"Thanks again," Joss says, and then stands slightly awkwardly. "Uh, what do you have next?" That seems like a relatively safe topic of conversation.

"History. You?"

"Geography," Joss says with a slight shrug. "I think I would've preferred history..."

"You could swap? Or – did you do the GCSE already, that might be why?"

"I haven't," she says thoughtfully. "I might see about getting it swapped." (Father had always insisted that Geography was more useful, but she'd preferred history.) "Thanks for the suggestion."

"Sure. I'll see you later, bell's about to go."

"Great. Uh, point a girl in the right direction?"

"– Oh, it's uh, kinda over that way?" She points towards the English block. "History is kinda opposite it, I can walk you halfway there."

"That would be ace," Joss says, giving Jade two thumbs up.

Jade starts leading the way to class, but looks confused by the latest comment. "I don't think I've heard that in a while."

Joss shrugs slightly. "I guess it's not said that much over here? ...Wait, should I be avoiding using British phrases? It...probably isn't something I can do?"

"I don't think I'd heard it much back in England – not sure if it's England-specific – but you will probably be fine, I think it was just me they took issue with."

"That...kinda sounds like a dick move? You seem canny mint te' me." And yes, her accent does thicken there, before she seems to remember herself and pull it back under control. "Cheers for helping me out, mind, you didn't have to."

"It's fine," she shrugs. "What else was I going to do today?"

The bell rings.

"Well, y'could've abandoned me to my fate," Joss says lightly. "Ta-ra," she gives a two-fingered salute and heads into her class.

Jade waves and gets to history.

There's a girl in Joss's class who wants to know why she's speaking to Jade. (Not aggressively, just… confused.)

"Because she's speaking to me? And being helpful?" Joss suggests, sounding confused as to why that's even a question.

… But there are other people who could be helpful and who could speak to her, also.

Most people don't talk to Jade?

Well. No-one offered, and Joss got talking to Jade, so it just sort of happened? And also why don't people talk to Jade? Joss can't see a reason for that.

She's kinda weird. Kinda always has been? There was an incident a couple of weeks after she got here.

Given that Joss has never found a valid definition for 'normal' that applies to people beyond 'conforms to the majority behaviour', she is sceptical at the idea of choosing to shun someone because of a nebulous concept. On the other hand, what's going on with that incident? (She doesn't exactly want to pry, but...she's curious.)

… She's actually not sure, you know? It was weird. Sasha or Annabelle probably knows.

Plus some people are very weird in, like, a bad way, so being weird can definitely be bad. Creepiness is not a good thing.

Joss writes it off for now, because it's obviously not that much of a big deal if not everyone knows about it.

She will concede the point, but she hadn't got any...bad vibes from Jade. Then again, she'll freely admit that she's not the best at people (even if she normally trusts her instincts). Still, this conversation kind of feels like it's going in circles right now, and she's pretty sure the teacher is going to start complaining at them at some point about it.

… Oh, Jade's not – not like the creepy type, she's just generally weird, just it seemed important to note that weirdness can be bad?

But yeah, teacher might notice, better do some work. (She turns away from Joss and continues taking notes.)

Joss shakes her head slightly, because she'll accept the logic, but it seems really weird to bring it up if it's not actually applying to the subject at hand?

She turns her attention back to taking notes as well. (Geography - continues to be pretty boring from her perspective.)