Chapter 1: Golden palaces and bad allergies

In between the Kanto and Johto regions, and many miles north of Hoenn, lies the city of Sitrus. Named after its numerous berry orchards, while serving as a small, yet integral part of the region's commerce and economy, the city is home to one of the most popular public university's in the nation; Sitrus State University (SSU). A sprawling downtown metropolis surrounds the institution, hosting many apartment buildings, bars, clubs, restaurants, shops, coffee houses and an organic grocery store.

The north of the university, however, hosts the suburbs, where many university students who opted to live off-campus reside in houses. One of these students, a brunette named Blue, is waking up for the first day of classes, of her final year at SSU; to the noise of an emergency alarm ringing from her cell-phone.

After a few seconds of ringing, the groggy senior extends an arm to silence the blaring noise, and pushes her face into a nearby pillow. Letting out a drawn-out moan, she lifts herself up and heads to the bathroom to begin the day. The house at the moment is quiet, as her three housemates; Yellow, Estella and Yasmine, are either asleep, or have left the house already. This silence, however, is interrupted once Blue turns on the faucet to shower, which is then followed by her normal morning routine of brushing her teeth and getting dressed.

Despite this being the first day of class, Blue seems relatively blasé to what has become a routine for her the past four years. Due to the housing contract with her landlord, Blue and the rest of her housemates moved in a month before school started and she had already began working on campus as student government president. These experiences along with her tight work schedule diminished her excitement to return to campus. Typically the twenty-one year old is more energetic; however, due to the silent house, busy month and the lack of a coffee maker, her morning began with what used to be an uncharacteristically slow start.

Once Blue puts on her outfit which consists of a simple blue tank-top and red skirt, she proceeds to get in her car, turn it on, pull out of the driveway and drive to campus. The radio is tuned in at a low-volume to WSSU, where third-year Gold, a student DJ for the college-radio station, is hosting his weekly music program.

As the indie-rock song he is playing comes to a close, Gold fades out the track on the station controller and turns on the microphone to speak.

"Hello everybody, this is everyone's favorite radio host DJ Gold with Golden Palace. The track you just finished listening to was 'Miss Quested,' by Forster's Delivery Service, " the amber-eyed speaker announced. "I hope you're all having a great first day of college, especially to all of the beautiful women out there today. For all you lovely ladies I have a classic jazz track called 'Honey So Sweet,' by Jollibee Parker, off the 1957 album 'Sketches of Kalos.' Again this is Gold with 78.8 WSSU Sitrus, thank you very much for listening."

After playing the song and raising its volume back to the appropriate level, Gold leaned back in his chair and smiled. Clad in his trademark backwards yellow and black cap, red sweatshirt and black athletic trousers the twenty-year old was glad to begin school once again, if only for the parties and female student body. Though he was one of the prominent staff members at the station, doing simple office tasks and hosting a morning and late night show, Gold was typically apathetic about his classes, finishing most of his assignments and business projects for his marketing major at the last minute.

As the song continued playing, Hiro, the director of the station entered the control room. As the head of WSSU, he was responsible for scheduling each DJ and their shows, communicating with the campus and providing tasks for his staff.

"Since you're about to finish broadcasting in a few minutes, could you send these CD's to the media library on campus?" the mustached man asked. Though many DJs played music they had downloaded on their electronic devices, a few still used vinyl and CDs. The station has a large collection of both platforms, and on occasion WSSU would receive a few CD's they already had, that they would then hand over to the media library so that all of the students could access them.

"I wish I could boss but I'm really trying to make it to class on time, start the year off fresh ya' know?" the raven-haired DJ joked.

"Nice try, but I seriously need to get these out, we only have so much space," the redheaded-director explained. "Plus didn't you tell me you had 45 minutes after your show ends to get to class?"

"Yeah, I got it," Gold replied. He was known to have a silver-tongue when it came to avoiding tasks.

"Alright guys, I'm going to put on my final song for the day, thanks again to everyone who listened," Gold broadcasted over the air once the prior song was finished. "This is 'R.H.Y.T.H.M' by Justness, a nice retro dance track for you to begin your day. Again this was Gold and you were in the Golden Palace on 78.8 WSSU."

The DJ left the song playing on the controller, grabbed the envelope along with his skateboard and exited the building to head toward the media library. As he skated west to reach his destination, he passed by the campus gym, where Sapphire, a second-year environmental science major, was rock climbing as part of her morning routine.

This morning the sophomore brunette decided to climb the free form boulder without ropes. During the previous school year, rock climbing at the gym and hiking the trails around Sitrus were a couple of the outdoor enthusiast's favorite hobbies, as they gave her a break from studies and reminded her of her native Hoenn. For this year, she hoped to continue exploring different trails around the city, break her indoor-rock climbing time and explore the numerous hills outside the city more often.

Upon reaching the top, Sapphire clicked her watch to check her time. Damn two whole seconds off, she thought to herself. Despite remaining active while she was home for the summer, it had been a while since she had practiced rock climbing competitively.

Once she scaled back down, Sapphire took a sip from her water bottle before returning it in her duffel bag. Right before climbing up the boulder however, she turned her head to see Winona, a graduate student she had the prior year and one of her favorite mentors, passing through.

"Sensei!" Sapphire cried out rushing toward the older woman.

"Sapphire?" Winona questioned, as Sapphire approached. "Pleasure seeing you here, how are you?"

"Great sensei, trying to beat my old climbing record, how about you?"

"I'm fine," the purple haired lady sighed. "I've taken over a new environmental project to help clean up the city as part of community outreach. It has been a bit difficult finding people to help volunteer though."

"Oh, how many people have signed up?"

"None," the former mentor explained. "I can't blame them it isn't that exciting, seeing as they will need to pick up trash and help clean up the city's parks and trails."

"Hmmm," Sapphire narrowed her blue-eyes. "Well since yer having trouble can I help ya? I really love nature, trees, parks and that sorta stuff."

"Really?!" Winona's eyes shot up surprised. "Again I don't want to lead you on I'll have no problem if you rej-"

"No problem!" Sapphire said. "After all, I agree, the parks really could use some clean up."

"That's wonderful, if you can please stop by my office next week so I can go through the details with you," Winona finished smiling. "Again thank you Sapphire, I'll hopefully have more people to help you out too."

"Awesome, see ya next week sensei!" Sapphire replied before walking away. As she turned back to the boulder, she read the time 8:55 on her watch. Oh crap, Sapphire thought. I need to get my backpack from home before class starts at 9:30.

Hurriedly she grabbed her bag and bolted out the gym toward her campus apartment. On the way she narrowly avoided a fourth-year student named Green Oak, who was headed toward one of the many campus coffee shops.

Once he entered and received his coffee, Green opened up a text book at one of the open tables and began reading. Despite it being the first day of class, the twenty-one year old was studious and the most serious out of his group of friends. As a chemistry major, he had two of the more difficult classes to finish during this semester, on top of lab work, which encouraged him to read ahead and secure the best grades.

The shuffling of a chair was heard at the table, causing him to lock eyes with another brunette who was sitting straight across from him. Slightly annoyed he returned to his book and asked "It's a bit early to begin harassing me, isn't it?"

"Not today," Blue sighed raising her hands to take a sip of coffee. "Don't worry I'm not exactly in the mood to start an argument today because of your stupid remarks."

Green raised an eyebrow stating "Who are you and what have you done with Blue?"

"She died the moment she woke up from her four hour nap last night," she sarcastically replied. "I'm Zombie-Blue now, I would come to eat your brain, but it seems a bit salty for my taste."

"Are your classes that hard?" Green asked, ignoring the latter comment.

"No, it's the stupid projects everyone proposed at the last minute," Blue replied. "They were supposed to work on the throughout the summer, but as usual everyone procrastinated."

For this semester she decided to enroll in three classes, two which fulfill her remaining psychology major requirements and a beginning dance class, to fulfill the minimum units required. The main cause of her lack of sleep, however, was her work for student government.

"Oh," Green replied, unable to think of anything else to say at the moment.

"Yeah, sometimes I regret running again, because it's honestly so draining," Blue elaborated. "But it's only this week hopefully. I'm having a meeting with my staff to help organize the student council meetings for each initiative."

"Pity," Green replied in an aloof manner.

Despite being part of the organization since her second year and remaining popular with many of the students(due to her environmentally friendly initiatives and increasing the amount of funding for all student organizations), the repetitiveness of the work and the fact that she was required to attend multiple meetings each week began to wear Blue down. Additionally these tasks were just a minor aspect of her duties since she was mostly responsible for leading the student council.

"Anyways, how's the other doofus?" Blue asked referring to their mutual best friend.

"At the gym, early morning basketball practice and weight lifting," he replied, trying to end the conversation.

"Alright any idea when he'll…"Blue paused once she noticed that Green, who was reading his book intently, probably ignored what she said and rolled her eyes. She figured that they will all eventually meet up to talk; like they always have, so she opened her laptop to check on her class syllabi and schedule.

Meanwhile, across the coffee shop, Crystal, who was Blue's junior by one year, began looking for her remaining textbooks (which she could not find online) at the campus bookstore.

"Advanced chemical compounds, check. Thermodynamics is right over here and …" the blue haired girl said to herself silently before drifting off mid-sentence. Like Green, she was also on-top of her studies, however she was obsessed with school. Despite having a perfect 4.0 GPA, department awards and many connections with her professors, Crystal kept herself occupied with classes and work.

As a chemical engineering major, which was possibly the most difficult field of study offered at SSU, Crystal had to take some of the hardest classes offered by the university. In addition, she worked as a resident advisor (RA) in the campus dorms, a science tutor, assisted with research in the chemistry department labs and played intramural soccer, which took up most of her time.

After grabbing those final two textbooks, one of which was over 600 pages, Crystal went over to the cashier to pay.

"Are you interested in renting any of these books instead of purchasing?" the clerk asked.

"No, I'll purchase them, it's fine," she replied. Despite the exorbitant cost of each book, totaling a little over $100 each, Crystal liked having a large collection of textbooks for future reference.

As she walked out from the store with the heavy textbooks, Ruby, a sophomore art and fashion design major entered the coffee shop where Blue and Green had finished bickering. While they were working away in silence, Ruby ordered a special iced green tea latte (with very specific recommendations), and sat down at table nearby the counter to draw.

He began sketching a few landscapes and outfits, not for his classes, but simply because it was a way to pass the time. These designs were merely sketches to practice with, as the young man was a complete perfectionist and quite careful with his work.

"Iced green tea latte for Ruby," the barista shouted. The shop was filling in quickly, as students prepared to go to their next class.

"Thank you," Ruby said while grabbing his drink.

After taking a small sip, he pondered about its taste before asking "Was this made with coconut milk, and is the whipped cream non-fat?"

"Yes, I believe so," the barista replied.

"You believe, or you know? I specifically asked for those two ingredients, because I believe it accentuates the taste while keeping its calorie count low."

"I'm sorry," the barista stated, mildly annoyed "If you would like to speak to the manager…"

"No, not enough time to deal with this nonsense at the moment," Ruby cut off the barista, before lifting a hand. "I guess I'll just settle for a mild disappointment today, not everyone takes their job seriously, I see."

Once he concluded his mild rant, Ruby grabbed his steno pads filled with sketches and other materials, packed up his bags and headed off in the direction toward his class.

At the same time Green, who was still in the shop was getting ready to leave as well. He received a text message from his housemate, Red which the latter had sent two minutes before.

Red:

Hey, can't meet up with you guys right now, since practice just got out. How bout we meet up with Blue later tonight about 7? Received 9:15 a.m.

Before Green headed to class he asked Blue if she was available at the time that Red scheduled, to which she replied "maybe," which Green knew meant yes.

As Green's text reply reached Red on the other side of campus, the athlete was already far from the gym. He opened his phone while walking to see his best friend's response.

Green:

Yeah, I'm good with it, Tangies? Received 9:20

Red smirked while reading the message. Since their sophomore year Tangies, formally known as Tangela's café was their favorite hang-out spot.

As he began texting a reply, Red quickly glanced up and dodged a rushing Sapphire who almost knocked him down as she bolted to class.

Shit she thought to herself, I wonder if the professor will notice if I come in late. Her class was on the other side of campus, and it was going to take Sapphire a few minutes to get there. She hated being the center of attention, and if she arrived late students were bound to notice, in her opinion. Midway through her destination however, a boy wearing a white cap and scrolling through his phone while walking toward his class in a different direction obstructed Sapphire's route causing them to collide.

Ruby, who was wearing the cap, fell to the floor, as his latte spilled all over him. "What the hell?!" he cried out, taking a moment to register what happened. Afterward he got up, collected his phone and cup which fell, and fixed the cap above his head.

"Sorry!" Sapphire shouted looking at Ruby's face, as she got up and collected her own things. "I was in a hurry to get to class!"

"You got this all over my clothes!" he complained as he inspected his skinny jeans, collared shirt and vest. "Ugh, now I'll look like a fool. Why weren't you paying attention?"

"Well maybe if ya hadn't been texting ya might've noticed me rushing!" she fired back. "Also don't get so mad about yer stupid clothes, nobody cares what yer wearing!" She was quite annoyed that he cared so much about something so shallow.

"Pfft, whatever, go back to your plot you filthy peasant," he replied sarcastically lifting is hands up and shooing her away.

"Go fuck yourself asshole!" she yelled back before hurrying once again to class.

As Ruby tossed his now empty cup into a nearby trash can while walking on the way to his art class, a long-hair red head named Silver was leaving his anthropology course which had just concluded. Missing the commotion, he walked toward the main science library, and began his shift working behind the reference desk.

As a man of few words, the job suited him perfectly. The atmosphere was quiet, the job tasks, which consisted of organizing, searching and locating each book, handling study room reservations and a few other minor tasks were simple enough. Above all, it was a great place to make some extra income so that he wouldn't have to rely entirely on his father, who he tried to avoid contacting as much as possible.

Bzz bzz

Silver's phone began to vibrate, after picking it up, he noticed a text from his apartment-mate Gold. They had been roommates in the same dorm their freshman year, and despite his initial annoyance toward Gold's antics, he warmed up to him over time, eventually considering him his best friend. It also helped that they both shared an affinity for pot, which they smoked on a daily basis.

Gold:

So you know that waitress at Tangies? Received 9:45 a.m.

How much do you think she was into me? Received 9:45 a.m.

The red-head rolled his eyes, it wasn't unusual for his friend to message him stupidities, as he knew that Gold was either bored or most-likely faded, though it was probably a mixture of both. Since it was pretty slow, he decided to humor his friend with some sarcasm.

Silver:

The one that told you to "fuck off and die?" Sent 9:47 a.m.

Judging from those words, I'd say pretty into you. Go for it, but remember to include me in your will before you go. Sent 9:48 a.m.

Gold:

Thought so, well I'm gonna head there to ask her tonight, you want to come? Received 9:50 a.m.

Ignoring the recent text, Silver grabbed a cart and filled it up with some of the books that students had recently returned, to return them to their proper library shelves. A patron however, came up to the desk and asked for assistance interrupting his task at hand.

"Can I borrow a laptop?" a green haired male asked behind the counter, before handing Silver his student ID.

Silently, Silver scanned the ID, grabbed a laptop case from one of the cabinets, checked its contents, the scanned the tag, before handing back everything to the patron, who was named Wally according to his ID card.

"It'll be due back by 12 p.m." Silver stated.

"Thanks," Wally replied before walking off to his favorite comfortable study spot.

Due to years of growing up very frail and sickly indoors, Wally typically liked to study outdoors. Today, he chose to sit under a tree near the biological sciences building on campus, as he opened the laptop he borrowed to check his email, class syllabi, buy textbooks and opened a separate tab on the internet browser for social media.

Upon ordering his textbooks, he checked his Facebook account for any messages from his roommate regarding the status of his laptop. Wally was experiencing a problem with the screen a couple of weeks before and decided to let his roommate, who was very capable and knowledgeable about machines and computers, check on it.

As soon as he put his laptop down, to grab an apple from his bag, a small blonde Shiba Inu, came up to him unexpectedly and began licking his face.

"Oh no, ChuChu! Get back here," cried a petite blonde, who was chasing after the dog. Upon catching up to the aforementioned Shiba Inu and Wally, she shyly stated "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…" before asking, "Are you ok?" upon seeing Wally.

Unbeknownst to the girl, named Yellow, Wally was allergic to many things, pets being one of them. Normally this was manageable for him with medication, but in the rush he had to get to school on time and check out a laptop prior to class, he had forgotten to take the one allergy medication he needed to prevent a violent allergic reaction from animal fur.

"Please… need… medical…" Wally attempted to say as the shortness of breath was kicking in.

Without pausing Yellow grabbed ChuChu, with one arm, and dialed the schools emergency medical response team for an ambulance and paramedic team to help him. As an aspiring nurse, hospital volunteer and anatomy major, she had the contacts of the local paramedics immediately at her disposal, who stated that they would arrive in five minutes. In addition, she also had also developed many emergency response skills after being certified as an EMT during the previous summer.

"Do you have an epinephrine injector?" she asked trying to remain calm.

Wally pointed to his bag, and said "Sma.. pock… et"

Almost immediately Yellow found and grabbed the pen and injected it into his thigh. After this she laid him on his back and raised his feet 12 inches to help his circulation. In the heat of the moment she didn't notice that the dog had run off again.

"Just remain calm, people will be here any minute to come help you," she quietly replied. "Breathe in and out, in and out."

Wally obeyed her instructions, and slowly began recovering his breathing. After a few moments Yellow began speaking to him to see if he could respond.

"What's your name?" Yellow asked him.

"Wall… Wally," he responded between breaths.

"Are you feeling better?" she questioned.

Instead of answering he gave a thumbs up as Yellow smiled and introduced herself. Paramedics arrived a few minutes later and loaded him on top of a stretcher, into the ambulance with an oxygen mask over his face. Despite being significantly better he needed a doctor to clear him at the hospital.

As soon as the ambulance departed, Yellow realized that ChuChu had gone missing again, however, before going off to look for the dog, she heard a message notification on the laptop Wally was using. Noticing that it was a rental from the school library, she packed up the computer, along with Wally's bag which was also left behind and set off to return them, before searching after the dog.

A couple of buildings away from campus, Emerald; the person who sent Wally the message while the ambulance was driving him to the hospital, was awaiting a response from his roommate, and close friend during his engineering lecture.

Though the small blonde male was one of the top scoring students in his classes, he typically avoided class lectures after the first day until the final exam. Emerald preferred to tinker with his own projects and self-study instead, which usually worked, as his grade reports displayed. Even during the first lectures, Emerald was unlikely to pay much attention, as he was on his laptop instead, double-checking the message he sent to see if Wally replied.

Emerald: Laptop should be ready by tomorrow morning, just let me tinker with it a bit more yea? Delivered: 10:11 a.m.

That's odd, he thought. The message had been sent about 30 minutes before, yet Wally, who typically responded in a timely manner, had not read the message yet. After pondering on the thought for about a second, he decided to concentrate his efforts on something else and began programming.

While working away during the lecture ignoring his professor's discussion, Emerald thought of what the year ahead might hold for him, outside of his academics. Despite knowing that classes are an integral part of his education, he knew that what occurred outside the classroom would create some of the best and most important memories.

A/N

First thing I guess, this takes place in a world without Pokemon, but there will be a ton of references to them in regards to street names, fake team names, place names etc. The regions will all be in there, they will just be placed in a world that isn't inhabited by Pokemon whatsoever.

This fic predominantly focuses on the interactions between characters, friendships, jobs and struggles as opposed to simply romances. Mostly because I believe focusing too heavily on multiple relationships can cripple a fic, and I'm tired of the cliché to group FranticShipping with OldRival, MangaQuest and SpecialShipping in the same fic. This is mostly because I believe it does many characters such as Yellow, a great injustice as it undermines their development. There will be a few hints toward a prior LuckyShipping pseudo-relationship, some SpecialJewelshipping and there will be some FranticShipping, but I'm trying to not make romantic relationships the main focus, at least for this fic.

Also there's some reference to some casual alcohol and drug use(if you classify marijuana as a drug), so if that offends you I guess either ignore it or don't read it. This fic is rated M for a reason, but I'm not going to go overboard with adult references, mostly because I don't want to get the fic taken down, and because it's not right with the story.

So really nothing else to say hope you enjoyed it!