Emerald was and always will be my favourite Pokemon game.

One time, when I was in high school, I just happened to be grounded. I had a Gameboy Advance SP that my mom didn't know about, and was playing Emerald while I was out of the house. I never played while I was home, unless it was late at night, because I was afraid that my mom could come into my room at any time and see me playing it.

Unfortunately, I lost the game at school one day. I had a job at that point and had $20 left from my last paycheck. So, I waited until 3am to make damned sure that my mom was asleep, and removed the screen from my window, the only one in my room that didn't squeak. I slowly opened it, and crawled through. This was a lot more difficult than it sounds. My windows, four of them, we those ones that you have to turn that lever to open them, and there were two panes in each window that would open only so far. The widest this window would open was about 50 degrees or so and left me maybe 15 inches to squeeze through, if that.

So, after about ten minutes, I sat on the ground, breathing heavily, but as quietly as I could. I slowly stood up and made sure that there was still enough room to crawl back through the window before making my way to the road.

Once I was on the road, I had no problems getting to the 24 hour Walmart that was about 2 or 3 miles from my house. I walked into the store and made a beeline right to the electronics department.

There was one copy left.

I squealed with glee as I ran to fetch the electronics department employee to unlock the case for me. I made my purchase and walked home, positively giggling with anticipation and giddy excitement. I had never tried to sneak out before. What if they found out? The dread anticipation mixed with excitement made me shiver a bit, though the chill, pre-dawn air didn't help.

I crawled in through my window and, as quietly as I could, turned the handle to close it, forgetting that, while it didn't squeak turning it one way, it practically wailed when going the other way. I froze in horror and reached for my water bottle. I knew it was a long shot, but I poured a little bit onto the base of the lever and wiggled it a bit to allow the moisture to work its way into the gears.

I slowly turned the handle.

Success! The handle moved silently! I closed the window as quickly as I could and placed the screen back into the frame, barely giving myself time to finish that before I opened the box and pulled my SP out of my bag. I jumped into bed, preparing to play the game, and listened as my mom opened her door and headed into the kitchen to make her coffee before she went to work.

I made it. The game was mine and no one was ever the wiser.