Saffron High
By Goldliop

The school wasn’t too far away, but mom insisted on driving me there, something 
about trying to do something normally for once. 
But halfway through the drive, she let go of the wheel, and steered it with 
telekinesis.
Right before we pulled in, a loud roar shook the car, and a Salamence zoomed 
past, heading toward the school at an alarming rate.
“Mom, you gotta do something!!!” I yelled in a panic.
I looked at her, expecting her to pull the car over and leap into action. But 
she just looked at me and chuckled. 
She pointed toward the Salamence and said, “Take a closer look, can’t you see a 
man on top of it?”
	I squinted, just able to see the outline of a burly man getting off the 
Salamence and heading into the school.
	She chuckled again, “That, my boy, is your gym teacher.
	We pulled up to the school, and I tried to squirm my way out of the car as 
fast as possible, but before I knew it, 
I was frozen in place, halfway out the car, halfway in. I got many quizzical 
looks from other kids heading into the school.
	“Mommm”, I sighed in an exasperated tone, “Do ya mind, this is kinda 
embarrassing”
	“Your fault, you didn’t let me kiss you goodbye” she replied smugly.
	She let go, and I ducked back inside, letting her kiss my forehead.
	“Now play nice okay?” she said coyly
	“Fiiiine, I’ll play nice, cya mom” I stated exhaustedly.
	I got out of the car, and she sped away. I stood around looking around, 
and then my eyes caught the eyes of my best friend Dan. 
I ran over and we chatted about what pokemon we wanted, Dan told me all, about 
the water types he wanted, and then tried to pull one over on me.
	“So what psychic type you gonna get?” he said with a grin on his face.
	“Oh shuddup, you say that one more time and I’ll punch you square in the 
mouth.” I replied as I punched him on the shoulder.
	“Ow man, fine fine fine, no psychics, but seriously which one do you want? 
Maybe a ghost type, just to screw around with your mom” he replied with a 
devilish grin.
	“Mehhh I thought about it for the longest time, and I decided it would be 
a little too much, I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

	We walked into the school, directed by upperclassmen toward the center 
courtyard. We walked into the courtyard and sat in cheap plastic chairs right 
next to each other. 
I looked around the courtyard and couldn’t help but notice a giant machine 
placed on a stage in front of where we were seated. Dan and I sat patiently, 
thinking about what the machine could possibly be. We eventually came to the 
conclusion that it was just a giant bomb the principal had put there to kill us 
all off.	
	After everyone had sat down, a woman in a black dress walked up to a 
podium placed in front of the giant machine.
	“Welcome all top your first day at Saffron High! My name is Mrs. 
Herrington, and I’ll be your principal for the next four years. I know you’re 
all just waiting to get your pokemon…” 
Dan and I just grinned at each other excitedly, “but I’d just like to take this 
time to introduce your teachers… first off, our breeding expert, Mrs. Sharpe!”

	An old lady walked onto the stage followed by her Wigglytuff. She smiled 
sweetly, waved to the crowd, and took a seat next to the machine.
	“…our resident Master Coordinator, Mr. Breeze!”
	A middle aged man with wavy hair waltzed up to the stage, followed by an 
elegantly groomed Pidgeot. As much as we both hated coordinating, Dan and I both 
couldn’t help but 
exclaim how cool the Pidgeot looked to the both of us.
	“…our Pokemon Strategist, Mr. Saltarello!”
	A skinny man with bottle cap glasses stumbled up the stage, followed by 
his Kangaskhan . Everyone in the crowd chuckled as he straightened his glasses 
and sat down next to 
the other teachers.
	“And last but not least, the only one of our teachers to become a league 
champion, your gym teacher, Mr. Jacobs!”
	The man I had seen earlier walked up to the stage, followed by his 
absolutely frightening Salamence. He grinned to the crowd and then grinned to 
his Salamence,
 and I shot a humungous stream of fire into the air.
	“And these, are your teachers!!!”
	Everyone clapped a polite applause as the teachers stood up, bowed, and 
sat back down.
	“Now for the event you’ve all been waiting for, the commissioning of 
Pokemon! Now I know you might be confused…” I crossed my eyes and stuck out my 
tongue at Dan, 
getting a small laugh in return. “But this machine behind me is just a larger 
version of the one you’ll see in the local pokemon center. This machine is made 
to receive 
pokemon from the labs of three of the most respected pokemon professors in the 
world: Professor Birch, Professor Elm, and Professor Oak.
	This really got the crowd murmuring. We knew the school was good, but we 
didn’t know it was that good. As expected, she listed off the nine pokemon 
available:
 Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, Chikorita, Totodile, Cyndaquil, Treecko, 
Mudkip, and Torchic. “It may seem limited, but we will be going on trips to 
different areas to help 
you add new members to you add new members to our teams. And I’m pleased to 
announce ahead of time that we will be going on a field trip to the Safari Zone 
this year!”
	I looked at Dan, who had his mouth hung wide open, “No way!” he gasped, 
loud enough for the principal to hear.
	“Yes way.” She replied, sending the crowd into uproarious laughter.
	I glanced at Dan, who just gave me a crooked smile, trying to tell me he 
did it on purpose. I know he didn’t, but I let it slide, because the principal 
had 
begun to call people up to the pokemon transporter. I was right after Dan in 
order of being called up to receive my first pokemon. A lot of the girls chose 
grass pokemon, 
seeing as how Ericka had just put out her first solo album, Grasswhistle. All 
but one girl, she decided to get a Torchic; this drew a lot of hushed whispers 
from the girls, 
and elbowing from the guys. Finally it was Dan’s turn to receive his pokemon, he 
looked at the screen intently, then chose his first pokemon. The pokemon 
transporter said that 
he had received a Totodile, I politely clapped, and made my way up as he sat 
down. When I got up, I drew more murmurs than anyone else. Everyone knew who my 
mom was, so they 
were all curious to see what I would choose. Even I wasn’t quite sure what I 
wanted. The water types were cool, and I had always liked Chikoritas, but I 
didn’t want to look like a girl. 
I walked up to the machine, feeling the eyes boring into the back of my skull, 
trying to figure out who I’d choose. I looked at the nine pokemon, thought it 
over for half a second, 
and chose my first pokemon.
	“Charmander” the machine stated plainly.
	I walked back to my seat and I could tell everyone was shocked. Charmander 
was the farthest from anything they thought my mom would approve of, it was a 
lizard,
 and she mad it publicly known she despised them.
	“Good”, I thought, “let them think on their toes.”
	I sat next to Dan, who just shook his head. “Ya know, I figured you’d do 
something like this, but you know you’re mom’s gonna kill you right?”
	I smiled back, “Yeah, so what? It’ll make it that much more fun when I get 
my Marsh badge”
	He gave me a stone white look then laughed nervously, “Yeah…when you get 
your Marsh badge…right”.
	After sufficiently creating an extremely awkward moment, I turned my 
attention to the stage, in time to see a boy pick out a Treecko;
 he had even dyed his hair green. I poked Dan, and we had a good laugh, which 
broke up the awkwardness. The last boy who went up to the stage picked a 
Cyndaquil 
and sneered at me as he walked by and sat in the row behind. I shrugged at Dan, 
but he was just as confused as I was.
	“Now that we’re done with that, we have an extra gift for you all.” The 
upperclassmen who had directed us to the courtyard earlier came in holding 
boxes.
They opened them up and started handed a Pokedex to everyone in the crowd.
	“Well now that that’s done, we’re going to split you up by types and teach 
you the basics of handling your new partner.”
	I waved goodbye to Dan and then headed to the group of fire users. I 
walked to the circle and introduced myself to everyone. 
I got nods and hellos from everyone, except for the kid with the Cyndaquil, and 
an attitude problem to boot. 
	The upperclassman wore a pokemon league hat and scanned the crowd. “Now 
listen up squirts, you just got your first pokemon, 
treat it well, and you’ll become good friends in no time. First lesson, get your 
pokemon out of it’s pokeball.” 
	We all reached for our pokeballs, I took mine off of my belt and threw it 
to the ground. The circle erupted into a chorus of, 
“Go (insert pokemon here)”. My pokeball opened and my pokemon took shape. It 
cried out loud, as did many of the other pokemon. 
I introduced myself to my Charmander, who returned the hello, then turned toward 
the upperclassman.
	“Well, that’s it, kinda pointless I know, but the school requires you know 
at least that much.” He directed us back towards 
the middle of the courtyard. “You can only have your pokemon out during classes, 
but they make an exception today, seeing as how this is your first day with your 
pokemon and all that crap.” 
	The principal stood in the center, addressing all of us, “Well, that’s 
basically all for today, remember classes start tomorrow, you’re dismissed.”
	I found Dan, and we headed out , towards Silph Park.