Our first day was pretty standard. We sat in a small classroom with a group of about 20 or so chansey while the teacher and headmaster, the only other human in the school, went over her whole introduction monologue. Jessee and I sat in the very back of the classroom, being the tallest students there, but also so I could feel a little less singled out. Though in this room packed with chansey I felt even more like a sore thumb than ever.

"This course will only last for six months. Do not fall into the trap of thinking this will be easy, however. You will be expected to eat, sleep, and breath your studies for these next months. Not all of you will succeed." I felt the headmaster's eyes staring directly at Jessee and me. "If you cannot get a perfect score on every test, you will be failed and you will have to start from the beginning again." She smiled stiffly. "But for those of you that do pass, the reward is great, and you will be more than qualified to carry out your duties here after."

The entire room erupted into a chorus of "Chansey." My sister too, chirped "Jessee" right along with them. She elbowed me hard when she saw I wasn't reacting, but I had the teacher's words floating around in my head: "Test," "Perfect score," "Fail"…How on earth were we going to pull that off? I'd never even gotten a "perfect score" when I was in elementary school! I closed my eyes and prayed the tests were something super simple, like what to do for poison sting, or how to treat a burn…even setting bones I could handle…

Jessee jabbed me again with her elbow and brought me back to myself. The headmaster was talking again. "First off, we're going to start with the most common injuries you will likely encounter: cuts and abrasions." She started writing things on the board, about how to properly wash it, clean it with an antibacterial agent like isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, or a general potion that could be bought at almost any convenience store. Then she went on about how to properly bandage it and we separated into groups for our first group activity. I breathed a sigh of relief as I bandaged my partner's front paw with perfect care, delicacy and grace. This I could handle! How many times had I needed to bandage the knee of a rapidash that had stumbled on the rocks, or of a ponyta that got nicked by its playmate's hooves while roughhousing, or even the puncture-mark of a horn after a young rapidash stepped out of line in the herd and a fight had broken out. At this, I was a pro!

As we switched places and my chansey partner now tried her hand at bandaging my arm something caught my eye. Jessee and her partner were right next to me and Jessee noticed my staring. "Jess, what is it?" She asked.

I motioned with my head toward the corner of the room. It was the chansey that had confronted me in the bathroom this morning. The entire roll of bandages lay strewn about all over her and her partner, a look of total panic and confusion all over her face.

Jessee watched the scene for a moment then, seeing as she and her partner had already finished, she stood and walked over to her. "Would you like a few pointers?" I heard her ask. Chansey nodded and Jessee proceeded to pick up the strewn bandages and roll them up again. She was too far away and speaking too quietly for me to hear now, but Jessee was just as good at bandaging as I was. I know Chansey wouldn't stay lost for long.

At this point, my partner had finished with me. The bandaging was tight enough that I was starting to loose circulation in my fingers, but I smiled at my partner anyway. "Good job." I choked, "Just next time, try a little looser, ok?"

Chansey just smiled and bobbed a nod at me. "Chansey!"

Jessee soon came back around and sat down. I leaned over to her. "So that was, what, your good deed for the year?"

Jessee shot me a dirty look. "I just don't like to see someone struggle so much, especially with something I know I could help with." she looked back to the chansey. The teacher was coming over to inspect the work. She sang a word of praise, patted the pokemon on the head and moved on to the next student. Jessee smiled and turned back to me. "See?"

I shrugged as I tried to wiggle my fingers to get the circulation back in my hand. "It's just not like you. That's all I'm saying."

"Jessica Newken. No talking during class please." The teacher quickly admonished us.

"Yes ma'am." We both replied in unison. Then we were silent for the rest of the day.

That night, Jessee lay in bed above me, I sat up with a flashlight and Pikachu curled up on my lap studying for the next day.

"You know, if every day is going to be like this one, passing this class will be a breeze." Jessee said, I could tell by her voice that she was smiling and totally confident.

"I wouldn't be so sure." I replied, flipping back to the table of contents in the textbook. "I mean, most of these lessons are pretty easy, but some not so much…How to insert an IV, blood testing, x-rays—not exactly stuff we have much experience with…"

Jessee scoffed. "Inserting an IV; I'm sure thats a piece of cake. You find the main artery, you stick it in. It can't be that much harder than giving a shot." She rolled over the side of her bed. "Which, might I add, we've done plenty."

It was true. Vaccinations, deworming, colic: we took care of all of these ourselves, not only for the rapidash and ponyta, but for James' growlith too…well, while he was still with us. "Honestly I think there's a little more to it than that." I replied. "Plus, each pokemon is different, requires different care. We only really have experience with horse pokemon, one growlith and one pikachu." Hearing his name, Pikachu woke up and picked his head up. "I mean, there are over 151 species of pokemon in this region alone! Thats over 151 specific rules and requirements to remember for each—even more for each pokemon's specific personality!"

"You worry too much." Jessee interrupted me." It's not like we're going to meet every single pokemon in the world. Some of those pokemon that are 'known' are extinct or considered legends anyway. Most of what we will probably be seeing are low leveled pigey, ratata, charmander, squirtle, bulbasaur…you know, those little kids that just started out and don't know not to go up against an onyx with a pigey." She flopped back on her bed. "Maybe we'll get one or two other pokemon in there, but I can guarantee you we'll mostly be getting little kids. And in reality we don't have to memorize, Every. Little. Detail. for Every. Single. Pokemon. It's mostly just memorizing types. Once you have the types down, the rest is easy to figure out."

I sighed. I wished I could have her utmost confidence about everything, but the teacher's comment still rang in the back of my mind. "If you do not get a perfect score on every test, you will fail and you will have to start back at the beginning." There was no way I could feel confident with the ever present threat of all of it being meaningless looming over me.

I could hear Jessee's breathing slow—she was asleep now. So was Pikachu for that matter. It was 1:00 in the morning…maybe it was time for me to get some sleep too…I hadn't exactly gotten much the night before.

I flicked my flashlight off and set it and my book on the floor next to my bed. Then I picked Pikachu up as gently as I could, though I probably woke him up again, and set him next to me as I rolled over to get some sleep myself.