I had always wanted to write a Pokémon story. And it took a long time to get this done, mostly because I wasn't sure of how to begin this story. Thanks to some writers on the Writers Anonymous forum, I finally got myself enough inspiration to begin this!
This story ignores everything after Generation IV, in case anyone wanted to know.
Disclaimer: Pokémon is owned by Nintendo and Satoshi Tajiri. Carlene is an original character made by yours truly.
March 10, 2006
Celadon City, Kanto region
Carlene Michaela Paddon Joy's cake was pink with white roses, with the words "Happy 10th birthday, Carlene" written in red frosting. Ten pink and white candles had already been placed on the cake, but they had yet to be lit. Carlene's mother had gone out into the kitchen to find a lighter or matches she could use.
But Carlene's attention wasn't on the cake. And it certainly wasn't on the pink and white streamers and balloons that decorated the dining room. Rather, it was on all the people that had come to celebrate her tenth birthday, the day she would receive her very first Pokémon. And all of them were related to her, all of them members of the large and well-known Joy family.
Looking at each of her relatives made Carlene feel as though she were looking at herself in one of those funhouse mirrors. They all had pink hair that was done in two looped pigtails and curled bangs and sky blue eyes. Many of the grown-up Joy women were still in uniform; a pink dress with a white apron and white caps. The crosses on each cap were differently colored, and this was the only way Carlene could tell each of them apart.
"That cake reminds me of the one I had for my tenth birthday, only there weren't any roses on it," said Anne Bernice Hudson Joy of Lavender Town. The cross on her cap was lavender purple.
"It reminds me of the cake I had for my tenth birthday, too," said Evelyn Marie Thompson Joy, who hailed from Fuchsia City. "But the words on the cake were purple, not red."
"I tried to get a pink cake for my Linda Mae's birthday," Anne Bernice Hudson Joy went on, "but she wanted blue instead."
"What a coincidence," said Greta Lynn Sihler Joy. "When I turned ten, I wanted blue frosting on my birthday cake, too." Greta worked at the Pokémon center in Pewter City, and she was here with her older sister, Victoria Heather Sihler Joy, who worked at the one in Viridian City. The cross on Greta's cap was gray, while the cross on Victoria's cap was green.
"What about you, Cindy Lee?" inquired Evelyn Marie Thompson Joy. "What was your birthday cake like?"
Cindy Lee Smith Joy, Carlene's aunt, was sitting next to Carlene. She had Carlene's little sister, Cassandra Georgiana Paddon Joy, sitting in her lap. She pursed her lips as she thought.
"Well," she said at last, "I don't remember the color of the cake, but I remember the flavor. It was chocolate."
"Oh, chocolate!" exclaimed Suzanna Beatrice Beaufort Joy. She had come all the way from Cherrygrove City in Johto. She was younger and more excitable than most of the adults in the room. "Chocolate is my favorite flavor of cake."
"Mine, too," added Greta Lynn Sihler Joy, smiling.
"And mine, too," said Victoria Heather Sihler Joy. Some of the older Joys chuckled at the remarks.
"Is the cake vanilla, Cousin Carlene?" asked Daisy Louise Carter Joy, Carlene's six-year-old cousin from Cerulean City.
Carlene's cake was vanilla, but she only nodded her head in affirmation. As though she didn't see her move her head in reply, Catherine Rosalie Paddon Joy, Carlene's older sister, answered for her.
"It is vanilla," she said. "Just like mine was."
"Oh, that's nice," said Evelyn Marie Thompson Joy. "Vanilla is nice, but it doesn't hold a candle to chocolate." A few of the Joy women nodded in agreement. No doubt the ones that liked chocolate cake.
Dear Mew above, all the Joy women sounded alike! Carlene shuddered inwardly. She then sat up straight in the chair as her mother, Charlotte Maryann Smith Joy, entered the dining room, a box of matches in one hand.
"I found them in the cabinet next to the sink," she said. Unlike most of the adult relatives, Charlotte wasn't in uniform. She wore a red cashmere sweater and beige slacks. "I must have put them there when I was cleaning up the kitchen yesterday."
"Yes, I usually misplace things when I do some cleaning myself," said Maude Eugenia Campbell Joy, the eldest Joy in the room. She was from Cerulean City, and was the grandmother of little Daisy.
"Like the time you placed the can opener in the refrigerator?" Magnolia Claire Michaelson Joy teased. She was Maude's daughter and Daisy's mother.
"Now, now, Maggie," chided Magnolia's sister, Frances Ivanna Michaelson Joy, "let's not have any of that. We're here to celebrate a birthday. Right, Char?"
"Mm-hmm." Charlotte struck a match against the matchbox and proceeded to light the candles.
The candles lit, one of the Joys flicked off the lights, and everyone proceeded to sing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" to Carlene, replacing "he's" with her name. Once the song was over, one of the Joys called out, "Go on, Carlene! Make a wish." Then a camera clicked.
Carlene hadn't been smiling.
Carlene looked down at her lit candles, wondering what to wish for. For the past four birthdays, Carlene had been wishing for an opportunity to visit her father. Henry Paddon was his name, and he was Saffron City's number one real estate agent. He had ended his marriage to Charlotte when Carlene was three, and married a schoolteacher when she was four. She saw his name and face in advertisements for Marsh Badge Realty, but rarely saw him in person. The ads were her only way of ever seeing what he physically looked like: brown hair, green eyes, brilliant smile.
There were times when she, her mother, and her sisters went to Saffron City to visit their Joy kin, but Charlotte never permitted Carlene to search out her father, claiming that there were too many people in the city, and she could get lost. Charlotte also refused to talk about Henry Paddon, as did Aunt Cindy Lee.
Following her ninth birthday, Carlene had finally gotten to meet the man, but the experience had not been pleasant in any way. After that, she vowed that she would never make a dumb wish like that again.
So what else could she wish for?
She could wish for her own friends, but her mother said that you had to work hard in order to earn a friend. She could wish for an opportunity to go on a Pokémon journey, to battle trainers and collect badges, but Aunt Cindy Lee had said that Joy girls never go on Pokémon journeys; they needed to learn how to take care of Pokémon, and to enroll themselves in the Nurse Joy Nursing Academy when they were fifteen. Carlene didn't want to make a wish on toys or clothing or even make-up, because those could be bought.
Carlene bit her lip. She didn't know what else to think of. Except to not follow her family into the Pokémon nursing business,
"Carlene?"
Carlene looked up. Charlotte looked concerned. "Honey, are you okay?"
"Yes, Mom," Carlene replied. "Just thinking is all."
"Well, would you kindly hurry up?" Catherine demanded. "I don't want to have candle wax on my slice!"
"Be nice, Catherine Rosalie," Aunt Cindy Lee chided her.
Carlene shut her eyes. I wish I could find a way to not work in a Pokémon center, she thought. Then she blew out the candles.
Everyone clapped, and then Charlotte took the cake away to cut it.
"Birthday cake!" Cassie called out. "I want birthday cake."
"Me, too!" Daisy and her older sister, Ivy, chorused.
"Wait, girls," said Frances. "We have to give Carlene her presents."
"Don't you mean present?" Catherine called out. "She's getting a Pokémon, isn't she?"
"Yes, and a couple more gifts, too," said Aunt Cindy Lee. She nudged Cassie off her lap and stood up. Cassie sat down where Aunt Cindy Lee. "Who was responsible for Carlene's gifts today?"
Cousins Frances and Magnolia stood up. Maude remained sitting. Frances and Magnolia left the room and came back with two square boxes, a small rectangular box, and a cylindrical object wrapped in red paper. They placed the gifts in front of Carlene.
"Open this one last," said Magnolia, pointing to the cylindrical gift.
Carlene nodded. She proceeded to open the first two. The first gift was personal floral-print stationery set, with her full name at the top of the notepad and on the back of each card. Her initials were located on the inside of all the envelopes.
The second gift consisted of two T-shirts. The first was light blue with CERULEAN CITY printed in a darker blue. The second one was a cerulean blue, with an enlarged image of a shiny Starmie outlined in purple on the center.
"Daisy helped me pick them out," said Cousin Magnolia.
The small rectangular box was third. This was the gift that made Carlene smile. It was a blue gem made to resemble the Cascade Badge, and it hung from a thin silver chain. Of the eight Kanto badges, the Cascade was always Carlene's favorite. It would be nice to earn this badge, Carlene thought to herself.
Carlene put it on. "I like this gift already," she said.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you," said Frances. "You still have this one to open." She moved the cylindrical gift closer to Carlene.
Carlene knew for some weeks that she would be receiving a Pokémon egg for her tenth birthday. This cylindrical gift was supposed to be an incubator that contained an egg. But what kind of Pokémon would hatch from the egg? Would it be one of the Kanto starters, or one of the Johto starters? Perhaps her relatives had gone out of their way to get an egg that would bear a Hoenn or Sinnoh starter.
If it wasn't going to be a starter Pokémon, then maybe it would be an Eevee. Or an Oddish; Oddish was one of her favorite grass-type Pokémon. What about a Vulpix? Carlene would see the occasional Vulpix when she and her family took walks through Route 7. And as Carlene thought about obtaining a Vulpix, she began to think that maybe she was going to receive a Vulpix from the egg after all.
Aunt Cindy Lee snapped a picture of Carlene before calling out, "Open it, Carlie!"
Carlene did. The incubator contained a pink egg. The egg had a white stripe around its middle and a cap of red on the top.
"Oh, isn't that nice?" Charlotte said. "You got a Happiny egg."
A what?
"Yes," said Cousin Magnolia. "My Chansey laid it last week, and I figured that it would be a perfect birthday gift for Carlene."
"Can I get a Happiny egg, too, Mom?" Cassie inquired. "Please?"
"When you're a little older, dear," Charlotte replied. She turned to Carlene. "What do you say, Carlene?"
"Uh…thank you, Cousin Magnolia and Cousin Frances," Carlene said flatly. "It was…very nice of you to think of me." She set it on the table.
"Hold it next to you, Carlene," said Aunt Cindy Lee. "I want to take a picture of you with your new egg."
This time, Carlene forced herself to smile.
It was half-past eleven, and Carlene was still awake. She sat up in bed, looking across at the incubator that held her soon-to-hatch Happiny. Her mother said that tomorrow, she could take the egg with her to school. The more you spent time with your egg, she'd said, the sooner it would hatch. She'd made it sound like an option, but Carlene felt that her mother was pressuring her to get the Happiny to hatch as soon as possible, so that she could train it until it evolved into a Chansey and got Carlene one step closer to a career as a Pokémon center nurse.
Carlene didn't want her egg to hatch, but she knew it would be cruel to just let it sit there in its incubator and not hatch. What could she do with a Pokémon that would one day evolve into a Nurse Joy's most loyal companion? Could she train it like any other Pokémon?
Carlene got up from bed, tiptoed over to the bookshelf under her window, and pulled out a book on baby Pokémon (a birthday gift from two years ago). She flipped to the chapter that talked about Happiny. Carlene skimmed over the parts that explained how to get a Happiny through the use of a Luck Incense, and how Happiny evolved into a Chansey through the use of an Oval Stone, until she got to the part about what moves a Happiny could learn. By leveling up, a Happiny could learn moves like Copycat, Refresh, Sweet Kiss, and even Pound. But through TMs and HMs, it could learn moves like Shadow Ball, Hidden Power, Fling, Thunder Wave, and even Flamethrower!
Carlene began thinking. How much did TMs and HMs go for at the Poké Marts? A thousand dollars or more? She didn't have a lot of money, probably a hundred dollars at least, and her mother would wonder what Carlene would want to do with that much money. She would have to earn her money by battling trainers. She could eventually use her Happiny after training it long enough...but would it be enough? What if the Happiny wasn't strong enough? What if it was beaten by every trainer she challenged?
Worst of all, what if her family found out what she was going to do? After all, she was a Joy, and Joys were meant to heal sick and wounded Pokémon, not fight them.
Carlene sucked in a deep breath. "I have to try," she whispered. "I just have to."
I struggled with this story (or at least, the first chapter) until after I read Veronica Roth's Divergent. And thank God I did; I was afraid that I would have to delete the file from my Doc Manager.
I'd like to let people know that I'm attending a college—an actual university, not a community college—for my bachelor's. I might be so busy that I won't have time to post anything. So please be patient with me.
Review if you can, and have a nice day!