Lucas’s house wasn’t too bad. It was pretty decently sized, maybe a little bigger than Hop’s own house, and was filled with pictures. A lot of them contained blue Pokemon, and Hop knew a few of them. But he didn’t know most of them. In a little area, there were some incubators with eggs in them. Hop never really paid mind to eggs in Galar. Maybe in Sinnoh it was custom to have a lot of eggs? Or maybe this family really liked either raising young Pokemon or scrambled eggs. Either way, Hop found it peculiar.

“Come on, Hop,” Lucas called, “I need to take you to your room.”

Hop sighed under his breath. He really wanted to check the place out, but he knew he would have to honor his host. Hop glanced back over at the boy calling him over. He seemed nice enough, and he gave no reason on why Hop shouldn’t trust him. The blue haired boy wasn’t a red flag at all.

“Hop? Can you please follow me into the guest room?” Lucas whined, “I want to go to bed, too!”

Hop turned away from the paintings and followed Lucas upstairs. The house was quite beautiful in Hop’s opinion. The shade of blue on the wall looked well with the shade of blue the carpet was. And that carpet almost matched perfectly with the blue on the drawer. Hop suddenly became aware of how much blue was in the house.

“So I’m guessing your mother is into blue?” Hop said.

Lucas turned around to him. “My mother passed away when I was six,” he answered.

Hop paused. That was not the answer he had intended. He saw that Lucas had already reached the second floor and had turned around to face him.

“So, you live with your dad?” Hop asked, and then added, “or your grandparents?”

“I live with my father and my grandparents,” Lucas replied, “and I have a little sister.”

“Cool” was all Hop decided to say, just in case it turned out that Lucas’s sister was secretly dead or something. Hop reached the summit of the stairs and was led by Lucas to a room.

“This is the guest room. I’m just across the hall if you need me,” Lucas said, pointing to a room with a sign that read ‘Lucas.’ The sign was blue. Of course.

“Thank you,” Hop yawned as he shut the door.

The room wasn’t awful. It was just way too blue. Hop really didn’t have anything against the color blue. He really didn’t. But when the majority of a house’s color scheme consisted solely of one color, that just made Hop a little frustrated. Could he just have a speckle of purple?

Hop plopped down on his blue bedding. It was softer than he expected. The wall was light blue and filled with elegant paintings. The paintings portrayed foreign Pokemon with no color present except for shades of blue. Blue was one of Hop’s favorite colors, but this was a little excessive. How could somebody live with so much blue?

After lying down for a little bit, Hop fell into a deep slumber. He had a wild dream that night. He woke up in a world only colored with shades of blue. It closely resembled the town he had landed in. What did that annoying lady say it was called? Sandgem Town? Now it looked like BLUEgem Town! Hop was glad he didn’t say that pathetic pun aloud.

Suddenly, he saw two people in the distance. They were blue. Great… Blue was now Hop’s least favorite color. The two people looked behind them and noticed Hop. That gave Hop a good look at their faces. One obviously resembled Gloria. The hairstyle, the eye shape, and the smile were near-identical to Gloria’s. But the other was more complicated. The creature’s eye sockets contained no eyes and were as black as the void of space. He was also slightly shaking. Hop could tell it was meant to resemble a boy, but what kind of boy has no eyes and was always trembling?

“Oh Hop! Get over here!” Blue Gloria cheerfully called out.

Oh right! The girl was Gloria, so the guy had to be Victor! But… why was his dream depicting him with no eyes? Hop had no answer. Victor hadn’t done anything that seemed blind. At least, Hop didn’t remember Victor doing anything that he thought was blind. And this didn’t have to be Victor. Maybe this was some random kid with Gloria.

“Hop, we’re going to leave without you if you don’t come over here,” Blue Gloria complained, crossing her arms.

Hop tried to start walking, but he found himself stuck in one place. Even when he tried to run, he got nowhere. Blue Gloria and the other blue kid looked on at him. Hop didn’t like this in the slightest. He closed his eyes and quietly asked to wake up from this horrible nightmare. But as he opened his eyes, he found himself in the same position, this time without Blue Gloria and the other kid watching him. But this time, he could move. He decided to go in the direction the two blue people were standing. However, just as he reached their spot, the dream ended. He sat up in the bed. What did this mean? Was this some kind of manifestation of his fear of missing out? Of his fear of not being with his friends? His fear of Gloria not wanting to hang out with him?

Hop glanced over at the clock. It was only 9:45… 9:45! Did he oversleep? He usually got up at seven in the morning! This was far too late. Did Lucas leave without him? Oh, that would be unbearable! He’d be as lost as his brother at… well, anywhere. Hop leaped out of bed to find that he was still wearing his clothes from yesterday. He guessed he was too tired last night to even think about taking them off. But that wasn’t important! He needed to catch up with that Lucas kid before he left!

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Hop ran out of his room, ran down the stairs (although he almost fell multiple times), and ran into the kitchen where Lucas was, eating breakfast.

“You’re still here?” Hop gasped.

“Yeah, I just woke up,” Lucas said, rubbing his left eye.

Hop looked at him, clearly confused. In Galar, most people woke up bright and early to either start their jobs or just play out in the sun. Was Sinnoh full of nonemployed, sleeping weirdos with a deep love for the color blue?

Lucas then added, “I took some time off from my job to show you around, so I might as well enjoy it.”

Oh. Sinnoh might actually just be a place full of overworked, tired people with a never ending love for the color blue. Either way, Hop knew that the citizens of Sinnoh really liked the color of blueberries.

Hop sat down and was served breakfast by an old lady. She sweetly smiled at Hop. “Here you go, sweetie,” she said as she gave a plate with blueberry muffins on it to Hop.

Blueberries. Of course.

“Question,” Hop started.

“Answer,” interrupted Lucas.

“Why do you guys like blue so much?” Hop blurted out, ignoring Lucas’s interruption.

There was silence. The girl at the table, who was probably about ten, whispered, “He doesn’t know about Dialga?” to an old man, probably her grandfather. Hop felt nervous. What if they took that question as an insult and kicked him out? What if it was some decree by the Champion of this region and asking about it would get you killed?

“Our family has always been fascinated with a Pokemon dubbed Dialga,” Lucas stated, “Dialga is a Pokemon who controls space.”

Hop had never heard of a Pokemon that was powerful to control time itself. In Galar, there weren't any Pokemon nearly that strong. Hop then noticed Lucas looking down at a pokeball and smiling. Had Lucas caught that Pokemon? Could a teenager really catch a Pokemon that controlled the flow of time?

“Hop, you can take those muffins to go. I have to meet up with some of my pals,” Lucas said, then assured Hop, “They promised to be your guides, too.”

As Hop walked with Lucas down a route, he felt a little excited, but also slightly skeptical. He thought Leon only paid for one guide. Now there are more of them? Was this a trap? Lucas tried to avoid the tall grass, but eventually a bird-like Pokemon leaped out at the two of them.

“I’ll take care of it,” Lucas replied, “Go, Turtwig!”

The Pokemon, Turtwig, came out of the pokeball. Hop raised one of his eyebrows. It looked like a baby. It was probably too cute to hurt anything.

The flying Pokemon fell to Hop’s feet. It had fainted, and standing next to it was a proud turtwig. Lucas nodded in approval and sent the turtwig back to its pokeball.

“Twiggy isn’t on my main team,” Lucas explained, “But I’m training him for a friend of mine.”

Oh. That explained the small exterior of the little Pokemon. But who would want that little guy? He didn’t seem very strong. Hop glanced at the pokeball containing the turtwig and remembered something.

“Lucas,” Hop queried, “Did you catch that Dialga-thingy you were talking about at your house?”

Lucas looked up. “No, I didn’t,” he sputtered, “and if I did, why should I tell you?”

“Come on,” assured Hop, “You can trust me!”

“Why should I trust you?” Lucas asked.

Hop panicked. “Because… ummmm… I…” he quavered.

Lucas looked past Hop. “Look, it’s Twinleaf Town!” he beamed and ran off into the town. Hop followed him, making sure to stay right behind his guide.

Twinleaf Town was like Sandgem Town but smaller and therefore cuter. The town was luscious and green, containing colorful flowers sprouting from the ground. They were in lovely shades of almost every color imaginable. Including Hop’s favorite color, purple.

“These flowers are wonderful!” Hop exclaimed.

“Yes,” Lucas agreed, “I love the blue ones.”

Hop gave him a brief side eye as he followed his guide on the doorstep of a house. Lucas rang the doorbell twice. There was no immediate answer. Hop heard muffled footsteps behind him.

“BOO!” a blonde boy yelled from behind them.

Hop almost jumped up, but Lucas looked at the boy, unfazed. “Barry, we could hear you a mile away,” Lucas grumbled.

“Well, I scared your little pal, so it wasn’t a total failure!” the boy smiled.

“Oh,” Lucas looked from Hop to the boy. “Hop, this is Barry. Barry, this is Hop. Barry is going to help me guide you, okay?”

“Nice to meet cha!” grinned Barry, holding out his hand for a handshake. Hop shook it.

“Barry, Dawn’s still in town, correct?” Lucas questioned Barry.

“Yes,” Barry affirmed, but then adapted a smug look. “Aw, are you gonna pick some flowers for her? Are you gonna compliment her hair? Are you gonna-”

“That’s enough!” Lucas interrupted. His face was a shade of tomato red.

“Oh, I see,” Barry said, “You’re going to BECOME the flower for her! That shade looks nearly identical to those flowers!”

Lucas adjusted his glasses on his bright red face. “She was the one who told me that she wanted to help! Just like you! It didn’t change because she was a girl!”

Barry looked at Lucas and whispered to Hop, “My good chum Lucas is a little grumpy because he has a crush on our friend Da-”

“NO I DON'T!” Lucas snapped. “JUST BECAUSE I HANG OUT WITH DAWN, AND TALK TO DAWN, AND WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH DAWN AND I REPLY TO HER TEXTS WITH LITTLE HEART EMOJIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I THINK DAWN IS CUTE AND I DON’T HAVE A CRUSH ON HER!”

Hop backed up. From what he’d seen of Lucas, he was pretty level-headed. He guessed that his original assumption may have been disproved. Maybe Lucas was actually a walking, talking red flag.

Barry, rather than back up, smirked. “Ah, well. That’s a bummer. We’ll just go get her without you!” Barry joked.

Lucas looked up and readjusted his glasses again. “I’m going with you guys,” Lucas asserted.

And so the two boys and one tomato-boy walked right next door to Dawn’s house.