I didn't do anything for the rest of the day, just didn't have it in me. I actually thought I had a chance. And what does that get me? Disappointment. Two days later I knew I had to get on with my life but what was there to get on with? Either way at one o'clock I dragged myself out of bed to go see Johnny upstairs. When I got to the kitchen I saw a Portillo's chocolate cake on the table and Roy and Johnny sitting around it playing their games. They stood up when I walked in.

"Skye," Said Johnny, "I'm really glad you didn't win. We would have missed you too much. So we're celebrating for it!"

"It's probably really messed up and dangerous over there anyway with the evil gangs and legendaries and all that." Said Roy.

I was so touched, my eyes got all shiny, I'm sure. I ran over and hugged the both of them. I knew I would always wonder what I did wrong but I would be content.

Brianna vaulted downstairs, "Hi can I have some of that?" She asked as she ran to the garage door.

"Sure," Said Johnny, "What are you doing?" "I ordered a collar for snuffles online and its supposed to come in the mail today," Her voice faded as she ran down the driveway. The flat faced snuffles skidded across the tile as it ran after her.

Half an hour later, when snuffles was in her new collar and, though we had all eaten as much cake as we were going to, were still sitting around the table, Mark and Tyler had come over.

"GIMME SOME CAKE!" Said Tyler in a obnoxiously loud and funny voice. They both took some and went in the living room to watch TV.

"I'm sorry you didn't make it Skye," Said Brianna.

"S'okay. Lori really seemed like a good candidate though."

"Skylo get over here!" Called Mark.

"That's not even a word!" I called back.

"Just get over here," I went and the others followed.

The newscaster from yesterday was speaking, "Yesterday Allan Yankovitch informed Pokémon Region officials that he did not wish to go to the Region. Unfortunately this means that Lori McDonald is not allowed, because they were chosen as a pair."

"Oh poor Lori," I said quietly.

"This means," The lady continued, "That two new winners have been chosen and they will receive letters in the mail today. Their names will not be announced until after they have left, because it is believed that Lori had safety concerns."

"SKYE! SKYE!" Called Brianna from the other room, I hadn't known she left, "THERE"S A LETTER FOR YOU!"

No, no way. It's not possible. Out of virtually every kid in America. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the letter from her outstretched hand. I tore it open and

Dear Skye Maggis,

Congratulations! You have been selected to live in the Pokémon Region. It is suggested you tell only trusted friends and family. Please be at the return address in New York on March 15 6:00PM ready to leave. You may bring possessions with you but keep in mind, you will have to carry it on your journey. If you brought something we cannot allow into the Region, we have the authority to send it back to your family. The rest of your possessions will be sent to your new home after you leave.

Just a reminder, you may only visit NPP Regions (Non Pokémon Populous Regions) for a total of thirty days in one year and you may only call anyone outside the Pokemon Region at a Pokémon Center or at your new home if a certain kind of phone is installed there. You must also put a *231 in front of the phone number as well as the area code.

Remember, you cannot be late.

I waited for about five seconds before I started laughing, screaming, and jumping around like a madwoman, "I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON!"

Johnny picked up the letter and read it with Roy and Brianna over his shoulder.

"No way, Awesome!" Roy and Johnny jumped around with me, Brianna was smiling, and our older brothers were slack jawed, still sitting on the couch, "It is now a winning cake!" Yelled Johnny.

Later the next day, our parents came home. It was very much similar to the last time I talked to them. They were sitting at the table, doing whatever they were doing and Johnny, Roy and I were standing by the doorway in the other room. I walked into the kitchen.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Hi sweetie."

I decided I'd just come out with it, "Remember when I asked you if I could go to take the test to go to the Pokémon Region and you said no? I went anyway. And I won. Out of every other girl in America I won," They looked at me like I was crazy, "I have proof," And I handed my mother the letter. They both read it together. Now my father looked at me as if I had purposely blown up the car.

"You went even after I told you no?" All of a sudden I felt faint.

"But Dad… I won."

"DOESN'T MATTER! You disobeyed my direct order!"

"But-"

"You are not going!"

All of a sudden, everything I had done to get to this point came rushing back, making me as strong and angry as my bristling father, "I studied for hours at a time, spent whole days on finishing the games. I went to New York! I actually won! And here you are telling me I can't go. What do you care? You don't care about me! You make up less than a hundredth of my life, and it'll continue to stay that way. WHAT COULD ANYONE POSSIBLY GAIN FROM ME STAYING!"

Mom all of a sudden got up to leave the room, thankfully not into the room Johnny and Roy were. Dad didn't look angry anymore, he looked like he wasn't feeling anything.

"Dad, if I can't go, the boy who was picked with me isn't allowed to go. The girl picked before me couldn't go because the first boy chickened out."

He was silent for a long time. Then he said quietly, "Though it may not seem like it, we do care about you kids. That's why I don't want you to go. But I guess you're right, we aren't a big part of your life and I'm sorry for that. There isn't much for you here. You can go," He went back to his paper.

I felt faint again, "I-I'm leaving on the fifteenth," I then turned around and walked to the basement. Johnny and Roy followed. I slouched into the white chair, emotionally, and seemingly physically, exhausted.

Roy looked a bit awkward and Johnny was curled up in a ball in the green chair, shocked too about what dad said.

"I'll come back tomorrow. Kay guys?"

"Okay." We said, grateful to be alone.

In the morning Mom and Dad actually came downstairs. Johnny and I were both sitting in the white chair, skimming through the information book. We stood up.

"We're leaving," Said Mom, "We won't be back until the eighteenth, so we came to say good-bye. Do you have a way to get there? We could get you a train ticket."

"Yes, I'm fine." Roy already promised he'd take me.

"And congratulations," She continued then hugged me, "I love you."

"Wait, I can come to visit." I'd left that out, hadn't I.

"We'll think of something fun, for when you do then. Good-Bye," She said, then to Johnny, "I love you too honey, see you soon," She kissed him on the cheek and left.

Dad looked down on me. He was only slightly shorter than Roy. "Good- bye. Both of you. I love you." He bent down, hugged us both and left.

Johnny and I sat back down together. We just sat, until I remembered, something every child should do.

I ran up the stairs and out the front door. Their car was just passing by, with the windows rolled down. Just in time I shouted, "I love you!"

On the eleventh, three days later, Tyler's voice came shooting down the stairs, "Skyscape! Johnny! And that other guy! Get your buts in the family room," When we got up there Mark was sliding a tape into the ancient VCR.

"Are we watching something?" I asked.

"Yes," Both of them sat down on the couch and Mark motioned for Roy to sit down with them. In order to fit Johnny sat down on his lap, like before, and I sat on the arm rest, but, startling me, Tyler yanked me down onto his lap. Roy started, as if to defend, and Tyler gave him a dirty look.

"What are we watching?" Johnny asked. In response Mark pressed the play button.

Up on the screen we saw a zoom in on a little black haired toddler, toddling around in only a diaper and one sock. She walked up to a smaller baby laying on the floor. Bending over, she pet her blond hair like she was a dog. The camera whirled around to a fifteen year old Tyler feeding another baby, this one not even a month old, in the crook of his arm. Marks pubescent voice sounded, "Ty, look at this," The camera went back to the toddler, but she was no longer near Brianna. For some reason she had pulled three books off the shelf and was continuing to remove more.

A while later we visited Christmas that year. Then it was Brianna and I floating in baby tubes in a pool, Johnny's first birthday, eating Colonial ice cream, me trying to climb a tree, three toddlers dancing to Mr. Blue Sky. In all of them it was just us five kids. It went on with more until I was 8 years old and by then several hours had passed, in which no one said anything.

Mark got up, put the tape away on the shelf and put his shoes on, Tyler right behind him. They came back to me and embraced me tightly and quickly. Without a word they went into the garage, got into their car and left.

"How about we go in the woods for a while?" It was just Johnny and I, "Seeing as how today's your last chance."

"Sounds good."

After grabbing a bag of chips we went out into the yard. The last snow had fallen and what was left had melted and the trees had even started growing little buds all over them. We followed the same path that we did when Tony took my case.

Johnny somehow sensed my thoughts, "I wonder if Tony knows?"

"Why would he? Only our family and Roy knows. And he'll find out soon enough anyway."

Eventually we got to our old tree, somewhere to the right of the house and very deep in the woods. Funny. I hadn't even noticed where we were headed. It was an old oak, at least a hundred years old. Down low it didn't have very many branches, but up top there was a section thick enough that we could walk on it without much trouble. But to get up there we had to climb another tree and hop from branch to branch.

Eventually we got up. He waited a moment then said, "We should be the ones to tell Tony. If he's a jerk about it, so be it. If he still believes in that crazy idea, whatever. But we should try to tell him."

He was right, of course. I took out my phone, called him, and put it on speaker. It rang six times then went to voicemail. Johnny indicated that I should leave a message, though I would have anyway.

"Hi, Tony… It's Skye…I won the contest and I… I'm leaving tomorrow," Then I hung up.

Thankfully, Johnny didn't say how extremely pathetic that sounded. But out of the blue he said, "You'll call me every day."

"What?"

"You'll call me every day, right?"

"I'll call you every time I have access to a phone that can, or will anyway, reach America. So whenever I'm in a Pokémon Center. Or at my new home…"

"About that! What do you think that is anyway?"

"Dunno. Maybe…" I stopped myself before I continued. What if they put the winners in a home with a new family? That would have been horrible to say to Johnny, let alone think about it myself. He was thinking it too though. He obviously had been for a while.

"You're gonna use all of your vacation time?

I hadn't foreseen his need for reassurance about this and I had no idea how to, aside from just continuing to answer his questions, "I will use every second of it. And the whole time I'll be with you."

We were quiet again, trying to move our thoughts away from that subject for a while. Hadn't winning originally been a good thing? So we talk about happy things for a while.

"What Pokémon do you want to catch?"

"… I know we always plan our team before we start the games, but we always end up wasting the whole time looking for them. I'm just going to catch anything that catches my eye… I hope that doesn't sound shallow."

"It doesn't. What's your favorite one though? Which one would you flip over if you found?"

"Mawile. I'm not sure if it's my favorite but I would want to catch it the most."

"What's your favorite then? Why wouldn't you want to catch it the most?"

"… Jiratchi. I wonder if what happens in the movie is really true… Even if it wasn't though and I actually had a chance to capture it, I don't think people should capture legendary Pokémon."

"Why?"

"Well… What if it's the only one of it's kind?… Maybe they're necessary for balance… Or… I just think that maybe creatures that powerful should be left alone!"

"Good reasons. Oh! Remember when we were at Colonial that one time?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you still going to be a regular old trainer?"

"Well yeah, there's nothing wrong with being a 'regular old' trainer. Plus I think I'll do a little bit of research. There was actually a question about that in the personality section on the test."

"Weird."

"I'll see if I can send you some cool stuff."

"Awesome! Could you send me a Pokédex? Pleeeeeeease!"

"If I can I will, I promise."

"Thanks. Do you think you should bring money?"

"Hmmm, I don't know. I'll bring a couple hundred when I go."

We got back down and chased each other around for a while. When he'd finally caught me and we were rolling around on the ground he yelled, "You won!" In my face, I yelled right back at him, "I won!" Then we rolled away from each other.

"Skye, I don't want you to forget me. But I also want you to enjoy it all as much as possible, so don't obsess about us when you're over there. And ya know, make new friends and all that." I stared at him, "What's wrong?"

"It's just that you've gotten so mature."

"Oh, god! You've gotten gushy!"

"No I haven't!" I pushed him and we chased each other back to the house.

Roy slept over that night. Even if he wasn't the one driving us there at three in the morning, he still would be.

"Hey," He said as he walked down the stairs. In one hand he held a movie, in the other a popped bag of popcorn, "You guys want to watch Over the Stars?"

"Sounds fun," I said.

We all sat down on the air mattress and watched the movie.

It ended much to fast. It was eight o'clock and we had to get to sleep soon if we didn't want Roy to conk out at the wheel.

I went to the closet to change when Roy said, "Skye, we got you a present."

I turned around to see Johnny holding out a present. I ripped it open (who saves wrapping paper anyway?). Inside were a set of sky blue pajamas with toy story clouds on it.

"Oh, thank you," I was touched, again, by my wonderful friends. I took it out to put it on and underneath was a picture of the three of us at Roy's birthday party. I couldn't remember it being taken. I got choked up, "I'm really going to miss you guys," Then Johnny and I put on our pajamas and we sat down again.

"Do you remember, at the primary testing station, when Johnny took my lunch?"

"I remember you giving it to him."

"I remember bugging him to death for it but at the Pizza Hut…"

It went on like that for a while, we talked about everything, trying to remember it all, like we would forget it all when I left. Then we turned to the clock to find that we had to cut it short.

"Good night," Said Johnny as he crawled into bed.

"Sleep tight," Roy said as he lay down to his pillow.

"See you in the morning," I said. I picked up the Hello Kitty alarm clock and set it for three. It seemed like my body didn't know that I would be waking up earlier, and was determined to follow its normal pattern. I watched the clock next to my pillow as it crept slowly forward in time. Ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, 12 o'clock…

"Skye!"

"Whaa!" I hit the ceiling as I shot up to look at my little sister standing on John's bunk to be level with mine, "What's going on?" I asked holding my head.

"I thought you were going to leave 20 minutes ago?"

I squeaked and then asked distressed, "What time is it?" I looked over the side of my bed for the alarm clock found it unplugged. "Oh no, I think I fell asleep with it… It must have unplugged when it fell off the bed."

"It's 3:20 seeing as how you were planning on leaving at 3." I stared at her dismayed and in disbelief, "Well get going!"

I jumped over the side of my bed, "Roy! Johnny! The alarm failed, we have to leave now!"

"Huh?"

"Come on!" I ran to the closet and dug out the case. Johnny pulled on his pants and had bent over to pick up his shirt when I dragged him toward the stairs saying, "No time for that."

Roy went to bed fully clothed so he just jumped up and ran. Johnny grabbed the bag of food in the fridge we packed for the trip.

By the garage door we all pulled on our shoes as Brianna was saying, "I woke up to say good-bye again. When I went to bed last night, the fact that I wouldn't see you again for another 6 months kind of hit me again-"

"That's very sweet Brianna, I'm going to miss you too." I said a bit too quickly. I was touched, believe me, but I would be more so, if speed weren't so important right now.

We stood up. Roy and Johnny ran to the car, and I ran after them after a fleeting hug with Brianna. I jumped in the back seat with Johnny just as the car started racing out of the driveway. I turned and looked through the back window into the beautiful night for a last glimpse of my home of the last thirteen years and saw Brianna waving from the driveway.

We arrived in New York about an hour ago. What was unfortunate, though, was the fact that we were twenty minutes away from the dock, according to the borrowed GPS, and we had 15 minutes to get there.

"Come on, come on!" Johnny murmured nervously to himself. He wouldn't dare direct it at Roy who was speeding like a madman. Wouldn't that be just my luck if he was pulled over now? Well actually no.

I was biting my knuckles so hard I was slightly worried they might be bleeding, but I was too worried about the current situation to bother to pull them out to check. With my left hand I pulled out a sandwich and pushed it at Johnny, he hadn't eaten yet.

"Thanks Skye," He whispered, "But I'm going to puke as it is."

"Well Sorry," Roy, understandably, was very irritable right now. We shut up so he could concentrate.

Three minutes left. "The ocean!" Shouted Johnny.

And there it was, blocking the horizon. There were really no other buildings or docks nearby, which was strange, because it's New York. The S. S. Anne was huge, bigger than the building on the dock. At the front of the building were two sliding glass doors, with a large digital clock above them that now said 1:37.

We parked, got out, and ran up to them. On the other side was a smirking boy a little older than I sitting in a row of chairs. In what looked like a dentist waiting room. Ms. Oetke was in there too as well as another lady standing next to her. There was now one minute left on the clock.

Roy swept me up in a big bear hug, "You'll take care of Johnny, right?"

"I promise," He said softly, "You take care of yourself, alright? I want to see you in one piece when you visit."

"I promise." And he planted a kiss on my forehead and set me down. I heard a sob beside me.

"Skye." He choked out. He was so small in Roy's oversized jacket, "I'm gonna miss you."

I started crying too. I felt so bad, I was leaving him here, alone. Well, "Roy is here, and I'm pretty sure you have Brianna too. And Mom, Dad and our brothers, they do love you." I hugged him, "You're the most important thing in the world to me," Then I whispered, "I know there's a way to get you over there. I can feel it and when I find it, you'll be there in a heartbeat."

"Skye," yelled Roy urgently. There were two seconds left. Roy pushed me inside and the doors closed. I raised my hand and took one last look at them and the tears in their eyes before a second set of darkened doors slid closed.

I turned around to greet the smirking boy but he said first, "You training in your pajamas?"

End Part 1