2

Amends with Lara

It was an unusual occurrence for Lara to not return a call. That evening, Miya had called twice, and now the next morning, once again.

Milo mused over that as he chomped loudly on a wad of lettuce Miya offered to him in his tank. Maybe she jumped off a cliff or something. And maybe her bratty little pidove followed. 'Any good Pokémon listens to its trainer- it's what any respectable Pokémon would do.' As if!

Milo's snorts sounded just like laughing; his snickers turned into guffaws and in moments he was splashing water all over in a fit of laughter.

"Milo!" laughed Miya, throwing the lettuce at him and flicking water off her hands. "Be serious, would you?"

Their fun was interrupted by Miya's mother, who called from downstairs. She sent Miya on an errand to the grocery store. So Miya went, bringing Milo with her in his poké ball.

It was windy again that day, and sand blew into Miya's hair as she streaked through town on her bicycle as yellow as the sun. She consulted the list her mother gave her and came home with everything except the plums. "I don't know, they just didn't look very good," she explained with a shrug before snatching the envelope full of forms and heading back out to meet Jiro.

Their meeting was relatively brief- they don't even buy pizza. "I'm sorry," Jiro said. "My appointment for pokémon registration is in half an hour and I completely forgot. So what forms do I have to get signed?"

"Ummm…" Miya leafed through the envelope and pulled out a few sheets. "You need this," she handed him a parental permission slip, "and… oops," she dropped a few of her own forms as she handed him a liability waiver, "oh, and you need to pick up your trainer manual," she stooped to pick them up, "a few of these," she shoved a handful of multicolored forms at him, "and this one's from Juniper," she passed over a green half sheet, "and I think that's it."

"No worries about the trainer manual, I picked mine up yesterday," Jiro said, beaming. "Did you get yours?"

Miya sighed. "N-no, I didn't."

Jiro's face fell. "Oh, sorry, I forgot."

She pasted on a pleasant smile to gloss the moment over. "It's not so bad. At least I get to go. So what pokémon are you getting registered? Are you going to get a starter?"

"Nah, I've got Dasya and Navy." Miya raised her eyebrows. "Dasya, he's a gallade, a gift from my uncle. And Navy, she's a feebas, and she was my brother's until he quit."

"Your brother quit?" Miya asked, perhaps a bit too harshly.

Jiro cracked his fingers. "Yeah. He just decided that he wasn't cut out for being a trainer, so he stopped at three gym badges, came home, and went back to school."

"Oh."

"It's all right, he's much happier now that he's in college."

"That's good," said Miya, wondering why anyone would want to stop being a trainer. She glanced at the wall. "Ohmigosh! Jiro! It's 12:20! You better go,"

"Oh, crap. See ya, Miya. Who do I turn these forms in to?"

"All of them to the principal except the green one- give it to Juniper."

"Sweet. Bye!"

Jiro hopped on his bike – aqua blue - and pedaled off to the police station for registration. Miya went home, still puzzling over Jiro's brother quitting.

Several days passed, still with no calls from Lara. Miya and Jiro had turned in all their forms and started packing. "I can't believe we're leaving tomorrow, Milo! Isn't this exciting?" she squealed to Milo, who was pretending to doze in his tank to avoid work. "Oh, you." Miya returned to rolling up a sleeping bag as tightly as she could.

Let's see… Sleeping bag, tarp, clothesline, two sets of clothes, mess kit… got all that. Miya tied a string around the sleeping bag. She went down to the kitchen to grab her purifying water bottle when the doorbell rang. "Hm." Miya remembered the door was open and the visitor was only blocked by the screen door. So why ring? She wondered. "Come in!" she called, set the water bottle down on the table, and wandered into the front foyer.

Waiting for her was Lara. "Hey," she said sheepishly, staring at her shoes.

"Hi," answered Miya. All of the words she could say started running laps around her head.

Lara spoke first, looking up with a soft smile: "I'm being kind of ridiculous, huh?"

"Um... uh." Miya stammered. "I- I'm sorry, Lara. I know how much you wanted to go with Jiro."

Lara, still smiling, took Miya's hands, like she always did when they were having what Lara called a "girl moment." "Girl," she said. "I don't know what my problem is. I was upset that you were going with Jiro, not me, but I was mad at myself for being mad at you! I couldn't even face you I was so grossed out by myself. You don't even get a trainer license and I'm being so selfish over a stupid boy! It totally, totally sucks. But you know what? You're going. And that makes you happy. And if you're happy, I'm happy."

"Really? Are you sure? I can ask for a switch...?"

"And offend the crap out of Kokoro's mom? Hell, no!" The girls giggled at the thought of spoiled Kokoro's notoriously confrontational mother.

"Miya, it's really okay. It's not like you asked to get put with him." Miya inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. The tension in the room melted away. "Know what else, girl? You can have him! I bet there's a ton of gorgeous guys waiting to enter the league who would totally scoop me up!" Lara twirled her hair dreamily.

Miya grinned and added, "And your only competition is Kokoro!"

"Ha! Beauty over riches, any day!" Lara declared.

"That's the spirit!" Miya laughed.

Lara swung Miya around in a circle, and stopped suddenly. "So wait, are you a trainer, then?"

"Um, not quite," said Miya as she launched into an explanation of the past few days' events. "And I'm actually leaving… well, tomorrow."

"Aw, girl, no way! Man, now I really feel bad for acting like such an idiot… Hey, let's go get some ice cream, huh? To celebrate our last day together for a while. What do you say?"

Miya noded. "I'm in!"

"Sweet. And… Miya? I'm sorry for being such a bitch, too."

Eager to make up, Miya replied, "Don't worry about it!"

Lara linked arms with Miya and dragged her down the street, chattering about Pokémon registration, Kokoro's new snivy, what Pokémon she planned to catch, and how she'd win all her battles. Miya smiled to herself. That was the Lara she knew.

After ice cream, Miya walked Lara home, hugging her goodbye, and then walked back to her own house to finish packing.