"I have Tuesday lab, so I might have an assignment by then? But mostly lookout."

"First or second period?"

"Shop first, then lab." Sigh.

"Hmm, mine's first thing Tuesday morning." He sympathizes with that sigh. Friggin' Friday shop class. 

"Yeah, but it went pretty easy on me for math and history so I decided not to mess with it to get the morning slot gone."

"Reasonable. Don't poke a sleeping dragon and all that. Are there any trades you did make?" 

"Nah, but I should have swapped out of detective fiction. It's got just one other kid in it, I wasn't expecting that."

"It seems odd that the school even offers freshman-level classes to that small an audience. Who's the other lucky kid?" 

"His name's Basil. New York but he talks with a London accent, it's strange. Said it was to help people tell him and his twin apart."

"That's one way to distinguish yourself, I suppose." Alexius remembers he has food and sets about reducing its quantity. 

Between bites, "This school has strange priorities for what we need to know, doesn't it? Detective fiction. It's fun and all, but I don't see our survival depending on it." 

"Well, I'm not complaining about the coursework, it's mostly reading stories and it looks like there'll be spells in it. Forensics and stuff. But yeah, me and Basil are going to alternate doing the homework probably."

"I suppose forensics could come in handy. The fiction is case studies in its use? Good that you and Basil have a plan to save time, that's good thinking."

"More like, if Poirot knew this simple French incantation, what would have happened, discuss. Poirot is not a wizard."

"Huh. Leave it to the Scholomance to teach spells via classic novel fanfiction." 

"I guess you could think of it that way! Maybe there are wizard stories later but they might just as easily be, you know, mundie fantasy."

"'How would this simple finding spell have changed Sauron's plans? Discuss.' Now I'm almost sad to be missing out." 

"If you want copies of the assignments you might be able to get extra lit cred for them? If you want that?"

"Hmm. I'm not going for valedictorian," he'd considered it, as a not-quite-enclaver in need of showing off, but ultimately decided to spend his time elsewhere, "so extra credit is not really all that helpful. I would totally swap for useful spells, though." 

"The first Poirot one is a handwriting analysis spell. Not that useful."

"...and now I'm trying to come up with uses for a handwriting analysis spell in the Scholomance. Enforceable signed contracts making long-term deals more feasible? Doesn't help if the other person dies but you could pledge stuff as collateral, I suppose..." 

"I guess if someone managed to lose their assignment you could find out whose it was and give it back to them for a bounty?"

"Maybe! Not really something we'd want to do often, what with how it makes people want to steal assignments and sell them back...I wonder if you could figure out who wrote a good spell the void hands you, and ask for more by the same author?" 

"Oh, that's a good idea!"

"Hey, if it works let me know and we can start a research project. 'Collected Works of Obscurus the Wise, Volume One.' Might even get you out of a final." 

"Who's Obscurus the Wise?"