About a week and a half had gone by and another beautiful day found May outside the Pokemon Center in Celestic Town. She was out on the practice fields and working as hard as she could on her skills. She couldn't explain it, but the recent turn of events thanks to Dawn and Lila seemed to have reignited her passion. She wanted to win the Grand Festival, now more than ever.
"Glaceon use Ice Beam! Altaria use Flamethrower!" she ordered her two Pokemon.
"Take this!" Glaceon yelled as she fired Ice Beam at Altaria.
"Not this time!" Altaria countered as she took off into the sky and launched Flamethrower from her beak, causing the attacks to collide in a misty haze.
"Those attacks are looking great! And so are the two of you!" May cheered. Glaceon smiled at her trainer as Altaria landed on the ground among the mist. She then shook out her feathers.
"Can we use a different move next time? Mist makes my feathers poofy…" she complained. Glaceon giggled as May chuckled right along with her.
"Your feathers are always poofy Altaria." the young girl pointed out.
"Yeah, but that's the good kind of poofy. Mist brings out the bad poofy." she corrected her trainer. Glaceon and May continued laughing until May's Pokénav started ringing, drawing her attention. She pulled it from her waist bag and opened it up.
"Hello?"
"Hello, May." Lila's voice greeted her.
"Oh hi, Lila!" May smiled.
"How's your training going?"
"Excellent so far! All of my Pokemon are looking incredible!"
"Glad to hear it. Do you have some time to come by the shop this afternoon? I've got the main parts of the dress put together and I think we're ready for a first fitting."
"Oh of course! I'll be there soon!"
"Great. See you in a bit." Both ladies hung up their lines as Glaceon and Altaria approached their trainer.
"That was Lila?" Glaceon asked. "Is the dress ready?"
"Sure is. At least it's ready to try on first." May nodded.
"Oh wow! Exciting! Let's go right away!" Glaceon grinned eagerly.
"You bet. Thanks for your help Altaria." May told her other Pokemon. Altaria simply smiled at them as she was recalled to her ball, and then both May and Glaceon ran off into town.
Soon enough, May and her partner entered Lila's shop just as Lila walked out onto the main floor to greet them.
"Welcome back."
"Good to see you again."
"Come on back and let's have a look at the dress on you." Lila said before leading both girls back to the studio. There was a much bigger mess across the room, but it was obvious that it was coming from hard work on the new dress so May kept her mouth shut about it. Like she had any right to judge. "There's still a lot of pins in it so try and be careful when putting it on. I'll help if you need it. It's in the changing room just over there."
"Thanks, Lila." May nodded as she walked over to the changing room. She opened the door and inside was the dress as promised. It was obviously unfinished and held together with some basic sewing and pins, but the form and colors are in place so the finished product could be easily imagined. May gasped in delight, which made Lila smile from outside. "It's gorgeous!"
"Thanks, May. Can you get it on okay?" she wondered.
"I think so." May responded as she proceeded to start to change into the dress, being careful of the pins while Lila set up her three-sided mirror while she waited for May to finish. Once she had, the younger Coordinator stepped out of the changing room. Lila and Glaceon looked over and smiled at the sight of her.
"Wow!" Glaceon gasped.
"Well don't you look pretty." she complimented May.
"You really think so…?" May asked timidly as she looked down at herself.
"Come see for yourself." Lila replied as she turned on the lights around the mirrors and helped May step up onto a platform so she could see herself in the dress in full.
"Whoa…" she whispered. She looked like a completely new May alright. And she really liked that May.
"I think we're on the right track. What about you?" Lila asked.
"I'd say you're right." May grinned.
"As you can see, I added some of the same highlight colors you picked out on the top piece as well. I think it helps them match a bit better." Lila explained, pointing out the colors on the bow on her top. "But if you don't like it we can still take it out."
"I'd say you made the right call. I just love it." May assured her.
"Glad to hear it. However, something I've noticed is that the added color makes the hair bow feel a bit...lackluster by comparison. I think we may want to consider adding some extra flourish. What do you think?" Lila pointed out.
"I think you're right…but I don't want to add the fade too many times. Oh! Maybe we could add ribbons? Kinda trailing off it you know?" May suggested.
"Hm. Good idea. If they were loose and flowing it could help frame your face quite nicely." Lila nodded in agreement. "All we'd need to do is look into some color choices for those ribbons."
"Well if we're matching the dress hot pink and purple are obvious choices." May offered.
"True." Lila nods. "But following the rule of three, we may want to throw in another splash of color to balance it out."
"Well…" May started as she tried to think. Looking at herself in the mirror, however, she got an idea. "What about yellow to go with the shorts?"
"Not a bad idea. One second." Lila said as she went over to her ribbon collection. She picked up a few rolls of different shades of yellow ribbon, laying them out with the other colors. "Though the faded shade may not be the best for a pop of color. Maybe something brighter?"
"That makes sense." May nodded.
"Let's try this one." the Poke Stylist decided as she cut off a piece of the bold yellow ribbon along with ribbons from the other two colors. She pinned them together and held it up to May's hairbow so she could see in the mirror. "How's that?"
"Great! Just the flourish we needed!" Lila suddenly snapped her fingers with another idea.
"One more thing." she hurried over to a small accessories box on her desk and picked out a small pink gem. She walked back over and carefully attached it to the knot of May's hairbow. "Just a hint more flourish."
"Ooh. Perfect!" May grinned. Lila smiled as it suddenly became May's turn to get an idea. "Oh! I have another idea."
"By all means."
"What if we added a strap with a pokéball clip? Kinda like a belt you know." she suggested, tugging at the top of the skirt for emphasis.
"Ah, I see. Hold on one second." Lila said. She walked across the studio and opened up a trunk nearby and looked through it for a few moments. "I think I have just the thing."
"Really?" May tilted her head.
"Here we go." Lila announced as she pulled out a white belt with a pink stripe and a winged pokéball clip on the side.
"That's perfect!" May gasped. Lila nodded in agreement as she looped it around May's waist and pinned it into place.
"There we go." May smiled excitedly as Lila chuckled and continued their fine-tuning. "How about jewelry? Have you given it any thought?"
"Not exactly. I've been training too hard to actually think about it." May admitted with an embarrassed blush.
"If I may make a suggestion? How would you feel about pearl earrings?" Lila offered, catching May's attention.
"I've never really done earrings before." May admitted as she rubbed her unpierced earlobe between her fingers. "But I could give it a shot."
"Just a thought you might want to consider. The white we're using in the dress is an off-white, almost pearl color. And some simple pearl earrings might look nice." Lila explained her thoughts.
"I'll definitely consider it." May promised.
"Glad to hear it. How are we feeling about the shoes? I'm guessing you're ok walking on platforms?"
"I think so. Besides they're so pretty!" May giggled. Lila chuckled and bent down to examine the bands that spiraled up her legs more closely.
"Hm. Maybe we should consider another fade look here. Let the last band be in a similar purple." she offered.
"That would be cute. I like it." May nodded.
"Still feels like it's missing something though...something to connect it to the rest of the outfit." Lila said, putting a hand to her chin to puzzle it over. May looked back at herself in the mirror again, when she was struck with just the idea.
"What about a ribbon on each leg?" she offered.
"You mean similar to the bow in your hair?"
"Exactly."
"That may be just the thing we need." Lila smiled. "You sure you've never designed a dress before?"
"Heh. Trust me this is a first for me." May giggled. "Oh and one last idea."
"Shoot."
"How about a bracelet as a finishing touch?"
"Good idea. Put it on the wrist opposite your hairbow and it balances the look." Lila agreed, making a note in her notebook to remind herself. "Anything else we can think of?"
"Not that I can come up with. At least right now." May replied with a shake of the head.
"Then I think we're good for now. I'll get started on these updates right away. I'm assuming you can look into the jewelry we discussed on your own time?"
"Sure can." May nodded.
"Then I should be ready for the second fitting in another few weeks." Lila smiled.
"Great. See you then." May agreed before walking back to the changing room and carefully taking the dress off. While she was busy, Glaceon smiled up at Lila eagerly and the older woman chuckled.
"I'll have a sampling ready for you too next time." she promised.
"Hooray!" Glaceon cheered. Soon May finished changing and stepped back out into the studio as Lila was making a few more notes in her notebook about the changes that needed to be made. Once May returned, she got up from her desk to meet up with the young Coordinator and walk her and Glaceon out of the shop.
"Thank you again so much for everything Lila." May smiled.
"My pleasure. I'm really enjoying this project. And working with you is a delight." Lila assured her.
"Likewise." May nodded with a tiny blush.
"I'll call you for the next fitting, but please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime." Lila assured her.
"Will do. Come on Glaceon." May called to her partner as she ran off with Glaceon following at the same pace.
"That was so much fun! And you looked so pretty! You're going to be a big hit!" Glaceon giggled.
"You really think so?" May wondered.
"Absolutely! Even just wearing it you seem to have fun! And that's exactly what we want the audience to do too!" Glaceon pointed out.
"Heh...I never thought about it that way. But you're right." May said, giving a little smile herself. She hadn't been this excited in a long time, but she was really enjoying all her training for the Grand Festival and working on the dress with Lila more than anything else she'd done in a long time.
"I think this is just what we need for some new energy!" Glaceon grinned.
"Well, in that case, let's keep that energy going and keep up the training! What do you say?"
"I'm in!" Glaceon cheered as she nuzzled May's leg. May laughed and stroked her fur which made Glaceon purr happily.
A few weeks later, May was once again outside practicing with Glaceon, but this time they were working on an appeals round performance. The energy from recent events hadn't dimmed in the slightest, and the girls were taking full advantage of that.
"Start off with Ice Beam!" May called.
"On it!" Glaceon nodded as she fired Ice Beam up into the sky.
"Go for the spiral!"
"Spin!" Glaceon answered as she began spinning in place, which sent her Ice Beam into a looping spiral motion that made it shimmer even more as a spiral ice slide is formed.
"Now jump and take the slide!"
"Ready!" Glaceon launched herself into the air by using her tail as something of a springboard and then landed at the top of the slide. She then started riding down the slide on her paws, skating gracefully as she did.
"Somersault with Iron Tail!"
"Right!" Glaceon yelled as she picked up speed on her way down as she also readied her Iron Tail at the same time. Then once she reached the bottom of the slide, she slammed it into the ground, launching herself with enough speed and power to summersault several times in a row.
"Finish with Shadow Ball!" May called.
"Hi-yah!" Glaceon grunted as she fired a Shadow Ball into the ice slide midair. This caused the slide to shatter and fall to the ground in a twinkling flurry as Glaceon flipped and landed on her paws among the flurries. May squealed happily and ran over to her partner, hugging her excitedly. "How was that? Did I do better?"
"You were great Glaceon! The best!" May smiled. Glaceon cooed happily and nuzzled her trainer happily. May laughed when suddenly her Pokénav started ringing again, so she picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hey there. How's my favorite Coordinator?" Lila greeted her.
"Heh…favorite..?" May blushed softly.
"You bet." Lila chuckled. "I always like betting on a winner."
"Heheh...thanks. So what's up?" the brunette wondered.
"How do you feel about coming in for a second fitting this afternoon?" Lila offered.
"You kidding?! I'd love to!" May squealed.
"Sounds great. See you in a bit then." the Poke Stylist assured her. May nodded in agreement and they both hung up as May looked back at Glaceon.
"The dress might be done!" she exclaimed.
"Yay!" Glaceon cheered.
"Let's grab lunch first and then head right over." May announced.
"Alright!" Glaceon nodded as they both ran off excitedly.
To be Continued...