Chapter Two-Sunbeam and Téa      

The pokéball snapped open and a bright light surrounded the Pokémon. The light faded as the pokéball returned to my hand.      On the floor in front of me sat a Pidgey. He stretched his wings before looking upat me curiously with his head cocked to one side. I knelt down and smiled at him. He hopped over to me and nipped at my ear playfully.     For a while, we played in the sunlight that streamed through the windows. I realized that he needed a nickname. He seemed to like the rays of sun streaming through the windows.      
      “Do you want your name to be Sunbeam?” I whispered.     
       Pidgey nodded and flew around my room.   
        I looked at the clock on my bedside table and decided to go downstairs for dinner. I left Sunbeam out of his pokéball since he seemed to be enjoying himself. When I reached the cafeteria, I saw that many students had their new partners with them. I felt bad now, leaving Sunbeam alone.     
       Igot a bowl of turkey stew for dinner and then picked up some food for Sunbeam. I ran back to my room and in the process, I crashed into another trainer in the living room.      
      “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said picking up my bowl (which thankfully had a lid), “I wasn’t paying attention. I’m Téa! What’s your name?”     
       Istuttered out a few syllables that meant nothing to people. Téa just smiled.    
       “Ahna, that’s a pretty name,” she said, somehow understanding what I had meant.    
        Iwas shocked, but when I regained my composure, I nodded for her to follow me to my room. Once we were inside, Sunbeam met us with playful nips to both of our ears.
           Téa laughed and let her Pokémon out of its pokéball. Her Butterfree liked Pidgey alot.     
       “I’m s-sorry for not speaking up right away, I-I’m not able to talk t-to most people. I just get so nervous,” I began talking to her seeing that she was kind.    
       “That’s alright Ahna. Everyone has his or her own problems. Mine lies in my past. Idon’t want to talk about it though,” she said turning away for a second, “Idon’t blame you for not talking to some of the other students. They aren’t very nice. You have to watch out for nasty school traditions. They’ll do anything to mess with you.”           
      “How do you already have a Butterfree?” I asked her.           
      “Oh, I’ve been living at the schoolfor a few years now. I was only granted permission to attend classes this year.They gave me a Caterpie when I first got here, in case any of the students challenged me or I felt like walking in the woods,” she told me.          
       “Wow. You must know many things about the school. Do you think you could show me around sometime?”      
          “We can go right now if you like,” Téa replied. She whistled to Butterfree, who came and landed on Téa’s shoulder.         
        “Do you want to come Sunbeam?” I asked him.     
           He flew over and nipped at my ear again. We all left to go for a walk.         
        The school was huge. There were classrooms, a common room, a cafeteria, and tons more. My eyes lit up when Téa showed me the gardens. They were beautiful, with flowers of all kinds and benches here and there.          
       We sat on one of the benches for awhile, gigling in the fading light.  My voice became lesser and lesser as I saw someone coming towards us. I opened my mouth to tell Téa, but nothing came out. She whipped around to face the person as soon as she heard their footsteps though.         
        “Can I help you with something Matthew?” she said with mock politeness to the approaching boy.         
       “Yeah, I think you can help me. Get off of my bench!” he shot back.         
       “I hate to break this to you but Ahna and I were here first, which gives us the right to decide whether to move or not.” Téa gestured to me as she spoke.         
        Matthew noticed me for the first time.He chuckled at me for some reason I cannot figure out to this day. “Well if it isn’t the new girl! You must be pretty stupid to hang around with such low class people as slave girl here!” Matthew said pointing at Téa.          “Why you little….” I mouthed thewords, no sound emitting from my voice box. I clapped my hands over my mouth. I had just given away my secret to the school bully!        
        “Well, well, well! You can’t talk!I’ll have to tell the gang about this one!” he said to himself, “I’ll let you off easy this time. Hope you get locked out slave girl! And you too, Mute girl!”      
          I was in shock. Even though Téa was the only one with me, I couldn’t have said anything if I tried. I was going to become the laughing stock of the school! What would the teachers think?          
       Téa put a hand on my shoulder, “Don’t worry Ahna, everything will be fine. I won’t let them hurt you. I may be their ‘slave girl’ but it doesn’t mean I’m defensless. Sunbeam will protect you during the very few times I will not be with you. He has to come to classes with you anyway.”       
         I nodded and managed a weak smile. We walked back to the dorm together silently, looking at the stars as we went.        
         I spent most of that night thinking about what the next day would bring.