Chapter 1: Economics Class

Arya Stark silently sat inside the classroom. The room was bigger than usual and was very intimidating. She was not used to this kind of setting. Usually, she would be eager to sit in front of the class. But she positioned herself near the door. She placed her hands on her chin as students entered the room. At the back of her head, she was already thinking on how to cut classes after the professor had checked the attendance.

Arya observed some of the students, most of them carried notebooks and economic books. Some of them were already reading the texbook. Arya sighed as she stared at her gym bag. There wasn't anything academic inside her bag. Just her football uniform and shoes. Nerds, she thought.

Arya impatiently tapped her thumb on the table. The professor is late, she thought. Her mind came to think of something else, like on how she protested to her mother that she did not want any subject related to the family business. She didn't even want to enroll in this class, but once her mother asked the help of her father, she had no other choice but to obey. She can never say no to him.

The Stark Construction, Incorporated is the largest construction company in the North. And as a tradition, the business is passed down to the sons and daughters of the family. Well, the Stark family has five children, well, six children if she would include her half-brother Jon. Six peopele who can manage the business, Her eldest brother, Robb Stark, would probably be enough to fill in her place. But her parents would not allow it.

"Arya, it wouldn't be that bad. It can be fun." She remembered what her father said. "It would be good to realize how their business affects the economy. Besides, it would only be one subject". And now, she's here, enrolled in this Economics class to prove her father wrong.

After several minutes of pure frustration, the professor finally arrived. He stormed towards the front while clumsily held several folders in his hands. Arya stared at awe at the old man. If you remove the suit he was wearing, he would be mistaken as a homeless man, she thought. He was wearing a worn out suit, where the color of his pants mismatched the color of his coat. Arya wondered how old the coat was. The color already faded. Her professor had bushy beared that covered most of his face. Arya guessed that it had been probably ages since he shaved his beared. From the looks of her professor alone, she figured that it would be a very boring class.

Arya slouched further to her seat and waited for her golden chance to escape the class. Her classmates on the other hand were talking with each other. Silence fell when their professor slammed his hand on the table.

"Okay, you sons and daughters of bitches." He roared. "This is Economics 101. I'm professor Yoren. If you got the wrong class, get out. And you're free to drop out of this subject any time. I don't want any lazy asses in my class, got it?"

The class lay dead silent for a while, until some started murmurring at each other. "What? You haven't heard a human swear before?" Yoren glared at the people on the first row.

Arya silently exhaled to herself. There's no chance she would be able to leave now, she thought. Yoren was scary.

"Now, before anything else, house rules." Yoren said as he slowly paced himself in front.

"One, I don't want late people. It's a distraction, either you come to class or you don't. And if you don't you better be dead or dying." He said.

Arya pouted her lips. Nope, not a chance in hell she could cut class now.

Yoren was about to continue with his second rule when the classroom door creaked loudly. Arya, as well as the other students stared at the unlucky person at the door. The boy wore a rather filthy white shirt and a baseball cap. His backpack still strapped in his back. Noticing the stares, he searched uncomfortably for an empty seat. Finally, his eyes lay on the seat beside Arya. He immediately sat down and removed his cap. Arya obseved as his black hair lay flat kn his forehead, some already reaching his eyes. He smells like grease, Arya thought.

Finally, Yoren cleared his throat. The attention of the class left the boy and was focused back to their professor. He placed his hands on his back as he strode past the first row."You. Fat boy!" Yoren called.

The chubby boy looked around, making sure that he was the on being called. "Me?" He pointed at himself.

"Unless you think of yourself as starving, you better stand up, boy." Yoren continued. The fat kid stood up nervously wiping his sweaty hands on his polo shirt.

"Name?"

"Ho..Hot Pie.." The fat one stuttered.

Yoren raised one of his eyebrows. "What kind of bitch names his son Hot Pie?"

Hot Pie was about to answer when Yoren cut him off. "What was my first rule?"

"You don't want late people. Either you come to class or you don't. If you don't, you better be dead or dying." Hot Pie nervously answered, unsure of himself. Yoren waved his hands at Hot Pie commanding him to sit down.

"You heard that pretty boy?" Yoren glared at the student who just came in.

Again, all eyes moved towards the black haired boy. He shifted in his seat and nodded nervously.

"Stand up when I'm talking to you." Yoren growled. Immediately, the boy stood up. He kept his head down and avoided eye contact with Yoren.

"What's your name, boy?" He asked.

"Waters, sir. Gendry Waters." Gendry cleared his throat.

"Did you hear what the Fat Pie said?"

At the corner of Gendry's eye, he could see Hot Pie wanting to correct Yoren until he was told to shut up by his seat mate.

"Loud and clear, sir."

"Good." Yoren took a deep breath. He was about to continue but he heard two girls giggling at his side.

"Waters!" Yoren called again. "You proud of your body, boy?" He swept his eyes and examined Gendry.

Gendry scrunched his forehead. He did not quite get what Yoren was saying. Gendry stood silently as Yoren eyed him from the front of the room. Instanly, he realized that he was just wearing his undershirt. A dirty, worn out undershirt. He had been using his worn out undershirts when he's at his foster father's auto repair shop. Gendry blushed at the fact that he forgot to change his clothes before going to class. The thin clothing emphasized his chest as well as his abdominal muscles.

"I.. Uhh.." He stuttered. Gendry wanted to explain, but Yoren probably wouldn't want to hear it. He swallowed his saliva and just stood there frozen. He still kept his head down when he noticed the girl beside her was trying to hold her snicker. Gendry glared at her. She noticed it and met his glare with challenging eyes. A wide smile crept across her face as she laughed at Gendry, louder this time.

"Ow!" Immediately, the smile on Arya's lips disappeared as she searched what hit her in the head. Below her table rolled a piece of chalk. Arya searched for the person who flicked it.

"And what's so funny, missy?" Yoren said. "If something's funny, you better share it in class."

Arya bit her lip. This damn professor, Arya thought as she rubbed her head. She shook her head.

"And your name?" Yoren said impatiently.

"Stark." She said with confidence as she stood up. "Arya Stark."

Yoren sighed as he examined Arya for a while. "Too much a troublemaker to be a Stark."

At the corner of her eye, she could see Gendry plaster a smug smile on his face.

Yoren walked back to the first row, and signaled Gendry to sit down. Arya sat down together with him.

"Did I tell you to sit down, Stark?" Yoren spun around and stared at her. Immediately, Arya rose again from her seat. She wanted to cuss but thought Yoren would hear it, so she kept it to herself.

For the entire two hour class time, Arya stood up. Occasionally, she would shoot death glares at him. He was busy taking down notes, though she could see how he grins every time she tries to shift her weight to one of her legs.

Arya noticed how clean and neat his hand writing was, better than hers, actually. She squinted her eyes as she tried to read the words he was taking down.

'No eating in class'

'Proper dress code'

'Formal clothes twice a month'

Yada, yada, yada. Arya rolled her eyes. Finally, Yoren gave their homework and dismissed the class. Arya let out a loud sigh of relief. Immediately, she took her gym bag and stormed out of the classroom.

Arya grunted as she stretched her legs and stomped towards the football field. She felt frustrated at the fact that she stood there for two hours, and his seat mate being all smug about it. It wasn't her fault that he was being stupid. Of course stupid girls would giggle at his god damn pectoral muscles. His shirt was almost see through. And he was stupid enough not to figure that out. Arya absentmindedly walked towards the field, almost walking passed her teammates.

"Oi, Arya!" They called, but she did not notice.

"Arya Stark!" Finally, that caught her attention. "Are you going to skip practice?" One of them asked. She merely shook her head as she turned around and headed to the changing room. Her eyes darted away from her destination as she saw her seat mate head towards the Architecture Building.

So he was an Architecture student, she thought. Her eyes slowly followed Gendry as he disappeared upon entering the building. He then began to reappear when he entered a room that was in front of the football field.

Arya grinned. What a damn coincidence. She had the nastiest idea on how she could get back at him. She walked towards the dressing room, her eyes not leaving Gendry. He began to open the large windows to let the air in.

Arya rushed to change her clothes. She was more than eager to practice now. She waited for her chance to get the ball, finally, she ran towards a spot where she could clearly see Gendry's head and with her full strength, kicked the ball. Piece of cake, she thought. The football flew right towards the window and hit Gendry on the head. Arya laughed silently but immediately apologized to her teammates.

"Oh shit, my bad!" She smiled. Immediately, she began running towards the building and entered the room where Gendry was.

When she entered she saw Gendry kneeling on the floor, tissues and papers in his hands. "I'm sorry, loose ball!" She tried her best to sound like it was an accident.

Gendry looked up but did not say anything. Instead, he continued to wipe whatever it was on the floor.

Arya scrunched her forehead. She wanted him to get pissed at her because she already thought of a cool come back line, but he said nothing. She slowly walked inside the room to pick up the ball, to her surprise, she saw the biggest paper she had ever seen in her life. But that wasn't all, drawn on it was the most amazing design of medieval King's Landing.

Arya bit her lip as she padded nearer Gendry. Holy fucking shit, she wanted to punch herself. A mug had been been shattered into pieces and coffee splashed all the way across the paper, right towards the center of what was supposed to be the Iron Throne.

"I.. Uhh.." She stuttered as she knelt down. Arya grabbed a tissue that was scattered on the floor and began wiping some excess liquid on the paper.

"Don't," Gendry said coldly. "You might cut yourself." He wasn't looking at her, his gaze fixated on the now ruined Iron Throne. Wherever the coffee spilled, the ink on the paper began to ran. Gendry grunted in frustration as he saw the ink beginning to blot.

Arya began to panic. She then grabbed all the tissue boxes that she could see, pulled out every ply and scattered them all over the large paper. "It's faster this way." She said as she kept spreading tissue papers on the floor.

Arya pat each of the tissue papers firmly to the paper. Observing as each of them absorb the liquid. Finally, Gendry made a loud sigh as he slumped his back at the wall. He gazed at the ceiling for a moment.

"Hey.. I.. I'm sorry." It was an accident, Arya wanted to say. But she knows it wasn't, so she bit her lip.

Gendry crawled towards her. He took her hands away from the mess of an art work that was on the floor. "I told you, you might cut yourself." He said as he grabbed a tissue and pressed it on Arya's index finger. She hadn't notice the cut until Gendry took her hand.

"What is it for?" Arya finally said as she stared at Gendry who was still putting pressure on her finger.

"Scholarship presentation," Gendry weakly replied. This time, he looked at Arya straight into the eyes.

Arya noticed for the first time his beautiful deep blue eyes. She did not get to notice this in class, she thought. Arya's eyes widened as guilt struck her conscience. Her gray eyes looked for any anger in his expression but instead his eyes reflected that he was tired, wary and somewhat helpless.

"When...?"

"Tomorrow afternoon." Gendry answered as he let go of her hands.

"Can you redo it?"

Gendry shook his head. "Took me two weeks to finish it."

Arya wanted to punch herself again in the face. She was so immature, she thought.

"Do you think we can..." She was lost in her words. She did not even know what to suggest to him.

"Don't sweat it, Ms. Stark." He said.

"But.." Before Arya could continue, Gendry lifted his eyes and glared at her. This time, his deep blue eyes wanted to tell her to shut up.

"Don't you have practice?" Gendry finally said as he eyed on her football uniform.

"Yeah, but.. I.." She fidgeted. Gendry waited for her to continue but she did not say anything. Instead, she grabbed the football and ran outside.

Arya dashed towards the field. She held the ball tight and began beating it with one of her fists. She cursed at herself for being so childish. She bit her lip at the thought that Gendry might not make it to scholarship because of her. Thoughts ran through her head. If Gendry doesn't make it to scholarship, he probably would not graduate, then he would become homeless, the he would... Okay, that was farfetched, she thought. He wouldn't end up homeless, right? The thought bothered her again. This time she lay flat on her back on the field. She squinted at the sight of the sun, and rolled towards her teammates.

"The fuck happened to you?" One of them laughed.

"I just destroyed a man's future." She answered.

All Arya got in reply were raised eyebrows. "If you don't start practicing then you'll destroy our futures." They laughed.

Arya sluggishly stood up. She looked at the room where Gendry was. His head wasn't visible anymore.

Hours of practice passed. Arya pretty much managed to keep her mind away fron Gendry but shots of guilt ran through her chest every time her gaze landed on the Architecture building.

It was already dark when practice was finished. Each of her teammates said goodbye leaving her alone on the empty field. The Architecture building stood gloomy from where she stood. Except from the yellow lights from the entrance, the building was pitch black. Arya observed the room where it all happened. Lights were off. Gendry probably left already.

Arya let a huge sigh. Her phone vibrated wildly inside her bag. A message from his brother Robb. 'Omw', it said. Arya sat down on the field. Finally, she got the brightest idea to fix the problem.