Trainer to Be

Chapter 9

I gaze out the window. "This view is amazing." I state. Our hotel room is on the seventh floor of an eight floor building. You can see the whole of London from up here. I point to a rather big building on my left. "Look Nora, it's Buckingham Palace."

Nora chuckles. "That's the houses of parliament you moron."

"Oh, my bad." I giggle sheepishly. "I've never been to London before."

"Neither have I." Nora goes back to unpacking. "But I've seen plenty of pictures of the landmarks. Heck, we had a whole London week at my old school."

I peel my eyes away from the window. "Where did you use to live?"

"Ramsgate." She replies, not looking away from her unpacking. "We moved up here to be closer to my gran. She got lonely after gramps passed away." She smiles at me. "Now, are you going to unpack or what?"

I trudge over to my suitcase and unzip it grumpily. "Unpacking is so stupid." I mutter. "Besides, why are we bothering when we could be spending this time at the league."

"The tournaments start tomorrow Leoni." Mr Pine saunters into the room, dragging his suitcase in one hand and swirling the room keys around his index finger on the other. "We're using today to have a wander around London. Tomorrow we're going to the league. We're driving home on Monday morning." Monday morning? That means I'm going to miss school on Monday. Brooke's going to kill me. "Anyway girls, here's your key." He places the keys on the dresser. "Don't loose it." He warns, exiting the room.

Nora gets up and locks the door. "Well, since I'm the first to finish unpacking I guess I have the right to claim the top bunk."

"What? That's not fair." I cry as she scrambles onto the top bunk. I jut out my bottom lip. "How come you get the top bunk. I'm older."

"Are you really?" She answers. "Last time I checked I was two months older than you. Which, by my logic, makes me older than you." She puts her pyjamas down on the floral print quilt. Swinging down off her bed, she pushes me backwards. It was just a jokey little push but it hurt my feelings still. "Hurry up and unpack. Then we can go explore." She unlocks the door. "I'm going the toilet, see you in five." She exits, taking the keys with her. My phone buzzes, making the dresser vibrate. I look over, it's Brooke.

I shake my head. I can't believe she actually bought my 'too much homework' story. She's so gulliable sometimes. Like, what does she think I'd rather be doing? Homework or hanging out with my friends? The Pokéball shakes on the dresser. "Oi butterfingers." Pikachu shouts. "It's rather cramped in here you know."

"Suck it up and deal with it then." I reply, rolling my eyes. It's been like a month and he still calls me butterfingers. Honestly, he's as bad as Liam. And we all know how notorious he is for reminding you of embarrassing moments. I put my clothes away in the second to top drawer. That's me unpacked.

The lock clicks in the door and Nora bursts into the room. "Miss me?"

I roll my eyes. "Bitch please, you were only gone for five minutes. I had no time to miss you."

She flops down on the lower bunk. "There's always time to miss me. I'm fabulous."

"In your dreams Nora."

There's a knock on the door. "Girls. Are you ready to go or not?" Mr Pine shouts.

I open the door. "Chill your beans pa, you're going to wake up the entire floor." Says Nora. I grab our Pokéballs off the side. "Yes, we're ready to go." She rolls her eyes and pushes past him. I follow.

We trudge down the stairs following Mr Pine. There's a lot of stairs, eight floors worth of them, and we have to go down seven. I can't even imagine what it'll be like coming back upstairs. It's going to take me hours. "Shit, I forgot to lock the door." Nora face palms. "Leoni, can you go lock it?"

"Why do I have to lock it? You were the one who forgot?"

She shoves the keys into my hands. "Because you're at the back of the group. Now go quickly or we'll have no time to explore London." I roll my eyes and trudge back up the stairs. We were almost at the bottom as well. This is going to take me years.