Okay, so maybe there was a less round-about way of doing this, but Alice was pretty sure she wasn't capable of it at this point. Alice had opted for asking slightly probing questions instead of (for once) just blurting out what she wanted to say. She could test the waters a little.
"I'm good. I was watching the news before you got here. Apparently there's some big anti-mutant protest planned. Kinda kills the whole holiday spirit."