"Yeah, I noticed. I think he definitely wants you. Possibly if you just asked him out he'd go for it but - he's the enclaver, right, he's got options, if I were you I would want him to have to work for it a little bit, so he doesn't go around thinking he can have whatever he wants."

Frown. "Because he'll treat me better if he feels like he has to, um, be nice in order to keep me?" This is such a foreign mode of thought and it's uncomfortable but, then again, so is everything else about being in this place. 

"Yeah. You're impressive, he should be trying to win you over, you have lots of other options and you want him to know it. It'll also make him feel more special, if he feels like you could have anyone and picked him."

"......Do I have lots of other options? I mean, I'm, uh, still ugly. And not from an enclave. And I don't even have breasts yet at all." 

"I mean, I dunno if you have other options for boyfriends, but you have other options for surviving. And I continue to think you look perfectly normal! Your competition is also fourteen and either doesn't have breasts or does and is down a pound of gear because they brought in a pound of chest fat."

Giggle. "....Wow, you just made me feel so much better about being a late bloomer. I guess my competition is also bald, and...uh, apparently most people think it's stupid to have braces in here, but I read the entire orthodontics textbook and know how to do everything myself, so I guess at least I'll have straighter teeth in a couple years?" 

People in Indonesia don't really get braces and their advisability in the Scholomance is not something Annie has ever contemplated. She had her wisdom teeth out while they were briefly in Sydney; they couldn't afford it and it "wasn't medically recommended at her age", so her father mind-controlled the dentist. Presumably, though, Americans wouldn't all wear braces if they didn't value straight teeth very highly. "Yeah, you will!" she says encouragingly.

“- Oh right! Speaking of teeth, I invented a healing potion for mouthwash that keeps your teeth in perfect condition even if you don’t brush them. Um, if you’d be interested in trading for that, once I’ve had a chance to make more - I brought a bunch in but it was all for Sacramento.”

That is extremely not at the top of Annie's list of priorities but it doesn't do to seem desperate. "Oh, that's so clever! Yeah, maybe once I've got more to trade and you've the chance to make some."

"Cool, sounds good! And, um, thank you for your advice about Raleigh." 

Nod. "Good luck. ...do you have birth control?" You'd think that'd be easy with a healing aptitude but actually healing's likelier to helpfully give you fertility spells.

Shannon goes red again. 

"I...have a pack of condoms?" So she can have safe sex up to six times. She had not been assuming that she would have any opportunities for sex in the Scholomance, but her mother insisted, and it's not like condoms weigh much. 

Annie does not think this conversation is winning her much in the way of friendship bona fides, which probably means she should gracefully exit it, but instead for some reason she's persisting. Note to future Annisa figure out what the strategic goal should have been here and why you had a hard time identifying it at the time? 

"And are you actually gonna be able to insist he wear them, if he's going 'oh, it's probably fine', boys like to go 'oh, it's probably fine', it will be for them."

Shannon takes a deep breath. 

"...Um, I was brave enough to tell him to go away when he kept offering to help me turn my gas line into a burner for alchemy tonight? So, um, I think I can probably be brave enough to insist about that?" It sounds agonizingly awkward but not any more awkward than every single interaction today. "- Also I bet he'd be really conscientious about it. He's so, um -" what is the word for it even, "- thoughtful?" 

"All right, then, I think you should go for it, and if it sucks, better to find that out now, yeah?"

“- Yeah, that makes sense.” Shavri offers Annisa her best grateful smile. It’s reasonably convincing, even. “Thank you so much for the advice. I…guess I owe you a bit of a favor, for that?”

Talking is free, Annisa does not say. She's even been woodworking the whole time. What can she get away with instead - "so, if anything happens to me, I'm obviously willing to pay for healing, but let's say that I'd consider it a favor back if you heal me first and then talk payment once I'm on my feet" and in a wildly better bargaining position. "Just so I'm not fretting about staying conscious enough to remember what's in the chest."

That's a very big favor, much bigger than talking about boys, but she's trying to make it sound like a small one. Just about timing, after all.

Shannon is in fact able to notice that this is a much bigger favour than what Annisa gave her, but - well, having a friend is an even bigger deal, right? Especially a friend with a nearby room, who she can go to the bathroom with. 

"- Uh, deal, although it'll depend how much mana I have - right now the only potions I have aren't very powerful for healing." 

"Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully I can avoid getting grievously injured in the next couple months and then we can work something out once you've got more potions. Once you have a given thing I'm happy to tell you up front what I could give you for it."

"Sounds good!" Shannon smiles brightly at her. "Uh, I'd better start getting ready for bed, but - I'm really glad I met you, and, uh, if you wanted to do a bathroom run at some point, I'd be happy trading off watching each other's backs to shower?" 

"Yeah, absolutely! Tomorrow morning we've got homeroom first thing in the morning but day after it might be worth risking the showers."

"Sounds good! Uh, goodnight, I guess." And Shavri smiles at her again and then heads for her room. 

Okay time to beg Daria for that ward so she's not conspicuously way less defended than her neighbors, who are lovely people who she needs to remember would also be delighted to have twice as big a room.

Daria's doing pushups, counting in Ukrainian under her breath, but opens her door at the knock.

"Hey! I think I do want to take you up on the month and a half of mana for a ward, my other neighbor's buttoned up all cozy with senior enclave friends and I'd hate to be the tastiest thing on this hallway. Can I pay you incrementally and give you something for collateral and get the ward now?"