AN: Hello, fellow people of FanFiction! I know! I know! I haven't updated in a realllyyyy long time, and I truly, sincerely, and deeply apologize for that. :( I may be gone for long periods of time, but shorter than the normal ones. And you know what guys? It's good to be back! So I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
luis1113: Thanks! I'm glad you think so. :) I can't wait 'til they get together either. That's where it's going to get really interesting. ;) And thanks for the story alert! :D
FedoraForever: It's ok; I'm done retyping all of them! :) Really? You liked it? I didn't think it was all that good… And yes, children, who aren't even authorized Pokémon trainers, travelled by themselves…On Pokémon… Nothing wrong there! XD I'm glad you think so! I thought that I was overdoing it a bit… Glad to know that I wasn't! :D Oh, only Blue knows that Yellow's a girl, but they'll find out eventually, don't worry. It's ok, I enjoy long reviews! :) And yes. Crystal's in this chapter!
Sacred Silver Goddess: Thanks for the story alert! :)
dance2pop: Thanks for the author alert, favorite author, story alert, and favorite story. It's people like you that make me so happy. Seriously, dude. :)
pokeluver kassey36: Thanks for the favorite story! :D
gokkylegend: Thank you for the favorite story! :)
Recap!
Red, Blue, and Green: 8
Yellow: 6
Gold, Silver, and Crystal: 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.
Today was the day. Today was the day that would change their lives.
Today, Gold would go to school.
"WAAAHHH! Mommy! I don't wanna go! Don't leave me!"
"Gold! Come on! Don't be so stubborn!" His mom remarked, trying to shake her son off of her leg.
"B-but mommy!"
"But nothing Gold! You are four years old! You have to go to school. Besides, it's just preschool! You barely do anything! All you do is play."
"With Red?" He asked with hope.
"I'm sorry sweetie. Red is in another grade. But you can still see him during lunch!" She tried to reassure him with joy in her voice.
"Then who will I play with when I have class?"
"You can play with new kids!"
"NO! I DON'T WANNA! I WANNA PLAY WITH RED!" The boy screeched.
"Gold! Gold, honey! Calm down!" The mom's screams were unheard as her son's shouts got louder.
"Gold! You're making a scene!" Suddenly, a teacher came out of the building looking distressed.
"Excuse me, miss?"
"Ah! I know, I'm terribly sorry! He's got quite the temper."
"If it's quite all right, would you mind me handling this?"
"Huh? Are you sure? He can be very difficult to handle at times."
"Oh no, I'm trained for situations like these. So if you won't mind…?"
"Go ahead! As long as he stops screaming."
"Okay then miss." He slowly approached Gold, who was still screaming about Red. "Hello there."
It took a while for Gold to respond, but he did anyway. "Hi."
"Now why were you screaming?"
"'Cause my friend Red won't be playing with me." He responded, sniffling.
"Red… Now why does that sound so familiar…? Aha!" The older man snapped his fingers. "Hey, you know? I've taught a boy named Red before. Maybe that's him?"
Getting no response, he continued. "He was like you, kicking and screaming about how he would be separated from his friends Blue and Green, and how he was already separated from some other person named Yellow."
"Those are the names of our friends!" Gold shouted in awe.
"So you do know him then?"
"Yeah! But, you said that they were all separated! Who did he play with then?"
"You see, there's the exciting part! He made new friends." The man smiled.
"New friends?" He repeated, as if it was a foreign concept.
"Yes. And he's actually very happy right now."
Gold took a few minutes to look at the man, not really trusting him.
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
There was a pregnant pause between the two, until Gold piped up.
"… Ok then. Let's go inside!"
'Ehh…?' Was the only thought running through Gold's mom's head.
"Very good then. Your name is Gold, is it not?"
"Y-yes. My name is Gold."
The man instantly beamed.
"Good then! Very good then! Marvelous! My name is Blaine. I'll be your teacher."
"B-Blaine?"
"Yes, but I would prefer if you'd call me teacher Blaine."
"Blaine… THE GYM LEADER?" Gold hollered in disbelief, and in turn, said gym leader was alarmed.
"Shh… How did you know? I'm wearing my disguise today too… but yes. I am Blaine, the gym leader of the Cinnabar Gym in the Kanto region. This'll be our little secret though, ok?" Blaine winked.
"O-of course, sir!"
"Now, now. Let's go. You don't want to be late, do you?"
"Nope! Bye momma! See you later!" Gold called out in glee, ecstatic to have a gym leader as his mentor.
"Be good honey! And don't worry, I'll take good care of the Pokémon, ok?"
"Bye!"
That day, Gold's mom unexpectedly walked back to her house with a smile on her face.
'He'll do just fine…'
Despite the earlier pep talk with Blaine, Gold remained relatively silent during class. That is, of course, until recess, when some kid decided to comment on his passive behavior, saying he was acting like a shy girl, prompting Gold to shout at the boy and get into a semi-fist fight with him (they are toddlers, after all).
"Hey! You two, stop it right now!" A voice boomed.
Both boys momentarily stopped fighting and looked up to see a girl their age with bluish hair in gravity-defying pigtails. After a while of staring, they went back to fighting, completely ignoring the obviously annoyed girl.
"I'm still here!"
Despite the girl's efforts, she was still being ignored. Fed up with the two boys' attitude, she decided to take more drastic action.
"HEY! You two better listen!" The two boys in question slowly turned in the direction of her overpowering voice.
" Yeah! I'm talking to you two punks!"
"Oh? And what of it, girlie?" The capless boy taunted.
Said "girlie", who had her full attention on Gold, since he was the one who started the fight, slowly turned her head towards the other boy who had just provoked her.
"What did you just call me?" She growled.
"Didn't you hear me? Or are you deaf too, girlie?"
"That is IT!"
The girl roughly pushed Gold away, and grabbed the other boy by the front of his collar with one hand, raising him up a few inches up in the air with immense strength.
"Now, now. No need to make a big deal out of this-" Gold was promptly silenced by a death glare from the girl. "Or you could…you know…keep doin' what you're doin'… I'll stay out of your way…PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" Gold attempted to shield himself with his arms.
Fortunately for Gold, all of the girl's anger seemed to be directed at the other kid.
"Listen up, and listen well." Crystal snarled, raising him a bit higher. "My name? Crystal. Got it? Good. I suggest that you don't mess around with me."
"Or what?" The boy responded, unperturbed.
"Or thi-"
"What is going on here? Crystal! Put that boy down, now."
Crystal did as she was told, a frown on her face.
"Now, could any of you three please explain what happened?"
The boy, seeing his opportunity, sobbed. "Teacher Blaine! Cry-Crystal was hurting me! I ju-just wanted to find out her name, a-and be friends with her, but then she said mean things to me! And then she hurt me!"
"W-wha? Y-you little liar! I didn't even hit you! Right?" She sputtered, turning her head wildly towards Gold. Gold, still a little terrified, stayed silent.
"Crystal, I expected better from you. You're one of the best students in my class! I'm sorry, but, you'll have to stay inside during lunch time."
"B-but teacher-" Crystal protested.
"No buts with me, missy. Now get back to the classroom. Recess is almost over."
"Yes, Teacher Blaine." Crystal sighed dejectedly, gave one final glare at both of the boys, and walked back to the classroom.
Gold silently watched the girl as she walked back, while she silently grumbled to herself, head hung low.
After his encounter with Crystal, Gold seemed to notice her more. For instance, she sat three seats to his right in class, and they were both in the back row, leaving her in the back right corner of the class. One would think that since she's in a secluded corner, she'd take the opportunity to fool around. In actuality, however, she always had her nose in a book, apart from when she was taking notes and answering problems their teacher gave them. For a preschooler, she was very serious. Gold was intrigued by her, and often caught himself staring at Crystal most of the time. Unfortunately for him, so did his classmates.
"Hey! Gold! Why are you looking at…Crystal?" One of his classmates asked him, spitting out Crystal's name with disgust.
"What? I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Gold stuttered, embarrassed that he was caught red handed.
"Okay, I'll forgive you this one time since you're new, but you should stay away from that…monster."
"Monster? Crystal? She's just a girl, Joey!"
"Nope. She's a monster. Did you see what she did to Ian? You were there right? She has monstrous strength. Everyone either hates her, or is afraid of her. You're the new boy in class. Everyone likes you. My suggestion? Stay away from her." Joey said, giving his final warning as he walked away, off to eat his lunch.
Gold took one final look at Crystal, who was reading her book inside of the classroom, and went off to play on the slide.
The school day was over and Gold was still at school. His mom wanted to talk to the faculty about Gold's first day and how he was adjusting and what not. Knowing his mom, he knew that he'd be at school for a long time, so he decided to go back to the playground, glad to have it all to himself. Naturally, he was surprised seeing a lone figure of a girl on one of the swings, the swing slowly rocking back and forth. He was even more surprised seeing that the girl was Crystal.
Warily, Gold approached the swings. "Crystal?"
She automatically stiffened, and her eyes turned cold. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"I'm Gold. I was there when you were fighting with Ian earlier today? Ring any bells?"
"Ah, yes. I remember you. The boy who refused to help me." Her eyes narrowed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. No need to act so serious. I'm really sorry I didn't help you… I was just, ah …scared of you at the time." Gold inwardly cringed at how stupid that sounded.
Crystal turned her head. "Of course… Everyone's scared of the serious monster girl. Everyone hates the monster girl."
"No! I'm not, at least…not anymore. Wanna be friends?" Gold smiled.
Crystal slowly turned her head back to him. "Are…are you sure? I mean… You're the new kid, right? Everyone already likes you. If they knew that you were hanging out with the monster… they'd all hate you. You should leave me alone, like the monster I am."
"It's okay. I'll let everyone hate me if they want to! Nobody should be treated like that, even you. And I think your strength is really cool! You could put good uses to that, like throwing, or even kicking Poke Balls far away! And don't you ever call yourself monster again. Got it?"
"O-okay… But I've always been called monster…"
"Then we'll come up with a new name for you then! Let's see… How about… Serious girl?"
"Serious girl?"
"Yeah! Serious girl. I've always noticed that you study a lot. You always get this serious look on your face. So how about it?"
"Serious girl? … I…I like it." Crystal gave a small smile.
"That's the spirit! Now, tell me why you're here all alone?"
"Oh… My mom travels a lot. You know Professor Oak from Kanto? She works for him. She's always out capturing Pokémon. I want to be as good as her someday! I always train my hardest in throwing Poke Balls every day, but I just can't get it right! Oh! But don' worry about me. My mom will come…eventually…"
As if on cue, Gold's mom started calling Gold. "Gold! It's time to go home!"
"Coming mom!" Gold turned to Crystal. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay, Crystal?"
"Yeah."
Gold started running back into the school, shouting, "Bye, serious girl!"
Crystal smiled to herself, and looked up to the slowly darkening sky.
'Serious girl, hm?'
Hey guys! I'm alive! I was dead for a while, but I'm revived, and ready to go!
So, here we meet Crystal. Seems that after Gold met Crystal he forgot about Red, hm? Green's in a school in Kanto, Yellow's in Viridian, I guess I'll let her be home schooled. Blue and Silver are absent because I want to try to follow the canon story, and I'm sure everyone knows what happened to them.
How are you guys? And thanks to everyone who have been sticking with me. You have no idea how happy you guys make me, seriously. :)
Please review!