The week passed by in a blur, and it wasn't long before I found myself waiting in the school parking lot, my duffel bag next to me and ready for the next two weeks of summer camp.

Unfortunately it was freezing cold this morning and didn't feel much like summer at all. Typical.

Brianna stood next to me, looking bored as she scrolled through her phone. She seemed to have only come along because I had, although I imagined peer pressure from the other Pokemon fans had influenced it. A lot of her friends were coming here too after all.

Eddie was also here, dragging along several suspiciously large and unusual looking bags. I anticipated a lot of crazy contraptions coming to life in the next two weeks. I could also see Anthony sitting at a distance away from the rest, looking rather nervous and holding his Absol plush close to his chest.

Nearby the three band players were discussing something intensely, and I suspected they were making a new song. I could also see Zoe hiding behind them, holding something in her hands. I had no idea what she was about to do, but I figured it probably wouldn't be fun for those three.

Nearby I spotted Kent looking very much out of place among the small band of Pokemon nerds. Without his usual entourage he looked surprisingly normal.

Minus the insufferably handsome face and perfect muscles. Seriously, what kinda genes were in this kid? It wasn't fair, he could've saved some for the rest of us!

As I sat there waiting for more people to show up, a limousine pulled up into the parking lot. It sat there for a moment, and I heard a bunch of muffled arguing. Then one of the doors opened, and Kate was pushed out along with several bags. She fell flat on her face, and the door immediately closed with the limo screeching away out of the parking lot.

Kate grumbled as she sat up, brushing her skirt off. She noticed everyone staring at her and turned bright red. "D-d-don't look at me like that! I'm not here because I want to be! Leave me alone!"

She huffed and crossed her arms, purposefully trying to avoid meeting everyone's gaze. There was whispering all around and a couple snickers.

But I couldn't help but think of the arguing inside the car. Was Kate alright with her family? Was she okay?

I mean, she was still a bully, but I couldn't help but feel a little worried for her. Curse my soft heart.

I didn't end up making a move though. Just sat there as always. I was not at all the right person to play comfort with her. I wasn't sure if anyone was, really. No one other than her popular girl clique seemed to like her, and none of them were here.

I was distracted by the sounds of another car pulling up. This one was a rather beat up old truck, the back loaded with sports equipment. In the driver's seat, I recognized Coach Vernon. That fiery red hair and Perrington Elementary High Pigeons (featuring a pigeon that looked like it was hopped up on drugs) jersey was unmistakable.

The back doors opened and climbing out were three students, all from the sports team.

The first was Barry. He was always quite active and could never stay quite still, and often deemed himself an expert on romance despite never having one, as far as I had seen. His hair was very wild and messy, and red just like Vernon's although the two had no relation to each other. His eyes were bright gold, and a scar ran down one. He currently wore a blue shirt patterned with stars, over a pair of black shorts and sneakers.

The second was Kai. He was a bit shorter than normal, with short black hair and green eyes. He was currently wearing his standard sweatpants, as well a plain hoodie. He was one of the stars of the sports team, although I hadn't interacted with him much. Most people seemed to consider him a potential menace for some reason. Something about getting into fights a lot?

The third was Fiona. She had bright yellow hair tied in a ponytail, red eyes, and an intimidating personality. She was perhaps the strongest girl in the school, and had trained herself in her own special type of martial arts, with dramatic moves that would take down anyone who tried to fight her. Many had asked her to teach them. Few returned successful.

She always wore her special worn out black belt no matter what clothes she was in. Right now she was wearing a shirt featuring some sort of famous martial artist and denim shorts, and looked rather bored. I decided to move to a different part of the parking lot, to avoid being in her way if she got too bored and started training on the students.

Once the three were decently far from the truck, Vernon drove off, presumably to pick up more students. I kept a curious eye out for any I recognized.

As more students were dropped off, though, I was distracted by a loud honking. Speeding into the parking lot was the last school bus - but it looked rather different now.

It had been absolutely covered in stickers of every Pokemon imaginable, and had been painted red and white. Big banners along the sides read "Who's ready to camp out with Pokemon!?", and seemed to sparkle with rainbow light. I could see Miss Melody up front, waving to everyone as she honked the horn an obnoxious amount.

"Come on kids! Climb on in! A whole world of excitement and adventure awaits you!", she yelled.

She looked over at Coach Vernon, who had suddenly appeared inside the bus next to her. "Was that the right line?", she asked quietly.

The coach simply shrugged.

"Anyways, come aboard! I don't want to wait a second longer for the fun stuff to begin!", cheered Miss Melody.

I followed the others into the school bus, where everyone started to get settled down. I found a nice quiet seat in the back, where hopefully no one would try and sit next to me, and as such avoid being bullied the whole trip.

But as I sat there, ready to relax, a sweet angelic voice asked, "Is this seat taken?"

I looked up and felt instantly stunned, as if Fiona had grabbed a steel chair and bashed me in the head with it.

Standing next to my seat was none other than Lulu Okana, arguably the best and sweetest girl in the school. She was tall with well-tanned skin that seemed kissed by the sun, and her eyes were warm pools of melted chocolate. Her long black hair was tied into twin braids down her shoulders, and a gorgeous eagle feather had been braided into each one. She was dressed in a simple, warm brown shirt and a short black skirt, with a tan vest slung over it. On her back was a bag full of notebooks, much like mine, full of beautiful stories about nature and spirits and more.

It was hard not to like her. She was sweet, kind, and caring, always helping people with whatever bothered them. She told stories better than anyone, and the whole school would go silent and listen when she started one. Not even Kate would mess with her, or at least not that I'd seen.

She was somehow everything I liked in one person, and therefore at the same time completely out of my league.

And now she was standing right there, talking to me, and I completely forgot how to English.

She gave me a soothing smile, waiting patiently for my response. My brain struggled to click a sentence together, her very presence completely overwriting the entire thing. Finally I managed to say, "Oh, um, uh, not at all! The seat is totally open!"

She looked a little concerned. "You sure? You seemed awfully hesitant."

"Uh, yes! Yes I'm sure! You just took me by surprise, is all.", I replied reassuringly.

"Well, if you say so.", she replied. She gracefully sat down next to me, and looked ahead as the other students piled on.

There seemed to be about nineteen or so in all. Seemed like an average size for a camp, I supposed, although too many to write a compelling main cast with. If there was an author writing all this, they surely must have gone mad. There was no way they could successfully manage this many!

But of course they'd try anyways, because why not.

Once everyone had loaded into the bus, the doors squeaked closed. Miss Melody cheerfully cried, "And we're off! Let's go!"

Fiona called, "Kids, hold onto your butts, otherwise you're about to lose them!"

Then Coach Vernon rammed his foot into the accelerator, and my head got to get a face-to-face meeting with the seat in front of me. I yelped, and Lulu giggled, causing my face to heat up.

The bus roared screaming out of the parking lot, and it quickly became clear that wasn't the only thing screaming.

"He's gonna kill us all!", Kate shrieked.

Kai grumbled. "Calm down guys, this is normal."

"THIS IS NORMAL!?", shouted everyone else who wasn't on the sports team.

"Yeah?", Kai asked, incredulous.

Everyone gave him the weirdest look. He just looked puzzled.

Looking towards the front, I saw Miss Melody calmly knitting a tiny sweater as Coach Vernon broke every single speeding law in the country. It was a miracle we weren't hitting anything or hearing sirens yet.

Out of fatal curiosity I peeked at the dashboard. Once I saw the arrow rapidly approaching 120 and not slowing, I decided it would be better not to know.

As I clung on for dear life, I heard a rumble and a snort, and more kids started screaming. I looked back nervously as a bench was sent flying, as a sleepy-looking Janitor sat up looking very bewildered.

"Help! The Janitor is on the bus! We're all gonna die!", Kate screamed. The Janitor looked confused as all the students tried to squeeze into the front seats, as far away from him as possible.

Miss Melody looked up from her knitting. "Oh, that's nice. Sure, he can come along too."

She then returned to knitting as everyone gave her horrified looks.

Brianna leaned over the back of my seat, smirking. "I feel bad for you, bro. Because it's obvious he's staying in the boy's cabin with you. I will get some flowers ready for your grave."

"Can you stop being edgy for just once?", I muttered.

"Huh, what was that? Sorry, couldn't hear you over the sound of incoming death by mop.", Brianna teased.

I knew it was better just to not argue. I sighed, resigned to my fate. Lulu gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, and I just about melted then and there. Too much stimuli.

Finally things leveled out. The coach seemed to find a steady pace, which was still considerably higher than posted speed limits, and the town had been replaced by the blurring greens and browns of the countryside. I noticed some of the stickers were getting loose and flying off, but one flew and stuck to my window. It was of a cutesy anime girl Sylveon, winking at me as if she was in on some secret joke.

For some reason, a deep chill raced up my spine as I stared at that sticker…as if I was staring at my own grave.

Why an anime girl Sylveon of all things triggered that, I had no idea. It was deeply unsettling.

"Aw, that's an adorable sticker.", cooed Lulu, "Wouldn't it be awesome if it was real? If all Pokemon were real? Everything would be so much more fun and exciting. You could never tell what would happen next!"

I replied, "Um, yeah, sure. I imagine it would be scary too, though, wouldn't it?"

"Maybe at first.", shrugged Lulu, "But I'm sure people would warm up to it eventually. I mean, it's POKEMON. Like, come on!"

I nodded. I wanted to make a good impression with her, so chose not to start a debate. But I had thought about this thing before, and knew it would most likely not be an idyllic paradise like Lulu hoped. Instead, I hoped that it never happened.

Well, most of me. There was that one small part saying it would be cool, though. And that maybe my predictions were wrong.

Soon enough I would learn what would really happen.

After what felt like forever but was probably not that long at all due to relativistic shenanigans reacting to the coach's unfathomable speed, the bus began to slow. Outside the window I could see thick, green pine trees, a great blue lake, and a lone mountain looming over all of it. It looked very much like the scene from a postcard, and I couldn't help but marvel at it.

Lulu was staring in awe at it too, her head leaning over my shoulder. I felt very warm, her cinnamon-scented perfume tickling my nose. But alas, it was only for a moment.

As the bus screeched to a stop, everyone started eagerly grabbing their bags and such. Lulu leaned back and retrieved hers, and I gave a quiet sigh as she prepared to get off.

As soon as the bus had stopped, Vernon slapped the dashboard and shouted, "Alright kids, time to climb off! We're here!"

"Yay!", cheered the Janitor.

Lulu smiled at me. "Be seeing you." Then she got up and walked off the bus, following the swarm of students rapidly rushing off as the Janitor squeezed his way down the aisle.

I quickly joined them, not wanting to be the last person off the bus or have to be behind the Janitor.

When I stepped off the bus, I was immediately greeted by the crisp scent of pine needles and the warm soothing breeze. Birds were singing somewhere, and I smiled. Nature had always been one of my favorite things.

Behind me I heard Brianna mutter, "Where's the camp?"

As I turned, the coach snapped his fingers, saying, "You kidding? It's right there."

Sure enough, on the other side of the bus there was a dirt trail leading to a large clearing, with two large cabins, a central firepit, and several smaller cabins presumably for activities. It was amazing how one could have missed it.

I noticed Brianna seemed unusually pale. I had no idea why. I did feel a strange tingling in my gut though. Like something was wrong.

Eh…surely, everything was gonna be fine. It was just summer camp after all. Sure it was Perrington Elementary High summer camp, but otherwise it wasn't that big of a deal. Plus it was Pokemon-themed!

Famous last words. (-o-)