fandomhigh | Fandom Library, Wednesday, July 31st

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Fandom Library, Wednesday, July 31st

Professor Beniko had assigned homework for skipping out on her class yesterday, which Arden felt was totally fair, so after putting away the returns and checking out a couple of National Geographics to what she was pretty sure were three porgs in the trenchcoat (she utterly refused to interrogate that situation any further, thank you), she settled behind the desk to look at pictures of Salar de Uyuni, which then informed her that there was a country called Bolivia, so she was reading more about that, too.

A 'The More You Know' type day. And best of all, it gave her something to focus on that wasn't her lingering worry or anger. Bonus!

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Perhaps look up a South American country of your choice?

Did you know, Bolivia has 37 official languages?

Arden does now!

Kamala does not know that Bolivia has 37 different languages. But she does have two squishies and is heading to the aide desk. “Hey did you know today was national avocado day?” She said in greeting. “That was one of the flavors at T&C. Don’t worry, I just got Red.”

"I appreciate you and your commitment to Red as a flavor," Arden said, taking the Squishy from her with all due gravitas. "Also, for opening my eyes up to the comfort potential of the Squishy. I put it to good work yesterday, so thank you."

"Everything okay?" Kamala asked. "I know you're not one to skip the tourism class lightly. I got pictures if you like that kind of thing."

"Oooh, yeah, I'd love to see them," Arden said, holding up her book. "I was doing the homework Professor Beniko assigned for skipping and it looks gorgeous. A little sad to have missed it."

As to her question... Arden's mouth twisted and she looked like she had a wholeass rant queued up and waiting, but all she said was, "Cal just needed a friend, you know? And I owed him for last Wednesday on the roof. Sorry about that, too, by the way."

"You don't have to apologize to me," Kamala said, earnestly. "Though I feel like I should have talked to you sooner about that. Cal pretty much bolted out of there as soon as you left so I knew someone was looking after you. Just as long as the two of you are doing okay and are happy. And if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."

"Mine was just me being all up in my feels about stuff, and Cal's--" Her lips thinned and she looked angry again. "He'll be all right."

Seeing the angry look on her face, it made Kamala take a full step back from the desk. "I'm glad he's okay, but clearly something bad happened," Kamala said using her calming tones. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Arden had discovered that CALMING TONES were harder than one might think!

"I'm...pissed off," she admitted. "And like...okay, so there's doing something accidentally that hurts somebody, but you had no reason to know that it would. But then there's doing something accidentally that hurts somebody but if you'd taken even thirty fucking seconds to think about, you would have realized that it was gonna hurt somebody badly. From your own experience, probably! And that feels a lot shittier to me than the first thing, you know?"

And extra especially if you were in charge of students!

"Yes. I know," Kamala said immediately agreeing. "I have zero context for this conversation but I am absolutely angry on your behalf. Who do I smack with a giant purple hand?"

A giant purple extended from Kamala's hand and formed into a fist. Did she need to threaten that weird guy in a trench coat reading the National Geographic? He seems suspicious.

Please don't smack the probably-porgs. Because then Arden would have to know what they were up to and she was doing her best not to do that.

"Not my behalf," she said. "I'm angry on his."

“Right.”

Her eyes went back and forth a bit as she made the mental connections.

“So is there someone to smack?”

Are they porgs or kobolds? We don’t know!

They weren't gremlins and that was the real important think.

Arden's lips pursed. "Yes, but apparently it doesn't count because it was an accident and no harm was intended and he shouldn't even have been hurt by it anyway."

“Okay, I’m trying to be supportive and mad at someone but all I’m getting is confused,” Kamala admitted and let her fist disappear. “So I’m just going to share indignation with you.”

Arden nodded. "That's pretty much where I'm stuck," she sighed. "Besides, I don't want anything to blow back on Cal, so like if I went off on people like I'd like to, it'll just cause more trouble."

And, let's be real. Arden would get maybe as far as glaring at either the Dean or Professor Tano and then back down immediately.

"Okay. Then righteous indignation it is," Kamala said with a sigh. "If I see Cal I'll check in on him just to see how he's doing. And... You're doing okay, right? I feel bad I didn't check in on you after movie night last week."

"You knew that if anything were really wrong, I'd've shown up at your room demanding nap pillow time," Arden said. "And yeah, I'm okay. Some things just hit sideways, I needed to spend some time working through it. I'm sorry for bailing and if you spent even, like, thirty seconds thinking about it on your date. How did that go anyway?"

Arden was much more excited to talk about that than her silly sulk.

"It was so nice," Kamala said, dreamily. "We've already made plans for like... three dates?"

Kamala let out a happy, dopey sigh.

"I really like her."

"Ooooh!" Arden said, suddenly remembering something. "Do I have a gift for you!"

She dug out her phone and flipped through her images until she found one of Eleanor in her prom gown and held it up to Kamala for her to see. "That's your girl when she gets dressed up."

Kamala eyes almost popped out of her head like a cartoon character.

"Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaat?"

Sorry, Arden, she was talking your phone out of your hand to get a better look. It might be a moment before it comes back to you.

"Wow! Okay. Wow."

She'd come back to words in a minute.

"Wow."

Nope. Apparently not.

Arden made a mental note to text Ellie for permission to send those pics to Kamala. For tomorrow, though, when Kamala least expected it. #JustBestieThings

"Your girlfriend's hot," she explained, because what if maybe Kams wasn't picking that up?

"Uh. I knew that. I just didn't know... wow."

Kamala handed Arden the phone back. Reluctantly.

"I didn't know she was that hot."

She let out a long breath like she had been holding it in too long.

"Wait. We have school dances?"

"I know of two?" Arden said. "Homecoming and prom. You know, fancy dresses and voting for royalty and all that stuff." She flushed and ducked her head. "I, uh. Won prom queen. Last year."

"Awww! Of course you did Queen!" Kamala said hitting Arden up with their special snappy secret handshake. "Did you have a King as your date? Or did you just go solo."

"I had a date, but he wasn't a student, so he didn't get to become King or anything," Arden said, skillfully evading just who that mystery date could possibly have been. "And Dean made it incredibly embarrassing by making us pose and taking pictures and--hey, if I could pry my phone from your Ellie-addled clutches, I could show you?"

"Ooo! Yes please," Kamala said handing it back to Arden. "I'm now rethinking my hesitance to go dress shopping now."

"We agreed," Arden said immediately. "Dress shopping for powers exploration. Don't you welsh on me now."

She pulled up a selfie of her in her red prom gown. "That was me."

"Ooooo. Girl," Kamala said with a wide smile. "You looked soooo pretty. No wonder they gave you the crown. And I wasn't chickening out. I just feel weird about picking out new clothes."

"Money, or...?" Arden laughed a bit. "I was really limited in what I could take from Callista's house, so most of my new wardrobe came from looting the Walmart of clothing and cash during whatever the hell was going on last year."

"Well that sure as heck doesn't look like a Wal-Mart vibe," Kamala said with a grin. "And it's not the money for buying clothes. I just... It's trying something new for me. It's one thing to put on a uniform and help people. It's another to put me in something other than jeans and a t-shirt."

"Change is scary," Arden said, laying a sympathetic hand on Kamala's arm. "But that's why we're here, right? Pushing past the shit that scares us?"

"Yeah. I guess for someone who's fought aliens and other I shouldn't be afraid of a little change of color," Kamala said parsing through her thoughts. "Weird thought though."

"Well, from the way you talk, being Ms. Marvel is kinda just being...Kamala-plus? But changing up your wardrobe is like...changing Kamala, a little. Does that make sense?"

“Yeah I just never really put a lot of stock in my appearance before,” Kamala admitted. “I just dressed for comfort and for things I thought were cool.”

"And it's not like you're going to suddenly become, like...someone obsessed with makeup and fashion and stuff. You can maybe find comfortable things that aren't jeans and t-shirts, or maybe you find stuff that you like but only for special occasions? Or maybe you don't find anything, but at least you know. Right?"

Who may or may not have personal stories about Bolivia. Who knew?

Fun facts I also learned about Bolivia:

* Bolivia is known for the Tinku Festival, a traditional indigenous fighting festival: On this holiday they can fight to the death and it is legal.
* Bolivia is one of the top three producers of cocaine globally, although coca leaves are legal and used traditionally in the country.

Good for you, Bolivia!

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Fandom Library, Wednesday, July 31st

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