Times like this were one of the few times I was glad to only be 5 years old. Papa was unloading boxes from a moving truck into our new house. Mama was inside arranging the interior of the house.

I was currently sitting in the shade of a tree in our new front house eating an ice cream cone and watching, with Trapinch on her back receiving belly rubs from me. As for Eevee…she'd disappeared somewhere when I had my back turn. I was a bit worried about that…not that I was worried something would happen to her. No, I was worried because she had shown herself to be a bit of a prankster on the ship ride over.

My worries were soon proven to be accurate, as a rock fell from the tree above me…directly into my ice cream! The nerve! Wiping off the ice cream splatter from my face, I glared at the Eevee perched on a tree branch laughing at me. Seeing as my ice cream was already ruined, I stood up and threw it at the offending fluff ball. I missed, but the sudden projectile startled Eevee enough to cause her to fall, allowing me to catch her midair so she couldn't run away.

“Divine retribution!” I yelled as I started tickling her. “Repent! Repent for the sin of wasting ice cream!”

Eevee retaliated by using her tail to tickle my side, causing me to drop her. The second her feet hit the ground, she leapt backwards and took a stance. As our eyes met, both of us knew what came next. It was time…for a tickle fight.

The sound of Trapinch rolling over onto her feet signaled the start of our epic battle for dominance. We rushed at each other and soon we were rolling around on the grass trying to reach each other's sensitive areas. I have no idea how long the struggle last, only that it ended when a third party intervened. I mean…they didn't do anything other than stand over us casting a shadow, but it was enough to cause a ceasefire so it counts!

As soon as we realized we had company, Eevee and I were on our feet in an instant, pretending nothing happened. At which point, I realized that I recognized the newcomer. It was Johanna, Coordinator extraordinaire and Dawn’s mother…which meant…

Looking downward, I saw a tiny Dawn standing behind her, looking at me like I was crazy. Which was totally wrong! …Okay, maybe I was a little crazy, if I was being honest with myself. But still! Rude!

“Hello there, sweetie!” Johanna spoke in that overly sweet tone used for small children, which was kind of annoying but I let it slide because I was, in fact, a small child. “I heard we had some new neighbors so my daughter and I came over to welcome you all to Twinleaf! Are your parents around?”

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“Ah, they're over there.” I told her, pointing to the house, where Papa had stopped unloading and was watching us talk, just in case.

“Thank you, dear.” She said, before pushing Dawn forward and whispering to her “Play nice okay?”

As I watched Johanna head towards the house with a cake I only just realized she was carrying, Dawn finally spoke up. “Hi! My name is Dawn, what's yours?”

“Ah, Cherish.” Well, apparently, this was now happening. Now…how to overcome my initial impression…

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“..and I'll live in a castle with a moat full of Milotic!” Dawn said as we sat under the tree, with Eevee in her lap and Trapinch in mine.

Offsetting that Eevee fight in Dawn’s mind turned out to be surprisingly easy. I just asked her about her dreams and then listened to her go on and on about being a top coordinator like her mother…as well as somehow becoming princess. She had been talking for so long that I was honestly kind of at my limit. Thankfully, Dawn had just given me the perfect opportunity to finally change topics.

“What kind of castle?” I asked, interrupting her rambling. She looked at me confused. Obviously, she had a specific image of a castle in her head and had yet to realize there were other kinds of castles.

“Well, is it a stone castle in a forest? Maybe it sits on the branch of a giant tree? Or maybe it's made of ice and on a mountain surrounded by snow?” I elaborated and then watched as Dawn’s eyes went wide. Heh, I could practically see her mind expand as she began considering all kinds of fantastical castles only a child could dream up.

“Oh, what kind of castle would you live in?” She asked with stars in her eyes, unintentionally turning the question back on me. Luckily, I already had the perfect answer.

“A sky castle, obviously! I'd be built on top of a floating island and it'd take me anywhere I wanna go!” I answered, which wowed Dawn further as she imagined it.

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Dawn and I debated the pros and cons of different castle types for a while before moving on to designing the perfect flying castle for both of us to live in. It wasn’t until the sun started going down on the horizon that we were called in by the three parents. I was a bit disappointed, but nonetheless I waved goodbye to Dawn as she and Johanna left to go home.

“So did you have fun with Dawn?” Mama asked as she dished up that night’s dinner.

“Yup! We had a bunch of fun talking about castles!” I replied and started telling them about a lot of the ideas me and Dawn had come up with about the perfect castle. I’d gotten about halfway through when Papa piped up.

“Sorry, Sprout, but as fascinating as this is, you need to go to bed soon in order to get up early tomorrow.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaat?” I whined like the kid I was. “Why?”

“Because if you want to be able to take your Pokemon with you to school, we’ll need to take them to a Pokemon Center to be given a clean bill of health. And since the nearest Pokemon Center is in Sandgem, I’d like to get that done before we get too settled in and forget about it.”