This is my first story for pokemon. Trust me, the writing improves later on. And it is still a work in progress! I do not own pokemon. Don't forget to review!

I took another chance and glanced over my shoulder. I could see my Dad's head, poking out slightly above the rest. Today, at least, I'm glad he's tall, I thought, and then they called my name.

"Allora Silverfield." I glanced up. Our principal smiled down at me and motioned for me to stand. I rose and almost tripped over my graduation gown, as I climbed the stairs onto the stage. I quickly recovered and marched over to receive my diploma.

I reached my hand out and took hold of the packet. I was planning on just taking it, smiling a little, and then sitting back down, but principal Riffe wasn't having any of that.

"Oh Allora," he began. This wasn't going to end well. "I remember the first time you set foot into our school; Violet High." No you don't, let me sit down! I thought. Each student was bound to get some kind of commentary about their achievements. But the essay he appeared to have written about me was not what I expected. Sure I was one of the top students in my class, but our school was so small, it was like being the skinny kid at fat camp. I mean, Lavender Town itself was small. It ends in town.

"You were so little and... small." Thanks Mr. Riffe, really making me proud of myself. "But you have grown up! Just like the rest of our student body. You have excelled in each and every area of study offered at our lovely institution." Well of course I did. Both of my parents were breeders. They never wanted to be anything else, and both of them have been hinting at wanting me to choose that as my post-graduation career once I received my Training License. And history? I just love it. Learning about the original dex-holders is one of my favorite pastimes. Math and science always just came naturally. And battling class... it was just my passion.

When students in Kanto graduate from secondary school, usually around the age 16, we are allowed to choose a career path. After the first year in one career, switches are allowed. But one year of participation is required at least before a student is allowed to switch. At graduation, you receive your Trainer License, your Pokedex, and your "first" pokemon. The latter is just ceremonial usually. Most students have been training and caring for their own pokemon for years. Well, most students, except me.

My parents are very… how do I say? Strict. They both believe that choosing my career and first pokemon should one big, sacred event, and that I shouldn't pledge my heart to any pokemon until graduation day. Today. So, while my parents both own pokemon of their own, and I have battled with, trained, bred, and befriended them, I have never actually owned my own pokemon. Which is embarrassing, seeing as how nearly everyone else in my class has.

I know most everything there is to know about the different types of pokemon, even without my own Pokedex. Living on the breeding ranch with my parents has given me that skill. I have battled with and cared for almost every different type of pokemon, from normal to fire to dark. But I have never had one to call my own. I don't know which pokemon I will chose when I am presented with my options this afternoon (I can't make up my mind!) But, I already know which career path I am taking.

In Kanto, there are hundreds of careers to chose from, and nearly all of them involve pokemon. You could work in a hospital with the chansey, or in a laboratory with the alakazam. You could dedicate your life to contests and use pokemon like persian or glameow, or you could become a police officer and make use of the mighteyena and houndoom.

My parents want me to become a breeder. Breeders work with every type of pokemon, charting egg groups and helping trainers breed different egg moves in their pokemon. Though it is an interesting and well paying career, there is only one career I have ever considered for myself. I want to become a trainer.

A trainer is the most popular career to go into, and it is also the most popular one to drop out of. Many people simply do not make enough money to live off of training, battling, and collecting pokemon, not to mention the very real danger that comes with it. Trainers make money by winning battles, selling rare pokemon, and completing their Pokedex. The more complete your Pokedex, the fatter your annual check the government sends you to continue your work. In order to make a living as a trainer, you have to be okay with moving around a lot, and you also have to be good at it. Both of which suited me perfectly.

Pokedexes are very important to trainers in that they have become a lifestyle. Before Professor Oak died, he made sure that almost every trainer had a Pokedex, and that they had an incentive to fill it. The data recorded in Pokedexes is very important to government research, so those who are really good at getting complete data are also very well paid. But in order to do that a lot of traveling is required, and that is just what I want to spend my life doing.

"And, ladies and gentlemen, that is Allora." Riffe finally finished after what seemed like an hour. I stole a look at my parents. Dad and Mom were beaming up at me, and so was Pretty, Dad's raticate, who was sitting in the seat next to him. I took a bow and headed back to my seat.

None of the other speeches seemed to last as long, but maybe that is just because I wasn't so nervous anymore, or just because my name is at the end of the alphabet. I took out my Trainer License from the diploma. I hated my picture, but then again, who ever likes school pictures? My blonde hair hung in ringlets around my face. My gray eyes peeked out from under my bangs that, at the last second, had decided they were going to fall down and hide my face. My tan looked orange in the fluorescent lights used during the photo shoot... I shuddered and tucked the license back in the diploma, shielding it from view.

Soon it was time for the reception, which was outside, of course, so the various attending pokemon could be comfortable. There was a table set up for the people to eat from, and a separate one lower to the ground for the pokemon to snack from. Pretty wasted no time, and headed right over to the lower table, and she also wasted no time getting into a fight with a vulpix over a particularly large hunk of cheese.

"Pretty!" I scolded "Seriously? Be nice for once and share!"

"Rati- Raticate…" She huffed and handed the hunk of cheese to the vulpix, who ungratefully snatched it out of her paw and began eating.

"Now now, is that any way to behave?" said a voice. I turned. Behind me stood Cali, my best friend.

"Cali? This vulpix is yours?" I asked.

"Well, not technically," she responded with a wink, "But yes, in a sense. What about that raticate? I thought your parents…"

"No, she's my Dad's." I said quickly. Cali was one of the only people that knew about my pokemon-less situation. I couldn't bear it if anyone else found out. People just assumed I had lots of my own pokemon, seeing how well I did in class. And because that made me, in a way, popular, keeping my situation on the down-low was be ideal.

The vulpix bounced lightly over to Cali's feet and head-butted her. Cali bent and picked it up. "Alright, let's get ready to head back to our seats. It's almost time to get our Pokedexes!" She turned to me. "Hey, Allora, you up for a battle later on tonight? I can't wait to see what pokemon you pick out! Besides, I wanna see if all of those school-smarts comes out on the field."

"Come on Cali, you've seen me battle before, you know I'll kick your butt." I said playfully.

"Yeah, well maybe not with your own pokemon!" She retorted. The vulpix licked her face and she laughed. "I'll see you later Allora!"

"Yeah, later, bye!" I said after her. I spent the next 15 minutes looking for Pretty, who I finally found with her face literally shoved in a bowl of pokefood, sitting behind a bush. "Well at least you're happy."

"Mmmpphh?" She said with a mouthful of pokefood. I sighed and picked her up.

"Come on," I said, "Lets go find Dad."

I sat in my chair, picking my fingernails, until finally the woman who was passing out the Pokedexes handed me my own, but disappointingly told me not to open it yet. The red metal was cold in my hand. There was the basic pokeball design on the front, but I knew that patterned cases were available, so I wasn't too worried about losing mine in a sea of scarlet later on. The instructor finally gave us permission to open them.

We were in a miniature lecture hall, almost like a university classroom. There was just enough room for my entire senior class to find seats. Everyone opened their Pokedexes.

I pressed the button on the bottom half of the index-card-sized box. The Pokedex came to life. The screen slid out of the top of the box, and two doors, undetectable until this point, slid open to reveal a QUERTY keyboard, along with an ENTER button, a BACK button, and a RECORD button. Of course I already knew how to use a Pokedex, everyone did. If it wasn't because of our parents, it was older siblings or grandparents that had let us, at one time or another, play with one.

The screen lit up. "Follow the instructions on the screen and then set it down on your desk when you are ready to move on." The instructor said. Soon all that could be heard in the room was the clicking of thumbs on keyboards and confirmation beeps from the Pokedexes.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Was the question on the screen. Allora Silverfield. ENTER. The screen loaded for a sec, and then my Trainer License picture popped up on screen. IS THIS YOU? IF YES, HIT ENTER. IF NO, HIT BACK. I grimaced at the horrible picture, and quickly hit ENTER. The screen loaded for a second again, and then the main screen popped up.

At the top left was my name. Then just under my name was my picture (which was officially going to be retaken,) and just under that were the numbers 0/0. This meant 0 caught/0 recorded. Once I recorded data of a pokemon, the recorded number would go up. But it is only possible to get complete data on a pokemon if that pokemon is caught, by scanning their pokeball. Otherwise, only their picture, type, moves, and location are available. Once caught, specifics about its height, weight, personality, and history are revealed. Each individual pokemon is different, their personalities for example, so once each Pokedex is taken in for evaluation once a year, all of the information gets added into a gigantic database for study. Each year the World Pokemon Database, or WPD, grows bigger and bigger thanks to dedicated trainers and collectors.

On the left side of the screen there were six blank boxes. Once I had pokemon of my own, I could scan them and their pictures, nicknames, and levels would appear in each box. If clicked on, the box would blow up to take up the entire screen with information such as height, weight, and moves.

I could also click a small pokeball-shaped button at the bottom of the screen to pull up the pokemon encyclopedia, filled with whatever categorized information I had collected during my journey, as well as many pre-loaded safety tips.

I set my Pokedex down on the desk and glanced around the room. It was fairly quiet, and very private. Parents are only allowed to visit for the ceremony. The giving of the pokemon and Pokedexes, as well as career choosing, are all privately done. Once the clicking of fingers on the keyboards slowed to a stop, the instructor stood and walked over to the podium.

"Now is for the moment most of you have waited for your whole lives," the instructor said. Well, probably just me, because I was probably the only person in that room that didn't own their own pokemon yet. "I'm sure you area all very excited to see what is in these cabinets that are behind me." This was actually the first time I had noticed them. There were six cabinets behind the instructor, who I then realized was my pokemon history teacher, Mrs. Price. "I will now open each cabinet and show you what is inside. Each Pokemon you are about to see is level five. There are enough Pokemon to where you could all chose the same one and still get your pick, so don't worry about choosing last." Good, because I was always close to last.

She then stepped to the first cabinet and opened it. Inside were more pokeballs then I had ever seen in my life. And that was only the first cabinet! "These are the fire Pokemon you may choose from." She took out four minimized pokeballs, unminimized them, and threw them in the air.

"Come out and show yourselves!" She shouted. I could feel the student body holding their breath, waiting to see their choices.

In a flash of red light, four pokemon appeared in the lecture hall.

The first was a charmander. Standard starter for the Kanto Region, and one of the most popular. Its tail shone in a brilliant flame as it smiled at the crowd of students watching it. "Char-Char!" it said, and let out a burst of flame from its mouth. There was some "Ooh" ing and "Ahh" ing from the audience, and the feisty thing just ate the attention right up.

"A charmander is one of our most often selected pokemon. As you all know, they are extremely rare in the wild, so picking one might be worth your while."

The second pokemon was a growlith. It was currently chasing the charmander's swishing tail flame, and succeeded in pouncing on it. The charmander just grinned and closed its eyes. The flame on its tail grew twice its normal size. "Grow!" The growlith yelped and hit behind the instructor. "Charmander! Char! Char!" said the charmander tauntingly. I could see several of the boys in the class eyeing the charmander. You could tell they liked its feisty attitude.

The third pokemon, who seemed aloof to the foolishness on its left, was a vulpix. It seemed to be having a conversation with the fourth fire Pokemon, a ponyta. They were making different pokemon vowel sounds and I could have sworn they were talking about the two others who were scuffling beside them.

Ponyta and vulpix were often chosen by girls. Ponyta because, well, what girl didn't want a pony for their birthday as a kid? And vulpix because of its cute fox-like face and beautiful six tails. The evolved form of vulpix, ninetales, is also a desired pokemon for contests, which is a female-dominated profession.

The other cabinets were opened in the same way. The second one was filled with water pokemon. The four pokemon presented were squirtle, goldeen, staru, and magikarp. The magikarp just flopped around saying "Karp. Karp." And I could tell a few of my classmates were wondering of what use it could possibly be. But I and most others knew what happened to a magikarp if it was trained well. It evolved into a super strong gyrados, which was an extremely powerful and diverse pokemon.

The next cabinet was grass. The four pokemon offered were bulbasaur, oddish, bellsprout, and exeggcute. The strong one in this group was definitely the exeggcute. Though it doesn't look like much, it's a psychic type, and with a leaf stone it evolves into an exeggutor, a very powerful pokemon that can learn both psychic and solarbeam.

The following cabinet was electric types. First was the obvious crowd pleasing pikachu, followed by a voltorb and a magnemite. There were only three electric types to choose from, which makes sense because they are harder to come by than grass, water, or fire. Everyone knows pikachu from the history lessons. Pikachu was Ash Ketchum's partner pokemon, given to him by Professor Oak. It was the most powerful pikachu in history. Ash went on to conquer the gyms and leagues in all five regions. He also defeated the notorious Team Rocket, and was one of the pioneers in Pokedex completion. However, he did not catch as many pokemon as he could have, which is why we still need people today completing their Pokedexes with captures.

The fifth cabinet was flying types. There were only three of these also: a pidgey, a spearow, and a far'fetched. The far'fetched immediately began doing tricks with its stick, performing ninja-like moves and demonstrating the move cut. The pidgey felt shown up, and began using gust, and it whisked the stick right out of the far'fetched's wing! If Mrs. Price hadn't intervened, there would have been a pokemon battle right in the middle of the classroom. Meanwhile, the spearow just stood by, seemingly superior to the squabble going on between the other two bird Pokemon.

The last cabinet was normal types. The four pokemon offered were snubble, jigglypuff, clefairy, and meowth. Meowth was also a notorious pokemon. People chose meowth because of its implications with Team Rocket. It is said that a group in Team Rocked had a meowth that could talk, but it was never proven. Many students chose a meowth in hopes that they could train it to talk, but there had never been any success.

Mrs. Price began to call off names of students to come up and choose their pokemon. The first student, a boy, went down and walked straight to the far'fetched and picked it up. They looked at each other, and the far'fetched spread its wings and said, "Fetch?" The student said, "I've found my partner," and smiled. Everyone clapped. He took the far'fetched's ball and went to sit down. I don't know if he chose a nickname or not.

Mrs. Price took out a second Pokeball and threw it into the air. With a flash of red light another far'fetched was on the floor. This one was much more energetic than the other one. It kept pacing back and forth and sharpening its Stick over and over again.

The next student to choose was a girl, and she picked an expected ponyta. Once again the instructor selected another one and threw it out onto the floor. This went on for 30 minutes until it was almost my turn to choose. Although, suddenly, I realized that I didn't know what I wanted!

I love all types of pokemon, and though I knew I would be able to catch others later on, making a decision like this seemed biased. The girl before me had just chosen her goldeen and was sitting down. I started to stand up and prepared myself to make an eenie-meenie-meine-mo selection when-

"Ryan Sobolewski." Mrs. Price said.

I had been skipped.

What! I thought. I made panicked eye contact with Cali, who just shrugged. She had chosen a charmander, no surprise. She always had a passion for fire Pokemon. Cali raised her eyebrows and mouthed, maybe it's a mistake?

I didn't know what to think. I sat through the rest of the ceremony in distress. After the last person chose (a pidgey,) Mrs. Price announced "And that is the end of the choosing ceremony. You have one hour to go and get to know your pokemon. Don't forget to scan it in your Pokedex. Be back in here on time for the careers. Have fun."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth then chaos erupted. People stormed to get out of their seats and rush outside to battle each other with their new pokemon. Bird pokemon flew out the door, the fire pokemon ran out, nearly catching several people on fire. The smart people put their pokemon into their balls before heading out, if only to create more breathing room.

Me? I just sat in my seat. I wondered what I could have done wrong. Why didn't I get my own pokemon? I had waited for this day my whole life, and now something is wrong with me! Cali walked up to me. Her vulpix and charmander came up behind her. vulpix jumped onto my lap and gave me a comforting lick. The charmander was nervous and hid behind Cali's leg. "Go on," she said, and it slowly inched up to me and finally rested its head against my leg.

"I just don't know what I did wrong," I said to Cali miserably.

"You did nothing wrong," said a voice. I looked up. Mrs Price was standing at the podium. "Allora Silverfield," she said. She looked up at me. "That's you right?" I nodded. She took a piece of paper out of her pocket and unfolded it. She read: "I have my eye on this one. These two are for her. She'll do right by them. I hope we shall meet some day. –Erik" She looked at me. "Does that name mean anything to you?" I shook my head. "Erik is the Champion of the Unova region. The Champion of the Champions. You'll have to battle him someday if you decide to become a trainer. I guess he is assuming you will become one." She tilted her head. "That is what you want to do isn't it?"

I swallowed. "More than anything." I stated timidly. Then more boldly: "Why does the Champion of Unova want anything to do with me? I'm just a girl from Lavender Town. I'm nobody. How does he even know who I am?" I was completely baffled.

The instructor studied me, then said, "The Champion sees things. He has agents. He knows talent when he sees it and, apparently, he sees it in you. He obviously wants you to take the gym challenges and finally meet him. I don't know, maybe he has a job for you. But if I were you, I would not turn him down." She reached under the podium. "These," she said as she pulled out a golden box, "are for you."

I got up hesitantly and walked down the stairs towards the front of the class. The vulpix, charmander, and Cali followed close behind. I reached the podium and stuck my hand out to open the box. I glanced at the instructor, who nodded. I opened the latch with a click and carefully opened the box. Inside were two Pokeballs. I picked them up and studied them. There wasn't anything really special about them, so I threw them in the air and said "Come out!"

There was a flash of red light, and out came two identical pokemon that I had never seen before. Mrs. Price looked both shocked and pleasantly surprised. Cali was in awe. I, however, had no idea what I was looking at. "What?" I asked. "What are they?"

Mrs. Price looked shocked at first, but covered it up nicely. She chuckled and said, "This would be a good time to use your Pokedex, don't you think?" I fumbled around in my purse until I found it. Then I snapped it open and hit RECORD. Since they were mine, the full data came up. It said:

EEVEE, THE EVOLUTION POKEMON. ITS IRREGULARLY CONFIGURED DNA IS AFFECTED BY ITS SURROUNDINGS. IT EVOLVES IF ITS ENVIRONMENT CHANGES.

It then pulled up an evolution map of an Eevee. I gasped. Eevee could evolve into 7 different pokemon! I looked at the instructor gaping. She laughed.

"The Champion must see something in you, girl." She said. "Eevee are very rare pokemon. Once upon a time, they weren't nearly as rare, but recent events have ensured their fate. These two look like twins. In fact, that one," she gestured to the ball of fluff on the right, "is a girl. And the other," She gestured to the left, "is a boy." She looked at me. "The Champion must know that you will make the right decision as to how to evolve them. He must have known how you felt about picking favorite types." I must have looked shocked, because she smiled. "Don't think I couldn't tell how you felt. I felt the same way when I chose my first. It wasn't hard to tell; I could see the panicked look on your face the whole time."

I was taken aback. Why had I never seen one of these pokemon before? I thought hard, and remembered only vague pictures of them from old textbooks. Never once had they been brought up by my parents, and for a pokemon with seven evolutions, it seemed strange that my breeder parents didn't own even one.

For the first time, I really looked at the Eevees. One of them was obviously smaller, and it had a white spot on the back of its ear. The other was larger and darker colored. It was obviously male. The two were wrestling around on the ground making happy squeaking noises. I checked my Pokedex again. They each knew the moves Tackle, Helping Hand, Tail Whip, and Growl. They had stopped rolling around and were now exploring their surroundings. The male was sniffing my feet, while the female was touching noses with Vulpix and staring into his eyes. They looked as if they were having some sort of psychic conversation.

I was still digesting the fact that I had just been given not one, but two very rare Pokemon. I thought about my parents reactions to the fact that now I was basically cornered into becoming a trainer, not that I minded. My parents would go nuts if they saw these two eevee. They would immediately want to breed one with a ditto for study. But these were my Pokemon, right? For my adventure. I shook my head, vowing not to cave in if my parents wanted one for themselves. I decided naming them would be a good way to make them feel more like my own, so I began pondering nicknames.

The female had a bright personality. She was now chasing the charmander's fiery tail, but Cali's charmander was nice and was not enlarging its tail flame just to be mean like the other one. She also had that white spot on her ear, shaped sort of like a sun, so I decided on a nickname. "This one will be called Sunny." I said.

Sunny perked her ears up and seemed to acknowledge her name. "Eeeeve!" She said and bounded over to my legs.

The male was off exploring the room. He was crawling under chairs and sniffing trash. He was very inquisitive, and his coat was a darker brown than Sunny's. He also seemed more calm and tranquil than Sunny. "His name will be Noche." I grinned at my super not-clever, but fitting, nicknames.

Noche padded back over beside me and sat at my feet, his sister following suit. I felt a sudden, almost palpable bond with these two pokemon beside me, and I knew this was the start of something great.