Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon

Sorry for the long wait and thank you Pure Game and drake22ice for your reviews! In response, I'd like to say that I'll try from now on to be more descriptive and use commas :)

Hazel dropped the pokeball she'd been looking at when she heard a knock at the door. She cursed silently when it rolled underneath her bed and quickly got to her knees to try and reach it.

"Just a minute!" she called to the knocker, feeling around desperately for the tiny capsule. Her fingers brushed something small and round, but when she grabbed hold of it and brought it into the light, she saw that it was just a regular toy ball.

The person at the door knocked again and Hazel sighed in frustration. "I'll be there soon!" she shouted, aggravation slipping into her voice. She continued to grope around for the pokeball and grinned triumphantly when her hand closed around a second small ball. Clutching it firmly so she wouldn't drop it this time, she pulled it out from under the bed.

Unfortunately, her supposed success was short-lived. As she took a closer look at the pokeball, she realized her thumb had hit the button to release the pokemon from its capsule. She groaned in aggravation and relented to answering the door. She'd return to her search for the now-escaped pokemon after she dealt with her visitor.

She swung open the heavy oak door and came face to face with and young blonde woman wearing bright red glasses and a lime green beret. She had her fist raised, ready to beat on the door once more, but upon seeing the older woman, she lowered it and broke into a face-splitting smile.

"Can I help you?" Hazel asked, doing her best to conceal her irritation. Judging by the young woman's slightly confused face, she had failed. Hazel took a deep breath and tried again. "Sorry, I'm in a bit of a bad mood."

The young woman nodded understandingly and opened her mouth to speak just as Alice appeared down the street, running at full speed with a silver-white blur at her heels. It only took her daughter a few seconds to arrive at the doorstep, but she was completely out a breath.

"I didn't…tell you…where my house was…so you…could run off without…me," said Alice between pants.

The woman in the green beret gave her daughter a sheepish smile but quickly returned her attention to Hazel.

"Right, sorry," she said quickly and hardly apologetically, "anyway, Mrs…"

"Grey," Hazel offered. She looked to her daughter once more and caught sight of the silver-white blur again, hiding behind Alice's leg. She tilted her head to the left to see that it was a small pokemon. Hazel tried not to look surprised, but she felt her mouth fall open as she outright gaped at the tiny creature.

Alice noticed her mother's shocked expression and stared at her feet in shame. Seeing her daughter so downcast made Hazel feel guilty immediately and she schooled her face into a polite smile.

"Mrs. Grey," the blonde continued, "I'm Belle, assistant to Pokemon Professor Juniper in Nuvema Town-it's at the end of route one. I just came to town to give Hugh and Rosa-the two teens with the crazy hair-their first pokemon, courtesy of the professor-they chose Oshawott and Tepig by the way-oh! How stupid of me, you don't need to hear all this right? Right! So I'll make a short story even shorter: I gave your daughter her first pokemon!" Belle accompanied this announcement with enthusiastic jazz hands as she stepped aside to showcase Alice and a tiny pokemon that Hazel had only ever seen once.

"Is that an…Eevee?" she asked, dumbfounded by the pokemon's odd coloring.

Belle nodded vigorously. "Yes ma'am, this pokemon is what trainers all over have begun to call 'shiny' pokemon. It means they are discolored. See, this Eevee is silver, but a normal Eevee is brown, therefore this Eevee is shiny," Belle explained in detail.


Alice watched her mom continue to gawk at Eevee and felt her heart sink. She was certain now that her mother would never allow her to have a pokemon. She should have known that before now though; really, it was a stupid idea. Besides, she didn't need a pokemon; she could be perfectly happy without one, just like she was before…

She swallowed painfully around a lump forming in her throat and forced herself to move her right hand-the hand clutching the silver pokeball. She thrust it towards Belle without speaking, hoping she would just take it and leave.

Belle stared at her in confusion and Alice cleared her throat once before speaking, though she didn't completely trust her voice. "Here," she said, punctuating her words by shoving the pokeball into the bespectacled woman's hands, "I can't keep this."

Now Belle looked thoroughly perplexed but before she could question Alice's actions, the young woman walked quickly past her mother and into the house, leaving Belle, Hazel, and the discolored pokemon to stand awkwardly in the doorway.

Alice was not rude enough to demand that Belle leave, but she truly hoped the slightly ditzy woman would take the hint and depart on her own. She stood on the stairs, out of sight, waiting to hear the door close, and eventually, she heard its soft click accompanied by her mother's footsteps as she walked into the kitchen.

Alice was overcome once more by the urge to cry, but she refused to give into it. She had a wonderful, loving mother; why should she be sad? Really, she didn't need a pokemon; there were plenty of other things she could do besides become a trainer. Maybe she'd start a garden! Or maybe she'd write a book; she'd always wanted to test her skills as an author.

Even as these optimistic thoughts ran through her head, Alice's mood darkened further and tears were now stinging her eyes. She was being selfish. Her mother had given her everything she'd wanted and how did she repay her? By bringing home the very thing that reminded her mother of the husband that had left them long ago. She truly was the worst, most ungrateful daughter.

Just as she turned, her shoulders sagging lower than normal, to retreat to her room, Alice heard a loud crash that sounded like it came from the kitchen.

"Mom?" she called out worriedly, dashing back down the stairs.

"Don't come in sweetie!" Hazel called back quickly. A large door closed off the kitchen area from the rest of the house and in spite of her mother's protests, Alice debated entering.

"Mom, what happened?" asked Alice urgently, eying the doorknob.

"Oh, I just dropped a plate! There's glass all over the floor in here and I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself!" Hazel replied.

"I'll put on my shoes and help you clean it up," said Alice, already moving towards the small cubby area she had practically thrown her shoes into upon entering the house.

"No!"

Alice was getting more concerned with every frantic word Hazel spoke. Ignoring her mother's orders, Alice slipped on her shoes and wrenched open the kitchen door. She only had a few seconds to survey the room, taking in her frazzled mother and the sorry state of a few of their dishes, before a sudden blast of icy water blinded her and pushed her out of the kitchen.

She stumbled backwards a few feet before falling ungracefully on her butt, soaked and bewildered. Through the now open kitchen door she could see the source of the water: a turtle-like pokemon almost two feet tall, dancing around the room and evading her mother's frenzied attempts to grab it.

Alice was sure that the pokemon looked familiar. As she continued to stare at it, she felt memories she kept locked away in her mind slowly resurfacing. She remembered her father proudly sharing the contents of his old pokedex with her. She was only four at the time and he was explaining the concept of a starter pokemon. Being a Kanto native, he talked primarily about the Kanto starters: Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Her father had liked Charmander-the fire type-best and had a Charizard of his own, but Alice had told him she thought Squirtle was the cutest.

The memory brought a smile to Alice's shivering lips though she was still confused why there was a Squirtle in her house. How had a rare pokemon from a different region appeared in Unova? Granted, she'd heard of foreign pokemon showing up in different areas throughout the region, but she was certain that the starter pokemon each region offered were native solely to its own region.

"Finally!" cried her mother triumphantly, clutching a dusty pokeball in her hands.

Her mother's words roused Alice from her thoughts and she pushed herself off the ground with little effort.

"Mom?" she questioned, hoping for some sort of explanation.

"Alice! Sweetie, are you okay?" she asked, rushing towards her daughter to make sure she hadn't sustained any injuries.

"Just wet," Alice replied dismissively, "why was there a Squirtle in our house?"

Alice watched her mother chew her lip, a nervous habit that she herself had inherited somewhere within the sixteen years she'd lived thus far. The silence dragged on and Alice was convinced her mother would avoid the question at this point. Much to her surprise, her mother did not change the subject at all.

"It-no, he's yours," Hazel began, studying her daughter's reaction closely. Alice's eyes widened but she didn't speak, waiting for her mother to continue. Hazel turned the small ball over in her hands, brushing off dust in the process. "Your father got him for you…he was supposed to be your tenth birthday present."

"My tenth?" Alice wondered aloud.

Her mother nodded guiltily and her words came out in a rush. "I'm so sorry sweetie; I just…I couldn't give him to you. You've been so strong for me and I'm so proud of you, but I just couldn't watch you leave too!"

"I wouldn't have left," Alice said softly. The words tasted bitter in her mouth. She understood her mother's actions, but she couldn't get rid of the sudden feeling of betrayal-betrayal and anger. Her eyes were trained on the floor and she realized that her hands were clenched in twin fists, shaking at her sides.

"You would have," her mother argued back, her voice full of certainty. It hurt Alice more that her mother thought so little of her. She loved her mom deeply; she knew her mother needed her-she would have stayed! Alice hadn't spoken but somehow her mother seemed to know what she was thinking. "Alice, if I'd given you a pokemon, you may have stayed, but you'd be miserable. You're just like your father in that way. He loved you and me dearly, but he still left from time to time to simply wander the world. You've got that same look in your eyes he always had and I just know that if you had the mean to go on your very own journey, not only would you want to go, I'd let you do it."

Hazel's words surprised both Alice and herself. Before Alice could speak, Hazel continued. "I'd let you do it," she repeated, as if testing the truth in her words. "I would," she said again, mystified. Her blue eyes, which had clouded over when she first realized what she'd said, grew sharp once more as they landed on her daughter.

"Alice, look at me," she said firmly, waiting for her daughter's glassy green eyes to meet hers. Alice slowly raised her head and realized her mother was shaking now as well. "Do you want to leave?"

"Mom, you need me here; I can't-

"Don't think about me!" Hazel snapped, her voice cracking slightly, "I'm a grown woman and you're a sixteen year old girl. I should be taking care of you. And you should be going off on adventures and doing what you want to do." Hazel paused, frowning slightly as she considered her own actions since her husband had left.

"I've been a bad mother," she said, ignoring Alice's protests, "I haven't asked you what you wanted in seven years because I was scared I knew what the answer was." Hazel paused once more and took a deep breath. "I'm asking you now, and I want you to answer me honestly."

Alice stood, still dripping tiny droplets of frigid water but hardly caring. She couldn't believe what her mom was saying and her mind was racing. And yet, she began to speak, not sure what she herself was saying until the words were out for both of them to hear. "I want to go."

Shocked at her own words, Alice watched her mother's face, waiting to see the telltale signs of sadness. They were there-in the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes and the small crinkle in her brow, but they were accompanied by a bright smile that seemed all too real. Hazel engulfed her daughter in a crushing hug, letting a few tears snake their way down her cheeks.

"That girl, Belle, she said she'd be hear a bit longer in case you change your mind," said Hazel, releasing her daughter from her embrace.

"Mom-

"Don't argue with me Alice; I want you to be happy," said Hazel, giving her daughter a genuine smile. "Now, take this," she said, thrusting the pokeball containing Squirtle into Alice's hands, "and go find that girl! I'll start packing your bag and you'll leave tomorrow morning!"

Alice broke out into a smile of her own and rushed to the door. She gripped the handle but turned back to her mother one last time. "I love you, mom, thank you."

Hazel laughed. "I know, sweetie, I love you too. Now, go!"

So, I expect to do this more than once, but for now I want to ask those reading who are interested to submit an original character. I'm looking for a rival for Alice. Hugh and Rosa are sort of rivals for her, but I consider them each other's rival more than anything so I'd like to create a rival just for Alice. I've got no guidelines really except that I expect the rival to be about the same age as Alice. I'd like a general description of what the character looks like and an idea of his/her personality. All in all, I'm curious what kind of person those reading think would be a good rival.

Thanks for reading! Feedback is always welcome!