His friend arrives, pausing in front of the table. 

She looks unsure about where to sit.

"Well, yes. But I don't see why I shouldn't be friends with you as well," Liam replies. He is well aware, having experienced a day and a half's worth of the social hierarchy of this school, that Callie and friends are the popular crowd, while Scott is very much an outsider. He simply chooses not to let that dictate his choice of friends.

Rowan, of course, simply opts not to interact with such unwritten rules in the first place, and neither knows nor wishes to know what the fuss is about. 

Liam looks up. "Oh, hi...Erica, was it? Have we taken your seat?"

"No, it's fine."

She sits across from Liam.

"It looks like you're having fun in art."

 Liam gasps in mock horror, falling back in his seat as if stabbed.

"Oh no! You have guessed my terrible secret!" He puts a hand to his head.

"It's true, I confess it. I am...an artist! I can never sit with the popular kids again! Ah, woe is me!"

Rowan giggles.

"Guess you're stuck with us. You can still hang out with Danny, he likes everyone."

"Especially artists."

"What about your other classes? Anything good?"

"US History is interesting, especially since I've never studied it before; it's a new perspective on the world." Rowan nods in agreement.

"I had fun in Phys Ed yesterday as well, although I understand that one's more variable." Still, he's smiling at the memory of beating David in dodgeball. 

"I'm enjoying AP English," Rowan contributes, "and AP Chem and Calc are both sufficiently challenging to be interesting." 

Liam pokes her. "That's high praise, from Rowan," he translates.

"He's an athlete," she says, apparently to Scott. 

"I'm glad you're settling in okay. Have you thought about joining any other clubs?" 

"Animation club looks good, Rowan's trying out Debate next Monday, and we'd be going to the GSA meeting today except I promised to be at baseball tryouts and Rowan doesn't want to go without me."

Tone carefully casual, not making a big thing of it, just a thing people do. 

"That sounds cool. You're into animation?"

Oh good, we're ignoring the thing, that's nice.

"I hadn't considered it until we moved here, but someone noticed me doodling in my notes and suggested it as a potential direction." No need to mention Danny by name when it's clear they don't really get on. 

"What about you?"

"I'm not really in any other clubs. I work at the local vet's office, so I don't always have weekdays free."

"That's cool," Rowan says shyly.

"Do you get many weird animals in there?"

"Nothing exotic. We had a badger once, and a buzzard, but mostly it's local species."

Yes! Rowan made a friend. Liam's work here is done. 

"Erica, how about you? Not a sporty person, I take it?"

"I'm a liability. I might have a seizure on the field." 

"My condolences," Liam replies. He goes for sincere but not overly sympathetic, since they only just met.

"So what do you do with all the free time you spend not playing sports?" If the answer is 'nothing' or 'not much' he will be disappointed but not particularly surprised, and add it to his list of projects. 

"I mostly judge people."

"She's pretty good at it. I'm waiting for them to add it to the Summer Olympics."

"I look forward to it." He remembers that he's supposed to be eating, and does that.

"Might I ask how you would judge me?"

"Too friendly. You're over-compensating for something. Maybe you're a serial killer and you make hats out of people, maybe you're really horny all the time and don't want to make anyone feel used, maybe you're trying to make up for your sister; you two seem pretty close and she's not nearly as good at talking..."

...Well, he did ask.

"Or maybe my tragic backstory has left me with a looming anxiety about being liked, driving me to ensure I have as many friends as possible in case some of them abandon me," he responds cheerfully, giving no hint that he would suddenly rather be anywhere other than sitting here talking to this horribly perceptive person. 

"Thank you, that was very enlightening." It tells him that Erica has some trust issues, that he should probably tone down the friendliness a little, and that he's hovering over Rowan too much, most of which he could have guessed already.