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

[bigdamnprincipal]

Other places might have been expecting a cold front wtf polar vortex, but the weather in Fandom was just right for welcoming in new people. The bonfire was mostly going for decoration, but there were also the makings for s'mores among the food offerings.

Mmmm, summer food.

The food was ready, the tables and chairs had been spread across the lawn with just the right amount of glitter on them, and everything was ready to welcome a new batch of folks to the island!

[OCD is coming! 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!]

Comments

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"Romantic guys," Kathy said with a small smile. "Dante and Anders. They were roommates."

Oh god, they'd been roommates!

"I guess we're high school sweethearts. In part."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

"Oh my gosh, amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said, her eyes going starry. "That's, like, something out of a novel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"You don't know the half," Kathy said with a laugh. "It gets pretty storybook in places."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina desperately wanted to ask for all the details but she refrained if only because, like... well, manners and all. She did have them.

"Can I ask, like, how did you know you loved more than one person?????????????????????" she asked. "Like, I mean, I'm having a hard enough time figuring out how I feel about the guy I'm dating................."

And wasn't love supposed to be, like, something you were confident in?

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"It took awhile and it was different for both of them," Kathy admitted. "Anders was my first kiss and I had a crush on him through most of high school, but he had a boyfriend for a lot of it and I assumed he'd never look back. We did end up together my senior year, but we didn't want to call it dating or admit to having deeper feelings because I was leaving at the end of the summer for California and college. And back then, Dante was adamant that he didn't want a relationship at all. And then I had to go home--and Anders brought me prom."

She smiled, a little wistful. That night had since been beaten, but for a long time, it had been the best night of her life.

"He told me to go to my favorite spot in LA, showed up in a tux and flowers, put on music, and we danced because I couldn't be here. And I knew that no matter what we'd agreed or what the 'smartest' thing to do was, that I loved him."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

The stars in Nina's eyes just, like, could not get any brighter.

She could just picture it and it was the most gloriously romantic thing she'd heard of a real person having done.

Well. Aside from Liam and Verity getting married... or Hardison's wedding to Eliot and Parker...

"That just, like, sounds so perfect," she said dreamily. "Like....... just absolutely the most perfect thing at the most perfect time.........."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"It was amazing," Kathy admitted softly. "And then...things got bad at home. And I refused to come back to the island and stayed there, thinking I could help. And both Dante and Anders were furious with me. They felt hurt and betrayed, like I'd broken their trust. But when my friends put together a rescue party to come get me-" That nicely elided over about ten months of gnawing on brains, Kathy good job "-they came along anyway. Brought me home."

Not to ignore all the things everyone else had done. But Nina had asked for a love story.

"And so I was home, my relationships in pieces. They'd gotten closer in my absence, fallen for each other. I was an outsider, looking in. And it hurt. Anders forgave me quickly, though it was conditional. Dante...didn't. For months, I wasn't sure he'd forgive me at all. Hell, neither was he. But we kept...working. Building up a foundation. Learning each other all over again, because we'd both changed. I--wasn't in great shape, emotionally, when I came back. And yet no matter how many times I broke down - or just broke - he'd be there with gentle hands to put me back together."

She brushed her hair back, behind her ear. "Dante knows me better than anyone else in the world. It wasn't a big romantic gesture that did it - he's not much for those - but it was work. Nights of holding me as I cried. Helping me stand up when I stumbled. I don't know when I fell in love with him because I was trying so hard not to, not wanting to love him if he couldn't love me back. But he undermined all my defenses. Made it impossible not to." She smiled at Nina. "And now he does things like learn Korean for me and our maybe-future kids and buys me kimchi fridges and chase me away from studying so I can draw on him for an afternoon to relax so I don't burn myself out. His renewed faith in me was what kept me going - I couldn't always believe in myself, but I could believe in him. And he believed in me."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Was Nina actually teary-eyed at that? Nina was totally teary-eyed at the sheer, total perfection of that love story.

"Sorry," she said, sniffling as she dug out a handkerchief. "I mean, just, like, that's so beautiful.................."

And Nina was a deeply emotional girl.

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy tugged at the collar of her shirt, revealing the top of a thin, blue tattoo. "I have a tattoo of the constellation Casseiopeia," she said. "You know the idea that so long as you follow the north star, you can get home? So long as I have one of my guiding stars, I can always find my home."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Were you trying to ruin her for life with your sheer romance, Kathy? Because this was how you ruined her for life.

"Now the squirrels are going to report that I spent this picnic crying and it's all your fault," Nina laughed, dabbing at her eyes. "I would give anything for a connection like that..............."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"How old are you, Nina?" Kathy asked, head tilting.

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

"Fifteen," she admitted, still feeling just in awe of Kathy's story. "Like, sixteen at the end of this month????????????"

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy smiled and shook her head. "I hadn't met either Dante or Anders at fifteen," she said. "At your age, I was still harboring a crush on a guy who was way too old for me and rightfully barely noticed I was alive. I was sixteen when I met Anders and we went on a pretty meh first date, seventeen when I met Dante and got involved with him, eighteen when I finally got involved with Anders, and almost twenty before Dante and I sorted ourselves out. You have plenty of time to find love, Nina."

She thought about it for a moment, and then added, "Can I offer some advice?"

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina was hugely doubtful about that, Kathy.

So far she'd survived high school in only one of the weird weekends that showed off possible futures. She died a lot.

"I die a lot in almost every future the island shows us," she confessed, "but, like, sure????????????????"

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"And I didn't die in any of the futures the island showed me," Kathy said quietly. "But I did. So, take what the island shows you with a grain of salt, okay?"

Not normally how - or how soon - Kathy volunteered that bit of information, but she didn't want to see a fifteen-year-old worried about dying because the island was sometimes a dick.

"And my advice is? Make mistakes in love," she said. "Finding out what you don't want is almost as important as learning what you do want. I couldn't appreciate Anders and Dante today if it hadn't been for Nick and Ezra - and even the Anders and Dante from high school. But it's okay to discover what you thought you wanted isn't what you really need. Everything you learn that you don't want will help you figure out what's right for you when you see it."

She grinned, thinking of her guys. "Oh, and perfect doesn't exist. Don't bother looking for it. But that's okay, because it'd be really boring if you found it."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina looked troubled by that.

For one, perfect totally existed, Kathy! In her heart!

More seriously, though, the fact that she'd had lots of warning about dying by... having done so in various futures while Kathy hadn't but had died... sure, she'd gotten better, but Nina was rapidly re-contextualizing the rest of their conversation and...

Ow.

It was a lot to think about.

"I have a boyfriend," Nina said, since that was the easiest part to address. "But, like, I'm only happy about having him when I'm with him????????????????"

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

And, honestly, being dead was only half of it. Literally.

"What do you mean?" Kathy asked. "How do you feel when you're not with him?"

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

"I mean, like, I'm happy and I'm normal when I'm by myself????????????????"

Or she was unhappy and hiding in the back of her closet and being scolded by her jelly demon but, like, that had literally nothing to do with Owen.

"It's just that, I don't know, when I'm not with him............. I don't, like, really think about him???????????? Like, every few weeks I go 'oh, I wonder where Owen is'????????????????"

Which sounded terrible and Nina looked vaguely guilty for having said that aloud.

"I think of more things to text my big brother's friends about than I do my boyfriend........."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"I think the best question you can ask yourself right now is, 'Am I happy with this?'" Kathy said. "And, if the answer is no, follow it up with, 'Can I see how this is leading to something that will make me happy?' When Dante and I were still having trouble even being near each other, I wasn't happy, but with every argument and conversation, I could see we were getting better."

Except for that time when she nearly had just called it all off anyway.

"So the question you need to answer for yourself is if this relationship is making you happy. Not just when you're together, but all the time. And remember - happiness isn't the same thing as not being unhappy. It's active, not passive. If the answer is yes, then you're okay. If not, and you can't see how the current issues are going to change, then maybe you should talk to him. Maybe it's fixable. Or maybe it's not, and you've learned something about what it is you need from a relationship."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina pondered that, somewhat dissatisfied despite herself.

"That all sounds, like, super practical," she conceded. "But it's not very romantic, is it????????????????"

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy had to suppress a smile at how very young that answer was.

"What would be a romantic solution?" she asked.

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Her shoulders slumped.

"Like, I haven't thought of one yet????????????????"

And she'd been trying, Kathy!

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

"May I suggest the practical one until something suitably romantic springs to mind?" Kathy suggested. "You'll at least feel like you're doing something more productive than treading water, anyway."

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina laughed, shortly.

"I mean, like, that's the thing too??????????? Unless I make time to brood about it, I don't really have time to think too much about it????????????? I'm busy.............."

Nina worked four jobs at this point, alongside all of her projects that she took on voluntarily.

"But, like, I keep waiting for him to do something and he just.........."

She trailed off, frustrated.

Re: Meet Your Teachers [Summer 2020]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's expression turned solemn and she looked at Nina, locking eyes with her.

"Don't," she said. "Look, we just met today and I don't want to try pulling some 'I'm your wise teacher' nonsense or anything, but if there's anything I want you to understand, it's this: sitting back and hoping someone will just change on their own is a jerk thing to do. Right now, you're the one who has a problem with things, which means you need to be the one to instigate change, even if that just means letting him know what you're thinking. You're being unfair to him otherwise - and to yourself, too. Romance doesn't mean that one party is a mind-reader and will suddenly know just exactly what to say and do to make you happy."

She shook her head. "You said you're happy when you're with him. Which means that the only thing he knows? Is that you're happy. Putting all these expectations of change on him that he doesn't even know about only sets him up for failure and you for disappointment. Believe me."