<Stanley was initially concerned when his partner entered for dinner, beat up and looked like he had been thrashed around. But when Sylveon entered behind them with a bounce and a smile, he was able to recognize that the two had just been playing. Fairy pokemon do like to play rough, he remembered. He just wished he had been able to see it, instead of being stuck inside doing homework. “Stanley, time for dinner,” Diane called from the kitchen. Stanley noticed Eric wasn''t home yet, but remembered that he sometimes had to work late. He''ll be home soon, he never misses dinner, Stanley concluded, as he packed away his homework assignment.>


    Charmander, tired and beaten but not ignorant, stopped the boy from putting his homework away. He grabbed the history assignment– the paragraph about apricots– and carried it over to the kitchen, placing the page on the table.


    <Diane noticed the paper as she was placing the cutlery around each plate, picking it up to read. “Stanley,” she began in a stern voice, “this is not acceptable young man.” She placed the paper on the table, next to what Stanley supposed was his plate. “You need to re-write this after dinner. Your teacher wants you to write about how apricots were discovered to hold pokemon, not which one is your favorite flavor.” Stanley glanced at his pokemon, unsure how it had known he did the assignment incorrectly. Hadn''t they been outside the whole time? He questioned, remembering that his partner couldn''t read either.>


    “Call it a hunch.” Charmander shrugged, moving to sit before his bowl, wincing as he sat down. “Ow, you couldn''t hold back even a little, could you?” He asked, as the Sylveon gracefully sauntered to rub against Diane before parking herself before her own food bowl, giving the complaining protegee a head tilt and sticking out her tongue in a tease.


    <Eric arrived soon after Stanley and Diane had sat down to eat, almost rushing through the door. “Sorry I''m late, my boss fried an instrument and we needed to fix it for an overnight test. Dinner smells great, honey!” He remarked, haphazardly placing his bag and coat before taking a seat at the table. Pidgeot''s food bowl was full and waiting for it, as everyone gave their gentle prayer of thanks and dug in. After dinner, with a little help from his mom, Stanley was able to find the correct part of the history textbook detailing the apricots, and re-wrote his paragraph. Meanwhile, Eric was using disinfectant and a light potion spritz to help the young pokemon recover from his training session.>


    Charmander, catching Eric''s eye, pointed at the packet on the computer keyboard, to which he received a nod. “You know Stanley, if you haven''t come up with a good name for your pokemon I might have a suggestion. What do you think of the name ''Chad''?” He asked, having finished treating the lizard''s bruises.


    <Chad? I guess it must be a boy, Stanley thought, as he tried to visualize calling his partner ''Chad''. It was a short name, a simple name, and very easy to remember. He had been debating between two names until now. His favorites had been ''Char'', since the pokemon seemed to say it a lot, and ''Jim'', because the name just stuck with him.>


    <Jim was a good, solid name. Jim was the name of someone who was always happy to help you out, whether it was moving some furniture, or re-planting the garden out back. It was the kind of name that made you smile, because everyone who knew someone named Jim had fond memories of them. Stanley had the brief idea to make a button, a single large button, which when pressed would proudly say “Jim!”. But, as much as it pained him to consider it, Stanley knew his pokemon was not a Jim. No, and calling him Char was likely not a good name either; it might inspire him to lead some sort of violent rebellion. With a nod, Stanley agreed, the name ''Chad'' was indeed a good, reliable name.>


    “Well, it certainly isn''t a bad name, though it isn''t very French. I wonder where he came up with that…” Charmander- newly named Chad- questioned as he watched Eric open the envelope and withdraw a stack of papers. A rather thick stack at that, but it was out of Chad''s line of sight to see what was on them.


    <With his partner Chad seeming jubilant about his new name, the family seemingly went to bed early tonight. Stanley had school again tomorrow, with it being a Tuesday evening, and he felt himself wishing it were Friday already. Once again donning his blue bucket-covered pajamas, young Stanley crawled into bed. Good night Chad, he thought, happy to finally have a name for his best friend.>


    <hr>


    Not long later, with the child fast asleep, Chad crept back into the living room, where émeric was waiting with the packet and a pencil. He motioned to close the door, with which Chad complied as quietly as possible, before moving to sit next to him. Pulling a blank piece of paper before him, Chad began to write as legibly as his shaky hands could allow.


    “Why Chad? To be honest, I got the idea from a joke at work.” émeric explained, pulling a crumbled wad of paper from his pocket. It was a print-out of a meme, a well-known one that Chad seemed to recognize, with a sorry-looking guy on the left wearing glasses, and a weird caricature of a muscular, endowed man on the right. “I figured from what I knew of you so far, you might appreciate it. Anyway, you need some solid sleep tonight, so let''s get started on this packet. Miss DuPont made this as a sort of cognitive assessment to see just what you can do. It covers mathematics, logic puzzles, reading comprehension, and a bunch of other concepts people learn growing up.” He explained, lifting the pages as he dug into the stack. “Just start solving problems here, and I''ll tell you if you can skip the page.”


    Over the next hour, émeric watched on as the small pokemon began to crank through the math assessment, occasionally telling Chad to move on to the next page. It started with simple addition, subtraction, but émeric jumped ahead to multiplication and division. The scientist beamed when he observed the division of larger numbers, making a remark that he had not seen that technique used before. Deeper into the stack, they came across geometry, basic logic questions, and then trigonometry. These took a little longer, as Chad used the scratch paper to calculate things like squares and roots.


    He was nearly unstoppable until they turned to a physics problem, and Chad asked his first question of the session, “How do you not know the gravity constant?” émeric questioned, caught off-guard by the abrupt stop in work. It took a few pictures, diagrams, and back and forth for Chad to explain the hole in his knowledge. “The gravitational constant is 10 meters per second squared,” Emeric clarified, which yielded a hesitant expression from Chad, before he continued to solve the question of how a Rock Throw might arc across a field when thrown at a given force and angle.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Chad was just beginning to work on a heat transfer problem when émeric motioned for him to stop. “I know you can do more, but I think it''s time for bed. Besides that, I need a break. This is a little too much for me to take in tonight.” He explained, placing the packet back into the envelope and ushering the pokemon back to bed. Still sore from the ''training'' session earlier, Chad agreed and trudged off to sleep.


    <hr>


    <As the sun peeked into the curtains, Stanley awoke with a smile. He had slept well last night, and clearly Chad had as well. His buddy was curled up and sleeping next to him. Stanley, not wanting to wake his partner, gently slid out of bed and made his way to the bathroom to shower for the day. By the time he was clean and dressed, Chad began to stir. Good morning, beamed Stanley, I hope you''re ready for today.>


    Blinking his eyes separately, Chad slid off the bed like a zombie. He definitely did not have his usual energy, but at least the pain was gone. He gave a large yawn with a stretch, before scratching his side and plodding towards the door of the bedroom. In the kitchen, Eric and Diane were having a hushed conversation, with odd hand gestures, until Diane noticed the freshly-woken duo and smiled.


    <”Good Morning you two, I hope you slept well,” she said. “Breakfast should be ready soon, today we''re having omelets,” she informed with a chipper voice. I love omelets, Stanley thought, mentally planning what design of ketchup to doodle on his. Chad took a seat by his bowl, and slowly chowed down on the brown pellets placed before him. Sylveon was nearly done eating, without a spare crumb anywhere to be seen, and Pidgeot was halfway done but it''s beak covered in crumbs.>


    Eric, having taken a seat at the table, took the opportunity before Stanley was distracted with food to voice a question, “Stanley, since you do not have math class on Friday, and Diane won''t be home either, would you like for me to take Chad into work with me for the day?” There was a palpable pause, as the three eaters awaited the answer, and Diane did her best to focus on the stove top.


    <Stanley was disappointed, he forgot that he didn''t have math on Fridays, which meant he couldn''t bring Chad to school until one of his other teachers agreed. With a frown, he nodded his agreement to his dad. It wouldn''t do to leave a young pokemon home alone all day, that was just cruel. Soon after, a steaming large golden omelette was placed before Stanley, and he happily used the ketchup bottle to draw a smiley face before digging in. He found himself having to pause between bites, as the eggs were so hot they burned his mouth. Once he finished his plate, Stanley recalled Chad to his pokeball and waved goodbye as he made his way towards the bus stop.>


    <Upon arriving at the bus stop, Stanley realized he was early today, and in the waiting crowd a young boy his age was waving to get his attention. Curious, he walked over to say hello with a smile and a reciprocated wave. “Your name is Stanley, right?” The boy asked, to which Stanley responded with a quick nod. “Great, my name''s Calem. I heard from my friend Shauna that you have a fire type pokemon; can I see it?” He asked excitedly. Stanley, trying not to brag like an over-confident smug person, matched the excited smile with an enthusiastic nod. The bus isn''t here yet, I''m sure he can meet Chad without it being a problem, Stanley reasoned, as he tapped the button twice and waited for his friend to emerge.>


    With a flash of red light, Chad found himself standing next to Stanley, and before a strange boy. “Uh, hi?” He voiced meekly, aware of the conversation leading up to this point.


    <”Oh wow, that''s so cool! I love fire types, my mom has a Delphox which is super fluffy and gives nice warm hugs.” He explained, trying to refrain from absentmindedly touching the lizard. “Have you two had a first battle yet?” Calem asked. Stanley, realizing the answer was neither yes nor no, did his best impression of a hand-sign for ''kind of'', not sure how to explain his partner''s first battle had been without him. “That''s OK, you''ll probably have a lot more in the future.” Calem responded, turning his head when the group heard the approach of the bus. “Once I get my first pokemon, we can have a match,” he promised, as Stanley recalled Chad to his pokeball. Stanley was glad, it sounded like he had made another friend. Things were certainly looking up!>


    <The rest of the day had been somewhat uneventful as usual, until lunchtime when Stanley ran into Calem again. Calem then introduced him to his friends Serena and Shauna. The four immediately hit it off, and began to talk about what they wanted to do once they graduated and became full-fledged trainers. It was invigorating, and Stanley finally felt like he had actual friends, a group of comrades. It sounded like the three had high grades and would be graduating on-time. Stanley couldn''t let them go without him, he needed to do better, he needed to graduate.>


    <hr>


    <On the walk home that afternoon, Stanley was stopped by an older boy, who challenged him to a battle. Stanley, who had yet to enter an actual trainer battle, was nervous about accepting, until Chad popped out of his ball to reassure him. With his partner up for it, Stanley felt it was safe to accept the challenge.>


    “You gotta be kidding me, I hope you have a plan for this, because I can''t do anything if he doesn''t talk,” Chad grumbled, as the teenager sent out his pokemon. A Pidgey, which gave Chad a mean grin upon seeing its opponent.


    <”Pidgey, use Sand Attack!” The boy called, as Stanley watched on. Use Hyper Beam!, Stanley thought loudly, wanting his partner to overpower the bird.>


    With a flap of its wings, Pidgey created a dust cloud which swarmed Chad, causing him to cover his eyes reflexively. He continued to stand there, glancing around for the bird.


    <Oh wait, Chad doesn''t know Hyper Beam yet does he, Stanley questioned. “Tackle,” the other boy shouted, as Stanley tried to come up with a countermeasure. Maybe use Growl, he thought.>


    The Pidgey flew out of the dust rapidly, diving at Chad as he was barely able to dodge the blow. “C''mon Stanley, you have to actually say it,” he groaned, focusing on anticipating the next strike. The dust was obscuring everything around him, and he could barely hear the bird circling around for the next strike.


    <”Go for a Peck, Pidgey!” The teenager shouted. Stanley pondered if maybe Chad didn''t know Growl either. Chad, use a Scratch attack, Stanley thought, taking a firm stance. If his heart couldn''t get through to his pokemon, nothing would.>


    “You damned idiot, you need to actually shout-” was all Chad got out before the Pidgey hit him from behind with the peck attack. The one-hit knockout dropped the lizard to the dirt like a bag of potatoes, as he lay unmoving. The world began to still and freeze, the color draining from the scene.


    <I know you aren''t dead, so let''s hear your justification for this little stunt.>


    Groaning, Chad rolled onto his back, looking up at the pre-Technicolor sky and clouds above. “Look, either Stanley has to call out the moves, or I need to do this myself. I''m not a mind-reader.” He brought himself into a seated position, taking the time to properly size up his opponent''s frozen stature. “We can re-do this fight if you like, but we need to be on the same page,” he continued, trying to negotiate with the being.


    <But we are on the same page; this was- no, this is to be Stanley''s miraculous first win as a pokemon trainer. And you had to go muck it all up whining about ''rules''.>


    “Yea, rules are important, especially when you''re trying to ensure your audience understands the story,” Chad explained, dusting himself off before standing. “So we need to be consistent; is Stanley going to talk, or am I going to do all the fighting? Because if I read his thoughts like you''re doing, it implies I''m psychic, and we do not need to explore that can of worms.”


    <Fine, you can do the fighting then. Satisfied? Honestly, I don''t know why I shouldn''t bother to replace you. I am certain there are hundreds who would fight to claim your current role.>


    “If that were the case, you wouldn''t have picked me. So, this time, let me focus on winning, and show you how to really take advantage of the power of plot.” Chad said, giving his equivalent to the Hero''s Monologue, before dropping into a ready stance. “I''m ready, go ahead and rewind it.”


    <If you insist. Though should you fail again this time, we will be exploring other options for an Actor.>


    Stanley’s First Fight, take 2!