Chapter Two:

The Girls

"Boarding school?"

"Tracy, it's awful!" Penny wailed, digging further into the bowl of chocolate ice cream Mrs. Turnblad had prepared for them. "I read the brochure—there's so many rules—it's terrible! And my mother's sending me there just so she can get me away from Seaweed!"

After packing all day, Penny had managed to escape from her house and run to the Turnblads'. She had arrived there sobbing, and Tracy and Mrs. Turnblad were trying to cure her the only way they knew how: chocolate and a shoulder to cry on.

"Penny, it's okay," Tracy said gently, giving her friend a hug. "He can still visit you on weekends, right?"

"Wrong," Penny sniffled, digging the dreaded brochure out of her pocket and handing it to Tracy, who read it aloud.

"'Visiting Protocol: All females are welcome, granted that their behavior upholds the high standards of Our Lady of Sorrows. However, in an effort to control the learning environment and keep the girls focused, males aged 14 and up are not allowed on campus, except on sanctioned Parents' Days when students' fathers may visit the school.'" The disbelief in Tracy's voice increased with every word. When she was finished with the passage, she lowered the brochure and stared at Penny, agape.

"I know!" Penny said, wiping the tears off her face. "He can't even come visit me!"

"Well, when are you going to tell him?"

Penny bit her lip and filled her mouth with chocolate ice cream.

"Penny," Tracy whispered, "you are going to tell him, aren't you?"

Digging her ice cream spoon deeper into the bowl, Penny thought about how she could possibly explain. "I can't," she finally said. "I mean… what if he thinks it's his fault? What if he tries to get me out of it?" She looked up at Tracy with tears in her eyes. "She--my mother, I mean--might hurt him, Tracy. I wouldn't put it past her."

Tracy sighed sympathetically as she gathered her friend into another hug. "You have to tell him, Penny. He'd be heartbroken if you just left."

"I know," Penny murmured. A few stray tears rolled down her cheeks. "You'll come visit me, right?"

"Of course," Tracy assured her, giving her a quick squeeze.

Penny smiled weakly. "Thanks, Tracy."

After a moment, Tracy quietly said, "Penny?"

"What?"

"Tell him."

After Penny thanked the Turnblads and went home, she sat by the phone for hours, reaching for it, and then drawing her hand back again. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she tried to convince herself to tell him, she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

And so she didn't.


The next day, Prudy loaded Penny and her bags into a cab. If they had been anything like a normal family, there would have been Don't forget to writes exchanged, maybe even I love yous.

However, since they were the Pingletons, there wasn't even a goodbye as the taxi pulled away.

For the next few minutes, Penny stared out the window as the cab wove through city traffic, and then as the scenery gave way to green grass. They finally stopped in front of a large, gated brick building.

"This is it?" the cab driver asked.

I hope not... The place looked like a prison, and that was no exaggeration; Penny knew what prisons looked like. Bars everywhere; severe, shoe-box brick dormitories; grim-faced nuns stalking around like jailers; the place had everything but uniforms with horizontal stripes.

"Well?"

Penny was startled out of her thoughts. "S-sorry," she stammered, handing the driver his money and reluctantly stepping out of the taxi.

As the cab roared away, Penny stared up at the school and gulped. It's so… big. And mean-looking.

She took a deep breath and headed up the walk. Here goes nothing.


Penny looked down at her boarding information again: Saint Mary Hall, Room 230. She looked up at the door in front of her. This is it. She fumbled with the key and opened the door.

The tiny room had two beds, a desk, and a view of the next building. There was no one there but Penny, and she was glad to have a little peace while she unpacked.

After she'd taken the last of the plaid skirts out of her suitcase, she tucked her bag under her bed and flopped down on the white bedspread. She stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, letting her thoughts wander and pulling them back sharply whenever they ventured to Seaweed.

If I'm going to survive this place at all, she realized suddenly, I'd better get downstairs and talk to people. She unwillingly stood up and took a flight of stairs down to the common room.

The furniture in the common room was simple: three couches arranged in a semicircle in the center, a few armchairs scattered around the room, a small television in a corner, and a massive Bible on a stand at the back. What Penny was most drawn to, however, was the group of girls seated on the couches in the middle. There couldn't have been more than six there, out of the fourteen or so in the dorm, but it was apparent that these were the authorities here. Penny immediately felt herself shrinking against a wall, and wished that Tracy were there with her; it was so hard to talk to people without having her best friend next to her.

She quickly considered backing up the stairs and back into her dorm room, when a girl with dark hair done up in a pompadour looked up and saw her standing there. Pompadour Girl leaned over and whispered something to her friends, and suddenly the girl at the head of the trio of couches looked straight at Penny.

"Hey." The girl, whose blonde hair was in a beehive and who was obviously the leader of the little group, beckoned Penny over. "Come here."

Penny slowly approached the sofas, careful not to look anyone in the eye. "You're the new girl, right?" the leader girl continued when Penny was sufficiently close.

Penny opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She cleared her throat. "Um… yes."

"What's your name, new girl?" The other girls around the sofa giggled. Penny could feel various sympathetic eyes on her from around the room.

"Uh…" Think, Penny! How would Tracy handle this? Thinking about her best friend made Penny stand up a little straighter. She looked the leader girl in the eye and said, "My name is Penny Lou Pingleton."

The leader girl raised her eyebrows. Penny wondered if she was the first new girl who had ever talked to her like that, and felt proud. "Well, hello, Miss Penny Lou Pingleton. I'm Karen Foster." There was a short pause; Karen and the other girls seemed to be carefully scrutinizing Penny, and she felt a little like a beetle under a microscope.

When the girls were finished (satisfied didn't seem to be the word; Karen's nose had wrinkled when her eyes had fallen on Penny's kneesocks), a girl with back-combed red hair asked, "So, Penny… what are you in for?" A hush fell over the room. All the girls on the couches leaned in to hear what Penny had to say, and even the girls in the corner watching TV turned away from their program.

"Huh?"

Karen sighed exasperatedly. "Why did your parents send you here?" When Penny remained silent, she snapped, "Look, P.L., no one gets sent off to Catholic boarding school for being a good little girl. Take a look at Sharon here," she said, gesturing at Pompadour Girl. "She came home lit up from drinking all night. And Janice here," she said, pointing at the redhead, "got caught in her bedroom with a boy. Cheryl," she continued, "stole money from her old man for years before she got sent here. What did you do?"

Penny noticed that Janice, the redhead, was the only one with the decency to at least act ashamed. The other girls just nodded; Cheryl was even smiling, like stealing money from her father was some favorite childhood game. "I didn't do anything," she said with a certain amount of pride. "My… my mother didn't like my boyfriend. Because of the way he looked."

The air of disappointment in the room was almost tangible. The girls at the television, eager for a good story, turned back to their show; the girls on the couches turned back to their conversations, except for Karen.

"Welcome to Our Lady, P.L.," she said quietly, in a tone that was anything but welcoming.

A/N: I really hope and sincerely doubt that updates are going to be this fast ever again. I just had to get this out of my system. Thank y'all so much for reading and reviewing so nicely already!