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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part III

In order to give people a place to get away from the traffic jam of the buffet and information tables, most of the chairs and tables had been set up further out on the lawn, away from the school building. The bonfires were going strong, and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit down and enjoy themselves. Assuming they weren't too busy still trying to figure this place out.

[OCD is up! This is the SECOND post for general mingling. Use this post if your browser can't handle the comment load of the first mingling post. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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She gave a quiet snort. "You would have to bribe me with cigarettes."

Well, she didn't think she'd stop smoking or cut back anytime soon, since it was a stress thing.

Edited 2011-01-02 21:37 (UTC)

"That's money I don't have to spend on someone I haven't talked to in months," Alex said, raising an eyebrow. "I might pass. Made any resolutions though?"

"Staying alive until graduation," Kate replied breezily. She figured it didn't sound too personal, Fandom being what it was.

Still, she covered for it with a dry quip. "What, hotness not worth your cigarettes? I'm heartbroken."

"Yeah, I don't have a fucking job and most of what I do have goes home to my mother for psych meds," Alex said, shaking his head. "You might be hot but I'm not spending money on you."

One of Kate's brow's twitched upwards despite herself. "Your mom's crazy?" Well, didn't that sound ever familiar. "You could cut back on smoking."

No, those two thought weren't connected, but that was her chosen technique for this conversation.

"Yeah, she's off her nut," he said and looked down at the half smoked cigarette between his fingers. "And no. Smoking's cathartic. It makes me feel better."

"Not multiple personalities, I suppose? 'Cause that's what my mom has." And after this week, that was officially the least of Kate's long list of problems, so she had no trouble just saying it. Deceptively idly.

She glanced down at her own hand. "I suppose I could buy my own cigarettes."

"Nah," he said and shook his head. "Pretty sure it's schizophrenia. She loses touch with reality, forgets who I am, forgets everything around her. She should be committed but we don't have the money."

"Jesus, that sucks," she said, sincerely but without any kind of pitying tone. They all had their problems. "'Least mine just goes around shoplifting and lecturing people about being proper." A pause. "And occasionally having affairs with random women, but anyway."

"How many personalities does your mom have?" Alex wondered. Since she'd shared in the first place, he didn't feel the question was insensitive.

God, did Kate actually have to pause to count? Yes, she did.

"Five," was what she landed on. "Plus, y'know, her."

"Wow." Alex glanced at the picnic crowd. "Cheers to us, right? Sounds like it's always a party at the Gregson house."

Kate shrugged a shoulder. "It's been better, lately. Or so I'm told." Well, it had looked it when she'd been home. "But it generally gets way worse just when you think it won't. And chuck in a dad who got busted for assaulting a contractor and a wedding-crazy aunt who's pregnant for someone other than her fiancé and yeah, it's quite a hoot."

"So what, being on the island is almost a break for you?" Alex asked, tossing his cigarette away. "Kinda is for me."

"You know, sometimes I think that," she mused, eyes on what was still left of her own cigarette. "But then the island pulls some stunt that's like a slap in my face."

Or, someone came along and actually slapped her. That happened too.

"Oh yeah? What's the island done lately?" he asked, going to light another cigarette. "Did it rain bagels or something?"

"Well, I don't know if the island itself has done anything," Kate said, shrugging a shoulder again, as if nothing major had happened at all. "Bagels wouldn't really concern me."

"What if they were those everything bagels that dump all that shit on your head and in your clothes?" Alex asked. "That'd bother me."

"Okay, that'd bother me too," she amended. "I remember how much the Pop Tart rain could hurt too, after all."

"But hey, the island can't be all bad," Alex said, smirking and trying to lighten the conversation. "It's given you access to me, after all."

"Yeah, and as you've so graciously pointed out, I've done fuck all with that access," Kate pointed out. She wasn't smirking, but she wasn't resisting lightening things up again. "So, that's just another wasted opportunity, hmm?"

"Well, why haven't you done anything with that access?" Alex asked, raising his eyebrows. "What's been stopping you?"

"Well, what can I say?" she asked, shrugging a shoulder. "I'm a very busy person. I was for a while, anyway."

"And now you're not?" he guessed. "That mean you're gonna take your access to me now?"

"We'll see," she replied, noncommittally. "Depends on a lot of things. Why, would you like me to?"

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