It is a nice morning day with beautiful weather with the streets flooded with cars of people heading for work. Everyone is going about on their jobs and work to do everyday.
Our eyes then turn to a secondary school student getting off a car, getting ready for his first day on his third year there. The student has black hair with a side fringe, wearing glasses with a neat school uniform. This young teenage boy is me and my name is William. I am 15 years old this year and I am about to start my third year with a surprising new adventure waiting for me in another world...
I give my mother a kiss and thank her for dropping me off to school. She wishes me a great first day and I wave her goodbye before driving off to work. I enter through the main gate and properly greet the guards stationed there a good morning.
Seeing that it is the first day, I better hurry to the assembly hall so that I will have ample time to find my assigned class for the year. At the side of the assembly hall, I can already see hundreds of students in their respective classes in a messy fashion, talking non-stop like what you hear in a morning marketplace.
It has been like this though, all students just seem to have much to talk to each other but never when the teacher ask them questions. I suppose that is just how we teenage students roll. However, I prefer to follow and set a good example to respect the teachers like what a normal student should do but from where I come from.
Being so obedient is seen as an act of mere hypocrasy and everyone will tease you of being a teacher's pet or stay away from that person like he has the plague or something. But, I do not mind that kind of behaviour as long as I do my part of making my mother proud and a name for myself in this school on becoming an elite student.
After minutes of looking around, I finally find my class and I take my seat behind the group where my friend, Andrew is sitting.
"Hey, William. It has been awhile. So, trying to play a role student again this year?" Andrew teases me and I just shrug it off with a sigh. "Come on man. Don't you start now..."
We just start a little conversation our own like who is the new homeroom teacher, the personality of the batch of teachers that will teaching us or where will we be sitting this year. I find those questions quite important since it will be fixed until the end of the year.
Our conversation is cut short as so with the rest of the students as our headmistress loudly and fiercely silence the entire assembly through the microphone. That does the trick with everyone quiet down. We are then requested to stand up straight as we prepare to sing the national anthem and school song. But, very few would voice out singing the anthems proudly and clearly due to it being so overated and boring by the majority of students. They pretend to follow by lipsinking and some would even quietly sing along due to the peer pressure of the others who find those singing along weird or losers. As much as I hate to be labelled as a social outcast, I just disguise my voice to sound like a random person and sing along to the anthem I normally do. Our school is not really a bad school neither it is good like a prestigious school, the students just have a rebellious spirit and restless attitude.
After the anthem, we are then asked to be seated and listen to the morning announcement. The principal gives a speech to motivate us to do our best and make a determined effort to improve may it be academics, sports or extracurricular activities. She also request us to be on our best behaviour and perform as a student of Perdanians Secondary School should. Shortly after that, we are led by school prefects to enter our respective classrooms in an orderly fashion. As for my class, it is located in block E where the Form 3 classrooms are located and in the very front, Class 3 Ambitious. My peers quickly claim their wanted seats like a market spree on black Fridays. I just take the front row seats so that I can listen to classes easier and another reason being that nearly no one wants to sit in front to be called out by teachers and rather sit behind for their own reasons like sneaking snacks or reading manga/ comics.
For the first day of classes, we are not really much on studying more of getting to know each other and the teachers for the year, preparing lists of books to prepare and assigning class positions like head monitors, secretary, treasures or duty roster planners. Usually we would nominate candidates who would be suitable to take the roles but it is more of a sacrificing ritual where they just choose any odd one of the group and pretend to support them with votes so they will not be chosen instead. I am then chosen next to assume the role of the assistant class monitor after getting rooted out by the other classmates but I do not mind since it would be an excellent position to earn some curricular points given that you perform your duties.
After the first to four periods of meeting our teachers and learning what our syllabus and units to cover before examination checkpoints, it is time for recess and most of my classmates take off somewhere in the school, hopefully staying out of trouble. As for me, I usually spend time in a nearby gazebo to have some homemade lunch my mother prepares for me and just watch the open field and other students playing. Times like this is quite peaceful to just indulge in our surroundings. I plan to ace my exams and participate in some competitions to rack up my points. However, all of a sudden, there is an important announcement that classes today are cancelled due to something that has come up and it requires all of the school staffs' attention and therefore all students are asked to line up in the hall to be escorted one by one to the gates and return home.
Everyone is wondering about what is going on around here and why the sudden school is being cancelled. I overhear others talking about an accidents outside the school about a car crash or something like that, some whisper about a terrorist attack that caused people to be injured. Something is happening around here, I have a feeling that it may jeopardize the entire school. One thing that really gets me feeling absurd is that the students are happy that school is closed for the day so they can leave home early to do whatever they want.
It is 11.20 in the morning, close to being afternoon, everyone begin leaving the school and heading home, some just head off to probably loitering and hang out in nearby eateries. I usually take the bus home but my friend, Andrew informs me that he hears about the public bus is involved in today's accident.
"It can't be help, I guess. I will have to walk back home. See you Andrew." I bid my friend goodbye and start walking east along the street where food stalls are all around there. My house is a little far away so I decide to skip the idea of having a bite and keep on walking along until I reach the main road where there is a hospital and fire station as local landmarks. Sounds of crying and screams can be heard just up ahead. I can see that there are some bullies with different school uniforms picking on some younger students from my school. They are badly injured with bruises and scuff marks on their faces, arms and legs. Just at the sight of them, I feel that as a passerby I need to do something but I am outnumbered and might get overpowered if I just intervene directly. So, I quickly come up with an idea by taking some shots of the bullying cases, but the photos are a bit blurry to be identified if I turn it to the cops so I have to get closer. I approach them super quietly until I can get a clear shot from behind a street lamp and I manage to take some good shots.
Unfortunately, one of them notices me and shouts out to his gang about an snooping ease dropper. I quickly make a run for it and they immediately give chase and forget about the other students. I run as fast as I could but they are slowly catching up to me so I have to lose them. I take a huge gamble by running into the trees, hoping the terrain might slow them as a group. Traversing through the woods seems to throw them off a bit but I cannot stop there, I need to lay low somewhere until the coast is clear. I hide behind a huge tree off the path and watch from a distance as they each spread out to look for me. My heart is pounding quick as I catch my breath thinking on how rash I am doing this. Thinking that I am clear to move, I am thinking of coming back out the way I came in, one of them gets the jump on me and pushes me away from the entrance, causing me to roll down a hill of fallen leaves. He calls his gang and they start to chase me again. I am not badly injured but I have no time to rest. I come across to a dead end with a ledge on top of me but I cannot reach it and there is nothing around me to give me a boost to get up there. Then, I find myself surrounded by those thugs and they toss me to the ground with a loud thud. One of which just snatches my phone and stomp it to the ground to bits with the frame cracked.
But, I am not giving up without a fight as I try to get some jabs into a few of them but they are too much to handle and they tire me out so I quickly cuddled myself as they kick me and beat me senseless. Reaching my limit, I think that I am done for, probably would get me seriously injured until I have to be sent to a hospital. Suddenly, alarms and sirens which sounded like the police are closing in on us, the bullies decide to quickly leave the area before they could be arrested, leaving me injured to even stand up on the ground. Despite their attacks, I do not appear to have any apparent bruises or serious injuries, I guess that they arrive in time to save whoever they are but I am too tired to even stand up. I could only catch a glimpse of a person with a white coat, checking on me as I close my eyes due to extreme exhaustion.
I don't know how long I was out for, but I feel that my body is being moved somewhere. Is this a kidnapping going on, I cannot be certain but I am still too tired to open my eyes and escape. I feel like I am somewhere warm and on a comfy surface like a bed. As my eyes slowly open, I am surprise to see a nice room with shelves of books, a study table and a stuffed cushion which looks familiar. But, I hear someone in the room with me, and I see myself looking better than ever, my body does not hurt any more. Whoever this person is, I really must thank them for treating me so well. I turn around expecting to see a person but all I see is a huge pink colored creature wearing an apron smiling at me which shocks me as I retreated to the corner of the bed. Upon closer look, the creature looks surprised like myself as if it wonders whether I am scared by it. The creature does not appear to be aggressive or about to attack me as I slowly approach it, I respond by saying hello to it and it waves back with a friendly smile. The creature is familiar and I recognize it, that pink colored fur with a white tummy and a swirl, ears shaped like of a rabbit and an apron but it is impossible. Impossible yet the fact, it is standing in front of me with my own two eyes, it is a Wigglytuff, a pokemon. But, it is all made up; fictional creatures and yet it exists.
As I try to process what is going on around here, the door to the room slides open, revealing a woman with a white coat with a brown swirly hair. Just like Wigglytuff, that woman looks recognisable too.
"Hello William. You are finally awake now. Glad to see you better now." The woman spoke as I recall this woman's name and it came to me. "Are you... Professor J-Juniper?" I ask with again with a surprised look. She nods replying that indeed her name is Juniper. But, she called me by name, meaning she knows me and yet I know her from sometime ago, not from the game though.
The professor looks confused to why I am reacting so surprising to all this so she help me to remember something. "Do you remember the time when you and your mother come to a pokemon camp programme? You are just a preschooler that time, so cute looking!" Hearing that piece of detail, it does ring a bell but it does not make sense. Yet I do remember that it was a time where my mom registered me to take part in a pokemon initiation programme where young children like me at that time, spend some time in a place with magical creatures that inhabit the world - Pokemon. Pokemon of different species, shapes and sizes could be found. I felt so happy spending time with those pokemon, it is like a haven where I could run around and play with every pokemon that I met in the camp.
At the same time, I can feel that some other memories of mine returning where I am in an open field with a cottage in peaceful town in a world of Pokemon. But I thought of them as dreams not as memories or were they just dreams though. I need to be sure of whether my thoughts are right or am I just losing it.
"Professor Juniper... Can you tell me where am I? Please show me the outside?" I ask with a focused gaze and the professor nods and accompanies me outside the room and past a huge lab into a hallway with a door. She tells me that behind that door lies the answer to my suspicions. She places her hand on my shoulder and tells me, "Go for it, William. See the wonders behind that door!"
I feel a lot more confident and I step forward to grasp the doorknob firmly. I give the knob a twist and push the door outward little by little. As the door opens, my face suddenly sparks with amazement as I see it with my eyes and it really does exist. I can see an open view of people and pokemon in the open fields, streets and the skies. It is a sight that I once think that it is just made up and a fantasy. For once, I am astounded by the fact that it does exist - the world of Pokemon!
As I let the sights of different pokemon and the smiles on the people's faces with their pokemon sink into my mind, I could not help but shout out in excitement to my heart's content. Professor Juniper join me on the outside and wishes me those exact words which spark a whole new adventure to every trainer.
"William, welcome to the world of Pokemon." As both of us gaze into the sky with faces filled with hope and excitement...