Chapter 1 – A Spark

Ash Gray Ketchum was sitting at the dinner table. He was staring at his hands, which he held folded like a knot. His thumbs were nervously circling around each other, like they were dancing. They were getting soar, but Ash couldn't stop moving them. He stole a glimpse at the room he was sitting in. An open kitchen, illuminated by the dim light of three colourful candles. The backyard should've been visible through the glass doors that separated it from the kitchen, but it was too dark outside to see much further than two metres. The coffee maker was growling while boiling water.

On the other side of the table stood his mother. She had furiously been lecturing him a minute ago, but now she was quiet. She was all out of words.

Ash understood why she was angry. Ash was angry too. At himself, mostly, but also at the world. It was so unfair to him. At moments like this, he felt like the whole world was against him. Ash was conscious of this behaviour, and he tried not to think like that. He felt like it was his weakness, and weakness are to be fought against, or to be compensated by your strengths. That's what his dad said. That's the real world. This isn't.

I don't need school, Ash thought. Especially not Training School.

It was a warm evening at the end of April. Ash was seventeen years old. He was in his sixth and last year of high school. Most of his classmates were eighteen or nineteen, but Ash had skipped the year before due to his above-average grades. The year before that he had applied for the Training Course, and received an acceptance-letter a month or two later. He was a talented kid, and he knew that. But the success had gone to his head, and he started to slack. He barely made his homework, failed tests and skipped class a lot. He felt like he was wasting his time at school, like he wasn't learning anything. But when he started underperforming in Training classes, he started to panic.

Training School was a specialised education program that trained teenagers into becoming a certified Pokémon Trainer. Thousands of students would sign up each year, but only about twenty per school were to be selected to participate. The course would start in their first year of high school. Students would still follow the regular school classes, but get a special schedule that includes the Training subjects. High school years were different from Training School years. The latter would last half as long as the former, ending right before Christmas. The next one would start in January, and end in July, together with the regular school year. Near the end of each Training year, they'd have an Examination and an Evaluation. During the Examination, the students had to perform a certain test to show what they had learned in the past half year. The Evaluation would take place a week after the Examination. This was where the students had to look back on what they had accomplished in the past few months and what they could do better. The teachers will then tell their thoughts about each individual student and judge their development. And ultimately they'd announce who could go to the next Level – there were three of them –, who stayed in the same, and who had to quit. They basically judged the shit out of you.

Ash was in Level 3, which is the final one. Level 3's qualified for Graduation, but if you didn't graduate from high school, you weren't allowed to own a Trainer's License either. And Ash had to get one. He couldn't afford to wait another year. Especially if Gary was already on his way. Gary was a classmate who also took the Training Course, and Ash knew he was going to graduate both Training- and high school. Gary had the same attitude as Ash, he felt he was too good to put an effort in studying . However, there was a difference; Gary was good at school. He could afford not to study, because he only had to read the textbook once and he could score a B.

Ash had had to finish together with him. Gary and he had always been one step ahead of each other. Gary was the grandson of a dear friend of Ash's parents, so they knew each other since they were little toddler's. Their relationship was strange. They were always fighting, always betting, winning, or losing. Ash's mom first thought they hated each other, but then she realised there was something special going on. Even though they never had a nice word to say about and always tried to outdo one another, they were inseparable. They'd rather fight each other than play with other kids.

Ash's mom had told him that, but Ash would never admit he liked Gary. He hated Gary.

And that's why he had stolen the exams. Ash had realised he'd been neglecting his grades, and he'd started to panic. Without a diploma, he couldn't finish Training School, and once again Gary would be ahead of him. So one night, Ash, Brown and Parsley – two other classmates in need – took a few shots of vodka, put on their hoodies and snuck into the school building. After they knocked out the security cameras, they went straight to the dean's office and looked through all of his drawers, until they found them. They quickly copied the exams and got the hell out of there.

Now, with the final exams in their hands, they'd felt like the most powerful students at school. They'd sold dozens of copies to fellow students and earned loads of money. They'd won so easily.

This is why Ash hadn't been very surprised when the dean called him to his office and told him that a student had been tattling about a few boys selling exams. This anonymous snitch had been in possession of proof in the form of video tape.

The three were screwed.

This was the whole reason why Ash was now sitting there, at the dinner table, contemplating his future while his mother stood in front of him, silently.

'What are you thinking about?' she asks. 'Or aren't you about that anymore, thinking?'

Ash remained silent, again staring at his twisting thumbs. He couldn't look up.

'Does this even bother you? Do you even care?'

'Yes, of course I care!'

'Show it!'

Ash couldn't answer. He didn't know what to say. He never knew what to say when his mom was angry at him. They never fought. It was mostly her being mad at him for doing something stupid, being rude or forgetful, etcetera. He would just listen to her in silence. He didn't say anything because he just agreed with what she was saying. He didn't have a rebuttal.

For his mother that came across as disinterest. Ash understood that. He wished he had something to say.

'Okay, I don't know what you're going to do, but I'm gonna call Sam and tell him that he doesn't have to put any effort in raising a Starter and making a License since you're not going to be a Trainer.'

'No! Don't do that!'

'Oh, so now I get your attention? When I start threatening with sanctions? Ash, you know I don't want to be that kind of mother, but I feel like you leave me no choice! Besides, you're probably not even aloud to be a Trainer anymore because I think they're not gonna let you graduate anymore.'

'That's not true! I can fix this! They always have extra exams for when this stuff happens and I still get to take finals. Remember when a girl in Tracey's class did the same thing? She still graduated!'

'She didn't, actually.'

'Maybe not, but she still got to take the exam!'

Ash felt a tiny spark of hope glowing inside his chest. He could still graduate. He could still become a Trainer.

'Mom. I know you're mad, and disappointed, and I understand that. But please, give me another chance! It was a stupid mistake! I was acting out of stress and panic, not out of boldness. You know I normally don't do these kinds of things.'

His mom was silent for a moment. The roles were reverse. Ash saw that she was looking for responses, but she didn't have any.

'You'll have to pay all those people back their money,' she ultimately said.

'Of course I will.'

Silence. Ash's mom thinking.

'It's okay. Off to bed.'

Ash sighed in relief. He kissed his mother on her cheek and they wished each other a good night.

'Don't forget to set your alarm!' she yelled as Ash was already halfway up the staircase.

'I won't!'

Ash smiled. The sparkle in his stomach was now a flame. She agreed with him. He had a second chance and he knew he was not going to blow it.

To be continued...

Hi ! I don't know if anyone will read this but I'm new here. Well, actually, I'm not since I've been reading stories on here for the past two years, but this is my first own story. It's a combination of Ash Ketchum's story from the Pokémon anime and Red's story from the games, with my own twist to it. It's going to be a realistic Pokémon story, but it won't be a theory of rationality, like 'Pokémon: The Origin Of Species' by daystar721 (who I am by the way, obsessed with). I'm not as intelligent as they are, but I will be using some of their theories on technology and nature in the Pokémon world, so credits to them (except if they don't want that and report me or something, that would be awkward.)I'm not very familiar with how everything works here, but I think you've noticed that by now. I'll just keep writing and uploading chapters to this story, and hoping someone will eventually read it and maybe even review it.

PS: Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or anything related to it. It's all Gamefreak and Nintendo, guys.

PSS: I'm Dutch and 17 years old, so correct me on bad grammar and spelling, but know I will be using this as an excuse a bit ;-)