Ethan stared up at the sheets high above him, the ones he had hung up to create the roof of his fort. He'd been hiding away all morning with only his DS for company. Eventually, the internal battery had run flat and instead of getting up to find the charger, the console had been thrown across the floor; it skidded over the carpet and came to a stop by the door. He'd given up then, and simply lay on the floor, staring up.

His Pokégear had beeped a few times. He replied to the message from Lyra with a no – are you coming over today? – and ignored the ones from his other friends. In particular, he ignored the ones from Silver. He'd been ignoring Silver for over a week and he felt justified in his actions. It was probably his own fault he was still receiving messages filled with endless streams of verbal abuse, but if he was totally honest, he enjoyed Silver's creativity when he was angry. If he was even more brutally honest, it was definitely his fault, but his own entertainment was worth more than a few insults between friends.

He had no idea what time it was when his bedroom door clicked open. He'd found his headphones under his bed by then, and was listening to the same handful of songs he'd dumped onto his Pokégear six months earlier and had never bothered to update. He turned his head when someone removed one of the ear buds.

"How did you get in here?"

"Well, I stood outside throwing rocks at your window for a while and when that didn't work, I climbed up the drainpipe and came in through the window."

"Why?"

"Because I thought that would kill an hour."

"You're so weird."

"I used the door. You just didn't hear me."

"I figured."

"So, what's up with you? I've known you for what, ten years? You've never been this quiet."

"I'm fourteen," Ethan scowled at her.

"Whatever," Crys said. She turned her own head back so she was staring up, then shifted a leg to kick the sheet.

"What was that for?" He asked, trying to sound annoyed.

"To see if there's anything worth staring at up there. There's not."

"I'm bored, okay? Like, so bored. You've been everywhere too, there's nothing to do at home. New Bark is boring."

"You're bored enough to lie on your bedroom floor and stare at the roof?"

"I made a fort first. Then I was less bored for three whole minutes."

"Do you want to go to Celadon and play slots?"

"I'm fourteen," he repeated again, looking at her as if she was crazy. He'd always thought she was but they were getting along, and not even he was stupid enough to say anything that would ruin that. He needed entertainment.

"So? Fine, Fuchsia, to the Zoo and we'll get in all the cages and pet the animals until they chase us away in those stupid little carts."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We'll leave in five," Crys sat up. "I'll go tell Mom. Don't forget your running shoes this time because I don't have the money to bail you out."

"Shut up, I'm not retarded."

"Oh, did they not show you the paperwork that says you are?"

"Shut up!"

"Mom told me that she dropped you on your head once. That explains a lot."

"Shut up!" He threw his headphones at her as she crawled out of the fort, laughing.

"Five minutes!" She added, and he heard his door slam after she ran out. He sat up, finally, and reached for his belt. He slipped his feet into his old running shoes before following Crys downstairs, shouting about how he'd remembered them and that she should look so he could prove his point. It was going to be a quick trip over to Kanto and back but he'd been so bored lately that anything to fill the time was a worthwhile adventure. Maybe I'll go up to Blackthorn tomorrow, he thought. It'd been a while since he annoyed Silver in person. Crys snatched up his cap as she ran past and he had no choice but to chase her out into the streets of New Bark to retrieve it.