"So he'll--he'll definitely be at the party, at least."

"I don't see why he wouldn't be." Tommy's not eating enough; he's getting a french toast stick dropped onto his plate. 

"And you're sure?" He's not in the mood for extra food; he puts it back on Clay's plate.

"Yeah. --Look, I have to go practice for graduation, okay? But I'll see you tonight." Sorry Tommy, you won't have a better appetite later, and you need to eat. French toast stick is getting dumped on his plate and then Clay is going to leave the table before he can give it back again.

"...Bye."

He picks at the french toast stick. He shouldn't be wasting food in the Scholomance, but it's hard, when he can see Toby at the other table. Toby's not even facing him, to wave or--whatever.

The day passes painfully slowly. He is getting so incredibly much mana for this, and it doesn't even matter, because Clay'll be getting all of it tomorrow anyway. He paces and does his geometry homework and gets ahead in Romeo & Juliet for Shakespeare and does a perimeter check for mals every half-hour and Toby doesn't show up. He eats lunch with Clay and Nick and George, and Toby doesn't sit with them. He eats dinner with Clay and Nick and George, and Toby doesn't sit with them.

After dinner he heads to the snack bar. He has forty-something tokens; he busies dividing them into six piles, dealing them out like cards to empty spots on the floor, for himself and Clay and Toby and Alex and Niki and Jack. They're two off from everyone being able to get eight; he gives himself and Jack Manifold seven and everyone else eight, then changes his mind and gives Jack an extra one from his pile so he has six and everyone else has eight, then decides that probably someone will be busy with homework so they can have the smaller pile and everyone else can have eight, or he can redistribute after everyone's here.

(Why isn't everyone here?)

Tommy jumps when Clay taps him on the shoulder.

"Sorry if I'm late, I wasn't sure when freshmen got out of dinner so I just kind of guessed--where is everyone?"

"I... Don't know."

"I mean, I figured the freshmen would be here at least. But maybe they're running late, I mean, I ran a little late, things come up."

"I just saw Toby at dinner."

"I mean, shit happens. Maybe they got held up by a mal or something. Why don't we start getting stuff out of the vending machine while we wait for people to show up?"

"They said--Toby definitely said he'd be here, and, and you said Alex was definitely going to come too, even if Niki and Jack are busy, right--"

"He said he'd be here, yeah."

...Tommy picks up tokens and starts feeding them into the machine. He can distribute them after.

(A package of microwave popcorn. A package of unsalted peanuts. A bag of cheetos. A tube of pecan butter. A single-serving cup of unsweetened applesauce. A packet of peanut butter cups. A single gumball. It's incredible how not hungry Tommy is, given how much he hasn't eaten today.)

"Clay, no one's here."

"I don't know why. I guess I'm most surprised Toby isn't here, 'cause he said he was gonna be."

"Toby skived my party...? ...Why is no one here! They said they'd be here! He said--he promised! This was my-- I told him, you were there, right?"

"Yeah, no, I remember."

"And it's just-- you're the only-- it's just you."

"I mean. Maybe they'll be late."

"And Toby-- no one cares about me anymore! No one cares, do they? I've been friends with Toby for, my whole life, and just--a couple months--and he's totally forgotten me. No one cares!"

"Tommy. That's not true."

"Well. Other than you."

"Tommy. I'm sure there's some reason."

"No one came! And all day-- Toby didn't come visit, or sit with me--"

"Maybe they're busy. Maybe they've got a bunch of homework, or there was a mal, or, I dunno. Something important."