It was a beautiful sunny day in Pallet Town, making it a perfect day to have a summer camp. This is an event camp that was open for children around the ages of five to eight years old.

The camp was to help many children learn the basics needed when traveling and bonding with Pokemon. All the children here were eager to start the next camp activity, which was going to be a Scavenger hunt.

The first child was a young boy, a tan skin-six-year-old boy with messy raven hair and brown eyes. His name is Ash Ketchum. He was a kind-hearted boy and energetic boy. He was also quite stubborn. He enjoys going on journeys, so he enjoys camp events like this. His dream is to be a Pokémon Master. When he turned ten years old, he was going to set out on a Pokémon journey and challenge all eight gyms leaders in Kanto and challenge the Pokémon League.

The second child was another six-year-old boy with fair skin and brown eyes, and medium-length brown hair that neatly parted and swept across his face. His name is Justin Ketchum, the older twin brother of Ash Ketchum. He enjoys keeping to himself most of the time, but like his twin, he can be kind and loves having fun, but he is less energetic about it. Like his brother, he dreams of becoming a Pokemon master.

There is then another boy who was slightly taller than Ash and Justin. He had spikey brown hair and brown eyes. His name is Gary Oak. His grandfather is the famous Pokémon researcher in the Kanto Region. His father is the current champion of the Kanto region and is considered to be one of the greatest trainers in the world. Because of that, Gary has grown to be quite arrogant and loves to show off in front of everyone. He and Ash have been rivals for a very long time. He plans to set out on his own  Pokémon journey and be the
greatest ever.

However, Gary wasn't the only rival that Ash had. There were two other boys; their names are Chase and Trace. The boy known as Chase was a peach skin boy with slightly spiky black hair and black eyes. At the same time, Trace has brown eyes and brown hair with some hair sticking up at the top.

Unlike Gary, these two boys are good friends with Ash and often play together. Both of these dreams were just like Ash's dream. They were going to become the most excellent trainers in the world.

There we also two girls that Ash was
close with for a long time. Their names are Elaine and Leaf Rose. Elaine had brown eyes and long brown curly hair that was usually tied into a ponytail. While Leaf had long chestnut hair that went down her back.

Leaf was a pretty athletic and energetic girl who enjoys to talk with new people and making friends. The same thing could be said for Elaine as well. She was a bubbly girl who liked to make friends. Because of that, both are very well-liked kids in Pallet Town. Both of them were great friends with Ash, and they enjoyed playing together. Leaf was even pretty close to Gary. While Elaine didn't really like being near Gary, she preferred the more quiet and more serious Justin over Gary, even if he sometimes came off a bit rude, telling people they should study more. However, both Leaf and Elaine didn't have the same goal as the boys. They were still unsure what they wanted to do on their journey.

While everyone else was excited, one girl didn't want to be at this camp. Her name is Jessica Murrow. She had Sapphire blue eyes and shoulder-length red hair and was wearing a blue bow headband. She was new to Pallet Town and moved from Celadon City orphanage a few weeks ago to leave with her father. Her father had sent her to the camp so she could make some friends. How she was pretty shy due to her past issue before her father's contact number was found. Because of that, she was hesitant to talk to the other kids. Leaf and Elaine had tried to talk to her, but she constantly lowered her face so nobody could look at her.

"Oh yeah, this will be easy. We all know that I'm going to win this thing," Gary said with an arrogant smirk on his face, which made all the kids look at him.

"Hey, you never know, Gary! You may have beaten me many times, but I will win this time!" Ash shouted with determination in his voice.

The two boys glared at each other intensely and clenched their teeth. Many of the kids were surrounding the two boys watching them silently. Leaf and Elaine sighed at the situation.

Jessie was just standing outside the circle watching the two boys as she heard their shouting.

Just as the two boys were about to fight, the camp counselor in charge of the event confronted them."Alright, stop it right now. I will have to call your parents if the two of you don't break it up right now!"

The two boys glared at each other one more time before they parted away from each other. Ash went over and stood next to Leaf.

"Ash, please don't let Gary get to you. You're the nicest guy in Pallet Town. He is just trying to get you mad," Leaf said.

"I know. I don't want Gary to think he's better at everything," Ash sighed.

 
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"Alright, does everyone understands the rule of the scavenger hunt?" The counselor asked, receiving nods from all the kids except for Jessie, who was looking at the ground, but the guy didn't seem to notice her lack of response."Now, remember, kids. No working as a team. You have to do these all by yourself. The items you must find are written on the paper you are holding. There are other counselors around the forest, so don't worry about getting lost, and be careful there pokemon in there. Now the final thing, remember to have fun."

All the kids nodded and received the basket. All the children were eager and couldn't wait for the challenge, except Jessie, who just wanted to go home. To be honest, she doubted that ahe would have any luck finding everything on the list in the forest.

"Hey, are you excited for this event?" Ash asked Jessie, making her jump from his voice.

She over to her left to see Ash giving her a kind smile. However, Jessie just looked back at the ground avoiding eye contact with him. Once again, avoiding the opportunity to make new friends again due to her shyness.

Ash, not understanding Jessie's behavior, turned back to face the counselor.

"On your mark, let's go!". Everyone run towards the forest, hoping to win this quest.

Well, almost everyone.

Jessie watched as everyone sped away in different directions. She looked at the list with a sigh. The counselor finally not e Jessie's hesitation and walked over to her. He leaned down to her level before he spoke.

"Hey, what's wrong? Everything okay?" He asked.

Jessie looked up into the concerned fac of the counselor. She was tempted to ask him if she could sit this out but doubted he would say yes, and besides, her father wanted her to try to have fun at camp. Jessie then decided the ground was more interesting.

"I'm fine," Jessie whispered.

Jessie put her scavenger hunt list in her basket and slowly walked off. She figured that she could at least give the scavenger hunt a try. Even if she didn't find everything, it was worth a shot. She guessed better than being laughed at for not trying.

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Jessie was walking through the forest near the camp by herself. It has already been thirty minutes into the scavenger hunt, and she only found at least two of the items on the list, one being an oran berry and the other being a medical herb.

She let out a heavy sigh. She hoped she would get through this activity since it was one of the last major events with the end of camp coming up soon, and she still hadn't made a new friend. Aside from Leaf, Elaine, and Ash, nobody attempted it to talk to her. She didn't like being the new kid nobody wanted to talk to.

Suddenly she heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes. She looked over at th bush.

"Hello? Is there anyone there? She asked nervously.

However, there was no response.

"Hello?" She asked again.

She slowly walked towards the bush when suddenly an orange blur jumped out of the bushes and knocked her over, causing her to crash hard onto the ground, causing her to hurt her ankle.

"Oww!" Jessie moaned as she felt a sharp pain in her ankle.

The orange creature, confirmed to ne a Vulpix, looked at her before it walked off. Jessie winced from the pain in her ankle and could tell she had an injury. It wasn't good, and she saw it was turning a purplish color. She couldn't even stand up and felt her eyes begin to tear up from the pain.

She looked around, wondering where a counselor was. After all, the one in charge said they were supposed to be around so they wouldn't get lost. She should of know something was going to go wrong.

"I didn't even want to come to this camp," Jessie teared up."I just want my father," She whimpered in pain.

She then heard another rustle was heard coming from the bushes. Jessie gulped nervously, hoping that it was a bigger and more dangerous Pokémon. She stared at the bush, shaking in fear. However, it wasn't a Pokémon or a consular. It was Ash, the boy who tried to speak to her earlier, looking around for mostly his next team on the list.

"Oh, where is it?" Ash murmured, looking around until he noticed Jessie.

Ash then walked over to Jessie and gave her a kind smile."Hi, aren't you the girl from earlier? My name is Ash Ketchum! What is your name?"

"My name is Jessica," She said timidly, but since Ash gave her his name. She decided it was only fitting that she did the same thing.

I haven't seen you before. Are you new here or one of the kids who came from somewhere else?" Ash asked.

"I just moved here a few weeks ago to live with my father," Jessie said with more confidence feeling safer around Ash at least a little bit.

Just then, Ash noticed Jessie's ankle was a purplish bruise on it."Hey, what happened to your ankle?" Ash asked curiously.

"A Vulpix knocked me down," Jessie replied.

"We should take you to the camp nurse," Ash said, leaning down as he saw Jessie's ankle look pretty bad.

"Thanks for worrying, but I will be fine, Ash," She whispered.

"You sure? Can you stand up?" Ash asked.

Jessie began to try to stand, but the pain was too much, making her fall back down."No, I can't! It hurts too much to put pressure on it," She said, tearing up.

"Hey, don't give up until the end," Ash said, holding a hand.

Jessie looked at Ash in surprise before she slipped her hand into Ash's hands. He then gave her a tug, and this forced Jessie to stand on up. This caused Jessie to lose her footing and fall into Ash's arms, making it seem almost like they were hugging each other. Jessie blushed in surprise as she pulled away with wide eyes. , However, with Ash being dense, he didn't even notice her situation and gave her a huge smile.

"See you stood up. Let's get you back to camp and have the nurse check your ankle out," Ash replied, giving her a toothy grin as they led her out of the forest by hand.

"So you moved here a few weeks ago? Where are you from?" Ash asked.

"I'm from Celedon City, but I had a brief stay in two other regions before I finally came here," Jessie said to Ash.

"That's cool! After you are done being treated, maybe I can introduce you to my friends," Ash said.

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It was no surprise that Gary came on top. He was already bragging about his succession. Gary was already on Ash's face waiting to get him mad. However, Ash was a lot more calmer this time. He wasn't bothered by Gary's taunting at all. Leaf, Elaine, Chase, and Trace stared in surprise.

Meanwhile elsewhere...

Jessie was in the nurse's office, looking out the window. As she was waiting for Nurse Joy to finish up wrapping a bandage around her ankle. Unknowingly, Jessie smiled as she looked out the window to see Gary smirking in Ash's face for winning the Scavenger Hunt, but Ash kept his cool.

Jessie frowned as she saw two girls close to Ash. She didn't know why but she wasn't fair to those girls being so close to Ash. Are a fan of the way they were looking at him, but sigh as they saw them just talking.

"Alright," Nurse Joy said, drawing her attention."It's nothing serious; just be careful about putting pressure on it."

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"Hey, Ashy boy! I beat you again, and I really didn't have to try!" Gary bragged around his face. However, Ash wasn't angry this time. In fact, he was being very calm, and to his surprise, he gave a small smile.

"Okay, Gary, you beat me again, which is no shocking matter. Just wait until next time. I will beat you." Ash responded with a confident smile.

Gary glared at Ash, not understanding what was going on. He turned around and muttered, "loser," and walked away.

Everyone exclaimed in surprise, and Elaine walked up to Ash. "Wow, I have never seen you handle Gary like that. I must say I'm proud of you. You managed to control your anger." Elaine said in approval.

"I'm just happy I made a new friend today," Ash said.

"Really!? Who is it?" Elaine asked in interest.

"Her name is Jessica. She just moved here recently." Ash said.

"Yeah, I know, Jessica. Leaf and I tried to talk to her, but she really didn't say much." Elaine said.

"To be honest, she didn't say much to me either. Through once I helped her since she was hurt, we kind of just got along," Ash said while he said scratching the back of his head.

Then Elaine gave him a huge smile, "That's what I like most about you. You can get along with anyone. Expect for Gary."

Ash laughed nervously."Thanks, Elaine. I hope you can get along with her as well," Ash said with a thumbs up and received a nod from Elaine.

Today turned out to be an excellent day for Jessica. It started off being a bad day, but somehow, in the end, she managed to meet a very friendly kid. Maybe her father was right about Summer camp being a good idea for her to make new friends.

🌷🌷🌷🌷

Thank you, everyone, who read this chapter. I saw a lot of where Ash was smarter at the time, but most were with him shipped with Serena; but I think he and Jessie would be a cute ship which is called Redshipping.

Anyway, this Pokemon series will have quite some changes from the show. Starting with Jessie being younger than her original is, and James probably will too.

I have also been considering putting Oc characters to replace the famous trio. I haven't come up with names for them yet through.

Make sure to comment on what you think of the story so far. I hope you enjoyed the chapter took a while, but once an idea came to my head on how Jessie and Ash first met. A rush of ideas suddenly greeted me for the rest of chapter.

Also, the characters Elaine, Chase, and Trace are from Pokemon Let's Go Eevee and were suggested to me to add into the story by Utakata_Wife, my best friend, when I told him about my new Pokemon story.