Game of Thrones: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger
Chapter 1 of my new Game of Thrones Modern AU story, hope you enjoy it. Again, if I can, I'll try and put the ages of certain characters in, the ones that I feel are important and I know for definite.
Anyway, main pairings in this story are Arya/Gendry, Tommen/Robin and a new one I thought I'd give a try, Shireen/Devan. There will of course be other pairings present, but those are the main ones.
Anyway, hope you enjoy and please remember, any of the negative stuff here like bullying and homophobia and what not, I am completely against and do actually find hard to write.
Disclaimer: Game of Thrones belongs to George R.R. Martin.
Chapter 1
The sixteen year old girl walked through the school corridors with a sigh. She had shoulder length brown hair, grey eyes and a long face, family traits she had inherited from her father. Her name was Arya Stark, youngest daughter and third child of Eddard Stark, Governor of the North, the largest land in Westeros, and his wife Catelyn Stark, nee Tully.
Being of the north she was also pale. She was skinny and somewhat short and right now her expression was downcast.
'Here I am again, in the one pace I hate the most.' She thought to herself. 'School; urgh and it's not just the usual problems someone like me would have either.'
Compared to her older sister, or indeed any of her three brothers, Arya was something of a wild child; as well as a tomboy. She sometimes found herself in trouble, or drove her mother to distraction with her antics. Her mother also tended to favour Arya's older, more girly; sister as a result there was some distance between them.
Arya often wondered if it was due to that distance she often found herself being closer to her father than her mother. Arya was also one to favour more masculine clothing, despising dresses and such. Which made her current attire another irritation for her.
She was clad in the girl's version of the school uniform; which consisted of a light brown pleated skirt which she wore at the longest possible length, being knee length, although it was allowed to be as short as two and a half inches above the knee. A white button up short sleeved shirt; a red tie and similar coloured blazer, white socks, again length was varied with ankle length being the shortest, but Arya wore hers at the longest possible length, being knee length
Finally she wore brown school shoes.
She tensed up when she heard the laughter however and knew what and who was waiting for her up ahead. This was even before she saw them; but her intuition was correct. Sure enough, when she rounded the corner, she nearly ran straight into a group of people; the last people she wanted to see. Amongst them was Arya's more girly older sister, eighteen year old Sansa Stark
Like the rest of Eddard and Catelyn's children, Sansa took after her mother in appearance with auburn hair and blue eyes, as well as high cheek bones. Being from the north made them all naturally pale, which only enhanced these good looks, leaving Arya the odd one out.
With Sansa were two other girls, one also aged eighteen with brown hair and eyes, the other Arya's age with curly auburn hair and green eyes. They were, respectively, Jeyne Poole and Beth Cassel, Sansa's best friends.
All three were clad in the girl's version of the uniform although they clearly showed more confidence with it than Arya, all wearing the skirts at the minimum allowed length, while Beth still wore knee socks, Sansa and Jeyne wore ankle length socks, really showing their legs.
'They at least have healthy looking legs.' Arya thought bitterly. 'Not skinny horrible looking sticks like mine.'
Also present were three boys, all clad in their uniforms. The school was actually a big academy that taught all school ages, in different parts of the building, for Arya this meant, excluding her oldest brother, twenty-one year old Robb, who had already graduated, all her siblings were at the same school as her. The boy's therefore had two uniforms, one for those aged fourteen and under and one for those over fourteen.
The boys under fourteen uniform consisted of a pair of light brown shorts, a white button up shirt, red tie and blazer, white socks of varying length, between knee length to ankle length and brown school shoes. Boy's over fourteen wore a uniform much the same, but with the choice of still having shorts, or wearing light brown school trousers, a choice that most boys seemed to go for.
The three boy's with Sansa, Jeyne and Beth fell into this category, all wearing trousers, only one of the boy's was familiar to Arya, Sansa's boyfriend, Joffrey Baratheon. Joffrey was eighteen with short blonde hair and green eyes; Arya hated him and couldn't imagine what Sansa could see in him. The boy was arrogant, spiteful, mean and a bully; yet Sansa acted as if he was a god and truthfully, her behaviour had taken a turn for the worse since they started dating.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the ugly Stark girl." Joffrey taunted.
Arya tensed again; the sad thing was, this wasn't the first time he had said that, or that she had ran into this group, or being treated this way.
'What gives him the right to bully anyone and why does he seem to make me one of his chief victims?' She couldn't help but wonder.
The biggest blow was Sansa, when she spoke. "Yeah, got that Joff; wouldn't you say Beth."
Beth nodded eagerly, a little too eagerly. "Yeah."
Gods, isn't there something better you assholes could be doing!?" She snapped back.
Arya hated it; they kept on saying those things to her, which was truly started to affect her. Yet she couldn't lose her temper, couldn't afford to; if she did she'd be in even worse trouble at school. She was already doing a weeks' worth of detentions for misbehaving in class.
"Aw, we made Arya Underfoot mad." Beth teased, drawing a grin from Sansa.
Arya growled at that; but did her best to hold her tongue.
She tried to leave but they blocked her and then Jeyne started.
"What's wrong Horseface, nothing to say?" She taunted, her usual taunt regarding Arya.
'They couldn't be any more annoying but…' She thought before snapping, trying to retaliate. "Shut up, flat chest!"
But that backfired on her when Sansa spoke. "Speak for yourself, you could cut bread on your chest it's so flat!"
Growling Arya pushed past them, trying to ignore the mocking laughter and more of Joffrey's taunts as she hurried to class. She blinked, trying to clear the feeling of moisture building in her eyes.
"Bitch." She muttered, thinking of her sister. 'But, what if; what if they're right? They keep saying it, what if, on some level, it's true…maybe I am just the ugly Stark girl…Gods, why, why does Gendry even look at me?'
As she thought that; she just felt worse. Gendry Waters was a twenty-one year old mechanic who lived in Flea Bottom, the poorest part of King's Landing. He was also Arya's boyfriend and they had been dating for a year. The age gap, where he lived and other issues had caused problems within her family at first
But in the end, things were resolved and the family, with the exception of Sansa who now bullied her, all seemed to accept her relationship with Gendry. At least they didn't vocally oppose it; yet as always, upon being on the receiving end of such bullying, Arya's thoughts turned dark.
She had recently begun to wonder if the taunts were true and if so, why Gendry stayed with her, when he could do so much better.
Meanwhile, Joffrey's gang had gone in search of a new victim and soon found one. Fifteen year old Robin Arryn, a pale skinny boy with brown hair and eyes blushed profusely as he walked to class. He was a cousin to the Starks; his mother, Lysa being the sister of Catelyn. He also had a lifelong illness which was now thankfully more or less under control, thanks to medication.
His father had been an old man, Jon Arryn who had died recently. His mother was quick to remarry, to her childhood sweetheart Peytr Baelish; Robin however did everything he could to ensure he still used his father's last name. Despite his mother's disapproval, he could never like or trust Peytr and despised the thought of any man taking his father's place.
That wasn't the reason for his blushing though, the reason for his blushing was his uniform.
'Another day wearing this stupid outfit with those stupid shorts.' He thought to himself. 'Gods, these shorts are killing me, mum is making a hell out of my life.'
Unlike all the other boys over fourteen, Robin wore a version of the uniform that had him in shorts rather than trousers, as well as calf-high socks. It had been at his mother's insistence that he still wore shorts to school; she still tended to treat him like a child, despite his age. Yet despite her insistence it made him look good and proper, it just brought him ridicule.
Sure enough, as he walked he could hear the whispers.
'Urgh, everyone's already talking.' He thought as he heard it and felt the eyes on him.
His face went even redder.
"Hey look, Baby Robin is here!" A familiar voice called out.
He froze, fear building up in him as once again, he found Joffrey and his group blocking his path.
Joffrey grinned savagely. "Hey little Robin, nice shorts."
"Awww, look at the baby." A girl in Joffrey's group with curly auburn hair said in a cutesy voice.
Joffrey shook his head. "What are you, five? Guess your mummy still dresses you, huh?"
The other boys laugh at that and one remarked. "Yeah, how sad, his legs are so thin, is he made of straw? Hairless too, he couldn't look less manly if he tried."
Robin blushed even harder and the words burst out. "Shut. Up."
They just laughed even harder at him and he had to fight back tears. He quickly pushed his way past them and ran off, leaving them all still laughing. There was one boy however, who was not laughing, he had witnessed the sad event and truthfully, he was disgusted by the group's behaviour. This boy was also fifteen and like Joffrey had blonde hair and green eyes.
He was Joffrey's younger brother, Tommen Baratheon. Tommen couldn't be more different than Joffrey if he tried, as, like their sister, sixteen year old Myrcella, he was kind, friendly, helpful and always sought the best in everyone.
He shook his head at the antics of his brother and friends.
'Gods they are so stupid! Urgh; that is just…The nerve.' He narrowed his eyes before walking to class as the bell rang. 'Gods, the poor boy hasn't done anything, he doesn't deserve that. So he still wears shorts, so what. Robin seems to be such a nice guy…I wish I could help him.'
Pondering that, Tommen walked to class; wondering if there was a way to help poor Robin out.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.
Just a note regarding Arya's reaction, yes I know Arya is a strong person, not one to easily be brought down, but remember she also seems, at times, to be insecure about her appearance. This bullying plays on that and, as was mentioned, has happened before, often, with Arya suffering in silence, it's gradually got to the stage she's starting to believe it. That sort of thing, sadly, does happen.