"See you!"

And predictably enough, she is at school the next day.

Calculus today is no different from calculus yesterday.

It's not a very group exercise sort of class, which seems to suit Paranoid Friend just fine. 

Solvei has no objections to an individually focused learning environment. And calculus is fun!

The teacher seems to agree, and her classmates seem at least somewhat interested. 

And when she sees fit to attend her next class, there will be another familiar face.

Is that enough friends yet? 

No. But it's a very good start.

She smiles at Matt.

Today the class is finally moving on from the Great Gatsby, to the apparent relief of most of the students.

Next is Antigone, followed by the Grapes of Wrath, and they'll be closing out the year with Shakespeare. 

The class can vote on which of his plays they'll be reading. 

What fun! Solvei goes for Hamlet.

Matt casts the only vote for Troilus and Cressida. 

Erica voices her support for Macbeth.

The majority wins, and Hamlet is the play of choice. 

For now, though, Antigone. 

Antigone! 

Of course, they start with the historical context first, which bores most of the class.

Matt certainly doesn't say anything about these philistines and their pathetic failure to appreciate classics.  

His silence practically rings.

Solvei enjoys the historical context very much. And after class, she catches up with Matt and asks, "Troilus and Cressida, huh?"

"Doomed love and Greek tragedy. Have I been subtle about what I like?"

"No, I can't say that you have. I admit I haven't read that one, though. Should I? Tell me of its virtues."

"Cressida and Troilus fall in love, and when she's taken as a prisoner of war, he finds her in a tent with another man. He decides to get revenge. Meanwhile, Agammenon tries to get Achilles to fight for the Greeks, but it takes the death of Patrocles to motivate him. The play ends before the war does, when the Trojans grieve their best fighter, son of their king and queen. Best enjoyed as part of a triptych, with Hamlet and Titus Andronicus. Revenge plays were Shakespeare's favorite genre to pastiche."

"Sounds like fun."

"Hamlet will be plenty of fun, don't get me wrong, but I don't know, if you're going to be genre savvy, at least be in the right genre." 

He takes a seat near the window when they get to Econ.

Solvei sits near him. "I thought Hamlet's entire problem was that he was genre savvy for the right genre and then his author went and wrote a deconstruction on him?"

"Some people have put it that way. I think it's more complicated than that, and it really comes out if you look at his other revenge plots. In Troilus and Cressida, you have an entire war being motivated by revenge for or on their dead or adulterous lovers. And in Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare only mimics and doesn't parody or satirize the contemporary genre. It's just bloody and awful, there's not much analysis."

"Hmm, I think I see what you mean. I'll have to read those two and see for myself."

Matt attempts to focus on Econ. 

Attempt mostly succeeds. 

Solvei is very successful at focusing on Econ once she actually tries!

Well, she is kind of distracting. 

Econ ends soon enough, with no one having learned anything useful.

Off to music with her.

She is good at music. You'd have to look pretty hard to find a better cellist. The teacher will no doubt be pleased.