Nathan Free, Natalie Bound

Okay, so the front of the building really was a damn mess. The whole front face of the edifice was scarred and marked, the relief carvings scratched to hell. The big showy portico was gone, reduced to piles of rubble stacked off to one side, and the columns were laid out in pieces on the lawn. The whole verge in front was covered over with wooden planks fitted side-to-side to create a flat level walkway over what was, apparently, a pretty devastating sinkhole. And at the top of the stairs, on top of those planks, in front of the door, under the empty space where an overhang awning used to cover... there were a dozen or more students standing awkwardly around. Others walked past them, but these were waiting. Some leaned, some squatted, some just stood about.