Jules jumped a when he suddenly felt talons stabbing into his shoulder, his ears ambushed with deafening squawks. With a shout, he turned to see a decidedly ticked off bird screeching in his face.

"Gah! Back off, ya gizzard!" Jules actually had no idea what a gizzard was. He was pretty sure it had to do with birds, though. The bird's response was to give a small peck on his ear, but he remained firmly perched on Jules' shoulder. He heard Lars' voice behind him, and looked over his shoulder to see her glance his way, throwing a smirk at the other girl. That was a teasing smirk. Lars was probably teasing him. Honestly, he had no idea. Jules was pretty sure his ear was bleeding. He did manage to catch what she'd said about Salem's being chill, though.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked, turning around to face them. He continued to walk backwards as he went on, "Sander was about an inch away from hexing me last year. She has no chill." Granted, Jules probably shouldn't have given a presentation on muggle fireworks in her class by trying to make his own and incinerating half the room.

"Word of advice," he threw to the blonde girl, "don't take muggle studies. It looks like an easy A. It's not." Which sucked, because that's what he'd been hoping for when he'd signed up. "Hey, what was your name again?"

Lars waited for Amelia to stand again before continuing on after Jules, her attention momentarily chewing on a thought—the blonde girl hadn’t spoken a word yet, not even a sound when she laughed. It was a detail that Lars didn’t miss, despite the rush of events leading up to their unexpected lunch break. Perhaps she was just super shy?

Lars turned back to Jules after he began backpedaling to talk to them properly, his jabber about how angry he’d gotten Mrs. Sander. Although she couldn’t recall the exact story, she recalls him telling her before, so she only laughs.

“Alright, while it is true that Professor Sanders can be a bit strict, I distantly recall you nearly torching her desk, which I think is fair grounds for a hexing.” Lars teased casually, her smirk turning to Amelia then, looking to gauge her expression. She might have began forming a retort to Jules’ advice on avoiding muggle studies (which happened to be one of her favorite classes), but stopped short when the topic of their newly abducted friend’s name was once again on the table. She turned to the girl expectantly, wondering if she’d choose to speak up now, or if they’d get the same old silent treatment.

Amelia once again listened to everything, though at this moment, most of it was going completely over her head. She had know idea who this Professor Sanders was, though she had to guess they were a teacher based off of what the other two were saying. She also could guess that this Sanders taught whatever Muggle Studies was. Funny word 'muggle'. Maybe it was a wizarding term she would have to get used to very quickly.

Then the subject changed to one she would've rather avoided. That being what her name was. She had no way of telling them what it was. Even in sign language it was extremely difficult, especially her last name. She looked at the ground, debating what to do. On one hand she could walk away and hope she didn't offend either of the two in front of her. However, that would mean she had to deny the opportunity for food and she was absolutely STARVING. Taking a breathe to calm herself, she made her decision before looking up at Jules and Lars.
'I cannot talk.' She signed to them, hoping they would at least get the message or come to a conclusion that matched what she was trying to tell them.

"Ok yeah, but it was for education," Jules retorted to Lars with a grin. But then the blonde kid started doing something with her hands. Jules understood a total of two languages. Sign language was not one of them. But he knew enough to recognize the motions for what they were, and nearly tripped over himself as he walked backwards.

"Oh shit," he blurted. "Ya can't talk. Hey Lars, did you know that?" He looked back to the older girl again. "So what, is it like a deaf thing or something? Deaf people can't always talk, yeah? Can she hear us or does she read lips or something?" Jules probably shouldn't have been talking about the young girl like she wasn't there, but in his defense he's an idiot. He let out a small 'oof' when he finally backed up into the counter of the cafe. He stayed there as he waited for the other two to catch up with him. Looking at the blonde first year again, he said. "For future reference, every word I know in sign language is a swear word, so… yeah. Don't expect me to understand. Lars, you know any sign language?"

Lars honestly wasn’t too shocked when the girl began signing to them, realizing at the same time that Jules suddenly blurted it out: she couldn’t speak. Not a drop, apparently, which explained all of her earlier silence. She quickly shot the young wizard a look when he began to rapidly ask her questions about the girl, before watching him run into the end of a counter. Smooth.

"No, I don't." she quickly chirped back to him, before turning to the girl again. She had an idea.

“Can you write?” Lars asked while unzipping her bag and pulling out a small booklet. She politely offered it to the girl, along with a pen that she managed to dig out of the bottom of her bag. “It’s sketching paper, but it could work for communication.” she explained slowly, in case the girl really did need to read lips. Hopefully, this could fix things quick so they could still sit down for a meal together. She’d feel bad leaving the poor girl unable to communicate propely.

Jules reaction was unexpected and rather amusing. She hadn't expected him to freak out as badly as he did, taking wild guesses as to why she couldn't speak. The guesses brought a frown to her face, as she didn't like it when people thought she was deaf, even though it was an understandable mistake. She turned to Lars, who seemed a lot calmer about this situation then Jules and even offered some help in the way of communicating by handing Amelia a pad of paper and a pen before speaking slowly, something that Amelia again was used to but still annoyed her. She sighed, though no noise came out, before quickly writing down on the paper then showing it to Jules and Lars. Her handwriting was neat and easy to read so it wouldn't prove hard to understand what she wrote.
'I'm not deaf, I'm mute. I can't make a sound, so please don't speak to me like that. I can understand you without you speaking slowly. Also, my name is Amelia Averyonna.' it read. Once she was sure the two had read it, she lowed the paper and looked at them nervously, hoping their reactions would be a lot calmer now. Then again, she was a witch who couldn't speak. She had heard people saying incantations to use spells when she had been taking shopping for her school supplies, so she had to wonder if that might play a factor.

"Cool," he said, reading her note. It was more of a confirmation that he understood rather than actual commentary. "Jules, Lars," he repeated. "Real talk though, Salem's isn't that bad. Lotsa homework, and some of the teachers are kinda strict, but magic is also a thing, so I guess it evens out." He plopped himself in a chair at an empty table, and went on. "I mean, I knew about magic since forever, but I didn't really grow up with it like some other people." Jules looked pointedly at Lars at this, but then paused. He scrambled to his feet again before moving to two other chairs, and pulled them out. He bowed with an extravagant flourish and said, "Ladies." Heck yeah, he knew how to be a gentleman. Except for the part where Lars was paying for everything. Oh well, she probably had more money than him anyway.

Lars smiled and nodded to the girl politely, "Nice to meet ya, Amelia." she chirped a bit after Jules re-gave their own names. From her shoulder, Gar repeated the phrase as well, bobbing his head at the girl as Lars had. She was glad that the sketchbook idea worked out well because she honestly wouldn't have had many more ideas past that one. Amelia seemed nervous about the whole thing, but if Lars noticed she made no comment, instead continuing after Jules.

"Hey, I'm not complaining. Magic was fun while growing up." Lars retorted lightly, a smile clearly in place. It was actually a bit of a sore subject through, as she slightly regretted not growing up a muggle with her father, but she didn't like dwelling on it, so she quickly dropped the through. The sound of chairs scraping the floor abruptly caught both her attention then, prompting both of her birds to glide into one of the seats Jules had just pulled out. They squawked up at him while he bowed, mimicking words of thanks while Lars laughed.

"Why, thank you," she gave Jules a teasing smile while taking the seat that her birds had claimed for themselves. It didn't take much effort for the witch to scoop up the two feather heads and sit them both in her lap, where they chirped quietly, out of sight and out of mind.

"So, you're welcome to get whatever you'd like here," she then turned back to Amelia, talking as she normally did, knowing now that the girl could understand her perfectly fine. "Don't fret about the price, and just fill your belly," she stated happily. Her father often sent her money when he could as his way of supporting her through wizard school, even though he didn't really understand all that much about the expenses that came with attending Salem. As a result, Lars was often left with a bit too much pocket money for her liking. Having hungry friends always helped through.

Amelia listened to Lars and Jules as they addressed her after reading her message. Jules reintroduced himself and Lars while Lars said it was nice to meet shortly after. Jules then went on to explain that Salem wasn't all that bad, just that it had lots of homework and that some of the teachers were rather strict. She only nodded at this, as she was used to strict. The people who ran the orphanage could be strict, though they kept most of their attention on her, probably because of the things that happened around her due to magic. Then again they also ignored her when she was in trouble so, it was hard to tell sometimes.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Jules addressing her and Lars as 'ladies'. She looked around and saw him by two chairs while making an overly extravagant bow, which made her 'laugh' as well as turn a bit red as she took the seat Lars and her pet birds didn't take. She couldn't thank Jules like Lars did, so she began writing on the pad again, though she had several questions so she wrote them all down.
'Thank you, both of you.

I have some questions though: Are Lars and Jules really your names? Because Jules sounds like a girl's name and Lars sounds like a boy's name.

How long have you two been at Salem?

And what kind of food does witches and wizards eat? The same as normal people or do you have some weird things?

What is a 'muggle'? I've never heard that word before.'

"I would like a strawberry smoothie pretty please," Jules said to Lars, batting his eyelashes. He glanced over when he saw Amelia raise her sheet of paper again, with new words scrawled across it. He nodded to himself as he read her questions. She was probably a muggle-born, then.

"Well," he started off, "Julius Aquino, but everyone just calls me Jules. I'm a third year. People usually stay in school for seven years, eleven to seventeen." He decided to let Lars introduce herself for once, and instead went to the other questions. "Muggle is just a word for people who can't use magic. So everyone you grew up with is probably a muggle. As for food… I mean, it's pretty normal. Stuff like sandwiches and pasta, y'know. But we do have other magical stuff like…" Jules looked around a bit as he tried to think of an example. He perked up when he saw a girl paying for something at the counter. "Hey, excuse me?" he called out to her with a smile. The girl looked over to the little group, at first a bit confused. But Jules beckoned her over and she conceded with a polite smile. "Amelia, this is…" Jules tried searching his memory for the girl's name. She'd been sitting with some other girl and that Chinese guy in the tomb, but had apparently excused herself for the moment. He knew she was in Warren, and the same year as Lars, but for the life of him, he just couldn't –

"Aja." Her smile had gone from polite to amused and she watched him with a raised eyebrow. "Nice to meet you Amelia," Aja said. "Hi Lars. Jules." Jules blushed a bit in embarrassment, but pushed onwards.

"Right. Anyway, Amelia's a first year and was asking about magical food and I saw you buying that and thought maybe you could… demonstrate?" Aja's expression shifted to understanding as Jules explained the situation. She smiled warmly again and started undoing the wrapper on her purchase.

"Pixie-mint cookies," she said when she finally got one out of the box. Biting off a small piece, Aja quickly chewed and swallowed. Then she winked at Amelia and blew out. Her breath escaped in a clouded, sparkling puff, different colors dancing within. "It wears off after a few breaths," she explained, clouds still forming when she spoke. "Would you guys like some?" she asked, holding the box out to the table.

Lars shouldn’t have been surprised when the first one to decide what they’d like is Jules. She didn’t mind though, as she did extend the offer to him as well, and simply gave him an approving nod.

“That sounds good actually.” She finally commented, “Would you want one too, Amelia?” she turned back to the younger girl right wen Jules did, pausing to read her line of questions before continuing. This girl might have been a first year, but at least she was sharp enough to ask questions when she found the chance. Lars once again felt happy for having her sketching supplies on her. She listened to Jules reintroduce himself, shooting him a teasing glance at the mention of his full name, before turning to give her own when he was done.

“Larissa Leone.” She stated proudly, “but that’s a bit of a mouthful, so I mainly go by Lars.” She added the explanation with a softer smile, hoping the girl wouldn’t find any need to use her full name. It was a bit too feminine for her liking anyway. “And this would be my fifth year here at Salem.” She continued with a bit more excitement.

Lars quieted down and let Jules give their friend the explanation on muggles and magical snacks, though he seemed less knowledgeable than needed, and quickly waved down another student—Aja. Lars smiled and waved at the girl while she approached.

“Hey Aja.” Lars responded politely, dropping her waving hand back into her lap with her birds. They cooed a bit from under the table, but it was drown out by the general buzz of the café and Jules’ fast explaining of the situation. She partially knew that Aja would probably help; the girl had always seemed kind, and now was no different. Lars watched the girl breathe out a cloud of glittering colors, even while she spoke. It was actually a bit comical.

“Thank you.” Lars chirped after reaching for one of the offered cookies and quickly popped it into her mouth. After a second, she opened her mouth and tapped her cheek and began making little pink, glittery smoke rings. They floated across the table for only a short bit before quickly dissipating.

Amelia listened to Jules, or Julius as his full name apparently was, as he took the initiative to answer her questions after asking for a strawberry smoothie. She didn't like the word muggle upon hearing what it meant. To her, it sounded derogatory, like a way of looking down on non-magical people, something she herself didn't like. Just because you could use magic didn't mean you were better. Julius then went on to explain that the food in the Magical World was rather normal, having all the things she was used to having, though it would probably be of better quality then what she was used to.

Lars then introduced herself by her full name, Larissa Leone, while Julius beckoned someone over. Amelia thought it was a rather small name when compared to her own. After all, her last name was Averyonna, which was rather long compared to Leone. Turning her attention to the person that Julius had beckoned over. The girl introduced herself as Aja before introducing Amelia to what she had bought at the counter, Pixie Mint Cookies. Amelia immediately gave the girl her full attention at the word 'cookies' and watched as Aja ate one before blowing out what looked like a cloud of rainbow glitter. Amelia's face immediately lit up with awe and when Aja offered a chance to try the cookies, she didn't hesitate to take one.

Placing the cookie in her mouth, Amelia had to admit, it was definitely mint in terms of flavor, something she rather liked. After chewing and swallowing the cookie, she blew out a stream of dust before laughing and clapping her hands like an excited child. Of course, no sound came out when she laughed but it would be apparent to everyone there that she was. Grabbing the pencil and paper again, she quickly wrote down on it before showing it to Julius, Larissa, and Aja.
'Thank you for the cookie Miss Aja.

As for a meal I would like a sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly if they have it.'