Esther thanked English for the information.  Now, that was interesting.  Mindy has just gotten her proverbial wings, in a way just as sudden as Esther.  She was obviously dealing with something else trans-human, but it was at least good to know that Mindy was a youngling at it.  Esther would find out what she needed to know soon enough.<br/><br/>Amalia on the other hand..  Esther didn't really know too much about her.  Wasn't she that gossip mongering clarinet player that Band Boy was always face palming next to?<em>That,</em>unfortunately, caused her to double take.  There was something that bothered her about that night in particular.  Besides the booming God Like Thing in the sky and maggoty scarecrow and exchanged of power and how she just fucked the future right out of someone, that is.  It was that Billy had whispered something to Band Boy.  He knew something the other three didn't.  She wondered if that had something to do with Post-Larval Mindy and Jason's Prattling Protege.  She needed to find Band Boy anyhow... she resolved to try and do that next.  If Jason had anything to do with that, maybe the Other Thing's reaction was for something different.<br/><br/>Esther took her usual seat in class: inconspicuous, defensible, and against the back wall.  When she started feeling that sense of expectation, she wondered if Mindy was going to walk in through the door.  Instead, it was a target sign.  Marshall Cunnings.  There was nothing about this kid that didn't scream of a wounded giselle limping past a pride of lions.  Even Esther had to smile a little at how 'kick-me' he already was.  But she didn't partake of the jeering.  To his credit, Marshall seemed to shrug it off well enough.<br/><br/>When the teacher jeered her, causing the audience to laugh, Esther raised her hand with a wry smile, as though to say 'guilty as charged.'  She was used to it, and today, she couldn't be bothered to give a flying fuck what they thought.  All of the weird events in the past three hours not withstanding, she was still newly empowered with something that changed her very perspective on life.  She was completely free, and couldn't fail at whatever she did.  The price of that bothered her.  The other transhumans bothered her.  But these guys?  If she wasn't still intent on remaining human, she could have this whole room degenerate into an cultist orgy.  And she would be their goddess.  The thought made her smile as Marshall sat down.<br/><br/>His awkward shyness and strange smile made her quirk a brow.  She thought back to Mindy and Amalia for a moment, wondering again how Mindy might have gone from a mousy no-name to an unrecognizable new face.  She couldn't piece it just yet, but there was a parallel here.  Beyond that, Esther smiled a little, momentarily taken with his awkward attempts at expression.  Facing the teacher and crossing her arms, she prepared for the next hour of doing nothing.