"... Did anyone tell you about graduation?"

"...no, I'm getting the sense that I'm missing something there."

Ohhhhhh no.

"It's a euphemism, not a description," he sighs, while organizing space themed decorating materials that Julia might like. There are a couple piles, some for building desks or painting things, some just to be pretty on their own merits. There's going to be a lot of scavenging and scrounging to figure out how to make her artistic vision a reality. "The monsters we're all flinching at? It's not because of the school. They're here for us, because of us. And the very worst ones can't quite get to us, and there is only one way they can get in. But they can just sit and wait by the exit. For when we leave."

...hm. "So - we have to fight our way out, no teleport?"

"More like run as fast as possible with enough defenses to live long enough to make it to the exit before something gets you, but. Yes."

She chews on this for a few seconds, also looking for space-themed stuff that Julia might be able to use. 

"So - how does that work, in terms of how people usually get out? You said you couldn't do it alone, but running away as a team makes it easier?"

"Running away as a team with a defense strategy, yeah. Apes together strong or... some such. I don't know enough American pop culture for decent references, sorry."

"That's okay. You're British?" Oh man this school is multicultural enough that she shouldn't be assuming she has the accent right but she already said it and now she just has to hope it's right.

"The accent give me away?" he says, wryly. "Yeah. Manchester. Or, well. Audenshaw, but Manchester's who got me in here."

"Cool. - do you, um, know what happened in Chicago? Julia said something about it but I don't know what it was exactly."

"Uh." He lowers his voice, because he's aware that there are some survivors from Chicago here, he's been listening. "No. That's the big drama. We won't know until next year's batch of freshmen get brought in with explanatory letters. We do know that apparently the enclave is gone, though. And instead of all of the people that were supposed to be brought in from there, the spell for grabbing freshmen for Scholomance grabbed random mages who thought they were mundane. To fill out the roster."

"Oh," she says, taking a cue from him and further lowering her voice. "So - normally everyone who comes here is expecting it?"

"Yeah. Comparatively, you were screwed over, by not having forewarning and prep time." His voice returns to its earlier volume. "... But also comparatively, you got incredibly lucky, because even the bad odds here are better than the ones out there."

Nod.

"...thank you for the clothes," she says, quietly, sounding a lot more genuine and a lot less happy-go-lucky this time.

"Thank Julia and New York for being generous," he corrects gently, but he knows what she means anyway, and gives her a small smile to show it.

She nods and smiles back. "They seem really nice." And she mostly means that; they are being super helpful, even if she's a little clearer on the fact that Julia is not really uncomplicatedly a friend, now. 

She thinks Vernon is probably a friend, though. Maybe. A cynical friend, but hey, that's not disqualifying.

She dives into sorting through the next box of stuff, and this time she goes out of her way to occasionally ask him if he thinks they can do anything spaceship-y with anything promising.