Chapter One
Samuel's Adventure Begins With a Meeting

The autumn leaves took to the air, their dance in the wind welcoming the coming of winter. Samuel lay in the grass of route one, frost tickling his bare arms, watching clouds and flocks of pidgey pass by. Beside him was a leather bound journal, opened to a yellowing page containing a title and a single paragraph:

Sam's Pokémon Watch – Day 103

It's starting to get cold out again, so the bird pokémon are beginning to migrate north to one of the other regions. The rattatas have finished gathering food and some are already going into hibernation. Pallet Town is officially boring for the next 3 months. I wish spring was here already.

Samuel picked himself up from the soft ground, brushing dirt and bits of grass from the wild brunette spikes of his hair. He stooped low, tightening the knots on his sneakers before picking up the journal. Sam began the slow trudge back home. As he walked, plans for the next twelve weeks began to sprout in his mind. Getting a job as a paper boy in Viridian City became raising enough money to visit Celadon. His plans slowly turned to daydreams. Stowing away on a ship in Vermilion City and moving to Johto. Exploring the deepest crevices of Mt. Silver like no hiker has dared try. Meeting every pokémon in the world!

Pokémon. No matter where his imagination started, the creatures were always the topic it ended at. What are they? Where did they come from? How many are there? Why do they evolve? Sam's brain filled to the bursting point with all the possibilities. He hopped of off a short ledge, his mind's eye picking him up and whisking him away on the back of some undiscovered bird pokémon. But reality was a cruel mistress, and Sam snapped back to the present slipping face first into a pool of mud. "Aww, yuck!" Chestnut eyes scrunched shut, he spat out the dirt that had travelled into his mouth. He immediately scooped up his journal, checking over it to make sure that none of its contents had been dirtied.

"Hey!"

Sam's head shot up, surprised by his apparent company. Between him and Pallet Town was a girl about the same age as him, her head tilted to the side as she watched Sam struggle out of the mud, "Are you alright?" Sam didn't reply at first, too busy looking at the newcomer in detail. He had never seen her before, and he was certain of that. Dressed in a simple cotton shirt and overalls, her eyes were a smoky grey, with grey curly hair to match, neither common features in Kanto. Her posture was very relaxed, like she was enjoying her personal one man comedy act, and her mouth was curved upwards in an amused grin, contradicting the worry she had given off with her question. But the smile quickly vanished, "Hey, did you hit your head? Quit staring and say something!"

Sam blushed, realizing how intently he must have been taking in her appearance, "Um, yeah, I'm good…"
"Good, you can speak!" the grin returned, "Where'ya from?"
"Ah…" It was a simple question, but it had turned Sam's mind into a blank slate, "P-Pallet Town." He gestured vaguely in the town's direction. The girl's face brightened into a full blown smile, "Really? That's where I just moved to!" She spun around and pointed towards home, "Alright, mud boy, let's get you cleaned up!" The surprise elation Sam felt towards living close to this mystery girl was instantly crushed by his new nickname, "…okay." He trudged along silently, listening to her talk, "Mom always wanted to live in a small town like this, away from all the noise in the cities. She says she just wants to live somewhere where she can know everybody and pokémon can roam free. She's always liked pokémon, people thought she was weird for it but you know I think pokémon are really cool how they fly and fight each other and living underwater hey do you think some can live involcanoesbecausethatwouldbereallycoolormaybeevenonthemoonivealwayswantedtogotothemoon…"

Her words and the girl herself faded away from Sam's mind as pokémon once again eclipsed his entire conscious. Before he knew it, Sam had tripped on a rock and had returned to his face down position in the dirt. The girl squatted down next to him, "You're a real klutz, you know that?" Sam muttered what he hoped sounded like an insult through his mouthfuls of dirt. But she was already ignoring him, having moved on to a more interesting activity. Flipping through Sam's journal, she quickly skimmed through the Pokémon Watch entries. Sam blushed again, snatching away the book that had, until now, been his own little secret, "Don't you know not to read other people's stuff?" Instead of answering, she turned on him and asked her own question, "So you like pokémon, too?"

"W-well," he averted his eyes. Pokémon and their destructive capabilities were normally feared, and taking any more fascination in them past trying to get rid of the creatures was considered weird. But it was far too late for Sam to deny anything now, "Y-yeah. I do."

"Hey, what are you acting all shy for?" the girl pouted, "This is great! I've got a friend who likes pokémon and you've got a pokémon watch partner!"

Sam looked at her, incredulous, "Partner?"

"Of course! Do you think I'm going to sit around and do nothing while you hang out with pokémon all day?"

Sam was floored. Not only did this girl match his enthusiasm for pokémon, she seemed to out shine it!

"So what do you think?" she stuck out her hand, "Partners?"

Sam hesitated, trying to think of all the possible situations he could be getting himself into before gingerly accepting her hand, "Alright, partners."

"Alright!" she spun around, making face tracks for Pallet before twisting back, "Oh yeah!"

She posed in front of Sam, attempting to appear regal with one hand on her heart, the other parallel to the ground, and her chin tilted high, "My name is Agatha Tristine Flourentine Willows," she dropped her charade, and with another beaming smile held out her hand again, "But you can call me Aggie!"

Sam took Aggie's hand more readily that time, "I'm Samuel Oak, but you can call me Sam."

"Alright, Sam, let's go!" Instead of shaking, Aggie yanked Sam's arm as the new friends hurried back home.

End

A/N: And just when everyone thought it was safe, I make a surprise return! Hello, everybody, I'm back and sinking my teeth into yet another fandom. In case I'm doing a poor job exposition wise already, this will be a story taking a shot at how Oak became the famous pokémon professor and many other origin-ish stuff. I'll admit I haven't been doing serious writing as of late, so if I come off looking sloppy, that's most likely the reason! Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed what little I've offered so far and will come back for more!

Alex, out.