Chapter 1: The Million Dollar Question
Wednesday, March 23th 3:06 PM
In Johto, the average ten year old girl is usually traveling, aiming to become top trainer, coordinator, and whatever else one can think of. The funny thing is, I am a ten year old girl who lives in Johto, but I'm still stuck at home with no one but my seven year old brother, Colin for company. Now, when people find this out, they always assume that I chickened out and decided to wait a year before I start my journey, if they don't know me.
The truth is, it's my parents who chickened out!
Well, actually, my mom's the crazy, anxious type. My dad's pretty laidback and calm, and if it were up to him he'd let me go in a heartbeat. However, in our household my mom's really the one who decides on things. I really don't know why. It's just always been that way, I suppose.
My mom thinks that ten is way too young of an age for kids to leave home, and furthermore, she believes that girls should wait until they're at least thirteen. My brother, Aaron couldn't leave for his journey until he was twelve. Even though I don't have real plans for the future, I do not want to spend my entire pre-teen hood cooped up at home.
I have to be able to leave; otherwise I just might go insane. I once used that as reason for why I should be permitted, but my mom just told me to stop exaggerating. Of course, the last time I asked her I was only nine, and today I've been ten for close to ten days. Perhaps I should give it another shot…
On March 23rd, I sat on the lumpy brown leather couch that we have in our den. I was watching TV with my little brother. Well, he was the one watching "Charizard Warriors", while I read a Golbatman comic book. As I reread the comic, I thought about Pokémon journeys and about how dull life is in New Bark Town, at least if you don't have a Pokémon.
Over the comic book, I glanced over at Colin. His blue eyes were wide as a warrior received a power up on the TV screen. He had his mouth open as well, as if he'd never seen anything as awesome. With his wide eyed expression and spiky brown hair, my brother always reminds me of a tiny brown Pachirisu. If it weren't for the freckles, he'd be the perfect human version of the Sinnoh-living electric type.
He has more than me, and for that I am truly grateful. The splash of dark freckles across my nose is what people look at me twice for. Otherwise, I'm the average ten year old girl in appearance. Back-length golden-brown hair, hazel eyes, and olive skin. That's me. Of course, unlike average girls, I'm at least eight inches shorter than most of my peers.
Maybe that explains my headstrong personality.
When the show went on a commercial break, Colin finally figured out that he was being watched. "What is it, Gwen?" He asked me with a questioning look in his eyes.
I shook my head, and got up from the couch. "Nothing, Col." I left the room while a cereal commercial aired, and headed for the kitchen.
My grandmother was at the counter, chopping up onions for the spaghetti that she planned on making for dinner. Granny is one of the only people that I know who can chop onions without shedding a single tear. I really don't know how she does it. She had her gray-brown hair up in a bun as she cut away with a concentrated expression on her face.
Close by, her Medicham, Jojo was peeling lettuce up with her Psychic attack, preparing the vegetable for a salad. It wasn't until Granny scooped the slashed onion pieces into a bowl that she finally noticed me standing there.
"Gwen," She smiled at me. "Did you need something, dear? Or come to help?"
"Well, no…" There was an awkward silence as I tried to find the correct words. "Uh, do you know where Mom is exactly? I kind of have to talk to her."
Granny paused, and got a thoughtful look on her slightly wrinkled face. "She's upstairs, writing a letter to Aaron. If she's still there, then she really is writing a long one." She shook her head as she chuckled. "Honestly, your mother is the most precise woman that I've ever met. Always over explaining, but there's no harm in that."
My grandmother is only fifty six, and a very active woman. She's lived with us ever since Colin was born, and she really moved in to help out with the new baby. But she decided to leave her condominium in Saffron City, Kanto, and came to stay with us permanently. As soon as she was done talking she began to boil water over our gas stove, smiling at the prospect of more cooking.
I passed the den once more on my way to the stairs. Colin was still engrossed on his TV show, and didn't even notice as I passed him. I ran up the stairs, two at a time, and once at the top, I walked down the long hallway to my parents' room.
Inside, my mother sat at her desk, writing on a long scroll of lined paper. This struck me as odd, since we have two computers and a working printer, but my mother doesn't make sense half of the time. Despite this, she's a pretty good mom, just really anxious. She's actually kind of pretty, too with wavy dark brown hair and blue eyes.
She looked up at the sound of footsteps, and raised her dark brown eyebrows. "Hey, honey. I'm just finishing up a letter to Aaron." She wrote down a few more words in her neat cursive handwriting, not looking surprised by the long length of the entire letter itself. "Did you need anything?"
"Yeah, I have something to ask you." I sat down on the edge of their king sized bed, and looked at her until she was one with her letter. With her attention fully on me, I continued. "Mom, before you jump up and protest, hear me out. I want to leave on my Pokémon journey, and since it would be absurd for me to run away from home, I'm asking for your consent." I looked at her with pleading eyes.
She looked at me for awhile, arching and raising her eyebrows in an odd coordination. Feeling total anticipation for her answer, I counted the seconds until she finally spoke. Once I got to twenty one, she stood up, and opened her mouth.
"Gwen, honey," She said in a steady voice. "Now, I know that at your age, you would love to do what all of your friends are doing. You want to leave home, and show your independence. Plus, you want to have a big chance like your brother." She paused, and I inhaled, deeply. "Gwen, do you really want to be off on your own, without your parents or anyone around? Do you really want to cook your own meals, sleep outside, all of that with the danger of strange men and wild crazy people?" She placed her hands on her hips and gazed at me with a leveled look in her blue eyes.
She's always really overdramatic, but I wasn't going to let her insecurities and worries scare me off. I nodded several times, smiling. "Mom, seriously! I really want to be on my own. I'm ten years old, and fully responsible for my own actions, really! And, besides, I'll have awesome Pokémon. You know?"
My mother let out a long sigh, and sat down beside me on the bed. She buried her face into her hands, and mumbled something slightly audible to me. "Fine, fine!"
I probably did overreact, but I jumped to my feet with my fists in the air. I pumped them with joy, and let out a few cries. "Woo hoo! I'm leaving! I'm leaving home, and I'm on my own!"
I danced around the room, and was about to run out of the room to tell everyone else when my mother's next words stopped me.
"Gwendolyn Iris Jenkins!" I turned back to see my mother looking straight at me again. "You will not be leaving for another couple of days, and if you don't stop trying to cause an earthquake, you won't be leaving at all." She sighed deeply once more. "Another thing, you better be leaving with Sam and Mallory. I will not have you trouncing around on your own, young lady!"
"Fine, I will Mom!" I dashed out of the room before she could say another word.
Even if I wouldn't be leaving for a few days, I was still going! I ran into our small fenced backyard where my dad was watering the rose bushes with the help of my mom's two Lombre, Aqua and Leon. He's way more laidback than my mom, and if it were ultimately up to him, I'd already have permission to leave.
"Hey, Gwen," My dad said turning to look at me. He's taller than my mom with short golden-brown hair and as many freckles as me. "Need something?"
I nodded quickly, and jumped up and down with excitement. "Dad! Mom said I could go! I'm leaving home in a couple of days! Yes!" I did another crazy dance, kicking my feet up in the air.
When the jig finally ended, Dad replied, "Wow! Charlotte is finally letting you go, huh?" He smiled in a rather wistful, and sighed lightly. "Gosh, we're going to have to get your traveling equipment and everything. What time is it?" He looked down at his blue wristwatch. "Nearly three twenty. Hm, alright, we'll go get everything tomorrow. Until then, do you still have that letter that Professor Elm sent you?"
"Of course!" I said loudly, jumping up once more. "I would never lose something like that."
Dad raised an eyebrow and grinned at me. "Alright, well, knowing your mother you won't be leaving until Saturday at least. So, that'll give you time to prepare. If you already know which starter to pick, then we'll stop by the lab on the way from the shopping center." He shook his head, but the smile stayed on his face. "Wow! My only daughter is leaving home…"
"Now, Dad," I began to say. "No need to get nostalgic or anything."
My dad quickly composed himself and rolled his eyes, still grinning. "Alright, Gwen. Fine, I'll wait until you leave before I start bawling my eyes out."
"Lombre!" Aqua cried to my dad, pointing a red clawed finger to the completely drenched flowers. "Lombre, lom!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know." My dad replied, picking up a packet of plant food from one of the yards lawn chairs. "Anyway, Gwen, you should alert your friends, and maybe see if you can reach Aaron at the Goldenrod Pokémon Center. Last time I spoke with him, he said that he'd be there eventually."
"Okay, I will." I hurried to tell Colin and Granny the good news, and I felt a heck of a lot calmer than before.
…
"So, you're leaving this Saturday, right?" My best friend Mallory looked at me with her big cerulean-blue eyes. Before I could even respond she clapped her hands out of joy, and looked at me again through the left side of the video phone screen. "Great! I'm leaving then, too! So, we can definitely travel together."
Mallory Weiss and I have known each other since the first grade, and she always has been super cheerful and easily excited. She's taller than me, like most of my classmates, and has wavy dark green hair that she almost always has pulled back. Though she can come across as just being a total airhead, she's really not. Plus, she's really excellent when it comes turning cartwheels, and doing yoga. So, maybe she's more of a cheerleader?
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." I replied. I looked to the phone screen's right side where I had my other friend, Sam on a three way call. "How about you, Sam?"
He shrugged, and finally looked up from his copy of Professor Elm's letter. "I mean, sure. We might as well, but I'm really just trying to decide on which starter to choose. Chikorita, Totodile, or Cyndaquil? Who have you guys decided on?"
"Guys?" Mallory cried in bewilderment. "Why don't you just say girls? That's what we are!"
Same rolled his grey eyes. "As if I didn't know. Could we please stay on topic?"
Sam is probably the most serious ten year old that I know. Even back in pre-school he was like that. He looks pretty serious, too with his ear length honey-blond hair and grey eyes. He also happens to be the only kid in my class who's shorter than I am. We were both the runts in our early years of school, which may explain why we became friends in the first place.
"I'm definitely choosing Cyndaquil." I said. "It's small, cute, and it learns some pretty wicked fire type moods."
Mallory made a face. "Yeah, it's cute. But I heard that fire types go really crazy when there are magnets around or something. Anyway, I might choose Totodile. It's almost as cute, and I'll have instant water whenever I want. And, if I like drown, it'll be a total hero."
"If you really plan on drowning, then maybe you should just say home. And, furthermore, it's electric types who react badly to magnets, Mal." Same explained, rolling his eyes at her again. "If you girls go through with your choices that only leaves Chikorita." He shrugged. "Well, they're supposed to be the easiest to train, being a grass type and all."
"Okay, why don't all three of us go there tomorrow to grab them?" Mallory suggested, smiling. "That way, we'll be able to train them some before we leave."
Sam and I both agreed, and the phone conversation ended.
…
After a quick five minutes, our video phone did manage to make a connection with another phone at the Goldenrod Pokémon Center. The Nurse Joy there called Aaron down from the Pokémon Center's training grounds, and I was soon faced to face with my older brother.
"Hey, Gwen." Aaron said with a grin on his face. "Long time no see. How's it going, kid?"
Aaron is tall for his age, with my dad's hazel eyes and my mom's dark brown hair, which falls in soft waves on his forehead. Most girls at my school have crushes on him, and I can even admit that he's kind of good looking. He left home about three months ago, when he turned twelve. And, now, on the phone, he looked and sounded really happy.
I smiled, ready to announce the news to him. "I'm leaving this Saturday for my journey."
"Seriously?" Aaron raised an eyebrow at me. "What did you have to do to get Mom to agree? Bribe her?"
I shook my head. "No, I just talked until she was convinced. But, to be honest, I think she believes that I'll hate it or something. Kind of like she wants to say I told you so or whatever. Anyway, I'm getting my supplies and starter tomorrow. And soon, I might meet up with you."
"Wait, you plan on getting some ordinary starter from Elm?" Aaron looked at me with surprise evident in his eyes. "I would think that you'd want to be much more original, Gwen. You know like me."
Aaron bought a Magby as his starter from an adoption center, where he stated that trainers rarely had their region starters any longer. I had always found that comment to be a little odd, but I sometimes thought that maybe my brother was right.
"I'm not about to waste money on a Pokémon, Aaron." I finally said. "I mean, I'll have food and everything to worry about."
"That's really okay, kid. Cause, I already sent you a starter. My Delibird, Hermes, should be at the house in a few more minutes, and you won't have to get some lame Totodile or anything. Consider it to be a really late birthday gift from your bro." He grinned at me, but in a super mischievous way. "Just wait until you see what Pokémon it is."
"What?" I cried, glaring at Aaron. "It's not a Grimer, or anything right? Aaron?"
My brother quickly closed the connection between phones without responding. I glared at the now blank phone screen, thinking about what he had said. What kind of Pokémon did my crazy brother decide to send to me?
Alright, well, I'm glad to finally start the revised version of my old Pokémon fanfiction. I hope that it was enjoyable enough