My mother spoke first. "What is that – thing at your feet?" My mom hated Pokemon a lot. Especially fire types, because a stray Magmar burned her house down when she was a child. Yeah, this is not going to go well at all.

Soren looked up at my parents curiously, looking at them from between my legs as I spoke. "This is Soren, the Cyndaquil Professor Elm lent me to go to Cherrygrove."

"If it was lent to you, why do you still have it?" my father asked, his arms crossed.

"He is still here because Professor Elm offered to let me keep him-"

"No."

"Because Professor Oak-"

"No."

"Even if I don't go on an adventure-"

"The answer is no, Sy. Go take it back. There will be no Pokemon in this house," my mother said with an air of finality.

I felt tears fighting their way to the surface. Don't be weak, I told myself repeatedly in my head. I looked up and stared them straight in the eyes.

"No. I'm keeping him."

"No, you're not. You're sixteen and still under our control," my father said. "Until you're eighteen, we can choose to not let you have a Pokemon. And we say you cannot. Go take it back right now."

My resolve broke. I could never stand up to my parents for very long. My eyes fell and I stared at the stairs below them as I spoke. "Professor Elm said that if you said I couldn't keep him, I could bring him back in the morning. I think he was done for the day."

"Take him back anyway-"

"No," my dad stopped my mom. He turned his head to look at her. "His lab was broken into today, I don't know if you heard. He's probably exhausted. Let's not bother him tonight." He looked back at me. "Where's its Pokeball?"

I tried to figure out if there was a way around disclosing my possession of Soren's Pokeball, but I couldn't think of anything fast enough so I opened my bag and pulled it out.

Mistake.

"What's in your bag?" my dad asked, walking down the steps to stand beside me. I tried to close my bag but he grabbed it from my shoulders and turned my bag upside down, making me drop Soren's Pokeball in the process. My PokeGear, Potions, Antidotes, Pokeballs, as well as my socks and other pair of shoes fell to the ground with resounding thuds, and the bills I had received from Leon floated to the ground and scattered slightly. Luckily there was no breeze. I looked up at my dad's face, not understanding what had angered him so much. But whatever it was seemed to have been forgotten as he bent down and picked up the scattered money. "Where did you get all this?" he asked, holding it up to me.

I grabbed it and my bag out of his hands before he could pull them out of my reach. Holding the money to my chest, I said, "I won it."

"How?" my father asked, narrowing his eyes.

"In a battle."

"With who?"

I gulped. I had screwed myself over again. "L-leon."

"You BATTLED HIM?" my father roared, now completely furious.

"Dad, I-"

"THIS is why you're not allowed to go on an adventure," he yelled. "This world is dangerous, there are criminals everywhere. You can't even go to CHERRYGROVE without running into one. He could have hurt you, or worse!"

"But he didn't-"

"First thing tomorrow you are returning that Pokemon of yours," he said, turning to go inside. "And if I hear one peep about you going on an adventure or going any further west than Professor Elm's lab, there'll be hell to pay." He went inside and slammed the door shut behind him.

There was silence between my mother and I for a minute. "You said you were going to Cherrygrove with Jared," she said finally.

"That was the plan, but Professor Elm had something else for Jared to do so he asked me to go instead."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you wouldn't allow me to go."

My mother's eyes hardened. "And there's a damn good reason for that. You could have been hurt today."

I was about to say that Leon hadn't been violent in the least, then I remembered him pushing me and kicking his Pokemon. I decided to not risk digging myself into a hole I wouldn't be able to get out of if I said the wrong thing. "Whatever, I had fun. Ever heard of that? Because I hadn't until today." I stomped up the stairs and went through the door, slamming it as well.

I went straight up to my room, not bothering to grab any food – I heard my father in the kitchen anyway, so that would have been a bad idea. I wasn't hungry anyway. I wanted to slam my door but decided against it, inching it closed instead. Once it clicked shut I put my back to it, leaning against it as I slid to the floor. My bed was just too far away at that moment.

I put my head in my hands. The tears that I had felt earlier were still there, but only one came out. It hit my hand immediately, spreading out and making my palm wet. Removing my hand I wiped the water off on the bare skin of my leg, looking at my new shoes and starting to play with the laces with my hands. I rested my chin on my knees, staring at the floor in front of me.

Soren trotted into my line of sight, plopping down in the spot I had been staring at. I looked at his face, his eyes now closed. He cocked his head to the side and cooed. I reached out a hand to stroke his head. "I'll be okay, Soren," I told him and myself. "I'll give you back tomorrow, but I'll come and see you every day, promise." Soren shook his head, dislodging my hand. "I don't like it either, but my parents do legally have control over me-" the flames on Soren's back grew bigger momentarily. "I hate it to, but short of running away-" I stopped. After a moment, I smiled a true smile. I stood up, taking my bag off my shoulder and throwing it on my bed. Soren squeaked at me in confusion but I ignored him, heading straight for my drawers.

All they held were my undergarments, pyjamas, and my second pair of day clothes. I grabbed a handful of underwear and rolled them up as small as I could, placing them at the bottom of my bag. I left my socks – I wasn't going to be wearing knee-highs anymore. I'd get some more ankle socks when I got the chance. I pulled out a pair of pyjama shorts and rolled them up to, throwing them in as well. When I turned back towards my drawer I saw my reflection in the mirror on my wall. My hand moved to go through the hair of one of my pigtails.

I walked over to my desk and took the scissors out of the bin of tools. Walking back to stand in front of the mirror, I snipped one pigtail off, and then the other. It took a bit of work since my hair was fairly thick, but I managed two clean cuts. I placed both clumps of hair, held together by the elastics that had held them in place moments before, on my dresser as I worked with my shorter hair. I gave myself some crooked bangs (cutting your own hair is harder than you think), trimmed the hair at the back of my neck, and then trimmed around my ears, leaving the hair long enough to cover them so they'd be out of the sun in the months ahead. Then I grabbed clumps of hair at the back of my head and did a crude job at layering my hair. All the while I was placing the pieces I cut off on the dresser in front of me until there was a substantial pile. I looked at myself hard in the mirror, nodding in satisfaction. I could barely recognize myself.

I continued packing. I added in a t-shirt for sleeping, long underwear (I didn't want to waste space with sweatpants), and an old hoodie that was falling apart at the seems but was warm regardless. I grabbed an umbrella from my closet, as well as my old sleeping bag. The sleeping bag wouldn't fit in my bag, though, so I had to put it back. I'd have to buy a new one that would fit later on.

With all my planned future purchases in mind (an entire new wardrobe, in order to be unrecognizable), I deemed myself done once I put in a plastic sleeping sheet and a large down blanket that was all air and folded up into almost nothing.

I looked out my window. The sun was setting, but that wasn't what I was looking at. I was looking at the lack of trees to climb down from.

Of course my parents would give me the only room in the house not bordering on the forest. Of course. Had they planned every aspect of my life as a parent-abiding puppet from the day I was born?

I started to think through things logically, hoping to find a viable option for my escape later on that night. My parents went to bed early, around nine or nine thirty. They were usually snoring by ten fifteen. Any slight creaks or other noises I made would probably go unnoticed as long as I was quieter than them. I'd need to go in front of the house to retrieve the things my father had dumped out of my bag, but their room faced the forest to the north so there was no danger of them seeing me. I'd also need more money.

I opened my desk drawer and pulled a box from the back. Opening it, I pulled out all the money it contained, then put it back. I counted the bills – 2400д. I had spent the 600д I had in my bag on Antidotes earlier that day. With Leon's 500д, I was just shy of 3000д. I decided not to risk taking any from the money jar downstairs – I'd be fine until I started battling trainers, or at least I hoped I would. I'll make it last, I thought as I put all my money into a zippered pocket in my bag. Zipping it shut, I glanced around my room again.

My eyes came to rest on the pile of hair on my dresser. I couldn't leave it there; if my parents found it they'd know I cut my hair and my stealth advantage would be reset to zero. I took the hair that was not held by an elastic and scattered it out my open window, the breeze that had picked up carrying it away from my house. I took that opportunity to look down the side of my house and assess my escape options.

Right outside my window was part of the roof. It descended for about five more feet before dropping off at the edge. I guessed the drop from there would be no more than ten feet, likely less. As long as I hung from the edge of the roof and then dropped down I'd only fall about four feet. Any other day this would have seemed like a lot to me, but I remembered the ledges I had jumped earlier in the day in my rush back to New Bark, and the four feet no longer seemed intimidating in the least.

I smiled, turning away from the window and surveying my room, trying to identify anything else that I might need. My laptop was tempting, since it tended to be my main companion through the long days, but I knew it would just be dead weight. I grabbed all my memory sticks from my desk and proceeded to backup all my data, deleting what I wouldn't want my parents to see but leaving most of it so it wouldn't look suspicious. Once that was done I put my memory sticks in the same zippered pocket as my money.

I considered taking my old watch, but decided I wouldn't need it. I'd live by the sun, and if I really needed to I'd take out my PokeGear to check the time. This reminded me to pack my PokeGear's charger and extra batteries, and I threw in a few extra AA and AAA's to power anything I might acquire later on. Like a flashlight. I threw in my windup one that doubled as a radio. Multipurpose, I like it. There wasn't much else in my room – my eyes fell on my old small Snorlax plushie, and I debated bringing it along as I went through my closet full of tidbits and camping supplies. I threw a pack of lighters over my head and heard it land in my bag on top of the battery boxes – nice shot – and a tube of lotion for bug bites – it hit the wall beside my bed then bounced down onto my pillow. I debated taking a giant bottle of gel to treat sunburns, but grabbed a small empty shampoo bottle and filled it up instead to save space. I figured I wouldn't need it once I had a tan. Speaking of which, I pulled out a bottle of old sunscreen that expired five years ago. I decided to wait until I got to a store and could buy something new that didn't smell like shit. I'd deal with any burns that occurred before then. I also pulled out a water bottle, albeit an empty one.

Putting all the camping stuff back into its box I stood up, closing my closet doors. I arranged the contents of my bag, putting what I could in exterior pockets to save space in the main compartment for the items I would soon retrieve from the ground in front of my house. I was glad I had opted away from the sleeping bag – I had space to spare. All this wouldn't be a problem if we still had PC storage, I thought with a pout. Several scandals and hackers had caused the technology to fall out of use back when I was little, and the people who had been developing it went bankrupt from lawsuits. A shame, really.

I looked back at my dresser at the two clumps of hair that still remained there. Fishing a plastic bag out from my desk drawer, I put them in the bag and put it in my bag to be dealt with later.

I realized with a groan that I didn't have any shampoo, or toothpaste or any other bathroom stuff for that matter. I debated risking a trip to the bathroom to retrieve some, afraid my parents would come upstairs and see me with my haircut, but decided against it. Another thing to buy when I got to a store; a list would probably have been a good idea.

I looked up at the clock on my wall – eight forty five. It was mostly dark out now, with only a slight halo of dark blue sky showing where the sun had set. Most stars were already visible.

My stomach rumbled. I remembered that I hadn't consumed anything since early afternoon, and now that the anger from speaking with my parents had faded I realized that I was really hungry. I reached under my bed and pulled out a bag of chips I had stolen from the pantry. Soren, who had been watching me pack from atop my desk, jumped down and walked over to me as I munched on the chips. I offered some to him, but after a quick sniff he turned his head away in disgust. "More for me," I said with a laugh. I stopped when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Pushing the bag back under my bed and jumping to my feet, I ran on my tiptoes to the wall by my door and flicked my lights off, then stepped onto my bed, moving my bag out of my way before sitting down. Placing my bag on the floor under my night table, I lifted the covers of my bed and pushed myself into them one last time, running shoes and all.

I wouldn't be enjoying the comfort of a bed for quite some time. But that was fine with me; if my waking hours were spent outside, battling Pokemon with Soren and doing as I pleased, I could deal with discomfort. As I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling waiting for my parent's telltale snores to begin, I fingered my hair – it was so short and light, a strange feeling. It would be very easy to manage, though – tangles would be minimal. Speaking of which, I opened the drawer of my night table and pulled out a small hair pick I used to use when playing with different hairdos years ago in my girly years. It would work fine. Closing the drawer quietly, I leaned over the edge of my bed and put the pick into one of the outside compartments with the shampoo bottle of sunburn gel so it wouldn't get broken in half.

Pulling my body back onto my bed, I settled in so that the blanket was covering most of my head, so if my mom peeked into my room she wouldn't notice my missing hair. I felt a weight on the blanket; Soren had jumped up onto the bed, the fire on his back dulled to a very faint glow, and settled in beside me. "We won't be here for long, bud," I whispered, but he snuggled into the blanket anyway, passing his ever-present heat on to me.

I lay awake with my eyes wide open, staring at the wall opposite my bed. Now that I had time to think about what I was doing, I truly realized what was happening. I was running away from home. I'd be on the run, because I knew my dad would follow me and track me down. I started to get a strange, nervous feeling in my stomach. I'd have to cover as much ground as possible tonight. I reached down and unclipped my PokeGear from my bag, and checked the map. Past Mr. Pokemon's house was route 31, and not far past that was Violet City. Getting to route 30 before morning should be possible. I could sleep in the forest, then carry on once I woke up. Returning my PokeGear to its place on my bag, I continued to wait.

It seemed like forever before my parents finally settled into bed and started to snore. I wanted to get going immediately, but made myself wait five minutes just to be on the safe side. Once the five minutes had passed, I lifted my arms out from under the blankets. "Soren," I whispered, tapping his head. He lifted it wearily. "Time to get going bro." He shook his head. "I'll carry you. Come on, we need to get going." I lifted him into my arms and got out of bed. I was about to start making it like I always did, but stopped myself. Why should I?

With a grin I picked up my bag and walked over to the window, holding Soren with one arm. I pushed it open all the way without a sound; the window only ever creaked when it was being closed, which I was now thankful for. Won't ever have to worry about that again, I thought as I crawled through the window, barely fitting. I almost lost my balance once, but was able to steady myself before something bad happened.

Once clear of the window I sat on my roof for the first time ever, enjoying the feeling and the unobstructed view of New Bark. If I had my way, I wouldn't be coming back for a long, long time – maybe never. I placed Soren, who now seemed completely alert (despite the fact that his eyes were closed), on the roof beside me. "I'm going to climb off the edge of the roof and hang down," I explained in a hoarse whisper. "Once I'm hanging, you'll either need to climb down my arms onto my head, or wait until I'm down so that I can catch you when you jump by yourself." He motioned towards his own head with one of his stubby arms. "Sounds good. Ready?" He nodded. I nodded back, then inched closer to the edge of the roof with him close behind.

I moved closer until my legs were hanging off the edge. Leaning my upper body against the roof's surface, I braced myself with my arms and turned my body over so that my stomach was on the roof. I lowered myself slowly until I had to grab the edge of the roof and just let the rest of my body fall. I was born to do this! I thought, wanting to laugh but staying quiet. I felt Soren's feet on my hands as he started to inch his way down my arm. "A bit faster would be nice," I whispered to him, my arms starting to hurt from having to support my weight and my hands starting to slip. He hopped from my elbow to my head with a quiet squeak. I breathed a sigh of relief and let go of the roof, falling what was actually more like five feet. I bent my knees fully on impact, putting my hands on the ground for balance before standing up.

I listened for a moment, but all was silent in New Bark Town.

It was time to go.

Author's Notes – Just to clarify, Sy's parents are opposed to adventures because of all the horror stories her father has had to deal with and investigate involving teens on their adventures (mugging, rapes, etc.). They don't like Pokemon because as mentioned her mother dislikes them because of her childhood experiences, and Sy's father has seen Pokemon turn on their trainers and hurt them. He does, however, own two station-issued Pokemon because of his job (one for transportation between home and work and one for apprehending criminals).

Also my other "story" Testing 1, 2, 3, 4 will be used as a dump for any scenes I decide to delete from the published chapters.