"Ugh, does that mean if we all took our homework more seriously the school would be better at keeping mals out?"

The thing that jumps immediately to Annisa's mind which she would not say aloud under any circumstances is that everyone knows the Sinosphere kids work harder than the Anglosphere kids, and are selected by a test to get a slot in the first place, and are pulling more than their share of keeping the school functional. Aside from not saying this because it'd be incredibly unstrategic it also seems false of Marcy, though, who seems to have every intention of working relentlessly to turn her massive advantage into a sure thing.

"That seems like a really important thing to know but I don't know how we'd find out unless we got a whole bunch of people to go really hard on homework for a term and made an attempt at systematically counting mals, and we couldn't possibly ask that of people without a lot more to go on than a nice-sounding theory." She's not even allowed to go for valedictorian, herself; her parents made it very clear that going for valedictorian is only the optimal strategy if you need it to get a graduation alliance.

Maybe there is a way to say her clever idea without offending Marcy. "In some parts of the world everyone gets in and in some you have to test in. If adults wanted to check if it mattered they could vary how many slots get assigned in each way - probably for a decade at a time, telling people way in advance so they can time their kids - and see which way produces student populations with more survivors, which is probably something of a proxy for how bad the mals are and how resourced the school is."

Ways to test the theory don't seem that important to Malak because even if confirmed there's nothing to be done about it.

"Even if somehow someone did prove it, nobody who's cheating on their math homework is going to decide to stop because doing it would give the school marginally more mana to protect other kids with."

"I'm not sure that would be a good test? Making people test in probably gets you individually stronger freshman but they'll be used to competing against each other instead of being a team, so that's two other things that could affect survival rate apart from whether directly doing homework helps. It's probably worth trying anyway, just as a direct experiment in what gets you more survivors, because that's what you want even if you don't know why. And separately I think there are people who would put more effort into their homework than they do now if they really believed it would help the school keep them safe."

Malak noticed the natural experiment that Annisa was talking about. She feels a twinge of annoyance at it, but does her best to suppress it because there's no point in being annoyed at how the world is and if third-world enclaves and independents want their place at the table, well, they'll just have to get strong enough to take it.

It does in fact suck that they can't just let everyone in, but it seems stupid to say that when she has neither a plan to fix it nor the resources to even try to come up with one.

It makes perfect sense that people try to protect their own kids and not random strangers; you'd have to be an idiot to expect them to do otherwise. And even if you were a bizarre psychological alien who for some reason wanted to maximize survival, well, Americans are richer, so their children are more likely to survive, so it makes sense to let more of them in than weak groups from poor places. ...is there a way to say that which won't offend Marcy. 

"Places that let everyone in wouldn't stop that, nor should they, but places that do tests might do something else, if the tests weren't measuring the right thing. You could just auction all the spots, if it turns out parental investment matters more than actual quality as a student. Or ...sell points on the test, at some price, if you figured out how much parental investment counts for how much homework ability."

"Well, that's only England, right? I - kind of think England should stop, or - everyone else should stop them. Of course, if all those spots go to New York instead that's not really any better."

Raleigh spends a minute looking around the cafeteria. He doesn't see Bella but there's Marcy, unsurprisingly sitting at the Boston table. Raleigh heads that way, trying to gauge if they have any extra table space. Boston is generally on good terms with Sacramento, though Larisa did let slip that right now Sacramento back-owes them quite a lot of favours. As one of the people who may end up expected to pay back said favours, this is pretty relevant to Raleigh. 

(Raleigh suspects that his father would be Displeased by - something - about that entire situation, but he's not sure what, and personally it's not like he minds helping other people out.) 

He tries to catch Marcy's eye and wave to her. 

"I think America's not usually tight on spots, unless you've managed to offend all the enclaves somehow? I looked this up when I was deciding where to emigrate" if I grow up "and it looked like mostly all the qualified kids were negotiating who they'd carry for." 

Well, the table's pretty crowded, it looks like, but also Marcy is talking to some other freshmen he hasn't met yet! 

"Hey, Marcy," Raleigh says, without trying to sit down. "Did you get a decent schedule?" He nods to the other two girls as well. "I'm Raleigh. Sacramento enclave." 

Marcy definitely has time for Sacramento, especially since she heard last night that their upperclassmen are in semi-formal talks with Boston's upperclassmen. "Hi Raleigh! I did, yeah, we're all in Tuesday morning shop. How's yours?"

“Pretty good, all things considered! I managed to swap Algebra II for Algebra I, and then it gave me a class on medieval debate poetry, whatever the hell that is, instead of my extra language lab slots. I think I’ve got lab Tuesday mornings, slot before lunch, and shop on Wednesdays. And then a ton of history, but Shannon says she’s really solid on that so I bet I can trade something for homework help if I need to.”

"Yeah, I'm starting German and possibly also Akkadian and that will either be super awesome or eat my entire semester or both. I'm glad your and Shannon's situations align nicely."

This looks like a scoot over and try to fit the Sacramento enclaver in situation? Annisa can scoot.

Randi smiles and sits down. “Yeah! And Shannon’s really great, she’s so smart…” His expression is a little dreamy. “I hope we have some classes together, haven’t had a chance to sync up after homeroom…”

He stops. Narrows his eyes. Why is Landon headed this way and why does he look so stressed - oh no, is Raleigh somehow in trouble aaaaaaaah what could he possibly have screwed up so badly before classes have even started….

Malak was a little slow on her feet noticing that but, yes, she too can scoot. She will do so in a way that puts some Sacramento space in between her and Annisa and across from Marcy.

Landon marches up to the table, looking very tense and serious. 

He exchanges nods with the Boston upperclassmen, then crosses over to Annisa’s side of the table, his eyes brushing past Raleigh with momentary confusion. 

“Landon, Sacramento,” he says. “Heard you knew something about a freshman enclaver who’d been planning to walk into the void deliberately?”

Marcy notices the scooting and shoots Annisa and Malak an appreciative smile. She's about to tell Raleigh about their speculations about homework effort going into the school wards but WTF someone was planning to what?

Her face goes still for a fraction of a second before she realizes that this is one of those situations where someone who doesn't know anything is supposed to react.

"Who did what - sorry, that's not my business."

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhaahahahahahhah it's not fair it's not - and she has the stuff in her backpack, she can't deny it, she can only -

"Chantal. Toronto, I think? She said, uh -" innocentinnocentinnocentinnocent - "she had some kind of fight with Edmund Pevensie from London about it, and I asked her about it, and she said, uh, that he'd tried to - talk her out of it - and she didn't want that - so I just said, uh, that I'd heard it didn't work, just turned you back funny, and she said we'd see, and I could - check - in the morning - if it'd worked -" It sounds to her like she's lying and she isn't even lying.

Landon looks so unhappy, though it’s not particularly aimed at Annisa.

”And?” he says quietly.