"Shoes?" Check.
"Inadequately packed bag?"Check.
"Hat?" Hats are lame.
"Overly cliché jacket?" Wouldn't be an adventure without one.
"Charming personality?"Uh… We'll have to work on that one.
My sad attempts at being funny aside, I ran through the checklist of stuff I'd need when I set off tomorrow. Everything was primed and ready for the experience of a lifetime. Everything except for…
"Starter Pokémon?" Heh, about that…
Most people would find it weird to see a kid preparing for a journey, yet not have any Pokémon. These same people would find it even weirder that it was a 14-year old doing all this stuff. Usually, kids were gallivanting across the lands at the ripe age of 10. Usually, anyway. There's always one or two sad saps whose parents are way to overprotective for their own good. Sadly, I'm one of those sad saps…
Backstory, oh boy!
You see, when I turned 10, it was one of the best days of my life. Finally, I'd be able to embark on the long quest to achieve my dream of becoming Champion. Naturally, my dreams had to be crushed, so my parents told me that there was no way that they'd allow their only child to travel across an entire region with nothing but, and I quote, "dangerous monsters."
Of course, I wasn't going to take that, so when they're backs where turned, I went out to try and catch a Pokémon anyway; with nothing but a net and my bare hands. Needless to say, I woke up two days later in the ER and a newly developed fear for Poochyenas.
Of course, a little injury, if you'd call a broken leg little, like that would never keep me down. Every day, I'd relentlessly question about when I could get a Pokémon until, eventually, my parents caved and said they'd get me a "dangerous monster" when I finished Middle School.
Since I wasn't an idiot, I knew that that was at least 4 years away. I voiced my discontent on the long wait, but was quickly shut up when my parents said that if I complained one more time, I could say goodbye to Pokémon and hello to the family business, professional gardening.
So, I postponed my dream for, hopefully, 4 more years, and believe me when I say those years where mental torture. One by one, my so-called "friends" pointed and laughed at me for not having a Pokémon while they did, and then embarked on their journeys the next day. Eventually, I was one of the 3 kids still attending school, excluding all the younger kids, the other two being a guy with really thick glasses, and this extremely pale girl. It didn't help that our teacher wasn't very good at his job. He either didn't show up at all, or when he did, he was hung over. None of use questioned why he was like this, I was afraid of the answer I'd receive, so he was never replaced.
Back to present day
"What kind of Pokémon do you think they got me?" I asked to my Pikachu plushy who, shockingly, didn't respond.
I glanced over at my clock, 1:38am, it read. Yep. I should get to sleep soon. I set about getting everything I'd need for tomorrow, and put them in a pile near my door. I set my alarm for 8:30am- 7 hours was enough sleep, right? -and changed into my night clothes (white t-shirt and some old shorts), and climbed into bed. Tomorrow would be the day I took the first step into the rest of my life. Would I achieve my life-long dream, or would I be relegated to a gardener for the rest of my life? Only time would tell…
"Aaaawaaaaawh…" I yawned as I woke up and stretched.
I sleepily looked over at my clock, 7:24am. I was usually and early riser anyway. I turned off my alarm, hopped out of bed, and took a nice, long shower. Who knows when I'd be able to take on again? Exiting the bathroom, having brushed my teeth after finishing up the shower, I went back to my room, opened the blinds, and stared out the window. My home town… This might be the last time I see it. Well, that wasn't true. I'd come back eventually, I think. Either way, I wouldn't be back for a long time. It was kind of sad really. I was born and raised here, and now I was turning my back on it to travel to other places. It almost felt like I was betraying the city and the people that lived there. Like, they weren't interesting enough for me, and I had to go elsewhere to sate my thirst for adventure and surprises. It almost made me not want to go. Almost. I had waited too long to say 'Screw it, I'm staying home,' now.
I shook my head, and tore my gaze from the window. It was almost time to go. I walked over to where my gear from last night sat, and got ready. Clothes, on. Belt, on. Jacket, on. Bag, on. Hat, still lame. I was ready.
Walking down the steps to our sun filtered living room, I immediately noticed the small box and note resting on top of it. Of course, just because I was out of school, hopefully forever, doesn't mean my parents were done working. I was a little disappointed that they weren't there to see me off, but as I thought on it, it was probably for the best considering their attitude towards Pokémon. Getting excited again, I practically ran over towards the box, picking up the card when I reached it. Only, when I picked it up, I realized that it wasn't a card, but rather an envelope. I opened it up and HOLY GOAT-GOD ON A STICK! Inside… In… Inside of the envelope was a thick wad of cash. And I mean thick. Like, at least 100,000 thick. There was nothing else in the envelope, but man my parents were loaded. Maybe being a farmer or whatever wasn't so bad if I had this kind of money readily available… Nah, still not worth it… Barely…
Still in shock from having so much money- wait if my parents had this much money, how come I never got an allowance? Ah, whatever. I put the money down and slowly turned towards the box. With trembling fingers, I reached towards the lid and pulled it off. There, nestled between pieces of Styrofoam- meaning it was an import –was a Poké Ball. A shiny, red and white Poké Ball. I slowly reached towards the ball, purposely building anticipation for the moment where I'd own my very first Pokémon. I closed my hand around the ball, pulled it out, and inspected it. I was no expert, but this had to be the finest Poké Ball in existence.
"Go! Pokémon!" Seriously? That was the best phrase I could come up with?
The tossed ball sailed through the air for a good yard until finally landing. A bright light flashed as the force of the impact caused the ball to bounce back up and open. As the light subsided, I could make out the Pokémon that had been inside the ball. It was…
…
…
A Sunkern…
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A/N: Hey, look. A story from me that hopefully is longer than 1 Chapter. Anyway, feel free to critique my writing, if you want.
