Hayley's rematch against Drew went a lot better than her first attempt. This time, she knew to expect the Mienfoo's fake outs, and she didn't paint herself into a corner with a failed trap. They kept things simple, with Barrett staying just out of reach of the Mienfoo's surprisingly long arms and landing potshots with fire spins, then feinting forward and delivering cross chops. It was cheap, but it worked, and eventually, the Mienfoo fell.

Most importantly, she didn't fall over. She'd made sure to practice standing on one foot and to rest and stretch before the match began. She could have just used Miriam's tactic of lying on her back, but after ample consideration, it had still felt too much like cheating. Besides, it would have made it harder to see the battlefield, and that probably would have screwed her over just as much.

After the battle, Hayley told Drew about her plan to take some classes at the gym, and asked if she had any advice about what ones to sign up for—she did not want another "Training Fundamentals" debacle. She was expecting Drew to list off a couple courses, maybe hand her a pamphlet or something. Instead, to her surprise and mild concern, Drew clapped her hands together and stared at Hayley like a hungry Sharpedo.

"Wyatt, cover for me. I'm taking my break early." The referee sighed.

"You've got another matching coming up in ten—"

"Cover for me, or I'll tell Brawly that you weren't actually sick the day that the Hawlucha Squad was in town. Besides, it won't take long." To Hayley, she said, "You've got some time to look around, right? I want to give you a tour."

"Uh, sure," Hayley said, still taken aback by the fact that she had a gym trainer paying this much attention to her.

"Great. Wyatt, cover for me. I'll be fifteen minutes, max." Wyatt shot her a dirty look, but didn't say anything.

Apparently, the Dewford Gym ran things a lot less formally than the Rustboro Gym.

Drew led Hayley to a side door. Barrett scurried forward, nearly tripping Hayley in the process, while Ceres trundled behind—she was still holding to her promise not to put either of them in their balls. "Are you sure this is okay?" Hayley asked, even as her heart pounded at the thought of getting an unsolicited personal tour from a gym trainer. "I don't want you to get in trouble."

"I won't get in trouble. This is part of my job too, after all." She thumbed through a ring of keys hanging from an orange band on her wrist, picked one, and slipped it into the lock. "Brawly's always pushing for us to get new students."

Hayley started to answer, but was cut off by what she saw when the door swung open. The battle room had been big, but this room was huge. A giant gymnasium stretched before her, filled with every kind of equipment and every shape of human and Pokémon imaginable. The walls and floor were polished wood, though the planks in the floor were scuffed, warped, and burned from endless use by non-human feet, and the air rang with grunting and shouting and Pokémon cries. It was absolutely insane.

"Brawly likes us all to train in one room, so that we can all learn from each other," Drew said—or shouted, given that she had to yell to be heard over the din. "What do you think?"

Hayley, overwhelmed, fumbled for an answer, but Barrett didn't hesitate. He charged into the room, eyes glittering, staring at every single Pokémon he saw. His gaze landed on a Poliwhirl performing dips on a power tower, a Hitmonchan doing push-ups too quickly to count, and a Lopunny delivering kick after kick to an enormous punching bag, and Hayley knew he wanted to challenge them all.

Barrett's hunger for battle wasn't what made her heart swell—she was used to that by now. What filled Hayley with warmth and pride was that despite the fact that Barrett was literally twitching with anticipation, he didn't run off to start a fight. A month ago, he would've already been doing something that would get them both kicked out, but now? He was behaving. A smile broke across Hayley's face. What did she think? "It's incredible."

Ceres, for her part, was even more bewildered than Hayley to be presented with a room full of strange, shouting Pokémon. Her eyes were open so wide that they looked twice their normal size, and her head swiveled back and forth like she was watching a tennis match, always a little too slow to watch whatever action had caught her attention. Hayley stopped walking for a moment, knelt down, and gave her a reassuring pat on the head. "You're doing great, Ceres. But you can go back in your ball if it's too much." Ceres thought it over, hummed, then shook her head. "All right. Let me know if you change your mind."

Drew led them through the room, stepping carefully to avoid flying fists and thrusting weights. Eventually, they made it to a corner that was mostly unoccupied and a little quieter than the space around it. There was a Dodrio jumping rope nearby, its two outside heads swinging the rope while the third bobbed up and down in time with its feet. Its trainer watched silently, stopwatch in hand.

"So are you looking at doing cardio, strength training, or martial arts?" Drew asked. Her voice was still raised, but at least she didn't have to keep shouting.

"Martial arts," Hayley said. "Barrett really likes fighting up close, so I want to teach him some moves to use besides cross chop." Barrett grunted in agreement and chopped the air.

"Have you thought about which style you want to train him in?"

"Not really. We spent some time in dojos in Rustboro, but it was just to train his cross chop. We didn't take classes in anything else." She'd been so single-mindedly focused on beating Roxanne that she hadn't had the patience to sit through long explanations of stances and complicated technique names—and neither had Barrett.

"In that case, can I make a suggestion? I think you should do karate. And I'm not just saying that because it's my favorite." The defensiveness in Drew's tone told Hayley that she had been accused of doing just that many times before. "The kick techniques won't be as useful for you, since the Magmar family are pretty bottom-heavy, but the strikes and blocks will synergize really well with his cross chop. And the katas are great for keeping up your practice while you're on the road."

"That sounds good," Hayley said. "Barrett, what do you think?" She was pretty sure he didn't know what karate was, but he nodded all the same.

"Great! I teach a karate class every day here at one o'clock—except Tuesdays, since those are my days off. It's just two trainers and three Pokémon right now, so there's space for you to join if you want. If that doesn't work, there are a few other instructors I can point you to."

"No, that should work," Hayley said. Then, she looked at Ceres. "Um, just one thing. Ceres obviously can't do karate or anything, but I don't want her to feel left out. Is it okay if she sticks around and maybe does some exercises with us?"

"Sure, that's no problem. It'll be good for her to watch anyway, in case you want to train her in karate when she evolves—one of my other students has a Shroomish doing the same thing." Hayley gave a small sigh of relief. Her backup plan had been to ask Miriam to watch Ceres while she was at the gym, and she hadn't been looking forward to doing that. "So, I've got to get back to the battlefield, but if you go to the front desk, they can sign you up. You can start as soon as tomorrow, if you want."

"Okay," said Hayley, trying to push down the sudden fluttering of nerves in her stomach. "I'll be here tomorrow."

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"So you're going to be training with a bunch of jocks?" Miriam asked when Hayley relayed the news at dinner. A month ago, Hayley might have bristled, but by now, she no longer registered the word "jock" as an insult.

"Yeah. We're starting tomorrow."

Miriam frowned and stabbed her spaghetti. "Is training in a gym even worth it? You can learn the same stuff just by watching videos on the internet, can't you?"

"Kind of. But if you want to do it right, you have to get help from someone who knows what they're doing." At least, that was what Hayley had always been told. It was the whole reason why coaches existed, right? "Being around a bunch of strong Pokémon will make Barrett grow faster, too."

"I guess. But I still think it's a waste of—" She was interrupted by a massive horn-slash-jaw sneaking over the edge of the table and closing around her spaghetti, swallowing it plate and all. "Fuck! Yuna, you are such a little shit!" The Mawile giggled and preened, jumping out of reach as Miriam's hand came down to swat her. Xena, meanwhile, simply sighed and continued eating her own dinner the correct way.

"Did you try training with her today?" Hayley asked.

"Yeah." The look on Miriam's face was enough to tell Hayley that it hadn't gone well, but she continued anyway. "I tried battling with her first, to see what she could do. Turns out the answer to that is nothing, or at least, nothing that I want her to do." She shot another glare at Yuna, who was rubbing her stomach with an exaggerated gesture. "Half the time she just sits there, lets herself get hit, and starts crying, which makes everyone think I'm a jerk. The rest of the time, she'll run up to the other Pokémon and try to eat it."

Hayley choked on her own spaghetti. "What?"

"She goes and grabs it in her jaw and like, shakes it around." Miriam demonstrated by whipping her fork back and forth in the air. "Like she's trying to snap its neck or something. And she won't stop when I tell her to, so I have to recall her and forfeit."

Hayley took a deep gulp of water and pounded her chest to dislodge the lump of food that had stuck there. "Is she… Is she actually trying to eat them? Or is she just playing?"

"Does it matter? It's a loss either way."

"Uh, yeah, I think it matters." Hayley looked at Yuna, who gazed innocently back at her. "You know the Pokémon you're fighting now aren't food, right? You can't eat them." Yuna gave another coy, unhelpful giggle.

"Anyway, so battling was a disaster. Then I tried to run her through some training outside of battle, and she still wouldn't listen to anything I said. She keeps pretending she doesn't understand me. And I know you understand me, Yuna." Yuna put on her sweetest face and tilted her head in mock confusion. "So she wouldn't do anything when I told her to do it, and then when I tried to train with Xena, she kept getting in the way—knocking down our targets and trying to trip me and stuff. It sucked. How did you get Barrett to listen to you?"

Hayley did such a double take at Miriam openly asking for advice that she almost got whiplash. Normally, Miriam did everything she could to pretend she already knew the answers to any questions she asked. Hayley pretended to clear her throat again, buying some time. "Well, we sort of… agreed to work together. Right, Barrett?" Barrett grunted. "He wants to fight a lot so he can get stronger and evolve, so we decided that as long as he works with me and follows our training plan, I'll put him in fights every day."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Miriam eyed both her and Barrett critically. "No way. It's not that simple. He hated you when we started out, and now you're practically best friends. You must have done something special that you're not telling me."

"We're—" Hayley faltered. Miriam had put her in the doubly uncomfortable position of not only saying, in front of Barrett, whether or not they were friends, but also explaining how it had happened. She and Barrett were definitely something, but that something was delicate, and putting the wrong label on it might make it shatter. And if she said what she suspected—that he'd started respecting her after she'd come to his rescue in the Rustboro tunnels—then he might chafe and rebel out of spite. What if he didn't want her to know that that was the reason why? What if it wasn't the reason at all, and he'd be offended by her getting it wrong? What if…

She took another long sip of water. Everyone was looking at her now—Miriam, Barrett, Yuna, Ceres, Xena. She cleared her throat a third time, and then, finally, deflected the question. "I mean. How do you normally make friends? It's different for everyone, right? Just do that."

Miriam stared at Hayley for a long moment, and the air between them grew so chilly that a prickle ran down Hayley's neck. Then she tore her eyes away and looked ruefully down at the spot where her spaghetti had been. "I don't have friends," she bit out at last.

"Oh." Hayley swallowed and turned back to her own food. "Um. Sorry."

They sat in awkward silence until Miriam stood up to get herself more food. They finished their dinner without saying another word. Even Yuna had stopped giggling.

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Hayley stood once again in the gymnasium of the Dewford Gym, clad uncomfortably in a gi, and contemplated her mistake. She'd thought to ask Drew what class would be best for her; that part hadn't been a mistake. No, her mistake had been not asking who Drew's other students were.

"This is going to be awesome! Nolan's learned a ton since you last saw us, you won't even believe it." Chad Bennett, the loudest and most obnoxious boy in Pecha Lane Middle School, stood an inch from Hayley's face and flexed his arms. His Machop shadow-boxed the air, while a Makuhita next to him lifted its arms and grunted, and a Shroomish rolled around at his feet. "You've got to fight me after class—Howie said your Magby's a beast—"

"Please shut up," said the other student, a black-haired boy named Lee. He looked about their age, but was holding himself and speaking like he was much older. A Croagunk at his knees inflated and deflated its venom sacs sedately. "How many times does Sensei have to tell you not to yell in the dojo?"

"It's not a dojo, and she's not here—"

"It is, and I am." Drew had materialized behind all of them, wearing a gi tied with a black belt and flanked by a Hitmontop and her Mienfoo. Her hands were on her hips, and she was giving Chad a glare that could melt glaciers. "As long as you're learning karate here, this is your dojo, and you'll treat it with respect."

Chad bowed his head, suddenly meeker than Hayley had ever seen him. "Sorry, Sensei."

Technically, he was still yelling. Technically, they were all yelling, because the gymnasium wasn't any quieter than it had been yesterday. But the level he was at now was apparently acceptable to Drew, who nodded.

"Chad, Lee, Nolan, Cait, Kaden, Sasha." Drew nodded at Chad, Lee, the Machop, the Shroomish, the Makuhita, and the Croagunk in turn. "This is Hayley, Barrett, and Ceres. They'll be joining our class."

Chad looked like he wanted to say that he knew who they were, but he was held in place by Drew's stare. Lee, meanwhile, eyed Hayley with such a critical expression that she felt vaguely offended. "Are you a beginner?" he asked.

"Yes," Hayley said carefully. She wasn't sure she liked where this was going. Before Lee could open his mouth again, though, Drew cut him off.

"Lee, you were a beginner four months ago. Be respectful, or you'll spend the whole hour running laps around the gym." Lee glowered, but shrank back all the same. His long bangs flopped over one eye in a way that reminded Hayley unpleasantly of Miriam. Drew nodded and strode ahead of them, stopping and turning around again when she reached some predetermined spot on the floor. Then, she clapped her hands. "Let's get started. Line up! Hayley, you and Barrett are on the left. Ceres can hang back with Cait."

Hayley spent the next hour feeling very, very lost. Drew started by leading them through warm-up exercises, which wasn't too bad—she'd done plenty of warm-ups before soccer practices and games and stretched with Barrett and Ceres every time they trained, so she at least knew what most of the movements were. Drew and her classmates performed them all so fluidly and easily, though, that she felt like she was one step behind in a complicated dance. This feeling multiplied by a thousand when they moved into what Drew said were simple katas. The first time through, Drew instructed Hayley and Barrett to watch as she, Chad, Lee, and their Pokémon performed two straight minutes of maneuvers in perfect unison. Afterwards, Drew turned to Hayley and smiled.

"It looks tricky, but you'll know these all by heart soon enough. Lee, come up here and demonstrate Kata One." Lee tossed his hair proudly and strode up to stand by Drew. He bowed forward, then stepped his legs apart and held his fists in front of his hips. "A little less wide with your stance," Drew corrected, and he gritted his teeth and shuffled his feet inward by a couple inches. "Now, this kata starts with a turn and a downward block…"

Hayley had never considered herself to be an uncoordinated person, but when it came to katas, she had two left feet. She followed the steps slowly, painfully, and barely managing to avoid tripping and landing on the floor. Barrett didn't fare much better, and actually did fall a few times. Each time, his face grew darker, and Hayley watched him anxiously, worried he'd explode. Just when it seemed he'd reached his limit, though, Drew moved them to a different exercise that evaporated all his anger in an instant—she was going to teach them punches.

They'd learned a little bit about punches in the Rustboro dojo, but Drew went into more detail than any of the brusque instructors there had done. Using Chad and Nolan as demonstrators this time, she walked them through straight punches and lunge punches and the stance and technique they needed for both of them. Hayley was as out of her depth as she'd been with the katas, but Barrett was in his element. He copied the moves with gusto, if not precision, and though he grumbled when Drew corrected his form, he didn't put up a fight. Next, they moved onto blocks, which went more or less the same way as the punching section did, though Barrett was a little less enthusiastic.

And then, just as Hayley felt like she was finally getting a grasp on what she was supposed to be doing, Drew announced that it was time to spar. Upon hearing this, Hayley backed up a bit, assuming that this section was just for Pokémon, but Drew shook her head and beckoned her forward again. "You're learning this too. Don't worry, I'll start you off easy. Chad and Lee, get your gear and pair off. Barrett, you'll be with Nolan, and Sasha's with Kaden. No injuries, got it? We're focusing on technique today, not power."

"Sparring" had made Hayley think of a bare-knuckle fight, so she was relieved to find out it involved helmets, mouth guards, gloves, and shin guards—at least, it did for the humans in the class. Pokémon had the benefits of a Pokémon Center and didn't have to worry so much about bruises and cuts. By the time Hayley had geared up, Barrett was already squaring off against Nolan, who was very visibly pulling his punches and demonstrating the correct way to block. Barrett was obviously unhappy about this, but grudgingly played along. He wasn't pulling his own punches at all—not that it mattered. Without his cross chop or his claws at his disposal, his blows wouldn't do more than tickle the Machop's muscled hide.

"Are you ready?" Hayley turned to face Drew, anxiety balling in her chest. Drew responded with another smile. "Don't be nervous. This isn't a real fight, and neither of us is going to be hurting each other—that's what the pads are for." She knocked her gloved fists together for emphasis. Hayley nodded and tried to smile back, but only managed a shaky half-grin. She hadn't expected sparring on day one. "Now, I'm going to start out by doing a straight punch, and you counter with an inward block. Okay?"

In the end, Hayley made it through sparring. She made it through the entire session, though she could barely think straight past the punches and blocks and katas and kiais swirling in her head. When Drew dismissed them, she congratulated them all on their effort, then said to Hayley and Barrett, "You both did a great job. Come back tomorrow and we'll run some drills that Ceres can participate in, all right?"

"All right," Hayley said, still dazed. If it was just her, she wasn't sure she would be coming back—all of that had been way too intense. But, of course, it wasn't just her, and Barrett was already raring to learn more punches. Maybe she could practice some katas tonight or something, so she wouldn't feel so behind.

"Hayley!" Chad had been mostly quiet through the lesson, tamped down by the forceful eyes of their sensei, and now all his enthusiasm was bubbling up again. "It's so cool that you're doing karate. You want to get something to eat? Caleb should be finished by now, so we can all go together."

A mid-afternoon meal with Chad and Caleb had not been on the list of things she wanted to do today. She tried to talk her way out of it. "I ate lunch a couple hours ago. I'm not really hungry—"

"You should still get a protein shake or something. It helps build muscle." He flexed his arms to demonstrate, though Hayley couldn't help but notice there was still no muscle there. "I know a great shake place, it's not too far—hey, Caleb! Look who I found!"

And so, lacking any tactful way to back out, Hayley went to a mid-afternoon meal with Caleb and Chad.

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Caleb and Chad had been on Dewford for about a month, obviously, just like Howie had. They had trained for two weeks before taking on Brawly. As the Trainer's Eyes app had told her, Chad and Howie had won their matches, while Caleb had lost his. She hadn't actually watched their matches, but that was fine. Chad pulled them all up on his phone to show her while they drank their shakes.

"Check this out. This is the best part—see how Nolan smashed his Makuhita?" On the screen, his Machop landed a staggering karate chop to Brawly's Makuhita's skull. The Makuhita's eyes crossed, and it went down like a sack of bricks. "It was awesome. I mean, if you try doing that, be careful, because Makuhita have thick skulls. Nolan almost broke his hand." Nolan gave a toothy grin and chugged the rest of his shake. Hayley sipped hers and tried not to make a face. It was so gritty. Was it supposed to be like that, or had sand gotten into the shake machines?

"Anyway, I knew I needed a Makuhita after that, so I went out and caught Kaden, and she's been great. She's smaller than the one I fought, but she'll grow." Kaden nodded and made a noise like a chuckle in the back of her throat. "And once Cait evolves, we're going to go straight to Mauville and kick Jin's ass."

"Yeah, if I even have my badge by then," Caleb broke in. Chad laughed and clapped him on the back.

"Bro, you're going to decimate Brawly next time you fight him. It's not even a question." Caleb, though, didn't laugh with him. He looked more solemn than Hayley had ever seen him, and he hadn't even yelled when he talked—he was speaking at a normal volume. It kind of freaked her out.

She tried to change the subject. "So, Chad caught Cait in Petalburg Woods. Did you get Atlas there too?" She looked down at the Lotad currently hanging out with Ceres in the shade of the table.

"Yeah," Caleb said again. "I needed him to beat Roxanne. And I need him to evolve so I can beat Brawly, but it's not happening."

Hayley shifted in her seat and took another sip of the gross shake. "Even without evolving, he must be pretty strong, right? If he could beat Roxanne."

"Not really. He had a type advantage."

She wasn't imagining it—something in the air was tense, and growing tenser every time Caleb spoke. His Poochyena, Argus, had laid his ears flat against his head, and even Chad had lost his face-splitting grin.

"You've just gotta keep training," Chad said. "Even if Atlus doesn't evolve, Argus has to be close."

"Yeah," Caleb said for a third time. "Easy for you to say. You've already got two badges." He looked down at his Lotad, and there was something ugly in his eyes. Something like resentment.

What was going on? What had Chad dragged her into? Hayley took another long draw from her shake until the texture nearly gagged her. The faster she finished, the faster she could leave. In the meantime, she tried to change the subject once again. "I was in Dewford Cave last week, looking for a fighting type."

"Howie told us," Chad said. Oh. Duh. "You wound up with that Meditite, right?"

"Not exactly. He still hasn't decided to join my team." The spars between him and Barrett had become a nightly affair, and Barrett hadn't won yet. On cue, Barrett huffed and crossed his arms. "But there were a couple other fighting-types that looked like they might want trainers—once Granite Cave reopens, that is. Like, there was this Timburr that I think was getting picked on by some other Timburr. I didn't end up catching him, but I felt bad leaving him there."

"Dude." Chad's face lit up. "You need to tell me where! I need a Timburr on my team, they're so strong—"

"She was telling me, not you," Caleb snapped. And, she had been, but as he said it out loud, the tension in the air grew even tighter. "I need that Timburr. You really want to go and catch a fourth Pokémon when I only have two? And when both of them suck?"

"Okay, okay." Chad held up his hands, alarmed. Hayley's grip on her shake grew tighter. "Sorry, man. You can catch it. I'll find another one."

"Yeah." Caleb crossed his arms on the table and sank his chin down on top of them. "Whatever. It doesn't matter anyway."

A full minute passed without anyone saying anything. Hayley choked down the rest of her shake and stood up, a little too quickly. "Uh. Thanks for inviting me to hang out," she said. "But I've got to get back to training. I'll see you tomorrow at class?"

"Yeah," Chad said. Caleb just shrugged and watched her, Ceres, and Barrett go without a word.