The next real thing that happened in our relationship was when we were about 10. It was the day before Blue, our neighbour, my rival and one of Leaf's close friends, who is two years older than us, was going to leave for his Pokemon journey. Leaf was really upset about it, and I had spent most of my time that day trying to calm her down. So, when it happened, we were at school. It was recess, and I was, as usual, pacing across the pavement waiting for the bell to ring. I was completely zoned out, so I couldn't tell that Leaf was sitting in a corner of the walls next to me. I was about to put my foot down when she pulled me by the hood of my sweatshirt, snapping me out of my daze, and I hit the pavement in front of her feet with a loud *thud*.
I groaned. "Leaf, if you wanna talk to me, can't you just come tell me, like a normal person?" I asked, gasping slightly, since I had my hoodie zipped up all the way and she pulled me by the hood.
"Sorry, Red!" she gasped, slowly pulling her hands away from her face. "I just really need someone to talk to." I could tell that she was holding back laughter, and glared at her.
"That doesn't change my premise." I told her, pulling myself up with Leaf's help. "So, what's up? You upset about Blue again?" I asked, wanting to help my friend any way I could.
"Yeah, but, it's not exactly about that." she told me, which sparked my interest. "You see, I was thinking about Blue, and how much I'm going to miss him when he leaves tomorrow. And then I started thinking, that, if I'm gonna miss him that bad, then, when we go our separate ways, I'm not gonna know what to do with myself anymore. And, we're gonna be so busy and meet so many people, that I've been scared you would forget about me." she sighed, and she turned her head away from me, but I could see tears glistening in the corner of her eyes.
"Oh, come on, Leaf." I sighed, wiping away the tears in one eye. "I'm never gonna forget you. We've been best friends since we were seven. I know everything about you, and vice-versa." I was so tempted to tell her at that moment how I really felt about her, but I didn't.
"Yeah, I know. I was just being paranoid, I guess. Anyway, I decided to make this." she said, shuffling through her pocket until she found something. She had her hand grasped around it tightly, and slowly pulled her fingers away to show me a silver heart-shaped locket with a small red jewel in the center. She pushed one finger down on the middle of the pendant, which opened it up to show three different panels with pictures in them. The one on the left had a picture of her, the right had a picture of me, and the middle had a picture of me, her and Blue playing when we were little. She closed it, pulled one of my hands out in front of her and dropped the necklace into my open palm. "See, that gem is a piece of mythology from my home before I moved to Kanto. There's a legendary Pokemon from that region that, it brings itself back to life like a phoenix, but leaves behind these tiny red jewels behind. It's said that the holder of one of these jewels will be kept close to those important to them. So, I put it in this with pictures of you, me, and even Blue to enhance that power."
"You seriously believe all that stuff?" I asked her.
"Well, yeah. It's what I was taught growing up, and I love these kinds of stories." she told me, seeming annoyed at my lack of belief of legends from where she's from.
"Anyway, thank you. This is really sweet." I said, shoving my closed fist into my pocket. She scooted closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder, and we stayed like that until the bell rang.