Chapter 1

I watched the exam proctor, Mr. Kaplan, explain how to use the styler to capture Pokemon. Neither my friend nor I have ever used one before, but that's explainable -we were trainers. My friend Ashley wanted to a park ranger so she had contacted Professor Hastings. I wanted to be a Pokemon Ranger so I sent an application to enter school. My other three friends chose different paths to take. Emily decided to become a professional photographer, Cassidy decided to become a model, and Erica decided to become a Pokemon Nurse.

My friends and I had been to Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova and traveled through them all. We were lab assistants as well as trainers. Cassidy, Emily, and I competed in contests while Ashley and Erica competed in gyms, but I competed in gym battles as well. I love Pokemon and I love helping them and people. When I met Jack Walker, I knew what I wanted to be: a Pokemon Ranger.

I was handed my School Styler and I turned it on before twirling it around in my hands. Mr. Kaplan sent out a Pikachu and told me to capture it using the styler. So I yelled out the famous 'Capture On!' and started to make loops around the Pikachu. In no time I had it captured and it was Ashley's turn.

I ended up having enough time to change into the school uniform with time left over. I ended up just sitting down and closing my eyes as I reflected upon my decisions as well as daydream a bit to pass the time. It took her an hour. Even our new teacher, Ms April, was waiting by the time she finished. Ashley kicked me lightly.

"I'm done," she said. I opened my eyes one eye at a time slowly.

"I wasn't sleeping," I complained. I watched her storm off to go change into her school uniform. When she came back, Ms April asked for our names and seemed to doubt that the change from trainer to ranger was impossible. Ashley was just going to be a specialized ranger while I was shooting for becoming the real deal.

Ms April then walked us to our classroom and told us to wait behind the door and wait for the signal while she prepared the class for us. When the signal was given, Ashley opened the door and we entered. My feet immediately felt like they were about to melt to the floor. Everyone seemed to be staring at us. I was thankful that I could move my feet to speed walk to the front with Ashley when Ms April asked for us to come up front to introduce ourselves.

"My name is Ashley Tsuyoi, native to the Johto region," Ashley said, "and I am a former trainer who aims to become a park ranger." She looked at me and then I realized it was my turned to speak. I was so nervous.

"M-My name is Ashleigh Muzai, I-I'm native to the Sinnoh region," I said, "and I was a trainer and a coordinator and I aim to become a Pokemon Ranger." Ms April smiled as I could feel that heat had rushed to my cheeks, a sign that I was blushing from embarrassment.

"Alright, Miss Tsuyoi please take a seat next to Ben please," Ms April said before pointing to the empty seat next to a boy who had brown hair that defied gravity in the second row. Ashley took her seat quietly. "Miss Muzai, please take a seat next to Kellyn." I nodded and looked over to the empty seat in the first row that was next to a boy with brown hair that spiked up in the back. He smiled and waved at me which made me realize that he was Kellyn so I quickly took my seat. "Okay, from this moment on all of you are my students that I am proud of." She smiled again. "I'm going to explain the basics to Ashley and Ashleigh but I want you all to listen. After that, it's free period and I want Rhythmi to give them both a tour." A girl with bouncy blonde hair smiled at what the teacher last said so I can only assume that she's Rhythmi. The lesson was brief and soon we were surrounded once the teacher left the room. I felt scared and nervous.

"What's it like being a trainer?" one girl asked.

"What are the trainer regions like?" a boy asked.

"Hey, how long did it take you guys to capture the Pikachu? Like an hour?" a redheaded boy asked. I tried not to laugh or snort, especially since I could tell that Ashley was trying hard not to blush.

"Keith, why does it seem like you always ask that question?" a girl with brown hair pulled back in a braid that had the same color eyes as Kellyn, in fact she looked just like him...just shorter...and a different gender.

"This class has a bad habit of surrounding new kids as soon as the teacher leaves," a girl with brown hair in a messy pony tail and brown eyes said before sighing.

"Okay! Give them space!" the blonde girl yelled and almost everybody took at least one step back. She turned and looked at us before smiling. "I'm sorry, my name is Rhythmi Kanari." She extended her hand for us to shake and we shook it. "The loudmouth is Keith Dazuru, the one who questioned him is Karrie Hajime, and the other girl is Laurie Kusa. The two boys you get to sit next to are Benjamin Natsuya and Kellyn Hajime." No wonder why those two look alike, they have the same last name!

"Hey its Ben, not Benjamin!" Ben protested. Ashley and I laughed a bit but tried to conceal it.

"Well, now its time for the tour!" Rhythmi said after giggling a bit. So we went on a tour of the school, but only Laurie decided to tag along. When we got to the library, which was amazing, I noticed that Kellyn was there reading a book. I loved the library so I immediately went to look at books after Rhythmi finished talking. "Ponte Funsō is the black haired boy in the corner, Todd Haiteku is the boy with black hair who is fiddling with spare computer parts, and the boy with blonde mushroom-cut hair is Isaac Iori, he's super smart and is normally found here so if you don't understand anything, he's a good person to talk to. You could talk to Karrie but Isaac is better at explaining things, Laurie is also someone you can talk to but she can manage to lose Karrie when she's talking math or technology as well as some of the other top students."

"Can we stay here for a bit before moving on?" Ashley asked.

"Sure," Rhythmi replied. This is when I sped off as fast as I could to the book shelves while Ashley went to talk to Isaac. I think Laurie went to go talk to Todd. I found a book that sounded interesting and took it off the shelf before reading the summary and smiling since it did seem like an interesting book. I wandered around a bit trying to figure out where the library desk was when I saw Rhythmi talking to Kellyn. "So what are you reading?"

"Catching Fire," Kellyn replied. I peeked at the from the corner of the bookshelf.

"Cool," Rhythmi said. "I think I got your sister mad at me again." Kellyn looked up at her.

"What did you do? Try to dress her up?" Kellyn asked.

"No, I woke her up early using a blow horn," Rhythmi replied. "She starting to yell at me in a different language." Kellyn looked like he was trying not to laugh. "What? You think her yelling at me is funny?"

"No, I think how you woke her up is funny," Kellyn replied. I stepped towards them, I needed to ask for directions to the library desk.

"Um, excuse me," I said and then both of them looked at me, causing me to blush. "Um, can you tell me which way is the check-out desk?"

"All the way on the far left side," Rhythmi replied and I nodded before speed walking off in that direction. I checked out my book and then the tour continued, this time with us heading upstairs. "On the left is the boys' room and on the right is the girls' room." It seemed simple enough, especially with the doors being color coded. We entered the girls' dorm to have Karrie jump off from the top bunk of one of the beds.

"Rhythmi wa, anata ga nagaiai naniwoshita no?" Karrie replied. I blinked. She was speaking Japanese. So she saidRhythmi, what took you so long?in Japanese.

"Why do still insist on speaking to me in Japanese? I told I don't speak nor understand Japanese! And I said I was sorrying for waking you up like that!" Rhythmi replied. Ashley just stood there with a confused look on her face. She couldn't understand Japanese. Karrie just smiled while Laurie was chuckling in the backround.

"Atarashī kodomo Hei!"Karrie said to Ashley and I. "Watashitachi no migigawa ni nidanbeddo wa anata no monodesu. Anata wa sudeni soko ni mono motte ko raretate imasu." Translation: Hey new kids! The bunk beds to the right of ours is yours. You're stuff has already been brought there.

"Watashitachi o koto o tsutaeru tame ni, karī o itadaki, arigatōgozaimasu." I replied while bowing my head in thanks. I had said Thank you, Karrie, for telling us that. in Japanese. Karrie's eyes widen as Laurie stopped laughing.

"She knows Japanese?" they both exclaimed. I blushed from embarrassment.

"It was required in my hometown to be able to speak at least two different languages." I explained.

"Oh," Karrie and Laurie replied.

"So mind telling me what she said?" Ashley asked.

"We have the bunk bed that is on the right side of Karrie's, and our stuff has already been dropped off here." I replied.

"Well, I'm impressed," Karrie said while putting her hands behind her head. Rhythmi just shook her head before speaking again:

"We still have the outside to cover."

"And I'll join you," Karrie replied. "I wanted to go outside anyways." So the five of us exited the girls' dorm only to bump into Keith and Ben who insisted on joining us as well. We stepped outside and the outdoor tour began. It was interesting but then we heard a cry for help.

"That's Janice, the caretaker!" Laurie exclaimed before we started to run towards the cry for help.

And she was surrounded by Bidoof and even more of them were frantically running all over the place -I pretty much tripped over at least one, though it wasn't really my fault since some of the Bidoofs decided to run into me and my legs. I was half tempted to use Vulpix, I almost reached for my Riolu's pokeball as well my Absol and Ampharos's but then quickly remember that they were back home and rangers do things differently than trainers.

"Since when did we have this many of them?" Ben asked.

"Dang! Those things can reproduce fast!" Laurie exclaimed. I chuckled. Being from the Lucario Kingdom, Pokemon's breeding stats weren't exactly foreign to me, especially since I technically lived on farm/ranch (though it wasn't originally one.) I saw Kellyn running over to us from the corner of my eye.

"Well, we could do this the Ranger way or we could do this the Breeder way," Ashley said. I let out a sigh.

"You have any idea how long it would take to make enough food for all of them and make sure each individual has what it likes?" I asked her. She looked at me and then blinked as she thought about it.

"Not really," Ashley replied.

"Too long to leave someone in trouble," I told her before taking out my School Styler. "The Ranger way will be a whole lot easier."

"So you're a breeder too?" Karrie asked.

"Um, sort of," I replied. "Not exactly on purpose though."

"Ready newbies?" Kellyn asked. "Keith? Ben? Karrie? Laurie?" We all nodded. I wasn't going to question why Rhythmi wasn't included. We went off in seperate directions to catch as many Bidoof as we could. It was long and tiring but we did it.

"Thank you, everyone." Janice said. "One of the little ones tripped me and I fell and broke their pen."

"Don't blame ya, its easy to trip over these guys," I replied as I patted a Bidoof's head. It's true. If I had been able to capture at least as many Bidoof as I tripped over, we would have been done a whole lot faster. Keith, Ashley, and Ben kept laughing when I tripped and I caught Karrie and Kellyn smiling and chuckling a bit. To be honest, the only one who didn't laugh and was the only one to keep asking me if I was alright every single time I tripped over one of those Bidoof was Laurie. I knew I had heard Rhythmi giggling, laughing, and chuckling at time but only on ocassions, though the Hajime siblings laughed less than she did.

"Yeah, just how many Bidoof did you trip over?" Keith asked. My face flamed red.

"S-Shut up!" I replied, not knowing what else to say.

"It's okay, I saw Keith trip over at least five of them," Kellyn said and Keith blushed from embarrassment.

"And you didn't trip at all?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, I tripped over you, Karrie, Ben, and two Bidoof," Kellyn replied with a smile. I couldn't help but smile and try to contain my giggle.

"Karrie tripped?" Keith asked as if it never happened before.

"Yeah, over you," Karrie replied.

"And you trip over a rock, you stepped on my hair and then tripped over a bush, you tripped chasing a few Bidoof," Ben listed off a few times Karrie tripped and I couldn't help but laugh as Karrie's face turned red from embarrassment.

"I get it!" Karrie replied. "We all tripped except for the Operator and the Mechanic!"

"It was fun to watch," Rhythmi admitted.

"I was worried that one of you was going to get hurt," Laurie confessed. So since Rhythmi is the Operator, I guess that means Laurie wants to be a Mechanic.

"Nantekotta! Tokiniha watashitachi wa kore made ni tomodachi ni natta ka gimon!"Karrie shouted at Rhythmi in fustration being stomping away. Translation: Argh! Sometimes I question how we ever became friends! It made me wonder if her outburst has to do with a number events that have added up so high that something so small would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Kellyn sighed and shook his head while Rhythmi looked very confused.

"You know, I always did wonder how those two became friends, they're pretty much opposites," Laurie commented, obviously knowing what Karrie had said in Japanese.

"Wareware wa kanojo no nochi ni iku no ka kanojo wa chōdo ofu ni reikyaku suru hitsuyō ga arimasu ka?" I asked Laurie. Are we going after her or does she just need to cool off?

"Shirimasen ga, tsūjō wa watashi ga Rhythmi wa kanojo no kichigai o shutoku suru tame ni naniwoshita ka haaku suru koto ga dekimasu." Kellyn replied. Don't know, normally I can figure out what Rhythmi did to get her mad. I was shocked. He knows Japanese!

"What about me?" Rhythmi asked.

"Wareware wa, osoraku henkan sa reru koto o Nihon no saishūtekini kanojo no namae o kangaedasu owaru hitsuyō ga arimasu." I commented. We probably will need to end up coming up with a name for her that translates into Japanese eventually. Laurie nodded and Kellyn chuckled.

"First day and all ready so much drama," Ashley said as she put her hands behind her head. I yawned. It has been a LONG day for the both of us since we were on a plane 10 pm to 4 am, took the entrance exam, were caught up on the basics, given a tour, and had to catch a bunch of Bidoof all in one day. I was tired, no, tired did not begin to describe how I felt. I was exhausted.

"Both of you must be exhausted," Laurie commented, probably after noticing the bags under our eyes.

"Didn't you two come from Sinnoh and Johto?" Ben asked.

"How far away are those places again?" Keith asked. "Geography has never been my strong point."

"We actually came here from Sinnoh after spending a day or so at Ashleigh's house after a long plane trip from Unova." Ashley replied. "We got on the plane at 9 at night and got off around 4 in the morning."

"How do you have the energy to do that and still not pass out after all this?" Kellyn asked.

"I dunno," I replied. "Maybe all those years of traveling in many different regions has something to do with it?"

"Don't worry dears, it almost time for the students to have supper, then you can go to bed," Janice said with a warm, motherly smile before leaving to go inside the main school building.

"We still have one place to go," Rhythmi said.

"Ascension Square?" Keith, Kellyn, Laurie, and Ben asked.

"Yep," Rhythmi replied.

"Let's go before girly decides to get cranky from sleep deprevation," Ashley said and everyone looked at her funny before they all started walking.

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" I protested as I ran to catch up with them.