What I learned on the trip was interesting. It also placed where I was in this world’s timeline… way beyond anything I’d experienced from the games.

Well, that would make this more interesting, since there was no guide to fall back on like if this occurred during one of the game’s time periods. No knowledge cheats for me. Boo hoo.

The trip was mostly uneventful. We’d been put on a bus with one guardian and sent over to Cherrygrove City since they had an airport there, unlike the town we’d been in. There was one issue, but it was solved by just being patient. A swarm of bug pokémon delayed traffic as we approached Cherry Woods. No clue what species, but it took an hour before traffic got moving again.

Delays like that had been factored into the travel plans. The flight we had tickets for didn’t depart till noon the next day so there was no worries about having to reschedule.

After arriving in the city, we had dinner, then were taken to our hotel. There was a pool. Indoor and heated. It was great. It also tired out my travel companions, so our rooms were quiet earlier than I expected with them falling asleep. I stayed up reading.

Since the orphanage was shutting down, I’d asked if I could take some of the books that people had donated over the years. I may have taken a few (dozen) times the number they thought I’d taken. I’d filled the entirety of my suitcase with stuff. Necessities first, then books. The rest went into my inventory. I’d liked to have been able to read stuff online, but I didn’t have any electronics… other than the ones I had used to collect video evidence that I hadn’t returned. Hehe.

Following my lead, others had asked to take stuff as well, so most of the toys, books, and treasures of the orphanage would be making their way to other ones. A few arguments over certain items were resolved by neither party getting the stuff, instead going to someone who hadn’t been involved who’d also wanted the item but didn’t speak up.

Of course most of the stuff was unable to be taken, so after everyone took what they’d wanted and could carry, I may have taken some more stuff, most of which I’d slowly add to my new place. I wasn’t interested in most of it.

With my personality though, no books were left behind.

The next morning we were allowed to sleep in, since we had quite a while till our flight left. We did show up to the airport early since going through security with five kids was a pain.

The flight was rather boring. Most of the terrain between Cherrygrove and Pallet Town was ocean, though we could see mountains and islands on the horizons, so there wasn’t much to look out. It was also too short for an in-flight movie, being less than two hours long.

Setting down at Pallet International Airport, we got to look around a bit as a light rail system carried us from there to downtown Pallet. The orphanage wasn’t right in the downtown area, but it wasn’t far off. It was close enough to reach by walking, though doing so while pulling luggage was a bit of a pain.

Oh, not for me. I might look like I was struggling, not that anyone offered me help, having their own to manage, but I was actually using TK to lift nearly all of the weight, leaving just enough so it rolled along the ground. It weighed maybe two or three pounds to me, though actual weight was really muk’n heavy. Paper can weigh quite a lot.

It took us about twenty minutes from getting off the rail to reach our destination.

The Samuel Oak Orphanage.

Huh. Well, if the Professor got that famous, especially for helping save the world, there’s no doubt he’d have plenty of funds to throw at things. Or it could have been named after him in honor of his achievements. Whichever.

The place was pretty nice. It looked like it’d been here a while, but had been well maintained. It was a three story building, but even though it was near the heart of the city it had a looping driveway with a lawn and other plants bordering it. There was a fence around the property, but the gate stood open and didn’t seem to have been moved in a while. The place looked more like a mansion than anything else.

We walked up the driveway, and I could see a lot of care went into the landscaping, though there was a thin layer of snow since it was winter still. I hoped it was someone’s hobby to garden, because while I could and had managed plants, it was never something I cared for.

The driveway split towards the top with one path leading around the corner of the house. It likely led to a garage, but we were led to the front door where our guardian summoned the swarm.

When he pressed the doorbell, the place got LOUD. I could hear a bunch of kids shouting, followed by a stampede of footsteps in our direction.

“They’re here!”

“I wonder what they’re like?”

“I hope there’s one younger than me.”

These and other comments were ones I heard as they came to the door or to look at us through the windows. An older female voice told them to settle down as the door was unlocked and then opened.

Standing in the doorway was a middle-aged woman with crimson hair and an enormous smile on her face.

“Welcome to our home, please come in. I’m Amanda. You must be Mr. Nelson. Thank you for bringing them here. Lets get you warmed up a bit while we talk.”

We’d entered the building. As I’d assumed from the outside, it didn’t look like a normal building. The foyer was large. There was a chandelier hanging in the middle of it, with staircases on either side leading up to the second floor. The foyer, stairs, and balcony up on the second floor were filled with children. The youngest looked six or seven, while the oldest was probably in his mid-teens. There were around twenty that I could see, though that didn’t mean this is all there was.

Doorways led off to a sitting room on one side and an office on the other, while straight ahead was a large room that had toys scattered all over. If that was a ballroom in the past, it’s the playroom now.

The children were shooed away, except a couple of the older ones, then we were led to the sitting room. As we took our seats, we were served some hot cocoa. They had a handy device like a water cooler that kept liquids warm and stirred it up with a press of a button.

Once we were all sipping our drinks, we gave our introductions, though it seemed she already knew them. I’m sure they were sent our files, though I still wondered just how much information mine contained.

The pair of teenagers were also introduced to us, since they were going to help us get settled in and be someone to ask questions of. The boy was Robert, and the girl was Emily.

Then came the lecture. Rules and responsibilities.

I’d expected this, and for the most part it didn’t vary from the official rules of the last place. Where it did, it seemed more lenient, so hopefully that meant I’d have a little more free time. There wasn’t too much of it previously, and most of that was used for homework, school assigned or me playing catch up.

There were chore rotations that’d get posted, and even ways to contribute to earn a bit of pocket change, which interested me.

They even had computers we could use! And not just to type in and print out essays! Though the time we could play on them was limited due to having to share, it would make some things easier.

My current goal was to save up money and get my own computer or tablet. Something so I could access more information freely. Also read books and graphic novels online. Priorities, ya know?

After the boring stuff we were given a tour of the ‘house.’ Mr. Nelson had left prior to the tour, though he’d be checking in from time to time as he was one of our local social workers.

The ground floor was mostly shared spaces, like the playroom, dining room, and kitchen. There were a few forbidden areas though, like the bedrooms of the staff.

The second and third floors were mostly bedrooms and bathrooms, though there was a couple storage rooms for stuff not being currently used, but more often gone through.

The basement was where the laundry room was located, along with the store rooms for rarely used stuff like holiday decorations. It also housed a large part of the pantry.

But my favorite place was the library. It started on the first floor and rose up to the third, even including the classic spiral staircase. Not only did it have a massive collection of books, it had a bunch of couches, poofy chairs, reading nooks, and study carrels. I wanted to curl up with a book then and there, but I’d been dragged away.

Incidentally, the computers we’d been told about were considered to be in the library, though they were in a room to one side.

Following the tour, the house mother, as she liked to be called rather than director, headed off to work on dinner and our teenage guides took us to the upper floors to allow us to drop off our luggage and get settled in.

With the size of the place, there were a bunch of rooms, but not enough for everyone to have their own. That was a privilege granted to the older kids, when possible. Emily guided me to where I’d be staying, we dropped off the other two girls.

Opening the door, I was met with a pink room. The walls were a pretty calm version of the color and bearable, but the decorations and bedding tended to the bright pink variety. At least on one half of the room.

My half of the room was blessedly less hard on the eyes, the furniture simply being brown wood and without decorations, though the bedding was still a pale pink. I’d guess that the other inhabitant, who wasn’t here at the moment, had made the bed for me, and used her obviously favorite color.

“Ugh. I forgot how bright she likes her pinks. What she wears isn’t this bad, so I forgot to warn you. If you really can’t stand it, talk to Miss Amanda. She should be able to do something.”

It seemed the assault on the eyes didn’t only get to me, but also my guide. I didn’t mind pink. It was my natural fur, umm hair, coloring after all, but this much was excessive. If she likes it so much though, I might be in trou…

“YAY! My new roomy has pink hair! This is perfect!”

Yep. That’s the kind of thing I was worried about. I turned to look at the girl, but was unable to see her as I was engulfed in darkness. She’d glomped onto me and lifted me up.

“Welcome to the house! I’m Rachel! It’s good to meet you!”

Her voice was as bright and cheerful as the pinks she used to color the room.

“Oi! Let her go! You’re suffocating her.”

In more ways than one. I thought.

She released me from her deadly embrace, though kept hold of me, since I’d have fallen over otherwise.

Finally able to see her, I looked up at her. She was probably around twelve or thirteen, having started to bud in the feminine way. She had brilliant green eyes and pink hair, though it was obviously dyed, since I saw blonde roots. Her clothes were also more subdued pinks, as I’d been informed earlier. They did suit her, as her face definitely fell into the cute category.

Once I was steady on me feet, she let me go, a contrite expression on her face.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I was just so happy.”

“It’s okay, but pink isn’t my favorite color though, it’s just what I was born with. I prefer dark reds and blues.”

Awww, her pouting face was really cute.

A slight cough brought our attention back to Emily.

“You should unpack and clean up. Dinner will be ready soon. Do you need any help before I go?”

I shook my head and she left. I was now alone with pinkie pie, I mean Rachel. Fortunately, although we didn’t share the same favorite color, she’d bounced back to happy mode and helped me put my stuff away. I slipped in a bunch of items from storage, including clothes I’d made back when I was in the valley. No one knew what I had, so I deemed it safe. They could be really comfortable. Rachel didn’t notice that my luggage seemed to be bigger on the inside.

My side of the room contained a raised bed with a desk and chair underneath and a dresser for my clothes. There were also shelves along the walls, both at ground level and up with the bed, so I had places to put my stuff.

Once I’d unpacked, I went and got washed up at the bathroom that’d been pointed out to me earlier before getting dragged away to the dining room to meet my new family.