Every child dreams of having their very own Pokemon. I mean, who could blame them? Who wouldn't want a weird monster at their side obeying their commands while beating the crap out of other weird monsters? That actually sounds terrible when I put it that way, but there's probably something more to that. If there wasn't, I don't think parents would send their children to travel across an entire region to become a Pokemon Trainer, and at the age of ten no less. It's a common thing for children to depart from their homes on their tenth birthday. Growing up, it was all anyone my age ever talked about. Just the thought of such an enthralling experience made every kid squeal with excitement.

Well, every kid... except for me. I was pretty much the only one in my hometown who didn't want to be a Trainer. I never felt compelled to follow in my parents' footsteps to journey across the Unova region with Pokemon. I was a pretty weak kid, and I had an irrational fear of Pokemon. My parents wanted me to go on a journey ever since I was born. When I finally came of age, however, they insisted that I don't. They even started to blame themselves for coddling me for so long so that I would stop freaking out whenever I saw a Patrat. My two friends Cheren and Bianca also had plans to go on a journey, but since they were the only friends I had, they figured I'd be lonely without them and changed their minds. I started feeling somewhat guilty, but my parents reassured me that it wasn't a big deal.

I especially felt bad for my dad after that. He's told me before that he was an avid Trainer in his youth. Both of my parents were, but my dad was said to be the real deal. He won nearly every single battle he fought in, and never turned down a challenge from even the toughest Trainers. At least, that's what I've heard, cause I've never actually seen him participate in battles, even when he would often leave to partake in them. While I was young, the only thing I noticed from my dad was his fascination with Pokemon training, and the excitement he felt knowing that I would one day be a Trainer like him. When my parents decided not to make me leave on a journey, my dad was willing to give up part of his profession to spend more time with me now that he saw that Pokemon battling wasn't really my scene. I quite enjoyed that extra time with my dad, especially considering that half of his time spent was away from home battling other Trainers, and that I barely knew anything about him other than his hobby. At times, I started suspecting that he wanted to quit Pokemon battling entirely. Part of me was saddened by this, seeing how happy he seemed when talking about it, but I knew he was perfectly fine with this decision.

After a while, my dad started to leave home a little more often. Not to battle with people, but just to travel with friends, likely to reminisce about the good old days of their battling career. Seeing him at such a somber, but also joyous time of his life was one of the many conundrums that I had pondered over in my life. How could he be so happy when he basically gave up his life's work of Pokemon training, and why does he also look so sad half the time? My mom noticed my confusion about this mess and told me it was likely just a mid-life crisis that my dad was going through, and that I shouldn't worry about it and act like a normal kid for once. I concurred that it may have been too complicated for a twelve year old to understand, and went about my usual business of playing video games and whatnot.

A few years passed, and during that time, for some reason I can't explain, something began to change within me. I got over my Poke-phobia, as my mom called it, and started watching some random exhibition battles on TV. My subconscious kept telling me that I wanted to be a part of the action. I ignored it for a while, but the more I watched them, the more I wanted my own Pokemon.

Meanwhile, my parents started noticing that something was off about me, but they didn't seem to care. They probably thought it was some random hobby I picked up because I got bored. But then, a few days ago, while my dad was away, I finally gave in and told my mom I wanted to go on a journey. At first she laughed and thought I was joking, and it took me like five minutes to convince her otherwise. After it hit her that I was being serious, she looked happier than she had ever been in her life and nearly burst into tears.

So for the past few days, Cheren Bianca and I have been preparing ourselves for the journey to come. Professor Juniper has promised to give us each a Pokemon that would be our partner.

Finally, the day when I would depart for my journey had come. I was sleeping soundly in my bed, even with Pidoves cooing outside my window. I started to become half awake but lacked the energy to get out of my bed.

Suddenly, something started poking my face. I flailed around blindly until I opened my eyes to see a Pidove in front of me.

"Pidove?! How did you get in my room?!"

I proceeded to chase it out of my window and shut it tight. I usually leave it open to let the breeze in, but this particular Pidove always flies in when I do. I tell myself to stop leaving it open, but it's a bad habit that I can't break for some reason.

I came to a realization when I recollected myself. "Wait, what time is it?" I looked on the digital clock on my nightstand and saw that it was 10:45.

"Oh crap, I overslept!"

I jumped out of my bed and rushed to dress myself and get my stuff together. I slipped on a dark red t-shirt and blue jeans, and grabbed my brush to fix my hair a little bit. I heard the doorbell ring and my pet Lillipup barking loudly, and became so startled to the point where I almost tore out some of my hair with my brush. Cursing under my breath, I just gave up on my hair and ran downstairs to answer the door, nearly tripping over myself in the process.

When I got downstairs, Lillipup was whining and scratching wildly at the door. I had to get him away so I wouldn't accidentally hit him, but he wouldn't budge. I grabbed him quickly and opened the door to see Cheren standing rather impatiently. His face was turned away, but when he looked at me, he flinched and widened his eyes.

"Hey, Cheren, how are you doing this fine morning?" My voice cracked. I had to force myself to sound all happy and excited. Needless to say, he looked pretty weirded out to see me barely dressed with messy hair and holding a squirming Lillipup with one arm.

"Um... are you okay? You look like you had a rough morning," he said after staring for a few moments.

"Oh, you know, sleeping in and a damn Pidove pecking my face, as usual," I stammered after wiping off my happy face. "How was your morning?"

Cheren chuckled. "Certainly not as bad as yours obviously was." I scoffed as a response.

You know that guy who always has a smartass comment for everything you say? Well that's the kind of friend Cheren is. To be fair, he is slightly more competent than me and Bianca, so I have to give him credit there. Out of the three of us, he's taken the whole Pokemon thing the most seriously. He seems like he just wants to be a strong Trainer, nothing more. It doesn't surprise me, he's always strived to outdo everyone in every category.

Upon hearing all the noise, my mom walked in. Lillipup jumped out of my arms and ran towards her. "Hello, Cheren. I'm surprised to see you're up, Savannah," she greeted. Cheren snickered at her remark. I groaned after just hearing her voice.

"Come on mom, I could barely get any sleep last night. Do you know how hard it is to sleep when you're this excited?" I replied.

"Well, I was up bright and early before I started my journey. As a Trainer, you're gonna have to get used to that," she said.

"What does being a Trainer have to do with being up early every morning?"

"The more daylight hours you're awake, the better you'll be at battling. That's one of the basic rules of being a Pokemon Trainer!" she told me.

Like hell it is, I thought as I rolled my eyes. "Did Professor Juniper come by yet?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact she did. She came and left this box here while you were still snoozing," she said as she pointed to a white box with a red ribbon on the counter.

"Sweet, so this box has those three Pokemon in it?" I beamed as I took the box.

"Yeah, Juniper says that kids usually start their journey with one of those Pokemon. Makes you wonder how professors always seem to find them." I was ignoring her at this point because I was so eager to see what Pokemon they were.

"We should wait until Bianca shows up to open it," I said to Cheren.

"Wait for Bianca? That's not gonna take forever at all," he said sarcastically.

My mom, like she has been for the last week or so, looked overjoyed. "Isn't this exciting? My fifteen year old daughter finally going on a journey with Pokemon. And here I was thinking it would never happen!"

"Well, you know, growing up and getting past your fears is a common thing among teenagers I guess," I chuckled.

"Come on Savannah, be happy for once! You're about to leave on a thrilling adventure instead of locking yourself in your room all day!" She probably didn't get that my attitude was mostly from nervousness instead of grumpiness.

Once again I had to force a smile on my face, lest I sit through another lecture about "being happy".

I turned to Cheren. "Let's go to my room while we wait for Bianca," I said. He simply nodded and we ran upstairs with Lillipup following us.


When we got there, the Pidove from earlier was still at my window flapping its wings vigorously, as if it were trying to get my attention so I'd let it in my room. Cheren laughed at the sight of the angry Pidove. "Does that thing never leave you alone?"

"Unfortunately no," I replied while I shooed the Pidove away.

For the next ten minutes, we were just talking about how excited we were about going on an adventure through Unova. Well, I was at least. Cheren just kinda sat there nodding to everything I said. It kinda seemed like he wasn't even paying attention.

Cheren interrupted me while I was rambling. "You know, it's kinda funny seeing you this happy about the whole adventure thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're the one who's been afraid of Pokemon your whole life, now you want to travel alongside them across an entire region. I'm kinda wondering how you came to be like this."

I hesitated before responding. "Well, it's just... I don't know. Ever since my dad starting spending more time with me, I've been going through some kind of phase where I really want to battle with Pokemon. I don't know how, but... it just kinda happened."

"That's strange. Maybe his presence triggered something within you. Deep down, you may have wanted to take his place, since he just kind of gave up for a while."

The thought of that made me smile a bit. Now that he mentioned it, it seemed pretty likely. I didn't know it at first, but I wanted to fill the void that my dad left and become one of the best Trainers out there.

My smile disappeared when another thought crossed my mind. I've been telling myself that Pokemon battling was my calling in life, and that I'll be just like my dad. But lately I've been thinking that might not be the case, and that I've been lying to myself this whole time. In truth, I don't really know how strong a Trainer can get, and that's what I fear the most. Just when I think I'm on the same level as some of the most well known and powerful Trainers out there, someone with higher skill could just come out of nowhere and ruin everything. Not that I'd ever reach that level anyway.

Cheren noticed my blank expression and spoke up. "Hey, you okay there?"

I quickly turned my head. "Uh, yeah, just kinda got lost in thought for a moment."

After I snapped out of my trance, I decided to lighten the mood. "Wanna play Smash Bros.?"

Cheren smirked and held up his fist. "Hell yes I do."


So, I attempted this kind of story about a year and a half ago. Twice, actually. But I never felt satisfied with either of them. So, now I'm doing it again. Maybe this time I'll actually make something worth reading. It'll be hard for me to find the time to write more chapters, but I think I can manage. Feel free to leave any constructive criticism here, so I can improve on upcoming chapters. Peace out, everyone.

UPDATE: 6/3/16: Well, this is kind of weird. If you read this chapter before, you may notice that I decided to make it to where my dad isn't dead. Why did I leave out something that big? Well, I thought it would be more interesting if the dad played a bigger part of the story rather than simply being a catalyst for me going on a journey. Looking back, I feel like that little plot element felt rather forced. I know there's plenty of cases like that that have worked in other stories. Hell, just look at half of the Disney movies. But, again, I feel like it'd be cool to have the dad play an active role later on, as it would give kind of an interesting spin on the Black/White story. We won't see him until MUCH later on, though, so don't expect to see him immediately after the first Gym Leader or anything.

Sorry if this confused new readers, just thought I'd give a heads up on those who read it beforehand.