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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning

One of the very few perks of having a meteorologist for a mother was that Amy could almost always avoid weather-related flight delays by relying on her mom for information. That was usually very convenient, but today it meant that due to anticipated late morning storms in northern Texas, Amy had been forced to fly in at ass o'clock in the morning so that she wouldn't run the risk of missing the bus to school. So it looked like she was the first person to reach the Fandom High banner in the airport lounge, and while Amy had always had hopes of one day winning a race, this wasn't quite what she had had in mind.

Armed with an overstuffed duffel bag and her favorite pair of sweatpants (they were decorated with little cartoon strips of bacon!), Amy stifled a heavy yawn and parked herself in a distant corner of the lounge where she could wait for more people to show up.

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Oh. An exaggeration. Hanna was terrible at those, but she was getting better. "Perhaps?" she offered, then added, "But observation and experimentation would be one way to find out."

Clearly, they needed to track down some horses. Just to be sure. "I have never heard of Arendelle before." It hadn't been in the Encyclopedia. But then, neither had the internet.

//A class about powers and identity,// Jono replied with an easy shrug of his shoulders. She didn't seem to be too put-off by his telepathy, he figured it probably wouldn't be that strange a class for her to hear about. //Any use to you, by any chance?//

Didn't hurt to ask, around here.

And at a question Hanna hadn't prepared for, she froze. Except for the hand that inched for the gun at the back of her jeans, something feral and blank in her expression for a moment. She checked the exits, checked the surroundings, then swallowed.

"Why..." No, no, wrong question! "Identity," she said, focusing away from powers, letting her hand drop back to her side. "Perhaps. Yes."

...perhaps?

"I'm starting to think I went kind of far away," Anna said sheepishly. "Because I've never heard of Texas, or Germany, or this America place, either. I'm still going to be able to get home, right?"

"I think so. Unless someone tries to stop you." Hanna's lips quirked a little. "But I can not think why anyone would."

It wasn't like Anna had some super-secret organization after her, or anything.

"We would just have to retrace your steps." She frowned. "And possibly find another... purple thing."

That was a look Jono knew. He knew that look very well. And in reply, he simply held up his hands, and tried to look as nonthreatening as possible.

She had something behind her back that went with that look, and he wasn't in any mood to discover just what that something was.

//Identity,// he echoed, carefully. //Though one ties in to the other one. For what it's worth, though, I'm teaching with a fair bit of experience behind me, on that topic.//

"Of course not," Anna agreed. No way could this Karma person's brother not love her. They were siblings. That's what siblings did. "And it's not even about whether you want anything of hers. It's the principle of it. If she wants something of yours, she could ask to borrow it. It's just rude otherwise."

Not that Anna knew much about typical sibling interactions. Or making friends, or leaving the house, or the twentieth century, or, well. Make a list. It'd be huge.

"So do you know anyone here?" she asked. "I kind of ... don't."

Who would she know? Hans was in the Southern Isles, and Elsa was ruling Arendelle.

Hanna really scrutinized him at that; the covered face, his eyes especially, then from top to toe. And considered his voice in her head again.

Perhaps. Not... ventriloquism? But this was not the right place to ask.

She gave him a tiny nod of acknowledgement. "That would be. Helpful. Yes." She licked her lips, and straightened. "I look forward to speaking with you again, Professor Starsmore."

//And I you, Hanna.// He gave her a small nod. //I'm certain this semester is going to be an interesting one. Hopefully you settle in on the island smoothly, but if you need anything, I'll be at the welcome picnic until that wraps up today.//

"Oh, I bet the administration would switch you if you asked," Amy scrambled to clarify. "I just remember seeing it because my mom got, um, kind of worked up about it."

That was nice and vague, right?

"I've never actually shared a room with anyone before, so this should be kind of cozy and weird."

"My father and I lived in a cabin. For a while." For always. But there were no cabins in Liepzig, so... lying was complicated. "It was not so bad. But sometimes each of us would leave to be alone." She frowned. "Do you think-- are there woods near there?" It was not something she had considered before, but how could one be alone in a city?

"Absolutely no one," Amy said, immediately relieved to hear that Anna was in the same boat. Which had seemed fine enough, back in Austin when she could count her friends on one hand and wasn't actively searching for more, but it was beginning to seem more and more daunting. Three was pretty different from zero, it turned out.

"I've always had at least one friend at school ever since kindergarten," she admitted slowly. "This is going to be an... adjustment." That sounded a little lame, so she aimed for a more upbeat tone when she said, "But it's boarding school, right? Everyone's going to be leaving home to come here. So we won't be the only ones, I bet."

"There is no dress code according to the documentation I've read," Jones said in her continued even tones. "However this will be your first impression at a new school. You may wish to be a tad more formal."

As Jones stood at the entrance of the lounge her eyes eventually landed on Hanna. She gazed at Hanna for less than a minute taking her in and observing her.

Which could be confused with "staring" really.

Oh, Anna. You had no idea how much older she was. And sorry. She had no gum.

"I am not a student," Jones replied evenly. "I am a new instructor at the school and will be traveling with you via the shuttle. I am Jones."

Hanna stared back. Kind of like a feral kitten, huge eyes and tail lashing. If she'd had a tail. Ready to jump one way or the other.

Not Marissa, not Marissa, not Marissa. Who?

The silence finally weighed so heavily that she had to break it. "Hello?"

"My previous teaching position dealt with a wide variety of students," Jones said stepping onto the first step of the bus.

Which caused a slight creak in the suspension. Not that anyone might notice off the bat. "Most of them had rather unique abilities."

Amy didn't know nearly enough about Liepzig to dispute that lie, so Hanna was in the clear. Honestly, Amy thought solitary life in a cabin in remote Europe sounded pretty good.

"There were definitely woods on the website," she said. "And a beach, and an IKEA on its own island pretty close by. Kind of a weird area, if you ask me." Just wait until it started raining weird things, Amy! "Do you hike?"

Eh, even if Jono had noticed, he'd seen much stranger things than creaky buses before. He didn't pay much attention, really.

//Well, then you'll do quite well on the island, I should think. You're here to teach, I'm guessing?//

My, Jono. What was your first clue?

Amy looked down. Sure, her sweatpants were casual, but at least they weren't dirty or full of holes. She had worn less formal things to Hester High before and she knew it.

"I think I'm okay," she said after a long pause. "Um, unless that was, like, an order or something. I guess I could change. But I'd rather not, I think."

'Be yourself' and all.

Hanna gave Amy a confused look of someone who either wasn't sure her English was making sense of that, or, the response of doesn't everyone? "Yes," she said slowly, uncertain. "I.. hike." After a second she added, "And snowshoe in the winter. And hunt."

And for the first time in a very long week, she was hit by homesickness for that little house near the Arctic Circle. She swallowed. "It seems very far away now."

"Hello," Jones replied. "My name is Jones. I am a new teacher at the school you will be attending."

"Correct," Jones said sitting down on her chosen seat. "I will be teaching an independent study course there. I assume you have a similar position? I highly doubt they would use a telepath to simply drive buses."

Oh. Interesting. Possibly not a threat? Maybe? Hanna opted for politeness. "I am Hanna Heller. I am sixteen years old. This is my first time in America." There. Three true things. "What will you be teaching?"

//Lord, wouldn't that be a waste? No, I'm a teacher as well. We've got a course on powers and how they relate to identity this semester, and I'll be a co-teacher for that one,// Jono replied with a shrug. //Seems like the sort of class that the island could've used a long time ago, honestly. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, though.//

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BWI Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning

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