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Chapter Four
The days passed. Then the weeks turned into a few months. During those long dragging days, I just lounged around playing video games and reading documentaries of ancient pokemon that kept journals. They weren't hard to find at the library down in Coral City. They were quite interesting, and I even stumbled upon a lengthy documentary about an umbreon that turned into a human—an extinct species. The humans, anyway.
I sometimes had a chess match with Addisen, but she was getting tired of losing. I often found her in her room facetiming a friend that lived in another region. For the first time in forever, she finally understood what confinement was. I couldn't stand being in my room for longer than ten minutes because the heat became unbearable very quickly.
I couldn't sleep at night either because of my suffering. It was just turning into the worst summer of my life. Once, I sneaked out of bed to get into the freezer in the basement—at the middle of the night. As for Zander, I didn't see much of him because I almost never left the house. And FINALLY, summer break was over. At the time, I didn't know if that was a good thing. It was going to be my first year of high school.
"Do you have your backpack?" Mom called up to my room. I quickly washed up in the bathroom and bolted outside, where Addisen was waiting in the driver's seat of her corvette.
"What took you so long?" she complained.
"You could've been three seconds earlier if you hadn't asked that question," I said stupidly. She bonked me on the head, then ignited her car engine. I was grateful that she hadn't removed the muffler from her car. I couldn't understand the pokemon that sometimes did. It was only a five—minute drive down Potomac Street and into the small valley below us. Yep, we lived at the top of a small hill.
The moment the sylveon's car hit the parking lot, she abandoned me and took off for the front office. I was late. I followed her close behind and found her getting a slip from the girafarig standing in front of a computer.
"Thanks," she said breathlessly.
She nodded to the sylveon and turned to me.
"You two from the same family?" she asked. I nodded.
"Right, so you're a Gray?"
"Yes."
"Here's your slip; first class is P.E." I thanked her and snatched the Skyarrow school map next to her desk.
"Corbin?"
"Here."
"Skylar?"
"Present."
"Tristen B."
"Yeah coach!"
"Tristain C."
"Heah!"
"Nobel?"
No one spoke. "Nobel? You there?" Then the door of the gym burst open to reveal a glaceon that looked ready to melt into a puddle. "I-I'm here," I said.
Every eye watched me as I sat down on the bleachers next to what looked like the world's largest rampardos. The best first impression ever. I looked up where the coach was typing into the desk next to his office. Ten seconds later, the raichu stood in front of us, already hunting out those who might be potential trouble makers. Luckily, his eyes only swept over me once.
I never checked if the class was Co-ed beforehand, but now I knew. Guys only—and I wasn't complaining, since I wasn't keen to make the bad first impression for all audiences.
"So, this is it, people. It's always nice to meet new faces every year, and don't expect me to remember all of your names just this week. Today's gonna be a chill day, so we won't have to get changed."
I barely payed the coach any attention — I was too distracted with the conversation behind me about the latest trends, which I wasn't too familiar with. It wasn't like I could keep up with them myself.
The rest of class was spent outside on the field - where the coach told us the rest of his expectations. Instead of listening, I went over to the pidgeot known as Skylor and struck up a conversation about random things. I learned that he was in one other class with me: Chemistry. It also happened to me my next class right after P.E.
Once the hour was up, I followed Skylor - who seemed to know where he was going despite the fact that this was his first time ever being inside the building. I, of course, had my map, but I never pulled it out. I may never need it with the winged pokemon as my newest friend.
The pidgeot was no joltik and could easily push through the crowds of flying pokemon - with me following as closely as I could. The two of us walked into Chemistry almost before anyone else - with the exception of a flygon and several other petite flying types. And the jolteon sitting in the back row.
"Hey Zander!" I said, and walked towards his row. Skylor followed and sat next to me: him on my left, and Zander on my right.
"Hello," Zander said nicely to Skylar, "what's your name?"
Skylar leaned past me so he could get his speech across. "Skylar. And yours?"
"Zander," the jolteon said. "I know someone else called Skylar around here. And it turns out, he's somewhat famous around here."
"Cool," Skylar said. "My name, but better. Right."
Zander laughed. "Well, famous is probably a stretch. There's this well-known swellow in our history textbooks and Skylar looks exactly like him."
"What's his name?" I asked curiously. I looked up to see an almost full classroom; I quickly looked back at Zander.
"Treeot...I think. Tree-ot?"
"It doesn't matter," Skylar said. "Google exists for a reason." And he pulled out his phone.
"Alright class, can I ask for quiet?" The lopunny said.
I rummaged through my bag. A few frustratingly long minutes later, I fished up the worst pencil ever known to pokemon. I set it on my desk with a proud look on my face.
"-so, take a syllabus as it comes your way," the teacher finished. Zander passed a purple stack of papers to me, which I passed on to Skylar.
"You'll find all of my expectations for this year on that paper," the lopunny continued.
I looked at the front side of the paper.
Welcome to Mrs. Metamon's class! The opposite side of this paper is where you'll sign with your first and last name, to show that you agree to everything detailed below.
I looked up, not looking forwards to reading the rest of the paper.
I jumped as the announcements came on with a loud beep.
"Good morning, my fellow 'mons, and welcome to a new year at Skyarrow high! Today's menu will be a delicious Alolan salad with a side of malasada..."
My head dropped to the table and I dozed.
"...and the authorities are still looking for the culprit who burned the Junior High down in east Hoenn."
I perked my ears up at that news. It was probably some stupid teenager playing with fire - not intentional at all.
"Interesting..." Zander muttered.
"-and that's all for today's announcements! I hope you all have a great day!"
Mrs. Metamon stood up and tapped her computer. The projector mounted on the ceiling whirred to life.
"There's no better way to start class than watching a short movie, but could you please be quiet? The sound system's not working very well," she said.
Normally the first few days of school were quiet, since there were many new freshmen who didn't know anyone, and even the veterans didn't know all of their teachers, so they took the time to know their expectations.
So without resistance, everyone obeyed and looked up at the screen.
I waited by Addisen's car for her to come out, but she never did. I tapped my back-left foot to the asphalt impatiently, waiting. I envisioned myself when the sylveon walked outside to find a puddle of water right next to her back left tire.
I waited for a few more minutes, then gave up. She was probably already given a load of assignments since she was already a Junior. So I looked up the valley towards the mountain, where my house was. I mapped the few major turns in my mind's eye, and ran lightly out of the parking lot.
The street that bordered the school was extremely crowded with cars, and it seemed to take ages for the pedestrians to have a go at the crosswalk. The noise died down considerably once I got into the first neighborhood. As I ran, each class and teacher crossed my mind. I was much less frightened of high school than I was this morning. I had expected something new - something unknown. But other than the towering pokemon that barely noticed me walking between them, nothing changed.
Even Skylar was a giant to me. At least Zander was in the same boat with me.
I wonder where those two got to...
A few minutes later, I turned right onto Potomac Street - probably the quietest place in the world. Every now and then, a fancy car would pass, leaving their loud music trailing behind. And despite the fact that my father was a upper-class millionaire, I hoped that nobody would ever force me behind the wheel of a Ferrari ever.
"HEY KID!"
I quickly snapped my head to the left to see who shouted. It was a feraligatr, and he had a nasty smile on his face. I immediately knew that I had to get as far away from him as I possibly could.
"W-what?" I stuttered.
He looked behind him, and more pokemon emerged from behind some pine trees. A gallade and a zoroark. They had some very interesting hairstyles, and they reflected their personalities very well.
"You rich boy?" the gallade asked.
I shook my head. "No..."
"You sure?" he said.
I remembered something from English class...the way the ninetails in the story uncovered liars by watching their facial expressions and the vigorous nodding of the head. I kept my head still and unblinking, and said,
"Positive. I was visiting a friend who lives around here. His name is Zane, and I wanted to see his new menagerie. Yeah."
Aww. I over-explained myself, and the ninetails would've nailed me if it was me he interrogated.
"Can we come with you?" the zoroark asked. The pokemon behind him smiled, as they were pleased that he came up with probably the most intimidating question out of the blue.
"Um, no," I said with a steady voice. What did they want from me? What about this was amusing? I just didn't understand.
"Aww! Come on! We would love to see Zane's exotic animals!" the gallade said, taking a step towards me on the other side of the street. And that's when I ran from the scene as fast as my ice-cold legs could carry me.
They started shouting and followed me... All the way to my house. I was quickly identified at the gate and bolted through. I whipped around to see the three almost at the gate.
Please! Close FASTER!
The heavy bars of the gate weren't going to make it on electricity alone, and I put my whole back into it. It shut with a BANG, and the feraligatr, gallade, and zoroark skidded to a halt on the other side.
I stared at them. They stared at me. And that's when I realized what an idiot I was.
The heavy wooden door slammed shut, leaving an echo throughout the house.
"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" I called out. No one answered. "Is anyone here?"
Again, no one said anything.
Where have they gone?
I walked past the atrium and made my way to the first floor living room. That's when I noticed something was wrong. The couches would normally be against the walls, but for some reason, they were all grouped together - forming some kind of circle. I jumped onto the soft, fluffy pillows, and for a moment, I didn't care about the whereabouts of my parents.
I contemplated the three street thugs that nearly captured me, and wondered when Potomac street would gain the title as "Potomac private drive."
Probably not in my lifetime, I thought to myself. I couldn't believe how stupid I was for running home directly. Now those three creeps knew where I lived. I was so absorbed with my past failure that it took me a moment to register the crashing sound that came from the garage.
Patriot here. How's the story so far? If people like it, I'll no doubt speed up my production of chapters. Otherwise, I'll probably be paying more attention to a sequel to my first Pokemon fanfiction. Goodbye, for now.