??? P.O.V.

The sun had already set about an hour ago. As I walked, the bitter cold wind threatened to pierce through the thick winter jacket I wore. I had gone to my friend's house for a birthday party, but his parent's car had broken down, so I had to walk home.

"You should memorize my phone number just in case of emergencies!" My mom's voice echoed through my head as I remembered her advice. I frowned, thinking she was right. If I had remembered her number, I could have called her to pick me up.

But I had trouble remembering things. I almost forgot about my friend's party until the last second, accidentally and completely abandoning the present I had bought for him with my own money: several Pokémon card packs. My friend shrugged my accident away and said I could keep them—he had a large collection already.

I turned onto the block that my house was in when I noticed something. There was an ambulance parked out front of my house! I instantly became concerned for my mother and entered an all-out sprint. The wind was blowing hard against my face, causing my eyes to water slightly.

As I got closer, I could see that there was a body laying on my lawn. Thank goodness, I thought to myself as I slowed to a light jog, that it wasn't mom.

I walked into my driveway and, as I peered at the seemingly dead person that lay on my lawn, I realized it was somebody that I didn't even know. I quickly studied him. He was young, probably around my age. He wore a brown Eevee jacket and blue jeans. His eyes were closed and his somewhat short, untidy hair moved freely in the wind. His blue running shoes were well worn as if he went on a long run before collapsing on my lawn.

My mother came out of the house and looked at me with a worried face. "Hayden, there you are! Come inside before dinner gets cold." I knew that it was something other than dinner that was bothering her because I already ate at the party and she knew that.

As I went to walk inside, the boy on the lawn gasped for breath, his brown eyes shooting open. He groaned in pain as he managed to stand up. The paramedics had a surprised look on their faces.

"Sir, I must ask you to lay back down. Mrs. Thomson reported that you fell from the sky." One of the paramedics stated. Fell from the sky? If that were the case, he should be dead.

"Dang Hoopa," I managed to hear him whisper underneath his breath. Then, he looked over at the paramedics and yelled at them, clearly miffed. "Look, I'm fine! I don't have a broken bone or anything, do I?" One of the medics hesitated, then shook his head. "I thought so. In that case, leave me alone!"

Did he say Hoopa? I thought to myself. The ambulance sped off, and the boy just sat there, dazed and obviously disoriented. I walked through the door into our house and went up the stairs. I then asked my mom what had happened and, just like the paramedics, she told me that he had fallen from the sky.

"Mom, people don't just fall from the sky every day," I told her, unconvinced that what she had seen was true. She shook her head.

"He could have gone skydiving or paragliding." my mother suggested. However, I still thought she was crazy. I looked out the front window, and he was still on our lawn, but this time he must have been asleep.

I sighed. Obviously, my mom doesn't know much about sports and, unlike her, I have been paragliding. "Look, he wasn't going paragliding or skydiving. If he were going skydiving, then he would be wearing a parachute. And even if he did go without one, he'd be dead." I paused before adding, "And he couldn't have gone paragliding because there isn't a place high enough around here to do so."

My mom gave up, throwing her hands up in the air as she went into her room. I sat on the couch, grabbed a remote, and turned on the TV. The channel that it was currently on was a cooking show that my mother really liked. I pressed a button on the remote to change channels. The next one was some corny child's cartoon. I kept at this until my favorite comedy show showed up. The comedian that was on at the moment was my least favorite one, so I turned the TV off. Then, somebody knocked on the door.

I walked down the stairs and opened the door to see it was the boy. He shuffled his feet nervously before speaking. "Er... Hi. I, uh... My name is Mark. Is it, uh... Is it possible that I could stay here for the night? I don't really... have a place to stay at the moment."

I frowned slightly, wondering what mom would think about this. "I'm not quite sure... I'll have to ask my mom. By the way, my name is Hayden. Uh... You can come in for now. I don't really want to leave you out in the cold."

He followed me inside and I gestured over to the living room. He went to sit down on one of the couches as I walked over to my mom's room. As I slowly opened the door, I cringed as the hinges groan a little. I peeked my head into the room, and I could see that she was laying in bed, sleeping.

"Hey, mom," I whispered, just loud enough that she could hear. She turned her head to look at me. "You know that boy that was outside? He told me that he didn't have a place to stay. Could he sleep in my room?"

"Sure, I guess," she mumbled, turning back over. "Just make sure you don't stay up too late. You have school tomorrow."

I slowly closed the door to my mom's room, then walked back down to the living room, where Mark had nearly fallen asleep. As he heard me coming, he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"So what did your mom say?" he asked. I might just have been tired, but I thought I saw the Eevee ears on his jacket twitch impatiently. I shrugged the thought away.

"She said it was fine. Come on, I'll show you my room." I replied, heading down the stairs quietly as to not wake up my siblings or mom. We walked down the second flight of stairs. I turned to the right, then padded down the hallway several feet down, then turned to the right again, where my room was located.

It was a rather simple room, with a bunk bed at the corner farthest from the door. The walls were a plain white and the carpet was short, with varying shades of blue in it. On the wall they faced, a Pokémon poster was posted on the wall, next to the bed. A window lay to the right of the poster, with its curtains drawn. A dresser was placed snugly between the wall and the bed. On top of the dresser lay various decorations and books. To the right of the doorway we stood in, the closet door lay slightly open.

"Nice room, Hayden," Mark told me, grinning. He walked in, then, remembering that he should take his shoes off, sat on the floor and undid his laces.

I smiled, shaking my head. "Thanks," I said, "but I know other people who have a lot cooler rooms than I do."

Mark slipped the last shoe off of his right foot, then placed them next to the closet. He looked around the room, then set his eyes on the poster. It was a poster with all the Legendary and Mythical Pokémon on it.

"So... You're a Pokémon fan, right?" I asked him. Mark looked at me and shrugged.

He hesitated before answering, "I guess you could say that..." I frowned. Mark was acting as if he were keeping something from me. Again, I mentally slapped myself, telling myself that I shouldn't be so superstitious.

As I responded, I let out a long, deep yawn. "I should get to bed... I have school in the morning." I finished yawning, then went to my dresser to get some pajamas. "Uh, do you have some pajamas, or do you want to borrow some from me?"

Mark suddenly had a strange look on his face. Once again, he paused, as if he needed to be careful with what he said next. "No, I have my own clothes..." He paused, then looked around for something, "Wait a second... Where's my bag?"

I raised an eyebrow in slight suspicion. "Okay, then. You can have the top bed. I'm just going to use the restroom real quick." I left the room and headed to the other side of the hallway to the bathroom.

Either I was crazy, or Mark was hiding something. Most likely the latter. The way he hesitated whenever I asked him a question was suspicious enough, but when I saw those ears move... My eyes widened. He had also said something about Hoopa. It couldn't be..!

I finished washing my hands and hurried to my room, not bothering to make quiet steps. I swung the door open, making the doorknob on the other side slam into the door stopper. As I walked closer to Mark, who was fast asleep on the bed above mine, I shook him awake. "Mark! Mark, I need to ask you something."

Mark slightly opened his eyes and, still half-asleep, replied somewhat grumpily as he sat up so that he could establish eye contact. "What do you want?"

My nervousness came over me and, once again, I doubted my superstition. What about the moving Eevee ears? I thought to myself. I yawned. It's late and I was tired, was all I could think of.

"Hayden? You wanted to ask me something." Mark reminded me. I snapped back into reality and realized that he looked slightly annoyed that I woke him up.

I shrugged slightly. "Nevermind... I'm just going to go to bed. Good night, I guess."

I slipped into my bed and drew the blanket over me. As I closed my eyes to sleep, I started thinking... What if I was right?