Chapter Three – Retail Therapy
"Although I should cash my cheque before I buy a Xtransceiver," Alexa added, continuing to curiously examine her cousin's Xtransceiver.
"Well, you don't need to hurry with making the decision, Alexa, so don't worry about it," Hayden smiled. But Alexa kept looking at the Xtransceiver, with a tiny smile on her face. She eventually shrugged and passed it back to Daphne.
"I'll sleep on it. Thanks for showing it to me, Daphne," she smiled.
"No problem," Daphne grinned. She looked between the Xtransceiver and her half eaten ice cream cone before laughing nervously. "I'll, uh, put it back on when I have both hands free. But, hey, if you are going to get a Xtransceiver, what colour are you going to get?"
"I don't know yet," Alexa replied simply, taking a drink from her cola can. "Why, what colours are there?"
"What colours AREN'T there?!" Daphne rhetorically asked in excitement. "They have colours like red, green, blue, orange, lilac, and they even have weird mixes of colours, like red and yellow, blue and pink, black and green, grey and yellow, and don't even get me started on the strap colours and designs! When I was at XCommunications last, they had pink hearts, yellow stars, white diamonds, black spades, green clovers and even some designs inspired by Pokémon, like Vulpix, Smoochum, Azurill, Togepi, and the Happiny one was so cute! But they also had-"
"Settle down, Daphne, you'll make her head spin!" Hailey laughed. Daphne looked at the confused look on Alexa's face before laughing sheepishly.
"Sorry; I guess I got a little carried away."
"A little?" Alexa questioned.
"With enthusiasm like that for the Xtransceiver, you might as well be a sales assistant for XCommunications," Daniel said teasingly. Daphne laughed shyly.
"I was just excited about getting one after seeing Troy's, that's all," she replied.
"They are good communication devices," Daniel commented. "I'm almost surprised you hadn't considered obtaining one sooner, Alexa."
"My PokéGear was working perfectly fine, thank you," Alexa muttered.
"Was being the operative word; Keenan clearly stated your PokéGear is now broken," Daniel stated. "How did you break it anyway?"
"That's none of your concern," Alexa groaned.
"Daniel, we talked about this," Colin said rather sternly.
"I didn't mean to sound intrusive, Alexa; I was just under the impression that you take care of your electronics," Daniel explained.
"I..." Alexa sighed. "I had a stupid accident and fell on my PokéGear." At least, that was how Alexa assumed her PokéGear broke during the avalanche at Mt Silver...
"I see. Regardless, I'll agree with Daphne; you should buy a Xtransceiver," Daniel said. "I personally find they're much more convenient to have on hand than a PokéGear or a PokéNav, considering the fact they don't take any pocket space, seeing as they're worn on one's wrist as opposed to being placed in one's pocket."
"Hmm." Alexa looked at her distorted reflection on her cola can, in thought about both the idea of owning a Xtransceiver and how her PokéGear broke in the first place. However, one thought kept returning to her, no matter what she was thinking of; Keith.
It was approximately a half hour later by the time the entire family left the café. Troy, Harvey and Laddy waved farewell to the rest of their family members as they parted ways, heading south of Undella Bay. The afternoon sun was shining brightly in the sky, and Laddy surveyed the extreme tranquillity of the area; the waterfalls nearby crashed down with mighty roars that almost sounded relaxing at the same time, the streams were cold and glistening, and the grass was as fresh as ever. Nearby joggers were blessed with such serene surroundings and the wild Pokémon were also at peace in such a blissful atmosphere.
"So, who's Keith anyway?" Troy asked quickly.
"I thought you said you told Daphne about it?" Harvey queried.
"I did; I told her what Perri heard from Xavier, but that's all I know about the guy," Troy shrugged. "Who is he anyway?"
"Alexa's boyfriend."
"Apart from that," Troy added. Harvey sighed silently as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"He's a colleague of Alexa's at the Ranger Union in Almia; they used to be best friends since Ranger School before they fell in love...or, rather, before he confessed his love to her," Harvey explained. "Though they have been under pressure lately because of their struggles against a Pokémon Poacher in Johto about a month ago."
"So he dumped her?" Troy asked, looking rather unimpressed.
"No, they're just not on good terms with one another right now; apparently, they had an argument last week and they haven't spoken to each other since," Harvey continued. "From what Hayden told me, he really hurt her feelings during that argument." Troy huffed and shook his head, almost in disgust. "By the way, Troy, seeing as you get along with Alexa really well, would you mind spending some more time with her?"
"Sure, no problem," Troy smiled. Harvey smiled back at his son.
"Thanks, sport, she'll appreciate it."
In the middle of the night, Alexa and Keenan both slept in one of the two single beds in one of the hotel bedrooms. The room, despite being too dark to see most of the décor, had cream coloured walls with a dark brown carpet. There was a large wardrobe near Keenan's bed on the farthest side of the room, a smaller television set facing both beds on the same wall as the bedroom door and a decent sized desk and chair in front of the window near Alexa's bed. Keenan and Iara slept soundly in bed, with Iara lying at the foot of Keenan's bed, but Alexa, however, tossed and turned as she slept, moaning quietly on occasion.
"Aren't you the one who's supposed to adapt to new situations?!"
"Oh, how WAS the inside of Victreebel, by the way?!"
Alexa struggled to sleep peacefully with all of the horrible memories of her bickering and arguments with Keith came back to her; Keith's voice seemed to resonate in her mind as the hurtful words played in her mind. The more she thought of those awful memories, the more distressed Alexa became; her tossing and turning grew a little faster and she began to sweat more.
"Shut up and listen to me!"
"Hah! That would've been him doomed then; you couldn't even look out for your Butterfree, and look where THAT went!"
Alexa threw a punch randomly in her sleep, but ended up waking up sharply as she began to fall out of the bed. She yelped a little, startled by the sudden drop, and quickly held her arms out in front of her to prevent her from hurting herself. She began to hyperventilate as she slowly pulled herself up off of her hands and feet and sat on her bed. She placed her hands on either side of her forehead and rested her arms on her thighs, just above her knees, as she tried to take deep breaths and calm herself down, despite the memories she recalled in her heavily disturbed slumber. Alexa began to panic; no matter where she'd been or what she'd done during the days since the family holiday began, she couldn't stop thinking about her fights with Keith. It was almost as if her conscience was trying to tell her to talk to him, but...she couldn't bring herself to, in case she made matters worse for them both. She wasn't sure what she should do, no matter how much thought she put into how she can fix things with Keith. As her breathing slowed down and became more steady, Alexa lay back onto her bed and pulled the cover over her body. However, it took a little while before she finally closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
The next morning, Hayden and Alexa stood outside XCommunications, a relatively large store dedicated to selling Xtransceivers and accessories. Inside the shop, several customers were already happily browsing the merchandise and speaking to sales assistants about their enquiries. Floating above Alexa was a very happy-looking Togetic with a grey anklet on his left ankle and rather large wings that flapped pretty quickly as he hovered near Alexa, and standing next to Hayden was a Liepard with three whiskers, an extremely smooth coat and an oddly sweet demeanour for a Dark type Pokémon. Alexa carried her Safari Ball backpack on her back, whereas Hayden wore his usual navy blue belt pouch over his blue grey jeans and brown polo shirt. Alexa wore a pink Poké Ball belt over her sky blue short and orange T-shirt. Her grey socks were so long they almost completely covered her legs, and she wore her usual white trainers. Hayden looked towards Alexa.
"Are you sure about this?" Hayden asked. Alexa looked up at him cheerfully.
"Of course. I said I'd sleep on it, didn't I?" The fact that Alexa had her Togetic with her hadn't escaped Hayden's notice, but chose to keep his concerns to himself; after all, his daughter had decided to get herself a Xtransceiver, and he wasn't going to get in her way of that.
"Then let's see if this place is as good as Daphne claimed," Hayden smiled as he, Alexa and the two Pokémon entered the store.
Upon entering the store, Hayden and Alexa were awestruck immediately; there were many Xtransceivers displayed in numerous locked glass cabinets placed around the shop floor, but even more Xtransceiver straps on display on the many shelves lined around the shop floor, each shelf with a different set of strap designs on them and with one of five numbers, from one to five, clearly indicated on the very top of the shelves. There were three small tables scattered around the area, each with three seats around them. The tables themselves were rounded and had a built in cabinet, which was locked at all times. There was a shelf near Alexa and Hayden that was dedicated to accessories for the Xtransceiver, such as gift boxes, display cones – which was available in five different widths, and cleaning equipment. Opposite the merchandise were three electronic cash registers on one long glass cabinet, which contained Xtransceivers that had been repaired and were awaiting collection by their owners. On the far side of the shop floor was a doorway that was off limits to customers, as it presumably led to areas such as the staff room and manager's office. A sales assistant walked over to Hayden and Alexa, wearing a kind smile on her face.
"Hello there, welcome to XCommunications," she greeted kindly. "My name's Shelly, may I help you at all?"
"Oh, yeah, hello, um, I'm looking to buy a Xtransceiver," Alexa replied. "I was wondering if you could tell me more about it?"
"Yes, of course," Shelly nodded. "Shall we take a seat?"
"Thank you," Hayden thanked as he and Alexa followed Shelly to one of the three tables around the shop floor. Shelly took the keys that hung from her belt and unlocked the cabinet on the table as Alexa and Hayden sat down. Before sitting down herself, Shelly placed a test model Xtransceiver and an unusual looking set of five white straps, all of different sizes, on the table. She placed the collection of straps to one side as she began to demonstrate the Xtransceiver's properties.
"How familiar are you with the Xtransceiver?" she asked Alexa.
"Not very, I only had a look at my cousin's Xtransceiver yesterday," Alexa replied. "She told me some of its functions, but not all of them."
"Well, the first thing you should know about the Xtransceiver is its compatibility with other communication devices, such as the PokéGear," Shelly began. "The Xtransceiver can contact and receive calls from both models of the PokéGear and PokéNavs with the Match Call software installed, albeit without seeing any video as you would see if you were communicating with other Xtransceivers and video phones. The Xtransceiver is unique in comparison to the PokéGear and PokéNav in the fact that it has the ability to contact three devices at the same time with its two extra screens here," she explained further as she carefully pulled out a small hidden screen on either side of the Xtransceiver. "Even if the devices themselves are different; for example, the Xtransceiver can communicate with a PokéGear, another Xtransceiver and a video phone at the same time."
"That sounds great," Alexa smiled. Togetic looked at the test model Xtransceiver from over Alexa's shoulder, while Liepard sat next to Hayden patiently.
"How does one add contacts to the Xtransceiver?" Hayden asked.
"Mainly Infared," Shelly replied quickly. "But that's mostly between Xtransceivers, PokéNavs and PokéGears, as they all come with an Infared receivers, the Xtransceiver's being just here." Shelly pointed to a small red line on the top of the Xtransceiver, just above the small lump that was the Xtransceiver's camera. "However, the contact numbers for a video phone has to be recorded manually with the Xtransceiver's keypad," she explained further as she pulled the pink tab out of the Xtransceiver, revealing a small keypad, not dissimilar to the keypad of a mobile phone; the numbers one, two and three were on the top row, the numbers four, five and six were on the second row, the numbers seven, eight and nine were on the penultimate row and the asterisk symbol, number zero and hashtag symbol were on the very bottom row. "Despite the keypad looking like a mobile phone keypad, the Xtransceiver is not compatible with mobile phones, but it does provide an alternative means of inputting contact details to using the Xtransceiver's touch screen, which is also the main screen here," she added, pointing to the Xtransceiver's central screen. She returned the two side screens into their hiding places and turned the Xtransceiver over. "The strap is detachable and the button for that is right here," she added as she pointed to a very tiny hole underneath the Xtransceiver, located about one centimetre from the strap. "Something thin like a paper clip or an earring is needed to actually remove the strap; the reason for that design choice is to prevent accidental detachment."
"I see; otherwise it would fall off when you don't want it to and break," Hayden guessed.
"That's right," Shelly smiled. "The strap itself is unique in comparison to that of the Pokétch, as it's not a clip on or made of plastic; it's elastic that has limited elasticity."
"Why would the elasticity be so limited?" Alexa asked.
"That's another intentional design choice," Shelly began. "You see, the Xtransceiver strap is designed to fit snugly, yet securely on one's wrist, so no matter how much physical exercise you do, the Xtransceiver won't slip off of your wrist, nor will it somehow turn upside down like normal wristwatches do from time to time."
"Are there any other features that make the Xtransceiver stand out from the Pokétch or the PokéGear?" Hayden asked.
"Yes, sir, its USB port," Shelly explained as she took one of her earrings off and used the small pin to press the strap detachment button to remove the strap; once she removed the strap, she showed the Xtransceiver's hidden USB port to Alexa and Hayden. "With it, you can upload your own choice of music and photos to the Xtransceiver and use them for ringtones and avatars or wallpapers respectively. The only thing you can't upload to a Xtransceiver is video files, as it doesn't have the ability to record video footage."
"That's what video cameras are for," Hayden stated. Shelly laughed as she placed the strap back onto the Xtransceiver. Alexa noticed how the strap just clipped into place.
"Exactly."
"What's the interface like?" Alexa asked.
"That's up to you," Shelly replied, showing her and Hayden the Xtransceiver's customisation option in its menu listing; in the menu were several other options, such as font, font colour, theme etc. "The Xtransceiver has several default themes, but all of them can have a colour scheme of your choice with the colour slider."
"Is that, like, five colours?" Alexa asked sarcastically.
"No, unlike the Pokétch's colour changing app, the colour slider is actually the complete colour wheel; every colour, hue and saturation is available for you to choose from," Shelly explained as she took the basic white and yellow floral theme and played about with the colour wheel, changing its colours for Hayden and Alexa to see. Alexa was very impressed.
"Aw, that's so cool!"
"The same thing can be done for your own pictures as well," Shelly added. "In addition to that, you can also add separate ringtones for each of your contacts and have a separate default ringtone of your choice for contacts that aren't registered."
"Like with a mobile phone?" Alexa asked.
"That's right," Shelly nodded. "Do you have any further questions?"
"No, I think that's all I need to know," Alexa smiled. "Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome. One more thing, though; our Xtransceiver straps come in five sizes, and we measure your wrist to find out which strap size is best for you," Shelly said as she took the strange set of straps in place of the Xtransceiver. "If that's all right with you?"
"Of course," Alexa complied.
"Which hand are you going to wear the Xtransceiver on?" Shelly asked. Alexa held out her right arm.
"My right," she replied. "What are they made of?" she asked curiously.
"They're made of the same material as the actual Xtransceiver straps," Shelly explained. "These are the measuring straps we use to determine what size strap is best for which wearer."
Shelly gently took Alexa's hand, carefully took the strap marked "1" and tried to feed it down Alexa's hand, taking care to not hurt her. However, the strap refused to move any further than Alexa's knuckles, so Shelly removed the strap and repeated the process with the strap marked "2". The strap slid perfectly down Alexa's wrist and rested around her wrist comfortably. Shelly removed the strap and repeated the process for the number "3" strap, which was proven to be slightly too big for Alexa, as it was able to move around on her wrist. To be safe, Shelly repeated the process for the number "4" and "5" straps, both of which were clearly too big for Alexa's wrist – the number "5" strap could've fallen off of her wrist entirely if it had the opportunity!
"And I think it looks like you're a size 2," Shelly commented as she returned the Xtransceiver and measuring straps to the cabinet.
"Does that mean anything?" Alexa asked as she retracted her arm.
"It just means your wrist is too big for a petite strap, but too small for a regular strap," Shelly explained politely. "If you go to the strap shelf marked "2", you can choose from any of the strap designs we have on that shelf; once you've chosen the strap, I'll come with you while you choose which Xtransceiver you would like with the strap."
"Thank you so much," Alexa said courteously as she, Hayden and Shelly stood up from their seats. "Come on, Halo."
"Chokeh!" Halo smiled as he followed Alexa to the designated strap shelf and browsed the many strap designs with her. Hayden took another look around at the store before facing Shelly.
"Would it be possible to speak to the manager of this store?" Hayden asked curiously. Shelly felt uneasy.
"I-Is there a problem, sir?" she asked nervously.
"Not at all; I was only wondering if I could have a word with them, that's all," Hayden replied casually. Shelly still looked uncertain, but she nodded regardless.
"I'll see what I can do, sir, I'll be back as soon as possible," she said courteously as she walked away from Hayden. Hayden looked down at his Liepard.
"Tiffany, why don't you go and help Alexa find a strap she likes?" he asked quietly.
"Mreow," Tiffany nodded and walked over towards Alexa just in time for Shelly to return with black haired gentleman in a grey suit.
"Hello, sir, my name's Roger Howard, manager of this XCommunications store," the stranger said professionally. "Is there a problem?"
"No, there isn't," Hayden replied, facing the manager completely. He held out his hand to the manager. "Hayden Thorndyke, CEO of the PokéMart Company."
"Ah, yes, I thought you looked familiar somehow," Roger smiled as he shook Hayden's hand. "You look different when you're not wearing a suit."
"Yes, well, I'm not willing to wear my suit during a family holiday," Hayden chuckled. "Anyway, I was wondering if your company has considered opening branches in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and/or Sinnoh."
"Not that I'm aware of," Roger replied. "As far as I know, no such plans have been made. Why do you ask?"
"I have a department store in all four regions, and each of them is in need of a couple more businesses to fill in the gaps," Hayden explained. "I was just wondering if your company would be interested in occupying one of those spaces in any of my department stores." Shelly spotted Alexa taking her chosen strap from the shelf and approached her and the Pokémon. She escorted Alexa to the glass cabinets with the Xtransceivers locked inside.
"To be honest, Mr Thorndyke, it's not my place to say; I'm only the manager of this store in particular," Roger explained. "The decision to expand the company into other regions is ultimately down to our own CEO."
"I'm aware of that," Hayden said as he took out a small wallet sized card from one of the small compartments of his belt pouch and presented it to Roger. "Would it be possible for you to give your CEO my business card? If they're interested in expanding the company into another region or two, we can discuss it after my family's vacation is over." Roger accepted Hayden's business card and placed it in his front pocket.
"I'll see to it that he gets it by the end of the day, Mr Thorndyke," he smiled as Shelly took Alexa, with her chosen Xtransceiver, to the cash registers to make the final payment. Roger spotted the transaction, and almost laughed when he saw where Halo was sitting. "Is that girl with the Togetic on her head your daughter?"
"She is, yes," Hayden nodded as he looked at Alexa. Tiffany smiled back at Hayden. "The Togetic's her Pokémon, and the Liepard's mine."
"I see. At any rate," Roger began as he and Hayden looked at one another again. "I'll send this card off to the CEO along with a message regarding your proposal; if all goes well, they'll get back to you in a day or two."
"I'd rather they wait for a week before getting in touch with me, but if they're so keen about discussing my proposal that they can't wait a week to discuss it, I'll discuss it with them provided that they understand that I don't want any actions to be taken while I'm on holiday with my family," Hayden replied.
"I'll inform them myself, Mr Thorndyke," Roger nodded. Alexa returned to Hayden with her new Xtransceiver, but remained silent, as his conversation was still going on. "Anyway, I'd best be getting on, so I shan't keep you any longer than necessary. Have a nice day, Mr Thorndyke." He noticed Alexa waiting patiently for her father to finish his conversation. "And you enjoy your new Xtransceiver, little lady."
"Thank you," Alexa said kindly.
"Have a good day," Hayden said as Roger left the shop floor. Hayden looked towards Alexa. "So, what did you end up getting?"
"Take a look," Alexa smiled as she held up her Xtransceiver; it was mostly grey with green as a secondary colour, and the strap was black with white stripes that closely resembled the stripes of a Blitzle.
"Good choice," Hayden smiled. "Shall we be off?" Alexa nodded.
"I'm ready when you are," she replied as she walked out of the store with her father. "Bye, Shelly!"
"Thank you for shopping with us!" Shelly replied as Alexa and Hayden left the store.
"Hey, there you are!" Troy exclaimed as he ran over towards Alexa and Hayden with a Watchog in hot pursuit. After they caught up with her, Alexa couldn't help but smile at the Watchog's goofy grin.
"Hello, Lukie," she giggled.
"Watchog!" he saluted merrily. His voice seemed to be higher in pitch, contrary to the voice of most Watchogs.
"Is something wrong, Troy?" Hayden asked.
"No, Dad asked me to meet up with you," Troy explained. "He and everyone else are in Join Avenue and...hey, girl, is that a new Xtransceiver I see?"
"Yeah, it's only about a minute old," Alexa replied.
"Very snazzy! We should register one another!" Troy said happily as he raised his arm and pressed on his Xtransceiver screen a few times.
"Um, okay, that was...sudden."
"Not as sudden as the registering will be," Troy laughed. Alexa took her Xtransceiver and pressed on the screen until she found herself ready to register a new contact via Infared. Troy and Alexa held their Xtransceivers in front of one another, making sure the Infared receivers were facing each other, until the registration was complete; a small and brief series of musical beeps signified the successful registration.
"Wow, that was sudden," Alexa chuckled. She finally placed the Xtransceiver on her right wrist and faced Troy. "What's Join Avenue?"
"It's a marketplace between Route 4 and Nimbasa City," Troy explained as he, Alexa and Hayden made their way out of the city. Lukie, Tiffany and Halo followed closely. "It was established about two years ago, but it's extremely well known; even the region's gym leaders visit Join Avenue from time to time."
"I can't imagine Brycen visiting Join Avenue then," Alexa laughed.
"You haven't heard? Brycen's not a gym leader anymore," Troy said with mild disappointment.
"Why not? Is he okay?" Alexa asked worriedly.
"He's fine, no worries there; it's just that he's apparently returned to acting," Troy explained. "Especially since PokéStar Studios opened around four years ago."
"That reminds me, are his Brycenman films successful at all?" Hayden asked. "I know Daphne mentioned them two days ago, but..."
"Honestly? Critics liked it better than A Hero's Rising, and they didn't like Brycenman much to begin with," Troy shrugged. Hayden scoffed.
"Critics; they think they know better than everyone else. I mean, they must enjoy trying to make everyone else's opinions so insignificant in comparison," he complained as everyone left the city.
"That's why I hear what everyone else thought of a film I plan on seeing before I watch it," Troy smiled.
"I think we should have before we went to see A Hero's Rising," Hayden laughed.
"Are we going to be making fun of that film the whole time we're on holiday?" Alexa asked. "Because it's going to get old pretty fast if we are."
"Nah, we're not going to do that all the time, Lexie. Well, I'm not going to start spouting one-liners about it every five minutes," Hayden chuckled.
Hayden, Alexa and Troy eventually arrived at Join Avenue, and the sight of the entire area left them in awe. There were many different stalls lined all around the entire tunnel-like area, and the floor beneath them was so shiny and clean that it even reflected the entire ceiling, which was a beautiful red, orange and yellow starry display. The stalls were all varied in what products they sold, which included jewellery, clothing, music items – and Daphne being at that stall came as no surprise to Alexa – and there were even other businesses that one wouldn't expect to find in a marketplace, like a café and a raffle shop. Hayden, Alexa, Troy and the Pokémon approached Daphne in front of the music stall.
"Hey, Daph, look who I found," Troy smiled. Daphne smiled back at him.
"Hi, Troy!" She looked over at Alexa, and immediately noticed her Xtransceiver. "Oh my gosh, that is such a cute strap! I should've remembered that one, I would've bought that one if I hadn't spotted the one I have now!"
"Thanks, Daphne," Alexa said nervously. "Want to register each other?"
"Of course!" Daphne replied as she and Alexa held their Xtransceivers to one another.
"Daphne, where are the others?" Hayden asked.
"Clothes stall," Daphne replied quickly. Hayden and Troy made their way over to the clothes stall, allowing Alexa and Daphne to register one another on their Xtransceivers in peace. Hayden approached Hailey, Lily and Keenan, while Troy approached Harvey and Colin. Daniel was at the book stall on the other side of the avenue, checking out the latest crime novels.
"Hey, everyone okay?" Hayden asked.
"This avenue's much better than I thought," Lily smiled. "I could shop here all day."
"We still need to get to the Contest Hall in Nimbasa City before they stop accepting participants for the contest this weekend," Hayden stated.
"Oh, and I need to make that spa appointment while I'm at it," Hailey said quickly. "I mean, a Pokémon is only as good as their Trainer; I need to set an example."
"You're a Co-ordinator, Hailey," Hayden laughed.
"Even so, I stand by my point," Hailey smiled. "Lily, I was wondering if you'd be interested in joining me."
"Are you sure? I mean, you're the one that's participating in the contest this weekend," Lily said bashfully. "I wouldn't want to intrude."
"Lily, the spa's for more than just Co-ordinators. When was the last time you really relaxed?" Hailey asked. "Like, 'I'm having a spa session' relaxed?"
"Uh..."
"Yeah, I thought so. It's no big deal either way, Lily, but the offer is there if you want it. And for Alexa," Hailey smiled.
"I don't think Alexa's the spa type," Hayden laughed nervously.
"Even so, the offer's still there, for both of you," Hailey smiled.
"Thank you, Hailey; I'll think about it and I'll let Alexa know," Lily said gratefully as she watched Daphne and Alexa moving from the music stall to the art stall and looking at the many beautifully painted Pokémon portraits and masterfully crafted sculptures of wood and clay.
The entire family spent almost three quarters of an hour in Join Avenue, where they purchased a decent selection of merchandise, including some new clothes, jewellery, some artwork and some drinks during the shopping spree. Daniel stayed at the book stall the entire time, carefully examining each book that attracted his initial interest until he came to the conclusion that two of them hooked his curiosity enough to purchase them. Peggy stayed with Hailey the whole time, even though it was nearly impossible to get lost in an area with such a straight forward layout. Even Alexa was enjoying herself, especially considering one of her purchases was a wooden sculpture of a Pokémon she never expected to see as a sculpture; Darkrai. Alexa also bought a dreamcatcher from the same stall while nobody was looking; after how disturbed her sleep was during the night, she refused to take chances on letting such an experience happen again during her holiday. But, eventually, the entire family grew bored of shopping in Join Avenue and left for Nimbasa City and its Contest Hall.
To be continued...