Part 2

The next day Misty suggested we split up into two teams and look for any trace of Brock. Meowth insisted on going off on his own and no one wanted to bother him. When James and I went off together I tried to convince him that we should ditch Ash and Misty.

“Look, James, we’re not being any real help to them anyway. Let’s just go, they can’t expect us to stick with them.”

James shook his head stubbornly. “Look, we already agreed we didn’t want to bother trying to steal Pikachu anymore, and it isn’t going to kill us to do them a favor. What if I got lost, wouldn’t you ask for help?”

“I’d let you stay lost!” I didn’t mean that, and he knew that, didn’t he? But he turned his back on me anyway and walked off in another direction. I walked in the opposite direction, all the way to the nearby foothills. That’s when I saw the backpack.

I was sure it belonged to Brock, and when I picked it up I could see that his name was sewn on it. I opened it, but it only held clothes and underwear. This was a very bad sign. But when I looked around, I couldn’t see any sign of blood or a struggle. It looked almost as though Brock had simply put the pack down and wandered off. Finally I headed back to the camp to meet up with everyone.

James was still glaring at me, and I didn’t want to speak to him. Meowth was over at the edge of the campsite, playing with Togepi. I couldn’t believe Misty was letting him do that, but she was actually smiling at them. Meowth looked happier than he had in ages.

When Ash saw me lift up Brock’s backpack, his eyes widened in shock. “Where did you find that?” he asked. I began to explain. Suddenly Ash began glaring at me.

“This is really convenient, isn’t it? First Brock disappears, then Team Rocket shows up with his backpack!”

“How dare you accuse me of anything?” I shouted. “I didn’t even want to look for your stupid friend! Come on, James, let’s go!”

James was staring at Ash in shock and anger, but he still refused to meet my eyes.

Finally Misty came up and put her hand on Ash’s shoulder. There were tears in her eyes. “Look, Brock is like a brother to both of us. We’ve both been really upset since he disappeared, and it’s been hard for us to act mature about this.”

“You aren’t mature; you’re just kids.” I said. I felt sorry for her suddenly, wandering around in the woods with a useless boy and a girl-crazy adolescent.

Ash came over to me and put out his hand. “Please forgive me,” he said. “I know you didn’t do anything to Brock.”

I shook hands with Ash.

“I understand if you want to leave now,” he continued. He looked over at James and Meowth also after he said this.

James just shrugged. “I guess that’s the price you pay when you’re the bad guys. People just can’t seem to trust you much.”

Meowth seemed so fascinated by Togepi I didn’t even think he’d heard the whole exchange. But he looked up and said, “Nah, they didn’t do anything to Brock, I’d have seen it… and anyway, what would they do? They’d take his Pokemon, not his backpack… right, little guy?” Togepi looked up and made one of its squeaky noises.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, I guess we’re staying on then.”

James looked up. “Maybe you can try not to complain so much.”

Finally we all settled in for the night. I was beginning to think that being Cecilia might be a welcome relief from James’s attitude.

“Can you blame him for finally standing up to you?” I asked myself. But before I had time to think about it, I was back in the old house.

This time I wasn’t alone, I was in a large room with many other people, evidently a party. The room was packed so full there didn’t seem to be any seats, so I began to wander around the room just as everyone else was. People smiled and nodded to me. Finally I almost ran into a tall man and I gasped and said, “James!”

The man had a female companion who smirked and said “Mr. Delvile, I didn’t realize that our hostess was so familiar with you!”

She drifted away then, and I took a closer look at the man. I now saw that he bore only a very small resemblance to James after all. His hair was blonde, and his features different. But his eyes and the expression in them were very like James. James would have killed for his clothes though, a fancy jacket and tight pants.

He gave a little bow and murmured tightly, “So, you are speaking to me today, Miss Beverley.”

His name was James then, though he evidently didn’t want me to call him by that. It finally occurred to me that this could be the Mr. D____ of Cecilia’s diary. If he was angry with her, maybe she had my personality after all. But judging by her writing, her problem was more likely to be excessive shyness.

The female companion drifted back to us. I thought it would be poetic if she resembled Jessiebelle, especially since we were all dressed more or less like she did, but this woman was short and had elaborately curled black hair. “Well, Miss Beverley, perhaps you are finally finished annoying Mr. Delvile with your attentions?”

I noticed I was carrying a fan. I told her I would hit her with it if she didn’t shut up, then I walked away. Their shocked faces followed me across the room, and that was when I woke up.

James was snoring quietly, and Meowth was asleep with Togepi next to him. But Misty was sitting up in her sleeping bag. When I noticed her, I gestured to her and we met in the middle of the clearing to talk.

“You look upset,” she said to me. “No offense, but I doubt its about Brock…”

“No offense, but it isn’t,” I replied. “I’ve been having these strange dreams. I think I’m somehow involved in someone else’s life… I guess that’s impossible though.”

She shrugged. “What do you mean by that?”

“Never mind,” I said. There was no way I could explain this to Misty. Maybe I’d try to explain it to James tomorrow, if he was speaking to me.

I couldn’t resist asking her. “Do you ever wish you were somebody else?”

She turned red and pursed her lips, refusing to answer.

“No, really, I want to know,” I persisted.

“Well, sometimes I wish I were more like you,” Misty said finally.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said, “You’re the good guys, you’ve got it made.”

“You don’t think your glamour ever impresses people?” she asked.

“I guess sometimes it does,” I said. “You don’t have to put up with Meowth though.”

“Well, I don’t think I quite have your style anyway,” she said. She struck a pose and said, “Prepare for trouble!” “See, it’s not the same…”

“No,” I said. “Might work better if you did something decent with your hair though.”

“You think your hair is decent?” she asked.

Normally we would have ended up hitting each other, but for some reason we dissolved in laughter and crawled back to our sleeping bags. Tomorrow I would try to talk to James, and I would even put in some more time looking for Brock.