By the third day of Schlatt actually showing up for study group meetings and Wilbur still missing, Toby's willing to admit that he may have made a slight miscalculation.

In his defense, he's pretty sure this was not exactly according to plan. Alex was supposed to be the one in charge, and Wilbur might not have been happy but he would be alive, probably even more alive.

And, hey, maybe it'll still go great. Who knows. Not that he likes doing Schlatt's homework, but there are worse ways to spend your time, if it means Alex can fix things up with Tampa. He's been optimistic, recently, voice all smiles, and it's almost not incredibly obvious overcompensation for the way Niki and Tommy glare at him.

(Toby's not even good at Schlatt's homework. But Niki refuses and Tommy refuses and Schlatt refuses and Wilbur's--gone--so it's all on him and Alex. Granted, Tommy ends up taking on more of Toby's homework, to compensate, but it's the principle of the thing.)

He's got a project, at least. Easier to focus on that. Hand-thrown explosives with targeting--the targeting's the hard part, really, making sure the explosion centers on mals and not the floor of the school, because if he blows a hole to the void they'll all be screwed. He's thinking he might try his hand at some alchemy, instead, fill it with some sort of goo or ooze, focus the explosion on getting it everywhere rather than doing structural damage.

...Tommy's smiling today. That's new. (Maybe Wilbur's alive, or Tommy thinks he is, even more than he always does.) Maybe they can have a conversation today, at least. He tries to sound confident and probably misses the mark a little. "Hey, Tommy."