"I used to do ride-along," says Khadija. "I stopped to put more time into orchestra practice."

Quick, Jaime, think of something suitably generic to say!

"What is it that you play?"

"Viola. I like it but my parents are on my case about it all the time."

"I took piano lessons," says Ludmilla, "but stopped when I starscaped, I told my parents it was too hard to redo my nails every time."

"I live with my uncle; my parents and I didn't get along."

"Didn't get along?" says Nina.

"Yes."

"You're the one who brought it up," said Ludmilla, "what's the story?"

"I used to be a bookish, misanthropic, homosexual dancer. Now I'm a bookish, misanthropic, thaumosexual dancer. They don't approve of any of those adjectives or nouns."

"It must be nice to have been already gay," says Nina.

“If I’d been straight I might’ve waited five minutes to take it, instead of seven seconds, just think of the opportunity cost. There were advantages and disadvantages.”

"Opportunity cost?" says Nina.

“It’s a concept in economics. Choices to do things always trade off against other potential choices. If you take one opportunity, and it prevents you from taking another opportunity, then the opportunity it prevents you from taking is an opportunity cost. If you use your time on one thing, you can’t use it on another thing, and the thing that you could’ve done instead is an opportunity cost; if you spend your money on one thing, you aren’t spending it on another thing, and that’s an opportunity cost. If you’re torn between buying a cucumber and a tomato, and you can only buy one, and you choose the cucumber, then the opportunity cost of buying the cucumber is not having a tomato.

If I had spent five minutes in indecision, there would’ve been an opportunity cost, because I could’ve spent my time in other productive way. But I was mostly making a joke, because those minutes would’ve been spent unproductively anyways.”

The rest of the table blinks at her.

“... if you’d like to wear bright red, you can’t also wear bright blue, most of the time, so if you really like wearing blue, then the cost of choosing to wear red is not getting to wear bright blue, and you should think about that before buying a red - nevermind.”

"That's a bad example for a magical girl," says Serena.

What a charming person.

“If that’s how you’d like to frame it.”

"You can wear whatever you want minute to minute," says Serena. "It's not going to be magically effective to change outfits constantly but you can."

“Magical girls can sometimes avoid costs. Do you understand what I was getting at.”

"Is this something you made up?" Nina asks.

“It’s a formal term used by economists, economics textbooks, investment bankers, and other people. There are articles on it.”

"Do you take college courses or something?" Nina asks.

“No. I barely do anything in ordinary classes. I read.”

"About economics?"

Jaime is, as she has been for this entire conversation, reminded of why she ordinarily avoids average people at all costs.

“On Thursday, you noticed me reading about the history of an obscure African state. For fun. This shouldn’t be a surprise.”

"I don't think it's very appropriate to refer to any entire country as 'obscure'. That's relative," says Khadija.