BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge [Saturday morning]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

It had been with several bone-crushing hugs, a lucky rabbit's foot, two trashy books and an iPod that Olive had boarded the plane. If she had to guess, geographically, she had started to really miss her parents and brothers somewhere over Texas. (Texas was huge. She was probably right.) She'd pushed that away and shoved in her earbuds in an attempt to sleep, to no avail.

And...now she was supposed to meet new classmates. Okay. She found the designated loungey area thing -- and holy crap, that glittery sign was like something Marianne would make (so...not a great omen) -- and took a seat. Tempted as she was to retreat into her book and iPod again, she instead only fiddled idly with her phone, looking up every couple minutes to see if anyone relatively her age had come over. She hated being the first one anywhere. Now there was like, this onus on her.

She had maybe just won her Words With Friends game with her mom, as soon as the plane had landed, with "onus." She was pretty proud of that.

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[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Okay, first of all, my mom is not like other moms so that wouldn't go well," Olive replied, ticking things off on her fingers. "But more importantly, I also don't know your name. There's no basis of trust here, Nudity Fear Guy."

That's what she was gonna call him, yeah.

[pursuedthestars]

"I gave you jelly beans!" Jim pointed out, almost laughing. "Sharing food. That is a building block of trust. That's like saying..."

What was it like saying?

"It's like saying, 'this food that I share with you today is just the first step towards our deeper understanding of each other.'"

Yep, sharing jelly beans said all that.

"Nudity Fear Guy's not my name but it's very close, though."

It wasn't.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Those are some wordy jellybeans," Olive said. "Wow. I totally did not listen to all they had to say before I just...you know, ate them."

She shook her head. "Look, Nudity Fear Guy -- that's your name now -- I will maybe consider giving you a hint about my name if you'll share more of those trust beans."

[pursuedthestars]

"Two hints," Jim countered, holding up two fingers. "Two hints and I will strongly consider sharing these life influencing jelly beans."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Two hints," she agreed, holding out her hand. "I can think of two hints in the name of trust beans. But I get to know your name too, Nudity Fear Guy, unless you're real excited about being called that."

[pursuedthestars]

Tilting the bag towards her again, Jim said, "I am secure enough in the trust that these jelly beans are building to go ahead and offer my name up. Not that I don't adore that nickname or anything. It's just so long."

And that was the truth.

"You're gonna get tired if you keep using it. Tongue's gonna revolt and then what are you gonna do?"

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I dunno. It's never failed me yet," she said, popping a couple of jellybeans in her mouth and smiling at him.

And then mentally admonished herself. That was exactly the sort of behavior she was supposed to be avoiding.

"My name," she said, getting back on track because she was a woman of her word, "is a food. And it starts with a vowel. There's your two hints. And what should I be calling you, N.F.G.?"

See, she'd shortened it!

[pursuedthestars]

Jim picked a jelly bean out of his bag and rolled it between two fingers while he considered those hints. Of course, before that, he was just gonna smile right back at her because he wasn't avoiding that behavior.

Ever.

"A food that starts with a vowel," he said thoughtfully. "Hmm. My name's...three letters long and not actually my name."

Jim totally counted as a nickname just as much as N.F.G did.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"So...it's actually N.F.G.?" Olive asked, raising her eyebrows. "This is kind of just encouraging me, you know. Also, hey -- I thought these were trust beans. You're still withholding."

[pursuedthestars]

"Am I? How awful," Jim said, popping another jelly bean into his mouth, grinning as he did.

"It's Jim," he finally offered. "Short for James which isn't anywhere close to N.F.G though I do give you points for the effort. I keep a log of those points and at the end of all things, I give a prize."

But, he still had her name to guess. "Is your name...Egg?" He wasn't serious. God, he hoped that wasn't her name.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Jim," she said, testing it out. "I think it's an improvement. And...okay, normally I wouldn't cave this soon, but I can't risk you calling me Egg. That's just...no." She cast off a little wave. "I'm Olive. Nice to meet you. I feel good about starting senior year with points, already."

[pursuedthestars]

"Olive is much, much better than Egg," Jim agreed with a firm nod. "Though, if you were really named Egg, I would have assured your mother, in the telephone conversation we're definitely going to have to make sure she knows I'm not strange, of course, that it was a great name to hand out to a kid."

And again, he nodded.

"I've never known any Olive's before." Imagine that. "Or any Egg's, really."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I would be so worried if you knew people named Egg," she admitted. "Like, what-planet-are-you-from kind of worried."

Olive didn't yet realize that that was a legitimate question around these parts.

"I've known a few Jims," she added. "But none of them have bribed me with jellybeans, so I'm pretty secure in saying that you're probably my favorite because of that."

[pursuedthestars]

She was just lucky Jim wasn't going to really go into what was normal where he was from just yet. Jelly beans were magical but not that magical.

Grinning, Jim glanced down at the bag of jelly beans and even gave them a thumbs up, similar to what she'd done to him earlier.

"See, look at that trust right there," Jim said, waving a hand in the air between them. "I can practically see it there, just building up like wildfire."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"It's like a wall of trust, based on candy and horrifying possible names," Olive agreed. "And like, skin-phobia, but that's on you."

Because he really did seem like someone who was afraid of nudity. Really.

[pursuedthestars]

"...you're not gonna go spreading around my deep dark secret about my phobia of my skin, are you?" Jim asked, mock fear lacing his tone. "It would just ruin my reputation completely! I'd have to hide myself away in my room!"

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"That would probably keep you from seeing more bared skin," Olive pointed out helpfully. "Win-win for you, it sounds like."

[pursuedthestars]

"Oh, there is so little you know about me," Jim said, sighing woefully. "I'm gonna have to work on that because people thinking I hate bare skin is just a tragedy."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I'm just going off what you're saying, Jim," she said, shaking her head sadly. "I mean, I'd invite you to prove me otherwise, but I don't wanna put you in therapy or something."

[pursuedthestars]

"You think I'm that weak?" Jim asked, hand to his heart. "The only reason I won't prove you wrong is because I think there's a dress code here and I am a fine, upstanding young man."

Yeah, right.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"You seem like it," Olive agreed. "It's okay. I'm also very modest. Usually kind of a turtlenecks girl."

Said she who had worn hot pants and corsets to school for a semester.

[pursuedthestars]

"Guess that means we're both very modest, very humble people," Jim said, nodding solemnly again. "And here I didn't think I'd ever find someone to join me in living a very low key life."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I'll know who to turn to when the immodesty of our peers get to be too much for me," she replied, reaching out to clap him on the arm. "It's good to have a buddy through this tough time."

[pursuedthestars]

"It really is," Jim agreed, nodding again. "I don't know just how I would have dealt with all this new stuff without meeting you. It would have been so much tougher."