The chairman had 4 Pokemon that he could lend to us; all of them rather small. (I suspect that this was because he was prepared for this possible outcome.) He gave each child one Pokemon to use for the day. In total, he gave out a Nickit, a Yamper, a Woobat and a Hatenna.

I'm sure you all know by now which one was lent to me.

He organized us into a bracket where the four chosen children would battle in groups of two, and the two winners from those battles would then go against each other. The winner of the final battle would be the winner overall.

The first two battles went on simultaneously, with a crowd of children surrounding each one. I first fought against the kid given the Woobat; an older boy with moppy brown hair and freckles. He had never particularly stood out to me before that moment, as he was a bit shy. I'd never known him to be interested in Pokemon, and the thought that he had been chosen despite this left me annoyed.

The chairman explained to us each of the Pokemon's moveset. Hatenna currently had 3 moves; Play Nice, Confusion, and Life Dew. Woobat had Attract, Gust and Confusion. I knew quite a bit of battle theory from reading up on the topic, and was eager to put it into use. I understood that, because Woobat and Hatenna were both Psychic-types, our shared move in Confusion would not do much to each other. I also knew I didn't have to worry about Attract, as both Pokemon were female, as the chairman had subtly slipped in as he told us about each Pokemon. (Specifically because Woobat knew Attract, perhaps?) And Play Nice wouldn't be useful, because Gust and Confusion were both Special moves, and Play Nice lowered physical Attack. So, I instead opted for attacking straight-forwardly, using Confusion each turn, and using Life Dew once when my health got low.

When the opposing Woobat went down, I, again, wanted to stomp my feet and cheer in celebration, but I held back, instead just picking up the Pokemon that had just won me the match, squeezing it in a hug once to get the energy out. I shot a snide comment over my shoulder towards the other boy (about how this is what happens when you do things without knowing anything about it) before bringing it to the chairman to heal in between matches. He asked why I didn't just use Life Dew. I told him that doing that would waste its Power Points. He seemed pleasantly surprised that I knew what Power Points were, and he asked, to clarify, if this was really my first time Pokemon battling.