The Unskillful Thaumaturge

IX

"Get back!" Daria hissed. "It's Amandi!"

The roommates ducked behind the tall sign propped in front of the bagel shop line, cheerily advertising dairy-free cream cheese. Lillian tried her best to look nonchalant as Amandi casually walked along the line, heading for the pizza place. After she passed by, Leslie let out a long sigh that sent her bushy white-blonde hair whiffing out from her face. Amandi stopped walking and turned her head; apparently something had caught her eye.

"Hey, look who it is!" she called. "Black, White, and Red!" At this point she was walking back towards the bagel line. Lillian hadn't needed much time to figure out that Amandi was referring to their hair colors, not their ethnicities, but it still seemed rather derogatory. "Hey, Red, heard you nearly walked into a pole the other day. What did that feel like?"

"Almost," Lillian reminded her. "You know, I have a similar question. What does it feel like going around picking on people just because they're younger than you?"

Amandi clamped her mouth shut and walked away. Leslie clapped Lillian on the shoulder. "Thanks, kid."

She twisted around. "Lillian. Not kid."

"Lillian. Sorry."

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she dug it out, not recognizing the number. She slid her finger across the screen to answer and held it to her ear.

"Lillian?" She recognized the voice of the dark-haired woman from her interview the previous day.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Can you come in Monday? We have some stuff to show you."

"What time?"

"Doesn't matter, whenever. Oh, and don't put this number in as DIAO, I'm calling you from home from my phone."

"Sounds good, I'll come in when I can. Bye!" She took the phone away from her ear and hit the red button to hang up.

"Who was that? Coming in when?" Leslie cocked her head; honestly, she didn't look extremely curious.

Lillian shoved her phone back into her pocket uncomfortably. "I... I don't know, it was a sc- a solicitor?" Her tone of voice made it sound like a question.

"You sure about that?" Daria asked cautiously.

"Yeah, yeah," Lillian answered much too quickly. "Yeah, that's right."

"Look up, dingbat," Leslie scolded, shoving Lillian in the middle of the back toward where the cashier was waiting expectantly for her order.

☙❧

Dakota lowered himself into his office chair and glanced fearfully at the ominous pile of ungraded papers.

Might as well start now.

He sighed and pulled the top pre-class survey off of the pile, sweeping his eyes over the first question. "Define convenience in the context of thaumaturgical efficacy," he muttered. The student, whoever it was, had given themselves a virtual zero on the question by writing something about convenience being why they got lunch at the Crave. He shook his head and marked a red X on the paper.

Lazy procrastinating phone addicts, it's a wonder they got this far, they shouldn't have made it through high school at all.

"Shut up," Dakota muttered irritably. "You're right, but that doesn't make it any nicer."

And you're nice?

"Shut up, you're right, but that doesn't make it any nicer," Dakota repeated, writing 4⁄5 next to the second question. "Why don't you start focusing on the meeting or something? I know you don't want to do the grading."