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

The nice thing about the fall welcome picnics was that, well, they didn't typically happen in the fall. It was definitely still summer in Fandom, with sunny skies and a light breeze blowing through the front lawn of the school. Folks had gotten up bright and early to make sure there were plenty of tables, chairs, and blue and gold streamers to decorate the picnic area.

And glitter. So much glitter for the new folks to learn to love.

Getting the food out was the finishing touch, and then everything was ready for the new (and not-so-new) arrivals!

[This is part one of the picnic, specifically for meeting siblings, roommates and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here! Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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Cosette had gone on one of her long early morning walks today, which was the explanation for the little sprig of flowers tucked into her hair above her right ear.

The flowers drawn around her name on nametag, though, were entirely the result of the pack of colored pencils she'd bought herself yesterday. She thought they would do a nice job of drawing attention to her name (and distracting from how silly she sometimes thought that nickname could be) as she wandered around trying to keep an eye out for a nametag with her little sibling's name on it.

No, she wouldn't judge if it wasn't decorated like hers was.

Sadly, Johnny's nametag was completely undecorated. He had considered writing his name in the air in flame and having that trail him, but he wasn't sure he COULD do that, and even if he could, he was probably too tired for it.

Anyway, normal nametag and overloaded backpack, Johnny made his way around until he saw Cosette. And to his credit, he stopped mostly for the name tag and only a little bit for the pretty girl.

"Hi there. Judging by your name, I guess you're in charge of me. I don't think I'm going to complain about that," Johnny said. "Johnny Storm."

If he had done that Cosette would have been duly impressed, to be fair.

"Hello to you too," she said with a laugh. "So you're Johnny, then? I won't be ordering you about, if you're worried about that, only seeing to it that you aren't too overwhelmed by being in a new place like this one. They do that, here, assign someone to all of the new students. It's nicer than being a stranger in a completely new place and having no one there to greet you, I think."

She gave him a formal little nod and held a hand out. "Welcome to Fandom. I'm Cosette. There, now we've officially been introduced."

"I kind of think they're doing a bad job if they're trying to keep me from being overwhelmed. Because the only thing I'm overwhelmed by so far is how pretty the girls are around here," Johnny said reaching out to shake her hand. "And to be honest, you're setting the bar for that pretty high."

Johnny Storm, shameless flirt. Nice to meet you.

And Cosette, who still remembered the nuns' prediction that she would be homely and had yet to reconsider whether that was accurate or not, heard that and . . . burst out laughing.

"It's only your first day," she said, having evidently decided that he was being silly. "You haven't met everyone yet. Anyhow, it isn't everyone who's overwhelmed, and it's good that you aren't, but just in case, you see. It rained fish last week, one day great horrid things with too many teeth. That's the sort of thing that happens here."

"I've dated models. I'm an expert on hotness. Just laying that out there," Johnny said as humbly as he could. "The raining fish is weird. The horrid teeth thing is a lazy Tuesday for me. I'm also an expert in dealing with those."

"Did it seriously rain fish?"

How humble was that, exactly? Cosette wasn't entirely sure if that meant he was flattering her, but if so, she'd humor him. For now, anyway.

"Yes, the lampreys one day, and tiny ones the day before that," she said matter-of-factly. "Our weather's a bit funny sometimes, but one gets used to that sort of thing fairly quickly. Oh! Over the summer the dorms had an infestation of singing insects -- not to worry, they're gone now -- and the school had to move us all over to the little island nearby while they got rid of the pests, so they put us in a house that turned out to have ghosts in it."

She frowned; she was still a little bit disappointed that she hadn't been able to cheer the ghosts up.

"But what brings you here? And where have you come from? And when? That's another thing, we aren't all from the same planet or even the same time. I'm from 1829, and I know there are a few other girls from around the same time, but different versions of the world entirely."

Which covered Fandom in a nutshell fairly well, she thought, except for the things like evil doom carnivals or weird weekends, but that might be overwhelming.

"What year is it here? I didn't see anything in the airport that seemed out of place, so I think I'm from the present day," Johnny said. "New York. And I'm here for a change of pace. But it sounds like it's about as crazy here as it is in New York."

"It's 2014," said Cosette, "and I don't know much about New York except for things I've read about it, but I think it's safe to say this place is most certainly a change of pace from a big city like that. Is your New York really as mad as this place, with the strange things that happen?"

She paused, thinking.

"Maybe even more so, since it's so much bigger."

That actually sounded fascinating.

"Well, I can set myself on fire and fight monsters and supervillains all the time," Johnny said. "So monsters show up here and I'll fight them here, too. It doesn't sound like a real change of pace."

"Ah." Cosette had to take a moment to wonder when, exactly, she'd started not only taking statements like that at face value, but doing it without so much as a double take. "Then I think you won't have any trouble at all getting used to the place! Only, though, that it's hardly as crowded."

Wait a moment.

". . . set yourself on fire?"

All right, there was still a little bit of double-taking.

"Flame on," Johnny said, and his arm lit on fire below his sleeve. "Flame off." And it went back to normal. No burns or anything. "It's a thing I do. I use it to fly. Throw fireballs. Roast marshmallows."

Cosette had given a little bit of a yelp of surprise at first, when she saw his arm burst into flame, but that quickly turned into intrigue once she realized it wasn't hurting him. "You must be very popular at campfires."

"I like to think I'm very popular everywhere," Johnny mused. "But especially campfires. Not that I've been to any campfires since I got these powers."

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

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