"Everybody wake up!"

I opened my eyes and laid in bed listening to Hawlucha fly around the hall screaming at everyone to get up. It was 8:00 AM. Church started at 9:30 and took us 15 minutes to get there. I had an hour to get ready and 15 minutes to get out the door and into the car.

"C'mon. I don't care how late we were up for last night, we gotta get going." Greninja hopped out of his bed and grinned down at me.

"How the heck do you do that..." I yawned, stretching and then refusing to get out of bed anyways.

Until he held a water shuriken over my head.

"Get up or I'm dropping it and you'll be soaked!" Greninja laughed. He only seemed to get more hyper and energetic when I finally listened to him. I swore right then and there he had the energy of an electric type despite his typing being water and dark.

"C'mon, we have lots to do! We should've been up earlier." Eevee groaned. I let Clefairy and Clefable out of their cards and Greninja left the room to let me get changed, closing the door behind him. All the other pokemon in the room were girls, so they just turned so that they were facing the wall.

I managed to find a comfortable sleeveless dress. Completely red with navy blue floral patterning on it. Then I brushed my dark brown shoulder length hair and helped Clefairy and Clefable finish brushing Vulpix and Eevee's fur. I put on my dark blue framed glasses and left the room with my pokemon and all of their cards.

"You alright?" Greninja asked when I sat down at the table for breakfast.

"I'm fine. Just a mix of excited and anxious. Did we get everything that we needed packed?"

"Yep. We're going to go to church then come back home for it when both services are over, then we'll go to camp."

"I'm going to get changed when we come back home too."

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't be running around camp trying to do the ice breaker activities in a dress... that went very badly for one of our cabin mates last year."

"Yes it did."

'Something's still bothering you. Tell me what it is.'

'Recently I keep almost getting into trouble at camp and you have to keep me out of it...'

'Yeah, I don't mind that. Almost getting into trouble is actually kind of fun.'

"Hey, whatcha two talking about in your heads?!" Jake yelled at us, noticing our silence.

"Shut up prick-" I slapped Greninja before he could say anything else.

"But it's opposite day." Jake grinned.

'Crap he got me.'

"It's not opposite day Grenny." I teased.

"Don't call me that!"

"Why not? It annoys you."

"Exactly!"

The rest of breakfast went by quietly. We ate, went to church, and hung around to talk to friends. One of them had yet another cinderace, which made for three of us.

"We have to go." Hawlucha, one of my dad's pokemon flew over to us and landed on Greninja's shoulder. "Alyssa needs to get to camp."

"Okay, cya there."

The car ride home was quiet as always. The pokemon who were usually out but didn't fit in the car, those pokemon being most of my pokemon, Machamp, Braixen, Ninetales, Pangoro, and Chesnaught, went into their cards. Cinderace and Greninja fought over the middle seat before they decided to just share, and Hawlucha flew above the car all the way home.

'Okay, take the black luggage case and the backpack and get out of my room so I can get changed.'

'Yeah yeah, I know. Do you think the others already beat us there?'

'Probably. Lilac might get there late, and Payton. But Callen probably had nothing better to do and is already there.'

'They're going to hate waking up in the mornings.'

'Yeah, so am I.'

I went into my room after Greninja grabbed our stuff and quickly picked out a new outfit. A navy blue t-shirt, blue jean shorts, black ankle socks, and light gray sneakers. I tied my hair up into a ponytail with a black elastic and came out of my room.

"I already put our stuff in the car. I also texted Professor Trillium to see if she's at camp already. She hasn't replied yet, and usually she replies pretty quickly, so I guess she's there." Greninja informed me no later than two seconds after I stepped out my door.

"Okay, thanks Greninja." I smiled. "Ready to go?"

"Yep. I'm excited!"

"Only because you know one of the first things we're doing when we get there is the swim test."

"I am a froggo! No way I'm going to fail the swim test!"

"And if you do I get to tease you all week."

"Fine. Just know that won't happen."

After another short drive we got to camp, and almost as soon as we were out of the car one of my friends ran over.

"Hey Alyssa! Over here!"

Lilac, a girl with wavy lilac dyed hair and bluish gray eyes ran over to me. She was wearing all pastel shades of colours. A turquoise tshirt, purple sleeveless cardigan, blue jean shorts, and white sneakers. Behind her was a boy named Payton with short dirty blonde hair, bluish gray eyes, and he was taller than me. He was wearing a black t-shirt and black jogging pants. And black sneakers. He didn't usually wear that much black. He was in the check in line. Lilac dragged me over to the line with her and Payton. I carried my luggage bag and Greninja took the backpack. From the line we could see another boy with short, black hair wandering around with a mimikyu on his shoulder. The rest of the boy's outfit was a blue and white stripped t-shirt with a small white circle on the chest, gray shorts down to his knees with some red around the ends of the legs, and blue and white sneakers. His name was Callen.

"Payton, you going to bring out Charizard soon?" Lilac asked when we were all done exchanging greetings.

"Not now. There's too many people around, he'd have nowhere to land." Payton shrugged. We were on the roofed wooden deck of the main building on the camp grounds. It was a pretty long building. Inside was the dining room, kitchen, secretary office, a very very small library, and recreational room. There were gravel pathways leading all around the buildings. This was a great place, but describing it is difficult and confusing even with a few paragraphs, so I won't dwell on it.

"What about Deerling? Where's she?" I turned to Lilac, noticing her own pokemon partner wasn't with her.

"She went out to explore. She'll be back any time now." Lilac shrugged. That was code for I don't know but I'm going to trust my pokemon to come back to me eventually.

"Alright, whatever you say."

We waited for a while in lineup with our parents before finally getting into the building, filling out all the papers, handing medication over to the nurse, and finally dragging our stuff into our cabins with Payton and Callen going downstairs to the boy's rooms and Lilac and I going with our pokemon to the girl's rooms.

"This is going to be so great! I wonder who our cabin mates will be this year!" Lilac smiled. I just smiled back nervously, preferring to not be heard by anyone right now. Especially when the white walled, blue carpeted hallways echoed and had several doors all along them. One to each room. There was a window and an air conditioning vent at the end of the hallway too. Lilac and I found our cabin room and went inside to be greeted by our counselors and the cabin mates we had that had arrived already. Deerling caught up with us just as the door was closing.

We only had three camp counselors but two of them were helping with registration and check ins according to the one that was in the room. She had platinum blonde hair in a pixie cut,  green eyes, and was wearing the camp's t-shirt for the year along with black shorts and white sneakers. Actually all our counselors in every cabin were wearing this year's themed t-shirt. The camp theme this year was Sun and Moon, from the original pokemon universe. Yeah, we still have the anime in our world. Anyway, that explained Callen's outfit choice. The t-shirt was basically gold on one side, dark purple on the other, with Solgaleo on the gold side and Lunala on the purple side. Last year's theme had been XYZ. A black t-shirt with Yveltal on the left side of the shirt and Xerneas on the right, with Zygarde on the back. I'm only saying that because there was a girl on the bottom bunk of one of the beds on the right side of the room wearing that shirt. She had a black hoodie tied around her waist and wore ripped blue jean shorts. A misdreavus was flying around her. Probably her pokemon partner. Her hair was done like misdreavus's and dyed to match it, and her eyes were black. Only one other girl was here. She'd chosen the top bunk on the bunk bed set closest to the washroom. Her hair was golden blonde and in a braided bun on top of her head. She was wearing a t-shirt from a theme a couple of years ago. Black and White. The back of the t-shirt was black and had Reshiram on it, the front was white and had Zekrom on it, and Kyurem on the side of the left sleeve. She was also wearing beige knee length shorts. A female Eevee was hopping around on the bed behind her as she sat at the edge with her legs dangling off of it.

Lilac and I chose the last two top bunks. Lilac got the middle one and I got the one above XYZ girl and Misdreavus. XYZ girl gave Greninja and I an odd look before speaking.

"Is that your partner?"

"Yeah, why?" I answered without hesitation.

"Is it a boy?"

"Yes, yes I am." Greninja grinned under his tongue scarf, and the two girls who were our cabin mates looked shocked to hear him speak.

"I didn't expect a boy in a girl's cabin, but alright." XYZ girl shrugged. "I'm Gaia by the way. And my partner is Misdreavus."

"I'm Lilac, and that's Alyssa." Lilac smiled, pointing to herself and myself respectively. "And my partner is Deerling."

"I'm Greninja. Alyssa's partner." Greninja introduced himself as he checked up on me telepathically in an attempt to take my anxiety down a notch or two.

"I'm Eve! And this is my partner Eevee!" The girl in the last top bunk introduced herself too.

The our camp counselor clapped her hands from behind us to get our attention.

"Alright everyone, looks like most of you are here! We only have two more people left. I'm Maggie, and this is my partner, Sylveon!" She announced, gesturing to the sylveon standing beside her. "Your other counselors will be here in just a few minutes, so for now to pass the time you can talk to each other, finish your swim tests, and set up your belongings where you want them."

Sylveon used its feelers to pick up our bags and organise them at the end of each bunk bed depending on which bags belonged to who and where the owners were. My luggage bag and Greninja's backpack went at the end of the bottom bunk that Gaia was using beside her luggage bag, since we were using the bunk above her. Lilac and Deerling's bags went at the end of their bunk bed, which they weren't sharing with anyone yet. Same with Eve and Eevee's stuff at the end of the last set of bunk beds.

"I haven't done my test yet. Misdreavus doesn't like the water, and I wanted to stay with her." Gaia said, getting up from her bed. "I like swimming though, so if Misdreavus is okay with it I think I'll go now."

"Make sure all of your Pokemon who want to go swimming do the test, okay guys?" Maggie reminded us. "We need to check their skill level too."

"Don't have anyone use any moves on me." Greninja glared at me half jokingly. It didn't scare me because I knew he'd never harm me. I still knew better than to do so much as spray him with a water gun during the swim test though. I couldn't get him to fail without a z-move or something anyway. And then he'd get me back. Or we'd get in trouble. Not worth the risk.

"Okay."

Gaia went into the washroom beside the counselor's beds to get changed, and I went into the one beside the camper bunk beds. The middle of the room was mostly empty, with one wall to separate two short hallways leading to the doors on one side and a bunch of windows with heater air conditioner things under them on the other. There was a round table with four chair around it and craft supplies on it in the middle of the room, but someone was dragging it to the window no. I could hear them doing it. I ignored it knowing that since the room was small everyone probably wanted to try and get as much floor space as possible, and changed into my light blue one piece bathing suit. I slipped on my black water shoes and left the washroom to let Lilac change. Gaia was already out and Eve was watching Eevee bounce around since they'd already finished and passed their test. Now Gaia was wearing a black one piece bathing suit with short sleeves and the legs going halfway down to her knees. The ends of the legs and sleeves, as well as the neckline, were all purple. Her water shoes were purple too. Lilac came out in her bathing suit soon too. A blue bikini with a purple flower pattern scattered across it.

We walked to the pool together, talking about how we were glad that school was over, and our hopes for camp activities and meals. This camp always served some of the best food in town, but there were some meals we were still hoping for more than others. Misdreavus didn't tag along, but our other pokemon did.

"I still dislike the whole thing happening on Friday... Y'know, we all have to dress up fancy and crap?" Gaia groaned. "It's dumb. I don't see the point of it."

"Some people are into it I guess." I shrugged back. "At least it's only one night."

"What'll you guys be wearing that night? Pretty sure this year we're supposed to all fit the Sun And Moon theme while also matching our pokemon partners." Lilac asked. "It'll be easy for Alyssa. Battle bond greninja first appeared in the Sun and Moon games didn't it? What are your plans?"

"Navy blue and silver stars. Works for moon." I smiled. "And the sun is a star, so I guess I could say that too if anyone asks."

"Lunala has some purple on it, right? I've got a purple blouse and silver skirt." Gaia said, not looking too thrilled at the idea of dressing up. Not that any of us were, but she seemed less than satisfied, even if it was only for one night. "And I have a necklace that matches Misdreavus's."

"This year's theme might be a bit difficult for Eve." Lilac pointed out.

"There are eevees in Sun And Moon." I reminded everyone.

We had to cross the parking lot behind the Inn, or the main building, and pass the rock climbing wall, tree house, and a fire pit that were also behind it on our way to the pool, which was behind the mini golf course and beside two basketball courses. When we got to the pool some boys were just getting out. They were all wearing blue wristbands, which meant they'd passed the test. Yellow meant you'd only passed for being able to go in the shallow zone and couldn't go in the deep end, and red meant you could only go in the shallow end and were not allowed to use the water slide.

"I'm okay at swimming. I'm not the best, but lately I've been getting better even though I don't get much practice." Gaia said.

"I'm pretty good at it." Lilac spoke up too, deciding this could be a good conversation starter. I didn't say anything.

"I expect you to be good Greninja. Almost half your name is supposed to be part of the French word for frog after all." Gaia turned to my partner, grinning.

"Alright, I'll try not to disappoint." He grinned back.

We stood at the edge of the pool for a while, waiting for the lifeguards to let us in. The sun was burning hot and when we tried to walk around without our water shoes. Gaia was let in first, then Lilac and her pokemon, then me and my pokemon. We all passed, but the water types obviously did the best. They aced the test no problem, and there was no doubting they'd be safe while swimming no matter what happened. They could even be lifeguards themselves. We headed back to the cabin and talked some more about what we hoped to do for the week, but by the time we got inside the subject had changed.

"I want to be the greatest ghost type trainer in Canada!" Gaia announced proudly, Misdreavus floating around beside her. We were talking about our dreams.

"Well I'm going to be the greatest grass type trainer!" Lilac yelled excitedly. Deerling yelled with her.

"What about you guys?" Gaia looked at Eve and I, expecting an answer.

"I don't know." Eve shrugged. "Eevee and I are still trying to figure it out."

Now everyone was looking at me and Greninja. My right eye turned from its usual dark brown to crimson red at the same time that Greninja's turned dark brown. Both our left eyes stayed the same.

"I just want to battle again." We both spoke at the same time. At this point we were both breathing at the same pace, in time with each other, and out of my red eye I could see from Greninja's point of view. It was something we'd been working on since before Greninja's card was ripped. The battle bond ability. Since we weren't supposed to battle anymore, we couldn't fully activate it.

Our eyes turned back to their original colours a few seconds later, and nobody seemed to mind it. I was glad when they all brushed it off, Gaia and Misdreavus both seeming to somehow understand and Eve and Eevee too nervous to ask. I think Sylveon and Maggie just sensed that I was nervous.

"So... I recognize you." Gaia looked at me. "You've come to this camp every year so far, right?"

I nodded. "Mostly. Ever since this guy was a froakie." I poked Greninja in the shoulder.

'Hey!'

"Yeah, that was... kindergarten or something? What was the theme that year? I didn't even have Misdreavus yet."

"I believe the theme that year was the last season of Diamond And Pearl."

"Yeah, I think so too."

"So most of you guys actually seem to know each other." Maggie smiled. "What about you Eve? Do you recognize anyone here?"

"No, it's my first time at this camp. But I have a friend coming."

"Well you're going to love it here! I've been coming ever since I was a little girl and it's always been great!" Maggie said enthusiastically. Sylveon squealed in agreement with her trainer.

A knock on the door was heard next. Sylveon went over to it and opened it to reveal a girl with hazel brown hair in a short braid (down to her shoulders), gray eyes, and freckles. She was wearing the same t-shirt as Eve was, as well as black tights, black flats, and a light gray skirt. She looked at Sylveon and smiled as it greeted her in its own language. The friendly fairy-type eeveelution led her into the room and Eve and Eevee immediately jumped down from their bunk bed to hug the new girl.

"Hi Eve! Hi Eevee!" The girl said quietly. She seemed shy. Gaia and Misdreavus ignored the scene, preferring to do their own thing. I watched, curious about each and every one of my cabin mates.

"Hi Aubrey! Hey, where's Flabebe?" Eve asked, clearly excited as Eevee dashed around the room looking for the single bloom pokemon.

"In her card. She's nervous." The new girl, Aubrey apparently, answered. "Flabebe, you can come out now."

Aubrey released a blue Flabebe from her card. Eevee immediately ran to Flabebe and nuzzled her. Flabebe started to smile and even laugh a little bit until Aubrey started speaking again.

"So... Who's everyone here Eve?"

"That's Gaia, Lilac, and Alyssa!" Eve pointed at each of us when she said our names.

"Who owns the Greninja?" Aubrey asked.

"Hippity hoppity I am not property." Greninja sighed, clearly unamused and probably even offended by Aubrey's question.

"Sorry, I didn't know how else to say it..." Aubrey apologized, suddenly nervous again. "How would you word it?"

"You could just ask who his partner is." I chimed in. "And it's me by the way. Just so you know I'm not interested in trades."

"I wasn't going to ask for a trade, it's just that greninjas are supposed to be rare these days... Rarer than they used to be anyways. And I really like nature inspired pokemon!"

"Nature inspired? Me? How?" Greninja asked. "And I'm not rare. Can't people just find some random greninja card online and buy it?"

"You're a frog. Your entire evolution line was inspired by frogs and toads." Aubrey reminded him. "And people don't care much for XYZ cards anymore. It's all Sword And Shield now."

"Speaking of, does anyone have any Sword And Shield pokemon?" Maggie asked.

"I do. Raboot, Cinderace, Grookey, you guys can come out now." I released Raboot, Cinderace, and Grookey from their cards. They looked around for a few seconds, taking in their new somewhat familiar surroundings (they'd been to camp before) and Raboot and Cinderace turned on their translator mics. "Rookidee, you too."

Rookidee released herself from her card, as she had taught herself to do. I didn't know how.

"I have Yamper." Aubrey smiled, releasing the puppy pokemon from its card. It started barking and running around the room energetically. I released Pikachu from her card so that she could join in. Also because I just liked showing off my pokemon. Even if they weren't the most powerful, I was very proud of them.

The door opened again and two more people came in, both wearing the Sun And Moon shirts. They were our other two counselors. One of them was wearing teal leggings and the other was wearing white shorts. The one in the teal leggings looked like Aubrey. Their eyes and hair were the same colour. The counselor's hair was longer though, all the way to her lower back. The other one had black eyes and frizzy, curly dark brown hair. Her skin tone was much darker than everyone else's. She had an Umbreon with her. The girl who looked like Aubrey had a Jolteon. It was kind of strange; All of our counselors had an eeveelution for their partner.

"Hi Andrea!" Aubrey ran to the counselor who looked like an older version of her. "Guys, this is my older sister Andrea!"

"Hiya!" Andrea waved at us "How are you guys?"

"I'm alright. Hey cool, dark type eeveelution!" Gaia smiled. "I like Umbreon the best out of all the eeveelutions since there isn't a ghost type eeveelution."

"Yeah, Umbreon's pretty cool isn't she? My name is Natalie and Umbreon is my partner." Our third counselor replied and introduced herself.

"I wish I had an eevee or an eeveelution card. Any one of them. I'm feeling a little left out over here." Aubrey grinned half-jokingly. "Who here doesn't have an eeveelution?"

"Me." I raised my hand. "I do have an eevee though."

"I have an espeon. Sorry Aubrey." Lilac said from where she was sitting on her bunk with Lilac beside her.

"I actually don't have any pokemon that aren't ghost types. So no eevees or eeveelutions over here." Gaia shrugged. "You're not alone Aubrey."

"Yay!" Aubrey gave out a little cheer.

"Hey guys, it's time to go outside and play a little game for everyone around camp to get to know each other." Maggie called from the door. "You see that field outside through the windows? The one surrounded by the woods and cabins? We're going to split up into teams there and do some ice breakers."

"Heck, which team are we going to choose this time?" I asked Greninja. He shrugged.

'Dark Type Team maybe? We've been put on Water ever since I was a froakie. Now that I'm a dual-type, it might be nice to try something different.'

'Okay, we'll do that then.'

"I'll go Team Grass again." Lilac grinned. "Type advantage over Water!"

"We're going Team Dark."

"Aw man!"

"Misdreavus is a ghost type. Nothing else. I think it's obvious what team I'll be on. I don't get a choice." Gaia smiled. "That's okay though. Ghost types are my favourite ones anyways."

"What are you guys talking about?" Eve gave us all confused looks.

"Each of us is going to get put onto one of 18 different teams for the week, and at the end of the week whichever team has the most points wins something. They change it every year, and sometimes each reward is given to an individual based off of the journey that they plan to take after camp is over, to help them." Aubrey explained. "Last year Team Psychic won. I'm going to be on Team Fairy with Flabebe, since Eevee is a normal type you'll be on Team Normal. Your team is decided based on your pokemon's type. And if it's a dual-type, like Greninja, you get a choice."

"C'mon, we're going to be late!" Maggie called again. We all left the cabin and went to the field.

Welp, due to this chapter being way too long and longer than I'd planned for it to be I'm going to end it here and split it up into two parts. You'll figure out what happens for things like supper, who won the scavenger hunt, and everything else that was supposed to be an important point of this chapter as flashbacks in the next chapter, not part two of this chapter. This one was 12,727 words with both parts, so I had to split it up.