They arrived at the Pokemon Center at the southern tip of South Cloud Lake around dinner time. Liam had been looking forward to the end of their day's march, but his relief at the sight of the Pokemon Center didn't last long. It was packed with local trainers. Every sofa, chair, and table in the entire center was occupied, and there was a line (or more accurately, a crowd) leading to the reception desk that nearly stretched out the door. Liam was frustrated and irritated, but Vasilio took the entire situation in stride.
"Guess we're sleeping outside," he said. Ruth gave a disappointed moan.
"I wanted to sleep in a bed, or at least on a couch," said Rain, looking at the packed Pokemon center with disgust.
"Well, outside it will have to be," said Stephanie, "Good thing we brought tents."
"Rain, you and Liam get in line for the Pokemon nurse," said Vasilio, taking off his belt and handing it to Liam, "We'll find somewhere to set up."
Liam nodded, but he would have preferred struggling fruitlessly with the tents to pushing his way to the front of a nebulous line that didn't seem to be moving anywhere. He followed Rain's lead, and soon found himself in the thick of the line, with locals around him glancing (and sometimes openly staring) at him and his three Pokemon belts. They paid no attention to Rain; people from Ferrum didn't stand out in Nanzo the way Unovans did. Liam wasn't offended—people stared at him the same way back in Johto, and he was sure a foreigner was a novelty in a remote Pokemon Center like this.
After about twenty minutes, they finally edged their way to the front of the crowd. Liam had expected the Pokemon nurse to refuse to take their six belts worth of Pokemon, be she accepted them without question. After a few minutes, she passed them back to Liam and Rain and they were shunted away from the desk by the crowd of trainers pressing up behind them. Liam found Vasilio and Stephanie setting up the tents in a clearing next to the Pokemon center. There were only two—a two man tent for Vasilio and Liam, and a four man tent for the girls—but they were still struggling with the second.
"This piece of crap," grumbled Vasilio, "It won't stand up."
"Want me to try?" asked Liam.
"Sure," said Vasilio, throwing down the two plastic rods he was holding, "Give it a go, Camper Liam."
Liam did his best to follow Stephanie's directions in assembling the frustrating array of pieces, but he hadn't made much progress before Vasilio got frustrated with not doing anything and took back over. With some assistance from Stephanie's Lucario, they finally got the second tent standing just as Ruth and Mori returned. Liam had been wondering where they had been, but his annoyance that they hadn't helped in putting up the tents faded immediately when he saw what they had brought back with them.
"I hope guys like lu mian," said Mori, "Because I wasn't doing any custom orders."
Liam had eaten lu mian in the alley across from the school before, but somehow it tasted even better than he remembered after walking for an entire day. His chopsticks were scraping the bottom of the paper bowl long before he was full, but he didn't want the others to know he was still hungry. He was sure Ruth wouldn't judge him—she finished her noodles almost as quickly as he did—but Stephanie was eating at such a moderate pace that Liam was sure he would look like a complete Snorlax to her if he went for seconds.
Liam was relieved when Mori offered him her leftover noodles. As he began digging into Mori's half-full paper bowl, a sound like a clap of thunder resounded overhead. Liam jumped, nearly dropping his second dinner in the process.
"What the heck was that?" he nearly shouted.
Ruth looked just as shaken as Liam, but Vasilio and Mori laughed.
"I forgot they don't do Lunar New Year in Johto," said Mori, "It was a firecracker. It's starting to get dark, so people are letting off fireworks. It's gonna be crazy tonight."
"It's a good thing we're outside of town," said Rain, "I can never sleep on the night before New Year's. It's so loud."
"That was loud too," said Ruth, who was still covering her ears.
"Well, let's hope the other trainers are considerate enough not to keep us up all night," said Vasilio.
As it got darker, the fireworks became more frequent. Now that Liam was expecting them, he really began to enjoy the bursts of bright color, resounding blasts of exploding gunpowder, and shrieking rockets. He didn't think much of the noisemakers that let off rapid-fire pops like a machine gun and left scraps of red paper all over the ground, but he understood the appeal, at least. Mori found Liam's interest in the fireworks amusing.
"It's gets old really quick," she said, "You'll hate them by next year."
"That's false," said Vasilio, flicking Mori, "Remember last year when we set of fireworks all night with Taylor? You had fun then."
"Maybe," said Mori, "Only a little."
At around 9 o'clock, Rain and Stephanie announced that they were going to try to sleep. Ruth soon followed them, but Mori sat out with Vasilio and Liam for a while longer, watching the fireworks with her headphones on. By about 9:45, she was dozing off onto Vasilio's shoulder. He nudged her awake and almost carried her to the girl's tent. Liam offered to let her have Eevee for the night again, but she shook her head.
"I'll be okay," she said, in a small, tired voice, "Thanks, Liam."
Liam and Vasilio settled into their own tent shortly after. It wasn't big enough to be comfortable, but Liam suspected they had a bit more room each than the girls. For a while, Vasilio read using his flashlight and Liam listened to his iPod as the fireworks continued to thunder outside. After about fifteen minutes of silence between them, Liam took off his headphones and looked at Vasilio.
"You wanna talk about girls?" he asked in a whisper.
"Good idea," said Vasilio, putting away his book with a grin.
"It's too bad Sylvia didn't come on this trip," began Liam, leaning towards Vasilio and doing his best to keep his voice down.
"Hey, don't rub it in," said Vasilio, "You've made it clear enough that you're glad Stephanie came along."
"Yep," said Liam, "Guess I've been pretty obvious. She's seriously amazing, though. And I don't just mean that she looks amazing."
"But that helps," interjected Vasilio.
"Oh shut up. She's a great trainer, she knows so much, she's not phased by anything, she's…"
"Majorly out of your league?" put in Vasilio.
Liam thought about it for a moment.
"You sound like Mori," he said at last.
"Well, she says I only like Sylvia because she's out of my league," said Vasilio, "Which isn't true. I've known Sylvia since fourth grade. I've liked her since fourth grade, actually. I know her really well. Probably better than Mori does."
"Do you think she likes you?" asked Liam.
"I don't know," said Vasilio, "Girls are impossible to read, you know. Mori acts like it's so easy to tell what they're thinking. Wish we could get them all mood rings or something."
"Hey, I know that song," said Liam with a wink.
Vasilio laughed.
"You should have seen how bad it was back in middle school. Like, constant warfare, mostly between Claire and whoever she wasn't friends with that week. Usually Mori."
"Who's Claire?" asked LIam.
"She left halfway through last year," explained Vasilio, "Her dad was the principal before Ms. Kahakai. She was so much drama. She thought that because her dad was principal the school belonged to her, I think. And then there was that time she dated David for a week—he was also before your time. It was just bad. Ruth couldn't handle it. Sylvia did her best to hold the class together, but I think everyone was relieved when her dad quit and they went back to Unova."
"Yikes."
"There was this one time," said Vasilio, "When Rain called her a wannabe dictator during math class and she stormed out of the room and went to her dad. But it was usually just subtle stuff. Weird drama between the girls we only saw from the outside. And it usually just got worse when we tried to help."
"Girls are weird," said Liam.
"Yeah, but they're also hot, and I think that cancels it out," said Vasili.
Liam laughed.
"You think the girls are talking about us in their tent?" asked Liam.
"I don't know," said Vasilio, "I mean, they must talk about guys sometimes, right? Rain's got a boyfriend and Mori… sort of does, but Stephanie and Ruth are single."
"Ruth really wants a boyfriend," said Liam, "I've heard her say it a few times."
"Yeah," said Vasilio, "But I don't know if either of us are potential boyfriend material in the mind of a Ferrum girl with a 4.0 GPA."
"What would you do if Ruth asked you out?" asked Liam.
"I don't know," said Vasilio, "I guess say no. What about you?"
"I think I'd give it a try." said Liam.
"Of course you would," chuckled Vasilio, "You're not very selective."
"I just like girls," said Liam, "I'd give anyone a chance that I don't completely hate. Also, I don't think you're so in love with Sylvia that you'd say no to Mori, are you?"
Vasilio chewed his tongue as he thought about the question.
"Dang it," he said, finally, "I would say yes. Mori's… I don't know, beyond hot. She's gorgeous. And I'd want to be there for her. Protect her."
"What if you had to choose between Mori and Sylvia?" asked Liam.
"I hate that question," said Vasilio, "I'll only answer it if I can ask you whatever I want afterwards."
"Okay," said Liam, "Now answer."
Vasilio ran his fingers through his hair and pounded his pillow in frustration.
"Sylvia," he blurted out, at last, "Now accept it before I change it."
"Okay," laughed Liam, "So what's your question for me?"
Vasilio thought for a moment.
"Of the girls you've met so far," began Vasilio, "And I mean, like, the ones you've actually talked to, not just the ones you've seen around, rank them according to who you'd like to date most."
"Shoot," said Liam, "That's hard. I guess least likely to date would be Rain, since she already has a boyfriend. She's hot, though."
"I already regret asking this question," said Vasilio, "Even at the bottom end of the list you're already drooling."
Liam gave a mischievous grin.
"I guess next would be Liz, for basically the same reasons," he continued.
"No matter who ends up as my girlfriend, I hope she doesn't fawn over me the way Liz does over Arthur," said Vasilio, rolling his eyes.
"I wouldn't mind," said Liam.
"Of course you wouldn't."
"Anyways," said Liam, "I think next would be Rebecca. She's cool, and she's kinda cute, but I just don't know her well. Then Sylvia. And not just because you've called her. She's not really my type."
"Oh ho," laughed Vasilio, "Camper Liam has a type now."
"Shut up," said Liam, reaching across the tent to flick Vasilio, "Next would be Ruth. She's cute, and having a girlfriend you could eat normally in front of seems like a big advantage. And then…"
He paused.
"Crap, this is where I have to choose between Mori and Stephanie."
"And Cass," put in Vasilio.
"Oh, yeah," said Liam, "Dang it, that makes it triple complicated. Um… I think I'm gonna go Cass, Stephanie, Mori."
"Mori takes the top spot," said Vasilio, somewhat surprised, "after the way you've been following Stephanie like a Lillipup these past two days?"
"I don't think I have any chance with Mori," said Liam, "She told me I wasn't her type."
"Not to get your hopes up," said Vasilio, lowering his voice even though they were already whispering, "But Mori told me Jonah was a "boring jock" when he first joined the class last year. Her taste in guys is… difficult to pin down."
Liam wanted to say that Vasilio had gotten his hopes up anyways, but a loud firecracker overhead made them both jump. From the other tent, Mori shouted a word that would have gotten her grounded if her dad had heard it.
"Guess we better get some sleep," said Vasilio, laying down in his sleeping bag, "We gotta get to Jadetower by the end of tomorrow, and that's gonna be the longest walk yet."
Liam secretly felt that he wanted to keep on talking about girls, but nodded and rolled over. As he lay awake, listening to the distant rumble of the fireworks, he thought about the four girls sleeping in the tent fifteen feet away. Whether any of them would ever be his girlfriend, he was excited to be travelling with them. Ruth, Rain, Stephanie, and Mori were, Liam was sure, the most amazing 9th grade girls in Nanzo, and even to be friends with them made him feel special.