"Hey, are you an Orphan?"
Joey's facial expression turned grim he didn't know what made it so obvious about him that he was found out at every turn.
Joey was helpless and it was hard to tell a lie with his expression.
"Yes actually, Is it really that obvious?"
"It's the clothes, you look like a homeless fisherman but I can help with that because I make a lot of clothes, " said Eisha arrogantly.
"Thanks, I'd appreciate it if you let me take a look".
Joey was glad because her clothes seemed to be cheaper than the rest and she was looked happy selling them for cheap, so he had no qualms about taking them off her hand.
The assortment of new clothes he bought for Rayla was already enough to make him satisfied but the prospect of new clothes got his hopes up again.
The only problem was that some of the better designs weren't available in his size, even though finding your exact size was hard but it wasn't anything game-changing for Joey.
"Here I only have these as male clothes," Eisha said as she took out a box marked male.
Joey took a peered into the box that had tangled string slinging onto the clothes and the occasional needles that threatened to pierce his skin.
Joey looked around for several minutes and picked out his favourite.
"How much are these" Joey asked as he pointed to his pair of light blue jeans and three shirts with pattern and foreign writings on the back that he chose.
''80$"
Joey added a few more shirts that seemed cheaper when Eisha stopped him. She threw his hand to the side and said disappointingly "Dammit, do you not have any sense of fashion?.
I get that your low on cash but at least make the most out of it and try and look good".
"Well do you have any ideas?"
Joey wasn't upset with his previous choices and thought they looked good.
He was slightly suspicious that she was gonna choose the more expensive ones or make up more prices on the spot.
Joey watched as she chose a pair of blue ripped jeans and another 3 shirts, they all had the same foreign writings on the back and the patterns that ran across the shirts varied from and were better quality.
Joey was sure they would cost more.
Joey scoffed at her shamelessness and but before he could voice his displeasure she defended herself.
"These are my best clothes and I don't want them to stay in a box forever, you can pay regular prices".
She took a brief pause while packing his new clothes then continued "But now people won't think your an orphan and won't have to worry about getting abducted".
Joey was suspicious of how kind she was, after all, trusting people has gotten him nowhere. She looked at Joey's half-convinced expression and saw the doubt in his face.
"Stop looking like that, I'm doing this because not everyone can survive as an orphan, I lost a friend who was an orphan"
Eisha said regretfully.
Joey didn't ask any more questions, decided to give her a chance.
It was already nice of her to sell her clothes at a cheap price already so he decided to keep his concerns to himself, she ended up giving Joey 3 suits of new clothes and Joey.
He paid for the clothes and the price was around 83$, although the price was slightly lower the things he got were much better; not to mention a pack of underwear.
The two of them talked more when they were looking and trying on clothes and had a few laughs.
Joey was ready to leave and return to the Martial Center when he remembered the anticipation in his heart stirred then he recalled what the security said.
The sudden silence caught her attention, Eisha saw Joey's expression and asked "Joey, what's wrong?".
"Do you have any training suits?" Joey asked with a wry smile.
"You can't afford a training suit, that is at least 1300$, the reason they are expensive is that there are resilient and don't tear easily.
You can buy a simple tracksuit for less and you can't tell the difference." Eisha quickly dismissed him.
Eisha walked over to a small mountain of clothes and pulled the cover off it. "Come over here and help".
Joey didn't ask questions because he could tell they were gonna be cheap, two of them dug into the pile of clothes and finding a tracksuit took a while but eventually, he heard an exclamation of surprise.
Aha!
Eisha pulled up a pair of 'grey' tracksuit that was in near perfect condition with a smile on her face.
"You can train in these! just don't spar anyone or your lie will be exposed."
Joey held the tracksuit and looked at it with a scrutinizing gaze, and asked "should these be white?".
Joey realized that a little patch in it was white while the rest was grey and the only conclusion he could come to was the original colour was white, and the dirt changed the colour.
Eish forced a smile as she said "I'm sorry that's all we have… you can take it there, they were suppose to get thrown away" she was slightly embarrassed by the fact that the colour of the suit changed but tried not to show it.
Joey didn't care whether it was too dirty as long as he was able to train, Joey wrapped up the clothes and stuffed them in his bags.
As Joey took up in his bag the flier fell out of his pocket onto the floor.
Eisha picked up the flier and looked at it with shock. She almost forgot to speak. She looked up in disbelief and asked, "Are you Joining Sky Academy Tournament?"
Joey was slightly annoyed that she saw the flier but didn't ignore her question out of courtesy, then he asked "Is there something wrong?" While holding out his hand out silently urging her to return it.
"I'm participating next month too".
Eisha smiled then her face fell, she handed the flier back to Joey and said "It's really dangerous and some people have died or lost limbs in the tournament, only Sky Military Doctors can reattach arms without nerve damage otherwise it will stay gone.
What if I lose both my arms?
Will I have to headbutt people when to tap them on the shoulder and I am gonna have to start drinking water like a dog when I'm by myself".
Ahem!
Joey cleared his throat snapping her out of her down spiralling tangent.
"Oh, my bad, sometimes I talked too much"
Joey wasn't depressed when he heard about the cruelty of the competition.
He believed that he was strong enough to win, he doubted that any of them were stronger than Ms Moore.
Joey simply smiled and they started heading to the door.
Before they reached the door the lady from around the counter face scrunched in confusion and asked"Eisha did he buy your clothes?".
She was tall and her cheeks were slightly chubby she had long orange hair that ran down her back with large breasts that made her look mature, even though her eyebrows were scrunched she still looked beautiful.
"Leave my customer alone Denise, Make sure you don't steal him!" Eisha didn't look back as she shouted and rushed out of the store.
Joey was slightly curious about who she was but before he could ask they were outside, Eisha saw him looking back at her and said "Don't ask, she isn't important".
"Thank you for buying my clothes please come back next time, I'll be happy to help" Eisha slightly bowed her head with a smile.
Joey smiled and was surprised by it the hospitality but he secretly made up his mind not to come here again, he wasn't risking his safety for clothes.
Joey bid his farewell and left.
After he left the clothes store took down the name 'Crimson Nelk' in his head and made his way over to the Martial Center.
As he made his way over to the Martial Centre he walked up the stairs up to the entrance, he was already changed into his 'grey' tracksuit and was ready to train.
The security looked at him and the clothes in his hand and gave him a nod of approval and let him proceed.