El is escorted over by Bobbie and after they're satisfied the place isn't a deathtrap Bobbie skips off to whatever is next for her. El sits, not right next to Shannon but just two chairs away, since it's really the best place to be. Once she's sat down and put her bookbag on the table, she gets up again and performs an entire sun salutation, and when she returns to her chair, her book of Welsh mythology is right next to her bag.

"Ooh, neat, is that how getting your book here works?" Shannon will get up and turn her back on the table and do some stretches. "- I'm Shannon, by the way." 

Lissa joins El for this class, sitting next to her again. As the other two girls stretch, she stands up to do some ballet positions herself.

"Hi, I'm Lissa!" she adds, waving to Shannon.

"I'm El," El tells Shannon.

"Nice to meet both of you! Where are you two from? I'm from Vancouver, but I came in on one of Sacramento's extra slots, they only had one freshman this year." 

El taps the map of Wales on the front of her textbook.

Hira, who isn't from Wales and cares very little about the place, finds a seat as soon as she comes in and starts taking notes based on the table of contents: chapter titles, major headings within the chapters.

Only after she's gotten a few chapters in does she address the other girls.

"Nice to meet you all. It looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other. I'm Hira, from the Jaipur enclave."

"I'm from Chicago," says Lissa. "Um, not part of the enclave." It's a bit awkward to say that she didn't know this school existed, before, now that she's seen how small a proportion of such people there are. Still, the implications are probably enough for someone to pick up on.

She does smile at Hira when she enters, offering a wave. "Looks like it! I've got a lot of classes with El but I don't think I caught you guys in the morning class." Because it was honestly really big.

Jaipur is not Mumbai, so El relaxes a fraction, but she doesn't say hi to Hira and pretends to be fascinated by Taliesin.

Huh, El seems nervous about something? Shannon is clearly missing some subtext. Again. She's getting really tired of all this constant subtext and social tension floating around ambiently so she keeps brushing the edges of it without having any idea what's GOING ON. (Maybe Raleigh knows? It seems like his dad taught him literally everything.) 

Oh no, and she's supposed to be making friends and making a good impression but how does...talking to people...work...?

"Um, it looks like there are questions at the end of each chapter. Is the school going to tell us what our homework is or do we just have to, like, read it on our own...?" 

El flips through her book. A slip of paper falls out. "Answer the questions at the end of chapters 2, 3, and 5," she says. "Extra credit, include questions of your choice from chapters 1 and 4, extra credit, answer in Welsh. Due at the beginning of next class."

Hira doesn't know if El is with an enclave, but she doesn't give a shit. She can give as good as she gets. If El wants to play ice queen, Hira will freeze her out too.

"Your assignment should be there. Just give everything on your desk a good look and it'll turn up eventually," she says lightly, to Shannon.

"I should confess I don't know anything about Chicago, especially the mundane parts," she says to Lissa. Hira is pretty sure Chicago is one of the bigger American cities, but she couldn't point to it on a map. "What's it like?"

"It's way noisier than here," notes Lissa as she flips to the chapters to check the questions. "Like, I guess I didn't really notice it before, but last night was way quieter than I'm used to? And the streets can get pretty crowded so I'm lucky my school is...was pretty close to home. And there's a really nice art museum! It's got art from all over the world."

"My dad goes on work trips there sometimes," Shannon offers, mostly looking at her textbook. "He's a mundane university professor. He says the University of Chicago's good." 

"Oh, I haven't even thought about college yet," admits Lissa. "My parents do want me to stay close to home, but I also want to see more of the country, you know?"

"It is very premature to plan for that. Some people spend a couple years in therapy not doing anything after they graduate, if they graduate."

“You Americans do have a lot of country to travel. Where would you go?”

"Well, California for sure. I've heard a lot about it and apparently lots of famous people live there." Her eyes seem to be sparkling a bit as she thinks about it.

"Sacramento's in California too! I brought gear in for one of their freshman, Raleigh. He's....really sweet, actually. I, um," and she turns CRIMSON, "I - think he likes me? You know, like likes me." Aaaaaaaaaaaaah how does she so consistently manage to sound like a ridiculously innocent twelve-year-old. 

TALIESIN. FASCINATING.

Oh no she made it awkward. Why does she always DO that? 

"I think my dad got an honorary degree somehow?" she offers. "My parents didn't go to the Scholomance, though." 

Lissa perks up at the idea of possibly getting to Talk About Crushes. Although Shannon seems pretty embarrassed about it... "Oooh, has he asked you on a date? Actually, what do people do for dates here?" she asks. "It's not like there's an outside to go for walks or anything like that..."

Oh, maybe that wasn't such an enormous faux pas after all. 

"Right now he just keeps walking me everywhere," she says, leaning in toward Lissa and lowering her voice so she won't bother El, who's clearly trying to focus on the actual class. "And getting me extra food at the cafeteria. And he brought a screwdriver and dismantled my drawers for me. It's very...gentlemanly." 

"Awwwww," whispers Lissa back. "That's really sweet of him! You should tell me more later!" Because she does remember that they are in class right now. So she should probably look through this chapter a bit more and take some notes.

"We should absolutely talk about boys later. Do you want to sit with Sacramento for lunch, or could Jaipur steal you?"

This poor girl sounds completely unprepared for both boys and boys-in-the-Scholomance. Hira can sink a bit of time into her even without knowing she'll be useful later, if she's being courted by a gentlemanly boy from an American enclave. She'll try to justify it to the juniors before going forward, though.