Our main character is finally leaving home! I do not own Pokemon or anything like that.
Chapter 4: The First Day
I was on my way out of the house, I had all of my things packed and had on all of my winter garments.
"Mom, I'm about to leave!" She hurried over from the kitchen carrying a handful of sandwiches, bottles of water, cheese and crackers, fruit snacks, and a small bag of Pokemon food. "Jeez mom, you didn't have to give me all of this!" She helped me stuff all of it into my white and pink duffel bag.
"I know, I know, but I wanted you to have an ample supply of food for your journey."
"Thanks mom."
"Honey, I just want you to have fun on your journey, whether you're a trainer, coordinator, or both." She put a hand on my shoulder.
"I know, and I will mom." We hugged it out for a moment, then I made my way over towards the door, where Glameow was waiting for me. I crouched down to pet her head. "See you later beautiful!" I smiled at her.
"Meow."
"Bye mom, I love you!"
"I love you too Hikari! Call me!"
"I will!" I was halfway through the door when my mother (who if you haven't noticed is very forgetful) stopped me.
"I almost forgot, I got this for you!" She handed me a journal, the cover and back were both plain, encouraging someone to decorate it. Which was perfect for me, I love to draw and I'm pretty good at it. I had already packed colored pencils and a drawing pad. "You can use it for whatever you want, but I would like you to write about everything and anything you do every single day! So I can know what you did on your journey when you come back to visit." She smiled at me in that motherly way. "Geez kiddo, a journey full of adventure. I envy you. And you'll never be alone, not with your Pokemon with you. Now go Hikari. I'll be alright by myself." Just then the door opened, an annoyed looking Mary came through (one of the only parts of Jun's and Mary's personalities that were similar were that they often barged in any place they pleased).
"Excuse me, but is Jun here?"
"Um, no I haven't seen him." My mother replied.
"Oh... Then he must've left already. That boy shouted about going on an adventure, then he bolted. He's so headstrong and reckless..." Mary took a seat on our couch next to my mom. "I at least wanted him to take this..." She held up a parcel in her right hand.
"Not to worry Mary! I'm sure Hikari will be happy to bring that to Jun for you. Right, Hikari?" I knew it wasn't a question, so I of course had to say yes.
"You would Hikari?" Mary stood up.
"Uh, um, of course!" I took the package from Mary and placed it in my bag.
"Thank you Hikari, now have fun sweetie!" My mom waved me off and I could finally get out of there. I left the house as Mary and my mother began talking about whatever female adults with kids talk about. Things like politics, celebrity rumors, and of course us kids, you know, the usual.
After half an hour I arrived in Sandgem Town, thankfully not running into any Starly this time. I now have a permanent strong disliking of those Pokemon. I stopped by Lucas' house and said hi to him and his family, Lucas gave me some of his Pokeballs as a gift. Professor Rowan wasn't in his lab. After buying a few things at the Pokemart, Mazey and I started on Route 202, leaving the salty smelling Sandgem Town. After traveling down the route for about an hour, Mazey (who I was still holding) and I came across our first trainer.
"Hey you there!" A boy, younger than my age of twelve (my birthday is in December) ran up to us. "You and I, we're Pokemon trainers! So we have to battle!" For a moment I was a bit surprised, but quickly smiled at him.
"Okay! One on one?"
"Sure! Go Starly!" I frowned at the terrible memory that came to mind... Mazey jumped down from my arms as I got the Pokedex entry on Starly.
"Mazey use Withdraw!" She retracted into her shell and glowed blue.
"Quick Attack!" The attack did little damage after Mazey had raised her defense.
"Absorb!" Our attack also did little damage, it being a grass type attack and Starly being a flying type. "Now use tackle Mazey!" Starly cried and was knocked out.
"Are you kidding me!? Fine! Here's the prize money!" The kid threw me a bag with some money in it and ran off. Actually, I think he more threw it at me.
"Uh, thanks!" I yelled at him. Looking through the bag I found about three dollars in coins. "Nice tip..." I mumbled to myself, putting the money in one of the side pockets in my duffel bag. Mazey and I ate a late lunch a while later. We later battled a second trainer; a girl, who when we won she gave us something actually worth while. A potion and ten dollars. It was about ten o'clock before I finally came to Jubilife City, not having stopped because I wanted to get to the city.
"Wow." I stated, swooning at all of the huge buildings, now brightly lit with white lights. Mazey was asleep in my arms, and I wanted to get to bed too, but would have to wait even longer being that I had no clue where the Pokemon Center was. I had to go into a visitor center for Jubilife City to get a map and find it. By the time I was in the Pokemon Center it was a little after eleven. Nurse Joy was cleaning up her counter.
"Hello there! You're in a little late, don't you think?" I smiled embarrassingly at her, rubbing the back of my head.
"Yeah, I got a little lost. Can I get a room for the next couple nights?"
"Sure! Just give me a-... Oh yeah..." I looked at Nurse Joy inquisitively.
"Oh yeah what?"
"We don't have any rooms available right now..."
"What, why not!? This is like the second biggest Pokemon Center in the region, and I found that out at the visitor center trying to get here! I am not sleeping outside in an alley." I snapped.
"Sorry, but there's a big Pokemon Contest going on this week and we're all full."
"Well, at least that's something good."
"You're a coordinator?"
"Yeah, I'm aiming to become a top coordinator like my mom and to beat the Pokemon League. It'd be my first contest, but there's a first time for everything, right?" I replied.
"Of course." The pink haired woman continued looking through her computer. "You know, if you're okay with it, I can still give you a room, there will be someone staying there with you though." I thought about it for a moment before realizing that most of my time in Jubilife City would be spent outside of my room, so even if my temporary roommate was stupid or annoying, I wouldn't have to spend too much time with them. Who knows, they become a good friend of mine or it could even be a cute guy!
"Sure!" Nurse Joy handed me a key with the room number on it, room 427, so the fourth floor.
"The person staying in this room hasn't yet returned to the Pokemon Center, so when he comes back I'll tell him."
"Okay, thanks Nurse Joy!" I smiled even more, realizing she had said him, so my fantasy of having a cute guy being my temporary roommate seeming more possible (and NO, we wouldn't do anything inappropriate like you're probably thinking, I'm thirteen).
The elevator brought us straight to the fourth floor, and I made my way toward the room. Getting in and setting my bag on the kitchen table, I turned on the light, expecting a mess of a room. But as it turns out, this guy was actually very clean and tidy. He'd only used three drawers in the dresser for his clothes, which left plenty of room for my things (keeping my girl things in my bag of course). There were two beds, not bunk beds thankfully. A bag was under one of the beds, so I assumed he had taken that one, and placed my own bag underneath the other. I took out a pair of pajamas, the bottom was a pair of soft, long pajama pants with moons and stars on a dark blue background. I called them my wizard pajama pants. The top was just a plain black tank top with wide straps. I contemplated about whether to take a shower or not, but decided to take one in the morning being that I had already taken one early today.
I turned off the lights and got in my bed next to Mazey who was peacefully sleeping on the pillow next to my head. I started tickling the little leaf on her head, I'd found out the night before that she really enjoyed it. I watched as Mazey giggled in her sleep and tried to scratch the top of her head with her short little leg.
"You're so adorable Mazey." I said to myself. "I'm glad I chose you." Those were my last words before I drifted off into unconsciousness...
My hands were shoved into my pockets when I returned to the Pokemon Center from a day training. It was a half hour after midnight, and I was about to get into the elevator when the Nurse that ran this particular center, the messiest I've ever met, called me over.
"Oh, Shinji! You're back so late!" Being so upbeat and disorganized, this Nurse Joy annoyed me more than the others.
"Yeah, well you're up pretty late too." I remarked. She blushed a little, rubbing the back of her head.
"I had to clean up a little..." Yeah, a little. I thought to myself. "So anyways, another trainer came into today, and since there weren't any rooms left..." Great, now I have to share a room. Probably with some idiot coordinator... "You're okay with that, right?" After sighing I agreed, albeit annoyed.
"It's fine. Thanks for letting me know." I headed back upstairs, opening up my room I saw that whoever it was had already gone to sleep. I kept the lights off, grabbing some sweatpants and a plain gray T-shirt to change into. Though I didn't particularly like the idea of sharing a room, the person seemed organized and clean enough... I lied down on my bed, my hands behind my head, propping it up, not even bothering to bring the covers up.
Tomorrow I would get up early, and train with my Pokemon all day, just like every other day.
Morning. I was still waking up, my mind fuzzy. All I really knew was that I could smell breakfast. Delicious breakfast. Eventually, I managed to open at least one of my eyes, quickly closing it. Sunlight was filtering in through the cloth curtain in front of me, providing no protection from the bright morning light. Mazey stirred on the pillow in front of me. After covering my eyes, I propped myself up, one of the straps of my tank top falling down my shoulder. Lazily, I swung my feet around to the floor. They weren't comforted by the thin, crappy carpet. Rubbing my eyes, I stood up and made my way towards the kitchen table where there was a male figure drinking some steaming coffee. I couldn't quite make out what he looked like with my tired eyes. I heard an annoyed sigh before the thing that ruined my day. Wait, make that week.
"It just had to be you, didn't it... What was your name again?" My hands went down and I looked to see none other than Shinji sitting at the kitchen table with an empty plate and coffee, reading a freaking newspaper. Newspaper. It was only like eight in the morning, and it looked like he had already taken a shower, and was wearing jeans and a long sleeve dark bluish gray T-shirt. I quickly pulled up my tank's strap.
"My NAME is HIKARI you- mph!" Somehow he had gotten up and placed his hand over my mouth in less than three seconds, his face inches from mine.
"Be quiet Troublesome. People are still sleeping and I like peace and quiet in the morning." I was red. Just red. He took his hand away and brought his dirty dishes to the sink to begin washing them. I grumpily crossed my arms and sat down in a chair at the table like an angry child.
"I'm hungry." I stated bluntly.
"So that's your name." Shinji said sarcastically. "If you're hungry make something."
"You didn't think to make any for your roommate?"
"That's not my job."
"Humph. Fine." I went over to the fridge and saw that he had used most of the good breakfast ingredients. So I grabbed the eggs, some cheese slices, and what was left of the bacon and milk.
"And Troublesome, if you use up all of something, you have to replace it." I didn't like the idea of Shinji telling me what and what not to do, though I would have told my roommate to do the same, albeit in a nicer way.
"So I'm assuming you're going to replace everything you used up?"
"Yep." Shinji sat back down at the table with his coffee. I started chopping up the last of the bacon to put in my scrambled eggs, and began making myself some coffee. I'm a pretty good cook, my mom had been teaching me how to make poffins and lot's of other things ever since I had been a little girl. When my food was done I sat down at the table and ate my breakfast in silence, trying to think of the bright side to this situation. The only thing good about this is that he's clean. That's it. Mazey wobbled over to me, begging to be pet. I patted her head before finishing my food and washing my plate. Mazey then went over to Shinji, still wanting attention. I walked by patting her head again.
"Don't waste your time girl, the only thing he'll give you is hatred." Shinji glanced at me from the side and huffed. "I'm going to take a shower." I stated. "So don't, come into the bathroom." I threatened, holding my bag in one hand while closing and locking the bathroom door behind me.
The small grass type Pokemon finally looked away from the door as she heard the sound of spraying water, giving her attention back to the man sitting before her, encouraging him to pet her. He sighed, before giving in.
"I suppose it won't be a crime to pet you for awhile." Mazey smiled as his hand caressed her head. "I have to admit, I have a soft spot for Turtwigs. My first Pokemon was a Turtwig." Mazey barely even heard him. "I can't believe I'm talking to a Pokemon, I'm pathetic." Shinji took his hand away. Mazey put her front legs up on his chair, nudging his arm. Sighing again, he began tickling the leaf on her head. "You're persistent, I'll give you that." Shinji ever so slightly smiled, remembering the time he'd spent with his Turtwig and all of it's evolved forms as well. "My Turtwig liked that too, still does, actually." Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes later, Hikari got out of the shower. Shinji quickly stopped giving Mazey the attention she craved once Hikari opened the bathroom door, getting ready to blow dry her hair.
After getting dressed I opened up the door to let some cooler air in, I didn't really like blow drying my hair but if I wanted to leave before it was dry it would freeze in the icy February air. I was wearing my usual mini dress, with two non matching super long socks. They went up to just underneath my mini dress, one was assorted colors of stripes and the other was black with a few symbols of my favorite superhero, Batman! He is so awesome. I put my yellow hair clips in after I was done drying my hair. I then went into the kitchen seeing Mazey still trying to get Shinji to pet her. I got out one of the poffins my mom had given me, made especially for Mazey.
"You are one determined girl Mazey." She happily ate it up.
"What's the point in giving Turtwig a treat? It's not like it's going to make her stronger in any way." Shinji coldly stated. I stood up fully, my hands on my hips.
"Her name is Mazey, and I gave it to her because it was nice Shinji and I love her, something you apparently don't know the meaning of." I got my bag and began going through it for all of my money, not only had I brought all of my life savings but my mom had given me a good amount as well. All together I had about $800, enough to last me for a good while until I started building up prize money. It took forever too, trying to find all of it. I hadn't really organized my money so well... No need to worry! I thought to myself. I'll just buy myself a wallet today!
"I'm going out for a while." I stated, putting the last of my money in my coat pocket.
"And I would care because?" Picking up Mazey, I replied.
"Just thought I should let you know." I exited the room putting on my hat. After getting out of the Pokemon Center which was now bustling with people, I checked my map of Jubilife City. Which in fact was way too hard to read, so I abandoned it to just walk around the city.
I bought a wallet, but didn't find anything else that I wanted. The city was huge, people everywhere. Eventually I came across a huge colosseum looking building.
"Should we check it out Mazey?"
"Wig!" The small grass type replied in my arms.
"Okay!" I smiled at her and made my way to the front of the building. There however was a sign on the glass automatic sliding doors.
'Jubilife City Pokemon Contest! Starts February 13th!' I gasped.
"Mazey, this is the Contest Hall! This is where the contest is going to be and it starts tomorrow!" I grinned and ran inside. There was a bored looking woman blowing gum bubbles sitting at a counter. "Uh, hello! I'd like to sign up for the Contest." She blew another that popped, looking up from her computer.
"Do you have a Contest Pass?"
"Um, no." She got out a piece of paper and handed it along with a pen to me.
"Fill this out." It was usual stuff, date of birth, hometown, name. When I finished she brought me over to an area with a camera and took a picture. Within a few minutes my pass was printed, then swiped. "Here you go Hikari. I just entered you into the contest, just be here at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. You also might want to get something nice to wear." I nodded, taking my card back. After we were outside I let out all of my excitement.
"EEEEK! MAZEY WE'RE GOING TO BE IN OUR FIRST CONTEST!" I did this weird dance thing, hopping on one foot to the other. "Okay, so we have to make poffins, get both of us something to wear, a seal case and-" I stopped when I heard a clanging noise in an alleyway next to the Contest Hall. I set Mazey down and peeked around the building. A dirty Pokemon, too blackened to be recognized, had knocked over a trash can and was rummaging through it. I slowly made my over, not letting the Pokemon see me. Eventually I crouched down a few feet away.
"Are you lost buddy?" I softly whispered. For a split second it took it's head out of the can, all I could see was a dirty face, two big round ears and a pair of frightened yellow eyes. The Pokemon immediately ran off in the opposite direction, only allowing me to watch the yellow star shape on the end of it's tail disappear. "Someones shy." I mumbled, standing up and turning around to pick up Mazey and leave.
I began looking for a store to sell us two outfits for the Contest, but found nothing. Eventually we stopped at a small park for lunch. And it wasn't a very nice park either, it was small and dirty. Mazey, in no hurry, chowed down on her Pokemon food, while I ate some of the things my mom had packed for me. As I was watching Mazey finish up, I happened to glance up and see some rich looking lady come out of a fancy store, followed by a stuck up looking Lopunny wearing a cute little sweater. The sign above the store read 'Simone's Closet'.
"I think we just found our fancy dress store." Soon enough we were inside the store.
"Hello there! Welcome to Simone's Closet, for both your needs and your Pokemon's. How may I help you today?" A very beautiful young woman asked me.
"Well, we're looking for something to where at the Pokemon Contest tomorrow."
"Alright, come with me." She led me around the store, everything was gorgeous, but it was all way too expensive. A few things were in our price range, but they weren't exactly what I was looking for and I would have extremely little money left. "Ma'am, I don't think we have anything you're looking for." I nodded disappointingly, and was about to leave before I was stopped by an older woman with dark brown hair. She was about my mom's age, and looked very excited to see me... Creepy...
"Why if it isn't Hikari Diamond!"She greeted.
"Who are you?" I inquired, ready to bolt.
"Why how could I not recognize the daughter of top coordinator and great friend of mine, Johanna Diamond?"