“That’s it for today”, says Instructor Knight, to be honest her class was kind of overwhelming, because yes, a lot of us think of becoming pokemon trainers for the competitions, as she said, the sport side of battling.

At least for me, her words resonated deep within my mind, when I thought about my missing father, I ask myself, what is he doing? It must be important if it has taken him five years, some might think he is dead, but I know there is a reason my mother doesn’t believe that.

“Oh… I almost forgot, there is something I need to tell you before letting you go for the day”, Instructor Knight takes out her pokedex, fiddling with it for a couple of seconds, “and done, you must have received a list of pokemon to choose from, congratulations you are going to receive your starter soon”.

The world seems to be in pause for a second, as all hundred of us take a moment to process her words, then someone brings out his pokedex and the spell is broken, we all start looking for the list and our choices.

Intructor Knight claps loudly, forcing all of us to stare at her, “No need to be hasty with your decision, I know most of you already have a pokemon to call your own, as most kids receive a playmate for their tenth birthday”, hearing her words, I begin thinking of Teddy, I miss the little guy, “some of you might not understand the reason for banning your companions during first semester courses”, I did wonder about that, Teddy has been by my side for years and it feels weird not having him here.

“Let me explain, first semester is all about the basics and letting students bring their pokemon makes it hard to create a fair playing field for every student, after all, some parents are too eager to begin training their kids or gift them rare species for some additional advantage, which isn’t wrong, but here at the Academy we need to evaluate your abilities without being influenced by outside factors”.

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I sort of understand, at least I wasn’t trained by my mother, Teddy and me just played around the village with the other kids. The poor guy hasn’t even been on a battle yet, I can’t imagine him facing someone with a more experienced pokemon and not feeling it was unfair.

“But don’t worry, next semester you will be allowed to use your partners, and for now you can use them during weekends as your teacher Mr. Jordan is going to explain in his battling class”.

YEAH, I scream internally, I thought I wasn’t going to see Teddy in a while.

“For now, take a look at the pokemon on the list, they are regional starters provided by the Pokemon League, the same choices every trainer in the world gets when starting out”.

“You have until before midnight today to make your choice, on Wednesday you will receive an egg of the pokemon of your choosing during Pokemon Care class”.

I take a look at the list, the pokemon are divided in sets of three according to their region, beginning with Kanto’s renowned trio: Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. Every set of starters is there, but I look no further than Johto’s, my dad owns a Feraligatr and there is no way I will choose anything other than Totodile, so I tap on the screen of my pokedex and confirm my choice.

“And let me remind you, some students have already been assigned their starters because they will be receiving the offspring of their parents’s pokemon, so still a small advantage for some but not enough to make a difference”.

I peek at my fellow legacies, they are not going through their pokedex because they already know the pokemon they are going to receive. Clearly my mother forgot to talk about it, she does have her Meganium, maybe she knew I was going to choose Totodile, and dad is not here… I understand now.

“Students, I hope you found my class inspiring and we will be seeing each other again on Friday”, as people begin to pack their things, Instructor Knight looks directly at me and smiles, scaring the shit out of me, “Mr. Santos, before I forget, you get an extra point for your very inspiring answer to my question”, she looks at around the round and begins clapping, “come on everyone, let’s congratulate Young Santos here for making first place in the ranking”.

Some clap along, most look at me with fierce intensity, specially a certain redhead who stares directly at me, if looks could kill.