Place strode up beside Zandre as he made to speak.
"Hel-ugh!" Zandre had already started saying hello when Place's hand slammed over his mouth.
"Good morning, Upperclassman Prismella."
Place gave her a small bow with his hand still on Zandre's mouth.
'Upperclassman? This child?'
Raise seemed to pick up that this 'child' was someone important. So, even with doubts in his mind, he gave a greeting of his own.
"Good morning." He echoed Place, giving a slight bow as well.
Prismella let out a small giggle, seeing Zandre's confused face.
"Good morning, all three of you. Why aren't you letting him speak?"
She gestured to Zandre.
'So he doesn't shout your identity out loud in the middle of the dorms.' Place mentally remarked, but outside his mind, he had a much more measured response.
"As my friend here doesn't have good control over himself, I moved to make sure he doesn't offend you."
As he said that, Place let go and wiped the saliva off his hand and onto Zandre's uniform.
"HEY!" Zandre jumped away when he noticed what Place was doing, but it was too late.
Prismella let out a chuckle.
"I hope you have been doing well?"
Place started with a basic conversation starter.
"Been a bit bored, so I decided to come check on the two of you."
Place filed away her words to examine later.
"Thank you for your concern. As you can see, we are doing well." He gave Zandre a glance, he was trying to remove his saliva from his uniform and was not paying attention to the conversation at all.
"In fact, due to us getting lost yesterday, we decided to get ready a bit earlier today."
Place's mind was running on overdrive as he spoke slowly.
"We want to see if we missed anything of importance yesterday. Do you think you could help us with that?"
Prismella's face brightened slightly, and Place gave himself a pat on the back for guessing correctly.
"Sure! What subject is it?"
And so, their party of three added another member, and the four of them started to make their way towards the cafeteria for breakfast. Place introduced Raise to the new member as they started walking.
And as they walked, Place multitasked, talking with the three walking with him, while inwardly adding onto Prismella's character.
'She has few or no people that she can interact with, that want to spend time with her.' He noted down.
'She wants friends, more then that, she wants someone to 'play' with her, to provide companionship.'
'Does she have caretakers?'
'Miss Galathee and her, what's the specific relationship?'
"Upperclassman Prismella." Place spoke up to bring her attention to him as they sat down at a table after picking their choice of breakfast.
"Are you sure that helping us does not negatively affect your own learning?"
"Don't worry about it." She said as she waved a spoon around. "I'm way ahead in my studies, I could apply to take the 'Final Exam' right now and absolutely thrash it!"
"That's amazing." Place voiced empty words of praise.
"Wait, why can you apply to take the final exam?"
Zandre swallowed a piece of boiled egg and asked.
"You don't know?" Prismella cocked her head at him, and when he shook his head, made to explain.
"The academy's four years of study are only a suggestion. As long as you can pass the final exam in all of your subjects, you can graduate, even if you're just a first-year!"
Zandre let out a drawn-out 'oh' and nodded in understanding. Then he frowned.
"Then why don't you graduate?"
Place wanted to pinch his eyebrows.
'Idiot.'
The table fell silent for a bit at Zandre's question, even Raise tried to shift away from him.
"People are entitled to their privacy, Zandre." Place spoke up.
"I apologize for my roommate's behaviour, Miss Prismella. "
"It's fine." Prismella's face had a slight frown on it.
"It's not that I don't want to graduate, some people don't want me to."
Place gestured wildly with his eyes, and Raise picked up on what he wanted to say.
Zandre opened his mouth to speak, only for Raise's hand to clamp over it.
"Miss Prismella." Place spoke, paying no attention to the struggle occurring beside him.
"I may not be of much help, but feel free to approach me with any problem you have, even if you just want an ear to listen to your woes, or just want someone to talk with."
Prismella stared at Place as she considered his offer.
Then she grinned.
"Then I'll be bothering you."