"Hi! Sorry, I know I'm a little late, I slept in a few minutes."

"How are you? --Oh, wait, sorry--" He sticks his hand out.

"No, it's fine, you can keep your mana today."

"Re-really?"

"Yeah. Today's your big day, right? Birthday, Easter, everything?"

"Yeah! Well, Easter's tomorrow, and my birthday's Friday, but today is cooler so we're having them today."

"Hey, whatever works for you. I'll, I'll probably be practicing in the gym for some of today, with Nick and George and everyone, 'cause, y'know, graduation? But you'll have Toby around, at least, and I promise I'll be there for the party. If that's alright with you?"

"Yeah! Yeah, of course, man, graduation comes first. Never let me distract you from the grind."

"Thanks."

And when they reach Tampa's reading room: "...Toby's not here."

"I mean, we weren't here until a second ago. Does Toby normally wake up this early?"

"...No. I guess I just thought..."

"Well, see, there you go. He normally eats breakfast, right?"

"...Yeah?"

"And we definitely told him he can eat with us today. So you'll see him at breakfast."

"Yeah, okay." Time for an hour and a half of Tommy being totally unable to sit still! He takes Henry and Shroud out to feed them a bit of mana and some mal grubs; he checks the room for mals once, twice, thrice, making sure to check the drawers and the corners and so on. (He doesn't find any mals proper, but he does find a small family of agglos, which he calls Clay over to kill for resources.) He picks at the stitching where he sewed his shirt up a bit sloppily, and then he rips it on accident and has to do an even messier job trying to get it done in time for breakfast, because he can't talk to Toby for the first time with a big hole in his shirt, that'd just be embarrassing. 

Clay goes for breakfast before he does. Seniors eat first, freshmen eat last. The minutes go so slowly. He says a few Our Fathers, and a more freestyle thank you God for letting me talk to everyone again, and for the food and friends I'll be seeing at breakfast and at the party tonight, and for keeping me alive even when I didn't really want to be, and for getting Terrence out even though he doesn't believe in You, and for other things probably, and then he still has more time to kill, so he checks the room for mals a fourth time, and by the time he's done it's finally time for him to go to breakfast.

...Toby and Clay aren't sitting together.

"Hey, Tommy."

"Why's Toby over there?"

"I dunno. I checked with him that he knows he's allowed, and I know Alex was talking yesterday about the party, so..." Shrug.

"He definitely knows it's today, right? We didn't, like, say the wrong day, did we?"

Shrug. "I mean, you were there, right? We said Saturday."

"Maybe he thought we meant a different Saturday?"

"I mean, even if he did, I just reminded him, like, five minutes ago. Maybe he just wants to sit with his other friends for breakfast? I can go ask now, if you want."

"No, it's--I mean--you're sure he knows?"

"Pretty sure, yeah. He wanted to double check the time for the party, I told him it was 8pm tonight, after dinner, and he said he'd be there."

"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."

"...I'm important."

"Yeah. I- I don't know."

"Fuck this. No one even-- Clay, why did no one come? You told me-- Toby told me he'd come and see me."

(His voice breaks a little.)

"Yeah, I... I don't know? I don't know. I'm just as confused as you are."

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't fucking matter." He puts a token in the machine and gets a small handful of suspiciously sticky cinnamon candies. Fuck this. "Take these, I don't want them."

"Are you sure?"

He does take them, though.

"He-- I asked him to come. You were there, right, you-- I, I told him he could come, any time today, and he could--sit with us--and that I was, I was having a party--"

"I... Yes."

"Where is he. Do you know where he is."

"...No. Unless the study group meets on Saturdays?"

"I don't-- I just-- fuck this. What do you think?"

"I... Don't know? I think-- I mean, maybe something happened. We can try and find them, if you want?"

"Toby was right there, at dinner. He was there. I just want--I want to go home, not--not the scholomance, home--"

"Do you want to go find Toby? We can--we can check the study group area, maybe, see what they've done with it."

"Can I--can I be friends with them again--"

"I mean."

"What?"

"It's not like they want to be your friends, Tommy. I-- they were all invited. Toby was invited to be with you all day. And nobody even showed up. So if you want to, to see the study group area, see if they're there--"

...Tommy crumples up onto the floor. "Let's just stay here."

"We could go find them, if you really want to."

"No. No one showed up, did they? No one cares anymore--"

"I'm sure if you asked them, they'd say they care."

"Yeah, but we invited them. And they didn't show up. We did ask them. And they said no."

"We can can still party together, maybe. There'll be more food, if it's just between the two of us."

"I'm not hungry. You can have it." It's only kind of true, that he's not hungry, but it's complicated enough that his stomach does weird stuff when he thinks about it, which is sort of the same thing. It's rounding. Like in maths.

"What about this?" And he takes a small metal cylinder out of his pocket.

...Yeah, that catches his eye.

"You more of a Twinkle Twinkle man or more of a Frère Jacques type of guy? Or-- I mean, I've still got Over the Rainbow--"

"Uhhhhh. Whichever one I brought? They don't actually... have labels... but I figured, y'know, you've been listening to Over the Rainbow all the time, maybe you wanted something new."

"You know what? Yeah. Yeah." He motions for Clay to hand it over; he doesn't have a screwdriver on him but he does have a pencil, some tokens, and his fingernails, and he's willing to make it work. (He talks softly to the music box as he does, complimenting it on being brave and cool and able to play so many different songs, and it's not that he doesn't like Over the Rainbow, he's just being fair, he wants all the songs to get a chance.)

The music box plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's... Nice, actually.

"--I think it's pretty cool, you know. Your music box."

"Really? Awwwwww, thank you, Clay. I'm-- you know what, maybe I will eat, after all. You've given me some pep in my step." He pops the gumball into his mouth.

"...I could make a joke about you putting a ball in your mouth. I mean, I thought, I thought, you know, it'd be--"

"...I mean, you kind of just did. You just thought, what would Nick do, and the answer is make dirty jokes--"

"--I mean, it'd be weird if I did that."

"Yeah, it would be. It would be weird if you did that." How can one man be so stupid. "I turn 15 on Friday, you know."

He has talked himself into a corner here and he is, in fact, capable of recognizing that. ...This time, at least. "There are more tokens." Wow, A+ job with the incredible intellectual commentary. Well, at least it was a successful topic change. Token + machine = ...iced tea? Hey, sure, he'll take it, caffeine isn't ideal or anything but it's something, and he didn't even have to trade for it.

"You know what I miss, I miss iPhones. You know? I miss--I miss music, I miss texting, I miss snapchat. I miss my fucking streaks, bro. I mean, I love my music box, but it's not the internet. I could be listening to fucking, Jocelyn Flores by XXXTentacion right now. Or, um, I forget what the song's called, from Lego Batman. --Wait, please tell me you saw Lego Batman."

"I saw Lego Batman. It came out a few months before my induction."

"Thank God for Lego Batman, my friend."

"Yeah."

"What kind of music do you like? Or, did, I guess. Do? Did?"

"Hm. Pop, mostly? Some rap. I, uh, I like Drake, I like the Weeknd--I like k-pop, actually, and, uh, Justin Bieber, I think they get a bad rep because they're popular with teenage girls, you know? But that's, like... Teenage girls are cool. I dunno why people think they're, like, a bad thing."

"Clay. Clay. Have you ever even spoke to a girl."

"........I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"Uh-huh. ...K-pop? Really?"

"I mean, I'm not, like, intense about it, I'm not, like, a stan? But I like some of the music, and I, I think stans get a lot of shit they don't deserve, like, k-pop artists are mostly really talented people."

"What's your favorite anime? Is it Attack on Titan?"

"I have not watched a single--"

"WEEB."

"I've--"

"WEEB. WEEB. YOU ARE A WEEB."

...Affectionate eyeroll. "What about you, what music do you like?"

"Mostly stuff Wilbur showed me, if I'm being honest. Like, before he went in, he showed me Mr. Brightside, have you heard it? Because I had never heard it, and it was like, holy shit, this is so good. And Hamilton, of course, and his songs. He wrote his own, did you know? He's-- he was gonna be famous one day, and I was gonna be his first stan."

There... isn't really anything to say to that. "Mm."

"What do we do now?"

"I mean, we've still got a ton of tokens left. Or we could work on homework or something? That's not really a party thing, though."

"Yeahhhhh, you're... you're not very good at parties, are you, Clay."

"To be fair, there isn't much to do in the Scholomance. It's not like we can play Mario Party in here."

"I guess. I miss--I miss my friends."

"Well. I'm your friend."

"...Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks for letting me keep my mana today. Kinda nice of you."

"You're welcome."

"I'm sorry it wasn't much of a party."

"Well, we got to hang out, it's not all bad."

"Yeah. Even if George isn't here. --Did you even invite George?"

"No. ...He... probably wouldn't have come."

"Too busy cheating on you with Nick?"

"I don't know how he could do that, 'cause they're my friends, but."

Eyebrow waggle and exaggerated wink. "Mm-hm. He's your friend."

Eyeroll. "He is my friend."

"I mean, even if you are just friends, they could always hang out without you."

"I mean, they do. It happens. --Holy shit, watch out!" Tommy is getting shoved behind Clay as Clay chants at a mal with fleshy tentacles and dripping... something. He throws up a shield (thank you George) and starts chanting a spell that should use the mal's own movement against it, amplify it until it's being ripped apart. If he needs it he has a reflex-enhancing potion in his pocket, but he doesn't think he will; it's the sort of thing going for Tommy because it thinks he's easy prey, not the sort of thing that actually thinks it can take Clay.

As if on cue, it thrashes itself into meaty shreds.

"Holy shit, that was sick! That could've, it could've been the end of me."

"You have to be careful, Tommy."

"...Maybe it should've been."

"Tommy. Don't say that."

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger. Just saying what everyone's thinking."

"That's not--"

"I appreciate you trying to be positive at a time like this, but-- I mean, it's just you. It's been more time, and no one else showed up."

"What if we tried again? What if we did it another time? I mean, maybe-- they might have just been busy."

"I don’t wanna try again. Everyone’s fucking proved to me that they don’t wanna show up. I’m trying to be in a good mood, but it's--

Can I keep Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?"

"...Yeah, I'll let you keep it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure, it can be a, a party favor."

"Thanks, Clay. I knew you would--you're a real one."

"We should--probably head back. If it's just us. Unless you want to use more tokens?"

"Nah, I'm good. You can... you can take them. For showing up."

"You sure?"

"Yeah.

...Where do I go from here?"

"Right now? To your room."

"That's not what I meant, I meant in general."

"Still applies. Sleep on it. Don't do anything you can't take back."

"...Yeah, okay."

There's a long silence. Tommy doesn't really have anything to say. He's pretty sure he understands Wilbur now, though.

And at his room: "It's been--it's been fun talking to you. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow."