Finding Red

3

It was the dawn that was perhaps the most difficult to grasp. The harsh, unfiltered morning light invaded her room from the half-closed window shades, rousing her from a violent sleep. It was like a hangover, despite the fact she was sober, unmoving, and untired. Crystal could feel the desire to just lay there, and let the sticky, hot sweat keep her pajamas pinned to her body. Yet, at the same time she felt disgusting, ready to move and ready to just get it over with.

Her feet felt cool to the hardwood floors as she looked around for her wall clock, as if somehow forgetting where it was. Crystal examined the time. It was 6:30 in the morning, which for her was early. Somehow though, her sore body wouldn't let her go back to bed despite the fact that she should be exhausted. She looked at the mess on the floor from where she'd opened Professor Elm's present and felt just too lazy to clean it all up.

Instead, Crystal followed the odd impulse she had. She crept downstairs, mindful of her mother sleeping in the other room, and stood there in the living room. The dawn was stronger in this room, but instead of closing the blinds, she just looked around. Crystal walked around in silence, running her fingertips across the back of the old, patchy family couch set and the cheap dining room table. It was too hot inside, she deemed, and so she opened the door and stepped outside.

Crystal gazed out, satisfied at the cold winds whipping across her pajama shorts, ballooning them with air. She mostly closed the front door, making sure not to lock it, as she stepped out into the cold grass. Goosebumps rippled across her skin, but she let the feeling overtake her, loving the refreshing feeling that being cold gave her. She felt clean.

The smell of dew and nature untouched reached her nostrils as she rued the presence of the sun, slowly burning away at the peace. There was this feeling that spread through her despite that, a kind of reaction to the cold air that filled her lungs and came out with every breath. It was fall, she recalled, a time of cool, a time of change. To her, that was a silly irony. A thought brushed against her mind of what her home looked like in the fall.

What did Johto look like in the fall, she wondered. She'd heard it was beautiful. But even if it was, did she really want to leave the calm familiar of the browning grass and golden trees in New Bark? The days getting shorter and the nights getting longer in Elm's lab? She let out a deep breath, trying to keep the water in her eyes from coming out. There would be no being emotional before it was time. She knew that she was just going to have to do what she had to do.

Crystal sat on the couch in silence, mind filled with thoughts that etched the time away. Her mother finally roused around 8:30, stepping out of the back room with a yawn and tired eyes. Nevertheless though, to Crystal she seemed unfazed by her daughter being awake and up. It made sense, even to Crystal. Even though she didn't feel nervous, she knew that she was. She had to be.

Crystal's mother was the one who spoke first, as she began to cook for the both of them.

"Did you check the mail to make sure that they got your confirmation?" her mother asked.

Crystal shook her head. "Most of my interactions will be by Pokégear. You know that doesn't matter much right now, though."

There was an implicit understanding between the two of them that this was happening regardless of Clarks and Kent. Crystal had made a promise to herself now. She didn't quite understand that promise, but it was there. It was the unspoken agreement that she had to do this, no matter how she felt about it. And she hated that. She hated the idea that she had to go out to prove herself. Not that it mattered.

"What do I need to do to prepare?" Crystal asked, giving her mother a blank stare while eating.

Crystal's mother smiled. "You just need to pack. All the equipment you'll need is here."