The weather is reasonably nice for this late in October. The leaves of deciduous trees are mostly colorful. A standard spread of wildlife is around, occasionally fleeing upon noticing her.

Good.

Mal, meanwhile, is not having a particularly good time.

At the pet funeral, a day prior...

The argument between the two girls with friendship bracelets was getting louder, if not more comprehensible. The students complaining about their math test had started a game of catch with pieces of charcoal from the bag. Someone in a clip-on tie moved the marshmallows to the punch bowl, further from the game. Tess was trapped in conversation with Ava, although the awkward guy in the button-down had just made his escape.

Parties, ugh.

She talks to a few people she knows, hanging on the edges, but mostly people watches.

Bored people begin to congregate around the punch bowl, in a way that indicates that they at least hope it's alcoholic. One of the students interrupts the game of charcoal catch in order to demonstrate her ability to juggle the four pieces that have just been thrown to her.

The guy in the button-down looks around, then sighs and walks up to the girls in friendship bracelets. He says something while shaking their hands, probably an introduction, and they respond and then glare at him until he leaves.

Drama, ugh. She should've brought her textbook.

The button-down guy scans the crowd, and then walks over to Mal, giving a wide berth to the game of catch.

He offers her a hand, and says "Hello, I'm Harold Goodman."

She doesn't shake it. "Haven't seen you before," she says.

He winces and lets his hand fall. "Someone emailed my church that there was a funeral at this time and place, and didn't mention it was for a mouse. It was my turn so I'm supposed to wander around and introduce myself to people and tell them about us if they're willing?"

"Yeah sorry about that, Ava was really upset and then someone decided to I guess be mean to her and make a bigger deal of stuff. And, uh, not really interested in the spiel, sorry."

"That's fine, I just want to be able to say I tried. I'm not going to try very hard to talk to people, especially at this event. Charitably, whoever it was could have been confused? But yeah that seems like a really crummy thing to do to someone."

"Yup. I might try talking to her a bit once Tess wanders off? See if she needs anything."

It's really sad when Mal might be the best at social out of her close friends. Really, really sad.

He smiles. "That's nice of you. Good luck! I tried, but she didn't want to talk to me much, understandably."

"Yeah. Thanks." She'll try a sort of awkward smile.

He returns it, with similar awkwardness. "Well, I should probably go back to mingling and halfheartedly proselytizing. Good luck, and I hope you have a nice weekend. It was nice to meet you, Miss–"

"Uh, Mal. Have a nice weekend too, good meeting you, sorry about the whole thingy."

"Thanks! I guess it beats everyone being annoyed with me at an actual funeral? Bye!"

He gives a little wave, and wanders off toward the group by the punch bowl, where someone is attracting a crowd by showing off the ability to hold three marshmallows in a horizontal line in his mouth.

Wave.

And, yup. College students.

She'll meander over to Ava to awkwardly attempt comfort. It's not one of her skills.

(Of course, Ava's leaving when she does, which at least cuts the guaranteed awkward conversation short.)

Ava seems much more upbeat. She keeps walking, but waves and says "Hey Mal!"

"Hey! Just wanted to check you were doing alright?"

"I'm doing kinda okay now? I'm putting Zebra in the fridge for now; your friend Tess is going to take me to bury him in the forest on Sunday, because I couldn't get him on fire enough to cremate."

"That's good. I can figure out transportation, Tess doesn't have her own car, but she knows the woods well."

"Oh, cool! Thanks, I hadn't actually thought about transportation."

"People don't seem to! I'm the sensible one in our dorm, apparently."