...is she under the impression Scorpius is not helping her with that, too, regardless of what actual class he has?

...

Fine. But she'll glare at him about it.

Whyyyyy is Yvette glaring at Scorpius Lake that is such a bad idea.

...she thinks. Or thought. Scorpius Lake seems to be reacting the opposite of how Liu expected him to react, it's almost like he likes it, maybe that's why he likes mals so much and she will stop speculating about what Scorpius Lake is into right this second yep.

It does seem to be a friendly kind of glaring? Performative grumpiness, not actually hostile.

But yes, it's kind of weird.

Regardless! Class! (Ow.)

Scorpius drops them off, waves, and skips away, looking far too chipper for—anyone—at this place.

This is weird and she feels weird about it, but. ... Okay???

He's going to show up again after class to escort her some more, isn't he. She feels even weirder about that. He might be pushing her comfort levels again??? She has no idea, how does... friendship work. Probably he's traumatized by his last friend dying in front of him and wants Specifically Not That?

This is hard. She's just... going to focus on class. Okay? Okay.

At the end of class, before the bell actually rings and the doors actually open, one of the Paris enclavers who has never given her the time of day walks up to her trying to look casual. "Hey," she says in French. "Yvette, right? I'm Evelynne." She offers a hand for Yvette to shake.

What could possibly be motivating this!

She looks down at the offered hand, considers it for long enough to really hammer in her (underground) opinion of it, and doesn’t take it. She then looks back up at Evelynne.

“So I am, and so you are. What is it?”

—that almost breaks her stride but she was told to expect hostilities. "So, um, we have a French group of spell-trading and revision on Sunday afternoons," she says, lowering her hand. "And you're French, too, right? So I was wondering if you'd want to come."

“I worry that three years of catching up would be too much of a burden to ask of anyone.” Her smile is sharp. “So I will not. No thank you.”

Doors open and Scorpius is just turning around the corner to be visible. He gives them a wave from a distance and trots over to say, "Hey Ev, hi Liu, hi Yvette," as if this is just a friendly encounter.

"Hi," says Liu, still looking wary and very definitely not looking between Lake and Yvette because that would be rude even if they're totally dating.

    Evelynne herself jumps at the address and switches to English. "Lake, hi! Euh, didn't know you'd come here—"

"Oh yeah I skipped my last class and was just around and decided to come over to say hi to people. Glad to see you're recovering okay, Yvette," he adds, with an amount of casualness that suggests all Yvette did was break a toe or something and definitely not get stabbed. He doesn't linger overmuch, though, and switches to Liu. "We both got math now, right? Want company upstairs?"

"—sure. Uh, you skipped—"

"It was just shop and I got my end-of-term project done already, it's fine."

Evelynne... looks very unsure what to do now, between Yvette's cold glare and Scorpius's... whirlwind... and just stands there in silence for a moment.

Yvette was all prepared to puff up like a cat and hiss at Scorpius for his fussing, because she can take care of herself, thank you, but. Turns out he's not here to babysit her. Just check on her? While pretending to be here for unrelated reasons and confusing the shit out of Evelynne, which is admittedly kind of funny? ... Acceptable. It's more than she's used to, but fine on principle. She'll take it. And despite herself, she's. Glad? That he's checking on her, as long as he doesn't... fuss too overtly and try to baby her?

Feelings are confusing.

She's just going to see about getting to her next class. Maybe finding someone to walk with won't even be difficult, today, if apparently even Paris is talking to her.

Scorpius offers them a cheerful wave 'bye and Liu has to practically trot, herself, to keep up with him as he leads the way to maths. Evelynne, meanwhile, is left there with Yvette and increasingly aware of how undesired her presence is—Yvette's omnipresent aura of doom is useful like that—and after mumbling a half excuse scurries away as fast as she can without looking too undignified.

But that said, she's right that other people are in fact more willing to walk with her. Even if Lake's infatuations are as flimsy as the wind, they are still numbered and finite, and the fact that she's the current target gets her something.

That, or maybe actually it had something to do with the hot tea. Everyone knows now that Jack Westing was actually maleficer who'd gone as far as killing someone else, here, and it did tug at people's heartstrings that he picked on the poor mundane girl (even if no one had actually lifted a finger to help her when she was still alive). And they now also know that he's tried to kill Yvette, and not only failed but also was killed himself for his trouble. Which implies she is pretty cold blooded, but that's a quality not a flaw in here, and everyone agrees that self-defense is entirely justified. It also implies she is probably not a maleficer? And has rid the world of one?

A mixture, actually, of all of the above is what's going on. Whatever it is, she gets people to walk with to her next class, and they don't even actually exclude her from the small talk, even if they don't go as far as actively requesting her input.

This is deeply weird. She's too weirded out for small talk, even, and doesn't have much practice at it besides. Everyone that she's walking with probably thinks her silence is haughty or doom flavored or something, but actually it's a mix of social anxiety and still being in a great deal of pain, what with having been stabbed. She will attempt a friendly smile though?? See? She isn't completely mean all the time, it's just the only practice she has is at being mean? Help??

It's... nice?? She guesses?? This is a good time for people to be weirdly not excluding her, anyway, safety in numbers has always been true of Scholomance, and she's injured. Fortunately, ever since about mid sophomore year her strategy's been less 'running away' and more 'kill the fuckers trying to kill her,' so her ability to stay alive isn't that impacted. Just, you know. A bit. But if there are any mals on the way she will happily participate in making them cease existing.

A small desperate thing does try to take a stab at them—probably its last chance at doing so before some bigger mal ran into it by chance and ate it—but the other kids are in fact slower than Yvette at dealing with it, and look genuinely thankful for her help.

Huh!

"Happy to kill those murderous little fuckers," she says, genuinely brightly. Wait was that creepy? That might have been creepy. Shit she doesn't know how to not be creepy!

Ha ha ha yeah those uh little um sure anyway.

To class.

Shit.

Well. She's trying??

To class. (Sigh.)

And everyone has lunch after class so they move as a whole nice block that way. Scorpius doesn't show up this time either.

Good. That'd be a bit much.

But convenient blocks of students dissipate when exposed to the cafeteria, so. What are her seating arrangements looking like today?

A bit too early to tell when she gets into the queue, but after going through it (and having to dodge the rice pud again and also the eggs are definitely looking a bit too blue) there are, in fact... several people trying to catch her eye, some more hopeful than others.

To wit: kids from the London enclave, including one who seems to be actively waving; kids from the Paris enclave; some loser hopefuls that came with her to the cafeteria from class; and Alexei's group with the Russians and the other Slavic and Germanic kids, although they are still trying to be somewhat standoffish and Alexei is the only one who is really actively also waving. In a subdued Alexei fashion, but still.