“These vanilla squares your mom makes are fantastic,” summer time at the PCA didn’t mean the end to classes. A full term was dedicated just to helping students get ahead or to catch up depending on what they needed. Most students stuck around the school as an excuse to keep away from family or to stay close to friends or loved ones; some even stayed to actually go to school. Students still appreciated it whenever their parents sent care packages full of free stuff, free food and hopefully even some money.

“I know Jonas, well, loves it whenever she…sends some along,” Daaku Reji answered as he went through some of the other objects in the box, “Mom r-really went all out this…time around,” He pulled out a short sleeved button up shirt, “She also thinks my, well, wardrobe needs an update too,” He held the shirt up to himself as his girlfriend, Blueberry Swirl, gave it a critical look.

“She’s right,” Blue agreed, “You do need an update. I’m sure Freya, Sheril and I could take you shopping and help you out!” She grinned as she liked the idea more and more. Reji lowered the shirt with a bit of a worried look on his face.

“W-why don’t w-we just start with you and me going?” Reji answered. Blue giggled and walked over to pinch his cheek a bit.

“I was teasing you, dear. You need to keep working on relaxing,” Reji let out a breath and nodded his head before he smiled at the Vaporeon and wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Still working on…on it,” He answered, “I’ve got enough reason to, well, get past everything…just have to finish doing it,”

“How’re those classes coming along?” Blue asked as she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and headed over to the care box to see what else was inside. Reji turned as he walked to his closet to put away the new shirt.

“Pretty…pretty good,” Reji said as he rifled through some things in his closet, “Acting class has been going well. Public speaking has been, well…r-rough at times. But I got a solid…B+ on my last speech.” Reji gave a very proud smile.

“I expect a solid A+ by your last speech, dear,” Blue told him as she pulled out a decent sized scrap book. Reji nodded since that’s what he expected out of himself as well. He glanced over as she started thumbing through the pages of pictures.

“What’s all this?” Blue queried as she looked at some of the pictures. A giggle passed through her lips as she saw one of a naked Psyduck, obviously a baby Reji, spread out on an Ursaring skin rug. Reji’s cheeks colored as he saw the picture she was looking at and sighed.

“Oh, mom figured I’d…I’d like to see how much I’ve changed over, well, the years especially compared to…now,” the Golduck said before he quickly changed the page to show some other pictures of him as a youngster.

“You were so adorable as a little kid!” Blue almost squealed as she looked through several pictures him as a dumpy, chubby kid. Reji just smiled as he looked through some of them.

“Yeah, those were some of the, well…some of the good pictures of me. Before my headaches kicked…kicked in,” A small sigh escaped his beak as he thought about those days, the ones that pushed him into some actions he still regretted. Blue leaned into her beau a bit more to try and offer him some comfort from his memories. He smiled in return and reached out to flip a few more sparse pages with few pictures on them.

“Who’s this?” Blue asked suddenly as a picture came up of a young Reji and an elderly looking Grumpig with a funky Fu Man Chu mustache. Reji straightened suddenly, almost as if out of instinct, and looked down to the photo.

“That was my old…don’t want to quite say master but kinda…like what you see in the movies. My old, well…teacher. Mr. Tunyung.” Reji explained, “After my evolution and my…accident with my old friend they sent me to, well, to him to help me get over…myself,” He shrugged since he didn’t have a better answer then that.

“What was he like?” Blue asked as she flipped the page and saw more pictures of the two. In each of them Mr. Tunyung smiled though Reji either looked disinterested or exhausted.

“He was…hard to describe,” Reji answered after a moment of considering it, “He wasn’t, well…easy on me but he also didn’t push me as hard as he, I guess, could’ve? If that makes sense?”

“Kinda?” Blue answered, “Kinda vague though, Reji,”

“Well, he started out pretty harsh on me…wouldn’t really let me sleep,” Reji said, “Would get me up a lot to, well, work out…or just work. I helped him rebuild a…a shrine that summer.” He smiled a bit ruefully at the thought, Most of the time I was too tired by the end of it…to even really think about being upset most of the time. That lasted for, well, about four months. After that…things changed some…”

“Well? You going to tell me or you going to leave me hanging here?” Blue poked Reji after he fell quiet for a moment and looked over some more of the pictures. The Duck oofed a bit and smirked at her.

“After that…after I was so tired I could even really think he, well, he started training me about my mental abilities. I’ve always been a bit…I guess gifted when it comes to my, well, my mental abilities; especially moving things. So for the next four months I did a lot of…moving stuff for him. Rocks, plants, buckets of water…things like that. By the end of it I was…well, really tired mentally and physically.”

“Did that seem to help?” Blue asked as she flipped the page to finally find one of Reji smiling with Mr. Tunyung.

“At first…no. I mean I was, well…I was exhausted. I couldn’t really do much more than just kinda…wander through life. But after I got some sleep and started feeling better I stopped being…as mopey.”

“Considering how you were when I met you I’d hate to see how mopey you were back then,” Blue teased him. Reji smirked again and gave her a quick tickle which turned the giggle into a squeal from the Vaporeon. Reji stopped after a moment and then hugged her against him to keep her from retaliating.

“I did used to be…be really bad. I’m still working on getting better,” He admitted, “Between you and the team and school and work…I guess I just don’t have the time to, well, to worry about stuttering or being scared of everything,”

“I’m glad we’ve been able to help you, Reji,” Blue said as she gave his bill a quick peck, “Hopefully we can get you over the last little bit,” Reji smiled at the kiss and nuzzled her cheek a bit.

“It’s kinda like Mr. Tunyung told me…that I’ll be able to get over it when I stop thinking about it,” He lowered his head to look at the pictures, “Didn’t quite get what he meant…maybe this was what he was talking about,”

“You mean that once you got too busy living to dwell on stuff you’d get over it all?” Blue offered. Reji nodded his head as he looked at the last picture of him with his teacher; in it both of them were smiling for once. He thought on it for a moment before he looked at her and smiled.

“Guess I just have to keep concentrating on the good things and not worry about the past, huh?” He smiled to her in return.

“Probably yeah,” she agreed, “If you wanted we could start on that right now,” a mischievous look crossed her face after she said it. Reji looked at her a bit confused at first.

“What do you mean….oh!” And then it dawned on him as he smiled, “I think I could go with that,” He quickly put the book aside and moved everything else off his bed to clear some room. Two thoughts entered his mind as he embraced Blueberry again, the first being that he was thankful for everything that she and her other friends have done for him. The other was that Jonas wasn’t going to be back for a couple hours…

Haven't seen a new story from you in qa while... awesome work! ^w^ Sweet and nice... go Reji! 8D

Yeah, been a few months. >< Wanted to do something and unfortunately this didn't want to be longer than it was.

It's still good though. ^w^

A nice one. Glad to read something new from you.

Thanks for the support!