It was unexpectedly busy in the pokemon center and Rose had to get in line in front of the pokemon pick up machine. While she waited she idly glanced around her watching the people inside the pokemon center. Most of them were pokemon trainers, she could tell because they wore their poke balls on a belt, strapped on their bag or any other place where they could be seen. Rose always liked to watch what was going on around her and observe the people going about their day. Everyone had their own story and Rose always wondered what it was. One of her favorite things to do was to invent a story about where people would be going and why. It was just innocent curiosity and her made up version was usually way more entertaining than the truth. The truth was either boring or completely different. The row behind the desk of nurse Joy was especially long and all the people in it looked anxiously at the front of the line willing it to hurry up. It looked like Matthew and her weren't the only ones who had trouble getting through Viridian Forest unharmed.
She steadily got closer to the front of the line and she felt her excitement grow. She was really curious what kind of pokemon her brother Colton had sent her. If he wanted it to protect her it probably had to be a tough pokemon. Rose didn't know much about any other type of pokemon besides grass type pokemon. She grew up around them and their gardens back home were full of them. When her brothers came to visit from their journey she had seen a couple of pokemons she'd never seen before. Their team had a lot of different types mixed together. When she decided to become a pokemon trainer she knew she wanted to specialize in grass type pokemon. They were the ones she knew best and felt closest to. Her brothers had warned her grass type pokemon weren't often used in battle or competitive play since they were weak to many types and only effective against ground, rock and water pokemon. Still she wasn't discouraged by that and stood by her decision earning admiration of both her brothers.
They had always protected her growing up and when they left to become pokemon trainers her boyfriend at the time took their place. Rose liked to think she didn't need to be protected. She wanted to prove she could do things on her own and that there was more to her than just a pretty face. It was the main reason why she wanted to become a pokemon trainer to prove she was capable of doing something completely on her own, without anyone helping her. It was pressure she put on herself, nobody else expected anything from her so the pressure she was feeling was entirely of her own creation.
She was driving herself crazy with these thoughts on needing to prove herself. Of course it was important to give it her all but at the same time she wanted to enjoy the journey. The simple things like visiting the cities, go shopping, sightseeing, all those things.
"Excuse me?" Rose felt someone tapping her left shoulder. The woman behind her sounded extremely annoyed and Rose turned around to see who was talking to her. She faced a woman holding hands with a little boy probably her son and she looked irritated if not angry.
"Are you planning to pick up your pokemon or are you just going to stand there and do nothing?" The woman spat at her, tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. The young boy flinched at her harsh tone and quickly hid behind her legs.
At first Rose didn't realize what she was talking about there were at least four pe......
Oh...... She suddenly realized she was standing at the front of the line. She had been so absorbed by her own thoughts she hadn't even seen the people in front of her leave the row.
Rose nervously smoothed her dress feeling the heat rise up her cheeks at the woman's intense stare. She felt incredibly self conscious not to say embarrassed.
"I'm so sorry I...I don't know what came over me" She managed to say before quickly spinning around to face the pokemon pick up machine. Rose let out a quiet sigh of relief glad to have somewhat escaped the woman's wrath.
Despite the feeling of a pair of eyes boring into her back she tried to stay calm. She clicked on the list of pokemon ready for pick up. They were registered by type, the name of the trainer and their level. Since she had no idea what pokemon Colton had caught for her she put in his name in the search engine for quick reference. Luckily there was only one pokemon trainer named Colton who had readied a pokemon for pick up in the Pewter City Pokemon Center. There was an e-mail attached to the file and Rose contemplated taking the time to read it since the woman behind her was already extremely annoyed at her absentmindedness. She didn't dare glance over her shoulder and she could always read the e-mail in detail later. So she simply scanned over the details quickly before pressing the confirmation button.
There was a short white flash of light after which her poke ball materialized underneath the glass dome. After the light turned green meaning it was ready to pick up Rose tentatively reached down into the glass dome and picked up her poke ball. Without hesitating a second longer she quickly slid the new poke ball into her bag and rushed out of the pokemon center without looking behind her. If she had looked she may have seen the smug smile on a face of someone very familiar. A pokemon trainer with a head of brown spiky hair streaked with fiery orange. He watched Rose as she exited the pokemon center and abandoned his place in the row to follow her. This was too good to be true, he thought.
After she had picked up her pokemon and left the pokemon center Rose felt the same excitement she felt when first starting her journey a couple of days ago. There were butterflies in her stomach and she couldn't wait to see if Machop liked her. Her brother said he was extremely protective and way stronger than he looked. He had trained him especially for her so he could watch over in his place. She was grateful her brothers looked out for her still but she didn't want to take a pokemon with her only to serve as a protector. That wouldn't be fair to the pokemon. Rose didn't know that much about Machop aside from what she read in the e-mail. She'd never seen one before and somehow she felt he would be something completely different than the grass pokemon she was used to.
The young pokemon trainer stood outside of the pokemon center determining her next move when she saw a tall shadow join hers on the ground. The voice that accompanied it sent shivers down her spine.
"If it isn't Rose...."
"I'm surprised you made it through the forest, even me and Torchic had a few difficulties. How the hell did you manage it with your measly flower bud?" The man sneered at her, looking down into her dark green eyes with a smug smile.
Normally Rose would grow completely silent in a situation like this but this whole ordeal was all too familiar to her. Ashley was her ex-boyfriend and she'd gone through the same ridicule everyday of being with him. It was part of the reason he was her ex boyfriend now. She ignored his rudeness and managed to stay perfectly polite, something she knew annoyed him a lot.
"It's nice to see you too Ashley" She replied sounding uncharacteristically annoyed, but Ashley did always bring out the worst in her.
Rose was about to go on her way not caring for the company of Ashley at all when he casually placed his arm around her shoulders. She tried to sneak out of his embrace but he wouldn't give in. She let out an annoyed sigh and crossed her arms in front of her, knowing it was no use to try and fight him.
"What do you want Ashley?" She asked not bothering to hide her dislike of him.
"Well...." He began stroking her arm lightly probably pretending they were still together.
In your dreams. Rose thought as she rolled her eyes. She moved away from his hand before he continued.
"I was thinking since you have no one following you around it would be a good idea for me to tag along, since you obviously can't fend for yourself" Ashley explained scratching the back of his head lazily.
Rose felt her fist tighten in anger. He was doing it again, always pressing her buttons and he knew exactly how to make her mad. He almost seemed to like it. She hated when people thought she was useless. She slipped out of his grip and spun around, her eyes were on fire.
"You would be the last person I'd ask for help!" Rose spat at him putting a good distance between them. Ashley's confident grin turned into an angry scowl in mere seconds and he stepped towards her closing the distance in two large steps. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back intending to scare her. The sudden movement caused her bag to fall on the ground and a poke ball rolled out.
Rose kept herself from yelling because she didn't want to cause a scene but that didn't mean she couldn't give Ashley a piece of her mind.
The poke ball suddenly began to stir and after a few violent tremors it opened on its own with a red flash. Rose closed her eyes at the brightness and when she opened she saw a small humanoid pokemon which she guessed had to be Machop. It had an angry expression on its rather flat face and its red eyes were looking directly at Ashley.
"Machop!" Rose exclaimed in surprise. It was the first time she saw him and he came at the just the right time. She liked him already.
Without warning Machop rushed forward and kicked Ashley square in the gut sending the cocky pokemon trainer to the ground below their feet freeing Rose in the process. Ashley let out a surprised yelp before hitting the ground with a satisfying thud. He groaned and was slightly dazed as he tried to see what attacked him.
Rose had to keep herself from laughing and she turned to Machop smiling happily.
"High five!" She said holding out her hand excitedly. The pokemon didn't seem to understand at first but after a couple of seconds he stuck out his thumb to her and winked.
That's good enough for me. Rose thought with an amused smile.
Ashley rubbed the back of his head, getting up from the ground slowly visibly shocked to have been knocked down by a pokemon a third of his size. It was humiliating and if there was one thing he couldn't stand it was looking a fool. He brushed the dirt of his clothes and pulled himself together, it didn't take long for the same confident smirk returned to his face. What he did not expect was Rose nearly falling to the floor from laughter and his face went beet red out of embarrassment and anger.
Rose had to stop laughing because there was one thing she still wanted to say, but before she had the chance to do so she was interrupted by Ashley.
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted" While he said that he kept a weary eye on the Machop standing protectively in front of Rose, making sure to keep his trainer behind it.
"You need me and...... you can't resist me" He added with a sly smirk feeling very sure of himself at that moment, despite just having been knocked down by the pokemon of his ex girlfriend.
"Hardly" Rose said laughing. She stepped towards him with a lot more confidence having Machop at her side making sure he didn't try anything again.
"Besides I already have a traveling companion" She added with a sly smirk of her own. That news didn't go down well with Ashley and he couldn't hide the obvious displeasure on his face, or as Rose liked to call it, jealousy. Rose had been the one to end the relationship because of the way he treated her but Ashley never saw it that way.
"What's his name?" Ashley asked in a low voice intending to pry the answer out of her. Rose realized she was lying because she didn't have any traveling companions besides her pokemon. Of course Ashley didn't need to know that, she wanted to get rid of him and get on her way.
"His name is.....Matthew" The name had left her lips before she realized it and she didn't know why she mentioned it. Now she felt terrible having included someone else in her white lie. Immediately she regretted it and tried to take it back.
"So where is he? I want to talk to him" Ashley began balling his hands into fists.
"It's really none of your business Ashley" Rose said getting tired of him after the move he tried to pull on her. If he could just go they could go their seperate ways. She didn't want to be around him any longer than she had to.