#bergen_county

Vali eats lunch at the French class, he's not hard to track down. He looks at the picture of his new baby on his phone, and smiles fondly. He gets it now. He's never been that impressed with babies. Sure, some are cute enough, some are kind of funny looking, but he never really found them interesting. His son? He ccould stare at for days. Damn odd

"Vali?" His name from the doorway.

He looks up "Oh hey, come on in"

"Close the door if you want to"

She closes it behind her. "So - is Miss Anders better now?"

"Yeah. " He nods "I had to use some of the Winter magics to chill her passions. I have theories on what happened to her"

"I mean, she wasn't still enchanted..."

"No, and there was no active cantrip on her. I think what at oe time she was.. repressed, maybe a lot of hang ups. A lot of curiousity about things... and somehow on Samhain... someone helped her get over her fears and barriers. Problem? The floodgate stuck on open. She should be a bit more level now, and with time will find a safer way to explore that"

He shakes his head "It's a damn good thing you and Sylvi caught her before she did annything too rash"

"So... when your cantrip wears off?"

"Think of it like a band aid. It should last long enough for the problem to scab over. Now I say should, but that just means I'll have to check onn her later, renew it"

"If it needs renewing." He looks her over curious "Do you mind checking on her too right aftter school or will you be busy?"

"I can..."

"If you could I'd appreciate it," he nods "I think Goldfinch is an over all ggood thing, but it does mean some new challenges"

"Right. Pranksters."

"I can't throw stones there, but yeah. You have any concerns beyond Miss Anders? I don't want to discourage Sylvi, but you seem cautious about Goldfinch... am I missin something about it?"

"Goldfinch is fine."

A nod "Okay. How are you doing? And beforre you ask, I don't mean your grades"

"Fine?"

"I'm glad Sylvi is back. She's pretty busy with Goldfinch, but..." She shrugs.

"But it it's good to have her back.. yeah. Gerd thinks so three." A bite of his meal "if you see Symon, let him know about the Miss Anders situaiton?"

She nods.

"Thanks. I have to tell Tiffany I'm gonna be a bit late checking on another woma. My wife's gona loove that. Wish me luck?" A smile

He sighs a bit though. He'd like to be with his wife and son

"Sorry, Vali."

"I'm not useful with magic stuff... I just knew something was wrong."

"Hey, it's my job, not yours. And again, and Sylvi were good to catch her trouble. She could have wrecked her career or worse. " A low voice "I may see if Kerri wants to play safe match maker for Miss Anders. What do you think?"

"I mean... if that keeps her away from the students?"

"If there's a nice guy her own age who will respect her as a person, Kerri probably knows one" He nods

"Who knows, this little scare might lead to a chance at a nice romance" He ponders , then says "Thanks again, Dagmar. I'm going to cheer extra loud for your team this year"

A little smile and a shrug. "Cool."

"Your dad's trying to sell me one of those foam fingers that helps pay for your team uniforms. The man's relentless. He just keeps staring at me... Brrr. It's how he got me to buy some candybars last year"

"He's good!" A little grin.

"You might be biased" A smile "But yeah. Go on enjoy lunch with your friends"

"Totally biased. Thanks for taking care of Miss Anders, Vali."

"Hey, happy to help" And that's true "We done good"

"Yeah."

"Yeah" A nod pleased

Basil knocks and peeks in "Hey, about Miss Anders, if she needs an a healhy outlet..."

"Not a chance, my Cloven hooved Casanova." Vali says

"Noted" And he trots off