Everyone says that I'm a hot-headed girl, I have anger issues. It is true that I have anger issues, but I wonder when did it all start...

When I come to the school, I joined the department of Pokemon Battling. I don't have that many friends, but after classes, I always head to the school grounds to find Charlos the Charcadet. Charlos was at first wary of me, but after feeding him with Churros that I brought from Artazon, he seems to be getting along with me, and he has been a good friend of mine.

My school life is not that perfect, I can see a lot of people drooling at my looks, and that also causes some girls to be jealous. So sometimes after class, I was suddenly stopped by those girls and they gave me a beating.

"Why... why are you doing this..." I mutter with pain and agony in my body.

"Acting like a princess, are you? Do you think it will work?" As the girl continues to beat me up, I wanted somebody to help me, but the others are just treating this like some sort of show, until he shows up.

"Even if you're a girl, I'm not tolerating bullying others in school." The boy that defended me, is wearing black and he has blonde hair. By his side, he has a Lycanroc, and he is growling at the girls that are bullying me, causing them to get scared and run away.

"Hey, are you okay?" The boy helps me up and asks me.

"I'm fine... thank you for helping me..." I say. "My name is Mela, and you're..."

"I'm Gladion, a sophomore." He says. "Why do those girls want to beat me?"

"They say that I'm acting like a princess... but I didn't do anything..." I say.

"For some reason, the school has a high bully rate..." Gladion sighs. "And it seems that I have got a lot of attraction. Let's go somewhere private."

He grabs my hand and I can feel my face starting to burn, why does he care so much about me? Why would he even go this far to defend me while the others didn't?

After we get to the place where I used to play with Charlos, the two of us are sitting together and we start to chat.

"So they are your classmates?" Gladion asks me.

"Yeah... all three of them are in the same class as me... ever since my first day, they have been ganging up on me a lot of times." I say.

"And you just let yourself be bullied by them?" Gladion asks. "If anything, you should try to fight back, or maybe stand up for yourself."

"But... I don't have any friends... I don't think being angry at them is going to help..." I frown.

"Who said you don't have any friends? Don't you have your Pokemon? And I also noticed that you often play with Charlos the Charcadet." Gladion says to me, much to my surprise. "And if you want, I want to be friends with you as well."

I was surprised at what he was saying, and I ask, "Why would you want to be friends with a nobody like me?"

"Everyone is born special, you're not a nobody. You're your own person, so I suggest that you should live fully of yourself." Then he stands up and says, "Battle me right now, I won't take no for an answer."

"Battle? Are you sure we're allowed to battle here?" I ask. I like to battle, that's why I join the battling department, and when the two of us use the plaza to battle, my Houndoom was easily defeated by his Lycanroc. But he is nice enough to give out some pointers and also some tips to improve.

Ever since that day, no matter when I get to meet Gladion, I feel like my cheeks are heating up. Is this love? Or I'm just being an annoying fangirl of some sort? But thanks to him, I finally know how to stand up for myself.

"Well if it isn't the princess again?" The same bully walks to me, "And you don't have your boyfriend to help you this time, huh?"

I was scared at first, but then I take a breath and grabs her collar, "Back off. If you think I'm the same girl as before, then you're going to get your ass kicked!"

"Why you little..." Before she can try to attack me, I decide to give her a kick on the leg, causing her to fall to the ground in pain. And for some reason, seeing her pain is... satisfying, and it also gives me more confidence.

"If anyone else wants to try it out, then bring it on." I taunt, and the bully leader just mutters, "Let's just go... you're paying for this, princess..."

And ever since that day, no matter who picks up a fight, I will always fight back with my words, or sometimes with a kick, so that they will stop picking on me. And after class, I also spend some time with Gladion and his group besides playing with Charlos. However, I never get to confess my feelings to him, maybe because I was too scared, or somebody like him already has a girlfriend and I wouldn't be able to compare myself to her...

A year later, Gladion is not at the school anymore, I did get to call him, and he says, "I'm sorry, Mela. Giacomo also called me about this, but I was forced by my parents to stay at Alola. But it will be fine for me... It has been a long time since I met my sister and she had been worried about me for a long time."

Gladion did tell me about his sister, and how she has some sort of phobia about touching Pokemon, and she always stays at her house without going outside and meeting others.

"I see... that's fine. I'm sure you'll find a way to cure your sister's phobia." I say to him.

"Thank you, Mela. That means a lot." Gladion says.

After that call, I don't know why, but my heart was aching. Maybe because Gladion is not in the same school as me now... and this fact also changes me drastically.

No matter how many months have passed, the same bullies will always pick on me, no matter how many insults I have inflicted on them, but during this year, they also play smart as they tricked me a lot of times so that I was the only one being punished by the teachers.

When Giacomo becomes the president of the school council, he was trying to do some suggestion box comments, I decided to write one and ask for the bullying to stop. Giacomo manages to help me with this one since we're friends, but after a few weeks, Giacomo was forced to step down as the president.

When I see Giacomo being bullied by the others, I tried to help him by fighting against the people who hurt him, but he stops me and says, "Don't... I'm sure Gladion won't want to see you do something like this..."

"But are you just going to let them continue to beat you up?" I ask him. "It is not fair. You just want the best for everyone and you were forced to step down as the president..."

"Mela..." Giacomo slowly stands up and says, "Since you're here, I want to ask you something."

"And what is it?" I ask, and Giacomo sighs, "Are those people still bullying you?"

"What do you think?" I say in a sarcastic tone, "They learn how to play smart, and I was always the one being punished by the teachers. I'm sure that they want me to get expelled now that Gladion won't be here to help me."

"If that's the case, do you want to join us?" Giacomo asks as I look at him with a weird look.

"Join what? Are you having some sort of club?" I ask.

Giacomo takes out the Rotom Phone and I can hear a voice, "So you're Mela, right?"

"Who are you?" I ask since I don't recognize the voice.

"My name is Cassiopeia. I met Giacomo a few days ago, when I saw him being bullied by people, I was so angry at those people who take others' kindness for granted. We created this Team Star and we are gathering people like you to our team so we can get revenge against those people and become the bright star instead."

"That sounds quite shady... and why should I trust you?" I ask.

"Mela, don't you want to get your revenge on those people who want your expulsion? Are you going to let them do whatever they want?" She says. "Who knows how many people they've hurt right now at this university for their pleasure?"

The more she talks, the more I get angry at those bullies, and eventually, I decide to help Giacomo and this Cassiopeia out as I joined Team Star.

After being in the Team Star, I have to help the rich kid Ortega for powering up the Starmobiles that we're using for the operation. And I suggest that I'm going to evolve the Charcadets into Armarogue and Ceruledge so that they can use their Fire moves to power up the vehicle.

"Man, what a hassle... Pulled it off just in time." I walk toward my four other teammates, Giacomo, Ortega, Atticus, and Eri after I manage to evolve a lot of Charcadets with the Auspicious Armor and the Malicious Armor that I found

"Welcome back, Mellie!" Eri says.

"I managed to get a buncha Charcadet to evolve." I say. "That oughta be enough to power the Starmobile and finally get that hunka metal rollin'."

"Glad tidings indeed. Is it not so, Ortega?" Atticus looks at the rich boy.

"I'm just surprised she's not all hot air..." The way Ortega talks really gets on my nerves.

"Oh, shut it with the snide comments! You can be such an annoyin' twerp, you know that?" I yell at him.

"As if you're any better, Mela." Ortega says back to me. "Being rude and saying mean things is literally your whole deal."

"That's not true, Ortie." And as usual, Eri is standing by my side. "The girls at the academy have always been jealous of how cute Mellie is. She just puts on a surly attitude so they'll stop picking on her. Although... I guess you're not wrong to say that her surly attitude is what people know her for..."

"What?! Come on - not you too, Eri!" I yell back as I really wish I could go back to being a normal girl for once.

"How 'bout we leave it at that, folks? It's almost time for the big event." Giacomo sighs.

"Yes, Operation Star... It's finally happening." Eri says.

"And the big boss? What, pray, is their plan?" Atticus asks.

"They already got in touch with all the bullies and asked 'em to head over to the schoolyard." Giacomo says.

"It's finally time, huh... Man, I'm so stoked! The thrill's burnin' me right up!" I say with excitement in my blood, oh how I really want them to pay for everything they've done to me.

And this is Mela's POV Chapter, and Mela has a crush on Gladion, but she is too scared to confess, and Gladion doesn't know about this as well. I hope you like this chapter and the next chapter will be the Lurking Steel Titan.