You're feeling not bad!

"I'm good!" You reply cheerily.

"Good." Jace's body seems to loosen into a more relaxed posture when you say that. He slides back into his chair a bit. "That's good. Hey, what equipment did you end up going with?" He suddenly perks back up and leans forward, hands flat on the table.

"I got the {if@ Armour == 1}metal chestplate{elseif Armour == 2}metal bracers{elseif Armour == 3}chainmail{endif} and {if Weapon == 1}electric batons!{elseif@ Weapon == 2}sledgeaxe!{elseif Weapon == 3}pepperbox pistol! Shield, too!{endif}"

"No kidding? {if@ Weapon == 2}I was thinking about the Sledgeaxe too! That's an awesome choice, it looks like a blast. {if@ Strength <4}You should probably hit the gym a bit more than the rest of us for it, but that's gonna be really cool.{else}And I can see that you've already been going to the gym, so you'll be a total natural.{endif}{elseif Weapon == 1}Those batons looked awesome. And they're perfect for practising too, because you can just set the electricity to not.... you know, kill the dude. We should totally do some sparring once the stuff arrives.{elseif Weapon == 3} I actually ended up going with a crossbow, so we'll both be working on aiming. That'll be fun! I was thinking of making all these custom crossbow bolts to do different stuff, like a net -- I'm not sure how I'd fit a net in one of them, so maybe just things like explosives, but-{endif}{if@ Weapon < 3}"

"I'm really looking forward to it!" You smile and nod.

"I actually wanted to do something melee too, since I like to hope I'm kinda strong, but the issue is I'm not that good at actually taking the hits. I'm going with a crossbow instead so that I can stay back a bit, but instead of only using normal bolts I'm gonna-{endif} oh, don't worry, you don't care about that."

A waiter comes up to the table with two small plates. One has the delicious and incredible smelling raspberry and white chocolate muffin, and the other has a little ham and cheese croissant. You definitely got the big straw on this one. Hey, wait a sec, the waiter's in a school uniform! Are students allowed to work here then?

"Oh! By the way." Jace gets out through a mouthful of croissant. He swallows before continuing. "Sorry, I should've said this earlier, then we got talking. Delilah somehow knows like half the students here already. She had two third year students in our room during lunchtime, after Combat Class, and she was talking to them pretty openly. There's...." Jace stops talking, thinking over what to say next. You wait patiently.

"There's what?" You suddenly burst out. You're a patient woman, but after waiting for three seconds you just can't keep it in anymore.

"This is gonna sound weird, but I'm pretty sure that she's going to have them try to.... fondle you. There's going to pretend it's about your new armour{if Armour == 2}, which, I mean, for your bracers doesn't even make sense.{else}.{endif} Just keep an eye out for that."

Woah! Alright then, you'd better watch out for those two guys. Imagine if you'd ran into them before Jace warned you!

"Hey, and Debbie, for real, it's good to know that you're all good. Come see me if that changes, and I'll see what I can do to try make Delilah less- you know."

You smile and nod, then wolf down your muffin in record time. Only a little bit of raspberry ends up around your mouth! Jace smiles, and goes to eat the rest of his croissant. You two talk for a few minutes longer, and once you've finished up, Jace pays and the two of you say your goodbyes. You're glad he doesn't hate you! He didn't even mention the whole Monster Theory Class thing once.

"Oh, by the way Debbie?" He turns just before leaving. Oh no! He's totally about to mention the Monster Theory Class thing! "You're a really beautiful person. I'm glad that we're friends."

Phew! That was a close one. Oh, wait, you should probably respond- but Jace has turned and walked too far away by the time your fight or flight dies down.

{if Free Time == 1}You've still got some time in the day to do something else, if you wanted to. Maybe you could talk to Cameron in your room? But you could also do that any day.{elseif Free Time == 0}Woah! That went on a lot longer than it felt like. As you leave the cafe, it hits you just how tired you are, and how dark it is. You can do other stuff during your free time later, right now you're too tired to do anything but sleep.{endif}