That is definitely a maleficer. Ghassan will route around the obvious maleficer when deciding where to sit- he's already been a little too friendly with Masozi. He does recognize Owoye (Lagos); he finds a seat near him.

Marcy's enclavemates all ended up in the same homeroom as each other, which is awesome for them, and it looks from the size of this room like Marcy's going to have plenty of other people to swap with. Now, where to sit? Not under the vent, not that it'd be that much of a problem on day 2 but you don't want to look like the chump who takes the vent seat. Not next to the girl who, despite not having anything visibly wrong with her, comes off as being up to no good; her dad always said that when your instincts say someone is bad news your instincts might know something you don't. She wouldn't've minded Julia sitting next to her if she'd come in first, but she's not going to do anything that looks like she cares what New York thinks. Especially not New York's greatest manifestation of vanity and frivolity who spent last night having lackeys decorate her room. 

She can, on the other hand, take the seat two over from her, on the other side of the black guy she hasn't met yet and within easy paper-swapping distance of the pale girl with the sweet-looking blatantly magical silk outfit. (Marcy's clothes are cotton, soft and durable and safer around fire than polyester, with their own protective spells woven in. Nothing much to look at, so that it won't be as bad a contrast when they end up old and worn, but expensive and worth it.)

Elizabeth walks in almost right on Marcy's heels. She glances around, recognizes El from yesterday's bathroom run, offers her a quick smile of greeting, and goes to sit near her after double-checking vent placement.

"Yeah!" says Lissa, in response to El's question. She smiles at Lucy when she comes in as well. "I got a spellbook! I guess the wards worked because I'm still here and I didn't get nibbled even a little." She waves her hand to show off her pristine unnibbled flesh.

Oh hey, it's - Ghassan? He thinks? That was probably that guy's name. If he's sitting near him then he can't have been too rude about brushing him off for dinner, that's something. He should talk to him, make it clear that he just actually does have a lot of enclave people to get to know and doesn't specifically think he's better than him. "Hey, Ghassan. Know what classes you're going for?"

"You probably wouldn't have anyway, the first few weeks of term are the safest. But it's best to pick up good habits."

"True that. Hey, you're Lucy, right? With the spiders?"

Malak arrives, only slightly late and only slightly out of breath and surveys the room, looking for new people to acquaint herself with.

Oh, hell no.

Looking at the open seats, her options are:

(1) Sit alone, in the more dangerous seats.

(2) Sit next to Marcy, who is cool and who it would be good to know better, but who she does not want to appear to be sucking up to and a third interaction in the first two days would absolutely give that impression

(3) Sit next to that girl who is either one of the Chicago mundanes or from New York. If the former, she's useless as an acquaintance, if the latter - that is even more obvious sucking-up, and to New York of all places.

(4) Sit on the edges of the gaggle of kids gathered around the girl who looks like she's been maleficing since she was eight. Given that no sane person entirely possessed of their own mind would want to hang out with someone who's been maleficing since she was eight, that option sounds like an invitation to permanently and involuntarily join that gaggle. No thanks.

...

5: "stand around in the doorway indecisively" is definitely worse than (2) or (3). She approaches the made-up girl.

"Excuse me, Chicago or New York?"

"That's right! I don't think we talked yesterday, what's your name?"

"New York! I'm Julia. Do you want to do my history homework, I'm looking for someone to do my history homework."

Damnit. She had been planning to, if this kid was from New York, say 'Oh, I'm sure you don't want me here then' and sit with Marcy. That would've let her not be sucking up to New York and also not be insulting New York, but that doesn't work when the girl has already offered her a job.

"Oh." She does her best to look crestfallen. "I'm garbage at history, I wouldn't do a very good job. Sorry."

She walks down a few desks and sits next to Marcy.

"Hello again. Marcy, right?" And then, in lower tones that should not carry across the room,

"...Are all those kids sitting with the maleficer chicago mundanes who don't know any better, or...?" I'm not here to suck up to you, have you seen the other seat options?

"Congrats on not getting nibbled, you have outperformed the average Oreo," El tells Lissa, "did you get anything good in the spellbook? - good means cheap or quick or efficient or for something you need all the time, ideally several."

"Yup that's me!" Marcy says brightly. She isn't sure whether either Malak or Julia noticed how quality of a burn "Chicago or New York?" was but it was a top quality burn and she's entertained. Then in the same undertone, "I have no idea why they're all sitting with her but some of them definitely aren't Chicago." Instead they're brave or stupid or possibly hypnotized though the latter would be alarmingly fast.

Malak is well aware of how insulting "Chicago or New York? Oh, New York? I'll go sit somewhere else then" can be and is desperately hoping the New Yorker isn't.

"...Yikes. My top theory - with 30 seconds of thought so there's probably better ones - is that she's got an affinity for mind control."

"There was a spell for repelling mals when they try to bite you?" notes Lissa. "Although I think it might not be very cheap, I tried to do it this morning and didn't have the energy for it. And it sounds like it won't be very useful for this first week anyways."

Julia understood "you're either a New Yorker or a tragically doomed civilian"! She's not insulted because when she was nine her father had a long talk with her about how some dictators had people arrested for insulting them, and this was meant to be a show of strength, but it was really a show of weakness; it suggested that their power was in fact vulnerable to mockery. Even those dictators didn't arrest seagulls for pooping on their palace, because the seagulls didn't matter; one might cull them, but not for the insult.

Julia should track insults from people who matter, and let seagulls poop where they may. 

Julia's father has a tendency to say things in overwrought terms like that but the normal-person interpretation is that people aren't worth paying attention to if they don't want to be useful, and that one doesn't want to be useful, so she might as well not exist - oooh, look, a schedule!

"What've you got?" Julia asks Lucy. "Also, I decided what I want for the other shirt; I want it to be a pillowcase instead."

"I mean, it'd save you from being the chump who gets eaten in week one, if it were otherwise good. Do you, uh, know, how to build mana?" El asks Lissa, and looking at Lissa finally makes her schedule show up.

"--Okay. We can do that, but Wilbur doesn't know as many useful enchantments for pillowcases as for shirts." Ooh schedule. 

Good to see that Owoye recognized him- despite several conversations yesterday that didn't pan out, Ghassan was glad to see at least one had borne fruit.

"I plan to focus on creative writing for now. My affinity will help with alchemy. Artificing might give me some trouble, but nothing that I can't handle."

"I feel like you could do big business in pillowcases that promote restful sleep!" she says to Lucy, studying her schedule. "Most people already come in with enchanted clothes. What've you got Friday afternoons, I want to put history or lang lab there -"

"I have languages lab there." She doesn't point out how the market for pillowcases that promote restful sleep is very small and mostly made up of people similar in station to Julia. 

Annisa walks in. ...well, okay then, this is a fine homeroom actually. Malak's sitting with a competent-looking enclaver who looks Korean but who she doesn't recognize from Seoul yesterday, and she shouldn't sit with them but she can compare schedules with them in a bit. A couple of the kids from yesterday's supply run are there, she can hit them up for schedule comparisons too. Obvious maleficer has several admirers. Rich enclaver doesn't, but also Annisa probably hasn't made a good impression, wandering in late like she overslept or something - eh, still probably worth it. She sits down behind rich enclaver. 

Julia writes that down and then tries to remember the name of the doomed Chicago kid who isn't Karen - Lisa? Looks like she's talking to someone right now. She looks over at Marcy instead. "Hey, Boston, swap?"

"Lemme see your schedule," says El to Lissa, "when you get it." She peeps at Lucy's, makes hers visible.