Reily sat up in bed, blinking in the bright sunlight that was flooding her room. Odd, she thought, it's normally never this bright when I usually get up....wait....am I late? No! I must be late! She jumped up out of bed, threw together an outfit, grabbed her already packed backpack, and headed downstairs, taking the stairs two at a time. Her mother looked up at her.
"I see you're ready to go." She observed, "but your shirt's backwards." She laughed at the shocked expression on Reily's face as she hurried to inspect herself in the mirror. She turned it around and came out of the bathroom, which had the closest mirror.
"Yeah, thanks mom, love you, I'll remember to write...and call, bye!" She gave her mother a kiss and a hug, grabbed a few pieces of toast, and left the house, figuring that she would eat on the way to the lab.
Reily jogged to the laboratory, dang, I hate being late, the reason for that is I'm not supposed to be late, it goes against my nature, she thought as she started picking up the pace, suddenly, her foot caught in a ditch and she stumbled, though she managed to keep from falling. Great, just great, probably the most important day of my life and this is the first event of it.
"Need some help?" A familiar voice asked from behind her. She turned around quickly to face the speaker.
"Oh, ah, no thanks, I'm fi-Ivan!" She shrieked suddenly, just managing to restrain herself from hugging the person in front of her, a boy her age with short black hair and dark eyes. It was Ivan, her childhood best friend, he had started his journey a while before she had, and so he already had his first pokemon, which had been a mudkip. He had left Sunshine Town a while ago and though they had written, Reily hadn't seen him for a while. "I-can't believe it! What brings you here? Oh, and do you mind if we talk while we're walking, I'm kinda late..."
"Late?" Ivan pretended to seize up in shock, "you're never late! That's my job...sometimes." Reily laughed, it was true though, she had never been late once in her life, while Ivan had dozens of times, it usually wasn't his fault though, he had a bigger family than she had.
"So what brings you here?" She asked again, as she looked ahead and spotted the lab in the distance.
"To visit my best friend, what else? Oh, and to see my mom, she's been bugging me to come back and visit. So I did," he shrugged, stepping around a mud puddle on the ground.
"Oh, that's cool, hey, what pokemon have you got?" She asked suddenly, remembering the mudkip.
"Let me show you," Ivan grinned, as he took out three pokeballs and pressed the small white button on them. Out came a Marshtomp, a Roselia, and a Starly.
"Oh...wow..." Reily commented, "they're so...neat!" They continued to talk until they reached the lab, then Ivan got a call from his mother asking for him to come home.
"See you, Reily, keep writing." Ivan said with a wave of his hand before he turned around and headed once again down the road leading away from Professor Pace's laboratory. Meanwhile, Reily called out "bye," and walked inside, she had practiced her introduction in her head countless times before, and hoped she wouldn't mess up.
"Hello, sir," she began, addressing the scientist standing at the table with a few pokemon, "my name is Reily Lynn Jackson, and I'm here to see Professor Pace, I'm supposed to receive my first pokemon today." She held out the letter the professor had sent her. The scientist smiled,
"well, that's good. I'm Professor Pace, it's nice to meet you Reily." The professor said with another smile, before showing her to the table with the pokemon.
Reily turned somewhat red, embarrassed about her mistake, and followed Professor Pace to the table. She listened intently as he explained about each of the pokemon in turn, and then about what she should expect to encounter on her journey. After he had finished, he stood back to let Reily choose her pokemon.
"I- it's so hard to choose..." Suddenly, the togepi leapt into her arms and cried out happily. Reily smiled at it, "Togepi. I think I'll go with Togepi," she said decisively, looking at the Professor, who nodded, and took out a red device and several pokeballs, both of which he handed to Reily. She thanked him as she took him, and he explained the function of both items.
"Well, I wish you luck on your journey." Professor Pace said, shaking Reily's hand, "I'm sure you two will get along just fine." Then he let them leave, Reily thanking him once more time.
Wow, I got my first pokemon! She thought, as the Togepi bounced happily upon her shoulder. She said to it, "I think I'd better put you inside the pokeball." That was when Togepi began to protest frantically, shaking its whole body, "okay, I guess you're one of them." She told it, as it relaxed and began bobbing up and down on her shoulder, just like Marie's beautifly, she thought, thinking of another friend that she had, as she walked back towards the main part of the town, Togepi on her shoulder
