Fuzzy, Sasha, Julie and Roberta - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Noon - Blake Island

Fuzzy wasn't used to this. She was used to being challenged, sure, but those challenges were almost always physical: Nature, hunger, ghouls and local gangs. Being challenged by others in a social situation wasn't new but she wasn't exactly used to it either.

The people here were nice so far but niceness was often a trick. These people seemed to have different values than her and she didn’t understand them. The coat would be easy to show, even positive as it would demonstrate her prowess and truthfulness, but maybe she needed to learn what was important to these people if she was going to talk to them. Though after a few seconds of consideration she realized that she wouldn’t be able to keep to herself. She needed allies if she was to survive here.

She stood up abruptly without excusing herself and took Puppy with her to the sound of a few disappointed, "Awww's," and she went back to her cabin. This took her away from the school and into the island's hilly, temperate rain forest that comprised most of Blake Island along a well maintained dirt path. Even though she'd walked the island a few times now, the sheer amount of healthy, living plants and abundant wildlife continued to floor her. Though she didn't take her time to stare at it as she had before school started. Not only were people waiting on her, but it was time to eat.

As she hung a left down a side trail where Julian had showed her. Down this particular side trail was a row of what Fuzzy thought of as "houses". There were fifteen of them on each side of the trail, each facing one another. Julian had used another word for them, cabins, but she'd forgotten it as she wasn't familiar with the word and she'd been bombarded with so many new words and concepts it was hard to keep track of them all. And though she'd seen the bones of old, abandoned and destroyed houses that were much larger while stalking prey through the Puyallup barrens, she'd never seen such clean and intact homes before.

Nor had she ever had so much space that was just hers in her entire life. While growing up with Rat Man she'd lived with him, his son and dozens of other children. But here, her single room was clean and currently devoid of any personal effects. There was a Murphy bed that folded into the wall to make space and she marveled at its ability to be pulled down or put back up into the wall. In fact, the bottom of the bed looked like the wooden walls of the cabin and would near seamlessly blend in when pushed completely up and against the wall.

The room also came with some of what Julian referred to as "basic" furniture. Against one wall, which were all made of some type of wood, was desk and a chair for studying or working on projects and a couch pressed up against the wall closest to the door. In front of the couch was a low, glass table that she'd later discover was called a "coffee table" even though what most people drank these days was soykaf, which was a drink made from a mix of soy milk and synthetic caffeine. Coffee was a luxury that was unaffordable to most people.

Her bed was up at the moment but when it had been down, the room actually would've been cramped. In the back of the cabin was a tiny hallway, just large enough to fit two doors. There was the one on the left, a closet containing her clothing and school uniforms. Beyond that was a door that led to a bathroom. A bathroom that didn't smell bad and she didn't have to share it with anyone.

Most of her personal effects were practical and lethal and therefor missing. However, she'd been allowed to keep a few things and her coat was one of the few items she had. She had a sneaking suspicion that some of her less clean clothes were gone forever as well. That galled her. She could throw things away. She wasn't a hoarder after all, but she'd learned to be practical. When she'd lived with Rat Man, clothing that no longer fit would either be handed down or if it was too damaged, cloth would be pulled apart and re-spun into yarn or leather scraps would be collected to make new clothing or armor.

Her leather coat came with leather pants as well but she hadn't promised to show those off, just the coat. There was neither a zipper nor buttons to fasten the coat at the front. There were just a number of laces up the front that could be drawn and tied together. Her jacket was not just leather, but armored as well as it was her hunting attire. There was reinforcement at the vital points: Neck, stomach, heart, sides, forearms and elbows. It even came with a hood and that gave her head a little extra protection too, though it was sort of lumpy. She wasn't actually sure if she killed what she wore. She never saw Rat Man make it. That was his business and she hadn’t made clothing for him or the other children she used to live with in years. She’d been better at butchering kills for him when she was little and hunting when she got older. All of her attempts as making clothing were rough at best, even by barrens standards.

Still, the odds were good that the kill was at least in part hers. After all, the pieces came from many pieces. It smelled a little though. She'd never noticed it before, but in this clean place the unclean stood out. But there was nothing she could do as she didn't have enough time to air it out. She came back wearing her coat and she carried Puppy in one of her bigger pockets. A few heads turned as she stalked back towards the lunch table wearing armored clothing. The feeling of being watched so intensely made her nervous and she tried to put it out of her head before she spoke.

"Here it is," said Fuzzy

As she sat down the other girl that sat near Sasha scooted away from Fuzzy, as they all sat at one of the many picnic tables outside.

"Ugh. That coat reeks," she complained, “Wait, is that jacket armored?”

Fuzzy shrugged at her and looked at a more dubious looking Sasha.

"Yeah, Roberta is...It's Roberta, right?" asked Sasha.

Fuzzy finally paid attention to Roberta, the other girl at the table, who'd stayed when almost everyone else had left. It wasn't because she wanted to talk to Fuzzy or Sasha and she'd lost interest in Puppy. Instead it was because this was the first day at the lunch tables and students were still sorting out who sat where and more importantly, who they sat with. Roberta was short and like most of the people at school, beautiful. It actually bothered Fuzzy a little because there seemed to be no end to the parade of beautiful people.

"I'm Roberta Elizabeth Wood," said Roberta, haughtily, "Of Transys Neuronet. My father is the senior chief financial officer."

Roberta was an elf with tan skin, high cheekbones and a messy blonde ponytail with black streaks that somehow seemed carefully put together despite its messiness. She was also short, though still an inch or two taller than Fuzzy. At the same time, Fuzzy figured that Roberta was at least forty pounds lighter than her. Not only was her frame slight, but she had the thinnest arms and most delicate hands she'd ever seen on a person.

Sasha gave Roberta a disinterested look.

"Yeah, whatever," said Sasha.

Roberta's haughtiness turned cooler and sharper.

"Maybe you didn't hear me," said Roberta, her tone clipped and tinged with anger, "I said..."

Sasha sighed theatrically enough to interrupt her.

"Look freshman," said Sasha, "I don't know if you got the memo, but almost everyone here is corporate. I know out there in the rest of the world everyone fawns over you and kisses your ass and is very impressed or afraid of you because of who your mom or dad is. Now you think you're extra special because you got magic and your dad got another rung up on the corporate ladder as a courtesy. That's everyone here. Everyone's mom or dad or uncle or grandma or whatever are in the C-Suite. They're all at the tippy top of some sort of corporate hierarchy."

Roberta reeled back as if she'd been slapped.

"The fuck?" she swore, "You don't get to..."

Sasha made a sharp cutting motion with her hand.

"Look, I went through what you're going through right now, last year" said Sasha, "I can't bully you and I don't want to. I won't talk shit either. I'll be on the shame pole if I fuck with you or you me. But this is a reality check. Your corporation is some multi capital B billion nuyen AA corp. At any other school, you'd be on top of the social hierarchy or near it."

Again, Roberta tried to interrupt, but Sasha sushed her with an outstretched finger right under her nose.

"But here," emphasized Sasha, "Almost everyone is from a multi capital T trillion nuyen, AAA megacorp. So unless your dad is literally the CEO, you're at the bottom of the social order here. Even if he was CEO, you'd still be nearer the bottom than not. I can't really stress enough how much you don't want to lean on your corporate connections if they're that weak. Your only hope to fit in is if you start acting cool right now because none of the students are going to kiss your ass. Hell, they come down on us if we fuck with the teachers. Even the non-magical ones who teach like...Math and shit."

Roberta's face lightened several shades in indignation and her face twisted with complicated emotions. One of those, for the briefest moment, was fear. Roberta, who'd been important all of her life, felt suddenly small and unimportant. Many of the incoming freshman would feel the same way and most of them would take it far less gracefully than Roberta because for some of them, it would be the first time they felt this way. Instead of devolving into an outburst, she reverted to a mask of bored indifference. Sasha nodded once at Roberta in approval at the change.

"Cool," said Sasha, "You might just get it. Keep that up and some upperclassman might actually talk to you."

Roberta rolled her eyes, which seemed to please Sasha even more.

"Sure, whatever," said Roberta, neutrally.

"Morning or afternoon safety class?" asked Sasha.

Roberta was quiet for a moment but decided to answer.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Thirty people to the new freshmen class," said Fuzzy, "You're split into two classes. You get magical safety twice a day. So did you take it in the morning or are you taking it later?"

Roberta let out a long suffering sigh.

"Afternoon," she said, "I guess."

"Shit," said Sasha, with mild displeasure and she turned to Fuzzy, "Same question."

Fuzzy, who'd been paying attention to the two and petting Puppy as he squirmed in her coat pocket, realized that she had to talk now and not screw up.

"Morning," said Fuzzy.

"How many people melted down?" asked Sasha.

Fuzzy wasn't exactly sure what melting down meant but she figured it was the girl who'd screamed at the teacher in class, so she guessed.

"Just one," said Fuzzy, "I think her name was Courtney."

"She just scream and shout?" asked Sasha, "Or did she really fuck up like throw shit or try or cast some weak-ass magic on the teacher?"

"Screaming," said Fuzzy, "Also she left and then had to get escorted back by a rock with arms and legs."

Sasha grinned and flashed Fuzzy a thumbs up.

"Teacher sicced an earth spirit on her to walk her back?" said Sasha, "If the second class is like the first, that might be a new record for least amount of tantrums. Last year my safety class had three. One had a pretty legendary meltdown and it ended up with him casting the weakest stun bolt on Mother Bear before one of the island's security spirits spun him around like a top in mid-air. She let him have it for a full minute even though she could've stopped it. It was awesome."

"Whoa," said Fuzzy, "Just whirling around in the air?"

Sasha nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, he was never in any danger, but you wouldn't know it from the way he was crying," she said, with a smirk, "You're not allowed to learn combat spells until your senior year and even then, only non-lethal ones. If a security spirit catches you casting combat spells or mental manipulation spells or siccing a spirit on someone or anything dangerous on another person, they'll mess you up. I've seen a girl swallowed down into the dirt up to her neck by an earth spirit. It took five minutes until Mrs. Maureen, she's our summoning teacher by the way, to get another earth spirit to get her out."

"Who was he?" asked Roberta, her facade of indifference briefly broken.

Sasha shrugged indifferently.

"Some idiot from Saeder-Krupp," she said, "I don't remember his name, but he kept bragging about who his grandpa was. It's a AAA corp but his grandpa mattered like...Ten years ago, which is a million years in corporate time. No subtlety, no class."

Fuzzy had no idea what this "Saeder-Krupp thing was and so she didn't remark on it, but Roberta donned her unimpressed mask once again.

"Anyway, if there's just one meltdown in the first class, I think I'll win the bet," said Sasha.

"What bet?" asked Fuzzy.

"Sophomores and above have a betting pool on how many meltdowns we get out of freshman on the first day," said Sasha, with a wicked smile, "It's tradition. I'm going for the long shot for under three."

"What do you get if you win?" asked Fuzzy.

"A new witch's hat," teased Sasha, "And a new wand. I accidentally set my last one on fire."

Fuzzy didn't know how magic worked or what Sasha was referring to, but she was pretty sure Sasha was teasing. This was confirmed by Roberta as she rolled her eyes and folded her arms in front of her.

"Fine, fine," said Sasha, arms up, placating, who leaned in and whispered, "Vodka. We sneak it in."

That was something Fuzzy knew about, though she'd only drank alcohol twice and hadn't cared for it either time. There had been a farm full of particularly stubborn farmers named the Petrowskis who were friends of Rat Man. They lived in the barrens and farmed despite the falling ash, ghouls and gangs. She'd hunted the crows that tried to eat their crops when she was younger. They brewed their own vodka and as Mr. Petrowski, the one in charge had once told her, while laughing, "You can only eat so many potatoes before you end up drinking them too". This had been after Fuzzy had been curious, asked for a sip and instantly regretted it.

"Alcohol?" asked Roberta, "That's all?"

"Doesn't stay in your system long," said Sasha, her grin now a knowing one, "The seniors sneak a lot of it in on the first day because someone always messes it up for everyone and then we get our rooms searched."

"Uh, what?" asked Roberta, suddenly offended, "They're not searching my room."

"Sure they will," said Sasha, "And there's nothing you can do about it. You don't have a corporate security team anymore that you can just boss around and make them look the other way. And you seriously can't fuck with the local security team either, so don't try."

Roberta looked at Sasha as if she'd said something nonsensical like, "Actually, fish don't need water to breathe".

"But they're security," said Roberta, slowly, "Security does what we tell them to do and they keep us safe. That's their job."

"They do keep us safe, but you don't get to tell them what to do because they're not your security team or even one of your corporation's security teams," said Sasha, "They work for the school. There's a hundred and twenty students from over two dozen megacorps and a handful of from independently rich families and even a couple kids from parents high up in a few governments. If everyone had their own personal security detail it'd be a nightmare. It's not like some corporate enclave or arcology where people will do anything you want while scurrying around in terror. They don't have to listen to us."

Roberta suddenly looked more than a little afraid and lost at this new and unwelcome revelation.

"But...They have to do what we tell them," she said, quietly, "They just have to."

"Actually they don't," said Sasha, with an air of finality, "They just keep us safe. That's all."

She patted Roberta on the hand in a faux-placating way.

"Don't worry, freshman. You'll get your security detail back on the weekends," she said, and then turned to Fuzzy, "Both of you."

Fuzzy sure didn't have one of those now and never did. She knew people who would stick up for her and who she'd stick up for. That and her weapons were security to her.

Sasha pulled away from Roberta and waved dismissively in the direction of Seattle metroplex, some miles away across the Puget Sound.

"Both of you know that out there we're kind of a big deal," she continued, "On this tiny little island, not so much. I actually kind of like it. A lot of the normal pressures are off. It's really boring, but try to enjoy it. And there's only so much alcohol we can sneak in and unless you got a really good hiding place, you won't even have that. Not that you'll have any unless you got a connect or you like owing favors. Just don't be the one who comes in high on Monday or tries to sneak in NoCo or bliss or something exotic and get everyone's alcohol confiscated. There's always someone messing with the hard stuff and when they get caught it almost always means instant unpopularity. And you better not be the one to melt down in class and fuck up my bet on purpose. People hold serious grudges."

The word grudge set off little alarm bells in Fuzzy's head.

"Grudges?" asked Fuzzy, cautiously.

Sasha laughed a little and nodded.

"What?" asked Fuzzy, curious.

"Well yeah, it's a small island," said Sasha, "Some people are really into grudges because it keeps them from being bored."

"Uhhh..." said Roberta, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Sasha sighed, threw back her head and started speaking upwards without looking at them.

"Not even a square mile large," said Sasha, to neither Fuzzy nor Roberta in particular, "Five miles of beaches, most of it rocks that you can't even walk on without twisting your ankle. You've got two trails that go for a total of eight miles. Not each, total. You can comb the beach when the tide goes out. You can swim if you want to but the Sound is freezing for most of the year. If you're a gym rat you can hit the gym. There's some basketball hoops too or you can try exercising over at the proving grounds if Coach Bolt isn't using them. You can try the dating scene, but it's a small school so everyone dates everyone and it's super toxic."

"What does that have to do with anything?" repeated Roberta.

Sasha raised her hands and pointed both thumbs at herself, still looking upwards.

"Now me, I've got a kickass collection of retro game systems at my cabin," said Sasha, as she ignored the question for now, "For maximum couch co-op play since that's kind of out of style now. Some of my systems are pre-Crash too. Plus I've got an old cyberdeck I like to pull apart and put back together now and again. Took me weeks to clear it with security but it's all here. And as for the vodka, since it's a long shot bet I'll get an entire bottle if I win. I don't think I'll have any, maybe just a sip, but I can definitely trade it for favors before it gets confiscated. Favors I can use to keep from being bored."

"Wow," said Roberta, sarcastically, "That's so interesting."

Sasha rolled her eyes.

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"You don't get it, freshman," said Sasha, "Shit is boring here. The school is tiny. So you have to make your own fun. You can't just hit up a club with your entourage or jump on a yacht or fly out somewhere for a random vaycay or whatever. This is your world now. You're stuck here Monday through Friday. You've got school and you can't just shrug it off or pay someone else to do it for you. You actually have to learn basic shit because if you get behind in classes or piss off the teachers too much, you lose your weekends and you're stuck here being bored."

Roberta's eyes widened in horror and her mouth went slack.

"Even then you don't get to head out on Friday night," said Sasha, emphatically, "You leave Saturday morning and get back Sunday evening because if you're late, you're stuck here again. So you've got thirty-six hours max to have fun each week. Then you're right back here in the suck. We don't even have matrix access and there is exactly one line off the island. It's in a little room in the cafeteria. It's not even a proper comm system. It's just some old pre-Crash terminal. It belongs in a museum."

Then Sasha tilted her head forwards, pointed at Fuzzy and made a sweeping motion with her hand as if to point at all of her instead of just at her.

"Now her? She looks like she knows how to have fun," said Sasha, "She shows up with hair she cut with a knife, a puppy in her pocket and a smelly coat that she made from magical rat leather from some urban safari."

Roberta gave Fuzzy a disgusted look.

"She looks feral," countered Roberta.

Fuzzy narrowed her eyes at her.

"Which would be different and interesting," stressed Sasha, "I ran out of ideas for fun in my second semester. We're used to buying our fun, not making it. So people who know how to make their own fun end up the most popular because the boredom fucks with you like you wouldn't believe. Maybe not at first, but give it a semester. Fun is the hottest commodity on Blake Island and it is in short supply. Anyone who can consistently make things fun is someone you want to know."

Roberta took a moment to grapple with all of this new knowledge. It would take time for reality to really sink in, but at least a bit of it did. This was signified by the way she titled her head back, mouth open, eyes staring up at the sky.

"Ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuck," whined Roberta, "Shit is going to be so boring..."

Sasha nodded in approval at Roberta's realization and turned to Fuzzy.

"Your coat does stink though," said Sasha, "No offense. But it's different, so whatever."

Fuzzy only shrugged. If it did bother people that much then she'd figure out where she could wash it. She wasn't used to washing something like a coat though. Water that was clean enough to wash with had been precious in Puyallup and that meant that clothes were only washed sparingly.

"It does stink," said Fuzzy, simply, "But you asked for it, so it's here. You can tell which pieces I killed?"

"It's not all one piece?" asked Sasha.

It wasn't. In fact the coat was made of multiple pieces of leather. So Fuzzy only shrugged.

"Devil rats aren't big enough for a single coat," explained Fuzzy.

Sasha wrinkled her nose a little but tried to stay positive since Fuzzy was new and interesting. Roberta had recovered and while she'd initially been interested in Puppy, she looked ready to leave but also didn't look like she had anywhere better to go.

"I guess that makes sense," said Sasha, "I'll assense your jacket. You know, look at it in the astral plane since I don't know how much you know about magic yet. It might take me a minute."

Sasha's eyes went out of focus and she frowned in concentration. Fuzzy had this odd feeling that Sasha wasn't looking at the jacket, but into it.

"Make it a quick minute," said Roberta, "It reeks."

"It smells bad but it doesn't reek," said Sasha, distantly, "Maybe don't be so precious. Now chill. You're messing with my concentration."

Roberta looked away from Sasha and refolded her arms. She looked like she wanted to say something mean. In fact she looked like she wanted to say a lot of things, but unlike Courtney, Roberta kept her cool. Instead she looked around the rest of the outside lunch area and looked for something else to sit with but she was still hesitating as a lot of people had already found their tables.

"It's in so many pieces," said Sasha, her tone a little distant, "I'm having a hard time with it."

Time seemed to pass slowly before Sasha reached out to touch the coat. Fuzzy backed away just enough not to be touched which sent Puppy barking, though Fuzzy soothed him back to silence. Frowning, Sasha stopped and looked not at Fuzzy and not through her, but into her.

"You don't like to be touched," declared Sasha, who blushed slightly.

"No," confirmed Fuzzy.

"Sorry. Is pointing okay?"

"Pointing is okay."

So Sasha pointed to pieces of the coat one by one, her eyes unfocused. Roberta, though she was disgusted by the coat, decided to look at Fuzzy's at it with a sort of morbid curiosity.

"It's made from six different animals, but all the same kind," she said, distractedly, "I’m guessing that’s devil rat. It's gone through some really heavy chemical processing. That threw me off at first since the more processed something is, the harder it is to read with magic...Or do anything with magic, really. But it's just soaked with energy from the earth, which I'm guessing is the ash from Mount Rainier. You hunt in this coat a lot?"

"Yeah," said Fuzzy.

"Energy?" asked Roberta.

Sasha made a dismissive motion with her hand.

"It's not magical or anything, obviously," said Sasha, "It's kind of like reading history through impressions. The coat knows the earth."

Roberta curled her lip and wiggled her fingers at Fuzzy.

"Oooh, mystical," snarked Roberta.

"Yeah, yeah," said Sasha, dismissively, " Anyway, the left sleeve and right lower part of the coat are from animals you killed, both different. The rest don't have the same connection to you."

Fuzzy looked at her coat. She hadn't known that.

"How did you know?" asked Fuzzy.

Sasha only shrugged.

"I mean, I'm not completely positive," said Sasha, "Reading the astral is more art than science, but I'm pretty good at it."

"So you don't actually know," said Roberta, flatly.

Sasha laced her fingers together, turned her hands around and stretched them above her head.

"I know better than you," she said, voice strained by the stretch, "I know four spells and I'm pretty good at assensing. What do you got?"

Roberta didn't answer which was all the answer that Sasha needed. She only sneered not only at Sasha, but at Fuzzy too as she redirected her frustration.

"You know, this is really fascinating and all, but could you put it away?" complained Roberta, "I really don't want to have that around while we eat lunch."

"I'll put it back," said Fuzzy.

Then she ventured a small risk. Everyone had clean clothes and so did everyone else, but she didn't know how they were cleaned.

"Where do we wash our clothes?" asked Fuzzy.

"We have laundry baskets," said Sasha, "There's a building we take it to. I'll show you later. Just remember to put something on top of your hamper. The tree canopy holds a lot of water after a rain and a stiff breeze can soak you and your clean clothes on the way back if you're not careful. That happened to me my first year. Also some pervy guys might try to catch a look inside so having a cover for the hamper is essential. I just use an old towel."

"Thanks," said Fuzzy, "I'll remember that."

Sasha grinned at Fuzzy, but there was a question in that grin as Roberta tilted her head.

"Wait, you're just going to take your own laundry?" asked Sasha, "Just like that?"

"Sure, if there's enough water," said Fuzzy.

Sasha laughed as if Fuzzy had something funny.

"Oh man," said Sasha, "You're not bitching about laundry? All I heard my freshman year was people bitching about having to do their own laundry. This is so refreshing."

She looked at Roberta and hooked a thumb at Fuzzy.

"You think her coat smells?" asked Sasha, "Wait until some guy walks in with a school uniform that he hasn't washed in a week because he thinks washing clothes is beneath him."

"Because it is beneath us," stressed Roberta, "We have people to do that. Or robots."

"I think you're going to get along great," said Sasha, to Fuzzy, "Keep this up and I'll introduce you to some people."

Something seemed to click in Roberta's head.

"Uhhh...Wait," said Roberta, "We don't actually have servants to do that for us? Or drones at least?"

Sasha shook her head and leaned back a little at her seat on the long picnic table.

"No, freshman, you're going to have to pick up your own clothes, put them in a hamper, pick it up and walk it all the way to the laundry building," said Sasha, as she mimed walking with two fingers across the lunch table," Then you'll have to interact with a laundry machine for the first time. And then, horror of horrors, you're going to have to take it out of the laundry machine, walk it all the way back and then put your clothes away yourself. No servants or robots to do it for you."

Roberta blinked a few times and looked around, as if this was all some sort of sick joke.

"Wait, I'll have to actually touch dirty clothes?" she asked, "Like one of the poor?"

"Password correct," said Sasha, "Welcome to Blake Island."

Roberta shivered in revulsion and for a moment it looked like she might be sick, though the moment passed.

"Ew," she whispered, "I...I have to touch dirty clothing?"

Sasha turned away from Roberta, who she ignored and smiled at Fuzzy.

"Look, your dog is super cute and if you're going back to drop off your coat I really want to hold him," pleaded Sasha, "I know he's yours, but would you mind? You seem cool so you can sit with me during lunch if you want."

Fuzzy puffed out her cheeks, looked down at the wiggling Puppy who seemed eager to get out of her coat pocket.

"Be nice to him," said Fuzzy.

“I will,” said Sasha, “I promise.”

Sasha seemed okay to leave Puppy with for a few minutes. Fuzzy’s anxiety was higher than normal as she thought of Puppy being gone. Her hands began to fidget the second she let him go and she hid them by stuffing them in her pockets. She left him behind and he whined a little at the separation, the sound of which hurt Fuzzy's heart for some reason and she almost immediately regretted her decision to leave. She walked back on the trail towards her cabin quickly, again drawing stares from other students due to her patchwork armored leather clothing.

Once she broke line of sight she ran all the way back to what she thought of as her house, as she still didn't know the word "cabin" yet. She put her coat away and sniffed the clothing she had on underneath, didn't notice any stains from the armor, nodded and closed the door behind her. Then she ran all the way back until she spotted students and then just briskly walked.

Sasha was still there though Roberta was gone. The older girl, alone save for Puppy, held Puppy and Puppy seemed to like her. She even let Puppy lick her face. Fuzzy smiled. Rat Man had told her that dogs were good judges of people so maybe she could like Sasha too. The girls entered the cafeteria building and got into something called a lunch line with Puppy cradled in the crook of Fuzzy's arm.

Lunch was an absolute feast and there was so much to choose from. There were sandwiches with real bread that was soft and not moldy at all. She had her choice of condiments and there were so many to choose from. As a child, Fuzzy had subsisted primarily on a slightly snotty but otherwise textureless mycoproteins made from mushrooms. Though on good days she might have barrens bush meat, soy based food or rice. But Rat Man had hundreds of condiments to make each meal taste different since the texture of each meal of mycoprotein had been the same. But here on Blake Island, there were so many wonderful and different textures and flavors. She didn't have to put condiments on food at all to experience something new, though she did purely out of habit.

She wondered if the meat in her sandwich was real. She wasn’t sure what kind it was. It wasn't porks, dog, cat, crow or rat. And of course she used too much mustard. There was a big pile of soy fries on her plate. She'd skipped over a smaller and less appetizing pile of potato based fries, which looked colder. She also picked up some apple slices and mashed potatoes and gravy and Fuzzy splurged on the gravy. By chance she picked up some chocolate milk since Sasha got one too even though Fuzzy had no idea what milk, much less chocolate milk, was other than as something that babies drank. They were by the pint in those small cartons that had hadn't changed in over a century and a half.

The lady serving lunch didn't know what to make of Fuzzy as she seemed to be the only person who was truly excited to eat. None of the other students seemed particularly happy to eat the food and Fuzzy had overheard multiple complaints about the fare while in the line. After eating her first helping of food, Fuzzy resolved to ask what everything was on her second visit to the line when everyone was gone. The lady serving the food was briefly confused, then bemused as she answered. What was obvious about the food to others wasn't to Fuzzy. She'd seen fries before and knew what bread was and could guess at some of the food, but more often she just had no clue. For example, there were nuggets. Of what she didn't know, only that they were fried and tasted good. Upon biting into one, she knew that she'd eaten some sort of bird meat as there were crows in the barrens, but she'd never seen them in nugget form before and these didn't have that gamey, ashy taste of barrens bush meat.. The chicken nuggets were delightful and she quickly took to dipping get nuggets with the best of them soon after.

She even got a little extra of the nuggets for Puppy, some for now and some for later, because they were easy to carry in her pocket. Sasha had fed him bits of mashed potato and gravy off her finger, but Fuzzy figured that a growing dog should have meat. Little Puppy was intensely curious about what was on Fuzzy's tray and snuffled at her food eagerly from his place on her lap. She’d expected to have to haggle for her food but apparently it was already paid for. This was another thing that Julian had neglected to tell her, but this time it was in her favor so she didn't complain.

"Don't get excited," complained Sasha, after Fuzzy sat down for a second time, "The food isn't as good as last year. The soy fries are definitely a new addition. I mean there are potato fries, but still. Soy. Ugh."

She wrinkled her nose as she uttered the word soy almost like a curse.

"Food is food," said Fuzzy, before she dug in again, "These fries looked better than the other ones."

Sasha was quiet for a while, long enough in fact that Fuzzy looked up from her food.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she relented, and lowered her voice, "Soy isn't terrible, it's just...You know, people think that soy and mushrooms are only for poor people since that's all that they can afford. I actually used to love soy fries."

"So go get some," said Fuzzy.

Sasha, who'd been so very confident before, bit her lip and suddenly looked unsure.

"I...I mean, I can tell you don't care and that's really cool," said Sasha, who winced, "My mom would kill me if she found out I got soy fries. Can I steal a few? The potato fries are probably all cold by now."

Sasha eyed Fuzzy's fries. Fuzzy definitely hadn't meant to imply sharing her fries. In fact, as someone who'd been food insecure up until she'd joined the school when Julian brought her, sharing food was only done with someone if you really liked them and trusted them and even then, only sparingly. Food that was given away might not be returned in kind later and you'd end up hungry twice over when calories were always scarce. Even if they were trustworthy, a person who couldn't reliably put their hands on food would always want more. Puppy, who was still small, had eaten into her meager stocks of food as he'd grown bigger before she'd come to Blake Island.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," said Sasha, nervously.

If Fuzzy weren't so full and the food so plentiful she would've said no, but she had more than enough so she relented and nodded. Sasha looked around to make sure that no one caught her eating soy, the type of food normally reserved for the poor and quickly had few of the soy fries but she was so nervous that she ate them quickly without really savoring them.

While Sasha ate food that was "below her station", Fuzzy on the other hand was very aware of how high quality the fare at the table was. There was good meat, fresh fruit and vegetables that she'd never be able to afford or had even seen before. It'd take long days and nights hunting to get her hands on pork and eggs and even then, she felt like Rat Man had given her a good deal. And that'd just been to get a single realmeal. She had no idea how many barrens animals she'd need to hunt to be able to afford this one meal, save for the soy fries, which would be expensive or even extravagant by barrens standards. And that was if they were even available at the swap meet where she swapped her kills for gear. And here Sasha was afraid of eating the soy fries because others would look down on her for it. Fuzzy had never really felt truly poor in the barrens because everyone there was poor. Poverty was a shared experience among barrens dwellers. But here on Blake Island, she was becoming aware of the gap between the wealthy and the poor.

"Thanks," said Sasha, and she lowered her voice, "I used to eat these all the time but my mom gets really mad if she catches me eating anything made of soy. My dad too, but my mom really gets upset. Even if she just suspects. But soy fries stay crispier longer than potato fries."

Fuzzy blinked a few times as she shook off the feeling and picked up a soy fry and ate it without the slightest hesitation. That act of not hiding what she ate seemed to wring an odd kind of respect out of Sasha. And it seemed that Sasha had an eye out for the other students and for the moment, none of them watched Fuzzy or Sasha.

"If it's good, it's good," said Fuzzy.

"Right?" asked Sasha, excitedly, "People get so far up their ass about this shit. It sucks."

Fuzzy knew enough not to eat everything with her hands, but was somewhat perplexed by the chocolate milk carton. After waiting she managed to open it without looking foolish by watching Sasha when she finally opened hers late in the meal as she seemed to pay more attention to Fuzzy than to her drink. Fuzzy decided she loved the creamy, brown water and so while she'd torn through her food with a will, she delicately sipped the chocolate milk and savored its rich texture and flavor. Puppy would have to do without it because this creamy, cold, brown water was hers. She drank half and decided she would save some for later.

Sasha had finished her meal and played with Puppy while Fuzzy wasn't done eating just yet, but she kept talking to Fuzzy in a primarily one sided conversation. The topics mostly seemed to be about people: Who was here at school this year and who was missing, boys she liked, which were none, girls she liked, who were few, who was dating whom, favorite and least favorite teachers, guesses at how many people would melt down in the afternoon safety class and how much she missed having a stable matrix connection as she had a few friends she only talked to over the matrix. Fuzzy barely understood any of it but she did pay close attention so she could try to make better sense of this place.

Sasha took Puppy onto the grass to pee which gave Fuzzy a brief reprieve. Fuzzy's attention suddenly turned to Julie, who'd sat at the far end of their table some minutes ago but was far enough away to sit by herself. She stared at the ork girl who noticed and glared back. Done with her food, Fuzzy took Puppy and her milk with her so no one else took it and sat down next to Julie.

"What?" asked Julie.

"You're powerful," said Fuzzy, simply, "So I thought I'd talk to you."

Julie’s expression soured.

"I thought you'd want to stay away from me," said Julie, sullenly, "You know, no control? I could go off like a bomb at any moment?"

Fuzzy shrugged.

"You'll get control," said Fuzzy, "You wouldn't be allowed here if you were that dangerous. I think the teacher was just making sure everyone else knew. And besides, that other girl is way more dangerous than you right now. She has magic but no discipline. And she yelled at an old person. That was really stupid."

Julie furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Why is that stupid?" she asked.

Fuzzy shrugged again.

"Where I'm from, if you last long enough to be old, it means that you're tough and probably scary or at least very useful," said Fuzzy, "Isn't that the way it is here?"

"No, I don't think so," said Julie.

Fuzzy gave Julie a little quirk of her head.

"So you're telling me that Mother Bear isn't scary?"

Julie didn't answer right away, but then she gave Fuzzy a grudging nod. Fuzzy waited patiently for this so-called dangerous person to speak. Meanwhile, Sasha fed Puppy a little scrap of chicken.

"Well you seem to be doing well for yourself." said Julie, "Mother Bear didn't put you on the shame pole like Kenji over there. What, did talk you way out of it?"

Fuzzy nodded and Julie snorted deeply in disgust, suddenly covered her mouth, looked angry and then away and then touched one of her slender, orkish tusks. Fuzzy didn't understand why she seemed so angry at herself but she still felt no particular feeling of danger from the girl even though she was angry.

"Maybe you shouldn't be seen with me," whispered Julie. "Don't think I don't know, but you, Kenji and I are different than everyone else here. I'm not stupid. You're weird, but you could fit in. You could carve yourself a weird little niche like you're doing right now. I don't know what Kenji's deal is, but maybe you could fake it till you make it. Me, I can't. I'm different than everyone here. I saw one troll at the school assembly, but I don't think there are any orks on the island. It's just me."

In a fit of sudden empathy for the girl and because Fuzzy was very full, she offered her some of her open, half consumed chocolate milk. She wondered if she was getting soft, offering all of this food to people but there was plenty, at least for right now. Julie didn't understand at first as Fuzzy pushed her milk towards her, but frowned even more deeply in disgust at Fuzzy's offering.

"I can get my own, thanks," she said, scathingly.

Fuzzy took it back and frowned, unaware of what she'd done wrong. She only knew that she’d offended Julie. In fact, Fuzzy felt just as offended, if not more because in the barrens, turning down food meant you really didn't like or trust someone. That was serious generosity Fuzzy had just shown her. Soy fries had been one thing, but clean water was rare in the barrens, much less something creamy and sweet and cold like the brown water. Fuzzy decided that this place was strange and that Julie was rude. Confused and a little angry, Fuzzy stood back up to sit with Sasha and made sure to take her drink with her. Fuzzy thought she might talk to Kenji, but she felt like she didn't want to screw things up even worse.

While Fuzzy had tried to be kind to Julie and failed, Roberta had come back. Apparently trying to sit elsewhere with other people hadn't been successful.

"I don't see why you want to talk to her," said Roberta, to Fuzzy.

"Mother Bear said she was the most powerful person in the school," said Fuzzy.

"You mean in your year?" asked Sasha.

"No. In the school," said Fuzzy, "And she has as much magic as a few teachers."

"Holy shit," said Roberta, "She's awakened? Like for real?"

"Fuuuuuck, I'm soooo jealous," groaned Sasha, "I have to scrape by for magical power. I'm really only good at assensing."

"What's awakened?" asked Fuzzy.

"It's when you max out your magical power," explained Sasha, "I mean, people with magic are called awakened, but back in the day, being awakened used to only mean people who'd maxed out their magical power. It's a big deal. Maybe one in a hundred awakened people...You know, actually awaken. And usually people don't awaken until they're old. You know, like in their thirties or something."

"Oh," said Fuzzy,

Then Fuzzy thought about it.

"Wait, Mother Bear said that Julie is as powerful as some teachers," said Fuzzy, "How can you max out your magic but still be weaker?"

Sasha waved her hand dismissively.

"Well, they're more practiced, obviously," said Sasha, "Raw power means a lot, but skill does too. But for increasing your raw power, you can do something called initiating and push up your natural maximum but..."

"Nerrrrrrds," groaned Roberta, "Fucking nerd shit. Ugh."

Sasha glared at her.

"Shut up," said Sasha, "You wish you had that kind of power."

Julie and Fuzzy cast another glance at Julie, the most powerful student at school, who was purposefully not looking back.

Lunch ended but Fuzzy had a little free time until the next class. She spent it on the beach on the northeast end of the island, which was one of the few beaches cleared of rocks. There she experienced sand for the first time, touched the ocean and marveled at its vastness. This was just the Puget Sound though which was only an inlet, so she could still see the Seattle metroplex across the way and watch ships as they crossed the water. She hadn't actually seen the ocean proper just yet. That would be for another day. Still, she just stared at all of the undrinkable water in fascination while Puppy gamboled about on the beach. He both ran away from the waves and then chased them as they retreated, barking all the while.

Apparently she spent too much time just staring and was met by the earth spirit that Mother Bear had summoned who pointed back towards the building where Mother Bear taught. Though apparently she was trusted as she was not escorted back to the class like Courtney had been. Instead the spirit merely seemed to fade out of existence. So she quickly dropped off Puppy at her "house" which she still couldn't believe was hers and went back to the magical safety class that met after the afternoon class. Apparently there were no other classes for the freshmen until the course on magical safety was complete. And it was scheduled for two weeks twice a day.

There, Fuzzy was lectured extensively on what not to do by Mother Bear. She talked about how to control ones' emotions. That a spell was best stopped in the mind before it was cast and not after it left the body. That if one was feeling unsure about their power or if they felt faint, felt sick or began to bleed from their nose and especially from their eyes or ears to contact a teacher immediately. There were so many rules and Fuzzy did her best to memorize them all because in her opinion, if magic could make someone bleed from their nose, ears and eyes, it needed to be taken seriously.

Mother Bear’s lecture sort of felt like how Rat Man taught Fuzzy about weapons and traps. Then it clicked halfway into the second lecture of the day. This was like one of Rat Man's lectures about weapons safety, but with an emphasis on controlling her emotions as well. This was something she understood well and by the time the class was over she felt like she had a solid grasp on what not to do. Other students complained and some of them did so loudly. Many didn't see the point. But Fuzzy had learned that knowing what not to do was best told and not experienced as pain was a far harsher teacher than Mother Bear would ever be.

Now that class was done, the sun was beginning to descend in the sky. She could go to the bonfire if she wanted. She didn't want to bring Puppy in case so while she visited him back at her house, she'd go without him. After playing with him for a while she wasn't sure what to do and she was left to her own devices. She thought about what to do next as she sat on her bed.

---

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