Hello, it is the 28th and I am back with a new chapter - the final chapter of Rocket Daze. I can't believe that it's the last one for the time being. I don't know where the last year has gone. It feels like yesterday that I came up with this concept on a whim and knew that I wanted to work on it. For the final chapter, I wanted to write a chapter that would hint of a new story to come. I can't believe it but for the first time ever in this sort of format, I am writing about what Shannon and I have dubbed the "Team Rocket AU". I've written about the AU only once over on Pikachu Tales in a chapter called The One On The Stage Floor. The Team Rocket AU is an alternate universe where the TRio don't chase the twerps and Misty doesn't ever go on a journey and as a late teenager she joins Team Rocket instead. She meets James. And she dates James. The whole thing was so we could give James and Misty a far more wholesome relationship :P This chapter is Misty's diary entry of how they met. So, I'll stop rambling and let you enjoy!
It never ceases to amaze me how life can change so much and in such a short space of time. How funny that I was thinking about quitting Team Rocket, or at least questioning my future here. But then I met him. I met James. He became my reason to stay. More than that, he became my reason for a lot of things.
The reason I dream again. The reason I smile. I believe in love now because of him.
The last thing I ever wanted to be was a lovey-dovey airhead like my sisters and to be the kind of girl who thinks that life can properly begin after meeting some guy. Because of that, I hate to admit that I always wondered what my first kiss could be like. How life could be when someone finally noticed me.
I always imagined that we would be friends for ages first for some reason. Have the kind of relationship where you bicker endlessly but care about each other even more and along the way realize that you've fallen for your best friend.
It wasn't like that with James. I never imagined my first kiss would be with a stranger. But he's not a stranger now. Far from it. I feel I know him better than I know myself sometimes.
I was at that Team Rocket club for something to do. I hadn't been there before so didn't know the kind of people that liked to go there. It turns out that James is the kind of goes there too. He oversees a lot of the business on the side. That was how we met on one particular night.
It had been the usual kind of hazy, blurry evening that I imagine took place at those kinds of clubs. There was glass shattered all over the floor, their contents spilling everywhere and cigarette butts pooled in the liquid.
James tried to get me to leave so he could clear up. The last one standing. The last one dancing. I hadn't even had anything to drink. I just wanted to let my hair down a bit. For the first time in my life, I don't look back and cringe at something I did because it lead me to him.
He put a record on the jukebox, carrying on cleaning whether I was there or not. I started to dance on one of the tables! I could tell that he couldn't take his eyes off me. But I didn't feel unease. I sort of quite liked it. Sort of wanted him to keep doing it.
I didn't know his name at that point but his gaze was equally like a white hot spotlight that made my cheeks feel warm but when he smiled at me, trying to carry on sweeping, it was like I had always known me.
Eventually, he approached the table. I thought he was going to ask me to get down. We started talking. At first, about the record he had just put on and then about other kinds of music. And then we talked about each other. He told me his name was James. After learning I was called Misty, he commented that he hadn't seen me around before.
Getting down from the table and sitting down at the edge, I told him that I was new. I hadn't voiced these words to anyone – I didn't really have any proper friends apart from the Pokémon in the organization – but I told him that I was wondering whether I should even stay at that point.
I'll never forget what he told me next. He said that it was a shame because he hoped to see me around more from then on. I'll never forget what happened less even next. I don't know why I leaned in to kiss his cheek. I know why even less why I let him kiss me on the mouth!
But I couldn't help it.
It wasn't because I was lonely because I wasn't. At least not on that evening. It wasn't because anybody or any kiss would do. I didn't regret it either.
I never imagined that my first kiss would be with a stranger, even less that it happened with the contents of everybody else's good night spilled onto the floor as I sat perched on the edge of a grimy table and he hummed music into my mouth as he held me.
But thank goodness that that was the last time that he could be considered a stranger. And unlike my dad had warned me about the men in Team Rocket, he did not want just the one thing from me.
He asked me out the very next day and we did things properly. An innocent hand hold while we shared drinks that gave us brain freeze. A kiss on the cheek goodbye after he walked me to my dormitory.
But the conversation on our first date was electric. We never ran out of things to talk about. I told him about my past; he told me bits and pieces too. I found out he had been in Team Rocket since before he was even my age. That one of his closed friends was a talking Meowth. I wanted to know more about that!
I felt safe with James from the very beginning. And that has never changed, not even the once. Life got a lot happier with him in it. And before I knew it, he was my boyfriend. Before I knew it, we were going steady and we were in love and he made me feel things I never believed were destined for me.
It's been the happiest year of my life. I suppose that's why I haven't been writing in this old diary very much at all. For the first time ever, life feels happier and better than any song or poetry or bits of words that I could write down for me to find at a later date.
There have been a few ups and downs. Needless to say, my parents don't like him very much! Well, my dad doesn't. He doesn't know what someone seven years older than me is doing with me and though James has proven that he's around for the long haul, he still thinks that he wants the one thing from me.
Mom seems to like him. A little too much if I'm being completely honest. I think she wants me to have the kind of love story that she has with dad. James wanting to get to know me more and more doesn't scare me but that certainly does!
I want my own life. I love my dad but I don't want a partner like him. I want someone of my very own. If I had to dream up somebody then I would choose James every time.
Sometimes I get jealous because other girls in Team Rocket look at him the same way I probably did on that first night. He doesn't even seem to see it which is the annoying part. But it's also very sweet that he says that he only sees me. I believe him.
It makes me feel good at times that I am with somebody who could be with any number of people but he chooses to be with me. But I also worry a lot about his friendship with Jessie. They are the kind of friends that I imagine falling in love. They have the kind of friendship I imagined I would have before it eventually turned into something more.
Meowth has let a few things slip. Christopher reassures me that James only has eyes for me. I guess it's important what James says. And James says there's no reason to worry. So, I won't.
James isn't like anybody else I've ever met. I've never really had a lot of people around me. Never had any proper friends. I grew up with my sisters and they aren't really my kind of people! But still, James stands out.
He collects bottle caps which I thought was kind of nerdy at first but now I think it's fun and I love surprising him with a new one. He's in both a Team Rocket orchestra where he plays violin and he plays in a band with some of his friends. James hides in the back and plays guitar. He wouldn't let any of them know it but he writes music too. Music that he only lets me know about. I love that he trusts me. It makes me trust him.
He didn't have a good family growing up. That was a source of conflict once upon a time! But it's okay now. I feel sad for him sometimes, but his grandparents are lovely. They treat me like a member of the family and that's even better.
I could go on and on and write about James forever. About the little life we've built for ourselves. That feels so funny to even write that, let alone say it. I never once really gave much thought of the future but now I can't wait for it.
So, that's what life has been like for me lately.
James was once a stranger. A stranger that gave me my first kiss. Now he is so much more. The reason I want to participate in each day. The reason I didn't quit Team Rocket. James is the reason that I feel like I have a proper family more than I did as a child and when there was six of us.
James is in Red Team. I am in Blue Team. But because of him, my life is now in color.
And I cannot wait to see how we paint the rest of our lives.
I don't want a love like my parents. I want a love like my own. Like I have with James.
But having said that, I know that I would choose him again and again no matter the lifetime. If it ever came to that.
But I hope we can keep enjoying this one for the longest time.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) So yeah, this is the Team Rocket AU and I really would love to write more about it in the future. Perhaps in Pikachu Tales again or maybe in my new story. Yes, commencing August I am going to begin a new story in a similar format updated on the same day every month - the 28th. It will be The Memoirs of Misty - or Misty's Memoirs - I haven't decided yet. But it will basically be tales of Misty, whether it's diary entries like this or letters or perhaps something else. I am so looking forward to getting into Misty's head after these monthly uploads being mostly about Ash once upon a time! :) Thank you to everyone that read Rocket Daze. I do feel kind of frustrated that my hyper-fixation on Team Rocket stuff dwindled around January, so it was sometimes challenging to come up with ideas when my mind longed to go elsewhere. I also bit off more than I could chew at times. I wanted to get away from the letter writing format and I did sometimes but I found it difficult to do other formats alongside creating other stuff and participating in life outside of fiction. But I really am looking forward to what comes next. And I hope I might see you reading my next creations. Thank you again for your time reading Rocket Daze. Maybe see you over on Pikachu Tales in August or the project coming soon!
Amy signing out :)