Chapter 1: Adagio
"Mark it down that I never really planned on being a trainer. I only wanted to get into college…"
(3)
UNIVERSITY OF VERMILION
International Entrance Requirements
Sevii Islands
Applicants must possess fifteen marks, spread across at least three of the following categories:
History
Anatomy
Training
Nursing
If words could wear down from being read too much, the website's neat blue print would have faded months ago; but they shone, bright as ever, onto the wan face of Lani Purcell as she scanned them for the thousandth time.
They hadn't changed. She'd just wanted to make sure.
She blinked, and the brightness of the screen against the unlit room seared her eyes. The tiny computer lab of Fifth Preparatory Academy was best experienced without the flagrant fluorescence of the pendulum lights, which hung low enough to singe your hair if you were tall enough (and Lani certainly was). It did seem a bit lonely without the usual bustle of students and supervisors squeezing past each other into and from the narrow hallway just outside, but their absence was to be expected: it was graduation day. The whole school would be lined up outside the auditorium in a few minutes, waiting to file in and take their seats in the harsh wooden chairs to witness [[something]].
That was the situation she was currently avoiding. She wanted nothing less than to be stuck backstage with the rest of her class, who were no doubt discussing the number of marks they'd expect to get from their end-of-year exams. That was an environment she didn't think she could stand at the moment, not if she didn't want to spend her ten seconds onstage in a cold sweat.
So far, she'd been relatively calm. Now, though, the anxiety was beginning to set in. Once she was handed that stiff sheet of cardstock with her exam results, her future would be set: if she achieved the full five marks in each of her elected categories, she would be on her way to Vermilion within months. If not—well, there wouldn't be an "if not" if she could help it. She'd studied well; there was no reason to worry.
There's no reason to worry. She steeled herself with a deep breath and stood up, logging out of the computer for the last time. If she wasn't ready now, she'd never be.
(3)
Backstage was stuffy as usual, and she received some panicked looks from teachers as she jostled past the rest of the graduating class into her place between Aly Praetorius and Noah Scriabin. Headmaster Brahms was finishing up a speech onstage about the auspice and prosperity that were certain to befall all of this year's graduates as they entered the world, but Lani was more focused on the stack of cards his secretary was flipping through on stage right. Which ones displayed a neat row of fives down the center? Which ones didn't?
She felt her mind go surprisingly blank as the first students started to be called to the stage. It appeared that she'd worried to the point of not caring anymore, which seemed almost promising.
But then Aly's name was called, and she felt her shoulders tense in anticipation. The underclassmen and parents in the audience would surely be able to see the disappointment on her face if she didn't—
"Kalani Purcell."
It was miraculous that her legs didn't give out right then and there, before she'd even gotten a chance to stumble onstage and take her diploma and results. But by some astounding attempt at self-preservation, Lani put on a confident smile and walked across the stage, shaking Dr. Brahms's hand and taking her papers with the other. She even refrained from looking until she'd vanished from view of the audience.
The rest of the students were whispering enthusiastically, but Lani heard none of it. Instead, with shaking hands, she took out her glasses and scanned the paper below.
KALANI PURCELL
class of KJA 078*
has graduated from Fifth Preparatory Academy with the following qualifications:
History: 5 / Anatomy: 5 / Training: — / Nursing: 2
"Hey, Lani! Twelve marks! That's pretty good, y'know!"
She whirled around. "Luana!" she whispered furiously, clutching her diploma to her chest. "Don't read—why'd you—!"
Luana Wagner was charming and clumsy and far too fond of Lani than was altogether comfortable with. She was definitely not someone Lani would entrust with her grades. And yet here she was, beaming and handing Lani her own diploma.
"I scraped a four in Anatomy, can you believe it? And I was never gonna get above a two in History; I was expecting a one, to be honest—and a four in Training, of course, so that makes ten for me!"
Ten was a decent amount of marks. If you settled for it, you could get a small paid internship at a pokémon center or unofficial training facility (not a League gym, of course, because to hold even the lowest-ranking position in the League was to have the highest qualifications imaginable).
Ten marks could not get you into the University of Vermilion. Twelve marks couldn't get you into the University of Vermilion.
"That's—that's great, Luana," she said, and smiled genuinely—for she was proud of her friend, if Luana could be called that, for gaining an almost-adequate amount of marks—but she could feel a lump forming in her throat. She bit her lip.
"Oh, hey…" Luana frowned and put her hand on the other girl's shoulder. "You were gonna go to that school, right? But you can totally still go in a year or two, as soon as you finish up your marks!" And then her face took on a truly terrifying combination of mischief and excitement. "You can come and travel with me! Oh my Moltres, it'll be so much fun!"
Except it wouldn't be. Lani didn't have a pokémon. She didn't know the first thing about training beyond the basics, having chosen not to take the intensive class her senior year. And she really couldn't see herself surviving a day in the wild with Luana, even if she had gotten four marks.
"Thanks, but… I should go," Lani said, and she followed the rest of the students as they filed out of the wings and into the cool breeze of midmorning.
(3)
"And why can't you take an internship at the pokémon center?"
"Because obviously I don't know anything about nursing! Besides, the class was all about learning out of the book. I can't handle sick pokémon in real life, and it would take me years to earn what the Academy gives out in two semesters. Dad, listen to me!"
Tim Purcell was listening. He wasn't angry with his daughter; she was hard enough on herself without additional reprimands. But irrationality was all too familiar to him, and it was dangerous on her.
"Lani, think of your options. You get an internship and earn three nursing marks in three years—or you train yourself a pokémon and travel for however long three marks takes you. Is there a third choice I'm missing?"
"I—" Lani deflated and sank down into her chair. "I can't become a trainer."
"I know you can't. So why don't you talk to Joy tomorrow morning?"
"Okay."
A nursing internship would definitely look good on her college application. Perhaps she could even secure a job there—though it wasn't a profitable field, not after pokémon centers were mandated to offer free service to traveling trainers and their teams in 037. She wasn't excited about it, but it would have to do.
Lani had planned to fix herself a light lunch and take a nap, but the doorbell startled her out of her daydreams before she could start. Expecting it to be one of her dad's friends, she didn't move to answer it; then it came again, three times in rapid succession, and she figured her father's scholarly associates wouldn't be quite so hasty.
Luana's eager face greeted her through the peephole, and Lani tensed up. What was she doing here?
"Hi, Lani! I got you something!"
Luana held out a small box and bounced up and down on the balls of her feet as Lani took it, evidently excited to see her friend's expression.
Easing the lid off of the box revealed a familiar sphere of red and white, and Lani's eyes widened. "Why…?"
"I just wanted to congratulate you on your marks, is all," Luana said innocently, clasping her hands.
"Um—thank you, Luana. But—"
"Also, y'know, if you wanted to come traveling with me..."
Lani sighed. "I'd love to, really—" no, she wouldn't— "but I've got to focus on getting into college and earning my remaining marks." She made to hand the box back, but the other girl shook her head.
"You know, you can get three more marks in just three islands. How long would that take—a few months?" She smiled faintly. "Think about it, okay? And keep the pokémon. My treat." She waved and trotted down the stairs, leaving Lani thoroughly confused.
She sat on the porch, fanning herself against the tropical midday heat, and opened the box again. The minimized pokéball sat in a cushion of expensive fabric, tagged with the monogram WSG, which obviously stood for Wagner Seagallop. Luana's father owned one of the sole methods of transportation between the islands, and with hundreds of boats transporting people back and forth on a twenty-four hour basis, the money added up. She wasn't sure how operating a transportation conglomerate could get you special-order pokémon, though; wealth had always been somewhat of a mystery to her.
She rolled the ball between her forefinger and thumb and pressed the release firmly. In the haze of white light, she couldn't see what had materialized at first—and then she felt a faint sort of fluttering against her calf. She looked down. A pink puffball stared back at her.
"Hello," she said.
"Pip," it replied forlornly.
Slowly, she reached out to scoop it up—but before she could make contact, a light breeze picked up and the pokémon drifted away.
"Hey!" she yelped, jumping up and chasing after it. "Come back!"
She took off down the block, aiming the pokéball's recapture mechanism in the air and nearly knocking over a small child as she ran. It was only by luck that she caught one of its leafy appendages in the red light, and it returned in molecule form to its ball.
Panting, she looked down at the pokéball and shook her head. "You'd better not make that a regular thing," she warned it.
(3)
Back in her room, with her fan turned off and her windows safely shut, Lani released the pokémon from its confines once more. It was a hoppip, she knew, but as it didn't really have any distinguishing features she wasn't sure if it was male or female. She'd have it checked when she went to the pokémon center tomorrow.
It was cute, she had to admit; she watched it with a smile as it bounced around her bedroom, wondering what it was capable of. It didn't exactly look like a strong battler, which suited her just fine. As a grass-type, maybe it was capable of some healing power.
She decided to approach it a second time, kneeling on the ground and slowly making her way towards it. The jumpluff evolution line weren't known for being hostile, but she took care not to offend it as she knelt down next to it and gently offered it a berry. A good pokémon-human rapport was built on trust from both ends, and she didn't want to endanger that barely twenty minutes after she'd received it.
Its antennae twitched as it noticed the food, and they bobbed happily up and down as it took the berry in its stubby hands and swallowed it whole. Already affectionate, it nuzzled against Lani's outstretched hand, and she petted it cautiously.
So far, so good. Hopefully its perky demeanor would last.
(3)
"What else am I supposed to do? It attacked three nursing chanseys! Of course they didn't give me an internship!"
Lani glared at the pokéball in her clenched fist. How was she supposed to have known it would go ballistic in the presence of another pokémon?
"You can go to another center and get one there. Call Luana and tell her you'll accompany her to wherever she's going first, and you'll stay there until you earn your marks. It's not the end of the world, Lani."
She sighed huffily and picked up the phone.
(3)
Luana rang her doorbell at precisely 3:15. Her shiny new backpack was fitted with straps across her sternum and waist for maximum weight distribution, and it came with a built-in water purifier and first-aid kit for humans and pokémon. In her hand was a map of the Islands and a chart detailing the edibility of native berries. And strapped into her belt were three red-and-white pokéballs stamped with WSG above the hinge.
Lani answered the door carrying her old school backpack over one shoulder and her pokéball in hand. She looked her friend up and down and immediately felt inadequately prepared—but she wouldn't be traveling as long as Luana, so it was okay.
Everything's going to be okay, she assured herself as they stepped over patches of shade into the tropical sun of Chrono Island.
(3)
Kalani (ka-LAH-nee): native Sevii name meaning "of the heavens"
*KJA: Kanto-Johto Alliance. "[It]… marked the creation of a new calendar, beginning with year KJA 001. The preceding zeros were meant to signify the durability of the alliance for hundreds of years to come, but tension between the nation-states is still fairly commonplace now, in 078… Before KJA, Kanto and Johto ran on independent calendars formed around various deities, the most common of which was the Arcean calendar (named after deity Arceus, still used in Sinnoh today)." —adapted from vol. 1 of Modern History by Cygnus Diabelli
A/N: I will love you forever if you review.
((posted 1/7/14—unedited))