Chapter Three
"Alina get up. Alina! Wake your lazy butt up!" Blaze was yelling at Alina, but all Alina did was mumble and roll over.
Suddenly, Alina's alarm clock rang loudly, and Alina jumped up with a start, "Wha… What happened," Alina said, rubbing her eyes and smoothing down her crazy red hair.
"Alina, today is the day you hang out with Lan, Maylu, Dex, and Yai," Blaze said impatiently.
"Oh, right," Alina said with a yawn. She hopped out of bed and got dressed. She walked down the stairs, entering the kitchen and being greeted by chocolate chip pancakes.
"Good morning sweetie," Alina's mom said, placing a plate of pancakes in front of her.
"Morning Mom," Alina said through a mouthful of pancake. Alina finished quickly and gave her mom and dad hugs by before heading out the door on her skateboard.
She had reached the town, but on a Saturday morning, it was pretty busy. "Blaze, where did they say to meet them?" Alina asked Blaze, slowly rolling along down the sidewalk.
"I think they said the flower shop, but I'm not sure where that is," Blaze said, pulling up the map of the town, looking through it fruitlessly.
"Maybe you should ask someone before you get totally lost," Blaze suggested cheerfully.
Alina sighed, but walked up to a guy and tapped him on his shoulder, "Excuse me but could you point me to the… huh," When the boy turned around, Alina was surprised to see the boy she had almost ran over the day before.
"Oh it's you," The boy turned to look at her, sticking his hands in his camo pants, looking blankly at her with his big baby blue eyes.
Alina didn't like his tone, but she politely spoke, "Could you tell me the way to the flower shop," She asked.
The boy humphed, like he was someone important, "Whatever, it's down that street and to the left. Now go away," The boy went to turn, but Alina stopped him.
"Look, I'm sorry about yesterday and almost hitting you," She said apologetically.
All he did was 'humph' and walk away. Alina's cheeks puffed up and she narrowed her eyes. "Arrogant brat," She mumbled before pushing off and going in the direction the boy had pointed out.
Sure enough, the flower shop came into view, plots of flowers beautifully arranged on display shelves. Alina picked up her skateboard, "Well, looks like this is it," Blaze nodded in agreement as Alina pushed through the door into the shop.
Whenever she walked in, she saw a girl with long green hair watering the flowers. "Welcome to my flower shop, how may I help you," She asked kindly, setting down the watering can.
"Oh, umm, hi. I'm here to meet some friends. I hope this is the right flower shop," Alina said, more to herself than to the girl.
"Oh, well then have a seat. I'm Sal," Sal shook Alina's hand and brought her some tea.
"So, who are you waiting for?" Sal asked, sitting down with her own cup of tea.
"Umm, Lan, Maylu, Yai, and Dex. They were supposed to show me around today," Alina said uncomfortably.
Sal seemed nice, but Alina just didn't like being around people that much, they made her nervous. It made her feel claustrophobic and trapped, so she tried to avoid people.
"Oh, so you're friends with Lan, that's good to hear. Well then, know you're in good hands," Just then a customer came in and Sal had to help them.
"Hey Blaze, do you think you could find MegaMan or Glide or someone and see where they're at," Blaze nodded and ported into the net.
A few minutes later, a video stream from Lan came in, "Hey Alina, sorry we're late, but Maylu and Yai stayed to get some facial thing and Dex was repairing GutsMan, so I guess we get to tour alone. I'll be there in just a few minutes," He said.
"That's okay, take you're time," Alina told him. The video stream disconnected and Alina sat and waited...and wait…and waited, until finally, the door opened and Lan came in, taking off his roller blades.
"Hey Alina, sorry I'm so late, but all the guys bailed on me and Yai dragged Maylu into her pampering thing," Lan said, a goofy grin on his face.
"Oh that's okay. I don't mind waiting. I got to meet Sal and I learned a lot about flowers," Alina smiled at Sal, who had sat back down and had a discussion with Alina about all the different flowers.
"Oh, hi Sal," Lan said to his friend and fellow net battler. He walked over to the table, "So Alina, ready to go?" He asked.
Alina stood up and nodded her head, "Yea, let's go," Alina pushed her chair back in, thanking Sal for the tea and saying farewell, following Lan out the door.
"So, what do you want to see first?" Lan asked as the walked down the street, his hands behind his head looking sideways at Alina.
"Well, I guess something cool. I don't really know what's here, only the things to and from school," Alina said, walking the same way.
Lan thought for a moment, "I know, I'll introduce you to Mesa," Lan said, hitting his fist into his palm.
As they went along, they finally saw the fish merchant at his stand. "Howdy there Lan. Been gettin' enough calcium?" The old man asked.
Mesa had a bald head and a thin mustache. HE had a beer gut, or in this case, a fish gut. He wore an apron with a pink fish on it and a white bandana.
"Hey there, Mesa. Just thought I would introduce you to my new friend. Mesa, this is Alina Micah, and Alina this is Mesa," Lan said giving the introduction.
"Pleased to meet you," Alina bowed her head politely.
"Pleasure's all mine," Mesa said, shaking Alina's hand. "A firm handshake, that is a sure sign of plenty of calcium. Way to go kid," Mesa said happily,
"Well, I must be off. If you ever need any fish, give me a call," Mesa got on his bike cart and wheeled away leaving Alina and Lan to ponder what to do next.
"Hey MegaMan, you got any ideas on what we can do?" Lan asked, pulling out his PET.
"You could always go to the battle arena at the arcade. That's always fun," MegaMan suggested.
"Oh, that does sound like fun," Blaze piped in. Alina took out her PET and looked at Blaze.
"So how 'bout it. You wanna go watch some net battles," Blaze agreed eagerly and Alina and Lan set off towards the arcade.
"Hey Lan, do you mind if I get some ice cream, I'm kinda hungry." Alina asked, her cheeks a little pink from embarrassment.
"Now that you mention it, I'm kinda hungry too," Lan stated, putting his hand on his tummy.
"Lan you're always hungry," MegaMan laughed. "Same for Alina," Blaze laughed too as they pained the ice cream vendor and walked off.
"Oh shut it," Alina said stubbornly. This caused everyone, even Alina to start laughing.
"Huh," Lan stopped laughing and looked ahead of him. "Is that Chaud?" Alina took the ice cream away from her face and looked to where Lan was looking.
In the arcade building, the boy with the black and white hair was battling another kid and seemed to be beating him pretty bad. And he didn't even look like he was trying.
"Who is that?" Alina asked, curious of whom this boy she kept running into was.
"That's Chaud Blaze, vice president of BlazeQuest, Yai's family's rivals. My net battling rival," Lan said.
"Wow," Alina was suddenly very relieved that she didn't hit someone so important.
Lan and Alina walked into the arcade, pushing there way to the front of the crowd. Chaud's net navi looked just as cool and important as he did. He wore a purple suit with black stripes on the side, a black visor and red plates on his arms, chest and head and long silver hair.
"Who is his net navi?" Alina asked in Lan ear. Lan looked hard at his rival.
"That's ProtoMan. He's super fast and super strong. He's a master with swords and the only other person who can perform the Program Advance," Lan said, his eyes still stuck on the battle.
"Program Advance?" Alina asked. The battle wasn't really a battle, more of just ProtoMan easily dodging the attacks the other navi threw at him. It looked like ProtoMan wasn't even trying.
"The most advanced program a net navi can use. It is almost unbeatable," Lan looked at Chaud almost remorsefully.
Finally, after Chaud getting bored, ProtoMan made the other navi log out it one swipe of his sword. Chaud sighed, shoving his hands down into his pockets and turned to walk away, but stopped when he saw Lan and Alina.
"So what, are you stalking me now?" He directed at Alina, but didn't give her time to answer, instead shifting his attention to Lan. "So, you have another girlfriend do you? What ever happened to Maylu?" Chaud asked, his tone arrogant.
Alina was pissed, but Lan didn't look too happy either. "Alina is not my girlfriend, and neither is Maylu," He said, his voice forcibly calm.
Chaud did his little 'humph' thing before saying "whatever" and walking away.
"Oh my fucking gosh, I have never met suck a boy who has irked me so badly," Alina said through gritted teeth.
Lan turned away, his shoulders jerking like he was laughing. "What is so funny?" Alina said, anger still tinting her voice.
Lan laughed out loud now. "Irked? He irks you? What is irk?" He asked laughing. Alina looked at him for a moment, before giving a little giggle herself.
The rest of the tour went nicely, Lan showing her the rest of the town without any more chinks, and ended the day by eating and ice cream by the river watching the sun set. "I've had a lot of fun today," Alina said, laying back and laying on her hands.
"Me too," Lan said doing the same.
Later, Lan walked Alina home, saying a polite hello to Mr and Mrs Micah, before going home. Alina then happily went to bed, to sleep away the next day in lazy haze that consisted of internet battling late and sleeping even later.