"Liam!" said Ruth fiercely. "You will explain everything! Right now!"

"Okay," said Liam, holding his hands up defensively. "I… uh."

"Explain more quickly!"

"Ruth, this is too much pressure," Liam pleaded. "You're not gonna get any answers—."

"Answers about what?"

Sylvia, Stephanie, and Vasilio had followed Ruth onto the open roof. Liam was overcome by a sense of sudden panic.

"Claire was here!" said Ruth. "Liam was talking with her!"

"What?" said Sylvia. "Liam, what is she talking about? What were you—?"

Liam looked around, hoping someone was about to step in and stand up for him. But nobody did. Not even Vasilio.

"Look," said Liam, his voice quavering. "I promise I'm not a spy, and I promise it's not as bad as it looks, and I will do my best to explain everything. I just… can I do all that while sitting down?"

"Let's go to Rain's room," said Sylvia seriously. "Vasi, go get everyone else. I think Liam owes an explanation to them as well."

"Okay," Liam began when all seven of his classmates had crammed into Rain's bedroom. "So, this all goes back to Fall Camp, when I went missing for a few hours. I was telling the truth when I said I fell in the river, but I wasn't lost. I saw Claire just outside the camp and tried to chase her down. We got into a struggle, and we both fell into the river. We got swept maybe half a kilometer downstream. I came to before Claire did, and I dragged her into a cave to wait out the rain. During that time, we… got to know each other, I guess."

"And you'd never talked to her before that?" asked Sylvia.

"No," said Liam. "I mean, I'd seen her a few times, but I'd never said a word to her before that night."

"So what happened in the cave?" asked Stephanie.

Liam sighed.

"Well, honestly we just talked to pass the time. Mostly I learned more about her—stuff that you guys probably already know. Actually, there was one… maybe I should have told Miss Snyder, but I—."

"Oh, spit it out," said Mori impatiently.

"She told me her dad is the Grandmaster of Team Power," said Liam. "I think you guys all—."

"Wait, Claire's father?" said Rain in amazement. "Principal Morgan?"

"That… actually makes a scary amount of sense," said Sylvia, pushing her round glasses back up her nose. "Wait, you didn't tell anyone about this?"

"Vasi and Mori knew," said Liam, jerking his head towards them. "I mean, I had to tell someone."

"Why didn't you tell Miss Snyder the truth from the beginning?" asked Stephanie.

It was a hard question, but her tone was understanding rather than accusatory.

"I… I should have told her," said Liam, searching the room for something to look at other than his classmates' faces. "I just didn't want—I did it for Claire, okay? It felt like we were friends, and I didn't want to—."

"Friends?" repeated Sylvia in shock. "Liam, did you forget who she—?"

"I already gave him an earful about it, Madame President," said Mori. "Liam's a sucker, if you haven't noticed."

Ruth had been sizing Liam up in silence for the past few minutes.

"The motivations in your heart are right," she said at last. "But Claire is untrustworthy. If you treat her as a friend, it may lead to other people getting hurt. I believe that you don't want that."

Liam's heart sunk. He could tell Ruth wasn't angry at him—not anymore. But she had thought everything over carefully, and decided that she was disappointed instead. That was somehow worse.

"So this is only the second time you've talked to her?" said Sylvia.

"Yes," said Liam. "Well, she told me she was coming earlier today, but I didn't really get a word in. I don't have her phone number or anything. I've never sought her out. The first time was an accident, the second time she came to me."

Vasilio's expression darkened.

"What did she want?" he said quietly, as if they were in danger of being overheard. "I can't believe she came here just to—."

"She's miserable," interjected Liam, prompting another round of incredulous looks. "Sorry, I know you think I'm just getting played by her, but I really think she doesn't like it in Team Power. She's really just there because of her dad, and—."

"Stop," said Mori in a trembling voice. "Stop before you say something that—."

Vasilio put a hand on Mori's shoulder, and she fell silent.

"Well, either way, you're not gonna talk to her any more," said Sylvia. "I hope we can agree on that, at least."

Liam gave a very reluctant nod.

"Liam, if she really is miserable, she can leave Team Power," said Stephanie. "Nobody is stopping her from doing that, right?"

"No," said Liam with a sigh. "I just think… No, shutting up. You guys are right. All of you. And… sorry. I should have been honest from the beginning, and I should have been careful."

They were all silent for a while.

"Well," said Sylvia at last. "I think that's enough drama and scolding for one night. We've gotta catch the early train back to Everspring tomorrow. Let's get to bed."

Jonah gave a loud yawn.

"Man, I am just… You guys mind if I hit the sack?"

Liam and Vasilio both shook their heads. The girls were slowly filtering out of the room, stretching and yawning as they went. Mori was the last of them to leave. She had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room with an unreadable expression. Liam wasn't sure what to make of her reaction. She had shielded him from Sylvia, but that didn't mean she was happy with him. In fact, he had a theory it meant quite the opposite.

"I wanna talk to you," she said.

Liam followed her out onto the roof. They waited until the voices downstairs had faded away and Jonah shut the door to Rain's room.

"Mori," began Liam, "I—."

WHACK.

Mori slapped Liam across the face.

"You idiot!" she shouted. "You complete idiot. I showed you who she really was, and you went right back to her. I can't believe how stupid you are. You're all like this. Boys that say they care about you, then they all turn out to be stupid. You're so… ugh! I'm done with you. Don't ever talk to me again. I'm sick of being betrayed."

Mori pushed past him and disappeared down the stairs. Liam heard the door to the roof slam. That was it. He had finally messed up everything.

It was nearly midnight, and Liam was still sitting alone on the roof. His Espeon was curled up beside him, dozing contentedly as Liam stroked its soft, purple fur. Liam was looking at his PokeGear, checking the text message he had been writing and rewriting for the past hour.

Chez, I'm really sorry about the Claire thing. I should have told you. You had the right to know that. And it doesn't matter how you found out. I'm sorry for not treating you like a friend. Turns out I'm really bad at treating people like friends.

His finger hovered over the send button. He knew she was probably asleep—knew it was selfish to wake her up with a text message at 11:56. But he could help it. He needed to open up to someone, and there was no one here that wanted to listen. He didn't blame them.

Liam pressed send and set his Pokegear down beside him. Espeon twitched and flicked its tail, but didn't wake. Just moments after the text message was delivered, Liam heard his PokeGear buzzing against the tile floor. Someone was calling him.

He knew exactly who it was.

"Hello?"

"Hey bro," came Cheslea's voice. "I saw your message. I was wondering when you'd finally man up and apologize."

"S-sorry if I woke you up," Liam stammered. "It's just been… a bad day."

"Nah, it's fine. It's break, you know? So, what's going on?"

Liam hesitated. He sensed that if he began to tell Chelsea the truth, everything would come out.

"I lost the gym battle," he said, trying to keep his voice steady. "Really, really badly. Like, I didn't stand a chance. And then… I saw Claire again. She said she just wanted to talk. I was just… trying to help her, you know? I thought that if I… tried to be her friend, then maybe she… but I was being stupid. And n-now—."

His voice broke.

"This… w-whole semester has just been… a c-complete disaster. And I don't know if I can… I don't think I can b-be the person Professor—."

He couldn't say it. He did his best to restrain the choking sobs.

"Hey, bro?" said Chelsea. "Who you are now… is okay. I like him—er, you. Not that I—ugh, why can't I say things without being awkward?"

Liam gave a weak laugh.

"Anyways," Chelsea continued. "I don't think Professor Werner was wrong about you. I think he knew exactly what kind of guy you are. So you should trust him. And trust me. You're trying to be a better friend, right?"

"Right," sad Liam, almost hesitantly.

"I should go back to bed," said Chelsea. "Hey, is Espie there with you?"

"Yeah," said Liam, glancing down at his sleeping Pokemon.

"Well, give him a hug and say it's from me," said Chelsea. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Chez," said Liam, and he hung up.

Espeon gave a small mew and glanced up at him.

"We should probably sleep inside," said Liam. "By the way: here's something from Chelsea."

He picked up his Pokemon and squeezed it in the way he thought Chelsea probably would have, had she been there. Espeon gave an annoyed growl.

"Alright, let's go sleep inside," said Liam. "And hope tomorrow turns out better."