It was one of those slow, quiet afternoons where time felt like it was dragging. The sky outside was gray, there was nothing good on TV, and Jake and his 17-year-old sister Neva were both lying across opposite ends of the couch in their big, comfy living room, totally glued to their phones. The only sounds were the occasional TikTok audio, the soft hum of the fan, and the lazy tapping of fingers on screens.

Neva let out a long, dramatic sigh and flopped onto her back, tossing her phone on her chest. “Bro, I’m so bored I’m literally gonna melt into this couch,” she groaned.

Jake didn’t even look up. “Same.”

Neva turned her head and looked over at him with a raised brow. Her curly hair was loose around her shoulders, and she was wearing oversized baggy jeans and a yellow crop top that said “Not Today” in bold print. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. “Wait. Let’s play Pokémon.”

Jake blinked, finally looking up. “What? Like—on our Switches?”

Neva rolled her eyes playfully. “No, genius. Like real-life Pokémon. You grab plushies or random stuff from around the house, and we pretend they’re Pokémon. We battle, we trade, we name them. Like when we were younger, remember?”

Jake laughed, sitting up a little. “Oh my god, I forgot we used to do that. You’d always name your Pokémon something ridiculous like ‘Sparkle Princess.’”

Neva snorted. “And yours were always like ‘Deathclaw’ or ‘Zapfire.’ So serious.”

Within five minutes, the living room had transformed into a makeshift Pokémon arena. Neva ran upstairs and came back with an armful of plushies—some old, some random—including a llama, a purple dinosaur, and a stuffed avocado with sunglasses. Jake brought his stash of Pokémon cards for “inspiration” and found a few action figures to add to the mix.

Neva stood tall with the llama in her hand. “I choose you, Fluffachu! Use sparkle beam!”

Jake held up a Spider-Man toy. “Go, Webjaw! Dodge and hit back with tail whip!”

They were yelling, ducking behind pillows, and pretending to throw Poké Balls made out of rolled-up socks. Even though it started as a joke, they both got way too into it—Neva was narrating her moves like a real trainer, and Jake was assigning stats and hit points to his plushies.

An hour passed before they even noticed.

Eventually, they collapsed onto the rug, breathless from laughing and pretending to fall over from attacks. Neva stared up at the ceiling, still holding the avocado plushie.

“Honestly? That was kinda fun,” she said.