fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

It took a second (okay, maybe like thirty of them) for Claire to grasp that the girl maybe wasn't answering because she couldn't talk.

"Ariel, that's a pretty name," she said. "I guess you can't talk? But you can understand me, right?"

She'd get to the food thing in a minute.

Ariel smiled and wanted to tell Claire that she thought her name was really pretty, too (and it didn't start with an A, something Ariel and her flock of A-named sisters would always envy in other girls), but, of course, she couldn't, which only gave fuel to the great, heavy, disparaging sigh that made it oh-so-clear that Claire had hit it like a hammerhead shark and it totally blew. But she nodded to the second question, the sort of nod that said at least there was that, at least she could understand everyone else.

"I'm sorry," Claire said, idly wondering if she could somehow use her blood to heal whatever kept this girl from talking. Of course, that would require her to know what was wrong and she couldn't find that out without Ariel telling her, so... that would have to get pushed aside for now.

She could, however, share the wonders of the artery-clogging food that was so prevalent in modern Earth society.

"Why don't you grab a plate and I'll tell you what all this different food is."

Ariel shrugged a little at Claire's apology, a sort of what can you do sort of acceptance of her fate, and she moved quickly on, liking Claire's idea. She made sure that her approval came across, with the help of a thumbs up.

And then Ariel paused, looking over the table, because she realized she wasn't entirely sure what exactly a plate might be...

Claire watched her bewilderment before clarifying. "A plate? To hold your food."

She held hers up in example.

"There are empty ones at the end of the table."

Ariel blinked. And then realization lit up her face.

Over by the dinglehoppers! Why didn't Claire just say so?

Smiling again, Ariel drifted over to the plates, taking a second to lift up one of the dinglehoppers and inspect it a little closer. They seemed much flimsier than the one she had found yesterday, clearly of a lesser quality, so she just took a moment to give it a quick run through her red hair and set it back down again. She picked up one of the plates, holding it in her hands with the utmost respect, and then turned to Claire, eager to know what the next step may be.

Claire was giving her a rather horrified look after watching the girl comb her hair with a fork. Right near the food.

"Okay, uh, first of all? We don't use forks to comb our hair," Claire said. She had no idea where this girl might be from but it was obvious she had a lot to learn about living here. "Forks are for eating food. We can buy you a brush at one of the stores for your hair."

Not to mention putting the fork right back, too.

But now Ariel was going to take a second to look at Claire like she might be the crazy one. Okay, she could handle Jono's suggestion that maybe sails and rope didn't make for the most flattering clothes, especially since she had new ones, but the suggestion that a dinglehopper....or what did she call it? A fork? ...wasn't for hairstyling was just a little difficult to swallow. She'd seen Scuttle do it, with that expertise that Scuttle so often had. So it was a very yeah, okay, if you say so... sort of look.

Aww, that look made Claire feel bad.

She gave Ariel an apologetic look. "I understand that things are different where you're from. But that's what it's like here."

In fact, she realized that Ariel had put the fork back and picked it up to throw away. It was easy enough to find, with the long red hairs attached.

"It must be hard to be somewhere different and not be able to ask questions. But everyone here is really nice and I'm sure your big sibling will help you and I can help you with stuff too."

Ariel sheepishly tried to ignore that Claire had thrown the dinglehopper away; she also had to fight hard against a very strong urge to just go back in and dig it out and keep it. It seemed a tragedy to just toss away something so neat, even if she had apparently gotten it all wrong.

The first second Claire was distracted by something else, Ariel was so darting her hand in and pulling the dinglehopper back out of the trash.

For now, though, she just sort of returned the apologetic smile, and nodded her head a little. The smile grew a bit more thinking of her big sibling. Quite a bit, actually, because, really, Jono was the best. She nodded, eagerly, to show how enthusiastic she was to learn.

Even if there were a few roadblocks.

"I'm going to guess that smile means that you really like your big sibling," Claire said. "That's definitely a good thing. And I'm sure you aren't the only new person who doesn't understand a lot of things that happen here."

That smile grew just a little bit more, because like did not even start to cover it. Ariel was incredibly lucky to have had Jono as a sibling and her eyes had a glisten in it that clearly expressed this gratitude. She wanted to ask Claire if she'd been here for a very long time (she was getting the impression that new people were a frequent thing), but she really didn't know how. Asking questions was the worst part of this whole voiceless thing. The best she could do was lift her eyebrows and look at Claire with as much inquisitiveness and curiosity as she could manage, and just go with however she wound up interpreting that.

Claire wished she was telepathic right about now. It would make things so much easier.

"You must have a lot of questions. Can you write? I could go find some paper and a pen for you so you could ask that way."

Oh! What a good idea! Ariel lit up, nodding enthusiastically to encourage Claire to do just that. That would be such a great move.

"I'll be right back," Claire promised.

She ducked inside the school and found a supply closet. After grabbing a couple of tablets and a pack of pens, she headed back outside.

"Here you go," she said, handing the pilfered supplies over to Ariel.

In the interim, Ariel had decided to pick up a cookie, inspecting it very carefully, sniffing at it curiously while she waited for Claire. When the other girl returned, she was just about to take a bite, but the offering of paper fully distracted her. But she put the cookie on a plate and set the plate aside before taking up the pen and paper.

Okay, Ariel. Now you can communicate freely. You can write anything you want and open up whole new avenues here.

So she wrote: HI! :D and handed it over to Claire excitedly.

"Hi," Claire said, laughing a little. "Did you try any of the food while I was gone?"

She nodded at the cookie. "That's a cookie. They're really tasty."

I almost tried it, Ariel scribbled down; writing anything beyond her signature and hi seemed to take a bit of effort, with her tongue sticking out of her mouth in concentration, but then you showed back up. I can't handle a pen and a ....kuky?...at the same time, and talking to you is more important!

"Cookie is c-o-o-k-i-e," Claire said. "And you should definitely put down the pen and try it before you ask me any questions."

Because cookies were delicious.

Ariel was just about to write down the spelling so she'd remember it because, boy, was she off, but then she laughed her silent laugh at Claire's suggestion and decided that she was definitely right.

Down went the pen and paper, and up went the cookie. Ariel took an eager, adventurous bite.

And then started to chew, thoughtfully. Now this was interesting!

Claire watched for her reaction, finding herself intrigued by the other girl and enjoying her enthusiasm.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

Ariel did like it and she smiled to say so, though she took another bite, still needing some thought on it. It was just so different from what she was used to. It was moist, as far as cookies went (the thought of Fandom serving up a dry cookie was too terrifying to imagine), but, as far as it went for a girl who lived under the sea, it was so dry! Comparatively. The texture of it kind of blew her mind a little.

But, considering that the cookie had quickly disappeared and Ariel was reaching for a new one, it was a good kind of mind blow.

"Awesome. Just be careful not to eat too many," Claire said. "Or you might get a stomach ache."

She checked to see which kind of cookie Ariel was grabbing. "The first one you had was chocolate chip," she explained. "This one is a different kind called oatmeal raisin."

Chocolate chip. Oatmeal raisin. Ariel giggled a little, bringing a hand to cover her cookie-filled mouth politely, liking the sound of them and knowing there wasn't a chance in a million years she'd be able to spell them, so she wasn't even going to try. She was just going to happily enjoy her second cookie and, when that was finished, she wiped the crumbs from her fingers on her skirt and looked excitedly over the table.

Her eyes looked hopefully over at Claire. What should she try next?

Hmmm. Claire looked over the table and decided that something a little more substantial than a cookie was probably a good idea.

"How about a hot dog?" she suggested, pointing out said item. "You can put it on one of those buns."

She would get into condiments later.

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