"Well?" prompted Vasilio.
Mori sighed, gave a resigned shrug, then grinned at him.
"He said I can go," said Mori.
"See," Vasi laughed, flicking Mori on the shoulder. "You should listen to me more often. Do you have the permission slip?
Mori held up a crumpled piece of paper.
"Well, give it to Christine," Vasi urged. "Liam, where's yours? You're roped in too, now."
"I noticed," said Liam. "I'll turn mine in tomorrow."
"Don't forget," said Mori, nudging Liam with her shoulder. "I'm not losing this bet alone."
They arrived at the high school lockers. As Liam dug through his papers to find his literature textbook, Chelsea Whitaker had just finished taking out her books for Werner's Tactics class. After the previous afternoon, he decided to see whether things would go back to normal.
"Good luck on the test," he said timidly.
"Thanks," said Chelsea.
If she was thinking of Liam's insensitive words from the day before, she didn't show it. She appeared just as Chelsea-ish as ever.
"Hey, you three look excited," Chelsea, noticing the way Mori was fidgeting with the drawstrings of Vasilio's hoodie. "Did you get an email back, Mori?"
Mori stared blankly back at her.
"What do you mean?" Mori asked.
Her voice was suddenly cold and abrasive.
"From the orphanage in Hoenn," said Chelsea, "I thought you said you sent them an email about your sis—."
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Mori.
Her tone was so final that even Chelsea understood the subject was closed. Liam glanced at Vasilio uncomfortably.
"C'mon," said Vasilio, "We're gonna be late for Rollon."
Mori was dour and silent as they half-jogged to Rollon's Lit classroom. As they sat down and started on the bellwork, Liam leaned over to Mori.
"Are you okay?" Liam whispered.
"Don't worry about it," said Mori.
When the bell rang at the end of first period, Mori began packing her things so rapidly Liam knew she had her mind set on something.
"Are you really sure you—?" Liam began, but Mori had already snatched up her Gengar-themed backpack and bolted for the door.
"What's up with her?" Liam whispered to Vasilio.
Vasilio ran his left hand through his hair uncomfortably.
"I dunno," he said. "I gotta talk to Rollon about something. Keep an eye on her until next class, okay? I'll catch up as soon as I can."
"Got it," said Liam.
It took Liam a few moments to catch sight of Mori again, but by standing on tip-top he spotted her at the far end of the hall, heading towards the secondary lockers. Liam pushed his way through the passing students in a vain attempt to catch up with her. By the time Liam finally escaped the rush of students leaving their first period classes, it was already too late. Mori had pounced on Chez Whitaker as she passed by, grabbing her by both arms and jerking her in the alcove where the stairs and lockers met. Liam couldn't tell what they were saying, but he was sure that intervening would be a dangerous move. He approached as casually as possible, pretending like he was just putting away his own things after the last class.
"Stop spying on me," Liam heard Mori snarl.
She was looking at Chelsea with undisguised anger. Her fists were clenched, and she was baring her teeth.
"I'm not spying on you," protested Chelsea, looking a little scared.
"Shut up!" spat Mori, "I don't know how you found out about my sister, but it's none of your business, so back off."
"You told me," said Chelsea, "I didn't—."
"You liar!"
Mori shoved Chelsea against lockers. Chelsea recoiled, closing her eyes and holding her hands up defensively. Liam froze. He had never seen Mori like this, and he felt completely helpless to stop her or help Chelsea. A crowd of students was gathering to watch the fight.
"Stay away from me!" shouted Mori. "I'll—."
"Mori!"
Mori spun around to find herself face to face with Vasilio. He was looking more serious than Liam had ever seen him. His face was just inches away from Mori's.
"Stay out of this, Vasi," she said, but Vasilio was undeterred.
"Leave Chez alone," he said firmly.
"She's been spying on me!" shouted Mori, "She—"
"I don't care," said Vasilio, "Let's go."
Mori stared furiously at Vasilio. Behind her, Chelsea was cowering against the lockers. Her whole body was trembling. Mori took a deep breath.
"Okay," said Mori.
She glanced back at Chelsea, who winced.
"Come on, Mori," said Liam, deciding now this was the best moment to come in on Vasilio's side.
Mori nodded and followed them away from the lockers. The other students rushed to help Chelsea to her feet. Liam heard her starting to sob. It was a sound he hadn't heard in a long time.
Not since last spring.
"I can't believe you did that," said Vasilio. His voice was calm, but cold.
"She's been spying on me!" began Mori, but Vasilio cut her off.
"Think about what you just did," he said, "And to who. Think about what that reminded her of."
Mori stopped dead. Liam could feel Mori's anger swelling again as palpably as heat radiating from a furnace. She grabbed Vasilio by the jacket and pulled him around.
"Don't you dare," she said, her voice trembling with rage, "Don't you ever compare me to them!"
Liam heard someone following them down the hall. It was Miss Snyder. She looked angry—something Liam had never seen before.
"Grace Shaw," she said.
Her voice was steady, but deadly serious.
"Come with me."
Mori looked angrily at Vasilio for a moment before letting him go and following Miss Snyder away.
"She's gonna be in so much trouble," whispered Liam.
"I know," said Vasilio.
As Mori and Miss Snyder disappeared from sight, Vasilio visibly relaxed.
"I can't believe she did that," he said, "She was doing so good this year. What brought that on?"
"Something about her sister," said Liam, "I think she's been trying to find her, and Chez found out about it somehow. Didn't you hear her asking Mori about it this morning?"
"Yeah, I heard her," said Vasilio. "I thought she was just fishing. How could she find out about something like that? I didn't even know about it."
Liam shrugged.
"Maybe she was spying," said Liam, "Chez is pretty nosy. But she said Mori told her about it. She seemed really confident."
"That's weird," said Vasilio, rubbing his forehead in agitation, "Like, really weird."
"Should I ask Chez about it?"
Vasilio shook his head.
"Not yet," he said, "Just check if she's okay. I've gotta go back to the Lit room—I left my backpack. I had an intuition something was about to go down as soon as I sent you after her."
"Good thing you did," said Liam. "You're a lot better at handling Mori than I am. I just… I didn't know what to do."
"Yeah, well you weren't the only one," said Vasilio, sounding a little annoyed. "That's gotta be the first fight at Everspring in years."
"It wasn't much of a fight," said Liam. "More like Mori just went completely ballistic. I've never seen her like that, but… I'm guessing you have."
"Yeah," said Vasilio wearily. "A few times. Not since middle school, though."
They stood in silence for a moment.
"I'm… gonna go check on Chez," said Liam. "Will you tell Professor Huang..?"
"Yeah, no problem," said Vasilo. "She'll understand."
Vasilio laid a hand reassuringly on Liam's shoulder and left for Rollon's classroom. Liam hesitated for a moment, wondering where he should even start looking for Chelsea. After weighing his options, Liam set out for the guidance counselor's office. It was a guess, but it was the best one Liam had, and as he peeked through the window in Miss Snyder's door, Liam saw that his guess had been good.
"Hi Chez," began Liam awkwardly, "I—."
"Why was she mad at me?" interrupted Chelsea, "I don't understand."
She was still clearly rattled. The mascara around her eyes was smeared and smudged, and she was pacing the tiny office without looking at Liam.
"Mori is really… secretive," said Liam cautiously.
"I wasn't spying," continued Chelsea as if she hadn't heard Liam at all, "She told me. I'm sure she did."
"Chez," said Liam, "I'm not trying to defend Mori for acting like that, but… why would she have told you that? I didn't even know she was looking for her sister."
Chelsea stopped pacing.
"I don't know," she said, "But I wasn't spying on her. I know everyone thinks I'm—I'm really n-nosy, but… I promise I wasn't."
Before Liam knew what was happening, he was stroking Chelsea's thick red hair as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"I believe you," said Liam soothingly, "Chez, I believe you."
Torn between comforting his friend and not wanting to be found hugging a female student in the guidance counselor's office, Liam ushered Chelsea onto Miss Snyder's squishy sofa and handed her the tissue box from the coffee table.
"Hey, uh… I hope I'm not being weird, but… you can hold my, uh, Espeon—if you want."
Chelsea wiped her eyes and cocked her head at Liam.
"Sorry!" said Liam apologetically. "It's just whenever… well, my limited experience tells me girls like to hold soft Pokemon when they're upset, but if you don't—."
"It's fine, bro," smiled Chelsea. "I… you're sweet. You can… sure."
Liam fumbled with the Pokeballs on his belt and released his Espeon onto the coffee table. For a moment, Chelsea and Espeon stared at each other, as if neither was sure what to make of the other. Then, with a small mew, Espeon climbed into Chelsea's lap and nuzzled its fuzzy head against hers.
"Bro, I thought you said your Espeon was a jerk," said Chelsea. "He's really cute!"
Chelsea stroked Espeon's purple fur as the Pokemon purred loudly.
"He is a jerk," said Liam. "To everyone but you, I guess."
The door to the office opened.
"Oh, good, you're both here," said Miss Snyder. "That'll make this easier."
She closed the door to the office and started rummaging through her filing cabinet. Liam and Chelsea glanced at each other in confusion.
"Incident report," said Miss Snyder, slapping a piece of paper in front of each of them. "Fill it out quick so I can get it back down to Ms. Kahakai."
Liam frowned.
"Will what I write affect what happens to Mori?"
"Probably not," said Miss Snyder. "But you should be honest either way."
Liam sighed and began filling in his personal information at the top of the page. Beside him, Chelsea sucked anxiously on her pen, staring at the incident report as Espeon purred in her lap.
"Do I have to?" Chelsea asked Miss Snyder.
"Yes," said Miss Snyder, who was busy filling out her own paperwork. "Neither of you are doing Grace Shaw any favors by not filling those out."
"Dang it," whined Chelsea. "I don't like getting people in trouble."
"You're not getting anyone in trouble," said Miss Snyder firmly. "Now hurry up. You two are both missing class."
Liam and Vasilio found Mori standing sullenly by the gate as they were heading out to lunch. She had her backpack on her shoulder and she was hugging a folder full of assignments to her chest.
"So what happened?" asked Vasilio.
"Suspended," said Mori brusquely.
Liam and Vasilio glanced at each other in alarm.
"For how long?"
"Doesn't matter," Mori mumbled.
She looked thoroughly defeated. It hurt Liam to see her like this—resigned to her status as an irredeemable screw-up.
"Is your dad coming?" asked Vasilio.
Mori nodded. There didn't seem to be anything else to say.
"So," ventured Liam, "about your, uh, your sister…"
Vasilio elbowed Liam in the stomach, but Mori merely shrugged.
"I guess if Chelsea knows it doesn't matter if you do too. I found the orphanage in Hoenn where my parents adopted me. It's still there, so I emailed them. I asked them if they knew anything about my sister."
"And did they?" Liam asked.
Mori nodded.
"I learned her name for the first time. It's Fumiko. The lady who emailed me wasn't even supposed to tell me that, so I didn't find out much else."
"Did they say where she is now?" asked Vasilio.
"Not… specifically," said Mori evasively.
"What does that mean?"
"She's in institutional care," said Mori. "I guess that means she's still in Hoenn. And it means either my parents lied to me about her being adopted or the orphanage lied to my parents. I dunno which."
"That's good, though, right?" said Liam bracingly. "You know her name, and where she is, and that you can probably find her someday."
"Yeah," said Mori glumly.
There was another awkward pause.
"You two need to eat," said Mori at last.
"Yeah," said Liam. "Sorry."
"Don't be," said Mori. "It's my fault. Everything is… my fault."
Liam gave Mori a sympathetic smile. Vasilio, however, put his arms around Mori and held her tight. To Liam's amazement, Mori didn't struggle or protest. She closed her eyes and leaned against Vasilio, savoring the moment.
"It'll be okay," said Vasilio as he released her.
"What do you know?" said Mori dismissively.
Liam noticed that she was barely repressing a grin.