I adore Pokemon fanfictions, so I thought I'd give this a try! Just a little story set in Pokemon SoulSilver. Reviews would be nice, if ya liked it...

*Mini-Prologue*

If someone asked, sure, I would admit that I liked Pokemon. Some of them were cute, others cool, others valuable. They were useful, mildly interesting, and best of all, they were a distraction in school- teachers and students alike just couldn't help but interrupt math lessons to talk about their favorite critters on a daily basis. Pokemon were an important variable in the world, and human beings had lived around them for as long as anyone could remember.

But that was just it. I was content to live around them. I never considered actually owning one. I didn't want to take the Pokemon challenge, I didn't want to be a coordinator, I didn't even want to be a trainer (when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I usually answered with "lawyer"...much to my parents' embarrassment). I was seemingly the only person in my little world that just didn't care about Pokemon, their capabilities, or their power. I was "normal" in every aspect of the word, which by my society's standard, made me a freak. I was "the weird kid" from the moment I said, "Hey, Pokemon are okay, but can we talk about something else now?" And you know what? I was fine with that.

Until the day came when that choice was taken away from me.

"Lucy, get up. It's almost time for school!" My mother called from downstairs, impatient.

Whining, I curled deeper into my covers, pulling the blankets over my head. Every morning was like this, and every morning I cherished every little bit of sleep I could get until...

I knew it was coming, but the creepy pair of psychic-energy hands on my shoulders scared me just as much as they always had. "Hypno." My mom's prized Pokemon said in a monotone. I didn't have to open my eyes to know it would be staring at me with its freaky, emotionless gaze, swinging its stupid little pendulum back and forth as it stood over me. When I was younger, I used to try and smack it out of its hands. I still remember the nightmares it inflicted on me for weeks, even today.

Groaning, I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and pushed the Hypno (mother insisted that I call him "Mr. Happy") away. "I'm up." I grumbled. Mr. Happy stared at me regardless. "Can you leave the room now? I need to get changed. And if I catch you peeking again, I swear to god, I will stuff you into your ball and accidentally drop it over a cliff. Gottit?"

Mr. Happy slouched off, leering at me with his pendulum swinging, offended.

"The stupid pervert." I muttered.

"Hypno." He said from the other side of the door.

He didn't have to be a psychic to know that I insulted him behind his back on a daily basis.

When I finally trumped downstairs dressed and starving for breakfast, I found my mother in the kitchen, tying tiny ribbons around her Octillery's tentacles. "You look so pretty, Bibbles!" She cooed, surveying the octopus with affection. With a sad little sigh I pushed past her. It looked like I had to make my own breakfast. Again. Mom had spent the last week and a half preparing her Pokemon for upcoming contests, and I guess I couldn't hold it against her...except that lately, I was sort of swept under the rug for her darling pets. I moodily pulled a glass of MooMoo Milk from the fridge, found a slice of pizza we had for dinner a few nights ago, and chowed it down cold. So much for waking up to steamy, love filled pancakes.

"Ooo, Lucy, what do you think of Bibbles' bows?" Mom asked, excited. She waved her hands around the octopus gleefully, presenting it to me. The Octillery waved it's tentacles around, mimicking her.

I gave it a quick glance over my pizza before chugging back some milk. "He looks, uh. Great. Good job, Mom."

"Bibbles is a girl..." She sounded crestfallen.

Great. I quickly backtracked, talking louder to get her attention again. "She. SHE! Of course Bibbles is a girl. She looks great, mom. Seriously." I tried to smile at her, forcing myself to look as sincere as possible.

Mom beamed. "I'm so glad! I've been working so hard on coming up with an outfit for the visual portion of the contest...Don't these ribbons complement her eyes? She's such a pretty Octillery..."

I let my mom babble again while I finished up "breakfast" and got my stuff together- my trusty old backpack filled with binders, textbooks, my sketch book, my Pokegear, and about twenty-packs of bubblegum. Strictly school essentials, with no pokemon-related items in sight. I couldn't imagine carrying around an entire pharmacy in my bag like some of the trainers I had seen.

I was preparing to walk out the door when Mom snapped out of her Octillery-spew and caught me. "Oh, honey, I forgot to tell you! Professor Elm asked that you come by his lab this morning, before school...I'm sure your teachers wouldn't mind if you were a little late! He is the town's leading pokemon expert..."

Irritated, I turned around, my hand still on the doorknob. "What does he want?" I asked, a little sharply. I was three years older than the age that most kids would leave town and go on their pokemon-adventures. Most of the kids in New Bark town had stayed (they were either too young or too inexperienced to go alone), but there were quite a few that left for Violet city to become trainers. My best friend had been one of them. I remembered how Professor Elm had offered a pokemon to me numerous times in the past, not understanding why I wouldn't want to be a trainer. Wasn't that what every kid my age wanted?

Mom recoiled a bit at my tone, a worried look glimpsing across her face. I got my composure together quickly. She knew how I got when people tried to force pokemon on me. "He didn't say, Lucy." She said quietly. "He just wanted you to stop by. I'm sure it's nothing...it's not like you have to go. Not if you don't want to." She looked a little pained at saying this, and I immediately thought of the time I had caught her on the phone with my grandmother, talking about how utterly confused she was as to why I wouldn't become a trainer. I knew she wasn't ashamed of my choice, but being a great trainer of her time, I knew she was still dissappointed.

"It's...it's okay. I'll go." I said hoarsely. I didn't want to- not in the least, only because I knew how it would end- Professor Elm would try to pressure me yet again into accepting a pokemon that I didn't want or need to help him with his research. But if it would make Mom happy, I would try. For her sake.

With a sigh of defeat, I was out the door and headed to the lab.