I wake up with a headache.

In my personal experience, this is always the prelude to a terrible day.

So when Gastly decides to get me out of bed after noticing my slight shifting under the covers from wherever he was hanging out all night,
I'm all too ready to dish out my own brand of the move 'curse'.

I'm genuinely sort of proud at how long I end up screaming profanity at him, and he actually looks at me with the slightest bit of respect (and amusement) when he drifts through the door. I sigh in relief as I bury my head into the coarse fabric of my pillow.
It feels like the softest silk right now. I hum contentedly as I stretch across the sheets. This is truly the bed of the gods.

Which makes it all the more deplorable when Nurse Joy takes it upon herself to wake me up in person with a nice, healthy,
headache-aggravating knock on the door.

Overbearing bitch.

The pounding on my door continues. Somehow I doubt that if I tune her out, she'll go away, but I end up trying it anyway.

She hasn't given up, even after ten minutes of ignoring her. If anything, the knocking has actually increased in volume.

How does she not get bored? Is this her idea of fun in the morning?
How is she even up this early?! It's only...

I sneak a peek from under my pillow at the clock beside the bed.

... 1 p.m.! Holy shit! I need to get up!

I bolt upwards and leap out of bed, instantly awake, and yank open the door.

From the nurse's opened jaw, I can see she was ready to greet me with a cheery 'good morning!' or some other complete untruth, but she falls silent in mild surprise as she looks me over. Well, I did just get out of bed, did you expect me to look like a Disney princess?

The nurse quickly recovers and snaps her pleasant look back into place as she chirrups a joyous "Good morning, miss!"

Knew it.

"You should probably get going soon if you want to make a good start on your Journey! If you want to eat first, though,
you should go downstairs and swing by the cafeteria!"

They have a cafeteria downstairs? When did that happen?

"It was full of other young trainers just beginning their Journeys just a couple of hours ago, but we should be serving lunch now real soon!"

Such a happy tone is a crime against nature. It just grates on the ears. Doesn't exactly help my headache either.

But food does sound really good right about now. My stomach hasn't voiced any complaints yet, but I can definitely feel it getting there.

"Okay! Bye-bye! Good luck on your Journey!" She gleefully calls out, twirling on her heels and starting down the hallway towards the staircase.

With the Nurse Joy out of sight, I shut the door and shoot to the table in the mini-kitchen to grab my clothes.

Last night, I had been given a plain, red and white nightgown to sleep in, but they didn't have any additional clothes to spare me.
As I had left home rather spontaneously I don't have any others to change into, and that means that these are going back on.

There are also no showers in the Pokecenter. No bathrooms either, for that matter, or at least from what I've seen so far.
The only things I own right now are the few hundred dollars in my bag, and the clothes on my back.
No shampoo, so my hair is no doubt going to start feeling a bit greasy soon, even if there was a shower, and with the combination of being forced to wear the previous days clothes, waking up late, the headache, and this recent temporary lack of hygiene, this fresh new day is not looking too good.

I dearly wish there was a bathroom here; I don't need to use the toilet yet, but I would have greatly appreciated some form of mirror that I could use to survey the damage. As it is, I have to make do with awkwardly patting my hair down from its default bed head position into some semblance of normalcy, and hoping I don't look too much like a zombie.

After I change back into my somewhat rumpled T-shirt and jeans, I open the door to abruptly remember that I'm short one pokemon.

As soon as this revelation hits my brain, another one shortly follows it.

Gastly was the one to wake me up initially. After I cussed him out and waved him off, he disappeared.

Then Nurse Joy came.

... That bastard.

That malevolent, ghostly bastard.

I can't help but feel a small bit of pride at his cleverness,
mixed somewhere inside the great pool of rage building up inside of my throbbing head.

I am royally pissed off now.

I did need to get up at some point, but what I didn't need was for Gastly to send that vile, disgustingly upbeat woman to my door to harass and pester me until I rolled out of bed!

I take a deep breath and try to let it out slowly. My exhaled breath sounds almost like a growl when it comes out.

I can't even hate him properly for getting me up, since I really did have to.

Well, he did keep me up the night before with his sugar rush. That's plenty of reason for me to despise him.

That's plenty of reason to kick his nonexistent ass.

"Gastly!" I screech as I thunder down the steps, not caring for any disturbance I might be causing.

A Nurse Joy and a Chansey look up from the front desk, bewildered, "Miss, what appears to be the troub-"

That's all I hear before the sliding doors open and I stomp outside.

I take three steps in front of the Pokecenter, just on the edge of the dirt road,
before I stop and yell to the heavens, "Gastly! If you don't show your gassy ass right now, so help me god, I will-"

It's not very loud at all, especially when compared to my bellowing, but my list of threats is abruptly cut off by a small, befuddled-sounding "Gast..."

My head swivels to the left, where the weak cry came from, my fury forgotten and a chill running down my spine.

I take a step towards the sound, which repeats itself, a little stronger but just as... shaky.

"Gastly?" I start to run towards his voice, getting a very bad vibe.

I round the corner of the Pokecenter, and what I see make me gasp and my blood run cold.