benedicimus te

[bright_and_beautiful]

Jenny's siblings are particularly tiring that morning. She suspects it's left over from the Christmas holidays; you would think a month would be enough time for the mania to wear off, but Jenny makes a point of never underestimating her siblings. And of course her parents are both at work and aren't home to help her.

After a while, though, she has finally successfully bludgeoned everyone into eating, cleaning themselves up, and getting all of their stuff together. She contemplates a cup of coffee, decides she didn't really need all of her growth anyway, downs it and gets everyone out the door.

An hour later, her siblings are in their respective classrooms, Jenny's safely ensconced in her own seat, and man is she feeling bouncy. Today's a great day, it's going to be great, let's go!

(Coffee was not Jenny's best idea ever.)

Comments

[keyed_up]

Soph finds her classroom with a few minutes to spare, and gets her choice of seats. Time to make friends! Not that she doesn't have any friends in Sunnydale, she's been here every summer of her life, but Megan's homeschooled and Claire moved away six months ago. So she scans the room and sees a cheerful-looking girl and plunks down next to her.

"Hi! I'm the new kid, my name's Soph. What's yours?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Hi! I'm Jenny. Nice to meet you, Soph. New, really? That's cool! What do you think so far?"

[keyed_up]

"It's smaller than my old school, which isn't bad. I'm not new new, my dad lives here, but we didn't use to live with him during the school year, just summers."

[bright_and_beautiful]

All sorts of questions immediately occur to Jenny, but they appear too quickly for her to settle on one, at least before realizing that really, they're all sort of intrusive and not of her business.

"Well, it's nice that you get to see your dad more, then!" Family is the best. "I mean, I hope? Is he nice, would I know him?" She thinks. "Maybe not unless he's a teacher or goes to Sunday mass."

[keyed_up]

"He's nice! But it doesn't sound like you'd know him. He's the chief of police, but he'd probably think it was a bad sign if you knew him that way."

[bright_and_beautiful]

Jenny laughs. "I have not met him, and I am totally okay with that! Er, in his job capacity, I mean? No offense?" She racks her brains. "I think he's been mentioned in the papers before, though, there's stories about cases sometimes."

[keyed_up]

"Makes sense. I don't really read the news except for the comics and the - I don't know what the section is called here, but the one with the movie listings and things about how there's art galleries having showings and whatever. The, like, 'if you leave your house, these are things you could do outside of it'."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"I read the paper when... I dunno, I'm bored in the registrar's office or something? Which is a lot of 'have half a front page before you go change your class schedule' and not super picky. I don't, like, looooounge at breakfast reading my newspaper and looking like a character from an old tv show."

[keyed_up]

"Dad reads the paper, but it's probably not because he doesn't know what the police are up to."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"I hope not!"

[keyed_up]

"Have you always lived in Sunnydale?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Yep! Born and raised, that's me. I just don't get out much. Or at least, not without my siblings in tow." She grins. "And that's a lot of siblings in tow! I am a mama duck. With tiny blonde ducklings."

[keyed_up]

"Ah, I'm a little sibling myself. And I just have the one elder sister. And we are united in brunette-hood."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Nooooo! How you can be a trail of ducklings if there is only one of you? I shall have to loan you some ducklings. So you can fulfill your duckling destinies." She pretends to think very carefully about this. "The color thing is okay I guess. Anne's really kind of a redhead anyway."

[keyed_up]

"I've gotten this far without ducklinghood."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"You don't know what you're missing!"

[keyed_up]

"Well, have you ever tried having a big sister?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

She considers. "My parents are kind of like big siblings?" she offers. "Also, er, if not clear- I just meant duckling, like, following people around and being silly. The silliness is the important part, not the younger-sibling-ness."

Silliness is very important.

[keyed_up]

"Aha. I try to make sure I get an adequate dose of silliness."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Let me know if you ever need help with that! I am an expert at silliness."

[keyed_up]

"Ooh, any tips?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Candy. Lots of candy. Bonus points for chocolate."

[keyed_up]

"Oooh, chocolate."

[bright_and_beautiful]

The teacher makes 'okay class actually be quiet' noises Jenny suspects are directed at her. Whatever, one last thing. Class can wait. Chocolate is more important.

"I was gonna stop for chocolate ice cream on my way home after school, want to come?" Jenny offers quickly, lowering her voice. "Your sister too, if she's free?"

[keyed_up]

"Sure, I'll ask her at lunch."

And then Soph is actually quiet.