". . .I don't remember this at all," Arella shook her head, setting down the game-boy and leaning back on the couch.
"I thought you said Silver was your first pokemon game," her friend raised an eyebrow.
"It was!" Arella buried her head in her hands, frustrated, "But I was. . .like. . .6. I was too scared to do anything, so my sissy did everything."
"Ruby too?"
"Yeah, Ruby too. My first actual pokemon game I played through was PMD".
Her friend gave her a reassuring smile, "I was just wondering if you knew how to get pass that part. You don't have to work yourself up over nothing."
"Sorry Shannon. . ." Arella looked back up at her, giving her a tiny smile back.
Shannon picked up the game, looking at her before looking back up at her again, "Did you even try anything?"
"No. . .I wasn't sure what would happen and stuff. . ."
She smacked her on the head, "You also need more confidence, dang-nabbit! You have the confidence of a tiny little rodent."
"Yeah. . .I guess. . ." Arella sighed again ". . .Shannon? Question."
"Yeeeeeeees?"
"I was sifting through your party pokemon. . .and I noticed you didn't have your starter with you. . ."
Shannon froze, looked around, and then bit her lip.
"Arella. . .have you ever heard of the Nuzlocke challenge?"
"No. . .I don't believe I have."
"The Nuzlocke challenge is basically a self-imposed set of rules that you use when you play through pokemon. There's a bunch of other rules that you can add on, but there's only two basic rules," she held up one finger, "You can only catch the first pokemon you see in each area," she held up another finger, "and if a pokemon faints, you consider it dead."
"So. . .your starter. . ."
"My Typhlosion, Jamie, is dead. I was fighting Jasmine's Steelix when bam: full health crit Earthquake. I couldn't do anything about it," she looked away, sighing, before looking back, "But, it makes me closer to all of them. Look: you should try to find your old copy of Silver or something and start over. I think that might give you a little more confidence," she smiled again.
"I'll try. I haven't seen my copy in a while, but I'll try," Arella smiled back.
She jumped when her phone started ringing, then gave a nervous laugh.
"That's my mom. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," she got up.
"Of course," Shannon grinned, getting up and giving her friend a tight hug before she walked out the door.
"Ha!" Arella grinned in success as she pulled out a GameBoy Color cartridge out of one of the many piles in her room, "Finally found you, evil thing!"
"Arella! You better be going to bed soon!" she cringed as she heard her mother yell from the other side of the house.
"Don't worry! I am!" she yelled back. She was really hoping she'd be able to start the challenge tonight, but she guessed it would have to wait until tomorrow. She got into bed, slipping the Pokemon Silver cartridge under her pillow before turning off the lights and slowly dozing off.