Dani had mixed emotions when Pearleane said that she was also new to everything because, on the one hand, they were both equally inexperienced but, on the other hand, Dani wasn’t going to be able to get a lot of help from Pearleane.  Hearing the name of the snack as Pearleane sent jelly beans everywhere explained the incredibly spicy taste that she had experienced upon biting into the jelly bean.  From his expression, Peter’s wasn’t as bad as hers.  To answer his question, she shook her head, scribbling down on the white board, “I don’t know what it was, but it was really spicy.”

As Dani was erasing the black writing from the board, seemingly oblivious to the black flecks that stuck to her fingers as she did, so that she could start writing another question, this one about how the Houses worked, as she had heard them mentioned but never explained, a group of older students, each of them much larger than Dani, showed up in the doorway.  Dani, as non-confrontational as ever, was perfectly ready to leave when Pearleane stood up, hands on her hip, and told the three of them off for insisting they leave.

Feeling that she couldn’t just undermine her new friend’s attempt to stand up to the older students, Dani didn’t move or make any attempt to communicate, merely turning her head to look the leader, a lanky boy with a white lock of hair among the brown, in the eye without blinking.  Her hope was to creep them out enough that they left, as she knew from past experience that people could be very uncomfortable with her never ending silence, an effect that was only magnified when she refused to break eye contact.