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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"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.

Tip nodded. "He's the best. You might meet him if you're around for Parents' Weekend next year."

"I think I'd like that," Norman decided. And then kind of grimaced a little. "Parents' Weekend is a thing, huh? Not just parents come to visit?"

Maybe he could swing Neil coming by instead of his parents or Courtney.

"Pretty much anyone can come visit, I think. Bet you can even invite some ghosts."

Norman smiled a little at the thought.

"Grandma would like that," he admitted. "As much as she wanted me to come here, I don't think she was happy that she couldn't come along."

After all, her entire reason for staying around as a ghost was because she'd sworn to always look after him.

"Your grandma's one of the ghosts," Tip mused. "That must be kind of cool. I mean -- not that she's dead. Just -- I never knew any of my grandparents."

"It's been nice having her around," Norman admitted. "My family hated it for the longest time, though. Dad tried to tell me to stop talking to her, once."

Grandma had called him a jackass, and they'd carried on talking all the same.

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