My alarm always went off at 6:30. Who wakes up at 6:30? And I always turned, hit the button on the clock's top to shut it up, and then smile ironically while saying 'good morning'. Then I turn back around and fall right back asleep.
I only get up when the alarm tells me to if I figure I've got something to do. If I were like most children, who went to frolic with Pokémon at the miniscule age of 10, I might have something to do every day. But I'm not a Pokémon person, and adventure isn't my lifestyle. Now, five years after that not-so-fateful birthday, I've told my mother that I'll just find a normal job and help pay the bills, like any grown adult should. She worries that I didn't allow myself time to be a child.
As if I ever had time to be a kid. When I finally wake up in the morning, I'm reminded of it. There's a picture of Dad and Mom and the rest of our once-extensive family, smiling happily at the camera with a giant breeding farm behind us. I'm in mother's arms as a baby, swathed in cloth and staring off to who knew where. They said I was like that as a child- always staring at things nobody could see.
Then, after looking at the picture, I'd get up and go through my routine. I'd brush my teeth, then my hair, find a clean set of clothes from the floor, and wash my face, all the time thinking about what it could have been like. We lived at that farm for a good few years, or at least until I was three. Then something happened, everything fell apart, the breeding farm was destroyed, and we were plummeted into poverty, which Mother struggles with every day. Father died soon after the farm was lost, and the family scattered so that the burden wouldn't be so heavy on everyone.
But enough about a dismal past I can't even remember. You didn't come here hoping to read some depressing shit, did you? Let's move onto my 'exciting' day. Or, at least, that's what Mom says about every day. I honestly don't know how she manages to smile as much as she does.
I come downstairs, and she immediately swarms me with 'good mornings' and chipper greetings, as well as hopes that I'll have an extremely wonderful day. Being generally more serious than my mother, I return her smiles with a few less dazzling ones of my own and don't return her optimism.
"You hungry?" She sings happily from the kitchen. As always, the woman has already cooked for three, even though there's only two of us.
"Yeah."
"Ok!"
The smell of sausages, eggs, and French toast permeates the entire downstairs, and I begin to wonder how I missed it while I was snoozing upstairs in my room. As usual, I find where my mother has hidden the newspaper- she hopes I'll give up on finding a suitable job- and set up some tea in the kitchen before going to the dining table and waiting for the pot to boil.
"There's a place open just down the street. The Poke' Dining Plaza needs a couple extra cooks and waiters."
"That would be alright. If you could cook," My mother says as she puts down a plate of wonderful-looking food before me.
Under normal circumstances, I would have objected to my mother bashing my hopes of getting a job and helping her survive. Even with a plate of exquisite breakfast food in front of me, it only took a couple mornings of this to realize that Mother did this every time I announced a potential job. It didn't matter how perfectly suited I was to the task, it wasn't good enough. But in this case, where I was capable of burning water, I had to agree with my mother's opinion and give up the idea of being a cook or anywhere near food.
"A golfer needs a caddie."
"That'll be taken before you even get to applying."
"Pokémon matches need referees."
"You have to understand Pokémon first, and you haven't even partially looked at Pokémon since you were four," She replied with a sour tone.
"Ooh, I could get paid to be a student at a school here."
"Yeah? What for? Two bucks an hour?"
"And the city needs another paperboy."
"Eat your food before it gets cold, honey."
She sits down across from me, setting down her own plate, and I resign from my job search with a sigh, folding and tossing the paper. Not that my stomach is complaining. I get the feeling it's seriously considering eating itself.
"So, what are you going to do today?"
Oh, here we go. She asks this almost every time, but my answer's the same. I'll manually search for a job, to which she'll protest.
'Go in the sun. Have some fun for once!' she'll tell me. I'd feel more obliged to have fun if I wasn't worried about my mother so much. She acts like nothing's wrong, but… Well, nothing's been right since we lost the farm. I don't know how she survived without Father.
Thankfully, the door opens at the moment that I'm stuffing my face with food, hoping not to answer. We both turn to look and see Gale, my friend, standing in the doorway. He smiles and waves after closing the door, and then looks at me, suddenly frowning.
"Hoping to impersonate a chipmunk?" he asks, raising a brow.
"Thuh uh," I manage before seriously focusing on chewing.
"Ok… Good morning, Ma'am."
"Good morning, Gale. Come to kidnap my daughter for the beach?"
"Mom, quit encouraging me to have a normal teenage-hood!" I protest after swallowing painfully.
"Perhaps the meadow, then?" Gale suggests.
"And you're encouraging her," I glare, but he just laughs.
"Well, hurry up and leave!" Mother says, standing up to take away my plate, half of the food on which I hadn't even eaten.
"I'm not done with that," I exclaim, and my stomach loudly agrees with me.
"So find food out there. Explore," She says stubbornly, and walks off with my plate.
"That woman…" I sigh.
But Gale and I are soon off, despite my lingering hunger. Gale seems to think it's amusing, but I'm looking for the nearest place to eat. He offers to pay, which stifles my appetite. I don't like other people paying for me. We wander through the streets of Canalave, most of which border the docks. Water is everywhere in this city.
"So, what are you going to do today?"
"Oh, not this again," I sigh almost painfully, and he laughs.
"Cheer up. At least I'm not trying to blackmail you into abandoning me."
"Well, when you put it that way. And what about you, anyway? Why is it that you failed to go off on your own adventure 6 years ago?"
"Well, first I was waiting for you. And then I found out you weren't going, and I figured I'd get bored without some form of entertainment."
"Oh, screw you!" I say loudly, shoving Gale off to the side. He always did have a habit of picking on me, whether it was about how much higher he was than me, or anything else under the sun.
Gale and I have known each other for perhaps 9 or 10 years. My family and I lived in Hoenn on the farm, then it burned down, and perhaps two years later, most of us moved into the Sinnoh region. My mother and I have been living in Canalave City ever since. Then Gale and I got in a fight in school, raging over some toy or another. It was at the same exact moment that we both proved we were strange children. When the teacher came to scold us about fighting, we each stopped pulling on the toy and smiled at the teacher before laughing. We were friends ever since.
When I look at him, I see scruffy black hair and a collar on his shirt that's always half folded. His apparel is generally unkempt, but he still somehow gives off a sense of a very neat young adult. I'll never understand it. It's not like me, the girl who scares off children by glancing over at them, apparently.
"Still looking for a job?" he asks.
"Yeah."
"Jeez."
"What's that tone about?"
"Well, I thought you'd do something other than pretend to be the adult in the house for a day."
"Mom does what she can."
"And you're both still alive."
"How long will it last? Another pair of helping hands won't hurt anything."
"Except for your chance of ever having a single adventure in your life."
"Oh, Gale. If you really want to travel the world, don't let me stop you."
"Alright, if we could stop messing with each other for a second-"
"I was being entirely serious, thank you."
"-if you're going to get a job, you're going to need a Pokémon."
I stopped walking for a moment, squinting past the light that reflected off the nearby waters to look at Gale. He looked somewhat pale, which didn't make any sense, since he got out more than I did. Despite the interference, though, I could tell he was serious.
"Don't tell me Mother hired you to convert me."
"No, she didn't. That's not to say she hasn't tried. I'm speaking seriously here. Even if you don't go off on any adventure, a lot of the work here either needs Pokémon, or you can gain a lot of respect just for having one."
"Gale, if I get a Pokémon, Mom's just going to push for it again."
"And I don't blame her, seeing as her husband's dream disappeared in the fire."
I look down at the pavement when he says this. Yeah, there was that. But Gale just kept talking, as if he didn't notice my guilt.
"But she's dealt with your disobedience thus far. I think she can stand it a little longer."
I look up at him again, and he smiles a bit. Then he puts his hand on my shoulder and directs me to a rather large crowd, pointing. There are a couple of people lined up to try something, though I'm not sure what. Most of the people are just a gathered crowd, a group of spectators curious to see what's going on.
"See them?" Gale says. "There's a big fuss over a machine in there that a group of scientists want people to try out. They say it'll bring you even closer to your Pokémon, but no one here's been able to make it work yet. The group also promises a big fat paycheck for the person who figures it out."
"Sounds like a hoax to me," I said flatly, trying to see past the crowd without being obvious.
"You and your mother are never going to get along." Gale laughs, messing with my hair to annoy me. "She wants everything to do with you having a Pokémon adventure, and you want nothing to do with it."
"Gale!" shouted someone, and we both turned to look. It's Jerry, Mr. Larch's assistant. He waves, and then leans over to pant. To make it easier on him, Gale and I walk up to him.
"Hi Jerry," I say.
"What's up? You look exhausted," Gale commented.
"I was helping Mr. Larch with some field research," Jerry gasped before trying to steady himself. "He suddenly called me on my phone and told me he found some strange readings, and that he'd need both you and I to look over it, Gale."
"Oh boy." Gale sighed. Then, turning to me, he said:" I gotta go, sorry. Happy job hunting, Sondra."
"She's still looking for a job?" Jerry said in surprise, but he was quickly dragged off by Gale.
I would have turned away and tried to forget Jerry's embarrassing jab at me, if it weren't for me hearing something drop. My attention readjusted to see that Gale had dropped the keys to Mr. Larch's house.
It was difficult to make a decision here. Gale is my best friend. I know him well enough to know that he dropped those keys on purpose, and he knows that I won't just leave them to be picked up by some random stranger or pulled out by a freak tide. But Mr. Larch is also an old friend of my mother's, one of the few who moved near us. He kept a few of my father's old Pokémon, and did his best to recreate the farm, though he failed miserably at it. Mother now constantly tries to get me to go to Mr. Larch so that I can get a Pokémon of my own, and even sort of from my father.
Do you see the set up? Because I did in a second. I didn't know if Jerry was hired to come in at such a convenient time, but I did know that Gale had dropped his keys knowing I would pick them up and give them back to him at Mr. Larch's house, and then ask for a Pokémon because I may or may not need one for jobs. With this in mind, I seriously hesitated, but the urge to be loyal to my friend eventually won over, and I picked up the keys. I then left this side of the pier after glancing at the warehouse surrounded by the crowd.
Mr. Larch's house was close to the forest entry, where the cobbled street led out and eventually connected with Jublife City. It was on the opposite side of town from my house, which I enjoyed. The house is a two-story building with the same blue and white coloring as every other house that was here had. I found Gale at its door, checking his pockets.
"Oh! Nice of you to bring them." He said once he spotted me, and took his keys back.
"Yeah, yeah." I mumbled. "So what's this weird data, anyways? What's it about?"
"Who knows?" Jerry sighed. "Larch's got so many machines and sensors, no one ever knows where exactly the data's coming from or what it is on first glance. Plus, he never tells us over the phone."
"Seems very inconvenient." I drone. "What do you even do here, Gale?"
"Haven't you heard? I'm very smart." He smiles, and then opens the door, and we all head inside, me with a little hesitation.
"He helps look over data, write it down, categorize it, that sort of a thing." Jerry said to help.
"Forgive my ignorance," I say after looking around the room at all the flashing lights that turn on at the flick of a switch, "but what does Larch do?"
"He's kind of a Professor. Like Rowan or Oak from Kanto." Gale said, putting his keys on a work table and starting to type away at a keyboard.
"He does research on Pokémon, their evolutions, how they evolve, and just the energy that they give off in general. He always wondered how a breeding farm helped grow happy Pokémon, as opposed to trainers. Larch's always supposed it was a matter of closeness, but research might indicate a different answer." Jerry elaborated.
"Larch's become a friend of Rowan's after a while." Gale spoke up again, but this time seemed to have found what he was looking for.
Jerry and I turn and look at the computer, crowding around with him. I don't understand a single symbol on the screen, but Gale and Jerry seem to be extremely interested. It must have been informative or controversial, because Gale and Jerry began mumbling things about it.
"Quite interesting, isn't it?" A new voice says, startling me.
I turn with Jerry and Gale to see Mr. Larch, a man with partially graying hair. He does indeed look like a professor, with a white lab coat worn loosely over his normal attire. His face is kind but slightly slack, like he stares at a computer screen too much to properly exercise his muscles.
"Those are the readings off that new machine the people at the warehouse have been advertising. I'm quite sure of it. Look at those lines! I mean, they're so similar to things I've seen before while researching Pokémon!"
Larch went babbling about how one line resembled another, although I only recognized similar slopes or lengths. None of it meant anything to me, so I began to lose interest. Gale, however, quickly changed the subject. It seemed he was accustomed to Mr. Larch's rants.
"Yes, this is extremely interesting, and I want to go over it, but Mr. Larch, don't you have something for Sondra?"
I turn to look at Gale, my expression hopefully both dangerous and surprised. Maybe he not only planned dropping the keys, but told Larch to have a Pokémon ready. How dare he go behind my back?
"Oh, yes, yes!" Exclaims Mr. Larch. Somehow reminding me of a senile old man, he begins to run about the room, searching for something.
"Gale." I mutter, exasperated.
"Now, don't get angry." He says bracingly, smiling.
"You know you're handing me a weapon to beat you with."
"Rather like having a pillow fight, I'd imagine."
Ok, my temper was about to snap. Not only did he set me up to do exactly what I didn't want to do, but now he was making fun of me. It was becoming a tad bit difficult not to hit somebody.
"Here it is!" Larch shouted, holding up a pokeball with one hand and supporting a stack of papers and folders with another.
The next moment, the stack of papers and folders falls on him, and the pokeball hits the ground, eventually rolling to my foot. Gale and Jerry, of course, rush over to free the man from his fluttery prison, which is not easily accomplished. I pick up the pokeball.
"That there is the last piece of your father's breeding farm I have left." Larch said from under the paper, as if nothing had happened. "This place isn't really suited to a breeding farm, so that's the last one. Plus, I don't really have the money to support a lot of Pokémon anymore."
"Yeah, you keep spending it on shiny new equipment." Jerry panted while heaving up a large amount of paper back into a pile.
"Important equipment." Larch stressed.
"So open it! Don't you want to see who your new friend is?" Gale smiles.
"Careful, mister. I know full well you planned this out." I raise a critical brow.
"Took you long enough to get it." He says, folding his arms over his chest.
I eye the pokeball again, feeling as if I really might not want to even endeavor into this. For some reason, it almost felt like a fated moment. Like doing this would change everything. Hell, it was Pokémon, right? It was a little more significant than just having a plant or something in your life. In the end, though, I pushed the button in the middle and turned it so that the light spilled out in front of me.
I wasn't expecting something big or powerful-looking. Around this area were a lot of water-type Pokémon, so something like that popped up in my head. But what the shock of light turned into was a small little fluff ball. It was an Eevee, with mainly brown fur covering its body. A cream, extremely fluffy collar of fur and a cream-tipped tail were the only real differences in color. The small creature sat down good-naturedly and looked up and around it.
"Vee!" It proclaimed, to a smile from Gale.
Gale looked at me, as did everyone else. I hadn't touched Pokémon since I was four, when I seemed to have lost a liking for them. Gale in particular seemed to wonder how I was going to react to this Eevee.
I get down on my knee in front of it, so I'm not exercising how well my spine can stretch out just so I can look at it. We regard each other for a moment, and one of its ears tilts to the side, making it look lop-sided. I resist the urge to smile.
"Hello." I decided to say. "My name is Sondra. You're supposed to be my first, new Pokémon."
"Vee…" the fluffy Pokémon nodded its head.
"Are you alright with being my partner?" I ask, and then I decide to extend my hand.
The Eevee hesitated, and then sniffed my hand. Then both ears went up, and it licked my fingers once, followed by a quick 'vee!', which I understood to be either 'yes' or 'I'll try.' This was all I could ask for, either way. I smiled a bit now, hesitantly trying to settle with the idea that I now had a Pokémon.
Shieb: Welcome to PokeSync, a name that will make much more sense in the next chapter. I will be finishing other projects, but at the moment there are people who have volunteered to offer up their own characters for this fic, and so it seems a more pressing thing to take care of. Said volunteers won't show up for a few chapters, and will be mentioned and acclaimed when they do show up. :) If you'd like to offer a character up to this, message me and I'll give you the application.
Sondra's the kind of gal to act tough. Let's see what happens when we pair her with a cute, adorable little fluff ball! 8D