"Oh, has no one done that? We should definitely do that. - I will do that. With you."

Not by herself, though, that sounds like the sort of thing that gets you killed in a (movie? game?) place like this, and also not with only one person who knows how magic works. She heads back into the hallway. "I think nobody's gotten water yet? Anyone else wanna head with us to the bathroom to fill up the water storage?"

Nope, busy doing CRAFTING, the best thing in the universe. 

... hey fellow minions, would anyone perhaps feel inclined to carry along and refill this vaguely container-shaped bit of totally useless scrap metal that will otherwise serve no function for Julia, if they're going to the bathrooms anyway?

Well yeah, Lysander's obviously busy. And is also a boy. Who is not a boy and also not the girl who has been going around in pajamas, which Karen is not judging her for but which does suggest kind of limited magical competence. Not that she's anyone to talk. Also she feels kind of bad about totally missing that Rebecca had the other glove and was polishing stuff earlier.

Anyway.

"Do you want to come to the bathroom with us?" she asks Lucy, because Lucy is a girl and seems pretty magical.

"Sure, I've been too busy to go on a bathroom run yet." There, that ought to strike the right balance of 'this does not lump me in with the minions' without being very condescending to the minions. 

Cool! That's probably enough people then. She will go to the bathroom with Lissa and Lucy and she will pee and she will fill up containers with water.

Julia, when they get back, will spend some mana chilling the water like it came from a normal fridge instead of from the horrible Scholomance, and encourage her hardworking polishers to take a break. "I'm thinking my first priority for spellwriting is going to be something to make it taste like lemonade or soda, since apparently no one brought those and it's hard to stay hydrated if you've only got water that doesn't taste good."

"Ah, creative writing? I'm languages, I'll let you know if I find such a spell." 

"Why would you do that with a spell and not a potion?"

"I don't really want to spend more time in the alch lab than I have to, it has more ways to try to kill you than the library does. And a potion actually changes the water, whereas I just want to change the taste of the water."

"There's probably a way to do something like your spices that'd do it, but I'm not an alchemist either."

If the polishers are taking a break now she's super willing to sub in for them! Although she wants to follow this conversation too.

"How does the alch lab try to kill people, in particular?"

"It's lower in the school - mals mostly come up from the graduation gate, so the lower levels are more dangerous - and if your neighbor fucks up enough that something explodes or animates or eats them, you're in the blast radius. Mostly you should go incantations track unless your affinity drags you alch or artificing, the coursework's safer and it's easier to hire people to do it for you."

"Good to know."

Like, she's totally not going to pay anyone to do her homework, how is she going to learn how to stay alive if she pays someone to do her homework, and also she doesn't feel like she's gonna be able to pay anyone, but still, good to know about the safety thing. 

She can't think of another obvious question, so she's just gonna really throw herself into polishing this wall while it's her turn.

And he can start painting. It's really more "decent handwriting" than "calligraphy" but it's gold and Buddhist and that's probably enough to placate the rug. 

The overall aesthetic really is going to be quite nice, even though they had to make several artistic compromises due to being stuck in the Scholomance. The desk is looking great, Lysander can clearly build stuff, the design sketches are nice and detailed, the walls do polish to a glorious gleaming chrome, there's going to be enough leftover metal for shelving, and she's got several Buddhist touches already! She strokes the rug. "See? All these people are working so hard on a lovely home for you. And we'll just make it better and better over the next four years, and then give all the good stuff to Teddy, if he appreciates you properly, or someone else, if he doesn't."

Z will take a break from grinding mana and get a drink while the getting’s good.

“…anything you’re looking for other than, uh, lemonade?”

"Someone to do my history homework! ...honestly, I want to also spruce up the hallways and cafeteria, but probably we haven't got time for that, soon we're going to be all stressed and have tons of homework... and then we've got a teapot that would be on our side if only we can arrange tea for it, so there's that."

"I have located some people who definitely have tea to trade but I didn't want to make any promises on your behalf without your approval."

"Oh perfect, Eliza, you're lovely. Who has tea, I guess maybe I should go with you to negotiate with them?"

"Yes--one of them is a girl named Iris, the other is a boy named Kevin, I can show you what they look like when we get there."

Lissa also gets a drink while she considers the problem of lemonade. "Yeah, it'd be healthier just to change the taste, wouldn't it?" she agrees with Julia.

"Well, it'll mean less calories! And normally that's healthier but here we're all apparently at risk of coming out looking like anorexic Holocaust survivors so I'd actually take the extra calories, if there were a safe way to make 'em, which there isn't."

...huh, good to know that. She makes a mental note to try and choke down more food at breakfast. "Well, it's not lemonade, but I did bring some apples. If anyone had something to squeeze them I guess we could make a little bit of apple juice?"

"That - sounds like it might just be better to eat the apples, if you're better off getting all of the calories you can out of them?" Not that people can't do what they want, but, uh.

"What you should do is take them to the cafeteria in the morning and trade them to a senior who hasn't tasted real fruit in three years, it'd be mean of us to take the apples off you when we have barely even started missing apples. ...no, never mind, what you should do is eat them, and take the seeds, and find someone with a plants affinity - which will take some doing, I bet they're not advertising it - and then we can see if we can get an orchard going after all, and then we can trade everyone apples."