Some Things Never Change
Chapter 3
By Arina Ketchum
"The day Arina was born was one of the happiest days of my life. Before I knew it, she was ten, all grown up, and ready to become a Pokemon trainer."
- Ash Ketchum, Memoirs of a Master
I tossed and turned in bed that night. Not a wink of sleep came to me; I was too busy worrying to catch any z's. What Pokemon would I choose: Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle? What if my Pokemon didn't respect me when I got it? I'd look like a complete idiot. My parents would think I was a failure.
Or...or what if I didn't pass the trainer's license exam tomorrow? That thought made me sit straight up in bed. I'd have to wait till November to try for it again, and that didn't give me nearly enough time to go around collecting badges to get into next spring's Pokemon League tournaments. It would mean going to school for part of the year at least...ugh.
The most terrifying thought that crossed my mind was letting my parents down. They always told me they were proud of me as long as I tried my best...but somehow I knew better. Mom had been the gym leader for Cerulean City and Dad had become a Pokemon Master, the very highest honors trainers could be bestowed by the Pokemon League. I knew deep down they were hoping their excellence was passed on to me somehow. I flopped back down on my pillow. The innate pressure was tough. I looked over at Dad's Pokemon League cap, hanging off my headboard, and slowly I began reciting the names of the Pokemon, their attacks, and what level they evolved at, until I finally dropped off to sleep.
My alarm clock woke me at 7 a.m. Half asleep, thinking I was at the training exam already, I screamed out, "Charmeleon! Level 30!"
"Arina?" My mom poked her head into my room. "It's time to wake up, birthday girl!"
"I want to sleep!" I moaned.
"You'll miss the training exam if you do."
My eyes flew open and I jumped out of bed. "What time is it? I can't mess up today!" I ran to my bureau and grabbed a shirt.
"I'll be downstairs, making breakfast." Mom said.
I was downstairs in under two minutes, dressed, and a backpack full of exam supplies. There was no way I was going to lose because I didn't have a pencil!
"Happy Birthday, Sweetheart." Dad kissed me on the cheek as I sat down.
"Thank you." I said as I dug into a plate of pancakes at my place at the table.
"Are you excited, Ar?" Mom asked, as she stood at the counter, cutting up cantaloupe.
I could only nod; my mouth was stuffed full.
"Do you want to go over questions?" Dad asked. I nodded again and swallowed. For weeks, Dad had been asking me questions that could easily be on today's test. Technically, it wasn't cheating, because most of it was common knowledge, like Pokemon names, attacks, etc.
"All right. What level does Ponyta evolve at?"
"Easy. Level 40." I answered.
"What attack does Charamander gain at level 46?"
"Firespin."
"You're ready for this. You know it all." Dad congratulated me. "Those were the questions you missed the last time I quizzed you!"
"Great!" I stuffed my face with the last pancake, shoved the chair back as I grabbed my backpack and stood up. Dad started reading his newspaper. "I'll be back this afternoon."
"You sure you don't want anything else to eat? It's a long time before lunch." Mom warned.
I shook my head. "Pokemon trainers sometimes have to go days without eating in order to become the best. Plus, I need to keep my girlish figure in check."
"Funny, I don't remember us starving." Mom said as she ate some toast.
"I do, and I remember that scrawny figure of yours too." Dad muttered from behind his newspaper.
I thought Mom would clobber him, but she only said, "Touché!" and continued munching on a piece of toast. Were my parents actually going to act more civil towards each other? It was my one greatest wish.
"Well," I said, "I guess I'll be going," and made a beeline for the door.
"See you at lunch, dear." Mom called after me.
I came home at 12:30. My parents were out by the pool. Mom was sitting in a deck chair, sunbathing in her bikini, and Dad was doing laps in the pool.
"Hi sweetie! How'd it go?" Mom took off her sunglasses and looked at me expectantly.
"I don't know." I shrugged casually, giving her an unreadable expression on my face.
"You don't know?" Mom raised a brow at me as Dad jumped out of the pool and dried off before hugging me.
"Oh, come on, Arina, stop pulling my leg. Now what score did you get?" Mom insisted.
"Well," I walked in front of them and pulled out my test. "You're looking at only person in Professor Oak's class to get all 100 questions right!"
Mom screamed in delight before jumping up to hug me. Dad grabbed the paper in disbelief.
"You mean you even beat out Gary Oak's son?"
"By six points. I never saw Professor Oak more upset." I said smugly.
"Oh congratulations, Arina!" Mom hugged me again. Dad just stood there, staring at my test.
"Dad, c'mon, it's just a trainer exam. It's not like I made it to the Pokemon League."
"It's not that." Dad shook his black spiky-haired head. "I was sure Gary would pull some dirty trick to make sure you failed."
"Well, he didn't." Mom's voice was firm, meaning the end of that conversation. "Ar, go get your suit, Seel and Squirtle have been waiting to play with you all day."
I changed into my red bathing suit, put my dark blue hair into a ponytail, and grabbed a Pokemon towel with a picture of a Vulpix on it. As I walked back out to the pool, I heard Mom and Dad quietly arguing.
"What do you mean, 'stop saying stuff like that'?"
"Ash Ketchum, you're as immature as you were when you were 10." Mom hissed.
"I know! You remind me every day!"
"You need the reminder! You beat Gary out in the Pokemon League tournaments and became a Pokemon Master. Gary wouldn't dare try to do anything to you, me, or Arina because of that. Plus, he'd be banished from the Pokemon Science Community if he did. It's over Ash, face it."
Dad was silent.
"Furthermore, this is a big day for Arina. It's her birthday, plus she got her training license. Try to act a little happy, at least for her sake."
I knew then I should make an appearance before somebody got hurt. I walked out to the lounge chairs and put my towel down. "I'm going to play with Seel and Squirtle." I said in a very, very soft voice, betraying the fact that I'd heard them fighting. Mom and Dad looked at each other, before I dove into the deep end of the pool, two Pokeballs in my hand. Underwater, I hit the Pokeball buttons and they enlarged and released the two water Pokemon. Squirtle, Seel, and I resurfaced and found Dad still standing next to Mom, who had gone back to sunbathing, but now looked mighty irritable.
"Hey, Arina," Dad said craftily, "doesn't your mother look a little too warm and dry?"
Either Mom was ignoring us, or she had wireless earphones in. Either way, she didn't have any idea of what Dad was up to...
I caught on immediately. "Yup, definitely, for a water Pokemon trainer."
"Exactly." Dad scooped Mom up and before she could react, dumped her into the deep end of the pool. Dad, Seel, Squirtle, and I roared with laughter as she resurfaced. She looked more exasperated than angry with Dad.
"Starmie!" she yelled.
The starfish Pokemon stood at attention, where it had previously been laying on the grass, enjoying the sun.
"Tackle attack, now!" Mom pointed at Dad, and before he knew it, he landed in the pool alongside Mom.
"That was a dirty trick using Starmie, Misty!" Dad cried when he came back up.
"And ruining my tan makes you a saint?" Mom splashed some water at him.
I dove under the water, signalling to Seel then. Both my parents need to cool down and have some fun for once.
Seel grabbed Dad's ankles and I grabbed Mom's and we pulled them down at the same time. We all resurfaced at the same time. Squirtle had made it back to to dry land and was rolling on his shell, laughing hysterically.
"What's so funny?" Dad demanded of Squirtle.
"THIS!" Mom cried and pushed Dad under again. "Race you to the other end and back, Arina!"
Mom and I were off like a shot, Seel racing alongside me. Mom ended up winning, but Dad thought it was a tie.
As we were drying off before eating lunch, Professor Oak stopped by the backyard.
"Gary! What are you doing here?" Dad demanded. Dad and Gary were rivals when they were both on their Pokemon journeys. Dad had never liked Gary...er, Professor Oak, mainly because of an attitude Gary had displayed, apparently. I was in Mom's camp on this one. I thought he seemed less like a monster than Dad made him out to be.
"No one was answering the front door so I figured you might be out back. Hello Arina, Misty."
"Hello," we answered.
Dad looked like he was about to boil over, so Mom quickly grabbed him, and asked if he'd bring out drinks. As he stormed into the house, Professor Oak said, "I have your Pokemon, Arina."
"Oh great!" I clapped my hands in delight.
"As you came out top of the class, you got your first choice." the Professor handed the red and white Pokeball to me.
"Which was...?" Mom asked.
I smiled at her and threw my Pokeball underhand-style toward the grass. "Come out, Bulbasaur!"
Bulbasaur materialized on the grass next to the pool. "Bulbasaur!" the little plant Pokemon cried and looked at the three of us.
"Wow!" I cried excitedly as I ran over and picked up Bulbasaur to give him a hug. "Hi Bulbasaur, I'm your trainer, Arina."
"Bulba-Bulb-saur." (So I've heard.) Bulbasaur didn't seem too happy, with the news. Slightly disappointed, I put him (her?) down.
"Bulbasaur doesn't like me." I announced to the group.
"You mean it doesn't respect you as a trainer. Give it a few days, Bulbasaur will come around." Professor Oak told me.
I felt Bulbasaur brush against my legs and I looked down. Bulbasaur shook his head at me, saying, "Bul-saur-Bulba-Bulba!"
"Bulbasaur says you're wrong and it's not that he doesn't respect me, but that he really doesn't like me." I announced.
"What an attitude!" Mom cried. "I think it's very ungrateful. After all, you're training it so it can become a Venasaur."
The back door slammed and Dad marched out with a tray of drinks and put it on the patio table.
"What say we have a little match? Say, Charmander vs. Bulbasaur?" Professor Oak asked.
"You're on!" I cried.
Professor Oak took a Pokeball out of his lab coat pocket and showed it to Dad. "If you'll do the honors, Ash?"
Dad must have stared at the Pokeball like it was some foreign object for a full minute before he grabbed it from Gary.
"Charmander, I choose you!"
Charmander came out of it's Pokeball. "Char-char!"
"Bulbasaur, tackle attack!"
"Bulba!" (No!)
I fell over. "Why not?"
"Bulbasaur-Bulba-bulbasaur!" (I don't like or respect you!)
"You said you just didn't like me! Now you won't respect me?!"
"Bulba!" (Exactly.)
"I forfeit!" I called, "Bulbasaur refuses to fight."
"Forfeit?! You can't forfeit, the match hasn't even started!" Dad said.
The Charmander next to Dad snickered, then said, "Charmander-Char-Char!" (Bulbasaur's a chicken!)
"Bulba!" (What!)
"Char-Char, man-char-mander!" (I called you chicken!)
I could tell Bulbasaur was getting angry. I knelt down to him/her/it and said quietly, "Bulbasaur, tackle attack!"
The Charmander never knew what hit it and my parents and Professor Oak only saw a blur of orange and blue-green flash by them. Charmander slammed against a tree in our yard.
"Bulbasaur Bulba." (Dumb Charmander.)
Mom, Dad, and Professor Oak clapped. "Nice job, Ar." Dad said.
"Thanks, but I didn't do anything. Bulbasaur won the match."
"Well, I'd better be going." Professor Oak picked up the unconscious Charmander. "This one needs some antidote before I give it to my son, Rob."
"Tell Rob he's going to need lots of antidote if he meets up with me in a battle!" I called as the professor left.
I could tell Mom and Dad were really pleased with how I was turning out as a Pokemon trainer. I only hoped it would stay that way.
After lunch, I was tired of swimming, so I changed into street clothes. Perfect timing, because my friend, Anna called, saying she was coming over.
Ten minutes later, my 15-year-old blonde friend arrived with an armload of presents for me. We've been friends for forever and a day. She and I have been through a lot together, like her parent's separation and eventual divorce. She went on her Pokemon journey when she was ten and although she didn't become a Pokemon Master, hadn't wanted to be one anyway, she had a lot of fun and told me everything about her experiences.
In other words, she got me hooked on Pokemon.
I'd never really been interested in training Pokemon. I mean, I lived with a bunch of them, including a furry electrical mouse, an assortment of water Pokemon, and an egg that went around crying "Togepi! Toge! BRIII!" all the time, and basically acted like a spoiled brat. They were all my family, not animals to be trained. The thought had never really occurred to me that training Pokemon was something I'd like to do until Anna came home. Then I became obsessed with getting to my tenth birthday, knowing everything there was to know about Pokemon. I pumped my parents for information about their days on the road, how they captured their Pokemon, how they met, anything that would help me on my journey.
And now I was ten, ready to go...
"Did you get your license and Pokemon?" Anna asked me as we arrived in the kitchen. She dumped the presents on the table and I pulled out my Pokedex from my back pocket.
"Does this mean anything?" I asked with a smile and flipped it open.
"I'm Dextra, the female Pokedex. I belong to Arina Ketchum, 135 Pidgey Way, Pallet Town. If lost or stolen, I cannot be replaced."
"I see Pokemon have gone politically correct," Anna giggled. "So where's your starter Pokemon? I'm dying to see it."
"It's out back, by the pool. Bulbasaur hasn't been very friendly to any of us, especially me." I said as we walked out to the patio.
"Arina!" Anna pointed to the pool. I looked to where she was pointing and gasped. Bulbasaur had somehow managed to get on the diving board, trying to ward off Seel who was challenging it to a match. There were only two problems with this: a) Diving boards were not designed for matches, b) Bulbasaur do not float and can rarely swim. There was only one solution. If Bulbasaur tackled Seel, it could reach the safety of the ground.
"Bulbasaur, tackle attack now!"
"Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur began running toward Seel, but the water Pokemon was ready with Horn attack. Bulbasaur flew through the air and landed in the deep end of the pool. I immediately dove in, clothes on and grabbed my drowning starter and pulled him to the edge of the pool. Anna grabbed him from me and as I pulled myself onto dry land, I heard it cough and sputter violently.
"Oh Bulbasaur!" I gasped, trying to bring my adrenaline rush down. "Are you all right?" I grabbed Bulbasaur and hugged it tight.
"You poor thing! Seel took advantage of your water weakness, didn't he?"
"What happened?!" Mom and Dad came running from the house.
"Seel tried to kill Bulbasaur!" I cried angrily. "Seel cornered it on the diving board and used Horn attack!"
Ok, so maybe I was exaggerating. Seel was not a vicious attacker, unless in a match. I saw the mix of hurt and shock in Mom's eyes.
"Arina, are you sure? I mean -" Anna started.
"Of course I'm sure!" I snapped at Anna. Bulbasaur started shivering in my arms and I realized I was a bit chilly, too.
"All right, everyone inside," Dad ordered. "Let's get you two cleaned up before we get the story."
As we walked into the house, Bulbasaur looked up at me and whispered, "Bulba-Bulbasaur-Bulb-saur." (Thank you for saving me.)
"That little twerp water Pokemon!" I cried as I stormed into my room, Anna behind me. "I would expect this from Dad's Squirtle, NOT Seel!"
"Arina, calm down, there has to be a reasonable explanation for what happened." Anna winced as I slammed my closet door shut after retrieving a pair of jeans and another shirt.
"Oh there is. Seel's afraid of competition!" I stormed down the hall to the bathroom to change. Anna stood outside the door.
"That's the most ridiculous statement you've ever made, Ketchum. I'll bet Seel could evolve if he wants. Bulbasaur's no match for him! Come on, I'll bet it was just trying to give Bulbasaur some experience before you left."
"Sure, by drowning it!" I finished changing and walked out of the bathroom, throwing the wet clothes in the laundry basket. as I left.
Anna sighed as we headed downstairs again. "Listen, pinky-swear you won't give Seel a hard time?"
I shook my head. "I can't promise that. Not if he was really trying to hurt Bulbasaur."
Anna shrugged. "Ok then, see you around, Ketchum." she said as she walked out the front door.
Ouch. I'd hit a nerve with her. Usually we'd hug before we said goodbye, especially if one of us was going on away on a trip or something, and Anna did not look happy as she left, either.
I chose not to run after her. I could make up with her later. Right now, Bulbasaur needed my full attention.
Mom and Dad had taken care of Bulbasaur while I went to change. Now Dad was building a fire in the living room fireplace while Mom had placed Bulbasaur in a cardboard box full of soft towels after drying him off.
"Oh, Bulbasaur." I murmured as I knelt down next to the box. "This is all my fault. I shouldn't have left you outside, with Seel of all Pokemon."
"Maybe you should get all the facts before you start throwing out accusations, Arina." Mom said and stormed out of the room.
Dad shook his head and watched the fire begin to grow. "She's right, Ar. You don't know for certain Seel did start the fight."
"How could he not have? There was no way Bulbasaur could have gotten onto the diving board without Seel's help."
"You still haven't heard Bulbasaur's side of the story. Mom's gone out to talk to Seel now. You can't just go around jumping to conclusions. I did that once, and paid for the mistake later."
I stared at my dad in shock. My father, the #1 Pokemon Master, had actually made a mistake? Momentarily forgetting Bulbasaur, I scooted over to Dad. "You did?"
"Yeah, Uncle Brock can tell you the whole story, but I basically shot my mouth off, and accused someone of torturing their Pokemon, when it turned out they were actually helping their Pokemon grow stronger."
I realized what Dad's point was, and that I was repeating history by making unjustifiable accusations.
"I'd better go apologize to Mom and Seel." Dad turned his attention back to the fire as I stood up to go outside.
I met Mom on her way back in. Seel was with her at her feet. "Mom, listen, I'm sor-"
"Sit down Arina."
That was the tone of voice you didn't argue with. I sat down on the kitchen stool and waited uncomfortably.
"Seel told me what really happened. Bulbasaur managed to climb up on the diving board and Seel tried to distract him when he got to the end. That's when you ordered Bulbasaur to tackle Seel. Seel was trying to defend himself, NOT kill Bulbasaur, Arina."
I looked down mournfully at my hand in my lap. "I know." I said quietly. "I'm sorry, Mom. Sorry Seel."
Mom didn't look any happier. "I thought you had begun to mature, Arina, and now I'm not so sure. You want to be treated like a grown-up and yet you act so immaturely when a crisis arises." Then Mom landed the final blow. "I think you'd better hold off on going on your Pokemon journey until you can prove to us you're ready."
My head shot up faster than a bullet. "NO!" I cried.
"What's going on?" Dad came in, as I fled past him to my room in tears.
"Arina didn't come down for dinner that night, or breakfast the next morning. Misty was still upset with her, so I went to check on her after I noticed Bulbasaur was gone from his bed in the living room. Figuring he was just exploring the house, I knocked on Ar's door. I didn't get an answer and walked in. She was gone, her drawers, her closet all half-empty of clothes. On her bed was a note: 'Gone on my Pokémon journey. Try and stop me now!'
Arina"
- Ash Ketchum, Memoirs of A Master
End Chapter 3
