"So you caved, huh?" said Mori. "Which girl was it?"

She looked a little annoyed, which made Liam annoyed at her.

"Sorry I won't be sitting at home texting you all night," said Liam. "And who said it was a girl?"

Mori crossed her arms and fixed her large, black eyes on Liam.

"So… maybe it was a girl, but it's not—."

Mori gave him a hard flick on his shoulder.

"Chez Whitaker guilt-tripped me, okay," said Liam defensively. "Anyways, why does it matter to you whether I'm going or not?"

"Maybe I wanted someone to sit at home and text me all night," said Mori innocently. "We could have gotten dinner, at least. Now me and Missy are gonna have to sit around staring at each other."

"Have you finally watched all the anime in the world, then?"

Mori scowled.

"I'm under sanctions from the parental authority," Mori grumbled. "I don't get my laptop back until September."

"That's rough," said Liam. "What about your boyfriend? What's he doing?"

"He'll be at school with you," said Mori glumly. "And everybody else."

She looked genuinely upset, and Liam was more than ready to feel sorry for her, until…

"Wanna buy me lunch?"

Liam rolled his eyes.

"Mori, I'm not your boyfriend," he said.

"But I'm sad," Mori pouted. "You don't want a pretty goth girl to be sad, do you?"

Liam felt himself starting to blush.

"Oh my gosh, you're gonna do it," said Mori triumphantly. "Yes! Free lunch. And I still have you under my thumb."

"I'll buy you lunch because you're my friend," said Liam, but Mori's smirk told him she wasn't buying any of it.

"You're buying me lunch because you want all the pretty girls in the world to be happy," she said teasingly. "And that's sweet, even if it does make you a total sucker. Come on, let's get some chao er si. I'm starving."

"You know what tastes even better than fried noodles? Free fried noodles. Right, Missy?"

Mori's Misdreavus giggled and did a floating somersault.

"Missy doesn't eat noodles; she's a ghost," Liam pointed out.

"But she can appreciate the way not paying for something makes it taste even better," said Mori.

Missy cackled and stuck her tongue out at Liam.

"Why is it that every time I do something nice for you I feel like I got played?" Liam muttered.

"Because you did," said Mori. "But don't hate yourself for it. Someday you'll meet a girl that will be very impressed by what a sucker you are."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"Oh, come on," said Mori bracingly. "Don't you get sad on me now, because I'm not buying you anything. I know you think you're some kind of bad boy because you wear black jeans and only catch edgy Pokemon, but you're a total sweetheart when you're not pissed about something and some girls—I repeat, some—like that. You just need to luck out and find one that isn't an embassy kid—or a psycho."

"You know of some psycho that's interested in me?" asked Liam lightly.

"I'm not letting psycho girls anywhere near you," said Mori resolutely. "It's for your own good, trust me. You couldn't handle them."

Misdreavus snickered.

"Speaking of psycho girls," said Mori in a low voice.

Marsha Cheong was running towards them.

"Liam," she said breathlessly. "Chelsea says she needs to speak with you."

Her tone, as usual, was weirdly businesslike.

"Now?"

"Immediately," said Marsha, carefully enunciating each syllable.

Liam glanced at Mori, who was eyeing Marsha's pink hoodie and short, pleated skirt with undisguised disgust.

"Sorry, I told Professor Werner I would look out for—" Liam began, but Mori wasn't interested.

"Whatever," she said. "I'll see you in class."

She pushed past Marsha, heading for the school's main gate. Liam was half-tempted to stop her, but Marsha was grunting impatiently.

"Okay, okay," said Liam. "Let's go see Chez."

They found Chelsea sitting on the floor next to the high school lockers, staring intently at a small piece of paper. Liam guessed instantly what it was.

"Another note?" he said.

Chelsea nodded. As she handed the paper to him, Liam noticed that her hands were trembling. The fearful expression on her freckled face reminded him more of the girl he had known last year—the girl he had seen crying in the Pokemon center after a Team Power grunt had crushed her Scraggy under his boot.

TEAM POWER HAVE RASMUS. TELL THE POKEMON LEAGUE AT ONCE.

"Have you shown this to anyone else?" asked Liam.

Chelsea shook her head, her loose red curls brushing against her face.

"I guess we should show it to Christine," said Liam. "Miss Snyder, I mean."

Marsha nodded. Together, they helped Chelsea to her feet and led her to MIss Snyder's office, where the guidance counselor was meeting with Sylvia and Ruth about the lock-in.

"Oh, Marsha," said Sylvia as they entered. "We were wondering where you were. We need to finish the—is something wrong?"

"Can we have privacy for a moment?" said Marsha.

Sylvia and Ruth looked at each other in surprise.

"We'll finish this later, Sylvia," said Miss Snyder. "Chelsea, why don't you sit down? Ruth, please close the—thanks."

Marsha and Liam ushered Chelsea onto the low couch that stood against the wall of the office as Miss Snyder crouched beside her.

"What's going on?" asked Miss Snyder tenderly.

Liam held out the piece of paper.

"Another one, huh?" said Miss Snyder.

"Yeah," said Liam. "And I found out what they're about. Rasmus was a student that used to go here. He's—."

"I know," interrupted Miss Snyder. "I did some research myself. I'm the guidance counselor for a reason, you know."

There was a cocky gleam in her eyes.

"The note said to contact the Pokemon League," said Liam. "Should we—?"

"I'll call Silas," said Miss Snyder. "This is pretty serious, but I don't want any of you to worry, or to get caught up in it. Keep your eyes open, but don't dwell on it. Liam."

Liam scowled.

"But Christine, what if—."

Miss Snyder raised an eyebrow.

"I mean… consider the hypothetical possibility that—."

Chelsea snorted despite herself, which made Liam's heart feel lighter.

"You guys need to worry about enjoying the lock-in," said Miss Snyder, returning to her desk. "I'm going to call Silas right now. Chelsea, you found this note just last period?"

"Yeah," said Chelsea. "It wasn't in my locker this morning."

"I'll talk with the gate guard to make sure no one was on campus that shouldn't have been. I'll tell you if I find anything, but I don't want any of you bugging me about it. More last thing: keep this to yourself. Don't talk about it with anyone who doesn't need to know. I think all three of you will find that a bit of a challenge."

Marsha looked a little perplexed, but Chelsea and Liam glanced guiltily at each other.

"Lunch is almost over," said Miss Snyder, glancing at her watch. "Get out of here."

Chelsea's mood seemed to have improved by the meeting with Miss Snyder, but Liam still resolved to stick with her and Marsha until they made it to Coach Tang's Battle Class. As usual, class began late, and that gave Liam time to ask the question that had been bothering him for the past week.

"Who do you think is leaving the notes?" Liam whispered.

"I dunno," said Chelsea. "That's the scariest part, actually. Either there's someone from outside who's sneaking in just to leave notes in my locker… or…"

"It's another student," said Liam. "Someone who knows a lot about Team Power."

"Yeah," said Chelsea quietly. "I… don't like to think about who that could be."

Coach Tang blew her whistle.