"Hisoka. You okay?"
Hisoka felt Aiden's hand on his arm. Groggily, he lifted his head off the school desk to look up at his friend.
Aiden's eyes widened when he saw the state of Hisoka's face: pale, puffy cheeks with dark bags around his bloodshot eyes. He moved his hand to the top of Hisoka's head and gently pushed his friend's face back down.
"Hey!" Hisoka jerked himself upright. Aiden laughed and settled into the desk next to Hisoka's.
"Sorry but you look rough, dude. Did you stay up late studying for…?" Aiden gestured around the classroom. Students were scattered in chattering clumps, sitting on the covered radiator or standing by the windows. At the front of the room, the professor and two students struggled with a video projector. With two days left until graduation and their Type Advantages final already graded, their second period curriculum had devolved into watching old Pokémon martial arts movies.
"No." Hisoka sighed and rubbed at his eyes. "I was thinking about what you said yesterday. Abby made the same suggestion." He smiled. "That was two people smarter than me telling me to do it."
Aiden tilted his head questioningly but otherwise didn't react.
"The Mount Moon trip?" Hisoka explained, "I stayed up writing the application essay." He patted the backpack resting against the side of his chair.
"Oh! Hisoka, that's awesome!" Aiden seemed genuinely pleased.
"I just hope they end up picking me to go."
A muted "Hurrah!" rose from the front of the classroom as one of the students successfully switched on the projector. Even though the class had been watching movies on it for most of the week, the Battle Club used it after school daily and screwed it up in a new way every time.
Music twanged from the projector's tinny speaker. The students and teacher dimmed the lights and found their seats.
Aiden flashed Hisoka a grin and a thumbs up. "You got it, easy!" he whispered.
When Aiden and Hisoka entered third period, they discovered Tori in a similarly sleep-deprived state. On the walk into school that morning, she'd been quiet, but her morning fog hadn't burned off yet like it usually did. Instead, she sat wrapped around her backpack, staring blearily ahead.
Around the room, other students laughed and murmured about summer plans. The word "Pokémon" popped up like hot corn kernels in the jumbled conversation. Soon every graduating student would have a Pokémon of their own.
Aiden chose his seat beside Tori. Hisoka continued past them to the professor's desk, where he quietly went to place his small stack of typed pages. He had almost succeeded when the classroom door slid open with a hiss and a slam.
Tori snapped to attention in her seat. Around her, students quickly slid into their own seats or froze in place.
A young man burst energetically into the room ahead of Chansey and the professor. He was fit, with sandy hair cut short and the white coat of a researcher.
"Chan!" The professor's Pokémon protested from out in the hall.
"Hello, students!" The man hesitated for a moment as if he were about to speak to the classroom, then noticed Hisoka and approached the professor's desk where he still lingered, arm outstretched. His eyes lit upon the cover page of the essay in Hisoka's hand, clearly titled Mt. Moon: Pokémon and the Plants Important to Them.
"Ah, excellent!" He snatched it up and held the paper up to read, leafing through it eagerly.
Behind him, Chansey and Prof. Larch, their usual instructor, entered the room. Prof. Larch addressed the class.
"Students, I would like to introduce you to one of my old students, Samuel Oak. He is a junior professor now at Celadon University, and he'll be leading the Mount Moon expedition we've discussed."
A quiet murmur took up again as some students lost interest.
"Yes! Thank you, Prof. Larch." Samuel lowered Hisoka's paper and faced out towards the class, puffing his chest. "In this very classroom, I learned a deep appreciation for the intricacies and inter-dependencies of Pokémon physiology. It's a topic I hope to expand upon with a closer examination of the impact of human expansion on Mount Moon's local ecology-"
A hand shot up from among the students.
"Yes?"
"Is this going to be on some sort of...post-final final?"
Prof. Larch chuckled and Samuel sputtered.
"No, but… Pokémon…"
"We do have one interested student, Samuel, so don't fret."
"Two!" He turned to show the Professor the newest essay he'd received.
Hisoka, frozen by some sort of awkwardness-avoiding misfire, still stood over the desk, reaching out towards his long-ago-moved papers.
Professor Larch leaned in her wheelchair to look past Samuel and make eye contact with Hisoka. "...we do?"
"...Hisoka?" Tori finally noticed Hisoka standing at the front of the class. She registered what was happening, then turned to Aiden for confirmation. Aiden smiled sheepishly.
There was outright conversation among the students now and a few snickers. Reddening under the embarrassment of being singled out, and for other reasons, Hisoka searched for a way to take control of the situation.
He stuck his hand out a little further towards Samuel Oak. "My name is Hisoka, from Mint Vale. I hope you'll accept my application, Mr. Oak."
Samuel smiled and returned the handshake. "Ho! With an upfront attitude like that, we would be happy to have you, Hisoka." He held up the papers and flapped them. "I'll still give this a thorough read-through though, as it deserves!"
Around them, their classmates no-so-quietly shared theories about Hisoka's motives for applying. He was long past caring about their general shittiness towards him; graduation was close and their jokes were old.
Hisoka waded back through the snarky susurrus to his seat behind Tori's. As soon as he sat, Tori turned to face him.
"Mount Moon adventure!?"
Her expression was gleeful, and Hisoka felt a swell of pride that he was the source of her excitement.
The decision felt right. He'd made a good choice.
"Mount Moon adventure." He gave Tori a thumbs-up and shot Aiden a grateful glance.
"Alright, everyone, settle down." Professor Larch rolled to her desk, shoo-ing Samuel out of her way as she passed. Chansey followed the professor and shooed Samuel with a similar motion. "I had Samuel bring with him a special treat. Since exam season can be very stressful, I find it's important to take time to unwind."
She nodded to Samuel.
Samuel Oak smiled wide, flashing his white teeth. He reached into the satchel he carried and withdrew two red and white orbs, one per hand, with a small white button on each that triggered a latch. Pokéballs. Samuel pressed the buttons and out burst two arcs of white light. That light resolved into two furry, four-legged creatures, each only slightly larger than a loaf of bread and about the same color. Each sported long ears along with fluffy, cream-colored manes and tails.
"Euiiii!"
"Euuiiiiiieieieie!"
The moment they solidified, the two creatures were chirping and bounding about the room. Some students cried out in delight (and one or two in terror).
Meanwhile, Samuel released two more of the same, then another set. Six nearly identical creatures sniffed and scuffed and trotted about the room. Two became centers of fawning circles of students reaching out to stroke and pat them. One showed immediate preference for Prof. Larch and jumped into her lap to lick her chin as she laughed.
"These are Eevee pups, only a few weeks old. Fortunately they don't know any real attacks yet, but I'd still try not to get nipped…"
One of the pups hopped onto Tori's desk. Carefully, she took her backpack off her lap and placed it on the floor. The small Eevee quickly filled the spot, sitting upright and seeming expectant.
Aiden reached across the aisle and patted the pup in Tori's lap. It cooed happily.
"Ahaha...I needed this," Tori sighed. Gently, she added her petting to Aiden's, scritching the Eevee's chin as Aiden stroked its back. She smiled, but still seemed deflated.
"Yeah?" Aiden asked.
"Yeah. My parents are…exhausting" Tori looked up and over at Samuel. "I'm looking forward to the expedition though. Especially now that Hisoka's coming!" she finished loudly, leaning back to grin at Hisoka sitting behind her, her face inches from his and her long, mousey hair all over his desk.
Hisoka blinked at her flatly. "Maybe I'll take that application back."
"No!" She twisted to face him head on, startling the Eevee off her lap. "Your fate is already sealed!"
The Eevee hopped up into Aiden's lap. It melted into Aiden's hands as he used both to ruffle its collar fluff. Tori turned toward him, still leaning one arm on the back of her chair.
"What about you, Aid'? Will you pleeeease come with us? If it's just Hisoka and me, I'm sure they can take more students."
Aiden shook his head. "Training program for guardian certification starts the right after graduation."
"Booooo."
"Can you just do your certification after?" Hisoka asked, then reached across the aisle and gave the Eevee a few light pets. It yawned, and there was a reflexive keen of adoration from all three friends.
"If I miss this window, the next one isn't until the winter." The Eevee circled up and closed its eyes, its chin resting on one of Aiden's hands. He accepted his fate as a pillow, stroking the sleepy pup with his free hand. "I would love to go on an adventure with you two...but I owe it to Arden now to stay here and help keep Mint Vale safe."
Hisoka nodded, accepting his answer.
Tori beamed, her eyes crinkling. She treasured her friend's earnestness. "We'll be cheering for you, Aiden….but know that you'll be missing out on what promises to be the coolest and most exciting scientific expedition to Mt. Moon that Hisoka and I will ever go on."
Aiden smiled back at her, but his eyes were serious. "I am sorry I can't come, Tori," he said. "Obligations are like that."
She was smiling still too, but her eyes sobered in response, and she looked as tired as she had when they'd first entered the classroom.
"Yeah. Obligations. Can't forget the obbies..."
Hisoka said nothing. He reached out past Tori to pet the Eevee again. It startled and leapt from Aiden's lap, then trotted off from their group.
Tori and Hisoka watched it go, but Aiden watched Hisoka's face, wondering if he'd done the right thing to encourage his friend. He hoped his friends would finally talk on the trip, actually talk. About all the things Hisoka half-confided to Aiden, things Aiden didn't quite fully understand. About all the fears and frustrations Tori hoarded, and the true shape of her family's oncoming expectations.
And he hoped they would do it all far, far away from him so he couldn't be tagged in to referee.
