Attempting to hold in her chuckles, Natalia eventually blurted out some inaudible English words that might not have been English at all.

"Well, why do you think all the upperclassmen all look like they've just woken up from the graves?" Natalia returned to her solemn expression, trying to convince herself that she wasn't joking. "I don't joke, dude. I'm very, very serious." Always serious. Which, of course, was the most obvious of the lies.

Okay, maybe it was time to stop intimidating the poor boy.

Before Natalia could simply open her mouth, a surprising phenomenon took her by surprise. THE PORTRAITS. THE rather lousy PORTRAITS. They listen to everything we say, huh?

"Hello Ms. Portrait." Natalia greeted and waved her fingers. So she had been listening in this whole time? It surprised her how the portrait was unaware of how much the students actually study, considering that it/she (which was it?) had been in the exact reading room for all her portrait-life. At least, that was what Natalia thought. Portrait frames didn't get moved a lot, right?

"Oh, yeah. Ms. Portrait is right." Now that even the portrait was encouraging the boy to study seven hours a day, Natalia couldn't help but to go along with it! "Studying hard has its benefits, though!"

Joke? Natalia didn't know any good jokes. "Um..." She glanced at the other boy for assistance. Maybe he knew some? "Have you heard of...why the chicken crossed the road?" Considering that it/she was a portrait and had been out of reach with the world since...whether the portrait was painted, no way would it/she have heard of that joke, right?