Matthew nodded.
"Y-yeah, I'm ready." he mumbled, pushing his glasses up his nose and watching the guy walk away. Matthew had just assumed that he was some random asshole, but apparently he knew Rose in some way. And, if he had already beaten the gym leader in this town, then he was a stronger trainer than Matthew was. That meant he was someone to beat. The guy seemed like a sleaze, and the face that someone like him could possibly be a better trainer than Matthew made him angry. The fire inside him was starting to ignite and he was ready to take on Brock now. He began to move towards the gym, but hesitated for a moment, glancing at Rose. He could tell something was up and knew it probably had to do with the asshole that had just walked away. Part of him wanted to ask, but he felt like it wasn't his place, so he shut his mouth and walked in silence towards the gym.

The Pokemon center was pretty close to the gym, which meant the walk wasn't as awkward as it could have been, but it was still so awkward that even Matthew recognized it. He had never been good with people, and part of him regretted asking her to join him. As they walked, he felt obliged to make conversation, but for the life of him couldn't figure out what to say, his one track mind was solely focused on the gym fight. He had no idea what type this Brock fellow used, and he only had one Pokemon to battle with. Hope trotted along side Matthew with Whirlygig sitting comfortably on the top of Matthew's over-sized rucksack. As he walked, he wondered if Hope was really ready to fight a gym leader by herself.

Pfft, of course she was. Hope was much stronger than Matthew was, she had true fighting spirit! A grin spread across his face as he reached the door to the gym.
"Good afternoon my name is Brandon and welcome to the Pewter City... Oh, hello again!" A man approached them as Matthew stepped inside the gym, smiling at Rose. He continued to speak, more so to Rose than to Matthew "I'm assuming you are here to fight the gym leader, Brock. Did you manage to get your Budew to evolve yet?" Matthew understood that the guy had no intention on really talking to him, so he took a moment to bask in his surroundings.

The gym was pretty plain, a battling arena littered with a few large boulders stretched out below them, in the center of a pretty large set of stadium-style bleachers. Matthew's heart was ready to explode with excitement as he ran over to look down onto the battlefield. He could just picture, him and Hope battling through whatever pokemon Brock had to offer, this was going to be a cake walk!
"Hell yeah." He whispered to himself before turning back to face Brandon, whose attention was still firmly set on Rose "Hope and I are ready to take on this Brock guy, bring it on!" He practically shouted. Brandon sighed and rolled his eyes, turning to face Matthew.
"Show some patience kid, I'll go inform Brock that he has a couple of challengers, I should only be a couple of minutes." And with that, he walked away, deeper into the building.

Matthew could barely hold in all of his excitement, even Hope who usually kept herself quite calm and collected was starting to hop from foot to foot, totally unable to keep still. Completely forgetting about his previous bout of shyness, he spun around to face Rose, a look of sheer craziness ablaze in his eyes
"Holy hell, are you as hyped as I am?" He was possibly talking a little louder than he should have, like a young child on Christmas morning "Isn't this just the greatest thing ever? I mean, look at all this!" He turned with a grand flourish to the stadium below "I mean, wow, am I right? We're really trainers, really going to beat a gym leader!"