This one is better placed than that. There's six people, which leaves two-ish four-ish spare seats on one end, next to one girl with the neatly-short hair of a freshman.

They don't look shiny enough or cohesive to be enclavers.

Plenty of room, so she won't necessarily look like she's trying to barge in on the upperclassmen, and there's another freshman there so she won't be the last one eating for too long...  she approaches cautiously.   "Is this seat spoken for?"

Basira looks at John and Daisy. John looks miserable. Daisy looks distracted. Basira says "Nope." and gestures at the unspoken space.

"Cool, thank you."  She glances under the table to get in the habit, even though the older kids would probably have done something about anything lurking there, and sits. "I'm Connie."

"Basira—good habit, that."

"Thanks."  Should she ask the older kids or would that be weird... probably it would be weird, they can decide for themselves if they want to be in this conversation.  "I'm artificing track, you?"

"Incantations, writing."

And then before she thinks of a next thing to say John turns to stare at Connie and asks "Are you any good at it?"

How do you answer that, anybody could just say they are- oh right, duh.  "Well, I hope so- I made this,"  she pulls her grabber-glove out of its carefully padded backpack pocket.  Turned off, it's likely not immediately obvious what it does, but it's an intricate design, carefully made if with a freshman level of skill.  "I mean, my dad helped some with the design, but, you know."

Oooor probably she shouldn't have admitted that, now she doesn't have a way to say how much help it was and she's back where she started, because someone who only needed a little help wouldn't have said anything... 

"What does it... do?"

"TK reach extender- basically like a grabber claw, only without the arm, so I can pick things up or open doors without my hand being there?  Only goes like ten inches at this point, depending on how much mana I put in, but I've got some ideas for nice upgrades she might like."  She pats the glove fondly.

"See, that's useful," she says, not looking over her shoulder. "How are you going to upgrade it?"

"Finer control mostly?  I can pick up heavier things by putting more into it, but someday it'd be cool to use tools at a distance.  Although she's doing her best and I'm very proud of her, and if she doesn't want any upgrades she's just fine the way she is," Connie adds hurriedly. 

"Is she good enough to be worth copying?"

"Already got one of the maintenance track kids who's interested in a little sister once I get settled into shop and have time for side projects."  She's terribly pleased about this.  Maybe even a little smug.  "A junior, even."