"Well, if you find out you should report back. It didn't give me any comp at all, and I sure don't plan to give up entirely on ever writing any of my own spells."

"I'll fill you" 

"Cool."

Hmmmmm she can't think of anything else to say. She's gonna shovel more of these rubbery eggs into her mouth, she's gonna need a lot of energy to do the amount of exercise that she's going to need to do in the next four weeks in order to not die. Is that a normal thing to do instead of talking? Whatever. Julian can come up with another conversation topic before she finishes her food if she wants to.

When it looks like the other kid is distracted, Julian is going to lean over and suddenly look very serious. "Naima?"

" - yes?"

Well this is going to be unbelievably awkward so he's going to do what he does best and plow right ahead consequences be damned. 

"You can't just go up to enclaver tables and talk to them. I mean, of course you can, you obviously just did – and, uh, I don't mean it's morally wrong or anything like that because the whole thing is stupid, and unfair, and – okay. The thing I'm trying to say is, enclavers get to choose who takes up their time and attention, because we all need them, and they don't need us." 

" - I don't think I did that? Like, that seems good to know, if that's in fact some kind of - social rule of the Scholomance, although actually I'm pretty sure you are supposed to talk to enclavers and in fact need to talk to enclavers and now I'm sort of confused about whether these pieces of advice are in conflict or just missing some additional nuance? But I didn't talk to the enclavers."

"It doesn't matter, you talked to someone who was sitting at their table, that's still enough to piss them off. You saw how freaked out your friend looked? She probably worked really hard to get an in with them so early and she – she  was probably scared they'd blame her." 

Julian half can't believe what he's saying. When he tries to take all that internal screaming and actually put it in words, it's the most spineless craven bullshit he's ever heard of. Day two and he is already beginning a glorious new career as a doormat. 

"...it's like bears, okay? You kind of have to think of them like bears. Sometimes they might want something you have, but they're big, and unpredictable, and you don't want to just go stomping into their territory unless you can distract them – I think that's how bears work? I've never actually seen a bear. .....am I making any sense at all?"

" - I dunno, some? I think actually with bears you're supposed to wear bells so they know to avoid you because they actually just want to be left alone, but I guess maybe enclavers also want to be left alone? I'm still kind of confused about this whole 'we need them, and also we can never talk to them during the specific times during which they are actually free' theory - 

" - but whatever, you think Malak was freaked out because I messed stuff up for her by talking to her, somehow?"

"Well, we need them at graduation. So I guess we can talk to them when we've proven that we're cool and useful and valuable and, uh, alive past the second day. But, yeah. I don't know if you messed stuff up for her but it looked like you scared her pretty bad." 

"I suppose that makes some sense. And also makes sense of what happened with Malak.

"I should probably apologize. I guess that's good to know, now I can at least do that."

"I'm sorry." 

"Why are you sorry?"

"I don't know. It's not like I'm an expert on enclaver behavioral ecology. The whole thing is just so dumb. I mean, if I were you I'd want to know, but I also wish I could be the kind of person who didn't care." 

"Well, maybe I'll decide I don't care, for me. But I don't want to go around causing trouble for Malak. Or other people! If I ever see you sitting at an enclaver table I will dutifully pretend you don't exist."

When she says it that way it sounds so obvious. "If you ever see me sitting at an enclaver table, I promise I'd rather be talking to you" oh god he actually said that. 

"Good to know! Well, I'll remember it, and make sure to talk to you at some later point when you are allowed to socially exist to other people again. - you wanna get out of here a few minutes early so we don't get stuck with awful seats in mal studies?"

"Well, now I feel like an idiot, but I actually have to go pay my respects to Shanghai" – before he digs himself in any deeper – "so I can figure out exactly when I'm on bodyguard duty."  

"-it was nice meeting you. Good luck with- being a better friend."

Oh wow that was a stupid thing to say. Virgil finishes his food without making eye contact with them.

"Thank you! - I forgot your name, remind me what it was?"

Actually she thinks she may never have asked for his name. She's pretty sure that was a mistake.

-oh he didn't introduce himself. Just like him to screw up a basic social interaction.

"Virgil. Um, we could walk to mal studies together if you want. Since we're all going to the same place?"

"Sure. I'm Naima, odds are I probably also forgot to say that. Let's go."