Penny 7

"So... what was that lacrosse thing again?" I asked, looking at the field in front of us. It was a surprisingly sunny day for the beginning of February so we, that's Theo, Penny and I, decided to have lunch outside. That's why we were seated at the bleachers in front of the field that the lacrosse and soccer teams shared.

"I'm not sure, but the last time I saw a game it looked like a bunch of crazy people with sticks running after a ball." Theo answered after taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"So, hockey without ice and with a ball instead of a disk?" Asked Penny tilting her head.

"Pretty much." Theo shrugged.

It was two weeks since Penny and I enrolled in our new school. Two blissfully uneventful weeks that made me remember what regular school life was like, even if the last time I experienced it was at the end of middle school. Just as Theo said, Cassie, or Cassandra Herren as I later found out that was her full name, didn't do anything worse than glare at us anytime we crossed paths, and compared to what I've been through that barely registered.

The only problem was that other than Theo we didn't make any other friends. Looks like being on the bad side of the only openly recognized gang member of the school isn't good for your social life. And from what Theo told us it has been the same for him since Cassie enrolled, with her scaring off anyone that tried to get close to him.

So, to sum it up, we made some acquaintances, but friends? Not so much. Not that it bothered me that much, being a bit of an introverted myself, but Penny liked making new friends. Oh well, at least what she doesn't get in quantity she gets in quality with Missy, Amy, Theo and me. And no one said that we can't make more friends outside the school. And of course that goes for Theo too... and talking about that.

"Hey, Theo, are you busy this Friday after school?" He looked at me, surprised by my non sequitur. "Penny and I made plans with a couple of friends to go see a movie and I thought that you might want to come too." I rushed through the rest of what I wanted to say. It's been awhile since I invited anyone to hang out, you know.

"Huh?" I think he was still trying to process the fact that someone was interested in hanging out with him outside school.

"Yes!" Penny, who was seated on the other side of him, was hugged his arm and proceeded to hit him with her strongest pleading look. Seriously, those eyes should count as weapons, or as a Master power at least. "Please, it will be my first time going to a cinema, it's going to be so much fun. You have to come, please?"

"I... I'd really li... like to, but..." And the poor guy goes back to stuttering, I mean after the first day he was able to talk to us without a problem unless Penny managed to fluster him enough for him to revert back to this. Theo took a deep breath calm himself, at least he was recovering faster than a few days ago even if his face was still red as a tomato. "I promised my stepmother that I would babysit my sister. I'm sorry."

"Oh, okay." Penny said dejectedly letting him go.

"Maybe some other time then?" I tried to give the poor guy an out because he was looking more and more guilty at disappointing our mutual friend. "I mean, I kinda sprung this on you out of nowhere, no wonder you already had something else to do."

"That would be nice." He nodded as Penny perked up again.

"Anyway, I didn't know you have a sister." Crisis averted, Penny is smiling again, time to change the subject. "How old is she?"

"She's going to be one year old in a couple of months." Theo answered with a fond smile "Her name is Aster, I think I have some photos of her if you'd like to see them." He added taking out his phone.

I nodded as he unlocked it and brought up the photo gallery. I scooted a bit closer until our shoulders touched so I could see the screen better.

I couldn't help smiling when Theo opened the picture of his sister who was an absolutely adorable baby.

"Awwww, she's so cute." When I heard her I tilted my head to look at Penny I saw that not only she had returned to her previous position, clinging to Theo's arm, but she also was literally cheek to cheek with the boy to have a better view of the phone.

And Theo, well, the poor guy had the look of a deer caught in the headlights. For a small mischievous moment I considered mirroring Penny on his other side just to tease him a bit but I squashed the thought. At best he'll just ignore me, I mean why would he pay any attention to boring old me when he had a much cuter girl clinging to him on his other side. And at worst it he might have a meltdown, because, to be honest, he didn't look like he could take much more excitement without his brain shutting down. And teasing him like that would certainly work better if just thinking about doing that didn't make me blush too.

Anyway, the sound of the bell for the next period saved him when he looked about to pass out from all the blood rushing to his face. But as Penny backed out he looked both relieved and disappointed at the same time.

We picked up our things and went back to the main building.

"We'll let you know when we find out when our other friends can get together again." I said as we separated to go to our respective classes.

"Okay, see you later." He said as Penny waved as enthusiastically as ever.

-0-

"So, you are okay with him coming with us this Sunday to The Market?"

"I don't have a problem with that." Said Missy after slurping the rest of her chocolate milkshake. "In fact from what you told us his reactions to Penny being Penny sound hilarious. What do you think, Amy?"

Amy, Missy, Penny and I just got out from the movies and were at the same coffee shop we visited last time we were on the boardwalk.

Both Missy and Amy had quite busy schedules so this was the first time since we first met that we managed to get together the four of us. We were still in contact via texts, emails an PMs on PHO but we hadn't had the chance to meet in person until now. Luckily both our friends had most of this weekend free.

"I don't care one way or another." She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee.

"I'll take that as a yes." I smiled and nodded at Penny. "Ask him." She already had her phone out and started typing before I finished talking. A few seconds later we heard the ping of an incoming message.

"Yay, he said yes!" She exclaimed throwing her arms up drawing the attention of the people sitting at the nearby tables. I just ignored the looks and took a sip of my tea. I think I'm beginning to understand Penny's dad, after some time you get used to being near Penny.

-0-

"Theo!" Penny saw him first and waved at him as the rest of us turned to where she was looking.

Theo just got out of a car and was saying something to the woman who was in the driver's seat. Whatever she said back got him flustered, and believe me, after spending weeks hanging out with him and Penny at school I can recognize the symptoms, I'd say that's a six in the Penny scale.

After not quite yelling, more like talking very loud, "it's not like that" at the retreating vehicle he turned around and made his way toward us.

"Ehh, hi." He said timidly looking a bit intimidated.

"Hello, Theo, right?" Said Missy stepping forward and offering her hand for him to shake. "I'm Missy. Taylor and Penny told us about you."

"Nice to meet you." He said shaking her hand a bit awkwardly.

"And I'm Amy, sorry if I don't shake your hand but I'm not a very touchy person. Because, you know, my power and all that."

"Oh" And now he looked a bit poleaxed after he realized who the fourth member of our small group was. "I... it's okay."

"So, ready for a shopping trip with four girls?" Missy said, taking advantage of the handshake to cling to his arm and judging by her smirk, unlike Penny, she was doing it on purpose to get a reaction out of him.

"Behave." I bopped her on the head lightly. She pouted at me but still let him go. "Sorry about that." I said to Theo.

"It's okay." He coughed averting his eyes with his cheeks still a bit red. "Where to?"

"I wanted to check a stall that sells used books that's near the cross of Lord with the seventh." Amy answered.

"That's, what? About two blocks from here?" I asked.

"Yes, more or less." Missy shrugged. "I'm fine with that as long we can get something to eat on the way there."

"There's a hot dog stand that's pretty good that's usually in that general direction." Said Theo, to my surprise.

"Good enough for me. Lead on, Mac Duff." Answered Missy.

"Actually, that's a misquote. It's supposed to be 'lay on' but..." I trailed off as I noticed the looks of the other three. Yes three, because while we were talking Penny drifted off to one of the nearby stalls and was engrossed with the various knickknacks that were on sale. "What? My mom was an English teacher." I said fidgeting a bit.

"Lead, lay, whatever. Let's go." Said Missy taking off and grabbing Penny on the way. Amy just shrugged and followed her, leaving me and Theo to bring up the rear.

In the end it took us more than half an hour to reach the stand that Amy wanted to visit because we stopped every time one of us saw something interesting or something to eat.

Missy somehow convinced us that it would be fun to buy hats for all of us at a stand that had them pretty cheap. Both Missy and I ended up with identical blue berets, Penny bought a wide-brimmed sun hat, Theo reluctantly got a ten-gallon hat and Amy decided that she liked a black fedora.

We also stopped for hotdogs...

"Hmm you were right, Theo, this is really good."

...Popcorn, ice cream and even some tacos that smelled delicious.

"Really, Missy, more food?"

"Hey, what can I do? I'm a growing girl."

"If you keep eating like this you'll end up growing sideways."

"Pfff, you know that I end up burning everything, Amy."

Well, we took our time but we finally got there. Or most of us did...

"Hey, Missy, where are you going?"

"I... I think I saw someone I know, keep going, I'll catch up with you later." She said, disappearing among the crowd.

... but we finally were there, that's what's important.

Amy started rifling through the many books while I skimmed over the covers and titles looking for something interesting. Meanwhile Penny drifted to the next stand dragging Theo with her. I was trying to decide in which of two fantasy novels I was going to spend the rest of my meager allowance when it happened.

"Well, well, well, look what dragged the cat." I almost dropped the book that I was browsing when I heard a certain very familiar voice at my back. "We haven't seen you in a long time, Taylor." I turned around and there she was, flanked by two of her toadies, Madison on her right and Julia on her left.

"Emma." I acknowledged her. I instinctively hunched a bit crossing my arms in front of my midsection, almost like hugging myself in a very Pavlovian response.

"We were worried about you, Taylor." Added Julia is an obviously fake sweet tone.

"Yes, I mean, did you finally go from turning tricks for the Merchants every now and then to being their whore full time?" Finished Madison in a hushed voice, getting close to me so only I could hear her. Her expression of fake concern was a well-practiced one that worked for her every time back at Winslow.

"Taylor, Taylor. Dropping out of high school like that, what would your mom think of that?" Emma shook her head in disappointment getting closer to me too. Julia also closed in, the three of them boxed me against the stall at my back. "Oh, wait. She can't think anything because she's dead!" My ex-friend said gleefully, or as gleefully as she could while still speaking in a hushed tone, with a vicious smirk on her face. "And what about your father? No, he's as useless as you. That's why you spent so much time at my house after she died isn't it?" She added, snatching my new beret from my head, giving it a couple of twirls and putting it on Madison's head with a sickly sweet smile. "You should be thankful that I was so patient with a piece of garbage like you, back then. Why, even your useless father was so eager to get rid of you, sending you to that stupid nature camp."

There was a bit of a commotion in the crowd around us, Emma looked around, from her expression she was obviously expecting something, I don't know what. Around us people were saying that it looked like Aegis and Dauntless just flew over us. When Emma saw that the disturbance had nothing to do with us she turned her full attention back to me, but she seemed a bit more... nervous? Desperate? I don't know.

"You look upset, Taylor, why don't you come with us somewhere quieter so you can unload on your old friend like you used to." She said, putting an arm around my shoulders and nodding to Madison who grabbed my arm. They started to steer me away from the stall. I tried to struggle but I was too emotionally drained to put much of a fight.

"What the fuck is going on here?" I can't express how glad I was of hearing Amy's voice.

Emma turned around, her expression going from triumphant to confused as whatever she was expecting it certainly wasn't Panacea to intervene, to innocent as she tried to bluff her way out of this situation.

"Sorry, we just happened to bump into an old friend of mine and we got a bit emotional. Right, Taylor?" She said squeezing my shoulder.

"Bullshit." Amy called out, stepping forward and practically ripping my beret off Madison's head.

"Hey, watch it, you bitch." The tiny brunette said letting go of my arm and taking a step back. Amy then took the opportunity to pull me away from Emma's grasp.

"Are you okay, Taylor?" She said handing me back my beret.

"Yes, thank you." I answered in a small voice.

"Look, whatever you think it's happening here, you got it all wrong." Emma insisted "we're just concerned for our friend, she's been missing class for the last two weeks, you see, we just decided that it was time for an intervention. We're afraid that she might have fallen in with the wrong crowd."

"No she hasn't missed class. We've been going to class together these two weeks." Penny piped up coming from behind me to stand at my side while Theo stood on my other side.

"Says you." The expression on my former friend's face, one that I was painfully familiar with, one that I saw every time she managed to put me in the right place to enable one of her plans, told me that what she had been waiting for was for Penny to intervene. "Don't believe her, she's a violent thug. She put a friend of mine in the hospital, a friend who happened to be black. I'm pretty sure she's with the Empire." Emma's acting skills were as good as ever but much to her surprise her little act only made Amy snort and Theo cough to hide his laugh.

"Right, I think I'm starting to get an idea of what is really going on." Said Amy, staring down at Emma. You must be..."

"Panacea!" Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by a male voice coming from above. "Thank God you are where she said you were." Aegis said, landing next to us. "I'm sorry to bother you on your day off but it's an emergency." Added hurriedly in a hushed tone.

"Calm down and tell me what is the situation, how many hurt, kind of injuries..." She said in a resigned tone.

"Two injured, Vista got a crossbow bolt to the gut, I don't know how bad it is but she was still conscious when I left her. The... other had several electrical burns, again I don't know how grave they are. Also they had entered into cardiac arrest but Dauntless managed to get them back with CPR."

Amy looked from me to Emma, who was deadly pale. I just nodded at her, Vista needed her more than I did. I still had Penny and Theo with me and Missy was supposed to catch up with us, we could deal with Emma and her cronies.

"Let's go." She said turning to Aegis.

He grabbed her in a bridal carry and took off.

I turned back to Emma and company expecting her to try to mess with us again now that Amy wasn't here anymore. But to my surprise, well not only mine, because even Madison and Julia seemed as perplexed as me, Emma just turned around and left not quite running but at a pace fast enough that the other two did have to run to catch up with her.

"Maybe it's better to call it a day." Theo said softly, putting his hand on my shoulder in a comforting manner.

I just nodded, wondering if my friends and I were cursed to have something happen every time we go out together.