Lucas stood there, staring at a giant, modern-looking building with a bright orange roof, people bustling in and out of the automatic glass sliding doors.
"And that's the pokécenter. Heal your pokémon here, blah blah blah. And that..." Dawn pointed at another building, a smaller one with a sleek dark blue roof. "The pokémart."
"Looks like you need no introductions. Usually, the other new kids Rowan assigns can't even tell the difference between the two—I mean, one's orange and the other's blue. How dumb do you have to be to... never mind..."
Lucas laughed, seeing Dawn's fists curl up, all that tension stirring up on her face. She smiled at him, shaking her head as she punched his shoulder.
"Just 'cause I like helping people doesn't mean I don't get frustrated, Lucas..."
But Lucas didn’t stop laughing. "You punch like a marshmallow."
"Shut up..." Dawn's cheeks glowed a subtle pink as she tried to hold back a smirk. "Anyway, you should probably go home and tell someone you're gonna be helping Professor Rowan with research. It’s not safe to continue without first letting someone know, in case you get hurt, and blah blah blah..."
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Lucas’s face dropped to the floor like a magnet as soon as he heard the word "home." All the playfulness drained from his face like water wrung from a towel, and for the next ten seconds, the only answer Dawn got was the tweeting of starlies on the electricity lines and the roar of the shore.
...
"Are you always this easy to read? Fine. If that’s what you want. I’m not gonna force you to do anything." She said, digging into the white cylindrical bag hanging by her hip.
He watched her rummage through the marshmallow-looking bag, but his eyes nearly exploded out of their sockets when she pulled out the crispest, wrinkle-free, minty-fresh slab of cash!
"WHAT?! Dawn, where'd you get all that—"
"Lucas, I’m Professor Rowan's top assistant. Anyway, this is all I have left from this month, sorry. But it should be enough for us to get all the stuff you'll need starting out..." She told him, casually handing him the band.
The boy’s pale blue eyes widened, like a balloon, or when you pump air into a dying bike tyre. 100... 400... 900—
"It’s 3500p." Dawn said, tracing her glossy rosy lips with a tube of Pecha lip therapy while Lucas's mouth dropped open. "What?"
"This is what you have LEFT?" His voice boomed so loudly that the small horde of people going up and down the street turned their heads.
"Yes. Now, c'mon..." She tossed her air aside and shoved him aside, gravel crunching under her thick pink boots as she headed straight for the pokémart.
"We have stuff to do."