Title "When My Best Friend Saved the World"

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I sat and watched on the television while my best friend saved the world.

God, did I feel helpless. Sure, I loved working with Ivy. She was brilliant, fun, inspired, and damn was
she good looking. I thought I’d be content forever. After all, my existence was the stuff of dreams--I lived
on an almost-deserted jungle island with a beautiful, intelligent woman doing what I was born to do, taking
care of Pokemon.

I was a little lonely when I left Ash and Misty. We’d been friends for a long time by then, travelling,
getting into trouble, getting out of trouble. But I figured this peaceful world I now lived in would outweigh
the fun of life on the road. For a while it did. I learned a lot about my chosen medium, Pokemon breeding,
and I learned a lot more than I thought I would from Professor Ivy.

I thought of my distant friends occasionally. It was just in passing though, like when someone asked for
the ketchup. But I had decided to myself that I was going to love living on that island.

Things were going fine for a while. And then the changes started taking place.

The Pokemon grew restless, the weather made freakish changes with no provocation at all. Something was
wrong.

I ached to go out and find what was happening. I was practically dying to be out in the action. I begged
Professor Ivy to let me go with her out to the Orange Islands, but she needed me to stay and take care of her
lab.

So I sat back and watched the news.

To my surprise, I noticed Ash’s mother in the background as the reporter interviewed Ivy and Oak. Then it
dawned on me.

Of course Ash would be in the middle of things! He had some weird sixth sense that always threw him
right into the hub of the world’s major problems, that allowed him to save the world when he was most
needed. And, sure enough, when the reporter asked her why she was there, she started wailing about her
poor lost little boy.

Damn that kid. Damn him for being destined for greatness. Damn him for accidentally stumbling onto
solutions that, to anyone else, would get him or her and the entire world disintegrated. Damn him for being
lucky.

With sinking feeling, I realized that, once again, Ash was going to save the day. And this time I couldn’t
help. It was like when I was young, when Mom was still alive, and her and Dad would throw parties for
their friends. I wanted to be there in the party, too, but they always sent me to bed. I would sit in my room,
my stomach tumbling and burbling from my frustration. I would sit and listen to the party going on
downstairs, to the laughter and the fun that I wouldn’t be a part of. It would upset me enough that I would
start crying.

When Mom heard me, she would come upstairs to check on me. She always asked me what was wrong,
and every time my answer would be the same. I wanted to be a part of the party.

And she would say, “Brock, sweetheart, some things just aren’t meant to be.”

After she died and Dad ran off, I was just thirteen. I was an active teenager, I had friends, I had a
promising future. But with this new life forced upon me, I had no choice in what I got to do.

Instead of parties, I had battles for the Boulder badge. Instead of nights at the movies, I mended clothes
and cleaned the house. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.

When I left with Ash, I knew my life was turning around. I felt like I had a purpose now. I was destined.

It wasn’t me. It was him all along, I realize now. He would have been great, he would have accomplished
things just the same without me there.

He has a destiny.

God, I want a part of that. It’s not meant to be, though.

So, like I said, I watched the news intently for new developments. I heard of Ash’s quest for the spheres,
and of his freeing Lugia. No one else could have done that.

I watched on the television as my best friend saved the world.

Afterwards, the big publicity bash was about how all of this was foretold in a legend. “And thus, the world
will turn to Ash.”

He even had his name in legends. Damn him. And he was such an easygoing, friendly kid, it was almost
impossible to dislike him if you knew him.

And now I’m here, waiting for Ivy to come back from the huge party in Pallet Town. The whole city was
done up in honor of Ash’s brief homecoming after he saved the world. Apparently, they’re going to have
some yearly festival in honor of him. He’s going to be impossible after that, and I pity Misty for having to
live with him.

As things return to normal, though, I am seized by an incredible longing for my old life. I want to travel, I
want to be followed by the entire world. I want my daily tasks recorded and posted for the planet to peruse
over coffee in the morning. I want the fame that follows Ash Ketchum like the plague.

So, I’m thinking next week I’ll tell the Professor I’m leaving. She’ll be upset, I’m sure, but… I can’t live
my life all the time feeling that there’s some big party going on and I’ve been sent to bed. I don’t care if
it’s meant to be.

I will help my best friend save the world again and again. I will make it my destiny.