Heart of Gold

We returned to New Bark Town as fast as we could. The police were already there interviewing Professor Elm. Someone had stolen one of his pokemon.

"I think we know who did it," Luca said.

We gave the police our testimony of bumping into the red-haired boy outside of Cherrygrove City. He had allegedly broke down the back door of the lab and made off with Professor Elm's cyndaquil. Professor Elm couldn't function when we told him that we'd nearly had the pokemon egg stolen as well. He was already a nervous man, and when he started his pace around the room, fixing up already tidy stacks of paper, arranging already organized pens and pencils, it hit me that what had happened was serious. It felt like a storybook, like it happened to someone else instead of us.

After our interview, the police left and we gave the egg to Professor Elm. "You two are okay?" Professor Elm asked for the fiftieth time. "Shall I send an aide to walk you two home?"

"It's okay, we're fine," we kept telling him. Luca told him we handled the situation as best as we could. I wondered if he was trying to cover up that I almost went on a full-on assault on the Vincent guy.

Luca and I walked to our homes together, his just a house away, and we stopped at the fork in the road between them. "Astrid, do you still want to go on your pokemon journey?" Luca asked.

The way he asked that made me hesitate. "Of course I do," I said.

"You know, there's going to be more people out there," he said. Luca swept a hand through his black hair, his brow furrowed. The sun's descent made everything golden. In the suburbs, bug pokemon chirped. "Johto's a pretty safe place overall, but there's still criminals like that. I just..."

"I know, Luca." I reached up and ruffled his hair. "But don't you plan on coming with me? We'll be okay together. It'll be like a really long camping trip."

That cracked a smile onto his face. "You're right. Go tell your parents you're ready and I'll meet you outside your door at 10 o' clock sharp tomorrow."

We did our secret handshake, a fistbump, snap, clap, and then handshake with the opposite hands, and with that, we parted ways.

---

Luca didn't show up at 10.

My mom cried when I told her my final decision. She and Dad helped me pack all the things I might need, got into an argument on the backpack being too heavy or light, compromised after pancakes and coffee, got into another fight about how many times I was going to call them, agreed on once a week, hugged me five times for each of them, and then released me.

"You take good care of Ulric," Mom told me.

"I will," I said.

"You take good care of Astrid," Dad told Ulric.

The chikorita bleated in response.

I waited outside for Luca for fifteen minutes and tried to avoid my house's windows in case my parents might've been watching me go. I called him twice, gave up when he didn't answer, and headed to his house and knocked on his door. His dad opened it.

Luca's father was already drunk, or at least just started drinking. His white tanktop was soiled with sweat around the armpits and had pizza stains on the front. The odor of vodka permeated me even as I stood a distance away. "Excuse me," I said. I felt like I'd swallowed gasoline. "Is Luca home?"

"No, he's not," Luca's father said, and shut the door.

I milled around another fifteen minutes before leaving for good.

I felt like puking and I knew there was no use in trying to find Luca, so I started down the grassy path to Cherrygrove City with one hand on my pokegear. I'd try calling him again once I got to Cherrygrove. For now, I'd wait for him to call me back, and if he did, I'd sprint back to New Bark Town if I had to. Ulric trotted by my side and bleated a couple of different noises. "What is it, Ulric?" I asked.

He bleated again. "Are you worried about Luca and Buddy?"

The chikorita nodded, a strangely humanoid gesture. I dropped my voice to a whisper. "Me too."

Cherrygrove City opened up to me with the smell of cherry blossoms. Waiting for Luca, I headed to the Pokemon Center and taught Ulric some basic commands, such as assuming defense and offensive position, using the move tackle and growl, and some dodging techniques. Ulric was a fast learner, but he bored easily. It was probably because he was a young pokemon. I had a worse time teaching some pidgey back at the lab, who tended to scratch when annoyed.

Something black zipped out the back of the Pokemon Center and into the training area. It bowled Ulric over and the chikorita scrambled to all fours and growled. "Ulric, you okay?" I asked. The back doors of the Pokemon Center slid open and a couple girls ran out. I recognized them. "It's old four-eyes!" one said.

I stiffened at the jeer. It was one brought up from middle school when I got my first pair of glasses. It was childish, but it was set up for something worse. The three girls circled me, Namie, Minori, and Emily, students that attended the same school as me for twelve years. "Nice pokemon," Minori said. "Where'd you get it, the trash?"

Ulric bristled and barked. "It's funny seeing you here," Namie said. "I thought you'd be stuck in New Bark Town. Not, you know, go out or something."

"Ulric, come here," I said under my breath. Ulric bounded to me and I scooped him into my arms. As I did in years before, I retreated into silence, a hard shell covering me so I could escape. Emily was smoking a cigarette, which I was sure was the reason they had to come outside.

"You see a little dog pokemon?" Emily blew smoke in my face. "It ran right out here. I think it's a stray."

"She can't see anything even with her glasses," Minori said.

I tried to walk away but Namie kicked my ankles. I jerked my head down so I couldn't see them. I willed the rage and indignation to rise in me like it had with Vincent, but it didn't. It was shoved into the core of me and sealed. "Where are you going?" Namie asked. "You have a date?"

I saw a pair of eyes under the bushes far away. "She can't get a date," Minori said. "Not with that hair."

"Or that face." Emily jabbed her burning cigarette into my arm. I squeaked and jumped, which made the girls laugh. Ulric growled. It was as if he was saying, Let me attack them, Astrid!

"Leave me alone," I whispered.

I shouldn't have said anything; I should've known from trying to backtalk them from years earlier. One of the girls cackled like a murkrow and shoved me. She hit me so hard I landed on my back in the dirt. Ulric wrestled his way out of my arms and barked, his vines extended. "Oh, your little pokemon is going to stick up for you now," Namie said.

A low growl grated from the bushes and startled the girls. Winded from the fall, I sat up to see a black, canine-like pokemon emerge from the branches of the plant. It was as black as coal, fur filled with burs and twigs, and had a bone armor over its head, back, and ankles. The bone on its head was cracked. It let out a sharp bark and flames flecked at its jaws.

"Ugh!" Minori said. "A dark-type!"

"It's not even cute," Emily said. "What a bummer."

"Knock it off!" a voice said.

I whipped my head around to see Luca standing meters away from us, his face so cold it could've frozen the vicinity. My heart jumped into my throat. Emily threw her cigarette at the ground and crushed it with her foot. "We were just talking," Minori said. "You know, catching up and stuff."

"I don't want any trouble," Luca said. His voice was so low and husky it scared even me. "You'd better leave."

"This is a public space," Minori said. "We can stay here as long as we want."

"Tell that to the police when I report you," Luca said. "Or, you know, I could get security from the Pokemon Center. Take your pick."

The girls weighed their options. Since they were adults now, they would have much worse consequences than they did when we were teenagers. Luca took a threatening step forward. "Alright, alright!" Namie raised her hands in defense. "We'll leave, big guy. No problems here. Take your nerdy friend and go."

The girls backed into the Pokemon Center like a pack of growlithe with their tails between their legs. After a moment of watching to make sure they were gone, Luca ran to my side and helped me up. "You okay, Astrid?" he asked.

"What are you doing here?" I said, breathless.

Luca checked me over and winced at the burn on my arm. I tucked it to my side, ashamed. "I crawled out the tree by my window," he said. "Dad wouldn't let me go, so I went anyway. I figured you'd wait for me here."

"Thank you for coming," I whispered.

Ulric bleated at the dark pokemon that had crawled out of the bush. The pokemon made whimpery growling noises back. Ulric looked back at me, burbled, and motioned with his vine to come closer. The dark pokemon locked eyes with me after and shivered.

I lowered myself to a crouch so I wouldn't scare it and approached. Luca stood back and watched. "Hey little one, thanks for standing up to those bullies," I said.

"Did you find it?" Luca asked. "It looks malnourished. Maybe we should take it inside."

Ulric waved his vines at the Pokemon Center. "Come on, puppy," I told the pokemon. "I won't hurt you. Let's get you fixed up."