"Momma, look. I made this drawing for you." `"That's nice Misty. Honey, here's that dress you wanted. Baby, you need to get out of the shower and get ready. Sweetie, let me curl your hair while it's still wet." The mother said, acting as if her youngest daughter wasn't as important as her older daughter's looks. The young girl brought down her drawing that had one her first place in the contest her school had held. She looked at the floor and walked dejectedly out of the room. A few years later, an incident happened much like that. The girl was about fourteen and her sister's about eighteen. "Mom, I got the highest scoring on the test. I can enroll in Pokemon Tech and become top of the classes like daddy did." "Honey, can it wait, I need to take your sisters to their etiquette lessons." "Sure, I...I guess." The girl replied. She walked out of their living room and upstairs to where her grandmother was in. Her grandmother had become to old to look after herself, so she moved in with her daughter. The girl always went to her for anything, since her mother was always fussing over her sisters and her father was working at the gym. She would have gladly taken it over but females weren't allowed to become trainers, seeing as they weren't able to care for them and the monsters would hurt them. But the girl could beat any boy at her school at anything, racing, arm wrestling, eating, baseball, anything, and owned a psyduck as a pet, who, coincidentally, was one of the only things that could give her a headache. The only one who seemed to care about Misty, was her grandmother. "My jewel, why the long face?" her grandmother asked, calling Misty, her jewel. It was a pet name, and Misty was the only one she gave a pet name to. "Only that I got the highest score on that test you helped me study for, got a chance for a free scholarship, and no one cares." "Oh but my jewel, they do care." "If they do care why did they just ignore me? It's like I don't exist. I wish I had been born a boy so I could already be out of here." "My jewel, you are what you are. You can't change that. Why, you could be out of here already. If you just used your head it would be easy." "My head? The only way I could be out of here would be to runaway or get married but I'm too young to do that, and if I ran away I couldn't be able to take care of you." "I'm old and have spent my life, but you have just begun it and need to take advantage of that. And congratulations on your test. Think about what I have always told you. You are what you are. You can never change that. But there are always ways to get around those who think differently. Could you bring me some tea if it's not to much to ask?" When the girl came back up to give her grandmother tea, her Grandmother was slumped over in her chair. "Grandmother, here's your tea. Grandmother?" The girl shook her and when not getting a response, reached down to check her pulse and not finding any, she ran downstairs to the gym and told her father. When the ambulance came it was already too late. The girl felt like her whole world had shattered. The only one who cared was gone. That night she laid in her bed crying softly and remembered her Grandmothers words. She replayed them over and over in her head to try and find out what the words meant. Somehow the thought came to her. Her grandmother had meant for her to dress up as a boy and become a trainer! She quickly pushed the thought out of her head. It was to absurd. But it sounded like it could work. The next week it kept coming back every time she saw a pokemon or heard that another boy was going to try and become a trainer. At the funeral, she kept thinking about it. When she went to saw her good-byes, she made sure she was the last one to leave. "I finally found out what you meant, Grandmother. I've decided to do it. I've already learned all I need to become a trainer and it wouldn't take much. I'll do it and make you proud. I promise." And with that she left her rose that she had picked out form her garden and placed it on the coffin. During the night, when she knew no one was awake, she snuck out the back door with all the things she needed. The fairly new pocket knife she had found near the river, clothes, her lucky blue hat that she had been given by her friend who had moved away, the money she had saved from her birthday, thanking that her parents never had time to give her anything but money, and a sleeping bag. When she got to the edge the town, she started to laugh, excited and scared that she actually accomplished it. Her stomach was filled to the brim with butterflies, and she felt light-headed. Before she left town she decided to thank her grandmother. "I'm sick and tired of this." A boy said slamming his balled up fist down on the table. "Ash, sit down before you make a scene." The boy did as told and wondered what made him do that. He decided to keep going since he was already started. "Why do I have to stay? I'm already fourteen, almost fifteen and I'm still stuck here." "What do you mean Ash?" his father asked. "What do I mean. I mean I'm the only boy at my school, stuck with all the girls." "When I was your age, I would have given anything for that," the waiter who handed them their drinks said. "All my friends have already gone on their trainer's leave and I'm still stuck here without a starter poke'mon. Even Billy's gone and his parents hardly let him out of the house." Ash said, ignoring him. "But you're still to young and you need to finish school." "Martha, he's right, we need to let him go. I'll call the Samuel tomorrow morning and see what he can do." "Really?" "Yes really. Now can we finish our dinner in peace?" His mother asked. Instead of having peaceful, quiet dinner, they had a dinner with a son that had just started to laugh like a maniac. "Never a dull moment with that boy." His father said, starting on his steak. "Ash, sit down." His mother said, looking to see if anyone was staring. To her discomfort, everyone, even the chef who had poked his head out to see what had happened, was staring. "Leave him be." "Yes, but my friends eat here and I don't want them snooping around and giving me a bad name. Can we go before he gets us kicked out?" "Brock, are you sure you want to go?" "Yes, I'm positive. I need to get out of Pewter. I've never been out of the city and I'm sure it will do me some good. I'll come back as soon as I can. I'll call you whenever I can. All right?" "Yes. I just wish I could come with you. But it's not permitted, and my father would have a fit, so I'll just have to deal with it. Promise me you'll come back." "I promise." She looked at Brock, reached up on her toes and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "Remember, you promised." She said. She looked at him one last time and started to run back home. If Misty had known it was going to be this hard, she never would have even thought of becoming a trainer. Right now, she was being chased by a pack of Rattatas. She had accidentally stumbled into a nest and tried to pet a baby Rattata, not knowing anything about them. The baby had cried out for his mother and that brought the whole pack of Rattatas. "Now I know why we were never to train," she said, throwing out the poke'ball that held her psyduck. "Do something. Stop them." The psyduck just looked at her, hands on head, saying, "Psy? (Why don't you?)" "Arghhh. You're useless. Return," pulling him back, she started to run again. She heard a stream nearby and went to it. She thought it would get rid of them but it just added more Rattata to the chase. She knew her plan was insane but if she didn't try she would die of a death Rattatas. And that would be humiliating. 'It could have been worse,' she thought as she jumped in, 'it could be raining.' Suddenly a crack of lightning flashed across the sky. 'I need to learn to stop thinking.' "All right Professor, I'll tell him. Thanks. Bye." Scott leaned back in his chair and sighed. His son wanted to become a trainer but the professor didn't have any poke'mon left. He had just given them away the day before. The closest time the professor would have new pokemon was in a month. His son wouldn't be too happy but he would have to settle for that. The phone rang and jolted Scott out of his thoughts. "Hello. Scott Ketchum here. Oh Professor hi. Really you have two more? All right thanks. Bye." Scott did the little victory/peace sign. He immediately called home to tell his wife about it. Ash would be happy about leaving and would probably leave the next day. Scott wanted to spend as much time with his son as he could, before he left. "Aaaaaaaahhhhh!" The girl screamed as she fell down the waterfall. She landed in the water below and was lucky that the water was deep and there weren't any rocks. Her hair was put up into a braid and reached her waist so it wouldn't block her vision. She had done this before she found the Rattata nest and was lucky that she had. She swam as far away from the waterfall as she could. She reached the shore coughing and gasping for air. The thing that took her breath away was that she had made it to Pallet. She yelled, and started running into town. Ash was coming home from school with his head down. He knew that he wasn't going to leave since Professor Oak had just given away his last pokemon. He had heard from school because May, a senior, the granddaughter of the professor, his biggest crush, and a big mouth, had told everyone. News traveled fast in his school so he heard it during first period. His thoughts were interrupted when he felt the breath get knocked out of him as he fell onto the ground. "Sorry," a feminine voice said. "Hey, watch it," he said, glaring at her. She said her apologies again, and ran towards the lab, her red braid trailing out behind her. He smiled, getting up and brushing himself off. Maybe staying here wouldn't be that bad. And he might just get over May if se stayed here. He jumped when his cell phone started ringing. He opened it carefully, acting as if it was a mad electrode. "H...Hello?" "Ash? This is Professor Oak. I've got another pokemon if you're still interested." "Really?!" "Yes, but first I need to talk to you. There's someone here that wants to ask you something." 'Maybe it's that girl from earlier,' he thought. "All right. I'll be right over," he said as hung up and started jogging over to the lab. "So your brother is becoming a trainer as well?" Ash asked the girl, he now knew as Misty. "Yes, it's just that he's not feeling well today and asked me to come get his pokemon for him," she said, nodding her head. The storm she had encountered earlier had just hit Pallet and it hit hard. "Wow. I thought I'd be the only one in town who'd be starting training. Speaking of which, when do we pick our pokemon, professor?" Ash asked, sneaking some off the candy off of the table. "In the morning. Misty, do you have anywhere to stay?" "No sir." "Well, then you can stay in May's room. She's at a friends house so I think that should be all right." "Thank you Professor. But I've got to get back home," she replied, picking up her things and flipping her braid from behind her shoulder. "I'd better go to, or mom'll worry." Ash said standing up and stretching. "Bye professor!" They both said at the door in unison. As they stepped onto the porch, something heavy fell out of Misty's bag and made a loud clunk. As they both reached down to pick it up, they're heads bumped together. "Oww.... Sorry," Ash said standing back up. "My fault," Misty said picking it up. As she brought it into a better light, he saw what it actually was. "Is that?..." "Yeah. My dad won this in a tournament. He gave it to me since I can't have a real poke'mon." "May I see it?" he asked. She handed it too him, and as he turned the pewter figure of an articuno over in his hands, he looked at her again. "You wouldn't happen to be ... nah. Nevermind. He doesn't have any sons." 'Oh no. He almost figured it out. Now what am I going to do? Calm down he's put the thought out of his head. Just say good night and be on your way.' "So, I guess I'll see your brother tomorrow. Um...well, I hope we met again." "We will." "What?" "I mean, I'm sure we will." "Bye." Ash said, as she ran out into the rain. "Bye. Have fun on your trip," she yelled back. 'I know I will,' she thought to herself.