"Tonight, we are having a sleepover!"

Kate and Keith looked up at Rhythmi as she stood up dramatically, proclaiming this sudden sentence bluntly. The three had been relaxing in the break room when the poofy-haired Top Operator had jumped up and stated the proposition. "Excuse me?" Kate asked uncertainly.

Rhythmi grinned superiorly as she repeated, "Tonight, we are having a sleepover. For old times' sake. It'll be fun!"

Keith shrugged. "It's fine by me," he accepted. "I'll just go get my stuff ready and—"

"HOLD IT!" Rhythmi shouted, cutting him off. "You can't come!"

"What?" Keith blinked, looking thoroughly offended. "Why not?"

"Two simple words, my good man," Rhythmi smirked, wagging a finger at him. "Girls'. Night. In other words, no boys allowed."

"Come on," Keith whined, but Rhythmi wouldn't have it. She turned to Kate excitedly.

"So are you in?" the blonde asked happily. Kate stared at the more feminine of her two best friends, pale blue meeting violent azure, but then she finally smiled tentatively.

"I guess it'll be fun," she accepted. "Sure, why not?"

"Yay~!" Rhythmi cheered, jumping up and down for joy. "In that case, I'll go get everything ready! We'll have it in my room, OK? I'll see you at eight!" Then she ran out of the room before Kate could reply.

Keith had been watching this scene with a slight scowl on his face. Voice, his mischievous Misdreavus, had been floating around amusedly this entire time, passing sinisterly through solid lamps and chairs in the process.

'Aww, how sweet,'she cooed in his head, 'you're jealous. Of a girl.'

Keith had asked her how she was still able to link souls with him if he wasn't feeling afraid, and Voice had shifted embarrassedly, answering that she only ate fear, apparently. She could eat normal Pokémon food too, but fear was her favorite thing to feed on, as she absorbed it through the ruby stones around her neck. The real reason she could link souls with her partner was that she trusted him enough to form the bond.

'Shut up, I'm not jealous,'Keith retorted at his Partner Pokémon. 'I'm just worried something'll happen to Kate. Rhythmi's pretty unpredictable, you know.'

Voice hovered down into the redhead's lap, rolling her eyes as her green and purple hair swirled eerily around her.

'It's a sleepover,'she assured, 'how bad can it be? Have some faith in the girl, Keith. After all, she's one of the reasons you've gotten so far with Kate.' Keith raised an eyebrow.

'How did you know that?'he questioned suspiciously. Voice jumped a little, looking up at him sheepishly.

'…Imay have been sifting through your memories a bit,'she admitted guiltily. Keith glared at him.

'You know I hate it when you do that,'he scolded, a little more than annoyed with his Ghost-type partner. Voice pouted slightly.

'Come on, you were asleep at the time,'she mumbled defensively, 'it's not like I did any harm. I just looked at the ones with Kate in them…'

'Even so, that—'Keith started, but was interrupted by Kate.

"Keith, Voice, what are you talking about?" she asked. "Are you two having another mental conversation?"

"Y-yeah, sorry," Keith laughed nervously, "I was just telling Voice off for something she did."

"What did she do?" Kate inquired curiously. Both Top Ranger and Pokémon sweatdropped.

"I-it's nothing!" Keith stammered, not feeling in the mood to tell Kate that that Voice had been paging through his memories of the brunette. "Don't worry about it, really!"

Kate looked at him odd, but then she shrugged and let the matter go. "I wonder how this whole sleepover is going to go, though. Rhythmi can be a little…" she mused, trailing off into her thoughts.

Keith smirked. "It's a sleepover," he reminded, "how bad can it be? Have some faith in the girl, Kate."

Voice gaped at Keith's full replica of what she had said not moments earlier.

"But anyways," Keith said, quickly changing the subject, "what do you think of that whole 'Shadow Crystal' thing earlier?"

Kate frowned, looking down at her current Partner, Metronome, in her arms and stroking him gently. "I'm not quite sure what to make of it, actually," she mused. "Sven and Professor Hastings seem to be pretty distressed about it, though."

And it was true; despite the fact that Hastings seemed to be losing more hair over it than the eldest Top Ranger. The good Professor had been sending Kate and Keith on constant patrols day and night, mostly consisting of Gigaremo searches. Apparently, now that Dim Sun had taken the Shadow Crystal, they should have been making more evil devices than ever—but that wasn't the case. The Top Rangers hadn't found any new clusters of Gigaremos, and everything was relatively peaceful, save for the occasional issue in the forests or on Peril Cliffs.

Keith sighed. "Well, that's true," he agreed. "Then again, I guess all we can do for now is just sit back and watch things unfold, huh?"

Kate nodded. "I suppose so," she mumbled as she stood up, Metro crying out happily at the sudden motion. "Now then, I guess I should be packing up for the sleepover. Will you be OK without me in the room tonight?"

Keith snickered. "I'm not five, Kate," he laughed. "I'll be fine, so for Arceus' sake go and have some fun."

Kate stared, but then she smiled radiantly and giggled back, "I guess so. It's been awhile since just me and Rhythmi hung out. This'll be fun!"

Keith grinned more at this reaction he'd gotten from her, but his contentedness was short-lived by Voice. 'Happiness, affection, love…' she cackled in his head, reading his emotions.

'Oh, just shut up, will you?' Keith retorted irritably.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

That night, Kate stood nervously with Metronome in front of Rhythmi's room, room 7-D.

She shifted nervously, already dressed in her regular pajamas, a plain gray sweatshirt and dark blue track pants. "Should I just go in?" she asked Metro. "Or maybe it would more polite to knock and—"

"We don't have all night, Kate, if you don't hurry up it'll be too late~" Metro tinkled. The funny thing about him was that all his sentences rhymed. Kate smiled slightly.

"Alright then…" she took a deep breath and obviously went for the politer way to do things, which was to knock on the door.

Almost immediately, multiple girlish squeals sounded from inside. Kate blinked. Multiple? Wasn't the only person supposed to be in there Rhythmi?

The door swung open, revealing not one, but four girls standing inside. The first familiar faces Kate noticed in that split second were Rhythmi and, strangely enough, Wendy. But the other two were—

"Elaine?" Kate gasped. "Luana?"

The drop-dead gorgeous Mechanic and the scatterbrained cutesy Ranger screamed in excitement and didn't hesitate to choke Kate in a hug, which she happily returned.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked, her face stretched wide in a smile.

"Rhythmi invited us!" Luana grinned brilliantly. "She said we should all surprise you guys with a sleepover, so the whole Base—well, besides Yumiko who had to take care of her kids—took a day off and came over!"

"Oh, Arceus, that's amazing!" Kate marveled, but then her smile faltered a little as she looked at the two uncertainly.

"…Wait," she frowned, "did you say the whole Base?"

Meanwhile, Keith was lying on his bed in room 7-C, busy being bored out of his mind as he watched Voice drift through random solid objects, obviously just as jaded as he was.

"It's no fun here without Kate," Keith muttered, feeling thoroughly disheartened.

'Yeah,' Voice sighed in reply, 'it feels so lone—'

She cut herself off, though, as her red jewels glowed slightly. 'Someone's outside the door,' she informed.

Keith blinked. "At this hour?" he said, puzzled. "Who could…?"

He trailed off as he walked over to his door, Voice floating serenely behind him, and opened the door.

"HI, KEITH!"

"What the—" the spiky-headed Top Ranger exclaimed. Outside his door was Sven, but he wasn't the only person. With him were none other than Barlow, Crawford, and even Ollie.

"Barlow? Crawford? Ollie? Crawford?" Keith sputtered as he tried to descramble his brain. "Buh… wuh… huh… What in the name of goddamn Arceus are you doing here?"

"Aww, you said my name twice!" Crawford grinned as he gave Keith an old-fashioned noogie. "You must've really missed me, huh?"

"GET OFF, PSYCHO!" Keith yelled, pushing the afroed Ranger off of him and turning to Barlow. "What the HELL are you guys doing here?"

"Rhythmi invited us," Ollie smiled gently, and Keith said a quick blessing of thanks in his head that there was at least one sane person in the room. "Elaine and Luana are here, too. They're sleeping over with Wendy in the next room."

"Apparently there are no boys allowed in Rhythmi's room under any circumstances," Sven mused, "but she said we were free to invade yours if we wanted to throw our own guys' night party."

"So here we are," Barlow finished happily. Keith gaped as he realized that everyone was wearing casual sweatpants and T-shirts as if they were ready for a sleepover.

"Well, I didn't say you could stay here for the night, so go get a freaking guest room or something!" he hissed, becoming fully frustrated now.

Crawford sighed. "Alright," he said gravely. "I didn't want it to come to this, but…"

"KA-ATE! KEITH'S BEING MEAN TO US!" Crawford screamed.

Keith grimaced. "Would you like some cheese with your whine?" he asked scathingly. "That was a dirty move. Besides, these rooms are soundproofed."

Crawford pouted. "Oh, come on," he complained, "we came all this way to see you again. You could at least accept the offer. We promise we won't be too obnoxious."

Keith glared slightly at all the figures in front of him, but then he sighed as he understood the Vientown Base's true intent when they had come. Finally, he said, "OK, OK, I get it. You can stay the night."

"HOORAY!" the others cheered. Crawford happily put Keith in a headlock again, and the redheaded Top Ranger protested only half-heartedly as he too was smirking. However, after a few seconds, Crawford blinked and looked down curiously.

"By the way, Flame," he asked, "how are things going with you and Spiky?"

"…"

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"TELL ME!"

"NO!"

"TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME TELL—"

"BARLOW, CALL HIM OFF! CALL HIM OFF!"

"Ollie, would you pass some more of those chips?"

"Oh, sure."

The boys' side of the sleepover wasn't getting boring in the least, as Crawford, when seeing that Keith wasn't planning on sharing any details about himself and Kate, had decided that going crazy and chasing Keith around the room was the best solution. Barlow and Ollie were ignoring them, instead choosing to busy themselves with a bowl of potato chips, but Voice was thoroughly excited by the scene, cheering on Crawford as she yelled out advice.

"Go left!" she advised in her Pokémon tongue, bouncing up and down in midair. "No wait, right! Now JUMP!"

"TELL ME!" Crawford shouted, leaping off a bed with the intent of tackling Keith.

"I SAID NO!" Keith screamed in response, sidestepping the attack and jumping onto the desk, where he then proceeded to fend off the afro haired Ranger with a broom.

After about ten to fifteen minutes of this, Crawford finally got bored of the game, flopping down onto the floor in a sitting position. "Come on," he complained, "why can't you just tell us how things are going with you and Spiky?"

Keith hopped down from the desk, brushing off his shirt as he did so. "We're best friends, partners as Top Rangers, and we share a room," he deadpanned. "Anything else?

"Have you accepted the fact that you're in love with her yet?" Barlow inquired bluntly, not looking up from his potato chips.

Keith's eyes narrowed as he whipped his head round to glare at the Base Leader, but despite that he said nothing. Barlow stayed as he was, calmly eating his snacks as he waited for an answer. Crawford watched Keith intently, wanting to see how things would unfold. Ollie shifted about nervously, and Sven just stroked Dewny as she lay with her head on his lap.

Voice moved to hover anxiously about her partner, keeping her eyes narrowed warily at the other four. Mischievous though she was, Keith had learned that she was on her way to proving herself as an extremely loyal Pokémon. 'You don't have to answer truthfully if you don't want to, Keith,' she murmured through their link.

'And you know they're going to find out sooner or later, Voice,' Keith sighed mentally in response. 'We both do.' Voice said nothing to contradict him.

Finally, the redhead looked up at the others in the room, a hint of frustration still in his eyes.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I have. Accepted the fact that I love her, I mean."

A short silence embodied the room. Keith sat down with the rest, picking up his bottled water to take a drink. At that moment, Crawford spoke up.

"So, are you going to tell her?"

The water was spit out.

Keith coughed violently for a few moments, Ollie patting on his back for support. When he finally recovered, he gasped, "WHY IN THE NAME OF HELL WOULD I DO THAT?"

Crawford shrugged. "Why not?" he answered innocently. Keith gaped more in shock.

"Why not? Why not?" he growled. "I'll tell you why not! It'd freak her out, totally embarrass me and completely ruin our friendship!"

Crawford sighed. "Alright, alright," he amended. "I get it. Anyways, it's time to get to our next activity!"

Everyone watched cautiously as Crawford reached into his bag and pulled out a laptop. He turned it on and typed in a few things before turning it to the others. They all peeked forward to see what was on the screen.

It was Kate, Rhythmi, Wendy, Luana and Elaine, sitting in Rhythmi's room, chatting happily.

"Crawford," Sven said uneasily, "What… is…"

"Oh, y'see, I bought this spy camera in Puel City a few years back," Crawford answered happily, "and when I was packing for tonight, I thought, 'Hey! Why not use this to spy on all the girls?' so I brought it, set it up in Blondie's room before she came back, and set it up to wirelessly connect to my laptop. Isn't it a great idea?"

Crawford grinned at the others, waiting for their reaction.

That reaction was a chorus yell of "YOU IDIOT!"

When Keith was finished screaming at the afro haired Ranger with the others, he had to turn his attention to Voice, who was ready to destroy Crawford with every Shadow Ball attack she could manifest. He grabbed her hair and held her back, ignoring her screeches of, "That pervert! That lech! How dare he try and peek on five girls like those—"

"Down, girl! Down!" Keith shouted. "As much as I would like to let you, you can't just go and kill him!"

"WATCH ME!"

"Hey, Kate, why don't you think you're cute?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at the laptop screen. The voice asking the question had belonged to Rhythmi, who was dressed in a frilly nightgown. Kate laughed nervously, but it was hard to get a good look at her because she was sitting with her back to the camera.

"Well, that's…" she said uneasily. Wendy, who was wearing a tank top and gym shorts, looked at Kate with a smirk.

"It's OK, no need to be shy," she assured. "After all, it's not as if any of the guys are watching."

The guys in question all gulped.

Kate hesitated a moment more, but then she took a deep breath. "W-well… OK, I'll tell you," she said reluctantly. "You see… when I was younger, back in Summerland… a lot of the girls there—well, they kind of bullied me."

Keith's eyes widened.

Luana, who was wearing a button-down shirt and shorts, was confused. "What?" she asked. "But you're super nice! Why would they do that?"

Kate's shoulders shrugged as she continued. "It was probably because I was friends with Sven," she explained. "He was really popular with the girls and stuff, and I guess they all got suspicious of me or something. I was also friends with a lot of boys there, so…"

"Just say it, they were jealous," Rhythmi said flatly. "I heard from your dad that you got asked out a lot before you came to Almia. Girls may have liked the guys that confessed to you and got jealous. Plus, they must have been totally jealous of your sweetness and your looks."

"In other words, they were desperate bitches who felt the need to pick on others because they were too lazy to fix everything that was wrong with their hell-borne lives," Wendy said bluntly, ignoring the stares she earned for her colorful vocabulary.

Kate, who was sweatdropping at the language that had just been used by the aquamarine-haired Top Ranger, protested weakly. "I—I don't think it was like that," she said. At that moment, though, her shoulders sunk a little as her head bowed slightly. "…But… they were pretty mean to me. They called me all sorts of names, like ugly, stupid, insecure… It really hurt my feelings, I guess."

Almost immediately Elaine, who was garbed in an oil-stained T-shirt and plaid sweatpants, smothered the brunette in a hug.

"You poor little thing," she murmured sympathetically. "Oh, Arceus, I went through the exact same thing when I was your age. I know how you feel."

Kate hugged back, and everything was quiet.

Keith stared blankly at the screen, trying to make sense of what he had heard. He wasn't sure whether to feel pity on Kate for her past, anger at her for never telling him, anger at himself for never figuring it out, relief that he finally knew now, confusion as on what to do now…

His eyes moved to Crawford, who was looking at the screen with knowing coal black eyes. "…You should tell her, you know," the afroed Ranger said quietly, "about your feelings."

Keith scowled. "And ruin everything we have already?" he scoffed. "No thanks."

Crawford exhaled, frustrated. "It's not about ruining anything or starting anything or even trying to find out anything," he said firmly. "It's about respect."

Keith blinked. "Hah?"

Crawford looked Keith in the eye. "You're keeping a huge secret from her. How would you feel if someone was holding that from you?" he clarified. "Look, what I mean is… is that Spiky deserves to know, Flame."

Keith glowered down at the floor for a moment before grumbling in retort, "And Luana doesn't?"

Crawford went red and began to protest, but at that moment—

"Hey," Rhythmi's voice sounded from the laptop, "what's that camera doing? I didn't have that in here before.

All the boys froze.

"Hey!" Luana's voice piped up cheerfully. "That's Crawford's fancy spy camera! I was wondering what he brought that for!"

A silence passed, in which the girls all looked at each other.

"The guys…" Rhythmi murmured.

"Were spying…" Kate whispered, a blush on her face.

"On us…" Elaine snarled.

"THOSE BASTARDS!" Wendy screamed, picking up her pillow and waving it in a way that could make any cushy object seem deadly. "LET'S GET 'EM!"

"YEAH!" the other girls, excluding Kate, cried in agreement. They all picked up their soft, cottony weapons and ran out the door.

"CODE RED!" Barlow screamed, sounding remarkably like a little girl. "MAN THE BATTLE STATIONS!"

The next few moments were pandemonium. The door burst open, all the girls standing there and looking positively murderous save for Kate, and the next thing they knew they were under attack.

"IT WASN'T OUR IDEA!" Ollie protested loudly, blocking one of Elaine's attacks.

"DON'T KILL ME!" Sven shouted, fending off Wendy's pillow beatings.

"IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!" was Crawford's shriek as Luana whacked his afro with her sword—or, that is to say, pillow.

Keith, who was currently evading Rhythmi's strategic whirlwind of feathery strikes, managed to escape when jumping over a defeated Barlow—but in doing so, he promptly crashed into Kate, who was trying to stay out of the entire scene. Now that he was seeing her in person, he could see that she had her hair down, and she was wearing a long t-shirt with a Pokéball pattern on it and simple sweatpants. The usual thing that she wore to bed.

The usual thing.

So why was it driving him totally insane now?

"Keith!" the brunette yelped. "I-I'm so sorry, I was just—"

"Are you forgetting that I'm the one that crashed into you?" Keith replied crossly, but was distracted when he heard Rhythmi asking Luana where he was through the din.

"This way!" he commanded, grabbing Kate's wrist and pulling her into the closet, where he then pulled the door safely closed.

"There," he grumbled, "that should keep us hidden for now."

Kate sighed, but then she sat down on the floor and grabbed several blankets from the stack they had in there. She lay down and wrapped them around herself.

Keith stared. "…Uh, what're you doing?" he asked.

The girl sighed again. "What does it look like I'm doing?" she challenged. "I'm lying down to sleep, since it's obvious all the others probably won't be finished until way late at night."

The redhead's eyes narrowed. "It's not good for girls to sleep on the floor," he commented.

The lump of blankets that was now Kate growled. "It's not good for boys to either!" she protested. "You're such a sexist, I—"

She was cut off by Keith grabbing her arm and pulling her upward. The next thing she knew, she was feeling her body being crushed against his and his arms encircling her, blankets and all. Kate's eyes widened as she tried to comprehend what was going on, why her face was becoming so hot, and why her inquiry of "K-Keith?" came out in such a high-pitched squeak.

Keith had his face buried in her hair as he struggled to find something to say. Finally, he settled for, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kate blinked. "Tell you?" she said, confused. "Tell you what?"

"You know what," he replied crossly, "about you being bullied as a kid. Why didn't you tell me?"

The brunette tried to move her head up to look Keith in the eyes, but the task proved to be impossible due to how his head was sitting on her shoulder and how tightly she was being held. "It never came to mind!" she said. "I mean, it's not as if I'd just pop up saying, "'Hey, did you know I was bullied as a kid?' Seriously!"

"Fine," Keith groaned, "I'll give you that. It's just… It bugs me when you keep everything to yourself like this!"

He loosened his grip on her a bit so that he could pull back and meet her gaze.

"You're pretty," Keith said firmly, "and you're smart, and even if you're insecure that's just—" One more reason I have to love you. "—what I mean is, it's just another reason to tell me or Rhyth or anyone this kind of stuff. OK?"

Kate stared at him, her wide pale blue eyes shining in the darkness. Keith immediately became self-conscious. "Sorry," he coughed hastily, "I just had to get that off my chest."

Suddenly, though, he felt Kate's head drop onto his shoulder. "What the hell—" he started, but Kate interrupted him.

"Don't swear," she mumbled, "I've already heard enough from Wendy, after all."

"OK, OK," Keith consented irritably, "but why the heck are you—"

"I'm going to sleep," Kate cut off again. "Don't move too much."

Keith stared for a minute, but then grumbled to himself a bit as he shifted slightly to make the girl more comfortable.

"…You're sure you want to fall asleep like this?" He muttered.

But Kate was already drifting off, her eyelids closing to the screams outside the closet and the soft drum of Keith's own heart.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Even before she sprained her ankle, the next morning wasn't one of Kate's best.

She'd had to endure endless quips from Rhythmi and Wendy the next morning for their finding her and Keith asleep. It'd been sad to say farewell to the Vientown gang when they'd had to go home. What was more, Keith was just flat out avoiding her after the whole sleepover incident. He'd also seemed a bit edgy ever since it had been announced by Chairperson Erma that the Union would be visited by a member of the FBI of one region or another today, Kate hadn't paid much attention to the news. In the end, she had decided to go out on patrol in Vien Forest by herself.

As she and Metro walked through one of the more sinister parts of the woods, the Kricketot had caught the scent of one thing or another and immediately ran off. Kate had chased after him, thinking he had sensed a Gigaremo or Miniremo around, but in doing so had tripped over a tree root and fallen over, a sharp pain erupting in her ankle.

In the end, all Metro had sensed was a Pecha Berry to eat.

And now here she was.

"Ow…" Kate bit her lip, hoping she wouldn't draw blood as she tried to bear the pain. "Metro, could you get help? I need to get out of here so I can get this treated!"

"Right away, straight away, Top Ranger!" Metro chirruped, running off into the forest. "I'll be back soon, not a moment later!"

Kate smiled weakly after the energetic Pokémon, but then looked down at her ankle.

It was slightly twisted, and quickly turning purple and blue. Depressing thought though it was, it seemed as if she'd require bed rest assuming she managed to get out and back to the Union.

At that moment, she heard a voice float to her from nearby.

"Hey there, little guy… Hm? Is something wrong?" It was a male's voice, and although it didn't seem to belong to anyone she knew, Kate felt a sense of familiarity wrap around her. "What? Is something over that way?"

Kate jumped. "Y-yes! Over here!" she called out into the darkness. "I fell and sprained my ankle! Could you please help me?"

"Oh, man! Hang on, I'm coming!" the voice replied, and Kate sighed in relief.

A few seconds later, there was a rustling, and a boy stepped out into the clearing, Metro tailing behind. He was tall and looked eighteen, maybe nineteen. He had extremely spiky black hair, dark brown eyes that seemed as dark as his hair in the right lighting, and pale ivory skin. Kate stared. His hair, eye, or skin color didn't ring any bells, but his features… the way his hair was styled, the sharpness of his eyes, the shape of his face…

He looked exactly like Keith.

"Are you OK?" the boy asked frantically, kneeling down to see her ankle. He picked it up gently, and Kate winced at the slight pain the gesture brought.

"Looks like its sprained, and a little twisted," the boy muttered, examining it carefully. He looked up at Kate, saying, "I'm going to wrap this, then take you back to where you can get this properly treated, alright? Where do you live?"

Kate blinked at how he couldn't tell from her uniform, but then recovered and answered, "The Union. I know this isn't the right time, but I should probably introduce myself like protocol—ow—says. U-um, I'm Kate Lovett, eleventh Top Ranger, and I'm partnered with Keith Evans, twelfth Top Ranger, although I'm patrolling separately today… ow!"

"Mm-hmm, yeah, that's nice…" the boy mumbled, preoccupied with bandaging Kate's ankle now with gauze he'd gotten out of his backpack. Suddenly, though, he blinked and looked up.

"Wait," he said, "you know Keith Evans?"

Kate stared, but then she nodded. "Y-yes, I do," she said, "we're best friends."

The boy gaped at her a bit longer, but then he burst out laughing.

"Oh, wow!" he said between gasps, "Wow! Then you must be… oh, Arceus, who would've thought I'd meet you here, of all places? Must be fate! Ahahaha!"

Kate, who was now thoroughly confused, just stared more before replying, "I… I'm sorry?"

The boy looked up from his hysterics and grinned.

"My name's Cameron Evans," he said. "Keith's my baby brother!"