"I didn't know you liked water so much," said Mori as she sat down beside Liam on the bank.
"I like to look at it," said Liam. "And listen to it. It reminds me of Johto."
"But not swim in it?"
Liam rolled his eyes. Mori was grinning at him.
"I don't like to think about what's swimming around in it with me," said Liam defensively. "Anyways, I—."
He felt a buzzing in his pocket. Without finishing his sentence, Liam pulled out his PokeGear and hastily checked his messages.
Can I borrow your Houndour?
"Is it the nosy redhead?" asked Mori tensely.
"No," said Liam, feeling just a twinge of disappointment. "It's Orchid."
"Oh, okay," said Mori, leaning back onto the grass. "She's alright."
Liam chuckled. He could see how Mori found a potential kindred spirit in the misanthropic freshman. There was a selfish streak in both that Liam wasn't quite sure how to feel about. Asking to borrow his newest Pokemon out of the blue was exactly the sort of thing both of them would do.
Sorry, I'm in Hempshear Town, he typed.
Almost immediately after sending the message, his PokeGear buzzed again.
But im bored :( I NEED something to paint
"She's getting pushy," said Liam with a snort.
His Liam's shoulder, Sneasel swiped at Mori's Misdreavus, who was floating just out of range with a mocking expression.
"Why can't you like Orchid instead?" grumbled Mori. "I know you're not that picky."
"You're impossible to please," said Liam. "Half the time you're complaining that I don't have standards, the other half you're complaining that I'm not enough of a lost cause for your convenience."
Mori leaned over and flicked Liam on the arm.
"Maybe I'd respect you more if you weren't so worried about my opinion," said Mori teasingly.
"That explains a lot," muttered Liam under his breath.
Mori's right eyebrow arched dangerously.
"You gonna explain that remark?"
"I feel like it's better for my own safety if I don't," said Liam.
Mori sniffed. For a while, they both watched the rippling of the lakewater in silence.
"It's about Dustin, right?" said Mori abruptly. "Seriously, I don't get what bugs you and the judgy albino so much about—okay, so Vasilio is totally in love with me, so that's not too much of a mystery, but—."
"What makes you think Vasilio is in love with you?" asked Liam.
Mori stretched and rolled over on her side to face Liam.
"How could he not be?" she said with a mischievous grin. "How could Rebecca ever measure up to this?"
She traced an exaggerated contour around her curves with one hand.
"You're just conceited," mumbled Liam, trying his best not to look anywhere he shouldn't be looking.
Mori laughed.
"Unfortunately for him, I don't like judgy, annoying, boy scout types like him," said Mori dismissively. "I mean, Vasi's alright to look at… if you squint."
"And you look pretty good when I have my contacts out," said a voice above them.
Vasilio slid down onto the bank between them.
"Ouch," said Mori in mock offense. "Liam, he just insulted the dignity of a pretty girl. What are you doing to do about it?"
"Wait, you wear contacts?"
Mori gave a despairing groan.
"How can you be so tame and still never come through when it matters?" she sighed.
"You know, I bet if Liam thought he actually had a chance, you could walk all over him," said Vasilio with a wink.
"Yeah, well he doesn't," said Mori. "I have bad taste in boys, remember? Liam's too much of a pushover. He'd make an unbearable boyfriend."
"Cass didn't think so," said Vasilio, trying and failing to skip a rock on the water from a reclining position. "By the way, when's the last time you heard from her, Liam?"
Liam shrugged.
"Earlier in the week," he said. "I emailed her to tell her about Professor Werner. She said she already found out from Liz, and that was… about it. It's…"
He propped himself up so he could see both of his friends.
"It's getting awkward, I guess. I mean, I'm just starting to move on, and I think she probably is too. I'm just dreading the eventual email telling me she met a guy in Unova and that we can't…"
He shrugged and laid back down on the grass.
"It better be someone good," Liam added. "Someone… better than me."
"Aww, you're being sweet and self-pitying at the same time," said Mori. "Girls don't like that combination, you know. It's unbearable."
"Not every girl is you, Mori," said Vasilio, flicking her on the shoulder.
"Yeah, well, be grateful for that," said Mori.
Liam almost called Mori on her own self-pity, but the note of genuine pain in her voice made him think better of it. She wasn't looking for sympathy or censure. She was just being Mori.
"You know, I got so distracted messing with you two I forgot why I even came out here," said Vasilio, pulling himself to his feet. "Ruth and Stephanie have been making hors d'oeuvre. They just set out the crackers. I even hear rumors that they're preparing something extra special."
"Meaning?" said Liam curiously.
"Cheeseball!" squealed Ruth as Stephanie set a huge sphere of cheese coated in breading and nuts in the middle of the table.
"I think Ruth is having a religious experience," said Liam with a smirk.
"Don't knock it till you try it," said Sylvia, transferring a glob of cheese spread from the cheeseball to her plate. "The cheeseball has earned its sacred status."
Liam was a little skeptical, but after he spread some of the cheese on a cracker and took his first bite, he was immediately converted. As the others settled down in the living room to plan their strategies for the next day's gym match, Liam and Ruth continued to eat. And eat. And eat. It was just as much an act of solidarity as of hunger—they were eating because they loved to eat, the cheeseball was delicious, and because neither of them looked like as much of a complete pig as they would have if they had been eating alone. Only when the cheeseball was half-demolished and Liam was sure he would have no room for dinner did he and Ruth finally join their classmates and actually start on their plans.
Liam realized immediately that Ruth had been in a better place to waste a quarter of an hour eating the cheeseball than he was. She had a powerful Fire and Fighting type Pokemon, a Mega Charm dangling from her right ear, and a lifetime's worth of battle camps under her belt. This gym would be a cakewalk for Ruth. For Liam, however…
"Crap," he mumbled. "Crap, crap, crap, crap. How am I going to—."
He pulled out his Pokedex and started looking up Steel-type Pokemon in the Nanzo region.
"Who is the gym leader, anyways?" asked Liam.
"I can see the cheeseball was interfering with your hearing," said Sylvia. "Timur is the Hempshear gym leader. He's actually new—it was a different guy when I got my badge here two years ago."
"Wait, you already have the badge?" said Liam incredulously. "So what, you're just here for fun?"
Sylvia and Stephanie shared a patronizing glance.
"Badges expire two years after a gym leader retires," explained Stephanie. "That's the rule across the entire Pokemon League. So, if Sylvia wants to challenge the Pokemon League two years from now—."
"Which I do," put in Sylvia.
"—then she needs to get the badge from the new leader, or her old badge will expire."
"Once you have all eight, it doesn't matter," said Sylvia. "Hopefully there won't be anyone else who retires before we graduate."
Liam looked back down at his Pokedex. What he saw wasn't pretty. Steelix, Aggron, Skarmory, Scizor—all Pokemon he didn't have a good answer for. He did have a Houndour now—that was something—but it was his stronger Pokemon that worried him. Sneasel wouldn't survive an Iron Tail or Heavy Slam. Murkrow's Foul Play could get through their defenses, but too many Steel Pokemon carried devastating Rock-type moves, and they would short work of his Flying-type ace. Steel type resisted Physic, making Espeon effectively useless, even assuming Liam could get Espeon to take the battle seriously at all. Beedrill would be just as powerless, and Nuzleaf just wasn't strong enough for a gym battle.
"So I'm completely screwed," Liam whispered to Mori.
"What else is new?" said Mori.
Clearly he was looking for sympathy in the wrong place. Liam pulled out his PokeGear again. Still nothing. He gave a frustrated sigh.
"Are you alright, Liam?" asked Stephanie.
There was an almost maternal kindness in her voice—the kind of thing that would have normally bothered Liam coming from a girl as pretty as Stephanie. Right now, however, it was strangely comforting. She really wanted an answer.
"Not really," said Liam with a shrug. "I just… I think my irresponsibility is catching up with me."
"You will do your best," said Ruth firmly. "And you will be alright."
"I hope so," said Liam.
He didn't really believe it.