Sunnytown, for its name, was a very dark place.

        Especially in winter.  The sky was quilted with dark clouds, blocking any sunlight that might try to seep through.  The air was icy; not the powdery, fluffy snow, but more like frozen rocks.  The ground's surface was very hard to walk on, let alone run.  And he had to run.  He had to escape from the monster chasing him, the red haired little girl with an Oddish in her arms.

        "Come back!" she cried.  "I haven't finished teachin' you the proper way to eat spaghetti!"

        In his frantic attempt to escape her, he slipped on the hard ice.  "I wanna do things my way, Jezebelle!" he wailed, struggling to his feet and continuing to run.  James Stuart, son of the famous Stuarts of Sunnytown, had recently been betrothed to the little aristo-brat Jezebelle, only daughter of another local family.  In accordance with their families' customs, she had moved onto the vast Stuart estate and proceeded to make his life miserable.  His parents, of course, didn't care.  All they cared about was their precious Stuart dynasty.

        He wanted to run away.  He wanted to break through the gates and get out of Sunnytown and run far away.  He grinned, an idea taking shape in his mind, and he whistled for his dog Growly.  The tiger-striped puppy was at his side in an instant, yapping happily.

        "Growly," he whispered, "I don't want to be here anymore.  Help me get away from Jezebelle!"  The dog barked once in understanding and turned around while its master beat a trail to the gate at the end of the long driveway.  Only after he passed through it did he look back.

        Growly was running for him, leaving behind a charred little debutante.  James laughed and waited for his Growlithe to catch up, then the two of them ran from the estate for good.

        They were far away before they heard Jezebelle's voice again:  "Come back!  You're not runnin' properly!"

        She had tried.  That was all that mattered.  She repeated it over and over to herself, but didn't believe it.  I tried, Mommy, she thought, burying her head in the sleeves of her patched orange jacket. And I would have stayed...

   Out of the pocket of her yellow dress, she pulled a small photograph.  It showed a boy with dark blue hair.  He was wearing a white soccer uniform and had a smug, arrogant grin on his face.*I would have stayed if it wasn't for him.  The boy's mom had been a volunteer at the orphanage, and he had come one day after school.  Every little ten-year-old girl there had gotten a crush on him and giggled behind his back, afraid to say it to his face.

            Every little girl except Jessica Lillis.

        She had been raised to speak her mind, and that was exactly what she did.  She told him how she felt, right in front of everyone.  He had laughed at her.  Everyone had laughed at her.  She had cried and she ran out of the orphanage, forgetting her promise to her mother that she would stay there.  And that was how she had gained her new view on life.  Boys are stupid, she thought, and pocketed the picture.

        A strange sound came from outside her tiny shack in front of the church.  It was a mournful noise, a howl.  The howl of a dog.  She listened carefully, reluctant to leave the safety of the shack just yet.  No, it wasn't just a dog.  It was a Growlithe.  She smiled and leapt to her feet, pushing aside the tattered cloth curtain that served as a door, and ran out into the falling snow.

        Sure enough, a Growlithe was crouched over a small bundle of something she couldn't identify through the snow.  She moved towards it, but the dog sensed her presence and turned to run away.  "No!" Jesse cried out.  "It's okay, I won't hurt you!"  Her foot hit the bundle, and she fell over it.

        Looking back, she realized that it wasn't just a bundle, but a small boy, about her own age.  His hair was shoulder length and pale blue, and the color matched his frozen lips.  She forgot her generalization that all males were morons and pulled the boy out of the snowbank, dragging him the short distance to her home.

        The shack was about six by six feet, big enough to lay the boy in the corner, sit by him, and still have enough room to build a campfire.  The dilapidated old shed was usually used for the church's Nativity scenes, but Christmas was over now.  She had spent the holiday without her mother in the orphanage, and Santa Claus had stolen her favorite doll.*  It had been a bad year for her.

        Jesse started a fire with her last match and firewood from the church.  The boy looked so cold that she pulled off her own jacket and used it to cover him.  "You don't ever fall asleep in the snow," she murmured.  "Don't you know that?"  He was still alive, but barely, and the blue suit under his gray jacket suggested that he was from an upper class family.  He seemed too nice to be a rich snob, though, she noted, smiling down at him.  She wondered why he had been out in the snow.

        She could see the color returning to his face, and she pulled his head into her lap so he would be closer to the fire.  She began to hum a song that her mother used to sing to her.  It was only a matter of time before her new friend woke up.

        James heard soft humming and was afraid to open his eyes.  He knew that he was dead, that he had frozen in the snow outside a church on the other side of Sunnytown, and that the humming sound was the singing of an angel.  He had wanted to get way from his family, not die.  "Wake up," a voice whispered when the humming stopped.  In spite of his fear, he opened his eyes.

        A red-haired girl stared down at him with violet blue eyes.  He was sure he had seen her somewhere before, but he couldn't place it.  Nothing was making sense; he remembered falling down in the snow outside of that church, staring up at a stained glass window and knowing that he would die, telling Growly that the angels were coming for him.*  Now, he gazed up at an apparently real girl.  "Are you an angel?" he asked quietly.  The words scraped his throat.

        The girl laughed.  "No, I'm not."
        "Then... then I'm not dead?"

        "You almost died."  She smiled again.  "Your Growlithe was howling.  I went to see what was wrong, and I tripped over you."

        The haze of sleep was clearing away.  "You saved my life, then?"  She nodded, and he smiled at her gratefully.  "Then you are an angel."  A new realization hit him, and he started to look frantically around the shed.  "If you found me because of Growly, where is he now?"

        "He ran away when he saw me."

        James scrambled to his knees and tried to get away, but the red-haired girl pulled him back down and held him until he stopped struggling.  "I have to leave!" he protested.  "Growly would've gone to get help!  They'll find me!"

        "You can't go back in that storm," she snapped sensibly.  "You aren't better yet.  If you go out, you might really die."  Something in her voice convinced him that she was right, and he calmed down.  "I won't let them find you," she promised, even though it was impossible for her to know about Jezebelle and his parents.  Her fingers combed through his hair to dry it out by the fire, and he slowly relaxed.  "My name is Jesse," she said softly.

        "I'm James."  He purposely left out his last name.
        "So... what were you doing out in the snow?"

      His eyes opened.  Could he tell her?  She had saved his life, so he could probably trust her.  "I ran away from home," he admitted, and one of her eyebrows shot up.  "Mom and Dad wanted to turn me into a 'gentleman.'  They wouldn't let me just be myself.  So I ran away."  He wasn't sure why he had edited out his fiancee, but he decided not to bring her up.  "What about you?  Why are you here by yourself?"

        The question hit a nerve.  His rescuer bit her lip and turned her head away a little.  "I never met my dad, and I don't know what happened to my mom.  She got a job for Team Rocket last year, right before the old boss's son took over.  She sent her to find Mew, and I never saw her again.*

        James felt sympathetic and guilty at the same time.  He was so inconsiderate for complaining about his parents when she didn't even have any.  "I'm sorry, Jess... Don't you have any friends or relatives you could live with?"

        She shook her head.  "I don't have any more family that I know of.  And... I don't have any friends."

        "None at all?"  Again, she shook her head.  "Sure you do!"
        "No, I don't."

        "You do now."  He stretched his hand up towards her.  She stared at him for a moment, then smiled and grabbed his hand.

        "Double trouble time, right, James?"
        He blinked.  "What?"

        "It was something Mom used to do," she explained.  "It's a promise that we'll always be together, no matter what happens to either of us."

        "Sounds great to me, Jess."*

        The week went on, and Jesse grew more glad with each day that she had found James in the snow.  She rediscovered the fun of snowball fights and winter, and for a while forgot about how poor she really was.  James had some money, and she used it to buy food so he wouldn't have to eat snow.*  He said he couldn't be seen outside or he would be turned in to his parents.  She had seen the missing person posters hanging all over Sunnytown, but never gave them a second glance.

        Every night, Jesse and James would sit by the campfire and tell each other a little more about their lives.  He told her about Growly, and she told him about her mother.  Sometimes they imagined what it would be like to go on a Pokémon journey together, since they were both ten and old enough to go on trainer's leave.  Jesse revealed that she had always wanted an Ekans, and her friend promised that one day, when he was rich, he would buy one for her.  They were completely inseparable.

        Until the next month, at least.

        They were sitting around the fire, talking, just as they always did, when Jesse noticed a flash of light through the curtain door.  Headlights.  She stood and peered out to see a long black limousine outside the church.  James saw it over her shoulder.  "They're here," he whispered in horror.  "My parents are here to take me home."  Jesse frowned, and he recognized her look of determination.  "Don't go out there, Jess!"  He grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.  "If they find you, they won't be too happy, especially since you look so much like-- well, never mind, but I want you to promise me something, okay?"

        "Okay..."

        "Go back to the orphanage.  I know you had a hard time there, but at least you'll be safe... and I'll know where to find you again one day."

        "James--"
        "Please, Jess?"  He kissed her cheek.  "Double trouble time?"
        A tear fell down her cheek into the icy dirt.  "Double trouble time.  I promise."

        He left, and she watched him get in the limo and disappear into the snowy haze.  "Double trouble time," she whispered again, touching the place on her cheek where he had kissed her.