neogirl7900: You're welcome, and your story is great! - Hope you like the second chapter as well!
Maia's Pen: Well, I'm updating right now! I'll probably do one chapter a week or so. Anyway, thanks for the compliments. I worked a lot on my characters' personalities, so hopefully they seem fairly unique and developed.
blacklabel7066: Thanks! 0
Okay, this is probably the longest chapter I've written yet of this story (and I've written like 20 chapters of it), so don't hesitate to take a breather partway through. It's about 13 pages in MS Word; you have been warned! Dun dun dun dun!
The Glass Half Full
Ch.2 Almost the First Choice…
Twilight was creeping across the grassy fields of a small farm. The shadows of a few Tauros laying in the grass slowly descending into sleep began to disappear as the night's darkness swallowed everything up. All of the windows of the small farm's house were darkened except for one. A tiny window up at the top of the house glowed; a window in the attic.
Kayla's hands moved over the pictures of her parents that she and her grandmother had looked through only hours ago. She had been up in the dusty, dirty attic for about two hours since her grandmother had gone to sleep, thinking of the unknown journey that now awaited her.
Would her parents have wanted her to do this?
She held back tears for a moment. Knots had been in both her stomach and her throat for multiple times in the day, and they didn't seem like they were going anywhere very soon…. Kayla was scared. Scared that she wouldn't live up to the standards that her grandmother expected her to. What if she was no good at pokemon training? What if she came home still her same, timid self? What if…?
"Stop it, Kayla!" she whispered to herself in anger, "You always do this to yourself, and end up making yourself miserable!"
But she couldn't stop. The fear of coming home a failure and the fear of what was to come tomorrow couldn't help but weigh in her mind.
Tears were beginning to form again, and Kayla glanced downward, into the small, dirty box that held things from her parents. She once again stared at the golden coin that she had held up earlier in the day. She hadn't asked her grandmother about it, but now she had wished she had. Putting down the pictures she was previously holding, she gingerly picked up the heavy coin.
"What is this thing?" she whispered to the darkness. On the front, or what she guessed to be the front, were the two bird-like creatures she had seen earlier on it, and at the bottom was some sort of symbol. It looked like a spiky loaf of bread, or a crown or something similar. On the back was some sort of message, or inscription; but time and use had worn them down. Kayla couldn't make out what it was saying.
Kayla didn't know what it was, but since it had belonged to her parents; she felt as if instead of holding a piece of metal, she was holding a piece of them.
After thinking silently for a few more minutes, she decided that there was no way morning was going to stop coming; that she should just resolve herself to her fate and go to bed.
And with those thoughts she closed up the old box, and crawled down the hole in the attic floor, a large golden coin slightly visible in her right jean pocket….
"Kayla! Wake up! Or you'll be late!"
Kayla practically jumped up in her bed. Her thick hair swayed around her shoulders as she quickly twisted her head to the clock on her cherry wood nightstand.
She frowned, her sapphire eyes still half closed. "But Grama… it's only six-thirty. I still have a whole hour before I'm supposed to be there." She looked over to the door to her room, but there was no one in the doorway. "Grama?" Kayla said, confused as to what just happened.
Footsteps were audible. Soon enough, the old woman herself had popped her head into the doorway, a spatula in hand, "Yes?"
"What're you doing?" asked Kayla, now concerned for her grandmother's mental health.
"I'm cooking breakfast, child! You'll need a hardy meal to survive out there!" she stated, giving Kayla a stern look. Her other hand was on her hip where her frilly white apron met her old, gray shirt. "Now hurry up! I want you to be ready for the professor when the time comes!"
Kayla rose from her bed, and pulled off her nightgown as quickly as she could; which, considering her eyes had not fully adjusted to the light in her room, was actually very slow. She staggered over to her dresser, and pulled out her favorite clothes: pair of navy blue overalls, and a light pink shirt. Even though her favorite color was actually aquamarine, she just loved the softness of her thick pink shirt. After slipping the shirt and overalls on, she took a glance at her crimson hair in the square mirror on the back of her door.
"Yikes!" she said to herself after witnessing the horrible state her hair was in. She tried her best to keep it down and straight, but every time she ran the brush through it, two tufts of hair would pop up on either side of the top of her head. In the end of the battle with her hair, she finally decided to just give in and put two small ponytails on both sides of her head. The rest of her hair hung down to a little below her shoulders.
"Kayla!" shouted her grandmother to her. The smell of eggs and so many other good things soon filled up the room.
"Coming Grama!" called Kayla as she walked briskly into the living room. Assuming her grandmother was in the kitchen, she leaned over to take a peek at what she was cooking. Kayla was amazed. Her grandmother was racing about the kitchen at a speed that could only have been surpassed by one hundred miles per hour! Normally this would have made Kayla smile and think warm thoughts of her grandmother; but now, knowing that her grandmother was counting on her, she found herself looking at the carpet instead of smiling.
She plopped herself down in an old wooden chair at the dining table, still covered in decorations from Thanksgiving, which had had been over for a few months now. Kayla watched as her grandmother served her every breakfast meal under the sun, but she wasn't really taking it in. She ate fried eggs, scrambled eggs that looked a little too gooey, bacon, pancakes, sausage, the works; but her mind was something separate.
When the whole breakfast was over, and the dishes were clean, Kayla sat down on the couch with her grandmother. Kayla looked around at her living room, wanting to take a mental picture for herself; after all, this would no longer be her place to relax anymore.
There were two couches, a large and a small, though they were never full since Kayla and her grandmother were the only ones living there. An old-fashioned television sat in the corner of the room near the kitchen. The feel of the room to anyone that was an outsider would have probably been old and antique, but to Kayla… this was home. Nothing could ever resemble home any better. And no one person could ever replace her grandmother as her caretaker…
Kayla then turned her attention to her grandmother. The old woman rubbed her hands, and Kayla knew that they had probably been hurting from all of the cooking.
"Grama… you didn't have to go through all of that for m—."
"Oh nonsense! Of course I did. It's not everyday someone sets out on a journey in this family now is it?" the old woman said sweetly.
Kayla smiled, "No, I guess not," she paused, thinking of the large coin now with her.
"Um… Grama?"
"Yes dear?"
"When I was looking at the pictures of my parents yesterday, I came across… this…," she said slowly, pulling out the coin as she talked.
Her grandmother glanced at it and an odd expression crossed her face, "…I don't really know what that thing is. You see, these are items that were at your parents' house. A lot of things they owned I don't really know about. However, maybe you should take it along with you."
"Huh?" Kayla said in a high-pitched voice.
"Well, you seem to like it; and since it belonged to your parents, maybe it will be a good luck charm of sorts. Besides, perhaps someone out there will know what it is and be able to tell you a bit about it," she paused for a few moments, obviously thinking to herself, "I've been trying to think of a going-away present for you, and I think this just about fits the bill."
Kayla stared down at the golden birds, then back up at her grandmother's smiling face.
"Alright. Thank you Grama… I'll… I'll… miss," she said, starting to feel tears coming. This was the last time she'd be on the farm for a long time…
"Don't you worry a bit. I know you'll do just fine Kayla," the old woman looked completely sure of herself, and was positively beaming with pride. She gave Kayla a large hug, which practically engulfed the two of them.
"Now!" her more stern voice coming back, "No more of this mushy stuff! I want to see you leaving for that Lab. After all, it's already only fifteen minutes until thirty after…."
Kayla quickly checked the grandfather clock on the other side of the room, and noticed that her grandmother was right. They both stood up.
"…Bye…," said Kayla, wishing that this was all just one big dream.
"Get going you," said her grandmother, smiling as Kayla turned to go.
As Kayla left, she thought of something her grandmother had said to her the day before…
"…I just know that it would be so beneficial for you if you left for a while too…"
'I certainly hope so…' Kayla thought to herself as she waved back to her grandmother's smiling face in the doorway, 'I certainly hope so…'
As Kayla approached the larger than life building, she stopped to get a good look at it.
She had often passed by the pokemon lab, without really noticing it. It was obvious that the building had at one time been a nice bright white color, but with age had faded into an old gray. Even though there were only two stories to it, in Pallet Town there were no other buildings that could even try to rival its size. The fields and rolling rocky hills behind the lab were all used for the exercise of the pokemon that trainers had sent Professor Oak. Speaking of Professor Oak, Kayla had never met him before. Her grandmother had told Kayla all about him, considering that she and him had both lived in Pallet for a few early years of their lives.
Kayla now walked up to the front door. It was a beautiful door, the stained glass of a Charizard and Blastoise battling in the window of it. Kayla reached to pull on the handle, but a sudden feeling of uncertainty gripped her. She tried to shake it off, but suddenly became aware of the fact that footsteps were nearing the door on the other side...
"H... Huh?" she said, looking up at the door.
It swung open quickly, and before Kayla knew it, she was thrown to the ground, her bottom hitting the hard sidewalk in front of the lab.
"Oh I'm so sorry!" called a man's voice.
Kayla tried to stand up, "Oh it's okay...," she said timidly. She looked up to meet a man in a white lab coat. His young face was filled with concern.
"Hi there, lemme help you up," the young man said thoughtfully. Once Kayla had gotten back on her feet, the man put out his hand. "How rude of me not to check and see if someone was on the other side of that door... Anyway, I'm one of Professor Oak's aides. The name's Quigley. I was just on my out to go touring the gyms of Kanto and Johto. Hey! You're probably one of the kids coming today to pick out a pokemon! Good luck... Hey, here's a word to the wise: don't pick the Squirtle. Just don't. Oh, and the Charmander has some issues... don't pick him either... The Bulbasaur has great potential, but his only motivation seems to be food... He's the best pick; but you'd better snatch him quick! Oh, and lucky for you that you're here on time, because the kid that's late gets a Pikachu that's so disobedient, I would absolutely hate to be it's trainer…"
He took a quick look at Kayla's expression, which had gone from timid to downright scared.
"And relax! If you and your pokemon don't get along, you can always catch a better one, and send the old nasty one to Professor Oak! ... Wait, never mind... If you do that, then I'll have to help take care of it..." And with those final words, he started walking away shaking his head, mumbling about various things having to do with disobedient pokemon, and having to hold down a Rhydon and such.
Kayla slowly shook her head. He hadn't even given her a second to talk about any concerns of her own. Granted though, she would have been too scared to speak; the answer she might have been given could've made her feel even worse.
She now turned to the door and reached for the handle, when she suddenly noticed that another shaking hand was already on it. Her eyes followed the arm up to the slightly nervous face of a light brown haired boy with light blue eyes. Judging by his looks, he must've been somewhere around Kayla's age, maybe younger. His hair was cut in what Kayla's grandmother would have called a 'bowl style', and his dark blue t-shirt shook over his body.
He smiled nervously at Kayla. "Uh, going in?"
Kayla blushed; she hadn't had much contact with the opposite sex by living on a small farm that grew its own food...
She gulped and tried to pluck up the courage to find her voice, "Um... yeah?" She paused, 'Um... yeah? ' Why did she phrase it as a question? She hung her head as he opened the door for the two of them; already she was looking so stupid...
"Nervous too, huh?" said the boy. He snickered at himself, "I was so excited about today! I could hardly even sleep last night; but then I get here in the morning, and, well, look at me! A nervous wreck... Some pokemon trainer I'm gonna be.…"
Kayla let out a small sigh of relief. At least she wasn't the only one scared... With that in mind, she became much less worried.
Then his head perked up. "Oh! I'm sorry, my name's Mike. I'm from the house up on that big hill in south Pallet. And you are...?" His soft blue eyes turned to her.
Kayla blushed again. "Um I'm Kayla," she said in a barely audible voice, "And I'm from the, uh, farm up the road..."
"That's cool; living on a farm. Which starter are you gonna pick? I was thinkin' Squirtle or Charmander. They end up evolving into the really strong Charizard and Blastoise! Power; that's what I like about pokemon. That way my girlfriend Emily will finally be able to see that I can be just as tough as any other guy!" he finished, his voice getting higher in volume.
Obviously he was angry about the way his girlfriend thought of him.
Kayla just silently nodded. She was busy looking at all of the things in Oak's lab. He had countless charts and posters of pokemon anatomy, pokemon types, and pokemon starters. Some wood and glass frames held a few important-looking certificates, and of his Pokemon License too. Desks with computers and videophones were all over, and each of them was covered in countless stacks of paper. In a far corner of the room she noticed a large tank with some sort of water pokemon in it. The white seal poked its head out from over the side to watch the two go by. Kayla peered around. Where were they supposed to go in this huge place?
Mike paused in mid-step. "I don't suppose you know where we're supposed to go, do you?" he said, rubbing the back of his head nervously.
Kayla shook her head no.
"Oh… I thought not…," said Mike, now looking around quickly.
While Mike was busy looking for doors and such, Kayla listened for voices to follow. At first she didn't hear anything, but then she heard what sounded like two people arguing. It was coming from a room off to the left that was partially hidden from their view by groups of large pokemon feed bags.
She cleared her throat to try and get Mike's attention. "Ahem… um, I think I hear people that way…" she said quietly, pointing to the room she heard them in.
"Alright! Let's go check it out. And fast. I'm half-expecting to see Frankenstein in here…" said Mike, looking at the strange wiry and knobby equipment they were passing by.
They entered into the room, and before them stood an older man, obviously Professor Oak; and a young boy that looked about eleven with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. They were apparently arguing as Kayla had suspected….
"Come on Gramps! Why can't I have the Pidgeot!" said the boy, his brow furrowed in anger.
Professor Oak, complete with his hands on his hips, did not look like he was about to let that happen. "Gary, we've been through this! You must pick a starter pokemon and raise it yourself! And furthermore I," he paused, finally noticing Mike and Kayla standing in the entryway to the room, "Oh hello there. I apologize for the argument that my grandson and I were having."
He eyed Gary. "We'll discuss this later Gary…," he whispered to him.
"Come on over here you two, we should have started about ten minutes ago," he said, glancing at the clock on the wall as Mike and Kayla both entered the room.
In the center of the room were three pokeballs sitting in round grooves on the top of a waist-height machine. Kayla didn't know what the machine was for, but it certainly made the room feel cold and sterile. Each of the pokeballs was inscribed with the name of the pokemon inside it. Kayla looked at them, trying to remember what Mr. Quigley had told her before.
Professor Oak cleared his throat as each of the kids stood near a pokeball, "Usually I just let the new trainers pick their pokemon and leave with it to start their journeys, but I thought I'd do something different this time…." He grabbed the pokeball with the name 'Bulbasaur' on it and tossed it gently to the ground near Mike. A blinding flash came and went, and soon a squatty, green dinosaur-looking pokemon was standing near Mike's shoes. It let out a long yawn, and blinked lazily up at Mike.
Then the professor grabbed the next pokeball labeled 'Charmander'. He tossed it like he had with Bulbasaur's, but this time, the blinding flash yielded a tiny orange lizard. The flame on its tail was glowing softly, and his bright green eyes looked curiously around the room. Lastly, he tossed the pokeball labeled 'Squirtle', and after a third blinding flash, a small, baby blue turtle stood next to the Charmander. Charmander eyed the Squirtle with a suspicious expression, but the Squirtle just gave it an innocent look of curiosity back.
Kayla looked at the three pokemon before her. They didn't seem so bad. What was the aide talking about?
Oak cleared his throat again. "Now, these are your three choices. What you're going to do is see which one is right for you."
"Oh come on Grandpa! Let's just pick one and be done with it!" yelled Gary impatiently.
"Gary! Will you be quiet already?" said Oak in a calm, but annoyed voice. He was trying to keep polite while in front of Kayla and Mike; but Kayla had a feeling that if she and Mike weren't here, Gary would be getting more than just yelled at….
Oak continued, "Now each of you will choose a pokemon to look over. If the two of you seem to fit well together, then you can leave and begin your journey. If one of you can't find one that likes you, then I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with having to train a bit more than the rest. Unfortunately, we all have those we have to get along with in this world. Oh, and if one pokemon appeals to more than one of you, then I'm sorry, but we'll have to settle it with a lots drawing or some such game. But for right now, go ahead and choose one to look at."
Gary raced forward. "Yeah! Fire types are the coolest! You're with me Charmander!" he said loudly, as he picked up Charmander and went back to his spot with him.
Kayla blinked. That young man sure was outgoing. Did her grandmother expect her to be like that?
"Yeah, you are so going to evolve into a Charmeleon when you get to the appropriate level," said Gary, regarding Charmander's cute physique.
Charmander raised an eyebrow. "Great…," he said in a monotone voice, not looking too fond of the idea.
Mike cleared his throat. "Well, I guess it's my turn."
He looked down at the Bulbasaur at his feet. "I think I'll take a look at you. I never really thought about it before, but Venasaur is pretty tough…."
Kayla watched as the Bulbasaur stared lazily up at Mike, yawned, and closed his eyes. Mike frowned. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you," he said, poking the Bulbasaur's side to try and wake him up.
Kayla remembered the aide saying that Bulbasaur had 'motivational problems' and smiled. Then she turned to the last choice to be had.
Oak looked at Kayla reassuringly. "Go ahead."
The tiny Squirtle looked up at Kayla with its big brown eyes. It let out a cute "Squirtle!" and put its little finger in its mouth. Kayla smiled. What was wrong with this Squirtle? She could see it being nothing short of the cutest thing ever…
Oak nodded to the three of them, "Good. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I have to go find out what's keeping Ash. He should have been here about a half an hour ago. I'll be back in a few minutes."
With that he left the room, and the three of them with their new pokemon.
Squirtle watched closely as Professor Oak left the room, and then turned swiftly around to Kayla. Its cute babyish expression faded fast into a rambunctious little smirk.
"Huh?" said Kayla, a bit confused as to why it gave her such a look.
Gary was busy going on about how impressive his new Charizard would be. However, Charmander's expression seemed to be growing more and more annoyed. Its eyebrows kept twitching, and its tail's flame seemed to be growing more and more annoyed too…
Mike still wasn't having much luck with Bulbasaur. It seemed that Bulbasaur was now having a dream, and was proceeding to kick and wail loudly. It must have been battling something in its dream…
Squirtle smiled evilly at Kayla, and then put its right thumb to its mouth. It kept the thumb on its mouth while it wriggled the two other fingers and stuck out its tongue at Kayla.
"Hey… that's not very nice…," said Kayla, now realizing why the aide had said not to pick Squirtle…
Gary stopped and looked over in time to see Squirtle's gesture.
"Ha! That's funny! Ha ha ha!" laughed Gary, now ignoring Charmander.
Soon after it stopped the wiggling fingers, Squirtle's cheeks began to puff up a bit. Mike gasped.
"It's gonna use Water Gun! Get out of its way!"
Gary snickered, "You idiot, it's only at level 5. There's no way it could know Water Gun yet! Dummy."
Gary was right. Squirtle was too low of a level to know Water Gun, but it wasn't too low to know how to squirt water out of its mouth. All water pokemon instinctively know how to squirt water. It's a defense mechanism they all need to survive in the wild. So after a few tense moments of waiting for Squirtle's cheeks to puff up, it suddenly let out a small stream of water directed at Kayla.
Kayla jumped up, water hitting her stomach. "Ahh!" she screamed, running from the pokemon.
But Squirtle wouldn't let her get away that easily. It started to give chase around the room, and Kayla suddenly wished that she had picked something else. Now that Gary and Mike were bonding with Charmander and Bulbasaur, she would most likely get stuck with this horrible Squirtle…
Mike poked Bulbasaur, "Hey, can't you do anything?" But Bulbasaur was still enjoying its sleep. Mike sighed. This was going nowhere.
"Why'd I have to get the lazy onggggirrrrrbbbblleee!" he tried to yell, but was stopped halfway by Squirtle drenching him with water. He fell to the ground and spit out some of the water.
Kayla ended up in the corner of the room, trapped in there by a large machine labeled 'Pokemon Reviver' and a chair. She turned back in time to see Squirtle, walking slowly towards her, chuckling to itself, and readying another blast of water. This time, he was aiming for her face.
Kayla put her arms around her head. "Please don't do it!" she pleaded. Why wouldn't any of them help her? The least they could have done was to yell for Squirtle to stop.
Gary continued to laugh, his dark brown hair bouncing as he did so. He pointed to Charmander, "Why can't you be as funny as him?"
Squirtle looked over to Gary. At least one of them liked his kind of humor.
Charmander stood up. That was the last straw. It felt sorry for Kayla to have to put up with that Squirtle, and was very tired of hearing Gary's stupid laughter…
"Maybe I'm not as funny as him because I'm not a Jerk-Face like you!" it yelled to Gary, an expression of sheer anger on its face. It ran away from him and leaped in front of Squirtle. Squirtle took a step back in surprise, but after realizing that Charmander had no chance at winning, went back to the same spot.
Kayla looked up from her hands. "Charmander?" she said quietly, wondering if it were there to help her out, or to help out Squirtle in 'playing around' with her.
"Cut it out!" the tiny lizard said to it, putting its orange arms out in a futile attempt to protect Kayla. His bright green eyes leered at the Squirtle.
Squirtle laughed, "Yeah? What're you gonna do?"
Charmander proceeded to run up to Squirtle in order to perform some kind of attack, but Squirtle stopped him cold with a stream of water. And since, as they all knew, Charmander was a fire type pokemon, it fell to the ground after being hit. It used every last bit of energy it had to slowly move its head up to give a last glare at the Squirtle, and then fainted.
Kayla gasped, Gary continued his never-ending stream of chuckles and giggles interrupted by a "Cool!" and Mike stared pointedly at Bulbasaur. "Can't you do something? Anything?"
It was at that point that Professor Oak came walking back in. To his surprise, one pokemon had fainted, one was running amok, and the third was sleeping… Two of the new trainers were wet, and the third was laughing at them… He put a hand to his mouth.
"Oh dear… I suppose this 'getting to know each other' idea was a little premature… Perhaps next time I should not leave the room…" he said, picking up Charmander.
Gary laughed. "Come on, it was just havin' some fun Grandpa! And I've decided I want Squirtle! That Charmander was weak anyway. It couldn't even withstand one little burst of water that wasn't even an official Water Gun attack," he said, picking up the Squirtle. Squirtle smiled.
Kayla stared at Charmander's now limp body. How could Gary be so heartless? That Charmander was very brave and considerate, and all he could say about it was that it was weak. She looked up at Professor Oak.
"Will it be okay?" she asked, her voice not as quiet as before.
Oak smiled. "Yes, I'll just put him back in his pokeball and revive it in this machine," he said, referring to the huge machine that had trapped Kayla in the corner. He placed the small, white dot on the pokeball to Charmander's nose, and soon a swirling red light had sucked the pokemon back into the tiny ball. He then placed the ball into one of the six designated grooves on the machine and pressed a button. In a few seconds, the machine let out some beeping sounds, and Oak grabbed up the pokeball. He tossed it to the ground, and after the flash of white light, Charmander stood as good as new.
Charmander took a few seconds to get its bearings, and then noticed that Squirtle had become Gary's choice instead of him. It glared up at both Gary and Squirtle; glad that the two imbeciles were now stuck together. Gary stepped forward, he and Squirtle now between Kayla and Charmander.
"Well, now that I've got my pokemon, I think I'll be going Grandpa," he said, returning Squirtle to its ball as he talked.
He kept on talking, "You know, pokemon trainers these days just don't know how to handle their pokemon the way that I do. It requires a level of understanding and knowledge…"
Charmander rolled his eyes as Gary went on. Kayla was watching it, and smiling from the pokemon's reactions to Gary's 'speech'. Charmander noticed Kayla watching him, and began to make faces behind Gary's back as he talked on. First it stuck its tongue out at him, and then it waved its behind in the air at him. Then it moved its mouth to the time Gary's mouth moved and made funny faces at the same time.
Kayla stifled laughter.
Gary raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked. Kayla stopped and shrugged her shoulders. Gary went on.
When his giant speech was over, Professor Oak sighed. "Yes, well, Gary, you first must finish packing; then you can go."
Gary's smug expression quickly faded. "Huh? But I thought that… Oh fine!" he yelled, stomping off to another room in the lab.
Oak turned to Kayla and Mike. "Well, have you two decided?" he asked, ignoring Gary's stormy disappearance.
Kayla waited for Mike to talk first.
"I know I came in here wanting a 'power pokemon', but since Gary took Squirtle, if I take a grass pokemon as a starter, I can beat him!" said Mike, a look of determination in his eyes that Kayla had seen before when he had mentioned impressing his girlfriend.
Kayla gave a puzzled look to Mike. Why would he want to beat Gary? He never showed any signs of wanting to beat him before. She then figured it must be something personal, and that maybe someday she would find out…
"So, I guess I'll take this Bulbasaur," finished Mike, still attempting to get Bulbasaur to wake up, "On one condition."
Professor Oak nodded for him to continue.
"Can you tell me how I can get him to wake up!" he yelled loudly as he yanked the bulb on the dinosaur's back.
Professor Oak laughed, "Oh just wave some food in front of his face and he'll wake up fine. Once you two get to be good friends, I'm sure he'll wake up much easier."
Mike looked skeptical, but nodded just the same.
Oak looked at Kayla. "I suppose that leaves you with Charmander. Is that alright with you Kayla?"
Kayla felt herself turn red. She always felt so nervous when people of high authority addressed her. But she stared down at the little fiery lizard that smiled back at her, and found her voice again, "Yes, I think it will be alright…"
A/N: Whew! Well, whoever read through the entire thing without stopping can have a cookie, maybe several. Anyway, thoughts on stuff? Comments? I originally had those little arrow-pointy things around pokemon speech, but this website won't let me post it that way, so I just decided to use quotation marks instead. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next chapter, or when I read your own fan fics! See you!