In the Tea Party Room

[smallestopener]

It's not that Ingress forgot what happened in Valdemar? How could you forget such meanness?

It's more that summer is a busy time full of books to read, places to explore, and things to do. She's looked at the surveys that people answered and thought about what her friends said.

She did finally talk to Tom and Door, and while Tom was apoplectic

Comments

[mmquitecontrary]

"I have missed you, too," Mary says, very seriously - not that this is unusual for Mary, but she has a vague awareness that there is perhaps something important going on, even so.

"There was not one of the girls at school who I liked even a - a tenth so well as you."

(On the other hand, she did, at least, learn fractions.)

[smallestopener]

"Thanks," she says, pleased. Mary's friendship means a great deal to her, but this news is sad, too. "Did you make any friends at all?"

She pours the tea into their cups.

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary considers this as she takes a dignified sip of tea. "There were some of the smaller girls who were not awful. I might have liked some of them a little if there were not always so many of them, and always together."

Big groups are not so much Mary's thing.

[smallestopener]

"I thought I made a lot of friends in Valdemar this summer. I'm not so sure now. Megwyn says that of course the Heralds and Heralds-in-training are my friends, but I just don't know any more."

She looks forlorn as she sips her own tea. It's still hard to talk about what happened.