Maria Tabasco stepped out of the door to her housing block, eyes blinking rapidly to adjust to the blinding autumnal sunlight. The main entrance to the block had the misfortune of facing east, such that anyone exiting the building around this time of day and year would find themselves blinded by the full glory of the sun. Maria pulled her hat down to try and block the sun from her eyes, to relatively little avail, and quickly rushed to the edge of the courtyard and into the shade of the trees lining the main road.

Depending on how one saw it, Maria had the good fortune (or horrible misfortune) to live very near to her local academy. This allowed her to leave the house relatively close to the time she was expected to be in class and still arrive in a timely manner. On the other hand, this meant that she didn't usually get to walk to school with her classmates, though she didn't see this as a particularly great loss. This morning, however, she had timed her exit from the block to coincide with the movements of her good friend Elizabeth Tapatio, whose path to school took her past the courtyard of Maria's block.

Maria's timing was, unfortunately, not perfect, and she ended up pacing in front of the courtyard for a good five minutes or so, before seeing Elizabeth turn the corner, at which point Maria fell into step beside her. "Good morning, Miss Tapatio!"

"Miss Tabasco." Elizabeth nodded to her, voice somewhat strained. "How are you this morning?"

"Quite well! I am quite well, Miss Tapatio!" Maria beamed, somehow entirely oblivious to Elizabeth's rather obvious discomfort. "Um... Ah, how are you doing?"

"Fine." Elizabeth replied, eliciting another happy grin from Maria. "Did you complete last night's assignment?"

Maria nodded. "Yes ma'am! I've mapped all of the colonies!"

"Very good."

The walk to school from Maria's block only lasted about two minutes, and the rest of the conversation largely consisted of Maria loudly chattering away to Elizabeth, who eventually slunk away from Maria when they got onto the campus.

///

October happened to be Maria's favourite month, even more so than May (which contained her birthday). If pressed on the reasons why, she would probably say something about the colours of the leaves, or perhaps Halloween, but the truth was that she just loved the sense of approaching finality the month ushered in. The year was not over yet, but it soon would be, and the arrival of October signalled this fact clearly and well.

Maria's classroom was decorated for the season, as the teacher had run some impromptu decorating activity thing the week prior, on a day Maria had been home sick. Little paper cutouts of pumpkins were stuck to the door, and inside, a small wreath of paper skulls and ribbons was tied to each desk. Maria's desk was notably missing this particular adornment, as she had been sick the day they were made, as previously established. Her desk was not, however, unadorned, since five wooden blocks sat upon it, each bearing a letter and spelling out "MARIA". These blocks would invariably be knocked down by accident during the course of the day, and Maria did not much care to pick them up, but every morning they would be returned to her desk in pristine condition. No other students' desks had similar wooden blocked, and they had been here since the beginning of the previous school year.

Maria took a seat at her desk in the empty classroom (for she was still somewhat early, and the other students were choosing to mingle in the court grounds and hallways of the school in the few remaining minutes before the bell rang), and took out her assignment papers, briefly glancing over them to verify they were (as always) correct. They were, as always, correct.

Maria was not well-liked by her peers.