"Alex, I'll give you three seconds to get down here before the eevees eat your breakfast!" my mom shouts, as I hear her feet stomping on the level below me.

I quickly sit up in bed as my head painfully scrapes the headboard in the process. Rubbing it gingerly, I frantically search my wardrobe for the day's attire.

"Purple shirt, black vest… grey shirt, purple vest…" I mumble as my eyes scan over the piles of clothes. I finally decide on a purple shirt and a grey tie. (Yup, I'm a purple guy.)

I take the stairs two at a time, stubbing my toe in the process, albeit only a minor injury. Bounding into the kitchen, a shocking, radiant sight hits my eyes.

Her hair cascades down her shoulders like a waterfall. Her eyes are silver enough to rival real stone. Her full, red lips were drawn elegantly in her cupid's bow, and drawn in an almost forgotten half smile.

"Er, hello. Are you Alex?" she asked.

I realized that I was staring.I closed my eyes and opened them again.

"Er, yeah," I said, my voice dangerously close to a squeak.

" Hi! I'm Serena! Professor Sycamore sent me. He needs us to go on a journey, part of one of his experiments. He didn't tell me all the little details."

She looks straight at me, cheerfully… expectantly. Oh, she's waiting for me to agree.

" Yeah, sure," I say, mimicking her excitement. Rosalie pats my leg and whines, licking her chops with a smug look on her face. She sniffs, then runs off. What do you know, mom DID let her eat my breakfast…

Serena led me through the village to a small cafe where we were to meet one of Professor Sycamore's assistants. We arrived and ordered silently.

The girl was my neighbor, but we rarely talked before now. I took a sip of coffee and quickly wiped my mouth in case any whipped cream was left behind.

" So, Alex… I've always wondered, where did you live before coming to Kalos?" Serena asked after a while.

" We used to live in Hoenn. My dad died and…" I paused and bit my lip,"Well, we wanted a change."

"I'm… I'm so sorry," she said after a moment in almost a whisper.

"No, no… it's okay," I say with a sigh. "It happened two years ago, I mean, I'm not over it, but… I'm okay." That was probably the least convincing thing I've ever said. "Er, Serena," I say suddenly in an attempt to change the subject, "how old are you?"

I mentally face palm for asking a girl her age, but she smiles. "Fifteen… I just recently got out of training school, actually."

" Oh really? I'm fifteen too, I got out of trainer school a few months ago."

" Oh, cool!" Sabrina comments, flashing a radiant smile.

A flustered woman with stringy hair tied in a bun came up to them. One of her hands held a clipboard, the other two bags.

" Hallo!" she said in a high voice." My name's Sue, Professor Sycamore's assistant. "She pulled a pair of glasses out of her lab coat pocket with a full hand and awkwardly positioned them on the bridge of her nose. Here eyes were very big behind them, a cool, aquamarine color.

"I'm here to give you your starters, poke balls, and pokedexes," Sue said, a toothy grin plastered on her face, looking quite pale in comparison to her auburn hair.

"Let's get started!" Serena squealed. She took the bag Sue handed her and began to take out Pokeballs one by one. The first contained a small, cream-colored fox with bright red tufts of fur coming out of its ears.

" That's a fennekin," Sue told her. " And that one's a chespin," she continued, gesturing to the next one, which looked like a brown chipmunk with a bright green, leafy hood.

Sue handed the other bag to me . I reached inside and pulled out a pokeball. Inside was a small blue frog. " A froakie," I said recognizing the bubbles around its neck.

"Precisely!" Sue praised, beaming. " So, which do you choose."

"I want Fennekin!" Serena cried." It's soo cute!"

" Remember, choose not for appearance, but for ability. Fennekin seems to suit you well, though. How about you?" Sue asked, turning towards me.

I scratched my head. " Hmm… I choose…"

author's note: Don't forget to review!