fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge

Entry tags:

!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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Blue had not taken a plane from Virginia to Maryland. That would be ridiculous, and also expensive. But Maura had made noises about traditions being important and bonding with her new classmates (since Blue had failed so spectacularly to bond with her old classmates over more than ten years of Henrietta public schools together), and had driven her to the airport instead of directly to the school.

She dragged her bags into the lounge and looked around. "Please tell me this is the group for Fandom." Please. Her bags were heavy. She had a lot of clothes and didn't want to schlep them any further right now.

Lottie nodded to her. "You're in the right place," she said. "We are all listenin to music on our earphones."

Well, two people were. When they weren't chatting. Which was the same thing.

"Oh," Blue said. "Cool." Blue didn't have headphones. Blue didn't have an mp3 player. Blue hadn't even had a cell phone until last week, and it was a cheap pay as you go flip phone from WalMart. But it was still early enough, and she had had to get up early enough to make the drive, that she didn't have much more to say about that besides, "I'm Blue."

"I'm sorry," Lottie said. "Is it cuz you're missin your friends back home?"

She was maybe composing a little song in her head for this girl's blues.

Blue sighed and said, for the five millionth time in her life, "No, my name is Blue."

"Ohhhhhhhh." Lottie's song now included a verse about having the blues because your name was Blue and everyone thought you were sad. It would be quite the chart topper if she ever finished it, but she was likely to get distracted before she reached the bridge.

Also, she knew nothing about song writing.

"I'm Lottie. It's short for Charlotte. Is Blue short for anything? Or does your mum really like the color?"

Blue did not typically explain about auras to people she'd just met (not that she really had to, at home; everyone knew she was from 300 Fox Way), so she went with, "My mom just liked it, I guess," and felt a vague twinge of guilt. "Charlotte was probably a lot more convenient growing up. Although," she had to point out, "Lottie's just as long to say."

Lottie shrugged. "But not as much fun," she said. "Also it's a bit harder to come up with insultin rhymes to 'Charlotte', which is probably why the primary school boys liked it."

Blue laughed at that and said, "They didn't have too hard of a time with 'Blue.'"

"I could think of several," Lottie admitted. "But I've well outgrown that."

"Yeah, let's maybe not start off with the taunts," Blue said. "Hopefully we're all more mature than that. Although I doubt it. There are still supposed to be boys at this school."

Lottie sighed dramatically. "And they're never as clever as they think they are."

"And boarding school boys are the worst." Blue knew this to be fact.

"Oh yeah? I've never been to a boardin school."

She left off the "before". She wasn't entirely aware yet that she was heading to one, now.

"I haven't either," Blue said hastily, "but there's a boys' school in the town where I grew up. Aglionby Academy. It is exactly as full of rich and obnoxious boys as you might guess from the name."

"Ugh, with the fanciest uniforms and talkin to you like you're one of their maids?" Lottie guessed. She affected a posh English accent. "'Oooo, Nigel, have that Grote girl fetch us another pint, would you? There's a good lad.'"

Actually Lottie had never had to deal with those sorts much. But she'd seen them on television.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle

yogurtvore - 2015-05-02 00:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Wait for the Shuttle

bestatmystery - 2015-05-02 00:23 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Wait for the Shuttle

yogurtvore - 2015-05-02 00:28 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Wait for the Shuttle

bestatmystery - 2015-05-02 00:34 (UTC) - Expand

"It's the group for Fandom," Cosima told her, giving Blue an appraising look that seemed to come up positive. Cool hair, cool clothes, it worked. "Hi."

"Thank goodness," Blue said. She'd never been in an airport before and she didn't want to have to run all over one now. "I'm Blue."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Cosima," Cosima said, with a little wave. "Bet you could never find your name on any souvenirs either."

"Nope," Blue confirmed. "Do you get a lot of, 'Do you mean...' I don't know, 'Camilla?'"

"Pretty much," Cosima nodded. "Or else people look at the dreads and decide it's something I made up to be cool. Because Cosima just drips cool, you know?""

"At least I haven't had that problem," Blue said. "I come from a small town, everybody's known everybody since kindergarten." She considered, then realized, "Oh, I guess I can look forward to that now, huh?"

"Yeah, nobody knows us," Cosima confirmed. "We could make up whatever."

It was ... freeing. And terrifying. A bit of both, really.

"But I'm from San Francisco, so this is not only my first time living in a small town, it's my first time on the east coast for more than a weekend."

"Sure is," Eric confirmed. "Are you hungry? I brought tarts."

Tarts were not yogurt, and Blue had learned the hard way not to trust random food, but she didn't want to seem too rude right away, so she said, "Thanks," and scrutinized the tarts closely. Wait. "Did you bring any clothes, or just tarts?" It seemed rude to take his food if it was all he had.

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