2nd Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

Needing lots of room in order to work, Jean had commandeered a common room for great high school politics justice.

One needed space in order to make a bunch of posters telling people to vote for her. Ooo! Glitter! They needed to have glitter on them too.

But only a classy amount. Nothing gaudy.

[[Open common room is so very open]]

Comments

[longislandiceme]

"She probably will," Bobby admitted. "But if she doesn't want my help it's best I just stay out of the way. I kinda learned that the hard way." In retrospect, arranging her bookshelves by cover colors had been a bad idea.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"The hard way?" he wondered, both a question to Bobby and wondering if there were different ways to learn when everything seemed hard to him. He hoped Bobby didn't mean a painful way because he'd have a lot of that already.

[longislandiceme]

"My idea of helping didn't match her idea of helpful. She wasn't very happy with me," Bobby explained, not realizing Jonas was unfamiliar with the idiom.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

The poor boy was unfamiliar with a lot of things, unfortunately. "I'm sorry. Did you apologize?"

[longislandiceme]

"A lot." Bobby nodded. "She forgave me eventually. She always does." Yeah, so maybe he took advantage of the 'little brother' status sometimes. Why not?

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that's good," he said, pleased that the apology had been accepted. "Have you tried the hard way with her since then?"

[longislandiceme]

"Not on purpose," Bobby admitted. "But sometimes that's the only way to do things."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Jonas asked, curious about that fact. "In what sort of instances?"

[longislandiceme]

"Well, uh," Bobby tried to think. "When you're not really sure if what you're trying will work, I guess?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sound unsure," he said, looking down and making a note to work on how he asked question. "I didn't know if there were things I should look for and I'd know that's when to use the hard way."

Not that he knew what the hard way was but one step at a time.

[longislandiceme]

Bobby frowned and tilted his head at Jonas. "You're... not from around here, are you?" he finally clued in.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"No," he said and once again rubbed the spot where he'd had the nametag previously. He almost wished he had left it on. "I'm not at all. Nowhere near here, I believe."

[longislandiceme]

"That's okay!" Bobby said cheerfully. "You're not the only one. I mean, this place is basically the same as my world, but I know lots of people who come from places that are really different. My school big sibling and one of my best friends here, for example. I'm Bobby, by the way. I didn't say my name before."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Jonas," he said and, deciding to just go for it, offered his hand. If it didn't work, he'd know better but he if he never tried, he'd never know. "Hello, Bobby. I've met a few people from very different places than my own but I think that's going to be true of everyone. No one from my world is here or probably ever will be here."

Besides him, of course.

[longislandiceme]

Bobby took the hand and shook it. Chock one up in the success column for Jonas! "There's people I know here that I know back home," he offered. "Only they're still at home too." Hopefully that made sense?

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Oh, it didn't. But, he was trying and the fact that it didn't make sense was tempered by the fact that he'd done the handshake right.

"They're both here and another place?" he repeated, eyes squinting in thought. "That's possible? If they're here, how can they be another place?"

At least this concept was one that threw a lot of the new kids and not just Jonas. He could take comfort in that once he knew.