"All the single and double rooms are taken," Nurse Joy stated. That disappointed me a little. I didn't really feel like sharing a room with more than one other person, but I guess I had to start getting used to it if I were to become a trainer. "There are some triple and quadruple rooms however," she continued. I thought about it for a moment before finally replying "I'll take a triple room then."

"Great! You'll be in…" She scanned the screen next next to her. "…Room 214, second floor. Here's your key," she handed me a card with a Pokéball logo on it. "Thank you," I started walking away, but quickly turned on my heel to ask, "Is there a trainer in this Center by the name of Elena?"

Nurse Joy's face seemed to brighten a little hearing the name. "Ah! I know her. She's been helping around the Center recently. I think she's actually helping in the kitchen prepare the lunch for later right now."

"Trainers can help prepare the food here?"

"We don't have many human workers to begin with, so we accept volunteers," she tilted her head at me. "You could help out too if you want." I thought about helping, and thought, 'Why not?' and accepted.

...

The kitchen was bustling with Pokémon and trainers alike making food to be served for later. Sandwiches, pasta, salad, seafood, and other such meals were being prepared. I walked around the kitchen rather aimlessly not exactly sure what to do.

"Hey you!" a voice called to me. I spun around and was met with a girl about my height with auburn hair. She was holding a bowl with one of her arms and mixing some sauce using the wooden spoon in her free hand. I stood there dumbly for a moment before realizing I had to reply. "...Oh, you're talking to me." I pretended to look around, expecting to find other people behind me that she could possibly be talking to instead, only to see nobody else was. Now I just looked kind of stupid.

"Yes, I was talking to you." she deadpanned. "I ruined a perfectly good shirt trying to save your sorry ass by getting your blood all over me," she scowled. I was taken aback by that, and didn't really know how to respond.

"I, uh-"
"Not to mention how heavy you are to carry! I had to call my Rhydon out to carry you!"
"Wait, listen-"
"How did you even do something so irresponsible that you ended up passing out in the middle of the city?"
"Look-"
"And now you come in here? To, what, somehow end up unconscious on the floor while cooking, making me save you again?" She was glaring at me so hard I was honestly surprised I hadn't combusted into flames. "What do you have to say for yourself?" she demanded.

At this point I was basically speechless and had no words. "I... I..." She kept looking at me like I had just kicked a Lillipup. My face could probably rival a tamato berry in how red it was.

And then the girl grinned and burst into laughter. I just stood there, very confused as to what was happening.

"Haha, you're- you're face! Its- haha, its so red!" she continued laughing. "I'm sorry, but I've- I've always wanted to try acting like a total bitch to someone like that, ahaha," she then looked up at me and put her hand on my shoulder. "Really though, that was an expensive shirt. You owe me a new one... Kidding! Well, about that last part anyway."

I was still standing there like an idiot, very confused.

"Wait, so you're not mad?" I sheepishly asked.

"Of course not! It's not like I can blame you for going unconscious in the middle of the street and bleeding everywhere... well, maybe I can. I don't know how the poisoning and the injuries happened, but let's leave that part blank. It's probably better for you if I didn't know."

She said that in a cheerful voice, which was kind of scary since that last part sounded like a threat. "Right..." I nervously replied. I think she could tell I was pretty uncomfortable.

"Hey, you wanna make it up to me? Help me make this pasta, and I might just think about forgiving you." She winked, then shoved the bowl of tamato berry sauce she was holding into my hands. "Just try not to bleed all over the food, okay?"

…

Lunch time rolled around, and trainers, along with some of their Pokémon were lining up to get food. Elena and I had gotten our food before anybody else, and got "the good seats" according to her. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that, but I went along with her. The seats were placed near the back door of the Pokémon Center, right next to a giant glass window, which had a good view of the battlefield in the back. I plopped down on the seat across from Elena and set my sandwich onto the table.

"So from what I know, you have a Rhydon. Got any other Pokémon?" I asked her, then promptly took a bite out of my sandwich.

"I have four Pokémon," she held out four fingers and counted down each one. "My starter Pokémon was a Munchlax, now Snorlax, which I named Audrey; you'll get the reference behind that nickname if you know Munchlax, and know a thing about music. Next is my Azumarill which I named Azure because I wasn't a clever person, but soon changed its nickname to Torrent after I realized how much power it had. I have a Rhydon named Mortar because... well just because. Finally the newest member to my team is a Yanma, which I still haven't come up with a nickname for... Any suggestions?"

"I'm not very good with nicknames," I shrugged. "I still haven't come up with a nickname for my own Gligar."

"Oh, a Gligar? Hmm..." she thought to herself for a minute before finally standing up and shouting "DIRT WING!"

I looked at her with the face of confusion, and she looked back down at me. "What? He's a ground type and can fly. Dirt Wing?"

"That nickname is..." I started to say something, but then I repeated the nickname in my head. It was a dumb nickname, but now I couldn't get it out of my head.

"That nickname is what?"

"It's dumb, but I'm already getting attached to it!"

She let out a small giggle. "I like coming up with dumb, yet catchy nicknames." I rolled my eyes, then continued munching on the sandwich in my hands. "Got any other Pokémon?" I shook my head since I still had food in my mouth.

"Really? How long you been training?"

"What time is it?"

"Uh," she glanced up at the clock. "It's 1:03. Why?"

"I've officially been a trainer for about a day and about four hours."

"Ooooh," interest peaking in Elena's voice. "It's fun meeting newbie trainers."

I didn't know whether or not I should have taken offense to that.

"Oh, lighten up. We were all newbies at one point. My main question though: You're like thirteen. Why'd you start late?"

"Firstly, I'm fifteen, and I lived in Unova during the whole Plasma Crisis. And for a short time the Plasma Resurgence. My parents wouldn't let me become a trainer at the time." I briefly explained.

"Ah, so that's your whole origin story. By the way, you totally look younger than fifteen."

"Do you have a training story?" I questioned.

"Hm. Well, I was struck by lightning during a full blue moon in the brief moments every single planet was aligned exactly, an occurrence that only happens every 200,000 years, thus making me the chosen one. I was also snatched from my parents when I was born by a Braviary and was raised by a family of them until I was ten, where I then became a trainer. Any questions?"

I looked at her flatly, and she just smiled back at me. "You have nothing then?" I asked very bluntly. "Nope! I'm just an average, boring trainer. No interesting stories in my four years of experience. Surprisingly."

"Guess I shouldn't have too much hope for having an exciting adventure?"

"Nah, you shouldn't think like that. I'm sure you'll come across something interesting," she said reassuringly. "Told you we had the good seats," she jabbed her thumb out towards the window, and I looked out at the battlefield. A Lucario was getting into a battle stance, and a Golett raised both its fists at the Lucario from across the battlefield.

"Oh sweet, a battle! Who do you think will win? My money's on the Golett." I exclaimed. I was curious how the battle would go.

"The Lucario is gonna win for sure," Elena responded with confidence. She stabbed at her salad with a fork and shoved it into her mouth as she watched the battle unfold.

The Lucario started the battle by unleashing a Metal Claw on the Golett, but it hardly seemed to do a thing, as it just stood there taking the hit.

"You plan to collect badges?" Elena questioned. I was a bit surprised by the suddenness of the question.

"I do, actually," I replied. "Although, I guess so does every other trainer in this region."

The Golett seemed to leap into the air while its right fist began to glow, and punched the Lucario square in the face. The Lucario winced and staggered at the hit, but got back into its fighting stance rather quickly.

"There are a lot of trainers going for badges I notice. Myself included." Elena quickly threw her purse on the table and started rummaging through the bag to find something.

The Lucario seemed to be examining the Golett, probably using Foresight. It then unleashed a barrage of Aura Spheres at the smaller Pokémon. It seemed to be hit by the first two, but successfully dodged the other three. It then stood still, seeming to be in deep focus.

"Aha!" Elena exclaimed as she held up a red-pinkish case of some sort. She held it out in front of me and pointed to various things on it.

"This is my Sinnoh badge case, as evidenced by the Sinnoh League logo on the front." She quickly snapped it open using a button on the front. "Currently, I have six gym badges."

I examined each badge, some looking older and slightly rusted compared to others. "The ones I don't currently have are Snowpoint City's badge, and the badge from Veilstone," she quickly moved her finger to the silver and yellow badge. "The one from Sunnyshore was my first," then she pointed to the brown and silver one. "And this one I got two weeks ago from Canalave's gym."

The Lucario seemed like it was about to unleash a barrage of punches at the Golett, but the Golett quickly reacted and unleashed a powerful Focus Punch directly into the Lucario's face. The Lucario spiraled straight into the ground, and had a hard time getting up.

The badges were rather basic in color scheme, and in shape. So these are what some of the Sinnoh badges looked like. I've seen pictures of the Unova ones, those were very thin and angular.

"How often do you challenge gyms?" I asked her.

"The first one you can maybe get within the first few weeks of your training. I didn't really start collecting the badges until my second year of training though."

The Lucario got back into its fighting stance, and a staff shaped like a bone seemed to appear in its two paws. It swung the staff multiple times, hitting the Golett in the face and body.

"But it takes three years to challenge six of the gyms?"

"The gym leaders get tougher the more badges you get. They really start cracking down at four. It was nearly an eight month gap between my fourth and fifth badge."

"Damn, really? I thought people could obtain all eight badges in like, a year or something."

"Depends how well you trained your Pokémon I suppose," Elena shrugged. I liked hearing her talk about her training experience. It gave me some hints of what was possibly yet to come for me.

The Golett simply stopped the Lucario from hitting it by stopping it with Psychic. It was then lifted into the air, then slammed into the ground once more. The Lucario didn't get up after that.

"Ha!" I exclaimed excitedly. "I told you it would win!"

"Pfft, it's not like we shook on it or anything…" She jokingly retorted.

I gorged down the rest of my food since I was starving, and I even stole a bit of Elena's salad when she wasn't looking. She might have noticed, but just didn't mention it. We later found ourselves outside the Pokémon Center. Elena was showing me around the parts of Jubilife I never explored before, mainly because they were advertised towards trainers.

Elena pointed to a tall building with a blue dome roof. "That there in the distance is the Global Trading Station," she moved her finger to the shorter orange building on the opposite side of where we were facing. "And that there is the Pokétch Company. Sadly and slowly going out of business since smart phones became big." She explained.

We continued our sight seeing until we got near the north outskirts of the town. There seemed to be a grassy path, and in the distance I saw what looked to be a rocky hill. The sun was setting by the time we got there.

"Going that way will lead you to Floraroma Town, which is where I'm heading next." Elena said. She turned to me and asked, "Where are you going to be headed?"

I pondered that thought until I realized I know next to nothing about the locations of Sinnoh. "I really don't have a plan. I just kinda figured it would all come to me in due time, but I have no idea where anything in this region is." I admitted.

Elena rubbed her chin for a second before her face brightened up and she said, "You know, just past Floraroma Town is Eterna City. There's a gym there that you can challenge!" That started to peak my interest. "A gym? So I can get my first badge there?" I questioned.

Elena nodded, "Mhmm! And I had another idea. You ready for this?"

I simply nodded, and she carried on. "We're both basically headed the same direction anyway. How about we travel together for the time being? It can really help you, being a newbie and all."

I suddenly remembered Dawn's advice about there being strength in numbers. Plus, having a bit of companionship while walking along an empty road would be nice. "I like that idea! Just don't expect me to be carrying you in battles," I joked. She rolled her eyes and laughed, then gave me a little shove.

"Well alright then, starting tomorrow we make our way towards Floraroma Town."

…

By the time we made our way back to the Center, it was already dark. Only a few trainers remained in the lobby, and Nurse Joy was starting to sweep the floors.

"I'm on the first floor in room 103. How about you?" Elena asked. I pulled out the card Nurse Joy handed to me earlier to check my room number. "I'm in… Room 214, second floor."

"You gonna be up early to help make breakfast tomorrow?"

"Depends what time I need to get up."

"To make breakfast you'd have to be up by five."

I let out a groan. "Five? Really?"

"Yes, really."

"I'll most likely just sleep in and miss breakfast all together."

"Don't do that, or else I might leave you going to Floraroma Town," she giggled.

We said our good nights and I walked up the flight of stairs to my room.

…

Authors Note: Oh my God, I've re-written the second half of this chapter like five times already. I liked how the first few bits came out, but anything after the kitchen scene is the fifth version of it. If you feel the same way, I can assure you chapters in the future will have much better writing. Feel free to let me know what you think, peace out.