Its a tough fight

"Charmander! Get in there and use scratch!" With a burst of speed charmander rushed at ratatta with his claws extended out. Suddenly with a light glow they began to shine. Could that be? Yes! My charmander had learned metal claw!

"Way to go charmander now give it to them!" I clapped overjoyed at his growth only to feel the joy ebb when the ratatta suddenly burst out of the way.

"Come on ratatta. Let's show her our own moves. Use quick attack!" Hannah was cheering herself now as ratatta dashed from place to place, staying out of charmander's reach with his claws. Charmander was now almost swinging blindly now trying to land a hit while ratatta was dashing in and hitting charmander then dashing out before charmander could fight back.

Charmander, growled out menacingly, clearly not enjoying the way this fight was going. Ratatta, now motionless in front out charmander a few feet away, glanced at Hannah with a flicker of uncertainty before resuming the attack. If not a little more cautious however.

"Charmander! Use ember next time ratatta comes in close. Let's deal out some pain of our own!"

"Char!" Junping back a few paces ratatta was **** to hit charmander from the front in order to connect.

"Ratatta dodge it amd hit him from behind!" It was no use. Ratatta had already used quick attack to pursue charmander and was mid leap when charmander opened his mouth to breathe out the ember infuzed gale. Ratatta still managed to connect with charmander again, causing them both to tumble to the ground. Charmander however, siezing the initiative, managed to swipe at ratatta again just before ratatta could get out of range of charmander's claws.

"Come on ratatta, use quick attack then use bite!" Hannah still didn't look worried which began to worry me. We just did at least a moderate amount of damage and she was still unfazed?

Gazing back from her to charmander, I could see charmander was on his back now and ratatta was was leeping off of him. As charmander scrabbled to his feet, his right leg gave out and he callasped onto this knee. Evidently rattata must have bitten his leg whil I was watching Hannah.

"Use ember next time he comes in close charmander. We can still pull this off!" I had cupped my hands together in a make shift megaphone. I was increasingly nerveous now. Charmander looked like he was swaying now like he could topple over any second.

"Come on ratatta. Let's finish this up! Use quick attack!" Hannah was cheering as ratatta disappeared in a puff of dust as he took off, only visible for a moment as the purple rat's head collided with charmander's own. Down charmander went and it didn't look like he was getting back up. I pulled out my pokemon ball and pointed at charmander.

"Charmander! Return!" As he dissapeared into a fading red light, I kissed the top of his pokeball, whispering my thanks for his best effort.

"Nice match. While I can tell you are a rookie at this, you put up a great fight. Just keep training and you will have a powerful partner to protect you." Hannah was walking over to me now with a genuine smile on her face.

"Thanks, but we obviously weren't strong enough since we lost." I was still holding charmander's pokeball.

"Sometimes it isn't necessarily about strength but strategy. Nine times out of ten a charmander would best a ratatta using sheer power alone. But that 1/10 is where strategy comes from. Don't beat yourself up over it. Instead use this loss to learn and become stronger for it."

"Thanks Hannah I appreciate the advice." And I did, the last trainer was an ass even in his defeat, where Hannah was nice and even offering helpful advice in spite of the fact she won. Oh no. My face darkened a little realizing now that I had to pay her. I had $3,180 but I didn't want to spend the money I got from my mom. Now that I was on the loosing end, I realized I didn't know how much money I should give her.

"Trying to figure out how much to give me?" Hannah laughed again, the sound rolling over me like a soothing wave.

"Is it that obvious?" I asked. Hoping it wasn't true. The last thing I needed was people thinking I was an idiot.

"Relax. It was your face that gave you away. Your expression went from happy to have recieved the advice to suddenly grimmacing at a realization. Didn't take a mind reader to guess you haven't lost before. The normal fare is $100 per pokemon you knock out. Say if you have 3 pokemon and so does your opponent. You knock out all 3 of his while he knocks out only 1 of yours. You owe him $100 while he owes you $300. Therefore he just owes you $200 for the match. Make sense?" She and I were were just a few feet away from each other now.

"Yeah. It does thanks so much for telling me. And I really do appreciate the advice. It means alot to me." Suddenly I remembered Gary. He had only given me $80 when I beat him. What a dick.

"How about you pay me back then?" She held out her hand expectingly.

"Oh, uh yeah. Sure." As you twist around to grab your purse from your backpack she stops you.

"No silly I don't want your money. I just want your company. It's 4 o'clock yeah? How about you help me set up my tent and get a fire and dinner going and maybe I'll call it even." She winked at me now as she grabbed my hand and we started walking torwards a small clump of trees.

"I guess, oh, maybe that uh wouldn't be so bad." I could barely keep up with her as she practically dragged me through the woods.