....Okay what. 

On the one hand that's...really sweet of him? And in fact makes it less likely she'll get eaten by a mal? On the other hand, what. 

Shannon lingers in her open doorway to wait for him, and takes the opportunity to peek around and see if she can learn who her neighbours are, since apparently it's recommended to go to the bathrooms and stuff with friends. 

Annisa walked back with Daria and is talking with her occasionally during breaks from attempting to install new, less hazardous shelving (she's just going to end up with one somewhat crooked shelf, is what she's going to end up with), but she can also meet her other neighbors! 

"Hello! Annie," she's tentatively decided to be Annisa around people who aren't white and Annie around people who are, "from Surabaya, artificing track. You?"

Ohgod she's so tired but she should really socialize more. Also this girl looks...normalish? Like someone who might have reasonable advice about boys being inexplicably nice to you? 

"Hi! I'm Shannon, from Canada, alchemy track." 

"Nice to meet you!" Not from Toronto or she'd have said that, but with a close ally already, apparently. "Is your" brother? Better not to assume that - "friend on our hall, too?" Going far for a screwdriver would be notably not following the advice their parents have all drilled into them, which might be why the girl looks so baffled.

"No, he's way far away. He's just being bizarrely helpful. ...I think he maybe feels bad because I carried in twenty kilos of his gear in order to get a slot here? But he just keeps being really nice and it's, um..." 

 - oh. 

"And you don't know if you want to go for it or not? What enclave?"

...go for what, teaming up? Seems like a good bet, if he's being that friendly.

"Sacramento. They must be decent, he's got really nice gear. Apparently there are some other Sacramento kids in older years, I had letters for them, but I couldn't find them in the cafeteria at orientation so Raleigh said he'd take care of delivering them." 

Shannon is also wondering 'go for what' because it's not like Raleigh has made any specific trade offers or requests yet. 

Annisa has ever read a list of all the enclaves and is pretty sure Sacramento is an American one but couldn't place it on a map if her life depended on it. "Well, have you got a stunningly useful affinity such that he's trying to butter you up for that?"

"Healing, and - I'm pretty good already and I'll probably be really good if I survive this place." Wow it feels uncomfortable and presumptuous to say that out loud, but. She is. "Um, I already gave him like three kilos worth of healing potions though, and I'm not going to know better spells for at least a few months probably." 

- wow Annisa is having stunningly good luck, luck good enough she kind of doesn't trust it, one next door neighbor is also artificing track and does wards and the other is a gifted healer. She exchanges glances to this effect with Daria. "Well, that's probably enough explanation in itself, but if you want I can keep an eye out for vibes when he comes back to help you with your furniture?"

"For...vibes? Like what?" 

Oh boy. 

"Uh, don't take this the wrong way....no surviving older siblings and you got all your Scholomance advice from loving parents who don't want their little girl to be going away to become a grownup?"

Shannon frowns at her for a moment, and then blushes crimson. 

"I - umm - my parents did have the, um, the talk with me? About - doing things with boys. But there's no way he wants that, I mean, I have braces!" At least her hair is no longer frizzy. Because she has a buzz cut. Which cannot possibly be an improvement, appearance wise. 

"- that interferes with some sex acts but not the most popular ones?"

Shannon's face is BURNING. "That - what - no I just meant I'm ugly." And now she feels even more embarrassed did she actually just say that out loud. 

"I think you look fine? We're all shaved. And if braces repelled boys then America wouldn't have such a teen pregnancy problem, would it."

This is so aaaaaawkward.

”So you think he likes me? Uh, as in, wants to date me?” Aaaaaaaaaah.

"I don't know, I haven't met him! If you want I can keep an eye out while he's helping you with your furniture and then tell you what I think?"

“Sure, I’d appreciate that!”

When Raleigh gets back, there’s a senior with him. 

“Hey guys! This is Larisa. Sacramento enclave as well.”

The girl smiles distractedly at them. She’s tall and muscular and swinging what looks like a literal battle-axe in one hand. 

“Um, nice to meet you, Larisa?”

The thing you do around enclave seniors is not waste their time. "Annie, Indonesia, Shannon's neighbor," she says, not expecting this to be acknowledged, and then scoots over to where she can work on shelf assembly while watching for Vibes.

Larisa does not in fact acknowledge this, beyond sweeping her eyes over Annisa. She parks herself just inside the door to Shannon’s room and starts incanting a spell in Russian under her breath.

“Larisa’s doing a ward for your room!” Raleigh says brightly. “And, here, I’ve got a screwdriver! Uh, Larisa wants the scrap wood from your drawers, if that’s all right?”

“Yeah, of course!” Shannon can’t see what choice she has. Really, it seems like a senior-level ward spell ought to go for a lot more than that. Did Raleigh finagle some deal for her in private? Why? 

It seems silly to complain about people helping her not die, though, so she just starts taking the drawers out of her desk. 

Raleigh continues to be very cheerful and helpful! 

Larisa finishes her spell in a couple of minutes, grabs the wooden slats taken apart so far, and leaves without a word.

Disadvantage of having neighbors who are wards and healing geniuses respectively: Annie, if she doesn't do something about it fast, is going to be the tastiest kid on her hall. Probably she should tell Daria that the month and a half of mana in exchange for a ward is a go. She pokes her head into Daria's room to say this, a minute later.

Raleigh makes friendly chitchat with Shannon the entire time that he's helping her disassemble her drawers. He's pretty good at it, and there's only the one screwdriver, so he ends up doing most of that while Shannon just stacks up the boards and collects the abandoned screws in a little pile. 

"- You can keep the screws if you want," he says brightly. "Trade them for something you need. Larisa's got loads and she didn't ask for them, just the wood." 

Making conversation is so tiring. "Uh, is she artificing track, then?" 

"Yeah! She's always complaining that her affinity isn't for weapons. As far as we can tell, it's for - defensive fortifications? Anything that keeps mals out. I mean, she's good in a fight too, but she had to trade to get that axe of hers, her enchanted weapons always come out weird." 

"Huh! Well, being able to ward her room must be pretty good, anyway." 

"Yeah - I bet her room is the safest place in the entire school, by now - well, second to her little brother's room, she always does his first when she gets a new spell..." 

"Wow! That's really sweet of her." 

Raleigh shrugs and looks kind of uncomfortable. 

"- Right, that's all for the drawers," he says finally. He eyes Shannon's desk, which minus drawers is basically just a weirdly-shaped table. "Ugh, I think dismantling that needs more than just a screwdriver. Maybe you can keep it for now? You'll want to check the underside of it regularly, some mals can sort of hang there out of sight..." 

"Uh, right, thanks." 

He pats her shoulder. "No problem! Oh, and you're alchemy-track, yeah? Want me to help you redirect your gas line for a burner?" 

.....Does he just want an excuse to keep hanging out in her bedroom. It can't be that long until curfew, surely...

- Shannon takes a deep breath and reminds herself that it's her room and she does not, actually, have to let a boy hang out in here all evening even if he's from a rich enclave and she owes his family a debt. 

"Um, thanks for the offer - maybe another time? I think I want to - get settled some more before bed." 

"Oh! Right, of course." Raleigh looks sheepish. "I'll let you do that." 

And he pats her shoulder again, and looks like he would maybe like to offer her a hug, but maybe he sees the look of aaaaaaaaaah in her face. He doesn't offer. 

As soon as he's out of sight, Shannon ducks over to look for Annisa. Is her door open? 

Yep! She has her shelf up, albeit crooked, and is now doing woodcarving with her scraps for the mana and the woodworking practice. 

"Hey! Um... Vibes?" 

"My read is he totally likes you? But he wasn't pushy about it, so that's encouraging."

"...Do you think I should, um, go for it? I - my mother said I shouldn't say yes to a date if I don't like a boy back, and I...can't tell if I like like him? He's - nice? I think I'd want to be friends with him, I just..." 

" - I'd go for it? But if it's going to affect your judgment or leave you really sad if he dumps you or is a rapist or whatever, then maybe better to steer clear? You have a good affinity, you can almost certainly make it in your own right."

"- Right. I...think I should go for it." It seems really cowardly to run and hide the first time a boy likes her, even if she's incredibly confused about why he likes her. Also it'll help her survive and her mother would approve of that even if she wouldn't approve of Shannon jumping right into dating a boy. 

...Also she's still feeling out of her depth. "So, um, what should I...actually do? He hasn't, like, asked me out or anything, should I just - be friendly to him and wait to see what he does? Or do I need to be more assertive than that?" 

"All I know about American flirting is from movies. I think you tell his friends you think he's cute, and ask to borrow his jacket if he has a jacket, and - be friendly in an attentive way? Like, noticing if he's tireder than usual, complimenting him on a good supply run haul.... maybe touch him sort of incidentally while you're walking?"

"I don't know who his friends are! I guess I should try to find that out? ...And yeah he was touching me incidentally, I guess. He patted me on the shoulder a few times for no reason and he sort of looked like he wanted to hug me but he didn't." 

"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?"

"If you have another dagger or something else better than this -" she gestures at the 4-centimetre blade of her multitool, lying on the bed - "and will let me use it until you pay me back, I'll take that as collateral."

She's only got the one - well, and her Swiss army knife - but you make them pretty early in the year in shop class, and a ward's probably going to do more than a knife for safety in the interim.  She hesitates, but only briefly. "You can use this one until I've paid you back."

- huh, she'd been sure Annisa would've negotiated down from there, she hadn't expected to get what is presumably her best knife. "Deal. If something happens to it I owe you all the mana back?"

"You sure do. And have you got a crystal or something that's about a month and a half to fill, so that we can call it even once it's full even if I'm incredibly hardworking and fill if faster? Otherwise I'll be unrewarded for all my extra work and it's a great time of the year for extra work."

She pulls out a necklace of amber beads from her pack. "Should be about thirty of the smaller beads plus the centerpeice."

This is gonna suck. It'll help with not getting eaten, though, so there's that. And Annisa doesn't have a mana-heavy graduation plan. She's going to build stuff for people who can use it to get them out. "All right, deal."

"I need to finish mana-building, but that shouldn't take long."

"Guess I'll help you out." And she picks up the woodcarving she's been working at - it's going to come out kind of ugly, wood doesn't especially like her - and focuses on filling Daria's beads. 

Oh, good, she was not looking forward to trying to trying to build it all herself in a reasonable timeframe. "What are you making?" she asks in between sets.

"Bookend to keep my books from sliding off my new shelf, which is not level. Carpentry isn't among my strong suits."

She gestures at her shelves. "Not my area of expertise either. Maybe that kid you know with a wood affinity could fix it for you in exchange for the leftover wood?"

"Yeah, I'll probably let him at it tomorrow if he's not all booked up with people on his hall." Cut cut cut. "You should hang out with Shannon tomorrow, by the way, she's got a healing affinity. Most useful set of neighbors in the Scholomance."

"A healing affinity! That's handy in a neighbor," and then she's too out of breath to talk again.

Annisa should probably do more physical exercise. She hates it - building things with her hands is much more fun - but that's why it's so good for mana building, and she has to fill that entire necklace before she can be building mana for herself. She doesn't want to look like she just mindlessly copies whatever Daria's doing, though, so she keeps working on her bookend until it's all done, and then sits with her back to the wall and no chair, legs trembling, which gets you fantastic mana generation in the last minute before your legs collapse of it.

When Dasha's too tired to continue she pulls her skeins of silk thread out of her pack. "Color doesn't matter for this one, pick your favorite," she says, gesturing at the skeins.

It has literally never occurred to Annie to have a favorite color. "Uh, the white?"

"This one's going to be Russian," she says as she unspools it, measuring lengths against her wingspan.

She'll plug her ears and hum when it looks time for the chanting part.

The chanting part is most of it, this time. She cuts herself eight lengths, ties them all to the back of her chair, and then starts braiding them together, repeating the spell as she braids.

Magic is so cool and Annie wishes it was safer to listen and imitate and learn and understand. It's at least safe to watch.

It gets very repetitive after a while, but eventually she cuts it off from the chair and gestures that she's done. "There'll be another spell in your room, but that one's just to make sure it knows where the borders of your room are."

"Thank you" is too much like it was a favor, when actually Annie's paying quite a lot for it. "It's lovely," she says instead.

"Thank you!" And after they check over Annisa's room - "It's probably best if I hang it off the shelves, but if you do get them magicked better that might mess with it. Let me know if that happens, I can redo this part for you if they interfere."

"Thanks. Maybe I'll just leave them for first semester, bother the guy with the wood affinity around midterms when he's less in demand and my wood's more exciting."

"I'd be kind of nervous leaving it lying around."

"It'd be a pain to check every night but I assume he's planning to do it, he can't use it all right away. Maybe he has tips."

"It's probably something absurd like 'oh, I melt the whole thing into one big woodcube', affinities are like that."

"- oh, fair, maybe.  All right, I'll ask for his help in the morning."

"Let me know when he's going to be here, if you can?" That's probably a reasonable size favor to ask, especially since she offered to redo the ward anchoring afterwards.

"Yes, absolutely." The thing Annisa wants to ask is whether they want to try to coordinate schedules. It'd be convenient to share classes with the person you live next to, especially in the afternoons; they could go from class to their rooms to the library.... no, that is way more closeness than it's reasonable to be at after Day 1, she's being silly and Daria will think she's pathetic.

"This one should be quick," and when Annisa covers her ears she ties the woven cord to the side of her shelf and casts, grimacing as her last dregs of mana go into the spell.

Daria said 'thank you', earlier, so perhaps that means it's not pathetic to say it back. "Thank you."

"You'll want to hold the cord when you're casting your wards, but otherwise just do them as normal. If you can't cast some of them with your hands full any skin contact should do."

"Got it. Thank you."

"See you tomorrow," she says, heading for the door.