fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge [Saturday morning]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Just making sure you're not calling me names in some language I don't speak," Jessica said. "Or one I've never heard of. What's Huttese?"

"It's the language that Hutts speak," Cade said. "It's pretty widespread in Hutt space and the Outer Rim."

Jessica raised an eyebrow.

"The only Hut I know is Pizza Hut," Jessica said. "And that's terrible. And I basically don't know what you just said. Outer Rim of what?"

"The galaxy," Cade said. "I'm learning that I'm not exactly from around here."

"Huh. So you're either a spaceman or a really weird liar," Jessica said. "Let's assume the former for a moment. What are you doing going to school on Earth? I didn't think our school systems were that good."

"My uncle was looking for a place to stick me," Cade said. "I don't know how he learned about this place."

"Apparently there's a brochure," Jessica offered. "He probably got one in the space mail."

"Probably," Cade said with a little snort. "Didn't want to live with him anyway. Too many kids."

"Too many kids there, so you come to a place with a whole bunch of high schoolers," Jessica said. "That might come closer to breaking even than you think."

"Yeah, but you're my age. His are kids. At least a few people here should know how to have fun, right?" Cade asked.

"I find reading scientific journals fun," Jessica said. "So it probably depends on if there are a lot of people like me there."

Cade stared at her.

"No offense, pateesa, but I kind of hope not."

"Me too. Just because I'm a nerd with no reasonable sense of fun of my own doesn't mean I don't want other people to throw a crazy dorm party," Jessica joked.

Cade winked at her. "I'll make sure you get an invite when I throw it."

Did he just wink? Jessica really hoped he didn't just wink. "Um. Thanks. Just try not to get everyone detention."

"Like in a cellblock?"

That would be a really good party!

"No, like you break the rules and then a teacher makes you sit in a classroom all day Saturday," Jessica said. "Are you sure the school of life isn't just another way of saying 'new age hippie school'?"

"What's a hippie?" Cade asked.

"You really are from space, aren't you?" Jessica checked.

"I really am," Cade replied.

BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge [Saturday morning]

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