A slightly frazzled-looking woman asks the boy with the dog a question, too quietly to hear from there, then starts speed-walking toward a student near the person feeding the squirrels.

Huh. Wonder what's up with her.

Who knows? After a brief conversation, the student points to a guy doing skateboard tricks nearby. Frazzled-lady waves and walks over to the skateboarder, and holds out a hand for and recieves a high five as he goes past. She looks at her phone again, and wanders off toward the benches, seeming much more cheerful.

Mal will continue people watching. Frazzled lady is at least more interesting than the textbook.

She sits and reads her phone and bounces her leg, occasionally glancing up at the people nearby. The skateboarder starts to perform quicker and more elaborate jumps, taking him closer to the squirrel-feeding person. Some of the spinning leaps are really quite impressive.

That's interesting!

She nudges Tess in case the other girl wants to watch.

Zoom! He jumps into the air, flipping the board end-to-end and top-to-bottom-to-top, landing on it perfectly, then takes it into a tight circle and picks up more speed to repeat the trick. A few people take out cell-phones to catch a video of it.

The dog barks at a nearby person and the squirrel flinches, grabs another fry, and bolts away, onto the sidewalk. The critter bumps into the front of the skateboard as it flips, and only one of the skateboarder's feet lands on it, and at an odd angle. There's an unpleasant and loud cracking sound as his head hits the corner of a bench.

What the fuck.

She starts dialing 911. She is not trained in medicine. (She kicks Tess, who has at least taken 'emergency first aid' classes, awake). 

The call to 911 is placed as Tess runs up to the injured dude. Mal goes to help corral bystanders.

At least one other person here might also be calling 911, but it's hard to tell. Bystanders are very freaked out! Dog boy and attending dog, a shaky squirrel person, and various people with phones are among them.

Medical training and 911 operator concur that nobody should try to move the skateboarder or remove the bench from its place in his skull. An ambulance is on its way.

She and Tess will remain on the scene, Tess trying to help calm down people. 

Luckily they're kinda right next to the hospital. Unluckily Corner traffic is terrible.

The student who pointed out the skateboarder earlier, who had been among those filming offers to take the other bystanders out to coffee after this is over, on the grounds that this all is super upsetting.

The sirens help, at least some, and an ambulance eventually gets there. The EMTs aren't optimistic, but load the skateboarder up and thank Tess for her response.

Mal and Tess will accept that coffee offer, Mal more shakily.

Coffee-offer person, who turns out to be named Ava, walks the group of coffee-acceptors to Grit Coffee on the Corner. Ava wants to talk about anything and everything but what just happened, at great speed and pitch, but low volume and enunciation.

Tess gets something light, with lots of sugar, plus a pastry, while Mal gets her coffee black and bold.

Tess is perfectly fine talking about anything else! What's a good neutral subject... Oh, that new movie theatre, the Alamo Drafthouse. She hasn't been yet, but she's heard good things.

Ava also hasn't been yet but she really wants to once she's a little more used to the school year, she's heard it's good too, but her friend's cousin went one time and said the person in the row behind them spilled - something mumbled - and it got all over but it's not really fair to blame the theater for that right? She's not sure if she wants to see Storks, there have been trailers and they don't look that great but it's a really neat concept other than that and also is the theater even going to show it, they might have a chance to go of - are classes going to be cancelled about - oh probably not never mind aaa- what majors are they all she's General but it's her first year she thinks she wants to do Business maybe?

She's still undeclared, but looking at Environmental Sciences. Maybe with a minor in Biology. Her friend Mal (who is mostly being quiet) is on track for a double major, Physics and Math.

Ava thinks that's cool but also involves way too much math and possibly dissecting stuff for her,  and wishes them luck. She seems to have run out of things to say, and starts quickly drinking her previously-neglected coffee (mocha with whipped cream and ludicrously many extra shots of espresso).

Tess will try to keep up the conversation, chatting about this or that, but it will probably lapse into Awkwardness after a bit.

Ava finishes her coffee, then asks to exchange contact information with everyone who came for coffee, to save time if any of them become friends later. A few people refuse on the grounds that it's weird.

Tess is fine with exchanging contact info! (Mal gives her school email, but not her phone or personal email). 

Ava sends confirmation messages to both addresses, then disperses homeward with the rest of the group.

"Well, that was... Something." Tess says shakily, draining her coffee. "...I don't think I'm in the mood to hang out much, now. Maybe head back to Brown?"

"Yeah. Hey, you mentioned earlier you've never seen Xena, maybe we could watch it together. My computer screen's big enough."

Tess agrees, and they finish up and head back to their dorm.

The night passes otherwise uneventfully.

The next day they split up for classes. All anyone seems inclined to talk about is the skateboarder. Tess is consequentially much more withdrawn than usual.

(She'll hit the gym after classes. She needs to blow off some steam.)

The skateboarder is definitely dead, everyone agrees about that. It's very interesting, in a morbid way, to a lot of people, especially the ones who weren't there!

People at the gym are at least much less talkative.

She doesn't scream at the gossipers. It's slightly an effort.

The quiet gym's something, at least. She puts in her earbuds, blasts music, a traditional sign of 'no I don't want to talk.'

She goes for a walk around grounds afterwards, partially to cool down, partially to just. Quiet her head. She still has headphones in.

The frazzled lady from yesterday passes her along Jefferson, frowning at her phone, although Tess might not recognize her.

Yeah, she was dozing when frazzled lady caught Mal's attention. She didn't catch the faces of everyone in the crowd; she only recognizes frazzled lady in a familiar face kinda way.

She continues on toward the hospital, muttering something under her breath.

Tess ambles along behind her for a bit, intending to turn off at Wilson.

The lady continues grumpily toward the hospital.

She continues her walk along the shaded brick pathway on the outside of the Lawn rooms... Which lead her right to the same grassy hill as yesterday. She stops when she sees it, freezing slightly.

A few other people are scattered nearby, some relaxed and some similarly upset-looking.

Yeah. She. Doesn't want to handle this right now.

She shakes herself out of the memory, turns, and walks briskly back towards her dorm.

Nothing particularly unusual happens that afternoon or night.

That night - 

"Hey. I was thinking, and something was... weird about what happened. Like, freaky coincidences. That skateboarder wasn't showing that level of skill before, and maybe he decided to show off for that woman or something, but... weird. The squirrel also darted out at him at exactly the wrong moment."

"Not everything's a conspiracy, Mal. Sometimes bad luck's all there is to it," Tess says, tired. Mal tries to say something, but she cuts her off with, "I'm going to sleep, okay? Today's been long."

Mal nods and lets her.

(The next morning there's an email from the university president, announcing the skateboarder's death, offering counseling to any students affected, we will miss him, etcetera. Tess deletes it.)

Classes and homework continue to happen, until eventually it is the weekend.

She needs something happy. So she's dragging Mal downtown for window shopping, maybe hit one of the restaurants if they're hungry. It's a nice day, good for sitting outside.

Someone who might or might not be familiar leaves the gelato shop, about half a block away, holding a large cup of an orange-colored gelato and glaring at her phone. She walks forward without looking up, causing a group of shoppers to stumble into stopping it swerving in order to avoid collision.

Mal recognises her belatedly. "That's the same lady from earlier. Wow, she's not paying any attention at all, is she..."

She pauses in glaring at her phone long enough to glare back at the group of shoppers, then rolls her eyes and turns to walk toward 3rd.

"Wonder what her problem is."

It's hard to tell, but maybe she thinks it will be helped by going into a juice and smoothies shop. Stumbling on the first step to the door probably didn't help with her mood, though.

Eh. Not really her concern. She turns away back to Mal, rolling her eyes when she sees the other girl still focused on the strange woman.

"Wonder why she went from gelato to smoothies? That's... Weird," Mal mutters.

It is a rather warm day, although probably not warm enough that most people would want to have two icy foods at once.

Eh, whatever, back to finding a place for lunch. (This brings them past the smoothie shop; Mal can't help glancing in the window.)

It's hard to see through the window, what with the signage and reflections of the bright daylight, but she can sneak a look as someone else walks through the door. The lady doesn't seem to either have a drink or be in line for one. She's standing and talking to someone sitting at a table.

Huh. Maybe a friend of hers?

They're both smiling, and a third woman joins them, carrying two smoothies. The door swings shut, so it's hard to see, but it looks like she just clapped the newcomer on her shoulder.

Eh, well. Onto food.

There's a burger bar just there, with an outdoor patio even. Mal drags Tess over to check the menu, confirms that yes they have Tess Food, then they go in, reemerging to the patio soon enough.

The food is tasty, and the weather is pleasant!

It's not too loud, although they can still hear people walking by and talking, and a few birds chirping, and a siren off in the distance.

Sirens aren't too common out here. Did something happen?

The siren's getting closer, but there's no other indication of what's going on.

Huh.

Well, she'll eat, and wait to see if it's coming here.

Well, it stops here-ish. It sounds like it's parked about a block away? But there sure are uniformed people rushing from the parking lot over there toward the smoothie shop.

...Where the woman was. 

That's kinda a freaky coincidence.

... and a few minutes later, there go the uniformed people again, this time carrying someone out.

Can she identify the person from here? (Tess kicks her under the table for being 'too nosy'. Mal keeps rubbernecking anyways).

It's hard to see from here. Long hair, probably a woman. No injuries obvious from here.

Huh.

Well, she'll watch until the ambulance pulls away, then go back to eating.

People disperse. The weather and food are still nice.

They finish up and head back to their dorm, moods down.

They make it back in peace, and have plenty of time for calming recreational activities, such as homework.

Mal gets her homework done pretty fast, then helps Tess with hers some, then the next day, before class, idly browses to see if there's any news or at least gossip about yesterday. (She's nosy, she can't help it.)

The dorm email has a chain about what happened; apparently someone knew someone who knew the lady who died. Apparently a food allergy? There's a picture of the dearly departed, and Mal blinks when she sees. That's one of the people from the smoothie shop, who that strange lady was talking to...

She'll... Have to wait and see if there's any strange spikes in weird deaths, maybe. Once is bad luck, twice is a coincidence, so if there's a third time...

There seem to be a fairly normal number and variety of of local deaths reported over the next week. A death or two, every few days, no given causes but probably from old age, given the differences between years of birth and death.

Ugh. She feels like she's jumping at shadows.

By the time mid-October rolls around, all the deaths reported have been of people in at least their 80s, but no causes of death are given. On Friday the 14th, the obituaries report the death of someone in his early 30s.

She's been checking the obituaries on and off, more off than on as time goes by. This could be something normal - people do die in car accidents and stuff - but she googles the name just in case there's something suspicious. (She doesn't know what she's expecting. A picture of the strange woman with the dead man?)

The first page just lists his name (Daryl Wells), hobbies (guitar, yoga, and building sets for model trains), and says that he is survived by his parents.

The second result is a bicyclist-protection article, claiming that the driver who hit him should have been arrested. The author interviewed several witnesses, and included a photo of the surrounding street. All the pedestrians' faces are blurred out, but one of the onlookers is wearing a brown sweater and a similar hairstyle. It could easily be the same woman, although it could conceivably be someone else.

Thaaat could be the same thing, yeah, of lady and then random bad luck leading to death.

But why, how, none of this should be possible - 

(She feels paranoid, incredibly so, like she's jumping at shadows. It's probably nothing, but - )

(She tells Tess to keep an eye out for the lady and avoid her. Tess doesn't believe her that the lady's dangerous, but agrees, if only for Mal's peace of mind.)

Aside from a shopping trip, most of the weekend is uneventful.

On Sunday night at about 11, Ava sends out a mass email asking if anyone knows if, theoretically, vets in town are required to report if people in the dorms bring pets to them, asking for an anonymous friend.

Someone accidentally Replies to All, saying probably not as long as it's a fish, and another person accidentally sends everyone a request for the hypothetical pet's name so they know who to pray for, someone else Replies to All reminding everyone that mass emails should be BCC'd and that Replying to All is bad unless it's to tell people not to do that.

She properly replies, BCC'ing everyone except Ava, that, no, vets aren't required to report. They really don't care, and having a pet in the dorm isn't actually illegal, just against school rules. She totally doesn't have personal experience with this, though.

(Her snake-baby, Samoa the sand boa, definitely isn't lurking in a desert terrarium in her window. ...She does not put that in the email.)

Ava sends back an effusive and mostly-grammatical thank-you email at 7:30 the next morning, and is either BCCing everyone else or only replying to Tess. (Mal doesn't get a copy, so it's probably the latter.) Apparently her friend's hypothetical pet's problem has cleared up enough that she's going to wait until next weekend to take it to the vet.

She sends off a quick 'you're welcome, it's good to hear hypothetical pet is doing better' and goes about her day

The weather is pleasant, and a few trees are starting to turn colors. Classes happen, as they do.

In the late afternoon, a girl who looks about eight, wearing a purple unicorn-patterned dress and stripy tights, is sitting on the ground outside the dorm's entrance, barely not obstructing the path. She plays a game on an elderly-looking smartphone, with an opaque plastic bag in her lap.

"Hello! Do you know where your parents are?" Tess says to the kid. She was fairly... independent... at that age, but most kids come with parents attached, so.

She looks up. "Yeah, I'm suppose'ta be here." She points at the bag as an explanation.

"Oh? Is the bag important?"

"Yeah. My sister and brother and me made cookies for my sister's friend that lives here and I don't have homework but they do, so I'm the one to walk it over."

"They're a very lucky friend, then." She has to think for a moment, but she's pretty sure that the nearest houses aren't too far for an eight year old to walk. "Do you want me to let you in and walk you to your sister's friend's dorm?"

"Could you? Yes please! Everyone else's been too busy so far except one group I forgot to ask 'cause I was about to lose my level." She jumps to her feet, dropping the phone into her bag.

She swipes her card and opens the door. "Which room are they in?"

"Umm... One-two-six. Which means in the bottom floor, right?"

"Yup! Hmm... I think 126 is the McGuffey portal. This's the Mallet portal, so we'll have to go through the tunnels, or we can walk around outside." The dorm consists of several three-story buildings in sets of three or four, grouped around three different courtyards. "The tunnels are pretty cool, though."

"Cool! Let's do the tunnels! Secret tunnels! Isn't that a thing everyone wants but it doesn't matter what it is because it's just there to make people do things? Mallet like a hammer portal? Why're they called that?" She follows Tess.

She leads the way, down the stairs and into the tunnel. The stairwell smells faintly like smoke and sugar, which quickly fades into a vaguely musty underground sort of smell.

"I don't think our tunnels are there to make people do things? We use them to get around the dorm when it's snowy, or if the pollen's bad, or if we just feel like it. Sometimes people play Infection in them, which is like humans versus zombies, but smaller. I think the portals are all named after people, probably people who were important to the university or donated money so the dorm could be built."

She nods to the one person they pass in the tunnels, then finds McGuffey, which is a few portals down. All of the portals have colorful murals opposite their main stairwell. 

"Cool!" She stomps and jumps as they walk, to make echoes, and walks backwards to look at the murals a little longer, and waves to the person as they pass.

"No, like, 'Maguffy', isn't that what it means? A thing that does that? But I guess there's not a rule saying people can't also be named it, probably."

"That's a MacGuffin, I think. It's a thing people are after in a story. McGuffey's a name."

"Oh okay that makes sense, thanks. Is it the same thing as 'lead on, MacGuffin'?" She walks more quietly once they're in the building proper.

"I think that quote's actually 'lead on, MacDuff'!" she hops up the stairs, then looks around for 126. "Here we are! Do you want to knock? I can if you'd rather not."

"Yeah!" She reaches up and knocks in a vaguely tango-like pattern, then backs up from the door.

After about half a minute, Ava answers the door. She looks kind of tired and stressed, but smiles when she sees Tess.

"Oh hey, Tess? And, uh, kid. Hi, come in?" She opens the door all the way to let them into a rather messy and tiny bedroom. A cage, containing a large, sleeping, black and white rat, and some cardboard and little toys, sits on top of a crowded bookshelf.

"Ava? Huh, fancy seeing you here. Kid said her sister's friend lives here, they made cookies, I'm guessing your roommate?"

"I guess so? I don't know her, or anyone who'd be sending me cookies with their sister." Ava shrugs.

The kid peers at the rat in its cage, not paying their discussion much attention.

To the kid: "Do you remember your sister's friend's name?"

"No? She probably told me but I wasn't listening. I'm pretty sure I got the number right though. What's your mouse named?"

Ava smiles. "He's actually a rat, his name is Zebra. Do you want to pet him?"

She pauses to think, then says "I guess I could take the cookies and ask my roommate whenever I see her next?"

...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.

Wave, and then back to her room.

The afternoon and evening continue as usual.

She gets her homework done, tells Mal about her day - Mal's a bit weirded out by the whole cookie incident, but she's been on way too high of an alert lately - and for once gets to bed at a reasonable hour.

On Tuesday morning, Tess and Mal are BCC'd in an email from Ava, informing that they are invited to a pet-funeral and celebration of life of a pet that definitely lived off-campus followed by a barbecue, 8 PM Friday evening at the quad. Punch, soda, marshmallows, and buns will be provided. There is an attempt at solemn HTML-styling, complete with grey-on-black cursive text and a sparkling flower header.

Awww, did something happen to Zebra? It sounds like it.

She wheedles Mal into going - they should be there for Ava, she's kinda a friend - replies (just to Ava) that they're going, and when Friday evening rolls around head over.

There are between twenty and thirty people milling around the grills, coming and going; quite a few seem to think this is just a random barbecue rather than a specific event. There's a little plastic folding table with bags of marshmallows, hotdog buns, and metal skewers, and another, further from the grills, with a large bowl of pink fluid, two giant bottles of off-brand grape soda, and a stack of plastic cups.

A group of students still wearing backpacks are sitting on the ground, complaining about a math test and eating uncooked marshmallows. One of them grabs a handful of charcoal from the bag and pops a piece into his mouth. A handful of people look like they hastily pulled black jackets or shirts on over casual clothing, and a few of them are even wearing clip-on bow-ties. Two girls wearing friendship bracelets are eating hotdog-bun s'mores and might be arguing about the ethics of animal domestication, but they keep interrupting each other, so it's hard to tell.

Ava's standing next to a grill, with a double-layered zipper bag tucked under one arm, talking to an incredibly uncomfortable looking guy wearing a button-down shirt, tie, and drawstring backpack, who nods along and clasps a little book while she talks. Her eyes are red and puffy, and she looks a little angry.

She walks over to Ava, and says quietly, "Hey."

(A fist-sized ball of aluminum foil coated with grease is visible inside the Ziplocs.)

"Hey Tess," says Ava, "Zebra died. This is, um, Harry?"

"Harold," the guy in the button-down corrects, holding out a hand, "Goodman. Nice to meet you."

Shake. "Same. Tess Lowell."

His hand is a little sweaty, but it is otherwise a good handshake. He smiles at Tess, then tries to smile at Ava. "Well. I'm going to go mingle and meet people. Have f– take care?" He half-waves, then flees at a walking pace.

She does not smile because that would be Bad, even though she's feeling really awkward and her usual reflex is smiling. Instead she kind of stands there. Awkwardly.

"How're you holding up?" she asks after a way too long moment.

Ava shrugs. "Not great. He was pretty old for a rat, but that's still really young. And some jerk invited some religious guy or something and told him it was for a person, and I was wrong about how flammable he'd be and now I need to figure out what to do instead, and everyone's like 'well at least he wasn't human' like that makes it better?"

She scowls at her bag. "But this is pretty good turnout for a funeral on short notice, and the event itself is going fine."

"That's tough. Back home we have a little pet cemetery on the property, can't really do anything like that here though, yeah."

"Yeah. Ugh. I bet nobody actually digs up weird lumps in the ground if they're not in the way or in grass? I'd need to see if Walmart has shovels even, though."

"Wild animals sometimes do, though, it's a problem we used to have back when it was too cold to dig properly if something died."

She shrugs again. "I'll figure something out. Maybe I can mail him to someone? I'll have to do something, anyway. I'll figure it out."

"Alright. I - don't have a car. Uh. I know someone who does, we go hiking, maybe we could find somewhere in the woods?" Body will still probably get dug up but it's less gross if it's in the woods, animals eating things is normal.

She brightens. "That'd be great, thanks! Assuming I haven't figured something else out by then– I probably don't have time to do anything this weekend after this evening until Sunday?"

"Sunday works for me!"

"Great! Thank you so much! I'll- go put him in the fridge for now, be back in a bit?"

"Uh, alright."

"Thanks! See you later!" Ava says, taking her bag off in the direction of the dorms.

"See you," she says, then kind of awkwardly nods her head and wanders off.

She doesn't feel like going back to the dorms quite yet, though, so she hovers between trying to stay at the - party? not really, 'gathering' might be better - and going for a walk. (Ugh, she'll have to try getting into the woods soon, being around this many people's becoming increasingly grating, and her skin's been itching lately like it doesn't fit the way it wants to).

The gathering is starting to get louder and more active, even though people have started to leave:

The girls with friendship bracelets have escalated their argument to a duel with marshmallow skewers, with buns still impaled on the ends. The one in boots stage-yells for the one with glasses to take back her words, and is laughingly refused.

Harold is watching in vague disapproval as a group, made up mostly of people in makeshift funeral clothes holding cups of punch, cheers on a freshman as he stuffs what must at least be the fourth marshmallow into his mouth.

Some students are quickly tossing pieces of charcoal back and forth; from their yelps, one or two pieces were recently in the grills.

One of the math students is refilling the nearly-empty punch bowl with the remaining bottle of soda while her friend loudly complains that it will ruin the flavor. The other bottle, empty, sits on the ground next to a full trash can.

....Yeah, nope.

She starts awkwardly sidling out.

Nobody stops her. One of the students jogs over to the trashcan, to incorporate kicking the soda bottle into the charcoal-catching game, to shouts of approval.

Yup, leaving for that walk. There's a few quiet streets she knows, ones with just enough trees to make her homesick, but it's the best she can get when her mind is jittering like this.

It is in fact quiet, and not quite too chilly for a walk to be pleasant.

She'll walk until she's exhausted, then, hoping to purge out some of this antsy feeling.

It gets the rest of the way dark, and the air grows chilly, and then cold, and her breath starts to fog.

This is nice.

She slowly meanders back.

The gathering seems to be over. There's trash on the ground, but the tables, charcoal, and food and drink supplies are gone and the grills have been closed up. Nobody else is there.

Well, she'll pick up some trash, since she doesn't really feel like going completely to bed yet, and then head up.

The trash is not unexpectedly gross, aside from a pile of partially-chewed marshmallows. Nobody interrupts her on her way.

And then sweet, glorious sleep.

(She wakes feeling even worse mentally, wanting to vanish, wanting no one to look at her or talk to her or use her damn name, she hates it right now, hates everything about her body, wants to burst out of her skin and be other.)

Fortunately, it's the beginning of the weekend, so she is free to respond to this feeling as she pleases!

Which is finding someone with a car and exercising her 'surviving in the wilderness for two days' ability.

Which is a lot easier with backpacks and ready meals and not being eight.

(She claims she's section hiking. She'll make it to the pickup place on time, but first she's going to hide in a tree and not talk to anyone for a bit.)

A short-haired aspiring search-and-rescue member with a soft voice is delighted to borrow a van to drop her off, after making sure she knows about local hazards, and has emergency numbers and list of numbers to get picked up again if she needs it.

Camping in a tree it is.

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."

"Ha. Yeah, so much stuff is close enough to just walk?"

"Yup. Or the buses go there. Assuming there's no construction." UVA is sort of a perpetual construction zone, lately. "Though hopping between lines isn't hard if you plan ahead."

"But I bet they don't go into the middle of the woods, even though there's not much construction there, so we'll need another way to get there."

"Yeah. Greyhound exists, but doesn't head into the wilderness. Pity. It'd make Tess happier if she could take off to go hike whenever."

"Most people wouldn't take it though. Do you want to come with, while I look for a Tupperware or another Ziploc?" They are indeed almost to the dorm.

That sounds like the type of thing that requires an uncomfortable amount of human interaction.

She makes a hopefully convincing face, and says, "I actually have an essay I need to stop procrastinating on, sorry."

Ava looks vaguely relieved, and then tries to look disappointed. "Oh okay, good luck with your essay."

Apparently that was the right path?

"Thanks! Good luck with. Stuff."

Annnnddd she's going to depart now before she opens her mouth again.

She could go through the tunnels to get to her dorm, which is tempting, but outside's faster and she's not that asocial, so back outside it is.

Tess is gone. The gathering is smaller but livelier. Many of the remaining people are yelling or talking, around two girls fencing with skewers, the game of catch with hot coals, and a freshman stuffing another marshmallow into his mouth.

She'll kind of awkwardly sidle around the edges and back to the entrance to her dorm.

Nobody stops her, or even seems to notice her.

The duelist in glasses slips on a piece of trash, and falls into a harder lunge than she intended, pushing the skewer through the outside of her partner's shoulder. She screams and shoves her back with her non-injured arm, into the mildly drunk crowd around the marshmallow eating contest, toppling a few of them over.

Crap.

She starts heading over - she's still not trained in medicine, though she googled some stuff after the skateboarder cracked his head open, but she's good at staying calm and half decent at de-escalation.

"Everyone okay?" she calls out.

People are mostly clustering around the bleeding duelist, but some of the people knocked over haven't gotten up yet.

One of the students in a clip-on tie calls out, "Uh, she's like stabbed in the arm all the way through, and most of us have burns on our hands but that was just for fun, and I don't know if anyone was hurt by falling over but probably not?"

"Do you want me to call someone?" she asks stabbed girl. "I have my phone." She vaguely remembers you're not supposed to call an ambulance outside of a serious emergency unless someone asks, because they're expensive and ERs are worse.

"Can you drive me?" she asks her friend, who nods and starts searching her pockets for keys. "Um. We're parked nearby, I think we can get there okay? I think I shouldn't take it out until we get there?" She mostly succeeds at keeping the shake out of her voice.

(All but one of the people who fell are back on their feet and crowding around them.)

"That's reasonable - you, you, and you, move aside, let's make a path - " She starts addressing the people in the way of the exit. Then, back to the girl, "I'll help walk you to the car, those steps are annoying even when not injured."

"Thanks," she says, holding out her uninjured arm.

People clear a path. "Liam, are you okay?" asks the clip-on tie guy of the person still lying on the ground.

Uh crap. "Someone wrong?" she calls, taking injured girl's arm. "You, the Mallet RA's in, go get her, room 203," she says to one likely looking bystander. 

The bystander runs off in the right direction. Clip-on tie guy crouches by Liam. "Uh, he was winning at eating the most marshmallows at once and fell over and it doesn't look like he's moving? I don't think any of us fell hard enough for concussions or anything?"

Crap what was that thing online - 

"Check his airway, then his breathing, then his circulation - if any're off call 911, that could be really bad - "

He rolls Liam over, then pulls out a cellphone and starts dialing. "He's, uh, definitely not breathing," he explains in a whisper, as the call goes through. Injured girl sways a little and grips Mal's arm.

"Who here knows CPR?" Mal calls. "If you don't, clear out, the paramedics will need access - "

She is taking a CPR class next chance she gets.

Everyone shuffles away, except clip-on tie guy who is covering one ear and answering questions on the phone.

"You, go to Venable 310A, the girl there's in the nursing program, she knows CPR, can get here before the ambulance," to another likely bystander. 

"Sorry about this," she says quietly to injured girl. "I'll get you to your car now, that needs to be looked at - "

Bystander the second jogs off in approximately the right direction.

She lightly takes her friend's hand. "Yeah. Thanks."

Clip on dude seems competent to handle further emergencies maybe, so she'll help injured girl to her car, then dart back to the quad to see if anyone else has suffered a medical emergency.

Injured girl's friend seems capable of driving her to the hospital.

No further emergencies seem to be ongoing. Everyone but clip-on guy and Liam has dispersed.

Are either the RA or nursing student present?

The RA is approaching, along with the student who went to get her. No sign of the nursing student yet.

She's not useful here, so she'll go find someone who knows CPR. The nursing student, if she's in. Someone else, if not (she starts texting people).