When I headed to Route 29, I encountered Ethan and Marill. Oh, damn.

"There you are!" Ethan grinned and walked up to me.

I stared back at him blankly. "Hi."

He give him the lecture on how to catch Pokémon, but it's really obvious stuff and I already know how to do it. And really, I can do it much faster than him. Attack, take out Pokéball, throw it, pray to God, watch the Pokéball shake, hurrah. It's pretty simple.

Ethan gave me some Pokéballs, then left to go to Cherrygrove or something. In a few minutes, he was already way ahead of me. Maybe it's chasing that Marill everyday is what got him so fast.

So, I went onward.

I let Cinder nap, had a snack, battled some wild Pokémon, and got lost.

Eventually I came back to the place where I saw my first Pokémon battle. I ended up getting challenged by the trainer who lost in the battle. He claimed that I seemed weak, despite the fact that Cinder was out and was clearly much stronger than his stupid little Rattata.

It was my first trainer battle, so I got all excited. However, the battle ended very quickly. In fact, Cinder defeated the dumb thing in one freaking blast of fire.

"Oh...I'm out of Pokémon…" he said. Nice way to point out the obvious.

Cinder went back to my side, proud.

"Hey, can I get your number?" the trainer asked. "I'll ring you up for battle."

I thought something that went among the words of: "A boy wants my number? Omigod, I feel so pretty right now!"

What I actually said was, "Sure, why not?"

I gave the kid my Pokégear. He made some beeps on it and stuff. I got it back, grinning at the sight of the name "Youngster Joey."

I felt so damn popular.

Anyways.

I went against another trainer after that, some guy named Mikey. Just like Joey, he had all the popular stuff for boys on: yellow shirt, blue shorts, blue cap. To them, if you're a boy, and you don't have these things on, you may as well not exist as a Pokémon trainer. Hence why Ethan is so unpopular and is always around with me.

Then there's another group of boys who Ethan doesn't fit in with either. These are the type of boys who wear huge hats, blue shorts, and a white tank top, and they have a weird obsession with bugs. To them, if you don't go Bug catching or own a cockroach as a pet, you don't exist.

Ethan doesn't fit very well with them, either.
Then again, I also have my unbecoming features as well, but I'll talk about that later.

As I walked around with Cinder, we came upon this cave. It seemed all dark, all awesome, so we went in.

Big mistake.

It was completely dark in there, and most people would leave just for that.

I shrugged it off, and went in deeper.

Worse mistake.

I tripped over Cinder and fell into a bat. Then, I fell over some rocks and granite, and fell over Cinder again. Cinder was getting really angry at me, but by then we were in so deep I lost my way back. As I tried to find my way out, I found myself surrounded by moving boulders and flying bats that came out of nowhere. By the end of that experience, Cinder looked like he wanted to shove me into the lake and never think about me again.

He gave me that look again.

I shook my head. "You can't lead."

He gave me a furious look. I sighed and walked on.

I won another battle and I got some other guy's phone number.

Moving on.

I was so tired, I fell over and took a nap. When I woke up, I discovered that Cinder pissed on me. I knew Violet City wasn't too far off, so I decided to crawl the rest of the way there so that nobody would see me from there to the Pokémon Center. I was at the gate, when the clerk got angry at me and told me to stand up and actually walk.

I was just getting up when Ethan and Marill arrived at the gate.

Crap. I prayed that they wouldn't notice the large stain on my shoulder.

"I knew it was you, Lyra! How did you get past me?" Ethan asked.

By crawling around in the tall grass, but I wasn't about to tell him about it.

"Here's something for surprising me!" he exclaimed, and gave me a recorder. Then he sniffed. "Hey, Lyra? There's grass stains all over you. And that smell on your shoulder is…"

"Bye! I've gotta go!" I screamed, and I ran the hell outta the gate, the clerk shouting back at me in anger. Ignoring everything around me, I sped to the Pokémon Center shouting apologies.

Things to Think About…

When I went to Cherrygrove's Pokémon Center, I noticed a nurse blocking the way to a staircase. I became increasingly more suspicious when she claimed that the area downstairs was still in construction. Does she get paid simply for standing there and telling people that? Hmm… I should consider a job there.

According to a man at Violet's Pokémon Center, a boy single handedly beaten a sinister organization called Team Rocket. The boy must have been more efficient than the police was.

The map of Johto makes the whole place look bigger than it actually is.

They should consider adding a clothing change at the Pokémon Center, or at least a bathroom. After heading to Violet's Pokémon Center, I had to go back to the woods to change into my extra outfit. It was a traumatizing experience for the Pokémon who saw me, I'm sure.

At Violet's Pokémon Center, a man named Primo asked me of what I honestly thought of him. I took the honest part very seriously. Therefore, I called him an useless chitchat. When he asked of what I thought of his "exciting, fun" nature, I said that it was like a Zubat anime. He told me it was great feedback and that it'll motivate him to work harder. That's great, I guess. I like feeling helpful.