The Party
After Michelle's recovery at the hospital, what is Misty up to with this "small" homecoming party. Also, what can Michelle expect from The Festival of Dragons.
Michelle and Aiden - 7 years old
Elizabeth - 1 year old
Kokum, Basil and Sage - 8 years old
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"Man, I can't wait to get home" Michelle said as Ash placed the girl in the booster seat of the car. Misty had already strapped Aiden in and was up in the front passenger's seat. Finishing up with Michelle's belt, Ash buckled Elizabeth in. The green eyed girl was simply beaming at her father who bent down and gave her a little kiss on her nose, making her giggle.
"We're happy to oblige. We've missed you a lot Shelly. Hey, what's that around your neck?" Misty asked as she looked back at the necklace her daughter was wearing. Michelle hadn't realized that she hadn't told her mom about the gift. Taking it off her neck, she handed it to Misty.
"I guess I forgot to tell you. Dawn came in last week and gave this to me." Michelle said as her mother examined the seashell shaped locket. That's when Michelle had just said sunk in.
Looking at Ash, the pair were in pure confusion. "But, but Dawn hates hospitals. Misty said silently as Ash nodded. "Well Michelle, you must mean a lot to Dawn if she came into a hospital for you." Michelle smiled as Pikachu jumped down from her lap to see why Elizabeth was whimpering.
Looking up from Lizzie's car seat, Pikachu was looking franticly for Teddi. "Pikachupi, Pika chupi Pikapika." Pikachu said as he hopped to the back of the car, ripping through the diaper bag as Elizabeth's soft whimpers grew into a loud cry.
"I hope we didn't leave Teddi at the hospital." Misty said, concerned. Aiden and Michelle tried everything to calm their sister down. Finding the small Teddiursa at the bottom of the bag, Pikachu rushed back up to where Elizabeth was sitting, and handed her the small object. Lizzie's cries stopped instantly as Misty and Ash each gave a relieved sigh.
"Good job buddy!" Ash said as Pikachu sunk in the back of the car, happy that it was finally quiet enough to take a short nap.
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As soon as the car was parked in the driveway, Michelle was out and jumping around, so excited to be home. Soon a blue Pokémon dashed past the van and jumped on top of Michelle. "Vaporeon, no!" Misty yelped as she ran to Michelle. She found the girl on her back laughing as Vaporeon licked Michelle happily.
"Mom, I'm ok." Michelle laughed as she sat up in the carpet of grass and started to pet Vaporeon. The blue Pokémon mewed softly at the girl's gentle fingers as they glided down her back. After a minute Michelle stood up and went inside.
"Surprise!" A crowd of about fifteen people yelled as they popped out from behind the various furniture. Michelle was happily astonished as Ash stared at Misty with a stunned glare.
"What?" Misty asked.
"And you say I spoil them" Ash said as Aiden scooted past the man finding a small collection of gifts on the kitchen table. Right beside them was a huge plate of sugar cookies of which Aiden was almost half way through by the time Ash got to the kitchen. "You're going to give yourself a stomachache buddy." Lifting the boy away from the reach of the table, Ash grabbed five cookies from the plate.
"I saw that young man." Delia said as she came in the back door with Tracey behind her. Being overwhelmed by the heaviness of the bags he was carrying, Tracey quickly set the bags down on the floor before giving an exhausted groan. "Thank you Tracey, you're so helpful."
"No problem, Mrs. K." Tracey said as he collapsed into the chair that was set in the corner of the room that usually was used for the twin's timeouts.
Being set down by his father, Aiden ran into the living room. Scrunching and maneuvering between clusters of people, including her twin sister Michelle, Aiden found Elizabeth in her bouncy chair flailing as she was giggling from Pikachu's funny faces. Aiden sat on the couch behind his sister as he watched her eyes light up as Pikachu changed faces.
Michelle, meanwhile felt like she was being tossed around like a plate of Christmas cookies. She now understood how her dad felt when he was bombarded with paparazzi. Everyone who was there though, were family and family friends, so she couldn't exactly blow them off. So she stayed and had small meaningless conversations with most of them.
Many just wanted to know if she was feeling better, not necessarily if she was coping well with the last two weeks. Others wanted to try and get her mind off the preceding event by talking about other topics. She was excited to have all the attention that usually now given to her baby sister. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that was off. It felt that this party was more about her than for her.
Well, that was until they got to the presents. She looked at the table where the presents. While most were small, probably gift cards to local bookstore, there were three large boxes all wrapped in silver wrapping paper, with the same shade of ruby ribbon tied on each one.
Carefully untying the red ribbon, saving it for later use, Michelle then ripped the wrapping paper on the largest box first. She gasped as she held it up to her parents eyesight. Looking back at the gift and then her grammy, she smiled. "Thank You Grammy!"
She had received a Mini-Bake oven that she could make small treats and pizzas with, of course with Misty's supervision. As she opened the smaller boxes, being careful to save the ribbon, she found two boxes each with about forty mixes to use with it, ranging from muffin mixes and pizza crusts and so on.
A few minutes later as Michelle heard a gurgling from one of the boxes, she found Lizzie crawling through the several boxes set aside. "Hey mom, dad. Look at Lizzie." Michelle squeaked as Delia looked at the small girl crawling through the boxes and giggling softly.
"Ash used to do the same thing when he was a toddler." Delia said laughing.
"Moooom..." Ash whined, blushing and quite embarrassed. Soon, he heard Misty came back into the room with a camera and took about ten shots of the toddler who stayed in the same position staring at the camera quizzically.
After a while, many of the guests left, leaving a small group of people including Brock who was helping Misty clean up. Iris, Cilan, and their kids also stayed, although neither Michelle nor Aiden knew why.
A while later Ash and Misty sat down the twins in the living room. Then, Cilan spoke. "Well, you two. We were wondering if you would like to join our tantalizing blend of flavor at the festival tomorrow?" Cilan said as he waited for the excitement of the children. Instead all he got were confused looks.
Iris quickly slapped his knee, making the man squeal. "Sweetie, they don't understand what your asking." Iris said as she turned from her husband. "Do you guys want to come to the Dragon Festival with us tomorrow?" The looks Cilan was expecting at first now jumped onto their faces.
"Yes! Can we mommy, can we!?" Aiden asked with the cute Teddiursa eyes he only used when he desperately wanted something. Misty giggled at the twins pleading faces.
"Of course you can. That was the plan all along." Misty said with a smile as Ash looked at her confused. "I've been planning this since Michelle woke up that night." Ash sighed, knowing Misty had a way with these things.