Tommy doesn't understand what Wil saw in Shakespeare. Clearly it must have been something, Wil used to go all shall I compare thee to a summer's day at the slightest provocation, but fuck if Tommy can figure it out. It's all thees and thous and words that don't make any sense in orders that don't make any sense and he fucking hates classes and he hates them approximately a thousand times more when he's sitting near the door instead of next to Toby.

Unfortunately, if he doesn't do his homework it'll fucking eat him, and he's probably already asked for too many favors from Clay this week, he really really needs to do his homework this time. So he has to actually try to pay attention, to the class and to the door, because the mals will also fucking eat him, because everything in this stupid school wants to eat you.

(Toby's shit at Shakespeare, there's no way he's doing well on his homework, and he looks drawn and tight and unhappy, and everything in Tommy wants to go over and read it to him and do funny voices for all the characters. But Toby doesn't want him there anymore, so instead he stays put and tries to pay attention. It's hard, he had never really noticed before how hard it is to stay still and quiet, but at least he gets some mana out of it that he can give to Clay later. Maybe Clay will be happy with him for that.)

And then class ends, fucking finally, and he goes up to the first person he sees and says, "I think we should study together."