Chapter 3: Ticket
Jason looked over to see Lopunny nibbling on a small piece of bright green pastry. There was still a bit of disbelief whenever he looked at the Lopunny in front of him. Its ears flapped happily as it chewed its meal, its fluffy paws gripping the small green pastry, but somehow managing to not get any crumbs on the ball of cream-colored fur that wrapped on both its wrist.
Lopunny, noticing Jason's staring started looking back and forth between its meal and Jason before showing the pastry to him. Taking a closer look at it immediately reminded Jason of Poffins with its oval shape and sprinkles on top.
"Err you want me to have it?" Jason asked and Lopunny nodded in response. Jason took the Poffin and took a bit of it. The overwhelming taste of bitterness overwhelmed his mouth and tears developed in his eyes. It was as though he had eaten a cake filled with extremely bitter green tea leaves.
Jason had the urge to spit it out but he noticed Lopunny looking right at him. Its eyes sparkled as though it was expecting Jason to like it. Upon looking at Lopunny's eyes he swallowed the Poffin and the only aftertaste he felt was regret.
Lopunny, satisfied with Jason took back the Poffin and hopped away out of the dining room. With Lopunny gone, Jason laid his head on the dining table feeling exhausted. To add salt to his already gaping wound, in the corner of his eyes he could see the Alolan Raichu patting his belly and looking at him.
That face on it, it was hard to see exactly what Lopunny was thinking of most of the time. But with this Raichu, it was plain as day. That shit-eating grin, and its eyes narrowing almost to slits. It was the smuggest Raichu Jason had ever seen, not that he had ever seen a Raichu before but he knew a smug bastard when he saw one.
"Rai Rai!" The Raichu said as it floated over to give Jason a pat on the back before floating away.
"Ummm... Are Y-you ok, there mister?" That voice in the back of his head appeared again. Jason looked around and saw the reflection in the window of the dining room.
"Fuck no... I just ate what amounted to bitter dog food, and got laughed at by an oversized flying rat." Jason replied as he stared at the reflection. "Could have warned me about it if you were there the whole time."
"I-I thought... maybe a little payback would be nice... You know... the whole body thing?"
"Fine, I'll let it go..." Jason sighed as he say up straight "So now what, you can only appear in reflections or something?"
"Umm... no I see what you're doing even without that." The reflection said while fidgeting with its hands "But you seem to only hear or notice me until I tried the mirror..."
"Tried the mirror? So you're like a ghost now?"
"G-ghost?! B-but that would mean I'm dead! But I'm not dead, you just took my body!"
"Alright alright ok let's just assume Jirachi didn't end up having to kill you for this to happen," Jason said and looked over at the kitchen. "Right let's stop this here before your mom notices."
"I'm not dead..." the reflection said as it looked down.
A few minutes later Mark's mom walks out of the kitchen holding a plate of 3 pancakes stacked on top of each other, drizzled in syrup. Jason could only hope that syrup was at least something close to maple syrup and not some abomination like the Poffin he ate earlier.
"Here you go, your favorite!" Mark's mom said as she laid the plate in front of him. "Now eat that up and I can give you the news!"
"News?" Jason asked as he cut into the pancake. Seeing the pancakes drenched in syrup made him wonder how the kid managed to stay so slim.
"I know you've been looking forward to the new year for a long time. So I've gone ahead and got you something to help you prepare for that!" Mark's mother said with a beaming smile.
"W-wait is it that!?" The reflection exclaimed as Jason saw in the corner of his eye the reflection's eyes growing wide.
"Is it that?" Jason asked, following what the reflection said.
"Yup!" Mark's mother exclaimed as she brought out a ticket. On it was an image of a large building with many people in lab coats standing in front of it. And at the helm was an old man with an extremely impressive mustache. "I managed to get you to join a week-long camp at Professor Rowan's starting next week! The stubborn old man finally gave in!"
Jason upon hearing this felt his body filling up with joy, even though he had no idea what the fuss was about. Though the camp having what looked to be professor Rowan's involvement intrigued him. And in the corner of his eye, he could see the reflection jumping in a place like a madman, a huge smile plastered over his face.
"She actually got it! Yes Yes Yes!" The reflection shouted happily.
"W-wow this is great!" Jason replied, trying to sound as happy as he could "How did you get it?"
"Hehehe, you know that aunty's a few houses down?" She said as her face started to slowly resemble that Raichu from before "You remember that chubby boy a few houses down from here? His mother ended up arguing with the old man and he decided to take away their ticket. I don't know what exactly happened with them, but I got there in time to get that vacant spot before anyone else did!"
Jason puzzled by what Mark's mom said looked at the reflection to see how it was reacting. The reflection looked at Jason with a worried look.
"I think Mom's talking about Caleb... umm we don't exactly have a great relationship..." the reflection said as it started fidgeting again. "Umm... I remember overhearing him last time... complaining about his mum. If he finds out that I, errr... we got his place, don't know what he'll do..."
Jason thought about it for a moment. It's likely this Caleb kid wasn't just some acquaintance of Mark. The kid has been a nervous wreck ever since he started talking to him, but it's possible he might be afraid of this Caleb.
"That's great, mom!" Jason said as he looked back at her. "So do I need to do anything to prepare?"
"Eager to get going already?" She said with a smile "Well you'll need to get a couple of things from the mart so you'll be ready for the camp."
She took out a piece of paper and handed it to Jason. On the paper was a list of items. Sleeping bag, towel, notebook, pen, raincoat, and a few other things. Jason was reminded of his school camping trip packing list.
"I need to take care of some stuff around the house, so I thought let's get you to try doing something by yourself!
"I need to buy all of this stuff? Jason said as he turned the piece of paper around. On the other side was a map with two markers, one saying "Home' and another saying 'Mart'"
"Yup, I've put the money at the table next to the front door. Remember to take it with you alright?" Mark's mom said as she got up "I'll leave you to it, remember to wash your plate up before you go. Oh and good choice of clothes, I was beginning to wonder when you'd grow out of those printed shirt and short pants!"
Mark's mom then left the dining room, leaving Jason alone with his plate of pancakes. After cutting up the pancake, he took a bite of it.
"Oh, this is actually pretty good. And she used honey syrup?"
"I-it's Queen Syrup... I like it a lot..." the reflection said as it looked at the plate.
Jason felt a tinge of guilt as he saw the kid's face, who was looking intently at the plate of pancakes. Feeling uncomfortable with the situation he quickly gobbled up the rest of the pancakes and moved to the kitchen.
"OK so tell me more about this camp, I saw Professor Rowan on it so it must be pretty special yeah?"
"Y-yeah, all the camps that are created by Professor Rowan are extremely well known. A lot of kids who went through the camps did very well during their time on the gym circuit..." the reflection said as he appeared in the window of the kitchen. "Oh... the dishwasher is just there..."
Jason who was already washing the plate in the sink sighed after hearing about the dishwasher. "OK, and what goes on in this camp?"
"Erm well, this one is the called the Sandgem Starter Camp. It's supposed to give Sandgem kids a head start by teaching them what they need to know before they start their journey at the beginning of the year."
"Starter camp? I'm guessing you get your starter during the camp?" Jason asked as he thought about the 3 Starters you could get in Sinnoh. "An Infernape would be pretty nice..."
"I-Infernape? That's a royal starter! The Professor doesn't just hand those out to anyone!" The reflection exclaimed, shaking its head rapidly. "It's just camp to get everyone started on the road to becoming a trainer... for a starter, it's usually up to us to get one ourselves. So we'll probably have to catch one during the camp"
"Catch one... Where's the camp located then. Here?" Jason asked and the reflection nodded in response.
"Y-yeah, the route outside the town, 202"
"So just a bunch of Bidoofs, Starlys, Kriketunes, or a Shinx if we're lucky?" Jason asked with a frown.
"W-well there's also Budew, Burmy, and Wurmples around... I've seen them while walking with mom." The reflection replied. "Oh and there's a river nearby route 202 that has some water pokemon. A lot of them come down from lake verity."
Jason couldn't exactly remember what pokemon you could find in every location in Sinnoh. He usually sped through the Main Story of the games before focusing on breeding and EV training. He then thought of the really common water pokemon and a question arose within him.
"Hey, just a quick question. Say you're on land, and a guy throws out a pokemon like Magikarp or Goldeen. What actually happens, does it just flop around on land or does it float?"
"Float?" Jason asked, "No one would send a pokemon like Goldeen out on land, especially a Magikarp. T-they wouldn't be able to move at all... it'd be cruel to them..."
"Anything else about this camp I should know about?" Jason asked as he finished washing the plate, and started to look for a drying rack.
"Ummm well there is a test at the end of the camp, usually. It's the same as the trainer test every kid has to take at the beginning of the year after they turn 10."
"Alright, let's continue our conversation later." Finally finding a drying rack, he placed the plate on it and moved to find the front door.
Just as Mark's mother said, there was a pouch filled with coins and banknotes that had numbers on them. The coins had 10s engraved on them while the banknotes had 100 and 1000 stated on them. Jason hoped it'd be able to pay for everything on the list and headed out of the house.
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