After the little detour I took earlier, me and Jenny finally arrived in front of the building where I was going to be staying in the foreseeable future. It was a moderate size, and while you could say that it didn’t have any features that made it stand out, in my opinion, that was a good thing. It let me know that they were focusing on sending any donations, if they were getting any, to the places that were needed much more than aesthetics.
Following Jenny inside, with Growlithe curiously looking all around behind the both of us, I saw a desk with a woman in her mid thirties and short, blonde hair looking at some papers sitting behind it.
“Excuse me.” Jenny said after we had walked up to the desk only for her to not notice us. Jolting at the voice, she looked up from the papers with a startled gasp. “I’m Jenny, you were called by a Nurse Joy in Viridian City about a boy who needs some help getting back on his feet.”
“Ah, yes!” Standing up quickly to shake her hand, the woman sent a quick look my way, giving a bright smile towards Jenny. “Just let me get the director, she should be here in just a moment.”
Watching her scurry off, Jenny turned to give me a supportive smile before taking a look around. We were in a small lobby that had several doors. The one the woman went through was labeled “office”, while the other two were named “resident rooms” and “faculty” respectively. The lobby was plain white, with the desk being brown, there were some seats, but all in all it kind of reminded me of a dentist’s lobby. So far it looked pretty professional.
Hearing the sound of a ‘click’, both me and Jenny turned to the door the woman behind the desk went through and saw that a short, portly woman, walked behind her. Short hair slicked back that didn’t even make it past her ears, hair black in color and matted from sweat, she raised a handkerchief she grabbed from a pocket to wipe away some perspiration that was covering her face. Blue suit with black dress shoes, I noticed that her suit buttons were undone, and was, in general, ruffled.
“I guess she hurried when she heard a Jenny was here.” I thought with a little twitch of my nose. “Man, I really can’t get over the fact that some women in this world just look like the female versions of some men in mine. She looks like a really short chubby business guy that you would see in movies or shows as the comic relief or antagonist. The only difference is that she has boobs that belong to her from her gender and actually has hair. Guys that usually look like her have at least a bald spot.” Twitching my nose again, I reigned in a look of disgust. “She does smell weird though, I guess that’s in character.”
“Jenny!” Voice squeaky, she pocketed the handkerchief she was using to wipe her face and held out a sweaty hand, to which Jenny reluctantly shook. “Nurse Joy didn’t tell me that you were coming along yourself to bring the boy.” Eyes darting from her to look at me from head to toe, her eyes widened when they landed on Growlithe, who had its head tilted and was sniffing the air. “P-please ball your Pokemon!” Taking a step back, she looked at Jenny to continue, a hesitant smile on her face. “Some of the boys here are scared of Pokemon you see. If one of the boys accidentally comes out and sees this one, it could bring back some pretty scarring memories. I hope you understand.”
Nodding her head, Jenny gave Growlithe an apologetic smile, pulled out a Pokeball, returning her. Watching the portly woman give a sigh, I held back a small smile.
“At least she’s worried for the people under her care.” Seeing my smile, the portly woman gave a nod towards me.
“You must be Koal!” Raising a hand to shake mine, I was a little put off when it lasted longer than Jenny’s, but I could see some guys in my old world doing the same thing to some women, so I didn’t really think too much about it. “I’m Brenda, pleasure to meet you!”
“Same.” Replying simply, I wiped away the sweat that still clung to my hand from hers as discreetly as I could.
“I heard all about you from Nurse Joy.” Shaking her head, she looked at the ground with a frown. “Losing your memories can be tough, but hopefully here we can help educate you with the things that have disappeared from your memories.” Looking up, Brenda smiled at me before turning to Jenny. “Don’t you worry, we have the base reeducation program in all of Kanto!”
Cocking my head to the side, for some reason I felt that choosing that specific world had a weird connotation. I was probably overthinking it. After dealing with what I dealt with in the forest yesterday, and then immediately being hit on by some sleazy woman on the train, I think my sense of danger was just too heightened. It’s not good to start applying random meanings to people's words, that’s how you start the spiral into paranoia.
“That’s good to hear.” Nodding her head in satisfaction, Jenny gave me a sad smile. “It looks like this is where we part ways Koal.”
“Yeah. It was really good to meet you Jenny, hopefully we can get to know each other more when we see each other again.” I responded with a sad smile of my own.
Silence encompassed the room as me and Jenny stared into each other's eyes for a little longer than what was considered normal. I could hear Brenda and the woman who was behind the desk shuffle a little bit at our little moment, although, I really couldn’t care. Just when the line of silence stretched to impossible lengths, a cough sounded up from our side.
“Ahem.” Bringing a chubby fist up to her mouth, Brenda hurriedly looked back to the door before giving an awkward grin. “I really don’t want to interrupt the two of you from…your goodbyes, but I really need to get back to the work in my office.” Giving Jenny an apologetic look, she nodded her head towards her, causing the woman that was previously behind the desk to nod her head and direct Jenny towards the door. “It’s getting late and Koal here needs to get situated. I’ll have Lexa show you out.”
Breaking eye contact, Jenny let herself be led to the door where she stopped at the entrance before sending me one last longing look. After that, she gave a small wave, which I returned, and was gone from my sight. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep inhale through my nose and out through my mouth. Time to begin my start in this new world.
“Well then.” Shuffling her round and short body so that she was fully in front of me, Brenda gave me another once over, much slower this time, and smiled at me with a grin I couldn’t quite decipher. “Since you’re new here, Lexa will show you to your quarters. If you have any questions, be sure to go to her, otherwise, please come and see me.”
Seeing my head go up and down, Brenda turned around a little too quickly, going back to the door labeled “office”. Opening the door just enough so that she could go through and enough so I wouldn’t be able to get a look inside, she walked in and shut the door behind her. Scratching my head, I began to grow curious at what kind of work left her in that state.
“Has to be things involved with the company.” I thought to myself. “I’m sure paying off bills and trying to manage people who need help getting restarted in life gives her a big workload.”
“Excuse me.” A voice interrupted my pondering.
Looking to where the voice came from, I saw that Lexa had approached me, coming to stand rather close to me at my side.
“If you’d like, I can show you to the room you’ll be staying in .” She said in a flat tone.
Odd. When Jenny was here she was expressive and ready to please. I suppose this must be her normal sort of character, probably just nervous a Jenny was in the building. Tons of people in my old world, even when innocent, would act nervous around cops. Her new visage didn’t come off as rude per say, it was just…weird how it flipped so suddenly.
“Sounds good to me.” Giving her a smile, I thought I saw her eyes go a little darker, in fact, it was so quick that I was under the notion it was only a trick of the lighting.
“You’ll do…very well here I’m sure.” A small upturn of one side of her lips accompanied that statement. “Now follow me.”
Watching her walk towards the door that said “resident rooms”, I picked up my feet and joined in behind her. It was getting a little late outside and while I would like to go around and see just what there was to do in this building, I felt a little tired from the train ride along with the walk through the overly crowded city. So with wishing my room was a decent size, I planned for a little rest.