“I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned...” -Savage Garden, Affirmation

It was over.

All those years of training, traveling, battles, wins, and losses, it was over. I felt like crying, but I couldn’t, not in front of thousands of people, I had too much pride to do that.

Fumbling for a pokéball at my belt, I held the red and white orb out in front of me.

“Arcanine return . . .”

A red beam of light shoots out from the pokéball, and my fallen comrade of a pokémon was sucked in.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds as a gust of wind blew through my hair, blowing a few strands into my eyes. Staring down at my arcanine’s pokéball, I hooked it back onto my belt. Arcanine, my last hope of winning the match, had been defeated by a pikachu.

As I stared up in front of me once again, I saw my opponent being hugged and congratulated by his friends and mother. My grandfather even came and shook his hand in congratulations.

“It’s over! Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town is the new Pokémon League Master! ,” I heard the commentator call out as loud cheers were heard from the crowd.

It had to be him didn’t it. I had to lose to Ash Ketchum. My rival. After all those insults I had given him, after I made him feel like a loser compared to me, when all along I was the loser. This battle proved it. I felt totally humiliated.

‘Stop it,’ I thought harshly to myself. ‘Stop pitying yourself. You’ve done enough of that already.’ Shaking my head, clearing away all my thoughts, I walked over to Ash.

The new pokémon league master looked up at me as I approached, his face suddenly becoming serious, his happy grin wiped away.

“Good fight Ash. You’re a great trainer, you deserved to win,” I said quite fast, as I grabbed his hand and shook it, forcing a smile on to my grim face.

Ash stared at me in shock, like I had gone insane. He probably expected me to insult him.

Before he could answer back to my remark, I turned around and walked out of the stadium, I wanted to get away.

My thoughts raced through my head as I exited the indigo stadium and slumped down against an empty wall. I had no idea what I was going to do now. I couldn’t go back ... I couldn’t go back home. Not after I had lost. I’d never hear the end of it from my parents. They’d likely complain about how much money they had spent on me to go traveling around on a useless adventure that ended up getting me nowhere. How I could have stayed in school and worked on my studies like a good child should, instead of going around chasing a stupid childish dream. I didn’t want to stand the humiliation that they would direct toward me like they had when I was younger.

Tears had started to form in my eyes. I wiped them away with the back of my hand.

I couldn’t go on another pokémon journey and try again. My parents had specifically told me that if I lost at the pokémon league this time that they wouldn’t give me the money to travel again, even though they could afford it. They just wanted to destroy my dreams . . . they never did like me very much. Though, it’s not like it mattered anymore . . . it’s not like I wanted to go on another journey. Even if my mother and father had thrown millions of dollars at me and said “Go son, go on another pokémon journey, go on ten if you like! ,” I still wouldn’t have wanted to go. My rival had beat me. No matter how hard I trained or how many pokémon I caught, I would always know, deep inside me, that I would never be the best. It just wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t meant to become a pokémon master. It wasn’t my destiny.

It was Ash’s.

The tears came down faster, running down my checks and onto the floor. I didn’t bother wiping them away this time.

My pokémon training was finished.

It was over.

******

~Sonya

Part One