“Everything seems to be in order.”

“Well I don’t get it!”  Everyone turned to face Mrs. Duexchamps, who was angrily crossing her arms.  “Why did everyone turn back to normal except for him?”

“Maybe he did something to make Jack mad.”  A small voice in the crowd of students suggested.  To this accusation Olive defensibly put up his hands.

“I wouldn’t do a thing like that!”  He cried.  “I swear on Jirachi that I haven’t done a thing to that scary legendary!”  All the students and teachers started to murmur.  Mrs. Duexchamps was slowly turning the shade of a red cheri berry.  She angrily slammed down her boot and all the talking immediately stopped.

“Well I say we should round up a party to travel to Jack’s cave and find out for ourselves!”  The kecleon whipped her whip on the ground for added emphasis, making a few of teachers jump back.  “WHO’S WITH ME?”  

“We’ll do it.”  Olive looked over to see his friends Nutmeg and Cerise had pushed their way through the crowd.  Nutmeg gave a little clap and Cerise gave a shy smile.  “We’re always happy to help out a friend.”

~~~

Olive clutched the snowy rock for dear life, making sure he was extra careful not to look down.  Despite Olives’ protests, Mrs. Duexchamps had insisted on traveling to Jack’s cave that very morning.  Olive was in rear with Cerise right in front of him, her pink hair whipping around as if it had a life of its own.  While the blistering cold didn’t affect Olive (glaceons were immune to cold) the wind certainly did, and the timid glaceon was sure that he was going to slip and fall down the mountain at any moment.  He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he almost tripped over Cerise, who he found was sitting in the snow, rigorously shivering.  He looked in front and saw Nutmeg was doing the same thing, the tips of her ears slowly turning blue.  The only other person who didn’t seem affected from the blistering cold was Mrs. Duexchamps, who kept marching on.  Nutmeg let out a moan and the kecleon turned around, surveying her deteriorating crew.

“Come on you whimps, shape up!”  She yelled.  “Look at me!  It’s probably about thirty degrees below zero and I’m still here-“  WHAM!  Mrs. Duexchamps had frozen up and collapsed onto the ground.  Nutmeg screamed and ran over to the unconscious figure.

“Mrs. Duexchamps!”  The spinda cried.

“She can’t help it.”  Cerise slowly stood up.  “Keckleon’s are more suited to warmer temperature environments.”  The cherrim girl then turned to face Olive, who was looking at the scene with a sense of shock and bewilderment.  “Olive, you’re going to have to go to Jack on your own.”

“WHAT?”  Olive screamed.  “Are you insane?  He’ll eat me alive!”

“You’ll have to Olive.  You’re the only one that can survive in these blistering conditions.  You go on ahead.  We’ll find a small cave nearby and wait for you.”  Olive looked closely at Cerise.  He saw the frost forming on her hair and her teeth chattering uncontrollably.  He looked back at Nutmeg, who was hugging Mrs. Duexchamps for warmth.  He sighed.

“Okay.  I’ll do it.”  Letting go of the mountain he carefully walked over Mrs. Duexchamps and made his way into the storm.  Cerise watched as Olive turned into a blue blob and disappeared into the whiteness of the storm.

WC-1534

PART 2 IS IN THE DESCRIPTION