Lissa probably needs a new bag, one she can carry from class to class easier. She's taken out most of the original contents, leaving only what she thinks might be necessary for class, and heads for her room after finding a map. Well, she actually needs several maps, but she does make it. Upon seeing El, she immediately perks up, sliding into the seat next to hers.

"Hi El!" she exclaims.

"Uh, hi. It's... Lissa?"

Annaka, of all people, comes up to Julia's room just after curfew ends to walk her to homeroom. 

"You're getting as bad as Mom," says Julia, who isn't done with her makeup and who went no-shampoo for the Scholomance but is worried her hair's not doing so well - maybe these pillows are bad for it? She should ask Lucy for silk ones. "Do you like my room?"

"You did a lot with it!" says Annaka. "This says 222 -"

Julia snatches the sheet back. "Look," she says, "I am not stupid enough to refuse to let an upperclassman walk me to class just because she's embarrassing as all get-out. But you are not going to read my schedule to me and tell me what to change like I'm an idiot. We did mock schedules a week ago. And three weeks ago. I'll try to get Shop and Lab early in the week because the supply cupboards refresh on Monday, but absolutely not first thing in the morning, make sure there are some seniors in that room before I am. I can't move Maleficaria Studies, there's only one English section. History and lang lab don't matter, I'm outsourcing those. Math and Lit should be in top-floor classrooms and if they're not I should try to swap into a session that is, and if I'm in a weird math class that looks like it might only have ten students I can always request algebra, which has hundreds. Don't have anything Friday afternoon if I can avoid it because that's when most assignments are due and I'll want to be doing, or copying, my homework. Do you think this shade of lipstick makes me look slutty."

"No," says Annaka. She does look reassured, actually. "Get moving, I don't have all day."

So Julia walks with her to room 222, and Annaka leaves at the door before Julia has to hiss at her under her breath. No one else from New York, looks like, but she knows Marcy from Boston and one of those poor Chicago randos is in this class too.

Lucy and Wilbur meet up first thing, at the midpoint between their rooms. 

They are not in homerooms close enough that they will be able to compare schedules, it turns out. This is not surprising but it is a bit disappointing. Oh well, their ability to coordinate was limited by the fact that they were on different tracks anyway. 

She enters homeroom. And recognizes three of the people already there! Admittedly one of them is a doomed muggleborn and another is the New York girl they sold Wilbur's slippers to, but the latter isn't all bad. She considers whether it's too soon to ask who she's making the shirt for, decides it probably is, and gives her a small nod of acknowledgment, and goes to sit with El and Doomed Muggleborn. 

"So how was the rest of your evenings?" she asks them. 

"I bought several months of bodyguarding services with my senior outfit. It's kind of weird."

"That's kind of weird! --I'm trying to think of a non-self-serving way to comment that you can totally buy a new outfit off us by senior year but I had to give up."

"I'm sure buying it off you would result in a better outfit than crocheting it out of a dead kid's blanket but remains to be seen what I'd swap for it."

"We have years to worry about it! I'm not going to pitch you too hard now. Still owe that one guy from the three-way trade last night, anyway."

Okay, that girl looks... weirdly creepy... and that other girl looks also weirdly creepy, not in a vibes way but in a, what, albinism way? He can't remember whether albinism is a maleficer sign sometimes. Not that he isn't himself a maleficer, or planning to be one, but, uh, all the more reason not to hang out with other ones, really? That would look suspicious. 

He will instead sit down by the girl who seems to be wearing - makeup? Really? Here?

Well, whatever. He's pretty sure makeup isn't a sign of being a maleficer, just a sign of... possibly weird priorities. That seems fine, given that he's only here for this one day, and only to pick classes.

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.

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."

There's a knock at the door; it's Silas, who is circulating between homerooms on behalf of New York so everyone knows what their options are and also when their enclave-mates are scheduled. He consults with Julia at the door in hushed voices; other people can ask, if they'd like, but they'll have to make it explicit that they're asking New York for a favor.

Sure, Annisa doesn't have that much pride. "Do you have anything end of the day Mondays and Wednesdays? I need to knock out a bad lit class."

       "And you are?" says Silas, which rankles somewhat because he's obviously New York's bag-carrier. 

"Annie, artificing, weapons. There's a shop first thing Monday morning, if you know anyone suicidal, and I've got the best history assignment volunteered so far, Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoon history of artificing." Polite, useful, but not desperate to prove herself. But hopefully she hasn't crossed the line into 'thinks too highly of herself?'

Silas looks to Julia. 

"Help the kids out, Silas, it's better for us if the classes we're all taking are fuller," says Julia generously.  

" - there's linear algebra end of the day Monday and Wednesday, there's a lang lab, there's Mandarin lit..."

She already knew there was a lang lab but if there's nothing better she'll take it and hope it puts her in a less stupid lit class. She nods. "Thanks." 

"Don't submit yours yet," Silas says to Julia, even more quietly. "I'm going to ask Orion about shop classes."

Orion will say "sure, whatever" because Orion always says that. What would even need - 

- oh WOW -

Julia goes back to her seat, mostly keeping a straight face.

Marcy wants to know what the New Yorkers were whispering about but she's not going to ask them. Also Kevin just showed up with the rest of the squad's schedules and she needs to talk to him about whether she wants to effectively be taking two different math classes or the same one twice and also swap out European History (interesting enough to be a distraction, not immediately useful) for Maleficaria from 1700 to the Present Day (even more interesting but also important).

Whatever the New Yorkers are up to it's not worth burning mana to find out, and given how she treated Julia earlier that's the only way she could.

She doesn't like not knowing things, but she has can avoid getting too worked up about things it's not worth the cost to learn.

Annie finalizes her schedule. It's tempting to try to stick to what Malak or Daria have but it's actually a good idea to force herself out of her comfort zone a little for the next few months while everyone's trying to make friends, not immediately form a knot of close associates and cling to them. After all, odds are decent they'll be dead by New Years. The fact something in her rebels against that assessment is all the more reason to try to get to know more people rather than get attached to existing ones. 

When she looks back down her finalized schedule is there. Mondays it's now English Romantic poetry, followed by English composition and intro to drafting, and in the afternoons she's got history of artificing and then language lab. Tuesdays is math, shop, more English Romantic poetry and introductory incantations. Wednesdays and Fridays are maleficaria studies, followed by comp and drafting, with afternoons same as Mondays; Thursday is just like Tuesdays except she's got lab not shop.

This is a perfectly solid schedule. She can do this. "Anyone want to stop by the bathrooms on the way to breakfast?" she asks, and stands up to leave. 

"I'm in," says Marcy, who has her final schedule back as well.

Monday mornings are language lab, then Korean history, then lunch, mals since 1700, and an intro German class someone in Kevin's homeroom had. (She's wanted German for a while, but was holding off in favor of improving her Igbo, specifically because it was going to be doable to get German lessons in here.). Wednesday and Friday start with Maleficaria studies and she has Lab instead of Korean History on Wednesdays, then the afternoons are  the same as Monday.

Tuesday and Thursday she has a Mandarin lit class on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms first thing, then her excellent shop slot and Western Europe Through 1500 respectively. (She will probably get spells in at least one of Three Kingdoms and Western Europe but if not she will have to be careful not to waste too much time on them.) Afternoons are an hour of Akkadian divinations, which might mean a second new language on top of the German but it's fine, German is just English with all the Latin sucked out, and then her intro math-for-physics class.

Hah, so declining Julia's homework offer was the right move, there's some New York/Boston rivalry going on. Annisa can work with that. 

After some consideration, Lucy decides to take the good shop class slot, partly because Wilbur will, if he can, and partly because that way if he can't she can bring him good materials. She fills in the rest of her schedule with things that look easy and/or useful (not that there's much in the and slot) and submits her revised schedule. 

Malak stops dithering and finalizes her schedule quickly so she can join Marcy and Annisa on their way to the bathroom.

"Hey Marcy, could I get a quick word alone?"

Annisa can go pee while they talk, sure, even if her brain is SCREAMING that Malak is going to BETRAY HER and point out there's Toronto enclaver's stuff in Annie's backpack. Why would Malak do that. That does not serve Malak's interests. There's a bunch more of Toronto enclaver's stuff in Malak's room. 

Marcy can be peeled off for a quick word, sure.

"Third food counter from the right is going to be relatively mal-free for a while. It was your idea, kind of, so I figure I owe you at least a couple tip-offs as to which one is hidden, but I'd prefer you don't share it around very much."

Oh, that's honourable of her. Still--"Does that include not telling my enclavemates? None of them will want to tell anyone else."

She could maybe keep a secret from them if she tried, by forgetting the information on purpose herself if nothing else, but it would suck.

" - How many? I don't know how few mals will go for that counter yet, so I don't know how many people it'll be able to support well. I don't want too many people right off the bat. You could tell a couple people now, as long as they won't pass it on or sell the information."

"There are four of us this year, counting me. None of them will tell, and we can avoid sending more than one of us to that counter at any given meal." She sounds as certain when describing their future actions as she would if they had already happened.

"Yeah, that'll work. Now let's hurry up before something tries to eat Annisa."

Marcy gives a decisive nod and strides toiletward.

Ghassan ruminates the pros and cons of trying to acquire a more politically-minded girlfriend. Pros: more likely to survive as long as she likes him. Cons: the first on the chopping block if he gets on her bad side. Much to think about.

He gets his schedule. Looks it over. Not too bad. He'll take it.

"It's...hard work, or something like that, right?" asks Lissa. "And...some exercise helps?" Though carrying that desk from Julia's room seemed to have done the most for her. She glances over at El's schedule, which makes hers show up as well.

"Yeah, you do something that's a lot of effort, especially if it hurts or you hate it or both, so exercise, crochet, some people can get it off studying which sounds like a great deal except that anything you hate that's also a lot of effort you slack off on sometimes probably so it's not as good as it sounds, their homework will eat them one day." El lets Lissa see her schedule, and peeks at Lissa's. "Oh, I like your history more than mine... but... if I mess with any of this I lose the Vedas class and who knows what I'd get instead... hm."

"The Vedas?" asks Lissa, looking over at her own schedule. "How many different kinds of history and writing do they have?" She's only seen two samples of each so far, but they look pretty specific.

"Lots. There's lots of kids and most of the classes are kind of small. You want to be in larger ones if you can though, as long as you expect to be able to do the work okay."

Silas swings back by and gives Julia a thumbs up through the window.

Well, all right, then. She puts down Monday morning shop, which is going to do weird things to the rest of her schedule. She's not even artificing track but if they're going to do this they should all do it together. Orion will protect them from mals and the rest of them will protect Orion from Orion (and help carry the stunning quantity of supplies). Silas and Tony and Bennett are artificing track and enclavers work together, it's what makes them strong.  

She tucks her schedule under some books, and looks away to advise Lisa(?) so her final one will show. Oh, Lisa's still entranced by suspicious girl. Well, nothing to be done - 

Her final schedule has Monday shop, poetry, history of artificing, and language lab, with Wednesdays and Fridays the same except Maleficaria Studies instead of shop. Tuesdays she has the algebra class Silas recommended, comp, history of combat magic in antiquity (Latin), formal logic for spellwriting, and language lab, and Thursdays are the same except lab instead of Latin. "Let's walk to breakfast," she says to the girl (Elizabeth?) who's doing her history homework. 

El grumpily decides to accept her schedule as-is after determining that she can't improve anything without risking her best classes. She signs her name to it and puts it in her bag. If Lissa needs more help with hers she'll do that but then it's breakfast time.

"Sure, sounds good!"

Lissa does do a few switches to match up with El better, as well as specifying that she wants to do a language focus. If El will allow, she'll head over to breakfast with the other girl.

Bobbie enters the room and jogs over to El's table.

"Ready for breakfast, ma'am?"

"Sure. Lissa's coming too, apparently." She inclines her head Lissaward.

Then they can go to breakfast! She wants a look at El's schedule since that impinges on hers.

"Sure, have a look."

Today El has the standard maleficaria studies block, followed by a double dose of Welsh mythology, and after lunch she's lined up for the history of maleficing and then mechanical principles.

" - We've got mechanics and mal studies together." sigh "I'd hoped for a little more overlap."

"Well, the mythology thing's a double, that should help. It's my Tuesdays and Thursdays that are just one thing after another all day."

Lissa mostly just follows along. "Are you another of El's friends?" she asks Bobbi, head tilted and trying to figure out why she looks oddly familiar.

"I'm her employee."

"She offered me bodyguarding services through Christmas for my senior outfit. It was a very good deal, if anyone wants your bodyguarding services you should hold out for something better than an outfit," El tells Lissa, "even if your bodyguarding services aren't worth as much as hers, but I think she was in a hurry."

Lissa nods. "Sounds like it's pretty valuable. That's why people do everything in groups after all, right?"

"Well if you think I overpaid I'm open to renegotiating"

"It was your opening offer, I didn't exactly haggle you up."

"Needed to be good enough that people would accept before thinking about haggling up. Or my generally weak negotiating position. Not blaming you for taking me up on it, but asking to renegotiate was worth a shot. Might want to buy my way out early if I can scrape up the capital before my indenture's up though."

"Yeah, all right. Lot of running around and you're not really the marathoner genre of Olympian."

"Well, I can run a marathon without dropping dead at the end of it but the modern bar is a bit higher than that. I'm not planning to run out in the middle of my long blocks on Tuesday and Thursday to babysit you, think you can keep yourself alive for three trips a week?"

"I'd bet my life on it."

Snort.

It turns out Bobbie is in fact physically capable of something resembling laughter. Who could've known.

"Are you going to join us for lunch? Or however many lunches you need to bounce back after presumably slimming down for induction?"

"Yeah that's not none. Sure, I'll sit with you guys today."