fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Sunday Morning.

Oh, praise Jesus, she'd finally found it! Libby felt the most immense sense of relief wash over her when she spotted that large, glittery banner hanging over the waiting area for Fandom High, like a shining beacon, and not a moment too soon! This was the first time she'd ever really been anywhere entirely by herself like this, and it had been incredibly overwhelming. Exciting, yes, but it was a lot to take in! The only thing she could really think to compare it to was when they all packed up to go out to the Wal-Mart for groceries, but even then, she had her whole family with her. And now it was just her and a single suitcase and a pamphlet clutched in her hand, and she thought she'd get lost entirely in such a big place all on her own, but she found it! This was the place!

And she was apparently even a little early, since it looked like she might be the first one there? And even that was a little bit of a relief, because that meant she could just move away from the crowds moving around the airport into the quiet little space under the sparkly banner, have a seat, and just sort of breathe again before the next leg of her journey. An actual high school! Well, a little bit different, she supposed, because it was a boarding school, but as she took her seat, she started to feel that terrible and wonderful nervous turning in her stomach again, and she closed her eyes and she breathed out and she put her hands together to say a little prayer for strength and guidance, and couldn't help smiling a little as she felt a sense of serenity settle her nerves again.

It was scary, being out here by herself like this, but it was also thrilling, and she'd made it this far already, she was halfway there! Now she felt relaxed and ready, opening her eye and looking around for a clock, fussing a little with her long skirt and buttoned-up blouse and wondering if she should have worn more worldly jeans after all, to fit in better, but she didn't need to make herself feel more awkward than she already did with unfamiliar clothes. She just hoped it wouldn't be too much longer for the shuttle to arrive to whisk her away to the next part of this adventure.

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"Really?" The fact that his laugh was out of familiarity rather than just making fun of her was refreshing, and did absolutely nothing to dim Libby's beaming. "You went to this school, too?"

It really must have been a while ago, if that was the case!

"I did," Anakin said, smiling. "It's a little quirky, but I wouldn't stick around if I didn't really like it there. I'm Anakin Skywalker, the Dean of Students. I'm teaching diplomacy this semester."

He wasn't, but he hadn't looked at the roster yet.

"It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Skywalker," said Libby, who wa just a little bit in awe of that name, because it sounded like something out of one of her books. "And I think a little quirky could be good; I'll bet most people'll probably think I'm a little quirky myself," which felt like a bit of an understatement, really, "so hopefully that means it'll be a good fit."

She hesitated a moment, not wanting to take up too much of Mr. Skywalker's time, but she just had so many questions, and her excitement seemed to be overtaking her nervousness more and more by the minute.

"I know you said we only have a few minutes until we have to leave," she said, "but would it be alright if I asked you a few questions?"

"A few," Anakin said oh-so-graciously, nodding.

"Okay," Libby breathed out again, a breath she didn't even realize she was holding, with a relieved smile at the consession. That, she was coming to realize, was the nice thing about so many of the worldly adults she'd been lucky enough to meet so far, they didn't seem to mind if you asked them questions...and they usually had much better answers, too.

But he'd said only a few, and she'd respect that, but she knew that meant she'd have to choose her questions wisely, but she already knew the main one she wanted to ask, especially if he used to be a student at this school, too.

"Thank you," she said again, to let him know that she truly did appreciate it. "So....what would you say was actually your favorite thing about Fandom High? When you went to school there?"

You know.

Back in Ancient Times.

Edited 2022-01-01 22:02 (UTC)

"Well, it's probably cheating to say my wife," Anakin said. "So I will go with the wide variety of beings from all different worlds that I had a chance to meet and interact with."

"That's pretty much what I'm most excited for, too," Libby admitted, although her perception of 'variety of being from all different worlds' was significantlly narrower than what Anakin had meant! "But you met your wife here?"

Well, that was going to throw all her other questions right out the window! Since she'd grown up expecting that that sort of thing would entirely be in her father's hands and she'd wind up married to whoever he felt she could be a worthy helpmeet to, she'd never really thought about that sort of thing for herself, so she couldn't help being curious.

Even if all the books that ended in marriage weren't uually her favorites. It was different, when it was real people involved.

Anakin grinned, nodding. "She was a year younger than me. I was a senior when she was a junior."

And while Libby had probably a dozen follow-up questions about this romance and a fascination with the idea of high school sweethearts and people finding each other outside the expectation of church and family, she knew she only had a few questions, so maybe those might have to wait, and she would actually circle back around to the other side of her first question.

Because, really, that was a more important question.

"And what," she asked, "would you say was your least favorite?"

"Well," Anakin hedged, "it's not always the safest place."

Why did the vagueness of that answer somehow make it feel even more worrisome?

"Not the safest how?" asked Libby. "Do y'all get a lot of hurricanes, or something like that?"

It was an island, after all, on the coast! That seemed reasonable to her.

"We had a hurricane," Anakin said, "and it dropped sharks."

So...yeah. It was a little odd?

"Sharks?" Libby's eyebrows almost went into her hairline. "You mean, straight out of the ocean?"

Well, if a tornado could pull up a whole house and send it to a whole different world like in those one books, maybe there was more to it than she thought!

"Exactly out of the ocean," Anakin said.

He was going to skip riiiiight over the "let's nuke the hurricane from space" part of the week.

"Those must be some mighty strong hurricanes," Libby noted, eyebrows staying firmly raised and eyes widening as if to join the party.

She trusted, though, that if it was worth mentioning, they probably dealt with it enough that they had safety protocols in place for that sort of thing!

Sharks! Straight out of the ocean! Just and Val weren't even going to believe her when she told them!

Zo might not even believe her!

Edited 2022-01-02 02:39 (UTC)

...they were certainly talented at fixing these sorts of things on the fly, if that helped?

"Well, it was just the once," Anakin said, "though we've had a few problems with blizzards, too."

And ice monsters, which he was also skipping past.

Edited 2022-01-02 02:46 (UTC)

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Sunday Morning.

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