Chirping, tweeting Fletchling flew through the sky and circled high above the treetops, seeking their perches in the glorious green treetops of the Kalos forest beneath. The sun shone bright on the grassy field and the clearing that lay beyond the forest edge, making the landscape of the simple homestead glow radiantly. It was morning, the sun heading to its high point high above the clouds and in the middle of the bright blue sky.

Inside the home, Serena stood in front of a mirror. Fresh from a shower, her hair hanging down in dark gold lengths and a pure white bathrobe surrounding her body, she held out two outfits on two hangers, holding one over her figure to visualize herself in it, contemplating which would look best.

"Which one do you think, Pancham?" she asked.

But all Serena heard was a huge yawn from where Pancham was by her side. She looked past herself in the mirror, yanking away the dress she held aloft on the coat-hanger in her hand to look past her side to where Pancham had nearly passed out on top of the closed hamper lid and against the tall post of the bed-frame. Potbelly sticking out above the sprawled-out and stumpy legs in front of him, melon-shaped head nearly rolling off his shoulder as he came to the edge of sleeping, it didn't take more than a few seconds for Pancham to suddenly slip into sleeping and slump flat against the hamper top—and Serena to let out an annoyed huff.

If Serena wasn't so concentrated on the task at hand she might have noticed how annoyed she was. It wasn't Pancham who had set Serena off—she just couldn't figure out what to wear. Normally it wasn't that hard of a decision for her to make, but this morning it was all she could focus on.

Whether or not Pancham was awake, she wasn't going to let a silly thing like sleep from keeping her from making her decision. She would just have to voice her decisions aloud—it was one of the best ways she had of thinking through a decision.

"Well, what do you think…?" Serena asked, out loud, knowing that no one was really listening. Testing all that she could hear around her with just a simple question made her more comfortable with it, making her relax and go through the process in her head.

The first one was a simple blue blouse and a dark skirt beneath, meant to be paired with some dark stockings she had in mind that would pair even better with a pair of tall, black leather boots. She would wear a black cardigan over it, and she had even toyed with the idea of pulling her hair back into a bun, or even wearing some glasses with it. It was what she called 'the professor'—not that she would ever call it that out loud—just because it made her look smart, mature, but still cute. She would button the blouse up to the top button, making the collar of it close and high around her neck.

"This one?" she asked—again, out loud. "Or…"

The other was a pale-yellow flannel shirt, a red grid patten over the surface of it. The sleeves had been rolled up to above where her elbows would go, and paired nicely with a short-sleeved leather jacket. Down beneath she would wear brown short-shorts and a pair of dark brown cowgirl boots—that incidentally matched the jacket—and white tanktop that would act as camisole to the open flannel shirt. She held it over her front, raising her head as she looked at it, silently debating. It didn't have a name, unfortunately.

"Number one works. A little less flashy, if you know what I mean."

Someone had spoken—but it wasn't Serena.

Serena shrieked and promptly dropped the two outfits, letting them pile over her feet. The split second she spent trying to recover from the sudden shock came immediately with the loud thump of Pancham hitting the floor, Serena's freak-out making him topple over and slam into the floor. It made Serena flinch—even less so than the sound of the voice behind her—but she did her best to reel it in. All she did was look back behind her through the reflection of the mirror and towards where someone was standing right behind her.

Standing smug and smiling like it was her job, Bonnie was in the doorway, leaning against the frame. Her eyes were smirking, tracing Serena's uncomfortable body like lasers.

"You know some of us still need to shower—that is, if you haven't used up all the hot water in Kalos…" said Bonnie. She wore a thick, fluffy, lavender-colored robe that hugged her body close, her folded arms buried in the sleeves, her spindly, skinny legs showing that the robe was about a year and half a puberty cycle too old.

Immediately Serena was working on excuses. Her mouth hung open as she stammered, like her mouth was ready to speak before her brain was. She was fighting her cheeks from turning that shade of pink that would really, royally let anyone watching her know that she was in trouble. For Serena, however, she hadn't realized she was already in Bonnie's trap.

"Serena… What's taking so long?" Bonnie grinned from ear to ear "Is there maybe a boy around you're trying to impress?"

"Get out!"

Serena had gone against Bonnie's 'advice', and instead opted to wear the yellow flannel and jeans. The outfit still didn't have a name, but Serena had called it 'the one Bonnie didn't like' in her head a dozen times.

She had descended the stairs, bringing herself to the end of the carpeted steps before she stepped lightly onto the hardwood floors of the main floor. She held her boots by her side, the ends pinched between her fingers, as she used the thin white ankle socks she wore like a tool to help her creep onto the main floor silently, sure not to tip someone off that she had arrived. She wasn't on-edge as she liked to think (or at least tell herself when her thoughts weren't aligning that way), she wasn't scared of the prospect of bumping into someone in particular she didn't want to meet, or avoiding anything at all for that matter.

Crossing into the kitchen had gone smoothly as Serena walked in, no interruptions thus far. As far as she could tell there was no one down there in the corner kitchen that took up the alcove at the end of the living room, which meant she could get about the business of the morning uninterrupted: getting herself breakfast.

As soon as Serena opened the fridge, Bonnie suddenly poked their head out of the fridge.

"So," Bonnie asked, slyly, exactly like she had naturally snuck up behind Serena and not just poked her head out of a fridge, "want to tell me about this 'stud' of yours?"

Serena screamed, stumbling back and landing against the center island counter. It was the last thing on earth she expected, someone hiding in the fridge.

"B-Bonnie?!" Serena's face had gone white, she looked like she was about to have a heart attack. The socks Serena had used to sneak in now threatened to make her lose her grip on the thin linoleum floors and topple, her foot sliding out from underneath her just slightly before she caught herself, making her slouch against the island counter.

"Are you getting milk or something?" asked Bonnie. She had craned her head out, but for all Serena could tell she was practically in the fetal position on the main shelf, right beside the milk. Her arms reached above her, wedging her shoulders out from beneath the shelf, her legs extending out and reaching for the floor awkwardly. Right as she was pulling herself out, leaning out of the opening and stepping on the floor, she reached back for the jug of milk and handed it to Serena.

Taking the milk from Bonnie's grasp was enough to bring Serena back to reality—slowly—and bring herself standing upright. She couldn't help herself from looking at Bonnie as she finished shutting the fridge door behind her.

It had been only a year since Serena had seen Bonnie, and yet she had transformed radically. Though Bonnie had always been skinny she had seemed much stouter when she was shorter, and now that she was tall she looked bone-thin and looked more like a lanky rag-doll teenager than the Bonnie she knew. Even with her hair hanging down wet and seemingly shrunk down to curly, twisted hairs, her hair had grown much longer—by choice, as she no longer tied her hair into the tiny, cute bun it always was in. The freckles speckling her cheeks had become more pronounced, and the little tell-tale signs of acne had appeared on her chin. Despite her more independent personality becoming pronounced she was still dressed fairly formally, wearing a simple, brown button-up and a dark skirt, Mary-Jane's and tall socks, looking an awful lot like she was getting ready for Sunday school.

"You know you tend to overreact sometimes?" Bonnie asked casually. She had snuck out a glass bottle of cola, twisting off the metal cap with a quick, hard turn. She set the bottle on the other end of the island, next to where her hair band, her brush and her little black hair clips were.

"B-Bonnie! It's not nice to scare people! You almost made my… made my heart explode!" Serena protested. Even before she had tried looking angry her face had turned bright red, her lips trembling as she stood straight and looked over at Bonnie.

This only made Bonnie laugh—to Serena's total, utter annoyance —as she climbed up onto the counter beside Serena and sat herself on the edge, snatching her glass bottle and her brush. She swung her legs out in front of Serena, playfully, pulling her hair and brushing it back.

"Well, you better get used to it… It's going to be happening a lot more if you end up marrying Clemont…"

This made Serena snap. The veins in her forehead nearly popped beneath the skin, so much red flooding to her face it was like she had awakened a monster. She whipped her head around to turn on Bonnie, ready to unleash a tirade—which she tried to.

"Bonnie!" Serena could only make it so far, even trying to fight Bonnie's casual interruption.

"You know, if the two of you are dating, that's sort of like getting 'pretend married', right? Sort of like you're halfway there? Well, that means you get me too, right? I'm part of any deal where you get Clemont, forever…."

"We're not getting married!"

"Oh, not yet, but that's just how things start, slowly…" Bonnie was trying her hardest not to snicker. Toying with Serena was just way, way too easy, and the grin on her face was enough to show just how much she was enjoying it. She batted her eyelashes with practice, her hands coyly folding one over the other beneath her chin.

All of the breakers were firing in Serena's head. Her annoyance was overwhelming, it had consumed her whole being and overtook her emotions. She was just standing there, outside the fridge, holding the carton of milk Bonnie had handed her, facing Bonnie. She could hardly look at her, even facing her, even as Bonnie was leering at her inches away from her face. Even for as much as Bonnie was taunting her, somehow it had started the wheels turning in her head.

Just outside the kitchen, both Serena and Bonnie heard a door open. Both of them immediately went silent, ending their argument short as they raised their heads and looked over to the hall beyond the living room where they had heard the sound come from. They heard footsteps, too, coming up creaky stairs out of the basement beneath them.

They both knew who it was. Serena, who had grown tense with silence, suddenly felt something squeezing her side, prodding at her. Bonnie had decided to take advantage, seemingly unable to spend a single second not trying to make Serena squirm, digging her fingers into Serena's ticklish side to get some kind of response. Before Bonnie could take further advantage she felt a hand grasping the collar of her shirt, hoisting her up with a strength she didn't expect, and immediately pinning her to the wall.

Serena, holding Bonnie by her fist, leaned in close to make sure Bonnie was looking her in the eye—Serena definitely was.

"Listen," Serena said, keeping her voice low. Even with as calm as her tone of voice was she sounded incredibly threatening. "I've been looking forward to spending some time with Clemont, and I will not let you screw this up… So play nice, or… or you'll be entering a—a world of hurt…"

Bonnie was surprised, but she was trying to remember that she still had the upper-hand in the conversation—at least telling herself that. Still, despite how real and genuine the threat seemed, a smile slowly crept across her face like she was about to burst out laughing.

"Oh, Serena… You really have no idea how much trouble you're in for, do you? I'm gonna be the least of your worries…"