"Democracy proper is a bit out of fashion these days. Elected officials are not quite the will of the citizens personified. Not that Plato would much care, he was always a bit of a shill for monarchy. Philosopher-kings and their special souls and all that."

"I think Solvei Koskin, Philosopher Empress has a nice ring to it," she says, laughing. "All right, all right, I'll stop joking about world conquest."

"What would your policies on gay marriage be? An all-volunteer military? Gun ownership?"

"Could we skip politics and empires and talk about sports or music?"

"Gay marriage and polygamy, to give myself a maximally broad selection of imperial consorts, obviously. Sorry, Danny, I was irresistibly provoked. Music!"

"I bet. Music."

Matt is really not laughing, that would just be mean to Danny.

He's not!

"Music! I'll go first, if no one else is. I love classic rock and jazz, but really maudlin pop ballads are my weakness."

"Classic rock is a noble art but I confess to a thing for Fall Out Boy. Apart from that my taste runs mainly to medieval Thulian folk music, which is all about cheerful topics like adultery and freezing to death. Sometimes both at once!"

"I wouldn't mind being introduced to some Thulian folk music, though I probably prefer freezing to death to adultery."

"If you want a link to my 8tracks playlist, you can enjoy Fall Out Boy, Panic! and Marina. Unlike Allison, my secret shame is on the Internet for everyone to see."

"I'd be charmed," says Solvei. "And that's funny, Danny, most people have the opposite preference."

"We were talking about music. Anyway, who needs adultery when you'd have to go to the freezing tundra up north to get married anyway?"

Had anybody remembered Lydia was still sitting with them?

She stands up and leaves.

"I hear they have it in Canada too," she says innocently. "Bye, Lydia."

"I should go make sure she's alright. Nice meeting you, Solvei, Matt."

"We should probably all get going to class. Nice to meet you, Solvei. Hope you have a good day!"

"Til next we meet, Ms. Koskin."

And she's free to find her next class.

Aww. So charming.

What's she got after lunch? She has Chemistry! To Chemistry.

There's Lydia, looking ready to take notes and not vacant or distant or confused at all.

Hooray! Solvei is not much of a note-taker, but she has her learning face on.

There are safe experiments and bad puns.

Lydia rolls her eyes quite a bit, and doesn't particularly look Solvei's way.

Bad puns! Her favourite!

Time for her next class!

When she arrives, Danny is already sitting near the front.

Then she can sit near Danny for History!