Chapter 6: The Soaked Orange Cushion of Something

After my discovery of little blue cushion of shining hope, I was determined to befriend the Pokémon who lived in that hedge; Pancham.

I setup my camera that day, opposite where the hedge was. The angle gave me a great view into the hedge. I hit record and ran inside. The thing was, the camera really wasn't necessary. I spent my whole day looking out the window anyway, doing the camera's job for me.

"What you doing?" asked mom, with a concerned tone in her voice. I guess any parent would be concerned if their child had spent most of there day staring at the front garden.

"Waiting for the pancham to appear."

"Pancham?" she said, taking a seat next to me on the window seat, "Is there one here."

I nodded, "Living in that hedge."

"I heard Jeremy talk about one of them," she laughed, "He said one was always stealing soda cans and sweets from his shop."

I gave a loud gulp. The hedge den did in fact have soda cans inside it, if I wasn't mistaken. Arceus, it was the same pancham. It had to be.

"What do you think Jeremy would do, if he found out that the pancham who was stealing from him was living there?" I asked, pointing to the hedge between Jeremy's house and mine.

Mom laughed out loud. "Well I've only met the guy twice, but I wouldn't want to be that pancham if you know what I mean."

The pancham would be dead meat if Jeremy found his den, and it wasn't exactly well hidden.

"Oh look!" said mom, pushing me out the way to get a good view, "What's that?"

I moved over to get a good view, and when I did I saw a tiny head poke around the front gate. It scampered its feet up the path and jumped into the bush.

Although it was only visible for a second, it was clear that this was pancham.

"Well, there's your pancham," said Mom, "How do you plan to capture it?"

"Uhh…" I had no idea. "Um… first I'm going to befriend it and then I'm going to ask it if it wants to join me on my journey."

"And what if it says no?"

"Then I'm screwed."


After phoning Trevor, I learned that wild pancham loved sugar. Although our cupboards were empty, my mom had made some Pokémon shaped lollipops yesterday for the shop. She wouldn't mind if I stole one for Pancham, and another for me. My plan was to slowly befriend the little guy, and hopefully convince him to join me on my journey.

I sat the lollipop outside of the bush, on an orange cushion. I thou I found in Mom's room. I thought Pancham might appreciate the effort I put in. By the time I put it down; the pancham had left his hiding place.

I then hurried back inside (taking my camera with me, as I noted some grey clouds rolling over the town.) I once again took a seat on my front room seat and looked out on the front garden.

As I had expected the grey clouds let loose on the earth, and the dripping and dropping of rain fell onto my front garden. Soon, dark splodges appeared on the orange cushion. Through the noise of the rain, I also became concerned about the rumbling of thunder in the distance.

As I rested my head on the window glass, the pitter patter of rain drifted me slowly to sleep.

I woke when I heard the shouts of a man coming from beyond my front garden. After shaking the sleep out of my head, I quickly slipped some shoes on my feet and headed outside. The rain was now hitting the ground at furious speed, making me wish I had grabbed an umbrella.

The scene which I had awaken too was obvious. Although I didn't see Pancham, I could tell that it was the little guy that Jeremy was shouting at.

"I'm gonna make sure that you won't steal from me again!" he yelled as he thundered down the street. Pancham finally came into view when in jumped through a hole in my front gate and ran up the path. Jeremy ran up to the gate but didn't step through.

"Oh Arceus," he sighed, before yelling at me, "Is that Pokémon yours!"

I looked down at Pancham who had decided to play along with the story, and hide behind my legs. It its tiny hands were some cans of juice and some packets of sweets, obviously stolen from the shop.

"Uh…uh…" I took a gulp, staling time to prepare an answer.

"Well! Gives an answer!" he yelled. "It's raining like a Kyogre about!"

"Yes," I lied, "This Pancham is mine."

"Then you better keep a tighter lead on him. You and him are barred from my shop! And I'll want the 15000 pokedollars you owe me the sweets" Got it!"

"Y-y-yes sir."

"Well alright then," he gruffed. He turned and I saw him walk back down the street, probably back to the shop.

I let out a big sigh. Shauna's dad was scary, and he really put me on the spot.

I took a look down at my feet, to see Pancham smile up at me. He ran into the bush but emerged a second later with his blue cushion and ran inside. I guess I had a Pokémon.

Pancham ran into the living room and placed its pillow under the radiator.

"Uh…" said Mom, rather confused, "What's this?"

"I befriended that Pancham," I smiled.

She looks at me rather confused; I guess I had forgot to tell her the full story. After she was all filled in, she seemed pretty ok with it;

"Well alright then," she sighed, "If you're going on that journey soon, I guess the pancram can stay."

"Thanks Mom," I smiled, looking over to the Pokémon who was sleeping. It hadn't actually tried to communicate with me at all, and was only really with me to get out of trouble. I wasn't even sure if he was going to stay with me! Pancham was smart, and had definitely played his cards right. I would need to think of something really look to convince Pancham to come on a journey with me. Watching Pancham sleep made me pretty tired though. Tomorrow, I would chat to Pancham.


When I got up the next day, Pancham was sitting on the couch, flicking through television channels using the remote sat on his lap.

"Pancham?" I asked.

The Pokémon looked up at me.

"He knows his name at least."

"I wanted to speak to you."

He spun the leaf in his mouth around and gave me a glare as he sat beside me.

"So far I've got mixed views from you."

He showed no emotion.

"Do you want to stay with me or not."

He gave me a slow nod, but made no noise.

"The other thing is that I am going on a Pokémon Journey."

"Pan?" he said, a little confused.

"I'm going on a journey to explore this region… and to do that I will need a Pokémon. Do you want to be my Pokémon?"

He gave me a confused look, before looking down at himself.

"It will mean you will become stronger, and you won't have to steal food from that shop, and you'll have me to protect you."

He finally looked up, and for the first time, he smiled. Big white teeth, which just said yes.

"Well alright then," I said, a little stunned it didn't take more for him to come around, "Let's get you signed up!"


I'm finding this really hard to write, simply because of the lack of information. This chapter was really short, but finally on chapter six Xavier's got somewhere. He should be out of Vaniville Town before too long!