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Elke squeaked, tightening her arms around Simon's throat and probably almost strangling him. "Be careful," she chided once she had righted herself. She was ignoring how he'd ignored her question, but it would surely come back to haunt her later in the day. After those nightmares of Avery and Sebastien, maybe, she'd manage it.

Not like she wanted to. She knew Simon was shy. Which was a good point--she had known he was gonna do this. It was a sad truth that after you've been injured in the presence of Atlas, you kind of assumed he was not a daredevil. Well, neither was she, but Crystal was familiar ground to her. What was like crossing a street for Elke was probably more like jumping a ravine to poor Simon. You did not ask people to jump ravines lightly. Or, at least, you didn't if you cared, in Elke's opinion. Ravine-jumping was dangerous. Poor Simon. "They are too, I checked the charter," said Elke, doing her best impersonation of a teacher. "and you're accompanied by a Crystal student and therefore, it's all right."

Then, going back to her normal conciliatory tones, she said, "If you really don't want to, though, we don't have to. I'm sure we can think of something else to do!"

She nodded, firmly. "Really really. Lots of really. I will pinky swear right now." But either the promise went unheard, or else Simon didn't require pinky promises in order to believe what she was saying.

Outside the doors of Crystal Academy, she shimmied down to her feet and brushed off her skirt, straightened her winter coat, then grabbed the hem of Simon's coat. (No escaping! Elke may have giggled a little at that thought.) To the secretary, she said, "This is Simon," which was met with signing something after a disapproving glance at a Hillworth boy being on campus, but it didn't seem like anyone was going to stop Elke.

"Papa's an ambassador," said the bluenette when they were out of earshot. "I don't know why that's even important, though. You know? Anyway, you promised to teach me how to make curry, I have stuff for it, and I am also going to make apple cake if you like, I'm really good at it. It comes out very apple-y." She smiled over her shoulder, cheeks dimpling.

They turned left into a classroom; it was empty, and clean, except for the back table, which had a bag of apples on it. "I have permission," she explained, "I didn't know what kind of curry you know how to make so I have stuff." She took off her coat, brushed off her skirt again and pulled down two aprons, offered one up to Simon. "Plus, we can talk about whatever, if you want, since no one ought to be around."

She was busily washing the apples in the bag. "There's stuff in the bags on the counter," she explained, "Can you find what you need?"

Elke spent this time with a paring knife in hand, peeling apples and occasionally eating chunks of the peel. That was where the nutrients were! Ally had told her that, or was it Pop? One of them had told her that apple peels were good for you, but only if they were fresh and washed right. These were fresh and washed right and a very pretty shade of deep red. They had to be good for you!

Such thinking could get you poisoned, though. Elke had read Snow White.

"Okay, if you need help finding something, just ask me, okay?" She pared her apple into the strainer at her side; sitting on the counter, she was almost as tall as Simon. Almost.

The creepy part was that she hadn't moved her gaze off him once, during the whole ordeal. Her hands were peeling an apple, one with a sharp knife, and either she was so confident in her skills she didn't need to look, or she was just so dumb she didn't think to. After a moment longer, though, she looked back to her apples. "I did say thank you for the other day, right," she asked, casually; "If I didn't, I'll say it again, if you want."

Then, in a jaunty tone: "So there's this girl, her name is Fallon, and she gets kind of bitey when people are in her kitchen space. Not that I've ever done it, but this guy I knew--" she paused for a moment, then picked up again "--this guy I knew got in her space and she hit him in the face with a plate! Gosh. I couldn't imagine anyone doing that. And we're not in her space anyway, so you needn't worry, Simon. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is I'll look out for you, okay? If you're worried, don't be, 'cause you have every right to be here." She held up a visitor's pass that she'd put next to her strainer of apple peels, set it back down with a plastic slap.

"D'you want an apple," she asked, "I just gotta dice these and I still have two left over, so you can have one!"

She had to resist audibly cooing over how cute Simon was; she didn't think it would be conducive to trying to get him to relax if she made it clear how adorable she thought he was sometimes. It had to suck, being so shy, especially when your roommates were jerks like his seemed to be. "You're welcome," said Elke cheerfully. She slithered off the counter to dig out a larger knife and a cutting board; then she set to dicing the apples.

"All right," said Elke, who wasn't one to say thank you where it wasn't wanted. Especially not if she wanted to become friends with the person she ought to have been thanking; it was best to just knuckle under and that way they'd be more likely to like her.

It made sense to her, anyway.

She had diced two apples before she straightened up and went digging in the pockets of her Crystal Academy uniform. "I always forget to pull my hair back," she sighed, pulling out an elastic hairband; she put it on and blew locks of hair out of her face. "So, what're you doing?" Elke stayed put, even though she dearly wanted to go hover; she felt like she was doing so well at making Simon see her as good of a friend as she saw him.