At long last, the ride was over. The light pouring into the back of the truck almost blinded me as Dad finally opened the heavy steel doors, "We're finally here, Lexi! Come out and see our new house!"

"Don't need to tell me twice, Dad!" Eagerly I jumped out of that god-forsaken vehicle and onto the ground. You'd be desperate to leave too if you were stuck in there with nothing but a flashlight and a book for three hours.

When the Vigoroth Dad had brought with us began to unload the van, there was a critical moment of silence where Dad and I stared at each other; the wind was blowing around on that sunny day as if to increase the dramatic tension of that moment. And then...

"Dibs on bathroom!"

Both of us had shouted that at the same time before we sprinted for the door, Dad having to shove one of the Vigoroth out of the way so that he could keep up. We made a competition out of almost everything and I have to admit it was a lot of fun, but I really had to go! No way was I going to lose this one to him!

In that final stretch for the bathroom I managed to get in front of him and into the sanctuary that we both strived for. A groan left Dad as I grinned at him before he closed the door for me so that he could wait in his most recent defeat.

When we had both taken our turns in the bathroom, we sat down at opposite ends of the table and began to pig out on the lunches we each had (Dad had a foot-long submarine sandwich and I had two double-cheeseburgers). But, halfway through his sandwich he stopped, looking at me with darkened eyes.

"What's wrong, Dad? You not hungry?" That was the basic gist of what I said, my mouth was still full with gooey cheese and well-done meat after all. He seemed to understand me though.

"Alexa," Shit, that wasn't a nickname. That caused me to swallow hard, he only ever used that name and tone of voice when he was mad at me (or worse, disappointed in me) or wanted to talk about something very serious. It was something I never wanted to hear, it always made me think I had done something to upset him...

"You didn't do anything and you've really got to stop jumping to conclusions like that."

"Hey! Mind Reader for psychic pokémon only, I thought we went over that!" We both had a laugh at my comment, along with that laugh came reduced tension for the moment, "You can't blame me for thinking that, Dad. You only use that tone with my real name if I'm in trouble or you want to talk about something seriously."

"Well, Lexi... this is serious, at least to me it is," Dad sighed and closed his eyes while I took a sip from the soda provided for me when I got the double-cheeseburgers. Just what was so serious that it earned the merit of my real name rather than the nickname Dad always used for me? "I'm leaving for Petalburg Gym today, so really I'm worried about how you'll do here on your own. It would really put me at ease if you kept one of the Vigoroth here."

"Dad, not this again! Those things are way too protective over me," I groaned at him the moment he mentioned those pokémon, but then I really felt that I had a point. The last time they had 'watched over me' after all, I couldn't even get out of the house because they were guarding the doors. Granted, it was past my curfew, but that was beyond the point!

"Don't give me that, you're the one who's always getting into trouble. That's why they might seem like they're over protective," Damn it, he read my mind again. Why was it that parents had the automatic ability to do that? It wasn't fair! "I trained those Vigoroth myself, Lexi. That's why I can trust them with being here to make sure you don't get yourself into trouble."

"Dad, that's exactly why they shouldn't be here!" I got a puzzled look from dad in response to those words; apparently I was going to have to explain myself for it, "They're pokémon you raised, they're your pokémon because of it! I need my own pokémon to train, I can't rely on you for the rest of my life; I'm not a little kid anymore!"

Again, there was silence between Dad and me as we stared at each other; honestly we needed a knife to cut the tension. It wasn't at all like before when we were in a race for the bathroom; I had no idea how he was going to react to my opinion on the matter. Dad and I had this chat before, it always ended with him saying no to my becoming a trainer. How would this time be any-

"I can't really argue with you there, Lexi," The shock from those words made me numb as I just stared at him, was he serious? "It's inevitable, you going off on your own and becoming a trainer. Might as well start now, and I happen to know that Professor Birch lives right here in Littleroot. Why don't we talk to him about you getting started as a pokémon trainer?"

"You're serious, Dad?" He nodded at me with a weak smile, "I can finally have my own pokémon?" He nodded at me again. That was when I jumped away from the table and started to run for the door, "Well, last one to Birch's house is a rotten egg!"

"Lexi, you forgot your food!"

"Uhm... right," Sheepishly I grinned while Dad laughed at me, in my excitement I forgot that I still had another double-cheeseburger to finish. When I sat back down I gave Dad a thumbs up before saying one last thing, "Okay, food first! Then, last one to Birch's house is a rotten egg!"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Un. Believable.

The goddamn Torchic and Mudkip I had spent the last three months with were gone. Three long and agonizing months of their cheerfulness and annoying pranks, and it was finally over! It was like a dream, and yet it wasn't a dream. They had been picked by trainers and I hadn't, could things get any better?

I sighed at the artificial forest inside of my pokéball, before now the familiar solitude was my only sanctuary from those accursed pokémon. Because I was the only one not taken in by a trainer though, I had a feeling I'd be seeing a lot more of my miniature prison. That was a downer... but, I guessed the peace and quiet would be enjoyable for a little while at least.

My thoughts were short-lived though as, rather roughly, I was pulled out of my pokéball to stare at Trunk, who at the moment was surrounded by three growling Poochyena.

Okay, let me explain. Trunk is my name for the guy who took care of me (along with Mudkip and Torchic), honestly he's a human. Who's built like a tree; bulky, has quite a few muscles actually, but no shape to him whatsoever. So, that's the reason for the nickname, now back to our regularly scheduled program.

That was a human saying. No idea where I picked it up from but it seemed appropriate.

Back to Trunk, who was covering his head with his hands while the Poochyena began to head butt him relentlessly. So, he was over there, so just who had let me out of the pokéball to begin with? Turning to see the girl behind me, I almost regretted doing so. Trunk had no shape but this girl was more like a twig. Thin, softly-defined muscles on her arms and legs, but not enough to really give her a shape in my opinion. Even worse than some of the kids who had tried to take me in the previous day. And then, she was shouting an order at me, what was she saying?

"Treecko, use Pound on those Poochyena!"

I almost wanted to laugh at her confidence. She honestly expected me to go into battle at her every whim? Slowly I turned back to the pokémon attacking Trunk, did I really want to get head first into that? Let's see... three against one. And those puppy pokémon seem really pissed. Like hell I'm going head first into a suicide battle.

I blankly turned back to the girl who was looking at me in confusion, as if she thought I didn't understand the command. As if I was stupid. Hah. We'd see just who the stupid one was.

"Let me think... I'm not doing it."

I shook my head at her while I spoke those words, even if I knew that she wouldn't understand the repetitive use of different syllables in my name. My shaking my head must have been enough though; she looked shocked about my disobeying her orders. Served her right, I couldn't help but smirk a little then. I have to think for myself, I'm not getting myself injured when there's nothing in it for me.

The girl sighed at me before shaking her head and rolling up her sleeves. Just what the heck was she up to? It confused me a bit but that was remedied by her next action; she ran at the Poochyena and started to fight with them herself in an attempt to scare them away.

It was a very interesting thing to see, the girl brawling with the yapping mutts until they decided among themselves that harassing Trunk wasn't worth dealing with a psychotic human. Said human was lying on the ground and breathing heavily from the fight, Trunk having recovered from his own blows and beginning to tend to the claw and bite marks on the girl's body. I didn't get worried over whether or not she was okay; it wasn't any of my concern anyway. But, to myself I honestly had to admit...

I was impressed.

A lot of beginning trainers had tried to take me in when Mudkip and Torchic left, but they were all put off by my attitude; some were even scared of me because of it. Trunk ended up telling me that if I didn't go with a trainer soon he'd have to release me into the wild. Honestly, I wouldn't have complained about going away from this lab, in fact if I hadn't seen what I had just witnessed I probably would have gotten myself a nest and have been munching on Oran Berries. But now...

I grabbed my discarded pokéball and began to haul it over towards Trunk and that girl, thinking about how it was nice to finally see someone (other than Trunk) not afraid to get their hands dirty. When I finally got over there and dropped the pokéball into the girl's lap, both she and Trunk stared at me. I sighed and figured I had to at least try to explain myself; they wouldn't understand it if I didn't. So there I went.

"Look, you caught my interest, kid. It's nice to see someone who doesn't mind getting into the middle of scraps; at least you're not the boring kind of person who tried to take me earlier. Mind giving me some adventure that involves the freedom of the outdoors?"

I had used a few hand gestures for their sake; again the humans wouldn't be able to understand the use of my name over and over again. They seemed to get it though, what annoyed me was that Trunk had to go and state the obvious, "I think our little friend has finally found a trainer he'll agree to work with."

"Glad to see I earned the approval of a smart ass Treecko," I couldn't help but smirk at the girl's comment, now being attached to a trainer didn't seem like such a bad thing. No, things were looking brighter, despite the fact that the sun was actually beginning to set. Confusion set in when the kid offered her hand to me though, I had seen this before... a handshake, something humans used for friendly greetings. I took her hand in one of mine before nodding to look up at her smiling, bandage-littered face.

"Looks like we're partners now so might as well get introductions over with. I'm Alexa."

"So you do have a name. And here I thought I'd be stuck calling you Twig Girl."