...Something about this is starting to seem mildly hinky. Tess shrugs, though.

"Hm, what's your sister's name? Maybe her roommate's talked about her?"

"Vanessa! I know I got the number right, though. I wanna pet him! Is he as soft as he looks?"

Ava frowns, but opens the lid of the tank and scoops out the rat. "That doesn't ring any bells, but I'll ask her. What should I do if it's not her, though? Do you also want to pet him, Tess?"

"Sure! He's cute. And, um, maybe get contact info so you can let them know? That they had the wrong address. ...This's getting a bit complicated."

The kid nods. "Yeah I'll make fun of her so long if she gave me the wrong number, but you could just keep the cookies."

 Ava holds out the rat to Tess, angled so that the kid can see, and demonstrates proper petting technique.

Pet pet pet.

The rat is smooth and squishy. He closes his eyes and leans into her fingers.

Eeee soft animals are the best.

Ava smiles at her. After a bit, she gives the kid a chance to cautiously pet him, then gives him a seed and puts him back in the tank, wipes her hand with a tissue, and gives them each a blob of hand sanitizer.

Tess cleans her hands, then, "So you been doing okay, Ava?"

She nods. "Yeah. Classes are okay, and it was a rough few days with Zebra but he's started eating again and I'll get him checked out this weekend."

"Good!" Pause. "Um, anything else?"

"I found a decent triangle matcher game? It's fun even though I'm really bad at it. And I saw a cool pigeon the other day, with a shiny neck."

"Neat! Pigeons are funky little guys. So, um, what I was trying to get at is I'm guessing kid probably needs to be getting home?"

The kid nods.

Ava looks vaguely relieved. "Oh! Okay, yeah. Thanks for the cookies for either me or my roommate! And have a nice day. Are you okay with escorting her back out or should I?"

"I can!"

"Thanks! See you around!"

The kid follows Tess out.

"See you!" Then, to kid, "Do you want me to walk you home? I'm not really doing anything right now. Oh - also I realized we forgot contact information, what's your sister's number? I can give it to Ava, then."

She frowns in concentration and recites a number. It has the right area code, at least.

"Okay! I'm going to go tell Ava that, since we haven't gotten far - " They are in fact right outside her door - "So I don't forget." And she does.

Ava dutifully writes the number down on the back of a scrap of paper.

Good! And back out.

"So, anyways, walk home?"

The kid thinks for a bit, then shakes her head. "Nah, I can find it from the front of the building."

She follows, a little less bouncily than on the way there.

"Okay!" And to the front. (Tess thinks maybe letting a kid walk home alone is Not Done, but like kid got here okay, Tess was walking alone everywhere at that age, and insisting'd be creepy, so it's probably fine.)

The kid waves vigorously and smiles as she walks away.