One of Boston's sophomores makes a wiggly hand gesture and says (in Latin) that he's really overloaded this term but maybe they could ask the freshmen, he heard Marcy is doing the fast math track and anyway some of them might be able to do their homework while they babysit. He catches Marcy's eye and gestures for her to come down this end of the table again.

"Hello. Larisa, right? Marcy."

"OK, so I did hear what I thought I heard? Because I wasn't paying attention so I thought I must have heard wrong because what I thought I heard was completely insane"

She hisses this significantly more quietly than the Sacramento girl, because she's not trying to offend the senior? With a battle-axe?

“Uh, sorry, what did she say?” Raleigh is looking very sheepish at the clear indication of his inferior language skill.

"uh - I think she said she was going to spend the night in her brother's room protecting him from mals. And, uh. Himself."

“She’s going to what oh my god isn’t that insanely dangerous— I mean, it’s Larisa, but still!”

At which point the rest of the implications there catch up with him and whack him in the face. 

“So they…think…he’d do the same as the Toronto girl… What the fucking hell happened to him, anyway, nobody’s telling me anything…”

“Marcy,” Larisa acknowledges, with a curt nod. “Heard you might be up for sophomore-level math homework? What would you want in exchange for sitting with one of our sophomores during the work period after lunch and making sure his homework gets done?”

"I might be about to be in search of Akkadian language tutoring? Or a useful spell, or shop supplies, shop supplies are always good. What math is he in? I'm taking Algebra 2 this term."

Ha, creating common knowledge they were eavesdropping worked even though Annisa wasn't eavesdropping. And Sacramento doesn't care about Toronto, this just created more work for them because they're...also babysitting a suicide? She feels almost back to normal. 

“We can get you shop supplies. I have a bunch stashed in my room, you could poke around? …I think he’s in advanced geometry and intro calculus.” Larisa rubs a hand over her face. “I think Justin might have Akkadian, I can ask if he’s up for language tutoring.”

Oh no, she doesn't know calculus--she's not going to let that stop her because she doesn't let things stop her. She's going to need to learn it eventually anyway; artificers usually do. "I'm going to need to see his math textbooks in addition to the Akkadian tutoring; I had a little geometry but no calculus."

She should probably offer to find someone else but she’s so tired. “Thanks so much. Come find us at lunch?”

"I will." Sacramento is either insane or amazing and based on Boston's upperclassmen's reaction and Larisa's accomplishments she's leaning towards the latter. So she's going to be amazing too. 

Raleigh watches Marcy talking to Larisa. 

He glances over at Annisa and Malak. “I really want to know what the hell happened to Vanya,” he says grumpily. “He wasn’t, um, like…this. Before.”

"He's your, uh, kid who might copy Chantal?" Is that insensitive. 

"Well I've never heard of him before just now."

Why is he asking them about it?

Raleigh is aware he’s being awkward but no one ELSE is talking to him and he’s very tired of it.

”Uh, yeah, that,” he says to Annisa’s question. “Larisa keeps promising to fill me in and then…not doing that.”

Annisa kind of wants to avoid all attention from enclaves until she's a junior and can sell them impressive shit, at this point. "I'm sorry," she says to Raleigh.

"Could it've been a psychic mal? Probably he'll recover?" They wouldn't be trying to stop him from killing himself tonight if he wasn't going to get better, unless the rest of the enclave is planning to watch him 24/7 for the next three years.

"Does seem like they sort of owe you an explanation, though, if they're racking up a huge debt of favors to keep him from walking into the void." And burning a stunning amount of mana, if they're fighting mals for breaking curfew every single night. 

“…Could’ve been a psychic mal, I guess? And, yeah, it sounds like he’s already been getting better, just - I guess learning about the Toronto girl upset him a lot?”

Raleigh drags a hand through his hair. “Honestly I’m pretty nervous about, uh, knowing that something dangerous happened but not what? So, uh, if I do get an explanation, you guys want to hear it as well? “ 

"As long as you won't get in trouble for sharing it."

She does not mind if Raleigh gets in trouble with his crazy suicide-pact enclavemates over sharing it but she doesn't want anyone thinking she's trying to pry into Sacramento's private business. (Which she is)

What is his play, here?

Annisa should stop thinking about peoples' motives while she has this much adrenaline in her veins, it points all her thoughts at 'wants to kill you, personally'. Except Malak, who makes perfect sense as a person.

Malak has already given up on trying to understand what any enclaver is thinking for the rest of the day. It has been a day. Breakfast isn't even over yet and it has already been such a day.

Annisa wants to go lock herself in her room with Malak and gossip for five hours while they build mana but instead she has to do an ENTIRE DAY OF CLASSES. She is going to need to toughen up. She already knew that but she's going to need to toughen up more than she knew. 

“….Okay, I’m going to try to get an explanation out of her. …Catch you at lunch?” Probably the bell for start of class will be ringing any minute now.