Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
---
It was four o' clock in the afternoon, according to the analog clock on the wall. I'd entered the little restaurant at noon, and was quite impressed with my ability to stretch three sandwiches, a large soda, and a small order of fries into a four-hour period. I would have just stuck with one sandwich and a soda, but after half an hour of sitting at the table and staring at the clock the manager told me that I was going to have to order something or get out. I still wasn't really mentally prepared to leave, so I chose the former.
Why hadn't I just left when I was asked? I was scared, to tell the truth. Cracker was not going to be happy about being lifted a foot off the ground this morning. Ever since Ursaring Boy (I never did catch his name) dropped me off at the post office with orders to be careful, the pokéball holding the stupid creature had been rattling nonstop. For a while I had been worried that he might be able to break out without my permission, but by this point I figured that if he had the ability to leave by himself, he would have done it a long time ago. I could have walked, but I wouldn't have gotten home until tomorrow, and I couldn't afford Mom overreacting and sending out a search party again. I'll never understand how a woman willing to send her only child on a journey across the country gets so panicked if I get home late.
I stared defiantly at the bite of sandwich still on my plate. I'd officially spent every cent I'd brought with me now, so as soon as I finished this sandwich I would have to face the music. I was distracted by a female voice behind me.
"Your hair is green."
I nearly jumped completely out of my seat. I don't like being startled, okay? As I turned around, I was completely expecting to see a kid standing behind me. That's the kind of off topic, unnecessary observation you'd expect from, say, an 8-year-old. So I was kind of surprised to see a girl older than me holding a zigzagoon to her chest. If I was going to make a rough estimation, I'd say she was about five foot ten- in other words, a lot taller than a relatively short person like me. She had strawberry blonde hair and dark blue eyes, and for the most part looked completely normal.
"I'm sorry?" I asked. Maybe I'd misunderstood what she was saying.
"Your hair is green," She repeated. Well, it was true. Lst year I had died my hair green as an act of rebellion. My mom was upset for a few days, but then she realized that dying your hair green is a trend a lot of top Pokémon trainers had been following lately, and she decided that I must be trying to imitate them, which made her incredibly happy. That almost made me mad enough to dye it back, but the color had started to grow on me, so I decided just to ignore her.
Still, I didn't see why this girl felt the need to tell me that. After a few seconds of waiting, to make sure she wasn't planning on adding anything, I decided she expected an answer.
"Well, your hair is blonde. So there." Darn, I'm clever.
The girl made an expression somewhere between a grimace and a smile. Then she dropped her zigzagoon to the floor (without any warning. I couldn't help but feel sorry for it as it hit the ground hard) and stuck her hand out. "Sorry, I've made a bad first impression again, haven't I? I'm Lux."
I shook her hand (what else could I do, without seeming rude?), but I didn't really feel like giving my name out to somebody I still wasn't sure was exactly sane. Instead, I changed the subject. "Your pokémon…"
She seemed to notice it for the first time. She glared at it for a few seconds, and then shook her head. "He's not mine. I mean, I caught him two days ago, but tomorrow I'll let him go and find another one." She brightened up. "I figure that if I keep doing that for long enough, I'll have an entire wild zigzagoon colony loyal to me!"
Maybe I was just hurting myself by participating in this conversation at all, but I couldn't help it, seriously. "But what good is a colony of wild zigzagoons gonna do you?"
The girl (Lux, I suppose, but that's such a ridiculous name, and I feel like a fool calling anybody by it) had slid herself into one of the chairs at my table and was in the process of calling a waiter over, but something about my comment (maybe the fact that she'd found somebody crazy enough to have this discussion with her) made her turn around and stare at me with a somewhat more serious expression than before. "Well, the zigzagoons are just a test. I mean, if you can do it with any pokémon, it makes sense to start with a group as stupid and trusting as them. Next I'm gonna do staravias." She must have seen my confusion, although I guess she misinterpreted it. "They're a type of pokémon from the Sinnoh region. I take it you don't travel much."
I only took the time to hear the first sentence before deciding to ignore the rest of her comment. When I worked it out in my head, it sounded disturbingly like a step-by-step plan to build a mind-controlled army and take over the universe, and I decided I had been watching too much TV.
For a few minutes we sat in an awkward silence (well, it was awkward for me. Lux was humming and swinging her legs back and forth as she waited for her meal, which I guess she'd forgotten that she never ordered.) Suddenly, completely without warning, Lux stood up, eyes wide. "Oh, no, not again! I got distracted again, didn't I? No, no, no, no, no…" I don't even know whom she was talking to (I certainly hope it wasn't me, because I had no idea what she was talking about) but she was digging in her purse with such fervor it was scary, throwing things every which way.
I decided to do the humane thing. "Um, sorry? Can I help you… with whatever you're doing?"
She ignored me, and kept digging in her purse. For the first time in this entire scene (I swear, I hadn't thought about it before. Walking out on people is rude) I considered just leaving her to her purse and her zigzagoon that she didn't even like. But then I remembered Cracker, and decided to stick with the lesser evil.
Finally, she emerged from her bag with three things. One looked like a credit card, in a way, but it had Lux's picture and name (it just said LUX, which was weird, because don't they need a last name for these official kinds of things?) and a bunch of numbers that made no sense to me. The other one looked suspiciously like a business card, although it was bent completely out of shape. The third was a photo. Lux was looking back and forth from me to the photo.
I stood up. "Listen, I'm sorry, I have to go-" I turned to walk away, but before I'd gotten a foot away from the table Lux had grabbed my wrist.
"No you don't." Her voice was different. It was steely now, without the childishness it had had just a few seconds ago. "I watched you sit here for three hours. If you had somewhere to go you would have left by now, right?" Now, that doesn't sound stalkerish or creepy in the least. "Now, listen- stop that-" I'd just kicked her in the shin, but apparently this girl was made of steel, because she didn't even wince. Instead, her hold on my wrist tightened. "Listen, I just need to talk to you, okay?"
I shook my head, because obviously she was lying. People do not stalk other people for hours because they just want to talk to them.
Lux examined the empty restaurant, apparently judged that there was nobody around to see her threatening a poor, innocent kid (and where had the waiter gone, anyway? Was she paying him to stay away from this?), and then hissed in my ear, "Listen, if I planned on killing you I could have let Maj loose a long time ago." Oh, that was comforting. But the mention of killing immediately drained all of the defiance in me.
I let out an exaggerated sigh, then said in the most bored way I could manage (I was scared out of my mind, but she didn't need to know that), "Fine. I'll listen. Just make it quick. I've got things to do, people to see."
Lux smiled (happy Lux was back. Gosh, how moody was this chick?). Then she launched into her sales spiel. I only caught bits and pieces, because she talked faster than my brain could interpret, but I think I caught the gist of it. She worked for a company called PTTNI (Pokémon Trainer Traveling Necessities Incorporated), and I'd probably heard of them (I had, and I'd always thought the name was ridiculous, but she didn't let me interrupt to tell her so), but she specifically worked for a section called the TSP (Trainer Sponsorship Program), which sponsored beginning trainers, and made sure they had proper adult supervision, and bought their supplies for them without any cost to said beginning trainer, but in return the trainer had to pay the TSP half of his/her winnings, and Lux really needed to add one more trainer to meet her quota for the year, and no, she hadn't procrastinated, but one of her trainers had quit yesterday, and she knew I wasn't a trainer already because if I was why would I have been using that insane rapidash that obviously wasn't mine this morning, and so I should help her out by signing up for the program.
After Lux had finished, I stared at her for a few seconds, completely at a loss for what to say. I settled with, "That was the longest run-on sentence I have ever heard." Then I started to walk out.
She caught up with me a few steps later, but luckily she didn't grab my arm again. She did whine, though. "But…" I had a feeling this was the point where most people would go, "But, Becca…" in the most annoying voice they could manage, but I'd never told her my name. "But, why not?" Did she really have to push the subject like that?
I don't know why I said what I did next. It was extremely stupid of me. I can only say that I was out of my mind with exhaustion by this point, after having to deal with not only a long trip with Cracker but a half hour talk with this girl, plus the promise of a long walk back home (by this point I'd decided that I just couldn't deal with Cracker again today, even if I didn't get home until tomorrow. "I don't even like pokémon! Isn't it bad enough that I have to deal with Mom telling me to start on some stupid journey at home, without strangers in other cities nagging me?" I was yelling by this point, but I didn't care. There was nobody in the restaurant to hear, anyway. If I'd paid attention I would have noticed that Lux had stopped following me after the second sentence.
---
I woke up to sounds of conversation downstairs. For several minutes I stayed in bed, still half asleep. After all, it was only- I checked the clock- it was only seven o' clock on a Sunday morning. Then I sat up. Talking. Talking, downstairs. My mom and I are the only ones in the house. Who in the world would be talking, downstairs, in our house?
Any thoughts of having a nice, peaceful day at home were dashed as my mom called. "Becca! Rebecca, get down here! We've got a visitor!"
