"I may be able to trade something with someone from Shanghai enclave for wards. It'll be expensive, of course."

Ah, okay, they are in the haggling part.  Connie has scripts for the haggling part.  Except she hasn't practiced them in Mandarin nearly enough and also she increasingly wants to run away and hide.  Which is not a strategy. 

"Mm, I want to be fair, but- one glove is one glove?  Fractions of a glove are not anything. Do you want- the American slang is 'first dibs'.  To claim a spot.  I wouldn't make anyone else one until we agreed or decided we couldn't agree."

"I'd be happy to claim dibs."

Tiny smile.  "Then if you know an upperclassman who brings freshmen- to take things- yell at me?"

"Sorry, didn't parse that."

Heckkk she knows the word for 'supply run' and it has fallen completely out of her head.  "To take things- from the place where they- sit on shelves"  thank you brain, she does not want the Modern Greek or the Amharic for 'closet'-  "Things like paper and wire and erasers and mercury.  Only one time, not every week."

"Supply run. I can get you in on the Shanghai enclave maintenance track supply run."

...right.  She could have swapped in the English word.  "Good.  It's a deal."  And now she looks like an idiot in two languages don't think about that breathe.  "I'll find you in a week or two when I have the things and know better how long it takes."

"Pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise a pleasure."  And Connie does not shove her rolls in her pockets and flee, which by rights ought to get her a tiny smidgen of mana all on its own.