Renz got to his feet. He exited the house and went into the front yard, blushing slightly, but quickly stopping himself. The way Gaeboo had worded that had flustered him. He quickly forgot this, however, when he saw his mom walking up the road. He waved to her, and as soon as she caught sight of him she rushed forward and hugged him. Her voice was muffled as she spoke.
"Renz... I've been so worried about you..."
"Mom, I'm fine."
“How was I supposed to know that? You didn’t answer any phone calls for a month!”
“Mom, I already told you, on my adventure we got stuck somewhere for a few hours. Once we got out it turned out a whole month had gone by.”
His mom was silent for a moment, still hugging him. Then she let go and stepped back, faint traces of tears in her eyes.
“Tell me what happened since you last checked in. No, don’t worry about me. I know you’re safe now.”
With some slight hesitation, Renz began to give a breif account of the last few days... I mean month... from first meeting up with the group to the events leading up to and of the VR, and how they had wound up here. Of course, the story was slightly twisted, but that was to be expected. Renz also answered a few questions from his mother. After a moment Renz gave a yawn.
“Mom, I gotta get some sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. G’night.”
Terisa almost tried to stop him, but forced herself to stop. She smiled back, waved, and walked towards the Pokémon Center.
***************
Once inside, Renz left the couch/pullout bed for Kathren, and began arranging a bed nearby. He pulled out the blanket from his bag, folded it so it would be half under and half over when he laid down, and set his bag down for a pillow. He climbed into the makeshift bed, and tried to fall asleep. It took a few minutes, but he was already pretty tired so within 10 minutes he was fast asleep.