Scarlet pulled a rope. It rang, but people still rushed away, going to do other things.
The three had gone to the closest pokemon center they could find that wasn't full, along with Ava. They came across several centers, apparently several had mysteriously appeared and people blamed the alternate universes for them. All the centers were essentially the same, people rushing around, a few chansies here and there, and a large crowd of trainers trying to get rooms and heal pokemon. The only difference in this center was that there were slightly fewer people and that all the doors were made of thin Japanese styled sliding paper that left little room for privacy.
After a long wait of five minutes that could have been eternity to the group, someone finally came to greet them. Scarlet recognized that someone.
"Sofia?" Scarlet inquired.
Sofia nodded. She had her espeon and umbreon out next to her on either side, and Scarlet doubted she would have remembered the girl if she had not seen the pokemon.
Sofia smiled, "I got a job here for a while. It's temporary, but the center needed help," Sofia turned to address her pokemon, "Didn't they?"
The espeon, Espy, if Scarlet remembered correctly, mewed in response and the umbreon, Twilight, stared and nodded silently. Sofia's smile grew broader.
"Do you need a room?" Sofia asked.
"Yeah, that's why we came here," Scarlet said.
"Follow me," Sofia said, and she turned to the right and walked into a hallway of the center, walking down it with her two pokemon following diligently after.
The group all crowded into the hall at once, while a few trainers that had just come in also took the rope and rang the bell, they were staring at the group with jealousy in their eyes.
The group had to dodge people crowding through the hall to get to another section of the center and was pushed to the side often, just keeping up with Sofia enough to be able to keep her in sight. Sofia was right at home in the place and was doing well, keeping a steady pace, while swerving every so often to let someone pass by.
Sofia finally stopped, letting the group have a few seconds to catch up to her where she was standing by a sliding door.
"Here's your room," she said cheerily, pushing the door open and letting them inside, "Now I have to get back to work, but everything you need should be in there," then she closed the door and was gone.
Mitsuko was the first to set her backpack down near a wall and look around the room dejectedly, "There aren't any beds."
"No, it's just all Japanese style, the beds are all folded up in closets in the day time, we have to get them out," Scarlet said as she looked at the tatami adorning the ground.
"Where are they?" Ava asked.
"In a closet, probably," Scarlet said after some thought.
"Like this one?" Ralph asked he was pulling back a cupboard with a sliding frame similar to the doors.
"Yeah, maybe," Scarlet walked to Ralph and started pulling out cots and blankets from the cupboard.
"Help me," she beckoned to the others, they rushed to her aid.
"It's pretty easy, take the cot thingy, unfold it, lay it on the ground and cover yourself with the blanket," Scarlet said demonstrating how to set up the beds.
Mitsuko grimaced when she saw the bed Scarlet made, "You mean we have to sleep on the ground?"
"That's right, and no complaining. You're the only one in the family that doesn't do it," Scarlet said.
"It's like a sleeping bag," Ava said, she had set up her bed after Scarlet and had released Bloom from her ball, who was cuddling up in the blankets happily.
"I guess it might be…." Mitsuko said, she started setting up her own bed and Ralph was helping her. Mitsuko was an expert at getting tangled in blankets and Ralph knew this.
"Hey, Scarlet, why do you know so much about Japanese culture?" Ralph asked.
"Because our family is Japanese," Scarlet said, pointing to Mitsuko and herself.
"You are?" Ava looked at them questioningly.
"Yeah, we're cousins. Her parents don't like Japan much, but I visit every once and a while," Scarlet said.
Ava looked at Scarlet and Mitsuko carefully, "You don't look Japanese at all."
"It's because we weren't the first generation to come here, so we have mixed heritage," Scarlet said.
"Yeah, it's our great grandparents that are in Japan, and they can't travel, so I've never met them," Mitsuko cut in, "Scarlet's the one who knows Japan."
Ava nodded then turned to Scarlet, "Can you teach me?"
"Sure," Scarlet said, she was used to being asked this, after a few years of Mitsuko constantly telling everyone she met about Japan and Scarlet knowing the language dozens of people asked her to teach them over the years. Scarlet didn't know if it was because of her teaching ability, or because of people loosing interest, but she never got anyone to learn more than two words.
"I think we should get to bed," Ralph said, he was checking his watch.
"Alright, but I want top bunk!" Mitsuko screamed and launched herself into her mess of blankets.
The rest followed with less enthusiasm and slipped into their own beds, with Ralph turning the light off when no one else wanted to walk over to the switch.
Ava rubbed her eyes and proceeded in typing things into her laptop with her one free hand. Bloom was lying next to her feet, and halfway under her chair, the sombrero was perched on top of Bloom's head and it was hard to tell whether Bloom was awake or sleeping. Either way Ava didn't want to disturb her.
"Hi!" Mitsuko squealed heartily, sliding an extra-large cup of coffee to Ava with so much force it nearly toppled over.
"Oh, hi," Ava said, glancing from her laptop to Mitsuko then back to her laptop again.
"So, what are you doing?" Mitsuko asked, leaning over Ava's shoulder to look at the bright laptop screen.
"Looking up a few things. We're probably going to be here for a long time, and I want to look for a job."
"Oh," Mitsuko said, then she went away in the direction where Ralph was trying to precariously juggle breakfast food. She didn't seem to want to think about jobs.
The next person to come was Scarlet. She was carrying a tray of food smaller than the one Ralph had had, and was balancing a small pitcher of orange juice and a disgruntled looking Tekka in her arms.
"Tekka lost her mascara, have you seen it?" Scarlet asked as she pushed the food tray on the table Ava was sitting at.
"No," Ava answered.
Scarlet sat down, planting Tekka and the pitcher on the table, "Oh, what are you doing?"
Ava sighed and passed her laptop to Scarlet.
"So you want to be a professor?" Scarlet asked.
Ava shrugged, "Maybe, it's something to be if training doesn't work," she said though inside she was already imagining all the things she could do as a professor, the children's faces as she would hand them their first ball, the thousands of pokemon that she would be taking care of, the research she would do….
"It looks like a good job, but you'll need to pass a test to become one," Scarlet passed back Ava's laptop and whipped her own laptop out of her backpack and started typing into it at a furious pace.
"All the jobs require everyone to pass tests," Ava said.
Scarlet looked up from her typing, "Really?"
"Really."
"Oh," Scarlet closed her laptop and placed it back into her backpack, "Even to be a gym leader?"
"I think so," Ava said, "but the test is just beating a government employee's pokemon to show that you have some skill in battling."
Scarlet smiled, "I can do that."
"Why? Do you pl-," Ava was interrupted by Mitsuko and Ralph arriving at the table.
Mitsuko slammed a tray she had been carrying down on the table with a loud 'thunk'. Ralph put his tray on the table and sunk into a chair in relief.
"These things are heavy!" Mitsuko said.
"That's because you got so much food," Scarlet replied, she was eyeing a piece of chocolate covered toast moodily, and trying to keep Tekka from eating it at the same time.
"Come on, it's not that much. We need to take food with us anyway."
"I doubt that a cream filled donut is going to survive on the road," Scarlet said.
"It might," Ralph tried defending Mitsuko weakly. He was rewarded by a smile from Mitsuko and a death glare from Scarlet.
Scarlet sighed, "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Mitsuko smiled triumphantly and dug into her tray along with Tekka and Ralph. Scarlet sighed again in response.
"Are you coming with us or taking the test?" Scarlet asked Ava, who had gone back to her laptop.
"I'm not sure…..where are you going?"
"Probably the other regions the government told us about," Scarlet said after some thought.
"You mean the one they mentioned in the video earlier?" Ava asked.
"Yeah, but I don't know where we could find a dock to get on a boat," Scarlet replied.
"Wait one second," Ava pressed a few buttons on her laptop, "there's one in Olivine."
"I guess that's where we're going," Scarlet said, then she looked back to Mitsuko and Ralph, who were focused on their food and were oblivious to the conversation going on at the other side of the table, "or at least I am."
Ava nodded, "Well, I have to go to Pallet to take the test."
"When will you go?"
"Probably this afternoon, as soon as I get my supplies," Ava said.
"Oh," Scarlet's face fell, "So I guess this is going to be good bye?"
"Only for a short time, I'm going to travel after the test. I might not even become a professor, I might just stay a trainer, but there are already so many out there…." Ava trailed off as she looked into the crowds hurrying by their table, all of them looked like trainers.
"Yeah…." Scarlet said, also watching the trainers go by and disappear from sight.
"Hey, Earth to you two!" Mitsuko shouted from across the table, she was stuffing candy and the remainder of her breakfast into her backpack, Scarlet sighed at the sight.
"What?"
"We have to get going if we want to get to Olivine before we all grow old!"
Scarlet was taken back by Mitsuko's answer. She hadn't thought that Mitsuko actually listened to anything while she was eating.
"Where?" Ralph and Tekka asked simultaneously, apparently they couldn't multi-task as well as Mitsuko.
"We're going to Olivine and going to the new region, or whatever," Mitsuko said.
"We have to get supplies soon," Scarlet said as she picked up Tekka and stood up to leave.
"We have to get into line now, or we'll be stuck outside until midnight," Ava said.
"Alright," Mitsuko turned to Ralph, "Are you ready?"
Ralph nodded in affirmative and stood up, picking up and zipping his backpack that was filled with some of their breakfast, there was a small crunching sound that Scarlet suspected to be potato chips.
"Which way do we go?" asked Ralph.
"That way," Ava pointed down the street, wizened from studying the various maps stored in her laptop.