Chapter 1
‘Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.’
The dreaded droning of the alarm clock. It kept on repeating its annoying noise until I swung my arm
round and slapped the ‘Snooze’ button. I now had 9 minutes until it happened again.
‘Bzzt. Bzzt.’
It woke me up quicker this time, I realised I had fallen asleep almost instantly since I first pressed the
‘Snooze’ button. To avoid hearing the noise for the third time that mourning, I swung my legs round
the side of the bed and flicked the alarm off. I stretched, stood up and looked at the Pokemon
calendar on the wall, it was May, the picture this month was of a Metag ross looking as intimidating as
it could. But I wasn’t looking at the month or the picture; I was looking at the red ring, circling one date
on the calendar, today’s date. My 16th birthday. The day I was leaving home to start my adventure.
I was wide awake now and I threw on my jeans and a t-shirt and ran downstairs. I turned a corner and
saw my Mum bent over and rustling through my bag I packed the night before. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Oh,’ My Mum said as she spun around, surprised, ‘Um, I was just checking you had everything’
I wasn’t so sure, she seemed a bit shifty but I didn’t ask anymore questions. I walked through a door to
my left and into the kitchen. I noticed my Mum had already prepared me a breakfast of bacon and
toast. That was when it first struck me of how much I would miss her when I left. I held back tears and
walked over to my last meal and ate.
My Mum came into the room just as I finished and I was carrying my plate to the sink to be washed.
‘Thanks for the breakfast’
‘That’s alright, it’ll probably be the last half decent meal you’ll be having for a while.’
‘Yeah, probably.’
‘Well, don’t you think you ought to be leaving?’ My Mum said, taking me by surprise.
‘What?’ I didn’t really know what to say, ‘Well, Icould stay a bit longer, there’s no rush...’
‘I suppose, I just thought it may be easier to leave sooner, rather than later’
‘Well, Ok then,’ I got up and went back into the hall to pick up my bag and headed for the door,
swinging it over my shoulder as I went. My Mum caught up with me at the door.
‘Take care out there’ I could tell she was trying to keep back tears just like me.
‘I will, I’ll call you when I get a chance’ I gave her a swift kiss on the cheek but no matter how swift I
was, my Mum was faster, she grabbed me and pulled me into a tight hug, rubbing my back like I was a
3 year old who needed comforting. But I didn’t mind, Eventually, she released me and I could leave,
with one final goodbye, I opened and stepped out the door. My Mum stood in the doorway to wave
me off as I walked down the garden path on my way to the town centre of Cherrygrove City. Not that I
would call it a city as I had always thought it seemed far too small to be classed as a City and I had
never thought of myself as a ‘City Kid’.
I was now on the dusty path outside my garden, I took one last look back towards the home I grew up
in and my Mum stood in the doorway waving at me with both hands as if I wouldn’t be able to see just
one hand. I waved back and then turned by back on her and the little house just as she shouted.
‘Happy Birthday!’
I smiled to myself and quickened my pace before I got the better of myself and changed my mind
about leaving.
I had already planned what to do first, head for Lab in New Bark Town and choose my first ever
Pokemon. My adventure had begun.