The Boy From Next Door (Flashback)

Kaumi sat in an empty classroom, studying a book hard. It was long past time that school had let out, but he seemed to intent on the book, Pokemon Potions for any Ailment. He was only twelve. A man in a white lab coat approached him.

"Kaumi, you�ve been here for a very long time. I think you should go home now."

"Professor Kobin, sir, please let me finish this one! I promise I won�t be long!"

Kobin shook his head. "Just go on home, Kaumi, you can read tomorrow. I�m sure your parents are worried about you now."

Kaumi looked so pitiful with his expression. The way his scruffy, not sleek as it is now, red hair fell around his face. He looked quite scrawny and not half as muscular. His pale brown eyes filled with tears, but he blinked them away. He stood, closed the book, pushed in his chair, and exited without another word.

Morosely walking down the streets of Viridian, Kaumi stopped every now and then to tarry at the window of a Pokemon store. He gazed longingly at every book and guide to the adored creatures. He wanted to know more�more than he did then�more than anyone knew.

He sighed, and made it home. Dinner would have been cold if there had been any. The lean-to shack his parents called home was hardly enough to raise him in, they said. When he walked in the door, his mother and father stood side by side.

"Kaumi," his mother said regretfully, "we feel as though we can�t support you any longer. We really love you, but we want you to grow up and be healthy and strong."

His father cut in. "The only way for you to be able to learn and grow�is to travel to Vermilion City where your mother and I have made arrangements for you to live with a professor."

"But�" Kaumi stammered, shocked.

"I know dear," his mother crooned, "but we want the very best for you, and this mess of a home is no place for you. When you go, you�ll get a nice house and everything. Professor Mikino teaches classes for sixteen year olds, and he�ll teach you personally at home if you stay with him."

"He�s the son of the famous Prof. Bill, you know." The father joined in once more. "He�ll raise you to be a nice young man. You should go pack and head out there in the morning on the bus. We�ll never forget you. We love you more than anything."

Kaumi was taken aback by everything he had heard that night. The change, however, improved him greatly. At sixteen, he entered Prof. Mikino�s class and studied harder than ever, graduation the year later tied for top-of-the-class. His goal to become a Pokemon researcher seemed brighter than ever.

Kaumi grew to be very muscular and strong from caring for Prof. Mikino�s herd of Rhyhorns. His hair became tamed and fell over his face just right, and he was just what every girl in Vermilion wanted. However, his mind was elsewhere.

The girls from his classes would run to the Tauros field everyday, sneakily of course, and watched him tame the wild beasts. Since he wasn�t their master, he had trouble dealing with them. The girls would �Ooh� and �Ahh� and giggle at it all. He was even asked out by several of them, but he always said no. Even though he looked like a hot shot, and he was a little bit, he was also kinda klutzy, but only around girls he liked.

There had only been one girl he�d ever laid eyes on and never wanted to move them from�Myuka worked at the PokeCenter down the street, and was the one thing he would�ve given anything for. She had really been a part of the Shadow Gang, and even had pulled Kaumi in because she knew about his liking her. After about a month, he ran away from it. Then he met Dark and Cass outside the gym. That was the day his roller-coaster life would turn around, at least that�s what he�d hoped.