Some of Life's Nasty Surprises

Dinners with my Mother were always wonderful, and I mean that with every sarcastic fibre in my being. She was at the door ready to greet our guests, while I sat silently in the dinning room at my place at the table. If things went well, I would be completely ignored and could leave the adults to handle their arrangements.

My mother was an economical genius. She was cunning, sharp and utterly, utterly ruthless. And the best part was it ran in her side of the family. 'The Thorn Corporation' was one of Hoenn's longest existing and probably one of the best-known Companies in the world. It thrived mainly due to the fact that the Hoenn region was rather isolated from the mainland (we were essentially a big rock above water) and thus had to rely quite heavily on imports from the mainland regions of Kanto and Johto for food and technology. It started out small as most companies do, taking things back and forth from Hoenn to the mainland and gradually expanding over the decades.

Then at some point the crazy genes were introduced into my Mother's side of the family, making many of my Ancestors brutally ruthless in their conquest of Hoenn's oceans, buying out our competitors and eventually dominating the entire shipbuilding industry – both of Hoenn's largest shipwrights; Lilycove and Slateport are 'unofficially' our property. However, our family's successes had drawbacks. It led to quite a bit of internal strife from within as enthusiastic opportunists competed for their claim on the metaphorical golden lollypop. As my ancestors wrestled for power, some of competitors would 'mysteriously' vanish and would be never be seen or heard from again.

This is the part of our history that nobody would dare talk about or investigate because our existence is so powerfully tied to Hoenn's economic stability 'they' (the pompous old farts we vote for) no longer care how we handle our internal affairs, just as long as we are quiet about it. Arceus-knows how many people my Mother had to get through and considering I have no known relatives beyond my mother I'm going to guess more than a few.

There was a surge in activity that snapped me back to reality; my Mother and several men in black suits entered the room to join me at the table. One man stood out from the others, there was something menacing about him that I couldn't quite put my finger on. My Mother seemed to be captivated by whatever was leaving his mouth (which annoyingly had two thin streaks of hair over the edges of his lips like whiskers). He must have noticed me staring at him because he started to approach with the intent to speak to me.

There goes keeping my head down.

As he approached I was engulfed by his musky stench, I had to resist the urge to gag, as he got closer. "What is a pretty young lady like yourself doing here?"

His deep condescending tone made me want to rip his whiskers off, it required a lot of mental effort but I was able to resist the overwhelming temptation.

"Eating, Whiskers." I deadpanned.

The man gave a deep hearty laugh and my Mother slipped up beside him, a bit too closely for my comfort.

"Archie, this is my daughter." I think she decided to introduce me to draw his attention back to her. "She's a bit of a miserable brat most of the time, pay her no heed."

"Ah! But I can't help but get acquainted with the future of the Thorn family." Archie shot me a crooked smirk, "What is your name girl?"

I told him my name quickly turned away telling him I had no interest in conversing with him. He didn't seem bothered and returned his attention back to my Mother. Dinner flew by without incident, I sat in silence at my Mother and Archie discussed a partnership in something. I took no interest and sat in silence until they were ready to leave. Mother seemed to be enjoying Archie's company a bit too much and seemed rather saddened when he decided to leave with his assistants.

That is until he took her hand and kissed it. She froze up, almost shocked by the action. Archie had her under his thumb, and he knew it. When he left saying he "was looking forward to seeing her again" I had a strong feeling I would be seeing him again, but it wouldn't be for business reasons.

I decided that the best time to feed my new Skitty would be a night. Most of the servants (excluding the butler and few others) would be at home or in their dormitories. The kitchen would be completely clear. I slipped out of my bedroom in my nightdress and quietly made my way to kitchen.

Then I heard a noise.

A chill shot up my spine at the prospect of having burglars breaking in, against my better judgement I decided to investigate and held the Skitty's Pokeball in front of me like a weapon.

As I drew closer to the kitchen I heard what sounded like moaning coming from one of the larders. As stealthily as I could I crept up to the storeroom in question, my heart raced in suspense and I slowly reached for the handle.

I took a deep breath and threw the door open, thrusting my Pokeball in front of my body like a shield, ready to confront the trespassers.

What I saw scarred me for life.

I felt the blood rise to my face, now probably being a bright scarlet, and I slammed the door closed pressing my back against it, my eyes wide with the horror they had just witnessed.

Matt and his girlfriend Lily quietly left the larder a few minutes later, both equally red with embarrassment. We stared at each other in silence for what felt like hours before Matt decided to speak.

"If it's any consolation I didn't get a chance to do it."

I almost exploded in rage, but managed to restrain myself to whispering angrily. "What the hell were you thinking? !"

"Well, I can't do it at my house, I have family over and Lily's parents are home so…"

"So you decided to do it here? ! At MY house!" I hissed.

"Oh relax, you're lucky I still had my pants on."

"That's not the point!"

"What are even doing up at this time anyways? We weren't being to loud were we?"

I noticed Lily face went an even brighter red when I glared at her. Lily was seventeen and attended the Hoenn University, she was supposed to be the mature one in their relationship, Matt had brought her to the estate several times now, and I knew her pretty well, she was almost like an older sister.

I glared at the two in disapproval and sighed, I couldn't stay mad at them forever. I needed them more than they realised. "You're lucky I was the one to catch you…"

Matt practically hugged me. "I knew I could count on you not to rat us out!"

"Not so loud!" I silenced him with a harsh whisper.

"I'm so, so sorry about this." Lily apologised her hands covering her chest. "I'm sorry we broke your trust, I promise to make it up to you somehow."

"You can help me now." I told them, showing Matt the Skitty's Pokeball. "I want to feed it, it looked rather malnourished."

Matt tapped his chin. "Well maybe we should take it to the Pokemon Centre, you know, check for any health problems?"

"I can't leave here!" I reminded him. "And even if I wanted too I'm in my night dress!"

Matt jerked his thumb at Lily. "She brought a change of clothes."

I glared at him, knowing her reasons for bringing them.

"I t-think my mini-skirt would fit you alright, but my t-shirt might be a bit baggy." Lily offered me her bag.

I accepted the bag and glanced around. "Great, let me go change in somewhere-"

Matt cut me off and pointed at the now-empty larder.

"You've got to be kidding." I gaped in disgust. "After what you two were doing in there? !"

Matt just shot me a toothy grin. "Consider it payback for interrupting us."

I shuddered and slipped into the larder. "Don't peek."

Matt gave me a disgusted look. "What do you take me for? A pervert?" He shook his head in irritation. "Hurry and get dressed."

Matt was better prepared than I thought. He had found a way into and out of the estate that was out of the line of sight of our security cameras (my Mother's idea in case I tried to run away again). He had cut the security fence in such a way that he could easily push it forwards to slip in and the fence would return back to its normal position. Since it was behind a rather large bush nobody on the inside could notice it. I made a mental note to use this as my escape route when the time was right.

It wasn't until I was walking in the middle of Lilycove, under the beautiful moonlight that I realised I actually free, I had escaped my prison just like that, with no problems whatsoever. I had been in town before, but I was always under supervision, tonight I was truly free.

Then I realised I had to go back; there was little point in running away at all really. Mother would send out people to find me and put my face on as many objects as possible so that I couldn't wander freely in public. She would hunt me for as long as she breathed. The realisation hurt and I choked back a sob.

Matt and Lily noticed I had stopped walking and must have noticed my emotional turmoil. I lowered my head and let a couple tears trickle down my face. Lily approached me slowly and knelt down to my level placing her comforting hands on my shoulders. She smiled warmly and pulled me into a gentle hug.

"I swear, one day, I'll break you out of that place." She whispered into my ear. "We can all run away together."

I held her tightly. "I'll never be free… she'll find me…"

Matt shrugged nonchalantly. "We could fake your death?" He pulled out a lighter. "And I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun in the process."

I removed one of my arms from Lily and gestured to him, he silently joined our embrace. It was under that moonlight that I started to hope and it was all thanks to that pink puffball, I could run away into the wilds and catch many interesting Pokemon like Matt. I could have my own adventure.

Matt broke away from the hug. "Can we go to the Pokemon centre now, if I hug you guys any longer I think my manly image will be tarnished."

Lily huffed and pulled away too. "Hugging your girlfriend isn't manly now?"

Matt groaned and shot me a glare. "Way to go Miss Thorn, you ruined my chances of getting lucky tonight."

Matt led us to a building I had only ever seen on TV, its trademark red roof and large Pokeball symbol gleaming in the moonlight. The Pokemon centre. I felt my heart speed up again as it raced with excitement and I started to jump up and down like a hyperactive child.

"I can't believe I'm actually going into a Pokemon centre!" I exclaimed and earned an exasperated sigh from Matt and a giggle from Lily.

As the automatic doors swept open I was blinded by the surge of bright light, the Centre's hall had several people scattered at various tables all chatting away happily even at this late hour. As I walked towards the counter and the Pokémon Nurse that stood behind it I glanced at several boys of my age group chatting loudly about some underground tournament, I perked up my ears hoping to hear more, but I was interrupted by Matt.

"Oi, girly, give her your Skitty so she can examine it." Matt grumbled his patience quickly evaporating.

I obeyed, handing the nurse my Pokeball and immediately I regretted the action. A wave of panic struck me, what if the Skitty was unhealthy? I'd have to stay here overnight. As the owner I was legally obliged to stay as my Pokemon received its check-up. I didn't even have a licence to own one!

The nurse returned from the back room smiling brightly as always. "She's a little starved, but healthy. I assume you just captured her, correct?"

I felt a lump in my throat, preventing me from speaking so I nodded dumbly.

"Ah, the rookie trainer, they are always so shy when speaking to us." She placed the Pokeball back into my hands and smiled. "Take good care of her now!"

It suddenly occurred to me that she was referring to the Skitty as a "she". "Its-a-girl?" I blurted quickly and blushed in embarrassment of how stupid I just sounded.

She just laughed. "Definitely a rookie alright, yes your Skitty is female, its level 13 currently just so you know."

Matt grabbed my arm and started to drag me away. "Alright! Back to bed you brat!"

This drew a fair bit of attention and several trainers, including the boys from earlier started laughing at me after making a joke at my expense. I covered my face in embarrassment with my free hand and allowed Matt to drag me home, Lily tailing behind us.