"I don't want to go to class because they're boring because I already know everything."

"Why take a class if you already know everything?"

"So I can meet a husband and get married."

Bitterness.

"I thought you wanted to be a mechanic?"

"I want to be a mechanic. My father wants me to get married and have babies which will inherit the family fortune. We have somewhat of a conflict on this point. I was supposed to major in art history." She says this with rather the tone one would use to describe a cockroach.

Zoe makes sympathetic noises about having parental conflict, but does not fully understand because her parents are circus performers and she wanted to be a circus performer and they wanted her to be a circus performer and now she is a circus performer.

"What if you went to the professors outside of class to talk to them about how you already know all the things?" Zoe does not know what 'office hours' are so she cannot suggest them.

"That's what I'm going to try."

"Is talking to your professors over lunch a done thing?"

"They're in their offices sometimes."

"I think if I were you I would go be in their offices a lot and talk to them about things that were interesting and show them how I already know all the things. But I guess maybe it's too late for that with these finals."

She thinks about it. "Maybe I could find the ones who aren't stupid and only take classes from them."

"Yeah, and the ones who let you take oral exams. That way you don't have to convince them over and over again. Instead of new ones each time you can just be like 'hey it's me the person who aced that oral exam you let me take last time, can I do another?'"

"Hm. You have smart thoughts, Zoe. --Say, what are you doing here?"

Zoe pauses for a moment to consider how to explain why she is here in an appropriate way.

"My friends and I are trying to stop a drug trafficking murder cult from summoning some sort of evil god that might destroy the world. One of the professors here wrote some books that make us think he might know things that could help, so my friends are talking to him now. I came here to eat instead because last night I woke up in a field in Pennsylvania and I still don't know how I got there, and I decided that on account of that I did not feel up to having long conversations about things like people dying."

Zoe has no idea what is appropriate and normally would maybe try to be more circumspect but she is still very tired and cannot think of a good cover story.

Look, she seems all right. And she seems smart, so if Zoe lets her know up front about the people dying then probably she will probably understand that she should not get involved.

"Huh. You live an interesting life."

"Before that I was a circus performer. It was a lot easier."

"Sounds cool. How do you get into the 'fighting a drug trafficking murder cult' business?"

"Well, one time I fought a ghost, and I guess someone mentioned that to this rich lady whose dad left a bunch of unfinished 'fighting a drug trafficking murder cult' business behind. And she didn't want to do it herself so she's paying me and some other people to do it. The pay is good but I can't recommend it. Apparently two of my friends died a couple days ago? But I can't remember it. It still seems fake but everyone else is very sure of it and honestly nothing seems very real these days."

Zoe does not remember what happened to Lacie, but apparently they did not get her back, so probably she's dead?

"Hm. That's fair. Well, if you ever need someone to join you in the drug-trafficking murder cult business I'd be happy to. I know a lot about explosives. The chemistry department here is weirdly into explosives."

"Huh. Well, maybe if we knew how to explode things, we would have been able to save them? I couldn't say. But thanks for the offer. If I ever really need to explode something I'll come look you up. Until then, probably better to stay in school. Or run away and become a mechanic."

"Reasonable. I'll look your guy up."

Zoe writes down his address for her.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome. I hope your finals go well, whether you decide to study or not."

Meanwhile--

Okay, Anemone wants to look up, uh, anything about the children of the night or the black stone because she is currently ??? about those things.

It seems like if any library might have info on them it'd be this one.

Everyone should spend the afternoon in the library.