“Tommy, slow down! You run too fast!”

Tommy. Man, he hated when people called him that. His mother had been calling him Tommy for as long as he could remember, but he was 15 now; he was almost a man! Of course Tori had been calling him that ever since she could speak. No matter how much he begged her to call him Thomas she refused. She knew calling him Tommy annoyed him and she loved to get under his skin, it drove him crazy.

He supposed that’s what little sisters were for though.

“Tommy, seriously!” his little sister whined. “Wait for me! Mom said that you aren’t supposed to leave me behind!”

“Alright, alright,” Thomas said. He stopped running and waited so that Tori could catch up with him. He hadn’t been running that fast anyway, just fast enough so that Tori would have to run to keep up with him. He had gotten better at running ever since his professors had forced him to start exercising at school. They said that physical fitness was an important aspect of being a trainer. Thomas reluctantly agreed; best to be in shape when traveling on your journey.

“You just turned 12 sis! Don’t be such a baby,” he teased her. “School is starting on Monday, and everyone is going to make fun of you.

“I’m not a baby,” she stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t make me tell Mom when we get back home that you were mean to me and tried to leave me behind.”

He rolled his eyes at her but couldn’t hide his grin; even though she annoyed him to no end he had to admit she was a cute little kid. She narrowed her green eyes, the same color as his, and stuck her tongue out at him again.

“Fine, you win,” he sighed, tousling her wavy brown hair. “I’ll make it up to you when we get to town, as long as you don’t tell Mom I was teasing you.”

Mom always took Tori’s side.

“What do you want?” He asked her.

“I want to go to the Mart and look around at the dolls,” she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him along faster now. “I saw in a commercial that they just released some of the new Shiny Lotads, so I want to go get one before they’re all gone! Lotad will look so cute on my bed next to my other Pokédolls!”

“More Pokédolls? You already have more than you can fit onto your bed! How do you even sleep in that mountain of plush?”

Well, they were going to the Mart anyway so he figured he could get her a doll if she wanted one…

He realized this must have been her plan all along. Tori must have overheard Mom asking him to go into town this morning to get some supplies for the week. She must have figured if she tagged along she could get herself another toy. He broke into a smile again; she really knew how to play everyone, didn’t she.

“Hey Tommy…?” He heard her say.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think that I’ll make friends at school on Monday? What if no one likes me since we live on a ranch and not in the city? What if everyone there is smarter than me?”

Thomas thought back to his first day of school 3 years ago. He’d been too nervous to sleep the night before. His mother and father were ranchers so he and Tori had grown up on a ranch outside of the city, helping them raise Pokémon. Their family raised Miltank and Gogoat that produced milk for Goldenrod City, as well as a handful of other Pokémon like Mudbray and Ponyta that they sold as work Pokémon to other farms and ranches around Johto. Thomas’ dad even had a Mudsdale that he rode around all over their ranch.

His parents had taught him a lot about Pokémon growing up, but it did nothing to calm those nerves on his first day. How much did his classmates know that he didn’t? Would he be able to make any friends? What was it like to live in Goldenrod City?

His mom dropped him off that morning and he was absolutely terrified. But, as it turned out, that first day of school was an incredible day. All of the other kids had been nice to him, and he had made friends pretty quickly. He also found out that he had quite a bit more knowledge about Pokémon than his classmates did; at least in the beginning. Being raised out on the ranch had given him a lot of practical experience handling Pokémon, though they were mainly the ones that were known to be more docile.

“You’ll do great,” Thomas said. “I was pretty nervous too on my first day, but everyone ended up being really nice. And, since we live on the ranch, you’ll also have quite a bit more experience handling Pokémon than most of the city kids do. Some of the things I ended up learning in school Mom and Dad had already taught me. You have been paying attention to their lessons, haven’t you?”

“Well…” Tori looked at the ground and started kicking a pebble down the road.

He chuckled at her unusual bashfulness. “Give yourself some credit, I know you’ve learned a lot. Mom and Dad told me how proud of you they are. They said that you’ve been doing a great job with your studies.”

“Really?” She asked him. She narrowed her eyes at him, “You’re not teasing me again, are you?”

Thomas laughed at her. “No I’m not teasing, I promise. They really said that you’ve been doing a great job. Besides, if you ask them half as many questions as you ask me, then you’ll probably know more than everyone else in your class combined!”

“Yeah, but you always get mad at me when I ask too many questions and tell me that I’m annoying,” she whined.

“You are annoying,” Tommy told her, sticking his tongue out at her this time. “But you’re my little sister, so unfortunately I’m stuck with you no matter how annoying I think you are.

“Hey! You’re being mean again!”

He grabbed her and put her up on his shoulders as he continued to walk down the road. Man she was starting to get heavy. I won’t be able to do this for much longer, Thomas thought. At least it was still pretty early in the morning, so it wasn’t too hot outside yet. It was about an hour’s walk to Goldenrod as their ranch was located just south of the city. Their family owned a small silver pick-up truck that would have allowed them to drive into the city within minutes, but unfortunately, Thomas couldn’t drive yet. So they were left with simply trodding along the dirt path to get to the city. It was a pretty hike travelling along the plains and rolling hills, but there wasn’t much in the way of shade which was why they had left so early.

“What else do you want to know about school, sis?” Thomas asked her.

“What did you learn so far in school? What do they teach you in your first year?” she asked with sparkling eyes.

“Well the first year was pretty easy,” he said. “We started out with really basic stuff like common types of Pokémon found in the area, status conditions, type advantages and disadvantages. Some of what I ended up learning the first year Mom and Dad had already taught me in their lessons.”

“That sounds boring!” Tori said. “I already know all about that stuff! I want to learn something new!”

“Hey now, it won’t be only stuff that you already know. You’ll learn some new stuff too,” he told her. “Besides, weren’t you just saying how nervous you were about your first day and asking me what would happen if you didn’t know anything?”

“But now you’re saying that I’ll already know everything!” she said. ”What’s the point of going to school if I’m not going to learn new things?”

“I said you’ll know a lot but of course there’s going to be stuff that you don’t know about yet. For example, did you know that they just recently discovered that there’s a new type of Pokémon? They’re calling them Fairy type Pokémon.”

She almost broke his neck, she grabbed his head and twisted it so quickly.

“Fairy Pokémon?” Tori whispered. “They sound so pretty!”

“You’re choking me kid!” He managed to wheeze out. She let go but started squirming on his shoulders like crazy. “Settle down or I’m going to drop you!”

“Hey, if your first year was so great and you have so many friends, then how come I’ve never seen any of them?” She asked.

He tickled her sides. “Hey, I’ve got plenty of friends! There’s Jonathan and Aubrey, and you remember Darius, right? He came out to the ranch one time to visit.”

“No, not really,” she frowned.

He sighed, “I’ll admit that it can be a little difficult to make friends at first since we don't live in the city like everyone else. Plus, with all of the chores there isn’t much free time in the day to do things.”

“Ugh, chores,” Tori griped. “Chores are the worst!”

Indeed, chores were the worst! It seemed like there were always chores to be done around the ranch. Whether it be milking the Miltanks and Gogoats, sweeping out the Mudbray stables, or any of the other ten thousand daily chores it felt like he had to do, it seemed that there was always work to be done on their ranch.

“At least you get to help Mom with the easy chores like doing stuff around the house and taking care of Ponyta,” Thomas said. “I’m the one who has to milk the Miltanks and the Gogoats at 5 o’clock every morning.”

“Helping Mom wash your smelly underwear isn’t easy Tommy,” she commented while holding her nose.

He laughed, “Fair enough. You might have it worse than me!”

“What did you learn about in your second year and your third year?” She asked him.

“Well in the first part of our second year we spent the majority of our time learning about our own bodies and our health,” he told her. “We learned how to camp and use basic survival skills like starting a fire and boiling water. You know, things you’ll need if you decide to go out on the road and become a Pokémon trainer. You also learn about how to exercise properly and how to cook nutritious meals so that your body will grow properly and stay healthy as you get older.”

“The other part of the second year was spent learning about health and nutrition for our Pokémon,” he said. “How to train and raise them properly and how to care for their health and nutrition. Again, some of that stuff you might already know since you’ve been working with Ponyta since she was a foal. We do learn about other types of common Pokémon and how to take care of them though.”

Tori’s legs kicked his sides as they continued down the road.

“Our third year was split between weapon handling and spending time camping in places around Goldenrod. We learned how to notice and avoid wild Pokémon in the wilderness and how to escape if we ever encountered any Pokémon that wanted to fight us. The professors also taught us how to use a weapon if we ever needed to defend ourselves.”

He ran his hands along the hilt of the small knife that was belted to his waist. He silently prayed to the Mother that he would never find himself squaring off against something like an Arcanine with nothing but a knife to defend himself with.

Silence passed between them for a few minutes. It was starting to heat up outside now, and Thomas was starting to sweat from walking in the sun with his sister on his back.

“Hey, Tommy?” Tori asked.

“Yeah?”

“This is your last year of school, isn’t it?” She sounded sad; she must have been looking forward to finally being able to go to school with him.

“Yeah, it’s my last year,” he said to her.

“What are you going to learn in your last year?” She asked, her words barely more than a whisper.

They finally came across a big rock underneath some trees on the side of the road. He set Tori down on the rock and sat next her; it felt good to take a break in the shade. He took a big drink from the water bottle that had been clipped to his belt loops and then passed it over to his little sister.

“We learn how to battle; how to battle other trainers and how to battle wild Pokémon,” he said to her.

“That sounds scary,” she said. “Why do they make everyone learn how to battle if not everyone is going to be a trainer? Aren’t you just going to stay at the ranch with us and help out Mom and Dad once you graduate?”

He avoided her eyes as he tried to think of how he could best answer her questions without getting into too much trouble.

“Tommy?”

“Of course I’m going to be helping out on the ranch,” he said, unable to meet her eyes. “Mom and Dad are going to need all the help they can get, especially as they get older. You know how Dad is always grumbling about his back when he thinks no one can hear him.”

“Good,” she said. “I would be really sad if you decided you wanted to be a trainer since that would mean you would have to leave. Besides, we both know Mom would never let you. She’s always talking about how dangerous wild Pokémon are and I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you…”

He smiled down at her. “Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen to me. They’re only teaching us how to battle so that we can be prepared to help defend the city. You know, in case anything crazy like a Rampage ever happens.”

Her eyes grew wide. “What’s a Rampage? That sounds really scary.”

“Oh yeah, uh, you’ll learn about those in school,” he should have kept his mouth shut. “Nothing to worry over though, there hasn’t been one in years. Plus they really only happen out in the smaller towns that are far from civilization. There hasn’t been one in the city for who knows how long.”

He looked around at the fields, the grass, and the rolling hills. Such beautiful country, he thought to himself. I can sort of imagine why some Pokémon go crazy and start rampaging.

Just over the hill in front of them was Goldenrod City and it had been growing bigger and bigger every year, threatening the habitats of wild Pokémon and encroaching on their lands. He wondered how long until the city developed all the land around their ranch.

Their ranch was situated just south of Goldenrod City and further to the south of their ranch was a massive forest called the Ilex Forest. The trainers that were able to navigate north through the forest would sometimes stop at their family ranch if it was really late or they were too tired to walk the last couple miles to Goldenrod City. Some of the trainers had told some terrifying stories; fighting through swarms of hostile bug Pokémon or getting lost in the forest for days at a time after having set out from Azalea Town.

Not all of the stories were bad though,some were actually pretty nice. Some trainers would tell stories of wild Pokémon actually protecting them and some said that they had a sense of peace and tranquility as they passed through the forest. There was even mention of a shrine in the heart of the forest next to a crystal-clear lake. The few trainers who stumbled upon this shrine were always in trouble and, once reaching the shrine, any Pokémon chasing them would leave them alone. The trainers always said to offer gratitude when you left the shrine in the morning because legend said that you would make it through the forest by the end of the day if you did.

Thomas always wanted to try to go into the forest and see if he could find the shrine, but the forest was a few days' hike from their ranch and his parents had forbidden him from ever going in there anyway. They said the forest was old and should be left to itself.

Whatever that meant; he thought, shaking his head.

It was going to be a beautiful day so hopefully going into Goldenrod didn’t take too long. He would love to get back to the ranch and maybe fish or take a nap outside under a tree before the day was over. He supposed he was in no rush though, if he couldn’t do those things today then he could do them tomorrow.

School started in just two days and Thomas had to admit that he was excited to finally start battling, even if there was a small part of him that was nervous. They had run some simulations of Pokémon battles in school last year, but all the professors said it was different when you were in the ring. He could hardly imagine the feeling of standing on the pitch; the roar of the crowd around you, all eyes in the stadium watching your back.

He had always thought that he would take over the ranch when he graduated, but over the summer some doubts started to work their way into his head. He had convinced his parents to buy him a league pass so that he could watch trainer battles while he was on break, to pick up some tips and tricks. He quickly fell in love with watching them. There were battles televised from all over the world, battles from Kanto and Johto, but also battles from faraway places like Sinnoh, Galar, and Unova. He wondered how far away those places were and if he would ever get to travel there. Maybe someday he would get to go visit them if he ever got to be a trainer.

There was a certain allure to being a trainer, challenging the gym circuit and battling with the best for pride and glory. Who knows, maybe someday he could even be the champion?

He smiled and chuckled under his breath. He was getting ahead of himself now, wasn’t he? He hadn’t ever once talked with his parents about being a trainer.

Let’s see how the school year goes, take it one step at a time, Thomas thought.

“Come on sis, let’s go!” Thomas said. “We’ve wasted enough time; Goldenrod is just over this hill!”

He jumped up from the rock and took off running up the hill. He looked over his shoulder and saw Tori fall on her face. He chuckled as she stood and scrambled to try and keep up with him, screeching like a Zubat.

“TOMMY, SLOW DOWN! YOU RUN TOO FAST!”