Phew… my computer’s too smart for it’s own good sometimes!
Disclaimer: pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me!
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts italics if a pokemon talks!
Oh! Lance looks 12ish, just because that’s the way he looks in the manga. He’s probably older but he doesn’t’ look it! So Delia thinks he’s still a kid.
Red Kitcham = ‘Ash Ketchum’
Chapter 2
School.
Delia had finally finalized the adaptation papers – Lance didn’t mention that she’d done a lot of hacking to get them through so quickly. Imagine that, her housewifely exterior hid the soul of a computer genius. Bizarre…
In any case, within a week he had settled into school, sixth grade. Red was in fourth, but… it’s hard being the new kid.
It was also hard being more intelligent than all the other children. By the end of the first day, the entire class hated him.
Kayla hated him because she’d been number one before he came along.
Joe hated him because he didn’t even pay attention in class, and yet he new all the right answers.
As for Blake and his gang, they just saw a new target…
“So how was school, Lance?” Red asked as they walked home. “I have to do a project on owls.”
“Owls?” Lance blinked. “They’re birds, right?”
“Right!”
Lance nodded. * Owls… I guess they’re the Noctowl equivalents here. * It was lucky he had only had math and reading and history. Math and reading were no problem, and for history, he luckily hadn’t been called on. The teacher said that since he was foreign, they obviously learned a different version, so she’d give him a few weeks to catch up.
“So, do you have any homework?”
“Actually, I have a lot of history reading to catch up on.” Lance said, holding up his copy of ‘Across the Centuries.’
Red nodded sympathetically. “I see.”
“Why?”
“Um… I’m not too good with decimals and fractions yet. Could you help me?”
“Certainly…”
They walked home together, but found an empty house. On the table was a plate of gingersnaps, with a note.
“Mom says that she’ll be home soon.” Red read the note, “And the cookies are for a snack, but we shouldn’t eat too many.”
“I see. Where’s the milk?”
“Fridge, top shelf. Could you pour me a cup too?”
“Sure.”
The two spread out their homework on the kitchen table. Lance began reading, and Red started on his homework. Within four problems, he hit a snag.
“Um… what’s 0.2 of 2/3?”
“Oh… well, how is your teacher teaching you to do these?”
“I don’t know. Ms. Lucy didn’t have time to explain today. We were supposed to do math, but she was reading this really cool story called ‘Mr. Popper’s penguins’ and none of us wanted her to stop, so!”
“I see…” Lance smiled. “Well, have you learned how to multiply fractions yet?”
“Yep! You just multiply straight across.”
“Decimal form of 0.2 is equivalent to the fraction one-fifth.”
“Oh!” Ash pulled out his calculator and checked. “It is! Thank you, Lance!”
“It’s nothing.” Lance continued reading. * How can this child be so cheerful? It seems so odd… *
Then again, maybe it was because Ash had a fairly normal childhood… there was no Team Rocket in this world to menace and strive for world control…
Delia came home from shopping. “I’m home!”
“Hi mom!”
“Hello…” Lance wasn’t quite sure he should call her mother. Delia noticed his hesitation and gave him a hug.
“Don’t worry about anything, Lance. I know these things take time.”
“Thank you…”
“So, did you two eat all the cookies?”
“Nope! We only had three each and we put the rest in the cookie jar!” Red beamed up at Delia.
“That’s wonderful, son. Now please excuse me, I need to get dinner started. Can you two go upstairs to do your homework there…”
“Sure mom!” Red said, as he took Lance’s arm. “Come on! Let’s go! And after we’re done, we can play a game!”
Lance allowed the exuberant child to drag him upstairs.
In the kitchen, Delia sighed. “I know I shouldn’t be concerned, but it’s such a shock…” While shopping today, she had run into her old friend from college, Bruno Morrison…
Bruno’s friend Chuck Lugar had been the man who she had been seeing… but he was eight years in the grave, had died only two weeks after Red was born.
It wasn’t too hard being a single mother, she worked as a receptionist for Coon’s law firm from nine to four, and the pay wasn’t too bad…
Now though – had adopting another child been too hasty? No, she couldn’t just dump him on the streets.
How betrayed he would feel!
Delia sighed as she got to work shredding carrots for salad, as she ran the pre-packed salad mix under the water. Instant French onion soup mix went in the boiling water on the stove, and then she thawed a plate of frozen chicken thighs, before coating them in barbeque sauce and putting them in the oven…
Lance was past the Ancient Egyptians and onto the Ancient Greeks in his section of the textbook when Red finished his math homework.
“Do you have anything else to do?”
Red considered. “Um… I have to write a page and a half on what I want to be when I grow up.”
“So what do you want to be?”
Red shrugged. “I don’t know! I mean, I like eating, so at first I wanted to become a taster for an ice cream or chocolate factory, but then I might get fat, so I wanted to be an acrobat, but I might fall, besides I like animals… a zookeeper! Or I could drive an ambulance! Or I could be an actor…”
“It seems like you can write this paper no problem.”
“Yep! But I don’t want to do it right now!”
Lance checked his watch. “Well, it’s only five-thirty… want to play a quick game first? You can finish your homework later…”
“Sure! Let’s play gin rummy!”
Red dealt out the cards as they began playing…
End Chapter
Completed 2/26/05
Lance: …
Phantomness: What?
Shoyko: It’s not darkfic yet! But how long will that last?
Kairo: Red is this universe’s version of Ash Ketchum!