ABCD: Action for Boston Community Development on Cascade Hall

Mab

June 25, 2020 12:36 PM

ABCD: Action for Boston Community Development by Mab

It was a Sunday afternoon. The lunch crowd had already cleared of the Cascade Hall and the dinner crowd wasn't expected for another couple of hours. The Hall was not completely deserted, but Mab was able to find a portion of the Pecari table that she felt able to defend as her own territory for the scheduled meeting of the ABCD charity booth meeting. She'd put up a sign to that effect so the people looking for it could find her and those who weren't planning to join in would know to sit somewhere farther away.

Action for Boston Community Development
Charity Booth Planning Meeting

She wasn't the only second year running a booth. Theo and Leonor were, too. But most of the other charity booths seemed be getting founded by prefects, or at least fourth years. She wasn't sure whether this said something about Pecaris in general, or if there was some fey design specifically on her year group of Pecaris that they were the upstarts running booths when no other underclassfolk were. However, given that the three second years were the only Pecaris running booths, she had to assume it was specifically her yeargroup of Pecaris that were somehow cursed.

She hadn't provided any food, but since this was taking place in the Cascade Hall, all people had to do was ask for a snack and whatever they wanted would turn up for them, so she hadn't seen much point in providing anything. Besides which, wasted food bothered her deeply, and providing anything would doubtless either lead to waste or someone not getting enough.

As people began to arrive, she nodded at them solemnly and pushed a piece of paper toward them. It read "ABCD First Meeting: Attendence Sheet" and requested each person's name and class year.

Once it seemed nobody else was likely to turn up, she began. "I'm Mab. This is the first planning session for the charity booth benefiting the Action for Boston Community Development. This is an organizational non-profit based, obviously, in Boston that helps people who need help with things like food, housing, child care, education, job training, assistance with paying bills, and basically anything that people need but poverty makes difficult to obtain. They partner with other organizations to help with things like helping kids learn to talk, walk, or read if they're behind their age group, and direct people to the right government programs that might benefit them. They give kids Christmas presents if their family can't afford any. The run food banks and host meals. That sort of thing. It's good important things, and the funds we raise will directly help people who really need help. People like me, and my mom. So. Are there any questions about the charity group?"

She had left out that it was non-fey group. She didn't see that as important, but suspected some fey might think it was grounds to not support it, and she didn't want to provide any reasons not to support this group.

"Next we need to talk about what we're going to do at our booth. Obviously, we will provide some information about the important services that the money will support. But I gather since this is a 'fair' that we're supposed to do something fun as well. Does anyone have any ideas?"

1 Mab ABCD: Action for Boston Community Development 1473 1 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

June 26, 2020 11:19 AM

I'm here. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander wasn't entirely sure that this was a thing he wanted to get involved with, but he liked hanging out with Mab and he was a Teppenpaw so he was pretty sure he was supposed to care about charities. The problem was that he was having a hard time caring about much of anything. After meeting Evelyn, he'd felt pretty good. Better even, but then things stopped feeling good. Then he felt resentment and anger and all sorts of gross feelings. The only bright light in his life was his new family, so he was going to do what he could to support them, but that was fragile too. He'd only had them for a short time and Mab wanted to find her mom. What happened when she did? Would she leave? Would Bel still want him? At least he knew that Mab would keep coming back to Sonora even if she did go live with her mom but it wasn't the same.

His anger, he knew, had a source. But he wasn't really sure whether that was fair. He had never met his biological father or mother, and only spoken in a few short letters, but it wasn't enough. Nothing was enough. He was never going to have a family like Evelyn had had. He was never going to have a family like either of them ought to have. He was never going to be sure the family that he had would be one he'd get to keep. He was never going to be loved the way kids were supposed to be loved.

So he wasn't sure whether it was his love of his foster sister or his desire to make sure that other kids felt a little more loved than he had that brought him to Mab's charity. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was something else. Some desire to prove that how isn't like the father he'd never known. Since learning what he had about the man, he'd been feeling a lot like there was a storm cloud hanging over him, waiting for him to prove that he was a monster, too. And that was without knowing the full story. He didn't know what Evelyn's story was, he'd only read the dust flap.

But here he was. Hopefully, desperately, not as bad as the blood in his veins.

He signed his name and information when he was passed the attendance form and passed it to the next person. When Mab said the charity helped people like her and her mom, he had the distinct urge to run from the room. Even Mab didn't think he belonged? He didn't really have any ideas, but he thought he wouldn't be a very good supportive friend or brother if he didn't offer something up and he thought that maybe his value had to be based on something.

"We could sell blankets and match it? Every purchase of a blanket buys a second blanket to donate?" he suggested quietly.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales I'm here. 1475 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

June 27, 2020 8:09 AM

Can I be too? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Sadie made her way nervously over to the Pecari table. She was doing a lot of things she hadn’t really done before, and she wasn’t sure how welcome she was going to be. She had never sat anywhere except Crotalus before. She knew it was allowed, but she hadn’t ever had any reason. She had never had much of a conversation with Mab. And she hoped that the fact there was a charity planning meeting was enough of a reason to do both of those things but this one was awfully regionally specific so she wasn’t sure. And because she wasn’t sure, Sadie hadn’t put her name on the sign up sheet. Which made her even more unsure about whether she would be welcome.

Still, she wanted to support something. She had sort of been relying on Jessica to lead and then, as usual, she could follow, only that hadn’t happened, and she’d been left adrift having to make her own mind up. She had settled on Mab’s booth because most of the others were being run by way older students, and a lot of them were about super serious sounding things. Sadie thought it might be easier to work with some people her own age and to not have words like ‘victims of the dark arts’ thrown at her outside of class. That left a choice between something to do with werewolves, something in a language she didn’t speak, and this. Mab’s charity had nice words like ‘community’ which sounded safe and familiar. Mab was distinctly less loud or pushy than either of the other second years running a booth.

“Hi?” Sadie said, as she approached the table. “Um, it’s okay for people not from Boston to join, right?” she asked. If Mab was any good at accents, Sadie’s was probably marking her out as about as far from Boston as one could get without resorting to Alaska or Hawaii. Given that it was a school event, she thought it probably was for everyone, but she wasn’t sure. However, once she was assured she could stay, she took a seat.

As Mab started speaking, the whole situation became less cosy and friendly. Well, the charity still sounded nice. Food parcels and Christmas toys and helping the poor. That sounded much more like what she was used to charities talking about than werewolves and dark arts. But then Mab said it was people like her. Sadie probably didn’t do a good enough job at hiding her surprise at that. For all that she’d heard about people like that, she had never really experienced them first hand. She had never really thought much about anyone’s background except Jessica’s, and she was a level above Sadie, who was very comfortably in the upper end of middle class. She felt slightly embarrassed, both for not knowing about Mab and just… for Mab in general because imagine having to tell people that you couldn’t afford food and a home. Sadie found her eyes roving over Mab’s clothes curiously. Admittedly, Sadie couldn’t say she’d often noticed Mab, but surely that in itself said she didn’t stand out as poor? Her general appearance wasn’t so scruffy or underfed and her clothes weren’t so badly fitting that you could just tell from looking at her. In fact, she seemed quite neatly dressed to Sadie’s eye. Maybe not designer, but not bargain basement or hand me down.

Mab asked for ideas. Sadie had come to this meeting armed with the concept of a bake sale but she could recognise that might be in poor taste if they were trying to feed the hungry. Alexander spoke up first. She wasn’t sure about his suggestion… She knew donation chains were a thing, that was one of the more credible and tangible good things you could claim for social media. But they required both people involved to have the money. What blankets would they be selling? Where would they get them? Who would be matching them and with what other blankets? If they all had so many blankets in the first place, why not just give them where they were needed? However, she wasn’t sure whether it was her or Alexander’s thought process that didn’t join up, and also she didn’t want to embarrass him by questioning his suggestion. She thought she would die if someone started pulling holes in what she was trying to say. Unfortunately, that left her with contributing ringing silence to the meeting.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers Can I be too? 1480 0 5

Mab

June 30, 2020 6:45 PM

Yes, everyone is welcome. by Mab

Mab gave her brother a smile as he arrived, glad he wanted to support her in this. She also smiled at the people who were not her brother who came too, though perhaps not quite so warmly. It was polite and welcoming to smile, and while Mab was not well practiced at the expression, she knew when she was supposed to make it, and this was one of those times. And since she was trying to raise money with the help of these people, she even obliged the expectation.

She nodded in answer to the question one of the new-comers asked, and pushed the attendance sheet toward Sadie. "You don't need to be from Boston to help the people there," she promised. "Thank you for wanting to." Her own accent gave away that she was herself a native to the city in question, but she certainly wasn't going to prevent anyone from helping out just because they weren't. That was counter-productive to the goal.

As Mab concluded her speech, she looked around to see how it had gone over. Alexander had that look that could mean he was upset, or it could mean he was just wearing a genuine neutral expression. Alexander was not easy person to read. Sadie just looked surprised. Well, that was fair. Mab didn't really look like the poor kid who'd gone to public elementary school anymore. She'd now had over a year of eating well and Bel buying her nice clothes. She was still skinny, but no longer unhealthily so.

Both got right to the ideas rather than commenting on anything she'd said, which she was glad for. She didn't like mentioning the situation she'd been in with her mom, but she wanted to impress upon the others that this was important and personal to her. That she knew this group did good work by first hand account.

It was made easier, of course, by that the situation was firmly in the past at this point and she wasn't admitting to anything currently going on.

Mab nodded at Alexander's suggestion. "Blankets are good. They need blankets. Maybe some other things like hats and mittens and scarves, too." She looked around at the group. "I don't suppose any of us are good at making blankets or anything?"

1 Mab Yes, everyone is welcome. 1473 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

July 01, 2020 10:38 AM

"Welcome." by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander wrestled with himself as Mab considered his suggestion. The other girl, Sadie, was sort of welcome just because it gave him something else to focus on than his own bitter attitude. What was wrong with him? Why was he being awful?

It had been a long time since the thought occurred to him that perhaps he was dead or in a coma or crazy or something because of this whole magic thing. He'd come to accept it. Now his question was whether he had lost it and was somehow in Wonderland or some nonsense, suffering at the hands of his own wild imagination and its brutality after a storm. Everything was better and he, alone, was worse.

He just shook his head, not knowing of anyone who could make the blankets or mittens or anything. He did wonder whether there was a parallel organization in Seattle though, because he'd generally been gifted those things. Of course, that was through a group home, so that made sense. They were legally required to provide for him, poor a job as they'd done.

Which brought him back to feeling bad. Mab and Bel took care of him. He had so much now. So what was his problem? Why was he acting so awful? He hung his head, giving in to his shame for a moment.

"We could sell some of my artwork," he said with a small shrug, not sure it was really worth anything. He could make it thematic though. "Or . . ." An idea came to mind, almost fully fledged, which was surprising. That didn't happen often except when he was drawing. His head popped up and his expression brightened considerably. "What if people could pay a small entry fee and go through a maze, except it was a blanket fort maze? Sort of thematic and I bet Sonora has enough blankets for us to borrow for that. We could put fun obstacles in it or just make it long and windy. People could get snacks and there would be some places to just hang out inside, out of the sun. There could also be little tidbits of information about the charity throughout the inside so that people can learn more about it as they get through."

He was surprised because he was excited. That didn't happen often. And he just had to hope that others were excited too because if they weren't, then this was just a reminder of why it was dangerous to get your hopes up.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales "Welcome." 1475 0 5