Tess gets something light, with lots of sugar, plus a pastry, while Mal gets her coffee black and bold.

Tess is perfectly fine talking about anything else! What's a good neutral subject... Oh, that new movie theatre, the Alamo Drafthouse. She hasn't been yet, but she's heard good things.

Ava also hasn't been yet but she really wants to once she's a little more used to the school year, she's heard it's good too, but her friend's cousin went one time and said the person in the row behind them spilled - something mumbled - and it got all over but it's not really fair to blame the theater for that right? She's not sure if she wants to see Storks, there have been trailers and they don't look that great but it's a really neat concept other than that and also is the theater even going to show it, they might have a chance to go of - are classes going to be cancelled about - oh probably not never mind aaa- what majors are they all she's General but it's her first year she thinks she wants to do Business maybe?

She's still undeclared, but looking at Environmental Sciences. Maybe with a minor in Biology. Her friend Mal (who is mostly being quiet) is on track for a double major, Physics and Math.

Ava thinks that's cool but also involves way too much math and possibly dissecting stuff for her,  and wishes them luck. She seems to have run out of things to say, and starts quickly drinking her previously-neglected coffee (mocha with whipped cream and ludicrously many extra shots of espresso).

Tess will try to keep up the conversation, chatting about this or that, but it will probably lapse into Awkwardness after a bit.

Ava finishes her coffee, then asks to exchange contact information with everyone who came for coffee, to save time if any of them become friends later. A few people refuse on the grounds that it's weird.

Tess is fine with exchanging contact info! (Mal gives her school email, but not her phone or personal email). 

Ava sends confirmation messages to both addresses, then disperses homeward with the rest of the group.

"Well, that was... Something." Tess says shakily, draining her coffee. "...I don't think I'm in the mood to hang out much, now. Maybe head back to Brown?"

"Yeah. Hey, you mentioned earlier you've never seen Xena, maybe we could watch it together. My computer screen's big enough."

Tess agrees, and they finish up and head back to their dorm.

The night passes otherwise uneventfully.

The next day they split up for classes. All anyone seems inclined to talk about is the skateboarder. Tess is consequentially much more withdrawn than usual.

(She'll hit the gym after classes. She needs to blow off some steam.)

The skateboarder is definitely dead, everyone agrees about that. It's very interesting, in a morbid way, to a lot of people, especially the ones who weren't there!

People at the gym are at least much less talkative.

She doesn't scream at the gossipers. It's slightly an effort.

The quiet gym's something, at least. She puts in her earbuds, blasts music, a traditional sign of 'no I don't want to talk.'

She goes for a walk around grounds afterwards, partially to cool down, partially to just. Quiet her head. She still has headphones in.

The frazzled lady from yesterday passes her along Jefferson, frowning at her phone, although Tess might not recognize her.

Yeah, she was dozing when frazzled lady caught Mal's attention. She didn't catch the faces of everyone in the crowd; she only recognizes frazzled lady in a familiar face kinda way.

She continues on toward the hospital, muttering something under her breath.

Tess ambles along behind her for a bit, intending to turn off at Wilson.

The lady continues grumpily toward the hospital.

She continues her walk along the shaded brick pathway on the outside of the Lawn rooms... Which lead her right to the same grassy hill as yesterday. She stops when she sees it, freezing slightly.

A few other people are scattered nearby, some relaxed and some similarly upset-looking.

Yeah. She. Doesn't want to handle this right now.

She shakes herself out of the memory, turns, and walks briskly back towards her dorm.

Nothing particularly unusual happens that afternoon or night.

That night - 

"Hey. I was thinking, and something was... weird about what happened. Like, freaky coincidences. That skateboarder wasn't showing that level of skill before, and maybe he decided to show off for that woman or something, but... weird. The squirrel also darted out at him at exactly the wrong moment."

"Not everything's a conspiracy, Mal. Sometimes bad luck's all there is to it," Tess says, tired. Mal tries to say something, but she cuts her off with, "I'm going to sleep, okay? Today's been long."

Mal nods and lets her.

(The next morning there's an email from the university president, announcing the skateboarder's death, offering counseling to any students affected, we will miss him, etcetera. Tess deletes it.)