okay but like

what's

I don't even know what to ask

I have the strong feeling that she got a lot more out of interacting with me than made any sense and I'm usually the one on the other end of that particular feeling, it was kind of uncomfortable

yes i remember the feeling

it felt somewhat like she had put me in a mental category which she found very informative

it was not entirely unlike our first interaction but her categories may be more esoteric than yours

and less sexual

Yeah, see, that's what he means. It is a lot more fun to be on the other side of the "I know a lot more about you than you think I by rights ought to." interaction. How likely is it, objectively speaking, that Monika is also a Transfer? On the one hand, they're meant to not be all that common; on the other, if you're writing a story about Pete then him meeting another Transfer would be almost predictable. And this school does have that scholarship for Transfers, too, so it will probably have more of them than most places.

Well. Food for thought.

yeah she really gave off very strong "I will not even entertain the possibility of non-platonic contact with you" vibes

i do not think she is entirely asexual, surprisingly enough

but she is certainly not interested in me and i am not surprised if she is not interested in you either

she has mentioned very particular tastes which she refuses to elaborate on but do exclude most people

well, I hope someday she finds the person of her dreams somewhere

Is he gonna have a plot to matchmake Monika with someone? That sounds like it could be somewhere this could go, though in her case it is as Tintin mentions a lot less obvious than with Hywel and Sophie.

Eh.

Onwards to class.

Afternoon classes happen and, despite Pete's jokes about what narration focuses on and timeskips and what-have-you, it's not like he experiences said timeskips. Nothing obviously plot-related occurs, as far as he can tell, so they probably were elided over with a paragraph, but he experienced them fully.

But the day isn't over until it's over, and after class there's rugby tryouts apparently you just show up to first practice and if you suck they kick you out? Wild.

Hywel, in a striped shirt and remarkably short shorts, immediately assaults him once he comes within assault range, grappling him into a tight manly hug. "Alright, Pete! Lads, this is Pete. He wants to play rugby."

A nearby lad squints. "He's a meter and a half tall, and if he weighs more than ten stone I'm the fucking Pope."

"Your Holiness! Let him play before you judge!" He releases Pete exactly enough to look him in the eyes. "Pete, do you know literally anything about rugby."

"I played some football—American—back home so to the extent they're similar yes but I was more of a soccer and swimming person so probably a review would not be amiss."

"Excellent! It's quite like American football except we don't wrap ourselves in cushions, if I break your arm I'm very sorry about it and you'll do it to me next time. Also some rules are different. You'll pick it up."

Another lad rolls his eyes affectionately and starts explaining the rules differences. There are some.

He might need to foul a couple of times to properly memorize them but no time like the present. He follows along well enough.

Once the rules are explained, and there's been a while for any other prospective players to show up: rugby!

Hywel is a beast on the field. He's not the tallest or the bulkiest player - in fact, by team standards, he's a bit of a twink - but he's built for speed and he fears nothing up to and including God.

Pete is an actual twink, but he absolutely does not play like one. If nothing else, physics itself is still kind of treating him as if he were in his other body so he is both stronger and more able to hold his ground than should be at all possible, though hopefully in a not that suspicious way. He is also kind of aggro and kind of reckless, and occasionally fails to account for the fact that he is not, actually, in his old body, to the extent that that matters, which is nonzero.

The first time he tackles Hywel, Hywel laughs uproariously and bear-hugs him after standing back up.

The first time Hywel tackles him, he stands over him, looking concerned until Pete stirs, at which point he grins, yanks him to his feet, and gives him a bear hug.

There is at least one occasion where Hywel tackles him with a bear hug.

"Howell, will you stop fondling that boy?" snaps one of his teammates, the one who commented on Pete's height. "Some of us are trying to play."

"No!" Hywel says cheerfully. "Die!"

Pete rolls his eyes fondly but doesn't say anything; his initial instinct is to flirt but he's decided he is going to Not until he's advanced the Hywel/Sophie plot somewhat, so he doesn't want to encourage Hywel.

"Don't feel special," says the teammate who explained the rules. "Jenkins is just like this."

"Oi! That's no reason not to feel special!"

"I am afraid I'm chronically incapable of not feeling special. Comes with the pink hair, you see."

"Good," Hywel says firmly. "I don't fondle people at random, you know."

"You do though," Rules Boy [who was introduced earlier as Sean] points out.

"No! I do it when someone's interesting, and they haven't told me not to, and I don't think they want me to stop and just haven't said so."

"What about Artie?"

"Artie has never said anything about stopping, he just hits me," Hywel points out.

A ball slams into his chest at ballistic speeds. "Play or get off the fucking field!" Artie [the angry boy] shouts.

"Like that!" Hywel wheezes merrily.

"Does that mean you find Artie interesting? Should I also take an interest?"

"See - okay, that's the trick, right?" Hywel obligingly moves off the field, dragging Pete with him, to drink some ice water. "Because, like, I say somebody has to be interesting. And Artie is interesting. He likes rugby but he's the one who recommended me the Meditations, too, and he's read Kant and he's read Nietzsche - he's got brains in that skull no matter how hard he tries to get them beaten out of it. He likes this girl Lola, and she's interesting - her family's Nigerian, her dad's the son of an old colonial governor and her mum's a local girl, and they used to go back every year for Christmas but they haven't been since she was tiny because it's too dangerous, and she'll talk your ear off about how she misses this sandwich place in Lagos. Sean's interesting too, even though I don't get touchy with him because he told me not to - he wants to be a priest. He's got a girlfriend Tiff, she wants to be a priest too, with him, and co-minister a parish. And - I could go on. I do go on, I will go on. I like people. Me liking someone doesn't mean you'll get on, or anything. It means I like them. There's nobody who isn't interesting, if you take an interest."

He drinks some more water.

He also drinks some water. "I'm not gonna flirt with you because I said I wouldn't but that right there is making me want to. I'm kind of an acquired taste, myself, but I—agree. With all of that. It's something I've told my more introverted friends, sometimes, and they always look at me like I'm insane, but it's. Nice to see someone else who sees it too, I guess."

"Oh. Well, good. It is nice having someone agree with me, instead of rolling their eyes and filing it under Jenkins will fuck anything that moves."

"Jenkins might fuck anything that moves but that, I mean. Clearly Jenkins likes everything that moves and that's more important, you know.

"...do Sophie. Last night you were being unserious. I wanna hear what you've got to say about her."

"I -"

Hywel closes his mouth and thinks a bit harder.

"...we met when I was with Artie and Dafydd, getting drunk at this stupid party. And Artie and I went over to introduce ourselves to her girls, and we did a bit of a routine, this is Artie, ask him about philosophy, this is Howell, ask him about - and I don't even remember what he said to ask me about, because I was watching her go from annoyed to pissed off. And she said -"

"Hywel, wasn't it?"