fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge

So ... this was the East coast, huh?

Cosima wasn't sure what she had expected to see, and the bland nothing of an airport lounge wasn't giving her much of an impression of her new home yet. She felt a sudden twist of worry mixed with homesickness. Maybe she shouldn't have obeyed the impulsiveness that had led her to transfer to some tiny boarding school thousands of miles from home. Not that San Francisco was doing anything great for her lately, but at least she knew people there.

If she looked at it logically, she knew not to let her nerves wreck the experience. School would be fine, and if it wasn't, she could go home at the end of the summer -- or even sooner if she wanted. But logic wasn't the easiest thing to have when you were 16 and alone in a strange airport.

She lounged in a hard airport chair, earbuds in, and poked at her phone until she found a new science podcast to listen to. It was comforting.

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Lottie was still buzzing from the excitement of an actual flight as she headed into the lounge, lugging her big purple bag; though she was managing to play it cool. She was a teenager, now, after all. Off on exchange all on her own. She even had a French leather jacket, and she was wearing ~~far too much~~ eyeliner. She'd impress her new friends for sure.

"Bun-jooor," she greeted terribly, leaning against a wall with her best Mimi impression. "Mess aimies."

"Bonjour," Cosima repeated, just ... going with it. She only had a little French, but she could try it. "Je m'appelle Cosima. Comment ca va?"

Her accent was ... marginally better than Lottie's. Marginally.

At least she got all the letters in the right place! Somewhere, Mimi was rolling her eyes so hard. "Lottie," she said. "Wee, mercy! Eat twah?"

Somewhere else, Mrs. Lord was despairing for the youth of Britain.

"Eat what?" Cosima didn't quite recognize the attempted French for a second, then it clicked. "Oh! Um, je suis tres bien aussi. And ... that's about all the French I know. Unless 'escargot' and 'Louis Pasteur' count."

Edited 2015-05-01 23:48 (UTC)

"That's alright," Lottie said. "I reckon that's what this trip is for."

It was not even remotely what this trip was for.

"I didn't see any French classes on the course list," Cosima said, giving Lottie a frown. "Are you doing the independent study thing?"

"No?" She did not sound super sure of that. "I suppose maybe my mum might've signed me up for one. Did I forget to turn in another form?"

Much of Lottie's life was dictated by her forgetting to turn in forms.

"I don't know?" Cosima said, sounding equally unsure. "I'm just saying, I don't know why you think we're learning French."

". . . Because it's a French exchange." Come on, even Lottie could do that logic.

She'd missed the part where this was America, yes.

"What?" Now Cosima was worried she was missing something. "But ... we're in Maryland. Pretty sure they speak English here."

"Maryland," Lottie repeated. "Is that one of the little Norman provinces?"

Yeah, she wasn't even that good at British geography. Much less the American stuff that wasn't New York or California.

"It's ... a state," Cosima said slowly. "Y'know, one of the little ones. Between Pennsylvania and Virginia."

She looked at Lottie with some concern. "Where did you think you were going?"

"Fandoh," Lottie said. "Or I guess 'FanDOM'." Everyone was pronouncing that M after all.

Yeah, Ada just kinda blinked at her. "Say what?"

"It's French," Lottie said proudly. "For 'hello my friends.'"

It was neither of those things, really.

"You should probably learn that now, before we get to town."

"Why?" Ada asked. "'S there something wrong with just plain h'lo?"

"It's not very French," Lottie said. "But I guess it'd work. They almost all speak English, anyway."

"Wait, they speak French?" This was sounding like a worse plan by the moment. "Hold up, I know it's an island, but why don't they speak English?"

"Because they're French," Lottie said. Come on, now, that was simple logic. "We're historical enemies, you know."

'We' being the French and the English, naturally.