new friends, quiet places [Edith]

[Edith Love]

"Yeah, my ma was always a big stickler about making the best of what you got. Gramma Rogers -my ma's ma - was always complaining about how she hated living on a farm and she hated being poor and yada yada, and ma got real sick of it, so she decided she would make sure her kids learned to be happy with what they had. I'm glad she did, because I've seen how easy it is to get discouraged about life if you don't make yourself look on the bright side. I mean, we only live about two miles from gramma's house so we visit all the time, and she has never been a really happy person. The joke in the family is that she's gonna live forever because as long as she has something to complain about she's gonna be around. Heck, even gramma is in on it!" Edie laughed at her family joke, remembering the first time her grandmother had found out about it. Everyone had expected her to be mad, but for all her pessimism she had a good sense of humor about herself. She thought it was hilarious.

Edith nodded in agreement with Estelle, "Yeah, we had to try it in a biology class in my old school. They were using our class as guinea pigs to see if it was useful, but about two minutes into it our teacher had us close it down because it was totally useless. Half the computers couldn't handle the graphics and the ones that could were super slow and the frog didn't look real on the inside at all! It was actually kind of funny, because there were sound effects, but that was all we really got out of it - a good laugh!" Edie giggled at the memory of the gross squelching noises the computers were all making. "And I agree with the whole worksheet thing. Coloring in a bunch of cartoon organs doesn't really help me at all." Edie was glad that Estelle liked her idea. "Awesome! I'll search my room when I get back and find them. I think ma packed them in case I needed to sew somethin', but I'm really no good at sewing either. At least I can honestly tell her that I used them." Edie smiled and nudged Estelle back, "We may not be artistic, but at least our lack of talent is helping us be creative!"

Edie was really happy that Estelle was looking just as excited as she felt. "I bet it would be a ton of fun! I'd love to see what you can do, your power just sounds like it could be so excitin'!" Edith clapped her hands together in front of her like a little girl. "My official motto on fixing things is if you can't fix it with duct tape, then it simply can't be fixed. At least, not by me." She was feeling very appreciative of their teacher for having paired her up with Estelle, she missed having hordes of family around!

[Estelle Flores]

Estelle laughed at Edie’s descriptions of her family. She wished her family was that big; even before her father’s death, the four of them were really all she had. “Oh.” She brightened, happy to have a story to supply her friend, “We get into that argument all the time with Hazel. She gets really upset over things sometimes, and we have to think of goofy ways to cheer her up. One time, she was really stressed out about school and so we all got together at Maggie’s house and we played really stupid music and had a dance party.” Estelle shrugged, grinning at the memory, “It’s a little silly, but I have to tell you, dance parties can solve pretty much any problem you can imagine. Especially when you’re listening to extremely silly music.”

Estelle scrunched up her nose in distaste at the idea of computer-stimulated dissections. “That’s a silly thing anyways, livers aren’t blue. Your teacher was awesome for recognizing it.” She laughed at the mention of gross noises. “Ewww. That would be awfully distracting. And if you do a dissection right, there’s not that many gross sounds anyways.” She grinned at Edith’s joke, “Hooray for being creative at least!”

“That’s a great philosophy.” Estelle giggled, nodding energetically, “Duct tape is basically magic. It’s so true.” She smiled at Edie, “I can’t wait to see your power at work too! It sounds so fascinating!”

[Edith Love]

"Y'know, I've never actually been to a dance party. That sounds like it would be really fun! I mean, I can't really dance, but I can try!" Edith smiled excitedly. She had never really done many "girl" activities, even though she did have girl friends at school. She was always just more comfortable with masculine things.

Edith laughed right along with Estelle. It had been kind of ridiculous. "I don't think I've ever heard those kinds of noises come out of anything but silly putty. And it was really distractin', we were makin' fun of the noises more than we were doing anything else." She tried to reproduce the sound quietly, but they turned out a bit louder than she expected. She looked around, hoping no one else had noticed. "Oops!"

Edith nodded knowingly at Estelle's approval of her philosophy. "I think that whoever it was that invented duct tape should get a Nobel Prize. That stuff is amazing!" Edith took in a deep breath and made herself focus. "Okay, we should probably actually do research." She said sheepishly, not wanting to offend Estelle but also wanting to get this project out of the way. Since the project had been nice enough to deliver Edith a friend, she figured she'd be nice enough to do a good, thorough job.

[Estelle Flores]

“Well, a proper dance party is done in pajamas to terribly ridiculous music at a friend’s house. It is guaranteed to make anything that’s wrong feel not as terrible.” Estelle grinned, “There are imitation dance parties that involve you going somewhere and dressing up, but those aren’t the real thing, you know.” Estelle laughed, “The point of a real dance party is not to dance so much as flail around as fast as possible.” Because yes, that was how Estelle danced. The phrase “two left feet” comes to mind.

Estelle glanced around the library, still snickering at Edie’s attempts to make the squishy, unrealistic sounds that the computer simulation apparently made. It didn’t seem that anyone was all that disturbed. “Oh yeah.” Estelle sighed reluctantly, “Well… let’s split up the assignment between us: if we separate it out by timeline, major players and impact of the battle on the rest of the war, I could take the timeline, you could take the major players and we could do our own research on the impact of the battle. Then, we could collaborate later to push it all together?” She looked up at Edie for idea approval.

“But since we’re both not all that motivated, and it’s getting late, we should go eat dinner!” Estelle hopped out of her chair and pushed her books in her bag. As she waited for Edie, Estelle felt the grin on her face grow wider. She’d made a new friend! And Edie seemed like she’d fit in with her old friends at home, even.

What a good day.

[ooc: done for Estelle; Edie can either respond with her own closing post, or it can end here! XD]