Liam was the last one to make his way down to breakfast the next morning. It wasn't that he had slept in or anything like that—he was just afraid to face his friends. His reception, however, was just as warm as always. It was clear that, regardless of what happened the night before, they weren't about to send Liam into exile. As he nibbled on his eggs and toast, Liam noticed that Vasilio seemed to be silently urging Mori to do something, and at last, she got up from her seat beside Vasilio and took the one beside Liam.
"Hey," said Mori quietly. "I… sorry about last night. Well, not that sorry. I still stand by about 95% of what I said, and—."
"I deserved it."
"Of course you deserved it—but stop being such a pushover. Anyways, I still think you're stupid, and I'm still really pissed at you, but… I'm trying to grow up and stop pushing people away so much. So I'm gonna give you another chance. Not for your sake, but for mine. Okay?"
"Okay," said Liam. "Thanks, Mori."
"Uh huh," said Mori, leaning back and blowing a strand of black hair out of her face. "I'm so ready to get out of this place. I'm sick of all of you, actually. Especially him."
Her eyes flicked towards Vasilio.
"Did he guilt you into apologizing?" asked Liam with a sly grin.
"I can always take it back," threatened Mori through clenched teeth.
"No further questions, Your Honor," said Liam with a wink.
Liam mostly slept on the train journey back to Everspring. He wasn't alone in this—Stephanie and Ruth spent the entire ride dozing against each other, and Mori finally kicked Vasilio out of the seat next to her so she could curl up under a Gengar-patterned blanket that she insisted was just "something she grabbed from home, and wipe that smirk off your face, Liam, or I'll tell Missy to fry you with a Thunderbolt."
When he wasn't leaning exhaustedly against the window, Liam thought back on his midnight phone call with Chelsea. He was half-convinced that Chelsea had almost admitted that she returned his feelings, but he was also half-convinced that he was reading way too much into a conversation that happened too late at night to mean that much in the waking world. Either way, Liam also remembered Mori's evaluation of Chelsea from earlier that semester. She was, in some ways, still a kid. She was goofy, and tomboyish, and clearly had some boundary issues. Liam still wasn't quite sure if he trusted her or he just liked to look at her. That at least was undeniable: Liam found Chelsea very attractive. From her tangled red hair to her carelessly-applied eyeliner to her dark freckles, Liam simply loved to look at her. She wasn't conventionally pretty—not in the way Mori or Sylvia or Stephanie was—but still, she was….
Liam shook himself. This was an unhelpful place for his mind to wander. After all, there were plenty of good reasons not to nurture his attraction to Chelsea. One of his best friends couldn't stand her. She was more than a year younger than he was. And right now, he was supposed to be her mentor, not her boyfriend.
Liam spent the remainder of fall break either lazing around the house with his Pokemon or lazing around New Court with his friends. Mori was back under "parental sanctions," but he saw Vasilio, Taylor, and the other New Court residents fairly often. I Am Munchlax practiced a few times—the school talent show was fast approaching—and Liam was one of many students that stopped by to watch the band perform.
When they did venture beyond New Court, it was usually for food. What little money Liam had saved over the semester was quickly spent on shao kao, bottled tea, and pizza—the latter being an expensive foreign delicacy in Nanzo. They had a few Pokemon battles, but Liam was still feeling discouraged by his failure in Hempshear, and he only rarely participated. By the last Friday of break, he was eager to return to school. He had been meditating on his failures for long enough.
He needed the chance to do something about them.