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"Um," said Amara very articulately, looking rather evasive. She'd actually finished her homework early for once in her life, with no extra work lying around for her to worry over. "I... might have some research to do." That would leave her with an out, an excuse to go off who knew where. Potentially to the Library, though that wouldn't be quite the same thing with Tony missing. ... Still, she could go drive Carol nuts by existing, or admire the furniture that they had put in lately.

Furniture purchased on Amaravati's dollar, no less. "Do you have a lot of homework to do?" she asked, glancing in Khalla's direction. She wasn't entirely sure what Khalla wanted, if anything, but she knew one thing for certain: she definitely did not want her to be wandering about, trying to find out where she was going. It would be all bad for her if Khalla found out who and what she was.

She wanted to ask what her roommate had been up to lately, but the words froze on her tongue. It just... wasn't something they could talk about right now. Not unless Khalla brought it up herself. Things were so complicated anyway, and Khalla was disappearing more and more often. She would have been discouraged if she hadn't been so completely distracted. Between making a certain acquaintance and hunting she'd hardly had time left over for anything beyond homework.

Guiltily, because she hadn't told Khalla the truth, Amara added, "I do have my homework finished. It's just the exams that I need to study for." And wasn't that the truth? At least she wasn't lying. She did have to study for the coming tests, but she had done some of the studying already, and didn't need to spend the entire day doing so. "Have you done all of your revising?" she asked, the question natural enough. Surely Khalla had some of the same exams that she did.

Surely. Or maybe not. It was hard to say, when their schedules were so very different. "What? What is it?" What was it that Khalla wanted from her today? Was it because of what she'd said before, about them not having any time together? Or was there something else? Confused, and a little taken aback, she waited for her roommate to explain, if she ever would explain.

Khalla had said that she had finished everything that was due that week, but she hadn't said everything she meant to say. And it didn't mean she wasn't in Amara's position. ... Theoretical, not literal position, because Amara was making excuses here. There could have been reasons given, but sometimes it was easiest to go with the most simple answer. Explaining would've taken time, and besides... she was sure Khalla would not have approved.

Amaravati Priti was a lot of things, and while a liar might well be one of them when the situation called for it, it was not her norm. Lies did not flow from her tongue as easily as water. They were not her norm. But... even so, she wanted to be out of there. She had somewhere to be, and Khalla was giving her an opening. "All right. I need to head out for now, to get that done," she said, as though it were the most normal thing in the world to go out to study.

But then again, maybe it was. Maybe most people liked to study at the park, for all she knew! "I'll be back later." She got up and retrieved her purse, her hand hovering over her bookbag for a moment before she decided that her purse would suffice for the occasion. She stuffed the netbook that her father had recently purchased for her (with the expectation that her grades would improve) into the purse, her notes contained within it.

More to the point, it was lighter than any of her books actually were. So, she headed out the door, keys jangling in her hand as she debated between walking to the Library and driving. Hmmn. She did need to clear her head a little, and she hadn't had a lot of time to herself. Maybe she'd do some hunting on the way if the mood took her. Maybe. Unlikely, considering where she was headed. She wanted to take a look at the new furniture, and see if it was as good as she had hoped it would be.

Having decided on a walk, Amaravati trundled along, limping ever so slightly on her injured ankle, but doing a fairly reasonable job of walking regardless. She'd taken it upon herself to look in on her handiwork before, and she was going to do it again-- even though the Library was out to get her. Evil, evil Library. Whatever. She wasn't some kid to be pushed around by a building like that. Besides, there was no way that it was actually evil, right? Buildings weren't sentient, no matter how much it seemed like that one had to be.

And if they were, maybe she needed to consider a change of address... not that she actually could just move, or anything. She had a whole host of obligations here, none of which could simply be dropped. The Negaverse wasn't something you could ditch, and live. But that all was unimportant, because she wasn't going to be scared away by a building! No, the Library would not win this battle of wills-- and she was officially being overly silly now.

Humming to herself, Amaravati walked down the sidewalk, heading toward that nefarious place, determined to get there before it closed. Granted, she had some time before then, but... well, there were all sorts of distractions along the way, really there were. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Khalla following her, and probably wouldn't notice her for some time. There were important things on her mind, things that needed to be worked through to their various conclusions.

Amaravati in fact walked the entire way to the library before she noticed that she was being followed. ... What the $#$#? Frowning, she stepped into the shadow of the building, turning swiftly to see who had dared to follow her. If, that was, someone had followed her, after all. But she was pretty sure someone had. She didn't like it, not one bit. Glancing around sharply, she caught sight of a rather familiar figure. ... Was that a blond dreadlock? Ohhh, Khalla!

Sneaky, sneaky thing. So, her roommate had taken it upon herself to follow her, huh? Hmmn. She was beginning to get an idea of what this was about. The fussing, the following... the questioning. Could it be that Khalla was trying to figure out who she was going to go see? And she wanted not to be seen doing so, so she thought that it was a taboo subject.

She thought about it for awhile, standing there silent, before she headed into the library. Suddenly, when the doors opened, it clicked. Oh. Oh! Khalla thought she was being abused! She almost burst out laughing then and there, but she was in a library, and one did not make a lot of noise in a library. Right. So, she probably thought that she was being hit, and stuff. ... Why hadn't she thought of this sooner? It had been so very clear during their argument. Now, how to use this to her advantage? That bore thinking on.

Right, so... Khalla thought Amara was being abused. That was what her cryptic remarks and overwhelming concern had been about. As Amara limped along, she ran over the problem in her mind, trying to come up with a solution. She didn't want Khalla to follow her about like this indefinitely. Getting up in the middle of the night so that her roommate would not miss her was out of the question, and she really wasn't sure what to do about Khalla's suspicions.

Somewhere during her musings, she hit upon a potential solution. Aha! That was it! She would let Khalla 'find' her abusive partner (boyfriend, girlfriend, Amara wasn't picky!) and deal him or her justice. Or at least, she would let Khalla think that she had discovered the culprit. Maybe at that point her friend would stop following her around, and begin stalking that other person.

The only thing about it was that she would have to actually find someone now, and get them involved with the scheme. That was... more difficult than simply coming up with it. If she played her cards right, maybe whoever it was wouldn't even blame her for the trouble in the end. Maybe. But either way, she would be ready to handle it. She definitely did not want Khalla to discover her while she was hunting for starseeds. Making a quick turn, she headed up the stairs to the second floor of the Library.