On its surface that sounds refreshingly unhorrible. "Mostly just a materials-starved Friday class." Also a make-and-mend spell, but his problems with affecting non-Alexius things are not really the Scholomance's fault. "I'll be fine, I have four weeks. ...you've probably already heard my flustercluck potion story from the rumor mill, that's what's really eating me. If you want to trade mana for decent personal spells or language tutoring or homework I suppose that'd help." Asking hurts his pride, but it'd be awful hypocritical of him to tout the benefits of sticking together and helping each other and then turn around and refuse help when it's offered. 

"Sure, tell me more about those spells? Unless you're some sort of super-genius, in which case I have a friend who could use your help on some homework - She's a junior like me and was doing honors classes before - well she's not able to do her own work right now - anyways, I wouldn't want to dump junior honors classes on a freshman unless you're the next Browning or something."

"...does she need someone for math, actually?  I can do up through calculus."  She's still not entirely sure what this guy's deal is but if you run away from every opportunity you don't get anywhere, and there's a limit to how much of a problem it can be if she doesn't go anywhere alone with him, right?

"Ooh, maybe! She could definitely use some help with math homework. She did calculus last year, but maybe she has more this year? I don't know how much calculus there is, I'm not a math person."

"I have the advantage of potion-assisted eidetic memory for history and some literature-type homework. And languages don't care about class level. For spells, what languages are you looking in?" He repeats the eclectic litany of English, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Mandarin, Hebrew, and Sanskrit.

Connie shrugs.  "I think mundane school does two years?"  Maybe don't mention what math you're doing, actually, there might be two sections of number theory but there might not be and then he'll know where to find you. 

"If you let her know- is she up for doing her own haggling, actually, or are you arranging that?"  Hopefully that's a decent enough hint that she's not looking to do someone else's work out of goodwill towards men, without being rude about it?

To Alexius, "I've got the big four and Latin. Naomi's artificing but might need help with Russian homework."

And to Connie, "She is not doing her own haggling right now, me or Amos will do that. I will check what math she's in once I've circled around and let you know - if I don't get to it before lunch is done is there somewhere I can find you?"

"Russian homework I can do for mana, especially on an upperclassman's mana budget. I will also trade for cool objects or artificing help." Comparative advantage: yay!

"Big four is not quite as clearly identifying as it seems. Spanish or Russian could be big depending on who you ask...in English I have two stimulants, some gut microbiome tweaks that are super flexible if you know biology but dangerous to fuck up, a small reflexes boost, an ice spike, cold resistance, a slight movement speed boost, and a few healing. In Mandarin there's a slight thinkfast and a spell to stop bleeding and oxygenate blood that I can't yet cast but it's a darn good one. Latin's got an envelope shield that's cheap to keep up for a long time but penalized at taking hits, a general-purpose antitoxin, fast-cast skin-toughening, an incorporeal solidifier, and some body modification spells including faster hair growth." 

"English, Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi. Four biggest by number of speakers. I'm maybe interested in the bleeding-stopping one, let's figure out what's a fair trade for that tomorrow? And I can introduce you to Naomi then so you can help her with her Russian."

"Sure, where and when? Spanish also has some concealment spells, by the way." Positive-sum trades! With upperclassmen, no less! Maybe he is not doomed! 

"Tomorrow's the weekend, so - come find me at lunch? And then we can all head up to the library after." He stands up to go,

"Sorry to cut this short but I've got six hundred more freshmen to check in on and that's not even counting the Chinese."

"Good of you! Lunch it is." If this guy's on the level then he's awesome and Alexius wants to be him in a couple years. 

Right, people do need some way to find you if you want to do business with them.  Still, she might have been overcautious with Alexius but she's definitely not giving this boy her room number.

Aaand by the time she's gotten a sentence together the conversation has moved on, convenient now but she needs to get faster at that.  "I can find you at lunch then, too, to talk math?"  Aaaand a library run, which would be great if he's on the level but tips it hard toward too good to be true. 

"...while you're here, would you mind seeing if that's something that needs dealing with?"  She points to the weird puddle at the end of the table, marked off by its double perimeter of green beans.  "We weren't sure if it was an ooze or what's left after someone killed something or, like, I dunno, a really depressed flan."

He looks it over.

"Leftover from something dead, don't touch it though, could be toxic."

He heads off to another nearby table.

Once he's out of earshot, Connie leans closer to Alexius and murmurs "That was weird- that is weird, right?  Did you get the talk about giving stuff away free too?"

"Yep. I - " have reasons to want to be targeted by maleficers, he absolutely cannot say, lest he tip one off inadvertently, " - think it's worth taking a risk over, myself, but we can't afford to forget it's a risk." 

"Yeah."  She frowns and starts disassembling her lasagna instead of eating it.  "I did come here planning to swap for junior and senior math homework, wouldn't've made sense to spend time on it otherwise, but- I don't think I like this.  We could... try and find some more kids to go with, maybe?"  She doesn't sound confident in this plan.  "Or just... decide ahead of time we're definitely not going into the stacks?"

"Reasonable. As long as we stay to the center of the library with a lot of witnesses it'd be unlikely for a maleficer to try anything. And if he tries to change our minds, that's a red flag." 

"Yeah.  I- like, it would be really normal for his friend to be waiting at a carrel somewhere?  But 's also normal to not trust that, right, so if he's on the level and just weirdly friendly he'd understand."