"Oh, good. Nope, my plan was just to hang around here and meet cool people until dinnertime and so far I am accomplishing both of those things!"

"Cool. Welcome to Selene."

"Thanks. Say, what times is the dining hall open? I could use some food that isn't bus snacks."

"Seven to nine, eleven to one thirty, five to seven thirty."

"Oh good, not too long then. And I bet a school for eclipsed has excellent cafeteria food."

"It's better than what I remember from middle school, it's not as good as a decent restaurant."

"I'll make sure to check out the local restaurants as soon as I've found a campus job, then."

"There's a good Mexican restaurant right by the bus stop you first reach as you go into town."

"Good to know!"

Isabella has finished her food; she starts washing her Tupperware. "The cafeteria lets you walk out with food, I think that's unusual, and you can stash it in the hall fridge for later, but label your containers with masking tape - it's over there hanging from the hook on the fridge next to the pen - and there's a fifty cent fine for letting something get moldy. There's also protein bars and other super dense stuff in the vending machines."

"Thanks!" Maggie gives Isabella a little wave as she walks away, and means back in her chair. If no further conversation materializes she can think about magic until it's time for dinner.

No further conversation materializes. Isabella's at the dining hall before she is, probably because Maggie hasn't been there before. Someone is kneeling at her and she is conspicuously ignoring him.

Must be that Jackson fellow. Perhaps she can get his side of the story, or at least understand what his deal is. She sits on the other side of him from Isabella, far enough over that she's in no danger of accidentally kicking his food.

"Hello again," she says to Isabella. "And hello to you too, I'm Maggie," she adds to Jackson.

"Jackson," says Jackson around a mouthful of macaroni.

"Hi," says Isabella, ignoring Jackson.

Oh boy, how does one have a three-cornered conversation when two of the corners aren't talking to each other. 

"Jackson, would you mind moving to a chair so I can talk to you more easily? Thanks," she says, aiming for "chipper because everything is fine and nothing is weird".

Jackson is nonplussed, but does in fact move to a chair.

Success! Maggie starts digging into her food.

"How's the macaroni?" She says a couple bites in. "I'm liking this stir fry, but I might want something else afterward."

"It's okay. It's hard to mess up macaroni," says Jackson.

Nod. Om nom stir fry.

"So, mage or psion?"

"Psion," says Jackson.

"I guess that makes this the psion table! I'm gonna run a virtuality and make psionic tech, you?"

"I'm gonna do virtuality too. Steady paycheck. I hear if you get good at it you can do it in your sleep."

"Ooh, really? That could be really good for something that pays by the hour. And if I ever learn to lucid dream, I can think about my psionic tech projects and get sleep and get paid all at the same time!"

"You can't do productive magic work in your sleep," says Isabella. "Dream logic sneaks in, what you think up won't work when you wake. It's for entertainment purposes only, but they're pretty great entertainment purposes."

"Ah, rats. But if you can sleep and run a virtuality I bet you can be awake and do magic work and run a virtuality. I shall simply have to content myself with doing two worthwhile things at any given time."