That morning, Dara and Millie chose to walk to the college. The day wasn’t that hot, and it let Millie point out some things to Dara.

No, wait, it’s a university. She was a little fuzzy on the distinction—at home, all higher education was part of a college, but Dara supposed it wasn’t the biggest difference she’d seen.

Just in case, she had her disguise in her backpack, along with her staff and some foci.

Not that anything’s going to happen. But it was better to be safe.

“Okay, I’m going to go and blackmail the dean of admissions while you have fun with your totally not-a-boyfriend.”

“Millie…” Dara glared up at the older woman.

“What can I say? He’s cute. But enjoy the day, and remember, you’ll be coming back here pretty soon when school begins.”

“How am I going to pay for this?” Dara muttered.

“Thank Mike.” Millie paused. “He figured that since you saved some kids from a spooky ghost, the least he could do is fund your education.”

“Why—“ Dara fell silent. Idiot, you know why. Mike was Millie’s friend, but if he paid for her home, the relationship would be changed. Her father had warned her of that when she had left home. Debt changes friendships. “Well, I didn’t ask, but… I’ll thank him.”

“Yeah, Mike’s good people.” Millie nodded. “Now here we are, the glorious campus of California State University, Fullerton.”

Dara stared. Across the road were complexes of buildings, but they were… drab. Where are the crystal domes, the statues?

“Yeah, I know it doesn’t look as good as UCLA or UCI.” Millie grinned. “CSU system never gets all the money of the big places.”

“CSU… system?” Dara blinked. “This is it, right?”

“Oh, hell no. There are dozens of campuses all over the state. This is just the one for Fullerton.”

“Right.” I keep forgetting about how many people live here. Dara shook her head and followed Millie as she went to the crosswalk. They waited until the pedestrian light turned green and Dara…

Waited as the car zipped in front of them, not even paying attention to their red light.

“I hate cars,” Dara muttered.

“Oh, you say that now, but one day you’ll be driving like you’ve lived here all your life.” Millie gestured at Dara. “And then you’ll wonder why people keep getting in your way.”

“No, I can say I won’t.”

“Wanna bet?”

“What?”

“Fifty bucks, you get a driver’s license before the year’s out.”

“You said I couldn’t do that because of my ID problems!”

“Eh, we’ll eventually figure out a way, especially once you start whining about not driving.”

“I am not—“

“Hey look, there’s Jack.” Millie turned and started walking off, leaving her along with Jack.

“Um, hello!” Dara said.

“Hi,” Jack said. “So, ready for the tour?”

“Yes!” Dara said. “Thank you!” What else do I say? “It’s a… very nice col-university?”

“I like it,” Jack said. “It’s smaller than some places, and so you can actually talk to the professors.”

“Smaller?” Dara looked around. Sure, the buildings were drab, but there were so many…

“Smaller. I mean, UCLA has more and is a bigger campus, but yeah, I like this place.” Jack shrugged. “Also, the professors are more focused on teaching than original research at UCLA.”

“Oh.” Dara looked around at the plain white concrete and the wide walkways. “So, where should we go?”

“Well first, how about the library, then move out from there?”

“Library? Yes!” Dara said. Now I can see things.

The next hour or so went by quickly. The library… well, it didn’t have any ritual-sealed rooms, or dancing fire, and the lighting was by that steady, irritating white light…

But even so, there were books. More books than Dara had ever seen before. Not just books. The periodical section was…

“How many magazines do you have?” Dara finally asked, staring at the endless racks.

“Dunno, couple of hundred, probably. More online.”

I think there may be about fifty circulars total back home. They were expensive, after all. But here… Dara shook her head. Just as she was getting used to things, she got reminded how different everything else was.

“So what are you thinking of taking?”

“I’m… not certain.” Dara figured at that ‘everything’ wasn’t the right answer. “Maybe the sciences? Chemistry?” I know chemistry. But on the other hand, maybe that meant she should take something else? At least so she could have something new to talk about when she went home.

And I am going home. Probably soon.

“Chemistry’s good. I’m here for mechanical engineering,” Jack said. “And some other stuff. We’re building a rescue robot for this coming semester. I managed to get in, even though I’m a new sophomore because of some stuff I did in high school.”

“Oh.” I suppose they’d need these ‘robots’ if they didn’t have any magic. “That’s why you thought the thing in the square was a robot.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “I hope by the time they talk about it, everyone forgets about it. Too many people hear robot and think kill-bot. Thank UAV’s for that.”

“U…AV?”

“Little flying robots that can drop a bomb on you, even though the guy controlling them is about a thousand miles away.”

Dara blinked. A thousand miles away? She’d have to remember that, especially if she had to go out again.

As they were talking, Jack showed her across the school. There were dozens of classrooms in each building, most of them closed, waiting for the next term. But there were still students and faculty working in some of them, either getting ready for the new school term, or just doing their own work.

It made Dara feel more homesick, if that was possible. The way they were bent over books or experiments, focusing on things just felt…

Like school back home.

As the tour continued, Dara found herself pausing as they passed the chemistry labs, racks of glassware and complex instrumentation catching her eye. Everything seemed to be associated with computers or other types of equipment.

How am I going to disguise my ignorance?

Jack must have noticed Dara’s expression. “Don’t worry. You start as a freshman, and they don’t toss you in here without any preparation. In fact, your first classes will be, well, simple, 100-level stuff like English, History, other pre-reqs like that. And that’s the penny tour. Wanna get something to eat?”

“Y-yes, I’d like that,” Dara said.

“Good! Normally the cafeteria is closed this time of year, but they got some extra funding and are trialling it being open for the summer when the campus is open.” They walked into the student unit, the dimmer light a pleasant contrast from the bright outdoors. Only a few people were inside, and Jack walked right up to the counter, where an older woman was serving the food.

“So, what do you want?” he asked.

Dara stared at the menu, digging for the cash she had. “I’ll have… The pizza.” It wasn’t that unusual compared to some of the food back home, and it wasn’t super sweet. “The pepperoni.”

“One pepperoni slice and for your drink?”

“Tea. Unsweetened.”

“I’ll have the same,” Jack said.

The woman nodded, and then paused, as Dara held out her cash. Jack shook his head and handed her his card.

“Important lesson. When you start school, keep your student ID with you. It makes food cheaper.”

“I see.” They found a seat by the window, and Jack gestured out at the campus. “The food court closes early, but the student center stays open until midnight, and goes to twenty-four hours during finals. It’s a neat place to study.”

“It looks like it. Thanks for showing me around.”

“No problem. So, where are you from? Millie didn’t say.”

“I, ah…” Dara thought of all the places she’d considered for an origin story and then shook her head. “It’s complicated.”

Jack paused for a moment, then nodded. “I see. I won’t bring it up again, and sorry.”

Sorry? Does he know I’m—No. He must think I’m from some place on earth that I can’t or don’t want to talk about.

“I’m from. Here, actually Anaheim,” Jack said. “School’s close and found a place to stay.”

“Why not stay home?” Dara asked. “I mean, wouldn’t it be cheaper?”

“Nah, folks moved out to the East Coast when I graduated from school. I had a choice, but you know, I already had my heart set here.”

“Oh. When I was at school, before I came… here, I didn’t have a choice. It was too far away from my family to stay at home and go to school.”

“So, boarding-school girl, right?”

“I—yes.”

They kept talking, and Dara found herself enjoying it. It was nice to talk to someone who was just talking, not aware of her situation. I didn’t use to care about this that much at school. I Just focused on learning. She hadn’t really needed to talk to people a lot.

Maybe because she’d never dreamed she would be in this kind of situation where she couldn’t talk to people without watching what she said.

I’ll think about that later. With that, Dara got back to their meal and talking to Jack about, well, nothing vital. And that was all she needed.

“She’ll have to sign some of the paperwork herself,” Dean Jensen said. He steepled his hands and looked up at Millie. “Though I am interested in why you and Mike both jumped on this.”

“She’s a good kid.”

“I hope she is. But I do owe you, and Mike, so she’ll be enrolled. It’s a good thing her tuition is paid for—I think in Ms. Stonemender’s case, it’d be unwise to attempt to obtain any kind of student loan or grant.”

“Yeah, we know that. Don’t worry, she’ll be paid up.”

“Stonemender… that is an interesting name. Not that common. I take it that she’s a refugee?”

“Ask me no questions…”

“I’m not asking a specific question, Millie, but let me rephrase it. Are the issues of her homeland likely to trouble this school?”

“No.” Millie shook her head. “No chance.” What issues hanging around Earth, on the other hand… “She’s not running from a drug gang.” Technically true! The best kind!

“I understand,” Jensen said. He glanced over at his office window, showing the quad, only a few people wandering across it, and sighed. “But remind her, Millie, that while the college doesn’t inquire into our students’ immigration status, if she comes to the attention of the police, her status as a student will provide no defense.”

“I understand.”

“Good. With that, I have a good deal of work…”

“I’ll see you!”

“Yes, I’m certain you will.”

Well, that went well. Millie hadn’t been nearly as confident as she’d let on to Dara, but now Dara was a student.

Good place to make friends. Good place to stay out of sight. Everyone expected that at least a few college kids would be a little weird. It came from being adults and away from home for the first time. So any of Dara’s possible missteps would be just her being college-weird.

It’d also reduce the chance of people asking questions about why Millie had a teenaged roomie who didn’t talk with anyone else.

Millie flipped out her phone and called Dara.

A few moments later, Dara picked up.

“So, where are you?”

“At the cafeteria.”

“See, just meet him, and you’re already having a date.”

“Millie!”

“Fine, fine. I got some things for you to sign, but you can do it at home. Have fun!” Millie cut off the phone before Dara could say anything else. She bet if she had given her the chance, Dara would be heading home right now.

“Sorry, Kid, not gonna help you be a hermit,” Mille said to the air as she turned and headed home.

The sun was going down when Dara walked home. She hadn’t offered to have Jack accompany her, and he hadn’t pressed.

In fact, Jack hadn’t pressed at all about where she’d come from. It had set Dara at ease. Not to mention the labs.

If there’s any way for Earth technology to help me, I bet I can find it there. Better yet, Dara had already taken classes in chemistry back home, so it wouldn’t be hard to learn what was different here.

She reached out and unlocked the door, walking into the house, the air cool after the warm California evening.

“So, when’s the marriage?” Millie asked from where she was sprawled out on the couch.

“What—no!” Dara shook her head, and how could that woman always get her to blush?

“I’m just saying, spent a late night out, talking about classes, he whispered sweet nothings about the schedule into your ears, taking advantage of your youth and inexperience…”

“Millie?”

“Gonna try to turn me into a frog?”

“Thinking about it.”

“Well remember, you still need me to drive you here and there. Seriously, had fun?”

“Jack is… intelligent,” Dara said. “We were talking about classes. I think I’ll focus on chemistry after I finish my… required classes.”

“Yeah, core classes are always a pain. Why not physics?”

“Physics is a dead-end,” Dara said. “I already took those classes back home.”

“So know how to split the atom, eh?”

“What? That’s a joke, right? Everyone knows that elemental atoms are indivisible. That’s why you can’t transform one element into another.”

Millie stared at Dara and then started cackling. “Kid, you need to take a look at the Internet. Check out the Wiki on physics.”

“Why?”

But Millie refused to say anything else and just kept laughing.