Along for the Ride

I own nothing but my own Ideas

It was a cold spring day. Not super cold, but the annoying March where the ground is partially frozen, and alternates between snow, mud, slush, and muddy slush. "Yes" Sarah Diamond decided, "Today is an indoor day."

She was comfortably curled up in her bedroom, watching a TV show about the Red Gyarados Investigation, with a plate of cheese and crackers. Her hot chocolate had whipped cream and marshmallows, and she was feeling happy and warm.

The show ended. She sipped her hot chocolate and sighed in contentment. She was running low on crackers, and decided to go downstairs to find more.

Her mom noticed her and came over. "Sarah! Your friend James came calling for you a little while ago. I don't know what it was about, but he said it was an emergency."

James Pearl was Sarah's hyperactive best friend. She really did not want to go outside today. But if she didn't go see what he wanted, he would probably come and literally drag her after him. Which might explain why she had become such a good runner, or at least good at running in a skirt, no easy feat.

She wondered what the emergency was this time. Last time His WII had gotten stuck in a tree (and he refused to explain how) and she had broken her arm getting it down for him.

As she made her way to leave, her mom called out the standard "don't go into tall grass" warning. She rolled her eyes. Did she look like she was ten?

She approached James's house. Before she could even knock on the door, he flew out and slammed into her.

"What was that about?!" He asked.

Sarah rolled her eyes, and waited for him to realize she was not the instigator.

"Oh hey, Sarah!"

She waved.

"Hey! I'm going to the lake! " He declared "You come too! And be quick about it!"

He demanded.

She nodded, wondering just what the emergency was.

"Ok Sarah? I'm fining you one million if you're late"

She didn't bother to tell him she didn't have one million. He watched too much TV with about law. Why he watched law instead of Pokémon like most kids eluded her. James was a strange kid.

He began to run to the lake, then turned around muttering he had forgotten something. Sarah hadn't moved. This was so typical of him. Shaking her head she made her way to the lake, only to be blocked by someone telling her James was looking for her. Sighing, somehow this always happened, she went inside James house.

She found him in his bedroom, deciding he should take his bag and Journal. Sarah always had those two items on her anyway. True, she wasn't much of a journal writer, but she did like to pick things up off the ground. It helped reduce litter, and what she picked up could usually be used or sold.

He turned and saw her. 'Hey Sarah! We're going to the lake! I'll be waiting on the road! It's a ten million fine if you're late!"

She stepped aside before he knocked her over in a rush to get down the stairs. She smiled and followed him, amused that the price of being late was now ten million.

Rather then tell her the emergency, he asked her if she watched the news report on TV.

That was annoyingly vague, and she gestured for him to elaborate. She thought it might be the Red Gyarados report she had just watched, but she wanted to be sure. It was. And apparently he had decided there was an amazing Pokémon in the lake. She knew the lake was tied to ancient legends, but she had lived there her entire life, and never seen anything out of the ordinary.

Never the less, James had decided to go on a lake expedition, and it was up to her to go with him and save him, should he fall in or something.

The odds of that happening were normally pretty low, but this was James and if something exciting happened, he could not stay away.

At the lake there was nothing out of the ordinary. Except for some professor being amazed at seeing their lake, and his assistant. The assistant was her age, and looked like he could have been her male twin. It was weird. Apparently, his name was Lucas and the Professor had just returned to Shinoh. Why he would spend his first day back, outside on a crappy day, starring at a lake, was not an answer Sarah wanted to understand. It would probably only made sense to old people anyway.

James stepped aside, and the professor and Lucas apologized for inconveniencing them. He wondered what that was about, then wondered what they left in the grass. He went to go get it, but Sarah stopped him and shook his shoulder.

"Don't go into the grass?" He guessed. " No problem, no problem! We won't be in there long enough for a wild Pokémon to come out."

Sarah was fairly certain he had just invoked Murphy's Law, and they were bound to face wild Pokémon now. But she would be a terrible best friend if I let him face it alone. So she followed him into the grass to rescue a briefcase, as it turned out.

Then suddenly a Starly came out of a tree, which surprised James. Sarah decided to checked the briefcase. The briefcase held Pokémon, which was very convenient, and if James hadn't been there it probably would have held paper or something equally useless. Then again, if it weren't for James, she would be back in her house, drinking hot chocolate.

At that point she decided she didn't care about what ifs anymore, and sent out the Chimchar into battle.

BlazingApollo tells me people like to read about Protagonists. He's Right 14 chapters and no main! I had to fix that.

The Protagonist is someone I have trouble deciding how to interpret. To start with there is two of them, and three game sets. And naming! I know James is commonly called Barry, but you are allowed to name them, and I decided to try that. I kept the last names the game names. Finally, you never actually see the protagonist talk. I think they might say things out loud in private, but most people fall into one of two categories. Someone the protagonist is close to know what they want to talk about and can read their body language. They have just learned the protagonist is not one for language skills. The other group are people the protagonist are not close to, and generally get head motions. I hope I conveyed that right.

Please review