The early morning sun shone on to my face, heating up my pillow and blankets like a microwave. Realizing that the dreaded "wake up" routine had come, I groaned and try to hide under covers. Too late.

"Morning, River!" my mom yells into my ear, "It's time for school!" She is brushing her teeth and dancing around my room on her toes, picking up trash and choosing clothes for me. It looked like she was standing on hot coals.

"Here you go sweetie," my mom handed me the stack of clothes she wanted me to wear. "Now you should go downstairs and eat some breakfast, or you'll be late!"

Blearily I changed into the chosen clothes -a green Nike T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and stumbled down the stairs. I fought to keep my eyes open, until I smelled food. Well, more of my belly smelled food. Food! Eat! It screamed at me, Eat everything! Except the table, of course.

Charged by hunger, I ate as quickly as possible, which wasn't very hard since it was pancakes and orange juice, my favorite breakfast. My mom used to joke that the first thing I ate was a mashed up pancake that she had made for me. Buttery goodness flooded my mouth as I tasted every single yummy ingredient in my mom's homemade recipe for pancakes.

Shouldering my backpack, I took deep breath, "Just another ordinary school day."

But like on a math test, I'm always wrong.

"Just another regular day of school, another ordinary day."

But like on a math test, I'm always wrong.

The school bus screeched to a halt right in front of me and the doors opened with a jerky motion. Immediately I plugged my nose, but it was too late. Sour rubber and sweaty socks flooded into my sinuses. I tried not to look pale as I climbed the stairs up into the bus. People were arm wrestling, listening to iPods while singing along to various pop songs. I would actually enjoy listening to people sing, but not these people. They sounded like they were trying to sing soprano while getting strangled by a heavyweight boxer. Other people were punching each other, stealing homework, or gossiping about who likes who and all of that other garbage. Yup... Seems like everything is normal here. I sat down next to one of my friends, Conner, he was currently playing a videogame on his iPhone.

"Hey," Conner blasted an alien, "did you bring your liquified baby-bottle of pancakes today?"

"Shut up man, what game is that? It seems pretty interesting."

"Oh, its Alien Blaster." He picked up some sort of power up, and progressed to level 97.

"Wow… Creative name."

An alien jumped on Connor's character, and there was a sad, boop, boop, boop.

He rolled his eyes and sighed, and didn't talk to me after that.

I turned towards the window, gazing outside the misty, rock-hard plastic. Being in mid-November, nothing looked happy.

Clouds covered up the morning sun, letting no light or warmth in, the fog drifted aimlessly around the rooftops going several different directions, like lost dust bunnies under a bed. Street lamps attempted to hide from the drizzle, flickering dimly, but only succeeded in making the scene look even more dismal. The once bustling outdoor cafes were all closed now, their red and green umbrellas closed and dripping rain onto black, carefully crafted tables. I listed the endless train of shops that pass by: Nordstrom, Rite Aid, Subway, a Burger King.

I was about to turn away from the window, something caught my eye. The QFC sign. Why was it dyed black? No… It looked like a glowing shadow. But it was in the light right at the sign. And the "shadow" had an odd malevolent feel to it. The more I looked at it, the more I felt it was looking at me. I shivered, even though it was about as hot as a sauna in the bus.

Time seemed to slow down, the bus didn't seem so loud anymore, the cafes some how managed to look even sadder. I watched in horror as the shadow on the QFC sign writhed and twisted like a snake about to strike.

Then, a voice spoke, like cat claws on a chalkboard "Come to the dimension of Pokemon little boy, see if you can stop me…"

Time unfroze, the sounds of kids screaming as some 8th grader stole their Star Wars lunch box became clearer.

I shivered, even though the bus was very warm. What the heck was going on?

I looked back at the QFC sign, the shadow had disappeared, like nothing had happened.

I sat very still for the rest of the bus ride, not daring to look outside again.

Every single period I went to, I couldn't focus on anything the teachers said, that voice I heard on my head kept repeating the same message over and over again. Drowning out the teachers, getting me into some serious primetime trouble. I got sent to three detentions, had to stand in front of the class two times, and got sent out into the hallway once. And I had only finished five periods, when there were six in total! My day sucked, but things were about to get a little strange.

The last and worst period. Gym class.

The gym smelled ten times worse than the bus. It was like tuna salad that had grew legs and had just finished the hike up a mountain on a sunny day. In other words, it smelled like moldy pasta that could sweat.

The gym's look wasn't much better than its smell. It was a giant cement box covered with layers of orange and beige plastic. Stupid posters like: "Exercise and Kids are the Perfect Combination for a Healthy Snack!" or "My Brain is a Football, but My Heart Beats for You!" covered the walls.

Then the teacher walked in, and he was HANDS DOWN, ugly.

His beady pitch black eyes darted around the class, as if they were trying to catch an imaginary hummingbirds. His nose was fat and warty, and was as long as Pinocchio's. His lips were grotesque and stuck in a permanent pout, and were as shriveled up as a wilted flower. He was wearing a surprisingly clean, yet horribly wrinkled, white Nike T-shirt. His blackish-blue gym shorts were way too short, and long white sports socks reached up to his knees. His Adidas shoes were black and white and were designed for soccer. A greasy black pigtail sprouted out from his nearly bald head. He looked directly at us.

"Okay, you little dumplings! Today you are in for a big surprise!" shrieked Coach Muzinic,

"Oh, whoopee. We love your big surprises." muttered Ryan, my other friend, "I can't wait."

"Today I'm breaking state laws!" the Coach continued, "We're playing dodgeball!"

Everybody groaned, except the school bully Butch, who was whooping with happiness. We had played dodgeball before, and after that, out of a class of eighteen kids, there were two twisted limbs, one black eye, three bruises, and about twenty band-aids. I had even heard rumors about a person breaking his arm when landing on the ground too hard. The only one uninjured was Coach Muzinic of course.

Before I could even step onto my side of the gym, I was cornered by the school bully, Butch.

Butch was someone you would find hanging out in dark alleys, a person who would rob somebody when they weren't looking. He had shaggy dark hair, with eyes the color of obsidian. He was wearing a black shirt, with a overly detailed skull and crossbones on it. His face had a few pimples and he was already growing some facial hair. He wouldn't have looked very intimidating if he wasn't 6 feet tall. He towered over most teachers, and made the staff uneasy.

"River, you are totally going to die today." he cracked his knuckles, "Maybe I'll even knock out some of your teeth."

"Watch your mouth Butch, do you want to taste bathroom soap again?" Just thinking of that memory made me smirk. About two months ago Butch had cornered me in the bathroom and I had shoved bathroom soap down his mouth. Ryan, Conner and I had all laughed about it, but got our shares of noogies and wedgies.

His face went beet red as he balled his fists, "Just wait till dodgeball shorty, and you'll be the one who should watch his mouth."

"We'll see about that."

The coach spilled the dodgeballs into the center of the gym, one of them clanked but no one paid any attention. Most of the people were cowering behind mats, curled up into balls, or too busy screaming their heads off. But Conner, Ryan and I were probably the only ones that would stand up against Butch.

The coach raised his whistle to his lips and yelled "And… TWEET!"

Chaos spread instantaneously as the on the other team hurled the dodgeballs towered us, within seconds, all of the dodgeballs were on our side, except the one Butch was holding.

"Hey shorty!" He called, "I saved this one just for you! Open wide!"

"Uh oh." I thought, "This is it."

I desperately dove to the side but Butch knew I might do that. He chucked the ball so fast it seemed to smoke.

It hit me in the head and I immediately blacked out.

I woke up, my head ringing like a church bell. I felt like floating on the ocean's surface. I stood up, which felt weird because I weighed almost nothing now.

I jumped, because I really was in the ocean. Blue water stretched on endlessly, I gulped. "How the heck did I get here?" I said aloud.

"Because I brought you boy..." it was the same scraping voice I had heard on the bus! "Amuse me, show me you can stop me..."

His voice brought back all of the scary things I had seen, and magnified it. Cold fear washed in to my body, making me want to crawl into the fetal position.

"Do you see this ocean? This peaceful, beautiful ocean?" the voice said in disgust as if peaceful and beautiful were swear words, "This shall all change... Soon..."

The world turned upside down, the sapphire blue water turned an inky black, the blue sky turned purple, and the sun turned red as fresh blood.

"I... shall... consume..." the voice rasped, "I must... darken the skies..."

The sky turned an even more horrifying color of purple, the entire sky twisted and writhed, the ink water froze, turning the ocean into one huge black shadow.

The sun blinked off, the sky turned black, and all that was left was pure black, an endless abyss of darkness."

Suddenly there was a sound like paper being ripped, I looked up and saw something that sliced a hole in the sky, letting light and warmth shine through. A golden bubble like a hamster ball descended from the sky and landed in front of me.

"You shall wake now. " Said someone, it wasn't the other voice, this one was deep and melodious, like he was shouting through a megaphone, "Wake and Expel the dark."

The hamster ball rolled toward me, and before I could run away, the golden bubble engulfed me. I was inside the bubble.

Then, the bubble shot skyward, I screamed as a flopped down on the bottom of my bubble, my ears popped, my ears rang. My last thought before blacking out was Seriously? Holy Hamster ball?

"Hey, Buizel wake up! Are you ok? Hey! Wake up!"

My eyes fluttered open, I was on a beach, lying face first in the sand. Not knowing where I was. In fact, I couldn't seem to remember anything. Hands were pushing and shoving me around getting my eyes filled with sand. I lifted my head and the pushing stopped.

"Oh thank Arceus you're awake! I was just taking a… um, a walk and I see an unconscious Buizel lying on the ground!"

I got up, offended.

Looking right at me, with a relieved expression on her face, was a Chimchar. A real Chimchar.

"Um…" I pointed stupidly to the Chimchar, my mouth hanging open, "You're a flaming chimp."

""Uh, yeah, I'm a Chimchar to be exact though."

"Um… Cool?" I said, still trying to process the fact that I was talking to a monkey. And… I could understand the monkey. And… the monkey could understand me. And the monkey was on fire.

My mind was about as messed up and jumbled was a 1000 piece puzzle.

I fidgeted with my hands, I twisted my index finger, then I felt something strange., Ssomething fuzzy was in my hands! Looking down, and saw that I didn't have hands any more. I had paws! To make things worse, a soft layer of orange fur covered my paws.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, or fur. Whatever.

"But I'm..., I'm like a human. I'm not an orangutan!" I muttered, half to my-self.

"Um, yeah. Maybe you're not okay,?" the Chimchar tilted her head sideways, "But you look like you've seen a Gastly or something."

"A Gastly?" The puzzle in my head jumbled up a bit more, "Sounds like a digestive problem."

The Chimchar puffed out her cheeks as if to stop laughter, but couldn't hold it in. She threw back her head and started to laugh, a nice laugh, one that almost made me feel good.

"Gastly? A digestive problem?" She laughed a little bit more, "You know Buizel, you should talk to an actual Gastly if you want to know that!"

"How would I talk to a digestive problem?"

"Silly Buizel, I would think you would know what a Gastly was!" She talked to me like my name was Buizel or something.

"Uh… my name isn't Buizel."

She snickered as if my complete confusion was amusing, which it probably was. "No, I mean you are a Buizel. Look at yourself."

"No way." I looked down, and sure enough, I was a Buizel.

"Oh my god. this isn't right."

My brain just started to comprehend what happened. I had turned into a Pokemon.

"But I was like a human, like a minute ago." I said, "I wasn't a sea weasel!"

"Yeah, well now you are!" The Chimchar said cheerfully, "Go ahead and scream."

I did.