Hailey's honestly hard to converse with, what with being a damaged, inconsistent, bitter mess of a girl.

She sighs softly and polishes off the last of her food. "Hope I got lucky with you. We'll see."

She's probably fucked.

Too late to prevent it if so.

Right... Hailey doesn't actually trust her yet. And well maybe she's right to worry. If she gets tangled up in Elemi's mother's efforts it'll be a lot harder to escape than just waiting to turn 18.

"I hope so too."

"What're TV shows like, anyway?" she asks after a long moment.

"Well there's a lot of them. So they vary a lot, but they tend to be more fast-paced than books, like they're always trying to fit things in. The news is usually very serious, and I love watching interviews because it lets me practice figuring out what people are feeling. The more stressful ones are also a good way of practicing figuring out if people are lying.

"With fiction there's different levels of realism, some actors and actresses are really good at actually looking like they're feeling what their character is supposed to but others have kinda obvious tells. It makes it harder to watch shows with people our age in them. They don't have as much practice usually.

"Cartoons are better for that because it's more about voices and most people are better at controlling their voice than their face."

"Huh. Might be neat to see sometime."

She won't get the chance, but. Eh.

"Got a favorite?"

"It's hard to pick there's so many interesting shows, if I have to pick just one though... I think it's A Day In The Life. They interview so many kinds of people and show bits of what their lives are like. It's obvious that some of it's a bit staged and forced but a lot of it is genuine. And they're kind to the people they're featuring."

Kindness sounds fake.

But the show's maybe neat.

"Interesting. Maybe you can show me sometime."

"I'd like that, maybe I can bring in a tablet sometime."

"Let me know if you manage it."

She sips her drink, then asks, "Do you actually think you can manage something? What can you tell me about your plan?"

That... is a valid question. "Lemme think." What would it be okay for her to say? "You could call my mother a lobbyist. There's probably a better term for what she does specifically, but it's in the right neighborhood. And she wants me to follow in her footsteps. A big part of what that involves is finding ways to convince people to do what you want.

"I think she might see me trying to help you as a reasonable way to practice the skills she's trying to teach me but if she's treating it as a lesson she won't care if I succeed. And if she decides to take it seriously then she'll probably consider you to owe her for her help and I don't really know how seriously she would take that or what she would expect you to do. Either way if I tell her, or if she figures it out then I can't control what she'll do."