Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Portalocity Port, Saturday Morning

[wantstodirect]

Tony's first airplane ride wasn't as interesting than he'd hoped. It was rather like riding the bus, only with less space and more pretzels. Although "boring" was probably the way to go when it came to air travel.

He'd spent a bad half hour in Customs after his flight had landed. They'd pulled him from line and fingerprinted him and for a bit he was afraid he'd be barred from entering the US. But they apparently realized he was neither a drug dealer nor a terrorist and let him through.

He retrieved his oversized duffle from the baggage claim and followed the instructions on the crumpled printout of an email from the school. He took a quick detour to buy a horribly overpriced breakfast sandwich with his shiny new American money. (Dollar bills? What was wrong with coins?) He made a wrong turn on the way back, but he managed to orient himself and find his way to the Portalocity terminal.

A piece of paper tacked on the wall in one corner of the room said "Fandom High." Looked like he was in the right place. He sat down on a bench under the sign, duffle near his feet, and clutched his laptop case as if it might walk away. (It wouldn't, would it? Arra would've warned him if that was a possibility.) It seemed he was the first to arrive. Not surprising, since he'd taken the red eye out of Vancouver. Late-night flights made it easier to say goodbyes to vampire ex-boyfriends.

[Newbie airport shuttle! Open to all new students and teachers, no matter which world they're from. Posted early for great slowplay. OCD coming. We can has OCD!]

Comments

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola had actually gotten to the States the night before, but stayed in a hotel near the airport in New York before catching a commuter flight down.

She couldn't decide if that extra night had prepared her more for being in America, or if it just made her more nervous about being there for the next year or so. She hadn't done much more than crash out at the hotel, and hadn't spoken to anyone on the flight down.

She looked around at the group gathered near the "Fandom High" sign and tried to decide whether or not she wanted to introduce herself now, or just be anti-social until they got to the actual school.

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

Joan waved at the new girl.

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola waved back a little half-heartedly, then decided it might be a good idea to get used to speaking English now. She wandered over and gestured to a seat near her.

"May I sit?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

"Sure," Joan said, moving her purse off the seat. "Where are you from?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola sat down, making sure she kept her foot hooked through the handle of her large duffel bag. She offered Joan a smile, glad that for the moment, she was sticking with easy questions. "Berlin. And you?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

"Maryland," Joan said. "Not too far from here, actually. I'm Joan."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

"Lola." She tilted her head. "Maryland is a city? Like Baltimore?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no," Joan explained. "Maryland is the state that Baltimore is in. I live in a city called Arcadia that's also in Maryland. And Fandom is about an hour and a half away from here, also in Maryland."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

"Ah." Lola smiled a bit sheepishly. "Es tut mir leid, uh. My geography of America is not so good."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

"That's okay, neither is mine and I grew up here," Joan said.

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola grinned. "Because it's so big, I think. Have you been to this, uh. Fandom High before?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

Joan shook her head. "Nope. I'm transferring in for my junior year."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola nodded. "I am a junior, too. It looks nice, very . . ." Oh hell, what was the word? "Scheisse. With lots of different people, from different places."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Well. She had to talk to somebody sometime.

"I like your hair," Claire told the girl.

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola reached up to brush said hair a little with her fingers. "Thank you." She grinned. "It makes my father angry."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"He should find bigger things to worry about," Claire said, almost surprised to be reminded no one here knew about her dad.

She bit her lip, trying to place the accent. "Where are you from?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

"Berlin. And you?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Los Angeles," Claire said. "I think I was on the plane forever. My mom wouldn't let me drive."

Jealous, she added, "Berlin always looks really cool in photos."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola rather thought driving from Los Angeles to Washington DC would be like driving across Siberia. "I like it. But it is perhaps not as . . . exciting as Los Angeles."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

It probably would be, but Claire was deeply attached to her hearse.

She made a dismissive noise. "We so don't live in the exiting part. Unless you're Goth enough to think funeral homes are really interesting."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

"Goth? Like . . . Marilyn Manson?" She made a face. She knew what a funeral was, and what a home was, so it wasn't hard to work out what a funeral home would be. "You live in one of those? Does it smell?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Marilyn Manson, Bauhaus, whatever," Claire agreed. "My dad ran it and now my brother does." She shrugged, not offended by the question. "Most people say it smells better than they expected. Plus all the gross stuff is in the basement."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola liked Bauhaus a lot better than Manson. "Is that why you come here? To get away from the Goths?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Nah, that's kind of ..." Claire searched the ceiling for words. "A fringe benefit. I'm here because my ex has gone insane and my brother has fantasies about boarding school that he's inflicting on me. What about you?"

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

[unddann]

Lola blinked, not following everything, but figuring she got the basic gist of what the girl was saying. "Exchange program. To improve my English." She shrugged. "And because my father is always at work and my mother is always in the bottle."