The first part of that conversation confused Esther.  "You know.  Jason, or whatever his name is," she said, trying to sound nonchalant about it.  "I pass by the band room sometimes and see you getting help with your clarinet."  Confusion.  "I mean, you do still get tutoring with your clarinet, right?  Is it getting easier to play the thing?"  Confusion, with an Oohhh.  Yes, yes it is.  I give up.  Seriously, when was the last time those two had a practice?  Esther didn't know.<br/><br/>Esther watched Amalia's nature change from totally trusting and confused to sharp, irritated, and even lying as soon as she asked.  That was what Esther had needed to see.  The girl had been coached.  And judging by how doopy she had been up until now, to say nothing of the clarinet practice, she'd probably been coached carefully.  Or, it was like she said, and she'd been getting a lot of practice with her same lines.  Esther was glad it didn't have to even slow her down.<br/><br/>What the girl told her was incredible, though, and Esther watched her with unfeigned, wide eyed amazement.  A cave in the woods?  A Goddess?  No way Billy has been here all this time and a random Temple to a Goddess has been just hanging around in the woods.  But this was too big not to ponder.  If Amalia, who was still Jason's biggest burden in life, was to turn into something that made the Other's hiss, then there wasn't a choice about whether or not she had to stop it.<br/><br/>"Oh really?  The Brenner Park Woods?  Right after school?  After Dark?  Midnight?" Esther asks.  All her questions are phrased as conversation.  While the influence of her powers might still be enough, she is careful not to ask 'Where' or 'What Time.'  It's less that she thinks Amalia will catch it, and more that Mindy will probably want to hear every word of this conversation than Amalia and Meredith had together.  If Mindy get's a bad smell, the lead will vanish.<br/><br/>After Esther learns of this, she makes a few more words of excited small talk with the starry eyed moron, and then looks at the clock.  "Guess he's not coming."  She mutters.  "There's someone I like, too.  Your tutor, actually."  She gives it one more venture, to see if she'll spill anything about Jason.  If she does, great.  If not, Esther will stand, give her a hug, tell her to have fun tonight, and leave.<br/><br/>"Fuck.  Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" Esther thinks to herself as she moves down the hall.  Now there was THAT to think about.  This was a headache.  She looked through the halls for anyone else she might have been targeting, and once the bell rings, she decided to prowl the halls alone for just a few minutes, resolving to be late.  It was just a feeling, but if felt like the quiet halls suited the people who were, well, her kind of folk.  After this period of hopefully relaxation, she would go to her next class, arrived unashamedly late and plotting her next moves.