fandomhigh | Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Portalocity Port, Saturday Morning

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!]

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

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?"

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

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."

"Diverse?" Joan offered. "That happens a lot around here. We're really close to Washington, D.C. and a lot of foreign people live there."

"Diverse," Lola agreed, repeating the word in her head a few times. "I have heard good things. A lot of people travel to Washington from Germany, on holiday."

Joan nodded. "Yeah, there are a lot of museums and historical sites and stuff."

Not that they really interested her. "What's Berlin like?"

Lola shrugged. "It's a city. Maybe like Washington. It's the, uh." She frowned. "Capital? Like New York, too. It's nice."

"Yeah, Washington is the capital. I've never been to New York, but I've heard it's nice," Joan said. "And I've never been to Germany. Or anywhere in Europe for that matter."

"Travel is expensive," Lola said. "This is the first time I'm in America, too." She looked around. "It's not what I expected. This is like Germany. Only in English."

"Really? Huh. I guess big cities are similar everywhere."

"And airports." Lola smiled. "They are all boring. But it's good. Makes it easier."

Joan chuckled. "You speak English pretty well for someone who has never been to America."

"Doch," Lola said, a playful, contradictory term. "My English is very good. I have been learning since I was small, and we get American movies."

"That's good, since I don't know any German," Joan said.

"You should learn. It's a good language. Very close to English."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"I speak a little French, too," Lola offered. "I think that is more common to know, here?"

Joan shrugged. "I think Spanish is really the most popular other language."

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

unddann - 2008-08-30 02:41 (UTC) - Expand