A TMC Story

Chapter 5

"This is a day trip," Alex said with glaring emphasis, "so we'll do what we can and then go back to Akarnae, then we'll split up from there. Plus, my parents gave me some of their Freyan money because it's not like we're going to live in Freya again."

"Sounds good!" D.C. said excitedly. "What are we doing first?"

Alex read through the list quickly.

1. Dix - Shopping at a Freyan mall

2. Jordan - eat Freyan food

3. Bear - watch a game of Freyan sport

4. Kaiden - sightseeing

5. Declan - ride a bike, sailing, ride in a car

"Okay. We don't need to go out of our way to eat Freyan food." Alex mentally ticked that off the list. "Let's go shopping first. Then we'll have to watch Freyan sport on TV -" at which point Alex received blank looks from her friends "-then we can ride a bike and go sailing and ride in a car, and I'm sure we can fit sightseeing in between all of that. Everything good?"

Alex received nods from her five companions. "Hang on. First, you need to learn about Freyan geography. Here," Alex led them inside the house where a world map was hung up in the living room. "That's North America, where we are. That's South America, south of us, obviously. That's Europe over there - we'll definitely be heading there. That's Asia - we'll probably go there too. That's Australia - we might stop over there. That's Antarctica, which is uninhabitable, so we can cross that off our options. And that's Africa. We might stop there too."

"That's very interesting," mused Bear. "Funny how it's so different from Medora."

"Trust me," Alex said with a grimace, "you don't even know yet." Alex called for Soraya, who appeared beside her.

"I'm not using the Library because I can use Soraya." Alex shrugged. "I don't know. Seems easier. She can only travel with two at a time, though."

"I'll go with Bear," Declan said, stepping up.

"Take them to where I had in mind," she told her Shadow Wolf. "Make sure no one sees you."

Bear and Declan went first, followed by Jordan and D.C., and finally, Alex and Kaiden.

They stepped out onto a quiet alleyway, perpendicular to a bustling highway.

"What are those?" D.C. shrieked, pointing to the cars speeding down the road.

"They're cars, Dix," Alex said exasperatedly. "Don't draw attention to yourself like that, and if you feel the need to say something, keep your voice down, but mostly just try to keep your thoughts to yourself. I'd like it if you didn't get locked up in a hospital for being deranged."

Alex marched off towards the highway, and after taking a few turns, Alex pulled them inside the mall.

They were all struck silent.

"C'mon," Alex said impatiently. "Stop acting as though you've never seen a mall before." Then Alex realised that they never had seen a mall before.

"Dix, don't you want to go shopping?" Alex said, her voice high-pitched. When no one moved, she hissed, "If you don't want me to take you back to Medora right now, get moving! And I was the one who 'bumbled' around pretending I was from Medora? You guys..."

Kaiden snapped out of his reverie first. "Alex is right. Let's go shopping."

"But I'm hungry!" Jordan protested.

D.C.'s eyes bugged out. "Jordan, I know for a fact that you ate breakfast one hour ago! A huge breakfast, in fact!"

Jordan frowned. "One hour is plenty of time for my stomach to –"