fandomhigh | The Club Fair - Gym

Jonas didn't know what he was doing here. All he knew was that he'd spent far too long in the restrooms, washing the sticky substance off his face and hands and he hadn't wanted to venture back out to have that happen again.

So, he'd followed the noise only to find a large gathering of some kind occurring. At first, he thought it was a Ceremony, something he hadn't uncovered in his research and thought better about taking a chance with the syrup.

When he realized there were no Elders, no audience, nothing but students interacting at different areas, he calmed down and found himself wandering further inside. The words on some booths made no sense to him so he wrote them down carefully in his notebook so he could look them up later and understand then.

Edited 2009-09-04 13:35 (UTC)

New guy, cute guy, looking-a-little-lost guy. Dinah tilted her head to study him, then smiled as he got closer. "Hi. Are you looking for something in particular?"

Jonas looked up when he realized the girl was addressing him and then shook his head in answer to her question. "Not really, no. There's just...a lot going on. I'm trying to take it all in. I thought this was something it wasn't."

Dinah took a sip from her water bottle, eyebrows going up. "What did you think it was? The cultural fair? I think that's in another couple weeks." She held out her hand and smiled. "I'm Dinah. You're one of the newer kids, right? I missed meeting all the ones who got here this summer, but I don't think I've seen you around."

"Jonas," he said, recognizing the gesture as a handshake and reaching out to shake hers gently. "And yes, I'm fairly new. I've been here about seven days."

Time was still one of those difficult to grasp concepts. Time and age. They'd been such tiny things in the Community that now, with them meaning more, he was finding it hard to adapt.

"And I thought it was a ceremony of some sort," he admitted. "It's the only time I've seen large numbers of people in one place."

"Ohhh. Hunh." Maybe a really small town? He seemed quiet, but laidback with it. "Where are you from? Or maybe I mean when. And what kind of ceremony?" She picked up a bowl of taco chips and some salsa, put them on a plate, took one and offered him some. "Chip?"

Really, really small town.

"The Village," he said, studying the food she'd just offered him before picking it up. "And I don't know exactly when I'm from. Time was different there."

He didn't have an association for the word 'chip' unfortunately even if he could tell it was food. These events never seemed to be without food. "What...type of food is this?"

She seemed kind so he didn't let asking a question that so many would know embarrass him too much.

"What? Oh! It's, hmm. Smushed and baked corn. Fried." Used to this from Arthur and Merlin, Dinah took one and crunched it between her teeth, tasting it. "With lime-flavor and salt." She smiled at him, and said, "Gotcha. So you're from somewhere real different. Are you liking it here so far, or are you still kinda in shock?"

"The latter," he said, nodding firmly. Corn, thankfully, was familiar. He'd eaten it before though not quite in this form. That was an easily solved mystery in his head because he knew things grown could be manipulated into different textures. Lime and salt, though less familiar, were known enough that he could vaguely imagine what they tasted like combined.

"It's all still overwhelming," he explained, nodding. "Even just in the size of the island and the amount of people. That's completely foreign."

"Really?" Dinah blinked, surprised, and dipped one of the chips in salsa. "Oh, this is tomatoes and peppers and garlic and stuff. Hot, spicy. You might not like it if you're not used to it. Your hometown's even smaller than this island? Maaaan." She shook her head in sympathy. "Baby steps first, hunh?"

Food, apparently, had been well thought and that didn't surprise him. He needed food to live in the Community and the Village. So, basic, homegrown things like fruits and vegetables were more easily identified than things like pizza.

"Baby steps?" he repeated, not quite getting that piece of slang. "I'm not a newchild anymore, I take larger steps than that."

He was a little literal till he understood. Sorry, Dinah.

That's okay. Dinah was used to people giving her that look. Even people from the 21st Century.

"Sorry, that just means, taking it slow. First things first, until you get your bearings. Um. Figure out where things are?" She grinned self-deprecatingly at Jonas. "If I talk too fast, just tell me to slow down, it's fine. "Is newchild what you call a toddler? Um, a two-year-old or three-year-old?"

"Newchild is a...new child," he said and winced because that sounded patronizing. "I'm sorry, that's just the term we used for...newly born children. You're not talking too fast, I promise. It just takes me a few moments to process certain things."

He wasn't even going to try to explain age to anyone yet. That was just an incredibly difficult concept to try and explain and make other people understand.

"We'd just call them a baby. Or an infant, if they're really little." Dinah smiled, and popped a chip in her mouth to slow herself down, giving Jonas a wide-eyed look of 'see? Not talking.' Which lasted for another minute as she chewed, then said, "Is anything here more familiar to you?" And a beat, and chip, and: "Oh, and this is the club fair. For fun activities after school time." Pacing herself was an interesting challenge.

"Different things are familiar for different reasons," he explained with a slow nod. He decided now was a good time to sample the chip and he did, chewing slowly and making a slight face at the spices but deciding that it wasn't a bad taste at all.

"Actual schooling is something I know well," he shared, nodding. "Where I was, we went to school and took classes. The classes were different and it was pushing us towards different goals but the concept of school is something I know."

Clubs, yeah, he didn't know those. He'd done mostly volunteer work in the Community.

"Like it?" Dinah checked, then chugged some water. "You might want to get a drink, the salt might make you thirsty." She gulped, then wiped off her mouth with a napkin, and asked, "What kind of goals? If you don't mind me asking." She grinned at him cheerfully. "If it's personal, you don't have to say."

"It's not personal, I've just found that it's unlike what most people know," he explained, reaching for some water as he thought how best to explain it. "They're preparing you for your Assignment, whatever that might be. That's the goal."

The only goal. It was very narrow minded and mandatory. No choice, no options.

"Is that like a job? Your career, what you do to earn a living?" Dinah checked. "No extras, no fun stuff just because?" She took another bite of chip-and-salsa, and admitted, "Sounds boring. But that might just be me."

"It's, yes, it's your job," he confirmed with a nod after he'd parsed that word. "And there was volunteer work as well. Every girl and boy had to do volunteer work somewhere in the Community."

Mandatory rule. One of the many.

"It was fun." Sometimes. "It was enriching."

"Cool," Dinah said, pleased to be wrong about that for Jonas's sake. "What kind of volunteer work? Gardening, stuff like that?" She gestured around the gymnasium. "Some of these might have volunteer work connected to them too." She tilted her head. "What's your job going to be?"

He blanched on the topic of his job, unsure if he wanted to reveal that much about his past yet.

"Nurturer," he lied, using the first job he thought of and almost taking it back when he realized it was his father's job. "It's basically care of newchildren. And I did a variety of volunteer work. The most recent before I left--"

Escaped.

"--was helping with the elderly."

Dinah noticed the first reaction, but got distracted by his answer. "Really? You'll be taking care of little kids?" Dinah beamed at him. How very unstereotypical of him. Cool. "They're fun, aren't they? And they're not as much work as people think. Changing diapers isn't so bad." Now, when they were eight and demanding a sword and wanting to know why their Dad was being a prat, then, you had a problem. "Not too many elderly on the Island, I don't think. Would you want to do that again, do you think?"

Edited 2009-09-05 00:08 (UTC)

"I don't know," he answered honestly, shrugging one thin shoulder. There was so much that he wanted to do now that he knew he could do them. He didn't want to restrict himself but he didn't want to miss helping people. That was one thing he did thank the Community for, the want of helping others.

"There's a lot of things I could now," he continued, looking around. "I liked doing both of those but I'd like to explore too. I wouldn't want to pick something and never get to experience other things."

Dinah took another chip to nibble, nodding. "Anything I can help explain? I've been here a while, I at least know the clubs they had last Spring. Some of them might not be up your alley, though." Jonas seemed really nice, and she tried to picture him in Girls with Guns Club and totally failed. Which didn't mean he didn't need it, but....

"Do these...gatherings happen often?" he asked curiously. Already, there'd been a picnic and now this.

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