A Place To Start

[Arihant]

"Not if I can help it," he said, without thinking.
And then he was promptly humiliated. What the hell was that? He seemed to have accidentally done that thing again - the thing where he acted like he was capable of hurting people intentionally. The fact was, if Deron came back to Kira and she wanted him there, he was hardly going to stop him.
In fact, let's face it, he didn't know if he was even going to see her again. That whole thing last night could have been... God, he didn't know, some kind of charitable case or something. He still didn't fully understand what had happened.
So he decided to stop thinking about it right now, because he knew that if he did, he could easily be drawn into a reverie that wouldn't exactly be conducive to a successful conversation with Madeleine.
Instead, he let everything else she'd said sink in for a moment - just a moment. It was a hell of an information dump. Parmida... the school's resident spirit... Well, that of course, meant that ghosts were real too.
He didn't know whether to be reassured or terrified by that fact. Maybe it was just magic people. Yes, that must have been it. If regular people all became ghosts... Well, it would be chaos, wouldn't it?
And what Madeleine had said... "You might not be here, I might not be here." He knew he couldn't ask why that was, but... well, he was still curious.
And then there was the fact that Deron had wanted to get into Orchid Hill. Maybe... Maybe they were like each other, in that aspect. Reverence for the school - except, of course, Arihant's respect for the school was what tempted him to run away, not what tempted him to stay.
And of course -
"Orchid has camping trips?" he asked.
Because obviously that was most important of everything she'd brought up.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

The question abruptly broke the tense mood, and Madeleine laughed.
"Yes, we have an annual camping trip. Most of the time it's in the forest, but sometimes it's elsewhere, in the mountains, or somewhere else. Of course, you can probably guess that there are a lot of places that are out of bounds, even when we're accompanied by teachers. And of course, security will be tightened a hell of a lot this year, because of Deron... well, not that Parmida didn't almost kill him when he got in. But if..."
If they hadn't seen him, if he'd been an enemy soldier, or assasin... after all, all of the heads were there. They probably wouldn't be allowed to have all four of them out like that again.
"I think the next one is in September," she said, shaking off the thought. "They mentioned something about the mountains for this year, so that'll be good. There are some interesting caves in there - apparently. I haven't seen them, so if I get to go, that'll be good."

[Arihant]

As he realised that what she'd said was true, Arihant couldn't help laughing, the sound breathless and unsure of itself as usual.
"I'm sorry," he said, the smile lingering. "I just... After everything you said about - about the war and everything, it just seems... strange."
He furrowed his eyebrows. That didn't sound right, did it? "Or actually, no. It seems normal." He laughed again. "I've kind of got out of the way of expecting normality since I got here."
Granted, it had never been normal for him, but compared to the rest of what he'd seen here, camping - even high-security red-alert camping - was just about the most welcoming and comforting fact that he could imagine.
Even though, of course, he wouldn't be going. Several people sleeping close in a tent plus poisonous skin wasn't going to equal a pleasant time for anyone.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

She laughed. "I don't think anyone really knows what normal is around here anymore."
True. Any semblance of normality had completely gone. Madeleine wasn't even sure if she still knew what normality was like. For her, things hadn't been normal since Shaun's death.
Then again, everyone's definition of "normal" was different, wasn't it?
"As I said, though, it's a very high risk. They might decide not to go, after what happened last time, so don't get your hopes up too much."
Parmida would be a great factor in the pro-trip argument. Though many were terrified of Parmida, Madeleine trusted her absolutely. Parmida had died defending the school, and would willingly die again, if that were even possible. Though Madeleine wouldn't let Parmida fight again, she was heavily relied on for defence - because she would do anything to protect the school and its students.
It was just a shame most of them were terrified of her...

[Arihant]

Arihant smiled. "I'm not, don't worry. It's just... nice to know that people do things like that around here, that's all. I won't be going myself."
It felt strange, being this frank with her. With anyone. He was going to have to get over this reticence he had sometime soon, though, or he'd never fit in here. He was going to have to get normal sometime soon.
Just had to work out what normal was, first.