fandomhigh | BWI Airport | Portalocity Lounge

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport | Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning

Petra was so relieved to find the Portalocity lounge and a banner proclaiming 'Fandom High.' She was pretty sure that meant she was in the right place, even if she did seem to be the first one here, and it meant she could sit down and stop dragging her luggage (two large, new-looking suitcases and an extremely battered green leather overnight case with an Audrey Hepburn decal on top) all over the airport.

She picked out a chair with a good view of the door so she could see new arrivals and sat down with Holly Go-Overnightly in her lap, then pulled her phone out. All her friends were still asleep, no doubt, so texting was out, but surfing the web seemed like a good way to kill some time while she waited for other people to show up. She hoped she wasn't the only new student. That would be awkward.

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Lucrezia wasn't sure at all why the other girl was in public wearing a slip. Not that it wasn't a delightful slip, as slips went, but she did not seem to be concerned about her legs showing, either.

If she had had fears about this being a nunnery, they were dispelled by now.

"We must wonder what purpose the school has for blondes, once it obtains us," she said, returning the smile. "If I am to call you Petra, you must call me Lucrezia."

It went nicely with the informal dress.

Petra had sewed it herself. She was pretty pleased with how it had come out.

"Nothing too nefarious, I hope," she said. "My best guess is a singing group, although then I'm not sure what Lex is supposed to do." She indicated the bald boy. "Play the triangle, maybe."

Lucrezia would have to mention this, in her first letter to Cesare. 'Most of the students appear half-dressed.'

On second thought, she would need to append 'Do not tell Juan.'

"I shall be disappointed if all I am called upon to do is sing," Lucrezia said. "I have other, far more important talents. I could pose for pictures."

"I'm sure you'd be a great model," Petra said. "But I am hoping for the singing thing myself."

"Then we shall drink to your success," Lucrezia said warmly. "Though I cannot seem to find the wine."

The lounge attendants had offered her complimentary drinks, but had named entirely unfamiliar beverages, and had laughed away anything she requested. It was horribly impolite.

"I doubt we can get wine here. Places like airports tend to be a real pain about carding," Petra said. "Would you settle for a Coke?"

Lucrezia was filing away terms she would need to look into: carding, coke, and while she was at it, she might uncover the mystery behind the unavailability of wine.

"Please, and I thank you," she said, hoping to not give away her ignorance on the subject. "Is that what you were drinking?"

"I could really go for a frappuccino right now, actually, but I don't know where the closest Starbucks is." There had to be at least one. It was an airport. "But I could do Coke. Wait. That came out wrong."

Lucrezia would never catch up. Frappaccino, starbucks, and something to coke being a double entendre?

"I promise you, I thought nothing of it," Lucrezia said, piously. Which was only too true.

Yeah, Petra was so sure. But she made a valiant attempt to distract Lucrezia by saying, "Lucrezia, that's a pretty name. It's Italian, right?"

"It is," she said, thankful of the implications contained in that question. Rosella had not recognized the name Rome, which had left her feeling somewhat alien. "It means 'succeed.' My family is Spanish, but we live in Rome. Petra, that's the feminine of Peter, isn't it? The Rock upon which the Church was built."

Lucrezia was a big Jesus fan, huh? Petra did not have a great track record with big Jesus fans, but she would give Lucrezia a chance. "Yes, it is," she confirmed. "I was named after my grandfather." Which was actually true. It was just that she'd been directly named after her grandfather at first.¹

¹JT Woodland had been an assumed identity, because the Wests were not stupid people.

Edited 2011-08-27 05:05 (UTC)

Lucrezia's brother was a Cardinal with his own personal assassin, so her family had a novel approach to religion.

"Are you close?" she asked. "Or had he departed this world before your birth, hence the name?"

"Not really. He died when I was ten." So he'd missed the official 'so it turns out that we really had a daughter,' announcement. Petra shrugged. "I guess like a lot of kids and their grandparents. He tried but he didn't understand me, you know?" He bought her things like remote control cars and action figures. Several members of Petra's family had figured out what was going on waaaaaaaaaay before her parents' official big announcement that 'so it turns out we had daughter,' after Boyz Will B Boyz broke up (though some of them had just assumed she was a gay boy). Grandpa Pete...not so much. "I guess my parents just thought it would be nice. Is your family. Uh. Is your family very religious?"

Edited 2011-08-27 06:13 (UTC)

"I think older generations don't always try to understand," she said, shaking her head. "Unfortunate as that may be."

She straightened, slightly, before nodding. "We are. My brother Cesare's a Cardinal, and Papa is the Pope of Rome."

It had not occurred to her yet that other people might find that sentence a wee bit strange.

Petra stared. And then stared some more. And then started to wonder if Lucrezia was shitting her. But she looked pretty...not like she was shitting her. So either she was a really good liar or totally telling the truth. Then her first reaction was 'I am so sorry,' because she was thinking Pope Benedict and it had to be really hard when your dad was old and creepy and you were a huge secret, but Lucrezia probably didn't want to hear that.

"Wow," she finally said, because staring was also super rude. "Wow, that must be really hard on your family." Was that...that seemed like an appropriate answer, right?

"It has been difficult," Lucrezia allowed. "His papacy has changed so much. I do not wish to seem ungrateful."

Really, she would like very much to gossip, about her father's newest mistress, and the way he was mistreating her mother, but it seemed indiscreet.

She settled for adding, "We have more enemies than I had expected."

"Yeah, I bet. I mean, well, no, I can't even really imagine, but...wow. I bet hiding from the paparazzi is a huge pain." They were certainly her enemy.

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BWI Airport | Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning

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