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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

Well.

It was raining popsicles and suntan lotion today. Because Fandom liked to make the newbies cry sometimes. Yes, the island had a sense of humor about these things.

We've all learned to accept that and move on with our lives. Well, all of us except for Britta. But she's the worst.

[~~Please wait for~~ OCD is up! This is part one of the picnic, specifically for meeting siblings, roommates, and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here and here, in an effort to keep browsers from breaking for as long as possible.]

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Or possibly just a lucky guy.

"Hi, I would," Valentine confirmed with a nod and a grin. "Let me guess: teaching buddy?"

It was very rare that Zayne could ever be accused of being that. It wasn't unheard of, though.

"It's pretty obvious when a stranger walks up and asks if you are who you are, isn't it?" Zayne asked. "But yep, you're right. I'm Zayne."

"It was either teaching buddy or adoring fan," Valentine noted, "and there's a severe lack of the latter."

She offered out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Zayne. I trust you have all sorts of advice and warnings to delve out to me."

Zayne took her hand to shake. "I'll try, but it really depends. Are you any relation to Ender? Because if you are, I figure you're probably already pretty well prepared."

Valentine smiled, contemplating feigning ignorance, but realized that she just couldn't pull that off. "He's my little brother," she said. "I basically taught him everything he knows."

Except, you know, all the fighting and destroying worlds stuff, but that was so minute...

"Do you know Ender well?"

"He was in my class last spring," Zayne said. "So I know that if you taught him everything, I should be impressed."

To that, Valentine had to bark a laugh. "And what class was that?" she wondered.

"It was about living life as a fugitive from justice," Zayne said. "So I'm sorry if those lessons ever comes back to haunt you in some way."

"Now that's an interesting choice," Valentine noted, her head tilted as she contemplated it, though her voice was light and flippant. "I can't imagine it would, though. I think the problem there would be if he hadn't had the lesson."

"See, that's generally what I was hoping," Zayne said. "Not that people would end up being fugitives, but if they did for reasons other than just being, you know, regular criminals, they'd have some advice on how to survive."

"I doubt I could teach that class at most schools."

"Yeah," Valentine said with a grin. "Fandom High is definitely a very special sort of school. And now I'm almost wishing I'd gone with something more interesting than 'Creative Writing.'"

"If I could teach a more normal class, I would," Zayne said. "So I guess you're already familiar with the Fandom life? Because I figure explaining that's really half the work with these buddy things."

Valentine nodded her head. "I briefly considered expressing ignorance to all the turning into a pony, being bitten by gremlins, drop bears attacking during graduation ceremony stuff, but I figure if you've had Ender as a student, the gig is probably up. Plus, there's Popsicles falling from the sky, so..."

~~"No, the Gig is down that way, actually," Zayne didn't say, because he's not a huge smartass.~~

"And you're not staring at them in wonderment or confusion, which was a big tip-off," Zayne pointed out. "So if you're already used to Fandom and know how to get teenagers to learn something, I have to say, this teaching buddy thing is turning out to be a lot easier than I expected."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Valentine said with a grin. "I can try to think of something to make it more difficult for you, though, if you'd like."

"I'm always up for a challenge if you come up with something," Zayne said. And then he thought about it. "That's a stupid thing to say to a Wiggin, isn't it?"

"Stupid," Valentine agreed with a nod, "or brave. Take your pick. But, since you at least seem to know a little bit about me and mine, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself, Zayne. You have me at the disadvantage."

"Well, I graduated from Fandom a couple years back. If you know any of the Jedi around here," Zayne started. He figured she would due to Ben, "I was nearly one of them. But then I started getting experience for my eventual fugitive class, so that ended. I still have a lightsaber, though. I own one of the apartment buildings here in town and Goodvalor's. And now I'm a Navy officer back in my own galaxy somehow."

"I guess what I'm getting at is I'm addicted to having as many jobs as I possibly can." He was leaving a few out, too. When did he sleep?

"Well," Valentine said with a laugh, "if it makes you feel any better, I apparently wasn't satisfied with writing the history of my brother's accomplishments, preparing colonists for space travel, and running a general store. I decided to add teaching to the roster, so you're in good company. They say brilliant minds have trouble remaining idle, since the line between genius and insanity is so thin."

Almost a Jedi, though. Interesting.

"Okay, this pairing may work out," Zayne laughed. "I should warn you that I've been called insane way more than I've been called a genius, though. But that was usually by people who wanted me dead, so take that with a whole shaker of salt."

His friends called him insane regularly, too. But that was only because they ended up in the middle of his crazy plans that were sure to go wrong.

"Clearly," Valentine said with a convinced bob of her head, "envious of your brilliance."

"Let's go with that explanation for now," Zayne said. "The whole story is way too complicated on the day of a picnic."

"Perhaps over a beer sometime?"

Valentine had the feeling there could be a lot of interesting stories to be had with Zayne over a few beers sometime.

The last time somebody suggested going out for drinks with Zayne sometime, it was Tyrion. And no offense to Tyrion, but this was a huge upgrade.

"Sounds like fun. Well, maybe not the part about the stories. That's more tragic and eventually inspirational. It has to be at Caritas, though, because of the age thing."

Oh Zayne. Done so many things, but still so young.

Valentine quirked an eyebrow. "How old are you?"

Asked she, as if she wasn't also under the legal drinking age herself.

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

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