Hours later when her parents returned Penny was still sitting staring at the computer screen, her fingers poised to type.
She just didn't know what to write. Tired, she trooped downstairs to see her family.
"Did you have a good day, honey?" her Aunt Phoebe asked her as she entered the kitchen. Penny emitted a small moan and then dropped into a chair at the table.
"I still have no idea how to write my thesis and unless I have some evidence of it by the end of week, my teacher's going to fail me," she complained, dropping her head into her hands.
"I'm sure you'll come up with something, sweetie," her Aunt Paige said, patting her head as she orbed in.
Wyatt chortled happily in his high chair as Leo spooned strawberry yoghurt into his mouth but this only irritated Penny further. She sighed, threw her hands up in the air and left, resigning herself to going to bed.
---
Penny lay in bed, thinking.
But a knock on the door disturbed her.
Who dares disrupt my very important thinking? She thought with anger, but jumped up to answer it despite herself.
"Yes?" Chris stood there, looking slightly surprised. He soon regained his usual expression of cocky annoyance, however.
"Piper told me to bring you this," he indicated the tray in his hands which she hadn't noticed until now. Two slices of toast and a bowl of steaming tomato soup. She could feel her stomach rumbling as she looked at it and her mouth watered.
"Thanks," she told him as he handed her the tray.
"Don't thank me, thank your mom," he replied.
She nodded as he walked back down the stairs, and then went back into her room to eat her dinner.
---
Penny awoke the next morning, feeling surprisingly cheery. She walked downstairs to be greeted by her entire family in the kitchen.
She sat down beside Paige at the table and tucked into the plate of waffles covered in maple syrup her Mom placed in front of her.
"Did you get the food that I sent up to you last night?" Piper asked.
"Yeah, um, it was tasty thanks Mom," Penny replied, sipping from a glass of orange juice.
"Is something bothering you, honey?" Phoebe questioned her, pausing in eating her muesli. Penny had been looking away distantly but then realised someone was speaking to her.
"No, no nothing. Well I have to get to college, so I'll be seeing you," she babbled, grabbed her bag and rushed out of the house.
The others all glanced around at each other.
"Well something's definitely up with her," Chris decided and they all turned around to shoot him disapproving looks.