Graduation Brunch: The Park, Sunday, mid-morning to mid-afternoon

[idontlooktired]

It was the Grads' Brunch in the park today, as the brightly coloured banner -- CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS OF 2008! -- indicated.

There were lots of tables and chairs set up in the park, under sails for shade, and long tables groaning under the weight of the food and drink. Not just traditional moddable brunch foods, but a wide selection of also

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Tables and chairs

[idontlooktired]

Sit and eat, or sit and talk, or sit and boggle, or whatever else you you can do with a table!

Re: Tables and chairs

[ecirpnellehada]

Although she tried not to notice, Adah felt the Eel's glance her way and tried to return a slight glance back. Quick glance, barely fleeting, before returning to staring at her eggs and trying to pretend that this wasn't happening. Meeting her mother, fine. Orleanna would be short and overappraising of the Eel, but she would be accepting and for the most part relieved. Meeting Rachel, though...

Nmad Dog, she'd rather be back at graduation dealing with that damn pompous fairy thing. At least the fairy thing didn't share her genetic makeup.

Re: Tables and chairs

[no_snow_white]

"No kidding?" Rachel asked, arching an eyebrow as she leaned forward with the utmost interest. "A lot like that weird earthquakey thing at the ceremony?" Because, yes, Rachel rationalized it as just a weird earthquakey thing. "Oh, she should be used to that. We deal with stuff like that all the time in Africa." Because, yes, there were lions and tigers and probably bears and giant pesky bugs in Africa, and so it was a completely logical association in Rachel's brain, and her angle was something else, entirely, as evidenced with another bright smile and a slight fluttering of her long, white eyelashes. "That's no excuse for her to not mention a friend like you. Heck, Ade making a friend is news enough to make the headline of the New York Post. How'd you two meet? Or is this island just small enough that you couldn't help it?"

Re: Tables and chairs

[mama_price]

"Rachel," Orleanna tried not to sigh, "don't be facetious."

Re: Tables and chairs

[no_snow_white]

"I'm not, Mother," Rachel countered, though her attention remained focused intently on Lee, with a slight, scheming smile, "I'm just making friendly conversation."

Re: Tables and chairs

[stupid_toasters]

"We met outside, in the park, if I'm remembering right," Lee said thoughtfully. "It's been almost a year now. It was a nice night and I missed my home and was out walking and Adah was out there and she let me sit with her for awhile and made me feel at home and let me talk."

"And yeah, the weird earthquake thing is actually pretty normal for this place," he said, nodding. "I've only been Africa once and it was only a brief visit but Adah's told me a little about her home. It sounds nice there. Very big."

Re: Tables and chairs

[ecirpnellehada]

The duck of Adah's head now had nothing to do with trying to extract herself from the event; instead, it was working to her benefit to hide the soft smile and the light blush that seemed to come up in response to hearing him describe the first time they met. Her hand curled up a little, tingling with the memory of grass, and she felt that maybe this awful debacle of Rachel's existence might have been worth it just to hear him say that.

Re: Tables and chairs

[no_snow_white]

"...Nice?" Rachel's facade dropped to frown at Lee, her theory of potential insanity coming back around again. "Are you kidding me? What kind of things has she bee--"

She paused, blinking in confusion.

"Wait, told you? Geez oh man, Ade, what? Have you been going through writing so many notes that you've probably killed the whole Redwood forest?"

Re: Tables and chairs

[stupid_toasters]

"She talks to me," Lee told her, careful not to fidget around with his hands by laying them flat on the table. "At first, she wrote me notes and I just talked and now she talks to me and I talk back. She has written me anything in...awhile. And, like I said though, she hasn't told me much about Africa so I'm just guessing by what I've heard and seen."

Re: Tables and chairs

[no_snow_white]

For a moment, Rachel looked like Lee might as well have been talking to her in Spanish (but not French or Afrikaans, of course, since she knew those). But one glance at his careful placement of his hands on the table like that and one glance at Adah acting even stranger than she normal, than she remembered, and she knew that this guy probably wasn't making this up.

Although, really, if Rachel were an annoyingly speechless genius freak, she'd probably talk for this guy, too.

"Well, kiss my grits," she muttered, shaking her head. This was officially weirder than the whole earthquakey thing. Definitely.

"Either way," she said, straightening with the conviction that she wasn't going to allow this whole thing to sink into too badly, by turning the topic of the conversation to her favorite one: herself. "Believe you me, Africa sucks. It's hard enough even making the civilized parts livable. But I do what I can, on what little I can with what Eeben brings in. Maybe if you and Ade are ever there, you'll have to drop into Johannesburg

Re: Tables and chairs

[stupid_toasters]

"You sound like you're doing pretty good for yourself," Lee said, half smiling and half nodding. "And it was nice of you both," he continued, gesturing at Adah's sister and mother, "to come for graduation."

He hoped he didn't sound like too much of an idiot. "I don't graduate till next year so I've got a whole other year left all by myself now. Not sure what I'm gonna do without..."

He trailed off when he realized he had no idea how to end that sentence. "I guess I'll have to find a hobby."

Re: Tables and chairs

[mama_price]

Orleanna brought in her comment before Rachel even had a chance to offer something stupid in response. She really didn't need to sit through a whole drawling rant about Eeben and the timing of their fight that left Rachel reluctantly leaving Africa until things blew over. "Of course I'd be here," she said, with a slightly hard edge and still not sure what to think of this. She thought she'd just be relieved that Adah'd decided to seek out male company, but...that didn't seem the case at all. "Adah and her sisters didn't really have a chance for...a normal teenage experience..." She winced a little choosing those words; even if there hadn't been Africa, with skipping two grades and her disability, Adah wouldn't have had that anyway, but she moved on quickly before Rachel could comment, because Rachel would have, "and now she's graduated and going on to medical school. We-- I'm extremely proud of her."

Re: Tables and chairs

[ecirpnellehada]

While Orleanna had talked, Adah had found a napkin and a pen in her pocket and had written something down. She covertly tried to slide it toward the Eel.

"Oragami?" it suggested.

Anything to get her mind off this trainwreck.

Re: Tables and chairs

[no_snow_white]

Rachel, of course, noticed; she'd been watching the two of them like a hawk, almost more intrigued by it to completely ignore her mother and all her jabbering on about how she ruined their lives just like that, like it was nothing, like it was baking a cake.

"Not sure what you're gonna do without what, Lee?" she baited, since this was way more interesting than how their mother was just so proud of the little cripple. Thank God Leah was still probably lost in the Congo with her savage love. If Adah was doing this well, she'd hate to think of what Leah'd get herself into to upstage her yet again. "Ade's gonna be too busy chasing the impossible dream for a boyfriend?"

Re: Tables and chairs

[stupid_toasters]

Lee dropped the napkin onto his knee, digging his own pen out of his pocket and scribbled something.

"You really want me to wreck paper that could be used for writing?" it said when he dropped it on her knee, eyes still on the other two women at the table.

"Of course you are, ma'am," Lee said, smiling brightly and just a little falsely. It was hard to fake cordial after hearing what he'd heard about her mother. Still, he tried. "I'm proud of her too. She's probably the only reason I'm at this ceremony."

And he turned to Rachel and said, "Without her. And I don't know what all she's going to be doing in medical school but I'm not planning on losing touch with her, if that's what you're asking. Probably the opposite, in fact. I'll probably visit her a lot."

Re: Tables and chairs

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah had quietly waited out hearing the Eel's response to all that before she even started to shift the napkin from her knee to where she could subtly take a peek at what he had written. She had to take a moment, anyway, to prevent herself from wanting to use the pen in her hand to stab her sister. Impossible dream! Maerd elbissopmi. So sorry, Lehcar, that she decided to do something more with her life than marrying a dirty pilot spy who treated her like crap. Rachel's clear views on Adah going to college made it seem like Nathan's daughter without a doubt; but, no. The fact that seemed settled in her lot in life of tying herself down to the first man that offered the slightest hint of something more made it clear that she took after Orleanna after all.

But the Eel's response softened her a bit to a grin. Orleanna would probably be able to see right through his response to her, but that he'd handled Rachel's petty little ribbing as he did....well...

She passed the napkin back.

"If you'll be visiting, there'd be no need for