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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

Over on this part of the school lawn... yeah, it was still chilly. Stupid winter, doing its winter thing. But there were plenty of chairs and tables for people watching, feasting on warm foods and drinks, and generally attempting to meet the new folks!

[OCD is up! This is the picnic post for general mingling. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are all here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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Norman's own smile wasn't quite as broad, but it was definitely there as he reached in for the fistbump.

Thank you, Neil, for teaching him what that even was.

"I would say that having lots of friends is kind of overrated anyway, but that mostly just sounds like sour grapes," he admitted. "It'll be nice to be not just that quiet kid under the tree to somebody, though. I'm pretty sure I'm already that to a few people, anyway."

Summer, at least.

"Their loss," Tip decided. "So I figure you've already got a big sib and a roommate and all that, but if you need someone else to give you a heads up on things -- even if you're terrible at asking for it -- let me know."

"I would appreciate that, actually," Norman replied, nodding. "Sidon's well-meaning but a little too enthusiastic for me to really keep up, I think. And Mara seems okay? She's my roommate."

Which he could have just left at that, because having a girl for a roommate was a strange situation all on its own.

"I don't think she actually wanted a roomie this semester."

And it was going to feel really weird putting out all of his nerdy horror movie paraphernalia while she was there being all... poised and graceful on the other side of the room.

"Ooo, yeah. I got a new one this time around, too. The school's not always great at letting you know about it in advance."

But Molly seemed cool, so Tip didn't mind too much.

"I don't think I know Mara. Is she an upperclassman?"

"Yeaaaah," Norman replied, making a kind of 'eeeesh,' face before smiling and shaking his head. "She said this was her last semester, so I guess if nothing else, at least I won't have a roommate for long."

...

"Until they find me another one, huh?"

"I had a single for a whole semester," Tip said. "So they might forget to reassign you for awhile, at least. I'm a sophomore, by the way. Not that that counts for a whole lot around here, other than time til graduation."

"Hey, so am I," Norman said with a grin. And then a pause. And a headtilt. "It doesn't count for a lot?"

But wasn't that whole hierarchy thing half the focus of most high schools?

"Classes are pretty much a free-for-all, as far as I can tell," Tip said. "I mean, I got student council and prom court and stuff last year because I was, like, literally the only freshman girl, but other than that, not so much."

"I guess that's one way to win a few of the biggest popularity contests there are," Norman replied, looking somewhere between amused and impressed. "Look at that, I've only been here an hour and already I'm making friends with prom royalty."

That never would have happened at his old school.

Tip laughed. "I'm not sure how many sophomores there are, now," she said. "You might end up defaulting into prom court yourself, even."

There was another brief pause before Norman decided, "That would be, uh, weird."

He was apparently a little too used to being the odd kid.

"Haven't you worked it out, yet, Norman?" Tip asked. "Weird is what Fandom does."

"And, see, that's weird," Norman replied, letting the awkwardness slip back into his smile again. "Being in a place where weird is the new normal is going to take some getting used to."

"Fair enough," Tip said cheerfully. "Who knows, maybe things will go really weird and you'll be the most popular guy on campus."

"I'm pretty sure the only people I'm that popular with are ghosts," Norman mused, and then laughed a little, because, hey. It was true. And if he laughed, maybe it would even come off as a joke. Clever, right? "I'm not sure what I would do with, you know, popularity."

It had been awkward back in Blithe Hollow after he'd put Aggie to rest, too.

Nice try, Norman. You couldn't pull one over on Tip that easily. "Hang out with a lot of ghosts, do you?"

. . . If it turned out he put it that way because he'd lost all his friends in a tragic accident or something, she was going to feel terrible.

Fortunately, most of his friends had been dead when he met them, and everyone else... was Neil.

"A few," and wow, did that come out sounding a bit on the wary, slightly worried side. "The nicer ones. A couple of dogs? Um."

There was no way to not make that sound crazy. But he'd already decided that he was going to start this semester on the right foot, and Grandma would have words for him if he came all this way just to try to hide from everyone on his very first day.

"Aww, ghost dogs!" Tip wasn't sure how literally to take that, but she was willing to go along with it either way. "I talk to my dead Chief friend, sometimes. But he's only in my head."

You know, when the island didn't resurrect people for the weekend.

Yeah, that weekend was probably going to be more of a novelty for Norman than a heart-rending trauma fest.

"The dogs are usually pretty great," Norman said, slightly more at ease. "I mean... they're dogs."

Norman was totally a dog person. And occasionally a raccoon person.

"I'm sorry about your friend," he added, gently. "I'm sure he appreciates that you're thinking of him, though."

The ones who stuck around sometimes found themselves utterly forgotten, in time. It was heartbreaking, and part of the reason Norman was so comfortable with talking to them. They were lonely.

"He does," Tip said. "And thanks. He was really old. But he still got to live long enough to meet the aliens who crashed a ufo into his junkyard in the 40s."

Because of course Tip had met the guy who knew the truth about Roswell.

"We adopted his dog, actually. But Lincoln's still alive. He's still real cool, though."

"All dogs are cool," Norman replied, nodding his agreement. "And it sounds like your friend lived a pretty interesting life. Did meeting the aliens go well, at least? It wasn't a disappointment or anything?"

It was hard to say, since Tip had told him that aliens had taken over, and all.

"He really only met one. My friend J.Lo. Well, he met some Gorg, too, but the Gorg weren't the ones who crashed the ship." Tip's life was weird, yes. "But yeah, he and J.Lo got along okay. Not as well as we did, but they both liked me, so they were nice to each other."

"Well, then... that's good." Norman was smiling a bit more, now. Okay, he'd talked about seeing ghosts and the conversation hadn't gone weird. That was refreshing, and... unexpected. Though after the day he'd had, he wasn't as surprised as he'd figured he'd be, either. "Uh, J.Lo?"

He hadn't really taken her for an alien. The world was full of surprises.

"That's his Earth name," Tip said. She pulled out her phone and called up a photo she'd taken over the holiday. "Here he is."

Norman leaned in to look at the photo, and then made a little 'o' shape with his mouth.

"Squid people," he noted, "like you said."

He paused, and then added, "He looks friendly."

If awkward.

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