It made Sansa Stark a little sad that another week was over. On Friday afternoons, most teachers raced for the doors with enthusiasm that rivaled that of their students. She had always loved her job, and was dedicated to her students, but in the past four months, the school had become her safe haven. She had thrown herself even more into her work than ever before. He was serving his sentence in the county prison, but knowing he was behind bars wasn't enough. The eight month sentence he had been given for pleading guilty to domestic violence wasn't enough. Sansa's relationship with Ramsay Bolton had taken a severe toll on her. More than mean, he had been brutal and abusive. In the early months of their two year courtship, his attacks started verbally, and innocently enough; teasing her about her clothing choice, or the way she wore her hair. One morning, Sansa had giggled and rolled her eyes when Ramsay told her too much of her beloved coffee would turn her teeth yellow. She had then cried out and shrank against the kitchen counter after he swung at her and angrily hit her mug out of her hands. Sansa's '#1 Teacher' mug that had been given to her by a student at the end of her first year of teaching shattered against the kitchen wall of the two bedroom apartment they shared downtown. The stain on the wall from the coffee had prevented her from getting her security deposit back when she decided to move once Ramsay was put in jail. As time wore on, Ramsay's chastising turned into ridicule, and then into physical violence. A fist in the gut for making him wait. A bruise on her back for staying too late at school to work on her master's classes. He never left marks on her face, though. That would lead to speculation. But the morning Sansa finally fought back, she wound up in the hospital with a collapsed lung. Ramsay had struck her so forcefully with a golf club, her rib had punctured her lung. He intended for her to die right there in their kitchen, and had planned on blaming intruders. Luckily for Sansa, Ramsay had been unfamiliar with their maid's schedule. Five minutes after Ramsay had stormed out, the maid found Sansa's bloody, unconscious body on the foyer floor. Paramedics had stabilized her on the way to Merciful Mother Hospital, where her brother Robb was a surgeon.

Sansa straightened a few books that had been haphazardly tossed onto one of the shelves in her classroom's library corner. A book fell from between the boxes onto the floor. Sighing, she picked it up. It was an elementary level fairy tale story of Florian and Jonquil. It had been one of her favorites as a girl. Sansa used to love the stories of knights and fair maidens. Her mother would roll her blue eyes and smile as Sansa begged each night to have it read to her before bed. She shook her head and stood upright. Knight and maidens...fairy tale shit. There's nothing but deception and cruelty in the men I meet. A forgotten picture on her small refrigerator in the back corner of the room caught her eye and flushed her face with anger. I thought I got rid of all the pictures of he and I, she thought. In the picture, Ramsay wore his usual stoic, serious expression. Sansa's arms were flung around his shoulders as she kissed his cheek. She remembered the night the picture was taken. It was last year's Spring Children's Benefit Gala that her parents sponsored every year. Everyone had always said her and Ramsay made a very smart looking couple. If only they had known. Sansa ripped the picture from the refrigerator and tore it to pieces before flinging it in the nearest trashcan.

"Saansaaaaa!" Margaery's singsongy voice rang through her classroom. Sansa turned and smiled as her beautiful coworker bound across the room towards her. Tired from a day's work, her brown waves had been pulled back from her face into a high pony tail. Like Sansa, Margaery was a first grade teacher at Crownlands Academy, one of the most prestigious private schools in King's Landing. The girls had met in the teaching program at The University of King's Landing a few years earlier. They quickly bonded over their love of dirty martinis, greasy diner food at midnight, and reading. What cemented the girls' bond was their mutual distaste for Joffrey Lannister. Sansa had dated him during her years as an upper classmen at Crownlands Academy. Their relationship had always been rocky, but it went completely sour during their senior year when Sansa announced her true desire to become a teacher. Joffrey sneered at the idea of Sansa making a pauper's wage compared to what she could have been capable of. Margaery dated him during her freshman year at UKL. She called it quits with him at her grandmother's urging when she learned of the horrible temper the young man had. For Olenna, no spoiled boy who delighted in tormenting others for his pleasure was suitable for her granddaughter. Not long after Margaery and he split up, the truth about Joffrey's parentage came out. Mayor Robert Baratheon needed a kidney transplant and Joffrey was to be his donor...until the testing was done and he was deemed not a match. The Mayor had ordered further DNA testing done and the truth finally came to the surface. Joffrey was a product of incest between his mother Cersei and his uncle, Jaime. Mayor Baratheon was outraged, more so at Cersei than the children he had thought were biologically his all along. The whole ordeal was very public and messy and quite a scandal. He divorced the disgraced Cersei, but vowed to continue supporting the children. Just three years ago, the public had been shocked when Cersei and her three children had been killed in a tragic car accident. Robert Baratheon hand't been the same since.

Sansa smiled at her dear friend. "How was your afternoon?"

Margaery sighed and lowered herself onto a desktop. "It was ok...Edgar gave me fits during math with double digit addition, but nothing too bad." The young woman pulled at the elastic that held her ponytail and shook her hair free. "What a week! Did you get all your IEP paperwork done?"

Sansa crossed the room to her desk, followed my Margaery. She tucked a few loose papers into a stack and clipped them together. "Yes, I finally finished. Feels good to get that out of the way." Sansa frowned at the clock and glanced at Margaery. "It's nearly 4:30, I figured you would have gone home by now."

Margaery shrugged. "I had to write the reflection for my behaviorism paper and submit it."

"That paper should have been turned in days ago." Sansa scolded.

"I got it done though! It's not due until Sunday anyway!" Margaery exclaimed. Sansa shook her head and smiled. The girls were enrolled in the same online graduate school classes through UKL. In a little over a year's time, they would both graduate with their master's degree in early childhood reading. Sansa's mother and father had been very supportive of her decison to become a teacher. They had encouraged her though to pursue higher degrees to earn a more substantial paycheck.

"What are your plans for tonight?" Margaery leaned her elbows down on Sansa's desk and propped her chin in her hands.

Sansa leaned back in her chair and swiveled from side to side. "No plans, why?" No sooner had she said the words, she realized what Margaery was up to.

Margaery gave Sansa a wicked smirk. "Good! Because you and I are going out for drinks and dancing!" She raised herself up and began swaying her hips and gyrating her arms to imaginary music. The girls had been very mischievous, borderline wild in their college days. Dancing, cocktails, and the opposite sex had been on their agendas almost every weekend during their time at the university. Time and responsibility had subdued their behavior, but Margaery's only marginally.

Sansa shook her head. "Not tonight, I just want to stay in."

Margaery stopped moving and sank to her knees to rest her arms in Sansa's lap. Her full, pink lips pouted. "Please, Sansa?! I will not have you staying home every Friday night to become some old spinster!" Sansa bit her lip, trying to think of another excuse. "We are all caught up on our grad school classes...you have already submitted lesson plans for the next three weeks...there is nothing keeping you from going out!"

"It's still too soon..." Sansa reached out and twirled a lock of Margaery's brown hair in her fingers.

Margaery looked lovingly at Sansa. She had been by Sansa's side all during her recovery. Having feared for her friend's life, she had gently scolded the red head for keeping her abuse a secret. "My dear, it has been six months since he hurt you. Six months since he's been in jail. He will never touch you again. What are you still afraid of?" She asked softly.

Sansa shook her head. "You're right, I guess nothing. It's just so hard getting back out there. I feel like I'm damaged goods...what man would want all this emotional baggage?"

Margaery stroked Sansa's cheek and then cupped it in her hand. "One day you will find the man whom the Gods have made just for you. And he will love you for who you are and he will help heal your heart and soul." She grinned wickedly. "And until you find him, we'll just see what kind of shenanigans we can get ourselves into!" She pulled Sansa to her feet.

"What did you have in mind, Margaery?"

"The Tipsy Goat!" Margaery threw her hands in the air and spun in a circle. "DJ Kristian will be there tonight and he always has the best dancing music!"

Sansa scoffed. "The Tipsy Goat?! I haven't been there since our college days!"

Margaery stopped spinning and threw her arms around Sansa. "And I guarantee you it is just as fun now as it was then!" She took Sansa's hands and the two girls spun around in circles. Sansa giggled wildly, letting herself become excited with the idea of going out for the first time in months with her best friend. A male voice interrupted their frivolities.

"It's Friday afternoon, go home, girls!" Tyrion Lannister barked from the doorway. Already long estranged from his older siblings, Tyrion had been the only Lannister not affected by the incest scandal. The short headmaster looked affectionately at the girls. He was a good man, who had nothing but appreciation and respect for two of his most hardworking teachers. "Big plans tonight?"

Margaery grinned at their headmaster. "Sansa and I are going out dancing!"

"Ahh...a night on the town. Where to?" Tyrion asked.

"The Tipsy Goat!" Margaery answered enthusiastically.

Tyrion chuckled and shook his head. He pushed his dark golden hair away from his forehead. "Oh The Goat. I'd be lying if I said that place hadn't made me tipsy a time...or two...or hundred...back in my wilder days."

Sansa and Margaery laughed. It was no secret that the headmaster of Crownlands Academy indulged in wine, especially at the benefit dinners and balls.

Tyrion looked at the pair seriously. "Be careful, girls." He gave them a smile and disappeared from view.

Margaery turned to Sansa. "So I need to go home and shower, but I want to come get ready at your place."

Sansa retrieved her Kate Spade purse from her desk drawer. She fished out her keys and sunglasses. "Ok, well just come on over whenever you're done, I need to do the same. I've been sneezed and coughed on more times today than I'd care to think about at this moment." The two girls linked arms and made their way outside into the beautiful, early spring afternoon.

Sansa stepped out of the steamy bathroom and into her massive closet. Her hair was wrapped in a plush, white towel and the rest of her body was bare. Reaching out to her clothes, she drug hangered dress after dress by, unsatisfied with each. Her lips formed a taught line. She wanted to wear something sexy, but classy. Sansa's reflection in her massive, ornate mirror caught her eye. The scar on her torso stood out angry and red against the rest of her otherwise perfect skin. Robb had been the one to make the incision, to fix her collapsed lung, but it was as if Ramsay had plunged the scalpel into her body himself. Sansa traced her fingers over the gruesome reminder. It would be on her body forever. Reminding her always of her horrible judgement of men. Shaking her head in disgust, she reached for her flower printed silk robe. She wrapped the cool fabric around her body and settled in front of her vanity mirror. She heard a key turn in the front door. The only people who had keys to her apartment were her maid, her mother, and Margaery. She guessed it was Margaery.

"Yoo-hoo!" Margaery called out as the door closed.

"In here!" Sansa called from her bathroom. She heard a thud of something heavy being dropped on the floor, followed by clinking in the kitchen. A loud pop of a champagne bottle followed a few minutes later. Margaery appeared in the vanity mirror reflection holding two flutes filled with bubbling champagne.

"Ta-da!" Margaery sang out as she handed Sansa her glass. Sansa accepted the glass and downed its contents. Open mouthed, Margaery stared. Sansa held her flute back up to Margaery.

"More please!"

Margaery shook her head and retrieved the bottle from the kitchen. "Is someone getting sloshed tonight?" She chided.

Sansa hid her smile in her hand. "Maybe...why not?! It's been a while!"

Margaery grinned and tipped the bottle to pour more champagne in her glass. "Yes my dear it has."

The pair talked and gossiped and laughed as they applied their makeup and curled their hair. One of their favorite topics was always Ros and her secret affair. The fun loving and flirtatious sixth grade teacher, Ros was secretly sleeping with Mr. Payne, a third grade teacher who also taught at Crownlands Academy. Margaery shook her hair free of the curling iron she was using. "But would it really be labeled an affair? Neither one of them are married."

Sansa was busy applying another coat of mascara to her long, thick lashes. Margaery had done her eyeshadow dark black and smoky, to match the black dress Sansa had finally settled on. She frowned into the mirror. "Well I guess not. What would you call it then?"

Margaery shrugged and sipped from her glass. "I still like the term affair. It sounds risqué and exciting. I don't know what she sees in him...he's a very nice gentleman, but he's so...goofy looking!"

Capping her mascara, Sansa laughed and turned to Margaery "Goofy? Oh Margaery, if she's in love with him, looks don't matter one bit. Besides, I think he's rather cute."

Margaery unplugged her curling iron and ran her fingers through her long hair. "Maybe...in a goofy sort of way. Besides, I don't think it's love as much as lust. Ros told he his dick is huge." She pulled her t-shirt and shorts off, leaving her in a strapless red lacy bra and matching thong.

"And you were making fun of me for planning on getting drunk tonight...I think you are planning on getting lucky." Sansa reached out and poked her friend playfully in the side. Margaery squealed and swatted her hand away. She slipped on a short red dress with a plunging neckline and an open cowl back. Sansa zipped the side zipper of Margaery's dress before pulling on her own short, black dress, adorned with glittering crystals. Once their shoes were on, hairspray way applied again, lipstick touched up, and jewelry fastened, the pair looked at each other in the mirror.

"Who would ever look at us and assume that we were teachers?" Margaery cocked her head to the side and wondered out loud.

Sansa threw her head back and laughed at the thought. "Have you ordered us an Uber yet?"

Margaery looked down at her phone. "He'll be here in three minutes." The girls grabbed their clutches, downed their champagne and headed for the front door.