Are you busy, Professor?
non, ma amie. what do you need?
Arceus above, he cobbled together Kalosian and Unovan even in his texts. Calem wasn't sure she'd texted Sycamore before this, at least conversationally - or perhaps just hadn't noticed.
She thought very seriously about asking Sycamore on that date via text. She'd save herself the awkwardness of asking... but any delay in answer would be excruciating. And honestly, it was rude. Sure, she was rude, but that probably wasn't the best way to woo someone.
So fine, there was no way around it.
Calem hit the call button, and and the caster rang once, twice.
"Allo, Calem!" Sycamore's face appeared above her holo caster, barely larger than a doll's head, and significantly less colorful. "Is something wrong? I'm happy to help, assuming I can."
A deep breath in and out, and Calem was ready. "I have somethi-" and of course, a thought occurred in the middle of her question... Which, sure, intrusive thoughts weren't exactly new, but this one had legitimate reason to give her pause. "Actually, ah, are you alone? I don't, ah..." She didn't know how to explain without giving it away, so she just trailed off and rubbed the back of her neck, forcing her face into a strained approximation of a smile. It probably looked more like a grimace, but whatever.
Sycamore shook his head, which made Calem's heart sink and her finger hover over the end call button, but he elaborated, "No one else is here, I've actually retired for the night. Astonishing, I know. Work with Lysandre today was-" He looked aside and scratched the stubble on his chin. "Productive, but nothing more to be done today. But enough about me, what as it you needed? I can promise your privacy, whatever the issue."
Well, that was good. "I'm sorry to bother on a night off..." Why was she like this. Just ask the question. "I thought it'd be rude to just text you this, you know?" Ask. Shauna would be waiting for an answer, if nothing else, and Sycamore's little holographic bust was getting more and more worried looking by the second. "It's nothing bad!" Calemine said quickly, "no need to look at me like that."
"Then tell me, ma cherie, what this is," Sycamore said, "the suspense is about to kill me."
"Ah," said Calemine. "You see." A breath. "I'm, ah..." Spit it out. "What would you..." A start. "Think of..." Getting warmer.
Calemine's eyes glanced around the room, lighting upon the semester calendar. There were hardly three weeks before the spring semester started, before she'd begin her internship for real.
"Before the semester starts, I think I'd like to visit Alola, actually, Molayne was an old friend of my father's and before I'm tied down here for sure, I think I'd like to visit him again, catch up. He's practically like an uncle, if one I don't see often. I mean he's closer to my family than my actual uncles, so you know? And I dunno, even with all my dad's moves I never really went back after we moved away from it at like three years old so I thuoght maybe going to see it might be nice."
... What in the actual fuck, Calemine.
It was hard to tell much about expression on the Professor's tiny projected image, but it seemed surprised, anyway. "I.. suppose that's your prerogative, Calem. I must admit, though, I'm not sure why the secrecy was necessary."
Haha, that was a good fucking question. It would be easier to admit her brain was deflecting and that that hadn't been her actual question, rather than come up with a bullshit excuse. "Well, I didn't want to make a stir with the others, Shauna and Serena or Sina and Dexio and the rest." And yet, here was the bullshit excuse. "If you have any business with Molayne, I could certainly bring it to his attention- I know he's busy since he's that... uh, captain-y thingy, happened a few years ago." Which was a good point against her going, honestly. "Uh, I had a point originally..."
Sycamore shrugged, his dramatic shrug that even in the holo caster Calem could see, since his hands phased into existence at the edge of the 'frame', then dropped back down into nothing. "I see. Well, I... wish you happy travels, mon amie. I'm sorry if you find Kalos so stressful as to call for such a vacation."
"No, it's not-" Well, actually, Calem couldn't wholly deny that. Team Flare's activities were gearing up towards something, it felt like, and she'd even had a Pokémon die here. It was only a Fletchinder, and Talonflame would've been mostly redundant with a Charizard on her team, but it was still a shock whenever that happened. And then, of course, she wasn't usually contending with the problem she was currently failing to face.
"It's fine, Calem," Sycamore said - then chuckled. "Bring me a malasada, would you? I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to take one onto a plane, or get stale at all."
Despite the garbage fire that was her mental state, Calemine couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, absolutely not. In fact, I should just mail it to you. That couldn't go wrong in any way at all."
Another chuckle. "So, when do you depart?"
Given that Calem had only decided on this trip about five minutes ago, she wasn't exactly prepared to answer that. "I, uh, wanted to get your approval before making any purchases, so..." Why could she come up with these lies when she didn't want to.
Not that she wanted to be definitively rejected any more, but... Oh well.
Calem continued, cutting off Sycamore, not even caring what he was about to say - more small talk, probably. "In fact, I should probably go and order those tickets- I hear they're cheapest in the middle of the night, yeah? It's- not quite that now, but I'll be re-evaluating prices that long, I imagine. Later!" She grinned at the holo, one finger hovering over the end call button as her other hand waved, touched her lips and- what the fuck was she doing blowing a kiss? The call was ended now... hopefully her finger had connected before Sycamore could see that. What a mess of mixed signals she was. She'd be lucky if working with Sycamore wasn't hella awkward even if she miraculously got over this stupid crush in the next three weeks.
...There was no way she could bear to call Shauna and explain all this in detail. So instead, she texted.
I fucked up. I guess I'm going to Alola now, though.