Anxious Arachnids and Aquatic Acquaintances

The bell rang. It was lunchtime, and everyone was scattering into the hallway to go eat. It was like flipping a switch, how the mood of the room shifted so abruptly from oppressive boredom to that of caged animals let loose.
This was the case for most of the class. But one in particular, a spiderling who had long since taken to a seat near the back where she could just kind of space out, class was a boon, a reprieve. That bell meant she would spend another hour holed up in a restroom or abandoned classroom. Dalia hoped for the latter; eating lunch in the restroom was never a particularly fun experience.

So as was her routine now, Dalia strayed behind most of the rest of the class. Argenta and her group would be waiting to ambush her, but if she was fast and smart she could get around them. She had spent all morning planning out her route for the day. As such, she barely had any notes from either of her morning classes.
As Dalia made her way to the door, she kept her six eyes darting around, looking for any indication of her tormentors' presence. This might even be one of the days they left her alone, just let her own anxiety keep her jumpy.

Dalia was nearly out of the room when someone bumped into her. Or as she assumed, shoved her. Had Argenta or one of her friends somehow gotten behind her? Dalia's whole body tensed at the sudden contact, her tiny armored hands clenching into fists as she spun to meet her attacker.
Only, it wasn't anyone from Argenta's posse. It was the new girl. She was... pretty. Really pretty, with silver hair. Dalia shook the momentary stupefication from her head and relaxed a bit, though she still looked wary.

"It's... fine. I'm an arachne demon. Well, half. My other mom is... it's complicated."
Dalia still wasn't sure what to call herself. She was more demon than anything, for sure, but she also clearly wasn't. At least to her it was clear. Phaedra had made sure to beat that knowledge into her when they first hatched.

The new girl was talking to her though. And not being angry. She hadn't been exposed to the other kids long enough to form an opinion on Dalia. Maybe, the spiderling thought, she could make a friend here. She brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and gave a small teethless smile. She didn't want to potentially scare the girl with her fangs.
"I'm Dalia by the way. Dalia Tor. You wanna, maybe, eat lunch together? I know a couple good spots."

Dalia watched the other girl curiously, seeing the uncertainty flicker throughout her cheerful smile. Was she having second thoughts about talking with Dalia? But then she was talking again, and Dalia felt herself relax a bit more. Bangin? Proper tidy? This girl sure used weird words and phrases. But who was Dalia to judge?
"Ah, I guess. I mean. I think I see well enough. And I know my vision got all weird when I lost my upper two eyes. So, yeah, I guess I see pretty well." She caught herself before she started rambling, but just barely.

"Um, yeah. Follow me..."

Dalia peeked her head out of the classroom momentarily, as she had learned to do in the previous weeks. Argenta and her crew were nowhere around. Dalia let out a brief sigh of relief, and motioned for Ravina to follow.
She knew it probably looked really weird, sneaking through an open hallway in the middle of the day like this, but it was a necessary step.

It took a bit longer than she might have wanted, leaving them a little over half an hour to actually eat, but Dalia eventually led Ravina out to the fountain near the statue outside of their building. It wasn't a good hiding spot, but it left a lot of room to run if Argenta did find her.
She threw her hands wide, smiling awkwardly as she did, as if presenting the spot. Which Ravina would have undoubtedly seen several times already.

"I come out here sometimes when I don't want to deal with the crowds in the cafeteria. I hope it's okay..."

Dalia was... pleasantly surprised by how friendly the other girl was being towards her. She was still on edge for some trick, some cruelty from Argenta and her group. But she allowed herself to relax just a bit.
The spiderling skittered close to the fountain as Ravvy played with the water in her hands, smiling pleasantly.

"The water seems really nice yeah. I can't really swim. My legs don't provide any traction in the water. And I do most of my breathing through my abdomen, so..." Was it weird to talk about how her body worked? Probably. Dalia shut up and twirled a strand of hair nervously.

She wasn't sure how to feel about being called a butt. On the one hand, it was just a politer way of saying ass. But Ravvy said it so endearingly, and was offering to give Dalia gifts as well. It was a strange thing. Dalia couldn't help but blurt out her confusion, "Butt? Does that mean something?"

"W-wow that's really cool! I can't control it, but I can make fire with my webs." Dalia's eyes were wide with excitement as she watched Ravvy form the ball of water. She lit one of her hair clips on fire to show Ravvy what she meant, a small candle-like flame on her hair.

Dalia giggled at Ravvy's confusion, which kind of mimicked her own, and sighed with relief. "Nah, we usually just say friend, or buddy. Though I guess that kind of sounds the same, huh?"

Dalia felt her stomach growl and remembered her lunch. She pulled her lunchbox out. It was a sandwich today. None of her meals looked like people, since it might freak out some of her classmates. Dalia herself didn't care, or hadn't really. Now she was trying to be as non-confrontational as possible. She took a bite and smiled at Ravvy.
"So what are you exactly? I'm still kind of new, so I don't know all the different kinds of people that live here."