Rating: PG, or PG-13. One of them two numbers.

Other: Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to the past we go/Jessie's ten and James is too/Hi-ho, hi-ho...

The redheaded ten-year-old stood in the middle of the common room, clutching her suitcase close to her chest. Unsure of what to do, she decided to go back to her room and unpack.

"Just leave me alone!" someone cried. "I didn't do anything to you!"

The girl turned to see where the plea had come from. A boy about her age was backed against a wall, cornered by five older boys of around twelve.

The leader of the group, a tall, muscular preteen, cracked his knuckles. "You think you're better than us, don't you? You with your prissy little clothes."

"I don't think that, I swear it!" the boy said desperately. "And I don't even like these outfits!"

"I think he needs to be taught a lesson," the big one sneered. He and his friends advanced on the younger kid.

The boy threw up his arms in self-defense, bracing himself for the blows he knew were coming.

"You leave him alone!"

He opened one eye, looking to see who had said that. A girl with bright red hair stood in front of him, fists held out menacingly. She was dressed in a plain, simple dress, with a patch on one shoulder.

"Who're you?" one of the older boys questioned.

"Jessie Smitt," she answered, not daring to drop her fighting stance. "My mom taught me how to fight; I know how to use these fists!"

"I knew I'd heard that name before!" the leader exclaimed. "Your mom's Miyamato, that Team Rocket slut."

"You shut up about my mom!" Jessie shouted.

He turned to his friends. "Y'know, they say she killed herself cuz of the living conditions at home-"

Jessie hit with lightning speed, punching him hard in the nose. "I told you to shut up!"

The older kid put a hand to his bleeding nose. "You are so dead..."

"Hey Ryan, a teacher's coming," one of his posse warned.

Ryan and the other took off down the hall to the boys' dorms. Ryan turned just before he left. "That was a mistake Smitt, a big one. You'd better watch your ass, cuz I'm gonna make dorm life a living hell for you."

"Come back for seconds anytime!" Jessie called after them. She turned to face the boy she'd saved. He was almost exactly her height, with chin-length, lavender hair and sparkling green eyes. She could see why he was a bully magnet -- his rich, fancy clothes singled him out from the other kids, and he was easily the smallest and skinniest boy there. Even so, Jessie decided he was kinda cute.

"Thanks!" he exclaimed. "I thought they were gonna beat me up again! You really showed Ryan! My name's James, and-"

"You can't let those older boys push you around!" Jessie snapped. "If you don't stand up for yourself they'll never stop!"

James' chin quivered. "I'm sorry, you shouldn't have wasted your time saving a wimp like me. They are right, I AM just a big wuss!"

Jessie sighed. "That's what I'm talking about. Don't let anything they say get to you. It's what jerks like them want."

James noticed her ratty suitcase lying abandoned in the middle of the room. "You haven't unpacked yet?"

She shook her head. "I just got here."

James picked it up, offering to help her get settled, "It's the least I can do."

The two walked down the hallway to room 122. Jessie pulled out her key, and the two walked inside. James looked around at the deserted room.

"Don't you have a roommate?"

"I enrolled late. Everyone else was already paired," she explained.

He opened her suitcase, passing her the clothes to put away. "Same here. It's probably better that way. My roomies would just be mean anyway."

When he reached the bottom of the bag, James found two shiny Pokéballs. His eyes lit up.

"You've got Pokémon?"

"I wouldn't have Pokéballs if I didn't," Jessie teased. "An Ekans and a Magnemite."

"I had a Growlithe," James said sadly. "But I'll probably never see him again."

"Did he run away?" Jessie wondered.

James brushed it off. "It doesn't matter. I'm not going back THERE anyway."

"Oh, YOU ran away," Jessie concluded. "But how'd you get into Pokémon Tech if you did that?"

"I, sorta... borrowed a credit card," he mumbled, blushing.

"You stole from your own parents?" she questioned. "You don't look like the type!"

"It's not like they needed it! They have plenty!" James justified. "It's only a Visa."

Jessie looked him over. "If you're rich, you coulda fooled me. I always heard rich kids were fat, spoiled brats."

"Most of 'em are," he muttered. "And I haven't been eating or sleeping well lately. Ryan and his gang are always hiding around the next corner." He looked up at the clock. "I'd better go. Lights out is in ten minutes."

Jessie stopped him just before he left. "Since neither of us, um, have roommates, er, would you like to stay here for the night?"

James stopped short of opening the door. He turned to look her in the eye. "You should probably know this before you get in any more trouble. I shoulda told you from the start but... I'm the biggest joke in school. Hanging out with me is like a death sentence. You'd be better off forgetting you ever met me."

"That's stupid," Jessie told him, "I don't think there's anything wrong with you. I don't care what other people say, I'll choose who my friends and enemies are."

"I really ought to go-"

"Come on," Jessie encouraged. "I need someone to talk to and you said you can't sleep well. This'll make both of us feel better."

James made one last shot to keep her out of trouble. "It's illegal."

"You don't seem to care about rules," she commented, grinning, "and neither do I. Get your sleeping bad, you're staying here."

He ran off obediently down the hall, not sure why he was listening to this girl he'd only just met. It seemed right, and he was grateful for the company.

The two talked late into the night, until finally James drifted off to sleep. Jessie rolled over on her mattress, sighing happily. Already she'd won a fight, an enemy, and a best friend.

"Not bad for a first day," she muttered, drifting off to sleep.

A week later in the lunch room Jessie and James were dumping their trays when three big twelve-year-old girls confronted them by the trash cans. James tried to go around them, but they blocked his way.

The smallest of the three, a five foot brunette, jerked a thumb at Jessie. "We heard about you. You pounded the crap outta Ryan. He's my boyfriend, ya know."

Jessie yawned. "And I care why?"

"Kicking his ass ain't easy. You're pretty tough... for a girl," Shorty admitted.

"I'm pretty tough for anyone!" Jessie said hotly.

Shorty chuckled. "Okay, yeah, whatever. Anyway, I figured since you're new and all I'd let ya hang out with me and my friends. Normally I don't give this chance to first-years, but you're special. The name's Jodie."

"I already have friends," Jessie remarked.

Jodie jerked a thumb at James "Him!?" she laughed. "Listen kid, he's not only the richest kid in the country, he's also the wimpiest. You should stay with your own kind, not people like him. So whadda ya say?"

Jessie sniffed, pushing her way through the girls with James in her wake. "No thanks. Garbage rattatas and bullies aren't exactly what I'd call 'my own kind' either. C'mon James, we need to study for the entrance exams."

"I hope Ryan beats you to a bloody pulp," Jodie yelled after the retreating figures. "It'd serve you and your boyfriend right!"

It was evening, and Jessie and James were trying to study. James doodled absent-mindedly on a piece of notebook paper.

"James?"

He looked up. "Uh-huh?"

"We're supposed to be studying for the exams, remember? You're so out of it tonight," Jessie informed him. "What's with you?"

He sighed. "I was just thinking about what Jodie said. You know, people should stay with their own kind. You don't... think that's true, do you?"

"If I did would I be sharing a room with you?" Jessie asked rhetorically. "Wars are started by people who care about something as stupid as that, not by me."

"If you started tagging along with the older girls, I'd understand," James said quietly. "Being popular is pretty important."

"I'd rather have one good friend than ten bad ones," Jessie pinched his nose, smiling. "And it's more fun teasing you."

James rubbed his nose. "Thanks, I think."

Jessie pulled a text book out from under her bed. "No problem. Now, what's the evolved form of Jigglypuff..."

A week passed, and neither Jessie nor James were stopped by Ryan or one of his group. Sometimes they would see Ryan out in the hallways, but there was always a teacher around. Ryan was waiting for the right moment, and he soon found it.

It was noon, right after lunch. Jessie and James were lounging in the den, watching TV, when Ryan stalked into the room, flanked by his gang and Jodie's.

"Smitt! Get over here!" Ryan yelled.

Jessie stood, taking a breath. She smiled weakly at James. "Well, this is it. Wish me luck."

She stalked up to Ryan, fists clenched tightly. His friends formed a circle around the battlers, grinning evilly. James nudged his way to the front, biting a nail nervously.

"Ready?" Ryan asked cockily.

"I've been ready for two weeks," Jessie said coolly. "You're the one who keeps running away."

The older boy attacked. Jessie dodged quickly out of the way, circling her opponent and looking for an opening. She skipped in to cuff him on the jaw, then jumped nimbly out of the way as he swung at her. She ducked as another punch sailed her way, then came up fast to hit him in the chin. As she backed away to escape his own fists, she tripped on the skirt of her dress and fell to the ground. Ryan was on her in a second, hitting her in the stomach and knocking the wind out of her.

"Leave her alone!" James shouted.

Ryan either didn't hear or didn't care. He aimed another blow to her eye. Jessie squeaked as the punch connected full force.

James came out of nowhere, slamming into the older boy's chest and knocking him onto the floor. James' fists flew, belting Ryan with punch after punch. He punctuated each word with a hit.

"I... said... leave... her... alone!"

It took two of Ryan's clique to pull him off and hold him back. Jodie ran up to Ryan, who was out cold. She glared at James. "You little-"

"Ms. Teanor!" a sharp voice cut through the haze James was in. He looked up.

Mr. Reynolds, the principal at Pokémon Tech, stood over the kids. He turned to James. "What happened here?"

"Jessie and Ryan were fighting," James explained, wiping sweat off his forehead. "Jessie fell, and Ryan started beating her up. I tried to help Jess, and kinda... freaked out."

"A weeks detention for you and Ms. Smitt," Mr. Reynolds ordered. He turned to Jodie and the others. "And as for you: bullying and injuring people two years younger than you is one of the most disgraceful things I've seen. Immediate expulsion for each and every one of you..."

James helped Jessie up and they snuck back to Jessie's room, giggling quietly.

James held an icepack to Jessie's swollen eye.

Jessie cursed again and again, telling James she was fine. James bit back a smile; Jessie's vocabulary was pretty vivid for a ten-year old.

"I'm sorry I got you involved in this," he apologized. "I should have fought my own battles from the very beginning."

"You're joking, right?" Jessie asked, looking at him through one eye. "That was an amazing fight! I woulda won, too, if it weren't for my stupid dress."

"I can't believe they all got expelled," James commented. "And we got off with a week's detention."

Jessie grinned mischievously. "I feel a little sorry for Ryan, don't you?"

"Why would you feel sorry for him?" James wondered.

Jessie chuckled. "He has to go home and tell his parents he got expelled for getting the living daylights beaten out of him by a ten-year old!"

The two fell against each other in helpless fits of laughter.

James and Jessie sat in class, waiting to see what their scores were on their entrance exams.

"I hope we passed," James said, twisting his hands nervously.

"What are you talking about?" Jessie asked, leaning back in her chair. "We studied so hard there's no way we didn't make it."

The principal's voice blared suddenly over the intercom. "Would Jessica Smitt and James Rosewood please report to the office? Thank you."

Jessie smiled. "Probably congratulating us on our amazing test scores."

James wasn't so sure, but he followed Jessie down the hallway and into the principal's office.

Mr. Reynolds motioned for them to sit down. Once the two were comfortable, he passed over a sheet of paper. "I've never seen this happen before, not in all my forty years of teaching."

Jessie and James grabbed the papers excitedly. Their smiles dropped when they saw their test scores. "Zero!?!"

"Every answer was wrong," Mr. Reynolds explained. "Normally I'd send you home immediately, but because of Ms. Smitt's, um, family problems, I'm giving her another chance."

James gulped. "What about me?"

Mr. Reynolds looked over his glasses at James. "Your parents called a couple days ago-they said you ran away and they tracked you by credit card. They'll be here to pick you up in a few hours."

James stood up, his face unreadable. "Thank you Mr. Reynolds. I need to go pack."

Reynolds waved a hand. "You're dismissed also Ms. Smitt."

James strode down the hallway purposefully and into Jessie's room. He'd moved all his stuff in there a long time ago. James threw everything he owned into a small, black leather suitcase.

"What are you doing? Your parents won't be here for a couple hours," Jessie remarked.

James slammed the top down. "I'm leaving-now. I'm not going back there, not after all I've done to stay away."

Jessie nodded, and started packing too. "Then I'm coming with you. I wouldn't pass the exam the second time anyway, and I'm not going back home either."

"You can't do that Jess-" James began.

Jessie glared at him. "I can do whatever I want, and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop me."

James sighed. He knew it was true. "Then hurry up. I- we-need to get moving."

Later that night out in the woods, Jessie and James sat huddled together, trying to keep warm. Neither were very good at building fires, so they had to go without one until they learned.

"I'm always dragging you in to my problems!" James exclaimed. "If I'd just fought Ryan in the first place you never would have known me and things would be much better."

"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard," Jessie snapped. "Both of us would have been friendless, lonely and bored. We wouldn't have passed the test, and you would've gone into the forest and I woulda gone back home. If anything I pulled myself into your problems."

"I guess things are better this way," James agreed. "Even if I'm still on the run."

"Let's make a pact," Jessie said suddenly. "Friends forever. Whatever happens to you happens to me."

"And the other way around," James added. They shook, sealing the deal. "For life?"

"For life."

The End (or the beginning...?)