Bella has two consecutive classes in this room, so she spent passing period on her math homework that she didn't get a chance to do during work period. When another student opens the door she startles only slightly, sees it is a human and not a mal, and calms down. Math goes away and - ah, her textbook for this one is under it.

Today has been an emotional roller-coaster but he's so excited for this class. Excited enough to be sloppy about his situational awareness for the better part of a minute before he catches himself. He looks for a seat away from the vents and doesn't really know what other desiderata there are for seats here.

He has a textbook from a previous class tucked under one arm and nothing for notetaking because he prioritized eavesdropping and sleeping over supply runs last night. With his free hand he waves at the people who are here already.

"Afternoon. I'm Bella."

"Val, alchemy, good to meet you."

"Creative writing, likewise. I had my last class in this same room, it was safe when checked then."

"Oh, thanks!"

Does he owe this person now. He owes too many people and too few people owe him, and he's not actually sure if that's even quite how this works.

"No problem." She starts a new section of notes for this class session and starts flipping through the text.

Raleigh arrives kind of late and moderately rumpled-looking. Today is the worst. This sentiment shows somewhat on his face as he does a cursory look around and then flops into the chair at the desk nearest Bella. It's not right under a vent but it's hardly an amazing spot either. 

"Hi," he says to her. 

"Hi... I don't know how full to expect this class to be but based on my others so far they're trending small, you probably wouldn't be putting anyone out if you sat there." She gestures to her other side.

An Italian boy walks into the room with swagger, a hairstyle other than 'crew cut', and jet-black fingernails. He surveys the occupants and catches his eye on Liath. He plops himself down in the seat next to her, sprawling a little in a way he thinks makes him look very cool.

"Hello there. My name's Marino, what's yours?"

Ughhh? 

Raleigh exchanges a look with Bella - he mostly means it to signify 'do you happen to know what the fuck' - and gets up to sit on her other side. 

Bella does not know what the fuck!

Okay. Raleigh is just going to be over here being very quiet and uninteresting to confusingly cocky maleficers, then. Ooh, a textbook. 

"Hello Marino. I'm Liath. Santa Barbara. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Oh, I just like the look of you. Santa Barbara, that's California, right? I'm from Pisa."

Liath smiles behind her sunglasses. "Yeah, California. Pisa, huh? That explains the fingernails. Mice?" 

"Frogs, mostly. Ugly, but frog eggs are much lighter than baby mice. Also snakes, but those are for emergencies."

She nods. "What's your sacrifice schedule like?"

"Oh, pretty slow. We're not supposed to say too much, even to a friend - lots of wild maleficers would like to steal our secrets and never go rotten, and we can't have that."

She nods. "Can you at least tell me what track you are? I'm languages."

"The same for me! I have French and Greek and Latin, so far. French is my favorite, I think, it's a beautiful language for speaking to beautiful people."

"Mandarin, Latin, Greek, Gaelic. The plan is to continue on to the other romance languages. I could use a French and Italian tutor, actually."

.....Is this conversation incredibly weird? Raleigh feels like this is incredibly weird! 

He stomps on the temptation to say that actually he thinks frogs are cute. It's not relevant, and he doesn't actually want the attention of the weird arrogant maleficer kid, even if they're supposedly being responsible about the whole maleficing thing. 

Yeah let's ignore that whole thing, Santa Barbara can take care of herself. What does the lecture have to say, come on, lecture.

"I would be delighted to help you learn," he says, with a sparkle in his eye, "But I think I may have annoyed some others in the class, so perhaps we should discuss it later."