Prologue
Audrey lay on her bed, playing a game on her Xtranciever. "Cheren, she'll be here soon. Relax."
He stopped and looked at her, "but Audrey, today is the day we get Pokemon. I mean… I know she has no sense of time but…" he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "What if its her dad? What if he won't let her get a Pokémon?"
She paused her game and looked at him. "He has to let her. The professor is giving them to us."
"You know what he's like. I've always been scared of him."
"Always been scared of who?" they hadn't heard Bianca come in.
"Champion Alder," she switched off her game and smirked. "I mean, his hair looks like it could stab me."
Bianca frowned for a split-second, but it fell away when she saw the box. "Are these the Pokémon?" she asked.
Cheren opened the box. "No, its just Audrey's new trashcan."
Bianca gasped, "What?" and ran to look at the box. "Cheren!" she hit him gently.
He laughed. "So, who should pick first? They were delivered to Audrey's house…"
"I really don't mind." Audrey sat up. "I'll just take whatever's left."
"C'mon Audrey, this is the most important day of our lives," she pouted and pulled her friend up. "You're picking first."
"Okay, I'll pick…" her hand hovered over the Poké Balls. A messy scrawl in permanent marker labelled the names of the Pokémon inside. "Oshawott."
"Then I get Tepig!" Bianca grabbed the Poké Ball in the middle. "Cheren, you get Snivy." She then seemed to remember herself. "If you want it. I can swap."
"I'm fine. I wanted this one from the start anyway," he smiled at her.
Audrey cleared her throat and sent out her new water-type. "Are we battling or what?"
"I'll go first!" Bianca sent out her Tepig. "Okay Cheren, what do we do now?"
"Go Oshawott!" Audrey yelled as he tackled his opponent.
"Hey Audrey, no fair!" Bianca adjusted her hat. "I guess me and Tepig'll just have to take you down!"
"I'd like to see you try!" Audrey grinned as her friend stuck out her tongue.
The Tepig charged at the Oshawott, but it miscalculated and rammed itself into Audrey's bed. Dizzy, it tried to fight back, but the Oshawott continuously bonked it with its shell. Eventually, the Tepig just decided to give up the battle and it sprawled itself out on the floor.
"You tried your best. Good job Tepig!" Bianca clapped her hands. "Cheren, do you want to battle?"
He shook his head. "We'll destroy Audrey's room if I send out my Pokémon. Its just too tough."
Audrey raised her eyebrows. "Sure. You're just afraid you'll lose."
"I may be." Cheren shrugged and pushed up his glasses. "Anyway, we have to go see the professor first."
"But before that, I gotta show Lucy. I promised her." she pressed a button on the Poké Ball and recalled her Oshawott.
"Yeah, and I have to go tell my dad." Bianca adjusted her vest, avoiding eye contact with Cheren. "C'mon Tepig. Time for you to meet my family." She picked him up.
"I'll wait for you at the lab," Cheren said as Bianca left the room. "You should be going with her."
"Cheren, I can't. He's her dad, not mine." She sighed. "I know you care, but I can't just step in on their family."
"It just seems like we can't do anything about this."
"We can't."
Cheren took off his glasses and cleaned them. A Pidove chirped somewhere outside.
"I'm sorry."
He put his glasses back on. "I'll be at the lab."
Audrey watched as he left the room, then she bit her lip and sat down on her bed. "Can I come in now?" The door muffled Lucy's voice.
She put on a smile. "Only if you guess which type I picked."
XxXxX
Bianca stood in the middle of the pathway to her house. "Its okay. I can do this. I'll be fine."
"Bianca? How long have you been standing there?"
"Um, not long. I'm just about to go in, so you can go see Cheren at the lab."
Audrey pursed her lips. "I can go in with you."
"No its fine… I have to…"
Her friend moved to be beside her. "Cheren told me to."
Bianca turned her head to see Audrey's smirk. "Well, he should just stay out of it."
"Why don't we just go straight to the lab? Cheren's been waiting for a while." She scuffed her shoes on the gravel.
"I just can't leave him," she said, and in an undertone she added, "that's what Mom did."
The wind whistled through the trees.
"We're only going to the lab, okay? And before we actually set out, you can tell him that-"
"I know you were talking about him before," Bianca noticed a daisy trying to grow near her feet. "I always know when you're talking about him. I know you and Cheren don't like him, but he's my dad, okay? Here," she passed her Tepig to Audrey, "take him back to the lab. I'm not going."
"Bianca, you're being stupid." She watched as she began to walk away. "We've wanted this since we were kids."
She whipped around, tears in her eyes. "Well, I'm not a kid anymore!"
Audrey stroked the Tepig as she watched her best friend storm off.
XxXxX
She held the spare Pokédex, running his fingers over its square edges. It was getting close to midnight, but she wasn't in her room.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.
It was a few seconds before Bianca answered it, eyes wide. The TV could be heard from inside. "Audrey?"
"Bianca, pack your things. We're going."
"Audrey, I want to go but…" her words were punctuated by snores.
"Do you want to stay in Nuvema for the rest of your life?"
"No, but I have to. It would break his heart if I left."
Audrey shoved the Pokédex into Bianca's hands. "There you go. Now you have a reason to go." She smiled. "He'd be proud of you if you were helping Professor Juniper. Didn't he work in a lab?"
She nodded and smiled back tentatively. "I'll get my things."
Within five minutes, she was back to the door and holding a bag.
