Jessie's History-Told as an autobiography
I was born on July 13th, on a Black Friday. It is said in the Monday's Child rhyme that children born on Fridays are loving and giving. As if! I don't have anything to give and love is not high on my list of important virtues. Friendship, sure. But love?
I have some baby pictures I've seen of myself. I look hideous, with a little tuft of red hair sticking up. My mom, Miyamoto is smiling down at me, though. She looks really pretty, a bit like me, but with messier and darker hair. She named me Jessica, but I've never been called that. Even at the beginning, everyone called me Jessie. My earliest memory is of my mom's first snowgasboard. Ahh, I loved those. Snow rolls, snow-and-ice ice cream, and all of my favourite wintry treats. That was when I was three. I can remember playing in the snow when I was very little, and I can remember Miyamoto calling for me to come in. I remember that snowgasboard as one of the best. I said "You're the best mommy ever." I was only a little girl, and I had no idea what would happen in my life next. I was happy. I knew my life. I was Jessie, the daughter of Miyamoto, and totally happy. Of course, I knew we were poor, and I remember Miyamoto sometimes wearing a black outfit with a red R on it. I once asked her about it, when I was five.
"Mom," I said, "Why do you wear that weird black mini?"
"You don't need to worry about that, sweetie." Miyamoto answered. Now I know it was for her work.
My life was torn apart when I was only six. Miyamoto disappeared from my life, and I was put into a children's home. I shared a room with one of the girls. For the first few weeks, I cried into my pillow every night, when I thought she was asleep. But during the fourth week of crying, she said "Could you quit that? I'm trying to get some sleep, you know." I hadn't even bothered to speak to her before. I didn't even know her name, so I decided maybe I'll talk back. "You don't understand what it's like, losing your mom at six, and not knowing anyone." I told her.
We were lying in bed, so I couldn't see her expression, but I could hear the sadness in her voice. "I do, actually." she whispered.
"Really?"
"Yes. By the way, sorry, I haven't even learnt your name yet."
"It's Jessie."
"I'm Cassidy."
From that night on, Cassidy and I stuck together. Cass wore her blonde hair in spiky pigtails, and she was tall, with a nice smile. She liked parties and talking. I told her all about my life, and although I tried to get her to talk about hers, she tried to avoid the questions. She was the only person I really trusted. We lived in the children's home for three years. The only other person I knew that I liked at all was a boy I had sometimes seen in the town. He was about a year older than me, and I'd only spoken to him once. That didn't stop me, though. I sort of felt like he was the kind of person who wouldn't judge you, ever. Although Cassidy was my best friend, I sometimes felt around her that she was sizing up everything I said and did.
"Hey, Jess?" she said one night when we were eight, "Have you talked to the other girls?"
All the girls' bedrooms were on the same floor as ours. "Not really, why?"
"Because they want to have a midnight feast in our room, and they're not sure if they want to invite you. They're scared you won't let them. You are kind of antisocial, you know."
"OK, if you want me to try to be friendly to them, Cass, I'll try."
"Thanks, Jessie!" Cassidy gave me a huge hug. "I knew you'd do it for me."
And in the end, it seemed that the girls weren't really thinking of leaving me out, because they were scared I'd say no to everything. But I just thought Cassidy had got it slightly wrong. That happens.
My life went on. I did my usual things: went to school, chatted to Cassidy, stole glances at my crush, giggled with my friends, and all the time, I wondered what had happened to my mom.
Then one day, I saw an advertisement in the paper. It was for an organization called Team Rocket. And it showed me exactly why my mom had left. She had been in Team Rocket and had a mission! It was a shocking idea to me. I was only eight-well, nearly nine. Little did I know how much involvement I would have with them-but that comes later.
The second thing that changed my life forever took place on my ninth birthday. On all birthdays the Children's Home gave the birthday kid a little present, and all the other kids were expected to give something. When I woke up, I expected Cassidy would be the first to give me a present, but she didn't even say hi when she woke up. She just got dressed. I wasn't too worried though-yet. Everyone else gave their presents to me and as usual, they weren't much. The best present was a pair of jeans and a top with "Forget princess-I wanna be a VAMPIRE" on it. The Twilight
Saga wasn't famous then, but these kind of tops were appearing in cheap shops anyway. But I still didn't get a present from Cassidy. When we went to bed, I said "Um, Cass?"
"What is it now?" she snapped.
"What is with you?" I snapped back. "I thought we were supposed to be best friends and you just forget my birthday when you can barely get away from it for one damn day!"
"The world doesn't revolve around you, Jessi-ca." Cassidy said.
"Just tell me-what is with you?"
"Are you-like, blind to your own weird self? All the other girls are more fun than you."
"You said we were best friends!" I shouted.
"Correction-I said it when I was six and didn't know any better. So, so?"
"So you should know what loyalty is!" I yelled at her. "Well, as much as you hate me, I hate you more!"
"Fine, Jessie. But one more thing: it's all your fault that you don't have any friends." Cassidy said.
From that night, I knew that I would never be able to trust anyone again. Cassidy was the only person I trusted, and she had let me down.
For some reason, I began immersing myself in Disney movies after that. We had movies shown in the Home once a week, on Friday nights, and because we couldn't watch anything PG because of the youngest kids, it was Disney nearly every time. At that time, they hadn't done anything past the movie Tarzan, which I personally thought was mainly just babyish. There just wasn't anything else to do, after losing my best friend. So that was the only thing I would think about, otherwise I would just be fighting not to think about Cassidy all the time.
I would keep dreaming about the animation of Fantasia, for example, in school time. (We were homeschooled at the Home). Then I would come back when my teacher yelled "Jessie! How many times do I have to tell you? Stop daydreaming!"
So I tried to keep my mind on the work, only my thoughts about my ex-friend would keep coming in....
"JESSIE! Can you ever pay attention?" Then my teacher sneered. "It must have been something very interesting that you were thinking about. Maybe you should share it with the class?"
I stood up and said boldly "I'm thinking about a certain student in this room with no respect."
"And who is that?" the teacher began scowling, but once she'd started, she wasn't going to stop.
I looked straight at the culprit. "Cassidy." That was the one and only time Cassidy seemed hurt by anything I said to her. I got detention for disrespect of fellow students, but I didn't care, although I hadn't started it in the first place.
When I was ten, I got a scholarship to Tae Kwon Do Tech. And guess what. I got Little Miss Traitor Cass as my roomate. Lucky me. And we both had to learn about Tae Kwon Do creatures together for homework just because we were roommates. Cassidy regularly went and "studied" with the popular group. I rushed off and studied with a boy in our class that didn't have a roommate. He seemed OK, but I never actually caught his name.
But after a year, I flunked. That was IT! I felt SO useless. In the end, I tried for Tae Kwon Do Creature Nursing.
I wondered how should I look when I apply? I decided on tying my vibrant red hair back in plaits and wearing boring clothes. But I could only get a course for a kind of Tae Kwon Do creature called a Chunsaie that took care of others. I tried hard, but when we were learning bandaging, I noticed a sweet but clumsy Chunsaie having trouble, so when I was finished, I helped her. She smiled at me, her eyes saying thank you.
Later, the Chunsaies were learning an effective lullaby on real patients. I couldn't learn it, though, which the teacher forgot. She had earplugs, but I didn't. So the friendly Chunsaie I had helped woke me up, but it was too late, and I got suspended.
"It's not my fault I'm not a Chunsaie!" I raged later in my room. My Chunsaie friend came over, but in my anger, I snapped "I don't need you to comfort me!" She looked so hurt that I went back to normal and whispered "I'm sorry. You're the only one in this whole school that even cares about me. I guess it's time I faced up to the truth. I'll never be a Tae Kwon Do nurse."
I left the school, though I am still friends with the Chunsaie, who evolved into a higher Nurse kind: Blassoi.
After I turned fourteen, I returned to the Home. They let over-twelves go to a school of their choice. I chose Kristian School. They had a vacancy in one of the Year Ten classes, so I went to join 10GBV. I joined on one day when the class began with Science. I took the only vacant seat in the lab. The girl next to me whispered "Hi. My name's Holly." I glanced at her and then returned to my work. She had short dark hair in a bob, and blue eyes.
Holly tried to be friendly for the first few days, but I didn't trust her, and I didn't want the Cassidy episode all over again. So I stayed distant.
On Friday, a girl called Haley asked "Jessie, what school did you come from?"
"I was homeschooled." I replied. "It was weird, but it inspired my dream." That was sort of a half-truth. I was thinking of joining Team Rocket when I was older.
"What is your dream?" Haley asked.
"Starts and ends with T, deals with the world, second word made up with initials." I said mysteriously.
"Why don't you just tell us?" spoke up awkward Andrea.
"Yeah, why not?"
"Tell us, Jessie!"
I was not happy. "That's for me to know and you don't need to or want to know!" I snapped.
From that day on, I got a lot of teasing. I had to try to hold back my anger, but it was amazingly tricky.
After a month, I relented and let Holly be my friend. After all, we did have a lot in common, but I still kept back my past from her. She didn't seem like she would turn on me, but I didn't count on Cassidy turning either.
I heard a lot about Holly's friend that was on an exchange trip for three months. The girl was called Jade. So when Jade came back, I decided to leave school, as I was old enough to join Team Rocket. I left Holly a message, and went. Thus began the most important part of my life: Training Days. I was fifteen, and bold.
When I said I was Miyamoto's daughter, I immediately was allowed to begin training. They set me up with a partner, and got me doing all those crazy exercises. But I got through ten partners in two months. They were: wimp, weakling, loser, loser, weakling, baby, wimp, baby, loser, wimp. And they still thought I had promise. But there was one small problem. Cassidy had turned up as a trainee too! I wish she would just get out of my life!
One time, we were racing on a treadmill side by side. Afterwards, Cassidy came up to me and said mockingly "You're looking pretty tuckered out there, sweetie. You sure you're feeling okay?"
I didn't meet her violet eyes. "Don't you worry about me, Cassidy, you're the one you should be worrying about. I thought you were going to keel over."
"Well, if I did I'm sure my partner would help me out. Of course, you wouldn't know about partners, now would you? How many is it now?"
"None of your business."
"You know, hon, you're getting quite the reputation for being difficult around here. You'd better wise up quick, or no one is ever going to want to be teamed up with you." Major Bitch Cassi said.
"That's fine with me." I replied coolly.
"Suit yourself." Cassidy laughed, and called to her partner "Ready to jet, Biff?"
"The name's Butch, not Biff!" her partner called back.
At last, they found me a partner. I was introduced to probably the most important person in my life right now. James. My first impression was that he was kind of, well, cute. He had these really clear green eyes and a sort of half-serious, half-friendly expression.
The first thing I said to him was about our assignments. It went like this: "Listen up, James. I hope you're good, because I'm not going to carry you."
The instructor that worked with trainees said "You'll have to excuse Jessie. She has a history of not getting along with her partners."
James grinned. "Then perhaps she just hasn't found the right one yet."
Now that I've been working with James for ages, we're definitely best friends. In a way, we're almost like family. Well, I wouldn't know, seeing as I haven't had a real family for years, but still. James is scared of a lot of things, and I get frustrated with him no end, but I feel that he would never turn on me. Not like my ex-friend, Little Miss Bitchy Blondie. Well, I didn't guess she was going to, but I felt a lot more insecure around Cassidy than around James, even when she was my best friend.
He seemed pretty confident that he was good enough. As I was going to find out over the next few weeks, I might have been better, but James was definitely the right partner for me, although I got impatient with any complaints, which usually came from our talking Tae Kwon Do creature anyway.
During our trickiest field assignment, both of us lay awake during the night. At last, James said "Jessie, I've got this feeling."
"Yeah? What's that?" I asked.
"If you and me really stick together, and I mean together, we could make a truly amazing team?"
"Wow. You really think so?"
"I do. Maybe the greatest team in all of Team Rocket history."
"I sure do like the sound of that." I admitted. "But how do I know I can really count on you, James?"
"I'll make a promise to you. I swear I'll never let you down." And now, even after all the fights we've had, we've always stuck together and stood by each other.
On the last bit of the trip that concluded that assignment, we had to cross a bridge that looked like it was about to break. "I'll go across first and see if it's secure." I volunteered. I carefully crossed the bridge, then James began to go across. He was about halfway, when I noticed a rope on the bridge straining.
"Watch out!" I screamed. James saw the rope.
"Run for it!" I cried. James started running, but the rope broke just as I took his hand, leaving me trying hard to pull James up, but not succeeding.
"Just hold on!" I cried.
"I don't know if I can!" James called.
"Don't even think of letting go, James!"
I struggled for a moment, then James said quietly "I'm sorry, Jessie." and he let go of my hand.
"No, James! NO!" I screamed.
I knew that fall had done a lot of damage to my partner. But there was no time to worry about that. Our final test had come up. In our teams, we had to try to capture the legendary Red Snorlax within the time limit. Whoever came closest to it would have their team as real Team Rocket agents. When Cassidy heard this, she took the chance to annoy me, saying "Hey, not bad! Who's on your team, Jess? You, yourself and you?" I began to reply but she started on the fact that I would get caught and forced to wear stripy jail uniform with "Don't you worry, honey. You look much better in stripes than I do, doesn't she, Hutch?" as she turned to her partner, Butch, laughing.
"That does it, I am changing my name." Butch muttered.
As I walked along to the building that night, I suddenly turned and whispered to myself "It always comes down to just me. Why does it always have to be that way?"
"I thought you hated whining." Was that who I thought it was? "Didn't I tell you I'd never let you down?" A figure in bandages was leaning against the tree.
"James!"
"The one and only! Let's go!" James threw off his bandages.
"But James, you can't!" I protested. "You're hurt."
"I'm not about to let that stop me. Not when my teammate is counting on me."
We ran into the building. I got to the room quicker, and faced Cassidy's team. She called me a loser, and ran across the room, but fell into a trap. I was nearly faced with the same situation when James fell into a similar trap. It was the bridge all over again, but this time, I pulled James up, and we got going. We didn't win, but we got the furthest.
Back at HQ, Cassidy, with her arm in a sling from the trap she had fallen into, muttered "I thought I'd never see the day. Beaten by crazy Jessie and her twitty teammate."
James and I were made real Team Rocket agents. We got to wear these white outfits, while Cassidy and Butch were both VITs, Villains In Training. It was one of the best moments of my life. Not only being a real agent, but having beaten my most hated rival.
However, on our mission to Viridian City, our dreams were shattered. We got to the Tae Kwon Do centre, where the Chunsaies look after injured and sick Tae Kwon Do creatures to get some of the creatures as most agents do. We began by reciting the Team Rocket motto, with some of our own touches.
"What are-who are they?" asked a novice kid of about ten.
"Don't be frightened, little boy." I mocked.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves." said James.
"To protect the world from devastation."
"To unite all peoples within our nation."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love."
"To extend our reach to the stars above."
"Jessie."
"James."
"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"That's right!" I cried.
The novice boy looked blank. "He just doesn't get it, does he?" I said scornfully.
"How can I? You don't make any sense." the boy protested.
"We're here for the creatures." James said.
The boy shielded a creature called Pokicho. "You're not getting Pokicho!"
"Pokicho?" I repeated. "We're not interested in that."
"We seek only rare and valuble creatures."
"You're wasting your time." said another novice, around twelve. She had red hair tied in a ponytail. "This is a centre for injured creatures."
"Well, that may be so, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if we found a few gems among all the junk." I said.
"You're starting to bug me." The boy snapped.
"Isn't that cute!" I said.
"The boy's bugged." James said.
We set our own creatures on them. Mine was called and Ikens and James' was a Seffan. But all we did was blow the centre up, and didn't catch a single thing. Actually, it was the boy's Pokicho that blew up the centre.
Later, we were hanging onto a rope leading up to our KittyKat hot air balloon.
"That Pokicho is no ordinary Pokicho." I said.
"It's certainly very rare, a perfect prize." James agreed.
"Let's catch it!"
"Perhaps we will."
The next day, we found the boy and the girl novices in the Viridian Forest.
"So, we meet again." James announced.
"I...know that voice." The boy murmured.
We recited the motto.
"Uh," The boy said "We're kind of busy now, so if you-"
"Quiet, little boy." I interuppted. "We're not here to listen to you, we're here to get your Tae Kwon Do creatures."
"Hand over that Pokicho."
The kid refused. We at last decided to battle for the Pokicho, sending out Ikens and Seffan.
"Hey, two against one is cheating!" The boy yelled.
"Well, as we say 'All's fair in love, war and battles'." I replied.
"I say that saying's rotten and so are you!"
"Of course we are. We're the bad guys." James reminded him.
"Well, if they're gonna use two Tae Kwon Do creatures, I don't see why we can't use two." the girl spoke up.
"The rules say only one at a time." the boy replied.
"Ash, if you follow the rules, you're gonna lose all your creatures!" the girl protested.
Once the Pokicho was blinded it couldn't battle. Ash turned to the girl. "They might try anything to get what they want, but whatever happens, don't let them have Pokicho, understand?" The girl seemed frozen. "Misty, come on!" She took the Pokicho and nodded. "But what about the other two?" she asked.
"So, what's your big battle plan?" I asked.
Ash paused, and then sent out a creature. "Padgimitto, go!"
After losing to his third one, James said "It's about time we blasted off." We began running, calling "You may have won this round, but we'll be back!"
Later, we hung around in a rocky cave. "This kid is tougher than I thought." I mused. "Did you hear his name?"
"What was it?" James asked curiously.
"Ash, and the girl is Misty." I said. "Knowing who they are might help us later."
"So Jessie, what next?"
"Um, let me see." I said. "Okay, let's keep going with this strategy. If it stops working, we'll have to do something else."
"Disguises?"
"Maybe."
We made many attempts to get Pokicho or just something that would make us rich. I could list all of them, but I'll just write about a few of them. At one point, Ash made friends with another boy called Brock. And at one point, Misty went to watch this gym that her bimbo-like sisters ran because they had won a holiday in a beauty contest, but it always went back to the status quo: Ash as the kid with the Pokicho, Misty as the redhead that wants to be Ash's girlfriend, and Brock as the twerp that helps the immature twerps. That's what me and James called them: Team Twerp.
One of my least favourite encounters is the time we broke into a gym, the one Misty's sisters ran, while Misty and Ash were battling. They were now not bothering to fight themselves and while Ash used Padgimitto, Misty was losing with Starna. The minute we began draining the girls' pool, Misty cried "We have to save the Tae Kwon Do swimmer creatures!"
One of her sisters squealed "Like, what about my hair?"
And then Ash had a good idea to send us flying for the, um, fourth or fifth time.
My favourite encounter is the time I managed to really humiliate Ash and we got away with what we thought was the secret perfume formula of the city, but turned out to be extract of a fighting creature that attacks by spraying a fiery scent. Ugh! But before that, we decided to use Ash as a distraction. We were tied up in a tree after our first attempt, and then Ash saw us and he was alone. "Are you two hanging out again?" he called.
"The pest." I acknowledged.
"Please, can you help us get out of this tree?" James asked. I paused, before kicking him for asking the enemy.
"Traitor! Whose side are you on?" I screamed, then I had an idea. I smirked at Ash and said "Hey, kid. Bet they wouldn't let you in that gym today."
"That's none of your business!" Ash cried, but I knew I had guessed right because his tanned skin turned slightly pink.
"Even though you're a pest, I'll make a deal." I went on. "Untie us and we'll show you how to get in that gym."
"Why should I trust you?" Ash asked.
I had an answer for that. "Face the facts, boy. You can't get into the Tae Kwon Do major league without winning more badges." That's what Ash did: travel from gym to gym and win badges to eventually get into the Major League.
So we got Ash to wear a blonde wig with a pink bow and an orange dress that clashed as a disguised. He tried it on, and we goggled at him.
"Great wig!" commented James.
"Not even your own mother would recognize you in this outfit!" I showed Ash his reflection in a mirror.
Ash blushed. "Think so?"
"That'll get you into the gym easy."
"Great! Then I'll show the gym leader who's the boss around here!"
I gave Ash a look. "That doesn't sound very ladylike."
"Huh?"
"You'll give away your secret!" James told him.
"Go on, try it, try it!" we both said.
Ash cleared his throat and said in a high voice to match his disguise "I'll show those meanies."
Yes! That one was nearly a winner. In that case, we used disguises, and knowing his name was nearly a hazard, because I nearly called him Ash while he was disguised as a girl. I quickly said "Ashley" instead.
We always tangled with Team Twerp somehow, even when we weren't trying to grab Pokicho. We were just spying on them, and they were staring at a "MISSING" poster of someone.
"Is that-" Misty began.
"It looks like-" Ash tried to say.
"It can't be-" Brock said in surprise.
"JAMES?" they chorused.
"Wow." Ash said. "It sure looks like James." Then a butler-like man got out of a car that drove by and said to the twerps "Have you seen that boy in the photo?"
"We have if he's James from Team Rocket." replied Ash.
"Quick! To the estate!" The man exclaimed, bundling Team Twerp into the car. Only then did I take a look at the poster of the little kid in it.
"Hmmm," I said "This kid looks a lot like you."
"You think so?" James said, joining me. "He looks pathetic."
"We'd better go investigate." I decided, whizzing off, but I realized James wasn't with me a moment later. "James, what are you waiting for?"
"Um...I'll just stay here." he said shyly.
"NO YOU WON'T!" I yelled at him and began dragging him along as we chased the car. We heard that the huge estate the twerps were taken to would belong to James if he married in 24 hours, because his parents had died.
I could hear the twerps talking on the steps up to the mansion.
"We should help look for James." Ash said.
"What?" exclaimed Misty. "Why should we help him after all the trouble he's caused us?"
"He might want to come to his parent's funeral." Brock pointed out.
While they talked, James and I were arguing on the roof. We eventually fell off. The twerps stared at us.
"Look, James, I'm becoming very annoyed with you. Don't you wanna be rich?" I asked.
"I don't know." sighed James. Then he screamed "I feel like my head is splitting! I can't remember anything that's happened!"
He related some stuff that he did remember, including a story about a boy that died, by freezing solid.
"Oh, that's such a sad ending." I whispered, crying. We were all in an imaginary state.
"I can't believe James is gone!" wept Brock.
"I miss him!" wailed Ash. Pokicho cried, too.
Misty wasn't affected, and she growled before yelling "JAMES IS STANDING RIGHT HERE!"
James looked up and said "Ah! That's right!" But he still refused to go and get married or anything. He began running from me. My blue eyes slitted dangerously. I could feel them.
"He's weakening." I said thoughtfully. I got some rope out of my pocket, and aimed it. It immediately turned into a loop around James. I was strong enough to keep pulling him back.
"Let me go!" he screamed. "I don't want to!"
"You can't make him get married!" Ash protested.
"He should be able to decide who he does or doesn't wanna marry!" yelled Brock.
I told them to shut up.
I should have listened to them. If I had, maybe James wouldn't have had to go through such an ordeal of his awful fiancee, Jessibelle, who was ready to take him away from the team.
In the end, I thought he had subbcumed to her, but as I walked along, I heard a call.
"Prepare for trouble?"
I stared up at our KittyKat hot air balloon. "James..."
I smiled. "Make it double!" We laughed as I ran alongside the balloon. James took my hand and pulled me up into the basket of the balloon. That was maybe the second best moment of my life, as I looked at my real best friend and realized how lucky I was. Maybe we would always lose to the twerps, but we would always have each other. By the way, here's a picture of us together:
That was when he pulled me up into the balloon. Oh, now I've started pictures, maybe I should go on. Okay... (sigh), below is Cassidy:
She looks especially mean in that picture. Believe me, she's worse than she looks. She might look like just a spiteful teenager, but she's actually more of a scheming bitch. I'm serious. Okay, here's a picture of me and James when we first met:
Okay, I'm done with the pictures. So when I was 20, I saw Holly again. And she found out about Team Rocket. I didn't want anyone from Kristian to know about it, so I told her to pretend we never met. She didn't seem happy, but I know she'll be better off without me.
This is the end of my history, to tell the truth, right now. An incomplete version of my life. Who knows what will happen to me? But if you want to know anything about that, you better read Holly's story next. She sometimes annoys me, but she's okay.
The End
