Chapter 4 I walked out of Patrick’s room, smiling secretly. I opened the door to my room and went to sleep. Kakashi and Vulpix slept on the foot of my bed. I woke up the next day, a little tired from the night before. I heard a knock on my door. “Come in.” I said. It was Joey, I sat up. “ Jimmy, can I talk to you?” “ What’s the matter?” I asked, the tone in her voice was a dead giveaway. “ I was wondering, can I go with you?” She came in. “ Where?” “ Everywhere, I wanna travel with you, and become a Poke’mon gym leader of this town someday.” She blurted out. “ Who said you needed to ask?” I smiled. “ Of course you can! I’d be more than happy to have you along.” “ What about Monique, Kyle, and that other guy?” “ I’m sure they won’t mind. And his name is Patrick.” I said resentfully. “ How should I automatically know his name?” she smiled, “ My mom suspects something already.” “ Why?” I pretended to be shocked. “ How should I know, Mrs. Goodnight.” She teased. “ Shut up! How did you know?” “ My room’s next to yours! I could hear everything...until the door closed. And besides I’m not the only one who knows. Kyle does too.” “ Oh.” “ He was in Monique’s room ½ the night…” “ Huh?” “ Someone had to wake you people up. I knocked on his door, and, when I went to your room, he came out of her room.” I was speechless. I got up.” Where are you going?” I didn’t answer. I walked out and banged on the door next to mine. “ Damn it, Kyle, you’d better let me in!” I must have woken up Kakashi and Vulpix, cause they both came to my side. No one answered. “ Vulpix, Kakashi, use Headbutt on that door.” I commanded. Kakashi and Vulpix got ready to take it down when I heard something. “ I’m coming!” Kyle yelled. He opened the door. “ What?!” I walked in not really caring if he invited me in or not. “ I just heard about you and Monique.” I started, ready to bust up. “ So what?” he glared, closing the door. “ I saw you and Patrick making out, I see no reason why you couldn’t tell Monique and I!” “ I should think it was obvious!” I yelled. “ Didn’t you stop to consider what we would have thought about it?!” He yelled back. “ What makes you give a damn?! I can make my own choices, I’m 14!” “ Well you certainly made a bad choice, that guy’s a fag!” “ He’s more of a man than you’ll ever be! And you’re just mad cause he kissed me first!” “ Why would I care if he kissed you or not?!” “ I know you had a crush on me!” “ How did you know?!” he shouted. “ My picture in your wallet, telling about every guy in school, dude, get a clue! Did you ever make a move? No, so I assumed you didn’t like me anymore!” “ Did you ever think I might be shy? Did you ever think I still might like you? No, so you went off with that guy. It should have been me...” “ Then why didn’t you tell me if it bothered you so much?” We had both calmed down at this point. He shrugged. “ I’m with Monique now, so we shouldn’t be complaining...” “ She’s liked you for some time now.” I said quietly. He stood up. “ If the whole thing doesn’t work out between us four, will you think of me?” I stood up. “ Of course I will.” I walked out the door with him following close behind. We walked down to the kitchen, hoping that no one heard our clash. Kyle went to sit next to Monique, giving her a kiss on the cheek before he sat down. I sat next to Patrick, not wanting to kiss anyone in front of my aunt. We had a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, and orange juice. When we were done my aunt looked around at us. “ I expect you all to take care of each other.” She directed her prize winning glare at me. “ Especially you Jimmy. Take care of Joey.” “ I will.” “ Alright, now go, before I get my Mr. Mime to kick you out.” We all got up and left. It was just like my aunt to make it look like she didn’t care. But she really did. We walked down the street of the busy city. Some people had Poke’mon, but to me, none looked worthy of a battle. They had Poke’mon like Caterpies and whatnot. Soon, we were out of town and walking along a dirt path. Finally we reached a flat plain. “ Hey Joey, I just remembered, I didn’t get to see your starting Poke’mon.” I said. She took out a Poke’ ball. “ Alright, here you go.” She tossed in my direction. Out came a brown tuff of fur. An Eevee. I wasn’t surprised, Eevee were common enough. “ Cool.” “ I want to evolve it into a Jolteon.” She said looking down on it. “ Let’s battle.” I challenged. “ How about a tournament?” suggested Patrick. “ Alright!” Kyle jumped in the air. “ I’ve been wanting to battle for some time now! And besides, Jimmy, you promised we would after you battled Monique.” “ We’ll do one Poke’mon each.” I said. “ Me and Joey, then whoever wins will face Kyle, whoever loses will face Monique. Then the two winners will battle to face Patrick.” “ Sounds good to me.” Monique said. “ I’ll chose Vulpix.” I said. “ I’ve got Treeko.” Kyle held up his emerald Poke’ ball. “ Mine’s Eevee.” Joey nodded in Eevee’s direction. “I’ve got Pichu.” Monique held up her topaz Poke’ ball. We looked at Patrick. “ I guess I’ll use my beginner Poke’mon, my Squirtle.” He took out a blue colored Poke’ ball. Joey and I took our places, Kyle would be judging. “ Alright, you know the rules, go!” He cleared the arena. I took Vulpix’s Poke’ ball off my belt. “ Come out Vulpix, show ‘em what you’re made of!” My little fox Poke’mon appeared. “ Eevee, let’s go!” Joey said and Eevee leapt forward. “ Vulpix, use Agility to get close to Eevee. Then use Flamethrower.” Vulpix ran at Eevee. Right when Vulpix got close, “ Eevee, use Headbutt!” Joey commanded. Eevee bashed Vulpix as hard as it could in it’s skull. Vulpix flew back, but it still got back up. “ Nice try Joey,” I smiled, thinking of my battle with Monique. “ Now Vulpix, use White Flames!” Vulpix shot white hot flames out of it’s mouth, and hit Eevee square in the face. “ Eevee, use Sand Attack!” “ Vulpix, dodge and use your Sand Attack!” Vulpix dodged, but both their attacks missed each other. “ Eevee, use Thunder Wave, while it’s close.” “ Vulpix, use Will-O-Wisp!” Vulpix attacked before Eevee did, Vulpix got Eevee right in the kisser. “ Great, now use Tackle!” Vulpix tackled Eevee down to the ground and we won. “ Awesome!” Vulpix ran at me and jumped into my arms. The after the next hour or so, Monique lost to Joey and I lost to Kyle. Joey lost to Kyle. Kyle and Patrick faced off in an heated battle. Patrick ended up winning. Kyle shook his hand and congratulated him, they looked liked they were finally beginning to like each other. Near evening, we settled down. After we had the campsite set up, we made dinner. I stretched out in my tent after we ate and cleaned up. I took out my iPod, remembering I had forgotten about it lately. I switched to Green Day’s Nimrod, picking out the song ‘Haushinka’. The guitars entered, starting the song. Then Billie Joe’s voice came in. Haushinka is a girl with a peculiar name, I met her on the eve of my birthday. He sang. I remembered how much I loved that song. Suddenly, I had an idea. When the song was over, I took out Vulpix’s Poke’ ball. She appeared happily. “ Vulpix, as of now, you’re going to be...Haushinka! –k-?” “ Vul. Pix.” She responded delightfully. I ruffled her bangs once again, then took out a band Poke’ ball, a Fall Out Boy One. “ From now on, this’ll be you new Poke’ ball.” She disappeared in a red flash of light. I put the ball on my belt, then took off my belt and laid it next to my sleeping bag. “ Uh...Jimmy? Can I come in?” A male voice asked. “ Yeah.” I said, rearranging my posture. Patrick came in cautiously. “ I came to say goodnight...” He said awkwardly, sitting next to me. I laughed. “ Okay, night.” I put my hand on the side of his face affectionately and kissed him. He lied down and so did I, beside him. “ So, you named Vulpix?” He said, striking up a conversation. “ Yeah.” I then remembered something. “ You never showed me all your Poke’mon.” I accused. “ I didn’t know you wanted to see them.” He said innocently, but smiled devilishly. “ Well, I do.” I said teasing ignorantly. He chuckled. “ Okay,” He sat up, reached into his belt, and tossed up the four Poke’ balls. “ Here you go.” A Squirtle, Nosepass, Charmander, and a Cyndaquil appeared. “ Guys, this is my...uh... girlfriend...Jimmy Rose.” He introduced, a little shyly. They all greeted me in unison. “ Jimmy, this the Squirtle is a female named Bubbles. The Charmander is a male named Flare. You met Stone, and the Cyndaquil is Cinder.” I took out my belt and took off Kakashi and Haushinka’s Poke’ ball. “ Kakashi, Haushinka, meet your teammates.” I commanded. Kakashi and Haushinka appeared. Patrick and I watched our Poke’mon get to know each other. Patrick gingerly rested his hand on top of mine. I was beginning to get a little drowsy, so I rested my head on his shoulder. After a few minutes, he put his arm around me. Our Poke’mon were all sleeping where they dropped. Patrick began to gently sing Scattered, a song by Green Day . Well, I’ve got some scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor. Reminds me of the times we’ve shared. Makes me wish that you were here. ‘Cause now it seems I’ve forgotten my purpose in this life. And all the songs have been erased. Guess I’ve learned from my mistakes. Open the past and present now and we are there. Story to tell and I am listening. Open the past and present and the future too. It’s all I’ve got and I’m giving it to you… I smiled and drifted off to sleep. When I woke up, I’ll never truly know the time. Only that it must have been sometime before midnight. I looked around, the tent was lit up by the flames on Flare’s tail. I tried to move around, only to realize that Patrick’s arms were wrapped around me. I smiled contently and went back to sleep. The next morning, we were on our way to Maroon City and our first badges. Patrick and I walked along the road, fingers entwined. Kyle’s arm was hung loosely on Monique’s shoulder, who looked ecstatic. Joey was walking next to me. We were all laughing, engaged in a conversation. I felt like this could have lasted forever.