The Professor's Secret

Vaniville Town, My First Pokémon, The Letter

I was extremely tired after the long day's journey. Seeing the day dawn on my way to the airport after an anxious, sleepless night was uncomfortable to say the least; I hated imposed socializations such as my mother's farewell committee; the airplane made me queasy and the jetlag killed whatever feeble excitement I derived from watching the miniature Kalos region grow larger as we landed. For that and more, the narrow bed in my room was my first stop after the Taxi dropped us off in the charming little town of Vaniville.

I awoke – or rather, was awakened – some hours later by an overly-excited Fletching that bust into my room chirping gleefully: he was an old friend, and a diligent alarm clock. This time, however, the faithful clock-friend seemed to have decided to give me a break, for when I looked out the window, it was already dark.

I dragged my feet through the strange, silent corridor and down the carpeted stairs, too numb to properly take in further details of my new home. Sleeping through the afternoon always gave me an irrational and brief feeling of doom, like the world might have ended, but luckily my mother was there, standing in the kitchen – her world was still there, inside all those boxes she unpacked at her leisure. The smile on her face was a painful but needed reminder that things would turn out okay eventually:

"Morning, Anne!" She greeted sarcastically.

"Sorry, mom!" I moaned my unwilling apology as I stumbled past her and landed avidly on the cardboard box over the counter that read 'bathroom cabinet'. "I must have overslept..."

"Yes, you did! And I had to carry the luggage inside all by myself, too!" she playfully chided as I rummaged for the aspirin.

Having tended to my headache, I proceeded to fulfill another basic need by grabbing a bowl and the box of cereal from my mother's hand before she could put it away.

"Hey! Dinner will be ready soon, so don't go filling your stomach with that crap!'

"Too starved to wait..." I moaned lazily, sitting down before my meal.

"You don't wanna spoil your appetite on this one: Choucrout Garnie!" She pronounced enthusiastically, as if possessed by the spirit of a great chef "Our first local dish. How exciting! The neighbor gave me the recipe."

"Sounds overly complicated!" I defended my good old vanilla cereal.

"It was!" She confessed miserably "That's why you're waiting for it!"

"Mooom!!" I protested as she took away my bowl. "I'm starving!"

"It will feel like a minute if you distract yourself! Get dressed, go outside, you have barely seen the neighborhood at all! Plus, some kids have been standing in the lawn for the past half an hour stealing glimpses inside. Either my Choucrout Garnie smells that good, or they'd like to meet their new neighbor!"

"They don't care about your silly Garnie... I'm sure they have that for breakfast every day, whatever it is." I teased.

"With baguette!" She mocked.

"And croissants..." I reiterated, chuckling and then blushing my own stupidity.

Mom's tasteless sense of humor happened to be contagious sometimes. At least it served to wash my ill-mood away

Lifting the vaporous lace curtains and peeking outside, my eyes first met with a boy, probably as old as myself, wearing a cobalt blue jacket and pulling back the short locks of his hair, before placing a red cap over it. He looked bored and impatient, tapping his cothurnus-covered foot on the ground and fidgeting with the brim of his hat. I felt myself blush and dropped the curtains immediately as his eyes threatened to correspond my heavy gaze. Now, through my invisibility, I carefully examined the second person standing in front of my house: It was a petite, cutely dressed girl that looked younger than her male friend, though it was probably not the case – she had that air of an adolescent who just happened to keep her child-like traces, managing to appear both cute and interesting to hang out with. She happily pleaded her case while the boy rolled his eyes. Their interaction made me smile as if I was a part of their group.