"Liath, Santa Barbara Enclave."

"Lovely to meet you! Such an unusual name, I cannot remember that I have ever heard it before."

"It's Gaelic, it means 'the Grey.' I'm Irish on my mother's mother's side. You?"

"Kenyan! But have lived in London all my life long."

"I see." 

Her gaze flicks to Nia's wrist. "So you got in with the UK independents clause?"

"That's right, Mum and Dad's master plan. Just in time for me."

"Good strategy. What track? I'm languages."

"I am also! Swahili and Spanish so far, both very good."

"Mandarin, Latin, Gaelic and Greek. I'm planning to take one or two classes in Mandarin for the language credit."

"Ooh, to free up time for what things?"

"Honors class workload, I'm aiming for Valedictorian."

"Oh goodness, I hear that is very challenging."

"Yes. But I'm confident I can manage it, with enough support."

"Do you have it?"

"There's the rest of the enclave, obviously, but they're busy people. I could use more."

"For doing what with?"

"Well, obviously I can't be wasting study time on a maintenance shift, and since the plan is to work outwards from Latin through the other Romance languages I could use fluent speakers of Spanish, French and Italian for tutoring. I need to do this honestly - no turning in homework that's not mine - but there's a lot of leeway between that and nothing."

"Oh, I see. How kind of your support people."

"I don't pretend the system is fair, but I do right by my allies. I don't intend to leave anyone who helps me behind at Graduation."

"Could that not turn out to be a lot of people?"

"Which is, of course, why I need to be selective and pick competent people."

"This makes sense entirely."

"Were you considering applying?"

"Oh, maybe! I do not speak French or any Italian yet. French has been recommended to me, though."

"I'd be willing to work together with you on it; I'm not going to hold your background against you. Not everybody has the tutoring to know five languages at fourteen."

"This sounds like a lovely way to do all the coursework."

She laughs. "I suppose it does. I mean it about not turning in work that's not mine, though. What's the point of being Valedictorian if you don't actually have the skills to back it up?"

"It would be embarrassing!"

"Worse, it would be a lie. I think a lot of people in this school don't care much about that, but..." 

She shrugs.

"Also it could kill you."

"Also it could kill you." But so what?

"How do applicants for your support position send in resumes?"

"I would call it an informal process right now. Personality fit's pretty important."

"Most sensible of you."

"And of course I need to shop around some. But there are a lot of independents, I'm sure I'll find someone."

"I wish you the best of luck!"

"You too, Nia."