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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

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

The last picnic for new arrivals had involved a bonfire, but there was no need for artificial warmth today. The weather outside was sunny, and just breezy enough that no one would roast, hopefully. There were tables and chairs arranged around the lawn, along with a long table of food, drinks, and desserts for anyone who stopped by.

There were stacks of nametags for people to label themselves with, and lists to help folks find their siblings and roommates. With everything in order, it was time to welcome some new people!

[OCD is up! 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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Kathy was waiting to meet her new little sister with a big smile, her name written in huge letters on her nametag to help Charlotte find her. She was also bouncing a little in place. New students! So exciting!

And--did that say--It did!

"Hi!" Kathy said, very carefully approaching Charlotte at a normal human pace, instead of flitting over as fast as she could. "Charlotte Grote, right? Welcome to Fandom! I'm Kathy, your school-appointed big sibling. Pleased to meet you!"

"I get a new big sister? French schools are well strange!" Said the girl who'd been practicing how to say "I am a pineapple." "I warn you, I have loads of experience bein a little sister. I'm right good at it."

Mostly the being obnoxious part. Also, the crushing after her big sister's boyfriend part. And then accidentally revealing her big sister's boyfriend's secret crime fighting lair part, though she thought perhaps those last two were probably pretty Grote girl specific.

...She'd be surprised actually. Not that Kathy had a boyfriend or anything, but several of the guys she'd crushed on in the past had secret lairs. And several of them fought crime.

As did she.

"French schools?" Kathy asked, confused. "And no worries. I've got loads of experience being a big sister. My sister Sarah is probably about your age, too."

You'd have to bring your A game to out-obnoxious Sarah, Lottie. Or Fandom island, really.

Lottie's game was pretty A. She listened to black metal and liked to skulk around in a cloak when she was depressed, after all.

She was a bit busy gaping to point that out just now, though. "My sister's name is Sarah, too! But she's a big older than you. And rounder. And she's got the funky college hair now."

Pfffffft. Kathy would see your black metal and raise you 80s gangsta rap and modern-day Korean boybands. The cloak, she didn't actually have, but she patrolled Baltimore in a rainbow-trimmed gi. Bring it.

"My sister's rounder than me, too," Kathy admitted ruefully. "At least in certain places. And our parents would probably murder us if we got funky college haircuts, even once we were in college. She's back home in LA right now. Where's home for you?"

She'd noticed the accent, yes. She probably should have gone with 'Los Angeles' instead of 'LA' what with Lottie not being from the States, but come on. Who hadn't heard of LA in this day and age?

Lottie had totally heard of LA! It was possible she thought it was a fictional version of Hollywood, though. Getting your geography from movies was unreliable at best. "Tackleford. That's across the Channel in Britania. Well north of Londonton."

Some of those were even real place names.

"Mum pretends she'd murder us sometimes, but that's just for fun. Her boyfriend tried to impose a curfew on me once, though. It was terrible."

Britannia? Londontown? Kathy was pretty sure that at least one of those names had gone out of style with the dissolution of the Roman Empire.

"Don't you mean across the pond?" Kathy asked. "I thought the Channel was the bit of water between Britain and France."

She knew it was. But saying so so baldly just seemed almost rude.

"Yes, that's right," Lottie said. "It's MUCH bigger than a pond."

"Right, but I thought 'across the pond' was how British people referred to the Atlantic Ocean," Kathy said, still a little confused. "Uhh, sorry to stereotype? Maybe it's just a thing people do in movies and stuff."

"I guess sometimes it is," Lottie allowed. "But why would we be talkin about the ocean?"

"Because it separates England from America?" Kathy said, now wondering if she'd somehow misheard or misinterpreted something. "I thought you mentioned Tackleford being across the Channel."

"Yesssss," Lottie said. She was not sure why this was so confusing. "Which separates England from France."

"True," Kathy agreed, "but I'm not really sure how that relates."

Lottie spread her hands and spun in place, indicating the whole island. "France!"

Go on, Kathy. Tell her that this didn't look just like an old historic French town.

...She had an excellent point.

"Oooooh," she said, comprehension dawning. "You think--well, okay that's fair. This is Mon St. Michel, I should have made that connection earlier." She laughed, a little nervously, and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Okay, so, umm, how are you with handling weird? Because, even though this really is Mont St. Michel, you're in America. Baltimore, Maryland is right across the Causeway. And there's a good--ish--explanation for why those are true, but it's...weird."

Understatement.

Lottie tilted her head thoughtfully. "I used to solve mysteries back home," she admitted. "Some of those got pretty weird."

And by 'got pretty weird', she meant 'would probably be looked on by most people as hallucinatory and terrifying'.

"How does 'there's machinery under the island that makes it travel around, which is why it's off the coast of Maryland, rather than France the way it's supposed to be' grab you?" Kathy asked. "Umm, if you're having trouble believing that, you're going to have trouble with everything else I have to tell you, but I promise it's all true."

Look at her, Lottie. Kathy practically exuded earnestness.

Lottie considered this information carefully. ". . . Is it run by aliens who hypnotize children into doin all their maintenance for them?"

Because those aliens were dumb and Lottie hasn't been able to look at an onion the same way, since. Which put quite a damper on her sausage surprise recipe, let her tell you.

"Not to the best of my knowledge, but I wouldn't put it past this island," Kathy admitted frankly. "Though I can't tell if that's something you just came up with to be funny, or if it's something you're actually worried about."

"I'm not really very worried. They didn't seem like they were lookin to come back." And they were dumb. So. "Now if you told me there might be a creepy smiley night stalker runnin about, that I might get worried over."

"Again, not to the best of my knowledge," Kathy said, looking relieved to be able to say that. "But it sounds like your world--" and, yes, there was the slightest emphasis on the last two words "--has enough weird that you won't be thrown for a loop when I start explaining some of Fandom's many eccentricities to you."

When most people talked to Lottie about 'her world', they usually meant it along the lines of "what color is the sky in your world?"

"I am not easily thrown," Lottie said proudly. "Gimme your best shot."

"How do you feel about turning into a boy?" Kathy asked. "Only for a weekend, though. Usually."

She'd heard horror stories about it lasting longer than that, but she'd never personally experienced that so she was hoping it was just something older students said to freak out the newbies.

Lottie didn't much like the sound of that. "Would it make me as dumb as a boy, too?"

"No, no, you're still you," Kathy said, hiding a smile. "Just, you know, in the body of a boy. So as hairy as one. And possibly as smelly."

Most of the guys here had much better hygiene than the ones from back home. But still, there was the faintest traces of eau des hommes lingering in the dorms regardless.

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