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When it seemed about right that people who wanted a sandwich had gotten to eat, Sonora got to work cleaning up the space and then called out: ”Hello everyone! If everyone is ready, we’ll be headed out towards the Forest and the Groundskeeper’s Hut! Please let me know if you plan to wander off!!”

She did a quick count of how many people were around then, with the basket tucked under an arm, Sonora found a friend to walk next to and started leading the way out.

At his cousin’s announcement, August stood up, reluctance to leave hidden to all but the most discerning and observant. He trailed behind Lizzie and Topher-formerly-dubbed-Avery and allowed himself a small sigh.

Sonora was quite happy to be done with finals. Everything seemed to go well--she hadn't found a subject harder than Astronomy yet anyways, and she'd even stayed awake through the entire Astronomy final. This year, surely, she could scrape..well something that wouldn't embarrass Lena and the Astronomy club's tutoring. She'd actually slept in for once, and after getting a late breakfast and not finding her friends in any of their usual haunts, decided to wander around outside...maybe catch glimpse of the infamous Squid, maybe convince Skyfire that sitting still or flying about were both more exciting than poking holes in her sweater or getting feathers in her hair.

She spotted a familiar figure down by the Lake and beamed. She started running towards her best friend. Skyfire trailed behind with a disgruntled screech at his perch having run off. She was almost to him when Jonah crumpled up whatever he'd been reading and burnt it up.

Sona skid to a stop, startled by the outburst and the scream that followed. Skyfire made a wide loop before landing next to the new falcon, eyes wide and feathers bristling. Sonora sank down next to him, one hand gently on his shoulder in concern. She obviously hadn't seen the little flameball letter, and the falcon was unfamiliar...but lingering? Was it a class thing? Was he being called to Professor Amorocho's office?

"Jonah? What happened? What's stupid?"

Sonora started a bit when Jonah lashed out. She scooted a small step back, and didn't touch him but left a hand out and nearby in gentle offer of comfort--she was not about to abandon him there when he was obviously upset. She had the duty of a best friend to be stubborn with him when politeness would tell her to leave him be. Right? Something like that. So Sonora instead just shifted to sit down and looked away so he could cry without being stared at. As much as it hurt to not hug him when she heard the telltale sniffle of tears, she folded her hands into the grass and waited.

What happened? Okay. Bird, present. Paper--a letter? Who from? She stared at the unfamiliar falcon. Skyfire seemed to be familiar with her. Did Sona know the writer? Was it a bird from the owlery? Or...home? Either way, she was saved from trying to figure it out on her own when Jonah addressed her.

Sonora relaxed a little when he put his head against her, glad he was at least okay with hugs. She wrapped her other arm around his back and put her other hand in his. "Your parents?" She remembered meeting Dr. and Mrs. Lane over the winter break. Had they gotten mad at him?

And then he explained. Oh...wait, what? Splitting up? LIke a divorce? Or just living separately? Either way it seemed to come out of nowhere. Granted, it was only her first time meeting them that winter, and it wouldn't have been hard to hide any issues from a stranger. It wasn't even that hard for her own parents to hide when they fought--Sonora only figured out her parents had an argument when she heard them apologizing. Okay, her not knowing was beside the point. Jonah said they were splitting up because they were magic. She knew her own dad was uncharacteristically squeamish about magic too...was this the cause of the problems? She knew little enough about his family, though she might have recalled Jonah mentioning his dad not liking magic before. But they couldn't exactly do anything about being magical any more than their dads could about being not magical. What do we do to stop them from splitting up?

No, wait. This wasn't the kind of question they could answer. Sonora squeezed his hand, trying to offer him any kind of comfort possible. "Jonah...it's." What was she going to say? It's going to be okay? But it's going to hurt a lot between now and okay?

"It's okay to cry," she finally said quietly. "It...It'll be okay. It's not your fault. How could it be? We can't help being magical any more than people can not being magical.

She waited a little while, organizing her thoughts and giving him time to just cry before asking softly: "Do you want to talk about it? What do you know?"

"Rhea got suspended?" Sonora blurt out before thinking, then brushed it off. So Rhea had gotten suspended in September because of something to do with magic--okay, that made sense. And that was causing a rift, or otherwise making the magic-non-magic rift between their parents worse. This didn't sound good.

She flinched a little when Pandora dove at them, hugging Jonah tighter at the perceived attack but relaxing when she noted it was just the falcon--Pandora--being obnoxious. At least a comforting sort of obnoxious. She winced when when her talons dug into his skin. "You might want to get some ice for that," she murmured when Pandora fluttered off.

Bird encounter aside, Sonora frowned at Jonah's continuation, piecing things together as he talked. So Rhea had been suspended and it was giving Dr. Lane trouble? Jonah himself was getting picked up--suspended?--every other day? She shook her head, sitting up to listen as he laid back against the grass. "But if anything wouldn't that just mean he was more prepared for Rhea getting her magic? This isn't your fault Jonah. And Rhea's almost 11, it won't be long before she's here. It won't be that much longer, right?"

She didn't mean to get his hopes up--the separation seemed pretty final. But maybe it was just a scare and everything really would be okay. But what could they do now? Establish priorities for the inevitable conversation? She glanced at the deceptively easy way Jonah was sprawled back and noted the way his voice seemed...tired. "It'd...probably be nice to wait to hear their reasoning."