"Just scrapped by!" I was excited, I had just passed Practical Survival. The last class I needed to finish to graduate from Trainer Academy. With this I would get a trainer's license and hey, I might just get a sponsorship as well!
"What did you get?" My friend Alex walked up to my desk after the teacher finished handing out papers.
"68%, you?" I asked, though I could make some assumptions seeing how excited he was.
"95%! Think any sponsors will come looking my way?"
"Probably not, we both know Practicals of Battling is where they look for talent."
"I guess so..." The fact of the matter is that battling is the main thing that the sponsorships look for. Assuming you'll be sponsored by a gym just because you get good grades is foolish. Anything like getting regional starters past that requires insane amounts of effort and luck.
Shortly after our conversation, the bell rang out throughout the school. Signaling us to head to the next class. Though today we would be heading outside to the courtyard to gather in an assembly. Sticking together, me and Albert continued our conversation.
"Say, Flor, do you think we'll get sponsorship offers?" Albert decided to just give me to one question I dread to think about.
"It's a possibility, I'd say it's unlikely for me to get one. You would have a higher shot, Sandgem maybe?" There had only been 50 students in this Academy and we were in Sandgem. There should be around 5 people getting sponsored by them. Even factoring in other sponsors only 1/5 students end of getting sponsorships each year.
With all of our talking, we quickly passed the time and eventually found ourselves gathered infront of a small stage. On that stage we could see multiple figures. Josh Oldenburg, the Gym leader of Sandgem, Professor Birch, and multiple gym representatives. Getting onto to stage, our principle made a speech on how far we'd come and what we could make of ourselves. After that, he called our names. One by one we would go up to the stage and accept our Trainer ID and a Pokedex to accompany us on our travels.
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I truly only started to pay attention once they got down to sponsors. Most of the students seemed to of done this as well. With the simple process being used where the sponsors would go up to the microphone and call up whoever they chose to sponsor. Luckily for my friend, the Sandgem Gym leader went first and he got called up second. Past that, there was no surprise when professor Rowan called up Dawn and when the other gyms sponsored some better students.
With the process done, the sponsored students were brought inside while the principle began to talk to us again. The mood in the crowd much lower than when it had started.
"You may be disappointed that you have not gotten a sponsorship today. Yet we don't just give out trainer IDs and Pokedexes to our graduates!" With him saying that, he hopped off the stage and pulled the top of the stage off for it to fold out. This revealing a table that held what looked to be enough pokeballs to give each person one.
"We always give out pokemon to the group of graduating trainers! You can't be a pokemon trainer without a pokemon!" The mood of everyone left went up, drastically. Though it made sense, and it was probably in the handbook somewhere.
"Alrighty! Everybody line up, unlike getting sponsored, this is first come first serve." This statement definitely riled up the crowd and everyone seemed to be rushing to line up. Being left behind, I went to the back of the line. Annoyed with this arrangement, I watched how the pokeballs were handed out. One after another, the principle seemed to of just given them out randomly. The line had gone surprisingly fast and by the time I went up to get the pokeball there was only one left.
"Florence! I expected you would of been last!" He said as he handed me the pokeball. 'What is that supposed to mean?' I left my questions for another time and spread out away from everybody. Everyone had been checking out what pokemon had been given to them. A few types of pokemon appeared a few times: Bidoof, Starly, Shinx, Psyduck, Geodude.
After carrying out my observations, I proceeded to release the pokemon entrusted to me. Clicking the button to enlarge it, excitement was slowly building inside of me. Then with one more button press the pokeball opened with a beam of light. On the ground I could spot my new friend staring right back at me.
"Snorunt!"