Sorry this is taking so long. I'm back on it now though. Hope you enjoy.


"Wake up sleepy-head." Whispered Finn.

Rachel rolled over and came face to face with Slowpoke and his wet tongue, panting warm foul breath in her face. What does Finn feed this animal?

Finn bent down to kiss Rachel's head, his breath almost as bad as Slowpokes.

"How did you sleep?" He asked.

"Quite well once I found my earplugs thank you Finn. Must you insist Slowpoke sleeps in our room? His snoring is quite resounding." Rachel took the lukewarm tea from Finn's hands and sat up to sip it. She had spent too long arguing with him to even consider telling him, yet again, that she liked her tea strong and black, not white with sugar. "Thank you" she whispered again.

"Me and Slowpoke are going for donuts. Do you want to bring Jigglypuff?" Finn grunted as he slumped on the bed to put his holey socks on.

"No Finn, Jigglypuff and I have to get ready for work. We have to earn money to live here, you know?"

"Yes Rachel I know, I am trying to get into the Elite Four, but you just make it so difficult for me. All you do is go to that Pokémon Centre and heal Pokémon. If you didn't heal any Pokémon, there would be less trainers for me to beat!"

"There would be fewer trainers Finn, not less, but that is not why I work at the Pokécentre. Believe it or not my whole purpose in life is not to hurt innocent Pokémon just so you can have your name in the Hall of Fame. Now if you don't mind, I must begin my morning routine." With one last grunt, Finn snatched his bag and left with Slowpoke traipsing behind.

Rachel walked the trodden path she walked every day to work.

This isn't how she wanted to live her life. This wasn't her dream.

There was a time in Rachel Berry's life when her dreams were as big as her heart, but with Finn wanting to stay near his mother and wanting to become a Pokémon Trainer, her dreams had been put aside.

Shouting in the distance pulled Rachel from her reverie and had Clefairy cowering behind her.

"Stop right there intruder." Rachel could hear Officer Fabray and she barely shouts at anyone. Except Finn. She ran the rest of the route and wasn't prepared for what she saw.

"Rachel, stand back please. I don't trust this one" snarled the Officer, using her baton to point at the soaked teenager Rachel saw before her.

"Berry?" Rachel would recognise that voice anywhere. "So you made it out of Pallet Town and this is where you end up? I thought you were better."

"So you know this kid Rach?" Rachel noticed the way Officer Fabray looked at the girl and couldn't help but smirk.

"She attended the middle school I taught at, Quinn. Santana here was in a few of my classes, when she bothered to turn up that is."

"Hey! You know I was better than any of those suckers in your class. Not that we needed to learn how to treat Pokémon anyway. Whatever. I always preferred training classes with Miss Holiday. Why are you here? I thought you had dreams?" Santana was dripping wet, shivering and looked darn right miserable, but she still had the tongue to put Rachel Berry down.

"I don't believe in the exploitation of Pokémon and fighting them is just pure cruelty" recited Rachel. She must have said this one hundred times before and at least 50 of those times were to Finn. "I'm here with Mr Hudson, we-"

"Holy shit, you're still with that potato? Sorry Berry but you know you are better than him right?"

"Look, this isn't the time for a school reunion" Quinn interrupted, rolling her eyes. "Santana? Is that your name? Why are you here? Why are you wet? And why on earth do you have a Pokémon in your arms and not in its Pokéball?"

Santana had completely forgotten about Vulpix again, she couldn't believe Miss Berry was here. Miss 'I'm gonna put a gold star on the world' Berry. Is this the Rachel that the blond girl had mentioned? Was she the doctor here?

"Uhm, do you know where I can get my Vulpix fixed." Santana asked Quinn. "We had an accident with some Spearows and Pidgeys and I just really need him better."

"Let me see" whispered Rachel, walking towards the teen and her injured Pokémon. "It's okay Quinn, I know her" she explained when she saw Quinn step threateningly towards Santana.

Quinn had been the first person Rachel met when she and Finn moved here. It was clear from their first meet that Quinn was not going to get along with Finn. She was rather 'law happy' as Finn had put it, and Finn likes to do what Finn likes to do.

Quinn was good at what she did and looked rather respectable in her official uniform. Rachel often found her eyes wondering over parts of the Officer's body that she most definitely should not have been looking at. Quinn caught Rachel looking at her backside once and had laughed, winked and told Rachel she couldn't help looking at hers either. It wasn't until later that night that Rachel realised what Quinn had said and she blushed twice as dark.

She liked the way Quinn always looked out for and protected her, better than Finn had ever bothered to, and she particularly liked the passion Quinn had for Pokémon. She knew that's why they were best friends, but there was always something there telling her it wasn't what she wanted. She wasn't sure if it was the way they hugged for just 2 seconds too long, or the sparks she felt in her finger tips when their hands brushed together, or whether it was the way she always caught her eyes running over Quinn's body the way she should only want to look at Finn, but there was something there that she could never quite grasp.

"Er Miss Berry?" Santana was waving a hand in front of Rachel's face.

"Oh sorry Santana, and you can call me Rachel. I'm not your teacher anymore." Rachel turned and headed towards Quinn, gave her a quick hug and whispered a thank you in her ear.

Santana didn't miss the way Quinn's hand instantly wrapped around Rachel's waist and rested on the lower part of her back. She wasn't blind; she could see this was more than just a friendship.

"Come with me Santana and we'll see if we can't fix that little cutie of yours. Officer Fabray." Rachel nodded at Quinn and walked towards the Pokécentre just down the road. Her boss is going to be infuriated that she's late, but that is just another nuisance that Rachel Berry will have to deal with.

The young girl at the lake had been fishing for a few hours now and she still hadn't seen any sign of her bike coming back. Maybe that stranger had stolen it. 'Well drat Brittany! Your sister won't be impressed that you lost yet another of her bikes!'

"Maybe I'll go find it" she mumbled to her Squirtle. Packing her fishing rod away and emptying the fish bowl she had filled with Magikarps, she skipped along the path she had sent the Brunette down with Squirtle following close behind. Along the road, Brittany had time to think about the time she got her Pokémon. It was her favourite story and she loved it even better when her dad told it.

It had been 3 days before her 16th birthday and she even remembers the smell of the rain on the grass to this day. Holly had been screaming all morning because she was going to be late to her dance class, but dad was busy making pancakes because he knew they were Brittany's favourite. Brittany didn't like to say it, but she was sure she was her dad's favourite. He says she looks like her mother.

"Dad it's okay. Go take Holly to her dance class. I've watched you make these a thousand times and I'm sure I can do it." Her dad had been uncertain about leaving her on her own. She could barely run a bath (well it never did make sense to her how the tub could hold all that water without spilling any) but she talked him into it and minutes later she had a pan full of pancake mix in her hand as she waved her family out the door.

How had her dad done this? Her first two attempts had resembled scrambled egg more than pancakes, so by her third she was beginning to get frustrated. She put some oil in the pan, just like her dad, she poured in the mix and spread it around the pan, just like her dad, so when she tried to flip it, just like her dad, she couldn't understand why they weren't going right.

Okay last try, she thought to herself. Waiting for the mixture to heat up and cook on one side, Brittany heard a clatter outside. Walking to the back door she saw a Pokémon rummaging through the bins.

"Hey little guy, what'ya doing there?" She grabbed a slice of bread from the side and crouched down to offer it to the turtle-like animal. "Bet this tastes nicer right?" she laughed as she watched the Pokémon slowly crawl towards her and nibble on the bread.

Before she had even smelt the burning pancakes, her father's Doduo had begun screaming like an alarm, warning her of the flames now licking way above the pan. How had that happened she thought to herself? I only looked away for a few seconds. What do I do?

Whilst Brittany was searching her cupboards for a bowl big enough to fill with water, the strange Pokémon from outside had wondered in. Seeing the flames above him, he sucked in the biggest puff of air and with a tiny little squeak, he squirted water all over the pan, putting out the fire, covering the kitchen and drenching Brittany all at once.

It had been a difficult story to explain to her father, but when he heard how Squirtle (Brittany never did believe that was his real name) had saved the house and his daughter's life, he let him stay.

Brittany and Squirtle had been inseparable ever since.

Squirtle trudged on ahead as they continued along the road, Brittany stopping every once in a while to look at the Pokémon around her. By the time she caught up with her Pokémon, he was sniffing her bike. Or at least what was left of it.

"Oh my…" Brittany picked up the charred frame of her sisters bike and looked around. "But there's no one here" she told Squirtle. 'I do hope she's okay' thought Brittany to herself. She hadn't been able to forget the girls face, with her olive skin and huge brown eyes. She was quite something. Beautiful in fact.

"Come on Squirtle, maybe she just left my bike" Brittany hoped so anyway "maybe she made it to Viridian and there is a completely reasonable answer to this."

Picking the bike up, because there was no way this lump of metal was ever going to work again, Brittany carried on along the path, a little faster this time.

By the time she reached the city, she was feeling pretty tired.