Brendan

We walked into Gary Oak's lab on route 222 around dusk to find him rubbing his temples and vigorously scribbling down something on a notepad. He looked kind of pissed off, if you ask me.

"Hey Oak, whats up?" I said casually with Lucas at my side. Man, I never realized how much he could eat... he reminds me of my friend May.

"BRENDAN, get rid of her!" Gary said, throwing his notepad down. Okay, he's officially lost it. I've known Gary for a while now. He's a year or so older then me but I'd constantly see him whenever Dad would send me on an errand.

"What are you talking about?" Lucas said, his mouth stuffed with a cookie. I rolled my eyes.

"That pesky girl." He said. I glanced around the room to see a few pokemon, a boy thats about ten years old, and a girl that was stroking her venesaur.

The girl looked up and spoke. "Gee Gary, you flatter me." She rolled her eyes before looking back at her venesaur.

On her head was a white hat with a pink, almost red, half poke symbol on it. Her light chestnut brown hair was long, some of it covered her turquoise shirt. On the bottom she wore a dark pink-red skirt with turquoise leg warmers and shoes to match her hat.

"That's Leaf, she's from Pallet Town too." Gary glared at the girl, she smiled sweetly. "She's supposed to be traveling with you guys." Say WHAT? Lucas choked on his cookie.

"Woah, but... you're a girl!" I said, kind of flustered. Okay, this wasn't exactly the first time that I'd expected a trainer to be a boy rather then a girl... its just that, most girls I know are co-ordinaters. And according to Rowan, this person we would be traveling seemed determined and spirited to become a good trainer.

Leaf looked kind of annoyed, actually. "Are all guys sexist pigs?" She sent a disapproving glance at Gary who was back to writing on his notepad.

"No, no... its just... uh..." Oh, this adventure going to be fun. NOT.

"Don't worry Brendan, Leaf is just a sorry loser." Gary said with a smirk.

"Whatever you say... poet." She said, crossing her arms. This is going to get interesting.

"Hey Leaf?"

"Yeah?"

"I've got a poem for you."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Roses are red, Leaves are green. I'm awesome, and you're too ugly to be seen."

"Cute." She said sarcastically.

"How does that even make sense?" Lucas said and Leaf shot him a smile.

"If you two are done insulting me, could you get out of my lab?" Yeah, I think it was time that we left.


An hour later, the three of us were sitting around a fire, created by Lucas' magmortar.

We had all let our pokemon out eventually. It was our first night together, might as well share it with our pokemon. And as soon as we revealed our parties... I could tell that we were an odd bunch.

Lucas has a Munchlax, Magmortar, Infernape, Kadabra and Bidoof. My party consisted of four- Swampert, Shiftry, Rhyperior and Aggron. Leaf's party was the most... unexpected, if you ask me. She has her Venesaur, Wigglytuff, Charizard, Nidorina and a Pichu.

I'm not sure if this occurred to you, but the fact that most of our pokemon were extremely large was starting to creep me out.

Lucas was fast asleep in his navy sleeping bag looking content. A cookie lay forgotten in one hand, his pokedex in the other. His idea of sleepwear is sweatpants and some pajama-y looking shirt-thing, his navy hair was revealed by his now absent hat, his munchlax was snuggling by his side. Infernape and Magmortar were leaning against eachother by the fire, Bidoof was laying on Swampert's head. Shiftry, Rhyperior and Aggron had found a shady spot underneath a tree along with Charizard. Nidorina and Venesaur sat on either sides of Leaf, as if protecting her from something. Pichu was snoozing in her hat, which she had carelessly tossed aside.

I sat on my sleeping bag, trying to stay real close to the fire. Hey, Sinnoh's a lot colder then Hoenn! My hat was on my lap, my hair flying in a million different directions. I stared at our little group, happy with the scenario.

"Which region are we going to?" Leaf said quietly, looking into the fire.

"Uh, what about Kanto?"

"Hell no, I'm sick of Kanto already. How about Johto?"

"Been there, done that."

"Sinnoh?"

"Yeah, if you want Professor Rowan to kill us."

She crossed her arms and pouted. "Well you're not helping me very much."

I sighed. "How about Hoenn? Home's been looking pretty sweet lately." I glanced over at Leaf, who's eyes began to sparkle at the word 'Hoenn'.

"Perfect!" She squealed, causing Lucas to move in uneasiness. Could she at least try not to wake him up?

"SHH!" I called, only somewhat trying to be quiet.

"Oh shut up."

"Yeah, tell yourself that."

"Trying to pick a fight, Birch?"

"Whatever you want to do... Mrs. Oak." Okay, maybe I was testing my luck. She looked like she was going to spit at me.

"Yeah, whatever." She said, looking away. And... for some reason... I felt the urge to walk over and comfort her, to say sorry or something. Must be the new sense of adventure biting me in the butt or something.

We kind of sat there in silence for a while. It was pretty nice, the quietness of it all. Well, until I heard chattering teeth in the background to everyone's low breathing. What the hell is that? I glanced around quickly... our pokemon seemed pretty content, Lucas was snoozing happily...

And Leaf was sitting with her arms wrapped around herself, looking longingly into the fire... almost like she wished she could jump into it.

"Hey... erm, Grass... you okay?" I said, half teasingly. I'd rather give her the impression that I don't care about her... it'd be easier to travel that way. Let Lucas be the gushy one.

"The n-names L-l-leaf, m-moron." She said almost pathetically, her insult was lost in her shivering.

And you know what? For a few seconds, I felt bad. I mean, I'm freezing my ass off here too, but she's wearing a freaking mini-skirt and tank-top thing, her sleeping bag seemed super thin in comparison to mine and Lucas'. At least I have pants on, after all. I hadn't changed into my new clothing yet, apart from my hat.

"Are you cold?" Wow, what a stupid question to ask. I rolled my eyes at my own remark.

"N-no." She said almost in a whisper. If there was ever a time to yell liar...

With a sigh, I shrugged my red and black jacket off and held it out to her. She looked down at my jacket curiously, then back up at me. Her eyes met mine- brown on red. You could say that I blushed a bit, the urge to look away is pretty much overwhelming right now.

Leaf flushed a light pink before taking the jacket and pulling it on.

"Erm, thanks." She mumbled.

"Uh... I'm gunna go to sleep. 'Night." I managed to say, rather awkwardly- if you ask me. I retreated into my sleeping bag, pulling the black cover over my head.

"'Night." She said, probably returning to her sleeping bag.

"You know... maybe traveling with a dude that eats like a munchlax and a girl who's a major feminist won't be too bad after all..." I mumbled before succumbing into the darkness, leaving the awkward blushing fits and mass amounts of food behind me.