Pokemon - From the Brink

Chapter 17 - Freezing Semi-final

In the middle of the night, we were woken by a creeping chill. The temperature had dropped significantly from a pleasant night to a freezing one, and I felt myself shiver the moment I opened my eyes.

"Hah..." Nelly shuddered, pulling the covers closer, still half asleep. "Why's it s-so cold...?"

"Maybe the heating broke...?" I rubbed my eyes, sitting up in the dark. I turned the bedside lamp on and we both recoiled.

"Ugh..."

"There must be blankets or something..." I yawned, getting out of bed. Even the floor felt cold, but at least my legs seemed to have healed from earlier.

I set about checking the room's wardrobe's and cupboards in the hope that the dormitory had supplied us with extra blankets, but no luck.

"Hrr..." Nelly curled her knees up in an attempt to preserve warmth, only her head poking out from beneath the bed covers. "Anything...?"

"No..." I blinked heavily, checking the time to see that it was only 3am. It was way too early to be dealing with this. Why in the world was it suddenly so cold anyway?

I lumbered over to my suitcase and plucked out the closest thing to a blanket I had. It was a grey hoodie that wasn't exactly made of thick material, but it would have to do.

"Here..." I unzipped the hoodie and pulled the covers back.

"Nn-huh...?"

I draped it over her body and pulled the covers back up to her chin before climbing back into bed.

"What about you?" Nelly asked, gratefully pulling the extra layer closer.

"I'll be fine..." I yawned, turning the light off again and shuffling under the covers.

"Thank you..." She yawned, nestling closer with the hoodie firmly wrapped around her frame. "It's like a little wall against the cold..."

I tried my best to get back to sleep, hiding as much of myself beneath the covers as possible so the cold couldn't get me. Eventually, I managed to drift off...

*

In the morning, I was woken by the sound of the curtains being pulled open.

"Nngh..." I rubbed my eyes and sat up. It was still cold – so cold in fact that Nelly had actually put my hoodie on and put on socks just to walk across the room. She was staring out the window in disbelief, one hand on the glass.

"What is it...?" I made my way over.

"It's snowing..."

Sure enough, the ground outside was covered in a blanket of pure white snow, as far as the eye could see. The roofs of buildings were layered in it too, as the gentle stream of snow fell from the sky.

"What the...?"

"It was so warm yesterday..." Nelly stared.

"These weird weather phenomena are really getting crazy..." I shook my head.

"I wonder if the semi-final will be called off or not?" Nelly looked at me.

"Oh yeah... I'm sure Coach Kudou and Dad'll know."

"Hmm..." She shivered.

The hoodie was a little big for her. The sleeves extended just further than her hands, and her fingers were holding onto the cuffs. The zip barely made it up to her neck and the bottom of the hoodie fell around the top of her thighs instead of her waist. It was admittedly an old piece of clothing, and was baggy on her all over, yet she seemed comfortable wearing it over her nightgown.