"Yes. That would be best," Celeste says. "When are you free?"

Loki relays her schedule.

Sunday afternoon works best for everyone, then. There's a study room, well insulated psychically for better focus, that should serve them well.

"Thanks. See you guys then."

"You're welcome," they say as one.

Mal emerges shortly thereafter.

"Professor wants to talk to you all, Five in One," Mal says to the sisters. Then, to Loki: "Hey. Let's go find Raine and let her know we're alright, okay?"

The five file in silently.

And Loki turns to Mal. "Yeah, that sounds good. She must be really worried..."

"Pretty much what I figured, too."

And off, back to the cafeteria.

Raine meets them on their way there. "Hey, you guys okay?" she calls. "I saw the fight with that jerk - "

"We're fine. And not really in trouble."

Raine nods. "That's good. Though with Quentin pissed at us now, we might want to watch our backs..."

"Five in One offered me some lessons on psychic stuff, so I might be able to defend myself better next time," Loki says, shrugging.

"The Stepford Cuckoos? Don't know I'd trust them. They're creepy."

"They don't like being called that. And calling them creepy's rude."

A weird look flickers over Raine's face. It's quickly gone, though.

"Sure. Nice of them to offer, I guess."

She nods, slowly.

And Raine's back to smiling.

"Come on, let's get to lunch. Presentation won't plan itself."

"Sure."

And off to eat and argue about how to interestingly combine their magics.

Loki gets an email from Thor that evening.

Hey Loki. Heard about what happened in school. You alright?

Yeah. Annoyed. I'm not in trouble, am I?

No. Standing up for your friend was good. You're lucky Cecilia was the one who intervened, though - I don't think she actually has disciplinary rights but the other teachers don't want to contradict her. She's smart enough to arrange things like that, I guess.

Be careful, okay? I've misjudged my strength with humans before. It's not pretty, when that happens.

I've gotten that lecture from Professor Maximoff, too. I'll be careful. But I'm not going to let people like Kid Omega be bullies.

Yeah, reasonable.

Do you want help with psychic stuff? Even if you don't get into any more fights with someone like him, telepaths can be pretty scary.

Some of the other students offered to tutor me. More information would be great, though.