BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

[desertwolfcub]

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.]

Comments

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

Harry had never been on a plane before, and there were a lot of things he could pass off as just being new to him, but between the trunks that didn't look like anyone else's luggage and the way people kept looking at his owl in her cage that he was carrying, he figured maybe he was a little new to other people, too.

He was good at dodging weird looks by now, though, and got to the lounge, and took a seat and got settled.

And then thought to ask, "Is this for Fandom High?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[desertwolfcub]

Malia glanced around and shrugged. "It'd better be." She looked at all this kid's stuff. "You have a bird."

Because, you know, maybe he hadn't noticed.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"Yeah. She's an owl, really." Which was pretty obvious, if anyone had ever seen an owl, and he probably didn't need to say that. "Her name's Hedwig."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[desertwolfcub]

"I know what owls are," Malia said, a little defensive. "They're stringy and the feathers get caught in your teeth."

She probably wasn't supposed to say that.

She tilted her head a little, giving Harry an appraising look. "They're hard to catch, too. How'd you get it?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"I, uh, bought her," Harry said, frowning and tilting his head. "Did you say 'caught in your teeth'...?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[desertwolfcub]

". . . No?"

She was a bad liar.

"So if it's not your lunch, why do you have it?" She didn't remember hearing about any humans in Beacon Hills keeping owls as pets.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

Don't mind Harry trying to subtly move Hedwig's cage closer to him all of a sudden.

"She's my pet. People don't eat owls."

At least he hoped they didn't.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[desertwolfcub]

"People don't keep them as pets either," Malia pointed out. "Not usually."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"They do where I come from," Harry told her. "They're pretty common, actually."

Not that he could explain that they carried mail. It could just be a British thing if anyone asked.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[desertwolfcub]

Malia nodded. "They're good hunters," she said, as if that meant it made sense to keep them as pets. (As far as she was concerned, it did. Made way more sense than people who kept rodents and didn't eat them, like that one girl from group back at Eichen House.) "I'm Malia."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"Harry. Do you, uh, know anything about this place?"

He didn't. Not even a little.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[desertwolfcub]

"Fandom?" Malia asked, then shrugged. "They don't teach math."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"Oh. Why wouldn't they teach math? Not that I'm complaining."

He hadn't missed math, but he'd been counting on having to fail it this year. Because you know what Hogwarts didn't teach?

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[desertwolfcub]

"I don't know, because math is hard and stupid?"

She'd never needed math as a coyote, after all!

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[kawaii_complex]

Sakaki was definitely one of those people eyeing the owl, although her look was almost entirely admiration and awe, because she was just beautiful! She'd never seen an owl up this close before, and the moment she saw her, Sakaki was absolutely enamored !

She would have never expected owls!

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"Hi," said Harry.

He was here too.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[kawaii_complex]

Sakaki's head turned slowly from the owl to the sound of a voice, and then she jumped with a small sound of surprise because there was a boy there, too!

Instantly embarrassed by her reaction, Sakaki wanted to just curl up somewhere and die perhaps, but instead, she managed a staggered, "He--hello" and a nod that seems like it was trying to be more polite than it managed to be.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"That's Hedwig," Harry told her, since it seemed like he was secondary here. That was fine. It was kind of a nice change.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[kawaii_complex]

"Hedwig," Sakaki repeated, and you were about to be completely invisible again, Harry, because her wide, bright shining eyes were entirely on the owl again, and, oh, that was perfect, of course, and her grip had tightened on the sides of her open phrase book so tightly they might tear, just to keep her hands from moving up to bury her face, the heat of a blush already rising terribly with the urge to die in a completely different way than a moment ago, and she needed a moment over here.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

Harry gave her a moment.

And then felt the need to ask, "What's your name?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[kawaii_complex]

Okay. So maybe a moment was not exactly enough.

"Hm?" Distractedly, Sakaki's head turned back to Harry well before her eyes did, and, even after she looked at him again and blinked, they returned to the owl.

Then back to Harry, with a bewilderment that spoke volumes to how she could be expected to talk to a boy when there was Hedwig.

But she realized that she was probably coming across as rude and would try her best to focus on people.

"Oh," she said. "S-sakaki..."

There was was a beat, almost as if nudge herself to say more and to not look back at the owl.

"What's yours?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"Harry," he said. "..Do you just want to hang out with Hedwig?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[kawaii_complex]

Harry.

Harry.

"Can I?" asked Sakaki, eyes widening to their very limit, but then she stopped, shook her head a little,corrected herself.

"May I?"

Stopped again, shook her head again, but not to correct herself this time, just to marvel at the fact that this was even happening, unless she misunderstood, but, no, 'hang out' was a pretty common phrase, she was pretty sure she had it right!

"Do you think she'd want to?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[imawizard]

"Sure. I can't take her out of the cage in case she gets startled, but why not," he said.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[kawaii_complex]

"That's fine!" said Sakaki, maybe a little quickly, lest Harry even get even a second to think that it wouldn't be.

She was literally just going to sit there next to Hedwig the whole time with a distant, dazed look on her face, and that would probably be it, anyway.

That would be enough.