Winterfell High

Chapter 21

Jon Snow Stark POV

Something happened today when I got to school that was different. I was at my locker, and Ygritte walked past me down the hallway. She waved at me, and I waved back, but I noticed my heart started to flutter. And last night I had a dream about her. God, no. This isn't good. I think I have feelings for her. It's been a couple of weeks since the night of the Homecoming dance when we smoked together, and we've been texting and talking more. She, Tormund and Gilly eat lunch with me and Sam outside now. Sam's been growing even closer to Gilly. It's not like I'm going to do anything about my feelings, we're definitely staying friends. It's just going to be harder to do that now that we spend even more time together.

…

During rock climbing practice, Ygritte wants to be my partner again. It's okay with Sam because he can just pair up with Tormund. Sam's still my best friend, but I think it's good that we've been branching out socially. I don't like to be paired up with Tormund because all he does is stare at the coach creepily, he wouldn't notice if I was going to fall or even if I broke my neck for that matter.

Ygritte and I barely get anything done during practice. She's been making me laugh the whole time. I'm starting to miss her when we're not together. She's really funny, and even though she makes fun of me, I kind of like it. She calls me on my bullshit and helps me not take things so seriously.

My parents are going out of town Friday night for a weekend work trip, meaning that all us kids will be alone until Sunday evening. Mom and dad put me in charge because I'm the oldest, but I've never done that before without Robb here and I know they'll get mad at me if anything goes awry at all (especially mom).

…

I'm driving Sam home from school on Tuesday, it's just us since Sansa went to Margaery's house. Mom gave in finally, she hadn't let her go over there since the miscommunication incident.

"We should have a party on Saturday," Sam says to me after a prolonged period of silence.

"What?" That suggestion has me taken aback.

"Your parents will be out of town right?" He asks me.

"I mean, yeah," I'm still confused. "But I do have to watch Bran, Rickon and Arya."

"I don't mean anything crazy, just us, Gendry, Tormund, Ygritte and Gilly."

"I don't know…" I say. I really don't want to get in trouble with mom, and I know she'll blame me if something happens. "I'll think about it. I'll let you know tomorrow."

"Please consider it," Sam pleads. "I really want to keep this social life up."

"You just want a girlfriend," I say, teasingly.

"Maybe, but I also am having a lot of fun with Tormund and Gendry."

"Okay. I hear you. I'll think about it."

…

When I get home, it's almost as if dad heard my conversation with Sam. He's making dinner when he says to me, "Jon, you know how mom and I are going out of town this weekend?"

"Yeah?" I say.

"Well, Bran and Rickon will be staying with the neighbors. We thought that would be easier on you since Robb isn't here." Bran and Rickon are friends with two siblings that live a couple houses down. Their names are Jojen and Lyanna. That makes things so much easier since I won't have to worry about the kids being disturbed if we have people over.

"Oh, okay," I say. I try to hide my excitement. "That will be easier on me."

"You know the rules though? No one can come over without us here except Sam."

"I know, dad," I say, a little agitated. He always beat this rule into our heads when Robb was here. Mom is the one who's more strict about it, dad honestly wouldn't care much. It's not like Robb never had people over when they went out of town. I think dad secretly knew about it. Mom is definitely the stricter parent.

Sansa Stark POV

I still desperately want Cersei and Daenerys to think I'm cool. I know they supposedly don't blame me for what happened with Loras, but I still feel like I haven't proved myself to them.

One day at lunch it's just me, Cersei, Daenerys and Margaery. I hear Daenerys ask Cersei if they can have a party at the Lannister's this weekend.

"Sorry, father is back now," Cersei says. "You can come but we can't have a rager." This gives me an idea.

"Do you guys want to come over on Saturday?" I blurt out while they're mid-conversation. They pause and turn to look at me.

"Will your mommy be okay with that?" Cersei asks me. I hate that she talks to me like that.

"My parents won't be home, they'll be out of town," I say, confidently. "My brothers will be with the neighbors, so it'll just be us, Jon and my sister Arya. It'll have to just be you three, but we can still drink."

I see Cersei pause. Daenerys looks at her and says quietly, "It might be fun."

Cersei sighs. "Okay, I guess so," she says. I can tell she's very hesitant, but the fact that they agreed at all makes me feel good.

Jon Snow Stark POV

It's Saturday, and I invited Ygritte, Gilly, Gendry and Tormund over at the constant urging of Sam. Sam and I are getting home from the grocery store when Sansa walks downstairs.

"What are you doing?" She asks me.

"Getting ready for my friends to come over," I tell her. "It's just a few people."

"But I invited people over too!" She blurts out. "Daenerys, Cersei and Margaery are coming over."

"Daenerys Targaryen is coming over to my house?!" Arya says, shooting up from where she was laying down on the couch, reading her book.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" I ask Sansa. She knows I'm in charge for the weekend. Sam is being awkwardly silent even though he's seen my siblings and I fight dozens of times.

"I didn't realize you had more than one friend," she says. There's a long pause of silence, because she actually has a point. She then looks at Sam and says, "Sorry."

"Okay, well you still should have told me," I say, sternly. "I apologize for not telling you, but you can't just have people over without letting me know."

Sansa is very agitated. "So what are we going to do?" Sansa asks me, arms crossed. "It's not like we can have both crowds here at the same time, the social statuses are way too different." Since when has she cared about that?

"I can't cancel," I say. "Sam has been looking forward to this all week."

"Well I can't cancel," Sansa says. "I'm finally being sort of welcomed into their group."

There's a long pause. "Well then," I know Sansa won't like what I'm about to say. "You can either cancel, or we can find a way to coexist in the same house."

Sansa looks so mad. "Fine," she says, and walks upstairs. I guess the popular girls are going to be at a party with the outsiders, which is unheard of. How hard could coexisting be?

Chapter 22

Sansa Stark POV

I'm honestly so embarassed that Jon is having friends over tonight, too. I didn't think I needed to ask his permission to have people over, it's not like Robb never had anyone over while mom and dad were gone. At least the girls are showing up before Jon's friends.

Margaery shows up first. When I open the door we immediately go up to my room. Once we get there, I shut the door behind me. "Did you bring the stuff?" I whisper.

Margaery takes out a bottle of wine and vodka. "Cersei and Dany are supposed to bring some stuff too," she says.

We sit down on my bed. "Do you think they'll actually show up?" I ask.

"Of course," says Margaery. "Dany likes you. She thinks you're adorable."

Arya clears her throat. "Oh sorry," I say. "Margaery, this is my sister Arya."

"Hello, Arya," Margaery says kindly. She's so good at being warm and friendly no matter who she's talking to. "How old are you?"

"I'll be 13 in 8 months," Arya says. She hates that she isn't a teenager, so she'll word it in any way to make it sound like she's close to being one. It doesn't help that she looks young.

Cersei and Daenerys do eventually show up around 7:30, and Jon's friends aren't here yet. I'm kind of glad about that, maybe we can just hide in my room all night. Margaery goes to answer the door, she thinks that they'll be more receptive to her even though it's my house. She comes back up with Cersei and Daenerys. Daenerys is actually making conversation and being nice to Arya, Cersei is just buried in her phone. I have a feeling this is going to be a long and awkward night.

"So I hear some of Jon's loser friends are showing up," Cersei says, not looking up from her phone. I don't know how she found out at first, and then I remember I texted Margaery about it when I found out just to warn her. "We'd never hear the end of it if people found out we were coexisting with them."

"Oh please," Margaery chimes in. "You would burn anyone alive who dared say a negative thing about you."

"It's still important to keep that stuff in mind," Daenerys adds to the conversation. "I didn't get this popular from associating with whoever." She turns to me. "Don't worry, one hangout won't make much difference, as long as we don't talk to them too much. He's your brother, so of course we're going to be in the same situations sometimes. We just can't have anyone thinking we're chummy with them." She's trying to reassure me, but it all seems very backhanded and two-faced. I never worried about this party affecting their statuses. Maybe I should have thought about that and just cancelled.

Jon Snow Stark POV

Tormund and Ygritte are the first to show up, with Gilly tagging along with them. When I open the door, Tormund yells, "Let's get this rager started!" Ygritte just looks at me and rolls her eyes.

"It's not a rager, Torm," I say. "Literally it's just us and Gendry."

"I know," he pats me on the back. "Always a buzzkill, Jon." He has beer with him, which I didn't tell him to bring. This will be an interesting night.

…

After Gendry arrives, we're eating pizza and playing Truth or Drink.

Ygritte takes a drink and says, "Gilly!" Gilly looks at her. "Have you ever kissed anyone?" Gilly doesn't say anything, just takes a tiny sip of her beer so she doesn't have to answer.

"That means no," Ygritte says in response.

"I bet Sam could change that right now," Tormund chimes in.

Sam turns beet red. He smacks Tormund on the arm and yells, "Shut up!"

"Gendry!" Tormund yells. Gendry looks over at him. "Would you fuck Lady Mel if she wanted to?"

Gendry immediately says, "No!" He says it with such conviction, even though Lady Mel is attractive.

"Yeah, right!" Tormund takes a chug of his beer.

God, can we talk about anything else? I feel like all anyone talks about in high school is who they've fucked, fucking or who they want to fuck. We don't need to talk about politics, but this is getting old.

I see Daenerys walk downstairs out of the corner of my eye. Everyone falls silent, and they just look at her. She takes a pause before walking into the kitchen, as if she isn't used to everyone at Winterfell staring at her constantly. I decide to get up, partially because I want a beer, and partially because I wonder what Daenerys Targaryen is doing in my kitchen. When I walk in, she's getting some soda from the fridge.

"Is it okay if I take some of this?" She asks me. I nod. "You're Sansa's brother," she says. It wasn't a question, she already knew. I just nod again.

"Yeah," I say. "She really likes hanging out with you guys. She's having a lot of fun."

Daenerys smiles. "She's adorable," she says. "We like having her around."

"Be nice to her," I say with a smile. I don't want Daenerys to think I'm being too serious. She starts to walk towards the kitchen door. I get a beer out of the fridge and open it.

She turns around and asks me, "Are you dating that redhead girl?"

I stop drinking my beer and pause. Why is she asking me that? "No," I say, avoiding eye contact. "We're just friends. Why?"

"Just curious," she says. "I always thought Jon Snow didn't date, but it looked like you guys might be."

"We're not," I say. "She's awesome, but just a friend."

"Because Jon Snow doesn't date, right?" She asks me jokingly.

I just roll my eyes. "Everyone thinks they know me so well."

"Maybe you should let people get to know you."

The yelling from the living room breaks us from our conversation. We both walk out of the kitchen and Sam has started to set up Cards Against Humanity. That's a relief, I was getting tired of Truth or Drink.

Sansa Stark POV

"We should do a shot," Margaery says. I'm not sure that's a good idea in front of Arya, plus I've never done a shot. Daenerys went downstairs, but I'm sure she'd be down. Cersei is completely hogging the wine bottle that Margaery brought, just drinking straight from it. She loves wine for some reason, I swear she's the most adult high schooler I've ever met.

"Let's wait for Dany," Cersei says. She then snickers. "She's probably trying to fuck your brother," she says to me.

"What?" I have no idea what she's talking about.

"I know she wants to hit that," Cersei continues. "She'll just never admit it, because she's popular and he isn't." I'm so uncomfortable.

"Would you rather she fuck Jaime?" Margaery asks. Cersei shoves her in the shoulder. Right in time it seems like, Daenerys walks back in with some soda.

"Did you finally lock down Jon Snow?" Cersei asks her.

"We've been over this," Daenerys says, walking over to them where they're sitting on my bed. "I had a crush on him in 8th grade."

"Like you wouldn't fuck him if he asked," Cersei continues.

"There is a child in this room," Margaery interrupts. "Keep it appropriate."

"Oh, whatever," Cersei responds. "I'm not going to let a middle schooler censor me. She probably doesn't even know what fuck means." I know Arya isn't going to like that. I'm proven right when she gets up and walks out of our room. I feel so bad.

Of course Cersei has to get one last remark in. "She's probably secretly a lesbian," she says after Arya leaves. I know Arya could still hear her. God, I could punch her if I wasn't so terrified of her.

Gendry Baratheon POV

Everyone is getting so loud at the party, I can't believe Daenerys Targaryen is here and she was actually having a coversation with Jon. I always expected her to be snobby and entitled, but she actually seems nice. The party is fun and all, but I really need to take a breather. I'm sitting on the grass in the Stark's backyard when the door opens. Arya is coming out here.

"Oh, sorry," she says when she sees me. "I didn't see you there."

"It's okay," I say. "I can go back inside." I start to get up.

"Don't worry about it," she says, sitting down on the grass next to me. I sit back down. "I just came out here to read and get a break from Sansa's stupid popular friends."

I chuckle. I remember being like that when I was her age. I still kind of am like that. "You don't like them?" I ask her.

"It's not that," she sets her book down beside her, as if what she's going to tell me will take a while. "I know that Sansa being popular will help me in high school, but I really don't care about that at all. All they talk about is boys, sex and parties."

"Yeah, sounds like Winterfell," I respond.

"I would much rather focus on my fencing and growing as an independent person," she continues. "There's so much of this world to see and experience, and that's what they choose to focus on?"

"I hear you. I feel that way about almost everyone at school. At least Jon and Sam are smart, your brother is a great guy."

"Thanks," Arya smiles at me. "We love him, too. There's a pause. "I can't wait to grow up," she says, very quietly.

"What?"

"Nothing, sorry," she seems embarassed, like she wasn't even talking to me, only to herself. "I just can't wait for when I can stop relying on my books for adventures and actually go out and experience them."

"Don't grow up too fast. Just be yourself, it'll all be okay."

She chuckles at me. "Yeah, yeah. I've heard that one before. Profound stuff."

I like her vibe, she reminds me of how I was. I hope Winterfell doesn't ruin the spark she has when she gets there.

Chapter 23

Jon Snow Stark POV

When I wake up, Gendry is gone. He probably had some tech theatre stuff to do, I'll text him later. Gilly and Sam are lying next to each other on one of the air mattresses, but they aren't really touching. It's still adorable to see them lay together. It puts a smile on my face. Tormund fell asleep on the couch. Once I am fully awake, I realize I fell asleep on the other air mattress next to Ygritte, and I'm spooning her. I immediately jump up and start to make coffee, to help our hangovers. Hopefully Ygritte didn't notice that I was holding her.

As I'm making coffee, Ygritte walks into the kitchen. "Do you need help?" She asks me. I look at her and shake my head.

She goes into the pantry. "Can I have one of these granola bars?" She asks. I just nod my head. She walks over after getting one and stands next to me.

"You sure got touchy feely last night," she says, quietly. I immediately blush, I'm so embarassed. "I thought you pulled a knife on me in the night."

"I didn't know I was holding you," I say, looking down. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she says. "It was cute. And I know you can't control what happens down there." Jesus Christ, this is so awkward I can't handle it. Luckily Sam walks into the kitchen after she says that, shutting her up.

"Morning!" I say a little too cheerfully. I hand him coffee. Sam gives me a look, clearly noticing that something is up.

"Can I stay here until this evening?" Sam asks me. "My dad is in a mood again."

"Of course," I tell him. "You're basically the 7th Stark sibling." Ygritte chuckles at that.

"Ygritte!" Tormund yells, poking his head into the kitchen. "We gotta go. My mom is wondering why we aren't back yet. I told her we went out for coffee and we were on our way home."

"Sorry," Ygritte says to me. She starts to walk out, saying, "It was fun last night! Let's do it again."

Sam and I walk out of the kitchen. Gilly walks over to him and hugs him. "Bye, Sam," she says. He just waves goodbye to her and they walk out the door.

"What was happening in the kitchen when I walked in?" Sam immediately asks me. I thought he would be too caught up in Gilly hugging him to remember that. I gesture towards the stairs and we walk up to my room so we can have some privacy.

I close the door, sit on my bed and grab a pillow. "When I woke up, I was spooning Ygritte," I say, avoiding eye contact with Sam. "I didn't realize it until I woke up."

Sam's eyes get wide and he asks me, "Do you like her?"

"I don't know!" I do know. I sigh, "Okay a little. But I still believe what I believe about dating."

"Jon," Sam is exasperated with me. "This girl likes you, and you clearly like her. What's wrong with just going on a date with her?"

"That could lead to other things," I say to him.

"So?"

I sigh. I'm starting to think he isn't wrong. I lay on my back on the bed. "I just have never felt like this, Sam. I'm in so much trouble. She makes me feel so many things."

"I don't know what to say," Sam says. "You won't take my advice, and that's fine. But I think your feelings are clearly speaking for themselves."

He's right. I hate to admit it, but he's right.

Sansa Stark POV

When I wake up, Margaery, Cersei and Daenerys are still here, sleeping. Margaery is sleeping on the floor, Cersei and Daenerys got into Arya's bed. I'm surprised they didn't ditch in the middle of the night, I thought they only slept here because they were drunk. Arya isn't in the room. She probably moved to Bran and Rickon's room because she was uncomfortable. I feel so bad, I hate that my friends made her feel that way.

Daenerys starts waking up, she looks at her phone and nudges Cersei. "Cersei, wake up." Cersei starts groaning and waking up.

"What?" She says, irritated.

"Jaime just texted me," Daenerys says. "He said he's been trying to get ahold of you. He's making Sunday breakfast."

"Hold on, hold on," Cersei says. "I'm half asleep, Dany."

"Do you want to go back to your house for breakfast?"

"I'm so hungover!" Cersei practically yells. That wakes Margaery up and she sits up. Cersei did drink a lot last night.

After a long pause, Cersei continues, "Jaime made breakfast?"

"Yeah," Daenerys says. "He's making your favorite pancakes, apparently." She turns to me and says, "Jaime's actually a really good cook."

Cersei sits up. "He likes to make breakfast for the family most weekends," she tells me. "We should probably go before Tyrion eats all the pancakes just to spite me."

"Really?" I ask. "We have breakfast here if you want to stay."

"No one makes pancakes like Jaime," Cersei says while getting up. "Tyrion will eat all of them if I don't get there. I'm hungover and he doesn't want to cross me when I'm hungover." Cersei walks out of the room.

"Thank you for having us, Sansa," Daenerys says to me. She gives me a hug, which catches me off guard. "We should do this again sometime."

"Dany!" Cersei screeches from downstairs.

Daenerys looks at me and rolls her eyes. "Bye, Sansa. Thank you again," she says, leaving the room.

I get up to go look for Arya. As I suspected, she's sleeping in Bran and Rickon's room. I walk over and nudge her.

"Arya," I say. "They're gone." Arya just groans and rolls over away from me.

"Arya, are you mad at me?" I ask her.

"No, well," Arya says, still facing away from me. "I just wish you had stood up for me and not let them make fun of me."

I sigh. "I know," I say to her. "And I feel terrible. I'm terrified of those girls, especially Cersei."

Arya just groans and I can tell she's rolling her eyes. "Arry, I'm serious," I continue. "You think I've had it easy? They make fun of me, too. And after the whole thing with Loras, I don't want to give them any more ammo."

Arya sits up and looks at me. "Why do you put up with that?" She asks me.

"I know you don't care about popularity, but they could banish me from their group in 2 seconds if they wanted to. The only thing worse than being an outcast at Winterfell is being a formerly popular outcast."

"When do you become like this? You were never so shallow before."

"Shallow?" I'm getting angry. "Arya, I had no friends in middle school. All I did was go to school, run track and binge on junk with you. I'm not giving this up."

"No matter what they do to your sister?"

I sigh. I'm exasperated. She's twisting my words. "Arya, that's not—".

She cuts me off. "I know what you meant," she says, rolling over to face away from me again.

Chapter 24

Jon Snow Stark POV

On Sunday night, into Monday morning, I'm laying in bed and I really can't sleep. I can't stop thinking about what Sam said, and about Ygritte. I'm still really scared to pursue a relationship with her, but I'm starting to think Sam is right about how I'm missing out. I just never expected to click with a girl like this in high school.

I'm not going to get any sleep if I just lay here, so I go downstairs. I quietly open the back door to go sit on the patio, but I hesitate when I see that my dad is out there too. He has sleep issues, but he hasn't been coming out here as much at night.

I try to go back inside in hopes that he didn't hear me, but I hear him say, "You can't sleep either?" I shake my head. He pulls out a chair, and I walk over and sit down.

"What's on your mind?" He asks me. My dad and I have always been close, but I don't want to tell him what it really is. I've never been into dating, and I don't want him to make a big deal out of it. "It's just… school stuff," I say to him while avoiding eye contact.

"Uh huh," he says. I can tell he doesn't believe me. There's a really long pause. He continues, "You know, you don't have to tell me, but I actually know a thing or two about life."

I wrestle with whether or not I should say anything. I decide to say something, but I still need to be as vague as possible. "I like that I've been making more friends this year," I say. "But I'm worried that I'll get distracted from what's important."

"You're a good student, Jon. You deserve to have fun too."

"I just… don't want to make any mistakes." There's a pause. I know he knows what I mean: that I don't want to end up like him. I don't like to make my dad feel bad, but it's the truth.

"Jon," he says in a nicer tone than I expected. "You've got a good head on your shoulders. I know you want to be responsible, and that's great. But you already are. I've met most of those kids or their parents, they're good people. You shouldn't worry so much." My dad does work with the community a lot, so he has socialized with a lot of the parents in the neighborhood.

I think I know what he's getting at. I know he isn't telling me to go party, but he's always tried to instill good values into us kids while also making sure we don't take life too seriously. I guess I'm not so good at that second part. "I'm worried my judgement will be clouded because of her, I mean them." Fuck, I shouldn't have said that.

"You know right from wrong," he continues. "Try to enjoy your youth while you can. It won't always be this easy."

I smile at him and walk back up to my room. As I'm laying in bed, I still can't help my thoughts running wild. I love my dad, but I also resent him. If he had just kept it in his pants, they could all be a happy family without me getting in the way. I know I need to losen up, but one thing I'll never do is cheat on someone.

Sansa Stark POV

Arya and I haven't talked since our fight. I admire that Arya doesn't care what people think of her, but she doesn't seem to understand that not everyone is like that. Not everyone is confident and happy living in their own little world. I hate the things Cersei said, but standing up to someone like that isn't as easy as she thinks it is. She could have talked back to Cersei herself, but she chose not to. Daenerys has been really nice to let me hang out with them, and this is something that I just have to put up with right now to get in with their group.

…

Margaery wasn't in school today. I'm not sure why, she seemed fine when I saw her yesterday. When I get to the lunch table, only Daenerys is sitting there. It's so weird to see her without a ton of people, but I guess people also can be nervous to talk to her. I sit down and ask, "Where is everyone?"

"Margaery had some appointment," Daenerys says. "I'm not sure about the others, but Cersei said Jaime was taking her to lunch."

"Oh… okay," I'm not sure what to say beyond that, so I just start picking at my food.

There's a pause, then Daenerys asks me, "Do you want to get lunch somewhere? We have time. My treat."

I pause for a second, I can't believe she's actually asking me to hang out one-on-one. "Yeah, okay," I agree. Maybe this will help us bond more and I can get in with the group more.

…

We get to the drive thru of one of the best local burger places. They have some of the best burgers ever, but I only get a side of fries and a diet Coke. I don't want Daenerys to think I'm a fat pig.

We've already ordered, but we're waiting for the line of cars to move forward so we can drive up to the window. "Sansa," Daenerys says. "I'm really sorry about what happened with Loras. You didn't deserve that."

"Thank you," I say. "I'm moving on. I just wish he hadn't used me."

"I get that, but it can be really brutal here. He was just trying to survive. You'll understand more when you're older."

There's a pause. "So you and Cersei grew up together?" I ask her to try to break the silence. The line of cars starts to move and Daenerys drives up to the window.

She pays, and as she's taking the food, she responds to me by saying, "Yeah, we did." She hands me my food.

"I know she can be really scary sometimes," she continues. "But, she's my best friend, and I like to think I'm hers. Well, besides Jaime. Jaime always comes first, which I get. He's her built-in best friend. She'll do anything for her friends, and I appreciate that she doesn't care what anyone thinks."

"Does she like me?" I know it's a stupid thing to ask, I know she doesn't.

"She doesn't really like anyone except for me and Jaime," Daenerys says, chuckling. "But, I can tell you she doesn't hate you. She just isn't big on socializing with freshmen."

"Arya thought she hated both of us," I say.

"She doesn't. But I definitely let her have it when we left about what she said about your sister. That was absolutely uncool, and I wouldn't have blamed you if you went off on her." I didn't know Daenerys cared enough or even remembered that happened. It means a lot that she stood up for me.

We pull into school, and I realize I'll have to eat my fries in my next class. I hope no one thinks I'm gross for eating something greasy and fattening, but it's the first thing I've eaten today.

"Thank you for lunch," I say, getting out of the car. Daenerys surprises me by giving me a hug.

"Of course," she says. "We should do this again." Am I actually becoming friends with Daenerys Targaryen?

Chapter 25

Jon Snow Stark POV

Ygritte and I are finishing up rock climbing practice when she asks me for a ride home again. I don't have to pick up Sansa today, so I agree. When we pull up to her house, she asks me, "Will you help me bring in all my stuff? I have archery stuff too."

I just nod my head as I'm getting out of the car. I walk in to the house with her and follow her into her room where we set the stuff down. "Tormund's mom gets on me if I leave all my stuff in the living room," Ygritte says, chuckling. "Thank you."

"Of course," I say. My heart is pounding, but I don't know why. There's a long pause before I finally get the courage to say what I'm thinking. "I really like you, Ygritte."

Ygritte smiles at me. "As a friend, right?" I know she's messing with me.

"Yeah," I say, avoiding looking at her. There's a long pause, and we finally make eye contact. Before I can stop myself, I'm leaning in and we're kissing. I come to my senses and break apart from her before saying, "Sorry."

"For what?" Ygritte asks me, and kisses me again. I cup her face in my hand, and we sit on the bed next to each other. We're making out, I can't believe this is happening. I don't even stop myself from putting my hand up her cargo shorts leg to feel her thigh. This is really nice, what scares me most is that I don't want to stop doing this. I want to keep going.

We hear the door open and Tormund yells, "Ygritte!"

Ygritte quickly breaks apart from me and yells, "Yeah?"

Tormund walks up to the doorway in Ygritte's room and sees us sitting next to each other on the bed. "Oh," Tormund is clearly surprised to see me. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Oh you're fine," I say as I start to get up. I hope I don't sound as nervous as I feel. "I have to get going anyways."

"Thanks so much again for the help," Ygritte tells me.

"Yeah, of course." I'm looking down, God I'm so nervous. I power walk out of the house, get in my car and drive home.

Ygritte Giantsbane POV

Once I hear the door close after Jon leaves, Tormund immediately starts grilling me. "What was he doing in here?"

"He was helping me bring all my stuff in." I'm trying to sound nonchalant. I walk past Tormund into the kitchen to get a snack. I get a protein bar and lean against the counter.

"Ygritte," Tormund is clearly suspicious. "You need to be careful."

"Oh my God, with what?"

"You can do what you want, but you're only 15 and I've told you guys at Winterfell just want to screw around."

I roll my eyes. "I don't like it when you treat me like some innocent girl, as if I haven't had sex and fistfought a senior back home." Tormund just looks at me and goes into his room. I know he doesn't like thinking about me doing that stuff, but he didn't even see anything. And it's not like he's Mr. Innocent.

Sansa Stark POV

I realize after lunch that Arya had every right to be upset over what Cersei said. If Daenerys was mad about it, then clearly there was something wrong with her comments. I feel really bad that I didn't say anything. Missandei took me home from practice today, and I immediately run up to my room after she drops me off. Arya is reading on her bed, and I immediately sit in front of her and give her a hug.

"What was that about?" She asks me, clearly surprised.

"I feel really bad about what Cersei said to you. I should have stood up for you."

Arya just looks at me, but her expression softens.

"Daenerys let her have it after they left," I continue. "She stood up for you, and I'm sorry I didn't."

Arya smiles at me. "It's okay. I know this is all new to you too. I should have held my ground."

"If she ever pulls something like that to you again, I'm not holding back."

"Promise?"

"Promise." I give her a hug. Arya and I can never stay mad at each other. While we're hugging we hear Jon come in, go into his room and slam the door. We give each other a look and start laughing. He's always brooding about something.

Jon Snow Stark POV

I go into my room, unsure of what to do. I lay down on my bed and just try to breathe. I drove around for a while so that I wouldn't have to think. That wasn't my first kiss, but that was the first one where it could actually lead somewhere. And the scary part is, I wanted it to. I didn't want to stop it. I'm afraid of what would have happened if Tormund hadn't come home. I have no idea why I feel like this. This has never happened before.

While I'm lost in my thoughts, my phone buzzes. It's a text from Ygritte saying, *I want to see you again.*

I respond, *You'll see me tomorrow :).*

Ding. *I meant not in school.* Ding. *There's a walking trail by school that I like to walk on. It's by the football field where the games are held. We should take a walk there Friday.*

*Okay sounds good.*

Ding. *3*