Trainer James

A Boy and his Growlithe

The sun started to rise on another beautiful morning, the Hoothoot and Noctowl retreated into their nests to sleep, the Pidgey and Spearow started to chirp, and the Combee roused themselves. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day.

Until morning peace was shattered by the high-pitched harmonious triple cry of the local Dodrio announcing the sunrise, James jerked out of sleep in surprise, flailed in his bed, got tangled in his sheets, and promptly fell out of bed in a heap.

He groaned, slapped a hand onto the bed, and hauled himself back on top of it with another groan.

"That blasted bird! If I ever see it, I'll drag it to the cooks for dinner!" He exclaimed in a sudden fit of annoyance. It was the fourth time this week it had decided to announce the sunrise close enough to the estate to wake him up.

As soon as the anger came it evaporated into nothing and he just sagged into the bed with a sigh. He just lay there, his sheets a mess around him, and tried to go back to sleep. However, as the minutes ticked by, it became clear that he wasn't getting back to sleep. With another sigh, he sat up, untangled the sheets from him, and walked into his walk-in closet. He walked past several racks of clothes, not in the mood for any of them until he settled on a dark blue blazer with a button-up white undershirt, dark blue linen pants, and black cravat.

Now dressed, he made his way out of his room and into the hallways. He didn't know how his parents slept through the Dodrio's morning calls, but they did. At this time, only himself and the servants were up. He made his way to the kitchens, intent on getting some breakfast. He passed by a few of them, most occupied with morning cleaning and dusting, but made time to stop what they were doing to greet him as he passed. At least most of them didn't bow to him anymore. It had gotten so unbearable that he had asked them to stop when his parents weren't around. Some of them, however, usually the older ones like Sebastian, still bowed to him. Whenever one greeted him, he greeted them by name. He knew the names of all the servants by this point; It didn't feel right not to do the same.

He got to the kitchens, but rather than sit in the dining room, he walked into the kitchens itself. The three chefs were busy preparing a breakfast of hashbrowns, fried tomatoes, baked beans, sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes, muffins, and all sorts of variations of each. They were in charge of feeding the entire mansion staff, and breakfast was always the largest meal of the day as quite a few staff members were only present during the mornings.

"Ahh, young master James, up early again I see. The Dodrio?" asked head chef Leonard, as he worked on preparing the pancakes.

James merely nodded and grabbed a nearby stool. He dragged it over to a small corner table and plopped down with a yawn.

"Ah well, let's see if we can't cheer you up with some pipping hot breakfast, eh?" Leonard said with a chuckle.

Leonard had one of the other chefs take over for him, while he grabbed a plate from a cupboard and served it with an even helping of everything. To James' surprise and delight, he saw that the large pancake he had been served was shaped like a Growlithe.

"Wow! This is incredible Leonard! Thank you!" James said happily.

Leonard just laughed and returned to preparing, while James dug into the breakfast with gusto. He was a quarter through his breakfast when one of the other chefs put a large glass of Sitrus berry juice in front of him.

"Thank you, Marian!" James said, immediately taking a big drink of the delicious juice. Marian meanwhile, just smiled and returned to her duties.

Sooner than he wished, his breakfast was gone and he couldn't eat another bite. He stretched, sighed contentedly, grabbed the dirty plate and glass, and placed them in the large sink.