Swamped

You think it's another Tom... Fifth, maybe? No, wait, he's got that slight curl in his hair. This must be Eighth, then.

They're facing you, but Lisa doesn't take notice. She seems to be looking at a notepad. The other Tom does see you, however.

"Get lost," he says. "We're busy with something."

Lisa doesn't even look up in response to his rudeness, which is odd. She must be seriously focused on whatever it is. Now you're really curious. You know she doesn't get like this unless she's faced with a difficult problem.

"Can I help?" you ask. "I don't really have anything else to do right now."

"No."

"Yes!" Lisa suddenly shouts. Tom gets nervous.

"Keep your voice down! What if someone hears us?"

"Oh, sorry," she says. "It's just, I'm pretty sure I br-"

At this point, she finally catches on to your presence.

"Sixth! When in the hells did you get back?"

"Today," you reply. "I saw you in the halls earlier, but you didn't seem to take notice of me at all."

"Thank goodness. I didn't have the time to indulge your penchant for gossip, and for that matter, I still don't."

"Really? It sounded to me like you were done," you say innocently.

She just glares at you. She's wise to all your tricks, as usual.

So if you're getting anything out of this encounter, you'll need to think up some new ones.