White's tiny bare feet softly padded down the carpeted stairs to the house that she shared with her mother. Her feet hit the cheap laminate flooring of the hallway. For a moment, she glanced at their front, and only, door to their house. It was so dark outside, yet she still heard her mommy moving about in the kitchen. What was that sniffly noise she kept hearing? Carefully, she poked her head from the hallway into the kitchen. There sat her mother at the dinner table with her face buried in her hands and the old wireless telephone next to her. From the places on her mother's face that White could see, she was a deep red. Her mother continued to sob and whisper things to herself.

"My own, my own mother won't even help anymore…"

White heard her wail to herself in a shrill voice. Her mom began to rock herself back and forth quickly and White's aqua eyes widened.

"How am I supposed to get a job while we're way out here?"

White heard her mother say other things such as, "He just left and ruined me" and "Bottom up in the house" and "I'm only 24 years old. How did this happen to me?" While the 6 year old spying on this breakdown had no idea what any of these things meant, she did know, as her mother brought her hands away from her face to reveal her tear stained cheeks and swollen eyes, that these things were very serious.

That was the day White deduced that she was a burden to her mother.

It was about a month later that White's mother went off to do some training for a work at home job having to do with distribution of products to pokemarts. Two more families were moving out to the nearly barren Nuvema Town to be a part of the program as well. White's mom said it was all thanks to the pokemon professor that had moved to secluded town nearly a year ago.

White walked beside her mother with her overnight bag across her chest. It was filled with clothes, some snacks, and a couple toys that would last her a week.

"Are you sure you don't want mommy to carry that for you?" her mother asked. White shook her head.

"I'm fine, mom."

"We are so lucky that Professor Juniper said it was okay for you to stay with her while I'm gone! You'll have to thank her a whole bunch, allright sweetie?"

"Yes ma'am," White said as she continued to walk.

White had stopped complaining about anything to her mother. She even began to wake up before her mother and cook them breakfast in the mornings. She bathed and put herself to sleep without her mother ever having to ask her to. Even now, she would not let out a peep of her discomfort from carrying such a large bag because she was so afraid that her mommy might cry again.

White didn't want that, so she had decided to take care of herself so that her mother would not have to worry about her. If the 6 year old knew what the word "responsibility" meant, she would say that she had begun to take responsibility for herself.

White's mother left her with the strange professor and told her that she would be back in a week, next Friday, at 10am. When her mother left, White took a good look at Miss Professor Juniper. She must've been a little bit older than her mommy, but not by much. White stood staring up at the Professor and she looked down at her.

"Gosh, I don't know what to do with kids. Well, I guess you can sit around and play or whatever. Just don't touch anything," Miss Professor Juniper said. She spun around and went back to work on a machine that she had on her lab table.

White found a corner of the lab with a large bookcase and a soft cushy chair. White sat down in the chair and looked around the lab. She quietly fiddled around with her growlithe stuffed pokemon and waited patiently for time to pass. After hours of daydreaming and playing with the few toys she had brought, White's stomach began to growl. Normally she would have eaten lunch 5 or so hours ago (when did it get dark outside?), but she didn't want to bother Miss Professor, who had been typing furiously into a computer screen, making phone calls to other labs and playing with her own toys on the lab table for the past several hours. White finally decided to walk up to her and tug on her lab coat.

"Miss Professor Juniper? Sorry to bother you but I wanted to know if I could eat something," White said with much uncertainty.

"Eat? Oh, right. It is dinnertime isn't it? Wait here, I'll go and get us something from the kitchen. I think I have something in there," Professor Juniper said absentmindedly. She seemed very tired and frazzled.

White waited patiently for a few minutes. She looked around the gray lab where Professor Juniper had spent all of her time that day, and something caught her eye. White stepped onto a short stepladder to view the small machine that Professor Juniper had been fussing over all day. She heard her tell people on the phone that it was "a prototype" and her "greatest achievement." Also that it would be able to "teach pokemon attacks for battle and to use to cross terrain." White examined it carefully. It just looked like a bundle of screws, wires, and chips. How could something like this be used on a pokemon? Just as she was about to set it down she heard the voice of the Professor.

"I actually found some chicken noodle soup so I hope you-" Juniper began but a gasp caught in her throat when she noticed White with the device in her hands.

Professor Juniper began to scream. White was so frightened that her palms released the object that she had been holding. Everything happened in slow motion. White's eyes widened as she realized what she had done. Juniper dove for the device after flinging the mugs full of noodle soup from her hands. The mugs and the device crashed to the floor. Tiny bolts rolled and bounced across the floor. A shiny silver piece from one of the chips fell off, and part of the base had cracked. Juniper scurried over to the machine shouting "NO! NO! NO!" over and over again. Her frantic yet tired eyes searched the little machine for all of the damages. She whispered things that White did not understand…mathematical equations, computer parts, and programming code. Professor Juniper's face shot up to look at White. Never had the little girl seen such pure, unbrideled anger quite like this.

"I told you NOT to touch ANYTHING and NOW look at what you've done!" She hollered. White had never been yelled at before so she stood rooted to the spot studying the situation. Her hands were trembling as the professor continued to scold her. White finally decided that she was too afraid to listen any further and leapt from the stepladder where she had been standing. White began to run the second her feet found the floor. She flung the door open to the lab and made a break for her house. She could hear the professor running after her, which frightened her even more. All she could think about was where her mom put the hidden house key, and whether or not she would be able to get the door unlocked in time. White scrambled onto the welcome mat at her own house. She lifted a small flowerpot and found the hidden key. Quickly, as if her life depended on it, she shakily unlocked both locks, opened the door, and slammed it behind her. She managed to lock the bottom lock before the handle began to jiggle. White gasped from the shock and fell backwards, staring at the door in the darkness, as the person behind it knocked on it forcefully.

"White, open this door right now!" she heard Professor Juniper yell from the other side.

White panted from the run, as she watched in fear as the door handle continued to jiggle. She spun around, raced up to her room, and jumped into her bed. With the warm familiar scent of home all around her, she fell asleep underneath her sheets.

/

White shook her head as she eyed Professor Juniper in the back room after her showdown with Chili. She pretended to dust her dress off nonchalantly as Professor Juniper walked up to her.

"Bianca and your mother wanted to go and get some more dessert before the event was over. I decided to stay behind to congratulate you. Your battle was impressive," Juniper explained as she stuck out her hand to shake White's. White felt her jaw tighten and she shook the outstretched hand as if it took great effort.

"Do you happen to have your pokedex on you right now?" Professor Juniper asked her.

"No. Why?" White said quickly.

"Oh. I just wanted to check your progress, that's all. You have yet to register any pokemon into your storage on the PC, so I was wondering how many pokemon you have caught."

"I haven't caught any yet. So sorry about that," White sounded sincere, but in her mind she was being sarcastic.

Juniper shrugged and shook her head.

"It's okay. I know it's difficult to catch a wild pokemon at first. You will get the hang of it fast, though. If you'd like, I can demonstrate-"

"My mom is out in the ballroom then?" White said loudly to cut off Juniper.

"Yes, she is," Professor Juniper said quietly.

"I would really like to get out to see her," White paused and hesitantly added, "Thanks for bringing her here."

That was sincere. White promptly opened the door and went out into the ballroom.

Professor Juniper sighed and crossed her arms as the door closed.

"That girl still hasn't gotten over that one time, has she?" Juniper said with a frown.

/chapter 16 end/

I know, I know. I'm moving along so slow and this chapter is short. Just bear with me. This little piece set the story back a little, but I had to get this out of the way before I could move on. Thanks so much for sticking with me!