“What are we doing?” I asked. “I don’t want to queue anymore, and this is pointless in any case.”

  “True,” said Sunny. “But this is fun to watch. Why don’t we find a place to sit and enjoy the show?”

  “I wouldn’t mind watching some more either,” said Darren. “More information is always useful.”

  “You’re still planning on catching that thing?” asked Sunny.

  “Of course. Not by facing it head on though. I want to come back at night when there are less people around. I’ve a plan.”

  Sunny and I weren’t convinced but decided to follow along with him for the time being. My companions were perfectly happy to watch for another bit. I was getting restless. I told them I was going to go find someplace to train with Mareep. Sunny made to follow me, and I said, too sharply, that she could stay if she wanted, I didn’t need to be babysat. Sunny seemed unsure, but Darren backed me up.

  “She’ll be fine Sunny,” he said. “Just make sure to always have Mareep beside you and to send a Thunder Shock into the air if something happens.”

  I said I would and headed back to town. Despite my initial intentions, I found myself wandering with no goal in mind. I was frustrated for no reason I could define. It might have something to do with Crescent Town being different from my expectations, or because I was coming down from the high the last few days on the Coastal Road had been. Maybe it was one of those hormonal moods that Mum said she couldn’t stand me in. Comfey might shield me from the smell, but the salty winds weren’t helping either.

  I found myself back at the campsite. Mareep headed for the ashes of last night’s fire and sat down refusing to look at me. She had been trying to cheer me up all morning and her failure to get much of a response from me annoyed her. I left her there and went to find a toilet. Now that I was more familiar with the place, the campsite didn’t seem quite the mess it was when we first came to it. It was one of several around the town, all of which would be used during the Crescent Tourney. The space was there, it was the League resources that were missing. Most importantly, there weren’t nearly enough Portaloo's, which was why I spent forty minutes queueing up for one.

  After, I was more relaxed. It was enough sulking for one day and I needed to train Mareep if we were going to win anything. I went back to collect her, and after some apologising, headed for the Coastal Road to find a spot, or even some trainers to practice against. I hadn’t walked long before I saw a head of hair I recognised. She was alone and still damp from her visit to the sea. Her Pokémon was next to her. I had looked it up, and found it was a Grafaiai. It was a short, black-furred Pokémon with large ears, skinny arms. It had three fingers on each hand, the middle one was extra long and had blue saliva smeared on them. It’s legs and bushy tail were a grey-blue with white stripes, and it had a tuft of blonde hair on its head that mirrored its owner. Both of them were doing some form of shadow boxing, the Grafaiai with its long fingers outstretched, jabbing them into the air.

  She noticed me watching and stopped, wiping some sweat away.

  “You’re the girl that was with Sunny,” she said.

  “I’m Calla.”

  “Nice to meet you, my name is Luca. Sorry about my friends.”

  “Do they usually go around annoying people, or just Sunny.”

  “Just Sunny,” she said. Her casual admittance caught me off guard and I couldn’t come up with a reply. Her Grafaiai stopped its exercise and hopped on its trainer’s back.

  “This is Buzzkill,” she said.

  “Hello Buzzkill. This is Mareep. Say hi,” I said, patting Mareep. “Do you want to spar?”

  They accepted and we faced off. Buzzkill came right in with Fury Swipes. Mareep made me proud by firing off Cotton Spore without my signal. Followed by Agility, she managed to dodge most of the scratches and retaliated with a Thunder Shock.

  “Did you use to annoy Sunny too? Why?”

  “It made sense at the time,” said Luca. “I can’t figure it out now.”

  “Your friends obviously can.”

  Buzzkill recovered quickly, splashing his saliva at Mareep in his own version of Acid Spray.

  “Blind him and Charge,” I said.

  Mareep used Flash forcing everyone to shield their eyes. By the time I uncovered them, I could already hear the static on her wool.

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  “They’re a bit more immature than I thought they were,” said Luca. “I thought they might have done some introspection since we were younger. Obviously not. Buzzkill get in close, long distance isn’t going to cut it.”

  He jumped onto Mareep, scratching with hideously long nails. Mareep hit him with a Thunder Shock pushing him off. A follow-up Thunder Wave restricted his movements. He retreated eyeing us warily. Mareep was scratched up, but her opponent was fairly beat too. I was feeling good until I saw an ugly purple swell around one of the cuts on Mareep. She unleashed another rain of Cotton Spore. Buzzkill tried to dodge but his limbs seized up and he stumbled before being buried by the fluff.

  “Why are you still with them. They’re Morgrem. Mareep don’t let up. Keep firing Thunder Shocks.”

  “Believe it or not, people are complicated,” said Luca. “They haven’t been that rude to anyone in a long time. Seeing Sunny made them slip back to old habits. Buzzkill, quit playing. Let’s try our new move. Poison Jab!”

  Faster than he’d moved all battle, Buzzkill leapt out of the small mound of wool, slipping free of most of it in the process, and jabbed his fingers into Mareep. She cried out and her knees bent.

  “Mareep! We give,” I said running to Mareep. Buzzkill jumped to Luca, who celebrated him pulling off Poison Jab successfully. Comfey slid from my neck to Mareep and set about healing her. As usual, the wounds healed under a shower of petals that materialised around them. The poison didn’t start fading until Comfey’s scent took on a much sweeter tone.

  “Floral Healing and Aromatherapy, she’s pretty strong,” said Luca. Having finished with Mareep, Comfey shifted her focus to Buzzkill and her scent became spicier as she cured him of his paralysis.

  “She is,” I said. “But she doesn’t battle.”

  “Thank you, little guy,” said Luca. Buzzkill echoed her thanks.

  “Buzzkill is pretty strong too,” I said. He struck a pose upon hearing the praise.

  “He is. I got his as a Shroodle and almost called him Noodle.”

  “How did you get him. They’re not usually found in Silín.”

  “You’re not from Nocturne, are you? You find anything in Nocturne. Pokémon that are being brought for trade, ones that were stowaway on ships, the list goes on. As far as we can figure out, Shroodle was brought as an egg but got lost somewhere along the way. He hatched in an alley in Nocturne, I just happened to be close enough to witness it and took him in.”

  “Nice of you.”

  “I was growing out of my mean girl phase.”

  Quite unlike the first impression I got from him the first time I saw him, Buzzkill was very easy to get along with. Both Mareep and Comfey took a liking to him and the three began playing some version of tag as Luca and I talked. Apparently, Buzzkill was a massive drama queen, and Luca loved describing his antics in detail. Luca herself was easygoing and I was quickly laughing along to her stories. She also let me draw Buzzkill while I listened, making her much better than Joey.

  Our pleasant time together was interrupted by the plastic stooges. They had evidently cleaned up from their adventures that morning, though by their expressions, they weren’t in the best of moods. Brunette, who I had learned from Luca was called Clair, called me some mean names when she recognised me and then asked Luca what she was doing hanging around a serial kicker.

  “Talking and training,” said Luca. “Calla here is a delightful conversation partner if you’re nice to her. Mareep and Comfey are cool too. They could be a real terrors in the future.”

  “Whatever. When are we going to be able to leave this place? I hate this town,” said Clair.

  “You’ll be able to leave tomorrow,” I said. “My friend has a plan to deal with the demon tonight. Come on, Mareep, Comfey. We’re going.”

  “It was nice talking to you Calla. Could you please tell Sunny I’m sorry, and if there’s anything I can do to make up for it, even a little bit, I will.”

  “It was nice meeting you too,” I said. “I’ll tell her.”

  When I came back to the tents, I met Darren with his phone, a pencil, and a whole bunch of papers strewn about him. The first thing he told me, before even saying hi, was that he was going to buy a tablet or a laptop in Rondo. Then he started complaining about the difficulties of training a water-type on land. He was talking to himself more than me, so I left him to it and went to find Sunny.

  She was behind her tent, doing something with Caviar. I stayed some distance away, calming the spike of anxiety that stopped me in my tracks.

  “There you are, Calla,” said Sunny when she saw me. “How did it go?” She sent Caviar off to practice something in the sky.

  “Pretty good,” I said. I took a breath and tried to ignore the guilt tensing my throat. “I met Luca.”

  I watched as Sunny’s expression turned from excited to blank to a casual, everything’s-okay-smile.

  “How is she?” she asked.

  “She seems to be doing well. Her Buzzkill beat Mareep pretty badly. She also said she’s sorry for before, and said if there was something she could do to make it up to you, even a little bit.”

  Sunny sat down by the ashes of the fire and wrapped her arms around her legs. Coral, who I hadn’t noticed was there, squeaked threateningly at me. Sunny hushed her, while pulling her into a hug. Then she patted the ground beside her, inviting me over.

  “Did she say exactly what she was sorry for?”

  “No, and I didn’t ask.”

  “You’re a smart girl, though. You know what happened.”

  “More or less.”

  “Please don’t tell Darren,” she said.

  “He doesn’t know? I mean, I won’t tell him, but are you sure you don’t want to?”

  “What’s the point. It’s in the past.”

  “If they continue the circuit it’s likely that you’ll meet them again, and whatever about the other three, but Luca seems to be taking it seriously.”

  “Then if you see her, tell her what she can do for me is pretend the past never happened. Better if we don’t even know each other.”

  Aside from Mareep and my family, I wasn’t a hug person, but I had to give Sunny a quick squeeze that lingered for longer than I expected. Then Darren interrupted by asking what the plans for lunch was. Glancing at my phone, I saw it was close to dinner time and I felt very hungry. Sunny shooed Darren away to buy some things in town, and then asked me to teach her how to cook curry. I lit the fire while she set up the cooker with an enthusiasm that seemed to make our entire conversation a lie, and when she started cutting the vegetables, I made a note to never annoy her while she held a knife in her hand.