fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

Malia had never been out of California before. Or Beacon County, for that matter. She'd barely been out of Beacon Hills proper, and that was mostly as a coyote hunting for food.

So this was new and exciting! Or, you know, new at least. She was going to school. One that didn't, as far as she could tell, require her to learn math. So right there it had one up over BHHS. It also didn't have Scott or Stiles, which was not a point in its favor, but in the end, she'd decided that not having to struggle through eleventh grade math beat out getting to have the few people she knew around, especially when Scott agreed he could try to teach her control over the internet.

So here she was. Her ears still felt stuffed full of cotton from the plane, and the whole airport smelled like cleaning fluid and anxiety, and she was managing to claw tiny holes in the upholstery with claws that didn't want to stay hidden away like they were supposed to, but hey. At least she was having an adventure?

[IT'S NEWBIE SHUTTLE TIME! Up early-ish because work has been dumb this week and I might be slow.]

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There had been cats, just outside the terminal, and Sakaki probably should have known better. But she couldn't help thinking that maybe American cats were different, maybe they were nicer than Japanese cats, kinder, more affectionate and used to being pet.

They were not.

Luckily, they were very helpful at the first aid station with patching up her wounds, so it was with a bandaged hand and one across her cheek where she'd been scratched that Sakaki made her way over to where the shuttle was going to take them all to their new school, clutching a map and brochure and double checking both before feeling certain she'd arrived at the right place.

And even though there weren't many people there, Sakaki felt seized by a strong anxiety about the whole thing, causing her to stalk off for a seat that felt out of the way of everyone else, clutching her English language guide tightly and rehearsing some of the more basic phrases in her head to distract herself.

Or just making herself more nervous.

That. It was definitely that second one.

Edited 2021-05-07 16:55 (UTC)

Malia tilted her head up a little as she sniffed.

"You smell like cat," she observed. "And fear."

Oh. Maybe that was one of those things that humans weren't supposed to say to each other?

There was at least a brief spike of one of those when Sakaki looked up and blinked at the other girl, but soon settled, as her eyes fell back down to her book, as if the phrase she was looking for (which she knew, she didn't need the book, why had she looked at it? She couldn't focus on the letters anyway) would just appear magically on the page.

"There were cats," she finally explained, looking up again and for eyes drifted toward the direction she'd come from, "outside."

So that explained half of it, at least.

Malia nodded. That made sense to her. "And you're afraid of cats?"

"Hm?" Sakaki blinked again, wondering if she was misunderstanding the other girl. "No. I..."

Could actually stand to be much more afraid of them.

But she couldn't just explain that she actually loved cats, that cats were her everything! She felt she couldn't really explain the fear part very well, either, but at least that might be a little more universal.

"I'm just nervous, I guess."

"Right." She smelled way more than nervous. But Malia understood not wanting to admit to fear, at least.

She tilted her head a little and offered this new girl a tiny curl of one side of her lips. "I'm Malia."

Sakaki bowed her head a little awkwardly, wondering if she shouldn't have done that, people didn't really bow in America, but she would have felt even more awkward if she didn't do it.

"My name is Sakaki," she offered back, hoping it didn't sound as rehearsed as it felt. "It's very nice to meet you, Malia. Are you...are you going to Fandom High, too?"

"Yup." Malia glanced down to double check that her fingers didn't still end in claws at the moment, and stretched them out before letting go of the seat she was hanging onto. (She couldn't do much about the holes her claws had already made in it.) "I'm going to be a junior."

"Me, too," said Sakaki with a small nod. "I...I think. School's a little different, where I'm from."

Figuring the whole thing out with her placement had been a...little confusing.

Well, no. Sakaki had understood it fine, but then the other girls got involved and the whole thing became inexplicably more...complicated.

"This school sounds pretty different from where I'm from, too," Malia said. "That's why I wanted to come."

"Did you get a special work training scholarship, too?"

Sakaki definitely would have never come all this way of it weren't such an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime, too-good-too-refuse opportunity!

". . . I applied and I got in. I think it might be a little cheaper than keeping me in Eichen House."

Her dad hadn't even mentioned money when she told him she wanted to go, after all.

"I'm applied because they had a special training program with an animal shelter there," said Sakaki, and if she sounded a little skeptical, it was because it all still sounded a little too good to be true. "It should help me get into veterinary school one day..."

Malia brightened faintly. "You want to be a vet?"

It was possible she thought all veterinarians were secretly powerful druids, like Dr. Deaton.

Sakaki nodded with a small hum.

"It's my top career choice," she said.

And if that didn't work out, it was a florist. Or a plushie salesman...

"What about you?"

Malia looked away and shrugged. "I don't know. I just want to -- survive."

She was pretty sure 'turn back into a coyote and live in the woods' wouldn't go over well with this girl.

Survive...what?

Sakaki's head tilted, eyes a little wide again.

That would definitely not have been an acceptable answer for a career survey back home.

Or, well, in Yukari-san's class, actually, it might....

She really hoped survival wasn't a thing she had to worry about here, though!!

Well, anything beyond cat attacks, anyway.

"I see," she said. "Um..."

Sakaki? Not so good at the small talk, either.

"Where are you from?" she tried.

This was slightly more solid ground! "California," Malia said confidently. Then was quiet for a beat too long before remembering to ask: "You?"

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

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