Laws of e(Motion)

Five: #C2EFF7

One thing, even if it was the only thing, Emilia could certainly be thankful for was that despite a room full of students freely talking amongst themselves, it was still quiet enough to focus. In the next few minutes the rest of the seats would be taken as the final students who had decided against the earlier morning showed up too. With that came another silent prayer that anyone who ended up on the other side of Emilia would be tolerable at the least, a daring hope that maybe any other occupants of the table would be as friendly as Jay had been already. Adjusting to Mr Reid being a couple of minutes late for absolutely everything would have to come as naturally to Emilia as it already was with the rest of his class, the nine-fifteen start time passing by before the class was even full.

"Hey! Zane!" Jay called suddenly across the room loudly enough to give Emilia mild second-hand embarrassment at the difference in volume level compared to everyone else. The combination of the overall increased commotion of the room since she'd arrived, and how his movement was relatively limited. There they were, someone else who was friends with Jay who could actually keep up with his conversation and likely didn't need saving from girls in their own year. "Sorry I wasn't around this morning, I had to get in early."

Zane was inherently simple and neat, maybe unnervingly so to anyone else, but Emilia quickly appreciated how easy to interpret he was. He didn't look like the kind of person who would be late, although maybe that in itself was down to his perfectly pressed icey blue shirt, the detail of his sweater vest becoming distracting.
"No problem Jay." Emilia was only half tuned into their conversation, slightly wary of missing something important as she turned back to her wiring, searching for any smaller parts to focus on in the limited time she had left before the class started. As much as she was relieved Emilia had since become a little discouraged, assuming that if Jay now had a friend he knew in the class she was no longer needed to make light conversation just as she'd started enjoying. Still, if it meant he didn't have to put up with her for the rest of the year.

"This is Emilia, she's in our class now," Jay continued, the sound of her name getting her attention again. She offered a smile to Zane, hoping she hadn't missed anything else important. Had she not been wearing her turtleneck under her pink pinafore dress, and very casual graphic t-shirt under it, she'd have been a little more desperate to take off the extra layer.

"I like your name," Zane said, before looking almost like what Emilia could only consider as the human version of reloading. "It looks like you're already excelling in this class at least."

"Thank you," she smiled back, slightly confused at the link if there even was one, but appreciative of his friendliness nonetheless. Again, she glanced down to his sweater vest, the repeated white on navy blue pattern catching her eye. A compliment, especially in return of another compliment, wasn't weird, right? She gambled it. "I like your sweater."

"Alright class, we're a little late starting but I think that's everyone now, lovely to see some new faces," Mr Reid addressed the whole class, standing up from behind his desk, obviously rushed, probably after actually looking at the time. "From next week, extra credit time will be for you to design and work on independent projects, but now we're in the final year, your class time is going to be used to perfect your final assessment practicals, with time for recapping the theory behind it. I've roadmapped every lesson, and you'll have enough time to complete your individual projects, your group projects, and have revision time left over. So, if we can put everything away, get out any note-taking material you'll need, and let's get going."

Between her four years of experience and that they were provided with a set of, albeit vague, written prompts for the process in which to assemble the mass of components also provided, Emilia was prepared to spend most of the year keeping to herself where she could. Things like any outer casing that might be required as had been the case in previous years, project dependent, wasn't provided nor instructed, a freedom for interpretation and creativity coming with that. Experience also told her she could take her time and still have a few classes left in case things went wrong and had to be redone. It remained one of the main reasons why she'd stuck with electronics for so long, it was simply enjoyable. If they didn't have whole factory lines to do it, circuit assembly might even have made it as a career choice.