"You asked."
"I give them a week before they try to send me back entirely," Leo says.
"They can try," Jake says. Not looking up.
"They won't," Jim says. Without stopping writing.
"They definitely won't," Gray says.
Leo drops his head back, satisfied. "Just noting it. For the record."
"Noted," I say.
"Thank you," he says.
The quiet comes back. Jake's jaw moves once. Jim's pen slows and picks back up. Gray's thumb moves against the edge of hispage. RJ's hand on the floor finds my ankle and rests there. Not checking. Just there.
***
Dalton comes in late.
The door opens and the cold follows him in for a moment before the cabin takes it back. He shrugs out of his jacket, hangs it beside Leo's, reads the room once — fast, complete — and crosses to me and puts his mouth briefly to my hair.
"New intake," he says. "They're not ready yet."
"How long," I say.
"Hard to say." He settles on my other side. "They're scared."
"We were all scared," Jake says.
"Yes," Dalton says.
"Are any of you worried," Leo says. To the ceiling. Casual. "About tomorrow. Classes and all that."
Silence.
"I'm not worried," Leo clarifies. "Just taking the temperature."
"Sure," Jake says.
"I'm genuinely not," Leo says.
"Leo," I say.
A beat.
"A little," Leo says. "Academically."
"Me too," Jake says. Quiet.
Jim looks up from his notepad. Looks at Jake. "It'll be different," he says. "Not worse."
"How do you know," Jake says.
"I don't," Jim says. "But it won't be worse than what we've already done."
The fire settles. Jake looks at it. Nods once, small.
