Percy crashed through the door to his and Henry’s room. After a whole day of nothing but aimless wandering around the grounds, they were understandably beat.

 

He fell into his bed, already made up with a nice white sheet and a beautiful blue blanket. “Satisfy your inner tourist, Maniac?”

 

Henry removed his shoes and left them by the door. He took in the space to be his room for the next year. It was complete with two twin beds on either side, separated by a circular rug bearing the University Emblem. Ahead of that was a small bookshelf, where it appeared Percy managed to stuff about half of his babies into the actual shelves, leaving the rest to sit in piles up top.

 

“Come on, we barely even scratched the surface of everything to see on Campus. Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

 

“Hate to burst your Bubblebeam,” Percy groaned, slowly worming his way out of his jacket, “But tomorrow starts Forge Week, and as part of my master plan, you and I are not to dally for even a minute.”

 

Henry plopped into his bed. He admired the elegant carvings dressing the ceiling, though he knew not what they were supposed to be. “Hey…Can I ask you something?”

 

“Is it going to be loud? Because it’s after eight.”

 

Henry lowered his voice to a whisper. “I’ll just ask it really, really quietly.”

 

“What?” Percy boomed, “Speak up, I can’t hear you.”

 

Henry chuckled. Percy was going to be a fun roommate, he could already tell. But he wondered if he would be an insightful one. “What’s your star?”

 

“My what?”

 

“You know—like, your goal. The reason why you’re here.”

 

“Oh.” Percy cozied up to his pillow, ready to fall asleep still wearing the shirt and pants he sweated all day in. “Why, to be the very best, of course~”

 

“Like no one ever was?”

 

“Precisely.”

 

To be the best. The best at what?

 

Percy let out a grunt as he forced himself from his mattress-paradise. He rummaged through the spines on his bookshelf and yanked a brown leatherbound from the collection. He gave the cover a few swipes.

“I can still see Miss Heavy-Foot’s shoe print,” he spat with all the venom of an Ekans. “But, my ‘star’ if that’s what you prefer to call it, is this.”

 

Henry squinted hard at the words scribed onto the cover, though it was proving difficult in the dark of their room. Percy groaned and hopped from his side of the room to Henry’s.

 

“You look with your eyes, in case you’re having trouble with that.”

 

Henry took the book into his own hands. A Journey Through The Unknown of The Known: A Deep Analysis of Our World’s Mythos. Written by Joanne Foster. It was the book from the hallway incident.

 

“What I want,” Percy started, “Is to explore every corner of this world–to find something yet hidden from Man and Pokémon alike. And when I do, I want to document it, down to the smallest minutiae, in a book of my own. Just like her…” Percy rubbed the author’s name. “I’ve admired this woman for years. I’m glad she got to publish this…her finest work. And I promised my grandmother I’d do the same. You know—before she croaks it.”

 

Henry shot a look at Percy, surprised he could speak so casually about such personal feelings.

 

“What? GramGram’s old as dirt. I’m not delusional enough to believe I’ve got much time left with her. That’s why I have to finish this path as optimally as possible. If all plays out according to me, then I can do it. At the very least, thinking that has gotten me this far…”

Percy snatched the book back and cradled it against his chest. “So what about you, Hypno? You pried into me so let’s pry into you.”

 

Henry turned his gaze to the stars shining high outside his window. Were any of them to be for him, just a boy from the farm? “I guess…getting here was my only real goal…I don’t really know what I want to do next. I know I would like to do all of it…but I’m sure that’s not what Ms.Marianna had planned for me…”

 

“That being?”

 

“She was my librarian–back in Tinton. It’s thanks to her I’m even here, let alone educated enough to have the choice.”

 

Rather than rotting as a dumb little farm boy in the fields. Unlike all of them, Henry had a choice. And he had a choice because somebody out there cared enough to give him one.

 

Percy sighed. “Alright, I see where this is going. So you remembered the stupid star thing, but you didn’t remember the main takeaway from that whole spiel, is that right?” He shot up to his feet and jammed a decisive finger between Henry’s eyes. “The Director said this is your path, not anybody else's. Whoever helped you get this far–good on them. But you’re here now. So what are you going to do, Henry Galileo?”

 

Joanne’s book went back into the opening left by it and Percy returned to his bed. He turned over and spoke to Henry from the wall. “Just think about that while you’re getting your essential eight hours tonight.” A yawn escaped him. “Then tomorrow, make it a reality. I’ll…help…I gue…” 

 

And he was out.

 

And that left Henry. Him, and the stars above him. He reached up for one, gleaming the brightest amongst those he could see. And when he pulled his hand back, it was still there.

 

How does one grab hold of the stars anyway?