Following In Her Footsteps

Part 1

By Finaille Nailo

Me and my friends are sitting at our usual lunch table at school. It is a nice Friday afternoon, and I’m definitely ready for the weekend.

"So Ren, Em, the rest of us are going to a movie tonight. Wanna join us?" Amelia asks us. I look at Emily while I think up a good lie.

"Neither of us can…" I explain, "We’re helping my mom at the animal shelter." I lie quickly. Emily grins and nods her head in agreement. As I say this, Matt walks by with his new girlfriend. He focuses away from her for a moment to look at me and nod his head, his usual greeting. I grin and wave back.

"I cannot believe you guys broke up." Caitlin says, snapping my focus back to the table. I grin. I reach over and steal a French fry from her.

"It happens." I state. Matt and I talked the other day, and I apologized for getting so angry with him. So, we decided to stay friends, I mean, we had a lot in common still. Normally, I’d be more bothered about a break-up like this, but now that I’m with Ash again, it’s not a big deal at all. It’s no deal, actually.

"I would have never spoken to him again if I were you." Keisha comments. I HIGHLY doubt that.

Anyways, after what seems like days, school finally gets out, and Emily and I start walking to my house.

"So, how long are we staying? In the… Pokemon world that is?" Emily asks about a block before we reach my house.

"I don’t believe we’ll be staying that long, I mean, we have school on Monday, and we need to be back." I mention. "Plus, if we stayed too long, everyone will think we’ve been kidnapped or something…"

"Too bad we can’t clone ourselves." She says with a small giggle. We reach my house and go immediately to my room. As soon as I shut my door, a bright light once again nearly blinds me.

"Hello Celebi… " I say, casually rubbing my eyes. He looks up at both Emily and I.

"I can clone you." He calmly says. Emily and I look at each other, blinking furiously.

"You can… WHAT?" I ask, just to make sure.

"I can clone you. I’ve done it before." He says.

"Oh… I see…" Emily tells him. WHAT?! She knows?

"What? I’m so confused…" I say, falling on my bed.

"He cloned you when you went to the Pokemon world for the first time. I mean, your body was still here." Emily explains.

"But, I was unconscious the entire time." I point out.

"Yes…" Celebi looks over at my TV. "I would have never woken up from your soul if that electric volt didn’t get you."

"Electric volt?"

"Yeah, but I wasn’t released. From waking me up, along with the volt, allowed the time portal to open, and your conscious mind was focused on the Pokemon world. Since it was meant to be, I had to clone you and push yourself in the time portal." Celebi explains.

"What do you mean by it was meant to be?" I ask… now this is making me curious.

"You’ll find out when you’re older… that’s all I can say." I shrug.

"Whatever…" I say.

"Well, do you want me to clone you two? And don’t worry about them, they’ll only be seen when they really need to be used." He asks us. I look at Emily.

"Well, we could stay longer that way." I mention.

"Yeah, you’re right." Emily says. I grin and nod at Celebi.

"Go ahead." I tell him. He looks at us, and the feeling that follows is indescribable. I open my eyes, to see two figures, one like me, and one like Emily.

"Wow, I feel like my life was just sucked out of me…" Emily says, rubbing her hand on her forehead. I nod in agreement. I really didn’t notice though, I mean… me going to the Pokemon world was meant to be?

"So, I suppose we’re ready to go." I tell Celebi. "Let’s go." I tell Emily, her eyes wide as the time portal appears. I grasp her hand. "On the count of three… one… two… three!" We step in at the same time, and just as fast as we stepped in we tumble onto a dusty path.

"Owww… are all your landings this painful?" Emily asks, coughing dust. She looks up at me, and starts screaming her head off. "OMIGOSH!!! LOOK AT YOU!!!" She yells loudly.

I grin like a little kid. "Look at yourself." I tell her to do.

"Oh wow… I can’t believe this…" Emily mutters to herself.

"Cool, huh?"

"Oh yeah…"

"Are you two ok?" I hear a boy’s voice yell. Expecting to see Ash, I turn towards the sound of the yelling, to find two boys running up to us.

I nod. "Yeah, why?" I ask.

"My friend saw you… fall out of the sky… he wanted to make sure you were alright. I’m Chris, and my friend is Kevin." Chris says. Chris is just a little shorter than Kevin, with dark brown hair and glasses. Kevin has lighter hair and freckles.

"I’m Rennie."

"I’m Emily."

"So, why did you… um… fall out of the sky?" Kevin asks.

"Well…" Emily starts…

"…We kinda… use… um…" I interrupt, "We um, kinda use time travel…" Chris’ and Kevin’s eyes get VERY large.

"Are you serious?" Chris asks. Emily and I both nod.

"I actually didn’t believe in the Pokemon world…" Emily says shyly, looking up at Chris. Woah… did that really happen?

"We’re looking for some friends… in a small town outside Ecruteak. I believe it’s um… Camer Village?" I tell Kevin, a bit unsure of myself. He grins.

"You mean Camio Village? We’re about five miles west; Chris and I live there. We were just about to head back there, we could take you." Kevin suggests

"We’d love that." I tell him. Chris grins at Emily. We start on the trail, Chris and Emily stay behind Kevin and I and talk. Kevin and I lead the way.

"Are you guys trainers?" I ask him. He nods.

"Yeah, I specialize in Ice Pokemon, and Chris specializes in Steel-type Pokemon." Kevin tells me.

"Oh really? I’ve got an Ice Pokemon, Sneasel!" I remember.

"A Sneasel? I’ve got one of those." Kevin says with a smile.

"I don’t actually have mine with me though, Ash has it." I tell him.

"Ash?"

"Ash Ketchum."

"Wow! You know Ash? He’s my idol!" He says excitedly.

"I actually am Ash’s girlfriend…" I say quietly. "How do you know about him?"

"I’m one for watching the tournaments." Kevin grins. "I’ve been watching him since I was eight or nine…"

"Wow, that must mean you’re… thirteen?" I ask.

"Close." He grins. " I’m fourteen. Chris is actually a year older than me."

"Oh really? I couldn’t quite determine who looked older." I say with a casual smile. "I’m almost sixteen, yet I’m like, six inches shorter than you both."

"Sixteen? Wow, most girls your age are a lot taller."

"Oh thanks… I’m so incredibly short…" I say with a over-exaggerated sigh. He laughs.

"Height has nothing to do with how a person acts, and you seem pretty nice." Kevin tells me. I blush slightly.

"I wish the guys in my era were as nice as the guys here." I say with a sigh. "Hey, um, by the way, do you think Chris um, likes Emily?" He bursts out laughing. "What?" I ask in an annoyed tone.

"I was just going to ask if you thought Emily liked Chris." Kevin tells me with a chuckle. I laugh too.

"Great minds think alike." I quote. He nods. "But really, you think Emily likes Chris?"

He turns around to look at the two, who were laughing over something, and turns back to me, "Uh… I suppose I’d say yes… but I’ve never been all that great with understanding relationships. You say Ash is your boyfriend… so you must understand relationships to an extent. What do you think?"

"Well, I think Chris is acting pretty flirtatious… I couldn’t say much for Em though; she’s not really one for liking guys. She’s never even had a crush on a boy before… how does she do it?" I scratch my head to appear to look in thought. Kevin laughs.

"Nice… well, I guess we’ll just have to see what happens in the mean time." I agree with him. We reach Camio Village at about 8pm that night, and head straight to the Pokemon Center. Emily and I immediately sit down on some of the chairs while Chris and Kevin go make a phone call home.

"So… what did you and Chris talk about?" I ask curiously. She shrugs.

"He told me all about the Pokemon World… it really sounds amazing…" Emily says with a faint smile.

"Just wait until you get your first Pokemon." I say with a smile.

"Wait… I actually get to have a Pokemon?" She asks, her eyes growing wide. I giggle and nod; Chris and Kevin join us.

"Hey, just called my mom to tell her we’d be spending the night over here." Kevin tells me and he sits down next to me. Chris sits down next to Emily.

"Why are you spending the night here?" Emily asks. "I thought you lived here."

"Oh, right, we wanted to make sure that your group arrived on time… if not, we can just keep you company until they do." Chris says, grinning. He looks at Emily, and she blushes. Kevin chuckles, looks at me, and winks. I roll my eyes at him.

"Rennie!" I turn to be literally attacked by something almost entirely blue and black. I feel lips on mine… Ash…

"Oh Ash…" I smile at him as he breaks the kiss.

"I’m so glad you made it." He says, nuzzling his head into my neck. He looks up a moment later to see Chris, Kevin, and especially Emily staring at us. I notice the others quickly joining us. After formally introducing everyone, it seems like Emily is the center of attention… poor her… she hates being the center of attention.

"So Emily, you really came with Rennie from that past? That’s so cool!" Jen says. "Any friend of Rennie’s is a friend of ours!" She says excitedly.

"So, are you gonna be joining us?" Brock asks. Emily nods, her ears and cheeks flushing crimson. Kevin taps me on the back, and I turn around.

"So, I guess since your friends made it, Chris and I better head home. I guess there’s no need to spend the night." Kevin tells me quietly. I smile.

"Nonsense, why don’t you join the group? The more the merrier!" I say with a crazy grin. He laughs at me.

"You sure that would be ok?" Kevin asks me. I nod.

"Of course!"

Kevin laughs slyly. "I think Chris will like that…" He says, pointing out to Chris, who is trying to comfort Emily from the embarrassment.

"I think Emily will too." I say, grinning. Well obviously, Ash was ok with the addition of three new people… wow… so let’s see, who’s in the group now? There’s Ash, Misty, Jen, Brock, Michael, Emily, Kevin, Chris, and myself. That’s… nine people. Wow, we won’t be getting bored anytime soon. I’m really glad Emily came along, it’ll be nice to actually have someone who understands me.

I look at Kevin, and he smiles at me. "Guess I’d better tell Chris the good news." He says, and goes back to join the crowd surrounding Emily to talk to Chris. Emily squeezes out of the crowd and comes to me.

"I’m really excited… guess I’m following in your footsteps now, huh?" She asks me, and I nod.

"I guess it would seem that way." I smile. She’s starting the same adventure I once started nearly a year ago… I just hope she has as much fun.

A/N- Wow, chapter one up! YAY! Please R&R!!!