I hated my brand new pokemon. Out of all the kids in my grade I got stuck with the lamest pokemon out there, Pachirisu. The day that I'd been pulling my hair out over had finally come and I hated every minute. It all started on the beginning on the last day of school or as everyone knew, Pokemon Day. Each year, the rising seventh graders get to randomly choose a pokeball from a supply caught by the teachers. This pokemon will then become their partner for their journey over the summer. It was called the summer quest and is just about the biggest deal on the planet for kids like me. Even though it's an assignment, I don't know a single kid who doesn't think training a pokemon is the coolest thing in the world.
Over the summer kids have to train their new pokemon new moves and make them strong enough to fight against other pokemon. Eventually, if a trainer and their pokemon is strong enough they can challenge the gym. If someone can beat the leader of the gym they're given a colorful badge they can store in a little display box the teachers gave us along with our pokeballs. They only expect us to beat one or two because most people will want to stay in town for summer. The gyms are far away so trainers have to travel to get to other gyms, but I plan to beat all eight of them, or I did before I found out I had a mischievous pokemon. The trainers who traveled a lot and got the most gym badges were always the most popular at the beginning of next year when we started studying pokemon battles in depth. Some of them could even beat the teachers if they wanted to. Last night I had a dream I was one of the popular kids so I unsuccessfully pinched myself, hoping that this was all one big nightmare.
The reason I hated my Pachirisu is because I'd already lost it. Not just my temper, but my actual pokemon. It happened a little after my teacher, Ms. Woods had just given the command that it was okay to open our pokeballs. I'd almost burst with excitement when I'd seen the little squirrel shaped creature in my lap. Little did I know how much I'd come to hate that thing in the next five minutes. All around me there were screams of delight from kids who fell instantly in love with their pokemon and moans from the boys who'd hoped they would receive dragon or legendary pokemon. I was just happy I hadn't chosen a magikarp, a fish pokemon because I'd heard they did nothing but flail on the ground without water.
The squirrel was cute at least and it stared at me with big black eyes. I remembered it from last nights studying of all the possible pokemon I could be given. Pachirisu was an electric type pokemon which meant I could teach it to someday shoot electricity out of it's body. My little brother Jude would be so jealous.
I picked up the furry creature in my arms and stroked it's back so ridiculously happy I finally had my own pokemon. There had been so many times I'd wanted to cheat and catch a caterpie on my own and secretly train it. It was against the law of course, the government says pokemon are too dangerous for children under 12 years old to handle and must complete grades 1 though 6 in order to fully understand how to handle them. I personally don't think that's true but it didn't matter anyway, I had my pokemon now.
Pachirisu squirmed in my arms and started licking my shoulder with her tiny little tongue. I laughed and turned around to look at my best friend Darcie. She also looked very pleased with her new pokemon Minccino.
"Alexa that's adorable!" Darcie exclaimed, seeing my pokemon and reaching over to pet it.
In an instant, Pachirisu whirled around and bit her finger, drawing blood only a moment later.
"Pachirisu!" I yelped, letting go of the squirrel in surprise. "I'm so Sorry Darcie," I said and immediately went to the first aid kit we were now required to carry around with us over the summer.
"It's okay," Darcie said, sucking her finger and trying not to drop Mincinno. She looked a little startled herself.
"I don't know why she did that," I said, wrapping the bandage around my friend's bloody finger and muttering a few extra apologies.
The first aid kit kids age 12 to 16 were required by law to carry with them had all sorts of supplies stuffed in them for people and for pokemon. We all carried them in our brightly colored backpacked assigned to us first thing this morning. Even though I was 12 years old in five years when I turned 17 I'd still want to carry around my medicine pack just in case.
Oh no, I had only a split seconds thought before Aria and her gang came over to us carrying their new pokemon. That was one other thing I was looking forward to a lot this summer; training my pokemon to be more powerful than Aria's and beating her in an epic battle with all of her snobby friends watching. Maybe it wouldn't happen exactly how it plays out in my head every night but I'm hoping it will come somewhere close. Aria Hoffman was the richest and most undeserving girl to ever receive a pokemon. I hoped she's gotten a magikarp. Unfortunately I was disappointed when I saw her carrying in her arms a purrloin which is a very powerful cat pokemon with a beautiful dark purple coat. Purrloin was a dark type pokemon which meant it would eventually be able to shoot out dark rays of energy. How appropriate.
Aria smirked at me, obviously very proud of her new pokemon. "Hello girls," she said in the coldest way possible. She stroked Purloin silky back and it purred happily. "Where's your new pokemon Alexa," she said, noticing I wasn't holding Pachirisu. "Did it take off already?" A couple of her friends giggled. "I thought it would take more than a few seconds for your pokemon to realize you weren't good enough to train it. Poor poor Alexa, I'm impressed. You've managed to be the first one to lose your pokemon." She laughed and walked over to Darcie. "A bird pokemon," she said, stroking Minccino's feathers the wrong way. "You know cats eat birds," she said as the purrloin purred agreeing.
"Leave us alone Aria," I said grudgingly. I wanted so bad right then for Pachirisu to jump out and bite her instead. Hoping to see her at my feet, I looked down and saw only my backpack. No squirrel pokemon. Aria was actually right, I'd lost my very first pokemon.
I had to suffer through Aria's laugher as I frantically searched through my backpack to see if Pachirisu had climbed in there. If I lost my pokemon on the first day I didn't know if I would still be allowed to go on the summer quest. This could not be happening.
"Use your pokeball," Darcie suggested, picking up Parchistu's pokeball I'd so carelessly left on the floor.
She was right. If I could point the ball in the right direction, Pachirisu would immediately shoot back inside of it. It was a far-fetched idea but I had to try something.
"Attention, Attention everyone," Ms. Woods tried to calm down the excited shouts of everyone. Now was not a good time.
I stayed standing in order to search for my pokemon where everyone else began to sit down with theirs. Looking around I saw all kinds of diffrent pokemon. Most of them fit in their trainer's laps, others were a little too big. A few feet away I saw my other three friends who were trying to stop their exited hushed whispers. They'd all received cute small pokemon that squirmed around in their hands. Darcie and I would be talking with them if it wasn't for Pachistu. Out of everyone in the field where we'd been sent to release our pokemon there was one common theme; they all actually had pokemon.
"Now I hope you're all happy with your new pokemon," Ms. Wood's continued, "because it's time to give them a name. We don't want your pokemon to be mixed up with the others just like it so once you've chosen a name you'll have to stick with it. Keep calling your pokemon that name until it sticks. Some pokemon will get it immediately, others it will take a while. Now if there's anyone who need help," Ms. Wood's concluded, "there two expert pokemon trainers in the back who can help you if you need help naming or identifying your pokemon. I'm so proud of you all!"
I watched as Darcie stroked Minccino's soft fur and whispered. "I'm going to call you Katrina."
Hatred for that little squirrel washed through me. Before we'd received our pokeballs we'd gotten to pick from either a basket of male pokemon or female so we already knew the gender. I'd picked a name for my pokemon three months ago and changed it several times. My plan was to call my new pokemon Angel but right now it did not deserve that name. I knew it was mostly my fault that Pachirisu had escaped but if I had gotten a better behaved pokemon that didn't bite people, this wouldn't have happened in the first place.
"Darcie, Alexa," a couple of my other friends came over holding out their new pokemon.
Darcie grinned and began petting the pokemon my friends were going to train. Everyone seemed so excited they actually had a pokemon.
Desperately, I began to press the button in the middle of the red and white pokeball that would shoot out beams of red light. If the red light touched the pokemon that belonged inside of it, it would bounce back into the ball. So far it wasn't working.
"Woah there," came a voice and I whirled around. Standing behind me was one of the expert trainers the school had hired to make sure nothing went wrong when we released our pokemon. He was lanky tall for only about nineteen but looked like he would be hard to beat one day in a pokemon battle. On his shoulder perched a Pigeoto. I knew it was very powerful because it was an evolved pokemon.
If a pokemon evolves it means it changes into a different form. When a trainer trains their pokemon for a long time they evolve into a different and more powerful form. Sometimes this means growing fins or getting wings and or it might means going from a two legged pokemon to a pokemon that walks on all fours. We'd watched a video of one evolving but Ms. Woods said it was nothing compared to actually being there. She said you could feel the energy wrapping around your pokemon and then in an instant they've completely changed. There's nothing like it.
"It looks like you've lost your pokemon," the trainer said, grabbing my pokeball before I could shoot out another red light.
I was so embarrassed. No one else had lost theirs or even come close to needing the trainer's attention. I could feel my cheeks burning bright red. "It's my Parichisu," I said though gritted teeth.
"It's okay," the trainer said, "no problem. Just remember, sending out the return signal is no way to handle this situation. It won't even work unless you're in a fifteen foot radius. Darla," the trainer let his bird pokemon step from his shoulder to his finger. "Scour the field and look for a Parichisu. It shouldn't be too far away."
Gratefully, I thanked the older trainer. His pidgeotto took off into the sky, her long brown wings flapping in the sunlight.
"She's beautiful," I said in awe. Some of my other friends were watching the magnificent
bird as well.
"I hope my Starly looks like that someday," my friend Faith said, stroking the little grey bird in her arms. It wiggled around and closed it's black eyes to tell her it was tired.
The trainer was about to saw something to me when we heard a scream coming from ahead of us. We raced over to it, Darcie on our tail to see what was the matter.
"Darla," the trainer exclaimed, rushing over to where the bird now lay motionless on the ground.
A large circle cleared in the middle of all the students with me, Darcie and the trainer stuck in the middle. Laying on the ground was Darla, the trainer's pidgeotto and next to it, someone else's backpack that was moving as if there was some kind of animal inside. I couldn't believe my eyes. Rushing over to the backpack I ripped it open and found none other than my Parichisu, still crackling with electric energy.
"How did it do that?" the trainer said in disbelief. He was now staring at my mischievous little squirrel pokemon. I felt like a deerling caught in the headlights, everyone was watching. "I knew electric type pokemon were super effective against flying," the trainer continued, "but you've only just got this pokemon. No offence but I didn't believe it was powerful enough to knock unconscious the pokemon I've had for seven years."
A couple of the other kids giggled at this but were quickly silenced by the sudden appearance of Ms. Wood. She also seemed shocked and surprised by the scene before her. Pachirisu ran up my shoulder and tried to hide in my long brown hair. She'd stopped crackling with yellow sparks and now just looked like an ordinary grey squirrel with a few blue and yellow markings.
"Lewis," she said to the trainer in disbelief, "what happened?"
The trainer stroked the pidgeotto's still body and tried to explain to her what had occurred. He had barely started when Ms. Wood's interrupted.
"Wait, you're saying Alexa lost her pokemon? On the first day?"
"In the first five minutes," Aria cut it, obviously trying to draw attention to herself. She didn't like it when any else was the center of people's thoughts.
I felt my cheeks light up bright red again. This was so humiliating. Ms. Woods looked at me disapprovingly and asked Lewis to continue with his story. He got to the part where my parachitsu knocked out his pidgeotto and Ms. Woods stopped him.
"Thank you Lewis," she said, trying to keep a calm tone to her voice. "Please take your
pidgeotto to the pokemon center as soon as possible. Alexa, a word please."
New colors of red I didn't even know existed appeared in my cheeks and to my left I could hear Aria and her clique laughing at me. I hung my head in shame as I walked over to my teacher. Then as if one cue the circle disappeared and everyone went back to playing with their pokemon and chatting to their friends. I hated my new pokemon.
Ms. Woods looks young for a teacher and is very nice most of the time. Even though I'd been a little disappointed to get her at the beginning of the year because she was the least experienced I had grown grateful because my friend Lulu said the other teachers are really strict and awful. If I'd been hoping Ms. Woods would let me off the hook this time, I was mistaken. She was in one of her rare uptight moods that only came out twice a year.
"Alexa," she began, her words louder than usual. "After teaching you all year about respect for pokemon I thought you'd at least learn something when the day actually came for you to receive your own. Losing sight of your pokemon is one thing. It happens to us all eventually although not usually during the first 45 seconds. Although I am disappointed your pokemon somehow wound up in Travis's backpack I'm not sure if I'm shocked or just confused on why your pokemon was somehow able to knock out Lewis's pidgeotto without having any prior training." She seemed to pause and think over the matter and her expression softened. "I realize this can only be assumed because you've only just received your pokemon, you don't yet know how to control it's power. Still, there needs to be repercussions for losing your pokemon in the first place," she said and my heart sank. Silently I prayed to anyone who would make sure Ms. Woods didn't take my pokemon away. "Alexa, I'm going to have you sit out the tournament round for today. Just buddy up with someone and watch their battles. Trust me this is for the good of everyone." She said that like she actually meant it. Sure I was bummed I didn't get to battle against my classmates for the title of class victor but at least I got to keep my Parichisu no matter how much I hated it right then.
I thanked Ms. Woods and told her I'd be more careful next time just so I could get away and find Darcie again. Reaching down into the pocket of my backpack I felt for Parichisu's pokeball. It wasn't there. With dread I realized Lewis had taken it with him on his mad dash to the pokemon center. That meant only one thing. I would have to put up with Parichisu until I could find him again. This was going to be a long day.
I found Darcie talking to my other friends Faith, Angie and Junie. They were all brushing their pokemon's fur and trying to tie bows around their ears, necks and tails. We'd all chosen females. Pachirisu wiggled in my arms and poked her head out of my hair to look at them. She was silky smooth in my arms, unlike a normal squirrel but was about the same size. After her encounter with Darla her heartbeat had quickened by a lot but had slowed down now to what felt like a normal pace. I stroked her fur again, this time making sure I didn't let her squirm out.
"Alexa," Darcie called, patting the dirt next to her wanting me to sit down. "She let you keep her?" she asked, seeing the parichisu and backing a few inches away.
"Yeah," I said, sitting the parichisu on the ground and petting it so hard that it couldn't get up. "But don't worry, I'll make sure I get it under control."
"What are you going to call it?" Junie asked as she tried to stick a flower in her rattata's ear. The little rat pokemon didn't seem to like it very much.
"Daphne," I decided, forcing parchitsu's head down has it tried to sit back up again. I was still angry at it for getting me into trouble.
Daphne seemed to like her new name and instead rolled over for me to rub her soft tan belly. She licked my finger again as I tried to pet underneath her chin and wiggled around as I played with her tiny arms. It was hard to be mad at something so cute.
"So you didn't get in trouble?" Faith asked. Her starly was flapping it's wings aimlessly around the little circle we'd created. The school always received the youngest pokemon because they were the easiest to catch so all of the bird pokemon hadn't yet learned to fly.
"Not exactly," I said as Daphne rolled back over and climbed into my lap. "Ms. Woods pulled me out of the tournament."
"Oh no," Darcie said, "that was suppose to be your epic showdown with Aria."
I shrugged, for some reason it didn't really bother me that much. After seeing what Daphne had done to Darla, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a real battle. I didn't know if I'd be able to control her or not.
"One of you will have to crush her instead," I said then thought for a moment. "We really need a Lillipup. Cat's are afraid of dogs arn't they?"
"Well it's not just that," Angie interrupted, looking up from brushing her cubchoo's short white fur. "We also need to find one with a good type advantage. What type is super effective against a dark type pokemon?" She asked.
Angie was right. Pokemon couldn't just look more intimidating than their opponents because they didn't always make physical contact with each other. They had to also be the right type advantage. For example, I wouldn't want to use a fire type pokemon to fight a water type, I'd need a grass type pokemon to win. It was all very hard to memorize for me. Some people understood it like that, others like me took a long time to remember all the right type advantages and disadvantages.
"Bug?" Darcie suggested after thinking through Angie's question.
Darcie was one of those who could instantly reason what type to use in a battle. She'd shown me the A she's gotten on her latest type exam so I knew she was good. I'd gotten a B-.
"Ew," said Junie, scrunching up her nose. "No way am I ever going to catch one of those."
Bug type pokemon were always the ones that no one wanted because they were just huge, gigantic bugs. Even after Ms. Wood's had explained to us that they evolved twice as fast as other pokemon it had only made us more afraid that they would get bigger. I sometimes still had nightmares that a giant beedrill was chasing me through the forest. They were wasp pokemon about fifty times bigger than normal bugs and scarred me so much to think about.
"Fighting then," Darcie said, ticking off dark's only other weakness that I knew about.
Fighting type pokemon were usually very big and they liked to punch things but I could tell from the faces around me they would much rather take a hit from a fighting pokemon then train a bug type.
"Okay fine," Faith said reluctantly. "We should all try to catch a fighting type to protect ourselves from Aria this summer."
We all nodded in agreement. It would be hard to catch a fighting type but I was sure we'd all be able to pull through. In order to befriend a pokemon and have it fight for a trainer, it needed to be caught in a pokeball. This was done by battling with a pokemon until it was very weak. Then the trainer needed to throw a pokeball at it and the pokemon would usually be pulled inside and trapped there. If the pokemon was too powerful it could still escape but if the trainer had battled with it long enough it didn't usually happen. As soon as the trainer opened the pokeball again, the pokemon would fight for them instead of just for themselves. It was a really cool method because it didn't hurt the pokemon at all and I've heard from researchers the inside of the pokeball is actually a very relaxing space. Nothing in there makes them change, pokemon just decide to help their trainers because they realize they can be taken care of in their pokeballs. I really like people who catch pokemon because it's almost like doing them a favor.
Just then Ms. Woods called us to her attention. It was about time to start the tournament. She explained how there were five stages for us to battle at so we'd be competing 10 at a time. Then she read off the names of all the people and where they should go for round one. I decided to buddy up with Darcie for the first round and help her win her battles. For a second I'd hoped Ms. Wood's had reconsidered and put me back on the list but one glance at the pokemon sitting on my shoulder and I was glad she'd pulled me out. I didn't want to see my pokemon unintentionally hurt any others, that is if they arn't named Aria.
Me and the rest of my class traveled down a path until we reached the five stages were we'd be competing. They were all giant rectangles marked in the dirt by white spray paint. On the sides were the numbers one through five and ten of the competitors lined up where they were suppose to go. Darcie and I stood in the little box at the edge of the giant rectangle marked 4 and on the other side stood Jeremy, a kid we didn't know that well. He looked really excited to be battling and probably we did too. Maybe even a little too excited.
Ms. Woods explained the rules. "Since this is all of your first battles," she said. "Take it slow. Don't push your pokemon too hard. The match ends when one pokemon is unable to battle. As soon as the match is over you come over to the nurse who will be arriving soon so she can heal your pokemon."
There's always a nurse that comes to battles like this because it's guaranteed that at least one pokemon will be injured. It's too bad that she didn't arrive earlier though, she would have been helpful towards Lewis's pidgeotto.
"Delia our other experienced trainer and myself will be monitoring the matches to make sure they are played fairly," Ms. Woods continued. "If you think you're battling your pokemon too hard you can always thrown in the white flag and please do. You don't want your pokemon to think you're too tough of a trainer," she added. "Now on the count of three you can finally start your battle. 1... 2..."
An air cannon blew and Darcie's minccino stepped forward into the arena. On the opposite side Jeremy's patrat also entered the match. Katrina, Darcie's Minccino was about the same size as Daphne but stood on two legs instead of four and had darker, longer fur. She looked more like a chinchilla than a squirrel. Jeremy's patrat was about as big as Katrina and had short brown fur and starting big red and yellow eyes. The two pokemon stared at each other for a second then Darcie began shouting orders.
"Katrina, use tackle!"
Nothing happened. Even Jeremy waited for Katrina to do something but she didn't.
"Maybe she doesn't know tackle," I suggested.
"Oh," Darcie mused and rustled through her backpack. "I forgot we could use this." She produced her pokedex. A red and white rectangular device that could identify pokemon just by pointing to them. It could also tell the trainer what words to use so let the pokemon know how to attack. Darcie pointed the pokedex at Katrina and a little voice began to speak. On the other side of the court, I could see Jeremy doing the same.
"Minccino," a little voice said, "the chinchilla pokemon. This minccino knows only two moves that it can use in battle," the robotic voice continued, "pound and and growl. Pound is an attack move and can be used to knock out an opponent. Growl is a move that will lower the opponent's attack status."
"Oh look it says right there on the screen," Darcie said, grinning and pointing to the display screen that now had a picture of Katrina and the list of the moves she could use.
"Katrina use pound," she called.
We watched as the fluffy grey pokemon ran up and slammed into the patrat. Patrat stumbled back a few feet as Darcie and I high fived.
"That's so cool," I said, watching as Patrat attempted to slam back into Katrina.
I watched as the two pokemon battled each other. Daphne even poked out of where she'd been hiding in my backpack to watch. We were beginners of course so to most onlookers this would have been dreadfully boring but to us it was so amazing that we could trust our pokemon to win battles for us. I found out what growl and leer did as well. Katrina used growl and Patrat actually glowed for a second. That must be what happens when a pokemon loses attack power I figured. Patrat was the one who used leer. A flash of light appeared in his overlarge eyes that made Katrina do an involuntary shudder. Even though I didn't get to be in it, this was still the coolest battle I'd ever seen.
Round one ended and out of all my friends only Angie was out. Darcie, Faith and Junie went over to the nurse so that they could heal their pokemon for round two. They had looked very tired and worn out after their matches with the other pokemon but after being put back in their balls and handed over to the nurse they were as good as new. Katrina's fur looked glossier and thicker and her eyes were a lot brighter too. I think Daphne was a little jealous just watching from my bag.
The second round began and I cheered Darcie, Faith and Junie on from the stands. I sat next to Angie and her cubchoo named Frosty. To be honest I never really liked cubchoos because they were baby polar bears with a lot of snot that always hung down from their nose. The snot was suppose to tell the trainer how healthy the pokemon was. I kind of just thought it was gross. Angie would be very lucky one day though when Cubchoo evolved into Beartic, a giant polar bear pokemon. That sure would be very helpful in battles.
Daphne climbed into my lap and took a nap as Darcie and Faith joined Angie and I in the stands. They hadn't made it into the semi finals and they seemed kind of sad it was all over. Even their pokemon looked depressed. Now it was all up to Junie and her rattata named Chip to get into the finals and beat Aria who I saw was still unfortunately in the runnings.
According to Junie's pokedex, Chip had actually learned a new move; quick attack. It sounded more powerful than tackle so Junie tried it out first thing in her battle against Zoe's sentret. It worked a lot better and quickly defeated Sentret but the actual battle was becoming a little boring. All Junie did was use quick attack over and over, even Chip looked a little dizzy.
"I'm in the finals," Junie sang as she approached us in the stands. She spun Chip's pokeball in the air and kissed it. "I'm gonna beat Aria, I'm gonna beat Aria," she chanted gleefully.
I didn't care who beat Aria at that moment, I just wanted her and her purrloin to loose.