Chapter 1: Generic Beginnings

Hello… My name is Karina. Why should you care? Well, it's quite simple, really: I have a story to tell you. So, if you're willing to hear me out, I'll get the introductory stuff over with.

As I said, I'm Karina. Most of you are probably thinking that I'm from one of the five regions, right? Well, you're quite wrong, if you don't mind me saying. To clear things up, I'm not even from the world of Pokémon. I'm from Canada. I won't say exactly where, for security reasons, seeing as I don't live in Unova anymore…

I know what you're probably thinking. You guys want to know how the heck I ended up in Unova. Well, at the risk of making this sound like a bad fanfic, I'm honestly not sure. I went to sleep one night, exhausted from performing Fiddler on the Roof five times over the past three days, and the next morning, I woke up to a Lilipup sniffing me somewhere in the streets of Nuvema.

So, anyway, before I get on with the actual story, I assume you want to know a bit about my appearance, since you're only reading whatever I right down, right?

Well, to get this out of the way, I'm pretty pale, mostly from not being outside much, I have dark brown eyes and matching hair that goes down to my lower back. I wear a blue bandana with my school's logo on it as a headband, but the logo is always hidden because I really don't like that place… Anyway, I ware small silver cross earrings (a gift from Mom), and a silver necklace with a small Mickey Mouse charm on it. I wear a baby blue tank top with a light zebra patterned jacket, black yoga pants, and black and white running shoes. On my right arm I wear a simple gold bracelet with five heart charms (another gift from Mom), on my left arm I wear a silver watch (also a gift from Mom).

Anyway, I'm eighteen years old, tall, and I honestly don't consider myself to be skinny, but all my friends say otherwise. What that had to do with anything, I don't know… Anyway, as for my personality, I'm shy most of the time, I speak my mind in emotionally intense situations, and I'm a little forgetful at times.

Before I ended up in Unova, I was a popular bass player among the ranks of musicians at my school. I hated the attention though. I hated being seen as someone who was on a higher level then every other musician at school. I just wanted to be myself, and maybe attempt to make a living as a full time musician, even though that would be quite the difficult task…

So, we're eight paragraphs in. Are you sick of reading about me yet? Well, even if you aren't, which I highly doubt, I'll hurry this next bit up so I can start the story, ok?

In the spirit of hurrying things up, I'd just like to say that I'll start two years after I actually showed up, and after I spent my time coming to grips with the existence of Pokémon. Seriously, if you saw a REAL live Pokémon in front of you, would you not be freaked? Answer me honestly!

…Ok…So I'm still a little freaked out by Pokémon…Not that it really matters…Let's just get on with this story, shall we?

"You know," I said picking up the little Lilipup, the one that found me two years ago. "You remind me of Sasha…"

Thoughts of the strong German Sheppard who I used to call my little sister flooded my mind. Sure, this Lilipup was physically comparable to Rambo, my cousin's Chiwawa, but she was playful, and constantly at my side, ready to protect me at a moment's notice, as Sasha used to be. Hell, Lilipup even smelled like Sasha!

The little Pokémon looked at me in confusion, as though it wanted to know who Sasha was. I spent the next ten minutes satisfying her curiosity, telling her all about my "sister": the good times, the bad times, the times when Sasha wouldn't leave me alone, how she used to keep a constant eye on me and my brother, how we used to play fetch, even when my family had to give her up because Mom and Dad developed allergies to her fur…

Tears started to form in my eyes when I told Lilipup about the last day I ever saw Sasha. The thought and the sight of seeing Sasha sticking her head out of her new owner's car as she drove away made me want to cry.

I finished my story, crying a little bit. "I never saw her again…She was my best friend…I was depressed for weeks…You know? I don't think I'm over it…"

A tear fell onto Lilipup's fur and she looked up at me, eyes full of sadness, as though she understood MY sadness. I picked her up and gave her a light hug, to which she responded by licking me on the cheek.

"You know what makes you different from Sasha," I asked laughing a little bit. "She hated it when I hugged her."

"Karina," a voice shouted interrupting Lilipup's comforting. "Karina!"

Cheren came running toward me, seemingly in a hurry. "Karina, did you forget?"

"Uh, HI Cheren," I said as he finally stood beside me.

"Hi," he said dismissively. "You did forget, didn't you? You've been playing with Lilipup again…" he took a closer look at my face and gasped slightly. "Have you been crying again?"

I nodded and stood up to face him. "Just telling Lilipup about a friend of mine…"

Cheren nodded slowly and dropped the subject. He knew about where I came from, although everyone who knew about me had no idea how I ended up in Unova. He knew I got really emotional when I thought about home and everyone I unwillingly left behind.

"C'mon," he said changing the subject. "Professor Juniper wanted to see you today, remember?"

"Karina," Professor Juniper said calmly. "You can do this. Maybe if you head out into the world, you'll find out what you're meant to do in life…"

I knew she was right. It was just like being trapped at school. How was I supposed to learn about myself if I was stuck in one place all my life?

"You're right, but," I stopped, thinking of the fears that bound me to one place. "What if something happens? …I mean, a person like me could end up in some…"

"Karina," Professor Juniper sternly interrupted. "If someone with your disability can do what you can do, then you can do more!"

"Maybe," I said, deciding not to push the argument.

Let's take a temporary break from the story to answer a question that may have just popped into your head: what disability is the professor talking about?

Well, seeing as you don't know me too well, I'll tell you that I have a not so wonderful eye condition called Familial Exutative Retinopathy. It's a genetic condition that causes a vain to leak in the back of the eye. This causes retina damage and sometimes cataracts, which I have blocking my left eye.

This condition hinders my sight to the point where I can't see things in clear detail, and I can't read anything smaller then size fourteen font, and that's pushing it! Having said that, seeing things from far away is a challenge, which is nearly impossible to overcome. Oh, another fun fact, my current level of energy and the time of day play a role in how clearly I see things.

I'll explain more about it as the story goes on, but for now, enough of this annoying explanatory crap!

Professor Juniper gave me the "Pokémon trainer starter speech" and all the equipment that came with it: Pokedex, starter Pokémon, and five other pokeballs.

My starter was an Oshawott, which I named Silver, after my school's swim team "the Silver Otters". He didn't seem to mind the name, and seeing as he was an otter, the team's mascot, it seemed to fit.

Silver was a spunky little Pokémon who loved to run circles around me until he collapsed from exhaustion. He was fun and playful, and he was eager to travel with me by the looks of it.

Professor Juniper also gave me a black shoulder bag that was big enough to hold any extra things my duffle bag couldn't. You know, aside from the essentials that trainers in Pokémon games never seem to have. Clothing, food, a tooth brush, that sort of thing.

Cheren had agreed to come with me as my "guide to the Unova region". Honestly, that made me feel a little more comfortable about leaving a now familiar place, even though he had the tendency of being an annoying know it all. He was a good friend, and he treated me like a person instead of a mentally disabled vegetable like Bianca did.

Bianca had this tendency to be EXTREMELY scatterbrained, which is saying something, coming out of my mouth! She always forgot that "visually impaired" meant a lack of sight, but she had no trouble associating the term with mental disabilities.

I knew it was because of a lack of awareness, even Cheren had to adjust to the concept, but it was annoying, to say the least. That didn't mean I didn't like Bianca, though. I just preferred not to talk to her, which was fine in this case, since she decided to go ahead of us to avoid her over-protective parental.

"Karina, are you ready for this?"

Cheren and I stood at the edge of town, about to officially start our travels. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Silver jumped excitedly as Cheren and I moved onto the route. Cheren's Snivy strolled confidently beside us, rolling his eyes at Silver's rather amusing antics.

"We should train at some point," Cheren said thinking out loud. "It'll make our lives a bit easier down the road."

"Yeah," I agreed. "How about we have ourselves a little battle?"

I could tell this caught Cheren's attention. Our Pokémon were both new to the battling world, having been born in the lab, and a fresh challenge would help them.

"Ok," he said turning to face me. "Let's do it."

The two of us looked down at our Pokémon and called them to get their attention. Cheren and I explained our plan to battle, and our little friends jumped excitedly in response. Clearly, they wanted to learn how to fight.

"Lucas, tackle!" Cheren's Snivy, obviously named Lucas, charged toward Silver.

"Silver, water gun!"

The little otter obeyed enthusiastically as a stream of water shot forth from its mouth. The attack hit Lucas and he struggled through the water to land a weakened blow on Silver.

Silver jumped back and prepared to use water gun again. I stopped him and told him to move away from the vine whip that Cheren had Lucas deploy.

"Silver," I shouted as he ended up caught in the vines despite his attempt to dodge. "Use water gun again!"

"Lucas," Cheren called. "Plow him into the ground!"

The snake complied and Silver was thrown into the ground just as he deployed his water gun. The water attack softened the impact, but Silver was covered in mud when he stood up.

"Silver," I shouted as he got the mud out of his eyes. "Give him your tackle!"

Cheren told Lucas to do the same, and both Pokémon charged toward each other. I had Silver duck out at the last second, which caught Lucas off guard, and sent a water gun his way.

Lucas was sent flying. Silver jumped up in excitement and Cheren ran to check on his fallen comrade, who had barely moved.

"Is Lucas ok?"

"He'll be fine," Cheren said spraying a potion on his Pokémon. "That was a pretty short battle."

"You sound disappointed," I said making sure Silver was ok. "It was our first battle, you know."

To make a long story slightly shorter, Cheren and I managed to do a bit more training before we reached Acumula. The training wasn't very eventful, except for the fact that Cheren caught a Patrat named Max.

Anyway, we reached Acumula by around six PM, so we decided to explore after visiting the Pokémon Center. Honestly, there wasn't much to the town. It was mostly a few stores, apartments, and a plaza that took up the center of the town.

We did find one place that caught my interest. We found a small house in the north end of town with a sign that read: "MUSICIANS WELCOME!" Naturally, I was excited so I convinced Cheren to spend some time there.

We were welcomed in by two young musicians: a piano player named Bella, and a drummer named Josh. Those two were talented, to say the least. They would've raised hell at a classical concert at my school, but then again, raising hell in the music wing wasn't hard. I did it during one of my first performances, where I had to play a five note bass line. Yeah, my school was a sad place… That bass line wasn't even hard.

Anyway, speaking of bass guitars, Bella and Josh happened to be in possession of one! I was ecstatic, to say the least, letting out Silver to watch the show. I admit, I was a little rusty, having not played for two years, but I got back into the swing of things soon enough to jam for a solid two hours.

Silver seemed to enjoy the music. He danced around the room, trying to get Cheren to dance with him. Unfortunately for Silver, Cheren sat around like an emotionless vulkin, waiting to vacate the premises.

"What was that song called again?"

Bella, Josh and I had finished our musical shenanigans for the night, and I had taught them a song that one of my music teachers taught me.

"It's called 'So What'."

"Awesome," Josh said. "You sure you have to go now?"

"It's getting late," Cheren interrupted. "And we're planning on moving to Striatin tomorrow."

Needless to say, Cheren and I said our good buys to the musicians and headed off to the Pokémon center to rent a room for the night.

"So."

I was semi conscious when Cheren spoke. We were in the Pokémon center, sharing a small room with two other trainers, who apparently weren't back from their escapades of the day.

"Huh?"

"I was just thinking…"

"Yeah?"

"I've never seen you smile like that."

Oh, shit! Really? Did he have to set us both up for an awkward moment at this time of night? Was this going to be like those three guys who had been afraid to ask me out? Was I going to have to give him the "let's just stay friends" speech?

"You looked really happy," he said after I gave no verbal response. "I'm glad… You probably haven't felt that way for a long time…"

AN: Hope you all enjoyed this first chapter! Feel free to review!

Also, if people start talking about the fact that I refer to places like Neuvenma Town as just Neuvema, it's because I personally don't call places (insert city name here) City.

Also, Karina is self image oc. I changed some details about her to make her slightly different, but for the most part, she's me. And no, my real name is not Karina.

Also, I've officially been frustrated with the formatting issues I've been having. I had everything nice and neat in Word, but all my separations went away when I uploaded this. I'm just using line thingys for now, so if it gets confusing, or the line things aren't in the story, PLEASE let me know and give me some tips on how to fix this.