Prologue: Seven years prior

Max stood outside the school doors, it was his first day, and he was terrified. He smoothed the stubborn cow-lick on the back of his head, took a deep breath, and walked inside. It was chaos. Kids running around everywhere, throwing things at each other and shouting. Max probably would have joined them if he weren't worried about making a bad impression on one of the watching teachers, after all, he might be stuck with one for the whole year. He sat quietly on a bench until the P.A. called all first grade students to a classroom. As he took his seat, he noticed his friend Noah sitting a couple of desks away. Noah smiled and waved, Max gave him a nervous smile of his own and looked to the teacher at the head of the room. "I want to welcome all of you to John Blaise Elementary school." He said. "I just want to make some rules clear. First of all their is no running in the halls, secondly, all recesses are to take place outside unless you are told not to by an adult. And finally, to those of you who have a pokemon, it is not to be outside of it's pokeball except during recess." The boy sitting next to Max raised his hand. "Yes Mathew." Said the teacher. "What if we don't have pokeballs?" He asked. "Then the office will supply them. Now everyone, lets have a fun and safe year."