Failed Contest Attempt

[Alix Taylor]

"Bull!"

Alix was currently perched on a chair, her hands nervously gripping the skin directly above her knees, her back slightly hunched (demonstrating her not so hot posture). She had placed herself in the attire that she had planned for contests. A pair of slender brown shorts and a brown and white striped tank top. Oh, and a ribbon in her unkempt hair (which was nearly invisible). Her regular runners sat on her shoes instead of a different pair. Alix preferred to keep her shoe count at one pair. But that didn't exactly help her now and her dilemma. She didn't feel like a million bucks. And she certainly didn't look like it either.

"Snubbull!"

Maggie simply refused to be ignored as she yanked Alix from lala land. Tugging on her arm, Alix nearly jumped at the contact. Reestablishing herself, she wiped the surprise from her eyes and face to smile down anxiously at the Fairy creature.

"Yes Maggie? Oh, are we up now?" she asked, rising to her feet. In her frantic and panicked state, she forgot the sleeping Squirtle that sat poised and unconscious in her lap. When she stood, Mikey tumbled down, clashing on the ground. Alix noticed too late and was unable to catch him. "Ohmygosh I'm so sorry Mikey! Are you ok?!" she stammered, dropping to her knees to aid the currently grumbling reptile.

Maggie sighed, practically slapping a paw to her face. Her trainer was a mess. The girlcertainly didn't act this way in practice or when alone. It was just because they had to perform in front of a crowd of many, many people that gave her the shakes. An example being now. She was usually cool and collected when in battle or trainer. Now her naturally clumsiness and ditsy forgetfulness were pooling in her actions. She was not herself. And she did not look it.

Maggie rested her soft paws on her hips, determined to change this. First of all, she'd give Alix a mini-pep talk before dragging her off to a bathroom. Alix choice of clothing was cute, but Maggie wanted this to be special. She had witnessed the previous doings of other coordinators. Judges liked the gowns and dressy look. Though Alix's outfit was ok, she'd look more like a coordinator if she dressed slightly more…or slightly less casual.

Sad enough to say, Alix hadn't prepared for a double appeal. Rather, she had worked with Maggie on the regular type appeal. Probably something else that added to her recent stress. Though, Mikey and Matthew threw in a few hours of practice. Together, they discovered that their past actions were oddly useful in creating a stunning appeal. Sadly for Maggie, she was to wait for the battle round. She was the 'secret weapon', as everyone aside from Akika was unaware that Alix even had three pokemon (Tray Waters being the second to know that she possessed Mikey). In case of somehow versing him here, she wished to surprise him with a third and quite strong puppy-girl. As well, Maggie was seen as a better battler than Mikey. Well… if Mikey could even battle. Alix didn't want to leave the turtle out of the competition, so she talked it over with Maggie. They agreed that the boys would handle the appeal, while Maggie would have her chance to shine at the next contest.

Back to the case, Maggie had taken Alix's hand and gently told her to leave the semi-snoring turtle on the bench. Matthew was off doing something somewhere, vowing to return in a few minutes. Mikey would be enough indication that the girl were off doing something. Dragging Alix's bag along, Maggie gestured for Alix to head to the ladies' room.

Once inside, Maggie shut and locked the door, preventing another from coming in and hopefully easing Alix's nerves. Maggie then bounded over to the pastel yellow bag, tugging a wrapped parcel from it. Alix blinked in confusion as Maggie pushed it into her arms. The paper was loosely taped over the contents, allowing Alix a little leeway in guessing. It was… plushie?

"What's this Maggie?" the girl asked, shaking it as if it would make a noise. It made none, aside from the crinkling of paper under Alix's grip.

"Snub, snubbull!" Maggie replied cheerily, reassuring the female and asking her to open it. Alix smiled at the gift, tearing back the pink paper slowly, until of course, she reached the fabric. Alix blinked at the white cloth. Now, what was this? Tearing the paper further, she unearthed more cloth. Tugging it out (and dropping the restof the package in the process), she shook out the clothing before realizing what it actually was.

"Oh no Maggie!" Alix gasped, nearly flinging the cloth away, mortified. A dress! A white dress! "I can't wear that!" she breathed, eyes small with the terror that she felt. It. Was. A . Dress. Alix did not have the body to wear a dress. Her line was drawn at surfboarding shorts.

The fairy crossed her arms, an unhappy expression boiling onto her features. "Snubbull, snub snubbull." She replied curtly. That dress had been hand tailored to Alix when Maggie had stayed with Alix's mother. They put that together quickly specifically for contests. And it wasn't like it was sluttily short. It reached her knees. It was perfectly nice. And relatively plain, in comparison to what they could have made it. Maggie then reached into the package, tugging out a tri-folded letter, handing it to the flustered female.

Alix took it instantly, hoping that it had a 'JUST KIDDING' saying written in it. Unfolding it frantically, the color drained from her face as she scanned over the text.

'Maggie and I made this for you. And since I know you well, there's a nice new sweater that can be worn overtop so no one can see your shoulders. And if you don't wear it, you will be in trouble.

Love Mom

PS- I'll be watching the television for the contest broadcast'

"Shoot me now…" Alix muttered, tossing the letter to the ground and plastering her hands to her face. She did not want to wear that. She hated dresses. But with Maggie's pleading look and her mom's threat, it didn't seem like she had a choice. "Fine. I'll try it on and if I don't like it, I'm not wearing it," she warned, though she knew that the threat was empty. She was kind of stuck here. Which sucked. Majorly.

Slipping into the first stall, Alix disappeared with the pretty white article. Maggie clapped her paws together in delight before plunging back into Alix's bag. If Alix though the dress was all, she was wrong. The Fairy pokemon was not going to go overboard, but she insisted to do Alix's hair in a nicer fashion. After all, the brunette only got up and combed it in the morning. No styling, no blow-drying, no nothing. One comb, no look in the mirror. It was no wonder why the girl had no boyfriend.

Maggie tugged out a comb and styling gel. Leaping onto the counter, she hauled herself up and watched as Alix exited the stall. A smile stretched onto her face as she beamed happily at the girl.

Alix felt awkward. She could see her reflection and plunged herself into denial. No, she couldn't wear that. No… she wouldn't look good in it. She couldn't….could she? Her face twisted as she refused to voice any thing to Maggie other than sour, displeased comments. Though the dog did not allow her to do so. She quickly commanded that the girl to turn around and kneel so Maggie could access the rathead of hair. Alix did as told, not even bothering to argue. This was Maggie's first contest. She wanted to make the previously-abused Snubbull feel good. Now she regretted promising that to her.

Since they were short on time, Maggie was settling for something that she thought would look pretty. She didn't have the time or supplies to straighten the slightly curly and frizzy hair, to she'd pull it from the girl's face. After all, she wouldn't totally put Alix on the spot out there. She gently collected Alix's hair, combing as she went and, using a green scrunchie, tied it in a loose ponytail. After a bit of cream and combing, it actually didn't look too bad.

Asking for the girl to turn (but keep her eyes closed), Maggie rinsed her paws and turned back to her. Alix actually looked a bit more relaxed. Ha. Maggie knew that touching the girl's hair was a de-stressor. It was something that her mom told her. Parting Alix's bangs on the side instead of having them fall flat, she gently combed them sideways. Alix remained silent and still, not moving at all, aside from the occasional twitch of the eye.

Taking a few of the long strands from the sides of her face (the one that refused to be kept in a ponytail), Maggie used a bit of the styling stuff to calm it and allow it to sweep around Alix's face, framing it nicely. Touching a few different areas of brown hair, Maggie grinned at her work. Snatching a lotion tube, she squirted it onto her paws and smeared it on Alix's cheeks and face. The girl responded immediately, scrunching up her nose and threatening to reopen her eyes. Maggie quickly uttered a plea and Alix's face smoothed over again. Rubbing the substance in, Maggie allowed a grin to pull at her cheeks. It was a moisturizing cover-up cream, meant to smooth the skin (though Alix really didn't need it).

Maggie then backed away, bumping into the mirror as she inspected the girl. Thoroughly pleased, she nodded and spoke, telling the girl that she could open her eyes. Alix did so, opening a pair of hazel spheres. Her reaction was unexpected.

Alix gasped, immediately having an almost pained expression cover her face. Maggie was confused. Why? Why was she reacted so… weirdly? Did she not like looking like this? "Snubbull?" Maggie asked, touching the girl's hand and tried to ease her mortified expression.

Alix didn't… know what to think. She never dressed up. She didn't like dressing up. She never… never put on pretty clothes. She was… to be honest, afraid. Afraid of looking admirable. Afraid of being looked at. Afraid of being judged. She always referred to herself as gross. Disgusting. Repulsive. She never, ever admitted any sort of compliment towards her appearance. Never. So, she always looked the same. Never spiffy, never beautiful. At most she appeared cute. That was it. Nothing more. So, looking at her new and buffered appearance was a shock. She had bad experiences while dressing classy in the past that she did not care to recall. She couldn't even believe that that was her staring shockingly in the reflection. No, that wasn't her. That was some… someone else. Some pretty girl that was standing beside her. Turning, Alix saw no one. What…why was this… "That's not me…" Alix muttered quietly, as the reflection expressed some distant, lost gaze.

Maggie shook her head, gently prodding Alix's forearm. "Snub snubbull, snub snubbull bull" 'That is you. Look how pretty you are.'

Alix knew that she was in denial. Well, Maggie in the mirror was tugging on that foreign girl's arm. Alix felt the same grip on her own arm. That girl... that person in the mirror… was her. Tears formed and threaten to spill down the girl's cheeks as she held back a quiet sniff.

"Snub! Snubbull?" Maggie asked quickly, demanding to know what was wrong. Her baby blue eyes locked on the girl in worry as a smile gently poked onto Alix's face.

"No, it's ok Maggie. I just… I thought that I could never… look decent…" she muttered, breaking eye contact with her reflection to smile warmly at Maggie. "I'll try to do my best out there, but I'm sorry if I can't be like the other beau-"

"Snubbull." Maggie said quickly, cutting Alix off in mid sentence. "Bull bull snub, snubbull snub." The pink puppy sent Alix a nice, reassuring speech on how she'd do her best and that's all it would be. Alix grinned, vision blurring as worthless tears of joy puckered at her eyes. Maggie reached up gently, wiping away the traces of moisture. "Snubbull snub bull," she said cutely, relaying that she didn't want the tears to ruin Alix's minute amount of make-up. Alix chuckled lightly before rising.

Gazing at herself again, trying oh so hard to not gape at herself, tugged at the dress as she tried to pull it down a bit farther. A displeased look from Maggie ended her futile attempts. Alix sighed, rolling her eyes as she waited for Maggie to instruct her further. The fairy pokemon tugged another cloth from the parcel, this time green in color. Handing it to Alix, the girl quickly realized that it was the sweater than she was 'allowed' to wear over top of the gown. Casting a pleading look to her friend, the pink pooch sighed and nodded. Within seconds Alix had pulled the green sweater on, leaving the zipper open.

As Alix did so, Maggie tugged a nice pair of white high heels from the bag, pretty much emptying its contents. Alix immediately froze. This was where she drew the line. "No. No heels," she said quickly and curtly, crushing Maggie's hopeful expression. Alix folded her arms stubbornly, not budging. Ok, she'd wear a dress. Ok, she'd allow her hair to be done. And ok, she'd allow Maggie to cake on a tad of make-up. But no one messed with her runners.

"Snubbull?"

"No."

"…Snubbull?"

"No."

"…Snuuuuub?"

"...Never."

Maggie sat unhappily, shoving the heels away in discontent. Well, hopefully from the crowd wouldn't notice the lack of pretty shoes. Alix's pigheadedness could probably not be swayed. Especially in the short amount of time left that Maggie had. Throwing her hands up in defeat, Alix let out a little cheer, dancing back and forth between her bare toes. Maggie tossed Alix her socks and runners, pushing the leftover supplies back into Alix's bag.

Ee gad! I hate this. This did not turn out the way I wanted it to, so I gave up on it. Typed it up in school during my endless spares. Thought it was a waste to just delete it, so it was put here.

[Akika Miroku]

*giggle* poor maggie...