Even from a young age, Alexa had the dual problem of being nosy and asking way too many questions. She was always eavesdropping and watching people, and asked guests, friends, and teachers a barrage of questions. She’d even point out inconsistencies in the things normal people talked about.
Her mother always told her that being nosy was impolite. Curiosity killed the Meowth, after all. Alexa was always quick to point out the rest of the saying: “Curiosity killed the Meowth—but satisfaction brought it back”.
In the 4th grade, parents came in to describe what they did for a living. Alexa was enraptured with stories about the newspaperman. She hounded him with questions afterward, and decided then that she wanted to become a reporter too—someone who uncovered the truth and used it to make life better for everyone.
To that end, Alexa’s life quickly become focused around school, grades, and her devotion to one day become a journalist. She started carrying around notebooks, writing observations and “article ideas”. She even wrote little articles in them sometimes. She got much better as she got older; honing her craft with classes and practice.
In her spare time, Alexa started a blog online to document and post her amateur news stories. She didn’t understand a lot of things like protocol or stylistic expectations, but she wrote from the heart and improved. Viola liked contributing pictures to the stories. Most of them were just pictures of the city or Pokemon she’d seen at the park. She’d always post one with a story when Viola presented her with pictures, though.
In high school, Alexa eschewed sports, the arts, and…well, pretty much everything else to focus on her schoolwork. She went to an exclusive all-girls school, and she excelled. The only extracurricular she participated in was—shocker—the student newspaper. She didn’t have time for much else, and as a result didn’t go on her first date until after she’d graduated high school.
Graduating valedictorian gave Alexa her pick of universities and she chose to attend Jobournne University to pursue a major in journalism. She moved out of the house to live on campus at the dormitories. It took some getting used to, but she found that she loved being around so many people. She took to college life quickly, even making some friends along the way.
One such friend was Cassius Danneels, or just Cass to his friends. A year her senior, Cass was a punk, and what he referred to as an “anarcho-engineer”. The two became fast friends, with Cass occasionally arranging to “borrow” gear, like cameras and microphones, from the A/V lab to help Alexa film news segments for her blog, often acting as cameraman, and providing transport with his shitty van. He also completely overhauled her blog, for free.
“Guaranteed, nobody’s getting through this firewall.” he told her with a grin, “Whatever dirt you find on the corrupt fascists in charge of things, post ‘em here. They’ll never see you comin’, Al.”
While Alexa was thriving in university, things had been getting worse between Viola and their mother. Alexa received countless exasperated phone calls from her mom, venting or asking for Alexa to “smooth things over”. Alexa was honest, telling her mother that she didn’t have the time to keep putting out fires with Viola. She wasn’t happy to hear that, of course, but she respected it. Thing between Viola and their mom only got worse, and have never really gotten better.
Alexa worked a part time job, to help with things like food money. However, she also saved a bunch every payday for a gift for Viola. By Viola’s fourteenth birthday, she had saved up enough to buy her a professional-grade camera.
While they hadn’t seen each other thatmuch after Alexa moved out, Alexa took the day off on Viola’s birthday to visit and spend the day with her. The two talked and idled around town; it felt like the old days. They talked about Viola’s life, about her expulsion from St. Veronica’s (really, Viola?), and about the difficulties with their mother.
By the end of the day, Alexa gave Viola her gift. Viola was speechless, crying happy tears before long in thanks. Alexa was more than happy at the response. She explained that as wild as Viola could be, she seemd to be passionate about taking pictures—it was one of the few times Alexa saw Viola slow down, and it was also one of the very few things that seemed to bring Alexa pride. Viola promised that she’d learn to be a great photographer. Alexa didn’t doubt her for a second. One day, they might even report on a story together!
Alexa didn’t doubt her for a second.
Her last year of university, she got an internship at the Lumiose News Channel. She was excited, but that quickly dashed when it turned out she was only really there to fetch coffee, deliver messages, and take notes. Still, she worked as hard as she could at the job, taking even the leanest of jobs seriously.
She worked alongside another young intern, Malva Baumann. Malva was beautiful and charismatic; she was flirty and fun and exciting, and she made more of an impact on people than Alexa did. Alexa didn’t dislike Malva, but she was sort of jealous of her—especially when Malva started accompanying the news crews into the field as a PA.
Alexa worked as an intern for four months before getting an entry-level job at the studio. She shuffled papers, and never made it anywhere near a news desk. It was frustrating. Finally, after almost a year with no progress, she applied for—and received—an entry-level position at the Lumiose Press. She was thrilled; that’s where she’d been hoping to end up! Maybe now she’d start getting the recognition and progress she felt she deserved.
She would be disappointed.
