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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"Yeah, sunny days and neat whiskey don't really go hand-in-hand," Sparkle agreed, turning to amble toward the food tables. "It's more a 'mixed drinks or cold beer' kind of day, anyway. And beer tastes like shit in fruit punch. Probably."

He'd never tried.

Now he kind of wanted to.

"Does it?" Atton said thoughtfully. "Don't you have those, uh, fruit beers?"

"Sure, but I think they're actually brewed with the fruit," Sparkle speculated. "Probably depends on the beer, too. Like, ha, you almost have to mix American beer just to get it to taste like something, right?"

Canadian beer feelings.

"But, you know, now I want to just mix beer with stuff and see what happens."

"Hey, maybe we can come up with a way to work that into class or something," Atton said.

No, seriously, why did anyone think he was a responsible adult. "How've you been, anyway?"

"Been?" Sparkle gave that little grin-and-shrug combo that said that he was absolutely about to spin his story around the wrong way right then, yes. "Everything's fucking great. Got to spend some time back in Canada, only wound up beating up one of the other kids at the home the one time - he had it coming, he tried to steal my socks again - and Lewis can't wrap his head around how I managed to stay on my best behaviour on the island while still being a rotten little shit in Toronto, like it's some great mystery. So, I get to come back here, because he wants me to spend as little time in juvie as possible before I graduate. That's fucking awesome."

And totally skirted around the 'plus I died again, that was great,' thing. Which really would have just been like saying, 'Same old,' anyway.

"You?"

"Same old," Atton said vaguely, which was code for 'I don't want to talk about it until I have a few drinks in me'. "Got drunk, signed up for this mess, came here. Talked to Anakin's kid, I have no idea how he wound up functional."

Huh. For whatever reason, Sparkle needed to take a moment to recalibrate his brain to account for Skywalker having an adult son. Of course he had kids. The two little ones he was raising now aside, there were a few generations of his bloodline running around the place as it was.

"... He have anything useful to say?"

"Blah blah blah, he'd help me help the guys back home out with their insane plan to rebuild the Jedi Order, and yeah, he knows his dad is a complete sleemo," Atton said. "He seemed like a good kid. A little doofy."

"Huh. Apple fell pretty far from the tree there, then," Sparkle mused. "You're still helping them out back there?"

How times changed, right? Sparkle sounded intrigued, but he wouldn't push if Atton waved him off, either.

Atton shrugged. It was a little uncomfortable. "I figure if I'm going to be over here anyway, I might as well bug the Skywalkers for information so the idiots back home can maybe try and avoid some of the stupid poodoo the previous and future Jedi Orders do. Did."

"Do, did, will do," Sparkle echoed. "Time travel is confusing enough bullshit without having to worry about whether you're using present or future tense. Guess it's worth a shot, whatever it is. If it goes wrong, blame Skywalker."

Sparkle enjoyed blaming Skywalker, at this point. It was at least his third favourite pastime.

"Always a good plan," Atton said lightly. He shook his head.

He didn't really want to talk about this. Kept taking him back to Meetra, and that hurt.

"Anyway," he said, "Different subject. I got myself an apartment at the MCA. Figured I might as well get settled while I'm here already. Feel free to crash if you need to at some point, like when the island gets crazy again or something."

Sparkle was no Jedi, but he could sense discomfort with a topic well enough. He let Atton change the subject without comment.

"Cool," he replied, nodding. "That's a step up from the dorms, anyway. Bet you'll appreciate the privacy, huh?"

"Definitely," Atton said, taking a swig from his water bottle. "Spent the past couple of months stuck on the Hawk with enough people to make up a sports team. I told the guy at the desk to get me the biggest apartment in my price range... it's pretty nice."

"Looking forward to checking it out," Sparkle replied, grinning. "Hopefully, you know, before the island gets raided by giant, man-eating woodchucks or something. Which better not happen like tomorrow now that I went and said it. Fuck."

Please don't happen tomorrow, woodchucks. Sparkle would be so pissed off.

"It better wait until I'm done setting up my liquor collection," Atton said. "I mean, I've got some reasonable stuff back there now but nothing that's going to last a weekend full of barviness."

"Well, yeah," Sparkle agreed. "How long have you been back? I just got in this morning. Barely enough time to stock up on more booze. My roommate better not have touched mine while I was gone."

Yes. Because Daphne was totally the sort to steal alcohol from her roommate, being an amateur detective and all.

"Got here on Wednesday night, got the place on Thursday," Atton said, shrugging. "I've been to the store once, but I only have so many arms, y'know, and the one isn't doing as hot as the other..."

Sparkle nodded, managing to not glance toward the arm in question. He'd seen it. It was totally an arm.

"Well, I've got two perfectly useful ones," he noted, easily enough. "You need to go on a proper shopping run to stock up or whatever, I'm totally okay with being put to work as a pack mule."

And when that failed, there were rickshaws. Sparkle enjoyed the view from the seat of a rickshaw.

"Seems like a plan," Atton said. "Hit the stores tomorrow, maybe. Y'know, before you're officially my student and I have to be responsible for you or something."

Weird thought. He wasn't going to stop calling Sparkle 'kid' any time soon or anything, but he felt a lot closer to his age than that.

Sparkle gave a disdainful snort at that idea.

"Fuck that," he replied, rolling his eyes. "We went to school together. I sat with you on a concrete floor overnight in a warehouse watching you bleed out, man. I've got like a year to graduation. I'm pretty sure nobody's going to have freaking conniption fits if we continue to be friends after you're collecting a paycheque from the school board."

And if they did, Sparkle would probably piss in their flower garden before burning their house down. So.

"Here's a deal," Atton said. "Just don't tell anyone I let you buy booze and we're good."

Beat. "That is the law about drinking around here, right? I don't even know."

"Like it even really matters around here? Like, I can walk into Caritas and be like, 'Tino, fifteen bottles of your finest,' and so long as I can pay for it, I'm good to go. Are there even laws about it on the island?"

Like Sparkle had been paying any attention.

"If there are, it's not like the troopers give a shit about it."

"Okay, fine, so everything is more or less the same," Atton said, shrugging. "Works by me, but I need to pick up drinks tomorrow anyway, one way or another."

"Gimmie a call whenever you want to do that," Sparkle replied, "and I'll be there, man."

...

"It's good to see you back."

You know. Just as a thing to say. Because.

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Fall 2014]

suitably_heroic - 2014-08-23 18:24 (UTC) - Expand

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