"Ugh…" Julie pushed the blanket off her while her alarm blared at 4 a.m. but regretted that action fast enough and bundled back up when the air hit her. It was Monday, the morning she hated more than any other.
She reached under her pillow, unplugged, and grabbed her phone to disable the melody from her dropdown while yawning, then took the TV remote from the nightstand beside her and pointed it at the wall-mounted screen to turn it off, setting the remote back. Julie usually had it on at night to relax or use it as background noise while doing her homework. She just fell asleep with it on sometimes.
At least she had a good weekend. She'd cooked with her mother Saturday night, and they went to eat at her favorite diner the day after, which was a friendly noodle place, so Julie woke up with a better outlook on Monday than usual.
She lived a comfortable urban middle-class life in Goldenrod City, the region's largest, and had been well off since childhood due to her mother being the manager of a Pokémon Center located in the east part of the city. Julie knew nothing but a fortunate existence.
She was dainty and demure in nature and didn't let her upbringing shape or alter her attitude too much.
She got up after minutes of telling herself to multiple times, made her bed, and went to her restroom. Upon looking in the mirror, her hazel-colored eyes instantly remarked her hair. "That's a yikes..." Her accent was Johtoan (American rhotic).
Her hair was a mess, tangled quite a bit, and she needed to straighten it in several areas, which she did in due time using water, a brush, and leave-in conditioner on the counter. Her wavy brown hair rested just past her shoulder blades and contained thick blonde highlights that blended it. Julie was almost stunningly attractive with very little blemishing. She had a defined jawline, soft but relatively high cheekbones, close to full lips, full lashes, and faint dimples when she grinned, although she felt her nature didn't match her looks.
After doing her hair, brushing her teeth, and applying deodorant, she double glanced at the white bottle against the wall under the mirror and sighed, grabbing it and shaking it to hear the pills inside. They were antidepressants prescribed years ago by her doctor when her mom took her after noticing symptoms of depression, where she was diagnosed officially.
Julie hated taking them every morning and at times skipped days because she never wanted to be someone on meds. Julie pressed and twisted the top, taking a mini white pill and popping it in her mouth. She turned the sink nozzle and put her mouth under cool water, using it to swallow and putting the bottle back afterward.
Julie checked the time on her sky-blue cell along with today's forecast by unlocking it and pulling her dropdown bar. She avoided having to enter her pin when possible.
The phone was slightly bigger than her palm and modestly bulky, which phone companies worked to improve on. "High forties with fifty-four percent chance of showers. Amazing," she grumbled.
Her screen had a deep crack lining the center of its screen from bottom to top when she fell off her bike last year in a horrendous accident. She could get it repaired or toss it out for a newer phone since her current one was three years old, but she didn't like asking her mother to buy her new things, especially when she already worked so hard and paid bills that Julie wanted to help with one day.
If anything, she would rather her mother spend on necessities or herself, and Julie always waited until she had to replace or ask for new items or electronics, and her device still functioned.
It was 4:30 a.m., and she had to be at her first class in two hours and a half. Her senior schedule was: regional history, science, math, lunch, language arts, and business, all taught in sixty-minute increments with a forty-minute lunch break. Julie had her schedule saved on her phone but didn't need to follow it anymore.
She hastily slipped into white knee-high socks, skinny blue jeans, and chose between a blue or white tee from her closet. She ultimately went with white and put a thin matching jacket over it with pink arm sleeves that was dingy in some spots due to the number of times she's worn it over the years.
One of her favorite colors was blue, though. Her window's curtains were a bright icy blue, as were her nails and walls with scattered stickers that she had never bothered scraping off from years ago, and around her neck was a gem necklace made from a water stone, which was a major hobby of hers. Julie collected items made from evolutionary stones and had a wardrobe with glass windows against her wall by the window to hang them in. She hoped to fill it one day and would feel accomplished when she did.
She also had a cute, organized bookshelf against her wall by her bed that doubled as a nightstand with a fake potted blue flower on it, a mini statue of a seel riding a wave from an old field trip with: 'GA' branded on the wave in silver letters, and a golden middle school volleyball trophy with a white stand reading: 'Golden Ocean Middle School' on the bottom front section and a golden ball atop it from seventh grade.
The stand also held her pair of white wireless earphones and her sky-blue wallet holding cash, her school, and her region I.D. The shelves were stocked to the brim with books and a group of antique periwinkle beautifly built into the wall above it in a pretty swirly pattern. Her room was tidy, which she strived constantly to keep.
She put her wallet in her back pocket, grabbed her left white wireless earphone for the ride there to keep her right ear free for awareness, slung her heavy gray backpack over her shoulder that she kept on the floor, and made her way down the gray carpeted stairs with soft steps as her mother was still asleep. She usually went in for work at 6 a.m. unless she had to be there early for any reason.
After making it off the last stair, she took a right into the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle from the cabinet near the floor, along with a fruit bar from a bowl on the dining room table that would hold her off until lunch.
She was glad to have trained herself to eat less and vitalize herself when slimming some months ago through an off-and-on diet, though her upper body wasn't much toned because she didn't exercise it. Julie had always been more or less health conscious, taking after her mother, but used to have an annoying sugar addiction that reached a record high and left her control under her depression.
She was battling it to this day by replacing soda with water and avoiding sweets a lot of the time, but to a lesser extent since she bought healthier options when shopping with her mom and was accustomed to the diet.
Julie opened her bottle and sipped it to wet her throat, slipped into blue and white high-top running shoes, then headed out the front door across the wooden porch and pavement between their grassy lawn and mailbox to avoid the active automatic sprinkler.
Their porch had a brown couch chair, welcome mat, and a light that her mother turned on at night. Not much, but personalized.
She reached the bar attached to the side of her house where she locked her bike at night and stuck her bottle in a slot on the side of her backpack, then turned her earphone on with a button, causing a mini blue light to flash at the bottom, and stuck it in her ear.
Julie crouched to dial the pin on the lock and removed it, setting it inside the basket on the front of her bike, then mounting and riding down her residential street toward the city while speed-eating her bar with one hand. She saw the compact white mail truck across the street and the uniformed employee dropping off packages at doorsteps. He took care of this side of the street at around 6 or 7 a.m., so her mother usually got the mail. If he came after six, Julie did when she came home from school.
She lived two city blocks from downtown Goldenrod on a quiet residential road that saw little traffic but was also close enough for convenience, so it was kind of a sweet spot. If she rode north or south, she'd be riding deeper into the neighborhood.
The weather was cool enough to make her shiver, which she felt in gentle breezes pushing her hair back and stinging her face and hands while pedaling past more homes and rustling planted trees that she rode under, glancing up as what leaves remained from autumn dropped from their branches and littered the ground, and spotting a couple of pidgey perched in them. She passed by flower shrubs and patches of rich green grass between driveways that the city tended to as well.
Goldenrod's climate was cool by default, being a coastal city, it was close to winter, and she wasn't far from the beach at that. She could handle it better than, say, someone from Alola, but it was still too cold. The region saw less rain during the winter overall, so there was that, but it would get frigid in the coming months.
People entered parked vehicles of boxy while slightly curvy models, a green garbage truck picked up bins across the street, others took their early morning jog or walked their pokémon through the neighborhood, and a school bus stopped in front of homes to pick up children for school.
City workers trimmed bushes and overgrowing grass with motored cutters, filling the air with its freshly cut scent and stopping briefly when Julie rode past.
Julie's school was close-ish, just over two hours away by bike, so the temperature wouldn't affect her much. She didn't have to endure any of this for much longer, anyway. Julie was a few months away from graduating at eighteen. She could finally leave the idiots at Ecruteak High behind. It was the public school she attended.
She would much rather spend her time with pokémon— and speaking of pokémon, it brought her to think of Midnight, the school's umbreon. He had a generic name, but that's what happens when the school's faculty is in charge of that sort of thing.
Julie usually saw him roaming the halls on her way to classes at times, and they'd gotten close over the past year when they first interacted after crossing paths enough times. He'd been at the school for two years now. She gave him as much affection as possible when she had time, occasionally bringing him a treat from home.
Julie looked forward to seeing Midnight more than anyone else. He provided the best company whenever she had the chance to be around him, and it was the only thing that made her sad to be leaving the school so soon.
It made her grin merely to picture him sitting before her as he did at times while chewing berries with those rich red orbs fixed up at her and cute, furry ringed ears and puffy tail to complement.
"Andd into the fray," she whispered. Her surroundings gradually dissolved from a tranquil neighborhood to rush hour traffic, dirtier streets, and sidewalks. People walked to and fro or loitered in front of liquor markets with no purpose, pointing out nice cars or telling jokes while their rugged pokémon like machoke and croconaw accompanied them.
Rattata and pidgey tore and picked through garbage bags sitting idle in dark alleys, running or flying for cover whenever people opened doors to toss out more bags.
Murkrow and pidgeotto sat atop the edges of buildings or on light poles, giving the occasional cry and watching the activity below. Some caught sight of a poor wild furret too young to know any better darting between footsteps and trying to steer clear by running into the street that traffic scared it away from in a hopeless loop. It had gotten separated from its mother yesterday and couldn't find its way back.
Even with its gritty appearance and stuffy, smoggy air, this side of downtown closer to her area was generally safer and appeared nicer than central. Central was difficult for the city to keep up with due to the homeless, gangs, people who littered and graffiti'd every clean surface, and overall didn't care about their city or the environment in the slightest.
The bare asphalt became a bike lane as she entered the inner city and had to ride on bigger and busier roads prolific in corporate skyscrapers towering over her. She soon stopped in it before a large intersection and watched vehicles speed past, putting her foot on the ground to wait beside pedestrians.
Julie sat up and kept one hand on her handlebar, taking the last bite of her bar and slipping the wrapper in with her bottle, then pulling out her phone and unlocking it. She pulled down her notification bar and pressed the 'Magnect' option that connected her phone to her earphone automatically, hearing a corresponding beep in her ear.
Magnect was a wireless software founded forty years ago and grew to be sophisticated enough to become the modern standard for short-range interconnections between many electronic devices.
Julie put on a song from her music app of one of her favorite modern male pop artists from Kanto and set her playlist on shuffle, then slipped her phone into her pocket.
She glanced around at busy restaurants, a public elementary school built at the edge of a middle-class residential neighborhood with a fenced empty playground since the children were in class, and food trucks parked beside curbs with people congregating at them. A man let his energetic mankey point out an option at a truck, while others had their obedient pokémon sit back while ordering.
The plaza she went to sometimes was west down the road, which she saw in the distance. It had her favorite café to study at: 'Wikiblux,' which was the most popular one worldwide with a circle-shaped light purple logo outlining a half-filled cup with a wiki and bluk berry floating atop the dark purple liquid. Their most popular drink was a fused, smooth and sweet wiki and bluk berry frappuccino with purple whipped cream. It was what had skyrocketed the business decades ago.
The plaza also had a two-story structure with small family-owned eateries and markets on the first floor— and boring businesses like check-cashing, a medical clinic, dentist, and a tax preparation service on the second.
It was also home to a Sumon dealership, a reliable and globally successful truck and jeep manufacturer founded in Galar, and one of the few Poké-Doption Centers in Goldenrod that Julie had visited many times when she was younger. It was a company founded in Sinnoh over a decade ago dedicated to rehoming pokémon that had been born into household lives and couldn't function in the wild, alongside keeping regions pure.
Julie recalled scanning the various species held in stacked transparent cases when she was younger, but the pokémon there were often troubled and had suffered neglect, so it was a gamble on what you would get at times. Her parents never bought her one, and she'd once seen a timid young jolteon in a blue bell collar there that she fell in love with. He seemed sweet and loveable, giving her those full purple eyes without looking away. Hopefully, he had a good home now.
The company sometimes sold foreign pokémon at inflated prices that people had abandoned or dropped off and had trucks that traversed the region to seek pokémon not native to Johto and round them up.
When the light turned red a minute later and signaled for everyone to cross, she pedaled across the lines and kept to the bike lane afterward, riding among a couple of other cyclists to avoid the street full of traffic and the sidewalk populated with countless other people and owned pokémon strolling beside them.
She was now a mile from her home amid Goldenrod and ensured to watch driveways of homes, multistory apartments with automatic gates, and parked vehicles before passing them since she'd almost gotten hit several times by cars or trucks reversing or darting out.
One was responsible for the bike accident, as Julie had to screech to a stop at the last second to avoid a collision. Her bike's rear tire left the ground, and she toppled over, fracturing her arm on impact with the pavement because she landed on it and bruising her legs and knees after the bike fell on top of her. It had knocked the air out of her and hurt so acutely that she could do nothing but lie there on her stomach while curling up and moaning and crying to herself.
The person in the car was an older woman taking her children to school that seemed genuinely sorry, considering she got out all hysterical to take the bike off of Julie, sat her up, and called an ambulance.
Julie may have suffered fewer injuries if she rode into the car, but her first thought was to avoid an accident and possible confrontation. She had to wear a cast for weeks and couldn't ride to school, so she took the bus until she healed fully. City stress.
Julie grew bored, unhappy, and sometimes overwhelmed living a concentrated city life at times and wondered how a laid-back one would feel. There was rarely ever silence here, with cars occupying streets and news and ranger helicopters whirring in the air around the clock, people and buildings everywhere she looked with a few trees and shrubs planted atop concrete as 'nature.'
But she assumed she'd feel lost with any other lifestyle because she didn't understand them and would have trouble adapting and assimilating. There was no harm in testing it one day, but Julie would need to figure out where to start in a world full of beautiful regions. It intimidated her, but not to a major extent when she was educated on most of them thanks to her history class.
It would take her around thirty minutes to reach the northern exit on her bike from where she lived. The halfway point would be the Magnet Train Station and Goldenrod Radio Tower, both of which she was close to. The Goldenrod Gym wasn't far either, located a few miles north that trainers frequented and tried their luck at to beat Whitney, a normal-type trainer.
Julie could faintly see the station in the distance. There were sets of stairs people walked up and down leading up from the ground to a large indoor building sitting at three stories. Inside was where one purchased tickets and boarded the train.
Speaking of, Julie saw the bullet model appear from behind a tall structure on its raised tracks and slow to a gradual halt as it entered the building, where it disappeared. The tracks being built above the roads ensured shorter travel time.
The station's path ran from Saffron City in Kanto and through Johto's Goldenrod, connecting both regions that were next door to each other. Julie had ridden it multiple times when her parents took her on trips to Kanto, and the passing nature and civilization were a beauty to watch through the windows.
The tall radio tower was responsible for broadcasting over fifty programs and music for all of Johto and was Goldenrod's most unique structure. It looked so cool. It was a skyscraper with a rounded base, which was essentially its lobby, and thinned out into offices as it ascended into several more large recording studios toward the top. Atop the roof were multiple telecommunication towers to broadcast countless stations to the population.
Julie never got tired of seeing it and looked forward to it today. It was just past the train station. She remembered listening to the 'Pokédex Show' and 'Pokémon Search Party' on the radio on the way to school in the car, along with others or music her parents enjoyed. She remembered looking out the window at the passing lively city while cool morning air hit her face until her father rolled it up to keep the heat in.
The Pokédex Show explored various species and discussed interesting facts, stories, and events around the region involving them. Pokémon Search Party had been her absolute favorite, though. It was a documentary that followed a data crew and their encounters in-depth while exploring caves and ruins in various regions.
Off topic, Julie almost wanted to pedal faster to cut the thirty in half but wouldn't want to cause a freak accident. She couldn't count on her fingers the number of times she'd almost run over a pokémon or kid that wasn't paying attention, and the parent or owner had the audacity to berate her while they refused to watch their little one's whereabouts.
Anyway, Julie knew this route and the surrounding areas of her house like the back of her hand. She had yet to explore much as Goldenrod was massive, and she steered clear of areas that were considered unsafe, as taught by her mother, like the majority of the northern district that the city put less money into.
However, the rich population lived near and in the Goldenrod Hills farther up north at the city's outskirts in a clearing of its abundant trees, where the Goldenrod Observatory resided that she had been on a field trip to. The city had cut miles of trees down long ago to extend its limits. It was also where Little Kalos resided, an expansive middle-to-upper-class area that tried its best to capture Kalos' culture. Many people from that region resided and opened restaurants there.
Fortunately, she rode through decent areas. The worst she'd dealt with in her area were some stupid teens making her swerve or fall off her bike as a supposed 'prank,' but home invasions and muggings happened around here, though rarely. It's why Julie always made an effort to be home before dark. She'd indeed be targeted as a young woman, especially in metropolitan Goldenrod where over three million people resided, and bad people entered or drove around decent areas all the time in search of victims, so Julie always stayed aware of her surroundings.
The rest of Johto's cities didn't hold a candle in population density other than Olivine at two and a half million, Blackthorn at just under two million, and Cianwood at close to one and a half. To be fair, Goldenrod was the region's metropolis.
Away from the commotion and coastal air, Julie had two routes to pass before reaching Ecruteak City, where it was around twenty degrees warmer, and the air was cleaner and smelled of fresh nature. Everything about it was favorable. Her cheeks, ears, and nose stung and were still a soft pink, and her hands were numb, which the sun gradually warmed.
She was on Route 35, riding through a dirt path sprinkled with grass patches and surrounded by green pines. It also featured a small, fenced body of water. She passed other students biking and walking from Violet City, which was much closer to Ecruteak City than Goldenrod. She knew of a handful of students that commuted daily from Azalea Town hours south of Ecruteak.
Julie would hate to endure that, even if she used public transportation, and she took buses at times when her mother sent her farther out for errands but generally avoided it so she didn't have to be closed in among so many people, especially when odd people or druggies boarded sometimes and made the ride awkward or unnerving.
She already found her current daily route tedious at times. She should have a license like her best friend did so she could drive to school and avoid ever having to take a filthy city bus, but she was still afraid to take the test. She'd have to shake that soon, though. Julie wasn't getting any younger. They didn't have a car anymore, regardless.
Julie rode slowly in case an unknowing pokémon stepped out of the forest and waltzed into her path that she may or may not be able to react to in time.
She rarely complained about the ride, as being outside around scenery and getting exercise under the sun improved her day-to-day mood.
She looked into the trees and saw a couple of venonat hopping about and ledyba buzzing, and she spotted glimpses of aipom hanging in the trees and gathering berries, along with a few armed forest rangers in red and green outfits patrolling.
She enjoyed watching pokémon and studying their behavior. She didn't want to be a professor or pokétologist, who studied pokémon behavior, intelligence, and more from various disciplines and areas, but Julie did want to take more classes pertaining to those professions so she could understand the species more.
Pokémon amazed her in every sense, and Julie wanted to own a couple one day, but they were a huge responsibility that she knew she wasn't ready for.
Both 35 and Route 37 were short, fifteen-minute journeys, and she rode along the end of 37's dirt trail that soon dissolved into Ecruteak's smooth stone roads. It was a quainter and more traditional city with historical structures and serene nature, housing an older population overall.
The historic Bell Tower deeper into the city towered over an outdated congregation of homes with straw roofs, old markets, the gym, and the Pokémon Center.
Layers of trees with stunning golden leaves and others with a rich, verdant light green lined the outskirts, along with small ponds. The trees along the routes and in Ecruteak retained their leaves throughout all four seasons due to the warmer climate. Life-sized lanterns were also posted around the city that turned on at night and lit the streets.
Men in tattered tops and worn-out pants pulled water from wells behind their homes, women in wool skirts and old blouses tended to farms and crops, and more people around the city pushed wheelbarrows of supplies down the side of the road with the help of machamp or geodude alongside merchants with wooden carts.
Cars were a rare sight, and they were usually old models too. People either walked or rode their donphan or arcanine here, which was against the law in most big cities, as it would congest the walkways.
Cell phones were also a rarity. People mainly used Pokégear here, an advanced device resembling a bulky gray wristwatch with a small green screen. It displayed a map of Johto, told time, and could make calls. The newer versions, still vastly outdated, were bigger and had more functions.
However, they're all old news now and have been replaced by the more complex and capable mobile phones introduced roughly thirty years ago by Silph, a company based in Saffron City. Silph is also responsible for Pokégear created seventy years ago while other companies in various regions had mimicked its success and created other devices like the Pokétch in Sinnoh and PokéNav in Hoenn.
None were manufactured anymore, and the only people that still held onto them and got them fixed constantly at willing electronic stores are older towns, cities, and third-world regions that weren't actively developing. They refused to accept change or couldn't grasp the idea of a handheld device that had countless features and could access the web. Maybe it daunted them. Her mother was also forced to toss her gear and get a cell phone in order to keep her job at the Center, but she kept her old gear in her closet.
Modern cities and daily life in them didn't allow Pokégear or any other makes to thrive and had pushed society to transition over time. Only in the last five years had it truly been voiced by politicians and tech companies through campaigns and frequent advertising. World governments had been weary about the effects new technology would have on society, just as they had been with vehicles after first introducing them.
A person wearing gear around now would probably get chuckles or stares, and good luck finding a decent job that'd respect it and hire them. The gear would get left in the dust and become irrelevant as the years passed and the quality of cell phones further improved. Children nowadays didn't ask their parents for Pokégear for their birthday. They asked for a new phone.
However, Julie couldn't entirely blame the older generations that still held on to the life they'd settled and were comfortable in. From their perspective, it would be like Julie growing up with her current cell phone, using computers, other technology, and programs she was familiar with for the next thirty years— all things she would be more than well-versed in, then having a massive new rise in technology render everything she knew obsolete and expect her to get with the times.
She would do so because Julie wouldn't want to be that clueless and have difficulty participating in an ever-progressing world delving deeper than ever into rapidly advancing technology. She would involve herself in some shape or form with younger generations and expand her mindset and knowledge. Those that refused to adapt would only get further shunned and left behind.
But Julie would likely see the fact looming over the horizon years prior to the impact it would have on her life, unknowing as to what exactly was coming or how everything would change, but she would see it and feel an existential dread.
So, she would never look down on this city. Ecruteak kept busy in its own forty-plus years ago archaic way. Julie enjoyed the historical environment and admired that they worked hard, grew their own berries, and kept life simple but could never live here. For one, the available wi-fi speeds probably sucked, and there was a total of five markets and three decent restaurants. She didn't want to go on a tangent, but it wasn't for her.
The school was built here decades ago and was home to two hundred students, but the city could shut it down in the distant future as a growing number of residents complained it devalued the city. It was a good school, minus the minor drug issue and deviants. Fortunately, they were only a loud minority and ended up expelled if they were too defiant.
Julie rode her bike down the lone dusty but litterless roads under the sun, as the people here cared for their city, and spotted a young child and his father picking up a few stray plastic items from beside a curb and stuffing them into a bag. "Admirable," she grinned to herself. Not a soul in Goldenrod would ever, including Julie.
She went around a woman with groceries saddled on the back of an arcanine that trotted at a casual pace and around others pushing wheelbarrows or carts. Around her were dotted pedestrians roaming the sidewalks and worn marts with open doors selling cheap and limited food and drink items that children and teens from around here bought enthusiastically.
Most of them didn't attend high school and instead worked for their households out of eighth grade, but Julie knew of a number attending Ecruteak, although they kept to their own and typically didn't interact with students that lived outside of this city. They also carried a stigma because of their culture and generally low attendance numbers that they weren't as intelligent as Johtoans. They usually weren't outright teased for it, but Julie had overhead people talk negatively about them growing up and had witnessed it a number of times at Ecruteak High.
Their culture and lifestyle were frowned upon by many and unrelatable to the modern world. Most thought they were a drain on society and didn't attempt to understand their perception.
The people of Ecruteak were originally from Oblivia but had migrated here more than one hundred years ago for refuge during a past war between them and Ferrum after Johto opened their doors.
Small banks, cheap clothing stores, and thrift shops saw in-and-out customers that Julie studied for the fiftieth time, some walking while using and making calls on newer models of Pokégear, which is what she saw in Goldenrod, but on phones, and people were usually glued way harder since cellphones had way more functionality, including social media, messengers, and the internet.
Such a simple lifestyle these people had. She always wondered if they were satisfied with it, knowing what more their lives could be if they left Ecruteak, but their existences were undoubtedly easier and carefree in comparison. Maybe they didn't want to be driven by technology and focused solely on other aspects of life, the natural ones and each other. Julie couldn't imagine it since modern life was all she knew from a child.
She looked ahead and saw her school off to the side, sitting in a massive field: an old white two-story structure with peeling paint. A tall pole built before it in the grass flew the region's flag that hosted four colors. It had a rich half-gold center that faded into a scarlet orange at the top, and its other half was a deep blue that faded into a soft white. In the upper left corner sat a gust of wind carrying two feathers.
The flag's colors represented the legends of Johto: Ho-oh and Lugia. The region revered them so deeply that they'd built two nine-story towers in their name for the guardians of the sky and sea to reside: the Bell Tower in the east and Brass Tower in the west, both in Ecruteak.
The Bell Tower was cared for and stood to this day, but the Brass Tower had been charred and sacred ruins for over a hundred years. According to legend, a violent thunderstorm formed one night, and a lightning strike struck Lugia's Brass Tower, starting a fire that burned for three days.
Lugia had attempted to call upon the winds to put out the flames. However, their sheer strength had threatened to decimate Ecruteak, and by the time Lugia had the idea to call upon the rain, its tower collapsed.
Julie knew the legend well. She'd read many about various regions and had several books on them and myths on her bookshelf.
She pulled in and locked her bike among others at a station below a massive digital sign that displayed upcoming events or important information about the school, such as days when it would be closed. It felt out of place in a city like this, but the school thought it was a good idea to build some years back.
She tugged on her lock to ensure it was secure and walked along the grass with tall trees planted before the school and onto the pavement leading to stone steps through the open doors.
The halls were busy and full of people as usual, with posters on the walls of the school's name in orange and green cursive or their sports team here and there to bring them some life.
Julie walked north down the main hall, her posture slightly slouched, with her chest tucked in a bit and shoulders forward and somewhat lowered. She passed a few classrooms close to the entrance, including her math one, and stairs to her right leading to the school's second floor that students walked up to get to their lockers or classes. That's where Julie's business class was.
She watched some students lean over to drink from water fountains built into the walls too, making her glad to bring her own bottle. She found those fountains gross. The most she would do was use them to fill her bottle every once in a blue moon if she finished it early and was parched between classes, but she would never put her mouth near the nozzle.
As she walked past everyone, she could feel some eyes on her, although it was nothing out of the ordinary when she knew how the majority of this school felt about her. She didn't have the best reputation here, but they were easy enough to ignore anyway, at least that's what she always told herself.
Julie arrived at her faded blue locker several rows down and set her backpack on the white tile, dialing her lock to open it. She glanced aside at a tall brunette girl with her hair in a high bun putting her backpack in her locker and taking out books to the right. That was Leia.
She was considered a popular girl and had a posse, always wearing some fashionable short skirt or short shorts with tight shirts or jean jackets. Oh, and she always had a boyfriend. Leia never so much as looked in Julie's direction, which was fine since that wasn't someone Julie wanted to associate with anyway.
Julie had regional history for her first subject, so she unzipped her bag and snagged the book for it, her binder with completed homework sheets due today, her water, notebook, and a zip-up pack of pencils and pens, then opened her locker and stuffed her backpack inside. Some students carried theirs around all day, which was convenient so they didn't have to stop at their locker after every period, but Julie didn't like lugging hers around. It hurt her back and shoulders.
Midnight was currently nowhere to be found. He probably preferred not to be out while the halls were so busy, which was understandable. She'd be the same way if she could.
Julie cleared her head of complaints and negativity and walked past her locker to her class down the lengthy corridor. She took out her earphone and disabled it, which paused her music, and put it in her pocket.
At the end of the current hall was a wooden bench under a large window letting the sun in that one could look out of and see Ecruteak's mini plaza across the road and a sharp right leading down another hall with more lockers and classrooms. Other students passed Julie to and fro from down it.
Ecruteak's plaza had small businesses and a couple of restaurants that Julie went to sometimes if she wanted a donut or pizza that was from somewhere other than a chain after school, or when she wanted to buy berries for Midnight. She saw some cars driving in to park in the lot and people leaving with to-go bags as she got closer but turned left into her class before it.
She passed most of her peers sitting and chatting after entering, some asleep since the teacher hadn't entered yet. Julie maintained a decent sleep schedule, so that was never her unless she had to stay up late doing homework she'd forgotten about. Still, Julie always fought to stay awake as a good student would. She never wanted to be remembered by any teacher as a delinquent.
She made a beeline to her desk at the back and set her books, paper, water, and pack on the faux wood after sitting. Usually, the kids that didn't take school seriously and screwed around sat back here, but this class was an exception, and Julie disliked sitting at the front in any room.
The room was set up like a traditional class that the teacher had decorated to look appealing. There were large, detailed maps on the walls of several regions that came down during tests, pictures of historical landmarks in popular cities, and natural mountainous landscapes around the world. Julie never got tired of losing herself in such idyllic settings and picturing herself in them.
"Morning."
Julie looked at the boy sitting beside her and grinned, "good morning." That was Max, short with long black hair, out from Blackthorn. He greeted her every day, and they talked occasionally. She didn't consider him a friend, but they were cordial.
"Did anything interesting last night?" he asked. "I just did a ton of studying for the test in two days." He shrugged. "Nothing wrong with procrastinating if it works, right?"
Julie widened her eyes. She hadn't studied at all for it. It would mainly be labeling various attractions, towns, and cities among different regions the teacher had gone over. "I actually totally forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me." Julie would likely breeze through it since she adored the subject and studied often, but she'd be disappointed in herself if she got anything less than an A.
It was unlike her to forget about a test, especially when it came to regional history. She tried her best not to procrastinate either since it usually resulted in stress and rushed work. Outside of assignments, it resulted in her not getting much done around the house that added up or that all fell on her mother's shoulders. Julie tried to stay punctual for her own sake, but it was difficult to and infinitely easier not to.
"Jules, pencil?"
"Hold on," Julie told him and shifted to the other side, facing the shy blonde usually wearing dresses, headbands with a cute mini bow off to the side, and a fluffy pink or blue wrist cuff on her right wrist depending on her mood. It was pink today. "Jane, how do you never have one?" Jane was sweet, so Julie could never be rude to her, but she could get annoyed. Jane lived in one of the best areas in Goldenrod and of Julie's favorite ones to shop or hang out in, but she couldn't afford to often.
She shrugged. "I brought one Thursday and the day before, and... Jules, you know I'll return it."
"That's the crazy part. You don't." Julie looked ahead shortly as the teacher entered with a regional history textbook and laptop tucked under her arm and slipped Jane a pencil from her pack. That was Miss Vasella, a kind middle-aged woman with black hair held in a bun atop her head, currently wearing a cream sweater and black pants.
"Good morning, class." She walked to her desk and grinned upon hearing a couple of voices return it, set her items down, and opened her laptop, typing on it for a minute or so. She grabbed a small black remote afterward and went to stand by the clean whiteboard, pulling down the projector screen. "Today, we will be reviewing Johto, Unova, and Galar for the upcoming test, alongside touching more on the Galar Mines and Isle of Armor."
Miss Vasella pointed the remote to the ceiling to turn on the projector, which displayed an overhead shot of the modern Village Bridge in Unova. It was an arched bridge made of stone and spanned several miles to the east and west over a body of water, grassy fields, and forests of trees. Twelve buildings lined the start of both sides of the bridge's edges going up with stairs at the center for people to walk on. Once one got to the top, they could look upon the extensive field, greenery, water, and the pokémon that resided in them.
The teacher stepped aside so the entire class could see the screen. "We're going to start with a few locations not on the review. Think of it as an intriguing sneak peek into next week. What you're looking at is an image of Village Bridge, located between routes eleven and twelve that connect both."
Julie liked it already and shifted in her seat to lean in. Unova had caught her eye ever since she had started studying it inside and outside of the classroom.
Miss Vasella clicked a button on the remote to move to the next slide. On the screen was an image of a white structure on the bridge near the top at the west end with an older man in a tee and cap waving at the camera. It had inviting flowerbeds and potted plants in front of the building, and above them was a sign that read: 'Village Bridge Restaurant.' "It is a popular tourist spot, with thousands visiting yearly to take its telling historical tours and dine at the Village Bridge Restaurant shown in this image, known for its delectable berry sandwiches. The person in the picture is the owner."
That was nice. Julie would definitely have a sandwich if she were there, but she hoped Miss Vasella would touch on the history part. What made it so telling?
Miss Vasella pressed the remote again. The next slide was a photorealistic drawing of the Village Bridge?— or what it was. The art was drawn from the same angle as the first image but without the bridge in its place. Instead, it was of a heavily flooded river covering the field and swallowing homes, several of which had crumbled.
"The Village Bridge is well over two hundred years old and was constructed only after the river we saw in the first slide that is now beneath it had flooded and destroyed livelihoods. After such a tragic event, the government came up with a charming yet smart idea. The community was then constructed atop the beautiful bridge they had ordered to be built to prevent it from happening a second time, upkept by qualified individuals to ensure that it's in a sustainable condition and can hold the community up. A total collapse would equal an even bigger tragedy. The river has flooded again multiple times after the bridge was constructed, but it is no longer a threat."
Julie grinned. It was truly amazing how people came together in times of need and built such profound structures on short notice. If only it could always be that way.
After the hour passed, she was back out in the halls. She held onto some new things about her home region, Johto, where she'd lived all of her life, and Unova, which was an ally.
Unova was allied with Johto, Kanto, and Hoenn in what was referred to as the Unified Accord, the strongest and most respected nation in the world with Kalos and Fiore, having joined five years ago, while Kalos looked to depart. The second most powerful world power was the SNDA. The South-Northern Defensive Alliance currently had only Alola and Galar in it as close and trusted allies but was looking to expand.
Julie wondered if they would ever be on the Accord's level of global influence and domination. Alola and Galar built off of each other and fast-tracked societal and economic progress. They were developing mutually faster than any other regions, but it was still hard to believe. The Accord had been in power for over two hundred years now and won more conflicts and wars than it hadn't.
It had near a hundred military bases built strategically around Galar and Alola in the ocean and on the land of other regions nearby, ready for action, as those two regions were the Accord's greatest threats. Galar and Alola dual-funded their militaries nonstop and were actively building airstrips and bases as an indirect challenge to the Accord, but they knew better than to challenge directly. The only aspect that struck uneasiness in Julie was that they were gearing to be ready for a direct challenge.
Onto less depressing matters— after Village Bridge, Miss Vasella had moved on and covered the marvelous Liberty Garden, a luxurious island purchased and named by a rich family long ago off the coast of Castelia City. It had been a private island for decades, but the family opened it to tourism in recent years for a source of easy income.
Julie put visiting that island on her bucket list. She would take the ferry from the Liberty Pier in Castelia City if and when she ever visited Unova, as Miss Vasella had taught. Speaking of Castelia, it was the largest city in the region and among the largest in the world. It saw traffic from around the globe, so it held many cultures and food as a result— a cosmopolitan dream which would make for nothing but an exquisite experience.
However, Julie was most interested in its university she wanted to apply to after graduating, as well as a few others with her mother's help. The convenient option that'd allow Julie to stay within the comfort of Goldenrod would be attending UG Southside City, which was literally twenty minutes south of her house near the beachfront in a good area. It was an amazing and beautiful university.
Her mother had taken her one day to tour its grounds, but Castelia was considered a top one, so she would have to work as hard and be as prudent as she has been to get a decent chance at being accepted. If she couldn't from high school, which was eminently competitive, she'd transfer from a community college if she set her mind to it, and there were many in Goldenrod.
Julie felt anxiety just thinking about leaving her mom and city and throwing herself into a completely new environment on her own, but she really wanted it. It was her goal.
It only reaffirmed that she had to remember to study for the test tonight. Julie had an A in history, an overall GPA sitting at 3.8 that taking several rigorous honors classes in previous grades had boosted, and would like to keep it that way. Not to mention SAT testing was only a couple of months or so away.
On her way to return her book to her locker, Julie noticed a familiar black ringed creature sitting in the general area where her locker was. Everyone passing by paid little to no mind to him, occasionally stopping to greet him or pat his head. He wasn't an unusual sight, after all. Julie just couldn't help herself. He was adorable.
She approached and kneeled before him. "Hey, Midnight," Julie smiled and brushed her hand over his head, glancing at his rings as they faded to a dim, glowy yellow. His ears folded as she ran her hand across and rose after she removed it.
She'd researched the phenomenon shortly after they met because his rings glowed often during their interactions the more time they spent together and found out they light up for two reasons: excitement and moonlight. It reminded her of Lilly purring when content.
She figured Midnight was waiting for her today, and she'd be a bit flattered if that were the case, as if it were a boy she liked, and she did really like him. He brightened every day and was almost always around.
Julie brought up her hands to caress his cheeks and felt eyes on her. She was the only one to treat Midnight like this, so it stood out. Julie sometimes felt the glances and stares from other students, but it wasn't a big deal when he was basically here to be petted, and whenever she knelt to give him attention, it felt like no one around them existed. It brought her warmth and coziness on a scale she felt with no other soul.
Midnight thoroughly enjoyed the affection. Julie was the best human he knew on the entire campus and made his days significantly less boring. No one else touched him with so much tenderness or spoke to him so sweetly with enough capacity to bring him chills. She was the person he loved being around the most.
"I need to get to my next class, cutie. See you afterward if you're here, okay?" She rubbed his head then stood to get the necessary book out of her locker for her next class. While walking, she glanced back at Midnight while he watched.