I visited the school, where, as expected, I met Bitch. He asked if I came to study as well. Dumbass; I knew what I was doing. I hoped so, anyway. I gave him the Parcel, which turned out to be a town map. There were two, possibly because his mom was as hasty as he was, and he gave me one. He left for Oreburgh, with an arrogant tone about him.

Well, while I was there, I battled with the trainers in the school. The two I faced both used Abra, which I thought would be easy to beat, given that they don't normally learn moves other than Teleport until they evolve. However, both me and my companions were shocked when we were attacked by a move called Hidden Power. It was impressively tough. Both of them were nearly strong enough to defeat us, but we won, and gained a TM10 for our trouble. It contains Hidden Power, and, after seeing how tough it was, I thought that maybe I should teach it to one of my Pokemon.

Then, I looked at the TM, realizing I could only use it once before it would just be a blank, useless disk. I decided against it. My Pokemon may have had trouble with the move, but they overcame it with their own power. TMs, to me at least, seemed a little unnatural.

As I pondered this outside the school, a man approached me, calling me an inferior being for not having a Poketch, or Pokemon Watch. They are a neat commodity, but I always thought they were a bit expensive. However, he said that I could get one for free! All I had to do was talk some vouchers out of three clowns.

...

I had to weigh my options at first, but eventually decided the risk of speaking to some fat, face-painted freaks was worth the payoff. When I found them, which took a short while, they asked me inane questions. I swear, do I look like that much of a newbie?

When it was all said and done with, I was the proud owner of a new Poketch. It's a neat device: it has a calculator, counter, a screen displaying my Pokemon's health, and it even tells time!

I stopped by the Mart and refilled my supplies, buying a neat new Ball that they had on sale. A Heal Ball, which instantly recovers a Pokemon after I capture it. It seemed like a bit of a waste, seeing as how I could just take ten minutes to make the trip back to the Pokemon Center, but the novelty was fun, and it was pink, so I thought it would make a neat ball for a female or a cute Pokemon.

Even my dad had a 'pet' Pokemon; a Zigzagoon named Ziggy. Sure, it knew a move normally restricted to the Arcanine species, but Extremespeed was just that much cuter when something like Ziggy creates a sonic boom. It was like Red's Pikachu and that dangerous Thunderbolt. I figure that, when all of my Pokemon WEREN'T cute and cuddly, I'd still have to keep one small and female friendly. It might as well know how to fight!

I met Tyson as I was leaving Jubilife to try my new ball out. We had a battle, and I finally got the chance to knock the smugness out of him. It felt great. It really did. His Starly and Turtwig were strong, sure, but my Piplup was still sour from the insult back at the lake, and he unleashed that feathery fury on his two Pokemon all by his lonesome. Sarah was very impressed. So much so, in fact, that her fur started sparking. The little furball put on quite a show. Apparently, she learned Charge, and, fighting more Shinx along the way, I noticed her use it at every opportunity, even though it did her little strategic good. I suppose that a Shinx that was a high enough level to use that move was fairly rare in these parts.

However, as we battled our way through the trainers and the Pokemon, I noticed her growing increasingly frustrated. She would charge, then run in to attack Pokemon weak to electricity. Of course, she has no electric attacks, so her tackles do just as expected. My Piplup sensed it to and tried to cheer her up, but she continued to stare off into space. I am writing this entry in the morning, because last night I had a miserable Shinx curled up in a fuzzy ball beside me. She still hasn't warmed up to me that much, but she didn't mind me petting her and giving her little reassuring phrases. I didn't know if she could understand me, but she seems a lot more eager to fight today, and, while I write, I see my Piplup using his own method to cheer her up.

He was using Water Sport, a move I didn't realize he learned. Of course, I had no reason to use it, seeing as how it only reduces the efficiency of fire attacks, but he was creating a Piplup fountain out of himself. Sarah is jumping back and forth over him through the water, getting her fur wet and eliciting little sounds of delight.

We have a cave to get through, but at least I'll be going in with two happy companions by my side.