Log: Raven and Jayne Who: Raven and Jayne When: Backdated to Jan 29 Where: Zener Laundry room What: Idle chit chat while waiting for clothes to wash and dry.
Finals were thankfully over and Jayne was taking some time for himself. No computer, no TV, no electronics at all except his ipod and no people. He had dragged his laundry hamper to the laundry room and was now sitting on the table in the laundry room folding his light colored clothes while his darks ran through the drier. He even had a paperback book to read if he wanted. Really, though, he doubted he'd look at it.
It had been a long week of nearly nothingness for Raven. Unlike most of the students at the school, she couldn't wait for classes to start again. A week of vacation was enough for her! For now, though, she had some laundry to do and finally had enough quarters to do it. So she packed up her dirty clothes into her nylon bag and tossed it over her shoulder to head down to the laundry room. Jayne had beaten her to the table, but she gave her classmate a little smile, "Clean clothes, huh? Are there any washers open?"
"Sure," Jayne nodded, pointing to both machines. Since he had used two earlier, he wasn't using a washer at all now, "They're all free, I've just got a load in the dryer," Absently, he began folding one of his bedsheets.
"Thanks." She moved to one of the machines and started loading it up with her own dark clothes. Disliking too much silence, she glanced back at Jayne as she worked, "How did exams go for you?" She tugged her detergent out of the bag and set it aside as she separated her clothes, hoping the boy didn't mind a little chit-chat.
Jayne had those little one-use detergent packs. The wrappers were thrown in a little trashcan so he didn't have any detergent with him anymore, the rest of in his room. There was a box of dryer sheets though under the clothes somewhere. It was easier this way for him to carry it all, though it wasn't as cost effective or environmentally friendly. His quarters were in a printer ink cartridge holder that was secured to the side of the basket.
"Not bad. I'm just glad they're over," he always thought he did worse than he actually did. He was always privately convinced that he had bombed every test and would then get A's and B's, so he kept his worries to himself. "How are you liking Zener?"
"I bet. I think it'll be a rowdy weekend here." She chuckled to herself as she stuffed some clothes into the washer. The rest of the clothes in the bag were lighter colors, so she started setting the dials on the machine, "So far I really like it here. I was nervous at first, though. I'm glad most people are so nice here." Yeah, most. Definitely not all. She hadn't had anyone be really mean to her, yet, but some of the things she read on the journals... she wasn't sure how some of those students hadn't been yelled at by teachers for what they've said in public like that!
"Probably," Jayne had plans to set off some baking soda bombs if the weather was decent or maybe talk to Clark about building his rocket so they could launch it. Maybe not until the spring through. "Makes sense though, the weekend after finals? CRAZY city. You're from the rez right? Well, a rez," because obviously if she was from Arizona it would not be the same as the ones in Idaho.
She nodded as the washer started filling with water, "Yeah, born and raised." She was surprised to hear someone call it a 'rez' though, she hadn't heard that word here since she got here. Raven poured the detergent into the little holder, then snapped it shut and put the lid back onto her bottle, "I miss it sometimes, but it's amazing how small of a world the reservation is. It's nice to get out and do something in the big world." She turned to look at him again, "You lived on one, or something?"
"I'm from Idaho," he shrugged, there were lots of reservations there, "Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce, Shoshone-Bannock, they're all over. I lived in Boise though," it was hard to not visit a reservation or drive through one going somewhere though. Things were different out west.
She nodded at all the names of tribes, and gave him a smile, "Awesome. My tribe is the Hualapai. There are a few other reservations around mine, but they're mostly the same thing, anyway." She shrugged a bit and leaned against the washer as it started it's first cycle, "So what's the big city like?"
Jayne shrugged, "Dunno. Boise's a city, but it's not like the cities on the east coast. It's not even like Seattle. It's a little city, no pro sports teams, no bands coming in concert, no Broadway shows really. I like it though. It's fun and there's local bands and local sports and stuff. And skiing. Kinda like here."
"Oh, so it's not like a huge city. Sounds like a great place to me. Those larger cities scare me, like New York or LA. I'd probably die there. Boise sounds about right, then." She nodded to herself before looking up at Jayne again, noticing he was finished with folding his clothes. Usually, he doesn't ask for help, and she wasn't sure if he hated people assuming he needed help, but she figured it was only polite to ask, "Want me to carry some of that up the stairs for you? It's not like I have much else to do once I start this other load in the washer."
"I've never been to New York or LA. I was in the Baltimore airport twice. And a bunch of other airports, there's no direct route from here to Boise," he tossed everything into his basket, but didn't reach for his crutches just yet, "I have a load still in the drier," he was planning on waiting for it. "There's an elevator though and the basket it has wheels so I just roll it behind me." Like he was going to come down here and do laundry when he couldn't get back to his room?
"I've been to LA just once. Huge city, like you wouldn't believe. As for airports, I've only been to the Las Vegas, Memphis and Manchester ones. It's how I got here in the first place." She smiled and turned to sort the rest of her clothes into the other machine to start washing the lighter colors as well, letting the rest of the conversation drop. If he didn't want help, that was fine with her, she wouldn't push it on him.
"We went to Disney Land once, but not really into the city itself," but Disney was not far from LA even if it was not in the city. They hadn't gone into LA, staying around the resort and theme park. It had been a good trip though. Disney was expensive! "Oh, see, my brother's in the navy so we flew from Manchester to Baltimore to pick him up, then flew to Atlanta, Salt Lake and then Boise. It's something like 11 hours of flying," it was probably about the same for her too. Regardless, it was too long.
"Now that's too long! My flights here were 4 hours and 3 hours, so it was 7 hours total, or something like that. I don't remember exactly how long they were." She closed the lid and started up the water on the second machine before adding the detergent to the little tray and snapping that shut, too. "I hope your brother appreciated all that flying you did for him, though!"
"Well, 11 hours with layovers and stuff. Not actually 11 hours in the air. It would probably be better if we had gone out of New York or something," stupid Shannon. "I have three brothers and a sister. You?"
She turned her back to the washing machine again, and stepped to the table to grab a chair and settle in it near the boy on the table, "I have one younger brother. He's a handful sometimes, but it sounds like he's nothing compared to three brothers and one sister. Are you the youngest?"
"Youngest boy," Jayne replied, "I have a younger sister too. And yes, we all have girls names. It's a family thing," because everyone it seemed invariably asked, "After three other boys, plus cousins, my dad, uncles and all, I got saddled with Jayne," he shrugged, it wasn't a huge deal to him most of the time, and at least there was now Jayne from Firefly. That helped. A LOT. "It's fun though, most of the time. I mean, growing up, there was always someone to play with or bother or whatever."
"Yeah, that's one way to look at it. And you'd have older brothers to help out if you're teased for the name, huh? Kids can be so cruel sometimes." She chuckled a bit, "But I like your name and how it's spelled. It's definitely unique, which isn't a bad thing. What are your brothers named, then?"
"My brothers are Ashley, Leslie and Shannon," he ticked them off on one hand, "Ash is married and has a kid named Kelly, Les is gay and Shan is at the Naval Academy with a corn cob up his ass," those were the cliffnotes. "Oh, and my sister is Elizabeth. But I just call her Lizard. She hates it," which was a lot of why he did it.
A corn cob?? Raven hoped that was a figure of speech she didn't know, so she just smiled, "Sounds like a lot of fun to go back home. So is Kelly a boy or a girl, then? I've heard of boys named Kelly before."
"Kelly's a boy. He looks like a sea monkey," well, he was just a little baby. Jayne thought he was sort of goofy, but he had held him a little over the break sitting on the couch. It made him think about what might happen if he ever had kids...he wouldn't be able to carry them. Well, that was a long time from now so he'd worry about it when and if he ever needed to, "It's fun. This place is too. Except y'know...the shit from New Years. That's uncool."
Raven laughed at his description of the child, "Hopefully he's not blue or green, though. That would be a bad color for a kid to be. I'd have to question Ash's parenting abilities. I love kids, myself. But yeah, New Years wasn't too much fun. I watched the news programs back at home that night with my family. It's part of the reason my mother agreed to let me come here." She bit her lower lip a bit and lifted one leg to cross over the other's knee, getting comfortable on her chair as her laundry was washed.