Rain poured down outside. I watched idly from my room as my breath made little patterns of fog on the window. I had a lot to think about.

“Bbbbbbbbbbbbriiing………….bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbriiing………” the phone started to ring.

“I’ll get it,” I called. I ran to the kitchen and picked up the phone. “Hello, Phoebe speaking,” I said politely.

“Oh hi Phoebe. It’s Kate.”

“Hi Kate,” I exclaimed. “How are you? Having fun in Perth?”

“Yeah!” Kate enthused. “And Phoebe, you’ll never guess what I found out! It’s amazing!”

I grinned. “What?”

“Pokemon are real! I saw a Cyndaquil hiding under my house this morning!”

I pretended to be shocked. “Oh wow! So what did you do?”

“Well, what do you think? I caught it!”

“Lucky,” I said. “You get to be a trainer…”

Just then my 4-year-old sister Alexandra walked in, staggering under the weight of a two-foot Whismur. “Look what I found Phoebe!” she cried excitedly.

“Yeah, Ally, that’s great,” I replied. “Okay Kate, have fun with your Cyndaquil. I gotta go.”

“See you later, Feraligatr!”

“In a while, Totodile.” I hung up and paid more attention to my sister. “So what have you got there, Ally?”

“It’s a…um…what is it, Phoebe?”

“Uh, I think that’s a Whismur,” I told her. “Have you been playing nicely together?”

“Yeah, Whizma and me have been having a lot of fun! And it wants to be my pet, don’t you Whizma?”

‘Whizma’ nodded timidly, and burst into tears. Ally and I both shouted out and clasped our hands over our ears.

“What the heck is that sound?!” yelled my mum, coming into the room.

“It’s a Whismur’s uproar attack!” I screamed back, over the noise.

“WHIS-MUR……!” screeched the little purple Pokemon. Then all of a sudden it stopped, blinked coyly, and fell asleep.

“What….?” said Mum.

“Whismur is very timid,” I recited from memory. “If it starts to cry loudly, it becomes startled by its own crying and cries even harder. When it finally stops crying, the Pokemon goes to sleep, all tired out.”

Mum and Ally laughed. “Mummy, can I please make Whizma a bed? Please?”

“Okay, we’ll find a cardboard box big enough and put in a pillow.”

I listened to them chat as they walked away. The wind outside grew stronger and rain turned to hail. I shivered and turned on the heater, then went to my room to relax.

Outside I could see Pokemon huddled under our veranda and garden to get out of the hail. I could see something greenish standing out in the middle of the garden. “…wait, that was a Pokemon! Out in this weather?! It must be getting battered to bits by the hail!” I thought. Horrified, I made a mad dash for the back door, ran outside and into the backyard. A Treecko was standing there, with its arms up against its face to shield itself from the hail. It didn’t look like it could take much more, and, sure enough, its knees buckled and it fell to the ground. I quickly darted forward and grabbed it, then ran back inside with it clutched in my arms.

“Now,” I said to it, laying it down on my bed, “Are you alright, you poor little thing? Hang on; we have to have something around here…Mum?”

“Yeah?”

“I found a Treecko, and it’s badly hurt. Do we have any ointment or anything?”

“No, but we do have lemonade, and that should help.” She brought in a little baby bottle filled with lemonade, and I gave some to the Treecko, hoping she was right. The Treecko swallowed a little bit and mumbled incoherently.

“Wow, it really does help! Thanks, Mum!”

“No problem. See, a mum really does know everything!” We both laughed and she left the room. I turned my attention back to the Treecko, which had dropped the bottle and was now fast asleep. I carefully picked it up, supporting its head like you would for a baby, and ‘tucked it in’.

I woke up at 6:30 the next morning. I had to go to school. I refilled Treecko’s bottle with lemonade, placed a bowl of Nutri Grain next to it for when it woke up, and began to get myself ready. I left 45 minutes later.

“Okay, class,” said my teacher Mr Vaughan. “As you all know, Pokemon are now real. It may have come as a shock to some of you –” here I smiled, thinking about my encounter with Mew – “But Education Queensland has come to a decision that in 2006 all year sixes, sevens, and eights are to spend a year travelling around Australia, collecting and raising Pokemon, and, although this is not compulsory, collect badges. There are only two rules: one, you must travel full around Australia and visit each state and every major city, although minor cities, if you choose, are not compulsory. Two, the whole journey must be made a) on foot or b) on Pokemon.” Mr Vaughan paused and smiled in amusement at the looks on the less fit people in our class’s faces. “You, being in year six next year, will practically have as long as you want. I will give you a Pokedex, Pokeballs, and you will each get your own Pokenav*. *It’s a Pokenav because I don’t have any Johto games and I barely even have any idea what Pokegear is. If you’d email me and tell me, I might change it J

A girl with curly, boy-length brown hair called Juanita raised her hand. “I have a few questions. Um, are we being assessed on this? Do we get given our Pokemon? Does it start this year or next? Are we all travelling as a class or separately?”

“Yes, you are being assessed on this task. No, you have to catch your own Pokemon. It starts next year. You will travel by yourselves. Oh, and one last thing. All the Brisbane year sixes will assemble at the Brisbane Botanic Garden at 8 am on the 27^th of January, 2006. Okay, I think that’s it. Everyone take out your maths books.

OKAY, that’s the end of part two. Did y’all like it? I know you’re probably getting bored of me staying at home and school ‘n’ stuff but next part me and Steph set off to see the world! Oh and you’ll need to read this next bit to understand the next the next bit.

s.o.p-M pronounced sopp-em stands for severely obsessed poke-Maniacs. My friends and I started this club. The members are: Me, Steph, James and Kate are the ‘inner circle’, because the four of us are best friends, and the other members are Rachel, Igor, and my sister. Our club names are:

Me – Grovyle

Steph – Bayleef

James – Sharpedo

Kate – Quilava

Rachel – Delcatty

Igor – Pikachu

Ally – Igglybuff