Lucy angles her schedule so El can see it better and looks at El's. 

Malak's schedule is - well, a mostly typical freshman schedule. Until she can check what time slots other kids have for shop and lab there's not much to change. She's got intro to Russian which - she'll request Arabic instead, she's not languages track and she's already fluent - unless this is God and/or the school trying to help her out? Maybe the Russian enclaves invented a bunch of spells to hide from the NKVD?

"Is... is anyone here from Russia?"

"... I'll take that as a no, then." She will request Arabic this term and figure out the answer to the NKVD question before next term.

Marcy has shop and lab and Mandarin Lit/Comp and European History and Algebra/Geometry (also in Mandarin, and that one she might want to swap because she's been taking math in English notation) and physics. She'll swap with Julia and then with Malak.

"Oh, Marcy, that's Annisa, I had dinner at her table yesterday and her affinity is weapons, you could try to get the same shop time if you think you could collaborate well."

Awww, man, Annisa has shop first thing Monday morning which is incredibly tempting but she is not an idiot and not going to take it, she's going to swap for later in the week, she is not in school to build cool stuff, she is in school to not die. With her luck that's the only freshman slot all Monday or Tuesday but that's fine. You know who gets to take shop first thing Monday morning? Senior Annisa, who can handle it, if she gets to exist, which she only will if freshman Annisa isn't an idiot. 

She has lab Thursday right before lunch, which is fine. She has language lab (English) Tuesday and Friday end of the day, which is also fine, and history of artifice Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, which sounds actively interesting, and algebraic first principles first thing in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays which will be unpleasant but she'll just have to learn how to focus on math first thing in the mornings. Looks like freshman Maleficaria Studies is Wednesday and Friday right after breakfast. She has "Pre-Islamic Javanese Literature" for her lit class, Monday and Wednesday end of the day, which is guaranteed to be a small class, there aren't that many Javanese students here, and probably she should swap it out for a lit class in English, if she has enough swaps - and she shouldn't be getting too attached to any other features of this schedule, actually, given the mandatory swap for shop -

"I have shop first thing Monday morning and I'd be dumb to do that even with friends, but I'm happy to request whatever you've got," she says to Marcy. 

"I've got second slot on Tuesdays; I bet they'll still have some good stuff. Can I see the rest of your schedule? I want a different math."

"Cool - that boots my comp, but it doesn't really matter when I have comp -" She sadly crosses out her first-thing-Monday-morning death shop class. "Anyone have literature in English, the school wants me to embrace my Javanese heritage and I would if there were more than, like, eight people tops who could be in that class, all of whom will also be swapping out of it for the same reason." And she shows Marcy her schedule. "Here, but I've got bog-standard math."

"My literature's Mandarin but I definitely want your math class. Might take your history too--no, that'd kick physics, any chance anyone's got a Tuesday/Thursday physics section?"

"I can offer you an English literature on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons."

"Oh, that's perfect." Boots physics but it's just standard freshman intro to physical principles, it'll pop up somewhere else on her schedule and it doesn't really matter where. 

"Happy to help. Meanwhile I'm concerned about this Monday morning alchemy lab I've been saddled with; anyone have something more benign I can slot in?"

"My lab is Thursday morning; what've you got for history?"

"History of, uh, maleficing, Monday-Wednesday-Friday after lunch. I will happily take a Thursday morning alchemy lab, that sounds much less deadly."

"If you want a more useful history, I've got history of artificing that same timeslot."

"Brilliant, thank you."

"I had English lit tuesday mornings but I want that same workshop spot. Anyone got an afternoon lab? I've got first thing Thursday. Alternately, what've people got first thing Thursday that looks safe?"

"Algebraic first principles, safe enough unless math first thing in the morning tends to make you fall asleep."

Julia puts Intro to Shop before lunch Tuesday and Intro to Lab before lunch Thursday because she hasn't heard a Wednesday. She's got language lab end of the day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which is nice, because after comp she can go straight to the library - or, actually, she could swap out comp for history and then afternoons completely off Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, spend the whole afternoon in the library and always have four hours free before assignment deadlines on Fridays - "I've been looking for someone to do my history homework," she says to Annisa and Elizabeth. "If I put down history of artificing, would you be interested?"

Annisa did not particularly plan on doing homework for enclavers but if you're already in a history class it's not that much work, you just have to write all the essays out twice. "What're you offering for it?"

"New York's going to have tea in the library, and croissants on special occasions. You can sit with us every Saturday as long as my work gets done with good grades."

Elizabeth makes a mildly intrigued noise, but glances at Annisa, perhaps hesitant to muscle in on in-progress negotiations.

It's a good deal; the only question is whether taking it costs her with the Boston enclaver, who has a compatible affinity apparently. New York's better than Boston to get in with but not much better, and 'work together in shop class' is a much stronger in than 'gets to sit with them in the library' - that decides her. 

"Do you want it?" she says to Elizabeth. "I ought to focus on shop this semester."

-looks like the girls are doing politics that's flying over his head, again. About schedules. Ghassan is once again annoyed with the Dubai enclave for producing so few graduates over the years; his confidence that he knows what he's doing here is rapidly declining, but he'll have to pretend he's just as capable as any small enclave kid. He does have the skills and the training, even if some of his knowledge is out of date.

"Makes sense. Sure, I'll take it. Pleasure doing business with you both."