meet-and-greet | January 2016

[governors]

The Governors do this, sometimes; they hold a meet-and-greet for the new arrivals to help them get acclimated, and also to distract them from destroying their rooms. A message goes out to all the new arrivals informing them of a party with free food. Everyone likes free food, right?

In one of the recreation areas - sadly, not one of the ones accessible by slide - there are some chips, dip, some sodas and Solo cups, several large pizzas, and a surprising amount of Oreos.

Party.

Comments

[highprofilerichkid]

"This is even lamer than the parties at my school," Tony says with halfhearted humor. "This pizza sucks." Leave it to a New Yorker to be snobby about pizza.

He'd noticed the girl as soon as she'd walked in - she's his age, she's pretty, and most importantly, she looks as skeptical of this whole deal as he is. 'Commiserating together' probably isn't what the Governors had had in mind when they threw this party, but living in an underground bunker being some random person's bodyguard isn't how Tony had intended to spend the next year, so he doesn't feel too bad about being ungrateful.

Anyway, if he's going to make friends here, this seems like a good enough place to start. You know what they say: misery loves company.

[cisskabob]

Misery totally loves company, and Cissie's more than a little relieved to see she isn't the only person in her age group here. She's also pretty grateful that she isn't the only resentful, sarcastic, fairly ungrateful partygoer either, because if everyone else had already drank the kool-aid, it would make it a lot more difficult to enjoy those oreos.

As it is, snobby critical pizza eaters are not wholly unwelcome, and Cissie's smile is even friendly. She hadn't honestly expected to come to this party and actually be friendly, but some habits die hard.

"You mean you had decent pizza at your parties? We just got ours from whoever would deliver to the boonies."

Not that she exactly went to school in the middle of nowhere, but the number of places willing to deliver were not exactly overwhelming. And not that any of that matters now.

[highprofilerichkid]

Tony looks appropriately appalled at the idea of not being able to order decent pizza. "I go to school in Manhattan. We can get pizza from five different five-star restaurants in under five minutes." And as far as Tony's concerned, that, more than any other criteria, makes Manhattan the center of the universe. He grins, and adds, "I always order mine with anchovies and pineapple so I can keep a whole pie for myself."

Now that the ice has been broken, Tony relaxes a little. He'd been prepared to be miserable and surly the whole time, just to make a point, but all things being equal he'd rather have fun. Maybe this little get-together won't be so terrible after all.

[cisskabob]

Cissie relaxes a little herself; it's nice to talk about something as normal as delivery and pizzas, despite their circumstances. She even grimaces a little, laughing. "Anchovies and pineapple? I can get behind the pineapple, but that's some dedication to having your own pizza right there."

She offers a hand, and a smile. "I'm Cissie. I go to school in Pennsylvania. Nice to meet you."

[highprofilerichkid]

"Anchovies are delicious. They're just underappreciated," Tony proclaims loftily. Good luck convincing the rest of the world that, Tony.

He shakes Cissie's hand. "Tony Stark. I go to the Tomorrow Academy. It's a magnet school for huge nerds." Another grin.

[cisskabob]

Cissie laughs at the anchovy remark; he reminds her of Bart and Kon, and it puts her a bit at ease. Hungry teenage boys who will eat anything? She can handle those. She's never heard of anyone named Stark, or of the Tomorrow Academy, but she appreciates the "huge nerd" bit.

"What kind of huge nerds? Science nerds? Math nerds? I'm guessing science, with a name like that, but you never know."

[highprofilerichkid]

"All kinds of nerds," Tony replies. "It's a nerdtopia. But I'm science. Engineering and physics. I was actually homeschooled for a long time, until—" he pauses for a moment, and it's the kind of pause that suggests there's a hell of a long story there that he's not sure how to condense into a conversationally appropriate synopsis.

Or maybe it's a long story he doesn't want to share just yet. Whatever the reason, he skips the saga and smiles, continuing, "—They finally dragged me into normal school when I was sixteen."

[cisskabob]

Cissie can't help a slightly visible reaction to Tony's story. Homeschooled and "dragged" to normal school at sixteen, in a way that merits a pause like that? She's not sure what to make of the similarities there.

"That's... okay, this is weird. I was homeschooled until I was fourteen, and the state kind of intervened and sent me off to boarding school. Which I guess could be called normal school, since it's the only one I've ever been to," she adds with a grin. Possibly being so blunt about the state of Pennsylvania's role in her enrollment in St. Elias is a little odd, but it's such common knowledge at home that it seems silly to keep it secret now.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Oh yeah?" Tony chuckles. "What'd they get you for?" As if it was a prison sentence, not secondary school. Hey, some people just aren't cut out for formal education.

It's an odd thing to have in common, and Tony's pleasantly surprised. He hadn't expected to run into that many people his age, much less anyone who's in the same situation he's in. Well— not the exact same, but at least there's someone here who can sympathize with the late homeschool-to-normal-school transition. He'd definitely been the odd one out in that regard at the Tomorrow Academy. (And in many other regards, too.)

[cisskabob]

And here's the awkward part, where she gets to say it out loud instead of imply things, because not everyone reads the tabloids, Cissie. Or in this particular case, not everyone is even from your world, let alone your school.

She's found that it's easier to just state the facts and be quick about it. So that's what she does, shrugging a shoulder with a very practiced carelessness. "It's more that they got my mother. She had her parental rights terminated, so the state decided to send me to boarding school. How about you?"

That's another thing she's learned; turn the conversation back around to the other person so they don't have too much time to start pitying her and getting awkward.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Yikes." Yeah, this is definitely awkward. Tony's not normally great at picking up on social cues, but he recognizes that 'pretending not to care but actually caring a lot' shrug - it's a gesture that he's perfected.

And for similar reasons, it sounds like. Broken families seems to be another thing they have in common. That's cheery.

"...Me and my dad were in a plane crash and he vanished, so I had to go to school because I didn't have any parents to homeschool me anymore?" Or a home in which to be schooled, technically. Not that he'd been out on the streets, but living with Rhodey wasn't the same as living with his dad.

[cisskabob]

Cissie blinks, taking in what Tony's telling her, and letting it sink in for a moment before reacting. She grimaces and shakes her head, laughing a little.

"Wow, okay. That--that sucks, and I'm sorry about your dad. But seriously, what makes people think that throwing homeschooled kids into boarding schools as teenagers is a good idea after a trauma? Isn't it kind of like throwing us to the wolves?"

[highprofilerichkid]

"He, uh, he was fine, actually. But he didn't turn up again until a year and a half later." It's complicated.

"And it was my dad's idea, actually. It was in his will." Tony sighs. "He wanted me to have a 'normal life,'" heavy sarcasm quotes, "if he wasn't around. But I had my best friend Rhodey - and it wasn't a boarding school. It still sucked, though." He had to do HOMEWORK. And take THEATER CLASS. Talk about trauma. "Boarding school sounds like it would suck even worse."