Chapter Two:

Aspirations

"I leave tomorrow!" My brother ran down the hallway towards the kitchen, screaming his head off. I jerked awake and stared at the ceiling over my bed. I glanced toward the end of my bed where I felt pressure, Lady Bird was snuggled in a pile of blankets at the end of my bed, still seemingly fast asleep. "I leave tomorrow, I leave tomorrow, I leave tomorrow!"

"What a wake-up call," I sighed as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I reached off the side of my bed and grabbed the alarm clock sitting on the table beside my bed. I squinted to see the blurry numbers. "Not even seven yet," I muttered. "I didn't need to be up for another half hour."

I set the clock down and pushed myself into a seated position, relaxing against my headboard. My bed was tucked into the corner of my room, opposite the door. Across from the foot of my bed there was a large closet, the doors left open because they didn't close due to my dresser stuffed into the enclosed space. On the same wall as the bedroom door, I had a messy, cluttered desk. Among knick-knacks, stacks of photos I still had to look through, and multiple notebooks I doodled and kept notes in, I had an antique camera that my dad had gifted me for my birthday a few years before sitting on the desk top. The wall above the desk was covered in the numerous photos I had taken around Pallet Town.

I yawned, stretching my arms above my head before I threw my feet over the side of my bed and stood, stretching my entire body now. I cleared my throat and headed for the bathroom to start my daily routine of getting ready.

Quite some time later, I walked into the kitchen and sat at the table. Martin was charging through the house, over the furniture, and out into the front yard. He was still screaming. I blinked several times as I watched him doing laps in the front yard.

"He doesn't ever get up this early," I finally muttered to my mother. She was standing at the kitchen sink, washing dishes. I heard her chuckle.

"He is very excited," she replied. "Hungry?"

I nodded and she set about making breakfast as Martin finally charged into the house. "Pipe!" He shouted as he saw me. He flung himself into the chair beside me. "I need your help."

"My help?" I asked.

"I get to pick my first Pokémon tomorrow," Martin informed me, slapping his hands onto the surface of the table. He propped himself up onto his knees as his voice took on an exasperated tone. "I don't know which one I want to pick!"

"Well, Martin, what are your choices?" I asked him. Whatever my mother was cooking began to sizzle.

"I have three." Martin lowered his rear back into the seat, holding up the same number of fingers out toward me.

"And they are?"

"Fire, water, and grass types," Martin said I tried to not express my impatience.

"Ok, that's good to know, what species are the Pokémon?" I asked him more specifically.

"Oh," Martin snorted, "you should have asked that to begin with."

"I thought I did," I grumbled under my breath.

"Charmander is the fire Pokémon, Squirtle is the water, and Bulbasaur is the grass Pokémon." Martin listed off the three, counting them off on the fingers he still had extended.

"Do you have a favorite?" I asked.

"I don't know," Martin shrugged. "I think I'm stuck between Squirtle and Charmander." He set his chin into the palm of his hand as he stared out the large window our dining room table was near to.

"Maybe it'll be easier when you get there to choose it," I said to him.

"I'm going to be the first one there so I can choose first," Martin told me. "I'm going to be there at seven o'clock in the morning!"

"That's early," I sighed as Martin shot out of his seat and into the back of the house. I collapsed into my arms on the tabletop.

"Thanks for talking to him, Sweetie." My mom patted my shoulder as she brought a plate of pancakes to me. I slowly picked myself up off the table. "He really is very excited about it. Syrup?"

"Please," I nodded. "I know he is excited, he should be."

"I always suspected he'd be the one to be a Pokémon trainer," my mom commented as she retrieved the syrup out of the refrigerator.

As she set it down in front of me, I looked up to her. "You didn't think ever think I would be?" I asked.

"I'm sure you could," my mom shrugged. She crossed back to the far side of the kitchen, helping herself to a cup of coffee. "But you've just always been more tied to home than Martin is."

"Yup," I muttered, disappointed as she confirmed the depressing thoughts I had had multiple times over the last several days. "That's me, stuck at home."

"That's not what I meant," my mom gently assured me. She came to the table and sat down next to me, in the seat Martin had only just vacated. She set her coffee down and reached across the table to pat the back of my hand; her hand was warm from holding the coffee cup. "I just mean that I think you would get homesick."

"I guess we'll never know." I met her stare and she offered me a warm smile.

"Of course not," she said. Her hand left mine and she picked her cup up again. She blew across the hot liquid in the cup, then took a small sip. "I know what you are going to do with your life."

"You do?" I asked her, curious as to her thoughts.

She nodded confidently. "You've just finished your education at the Pallet Pokémon Academy, you'll go to the graduation ceremony tomorrow, and then we are going to get you into a Professor's Aide position at Professor Oak's laboratory."

"Well, that sounds…thrilling," I could only remark.

"You're so smart, honey, we know you have the intelligence for it," my mom continued, seemingly unaware that she was making my depression worse.

"I sure do," I agreed halfheartedly.

"Unfortunately, I have to go out and weed the front gardens." She stood and brought her still filled coffee cup to the counter. She set it beside the coffee maker then turned back toward me. "Would you like to help? Those gardens are not going to weed themselves."

"You know," I muttered, looking up at her. "I may have to pass on that invitation for now, besides I still have to go to class today."

"Ah, well, I thought I'd try," she smiled. "If you need anything, you know where I am."

My mom flashed me another quick smile before she left the room. A few seconds later, I heard the front door open and then close. I sat at the table a moment longer, staring down at my pancakes, before I left the table and went back into my room. I closed the door and leaned heaving against it, staring at my bed. Bird was still nestled on at the foot of my bed and Gia had taken my spot on the pillows. She was staring at me.

I shoved off the back of the door and walked over to my desk. I faced the wall I was in process of covering with pictures. They were mostly photos of the Magikarp that the fisherman on the Pallet Town Pier caught, or Rattata that would scurry into town to turn over the trashcans for scraps. I had a couple pictures of some Pidgeys and Spearows that would fly overhead or land on the rooftops. There were countless amount of pictures of Gia with Bird, but there was nothing that really stood out as far as photographs went.

I folded my arms over my chest and let out a long breath. Pallet Town just was not the place for great or interesting pictures. I wanted to see different Pokémon, Pokémon that would make for interesting photos. "Wait!" I whipped around, startling Gia, who had moved off my bed and was now chewing on the corner of my comforter. "Photos of wild Pokémon, yes, but photos of Pokémon battles too!"

Gia cocked her head to the side as I spoked animatedly, the now soaked blanket dropping out of her mouth as she stared at me with a quizzical look on her face.

I walked over to my desk to scoop up the camera I used to take my photographs. "I could leave, I could leave Pallet Town. I turn eighteen in a few weeks and I am done with school. It is time for me to decide what to do with my life and I know I want to take photographs of the world." I was filled with confidence as I voiced my aspirations out loud. "I can just go," I said again, but my confidence immediately waned. I realized I wasn't sure that my parents would let me, and even being eighteen, I knew they could stop me if they didn't want me to go. I wanted their support, but I wasn't sure they would let me have what I so desperately wanted.

I stared forlornly at Girafarig and she stared at back at me, but only for a moment. She then turned and looked to Lady Bird, who was finally awake and was sitting on the edge of my bed giving herself a bath. Gia squealed happily and Bird glanced lazily up at her. They stared at each other for several seconds before Girafarig licked Bird across the face.

Irritated by Gia's saliva, Bird launched off the bed and sprinted into my closet. There was a basket of clean clothes sitting on the floor in front of the dresser within the closet. My cat jumped into the clothes and buried herself in them, her eyes narrowing happily.

I leaned backwards, my rear resting against the front edge of my desk. "I could ask my dad," I mumbled, knowing he wouldn't do anything without discussing it with my mother. I slumped heavily, my back curling as my posture became more than just bad. I slowly let out a long, perturbed breath. I bit on my lower lip, thinking through all my options.

I suddenly straightened up and touched my fingers to my lips. My eyes shifted back and forth as thoughts rapidly filtered through my head. "What if," I whispered to my room, "what if I leave and don't tell them?"

The following morning, regardless of it being Saturday, I was up early to attend my graduation ceremony. I left the house at almost eight in the morning, and Martin, regardless of his proclamation to leave at seven, was still asleep. The ceremony itself was slow to start and even slower to finish. I was handed a piece of paper that wasn't even my diploma and was promised it would eventually be sent to my home address. I hadn't seen my parents in the audience, sure that they were likely dealing with Martin, even though it was well into the afternoon.

When I finally made it home, I was surprised to find both my parents seated in the living room. I stopped just inside the door, staring at them. My dad was diligently typing on a laptop, staring at a stack of paperwork on the couch cushion beside him. My mother was seated in an adjacent armchair, reading.

"Martin get off okay?" I asked.

They both looked up and my dad spoke first. "Hey Pipe," he smiled at me. "Where ya been?"

I held up my fake diploma. "I graduated."

My dad swore under his breath and my mom slammed her book into her lap. "I knew we were forgetting something," she hissed. "We had such a time getting Martin out of the house this morning."

I shook my head, finally walking into the living room. I sat down beside my dad on the sofa. "Don't worry about it, it was really boring."

My mother still appeared distraught. "Martin didn't wake up, we didn't leave the house until after nine. Then he was throwing a fit because he was late and he wasn't going to get the Pokémon he wanted," she let out a disgruntled gasp. "I had to call your father to come help calm him down."

"You weren't home?" I asked, looking to him.

He waved to his computer and the stack of paperwork. "We had a bit of an emergency when our entire Marketing department quit. Since that's where I started, I have been appointed in making sure it stays up and running while we look for replacements."

"Oh," I replied and looked back to my mom. "I assume Martin left? The house is quiet."

She released an exasperated sigh. "Your dad and I got him to Professor Oak, who managed to talk him into still going."

"That's good." She shrugged and I heard my dad make a concerned, clicking noise with his tongue. I glanced to him. "It's not good?" I asked him.

"Martin was already so defeated as he left Pallet," he muttered. His attention was split between the conversation and his work. "I imagine we will get a call when he makes it to Viridian City or Pewter City."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I looked down to my hands in my lap, suddenly feeling guilty of the thoughts I had had the previous day. I didn't want to disappoint my parents too. We all fell silent for several minutes.

"He will figure it out," my mom finally spoke and she adjusted in her seat, setting the book she had been holding on the coffee table ahead of her. "Are you hungry, dear, I can make you some lunch?"

"Oh," I said, nodding, "sure, thanks Mom."

She smiled at me and left the room. "I was thinking, Pipe," my dad spoke again and my eyes fell on the side of his face. He was leaning forward, staring intently at his computer screen. "Your birthday isn't far off. How would you feel about a trip to the Safari Zone?"

"The Safari Zone?" I echoed. "In Fuchsia City?"

My dad nodded. "I thought you could get some good pictures there."

"I could," I agreed.

"Think about it," he said, "and let me know."

"I will." I leaned back in my seat and stared across the room. Perhaps I had been too hasty in my decision to leave, perhaps it would be a lot different if it was just my parents and I. I would probably be able to talk to them about what I wanted to do and they would understand. Perhaps I thought I should change my plan.

"Oh!" My mother was suddenly back in the living room, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. "I almost forgot to tell you, Piper."

"What's that?" I sat up straighter.

"I spoke with Professor Oak and his lead aide while we were at the laboratory today," she excitedly told me, "and they said you could come in for an interview on Monday morning!"

"Oh." I blinked several times. "Thanks, Mom."

I internally shook my head. I wasn't going to change my plan.

I spent the early evening quietly gathering the things I thought I would need to leave on a long journey across the Kanto region. I had picked out a satchel-type bag, knowing a backpack would just annoy me after using one at school every day for more than a decade. I had several changes of clothes, toiletries, snacks that I was able to grab from the kitchen without my mother noticing, and a nice chunk of money I had been saving for years.

Knowing I was going to bring Bird with me, as I was really the only one who cared for her, I had packed food for her and a nifty little bed that tightly packed away into a small, square shape. I had safely packed up my camera in the secure camera bag my dad had bought with the camera. I had extra photographic paper for the camera and all other items I could think of needing for the equipment. I had notebooks and pens to chronicle my travels in word and sketches.

I just needed to decide when I was leaving.

I knew both my parents were tired, they had been discussing it over dinner. I hoped that meant they would retire early and I could leave out shortly after the sun set. It had been a while since I had visited Viridian, but I remembered it being a quick walk. I could make it to the city and still have time to sleep for a few hours before getting up early and continuing onward.

I sat down on my bed and slowly let my breath out. It seemed I had planned for everything and I was still surprisingly calm. I just needed to wait and see if I followed through with my decision.