Zaylin followed Amy’s lead as she grabbed her own food, the voices in the cafeteria growing louder as more students filtered in. Zaylin scowled as the echoes irritated her fairly sensitive hearing. Taking a deep breath, she did her best to shake the remaining cobwebs of sleep from her mind and tune the noise out, as she had long since taught herself to do.

Zaylin stopped beside Amy, a little surprised at the girl’s offer to sit with them. “Yeah, sure.”

[b]“I spend entirely too much time talking about homework.”[/b]

Zaylin chuckled. “I think I can deal with that. It’ll be a nice change.” She glanced around the cafeteria. “Does there work for you?” She nodded to an empty table near an outside window.