A/N: Finally, I'm uploading chapter 3! In this chapter, Clara meets her first rival!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or its characters. However, I do own Clara, her family, and her 2 rivals.

After about fifteen minutes of running, I stopped. "When he said that Violet City...was straight ahead...I didn't think that it would be...this far away!" I said to myself as I stood in the middle of the path, panting. "No...I don't care! I have to...get to a...Pokemon Center...and..."

"Hey!"

I turned around; there was nobody there.

"You're looking the wrong way."

Feeling stupid for looking the wrong way, I looked towards the left side of the path.

"I'm in a tree, stupid."

A tree? I looked up. A boy was sitting in the tree in front of me. He had shoulder-length, black hair and light blue eyes; he was wearing a black t-shirt, white shorts, and black sneakers. A Pokemon that I'd never seen before sat on his shoulder.

He laughed. "I was right next to you the whole time, and you didn't even notice. You are dumb!"

I scowled at him.

"Relax, I'm just kidding!" he said as he stopped laughing. He looked at the Pokemon on his shoulder. "We're just kidding, right Wurmple?"

'Wurmple' nodded. "Wurmple!"

I had absolutely no idea what to say to this person, so I just stared at him and Wurmple.

"What's wrong?" he asked, grinning. "Are you scared of Bug Pokemon or something?"

I shook my head.

He jumped down from the tree, Wurmple still on his shoulder. "You don't talk much, do you?" He smiled and held out his hand, as if waiting for a handshake. "I'm Raymond. This, as you've probably already figured out, is my partner, Wurmple. She's amazing, isn't she?"

"I'm Clara," I greeted, shaking his hand. "I can't really say if your Wurmple's amazing or not. I've never seen her battle."

"Well, you can see her in battle now, if you want," Raymond said. "Let's battle!"

"...I can't. Not right now." I reached into my bag and pulled out Eevee's Pokeball. "My partner...he's hurt. I need to get him to the Pokemon Center in Violet City right now."

"Um, I hate to tell you this, but...It'll take a whole day for you to get to Violet City from here," he said.

Sighing, I put Eevee's Pokeball back into my bag. "I know. I ran for fifteen minutes straight, thinking that it would be really close. It's not, though." I sighed. "And now I'm too tired from running to go any further."

"You're actually tired from running for fifteen minutes? I can run for about twenty-five and still have energy," he said, shaking his head in amusement. "I do feel sorry for you though. Luckily for you, I think I have something that could heal your Pokemon." He began walking towards the forest on the left side of the path. "Follow!"

Worried about Eevee, I followed Raymond into the forest.

About ten minutes later, we stopped at a clearing in the middle of the forest. The grass was light green. Sunlight streamed in through the trees, which had dark green leaves. The air was cool. Several Pokemon were in the trees, watching us.

I looked around in wonder. "It's so...pretty. There are so many Pokemon here..." I pulled out my Pokedex and pointed it at a green, spider-like Pokemon. Spinarak, the String Spit Pokemon. Spinarak can climb any surface easily, and shoot a strong web from both the front and back of its body. Its prey is caught and held tight in its web. I pointed my Pokedex at a red, ladybug-like Pokemon. Ledyba, the Five Star Pokemon. These naturally gentle Bug-types gather in groups during the cold weather to keep warm. Finally, I pointed my Pokedex at a blue, pinecone-like Pokemon. Pineco, the Bagworm Pokemon. Appears calm as it hangs quietly on tree branches, but it will self-destruct at the slightest provocation.

"There are a lot of Pokemon here!" Raymond agreed, looking up at a group of Spinarak. "You can't keep my stuff forever, you know. You'll have to give it back at some point."

I noticed that the group of Spinarak was holding a navy blue backpack; I assumed that it belonged to Raymond.

The largest Spinarak in the group- which I assumed was the leader- shook its head.

"Then I guess I'll have to take it from you," he said.

The group of Spinarak gathered around the backpack protectively.

"Wurmple," he commanded, "use String Shot!"

Wurmple nodded and shot a white string at the group.

The leader of the Spinarak used Poison Sting, which prevented String Shot from reaching it.

Raymond smirked. "You're going to make this difficult, aren't you? That's fine by me." He started climbing the tree. "Wurmple, use Tackle!"

Wurmple attacked the leader of the Spinarak.

Spinarak fell off of the tree branch, and onto the ground. The other Spinarak in the group climbed down the tree and crowded around the leader.

While the Spinarak were distracted, Raymond grabbed his backpack off of the tree branch. He then hopped down from the tree.

The group of Spinarak turned towards him, looking quite unhappy that his Wurmple just knocked out their leader.

"Sorry," he apologized, "but you wouldn't give me my stuff. I had to get it back. There's important stuff in there." He looked at Wurmple. "You can come over here now!"

She walked over to him.

He picked her up and placed her on his shoulder, then turned to me. "'Pretty impressive, huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that was-"

Suddenly, one of the Spinarak attacked me with Poison Sting; I fell onto the ground.

Raymond quickly turned towards the Spinarak. "Hey, why did you do that?!" he snapped. "I thought you were mad at me!"

The group of Spinarak tried to attack him with the same move I'd been hit by, but he dodged.

He ran over to me. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Slowly, I stood up. "I'm okay." I glanced at the Spinarak. "We need to get out of here."

"Agreed," he said.

As soon as he said that, we began running away from the clearing.

Ten minutes later, we made it out of the forest. It hadn't been easy; I ran into trees and almost tripped multiple times, unlike a certain someone who didn't run into or trip over a single thing! What was Raymond, a forest boy or something?

Now he was laughing at me.

"It's not funny!" I snapped.

"Yes it was!" he exclaimed.

I took Eevee's Pokeball out of my bag. "Are you going to heal him or not?"

He stopped laughing. "Yeah, sure. Just give me a sec." He unzipped the front pocket of his backpack and pulled out a small, green bag with a blue ribbon tied onto it.

"What's in there?" I asked curiously.

Wurmple walked over to him and began pulling on the ribbon.

He gently pushed her off. "You'll see!" he answered, grinning.

While he was opening the bag, I let Eevee out of his Pokeball. "Don't worry, Eevee. You'll be healed in just a moment."

Eevee smiled weakly. "Ee...vee..."

"Here it is!" Raymond announced, pulling a dark green leaf out of the bag. "I don't think he'll like it, but it'll definitely heal him." He walked over to us and sat down.

Eevee walked over to Raymond and sniffed the leaf, then smiled, as if to say, "That smells nice."

"I'm confused," I said. "You said he wouldn't like it, but it looks like he likes it."

"It smells a lot better than it tastes," he said.

"How would you know that?" I asked.

"I, um..." He looked around awkwardly. "You don't want to know."

I looked at Eevee. He was now eating the leaf, and making a face that said, "This tastes awful!"

Raymond laughed. "It tastes awful, doesn't it?"

"Vee," he answered before walking back over to me.

We sat there in silence for a minute.

"So...what do we do now?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"It's afternoon right now," Raymond answered. "We can probably get there by tonight if we keep going." He picked up Wurmple and stood up.

"If you say so," I said before looking at Eevee. "Do you want to walk, or do you want me to carry you?"

Eevee smiled and ran in a circle around me, now full of energy. "Eevee!"

I smiled. "Okay, then! Let's go!" We began walking to Violet City, the sun shining brightly and determination in our hearts.

That's chapter 3! What did you guys think of Raymond? :D

If you're wondering what the leaf was, and why Clara called Raymond "forest boy", that will be explained in the next chapter! :D

Stay tuned for chapter 4!

PS: Sorry for not double-spacing like I did in the last two chapters...Whenever I try to do it, it won't work...T^T