The morning started the way mornings had apparently decided to start for Alice lately, with Lucy in the backseat making noise about something.
Today it was the window. It wouldn't stay open at the angle she wanted, so she'd spent a stretch of the drive adjusting it in small increments and narrating each attempt to no one in particular. Bryan drove. Alice looked out the passenger window. The neighborhood moved past at its usual pace.
"There," Lucy announced. "Perfect. Don't touch it."
"I'm driving," Bryan said. "I'm not touching anything."
"I'm telling the universe."
"The universe is noted."
Alice said nothing. The window held its angle. It was a fine morning.
Ethan was already in his seat when Alice got to English lit. He looked up when Alice came in, face doing its usual thing, that immediate open brightness that seemed to be simply how he was built.
"Hey, how was---"
"Anna," Alice said, sitting down. "Is she okay?"
Ethan caught up to the redirect without complaint. "Yeah. A little shaken still but she's okay."
Alice nodded and set his notebook on the desk. Fine was a baseline. He'd see her in sociology and check for himself, but fine from Ethan was enough for now.
"You could come check yourself, actually," Ethan said, with the tone of someone who had been waiting for a reasonable opening to say this since yesterday. "Me and my friends, we have a place on campus. Our own space. Anna's been there. You could come by after class."
Alice raised an eyebrow. "You have a place."
"Yeah."
"Inside the campus."
"Yeah."
"How."
"Lucas," Ethan said, like that explained everything. Then, reading Alice's expression: "His grandfather is sort of a donor. The school looks the other way on a few things."
"Like a private room."
"Like a very nice private room with a billiard table, yes."
Alice looked at him for a moment. "One of your friends is related to the principal."
Ethan's face lit up. "Yes! How did you---"
"A hunch."
"Fair. Yeah, that's Lucas. Her nephew."
Alice filed that away and opened his notebook. A nephew. He'd had a brief flicker of curiosity about a possible connection to Aunt Mathilda he hadn't known about, something that might tell him more without having to ask outright. But a nephew was just a nephew.
"You can bring your friends too," Ethan added. "Anna would probably be glad to see you."
"I'll think about it. I'll see her in sociology anyway."
"She wasn't in sociology this morning," Ethan said, with the specific tone of someone passing along information they knew was relevant. "Skipped the first half. She was in the room."
Alice looked at him. "You're telling me this on purpose."
"I'm just informing you. Very casually. Of a fact."
"You talk a lot."
"I've been told." He smiled without any guilt. "But I'm also usually right."
Ethan, wisely, left it there. For about four minutes. Then he mentioned it again before the lecture started. Then once more at the halfway point, when Alice was mid-note and the words could clearly wait in Ethan's estimation.
By the end of class Alice had thought it through properly. She hadn't shown up to sociology, which meant she was either fine and just skipping, or she wasn't fine and Ethan's information was actually useful. Either way, Alice would know in five minutes if he just went to check.
Check on Anna. Then leave. Simple enough.
After the last afternoon class, Ethan was already in the hallway outside Alice's classroom. Alice looked at him. Ethan looked back with the expression of someone who had definitely been standing there a while and found nothing strange about that.
"You know where my class is," Alice said.
"I asked around," Ethan said, entirely without shame.
"That's a little much."
"I prefer thorough."
They walked to the parking lot together. Bryan was already at the car. Lucy was making her usual attempt at the passenger seat and being redirected to the back with the usual results. Alice waited for the routine to finish.
"This is Ethan. English lit. We're going to check on someone."
Lucy turned her full attention to Ethan with the expression she got when she met someone whose energy matched hers and she knew it immediately. "Hi! I'm Lucy."
"Ethan." He matched her without trying. "Nice to meet you."
"You too." She pointed at him. "I already like you."
"That's fast."
"I have good instincts."
"She does actually," Bryan said, which was high praise from Bryan. Ethan looked a little caught off guard by it. Bryan looked him over in the calm, thorough way he had with new people, then nodded once. "Bryan."
"Hey," Ethan said.
That was enough for Bryan.
Lucy fell into step beside Alice as Ethan moved ahead to lead the way. "What's Anna like?" she asked, keeping her voice low.
"Good. Quiet when she wants to be. Shakes hands when she meets people."
"Do you like her?"
Alice thought about it. "Yeah."
Lucy smiled. "Okay. Let's go check."
Ethan led them to a part of campus that even Lucy hadn't found yet, which said something because Lucy had spent every free period wandering.
"You haven't been here?" Ethan asked her.
"I didn't know this corridor existed," Lucy said, looking around with open offense. "This is an entire corridor. How."
"Lucas," Ethan said, same tone as before.
Lucy looked at Alice. Alice looked back at her.
So much for going in and out.