She sat on the edge of her bed rolling the pokeball around in her hands. "Hmm what to nickname you...What should I call you?" she murmured.
She tossed it on the ground and watched as the little fox pokemon sprang up. It stretched a little bit and then looked up at her expectantly. "Butts" she whispered.
It looked at her confused. "Butts. That's your new name. Butts." she said blankly.
She was pretty sure that it couldn't understand her, but the look on its face looked melancholy and disappointed. That was exactly how she felt when Shauna absconded with her Chespin. Even though she was bitter, she couldn't take it out on her Fennekin. But just as she started to feel sympathetic towards it the pokedex she received the other day finished renaming her Fennekin. Now he was officially Butts. "Sorry, looks like you're just gonna have to deal with it." she sighed.
She trotted down the stairs and ran into her mother, who waved goodbye and wishes her luck on her adventure. She met up with Calem on her way to Aquacorde and told him how disappointed she was with her Fennekin. "You named your him Butts?" he chuckled.
"Yeah I feel kinda bad." she muttered a bit guiltily.
When she looked up she made eye contact with Calem's Froakie who was glaring at her. "What's his deal?" she asked suddenly feeling judged.
"I don't know. Kero just has that look you know?" he stated.
But Serena still felt uneasy until Calem took the Froakie off of his shoulder and put him back in the pokeball. When they reached Aquacorde town Calem left saying "I just need to pick up a couple of things I'll meet up with you on Route 2. Serena wanted to wait, but there was nothing to do and nothing to entertain her so she began to wander onto route 2. The tall grass looked ominous. She saw blades twitching here and there and was afraid of what lurked there.
Why does nobody cut the grass? She thought. She nervously reached for her Fennekin. Just then some of the grass closest to her rustled and she threw the Fennekin, dropped to the ground, and yelled "Butts use Ember!"
The area of tall grass went up in flames and a horde of weedles descended on them. Serena snatched up her Fennekin and with outstretched arms pointed it at different Weedles screaming "EMBER! EMBER! EMBER! FOR THE LOVE OF ARCEUS USE EMBER! BURN THEM ALL!
After a couple of seconds of kneeling there holding Butts with her eyes firmly shut, she pried open one eye to see a pile of ashes and unconscious Weedles. A sigh of relief escaped as she put down her frazzled Fennekin, but she stiffened once again as she heard the familiar voice of one of her friends. "Um are you alright?" Shauna asked from the other side of the scorched grass where she was standing next to Calem.
Serena turned a violent shade of red and could feel her face growing hot as she stood up to address her friends. "Yeah, I'm good. That's how all the pros do it. Hehe." Serena giggled nervously.
"Right...Um well if you've recovered from your episode, er I mean battle, I have a surprise for both of you." Calem interjected as he reached into his bag and pulled out two handfuls of pokeballs, "I picked these up in Aquacorde as a kind of gift to commemorate the start of our adventures as trainers."
"Aww! How sweet of you!" Shauna squealed.
"Thanks. You didn't need to." Serena said sincerely which elicited an flustered reaction from Calem. He masked it by jumping right into an explanation about catching pokemon and talking very quickly about the level of concentration required
"I'd practice battling first though," he said looking directly at Serena, "Usually you want to weaken your opponent first. Not incinerate them."
"Whatever" Serena scoffed, "let's do this."
"EEEEE! This will be so much fun! I love using my chespin! My lil Leafy!"
"You named it 'Leafy'?!" Serena asked condescendingly.
"Well yeah. Ya know cuz it's a leaf-type." Shauna replied.
"Um it's called grass-type" Calem added.
"Same thing. Are you guys ready? let's go!"Shauna said casually and then jumped into the tall grass.
Serena who was infuriated by Shauna's stupidity briefly considered setting the grass on fire with her in it, but reconsidered when she saw Calem giving her a suspicious look. Serena waded in alongside Calem gripping her pokeball tightly. Every rustle made her more and more tense. She heard Shauna squealing off in the distance. She moved in the opposite direction. After a while the grass didn't seem as scary. She let her Fennekin out and the two of them walked side by side for a couple of minutes. Then she saw the grass in front of them rustling, announcing the presence of another pokemon. She lunged for Butts who dodged her grasp fearing a repeat of their first battle. Butts took a battle stance against the now emerged Caterpie. "Use Ember!" She screamed out of instinct. Butts attacked, but didn't quite knock it out. The Caterpie tried to retaliate, but missed giving Serena just enough time to throw a pokeball at it. The pokeball collided with its forehead and the force of the hit knocked it out. Serena clenched her fists in frustration, "Are you serious?!"
She heard Shauna behind her, "Yay! My first catch!"
Serena looked between the unconscious Caterpie and the open pokeball lying next to it, then down at Fennekin who gave her a disapproving glare.
Shauna was dancing and singing, when Calem approached her, swinging around her new fletchling. "Careful he has low HP." Calem warned.
"Oh right." Shauna giggled while glancing down at the dazed pokemon.
She put it back in the ball and turned to Calem, "Did you catch anything?"
"No, I think I'll wait until we reach Santalune Forest. Have you seen Serena anywhere?"
"Um I think she went that way," Shauna said pointing West, "I think I scared her when I screamed, because she started running away fast."
They made their way in the direction they thought Serena went and soon found her in a charred section of the grass unsuccessfully cramming an unconscious Caterpie into a pokeball. "What are you doing!?" Calem asked.
Serena, who hadn't seen them approach,jumped when she heard him yell and threw the Caterpie across the small clearing back into the grass. She looked very embarrassed and surprised with a hint of disappointment at her lost prize. "You're supposed to catch them without making them faint." Calem stated dispassionately while shaking his head.
"I know that. He was ya know... sleeping. It helps to get em in the b-ball easier." Serena stammered.
"They go in the ball on their own even if they're sleeping, dummy." Calem laughed and playfully hit her arm. "Now let's get out of here before you burn everything to the ground."