Author notes:
1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.
2)I don't own Pokemon, obviously.
3)I only own the plot for this story and the eventual OCs
4)Thanks RandomNumbers523156 for your review
A reporter, who had short black hair and was wearing some blue jeans and a black shirt, had witnessed the whole thing. He quickly got out of the car wholding a microphone and talked to the cameraman, who was sitting by his side, at the driver's seat. "What are you waiting for? We have news to cover here!"
The cameraman, who was blond and wore a casual green shirt and blue jeans as well, looked lazily at the other man and sighed before saying: "Dude, it's just about a kid who, I bet, made most of those things up. Besides, even if all this were true, it wouldn't get a decent audience. People are more keen to watch about a tragedy or a when a celebrity starts doing stupid things to desperately gets attention."
The black-haired man crossed his arms over his chest and told him: "I know that, but there wasn't anything more interesting than this all day. If something 'better' does show up we can just cover it too and give to the station the better stuff. Besides, this is about a courageous orphan boy. I bet we can get at least a few 'awwws' from the housewives in this Godforsaken town!"
The blond guy scratched his chin for a while as he thought about his partner had said: "I guess you're right. This is definitely better than nothing. Let's go." Than he got out of the vehicle as well grabbing his camera.
Both men went into the direction were the other adults and kids were. Jake was now with her daughter in his arms and he dug his hand on his front pocket of his pants to grab his cell phone and call his wife to tell her that their little girl was alright, but he was interrupted midway and the black haired man appeared holing the microphone near his own mouth. "Excuse me sir. My name is Daniel Farseer and I work for the show 'Everyday News' and we couldn't help but to overhear what happened here. Could you care to explain with details what happened here for our viewers?"
Jake frowned. He wasn't keen to let his daughter or any kid for a matter of fact to be used like this. He knew from his experience that reporters had no morals and exploited everything they could in order to get more people to watch them.
Unfortunately, before he could dismiss them, his daughter told them with a smile: "Jack saved me from a very bad Pinsir. Him and his nidoran fought against him to save me."
It was her first time appearing in front of a camera like that. She felt like she should tell everyone how brave her friends were in order to save her. She didn't notice that both men were now smiling widely as if they had hit the jackpot.
The men quickly gave all kids a look and saw one boy holding a small male nidoran on his arms and, despite of the fact he suspected that the boy was Jack he asked anyway just to confirm: "Are you the one who saved this little girl?" then he placed the microphone in front of the boy's face.
Jack slowly nodded not really sure why that man was so interested in him. The pokemon in his arms just stared suspiciously at the man ready to bite him if necessary.
Meanwhile, some of the kids started to move themselves behind Jack and started saying thing like "Hey, I'm on TV!" This annoyed not only the reporter, but also made Jack feel even more uncomfortable.
The black-haired man suppressed the urge to not frown at the kid's lack of verbal response, but he kept smiling and placing the microphone back near his own mouth he asked: "Could you tell us with your words what happened?" then he placed the microphone back at the boy.
"H-Hiro, my nidoran, and I looked for her around the town, because we were really worried. Hiro caught her scent and we followed it to find her being bullied by a Pinsir. We thought against it and we managed to scare it away." The boy said looking nervously at his nidoran, not being able to look at into the man's eyes. He was obviously shy in front of a camera which was focused on Daniel and Jack.
After that the reporter asked again: "So, you told your nidoran to fight a wild pinsir? You must have a pretty brave pokemon…"
But then Mary decided to say something in order to stand up for her friend: "It wasn't just Hiro who was brave. Jack was too. He punched the Pinsir right on its face!"
Because of that comment, Jake's expression became really serious. He wasn't aware that the boy had gone through such a dangerous experience. He was now sure that the boy acted recklessly, because what if the Pinsir had used it claws to severely hurt him? Granted, both him and his daughter were okay, but the right thing was that he should have called for a responsible adult to take care of the situation.
"Really?" said Daniel getting more excited. He quickly asked the boy not measuring its consequences: "You really are a brave kid, then. You must have some serious guts to punch a wild and ferocious pokemon. Life must be turned you into a rough kid, being orphan and all."
"I-I…" Jack tried to say really uncomfortable by that man's words. Even the nidoran in his arms growled at the man.
"Wait a minute! He's just a kid you know. You can't treat him like that!" Jake finally intervened not liking the poor choice of words of that man. He even tried to block the lens of the camera with his free left hand.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" said the cameraman annoyed.
The reporter bit his lower lip then he quickly said trying to do some damage control: "Look, sir. I'm really sorry about it. I guess I got too carried away. I didn't mean to sound like that. I promise I won't do anything like that again."
"You better not to…" said Jake letting the man proceed with the interview, but he made clear that another slip like that would make both reporters in deep trouble, after all there were two cops right near them.
Daniel proceeded with the interview, carefully this time and after he was done, he thanked everyone for their patience. The cameraman turned his camera off and then glared at Jake and went towards the white van with a blue 'EN' written on both sides of the van which was parked not far from there, in the same street.
Daniel told them all before he left with a smile: "Hey, don't forget to watch us tonight. It might help your chances, kid!"
Jake gritted his teeth. It wasn't like Jack needed their help to be adopted. Granted, if any of the kids appeared on TV, it raised their chances of being adopted by a good family. But what angered him was the man's blatant insult. The man and all other supervisors made sure all kids received a normal life. They all gave love to these children and made sure to make them understand that they are as important as any other kid. In Jake's opinion, Jack was a brave kid indeed and a kind one as well. It wasn't his 'orphan condition' who made him be what he is. It was like saying that all orphan kids had one tracked mind.
Then the man glared daggers at the policemen nearby and asked them: "Why didn't you do anything?"
One of the policemen defended himself: "Look, I know he was a bit rude, but you can't deny that some publicity is going to help all these kids. Your girl is safe and nobody got hurt…Well, I advise you to leave as it is."
Jake sighed and told the kids to go back inside. He placed his daughter back on the ground as he finished dealing with the police and after that, the man intended to phone his wife and tell her everything was okay now.
After the kids got inside, Mary approached Jack and gave him a kiss on his right cheek. The boy's face immediately went red and he said: "W-What was that for?"
"It was for saving me!" She said with a smile and with both of her hands behind her.
A red haired boy passed by and said: "I bet he wasn't as courageous as you're saying, Mary. Besides, Mr. pokemon Lover here doesn't have the guts to punch one of them."
"Of course he was brave! You weren't there to see it!" Mary defended her friend really annoyed by the other kid's provocation.
"Whatever you say." He said shrugging before going to the kitchn to try grab a snack for him.
"Don't mind him, Jack. He's just jealous." The girl said placing her hand over Jack's shoulder.
The boy smiled a bit and then both of them heard nidoran complaining on jack's arms. Mary giggled and leaned to give a kiss on nidoran's cheek as well. With this the pokemon made a happy sound.
"Looks like he was the one to get jealous here." Jack said moving one hand to pet Hiro on his head.
Mary laughed a little and invited Jack to play with the other pokemons while they waited for dinner. They went outside and started to play with the other pokemons to kill some time.
At night, after the dinner, most of the kids were gathered to see if they appeared on TV as they all watched "Everyday News" which started at 7 p.m.
Jake was still there when the news were shown. He gritted his teeth as he saw the obviously edited version of it.
It first showed everyone in front of the orphanage, then it was changed back to Daniel, completely alone, giving the general information about what had happened. Then it was shown parts of the interview and, at the end, it was shown the reporter again saying: "As you could see that kid single handed a ferocious wild Pinsir by himself and with a bit of help of his small pokemon companion. It was truly an act of bravery of that kid."
At the end of it, Jake turned off the TV and told the kids to finish their homework. They all didn't like it, but they ended up obeying him. Except for Jack, who had finished it much earlier that same day. The boy often did this, because this way, he could have a more peaceful time to play with his nidoran.
He went outside, at the backyard. Mary had to do her homework as well, because she didn't have time to do it with him like she usually did. He sat down on the grass and placed the nidoran in front of him, on the grass as well.
He looked around and saw that the other pokemons were already inside at thei shelter at the other side of the backyard. He smiled weakly seeing them. They really had a lot of patience with the kids of this orphanage and they always ended the day exhausted.
The boy laid down and Hiro walked around him and laid down right on the right side next to Jack's head. Both of them looked at the night sky full of stars. It was so beautiful they were enchanted by it. "Do you think someone is going to adopt us someday?" Jack asked his companion.
The nidoran just looked at him unsure. The pokemon remembered very weird about the last adoption days he had witnessed. He found it very weird that the humans liked to choose a child as if they were shopping. He had gone with Jack to buy a few things at the local supermarket a few times before and he noticed that the humans really judged the kids like they were picking up a 'good piece of meat' to take home. What Hiro feared the most was that if Jack were to be adopted, the adults wouldn't allow him to go with his best friend.
The boy looked to the pokemon and noticed his troubled expression. Jack smiled and told him lifting his hand and petting Hiro's back: "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere if you're not allowed to come with me."
The nidoran smiled before it leaped on the boy's chest and made himself more comfortable over there. He really liked feeling his warmth like when he was just a small cub. The boy always made him feel secure. In fact he felt like Jack were his family, a parent.
The pokemon didn't even realized that he was falling asleep on the boy. Jack just smiled at the scene and petted Hiro behind the ears making him purr during his sleep in joy. The boy truly cared about the nidoran on him and he wouldn't let anyone to get between him and his best friend.
After that day, Jack and Hiro's life turned upside down because of that interview. Many couples appeared there looking for the kid hero. That deep troubled not only Jack, but also all supervisors and even the director of the orphanage. What troubled them wasn't the fact that someone wanted to adopt the boy, the problem was that these parents were being motivated by the fifteen minutes of fame of the boy and they were also motivated by pure pity towards the boy. Some of the parents didn't even glance at the other kids. Naturally, the orphanage direction didn't allow an adoption motivated by that. It was more than obvious that once the boy's fame died, they wouldn't care much about him and this could scar the kid for the rest of his life. And the proof of that was that, after they were denied, the couples just left the orphanage, again without even asking about other kids. They didn't want adopt a child because they wanted to have someone to care about.
But some other couples did appear and they wanted to adopt the boy after knowing some of the other kids, however they didn't want him to take the nidoran along. Because of that Jack ended up declining the offer of the few that were interested in him.
But, of course, he was still being teased by the other kids, because he was letting pass by many opportunities of being adopted, but he told them: "If Hiro isn't good enough for them, then I'm not 'good' for them enough either."
The nidoran was really happy knowing that his human friend wouldn't abandon him and he was also quite angry at the adults who dared looking at both of them as if they were mere objects ready to be bought. Both hoped they would eventually find someone who wants to adopt them for what they are.
End of chapter 2
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review.