WOAH DUDES! AN UPDATE! How weird indeed...

Progress with this fic is soooooo veeeeeeery sloooooow, and it's driving me crazier than normal. No time to write! Especially now that RS has magically gotten herself somewhat of a life. Heh heh.

Oh yeah, it was my birthday on the 30th. Gimmie cake XD. I keed, I keed. Sorta. Mmmm, cake. Sugar sounds REALLY good right now...

Alrighty, so here is the first official chapter of Kalista! Aren't you all excited? ;P

I will warn you now: If I could rate this fic anything, it would be a PG-16 (that's right, sixteen) if there was such a thing. Excessive cursing and adult situations will be in this fic. You have been warned!

Now read, my minions!

Chapter One

"How could you DO this?!"

Because Donna had the supplies and is a good artist, that's how.

"You're only thirteen!"

Duh. I know how to count.

"So did everyone at this so-called 'birthday party' go as...insane as you did, or were you the only one at this little shenanigan?!"

It was my birthday party. It's not my fault Todd flushed Donna's real birthday present to me down the toilet. A sixty-dollar gift certificate to Dark Pokemon 'Dise, only the coolest store in all of Hoenn? Rustburo's gonna be overflowing in sewage tomorrow.

"Kalista Lynn Merta, ANSWER ME!"

"Ma, hold your Ponytas," I sighed, rolling my right eye. I long ago taught myself how to do that—roll one eye in boredom while the other looks 'attentive'. No matter how often I do it, it never fails to freak Ma out. Which is understandable, given the circumstances. People are freaked out alone just by the damn color of those suckers.

But like I predicted, Ma winced when I performed my one-eye roll, and sighed angrily. "Kalista, you're thirteen! How could you have even gotten a tattoo?!"

I held out my right arm, smiling to myself. It still hurt like a bitch, but it was worth it. I wondered what Chase would say about it. Probably nothing. As usual.

"Well," I began. "We were having this blowout at Donna's, right? And then the lights went out and these symbols magically appeared on my arm! It must be a sign! I've got to get out and find out what they mean!"

"Young lady," Ma warned, giving me 'the Look'. Ugh. The Look. It meant only one thing...

"You're grounded!" I mouthed as she yelled the words.

"Yeah, whatever," I replied, stomping my pointy platform boots and me upstairs to the room Chase and I shared, and slammed the door. I flopped face-first onto my bed, forgetting that I had just had a needle poked into my skin dozens of times a few hours ago. I hissed in pain as my upper arm hit the comforter.

"'Comfort'-er my ass," I muttered, lifting my right arm up and just leaving it there floating for awhile. Damn, Donna never said such a cool-looking piece of work would come with this much freaking pain.

I turned my head to the side a bit, glancing at my floating arm. The newly-inked symbols into my skin seemed to glimmer...if that was possible. I thought back to the 'party' (if you call me and Donna a 'party') just hours before, when Donna had even had the thing done to me...

-----

"I cannot freaking believe Todd flushed your present down the toilet!" Donna, my soul sister, complained, stomping in her clunky combat boots. That's right, she was my soul sister. We were never 'best friends'...that was the most overused term on the planet or something. Donna would never be my 'best' friend anyway, considering how much shit she puts me through.

I shrugged, pushing some strands of hair behind my ear. "What can you do? Little brothers suck."

Donna glared at me with her dark brown eyes—though they seemed black with the amount of eyeliner she had on today. "Do not even go there," she growled. "You're the baby of the family! So how would you even know?!"

I shrugged again, pushing up the sleeves of my black shirt. The zillions of black rubber bracelets I was wearing could finally show. "Who knows? Maybe somewhere out there I have some younger siblings. Or maybe I was born before Chase." I suddenly burst out laughing. "Would that be freaking hilarious?! I mean, Chase is constantly acting like he's years older than me or whatever, and I might have been born before him!"

Donna also laughed, but it seemed a lot more forced than mine was. She always seemed uncomfortable talking about the fact that I was adopted—a.k.a., I had no clue whatsoever what my real parents were like. Ma never said if she knew them or not, and wouldn't even tell me if she knew their names, claiming I wasn't 'old enough'. Dad wasn't even around all that much—he's the vice-president of Devon Corporation, so he's at the office all the time. Not that I cared; we didn't have much in common. I'm not one to get alone with people who wear suits twenty-four-seven. And Chase—geez, it was like he and I were actually born to these people we call our 'parents'. All he ever does is hide in closets and mooch off the darkness or something.

"So what's my replacement present, biatch?" I joked, throwing a pen at her. It flew near her hair, and she literally growled at me.

"Watch the hair! It took me three hours to do it this morning!" She suddenly smiled slyly. "It's not going to come out for a week! Mom's gonna blow a gasket!" Her grin grew wider.

I had no doubt about that. Donna's dark brown hair was currently spiked in spokes about three inches high all over her head, with the rest of her shoulder blade-length hair tied securely against her head where the rest of it just flowed down—dyed completely green.

"Sorry, sorry," I said, rolling my eyes. Both of them, that time. Donna plopped on the couch next to me and propped a foot on the coffee table. I regrabbed the pen I had just chucked at her and started doodling on a piece of paper that was on the table.

"Dang, now I have no gift for your big one-three," Donna apologized, sighing. "I'm going to kill Todd. Seriously. Is there anything that you want, short of my green hair dye?"

Damn.

"What are you drawing anyway?" she asked, sliding her foot off the table and hunching forward to see the paper. I was tempted to hide it—Donna's only a year old than me, but she's an incredible artist—she makes extra cash by drawing and painting portraits of people's Pokemon, and that's the reason she can afford that hair dye and those combat boots. I just constantly scribble, is all.

Before I could hide my doodle, Donna grabbed it from me and stared at it, raising an eyebrow. "Uhh...what is this? Some secret language?"

I snatched the paper back. "No...I think. I've just been drawing it every time I get a pen or whatever in my hands for awhile. I guess it could be a language or something, but..." I squinted at the letters. "Can you see any letters in that?"

"Nope," she answered a little too quickly, and we laughed.

"It does feel like it's important though," I confessed. "Plus, they look really, really cool, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Donna admitted. "Put in line, they'd make quite the attractive border...hey!" she suddenly cried, putting her purple-glossed lips into a grin.

"What?"

"I just thought of the perfect birthday present for you!"

"Your combat boots?"

"No," she growled again. "I was thinking more along the lines of a tattoo."

My right eye widened—just that one—for some odd reason. "Hell yeah! That'd be great...but there are two problems: one, um, HOW?! And two: I'm not even OLD enough!"

Donna snickered. "You really think I'd let that stop me?" She grabbed the pen from me and twirled it in her fingers. "I could tattoo these symbols on your arm if you want. Even if they really don't mean anything, they still look pretty kick ass."

She was right there. "Sure, but how would you do it?"

She grabbed my right arm and the paper I had drawn the symbols on, and started carefully etching them out onto my skin. "Actually, I've seen Matt's friends do this a zillion times," she said, sounding confident. Since when did she spy on her older brother? "You just need a needle and some ink...it'll hurt," she warned.

"My pain be damned," I snorted, holding out my arm some more. "Ink me, baby!"

-----

And obviously, she did it. The symbols were circled around my upper right arm, in their black-inked glory. I got up and stared at the design in my mirror, also poking my hair while I was at it. I have styled my brown/black hair the exact same way since I had discovered the hair gel in my older brother Jeff's room—pointed up on either side of my head with some free strands curling around my face. Jeff—aw heck, all four of my brothers, Chase included—made fun of it forever when I first did the 'do, calling them 'Meowth ears'.

Which, really, was what I was going for. But of course I wasn't going to let them know that.

Since it's been so many years, they've finally let up on the insults. Not that I ever really cared—what they say doesn't mean anything to me. The only brother who I can really call my bro is Chase. 'Pretty Boy' Jeff, 'Pokemon Nerd' David, and 'The Master' Eric have always been, to me, just people I am forced to share my life with.

Not that I've ever really wanted to share my life with anyone. Well, except Chase, but he was my twin, so that didn't really count. No...I've always wanted to get out of Rustburo City, to get away from Hoenn and travel...all my life I've felt like there was something big out there waiting for me.

I actually attempted to become a Pokemon trainer or master, or whatever the heck you want to call it, when I turned ten, but before I could set foot out of the house to grab a Pokemon and get the hell outta there, Ma caught me. She's deathly afraid of letting anyone travel and train—just because Eric was nearly killed in an accident seven years ago when he was ten. I don't know what it was all about; something along the lines of Krabbies grabbing his Torchic underwater and him diving in after it.

But ever since the day Officer Jenny brought Eric home, sopping wet and practically dead, Ma banned any of us from traveling until we were 'of age'. Which could mean twenty or twenty freaking hundred.

Eric still had the Torchic though. It lived in the backyard in a pen like a damn Growlithe.

I sighed, flopping angrily backwards onto my bed. I wondered where Chase was. After all, it was his birthday too. He couldn't really be out celebrating—and he wouldn't be if he knew Ma had grounded on our big one-three. Besides, he doesn't really have many friends to celebrate with.

It's been like that for as long as I can remember. Neither of us had many close friends, and Chase and I...well, we had each other, but we didn't. He was extremely protective of me and always made sure I got the best of anything, but most of the time, he would just go hide in closets or just disappear for hours at a time, not telling a soul where he was going, which of course, worried Ma sick. He always seemed to know when I needed him, though. Probably that weird twin connection thing.

"Yeah, you tell Ma," I muttered to the ceiling. "Who gets grounded on their birthday?"

Just then, I heard the front door on the first floor slam shut. At first I assumed it was Jeff, home from his weekend-long surfing trip. Yes, not only is Jeff the 'pretty boy' of Rustburo, but he's also a surfer. He wants to travel to Kanto one day and surf that giant wave that Viktor dude in Kanto did or whatever.

I realized it wasn't my idiot second-oldest brother, though, when I didn't hear him asking where the burritos were. That's what he does every single freaking time he comes home; yells at Ma for some burritos. He's overly obsessed with the stuff.

Instead, I heard silence, and then a heavy clunking up the stairs. I smiled to myself. Who else could it be but...

"Hey loser," I greeted once Chase opened the door to our room. I sat up and saw him raising an eyebrow.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked, taking a rather large black box and gently laying it on his bed. "I thought you were over at Donna's."

"I was," I said, inconspicuously flashing my right arm at him. "But the, uh, 'party' got broken up..."

"You two were the only ones there, huh?" he snorted, shaking his head. If he didn't lay on the gel, his hair would've shook with him, but he spikes it every morning. It's crazier than my Meowth-eared look. "Geez, Kally. And you're constantly going on like you're the most popular girl in school or something. Give it up."

"And give up calling me Kally," I growled, getting up and kicking him in the leg with my pointy boot. He certainly wore his baggy black pants right; the kick didn't seem to affect him at all.

I glanced down at the box on his bed. "What's that?"

He was looking at my arm. "What the hell?"

I snorted. "I asked first."

"Ladies first."

I growled. "It's on later." I turned so my tattooed arm was facing him. He raised his eyebrows a bit.

"Isn't that those scribbles you're always doodling?"

I nodded. "Donna got me some gift certificate, but Todd flushed it, so she tattooed me with them instead. Kick ass, huh?"

"What'd Ma say?"

"She flipped out, forgot it was my birthday, and grounded me."

"Typical. But I'm surprised at you—you're never one to give in to the system."

"Shut up and tell me what's in the damn box already."

"Fine, fine." He carefully opened the box like his life depended on it and we both peered inside. My mouth fell open.

"A guitar?! How'd you get your hands on that?!"

"Birthday present. Derek down at that music warehouse snagged it for me. He wants me to start a band."

I raised my eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"You don't even know how to play that thing."

Chase gently took the instrument from the box and held it, though I had no clue if it was the right way or not, and actually played a recognizable tune. I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, so you do know how to play it."

He shrugged and stood up, carrying it and himself over to the closet, where I knew he was going to sit and probably play that thing for hours. "Well, yeah, I gotta know how to play it if I want to start this band I'm supposedly going to have to start."

I shook my head as the closet door shut, kicking off my pointy boots since, really, where was I going to go? I heard Chase faintly start to play and I couldn't help but smirk.

"Ma is going to kill you."

---

Bow down to my awesomeness. Not.

REVIEW REPLIES CAUSE I'M REALLY HAPPY AND LOVE YOU ALL!

Robin Ryan—Heh heh, hey, cliffhangers are my specialty! You should know that by now. ;P And that DOES sound like a Plan. Bwhaha. Thanks again for the awesome drawing! :D And no dissing Danny. I wuff him. :P

Hazy Aurora—Yep, that's Lindsey for you...-sigh- My girls are so silly. Sooo...silly...wow, I need sleep. Heeere's an update!

Rose—CHOCOLATE! –pounces chocolate and starts to gorge-
Magnificence? Uhhh...riiiight. ;) Actually, I'm also starting to wonder how she gets food...I remember back in Lindsey Steve mentioned the lack of mini-fridge in the bedroom-type room in the Den...hrmmm. One of the mysteries of fanfiction.

Emerald Milotic—Nahh, I wouldn't throw pie at you. ;) Welcome to my madness! FWEE, I GOT ANOTHER READER! I'M SO COOL! XD Thanks so much for the review, and I hope you'll continue reading!

Adriel—Yep, yep, I made it, and I can't get out! –dies- Har har. And hush...that was, uh...a test. To see if anyone noticed. Yeah. You get the golden Oreo pie!
Actually, I WOULD ask you to proofread THIS chapter, but you're not online, so that's out of the question. ;)
Lately though, it's not the homework, it's the time and quiet I need to write. Plus the fact I have horrible writers block at the moment. Grraaaaaaarl. Meh.

Hakura0—Hey, there's no time limit on reviews! :D And aackk...I did write that, didn't I? –hides- EEEEK! IT'S CRAZY! THE REVIEWERS! THEY'VE GOT ME over-

ZeroChan—CHOCOLATE! –drool- Yes, my poor, poor Lindsey. She's gone through more crap than any of my characters. –sob- But is it meant to be, well, we shall soon see...-evil grin-

Almighty DB—PIE! –glomps all pies- r0ck 0n l33t!

Katie-- -gasp- And you're only now reviewing? For shame! Hehehe, I kid, I kid. ;) Thanks for reviewing this one! Wow, you sure know how to compliment. –blush- Believe me, if there was some way you could make a living writing fanfiction, I'd totally do it.

Kat—WASSUP KAT! XD –hands you pie- YAY PIE!

And don't even TRY to deny Fanning the Flames wasn't at least CUTE! C'moooon...

Kirin RaKash—I hope that's 'interesting' in a good way! –sweatdrop- Thanks for reviewing!

LoneHowl—Hey, pie is pie. So bring it on! –evil grin-

Dudes, I feel SOOOO loved right now, you have no idea! RainbowSerenity's itty-bitty ego is starting to inflate. Run for the hills!

Hmm, it's midnight on a technically Saturday, so you know what that means: a bowl of cereal and then coloring on the walls. WHEEE!

Good times, good times.

Now why don't you all be dolls and review, hrmmm? ;D