She makes a note of it. "Thank you very much, Professor Hickering."

"You're welcome! Glad to help!"

Meanwhile--

Zoe, not being up to occult conversations just yet, decides to wander around the university campus. She'd try to take in student life, but it's winter break. Maybe there's a place to get a bite to eat, at least.

She finds a small, unlabeled cafeteria. All the food appears to be vegetarian.

Huh, that's unusual. Is it the conspicuously pretending to not be vegetarian sort of thing or is it more of the incidentally vegetarian sort? She pokes around to see if anything looks palatable. And also to see if it's okay for to buy something given she neither studies nor works here.

Incidentally vegetarian; there's a lot of Indian food. The cashier does not seem to object to Zoe paying, either because she's allowed to or because they don't recognize all the students.

Sweet. Zoe gets herself a plate of saag paneer.

Warm food! Warm indoors! The full use of her hands! Well, mostly. They're still a little achey but at least she can move all her fingers.

All the tables are taken, and most nearly full, except for one that has a woman in a flapper dress with a very irritated expression.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

"Not at all," the girl says. "You new?"

"Just visiting." She sets down her tray and takes a seat. "I like your dress."

Zoe is not fully back to her usual charming self and comes off as not quite all present.

"Thank you. It has pockets. --I am trying to consider whether I should study for finals."

"What's the alternative?"

"Well, I could not and rely on my raw genius," the girl says. (Upon closer inspection, she appears to be about sixteen.) "But it might be tempting fate to do that if I also never bothered to attend class."

"Have you read the books?"

"Can't read," the girl says. "The words all sort of swim in front of my face. Got a friend who will read books to me."

"Ah, that's a pain." She relates to this problem lately. "Good friend! Are they going to be studying for finals?"

"Yes, obviously. Most people are not nearly as good at things as I am. I'll have to see if I can talk the professor into an oral exam."

"Probably a good idea. Well, depending on the topic. It might be worth it to at least hang out with your friend while they study, even if you don't. If nothing else maybe you help them with something a bit as thanks for all the reading."

"That's true," she says cheerfully. "Keep thinking I should drop out but you can't get a job as a car mechanic if you're a girl. Even though I'm better than everyone else they have doing it."

"Oh, I have a friend who's a mechanic. He might not mind you being a girl, if you're good. I guess his customers might?"

She looks at Zoe hopefully. "Ooh, can you give me an introduction? --I guess my dad would be angry if I dropped out." She says this without much concern.

"Sure. He's in Manhattan though, so not like, right now. But if you're ever in that area, his name's Ralph Haas, and you can tell him Zoe sent you. How much longer do you have left?" Zoe does not really understand how university works.

"Oh, my parents live in New York. --Two years, assuming I manage to convince more professors I should take oral exams. But it is difficult if you don't attend class."

"Yeah, it's easier to convince people of things if they already know who you are. Why not go to class? It seems to me like if you're that good, you could answer all the questions during class and then by the time they wanted you to prove you knew things you could just point to how you said all that stuff during class."

Zoe really does not understand how universities work. She is unclear what it even means to take a class and then not go. But apparently part of it is you still have to take a test.