At exactly six thirty, Lin Zhou's body clock rang. He sprang upright in bed, his bangs still tousled with sleep. Dawn was just breaking outside. The air conditioners on the walls of the old apartment building hummed, mixing with the smell of fried dough sticks wafting up from the breakfast stall downstairs. Everything was exactly like that summer when he was seventeen.
“Crap, crap, I stayed up gaming last night and almost forgot we have a placement test today...” He hurriedly pulled on his blue-and-white school uniform. He didn't even notice that he'd buttoned the collar wrong before grabbing his schoolbag and rushing out.
The motion-activated lights in the stairwell came on as he walked. In their dim yellow glow, a community notice on the wall caught his eye. It wasn't the usual water or power outage announcement. The A4 sheet bore a line of bold black text: “Friendly reminder: Wild Pidgey have recently built nests in the area's greenbelts. Please keep pets and children under supervision to avoid disturbing them.”
“Pidgey?” Lin Zhou paused. Why did that name sound so familiar? Like some kind of creature from a game? He shook his head. Maybe he was imagining things because he'd been too engrossed in gaming last night.
By the time he got to school, the warning bell for morning study had just rung. He panted as he rushed into Class 3 of Grade 11. Their homeroom teacher, Mr. Wang, was already at the podium, holding not his usual math lesson plan but a thick book with a colorful cover.
On the cover, a yellow electric mouse faced the camera and flashed a V sign. Beside it, in decorative lettering, were the words: Pokemon Basics: High School Edition.
As a Pokémon fan fiction, it's still okay.