Although Jojo had never eaten at a restaurant by herself before, she credited herself for doing pretty well. She had known to say "Table for one!" to the hostess, didn't take too long figuring out her order, and even remembered to smile at the waiter as she asked for the check. All in all, she figured she'd done a good job. The only thing that was left was to actually pay, and she could add it to her ever-growing list of firsts. She reached into the zipper pocket of her bag and began to dig around for her money, when a cold jolt coursed through her.

The pocket was empty.

Anxiously, her hand grasped at the sides of the pocket, and she could feel her heartbeat speeding up. Maybe she'd put it in the wrong pocket…? No, she'd triple checked that when she was packing her bags. She'd only had ¥3000 in the first place, but even that much was more than she'd ever had in her lifetime. Jojo had been very certain to make sure that pocket was completely zipped at all times.

"I'll get your bag for you as well. Now tell me, what's a little lady like you doing in a big scary cave like this?"

With a start, those words echoed in her memory. The hiker was the only person that had touched her bag, and Jojo realized that in her confusion of just waking up, he must have taken her money without her noticing. She bit her lower lip as she tried to hold back tears of shame. He did warn her not to talk to strangers, after all.

With shaking hands, Jojo brushed her wet cheeks and tried to think of what to do. She had to pay for this meal somehow, but as she was now completely broke, she didn't know how. She looked around the restaurant, and noticed a few people staring at her tear-covered face. She made direct eye contact with a few of them, raising her eyebrows condescendingly until they looked away, embarrassed to have been caught. Turning back to the table, she looked at the bill. It wasn't much; she'd only gotten eggs and toast. Would they really miss that little bit of money?

"Hey!" she heard a loud voice shout, and in her guilty state of mind, she jumped visibly, causing a few more people to stare. Jojo looked to find that one of the restaurant employees was running out of the kitchen, chasing a small orange and black Pokémon that had a chunk of meat in its mouth. "Stop that Growlithe!" he shouted, and she seized her opportunity to escape. After standing the check upright as though ready to be taken by the waiter, she quickly lost herself in the crowd making their way after the thieving Pokémon and slipped through the front door of the restaurant unnoticed.

As soon as she was sure there was plenty of distance between her and the restaurant, she let go of a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. I've gotta stop doing that, she thought, pacing around aimlessly to try to calm down. The Growlithe she'd barely caught a glimpse of gave her a good idea, though. As she stood and walked out of Bellsprout Cuisine, she knew that, even with her grandiose promise to Zero, the two of them weren't going to make it very far without the addition of more team members. Since Zero was so slow, maybe a Pokémon as fast as a Growlithe would help balance out her party. It was worth a shot.

Jojo wandered pointlessly around until her heart had stopped thumping erratically and she found someone that didn't look too intimidating or discerning. She had decided to keep low for a while, and didn't want to attract the attention of anyone with authority. Trying to look nonchalant, she approached the teenage boy and said in her politest voice, "Excuse me?"

"Yeah?" the kid said, looking bored.

"Um, I was just wondering…I saw a Growlithe running through the town earlier today. Can they be found in the wild around here?"

"That Growlithe was here again? Damn him. He runs through town all the time and steals anything he can find. A bunch of Growlithe live out west a bit, on Route 36, but be careful with that one. Trainers go out there from time to time to drive him away from the town, but no one ever bothers capturing him, since he's nothing but a nuisance. Why? You looking to capture one?" Jojo nodded eagerly. "Well, if you're going out there, just be careful. They're not too strong, but they're unpredictable and very territorial, and have been known to attack humans that come too close." He leaned back slightly, giving her a once-over and rolling his eyes. "If you're not confident in your Pokémon, I'd stay away."

"Oh, don't worry," Jojo said with a smirk. "I'm completely confident."


Completely was a bit of an exaggeration.

Zero, Jojo was beginning to discover, was almost completely useless with the strategies she knew. She'd watched tournaments for years, but Slowbro weren't common, and even when they did make an appearance, the moves they used were much too advanced for her untrained starter. Most of tournaments she'd watched had involved fast-paced fights that relied on powerful, hard-hitting moves. As he was neither fast nor particularly strong, she was at a loss with how to direct him in battle.

Sighing in defeat, she pulled out her pink Pokédex and pointed it at the Slowpoke. The device began to speak in a computerized woman's voice that grated at Jojo's ears. "Slowpoke, the Dopey Pokémon. It is always so absent-minded that it won't react, even if its flavorful tail is bitten."

Flavorful tail? Jojo raised her eyebrows as she glanced at his backside, which didn't look particularly appetizing. "But who am I to judge?" she asked aloud. Three seconds later, Zero turned to stare at her, confused. "Never mind," she said impatiently. She looked at her Pokédex, scrolling through the different menus until she found Zero's moves. "Let's catch a Growlithe. Do you think you'll be able to handle a Water Gun, at least?"

Zero made no sign of comprehending her, so she rolled her eyes and began walking along Route 36. He followed a few feet behind her, and it wasn't long before she heard rustling nearby. She whipped her head around and froze, listening closely for where the noise came from. When she heard it again, she pointed quickly to the patch of grass and shouted, "Zero, Water Gun!"

After the expected reaction time, he managed to shoot the stream of water toward the bush. A Pidgey appeared, looking more insulted than hurt, and it flapped up and away instead of bothering to fight. "We don't need a Pidgey, anyway," she said, more to herself than to Zero. "We need to be able to beat a Pidgey, because all Falkner trains are those stupid things anyway. Let's keep going!"

Her optimism was short lived. Half an hour of nothing but Pidgey and the occasional Bellsprout later, Jojo flopped down next to a tree, and leaned her back against it in the shade. "I know training is supposed to be hard and stuff," she said, "but I didn't realize capturing one simple Pokémon would be so difficult!" Then she frowned as she thought over her own words. "Well, it might be easier if I wanted any Pokémon, but I definitely want a Growlithe. They're cute, and strong, and not idiotic." She looked disdainfully over to Zero. Despite the pact she'd made with him, she still had her doubts. Maybe if she could catch a Marill or Poliwag or something that wasn't completely brain dead, she could replace Zero on her team. As soon as the thought occurred to her, she felt a pang of guilt. Zero was her starter. Even if he was completely useless, she couldn't just give up on him.

"Slow," he said quietly, and she looked back over at him. It appeared that the shady patch under one of the large trees was a wonderful place for a nap; Zero had taken full advantage of it and was now snoring peacefully.

Okay, maybe she could just give up on him.

"Zero!" she yelled, but he made no movement. With an angry huff, she stomped over to him and prodded him in the side with her shoe. "Wake up! We are trying to catch a Growlithe. It is not nap time!" He stirred slowly and proceeded to shoot a stream of water in the opposite direction of her in response to her foot attack. "You are hopeless."

With more nagging, she managed to get Zero back onto his feet and they began walking again. Another twenty minutes passed with nothing but a single female Nidoran appearing (though she swore she caught a glimpse of a Stantler as well). "This is hopeless!" she said angrily, and took out her frustration by kicking a rock into a cluster of trees. She spun around and looked at Zero, a frown on her face. "C'mon, Zero, it's not happening. We're not gonna find a Growlithe. I knew I should've caught that Nidoran. Let's just go back to Violet and train some and maybe – hey!" Jojo turned back around to the trees she'd kicked the rock into, and looked down at the ground. The rock was back at her feet, and there was a sharp pain where it seemed to have hit her in the back of her head. She bent down and picked up the rock, keeping her eyes on the trees. "Who…?"

She got her answer as a Growlithe jumped out at her. He was panting slightly – it almost looked as though he was smiling – and his tail was wagging a mile a minute. Jojo's eyebrows rose in excitement, and she pointed to Zero without taking her eyes off the wild Pokémon. "Water Gun," she said, her voice shaking slightly in the shock of a Growlithe jumping out right in front of her. With what appeared to be a great deal of effort, Zero walked in front of her and looked squarely at the Growlithe. Then, a few moments later, he managed to shoot a stream at the wild Pokémon.

Living up to his species' reputation for speed, he dodged the attack effortlessly. Then, without warning, he bolted straight towards Jojo. Startled, she let out a small shriek and held her hands up to protect her face, but instead of attacking her, he sunk his teeth into her bag and pulled it off her arm. "Hey!" she shouted, now furious. She'd spent over an hour searching for this Pokémon, and now he was just going to steal her bag and run off? "Absolutely not," she snarled, and threw the rock in her hand with surprising strength and accuracy.

It smacked the Growlithe hard on the head, and he froze before turning to face her, a low rumbling coming from his throat. Undeterred, Jojo grabbed a nearby stick and brandished it at his face. The Growlithe snarled at the challenge. "Give me my bag back," Jojo said in the same loud, commanding voice that she used on her brothers when disciplining them. The Growlithe only growled again, the fur on his neck sticking up. "Alright, you asked for it."

She swung the stick with as much strength as she could muster, knocking the bag out of his mouth. They both turned to look at the bag, then back at each other. Instantaneously, the two dived for it, the Growlithe getting there first. "No!" Jojo screeched, wrapping her arms around his neck to prevent him from getting away, and she attempted to wrestle the bag from his mouth. It flew open, and its contents were flung everywhere; Poké Balls rolled away, her Pokédex hit a tree, and the little bit of food she had packed was now sprawled out on the ground.

Seeing this, Jojo glared angrily at the Pokémon still in her arms, who was struggling to get to the food. "You stupid…ugh!" she said, and pounded her first into the top of his head. He stopped trying to get away and instead sunk his teeth into her arm. She shrieked and released him, and he dived for the food. "Not so fast!" she yelled, and she lunged for one of the Poké Balls and without thinking, threw it at him. There was a sudden silence as he was sucked in by the red light, and she stared anxiously as the ball rocked back and forth once…twice…

Click.

Joanna stared blankly, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Then, slowly, she walked toward the ball and picked it up carefully. She turned to Zero, grinned, and said, in a quiet voice, "I did it." Zero's expression did not change. "Zero, I did it." she said louder, her smile growing. "I did it!" She laughed loudly, punching a fist into the air. "Everyone was always like, 'Jojo, training Pokémon is harder than you think! Catching them isn't easy and training them is even more difficult! And you're probably going to suck at it and you're not gonna be any good and you're gonna give up after your first loss and blah blah blah!' But look! I wanted a Growlithe and I caught one. I caught the one that the entire town hates because he's such a trouble maker, which means he's strong, and he's mine! And Growlithe are so cute, plus Arcanine are a lot more common than Slowbro in tournaments, so actually know some strategies I can use with him, unlike you. I can't wait until the Silver Conference when everyone sees my Arcanine! Everyone will be like, 'Jojo, sorry we ever doubted you, you have a freaking Arcanine and you're basically destined to be a famous Pokémon Master or something!' Also, Growlithe aren't Poison-types, so their bites aren't poisonous, right?" she asked, examining the bite on her arm with mild interest. He hadn't pierced the skin, so she wasn't too worried, though the wound still stung and she could see the teeth marks.

"I gotta give him a name!" she said, and pressed the button on the ball. The Growlithe came back out with a stunned look on his face; clearly still shocked to be captured. He turned his head towards the forest, as though he was thinking about making a run for it. "No, don't run!" Jojo said, noticing this. "Please don't run. You're too fast and then I would have to spend hours chasing you, because I can't let you get away. I need you." The weight of these words seemed to hit Jojo suddenly, and she sat down, holding her hand out for her Growlithe to sniff. "The guy in town told me about you. You go around stealing things because you don't have what you need, or what you think you need, and everyone blames you for it. But you're not bad, even if you did bite me." He walked forward and sniffed her hand curiously. "Because that's what you're taught. If you want something, you have to fight for it, right? Even if everyone hates you for it." Jojo's eyes welled up unexpectedly with tears, and she gingerly petted his head. She wasn't even sure why she was crying this time, though she felt the tears sting as they rolled down her cheeks and knew that her skin was probably dried out from all the sobbing she'd been doing recently.

The Growlithe seemed to look curiously at her, as though carefully thinking something through (or deciding she was insane; Jojo wasn't quite sure), before moving close to her and getting on his hind legs, placing his paws on her shoulders. He then yipped happily and licked her cheek before nuzzling into her neck. Jojo laughed noisily and hugged him as tight as she could. "How about Rocket?" she asked, pulling him away from her so she could see his face. "'Cause you're fast, like a rocket, plus they have fire coming out of them, right?" She looked extremely pleased with herself for making this connection. "What do you say, Rocket?" He barked again, looking excited as well, and Jojo giggled before pulling him into another hug.

"Now, help me clean up my stuff," she said, putting him down and looking at her bag's scattered contents. Obligingly, he trotted over to the farthest Poké Balls and grabbed them with his mouth. Jojo gave him a look of mild surprise. "See, Zero, why can't you listen to me when I tell you to do things?" she said, looking at him, who was predictably not paying her any attention. However, he did seem to be focused on something else, and, confused by the rareness of this event, she turned her head to see what he was looking at. There was a slight rustling in the bushes closest to Rocket. Jojo stood and began walking over to them when another Growlithe jumped out from it with a snarl.

She gasped and backed up, startled. Then with a huff, she bent down to pick up a rock without taking her eyes off the wild Pokémon. She raised one eyebrow coolly and said, "Look, I already won one fight against a Growlithe by myself, so you should probably think what you're about to do through." He snarled again, but Jojo was not phased in the least. As they stared each other down, however, even more Puppy Pokémon began to stalk out from the surrounding bushes and trees. She looked around, a flicker of fear darting onto her face before she quickly covered it up with an impassive look.

Rocket was suddenly back by her side, the Poké Balls forgotten as he rushed to his trainer. Jojo picked up her nearly empty bag as what she assumed was the alpha Growlithe began to bark angrily at Rocket. She looked inside, finding Zero's Poké Ball and her Pokégear. With a frown, she looked around the clearing, spotting Rocket's ball only a few feet away and her Pokédex on the other side, blocked by several Growlithe.

Jojo knew that against twenty-some wild Pokémon, hers stood no chance, and that they needed to get out of there now. But there was no way she could leave without those two items, and getting them was going to be treacherous.

"Here goes nothing," she muttered, closing her eyes and sighing. "Return!" she yelled, throwing Zero's ball at him, and he quickly dematerialized in the red light. Startled by the sudden movement, the wild Growlithe all took this as a sign of attack, and instantly began to pounce. At least five jumped on Rocket right away, snapping and shooting small embers at him. Jojo darted for the Pokédex, which was about twenty feet away, and the rest of the wild Pokémon were then after her, trying to bite and burn her as well.

She skidded to a stop as she reached the tiny pink Pokédex, shoving it into her bag and then grabbing a nearby stick, barely keeping her balance. She looked at the flimsy branch and sighed before brandishing it like a sword and swinging it at the attacking Pokémon. "Get…away!" she grunted, kicking one that had latched onto her shoe. Jojo turned and raced back to where Rocket was, snatching his ball up on the way. She looked to recall him but couldn't figure out which one was him in the mass of orange and black fur. Jojo glanced around and found a sturdier stick; she grabbed it and began whacking at the pile. "Get out of here!" she shouted, shoving them away until she saw one Growlithe lying on the ground, a few of the more vicious wild ones still attacking him. "Return!" she called breathlessly, pressing the center button of his ball. As soon as he dematerialized, she turned on her heel and ran even faster than she did the night before.

She didn't look back to see if they were chasing her, but she didn't hear them pursuing her for long. When she made it out of the forest she immediately collapsed on the ground, trying to collect her breath.

"You're so stupid," she whispered to herself. She'd been warned, she knew better than to take on all those Growlithe, and now she had the stinging bites and burns to prove it.

Gingerly, she wrapped her arms around herself and took deep, slow breaths. Jojo had known that training would be difficult, but she hadn't realized how dangerous it was. The Growlithe hadn't been particularly powerful, and even though they been had outnumbered, her life was never in danger. But still, in all the stories she'd ever been told and all the movies she'd seen, Pokémon never attacked people. Seemingly kind strangers didn't steal money. She almost felt like she'd been slapped in the face or violently shaken awake as she came to the realization of how sheltered she had been her whole life. Why had no one warned her about any of this?

A very small part of her couldn't help thinking that it wasn't too late to turn around. Waiting a few weeks wouldn't be too horrible, and now that she had Rocket, she could train him around New Bark and be more prepared the next time around.

Even as the thought occurred to her, her eyes rolled automatically. There was absolutely no way she was returning home, but she still felt lost. She no longer had any money, any Poké Balls, and least of all, any dignity. Pokémon Center, she thought, too shaken to consciously process the whole sentence, and with some effort, she forced herself up and began the short walk back into town.

Jojo entered the Pokémon Center stumbling, and Nurse Joy looked up in alarm from behind the counter. With one look at her burns, bite marks, and singed blonde hair, she sighed and stood up. "Growlithe pack?" she asked, and Jojo nodded solemnly. "Chansey!" Nurse Joy called, and a rotund pink Pokémon Jojo had only ever seen in pictures ran out from one of the back rooms, carrying a silver tray.

"Chan!" she said dutifully, looking from Nurse Joy to Jojo. Jojo, however, had noticed the only other person in the center, a blue-haired boy using the video phone, was staring unabashedly at her. She narrowed her eyes threateningly, and he immediately turned back around to continue his conversation.

"Take her Pokémon, you know what to do," Nurse Joy instructed, and Chansey held out the tray as Jojo placed the two Poke Balls in it.

"Come with me and I'll patch you up," Nurse Joy said, and Jojo nodded, following her into a door down the hallway. "Up here." She patted a doctor's table, which Jojo hopped up onto as the nurse began searching through one of the cabinets before finally pulling out a green bottle. "Humans aren't meant to withstand Pokémon attacks, you know."

Jojo winced as Nurse Joy applied the Burn Heal to her wounds, fighting the tears that came instinctively to her eyes. "But luckily, the same cures seem to work on them," Nurse Joy said, frowning as she wrapped bandages around the wounds. "Your injuries aren't too bad, but they're gonna be sore for a while. Why on earth were you out there unprotected? There are signs everywhere warning trainers not to get close to their den. They're horribly territorial, a direct result of their habitat being compromised by the expansion of the city. And now they're talking about removing their habitat altogether, when anyone can see all they need is to be given some space..." She trailed off, speaking more to herself than anyone, and Jojo could tell by her tone that it was not the first time she was saying such things. It only took her a few more moments to finish bandaging her. "Anyway, that's all I can do for you. Your Pokémon should be completely healed. Come with me," she said with a small sigh, exasperated from her earlier rant. Jojo jumped down from the doctor's table she had been sitting on and followed the nurse out to the main lobby of the Pokémon Center.

"Chansey! Chan!" The pink Pokémon ran up to them, carrying a tray with two Poke Balls in it.

"Are they okay?" Jojo asked worriedly, speaking for the first time since arriving at the center.

"Chan!" Chansey said with a definite nod, reaching out to pat an uninjured part of Jojo's arm.

"Thanks!" she said, allowing herself a small smile as she breathed a sigh of relief. Immediately, she kneeled down and released Rocket and Zero from their balls, eager to see them.

As soon as they materialized, Rocket let out a yelp and ran into Jojo's outstretched arms. "You're okay!" She pulled him close to her body and squeezed him tight. "You were really brave," she whispered in his ear, and he licked her cheek in response. "We totally could have taken them if they didn't surprise attack us like that!" Rocket gave a small growl and bark in agreement.

"Yeah? Why don't you just go back there tomorrow and show them who's boss? Or better yet, give them a taste of their own medicine and sneak up on them tonight!" The boy had apparently finished his phone call and had come over to talk to her.

She frowned, narrowing her eyes again as Rocket leapt out of her arms, growling. She opened her mouth to retort, but was distracted by her Pokémon biting the boy's leg.

"Ow, what the-?" the boy shouted, kicking at the Growlithe angrily.

"Rocket!" she exclaimed, taken by surprise at his action. "No biting!" she tried to reprimand, but her voice was quavering with suppressed giggles and it lacked any real conviction. When he didn't release the boy, her voice got firmer. "Rocket, stop biting." He slackened his jaw and let go, walking calmly back to Jojo's side, where he was rewarded with a head scratch.

"What the hell? Don't you know how to train your Pokémon?" the boy snapped, his teasing mood gone.

Jojo glared once more, despite being taken aback by his language. There was no way this boy was much older than her, and she had little appreciation for both his words and the tone he said them in. "Can I help you?" she said pointedly.

The boy shrugged, eyeing Rocket warily. "I was gonna say you look familiar, but I wasn't planning on you being a famous celebrity with a guard dog."

Jojo allowed a small smile to flit on her face. "I'm not famous...yet," she said. "And I just caught him today. But I don't know where you'd know me from." That was a lie; she and Jillian looked extraordinarily similar, and she was used to getting mistaken as her sister in public.

He frowned as he studied her face, trying to match it in his memory. With another shrug, he said, "I give up. I don't know either. I'm Rory," he said, extending a hand.

"Jojo," she replied, standing up and taking it. "And I'm sorry about your leg."

"It's cool, I can handle it," he said, rolling his shoulders back and puffing out his chest slightly. Jojo smiled again, but quickly caught herself and forced her face back into a bored expression. "So, where are you from, Jojo?"

She froze for half a second, quickly running through the possibility that she was now wanted for stealing Zero. If word had gotten out that Professor Elm's lab had been broken into, she figured revealing that she was from New Bark wouldn't be in her best interests.

"Olivine," she replied, which wasn't a complete lie, considering she had lived there until she was seven. "What about you?"

"Blackthorn. I just started training, and I'm about to get my first badge tomorrow. Well, hopefully. I mean definitely! I mean…" Rory's voice faded out as his confidence faltered. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away.

She looked curiously at the suddenly shy boy before her, who just seconds ago had been fearlessly coming to talk to her, even making a few jokes while he was at it. All of a sudden, Jojo found that she was strangely interested in him.

"Me too!" she said, trying to keep the conversation alive. "Are you excited?"

"Yeah, just nervous, I guess. Are you excited?"

"Of course! I've always always always wanted to be a trainer. And this is the very first step! Well, it's the first important step."

They began gravitating towards the sofas near the video phones as Rory continued. "No, wouldn't that be getting your first Pokémon?" They sat facing each other, Rocket in Jojo's lap and Zero on the floor in front of them. "You said you just caught your Growlithe today, so you started with a Slowpoke?" He raised his eyebrows, and she felt the slight condescension in his action. "Why?"

Jojo was hit with a twinge of annoyance at this; sure, she was allowed to hate Zero for being pathetic, but that didn't mean other people could. He was still her starter. "Because Slowpoke are awesome!" she snapped, crossing her arms. Rory looked alarmed, leaning back and holding up his hands carefully. "Just because most people aren't smart enough to train them doesn't mean they're useless. Most mediocre trainers-"

"Okay, I'm sorry!" he said, cutting her off.

Realizing she had been about to go off on a rant, she blushed slightly in embarrassment. In an effort to gloss over the moment, she asked, "So, what Pokémon do you have?"

In response, he pulled out two of his own Poke Balls and released a tiny blue mouse with a tail as big as its body and a red, molten slug.

"This is Riley, my starter," he said, motioning to the Azurill, which squeaked in greeting. "And this is Xander, my Slugma."

Jojo grinned and reached out to pet Riley, wondering why she wasn't lucky enough to get a starter as cute as his.

"Well, Zero is my Slowpoke," she said, acknowledging the unresponsive Pokémon on the floor, "and I think you've already met Rocket."

Rory's bitter chuckle mixed in with her teasing giggle, and she looked at his expression uneasily. "Are you okay? Was his bite that bad? I don't think they're that painful." She looked down to examine her own injuries.

"No, it's not that..." he said, trailing off.

"Then what?"

"Just..." He looked wary. "Why did you name him Rocket?"

Jojo looked questioningly at him. "Because Rockets are fast. And fire-powered. Kinda like a Growlithe," she said flatly.

"That's it?"

"Yeah?"

He frowned at her, as though trying to figure out what her motives were. She felt uncomfortable under his gaze, and she couldn't help thinking of a phrase she'd heard her mother say before, that he was "seeing right through her". She shifted, feeling anxious.

"It's just...when most people hear the word 'rocket', they think of Team Rocket."

"Oh!" she said, finally understanding his apprehension. "Well, it's not about them. I don't even know, like, anything about Team Rocket, anyway," she said in a very final tone, as though this settled the matter.

"I don't either, really. I mean, I know they used to be a really powerful and really evil organization, but they disbanded when their leader died. I think my dad said that was about three years ago."

What he was saying seemed to match with the little background knowledge Jojo had of the team. Her parents, while never really obstructing her from learning about the team, had kept her and her siblings fairly protected from any news about Team Rocket. They never spoke about it in front of the children, and any questions asked were dismissed with vague, simple answers. They had made everything surrounding the organization seem bland and uninteresting, so she had never been curious enough to research it herself, though she did remember hearing about the disappearance of someone named Giovanni a few years ago in school.

She nodded. "Yeah, well, good thing he's gone, right?"

Rory frowned again. "That's the thing, though. Recently, there's been more and more crimes happening, and the police are saying it's the work of Team Rocket."

"But their leader's dead!"

"I know," Rory said, wide-eyed and nodding. "That's what makes the whole situation weird. And why you probably shouldn't name your Pokémon after them," he added teasingly.

"He's not!" she said indignantly, crossing her arms, though she smiled a little as well. "Let's talk about something else. I don't like Team Rocket. You're from Blackthorn, right? What's it like there?"

They talked for almost two hours, over which time Jojo learned that Rory was the youngest out of four children, though both of his parents had been married before, so they were only half siblings. He hatched Riley himself from an egg one of his brothers gave him for his birthday, and Xander was a gift from his sister, a coordinator. She told him about taking care of her brothers and that her sister danced, though she made sure not to mention that Jillian happened to be a Kimono Girl. Rory, she decided quickly, was easy to talk to, but she couldn't explain the urge she had to tell him everything.

I'm a thief.

I stole a Slowpoke.

"Jack's five, and Jake is three. Jack's pretty quiet. He just kinda keeps to himself. Jake's the exact opposite. He couldn't keep to himself if he tried." I broke into Professor Elm's lab to get away from them.

It would be so simple, so annoyingly easy. All she had to do was say one sentence, and she was almost morbidly curious to find out what his reaction would be. The words kept hovering on the tip of her tongue, almost making it out, but it was like she kept tripping at the finish line. Maybe it was the fact that she enjoyed Rory's company and didn't want him disgusted in her, or maybe she simply didn't want to go to jail, but she couldn't force herself to say it. Instead, she stifled a yawn, causing Rory to look at his Pokégear.

"Wow, it's late!" he said in surprise, and they looked down at their Pokémon, all of which had fallen asleep. After recalling them, the pair stood up. "Are you staying at the center?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know," Jojo said, truthfully not having thought of her sleeping arrangements for the night. She felt a little disappointed, knowing that the moment to admit the truth to him had past.

"Well, you should go get a room from Nurse Joy," he said, and she nodded, walking over towards the counter. "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, maybe," she said with a smile. "Goodnight!"


Author's Note

Hey guys, remember me? No? Oh. Well, that's understandable, considering it's been a year since I last updated, which is crazy. This year's been ridiculously hectic for me, and I'm sorry that it interfered with my updates! If it's any consolation, this chapter more than doubles the current word count of the story, so hopefully that makes up for it a little bit!

No? You're still mad? Okay, well, how about I give you another surprise: chapter four is already finished! I'm gonna try and write ahead some more before I publish it, but you can expect that one soon.

Anyway, this chapter was written over a long period of time and in several different increments (a lot, surprisingly enough, on my iPod), but I tried to make it flow together. We also got to meet two of my favorite characters, Rocket and Rory! Rory originally wasn't going to appear until much later in the story, but I really like him, so I bumped his introduction up. What do you think?

I have way too much fun writing dramatic Jojo. I actually love making her cry over the stupidest things (like catching a Growlithe), because I am some sort of sadist, I guess.

also the chapter title is like the cleverest thing ever okay

Thanks for reading!

~Irene