Chapter Twenty Six – Foreboding

"Are you sure that's what she said?" Daniel asked quickly. Peggy nodded slowly in confirmation, which only added to Daphne's anxiety.

"Why would she even want that?"

"Honestly? I don't buy it," Daniel said in a huff.

"I-I'm not lying!" Peggy cried. Daniel shook his head.

"It's not you I'm doubting."

"Huh?"

"Those are Adelina's words, correct?" Daniel asked again. Once more, Peggy nodded in response. "Then who's to say that those words are genuine? At this point, how are we supposed to know when she's telling the truth?"

"Even if that's the case, what does she mean by 'the whole family'?" Daphne asked worriedly. "Does she mean just our family or does she mean the entire family?"

"I don't understand."

"I mean, was Adelina talking about just us or do Uncles Harvey and Hayden's families come into the picture as well?"

"Oh! Um...I don't know..."

"It's rather ambiguous," Daniel mused. "But, still...I don't think we need to worry about that; as far as I'm concerned, I don't trust Adelina to tie her own shoelaces."

"But what if she was telling the truth?" Peggy asked sadly. "Does she mean she wants Mummy and Daddy to be apart?"

"I don't know, Peggy, but let's try and keep that from happening, eh?" Daphne smiled feebly.

"That shouldn't be too hard...implying they'll even listen to us..."

"That shouldn't be too hard either," Daphne winked. "Don't worry about a thing, Peggy, things will be okay."

"But-"

"Oi, Swapped Eyes!" Daphne and Daniel turned their attention to the incoming group of students who were smirking nastily at them as they approached. They were three students, all boys, wearing their uniforms rather sloppily with their shirts un-tucked and unbuttoned at the collar and their sweatshirts tied around their waists. "Watcha doing?"

"I don't think that's any concern of yours," Daniel responded bluntly to the brunette.

"I don't think that's any concern of yours," the blonde repeated mockingly, imitating Daniel's accent very poorly. Peggy remained quiet in the presence of the intimidating boys.

"Just get out of here; I'm sure there's a fat kid somewhere for you to prey on," Daniel said rudely.

"That's not very nice," the black-haired boy remarked, feigning his dismay.

"Neither are you," Daniel said spitefully.

"Just ignore them, we have better things to concern ourselves with," Daphne said quietly. However, the boys all heard her.

"Oh, right, your Mom and Dad, right?" Peggy and the twins faced the bullies with surprise.

"How did you-"

"Does it matter?" the brunette asked arrogantly. Daniel stood up and scowled at the bullies.

"Of course it matters! It's nobody else's business but ours, why the hell do you know about it?!"

"Everyone knows about The Swap Eye Kids," the brunette grinned sinisterly. Daniel growled under his breath; the last thing he wanted was someone else attempting to degrade him for something he had no control over. "So...what are your Mom and Dad fighting about?"

"That...isn't...your...concern..!" Peggy could easily see how hard Daniel was trying to hide his anger; his fists were clenched so tightly his fingernails could pierce his skin at any moment.

"There's already a rumour going around that your Mom has another guy in her life," the blonde said teasingly. Peggy and Daphne were perplexed; the fight Hailey and Colin had was about another woman, so how did that rumour come about? Daniel lost his temper even more as he clenched his teeth angrily. "Or...is it the other way around? Huh; I forgot which it was," the blonde continued tormentingly. Daniel clenched his fists even tighter, cracking his knuckles a little, immensely worrying Peggy further and even Daphne became concerned.

"Hey, Daph, you have a good memory; which was it again?" the brunette asked tauntingly. Daniel suddenly snapped.

Keith and Alexa were still at the coffee shop on Route 4, in the middle of elevenses; Keith had a mocha glass next to him and a buttered fruit scone in front of him while Alexa just had a glass of hot chocolate in front of her, clasping it with both hands for warmth. Ryder and Jollie were still conversing with Robbie, Reese and Ava, but they continued their conversation over a platter of Poké Puffs and a glass bottle of MooMoo Milk each, all of the bottles having a plastic straw with them.

"So that's the only necklace you wear besides that amulet Rhythmi found?" Keith enquired, looking at the emerald rhombus hanging from Alexa's neck.

"Well, I don't really wear the amulet often...or even at all; the chain just came with the amulet when I had the wing fragment preserved," Alexa replied quietly. "But this necklace is a different story," she smiled as she placed her slender fingers over her emerald. "I received it on my sixteenth birthday from my Dad and Grandpa; it belonged to my Grandpa's wife, my Dad's mother."

"So your Grandma?"

"Yep."

"What was she like?"

"I just know that she's where I get my looks from." Keith was puzzled at her vagueness.

"How is that all you know about her?"

"She died before I was conceived," Alexa answered bluntly.

"Oh...I'm...sorry to hear that."

"It's okay, don't worry about it. In any case, this is the only necklace I really wear; for some reason, I don't like to wear a different one." Keith noticed Alexa's lack of food item and, now realising how slender Alexa's arms and fingers were, became concerned.

"Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?"

"I would have ordered something if I did, wouldn't I?" Alexa asked cautiously.

"Sorry, it's just-"

"Keith, I'm not going to waste away," Alexa said bluntly. Keith looked at her worriedly.

"But you're underweight."

"And?"

"It's not healthy."

"I'm aware of that," Alexa said begrudgingly. Ryder looked back at Alexa, noticing her change in mood.

"And I'm worried about you."

"Relax, will ya? I've always been underweight by a pound or two ever since I started travelling seven years ago; a pound or two isn't going to kill me off." To Alexa's confusion, Keith tore his scone in half; she noticed how solemn he looked as he held out the scone half in front of her.

"If you must be underweight, then...please don't let it be by a stone or two." Alexa accepted Keith's gift with slight hesitation, but smiled at him sweetly all the same.

"Thank you."

"Hey, this is your vacation, right? That's a reason to treat yourself all on its own!" Keith grinned. Ryder, having witnessed Keith's act of kindness, smiled; now he understood Xavier's change of heart.

Hailey begrudgingly invited Hayden, Harvey and Naomi into her kitchen, where they all, except Harvey, proceeded to sit around the central table. Harvey observed as Hailey prepared to make hot beverages for her guests; while she had no problem with the gesture in itself, it was clear to Harvey that his baby sister was in a very bad mood.

"What happened this morning?" Harvey asked carefully.

"Nothing; it's not important," Hailey replied quickly.

"Then why are you being so cagey?"

"Harvey, this isn't helping," Hayden cautioned.

"I'm kind of surprised to see you here, Naomi; haven't seen you in almost a decade," Hailey said observantly.

"Well, I, uh... No, that doesn't matter right now."

"She's right; we're here to talk about you, not Naomi," Harvey corroborated.

"What's to talk about?" Hailey questioned as she poured the freshly boiled water into the mugs in front of her, giving each one approximately the same amount of water. "Colin and I are just having a disagreement, that's all. You know what a disagreement is, right, Harvey?" she asked rudely as she poured milk into three of the four mugs before her.

"That's uncalled for," Hayden said disapprovingly. "I know you're in a bad mood, but that's no reason to vent your frustration onto other people."

"You were the ones who wanted to talk to me, so deal with it," Hailey grumbled as she placed the hot mugs onto the table, sighing as she sat down. "I'm sorry...things...haven't gotten any better since our conversation over the Xtransceiver..."

"So what happened?" Harvey asked again.

"It was stupid...Colin came home and bought some Lime Cola for me; I thought it was a bribe of sorts when he was trying to do something nice..."

"I didn't take you for the sceptical type."

"I'm not, Hayden, but...I dunno..." Everything suddenly went quiet as Colin walked into the kitchen with an empty mug, a wooden pencil over his ear and his Phantump following almost his every movement.

"Hey, guys, Naomi."

"Colin," Hayden greeted politely.

"What're you doing here?"

"Funnily enough, we're here to talk to you and Hailey about...well, you and Hailey." Colin quickly made his second mug of coffee before attempting to leave; it was clear that Colin was still heavily despondent about the fight he and Hailey had the day before.

"I don't have time for this." Harvey waited for Colin to pass him before quickly and firmly, yet gently, grabbing the architect's arm.

"Yes, you do," Harvey insisted as he virtually sat Colin down at the kitchen table before finally sitting down himself, sitting next to his ex-wife. "Now that you're both here, we can finally get down to business."

"Did you stay standing just for that?" Hayden asked in wonderment.

"Pretty much," Harvey shrugged.

"So, what is it you want to say to us?" Colin asked grumpily.

"We don't want you to throw away everything you've built together because of some third party intervention," Naomi said worriedly. "...I don't want you to make the same mistake I did..."

"That was different; your boss was sexually harassing you," Hailey said gently. "Colin, on the other hand, had a choice in the matter," she added crabbily, glaring spitefully at her husband.

"Everybody reacts in different ways; some people can escape from the situation instantly, but others just freeze. Colin, could you help how you reacted to the situation you were in?" Hayden asked.

"Not really; I mean, she was being as clingy as a Klefki holding its keys," Colin replied timidly. "Kind of surprised Hailey was able to pry her off of me to be honest," he chuckled.

"How do you feel about how you reacted?" Naomi wondered.

"Horrid," Colin admitted, much to Hailey's astonishment. "In hindsight, I...should've done anything to get her off of me as soon as I could."

"That's how I felt," Naomi said sympathetically. "And I felt so horrible I blamed myself for letting myself get into that situation in the first place, regardless of what Harvey said." Now Colin and Hailey felt bad for fighting so violently. "In the end, I thought it would be better if I divorced him; I had no faith in myself at the time and...I didn't want to betray him again." Harvey pitied Naomi.

"What she's trying to say is...don't let what happened to us happen to you; let your marriage turn to soggy ashes because some intervening freak of nature stuck their oar in," Harvey concluded. Hailey and Colin faced one another from opposite ends of the table and smiled.

"I'm sorry about this morning, Colin," Hailey apologised gracefully. "And thank you for the drink; I'll have it with my lunch."

"I thought you threw it away," Colin laughed. "...and I'm sorry about yesterday and this morning...hopefully, it won't happen again."

"I doubt it will," Harvey smiled. "You two have been together for so long it's hard for me to even imagine you apart!" Colin looked towards Harvey and Naomi curiously.

"Y'know, you two are still as strong a front as you were over twenty years ago; kind of surprised it took you so long to get back together like this."

"Actually, we showed a united front after Troy almost drowned," Harvey said hesitantly.

"You mean after that Jellicent almost killed him?" Hailey asked carefully. Naomi appeared to be anxious at the very mention of the incident in question, but Harvey nodded.

"It didn't help that Brent lost his arm in trying to rescue Troy either...I swear, if Mac hadn't used Solarbeam..."

"How did you find out? Uh, if you don't mind my asking..." Colin said shyly.

"Zane," Harvey replied simply.

"As soon as Harvey found out, he called me and we met him at the Nuvema General Hospital...it killed me to see Troy so scared and distraught...!"

"Even though we were – and still are – divorced at the time, we were still his parents; parents should always be there for their kids and show a united front when the situation calls for it, which is what we did," Harvey said proudly. Nobody noticed the Beautifly flying away from the kitchen window, but the house phone suddenly rang, attracting everyone's attention. Hailey quickly approached the phone, heaving a disgruntled sigh.

"I thought I blocked cold callers from reaching this number," she said grumpily before retrieving the phone. "Hello, Hawkstone residence. Hm? Striaton Academy?"

Lily and Keenan sat at a large table in the middle of a highly spacious library; tall bookshelves lined the walls of the entire room, with ladders placed carefully next to each one to allow access to the books stacked on the higher shelves. There were numerous plush chairs strategically positioned throughout the library in addition to the numerous spaces specifically designated for reading groups, some with a small shelving unit exclusively displaying kids' books. On top of the table Lily and Keenan were sitting at were numerous text books, including a chemistry, language and literature, geography and history textbook, and plenty of stationery scattered in between. Lily and Keenan were constantly referring to the open mathematics textbook in front of them while Keenan was writing notes on the piece of paper in front of him. Keenan ordinarily had fun with his studies, but Lily noticed that her son wasn't as thrilled as he normally was.

"You're still worried about the situation at hand, aren't you?"

"Partly," Keenan replied. "But I don't know who that lady was...the one with Uncle Harvey."

"Ah." Lily smiled coyly. "Well...you were only three years old when you last saw her, so that's not surprising; she's your Aunt, Naomi."

"If she's our Aunt, how come I can't remember her?"

"She's divorced from Harvey nine years ago and hasn't spoken to the rest of the family since...until today, apparently," Lily explained with a small chuckle. "Nonetheless, you needn't worry about the family situation right now; I know it's hard not to, but it really is nothing you need to concern yourself with." Keenan appeared to be more worried than before.

"But what if there's more to it than just blind finger-pointing?" Lily laughed.

"You and your sister are so alike it's adorable. But, honestly, your Father and I will let the both of you know if the situation does turn out to be worse than initially presumed." Keenan sighed silently with relief as he smiled.

"Thanks." Suddenly, to Keenan and Lily's surprise, the sound of wind chimes was heard, echoing throughout the entire library. Ignoring the onlookers staring at her masterfully, Lily politely excused herself from the table and quickly headed for the library's main doors to take her incoming Xtransceiver call. Taking advantage of his mother's absence, Keenan looked under the table, where Iara sat patiently at his feet with the morning newspaper in her mouth. Keenan took the newspaper from his Eevee-sized Vapoeron before she hopped onto her Trainer's lap and proceeding to hang from his shoulder. Keenan read the front page; the main article was concerning the cancelled Nimbasa Pokémon Contest again, a large coloured photograph of Eric's out of control Hidden Power/Petal Dance combination taking up most of the page. Iara stared at the photograph while Keenan read the article next to it.

"The Nimbasa City Contest, which took place on Sunday, was cancelled due to stage damage following an appeal that- yeah, yeah, we know this already," Keenan muttered grumpily as he skimmed through the rest of the article; he already knew everything it detailed, so why was he reading it in the first place?

"Por!" Iara pointed to a small section of the photograph in alarm. Keenan examined the specific part of the photo his partner was so concerned about and eventually discovered...something wasn't right with it.

Both Keith and Alexa placed their now empty glasses on the coffee table and smiled contently. They relaxed in silence for a few seconds before Keith finally spoke up.

"So...what now?" Keith asked. "Lunch in Nimbasa?"

"Nah, I'm bored of Nimbasa," Alexa replied. "Had lunch there twice already."

"Oh. Well...is there any other place to have lunch?"

"There's always Castelia City," Alexa proposed.

"Do you know any restaurants in Castelia?"

"There's at least one I know about."

"Doesn't your Dad have a mall in Unova or something?"

"Well...he doesn't own Shopping Mall Nine on Route Nine, but he is working on establishing his Poké Marts in the Unova region...even though some refuse to branch away from the Pokémon Centres and said work is on hold while we're all on holiday..."

"That...doesn't answer my question, though," Keith laughed.

"I'm just trying to think," Alexa said quietly. "If I remember correctly, my Dad did establish a department store in the old office building opposite Castelia's Gym."

"Well, that's something we can look forward to if you're right," Keith smiled as he stood up from his chair.

"I think his decision for that was because he didn't want anything to do with Shopping Mall Nine...that and he was baffled about how a city as populated as Castelia went without a department store for so long..." Alexa suddenly looked up at Keith in confusion; he was standing next to her with his hand held out to her. Alexa took his hand in hers as she stood up from her seat, blushing at Keith's act of chivalry. "Thanks."

"No problem. Oh, by the way, does this alleged mall have a food court?"

"Dad's department stores all have food courts; the restaurants in said food courts vary from department store to department store. And, I swear, if I say department store one more time I'll bite my tongue." Keith laughed.

"I can do that for you if you'd prefer."

"Keith!" Keith laughed even harder.

"Chill out, I'd be gentle."

"That's not the issue!" Alexa complained, hiding her heavily blushing face from him. Keith laughed again as the Pokémon approached him, aware that Keith and Alexa were preparing to depart.

"Anyway, I thought I'd ask; I just thought we could have a bit of a shopping trip before lunch." Alexa faced Keith, managing to get over her embarrassment, and smiled at him.

"That's a neat idea; it'd be like our first date." Keith nodded.

"That's what I was thinking," he said as he held his arm out to her. Alexa took his arm gently and almost cuddled it as the pair began to walk towards Castelia City. "Alexa?"

"Hm?"

"Does Castelia have a restaurant that sells herring?" Keith asked.

"Probably; Castelia's pretty big on seafood," Alexa replied, almost dreamily as she held Keith's arm. Robbie and Reese smiled as the Sawsbuck followed the teens; Reese sat on Robbie's head while Jollie and Ava continued a conversation while sitting on his back. Ryder walked alongside the stag until he suddenly spotted the hovering...Pokémon? The silhouette in the sky was obviously that of a Bug type Pokémon, but, at a glance, Ryder couldn't identify which Bug type the silhouette belonged to, and the Pokémon flew away before Ryder had any hope of identifying it. He watched as the figure sped off in the direction of Nimbasa City; Ryder watched it flee cautiously as he continued to follow his friends.

Troy whistled a cheerful tune as he walked into Striaton City from the neighbouring Dreamyard with a basket of different coloured berries under one arm. Lukie walked alongside him, carrying a slightly smaller basket of berries on his head, looking as goofy as ever. The cheerfulness turned to confusion when Troy and Lukie saw Hailey and Colin leaving Striaton Academy with a shaken up Peggy, a guilt-ridden Daphne and a bruised Daniel. Troy and Lukie approached the family, growing more concerned as the tension became more evident to them.

"Hey! You guys okay?" Troy asked. Daniel looked at his eldest cousin with compete distaste; the glasses lens in front of his heavily bruised and slightly closed left eye was cracked, which alarmed Troy even further. "Whoa, what happened to you?!" Daniel huffed as he pushed his half-broken glasses up his nose, attempting to act casual. Troy also noticed the bruises on Daniel's knuckles and immediately presumed Daniel got into some sort of scuffle.

"Just playground troubles, nothing out of the ordinary." Troy was utterly baffled at how calm Daniel was despite his clear injuries.

"Nothing out of the ordinary?! How can you say that?! You let those guys get to your head again!" Daphne cried. Troy blinked; he was clearly missing something.

"They can make fun of me all day, but I won't have them drag you down with me."

"It was just a question! A joke one, sure, but it was just a dumb question!"

"Daphne, will you please calm down?" Hailey asked. Her voice was quivering, indicating her increasing stress.

"They were almost in a full-scale brawl, Hailey; of course they're going to be scared," Colin said defensively.

"You don't think I know that?!" Hailey asked spitefully. Troy watched the family tension unfolding and became increasingly concerned. Lukie just looked on in bewilderment.

The Beautifly flew across the sky and down towards a posh-looking coffee shop in a quaint city that seemed to pay a lot of respect for Dragon types, as one of the buildings in the far corner of the city had its exterior modelled after a creature closely resembling a Dragon Pokémon. Adelina sat at one of the only four outdoor coffee tables with a tall glass of latte, while Huey lay near her, enjoying yet another dark brown iced Poké Puff. Adelina watched in confusion as the Beautifly flew towards her and whispered something in her ear. After the Beautifly moved in front of her, Adelina grinned.

"Is that so? That's very interesting...I can work with that."

"Beautifly?" Beautifly asked. Adelina remained silent for a few moments before smiling sinisterly at the butterfly Pokémon.

"Not right now, baby...it's easier – and will be more entertaining – to work with your first bit of gossip."

To be continued...