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Lyle still couldn't believe it. The new Gym Leader wanted to interview him! Mom said that meant only that she was considering him, but even so that was better than being dismissed. And the interview was today!

A little while back when he was at his after school pokemon trainer club, the teacher had said that the new Gym Leader was taking applications for assistant trainers, and gave applications to all the students who'd wanted them. After reading over the rules, what a Gym Assistant had to do and what they would get in return, it seemed almost too good to be true. Assistants get food, clothes, a place to stay and care for their pokemon? And even money if they fought people? He couldn't wait to fill out the form! His mom had even been fine with it, after she read it all and made sure he knew that this was like a job and he'd have to do all his work. So she helped him fill it out and send it in. It didn't seem like very long at all before he'd gotten a phone call asking for an interview. Once that was set up, the days seemed to crawl as he waited for the right day, but it was finally time.

He just had to bring Spinel with him, it wouldn't be fair not to. But since he couldn't bring Spinel to school and the interview was after school, he had to rush home quick and pick up his pokemon. His mom was there and made him change into nice clothes before he went. He tried to protest that trainers didn't need fancy clothes, but she said it never hurt to make a good impression, and wouldn't let him leave in his normal clothes. So he quickly changed into a button-down shirt, nice pants and no hat. He'd grown out of his dress shoes, and complained loudly about his feet hurting when she tried to make him wear the too-small ones, so she reluctantly let him wear his sneakers. Finally she let him go and he ran out with Spinel. Spinel tried to ride on his head, but with no hat it was harder to hold on and he ended up running alongside the boy.

He got to the Pokemon Center a little out of breath, but he didn't care. He stepped inside and looked around for the Gym Leader. He thought he knew what she looked like. She'd been at the tournament, and he knew he saw her there.

Lyle looked over when a voice called out. The speaker looked familiar, he was pretty sure she was the new Gym Leader. So he grinned, waved and walked over. "Yup! I'm Lyle, and this is Spinel." He picked up his pokemon to show her, and Spinel waved too. Then he twisted around to climb up on Lyle's shoulder, then perch on his head. If Lyle wasn't going to be moving around too much, he figured he could stay on without too much trouble.

Then Lyle noticed the silver-and-white pokemon on Shina's lap. "Ooo, is that an Eevee? It's so pretty," he said, leaning forward to get a better look. He wanted to ask if he could pet it, but his mom had made sure he knew this was important and he had to be on his best behavior. So no playing with pokemon. Unless she asked him to. He hoped Spinel climbing on his head didn't count. With that in mind, he stood up straight again.

"Cool! Hi, Yuki," Lyle said waving to the Eevee as Shina stood up. Then he followed her into the other room. Did interviews usually happen in a private room? He didn't even know. Mom had just said that the Gym Leader would ask him some questions to figure out if he'd be good for the job, and he should answer honestly. She also told him to remember everything he'd ever done that would prepare him for being a good trainer, because the Gym Leader might want to know about that. She'd even had him write down everything he could think of, which felt a lot like homework, but he did it. He did want to be a gym assistant. He hoped he'd though of everything important.

Lyle sat down too, though Spinel's weight on his head made him wobble a little as he did so. "Come on down, Spinel," he told his pokemon, patting the table. The Sableye hopped right down, letting Lyle sit more easily. He tried to remember to sit up and not slouch.

Spinel noticed the Eevee sitting on Shina's lap and cocked his head, wondering if he should sit on his boy's lap. But his boy had patted the table, not his lap, so maybe he should stay here. So he sat down on the table top, looking between the humans, the Eevee, and the rest of the room as they talked.

Lyle was happy that Shina's first question was an easy one. "Yup, just Spinel!" he told her. "I found him when I was out digging for shiny rocks. Quartz, people kept telling me they were. And Spinel liked eating the shiny rocks, so after I fed him some he followed me home. And mom let me keep him because we don't have to buy him any food!"

Lyle grinned. These were easy questions! He'd been worried she would ask him hard stuff like at school. "Spinel's my friend! We're together all the time, except when I'm at school. He has to stay home, but I had him promise to be good and not to take stuff that isn't his and stuff, so I let him play outside while I'm gone. My family's apartment's on the edge of the city, so he can play on the plains. He digs up quartz sometimes, so he's got lots of food and I don't have to spend all my time doing that instead of playing and training him. Sometimes we dig it up together anyway, cuz it's fun and I like finding pretty ones. I don't just feed him quartz, either," he made sure to add. "The nurse at the Pokemon Center said that's not enough for him, so she gives me pills made from gem dust that I can feed him once a day. I don't want him to get sick or anything, so I come back for those once a week and sometimes she checks him to make sure he's ok. Oh! And sometimes if I have some money from a tournament or something, I buy him a treat, like one of those semi-precious stones you can get in the museum gift shop."

"So anyway, when I'm home and not doing homework or stuff, I go out with him a lot. We've fought a couple wild pokemon before, and I train with him other ways. Like I throw a rock in the air and have him try and hit it with a Shadow Ball before it hits the ground. I'm in the pokemon trainer club at school too, so sometimes I can bring him to school in a pokemon and we can train there with the other kids. That's where I learn some of the training things I can try with him at home."

"Um..." Was there anything else he did to take care of Spinel? "I make sure he doesn't get the house messy. Mom was worried he'd make a mess, eating rocks and all, but I feed him outside and keep the quartz in a bucket outside. He doesn't eat too much, because if he eats it all at once there won't be more for later, for when we don't have time to dig. And I taught him to help out with the chores at home, cleaning my room and stuff. Cuz the sooner that's done, the sooner we can get to fun stuff!" That was about all he could think of.

Lyle was starting to relax, because she kept asking easy questions. Looks like this was nothing to worry about! "He's a Sableye, a Dark/Ghost type. It's cool, he's not weak to anything!" Then he paused, remembering something he learned in the trainer club. "Well, almost nothing. If a pokemon can hit a Ghost with Fighting moves somehow, like using Odor Sleuth, then he'd be weak to Fighting moves. But normally he's not weak to anything." He smiled, proud that he'd remembered something useful about battling to show the Gym Leader.

"Yup!" Lyle replied. "There's Shadow Ball, Ice Punch, Confuse Ray and Psych Up. Psych Up is so much fun to use. If the other pokemon had boosted itself somehow, Spinel can use Psych Up to copy them! I love using it when I can."

Spinel remembered this attack too. He grinned widely, making it clear he enjoyed that one, too.

"Ice Punch," Lyle said promptly. He'd fought Normal-types before, including an Eevee, so he hardly had to even think about the answer. "Eevee's Normal-type, so Shadow Ball wouldn't do anything. Rock Smash would be even better, though."

Spinel was starting to get bored of the talking. He looked between his boy and the other human, wondering how long they'd keep at it. And if he could go back to climbing on his boy to keep himself amused.