Sheldon got himself scratched in the face. Poor Squirtle.

"Objection." Veruca scoffed. If there were a table in front of her, she would have slammed her hands on it. "Since we discovered Unova, what you just said... It isn't true. Scratch is more accurate, sure, but 95% isn't something you should trifle with. Nor is 50 attack power." Someone just found a contradiction.

The girl smirked at the so-called 'cool guy'. "Sheldon. Don't stop using Tackle."

She motioned her entire hand toward Clive instead of pointing while Sheldon ran toward the Charmander.

"Take that, reject," Veruca said as if she were ordering a soda.

As for the comment about her hoity-toity attitude... She turned around. "Hey! I am not hoity-toity!" the hoity-toity girl shouted at the person watching, whether she knew Lauren was there before or not. She probably didn't, but that comment caught her ears. She turned back toward the battle. Veruca could deal with the older twerp later, probably when she had a bit more experience battling.

"Ja, und I'm not German," the trainer retorted to Veruca's denial of her behavior. And as for Stryder...

Holding back the growing urge to slather most of her speech in sarcasm, the older trainer gave him another narrowed, side-ways look and frowned.

"Vhat's zhe vun ov zhat," she began to ask, "beating zhe tar out ov every team you end up battling against in zhe vorld?"

... and in that moment, Maxwell had redeemed himself somewhat in Lauren's eyes. She found herself smiling at him, and from there her entire face broke out into an approving expression.

"Now zhat ist more like it. You had me going zhere vor a moment, zhat you're vone ov zhose super-jerky cocky types who needs to be brought down a few pegs daily." She gently waved her cane in his direction. "Looks like I von't haff to do zhat zhough. Not today, at least."

Veruca just rolled her eyes and put her hair up in pigtails with two orange ponytail holders. "Sheldon, it looks like he's almost out. Finish him," she commanded in a very nonchalant tone of voice. She crossed her arms and looked down at Clive, her pose automatically cooler than his.

The Squirtle managed a salute, despite its weakened condition. Just one... last... tackle. It ran straight for the Charmander named Bulbasaur with a tackle ready to go! If all went well, that Charmander was dea- er, fainted meat.

Veruca stood over her new rival's stomach. "You uncool, loud, nasty, useless, ill-adapted, unpromising, lousy, obnoxious, undesirable, unlikable, boring, unschooled, unsophisticated, uninteresting, annoying, little twerp." If someone thought she was rotten before, they had not seen her after a win.

"I heard there's an old man in the next town who can teach you how to catch a Pokémon. Looks like you'll need it." Once she said that, it was out the door with her and into the route just outside Pallet Town. Joy! Pidgey and Rattata! What's better, she couldn't catch any she ran into! She muttered and grumbled her way into Viridian City and into the shop hoping to buy some Pokéballs.

The shopkeeper got her attention, though.
"Oh, you must be that new trainer from Pallet Town! Professor Oak told me you were coming by to pick up something for him," he told her. "This package takes two people to carry, so you should wait for the other trainer, okay?"

Working with Clive? SADFACE. Wait, why did Oak rope her into this without her knowledge? Sneaky devil.

"You're Clive, right?" he asked.

She corrected him, "Veruca."

He smiled and clapped! "Yes, that's right! You're waiting for Veruca! Well, just wait there, Clive."

Veruca could feel the steam coming out of her ears.