In the Tea Party Room

[smallestopener]

Ingress sits at the table in the tea party room, gluing on some last minute bits and pieces to the many popsicle stick frames she's making for the friends she hopes will come visit. They are glittery, of course, but they also hold sticky treasures - old stamps, multi-colored bottle caps, shiny bits of smooth glass, antique beads, and rhinestones

Comments

[nita_callahan]

There's a knock on the doorframe, and a head peeking around it.

"Anyone in?"

[smallestopener]

Ingress looks up and recognizes an old friend.

"NITA!"

There is a blur of blue and then Ingress is hugging Nita.

"Gavroche will be sad he didn't see you. He's out with his friends in the Underside, even though it's not safe right now."

Gavroche is always out in the Underside with his friends these days. Oh those teenaged wizards.

[nita_callahan]

Laughing, she squeezes back.

"Hey, kiddo! Think if I loiter around here long enough I'll catch him?"

[smallestopener]

"Maybe! Tom and Door said he needed to stay close for a little while, but he never listens. I'm glad you came to visit. Would you like some tea?"

She can totally pour some.

[nita_callahan]

"I'm glad, too. It's been forever since I saw you guys."

She's carrying a backpack on one shoulder; she swings it off as she adds, "I'd love some tea."

[smallestopener]

"Okay. I'll pour. I have some biscuits, too. Door and I made them today."

Ingress is spending lots and lots of time with Door of late.

"Have you been away doing wizardry, too?"

[nita_callahan]

"Some. Mostly school, lately." She makes a face. "Are you gonna go to college? Because if you are, I recommend staring your applications now."

[smallestopener]

"No, I'll go to the Herald Academy in a couple more years. And when I'm about eighteen, I start riding circuit, doing real Herald stuff."

[nita_callahan]

"You'll miss all the applications, then. Lucky you."

[smallestopener]

"What are applications? Are they spells?"

[nita_callahan]

Any other time, Nita would make some teasing remark about slow methods of torture. This doesn't seem like the time, though.

"No, although with our kind of wizardry, I guess there's a resemblance. You have to tell the colleges all about yourself -- how you do in school, how much money your parents make, if you've ever worked anywhere -- and write essays about weird topics like 'If you were a piece of artwork or music, what would you be?' or 'What's the bravest thing you've ever done?'" She waves a hand vaguely. "And if you're a wizard applying off-world, you have to prove that you're allowed to leave your own planet and that you've never, you know, destroyed a civilization or anything."

[smallestopener]

"So you're going to go to another world for school, too?"

Cool.

[nita_callahan]

"Maybe. We'll see if they want me."

[smallestopener]

"I bet they do. You're smart and cool and you're a great wizard. They'd have to be dumb not to invite you!"

[nita_callahan]

She grins. "Aw, thanks." Teasing: "I should call them up and get you to tell them that, huh?"

[smallestopener]

"You can, if you want," says Ingress.

She'd totally give a recommendation!

"Hey, I didn't give you your present." She rummages through the stack of picture frames looking for just the right one. The one she hands Nita is painted dark blue with blue beads and old stamps of queens and kings glued on.

"Happy Christmas!"