fandomtownies | Parents' Weekend Meet & Greet, The Park, Friday Afternoon

Parents' Weekend Meet & Greet, The Park, Friday Afternoon

The day had dawned crisp and clear, but by the time afternoon had rolled around... it was really still kind of ridiculously warm for fall. People could probably get away with not wearing a sweater, even.

Which made rather good weather for a picnic, convenient since that was the traditional way of kicking off the Fandom High Parents' (and assorted other relatives, friends, acquaintances, or sometimes even enemies, but that was harder to fit nicely on a banner) Weekend. So there were rows of picnic tables decked out in blue and yellow, laid out with just about any sort of foodstuff one could imagine. And just in case there was any lingering doubt as to the purpose of the picnic, a glittery banner (Petra's work, naturally) adorned the registration tables:

[ooc: ocd up! registration / security / food & drink / mingling / post two ]

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Rinoa was here. Rinoa's dad was probably going to be here, and so Rinoa was here. She did not have to look happy about it, and so she didn't.

She might perk up a bit at anybody else's guests, though. Those people probably didn't suck.

Rinoa's dad, in fact, was here. He would have come anyway, but she had actually called to invite him, so of course he'd be here.

...Although that phone call had ended in a bad argument, so he was a little wary of hurting her feelings.

"Good afternoon!" he greeted her. "You're looking well."

Rinoa had shown up. That was about all that he was going to get. She wasn't sure why he was trying to be nice, right now. Maybe just to trick her.

"Thank you," she said coldly. "I didn't dress up or anything. So ... here you are."

That was very helpful, Rinoa. The warm fuzzies just radiated out.

So it was going to be like that, was it? Well... that was better than nothing.

"So here I am. And here you are. We're both here, now, and perhaps we can talk?"

"Perhaps," she said, still sounding sulky. He wasn't rising to the bait. He should be shouting again. She wasn't sure why he wasn't.

"I thought dinner would be tomorrow night," she said. "To ... talk about Timber, I mean. That dinner. I don't know what you want to do now."

Well, this was awkward.

"Was your portal okay?"

Awkward, sure... but that meant they had to actually spend time together, and talk, and things. That was exactly what Fury wanted, even though he wasn't very good at it.

"It was fine," he told her. "The trip was uneventful, and now we've got all weekend to discuss Timber, and anything else you'd like to talk about." He looked around. "You could show me around this island, if you'd like. Maybe even introduce me to your teachers, and your friends?"

He'd had a three-man task force come up with ideas for him for this weekend. "Show interest in her school" and "show interest in her friends" were pretty high on the list.

Okay, this was a trap. It had to be. That was the only answer.

"I ..... have a job," she said, grudgingly. "At the library."

He realized that was good, right? Like, a huge deal? Because if he messed that one up, then he hadn't even been paying attention her entire childhood and he could just go have dinner with himself and maybe she'd go blow something up just to make him angry.

She was talking to him! This was progress! If they were really, really lucky, maybe they'd even go several more minutes before they started yelling at each other.

"A junior librarian, huh?" Fury asked. "So, what sorts of responsibilities do you have?"

"An aide," she said, setting her chin. "I work at the circulation desk, and I organize shelves when it's slow. It means I get to read whenever things aren't busy."

He ... didn't remember that was important to her? That shouldn't hurt.

He just hadn't put together "library" with "reading for fun", that was all. To Caraway, libraries were places to do research, and that was it.

...Okay, and he had forgotten that Rinoa liked to read. But as soon as she said it, it conjured up memories of her as a little girl, curled up on her mother's lap with her nose in a book. Those were happier times, and he couldn't help but smile. "You always did like books," he mused.

And that time, a very small smile flickered over her lips. "I still do," she said. "So ... so I'll show you that, then. The library. Maybe my teachers."

She wasn't sure about her friends. He didn't like Seifer. That could get messy.

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Parents' Weekend Meet & Greet, The Park, Friday Afternoon

Re: Mingling! [PW1]

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