"I'm going to miss you so much!" Hayley gave a small hurk as Connie pulled her into a tight hug, crushing her windpipe with her shoulder. "I can't believe we aren't doing this together! It's so unfair!"
Hayley wriggled out of Connie's grasp before she could choke, her face flushed from near-suffocation. How the heck was she so strong? "It's only for three months," she said, rubbing her neck. "That's not much longer than summer camp. It won't be so bad."
"Yeah, except you're stuck with Miri and I'm stuck with Clarissa." Connie pointed her finger down her throat in a "gag me" motion, then quickly glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Clarissa and her mother hadn't seen her do it. Behind the tinted windows of the minivan, Hayley could see Clarissa sitting in the middle row, the back bench having been filled with suitcases and bags. She was staring forward with a stony expression, her hair perfectly curled and her arms primly crossed over a designer top. "We're going to be in our first contests together," Connie continued. "I hope I win before she does, because otherwise, oh my god."
Hayley sympathized. Clarissa wasn't exactly known for being modest. "You'll do great," Hayley assured her, laying her hands on top of Connie's. "You're a natural at this sort of thing." Meanwhile, she'd be lucky if Barrett didn't burn down their tent their first night out.
Connie beamed and clasped Hayley's hands, holding them up between them. "Thanks. I know you'll be awesome too." With that, she wrapped her in one more bony hug. "Keep in touch, okay?" And she darted off to the minivan, her sneakers kicking up gravel from the driveway behind her.
Hayley watched her go with an ache in her chest. She was right; this wasn't fair. Why weren't they allowed to choose their own partners?
Well, probably because if they were, people like Miriam would never be able to find anyone willing to partner with them.
Be nice!
Sighing, she turned around and went back into her house, letting the screen door slam shut behind her. She had to get ready for her own trip.
She clambered up the stairs and into her room to look her supplies over one last time. There was her backpack, weighed down with a sleeping bag, collapsible tent, and enough preserved food, energy bars, and Pokémon pellets to last her a week. There were potions, of course, and antidotes, and the single Pokéball she'd gotten with her license (meant to hold her starter, but Barrett had come with his own ball). For traversing the wilderness, she had a laminated map of Hoenn, a flashlight thick and heavy enough to double as a truncheon, and a fold-up utility knife with a dozen useful attachments on it, along with a first aid kit, canteen, toiletries, mess kit, compass, sunscreen, a waterproof jacket, a few changes of clothes, and anything else she thought she might possibly need. Everything was stuffed so tightly that her backpack was about ready to burst at the seams. Hayley was used to packing for camping trips and knew the value of traveling light, but this time she was going to be gone much longer, and there wouldn't be a teacher or scoutmaster there to loan her supplies if she found out later that she'd forgotten something. She had to be prepared.
She dressed simply, knowing that any clothes she brought along were inevitably going to get ripped, stained, and (thanks to Barrett) burned anyway. She pulled on a plain cami top and comfortable gym shorts, threw on a light button-down shirt to protect her shoulders from the sub, and then laced up a pair of sturdy hiking boots. They were already broken in from countless hiking trips, and they felt as soft and comfortable on her feet as any pair of sneakers.
She shouldered her bag and eyed herself critically in the mirror. Well, she didn't exactly look like a champion. Her image didn't ooze confidence or power, and she didn't have the cool, composed look that so many trainers carried. She just looked like… well, a flustered kid.
She'd just have to hope that all of the coolness and confidence would come later.
She bounded down the stairs again and ran into the kitchen, skidding to a stop just before she collided with her mother. Hayley flinched and braced herself for another lecture about running in the house, but instead, her mother just gave her a soft smile.
"Are you all ready to go?" she asked. Hayley nodded slowly. A moment of silence passed between them as Hayley's mother looked her up and down. "Look at you. I know it's a cliché, but… my daughter, ready to go out into the world." Her hazel eyes started to mist over, and Hayley froze. Was her mother going to cry? She never cried, and Hayley wouldn't know what to do if she did. Thankfully, her mother just blinked and shook her head, reaching into the shopping bag she'd brought with her.
"I bought you some Pokéballs, in case you see anything on the way to Rustboro that catches your eye. And… this." She pulled out a small wrapped parcel, which Hayley took and opened gingerly. Inside was a trainer's belt, made of a sturdy mustard-yellow leather with six metal clasps on the side for miniaturized Pokéballs. She unhooked the belt and wrapped it around her waist, pulling it tight so that it would stay up even without belt loops. She took Barrett's Pokéball from her bag and clipped it to the side, then diligently packed the rest of the balls into what space remained in her backpack.
"This doesn't mean you're off the hook for the living room, by the way," her mother added. "But we can work out a plan for that when you start winning battles."
Hayley found her own eyes were dangerously close to watering, and she masked it by wrapping her mother in a tight hug. "Thanks, mom."
Her mother looped her arms around Hayley's shoulders. "Remember to take care of yourself and your Pokémon. It won't do you any good if you burn out before you even hit the first gym."
"I'll be fine," Hayley said, her words muffled by her mother's shirt.
"I know you'll do great out there, Hayley. But remember that you can always come home if you need to."
"I know."
She hoped she wouldn't need to. She hoped when she finally did come back home, it would be with a full set of six powerful Pokémon and eight gleaming badges. She hoped she would make her mother proud.
She hoped she wouldn't be a failure.
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Walking the few blocks down to Miriam's house took about fifteen minutes. Waiting for Miriam to be ready took another hour. According to her very apologetic mother, Miriam had only just woken up (it was almost noon!) and still had to get her things together. Hayley could hardly believe it, given that she'd had her bag packed for weeks now and had woken at the crack of dawn to check that everything was ready, but then, Miriam was clearly less enthusiastic.
So she sat at the small kitchen table, her heavy bag beside her on the floor. Too full of nerves to keep her attention on any one thing, she let her eyes wander restlessly around the room. It was small—cramped, even—and every shelf and countertop was crammed full of knickknacks and baubles. There were Spoink-shaped salt and pepper shakers, a commemorative Indigo League plate bearing the image of Lorelei from the Kanto Elite Four, and even a clock styled like a Sentret with a tail that waved back and forth to count the seconds. To Hayley, it was all a bit cloying. Her own mother had never collected kitsch. She'd thought that kind of stuff was just for old ladies.
The Pelipper-shaped kettle on the stove began to whistle, and Miriam's mother reentered the room. She was a petite Kantonian woman with a thin face and dark lines under her eyes. Her smile was tired, but kind. She poured the steaming water from the kettle's beak-shaped spout into two tea mugs and handed one to Hayley. Hayley, not a big fan of tea but not wanting to be rude, clasped the cup with both hands and stared down into the murky water, her fingers drumming anxiously on the sides.
"So, are you excited to finally be going on your journey?" Miriam's mother asked, breaking the silence. Hayley blinked.
"Um. Yes… ma'am?" she tacked on awkwardly, feeling oddly formal around this woman with the house full of kitsch. "I've been looking forward to it for a while…"
"Mom!" Miriam's voice rang from upstairs. "Where did you put my stupid sunscreen?"
"It's in your dresser where you left it," her mother said mildly, apparently not at all troubled by the shouting or the clomping and banging of drawers that followed. She looked back at Hayley, who did her best to keep her expression neutral, but something must have given her away. "I know Miri can be a bit of a handful," she said to her, her voice almost apologetic. "She's always had trouble expressing herself and opening up to other people—our move to Hoenn was very hard on her. I think this trip will do her good." She smiled gently. "I appreciate you going along with her. It'll be good for her to finally have a friend."
Hayley didn't know if Miriam's mother was aware that her partner hadn't been a choice, and that if it had been, she would have chosen many, many other people over Miriam. But it would be rude to say that, so she just nodded, still staring into her tea. "She… doesn't seem too excited about it," she ventured.
"She's not used to anything that's not dots on a computer screen. She'll come around."
Hayley masked the silence that followed with a swig of her tea. She instantly regretted it, drawing in her lips to hide her grimace. It was way too bitter. How did people drink this stuff?
A while later, Miriam finally came down, announcing her arrival with a stomp on each step that rattled the knickknacks on the shelves. She was wearing what she always did, baggy cargo shorts and an oversized black tee-shirt (this one had a picture of a Lucario in a red cap and overalls defending a frightened Chansey against a huge, spiny-shelled Torkoal), but her thick black hair was tied up in a ragged ponytail and covered by a ridiculous-looking floppy sunhat. She sagged under the weight of her massive bag, which was lumpy and burst at the top with what looked like toiletries, cables and foil packs of junk food. Her face had a smear of drying sunscreen on one cheek and a hardened scowl that said she would rather be doing anything in the world but this. She glared daggers at her mother, who just responded with another soft smile.
Well, standing around here wasn't going to make her any happier. "Are you ready to go?" Hayley asked.
"Ugh. If I have to."
And on that note, their journey began.
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The first step was to get out of Petalburg City, which was simple enough. Petalburg was a sprawling suburb with houses popping out of thick trees for miles in every direction, but Hayley and Miriam's neighborhood was right by the city center. Hayley was going to make a quick stop at the Pokémon Center, and then they could catch a bus to the city limits. After that, they would travel through Route 104 and Petalburg Woods to get to Rustboro City in the northwest. That would be a long hike, but if they kept a good pace, they should be able to get there in a few days.
Hayley thought it was a pretty solid plan, but when she relayed it to Miriam, she immediately started complaining. "What? You want to go all the way to Rustboro already? Why?"
"Because… I want to challenge Roxanne for the Stone Badge?" Hayley cocked her head at Miriam. She hadn't thought she would need to explain herself. Going to Rustboro to fight Roxanne was just what new trainers did.
"But there's a gym here!" Miriam protested, her voice practically a whine. "Can't you fight that one?"
"Norman's on vacation right now," she replied. He conspicuously took his allotted break time at the same time every year, all in one chunk during the busiest part of June. It was an open secret that he did it to avoid the annual horde of circuit newbies. "Besides, Roxanne is the first gym in the circuit. Norman's a lot harder."
"So you want to go all the way through the woods for a stupid battle? Can't we at least get someone to drive us there?"
"That's not really the point…"
Miriam muttered sullenly under her breath, her words gradually tapering off into incoherent grumbles. Eventually she pulled her Gameboy from the side pocket of her backpack and flicked it on, falling into stony silence. Hayley eyed her watchfully, expecting her to trip over a stray rock or crack in the sidewalk, but she kept a steady pace, not seeming at all hindered by the fact that her face was glued to the screen.
In short order, the buildings around them grew taller and sharper, going from rustic wood and vinyl to modern steel and glass. Bright signs sprouted like flowers from rooftops and doors, advertising Pokémon cafes, Pokémon grooming, Pokémon equipment—Pokémon everything. The road widened out, and pedestrians began passing by, first in ones and twos and eventually in a steady stream. Many carried backpacks and wore trainer's belts, and Pokémon mingled with them, perched on shoulders and darting between legs. The Pokémon Center stood out among the other buildings, its massive domed red roof and "P" sign making it an obvious landmark.
Hayley wanted to get Barrett a quick checkup before going into the wild. She should have done it before, but... Well, she was doing it now. Unfortunately, when the glass doors slid open, she realized it might not be as quick as she hoped. The lobby was packed full of kids her age running around and shouting to each other, climbing on tables and chairs to make themselves noticed over the corwd. A boy and girl stood in the corner with a Wurmple and Surskit by their sides, red-faced and yelling so violently that it looked like they were about to get into a battle right there. A few feet away, another boy in a sideways baseball cap was trying to coax his spooked Zubat down from the ceiling. Two Poochyena pups pricked their ears up at the sound of the doors opening and made a mad dash for freedom, darting through Hayley's legs to the outside world just before the doors slid shut again. Their trainer ran screaming after them, nearly bowling Hayley over as he went, but he smacked face-first into the glass doors before they could open again and fell flat on the floor.
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It was chaos.
"Ugh! This place is so loud!" Miriam yelled, only adding to the noise. She'd tucked her Gameboy under her arm so she could plug her ears with her fingers. "Why's it so crowded?"
Well, it was the start of summer, which meant the start of training season. She'd expected it to be crowded, but this was just insane.
Hayley pushed her way through the crowd and took a spot in what passed for a line—more like a straggling, winding assortment of trainers that wound unevenly through the lobby. The line was long, but it moved surprisingly quickly; the nurses must have been used to this kind of rush. Soon, Hayley was waved over to a free station near the end of the counter, where a frazzled middle-aged woman placed Barrett's Pokéball into a groove in the healing machine.
Hayley expected the scan to only take a few seconds, but a full minute dragged by with the nurse still tapping at buttons on her keyboard. She was frowning at the screen, eyebrows creased. Hayley leaned her elbows on the counter and craned her neck around to try and get a glimpse of what she was looking at, but the nurse shooed her away. Finally, she plucked the ball from the receptacle and turned to look at her again.
"Your Magby has a partial fracture along the radius in his left arm."
Hayley's stomach plummeted. "What?" she asked, the question coming out in a squeak. "I didn't—how?" Even as she asked the question, her mind replayed scenes of the battle from yesterday. When he'd stopped Howie's Aron from charging with a forceful cross chop to the face—that had to be it. He hadn't looked hurt afterwards, but…
Seeing Hayley's horrified expression, the nurse quickly added, "It's not a very serious injury. Just like a human child, a baby Pokémon's bones aren't as tough as an adult's, so they bend and break more easily. Still, it's more than we can address with the healing machine, so we'll have to splint up the arm and let it heal naturally. As long as it doesn't take any further damage, it should be good as new within a few weeks."
Hayley's heartbeat was still in her throat as the nurse placed Barrett's Pokéball on a cart to be wheeled into the back room. Her own Pokémon had been injured, and she hadn't even known.
But then, how could she have known? She hadn't released him since the battle yesterday. She hadn't wanted to face him.
She was, maybe, a little bit scared of him.
But that wouldn't work. She couldn't hide from her own Pokémon. Whatever he did, they'd both have to face it and work through it together. She resolved to start keeping Barrett outside of his Pokéball as much as she could…
…After they made it out of Petalburg, anyway. Right now, she still couldn't trust him not to go lighting someone's garden on fire.
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As the bus rattled on, the paved main road gradually gave way to gravel and then to dirt, and the clusters of trees and buildings disappeared into bright sunlight, a wide blue sky, and a wind-swept open plain. At the trailhead, the air was tangy with salt, and to the east, the sapphire waters of the ocean glittered under the sun. Hayley loved this route; she'd been bussed over the main road many times on the way to soccer games or camping trips, and the sight of it always meant she was on her way to something exciting.
And now, finally, she would walk the route as a trainer.
Buoyed by the sight ahead of her, she tossed her Pokéball into the air, materializing the Magby on the ground in the usual burst of white light. His left arm was in a small cast and hung from a sling suspended around his neck, but he hardly seemed bothered by it as he craned his neck around, sniffing the air of his new surroundings. The nurse had cleared him for light battling, as long as he didn't try to use the arm. The cast was strong and should be able to absorb damage from low-level Pokémon safely—as long as those Pokémon weren't heavy hitters like rock- or steel-types. The break would have to heal before she could challenge Roxanne.
"That's your Pokémon?" Miriam squatted down to take a look at Barrett, pulling the brim of her hat lower against the sun. "Where'd you get it?"
"GTS." Hayley was pleasantly surprised that Miriam had asked her about Barrett at all; it was the first time she'd seen her do more than grunt at the subject of Pokémon. "Barrett, this is Miriam. We're going to be traveling together, okay?"
Barrett squinted his eyes and looked between the faces of the two girls. Hayley gave him a small smile; Miriam just scowled back at him. Finally he huffed, dislodging a few embers that thankfully did no more than fizzle out on the lush green grass, and toddled off to explore the area.
Well, he hadn't attacked her. That was progress. "What do you think?" she asked Miriam.
"Better than the dumb Pokémon they have around here, anyway," Miriam said, before catching herself and letting her face fall back into an impassive frown. She pushed herself back up with a grunt, swaying under the weight of her backpack.
"Are you going to let yours out?"
"Nope." And that was the end of that.
Hayley let the subject drop and rushed after Barrett, who had busied himself with a pebble on the side of the road. He looked up as he heard her approach, but quickly returned to his pebble when she knelt down to talk to him.
"Do you like it out here?" No response; he was ignoring her. So they were back to that. "I like it out here," she continued, as though she might bring him around through sheer persistence. "Um... I like looking at the ocean. I guess you don't like the ocean much, though, since you're a fire-type?"
Barrett turned the pebble over in his hand, inhaled, and shot a small stream of embers at it. They bounced off the surface, blackening the grey surface with soot and making it glow a soft red from the heat. Apparently pleased with his work, Barrett dropped the stone and trotted off to find something else to occupy his attention. Hayley sighed. Okay, there would be time for bonding later.
She headed off in the direction of the forest, keeping a close eye on Barrett as she did. At first she was worried that he'd run away from her, now that he finally had the chance to break free. But while he didn't exactly keep at her heels, he didn't stray too far; he seemed as drawn as she was to the looming forest and the patches of tall grass before it.
They had been on the route for maybe twenty minutes when Miriam started complaining again.
"Ugh, it's hot."
"My feet hurt."
"It's too bright. I can't see anything."
"This is boring."
"Ugh, it's so hot. I'm gonna die." She punctuated the last one with a woeful moan, clutching the sides of her sunhat. Hayley sighed.
"Fine, do you want to stop for a while…?" The words had barely left her mouth before Miriam plopped down on the ground, swigging deeply from the water bottle lassoed to the side of her backpack. Hayley suppressed an eye roll and instead scanned the surrounding area for Barrett, who was suddenly out of sight. She'd only taken her eyes off of him for a second; where could he have—
She got her answer when a Zigzagoon came yelping out of a patch of knee-high grass. Its eyes were the size of saucers, and the fur on its tail was charred and smoldering. It was barreling straight towards her, but pivoted nimbly at the last moment to avoid her legs, dashing to her right. Barrett emerged behind it in hot pursuit, far less graceful on his two chubby legs, but still determined not to lose his target. He spat another clump of embers; they sailed above the head of the Zigzagoon, but caused it to freeze and cringe. While it was stunned, he closed in, raising his good arm for a karate chop to the face.
And to think, Hayley had been worried that her first Pokémon wouldn't be a strong fighter. This was only the second time she'd seen Barrett fight, but he was clearly born for it, throwing himself into his attacks with a frightening intensity. If she could just get him to listen to her, they'd be able to blaze through the gym circuit with no problem—
A frightened squeal brought her back to the present, and she glanced down to see the Zigzagoon cowering, paws over its face. Barrett leaned over it, inhaling deeply. Hayley realized with a sick jolt that he was about to do the same thing to the Zigzagoon as he'd done to Howie's Aron. "Barrett! Stop that!" she shouted. He ignored her, wisps of flame blooming at his mouth. Frantically, she fumbled for her Pokéball, unclipping it from her waist and aiming just as the stream of fire hit the Zigzagoon in the face. She pressed the button, and he was recalled into a beam of red light, leaving the Zigzagoon to yelp and roll around on the grass to extinguish the flames.
Guiltily, Hayley crept up towards the Zigzagoon, drawing a potion from her bag. "Hey," she said, making it snap to attention. It saw her and flattened its ears against its head, crouching low to the ground with a whine. A patch of fur on the left side of its face was charred black, but she couldn't tell if it had burned through to the skin or not. "I'm sorry about that. I can help you—" But as she reached out her hand, the Zigzagoon sprang to its feet and, with a jump and a twist, it bounded off back into the tall grass before she could even blink.
Hayley watched it go, and then turned her attention back to the Pokéball in her hands. It was several minutes before she came to a decision. Slowly, she lobbed the ball to the ground in a gentle arc, revealing a stormy-faced Barrett. His good arm was crossed over his bad one on his chest, and sparks leapt around his beak as he gave a soft growl. She knelt down to his level, though she kept her legs tensed in case she had to jump back to avoid a barrage of embers.
"I know you can understand me," she said. Close enough to it, anyway—Pokémon had amazing intuition, and with Barrett having passed through so many trainers before, he'd surely learned how to interpret human words and actions. Barrett grunted, huffing a small plume of smoke into her face. Her eyes and nose itched, but she stayed firm. "Barrett," she tried again, her voice harsher this time. "Listen to me. You can't keep doing that, okay?" He scoffed and turned away, kicking at the grass. Frustrated, Hayley pulled out his Pokéball in one hand and tapped the center button, enlarging it. That got his attention—he swiveled around and narrowed his eyes at the ball, hissing. "Yeah, you don't want to go back in here, do you?" she said, a goading note seeping into her words. Now he was listening. "You know I can call you back any time I want. And the next time you ignore me when I tell you to stop fighting, I'll put you back in here and won't let you out for a week."
His eyes widened momentarily, but he quickly turned away, letting out a huff. Hayley pushed again. "We'll be all the way in the next town before you see daylight again. Is that what you want?" At that, he growled again and pivoted, lunging at the ball. She hopped out of the way and lifted her arm, holding it out of his reach. "No attacking me, either." He swiped fruitlessly at her arm, but she moved her finger towards the button again, and he froze. They stared each other down, Hayley giving a glower that could match Miriam's best. Finally, Barrett broke eye contact and turned away, spitting a clump of embers on the ground. He plodded off in the other direction, his back stiff and his eyes still stealing glances at the Pokéball over his shoulder. Hayley waited until he was a good distance away before letting out her breath and sagging onto the ground.
This wasn't she wanted their relationship would be like. But they had to start somewhere, and he apparently wouldn't listen to anything except threat. She hoped he'd come around and she wouldn't be forced to deliver on her threat—in no small part because it might not even be possible to deliver on her threat if Miriam kept refusing to release her Pokémon. They were bound to need protection from wild Pokémon once they were in the forest.
Hayley pushed herself up again and returned to Miriam, expecting to receive some kind of judgment from her, but Miriam was engrossed in her game again. She didn't even look up until Hayley cleared her throat.
"Ugh. Are we going again?"
"Yeah. Come on, at least it'll be shady once we hit the forest."
Maybe if she kept trying, she'd find a way to get Miriam to listen to her too.
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Unfortunately, Miriam's low endurance meant they had to stop several more times throughout the day. It didn't help that Miriam wasn't even wearing hiking boots, which Hayley had failed to notice before. She was wearing thin-soled canvas sneakers—no wonder her feet hurt! Hayley attempted to gently point this out, but Miriam just scoffed and said that she was not going to spend money on 'fancy jock shoes' when there was a new Gameboy handheld being released in a few weeks. She was set on her priorities and there was no changing her mind.
By the time the sun was setting, they'd only made it halfway across the route. Hayley had taken them on a roundabout path to avoid running into other trainers—she didn't want another incident like there had been with Howie and Mona. As a result, the forest still loomed far off in the distance. At least Miriam had grown tired enough that she'd stopped whining, only giving occasional grunts and grumbles when they had to walk over small hills or cross through patches of tall grass. Hayley mostly ignored her in favor of keeping an eye on Barrett. He'd fought maybe a dozen more Pokémon since the Zigzagoon, but he hadn't tried to bring any more of them to a brutal end (well, there was one Wurmple he'd tried to burn to a crisp when he thought she hadn't been looking, but a yell and a threatening shake of his ball brought a stop to that soon enough). She hadn't tried commanding him in battle yet, seeing as he was doing well enough on his own. Instead, she stood back and watched him intently, trying to get a sense of his fighting style. He had three different fire techniques that she could see: aside from his cone of embers, there was his tiny, sustained, blowtorch-like flame that was probably the beginnings of a flamethrower attack, and occasionally he shot fiery gobs that burst apart on impact, which could have been the start of flame burst. He wouldn't master either move without a lot more practice and experience, but it was exciting to see that he knew the basic technique behind them. Once his body caught up with him, he'd be a skillful and versatile fighter.
They built a small fire pit and set up their tents for the night—"they", of course, meaning that Hayley did all the work while Miriam ignored her to play her game. She didn't mind too much, since Miriam would probably do it wrong and slow her down anyway, but it would've been nice for her to at least offer. She arranged the sticks carefully inside the fire pit and instructed Barrett to light them. He gave her a sideways glance, probably suspicious that he was being asked to start a fire for once, but quickly acquiesced and blew a mouthful of embers onto the pile. The embers caught, and the fire burned to life, crackling healthily.
They had a small, quiet meal of energy bars and dehydrated noodles boiled in water from a nearby stream. The night was clear, and the stars shone as they came out one by one. After finishing her food, Hayley laid on her back and stared at the sky, fiddling with Connie's bracelet around her wrist. As far as first days went, it hadn't been that bad. Barrett was still disturbingly violent, and Miriam was still annoying, but Hayley was still alive and not bleeding out on the middle of the route, so—it could be worse.
When she felt her eyelids starting to droop, she got back to her feet and gathered up her things to head into her tent for the night. Barrett was sitting on one of the stones circling the now-dying fire, watching the embers intently. He made a small noise of protest when she scooped up a shovelful of dirt and dumped it into the pit, extinguishing the fire. "Sorry," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "It was a good fire, but it's not safe to leave it going all night."
Speaking of things that she couldn't leave unsupervised… Hayley drew Barrett's Pokéball from her belt and clicked the button to enlarge it. She aimed it at Barrett, who grunted and hopped off his rock, narrowing his eyes. "Sorry," she said. "I'm not punishing you, but I can't leave you out all night. You might start a fire." He grumbled and huffed, still glaring. "You spit out embers when you breathe. It's not safe."
His scowl deepened, and he turned his back on her. Hayley bit her lip. She hadn't promised not to put him in his ball ever again except as punishment, but maybe that was how he had taken it? But she couldn't just leave him. She might wake up in the morning to burning tents and a pile of charred Wurmple and Zigzagoon corpses and Barrett all the way in Petalburg Woods. "Sorry," she said again. "Once I can be sure you won't do anything bad, I'll let you stay out overnight. Until then—I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
Her last glimpse of him before the red light enveloped him was his curled lip and angry, squinting eyes. She winced. Hopefully she hadn't just lost the tiny bit of progress they'd made.
Well, it was a problem for tomorrow.
She thought she would have a hard time falling asleep, but the stress of the day had taken its toll on her, and as soon as she crawled into her sleeping bag, she fell into a deep sleep.