Staying Grounded [Warning: Carrot Story]

Chapter Nine

She smiles, pointing towards the Nintendo section of the store.

“They should be around that area.”

We thank her, walking over to where she pointed.

“It’s a bit messy over here.” Rose points out to me.

“I’ll say. Whoever was last here couldn’t be bothered to put stuff back.” I say, plucking out a few other Pokémon characters that were on the floor. “What did you decide on in the end?”

“Well I thought I’d be boring and go with Pikachu. I thought it’d be the easiest one to be anyways. You?”

“Cool! I thought I’d go as Raichu, my favourite.” I grinned, batting away a few more clothes. Suddenly, I found one!

I hold it up. “Here’s one!”

I wearily check the price tag. £50 is fairly pricey if you ask me. I rack my thoughts. That would mean I’d have to get some more money off mum when I get home for when we go bowling. Or I could just take it back tomorrow, I’ll probably only wear once in my lifetime anyways.

By this time, Rose had found the last one in her size. “Oh god. I’m probably going to be one of thousands of people wearing a Pikachu outfit. I was hoping people would find it unoriginal and not buy it.” She slumps on the floor.

I pat her shoulder. “How about you put a bow on the ears and wear some make-up to make it a girly Pikachu? I doubt anyone would have thought of that.”

She looks up at me, smiling. “Hey, that’s not a bad idea actually! I’ll take it.”

Rose and I take a few photos of ourselves with the outfits, just generally mucking about before taking them to the till.

The girl at the till winks at us, handing over our bags. “Have fun at the Pokémon thingy.”

We grin back. “Thank you.”

We quickly make our way over to Claire’s Accessories to buy the bow and stuff, before grabbing a couple of smoothies for the ride; we study the timetable at the bus stop for the times. The next bus should be in about 5 minutes.

I then paused for a second. “Wait. Will they have toilets there so we can change into our costumes? Because otherwise we’re gonna end up not wearing them.”

Rose nods. “Yeah, I think I remember reading about there being changing facilities. But that’s true. If I read it wrong I think we’ll stick out a little bit.”

“Well I hope you’re right.” I mumble as the bus pulls up. The old man driving it gives us a half-hearted tilt of the head in greeting as we scan our oyster cards. We both look across the sea of faces staring up at us as we decide where to sit. In the end, I have to sit next to a woman who pulled a face as if I was a piece of gum on the bottom of her shoe. Well isn’t that just brilliant…

When we arrived, luckily there was a huge queue waiting to get in, most of which were carrying their costumes with them. We joined the end, sipping at the end of our smoothies.

Rose jerks hers towards me. “Take it, I can’t have anymore.”

“What is it?” I frown at the weird brown/green colour.

“I think it’s celery and chocolate.” She sees my look of disgust. “What? It’s for this new diet thing I’m trying out. Taste like crap though to be honest.”

I roll my eyes. Trust Rose with her quirky diets.

“I think I’ll stick to my strawberry and banana thanks.”