Pallet - A Pokémon Story

Chapter 1

I don't understand! We loved each other!

I'm a trainer, Delia. I can't be a father and a husband as well. You must understand.

I don't! You shouldn't leave me... leave Ash...

Goodbye, Delia.

Delia looked at the family photo near her bedside. She was smiling while holding the baby Ash, her newborn son at he time. Next to her was the man that used to be her husband, the man that left Delia and Ash alone.

"You're just as terrible as my father." Delia growled, slamming the picture downward onto the desk by her bed.

Anger filled the young mother. She spent days and nights working at her inn, and felt heartbroken because she couldn't see her son for more than a few minutes before having to get back to work. But today, she had finally spent an entire day with Ash and enjoyed every single minute of it. Now Ash was fast asleep, but Delia couldn't sleep after all the joy she had from today.

She walked over to Ash's crib, and kissed him on the forehead.

"Goodnight, Ash."

~•~

The Pallet Town Primary School was a milestone in the young Ash's life. Delia had scraped up enough money to enroll him into the school, and didn't have to work at the inn all day and night because of help from her friend Professor Oak.

"How come Gary doesn't go here?" Ash asked as he and his mother walked towards the school.

"Gary's gone off to another school far away from here, but I'm sure you'd be having just as much as fun here as he is there." Delia smiled. Ash grinned back, and felt excited for his first day at school.

That excitement was about to end when things didn't seem as peachy as his mother said it would be.

"Ha! You're so short, you could pass off as still being a toddler!" One of Ash's not so kind classmates yelled at him during recess.

"Yeah! I feel bad for your mom for having such an ugly kid!" The bully's friend laughed. Ash shook his head, and started to cry.

"I'm not ugly and I'm not a toddler! I'm Ash Ketchum, and I'm going to be a Pokémon Master!" Ash retorted louder than the two bullies. The teacher sent Ash inside the classroom for yelling so loud, causing him to hate his school even more. Ash was in tears again after his mother picked him up.

"What's wrong? Was anyone being mean to you?" Delia lifted up the crying Ash, and patted him on his back.

"N-no..." Ash sobbed out, afraid to tell his mom about everything that happened. And so, the boy kept everything to himself as he was continually picked on by the bullies in his class until he finally told someone, and it was none other than Gary Oak.

Gary, though attending a prestigious school and being famous around Pallet for being Professor Oak's grandson, still seemed to pity Ash. He made sure that Ash's teachers knew that he was being picked on and even tried telling the father's of the bullies, though that rarely worked.

"I think that the bullies are having a hard time at home." Gary said out of the blue one day to Ash. The two were sitting on the swings of a park near Ash's school, enjoying the heat of the sun that predicted a hot summer.

"What do you mean?" A confused Ash asked, remembering how powerful the bullies looked and acted.

"I don't really know. Maybe you should talk to your Mom this time." Gary jumped off the swings and started to head towards Professor Oak's house. "See ya later, Ashy-boy!"