Winterfell High

Chapter 26

Arya Stark POV

I hate being a kid, but at the same time I'm scared to grow up. I don't want to have to deal with all the things that being an adult brings, but I do want the independence of adulthood. If I didn't have to go to school, I would just live off the grid and travel constantly. How can I feel so mature and immature at the same time?

I heard Cersei call me a lesbian. I'm not mad that she thought that, I've heard that one before many times. I'm mad that people say it to make fun of me, as if that would be a bad thing if I was. My parents taught us to love and accept everyone and show them with kindness. My dad is big on kindness and honor. I don't know if I'll ever even get married, but if I do I want to marry someone like him. Minus the cheating, of course. It's never made sense to me that my dad cheated on my mom, with the kind of person he is. I guess even the best of people can make awful, life-altering mistakes.

They taught me that as long as I get good grades and pursue my interests, I'll be fine. Trust me, I want to do everything I can to better my chances of leaving this place. I want to see as much of the world as possible. Apparently that's incredibly weird, and I should be gushing over boys constantly at my age. Maybe I'll want that one day, but I feel like there's so much more to life. Maybe that's why I don't have a lot of friends, I feel like I can't relate to anyone my age. I would much rather hang out with Sansa or my brothers. I'm content with that, that's all I need.

Jaime Lannister POV

I'm sitting in my room, trying to work on homework, but all I can hear is the yelling and slamming coming from downstairs. Cersei is in a screaming match with Tyrion again. God only knows what it's about this time, but I think it has to do with Tyrion's new girlfriend. I've heard her name come up a couple times. He wants to bring her to father's gala, and father apparently said yes. This doesn't concern Cersei at all, but she's just embarassed and can't handle that Tyrion is even happy. I just hope she doesn't break anything this time.

Every year right before Halloween, father's law firm throws this fundraising auction gala at our house. It's really just an opportunity for everyone to mingle and show off their gorgeous spouses and adorable children. That's three weeks away, and I guess Tyrion finally decided he would bring a plus one. Father never let Tyrion bring anyone, even though he told us we could bring whoever we wanted and Cersei always brings her hoard of friends. I usually bring one or two of the guys, if they feel like coming. I guess Cersei's embarassed that Tyrion is bringing a girl that has been known to sleep around at Winterfell.

I wish Cersei would be nicer to Tyrion. He and I get along, and after everything he's been through I'm shocked he's as mentally stable and funny as he is. She doesn't have to love him, but I've tried to get her to show him even a shred of kindness to no avail.

Father is very concerned with our reputation as a family. The Lannisters have always been highly regarded, due to our money and business ventures. I know our reputation is important, but I'm still resentful that it's even something I have to worry about. It's a life none of us kids chose, yet we're still supposed to feel incredibly lucky. And it's preventing me from being with the girl that I love publicly.

Speaking of which, I hear her stomp up the stairs, come into my room and shut the door. She's leaning against the door, crying. Her hand is bleeding, which means she broke something again. I get up and immediately give her some tissues, which she holds over her cuts.

"What happened?" I ask her.

"Tyrion makes me so angry," she says between sobs. "I hate him so much. And don't you DARE tell me I need to be nicer to him! He can bring his little whore to father's gala but the whole town will implode if we look at each other for too long. It's not fair!" She's yelling. Luckily father isn't here, and I know she doesn't care if Tyrion hears. I just lead her over to the bed and let her lay in my arms against my chest.

"Shhh… shhh…" I'm stroking her hair and trying to calm her down. "You'll always have me," I whisper. "One day it will just be you and me." She's still crying, but not as intensely.

"Thank you Jaime," she says, muffled because her head is in my chest. She looks at me and we kiss, after which she puts her head back into my chest.

"I love you," I say to her. Of course she doesn't say it back. She just starts kissing me again.

…

Father sees Cersei leave my room early in the morning, but of course he doesn't say anything and we eat breakfast as a family like nothing happened. He used to try to stop us from going into each other's rooms at night, but he's mostly given up on that now. As long as she doesn't get pregnant, he can pretend like he doesn't see anything. We still try to wait until he's out of town (which is a lot), but she didn't want to leave me in her emotional state after her fight with Tyrion. I can't reason with her or argue with her when she's like that, and I feel better knowing she's calmer with me.

Sansa Stark POV

I'm over at Margaery's house on Wednesday, she's helping me with English again. I'm focusing on my writing when my stomach growls very loudly. She clearly heard it, I'm so embarassed. "Do you want a snack?" Margaery asks me.

"No that's okay," I say. "I'll just eat dinner when I get home." I wish I was confident that that was true. All I've eaten today is a hard boiled egg for lunch. There's a long pause. I finally work up the courage to ask Margaery, "Did I look chubby in my Homecoming dress?"

"Not at all!" She says.

"I felt like my arms looked a little chubby."

"Everyone has fat on their arms, that's always accentuated in strapless dresses." Somehow, that doesn't make me feel better.

"I feel like I need to lose weight," I say quietly.

"Honestly I think you look fine, you look perfectly normal." I know Margaery is trying to help, but I don't want to look normal. I want to look skinny and beautiful. Maybe more of the popular guys would like me then.

I think she can tell I don't feel any better, so she continues, "Do you count your calories? That might help."

"I do a little."

"Do you weigh yourself?"

"No," I say. "The only scale we have is in my parents' room."

"I have one you can use," Margaery says, walking into her closet. She pulls a scale out and puts it into her tote bag. "Here you go." She hands it to me.

"Thank you," I say to her, and I really mean it.

"Just weigh yourself every morning, count your calories and set a goal for yourself," she continues. "I know you can do it."

On our ride home after my mom picks me up, she says, "I made spaghetti for dinner."

"I already ate at Margaery's," I say as we pull into the driveway.

"Sansa," she's irritated. "I made a lot of food for the family, at least have some garlic bread."

I begrudgingly agree and grab some garlic bread before heading into my room. I act like I'm taking a bite, but I'm not actually going to swallow it. I hide the scale in the corner of me and Arya's closet where it's covered up by some clothes. I'm so glad Margaery gave it to me.

Chapter 27

Jon Snow Stark POV

I'm weirdly excited for my date with Ygritte tonight. Well, I don't know if she'd call it that, but I like to think it might be. I'm obviously scared of my feelings for her, but I'm more scared of what will happen if I do nothing.

We meet at the start of the trail, I park in the lot by the football field. Ygritte's already there waiting for me. She just smiles at me. The sun is setting, and it makes her red hair glow.

"Hey," I say as I walk up to her. "You look really pretty."

"Thank you," she responds. "I usually start here and then go straight down the trail for a while."

"Sounds good," I say, nodding. We start off on the trail.

"So do you have any plans this weekend?" She asks me.

"Not really. Maybe see Sam, we haven't hung out just us in a bit. How about you?"

"Not sure yet." There's a long pause as we keep going deeper into the trail. It's getting darker.

"Do you mind that it's getting dark?" I ask her. I don't want her to feel scared or uncomfortable.

"Nah, I do this hike by myself all the time."

After a little bit of walking we find a couple tree stumps to sit on. It's getting chilly at night, and she's rubbing her arms because she's cold.

"Do you want my hoodie?" I ask her.

"No that's okay," she says, although her teeth are chattering.

"Here, take it," I take my hoodie off and drape it over her shoulders. She puts the sleeves through.

She asks me, "Are you sure you won't be cold?"

"I'm fine," I respond. "I have a long sleeve shirt." I don't say this part, but she's also so skinny. That must make her even colder. My heart is pounding, but I lean in and kiss her on the cheek. That seems to surprise her.

"Was that okay?" I ask her. I would hate it if I overstepped. She doesn't say anything and instead just kisses me on the lips. I really like this. I don't know what's come over me. Before I can get my thoughts under control, Ygritte grabs the backpack I brought and starts to run away from me.

"What are you doing?" I yell as I start chasing after her.

"I can't believe I'm faster than you!" I hear her yell in the distance.

By the time I finally start to catch up to her, she's made it to the treehouse and is running up the ladder. Is she just trying to mess with me? I climb up the ladder and when I get into the treehouse, she's setting my backpack in the corner.

"What was that for?" I ask her. I'm out of breath, and I'm just taking in my surroundings. This place is legendary at Winterfell, but I've never actually been in here. It's not as romantic as I always pictured it. There's a few pillows and blankets on the ground, and the moonight streams in from the uneven boards on the ceiling.

"Just wanted to see if I could outrun you," she responds, laughing. "Clearly I can."

"You got a head start," she doesn't know I can dish it right back to her. She sits on the floor of the treehouse on the blankets and lays down. I don't know what to do.

"Come lay down," she says, not looking at me. "I'm tired from running." I walk over to her, but I don't lay down, just sit next to her. She sits up and starts kissing me again. It gets more intense as it progresses, and before I know it my hand is up her shirt. She stops, takes off the hoodie I gave her, and quickly removes her shirt and bra after that. She's really beautiful, her body is amazing, but my heart is pounding.

"Ygritte," I say as I break apart from the kiss. "We shouldn't."

She just looks at me confused. "We should," she says as if it's a given. She starts kissing me again.

…

I'm laying on the floor of the treehouse still, just staring at the moonlight peering in from the ceiling gaps. Ygritte is sleeping soundly, I can hear her breathing and feel her heartbeat as she leans against my chest. I don't know what to feel. I can't believe I just lost my virginity. It was the one thing I had, the one thing I was keeping that meant I was honorable and was doing a lot better than most people at Winterfell.

We used protection (she had some with her which makes me think she meant for this to happen), but I'm still terrified that something went wrong and Ygritte will get pregnant. I didn't know what I was doing, what if I didn't put it on right or it broke without me noticing? If she does get pregnant, my life will be over. I'll have to provide for her and the child, meaning I can't work towards building my own life again. It'll mean I'm just like my dad. I'm not doing this again for a while, it was fun in the moment but it's not worth the mental anguish I feel.

Ygritte stirring awake brings me out of my thoughts. "What time is it?" She asks me groggily.

I grab my phone and look at it. "11:30. You've been asleep for a couple hours."

"Do you need to get home?"

"I don't think my parents notice I'm gone. If they needed me for help with the kids, they would have called. I told them I was hanging out with Sam."

"You lied to them?"

"Yeah," I feel bad saying it. "I didn't want them to grill me about you. It's not often I hang out with girls."

"It's not often you sleep with them either, I gather," she says jokingly. I just nod. "Seriously, are you okay? First times are rough."

"I'm good," I say. Honestly, I feel guilty but at the same time I feel nothing at all. This didn't change the course of my life, but mentally I'm a wreck. "Was that your first time?" Curiosity got the best of me, I had to ask even though it's none of my business.

"What do you think?" She asks me.

"Someone back home?" I'm curious how her first time went.

"A couple guys back home," she responds. "Not at the same time, though." Awesome, I wasn't even her second. Was I even special to her at all?

"I definitely didn't expect you to use your tongue like that," she continues. God, I'm blushing.

"I don't know what came over me," I say, avoiding eye contact. "I just felt like I wanted to."

"I liked it," she smiles at me. There's a pause. "But we should probably head back before we spend the entire night here, even though I wish we could." She gets up and we start getting dressed. We walk out of the treehouse and back to my car.

"Did you walk here?" I ask her. She nods. "Let me drive you home, I don't like the idea of you walking by yourself at night."

"I can take care of myself, Jon Snow," she says, starting to walk away.

"Please," I say. She stops. "It's the least I can do." She turns around and gets into the passenger's seat.

We drive to her and Tormund's place in complete silence, luckily it's a short drive. When we pull up, she gets out of the car and starts taking off my hoodie that I gave her. She hands it to me but I stop her saying, "Keep it."

She just smiles at me. "Bye," she says.

"Bye." After I see her walk into the house, I drive home. When I walk into the house, it's dark and I'm assuming everyone is asleep. That's good, I can't face any of them right now. I go into my room and plop down on my bed, still in my clothes from tonight. I finally fall asleep after what feels like hours, my thoughts just wouldn't stop running wild. I'll never be a virgin again, everything that I've been working hard towards to be a better person than my dad is now null and void. What have I done?

A/N: Okay…I'm nervous about this one. It felt like the right time for this, but please let me know what you think. I struggled to write this one a lot, I hope it turned out okay.

Chapter 28

Jon Snow Stark POV

When I wake up, I immediately call Sam. I'm not sure if he's awake, it's 8 a.m. on Saturday. I must have slept like 5 hours, I can't stop going over last night in my head. He answers after a couple rings.

"Hello? Jon?" I can tell he's confused as to why I'd be calling right now.

"Sam," I know I sound out of breath, even though I haven't done anything yet. "Can you come over? I need to talk to you, but not here. Can we go on a hike?"

"Yeah, of course. Is everything okay?"

I can't risk saying anything here at home with my family in the house. "Just… come over here as soon as you can."

…

Sam gets here, and I'm already outside on the porch. When he pulls up, I walk up to the car and get into the passenger's seat before he can get out. "What's going on?" He asks me.

"Can we go to the walking trail?" I'm still frazzled. He just drives towards the walking trail and there's awkward silence.

"Are you okay? You're being weird."

I stay quiet, looking straight ahead. Finally, I get the courage to admit it. "I had sex," I say very quietly.

Sam slams on the breaks at a stop sign, and just looks over at me. "Did I hear that right?" He asks me. I just nod. "Wha—? Wh—? What?" Sam is stuttering. We're still in silence, and Sam drives in to the parking area by the hiking trail. He leans against the steering wheel after parking.

"You're judging me," I say to Sam. "I know what I did was wrong, I just had to tell someone."

Sam looks at me. "I'm not judging you, I just can't believe it. Was it Ygritte?" I just nod. "Why Jon? You were so against it."

"We were walking in the woods on the trail by the football field, and she took my backpack and ran up to the treehouse with it. One thing led to another from there."

"Jon! If she was taking you anywhere near the treehouse, how did you not see that coming?"

"I don't know! I told her I wanted to be friends a few weeks ago and she said that was fine."

Sam just sighs. "Well, are you going to date her?"

"I feel like I should," I say. "And I also just feel like I really want to. I feel like I want to do it again because it was fun, but also like I never want to again because I know it was wrong and I feel guilty."

"Do you like her?"

"Yeah, I really like her."

"Then you should pursue it. You're already in pretty deep."

I lean forward and put my head in my hands. "I'm so scared I got her pregnant."

"Did you use protection?"

"I did, yeah. She had some."

"Then probably not. Listen to me, okay? You like her, right?"

"So, so much."

"You don't want to ghost her?"

"Definitely not."

"Then why not just see where it goes?"

I take a deep breath. "Okay," I say. "I'll have a talk with her on Monday about where she wants to go with this." I'm honestly terrified. I still am regretting what we did, it's causing so much of a mess just like I knew it would if I lost my virginity. But, I can't leave Ygritte now. I'm not that type of guy.

Sansa Stark POV

Mom is taking Arya and I out for ice cream because it's Saturday. Of course that's stressing me out to no end, but I can't say no. Mom likes to have time with just us girls sometimes, she thinks it'll help us bond. There's 6 kids in the family, and mom feels like she can't focus on all of us.

When we get to the ice cream shop, Arya orders cookie dough, which is her favorite flavor. I just order a kid's scoop of vanilla and a diet Coke. I know it'll look weird if I don't get anything.

"Arya, how is school?" My mom asks. I don't even really hear Arya's response, I'm tuning out.

"Sansa," I hear my name. "Sansa." I look over at mom. "Do you still like cheering?" She asks me.

"I love cheering," I say. It's true, I do love it. Mainly because it's excercise, which I need. My mom was hesitant about me cheering, she thought it would be cliquey (which it is). "Margaery and I practice our moves together a lot, she's a great teacher."

"She seems to be a good influence on you," mom says. That makes me laugh, because Margaery's the one that helped me get a date to Homecoming, and she's the one that encouraged me to drink for the first time.

"Your grades are still good," mom continues. "That's what I was concerned about with cheer and your new friends."

Arya and I have always been good students. Actually, all of us kids get good grades. Rickon struggles a little, but that's just because he's dyslexic. He's really smart.

As we walk out of the ice cream shop, mom's phone rings. She steps aside to answer it. It's always awkward when mom tries to bond with me and Arya. She knows we tell each other everything. I think she wants us to include her in that, but we definitely keep a wall up. We feel like we have to stick together being the only daughters in the middle of four brothers.

When mom walks away to talk on the phone, I toss the rest of my ice cream in the trash. "Why didn't you eat your ice cream?" Arya asks me.

"I'm just not craving it right now," I respond.

"Really?" Arya seems suspicious, and she isn't one to let things go.

"Yeah," I say, trying to sound casual. "I had kind of a big treat after the last practice, so I'm just not feeling it." I hope I sound convincing, even though I'm just rambling. I don't want Arya to push it. Thankfully she doesn't, and mom hangs up the phone and waves us over so we can get in the car and drive home.

Chapter 29

Jon Snow Stark POV

On Monday, I can't find Ygritte in the morning. I thought about texting her, but I really want this to be something we talk about in person. If I don't find her today, I'll text her. I hope she's not ignoring me, or she doesn't think I'm ignoring her.

I find her talking with Tormund in the hallway right when lunch starts. I walk up to them. "Ygritte?" I ask to get her attention. She stops talking and looks over at me. "Can we talk, in private somewhere?"

"I'll see you after school at practice," she says to Tormund. Oh right, we have rock climbing practice today.

We walk out of a side door and over to a grass patch where no one's sitting. We sit down and she starts taking out her lunch. "Is this where you let me down easy?" She asks me as she starts eating.

"What?" I'm not sure what she's getting at.

"You didn't text me the rest of the weekend, so I assumed you didn't want to talk." She seems very chill about this, like that's what she was expecting me to do.

"I just… didn't know what to say or how to start a conversation," I say. My heart is pounding. "I wanted to wait until we saw each other in person to talk about what we are."

"What we are?" She seems genuinely confused. "I just assumed we'd be dating. If, you know, that's what you wanted."

"Um…" I do want that, but I'm confused. She seems to be way ahead of all this.

"No hard feelings if not," she cuts me off, shrugging. "Seriously, I really like you but I get it if you don't want to actually be exclusive."

"No, I…" I'm still stuttering like an idiot. "I do."

She smiles at me. "Yeah?" She asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "Friday was fun, and I like you a lot. It just all happened so fast. I've never really dated anyone, and I don't know how to be someone's boyfriend."

"I'll teach you everything you need to know." I know she's trying to tease me, but I hope she will. I know that getting into a relationship with her is the right thing to do after what we did. I would hate myself if I didn't even try to make it work, then I'd be just like everyone else at Winterfell.

"So… are we dating?"

"We just established we are!" She playfully smacks my arm. "God, you know nothing, Jon Snow."

Sansa Stark POV

I'm sitting at lunch on Monday, and the entire group is here. Theon, Ramsay, Jaime, Cersei, Missandei, Myranda, Daenerys and Margaery. I'm nibbling on a carrot when I hear Ramsay say, "So who's invited to the gala this year?" I have no idea what he's talking about.

Cersei looks annoyed. "Can we talk about this later?" She asks.

"I gotta know," Ramsay continues. "It's the party of the year, we all want in."

"What are you guys talking about?" I ask.

"Nothing!" Cersei says in an unnecessarily hostile way.

"Cersei," Dany chimes in and then turns to me. "Every October the Lannisters throw an auction gala at their house. We all just use it as an excuse to dick around and get high under their deck."

I can tell Cersei doesn't want to talk about it because she doesn't want me there, and that's fine. I won't push it.

"I can only invite a certain amount of people," Cersei continues. Ramsay looks confused. I just nod and continue nibbling at my carrot sticks.

Cersei Lannister POV

I had a newspaper meeting after school, so I agreed to give Margaery and Dany rides home from cheer practice. Dany's car is in the shop, and Loras needed to borrow Margaery's car for theatre stuff. Jaime and I are waiting for them in the lot by the gym.

"Why are you so mean to that Sansa girl?" Jaime suddenly asks me after a prolonged period of silence.

"She's a freshman," I say. "Margaery might be all buddy-buddy with her, but she needs to know her place."

"I think you should invite her to the gala," Jaime says.

"Why?"

"Dany and Margaery like her, she seems nice. She isn't embarassing us. Dany got to where she is at Winterfell by killing everyone with kindness, not by people being afraid of her."

"They're afraid of me, that's why they don't mess with us."

"I think you should try to not be so angry."

"I love how you pretend to be this man of honor," I say, laughing. Jaime has done a lot of fucked up shit, just as much as me. He's just better at hiding it. "You're just as mean-spirited as me, you're just better at concealing it."

"I still think it would make Dany happy if you invited her."

The more I think about it, the more I realize he's right. If Sansa's ever going to be queen bee after Margaery leaves, she needs to at least know how to attend these events. I sigh and say, "Fine. But if she does anything out of line, she's out."

Before Jaime can respond, Margaery, Dany and Sansa get into the car. "Can you give Sansa a ride home?" Dany asks me.

"Sure," I say, trying to be nice but i'm sure it sounds fake. As we pull out of the school lot I ask, "Sansa, would you like to come to the gala in a couple weeks?" I look in my mirror, she looks surprised by my question.

"Um, sure," she says timidly. "Let me make sure my mom's okay with it."

"Okay," I say. Of course her mommy has to be okay with it. "And Dany is throwing a Halloween party the next day. I hope you can make it to that too." I look at Sansa, and she smiles at me. I know she's just a kid, but I still wish I didn't have to be nice to her. I'm not a babysitter.

Chapter 30

Jon Snow Stark POV

Ygritte and I haven't really told anyone we're together. I'll tell Sam soon, it's only been a day. I'm hesitant to tell people, especially my family, because I've been very outspoken about my disinterest in dating. If I don't date Ygritte, I'll be constantly thinking about why not. I just can't stay away from her.

As she's rock climbing, Ygritte trips on one of he rocks on the rock wall and falls. I had walked away for a bit, she's never fallen before. I run over to her. "Are you okay?" I ask her.

"Yeah," she says. She's holding her ankle. "I'll be fine." She's clearly in pain.

"Let's get you some ice." I help her stand up and we go into a side room where there's water and a freezer. It's a faculty lounge, but coach Tarth lets us use it during rock climbing practice. I help lead her in the room and she sits in one of the folding chairs. I pull up another chair so she can prop her foot on it. Practice was coming to an end when she fell, so most everyone has headed out at this point. I walk over to the freezer and put some ice in a plastic bag. I wrap it in paper towels and rest it on her propped up ankle.

"I'm fine, Jon Snow," she says, chuckling. "I can handle this myself."

"I should have been spotting you," I respond. "You've just never fallen."

As I'm holding the ice on her ankle, my phone rings. It's Arya. I pick it up and answer it. "Hello?"

"Jon? Where are you?" She asks me. Crap, shit. I completely forgot I was supposed to pick her up from school after practice. She stayed for tutoring, and it ends around the same time as rock climbing practice.

"Shit, Arya. I'm so sorry. My friend hurt herself and I have to take her home."

"How am I supposed to get home? I can't just wait here until mom and dad get off work."

"Let me call you back," I say to her. "I'll figure something out." I hang up the phone.

"You can go get her," Ygritte says to me. "I can find another way home."

I shake my head. "You can't walk home, I can't just leave you here." I think and think about what to do, and then I remember that Gendry lives right by the middle school. He lives within walking distance. I dial his number and he picks up after two rings.

"Hello?" I hear on the other end.

"Hey man, what are you doing right now?"

"Just working on homework, I don't have tech this week."

"I hate to ask you this, but can you go pick up my sister from school? Ygritte hurt herself during rock climbing practice, and I have to take her home. I know you live within walking distance from the middle school, and it would really mean a lot to me."

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Are you sure? I'd really owe you one."

"Yeah, it's totally fine."

"Thank you so much man, I promise I'll make it up to you." I hang up the phone and text Arya that Gendry will pick her up and he's on his way.

"You're a really good brother," Ygritte says.

"I don't feel like it," I respond. "I drop the ball a lot."

"You're given way too much responsibility for your age. You handle it way better than most would."

"My brother Robb is the golden child. He had it worse when the kids were younger, and he handled it amazingly. He was basically their second dad."

"That's not a responsibility you guys should have had to take on," Ygritte says. "It's not fair." She's right, it's really not.

Arya Stark POV

I'm waiting outside of school, most people are gone. I'm a little peeved at Jon that he forgot to pick me up, but at least he figured it out. I just already feel invisible as a middle child. I see a car pull up, Jon said Gendry was picking me up so I assume it's him. I get closer and when I recognize him, I get into the passenger's seat.

"Hey," Gendry says to me.

"Hi," I say as I balance my backpack in my lap. "I'm sorry you had to do this."

"I really don't mind at all," he says, driving towards the direction of our house. "It's right by me. I live right down that street." He points to a neighborhood about a block away from my school.

"I just can't believe he forgot about me."

"Jon has a lot going on right now. I'm sorry this happened, but he had to stay with his friend that got hurt."

"Okay, but I'm his sister."

"If he could, he would be there for everyone all the time, but he can't."

"He's the one that encouraged me to go to tutoring. I wasn't even going to, I'm not even failing math and now I have to go this entire week."

There's a long pause. "Why don't I just pick you up every day this week?" Gendry asks me.

That surprises me. "Why?"

"It's no trouble for me," he says as we pull up to my house. "It would take a load off Jon, he could really use the help with everything he has on his plate."

"Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Not at all," Gendry says, taking a pack of Post-it notes out of the glovebox. "And if you need anything, this is my number. Your family are good people, they're just juggling a lot." He hands me the Post-it after writing his number on it. I put it in a small pocket in my backpack.

"Thank you," I tell him. "I'll tell Jon when he gets home. I know that will mean a lot to him."

"It's really no problem at all." He smiles at me. I get out of the car and walk inside.

Jon Snow Stark POV

Ygritte rested in the faculty lounge for a bit, and then I helped her into my car. As we're driving to her house, I think she can tell I'm stressed out.

"Are you okay?" She asks me.

"Yeah," I respond a little more curtly than I intended. "I'm just very worried that my mom is going to rip me a new one for forgetting to pick Arya up. She finds any excuse she can to get mad at me."

"Maybe you should explain that this is stressful for you."

"It wouldn't work. They need the extra help."

We ride the rest of the way in silence before getting to her and Tormund's place. I help her out of the car and walk her into the house and into her room.

"Thank you for sticking with me," she says.

"Of course. I wasn't going to leave you there, injured."

I give her a hug and look into her eyes when I pull away. She kisses me deeply.

"Bye, Jon Snow," she whispers.

"Bye," I whisper back. "Text me if you need anything." I walk out to my car. I can't think too much about that amazing kiss, I now have to focus on fixing my mistake.

When I get home, I immediately head up to Arya's room. Luckily mom and dad aren't home yet. When I walk in, she's laying on her bed reading her book.

"Arya, I'm so sorry," I say as I sit on the bed in front of her. "My friend twisted her ankle and I had to stay with her."

"It's okay," she looks up from her book. She seems strangely calm about it, even though I know she was irritated with me. "Gendry agreed to pick me up every day this week after tutoring."

"Arya, you shouldn't have asked him to do that." I really don't want to pile my family drama onto anyone else.

"He offered. He said he wanted to help out and take some of the load off you."

I pause. That's not what I expected, but I definitely appreciate it. I'll have to thank him later and remind him that he doesn't have to. "Please, please, don't tell mom and dad about this," I beg Arya. They'll be so angry.

"I won't, Jon."

"Really?"

"Yeah, stuff happens, it's not that big of a deal."

Again, that's not what I expected to hear. "Thank you, Arya." I walk out of her room.

I walk into my room and see that I have a missed call from Sam. I call him back and sit on my bed.

"Hey buddy," Sam says as he answers. "What happeend to you today? I saw you and Ygritte go into the teacher's lounge after practice."

"She fell and hurt her ankle," I respond. "But she's okay. I took her home and she's fine."

"So what's the status with you guys."

I pause. "We're dating," I say nervously.

"Yes! See? I told you that would be good. I hope I can get there with Gilly."

"I hope you can too. I have to go, but I'll see you tomorrow." Sam was right in a sense about Ygritte. I'm glad I'm dating her, but I'm definitely still nervous about being in my first real relationship.