A/N: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a glorious Festivus to all of you. It is I, your friendly neighborhood DrPhill bringing you a special present to all of you wonderful boys and girls.
Wendy: But... this doesn't look like a new chapter of Evolution. At least, not a normal one.
DrPhill26: That's because it isn't my dear. It is a brand new story centered around you.
Wendy: *blinking in confusion* Wait what?
DrPhill26: You see, I've actually been kicking this idea around in my head for a while now with a couple of my confidants. Given the directions our main story is trending towards, I need a bit of a reprieve from writing the more intense dramatic narratives and ground myself with something a bit more lighthearted. Something that I can just kick back with and relax while writing and just have fun.
Wendy: That just sounds to me like you're putting off working on the main story.
DrPhill26: My first priority is still going to be Evolution, don't get me wrong. But sometimes, I want might get the urge to write something a little different than-
Wendy: Are there still gonna be Nomel Berries?
DrPhill26: You're the main character now, you tell me.
Wendy: Oh I think I'm going to like this story.
DrPhill26: I knew you'd say that. That being said, this particular chapter does not contain anything particularly lemony but does have a little dusting of Nomel Berry zest sprinkled throughout. So ladies and gentleman, newcomers and returning fans of mine, I bid you welcome to the first chapter of Evolution - The Pokérider Chronicles. Enjoy. Oh, and before I forget, a handful of translations for certain words/phrases will be listed below. Have fun :)
"Okay, so when we get there I'm taking a left turn, yeah?"
"Yeah, we're getting pretty close. It shouldn't be much longer." Wendy explained to her friend Kara as the two of them drove past the limits of Solaceon Town and up towards the beginning of Sinnoh's Route 210.
"You know, you always talk about this place back in Hearthome." Kara rolled down the driver's side window of her car, a light breeze now blowing through her luxurious champagne-blonde hair in a way that made it look like it was being poured straight from the bottle. She looked over at Wendy, her teal colored eyes poking out behind the half-rim glasses she wore with a playful but skeptical smirk.
"How is it that we've been friends for as long as we have, yet you've still never invited me over before?"
"Because I'm a bad friend." Wendy returned Kara's look with one of her own, playfully sticking her tongue out as the two girls briefly laughed at each other. Though Wendy's brief laughter faded away and was replaced with a melancholic sigh. "I really haven't been that good of a friend to you of late though."
"Wendy, you're not a bad friend." Kara reached out and sympathetically rubbed Wendy's back. "You've just been going through a rough patch after all this drama with Jayce. It's fine."
"It's not fine Kara."
"Yes, it is fine… In fact, I'd say it's about time that I get to be the one helping pick you up off your feet for a change." Kara continued to rub Wendy's left arm with loving care as the latter slouched over, resting her head above the glove box. "Who was there for me when I got into guy trouble with that Markus guy at Okeer's last year?"
"Me."
"And, what about that sleazebag Tony after him?"
"Eww gross. That guy was such a creep." Wendy shuddered at the thought of the wannabee biker with his greasy black hair and even sloppier attitude.
"And then there was Drake the snake after him." Wendy turned her head in time to see Kara roll her eyes with a look of disgust behind them. "I mean, not to take anything away from what Jayce did; cheating on someone is always a really gutter trash thing to do. But at least when you found out about Jayce and that Natasha girl, he owned up to it and apologized for stringing you along."
"Yeah… I guess you're right."
"Now did I get any of that with Drake? Nooooooo. He thought that I'd be fine with him having another girl on the side. Who thinks like that?! What kind of person literally thinks that that kinda shit is okay?!"
Wendy quietly smiled as Kara's spicier attitude began to heat up now that one of her more recent ex-boyfriends was the topic of conversation. Drake the snake, as the two of them now referred to him as, was Kara's worst ex by far. Both he and Wendy's now ex-boyfriend Jayce were caught cheating on Kara and Wendy at two and seven months into their respective relationships. It was this breakup a little over a month ago that had initially sent Wendy's life into a downward spiral that she had yet to fully recover from. But where Wendy and Jayce were able to have a relatively civil breakup over what happened, Kara... wasn't so lucky.
"How did he try to explain that what he was doing was okay again?"
"Oh, you don't need to worry about her baby doll." Kara began, speaking with a mocking voice of a stereotypical gym rat. "Morgan's just the side dish to your main course. You know, like the side salad you get that comes with the steak dinner. Or the sprinkles on top of an extra hot fudge sundae.' What the fuck does that even mean?!"
"It sounds like he just called you a piece of meat for his pleasure." Wendy stealthily hid a giggle as she watched Kara's frown become more pronounced. Being a bit of a schadenfreude, Wendy secretly took pleasure in her friend's frequent misfortune when it came to boys, mostly because her reactions could get rather animated. And even if she knew she shouldn't laugh, the look of disgust tainting Kara's turquoise eyes was always amusing to see if nothing else. Especially once Wendy started teasingly turning up the heat on her friend's fiery temper.
"Believe me, I've had that exact thought about him more than once." Kara venomously spat out her complete hatred of Drake.
"Wasn't he the same guy who drunk-dialed you a few weeks later, or was that Tony?"
"No that was definitely Drake, the ungrateful shit." Wendy sat up at this point, still trying to hide her laughter. "I mean what kind of Poké-cock sucker calls up their ex at 3 am on a Wednesday, and drunkenly begs you to get back with him just because his side salad wouldn't give him head?" Wendy turned her gaze away from Kara, looking out the window in an effort to better hide her muffled laughter.
"Awww, boo-hoo. Your little side salad won't suck you off. What – The Fuck – makes you think there's any chance in hell that I'd come back to you after you did what you did. Hell, I'm surprised that bitch Morgan is still with you after she found out. Who, by the way, is half the woman I am, and in more ways than one!" Kara turned to Wendy and pointed at her ample bosom.
Wendy had to admit as she looked at her friend, she was a little bit jealous of Kara and her rather exceptional form. She had an almost textbook hourglass figure, naturally pushing into the infamous D-cup range upstairs, with an equally bubbly and voluptuous lower half. With natural beauty like hers, it was no wonder Kara tended to attract so many boys to her side. Though the way Kara slouched forward with a resigned sigh, resting her hands and chin atop the steering wheel, it seemed to say she was sick of dealing with boys and wanted a man in her life instead.
"I can't remember what it was I ever saw in that fuckboy in the first place."
"Well lucky for you, I do remember." A mischievous sparkle dotted Wendy's eyes as she looked at her friend, seeing a look of surprise beneath her glasses.
"Wait… you do?"
"It's kind of funny that you said 'fuckboy' considering how blatantly you told me your intentions the second you saw him." Her smile curled even more nefariously while Kara's cheeks began to heat up with embarrassment. "If I recall, we were at the pool in Hearthome back in June, and he was swimming laps-"
"Nope, stop! I don't want to hear it!" Kara held her hand up in protest, but Wendy ignored her and continued.
"And as he climbed out of the pool, you saw him-"
"Come on Wendy, be nice!"
"You turned back to me, already drooling a bit mind you, and said to-"
"Okay, whoa, whoa! Timeout! I was NOT drooling!"
"Kara your tongue was hanging out your mouth when you saw him. It was practically Lickitung length." Wendy could feel the devilish nubs atop her head beginning to sprout into full-on horns as Kara muttered something about her hormones being stupid. "Anyway, you turn back to me and say, and I quote…"
"La-lala-la-la-lalala-la." Kara tried to talk over Wendy and drown her out, but the vindictive brunette simply waited for a moment when Kara went to catch her breath.
"Hey, check out tall dark and handsome over there with the six-pack abs. I'm gonna head on over and see if he's packing more than six downstairs."
"Ughhh! Damn you stupid horny Kara!" Kara collapsed onto the steering wheel again, briefly beeping the horn with her balled up fists while her friend in the passenger seat laughed mercilessly at her misery. "He wasn't even packing four…" She muttered beneath Wendy's fun.
"So, then you get up and chase after him as he's headed to-"
"Okay Wendy, I get it! You remember what happened!" Wendy finally pressed one button too many and brought her friend's fiery temper down on her directly. "You don't need to tell me about what happened in the locker room. I was there!"
"Okay, okay. I'll be nice." Though in spite of her words, Wendy continued to shake in her seat with victory laughter.
"You really are a bad friend sometimes." Kara pouted, shaking her head disapprovingly at her supposed friend.
"I'm sorry."
"No you're not."
"Not really… … I'm sorry… … That time I meant it, I swear." Wendy giggled some more as Kara rolled her eyes in defeat. "But hey, even if none of that was intentional, thanks for playing along with me just now. It's been a while since I've had a good laugh like that." Kara paused a moment before letting out a sigh and turning to Wendy with what she could tell was a deeply loving and genuine smile.
"I'm just glad to see that smile of yours again. And if it takes an embarrassing trip down memory lane to bring it out, even for a moment, then so be it."
"You're the best Kara." Wendy returned Kara's genuine smile with one of her own. "I really am grateful for everything you've done for me of late."
At that time, the two of them exited the initial canopy of Route 210 and saw a large clearing on the left side of the road. Wendy immediately felt nostalgia warm her heart as she saw the stone cottage that signified home sitting atop a nearby hill inside of a large fenced off plot of land. The past month after breaking things off with Jayce had been hectic for Wendy, with the days bleeding together into one seemingly never-ending and exhausting day. College applications, the Jayce-centric melodrama, her internship with the Pokémon News Press affiliate in Hearthome City, all of it had been beating down on her for what felt like forever. That's why she'd been looking forward to this weekend so much. If nothing else, a brief escapism to the quieter and friendlier pastures of home might be just the thing Wendy needed to recharge her batteries and get out of this recent rut of hers.
"This is it, isn't it?" Kara asked pointing at the house and Wendy nodded. "It's cuter than you described. But it's a bit… smaller than I was expecting?"
"That's the rustic charm of Solaceon Town for you." Wendy sighed with whimsy. She'd lived in this quaint cottage most of her life, still seeing her room perfectly in her mind's eye. Even if she hadn't been living there for a while now on account of her going to school in Hearthome City, she was willing to bet mom hadn't once touched her room since she'd left beyond making her bed. To be honest though, Wendy never saw the point in making her bed. What was the point of making it up if you were going to be sleeping in it at the end of the day anyway?
"Okay but still, you said your family's daycare is the largest in Sinnoh. There's no way your parents run a business that big out of that little cabin."
"Of course not." Wendy laughed off Kara's question. "We'd hardly have the space to take care of all of our own Pokémon, let alone other trainer's Pokémon if that was the case."
"Then where's the rest of the daycare?" Kara asked, looking confused.
"Well, take a left on that dirt road and you'll find out." So Kara did, taking a left on the dirt road flanked on both sides by hills that climbed up towards Wendy's home. Wendy could already see a few excitable Pokémon racing up towards the road and the car, including a Furret that she waved at. The Johto-native Pokémon briefly chased the car, but stopped after its short sprint and disappeared back into the long grass.
Kara slowed her car down to a halt as they reached the top of the hill and pulled up in front of Wendy's house. Everything still looked the same to her from the evenly spaced windows on both the first and second floors, to the tiled clay roof, to the small chimney that stood aloft with a few gray plumes of smoke drifting lazily into the sky. It appeared cozy, warm, and inviting; exactly as she remembered it, and a complete contrast to the drab exterior of her apartment complex in Hearthome City.
Next to the house was the daycare itself, a much more modern and professional looking building compared to the rustic home beside it. It was a single-story building, though still just about as tall as Wendy's house, large windowed walls flanked both sides of the main entrance with an awning of the same maple color of the walls supporting it. It was also a lot longer than the house, almost twice the size of the house to accommodate the examination rooms for the Pokémon staying at the daycare itself. Most of the Pokémon though were kept in a barn, or the specialized habitats near the barn that was a short way away, back towards the edge of Route 210. It added on to the rustic charm of the daycare, as did the hand-painted sign that Wendy had helped with when she was a little girl placed in the triangular frame of the awning over the entryway to the building that proudly read "Solaceon Town Daycare" Wendy smiled as she stood out of the car and stretched her arms over her head. It felt so good to be home.
"Thank you for choosing Rojas regional transportation," Kara smirked as she extended her open palm towards Wendy. "We hope that your voyage with us today was satisfactory and that you will utilize our services again in the future. Your bill for today comes to 3500 Pokénn."
"Oh, would you mind putting it on my tab? Pretty please Kara Bear?" Wendy pleaded with her friend, utilizing her special Lillipup-eyes technique. She cocked her head slightly sideways to the left, pursing her lips with a sad frown as her eyes began to well up with fake tears. She even folded her hands together over her heart for added measure. There was hardly a person on the planet who could resist Wendy's cute charm ability when she went all out like this.
"No." Unfortunately for Wendy, Kara was one of the most frequent recipients of her trademark technique. While it used to work on her for a long time, at this point in their friendship, Kara had built up an immunity to the dangerous ability and simply flexed her hand with a "pay up" gesture.
"Damn." Wendy relented and opened her purse, grabbing enough Pokénn to cover Kara's gas mileage and a little bit more and placed it in Kara's hand.
"Thank you again for your patronage." Kara did a fake curtsey that made both girls laugh for a moment.
"E Komo Mai! Welcome to the Solaceon Daycare." A deep but familiar voice caught Wendy's attention and she turned towards the house to see a man standing in the doorway of the building. His smile was just as bright and vibrant as the shirt he wore open over his well-defined chest. The muscles of his bronzed body rippled much like the wave patterns across his shirt in hues of blue and purple. They swirled around like the ocean waters above the sandy beach of his knee-length cargo shorts. Yet in spite of his distinctly manly physique, it was his boyish and innocent smile beneath a mop of deep blue colored hair tied up in a messy ponytail that drew Wendy's attention every time she saw him.
"Hiya Kee. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Wendy addressed the man with an innocent smile as well.
"Wendy! My Leilani!" Her old acquaintance rushed forward and picked Wendy up in a spinning hug, tightly squeezing his love into her arms before setting her down again. "Luna said you would be coming by today. Though I did not think it would be so soon."
"Well you know me Kee, I'm a free spirit, I come and go as I please."
"But of course. It is part of your charm. Now," The man Wendy called Kee turned his boyish smile towards Kara. "will you introduce me to your friend as well?"
"I'd be a bad friend if I didn't." Wendy giggled innocently as she motioned for Kara to come closer to the man she now stood beside. "Kee, this is my friend slash roommate in Hearthome City, Kara Rojas. Kara, this is my friend, and one of the helpers at our daycare, Keanu Palu. He's from the Alola region."
"You don't say?" Kara sounded impressed as she extended her hand, only for it to be crushed in the islander's strong grip, making her grimace in discomfort.
"Oh, sorry. I guess I forgot my own strength." Keanu apologized as Kara massaged some feeling back into her fingers.
"No, that's okay." Kara said while sizing up the native Alolan with Wendy thinking she saw a look of intrigue behind those glasses of hers. "So, what's someone from Alola doing working at a daycare in Sinnoh?"
"Ah, it is a longer story. But to shorten it, during my island challenge, I discovered that my calling in this life is to work with and nurture Pokémon and to help them grow." Keanu beamed with pride. "So, I asked the kahuna for guidance, and he suggested working at a ranch or a daycare."
"Okay, so how'd you end up in Sinnoh then?" Kara asked again.
"Well, I used to work at a ranch in a place called Paniola Town. But working there was not very satisfying to me. And when I went to the Aether Foundation, something just didn't feel right to me there too. So, I asked the kahuna for further guidance and he suggested working elsewhere, away from Alola. I looked online for daycare work and this was the first one that really spoke to me."
"And he's been here ever since." Wendy chimed in herself. "How long has it been Kee, three years?"
"Yes, three years last March."
"Wow, that's great. I'm glad you could find your calling." Kara smiled politely but changed to a slight frown. "I'm still searching for mine."
"Hmmm…" The tall islander looked down at Kara with an almost sage-like expression. "Perhaps I should bestow upon you the same piece of wisdom that the Kahuna Hala gave me."
"And what would that be?" Both Kara and Wendy looked at the Alolan worker curiously.
"Ahuwale ka Po'okela I kau hana ia ha'i." Keanu smiled at Kara warmly, though the latter looked completely mystified, clearly unsure of what she'd heard.
"Ah – Ah-who – Ah-what? I'm sorry, I have no idea what you just said." Keanu laughed with a booming voice at Kara's confusion.
"I am not surprised. It is a native Alolan saying that goes back many, many generations to the founding of the region itself. It basically means that by serving and helping others, you will come to feel your own greatness."
"I… hmmm… That's actually pretty good advice." Kara said, reflecting on the Islander's wisdom. "Thank you."
"It is my pleasure to assist every Leilani that wishes to bloom." To both Kara's and Wendy's surprise, Keanu grabbed Kara's hand and gently raised it to his lips, kissing it softly while still wearing his happy, innocent smile that made both girls blush.
"Hey Keanu, did you ever find the extra battery pack for the cordless drill we were looking for?" A distorted male voice crackled seemingly out of nowhere. Kara might have flinched again at the second surprise in as many moments, but neither Wendy or Keanu did as the islander reached under the waistline of his open shirt and unclipped a walkie-talkie.
"No Luna, but I found something else instead." Keanu chuckled as he spoke into the device. There was a pause…
"An extension cord?"
"Hehe. No Luna." Keanu chuckled again.
"Well what did you find?" Before Keanu could respond, Wendy snatched the walkie-talkie out of his hands and pressed the button.
"He found me daddy." There was another pause…
"Wendy? What are you doing here sweet pea?" The voice sounded a bit surprised to Wendy's ear.
"Why do you sound surprised?" Wendy frowned at the walkie-talkie. "Kee said you knew I was coming today."
"No no, I just wasn't expecting you to get here this early in the day." The voice of Wendy's father replied.
"Daddy, it's almost six o'clock." Wendy replied blankly.
"What?!" Yet another pause before the voice resumed, sounding stunned. "Oh damn, this day went by fast. I need to think about dinner." Keanu grabbed the walkie from Wendy and raised it to his lips.
"How about I come take your place then Luna? I'll try to fix that stubborn fence and you can come back and work on dinner." Once again, there was a pause, albeit a brief one.
"Alright, that sounds good to me." Wendy's father answered as a strained grunt came through the speaker. "Sick of this stupid fence anyway."
"Did he forget that he was holding the button?" Kara asked and both Keanu and Wendy shrugged.
"Oh, by the way Wendy. I assume Kara drove you out here today?" The voice continued.
"Uh-huh."
"Does she have time to stay for dinner? I was gonna fire up the grill tonight and see what happens."
"You really should stay if you have the time." Wendy tried convincing Kara. "Daddy's a magician in front of the grill."
"Is that so?"
"Uh-huh!" Wendy smiled with a prideful grin to Kara's curiosity. "He's even won awards in three of the last six summer cookoffs in town."
"Really, that is impressive." Kara nodded in agreement, though her expression slowly changed to a sly grin of her own. "Especially since you seem to struggle with cooking on a nightly basis."
"Y-yeah, I can't compare at all to daddy's cooking." Wendy's cheeks lit up with an embarrassed laugh. One of Wendy's Achilles' heels so to speak was her inability to cook to the degree of her dad, or even her roommate Kara, or most anyone for that matter. Even with a recipe in front of her to follow, she had a tendency to screw it up on one level or another. Sometimes even more than one level as she found out while trying to make her ex Jayce a batch of cookies for his birthday before they'd broken up. He tried to put on a good face for her, but Jayce was ultimately not a fan of the burnt and extra-salted cookies he'd received from Wendy.
"Did you know she once burnt mac 'n' cheese in our apartment?" Kara turned to Keanu still with the same sly grin.
"KARA!" Wendy's voice cracked as she shouted, her face heating up exponentially more than before.
"You did it again?" Keanu's eyes widened as he turned to Wendy.
"You've done it before?" Kara did the same as Wendy turned away even more ashamed of her past cooking failures.
"You guys are bullies."
"I like to think of it as getting even from your teasing me on the way here by bringing up he-who-shall-not-be-named." Kara cocked her hips in a sassy manner.
"So, was that a yes?" The voice of Wendy's voice crackled over the walkie speaker a second time. Keanu held the walkie to Kara and she took it.
"Perhaps another time Mr. Riding. I actually have a hot date tonight with Louis, some movies and about three or four bags of popcorn."
"Well do you at least have the time to spare for a quick checkup then?" A different voice, feminine this time played over the walkie. "Surely you don't want your Slowbro to get a tummy ache eating all that junk food."
"Don't worry Mrs. Riding, the popcorn is for me. I have Bluk berries for Louis."
"That's good to hear. How about you though Wendy? It's been a while since I saw your Pokémon." The voice asked Wendy now. "I do hope you're keeping them healthy as well." Wendy walked over and snatched the walkie from Kara's hand.
"You can see for yourself how healthy they are mom." Wendy answered the voice's question confidently.
"Well, I'll be the judge of that." Wendy's mother was certified as a Pokémon doctor and certainly knew what she was talking about when it came to looking after Pokémon, especially her daughter's. She had initially planned on being a big city doctor in Jubilife or maybe Sunnyshore City, and eventually did finish her degree in Pokémon anatomy/physiology as was her goal on day one. But in college, she met Wendy's father, who was studying to become a Pokémon breeder. She was a hard-study, book to the nose kind of student, and her future husband's lackadaisical attitude towards his studies infuriated her to no end. But over time, the cozier and more intimate approaches to Pokémon-client relationships that he taught her couldn't be learned in a book eventually won her over both as a student and also won over her heart in the process. Twenty-four years later, the two of them now co-owned the most successful daycare in the entire Sinnoh region.
"Oh, they'll both pass with flying colors." Wendy continued her confidence as she reached for her trainer's belt and enlarged two Poké balls, one in each hand and tossed them skyward.
From the ball in Wendy's left hand burst forth her Ampharos, Tess, who landed with a jovial cry of her name. Tess was Wendy's only successful catch of a wild Pokémon, though at the same time was a sort of birthday present on her fourteenth birthday four years ago. Her friends took Wendy out to Floaroma town for a birthday picnic near the wind farms west of the town. While there, one of her friends found a whole herd of wild Mareep, a rarity in Sinnoh with help from a Poké Radar. And since it was Wendy's birthday, the group decided to help Wendy catch one. So, Wendy picked out the one with the fluffiest wool, and after a surprisingly difficult battle with the electric sheep, Wendy managed to defeat and capture her first, and to date only wild Pokémon.
"Ampharo-pham!" Tess gleefully called her name again as she waddled up to her trainer.
"It's good to be back home, huh Tess?"
"Am-pharos!" Tess agreed as electricity briefly sparked around her plug-like ears atop her head.
"Right? I think we could all use a break from the city." Wendy smiled back at her Pokémon before turning her attention towards her second. "You think so too, don't you Pulse?"
Pulse, Wendy's Lucario, was her first Pokémon, and the two of them had become exceptionally close over their five-plus years together. A few months before Wendy's thirteenth birthday, two separate daycare clients dropped off a male Infernape and a female Lucario respectively. Unbeknownst to the Lucario's trainer, she had just gone into her heat cycle, and the Infernape decided that he would help the Lucario through her time of need. When Pulse's egg was discovered about a week later, both trainers were called and the Lucario's trainer exploded into a rage, furious that the other trainer's Infernape had "raped his Lucario". As such, the Lucario's trainer refused to take the "bastard egg" as he called it, and the Infernape's trainer was unable to take it as well. So, deciding to kill two birds with one stone, Wendy's father asked her if she was interested in raising the egg herself since she'd recently expressed a desire to raise a Pokémon of her own. And so, Wendy eventually hatched Pulse as a Riolu, raising him into the strong-willed and strongly loyal Lucario who stood before her.
"I agree master. It will be nice to relax and reconnect with our roots." In fact, Wendy and Pulse became so close that they developed a special bond between the two of them, allowing Pulse to communicate telepathically with Wendy. Before Pulse first hatched, Wendy read in one of her mother's research books that the Lucario species has a natural connection to a type of energy produced by all living creatures called Aura. And although many species of Pokémon can tap into their Aura during battle, no other species is as adept at manipulating their own Aura like a Lucario can. In fact, over time, both Riolu and Lucario will subconsciously begin manipulating their individual aura-wavelengths to be similar to that of their trainers. Once the Pokémon and their trainer's wavelengths become harmonious, a telepathic connection between them can be formed like the one Wendy and Pulse share.
"You can say that again." Wendy 'thought' with a whimsical tone to her Lucario through their telepathic link.
"I agree master. It will be nice to relax and reconnect with our roots." Pulse repeated his words, making Wendy giggle in the process.
"Smartass."
"Was I not supposed to repeat myself master?" Pulse tilted his head in a slightly curious way.
"I was being facetious Pulse." Wendy's inner voice continued giggling.
"I see," The Lucario's brow furrowed in thought. "So that was a joke."
"Yes, that was a joke."
"Ah, then I apologize." Pulse replied in his calm and serene sounding voice. "This kind of humor still confuses me."
"You'll figure it out someday." Wendy placed her hand on Pulse's head, lightly rubbing it between his ears, bringing a smile to the bipedal pup's face.
"Well, if you're so confident, why don't you have Keanu send them over to me before he goes to work on the fence?" The voice of Wendy's mother crackled through the walkie-talkie speaker.
"Ah, yes! I should get back to work. We can catch up another time Wendy." Keanu snapped back to alertness and grabbed the walkie. "I'll be right there Luna."
"Wait, I thought that was what you called Mr. Riding." Kara looked confused as Keanu clipped the walkie back to the waist of his shorts.
"Ah no, err, I do. But Luna means boss so I call them both that." Keanu explained.
"Oh okay, that makes sense."
"You two say hi to mom for me." Wendy said to her Pokémon.
"I do not believe your mother can hear my voice like you can though." Pulse responded while Tess cheerily waved her paddle-like arm in a wave.
"I – no Pulse, that was a figure of speech." Wendy sighed internally at Pulse's confusion. "I didn't mean literally say hello to my mother."
"Oh, was that another joke?"
"No Pulse that was – just go with Tess and get a checkup, okay? Come find me when you're done."
"As you wish, master." Wendy sighed again as both Tess and Pulse began following Keanu towards the house.
"It was nice to meet you Kara!" Keanu waved with a boyish smile.
"Yeah, nice to meet you too Keanu!" Kara waved back as Keanu and Wendy's Pokémon made their way inside the daycare building adjacent to Wendy's house. As soon as the door shut though, Kara's turquoise eyes flashed with an almost predatory look as she turned to Wendy. "So… Wendy?"
"So… Kara?" Wendy looked confused at Kara's expression.
"Why haven't you ever told me about Keanu before?" Kara asked as she and Wendy both made their way to the trunk, Kara opening it remotely along the way.
"I know I've told you about Keanu before."
"You didn't tell me he looked like that though." Kara replied and Wendy rolled her eyes, knowing instantly where this conversation was going.
"Kara, I don't want to talk about boys right now. The whole reason I set this trip up was to get away from dealing with boys for a while."
"Ohhhhh~ I see how it is." Kara spoke with a drawl.
"I get the feeling you don't." Wendy sighed, reaching into the trunk and pulling out a rolling suitcase of her clothes.
"You want to keep your precious Kee all to yourself, don't you?"
"What the – no I don't!" Wendy looked outraged at Kara as she pulled another bag of Wendy's from her trunk.
"Don't try to hide it Wendy. I was watching both of you as you were talking to him." Kara grinned coyly as she closed the trunk. "I'm a little surprised though since he has that nice deep blue hair. I thought you had a thing for redheads?"
"So what if I do?" Wendy stared a dagger at her friend. "Me liking redheads doesn't have anything to do with Kee."
"Uh-oh, Skitty got claws, meow!" Kara chortled her laughter while Wendy ground her teeth. "You do have to admit though, he's pretty hot."
"I don't have to admit anything." Wendy charged ahead and opened the door to her home. In spite of Kara's insistence on talking about something irrelevant, Wendy felt a pang of cozy warmth cradle her heart as she looked at her childhood home for the first time in half a year. To the right and left were a pair of small lounge areas with a few potted plants and sparsely used bookshelves. A pair of hallways across from these areas lead to a connected kitchen/dining room area on the left, and the adjacent living room down the right. Though Wendy's focus was on the staircase that formed the two separate hallways, as up those stairs and two doors on the right was her room, where Wendy now wanted nothing more than to flop on her bed, wrap herself in blankets and pretend to be a Kakuna until dinnertime.
"That doesn't mean you don't think it though." Kara continued as she stepped into the house and followed Wendy up the stairs. "Come on, nobody wears an open shirt unless they want to show off what they have. And boy does he have something good to show off."
"I don't believe this…" Wendy rolled her eyes again.
"Bronzed skin, those sandy brown eyes, that sexy Alolan accent of his,"
"Kara please-"
"And did you see how many abs he had under that shirt?"
"Kara seriously, plea-"
"I mean, my God! You could play tic-tac-toe on his chest if you wanted. And let me tell you, Mama Kara wants to do that and a lot mor-"
"KARA!" Wendy finally snapped, dropping her bag at the foot of her door and spinning around to a Deerling caught in the headlights look from her friend. "Please. Just drop it, okay? I've never thought about Kee that way before."
"R-really?"
"Yeah. Really."
"Oh…" Kara looked down from Wendy's angry stare. "I'm sorry."
"Well no – I… I'm sorry too." Wendy sighed an apology. "Like I get it, Kee is a really nice guy, and he looks like he's got a body like an Alolan surfer-boy. But I just… I dunno. Every time I see him, I see that smile of his. It's just so pure and genuinely happy. And he's such a hard worker around here who always helps out whenever he can from sunup to sundown. He's great with Pokémon, especially the Water types and-."
"Oh my God you've really never thought about him like that." Kara looked back at Wendy, who now was looking upset.
"No… that's not true either." Wendy shook her head disappointedly. "I mean, trust me, when I was younger, I thought the same thing you did when I first saw him. Tall, dark, handsome. But it was the same thing that happened with Will."
"Your childhood friend Will?" Kara asked and Wendy nodded.
"Yeah, like I've told you already, Will's and my parents go back to University together. They're super good friends so naturally our families hung out together a lot, especially since they have a ranch just up the road from us. But because of that, I think Will only ever saw me as a younger sister and never as a girl, even after I started showing an interest in him. That's the same kind of vibe I get from Kee. Or maybe he sees me as the boss's daughter and thinks I'm off limits, I dunno. Either way, he's never once made a pass at me."
"Wow… I'm sorry Wendy."
"You don't have to apologize. I shouldn't have snipped at you. I guess I'm still a bit stressed about all this crap in my life." Wendy apologized instead as she and Kara stepped into Wendy's room. Much like she'd thought, her mom had in fact kept her room clean in spite of Wendy's absence. Her bed still sat in the center of the wooden frame in the center of the room. The purple bed sheets and pillows tucked neatly and placed gently against the frame, with Wendy's closet behind it against the far wall. The scent of fabric softener got stronger as the two girls walked across the carpeted floors and floor rugs, placing the two suitcases at the foot of the bed while the two girls sat on the edge of the bed.
"Apology accepted." Kara lightly hugged her girlfriend, who returned her hug with one of her own. "Tell you what, I'll let you take dibs on your precious Kee if it means that much to you."
"Oh my God, did we not just have this conversation?" Wendy giggled in spite of her desire to be mad at Kara.
"All I'm saying," Kara began as she pulled away from their hug. "Is that you've been single for a month now. Your precious Kee doesn't have anyone in his life does he?"
"Not that I know of."
"Well... You're gonna be here with him for an entire week while you're out here. Why not take the chance to find out if he has any interest in you?"
"I dunno..." Wendy frowned. "What if I make things awkward between us?"
"So you do like him then?" Wendy shied away from Kara's teasing, but her question was true. Although she didn't consider him too much for all the reasons she'd already told Kara, Wendy did think Keanu would make good boyfriend material. His personality, his dedication to his work, the care and adoration he had for all kinds of Pokémon, they were all things she admired about him. The fact that he was shredded like a Machoke was just the icing on the cake. And not that she would admit this to Kara, but she had fantasized about him more than once in the past during her alone time.
"Look, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But you're never going to know if you sit on your hands and don't find out for yourself." Wendy turned back to her friend, seeing a compassionate smile looking back at her. "I think you two would be cute together."
"You think so?"
"I do. And if nothing else, he's like a hundred times hotter than Jayce You've got to admit that much." Wendy snorted a laugh and Kara quickly joined her as the two friends giggled with glee together.
"Yeah, you know what? You're right! I'm gonna give it a shot!" Both girls stood up as Wendy made her proclamation.
"That's my girl." Kara clapped her excitement as she pointed at a mirror above the dresser sitting against the wall near the door.
"Who's that sexy woman right there next to me?" Kara asked again as Wendy turned to the mirror. While she may not have had as developed a figure as Kara and her D-cupped hourglass, Wendy wasn't exactly far behind in her figure. She had a healthy C-cupped bust of her own, covered today by a cozy purple and black striped sweater that made her own curvy figure stand out that much more. Confidence brimmed from top to bottom inside of Wendy as she looked at herself in the mirror. The blonde highlights in atop her mostly brunette colored shoulder-length hair seemed to sparkle much like the resolve shown in her perfect emerald eyes. Even in the way she'd slightly cocked her hips with her lithe hips in her blue jeans showed she was ready to bring about change in her life.
"I'm that sexy woman next to you!" Wendy said to her reflection.
"Yeah you are!" Kara stood up and in her excitement stood up and swatted Wendy's firm behind, shattering the confident woman's façade and making her jump forward with a surprised yelp.
"Kara!"
"What? I thought you told me once you liked being spanked."
"Not when I'm not expecting it!" Kara only offered a knowing smirk back at her friend, even wagging her eyebrows in a suggestive manner. As Wendy's face started to heat up even more, she started to wonder whether it was worth teasing Kara during their car ride. Because if anyone could deal out as much teasing as Wendy often liked to, it was Kara.
"Well, I should probably get going." Kara's smile came back to her as she pointed at the door. "You didn't leave anything in my car did you?"
"Nope, I just brought the two bags." Wendy shook her head.
"Okay well then come here." Kara held her arms out wide and Wendy walked straight into another hug that she just as warmly returned. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do while you're here."
"And if I do, name it after you, right?"
"Exactly." Kara renewed her hug with Wendy as the two girls laughed at each other again. "I'll see you in a week, and when I do I want stories about you and Kee."
"Get out of here!" Wendy laughed again as Kara waved goodbye and descended the stairs to the front door, leaving Wendy by herself in her room. Kara's little pep talk had certainly helped in its regard, Wendy hadn't felt this much like her old self in quite a while. She looked at herself in the mirror, posing for herself briefly like a model. Yeah, she was a ready to put herself back out there... right after a nap that was. With a childish grin, Wendy spun on her heel and dove for her bed, immediately wrapping herself up in her purple comforter. She stifled a quick yawn before burrowing deeper into her bed. It felt so good to be home.
A/N: There you go, Chapter 1 in the books. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I had while writing it. Like I said earlier, this story isn't going to be my main focus, Evolution still will be the main focus I have with writing. But if you guys liked what you just read let me know, and maybe I'll start to slowly poke out more content for this story too. I imagine a good number of that future content will have quite a bit of juicy Nomel Berries for you to enjoy if that stuff is your cup of tea ;) So yeah, until I see you guys again in whichever story it may be, this has been DrPhill26 signing out and I'll see you guys next time.
Alolan translations
E komo mai! - Greetings/Welcome
Leilani - Heavenly Flower
Luna - Boss