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

As the heat continued to bear down on the lawn, many of the tables and chairs were set up in the spots where there was shade, so no one got overheated or anything. That would be very rude for the first day in Fandom, after all.

[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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Over the past few weeks, Jules had gotten pretty good at navigating with a crutch, but the picnic presented a particular challenge.

"I need to rig up some sort of harness so you can carry things on your back," she remarked to Camden as she and the mountain cat finally got settled at a table after, like, three trips with carefully balanced plates of small amounts of food that she was now consolidating on to one plate.

Camden looked deeply unimpressed by this idea, for the record.

And that would be Miles boggling at a freaking mountain cat in the middle of school.

He was now just looking around to see if anyone else was seeing this and also freaking out.

"Am I the only one seeing this?"

"Seeing what?" Juillenne asked, looking up from her pizza to try and spot what the new kid was talking about.

"Your... pet?" he guessed. "Or do other people have large cats like that around here?"

"Familiar," Jules sighed, because oh right, a new semester meant explaining that again. "Camden isn't a pet. She's my familiar. And so far as I know, I'm the only one."

There'd been a girl accompanied by a large wolf years ago, but that was well before Juillenne's time, and she'd only heard about them via the office moose.

Please don't tell him about the moose.

"A familiar?"

Okay. Miles could grasp that. He'd played D&D before.

"Sooooo you're like a wizard?" he asked not believing he just said that.

The office moose was a terrible gossip, for the record.

"I don't know what that is," Jules admitted. "I'm a naturalist," there was a slight pause, and then: "And war-gifted."

It felt... freeing, to finally say that last bit. To acknowledge that the second gift was no longer a curse, but as much a part of her as the naturalist gift.

Not that Miles had any clue about any of that.

"Yeeeeeeah. I have no idea what that is," Miles asked. "Are you from somewhere other than Earth? Because none of what you said made any sense to me."

"I am from another world, yes," Juillenne confirmed. "I am willing to explain what my gifts mean if you will explain what a 'wizard' is."

"Do you need a hand with anything?" Nell asked, having seen the last trip to the table. "Sorry I didn't notice sooner. I could get you a drink maybe?"

"I think I'm set for now," Jules said. "But I might take you up on that in a bit. It's good to see you, Nell."

Not that they'd talked much, but they'd shared a few classes, and Jules had seen Nell's gift at work a time or two- had she been from Fennbirn, she would definitely have been considered a naturalist.

"It's good to see you, too," Nell said with a smile for her and Camden. "Can't quite believe another year has gone by and we're here with a group of new students/"

She looked across to see if she could see Wei Ying. "They even let me be a big sister this year."

"I hope you got someone nice," Jules said. And then, after a beat: "They were nice, weren't they?" she added, eyes narrowed and giving a sweeping look around the crowd as if she could spot Nell's sibling in particular out of the new arrivals.

It's possible she'd fight them if they seemed mean-spirited or cruel; Nell was too sweet to end up paired with someone like that, in her opinion.

"Oh, he was!" Nell was quick to assure her. "Rather surprised to be here, I think, but quite nice!"

She just hoped she'd be able to be a good enough help to him should he need it.

“Oh,” Jules visibly relaxed. She might only have one leg to stand on, but she was still war-gifted and able to put up a hell of a fight. “Well. That’s all right, then. This place does have a way of doing that to people, doesn’t it?”

"Sure does," Nell said. "I ended up here that way myself."

She nibbled on one of the cookies she'd snagged. "Maybe a good thing, though. I surely was too young to be married even if it did save me from a worse man."

"Married?" Jules echoed. "You?" She clapped a hand over her mouth. "I didn't mean that to sound so rude! I just meant- you're right, that's a terribly young age to be wed already."

"Been married now for four years," Nell said. "Granted, two of 'em I've spent here, so m'not really sure they count."

Never had to do her wifely duties, though. They'd been waiting till she was 15 and she'd ended up here before that.

"It's unfortunately pretty normal back at the church I was raised in. More like a cult, you ask me."

"I would say that sounds about right," Jules agreed. "I'm glad you're here and not there."

"Me too," Nell admitted. "Though I do feel a bit guilty about leaving John, my husband, all alone when his other wife had just died. And my sisters. I always hoped I could get them out of the church."

She sighed, then managed a shrug. Which reminded her of her bag. "Oh! I got some samples of the teas and lotions I make to give to people here today. Would you like some?"

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

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