First, thank you all for the reviews and follows! It's still stupid amazing to me that you like this :) And of course, I am still not GRRM.

THREE: GENDRY WATERS

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16

The van pulled away and Gendry was left staring up at the large dormitory building, if it could be called a dormitory. It looked the same as the rest of the lodging buildings, a new-looking tall tan building with rows of windows and sliding glass doors that led to balconies, some decorated with lights, some with patio sets and barbecue grills. He noticed one balcony with a Casterly Lions football club flag in the window - the only thing that signaled to him that these weren't condos or timeshares.

He went inside the lobby through sliding automatic doors to try to figure out this room situation. The information package he'd received in the mail said he would receive his room assignment upon his arrival at the employee housing office, which should be just ahead if the sign on the wall was to be believed, and would hopefully still be open. Beyond that, the information he had received was not terribly detailed or helpful.

Gendry found the office around the next corner. Just a plain door labeled with "Employee Housing Office" and the number 100, with a sliding glass window and small ledge next to it, however it looked like no one was working.

No bell either, Gendry thought.

"Hello?" Gendry called, sliding open the window. "Is anyone working? I'm new and I need to get my room keys."

Nothing.

"Hello? Listen, if someone is working, I really need to get my keys."

"Alright, alright, hold on!" A female voice yelled from somewhere way in the back. Whoever this was, they didn't sound excited to come and help him. "Can't get any work done here without someone needin' something every five seconds."

A moment later, Gendry was face-to-face with a girl about his age wearing a polo shirt the same shade of light blue as the shuttle van driver. The wolf logo was embroidered in white and gray on the left side and the name tag she wore announced that she was Jeyne Poole, employee housing office supervisor, from Wintertown apparently.

"Now, what can I help you with?" She asked in a much softer voice than before, all of a sudden the perfectly pleasant cliché of customer service. "Keys and room assignment you said? I'll need to see your ID, a driver's license or passport, something of that sort."

Gendry pulled out his license and handed it to Jeyne. Not too bad looking, he thought. He'd heard all the Northern girls were hard, frozen women. She looked about average height, with chestnut brown hair worn loose about her shoulders and two braids that went around to the back, keeping the front parts out of her face. She had matching brown eyes, dark with yellowish-orange flecks. Yes, he thought, maybe I could get used to the North.

"Oh! You're Mr. Waters!" She proclaimed, looking down at his license. "I was wondering when you'd show up. Kings Landing, eh? We'll you've certainly come along way to join us up here. Truthfully, all of us in the housing department were a bit worried when we heard we would need to find a room for you, since you're such a late addition, but we had one of the other male employees quit a few days ago so there is an open room."

She handed him a key chain with a house key and a swipe card on it, along with his license back. "Now, don't lose these, the replacements come out of your paycheck. Just wait a second and I'll come show you around a bit and then up to your apartment."

"Alright, thanks." Gendry replied, not really sure what to say. A few seconds later Jeyne came out the door beside the window, locked it, and slapped a sticky note reading "Back in 15" on the window. She showed him around the lobby floor, where the laundry room was, the locker rooms for skis and boards, which doors he could use his swipe card to open.

"Oh, you don't ski OR snowboard? That'll change, just wait." Jeyne remarked when he said he wouldn't need to use that storage room. Gendry wasn't sure if he was comforted by her statement or not, but he was comforted that she was going out of her way to show him around. She could've just given him his keys and pointed him down the hall.

They took the elevator up to the 8th floor and stopped in front of number 813. It smelled like spaghetti sauce in the hallway and Gendry suddently realized that, aside from a couple granola bars and a soda during his layover in White Harbor, he hadn't eaten anything since before he got on the plane in the morning.

Jeyne thumbed through her key ring, knocked twice, unlocked the door, and much to Gendry's surprise just opened the door and started on inside. "Hey! Hot Pie, it's Jeyne. I've got your new roommate here... Ohhh, is it dinner time already?"

Not sure what else to do, he picked up his suitcase and followed her inside, really hoping it wasn't often that workers invited themselves on into his apartment. Hot Pie came out from the kitchen, wearing a white apron and cheerily greeting Jeyne by pulling her into a tight hug, making her look almost childlike against his large figure. He was a couple inches shorter than Gendry, with a round face and sandy light brown hair. Where Gendry was tall, Hot Pie was round. What a match we are, Gendry thought, but if it always smells this good in here, I could get used to it.

Once Jeyne was released from her bear hug, she looked at them both and gave some cursory introductions.

"Gendry, this is Hot Pie. He's worked here for just about as long as I have, we're in the same year of school at the university in Wintertown together. Hot Pie, this is Gendry Waters, from Kings Landing. Since Lommy had to go home, we're going to be putting him with you. You're the only one with an open room right now, so I hope you don't mind. I figure you'll be glad to have someone else to cook for," Jeyne said with a laugh.

The two new roommates looked each other over for a moment, with Gendry finally sticking out his right hand and Hot Pie grabbing it to pull him into a hug, the same as he had done with Jeyne, and pushing him to sit down at the kitchen table.

"Well, since it looks like you two will be fast friends, I'll head back down to the office. I've got about a half hour left before the office has to close," Jeyne said and made her way to the door.

"Wait, Jeyne, you'll come back for dinner, won't you?" Hot Pie asked. "You know I can't cook for just two people, there's enough in that kitchen for an army."

"Course I will, HP, I will. Sansa has her evening class tonight so it'll be better than the takeout that she'll come home with."

Jeyne left to finish her shift and much to Gendry's surprise, he managed to get along pretty well with Hot Pie. He was also originally from the Kings Landing area and was a second-year culinary arts student at University of Westeros at Wintertown, taking advantage of the extension classes at Winterfell for the hands-on credits he needed to graduate. His aunt and uncle own a pastry and cake shop back at home and he'd been working along side them ever since he could pull a stool up to the counter. At Winterfell he worked as a sous chef at one of the most popular restaurants in the village. Hot Pie showed him around the apartment while they were waiting for Jeyne to get off work and join them for dinner. Despite the look of the building from the outside, it was a rather standard apartment building once you got in, not much unlike the studio Gendry rented back home, albeit this building was much more well-maintained than his previous one. He didn't need much more than standard though, but he was glad when Hot Pie showed him that he would have his own bedroom.

Jeyne got back in about 45 minutes, still wearing her blue work polo. The three of them had dinner and explained more about what Gendry should expect working here. Both Jeyne and Hot Pie were surprised, and although Gendry found it sort of hard to believe, a bit impressed about his internship.

"It's not much though," he said, between bites of the salad Hot Pie had made to go along with the pasta. "I mean, I'm not even going to get paid. I've still gotta get a job, I have to go some orientation thing tomorrow, and someone has yet to tell me what I'll be doing."

Jeyne smiled at him, like she knew exactly what was happening. "You've got your information packet, right? Doesn't it say something about a meeting tomorrow morning? When I started we had a new employee morning meeting where they assigned jobs to those without them, got our work schedules, and then later that evening they held the employee orientation and Stark family greeting."

"Family… greeting…?"

"Yea, Stark family greeting. But man, don't worry," Hot Pie interjected. "The employee orientation and greeting is nothing but a formality and they'll put you in a work position based on what you can do. They're not gonna make you ski patrol when you're fresh outta Kings Landing and ain't never seen a mountain before, are they? And since the Starks keep most of the important positions in the business within their family, they hold a meeting at the beginning and end of each season to introduce themselves to new employees and thank everyone for their work. They like to think that every one of their workers is a part of their own family while they're here. And the best part, there's even some food prepared by yours truly," Hot Pie said with huge beaming smile.

The rest of the evening the three of them spent talking about their families, their lack of families, and what life was like at Winterfell. Jeyne headed home to her apartment around ten, saying that her roommate would be wondering where she was and Gendry settled in to unpacking his bags, again happy that his room was furnished. He checked his information packet before bed, and Jeyne was right. There was a small itinerary outlining his first day. He was to meet at 9am to get his job assignment, schedule, and uniform. His afternoon was all open and then the Stark family greeting was at 6pm that evening in the main hall of the administration building. After making his bed with the extra linens and blankets he found in the hall closet, sleep came quickly to him that night, since he'd been up and worn out from the travel, and the morning came too quickly as well.

Gendry woke up to his cell phone alarm at 7:30am and could already smell the breakfast that Hot Pie was making. After showering and eating a breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes with Hot Pie, he put on a hoodie and then his much too thin winter coat over a long sleeve t-shirt and laced up his tennis shoes, knowing he would most likely need to burn through some of his savings and buy some actual boots during his free time this afternoon. He grabbed his backpack and walked towards the main village with Hot Pie. As Gendry was hopelessly unsure of his way around the resort, Hot Pie went with him through the village to show him where to go, it was on his way to start his prep shift for lunch anyways. The Winterfell corporate and administrative offices were yet another building matching the rest of the souvenir shops, specialty clothing stores, restaurants, and the same main square he had seen from the shuttle the previous night.

"Alright, here you are," Hot Pie said and handed Gendry a map of the resort. "That's mostly for the customers, there's a trail map of the mountains on one side and a map of the village on the other, so it'll work for you too until you have it all memorized. I'll see you at the Stark family greeting at 6 tonight... meet by the restaurant around 5:45?"

Gendry nodded his agreement about the meeting time, but managed to feel like a child getting dropped off by his father for the first day of school. You don't have a father, he told himself. How would you know how that feels? But this wasn't a time for self-pity, so Gendry shook those thoughts away and found his way into the office building. Luckily, the first thing he saw was a sign board pointing the way to the meeting. The meeting room was a good size with long table in front and several rows of chairs facing it. He took a seat in the middle and watched as the room filled to about halfway. Promptly at 9am, he heard the double doors he came in click shut and watched a woman walk to the front of the room. She had pretty heart-shaped face and the same brown hair as Jeyne has, though hers was naturally curly and longer. She also wore the same light blue polo that Jeyne and the shuttle driver had.

"Good morning, shall we start?" she said, with a soft voice that seemed to contradict the confident way she walked through the doors. You'd think she owned the place with the way she walked in, but her voice betrayed her and showed Gendry that she really was not much older than him. "I'd like to thank everyone for coming and wish you good luck in your employment at Winterfell Ski Resort. I'm Jeyne Westerling, HR Supervisor, and I'll be working with you to get your job assignments, if you don't already have them. After you're assigned to a group, you'll meet with your department manager and they'll provide your uniforms and work schedules. Any days off will need to be discussed with your direct department head."

She stopped for a moment, gathered some of the papers she brought in with her, and took a quick survey of the room. Gendry wasn't sure what she was waiting for, but he was a bit amused by another pretty girl, another Jeyne who looked so much like the first.

"Alright," Jeyne started again, breaking Gendry out of his thoughts. "Everyone who already has a job assignment, stand up." About half of the group stood up, grumbling low complaints, clearly not wanting to move again so soon after they had sat down. "All of you have your departments already decided. You may go and join your department heads – if you leave this room and go to your left, there are smaller meeting rooms with each department noted by the room numbers."

Gendry simply sighed and watched as about twenty other new employees marched out the doors. This is the weirdest job interview I've ever been to, if you can even call it that, he thought. This girl looks the same age as me, how does she have this job? Gendry had spent his whole life working, through high school, university, and the summers in between, from as soon as he had been able to get a job. He had taken almost everything that he was even somewhat qualified for - he had experience in fast food joints, he'd bartended, fixed cars, mowed lawns and did landscaping, even worked as a valet and chauffeur at a fancy downtown hotel for a while. Gendry didn't much like having to wear the stuffy outfit that came with the valet job, but he certainly enjoyed getting to drive expensive cars, almost as much as he liked the tips their owners gave him. That was the benefit of having your manners when you needed them.

Once everyone that stood up had shuffled through the doors, Jeyne cleared her throat to attract the attention of the remaining group back towards her. "Everyone that is left will now be assigned a job based on the resumes you initially sent in. Myself and the rest of the HR staff have gone through all of your resumes and looked at which departments have openings and which of your would work best in each based on your prior employment history and skill set. As I call your names and work assignments, please come up to the front and take your name badge, then you may join your department meetings down the hall. These jobs can be changed in the future, but we ask that you each please wait at least one month before asking for any changes. Okay, let's get started…."

Gendry sat and watched as everyone's names were called off in alphabetical order. He heard different people getting called for catering, office jobs, village and mountain hosts, a couple chair lift operators, even one girl was called for the nursing staff. All of the interesting jobs are going to be full by the time they get to me, he thought. He wondered if he'd be working with anyone here.

"…and you must be Gendry Waters, last one left," Jeyne said. Gendry looked around and realized that he was in fact the last person besides Jeyne left in the room.

"I'm used to it, Miss Westerling, being at the end of the alphabet and all, I'm sure you are too," he said politely, but trying to be not quite so serious too.

She laughed quietly at that as Gendry walked up to the front of the room. "You're right at that. And, let me say, I was actually very eager to meet you. I've heard you're the new intern at Baratheon, so congratulations. You know they only choose five people each year? It's quite a difficult internship to get, with all the applicants they get, not just from Westeros either, all the way from Essos too. I've heard they hire them on full-time at the end sometimes." Jeyne gathered up the last of the information she had brought with her and handed it over to Gendry. "I figured that since you'll be working on the design end of things at Baratheon, it might be good for you to know as much about the skis and boards as possible, so I've placed you in rentals and tuning. It's technically part of the Services department, but you'll have a different color uniform… I'm sure you've noticed that by now, right?"

"Yes, my roommate and his friend explained a little bit to me last night. They're in Services and Catering," he replied, and took the packet of information she handed over.

"Good, good. Here's a copy of your resume back for you, as well as some tax forms, a release form that let's us use pictures of your for our media releases, and an insurance form. Since you're a seasonal employee and not full-time you're not eligible for full insurance coverage. However, because most of our employees ski or snowboard we think it best to at least have some sort of health savings account option available for everyone. Here," she said, handing him a dark blue file folder. His name tag was pinned to the top of it - Gendry Waters; Kings Landing, Westeros; Services - Rentals. "All the forms are in there, along with some information regarding the employee housing and a map in case you hadn't picked one up yet. If you can fill out and return the forms in the next few days, that'd be great. Our HR offices are on the third floor of this building."

Gendry took the folder and started towards the door, Jeyne following next to him. They went their separate ways at the door and Gendry followed the hallway left to his department meeting. The right hand side of the hallway was decorated with large framed posters and trail maps that looked like they were all older than he was. The left side was door after door, each with a laminated sign posted by the permanent room number which showed what department was meeting was in each room. He came to the room marked Services and stopped outside the closed door for a second before heading inside.

The room was larger than he had expected it to be, but much smaller than the previous meeting room. For some reason he had thought he would be going to the department manager's office, but instead this was just a smaller conference room. There was a long oval table in the center with six other new employees sitting and at the front of the room next to a pull-down projector screen stood a middle-aged man wearing the blue Services polo and very crisp pleated khakis. He looked to be a few inches shorter than Gendry, but he probably had about seventy pounds more on him than he ought to and his face was flushed red as if he'd been outside running.

"Thank you for finally joining us, Mr…?" the man started.

"Gendry Waters, sir."

"Well, Mr. Waters, please take a seat," he said, and clapped his hands together. "Everyone, welcome to Winterfell Resort's Services department. If I haven't said already, I'm Bowen Marsh, manager of this department."

The rest of the meeting was fairly standard, with Mr. Marsh explaining all of the different areas that the Services department presided over, what he expected from his employees with regards to timeliness and conduct, and then handed out their uniforms. Gendry received six deep blue polo shirts, half short sleeve and half long sleeve, each with the wolf logo embroidered in the top left area. He noticed that everyone else had the light blue colored polos and one of the girls was given a much nicer starched button down shirt in her bundle. Along with the polo shirts, each person also received a heavy ski jacket in a matching color. This is much nicer than my ratty old jacket I've been wearing, Gendry thought, seeing the brand logo on the inside when he checked the size. North Face, yea, definitely couldn't have bought this for myself.

There was a bit of commotion in the room with everyone making sure their uniforms were correct and checking the sizes, when one of the girls asked about the rest of their uniform.

"If you've got an office job - housing, hotels, HR, and the like - you'll be expected to wear khakis and black dress shoes or boots. If you're working in shops, ticket sales, or rentals, you're more than welcome to wear jeans and tennis shoes. Village and mountain hosts and guides, you'll want to wear snow pants and boots, since you get to be outside all day. Of course, mountain hosts not working near the lift lines are expected to be in your ski or snowboard boots, with your equipment, and ready to work at whichever area of the mountain you're assigned to that day. Each of your supervisors can give you more information, it's actually not as strict as it sounds."

All in all, Gendry didn't think it sounded too bad. Having to wear a polo shirt and jeans sounded heavenly compared to many of his past uniforms, especially the chauffeur get-up at that posh hotel. After that, Mr. Marsh walked around and passed out everyone's work schedules, and said not to expect these to change all too much during the season. Everyone must have known that Gendry also the internship at Baratheon since there were obvious gaps in his Winterfell work schedule. His schedule had him working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings from 7:30am until 1pm and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 1pm until 7pm. Today was Wednesday and the first shift he would start with would be his Friday morning shift.

The meeting didn't last too much longer after that. Mr. Marsh let everyone know his office was on the second floor of the building and then most of the people made their way out of the room, with a couple staying back to ask questions. Gendry pulled out his cell phone and checked the time. It was only 10:30am so he decided to walk back to his apartment, put away his new work clothes, and change into his new jacket. The walk back from the main village to the employee housing took about twenty minutes, with Gendry checking his resort map about every three minutes to make sure he was still going the correct way. He put his new work shirts away in the dresser, changed into one of the long sleeve shirts, back into his hoodie, and made his way back towards the village much warmer in his new Winterfell jacket. It took less than fifteen minutes to get back to the main village when he wasn't obsessively checking the map.

The rest of the day Gendry spent wandering around the village trying to get his bearings straight, getting lunch with Hot Pie on his break, and searching the shops to find winter boots at a somewhat reasonable price. A couple hours later and with about a hundred dollars less of his savings intact, after looking through shop after shop at awful snow boots, he finally found a pair that were warm, waterproof, and weren't worth a full month's pay. He sat down on a bench outside the shop and quickly changed out of his tennis shoes and into the boots, putting his tennis shoes, wet from the snow, into the plastic bag the boot shoe box was in, and stuffing them inside his backpack. Happy now that his feet were much warmer and would stay more dry for the rest of the day, he continued his walk around the village, broke down the shoe box and shoved it the best he could into a recycling garbage can, then tried to figure out how to spend the rest of his afternoon. The village was very large and was set up much the same as the outdoor shopping malls they had in Kings Landing, but most of the stores were either the same high priced boutiques with names he knew he should recognize, shops that only sold skis, snowboards, helmets, or something else he had no use for, or kitschy stores for tourists to buy Winterfell souvenirs. Is there nothing useful for real life in this entire place? Is there a bank, post office, or gods forbid, a grocery store anywhere around here? Hot Pie has to get his groceries somewhere, I doubt he's been nicking them all from the restaurant coolers, Gendry thought.

He had about two and a half hours now until he had to meet Hot Pie outside the administration building for the Stark Family Greeting, and decided the best way to pass his time was to try and relax a little bit. Gendry didn't know why, but he was oddly nervous for the Stark Family Greeting this evening, or maybe it was that after the meeting there would only be a few short hours until the morning when he would start his internship. Not wanting to walk all the way back to his apartment and then walk back to the village again, he walked into the main village square and stopped in at a coffee shop, Indigo Star Coffee & Tea Traders. Gendry spent the rest of the free time he in the village square with the largest coffee they could sell him, in the outside seating area with his legs propped up by the fire pit, sketchbook up against his legs and pencils moving rapidly, trying to take in everyone he saw. For his degree he had to take more traditional art classes like landscape and figure sketching, and while he had never enjoyed it as much as using a drawing tablet and being able to manipulate his creation on a giant monitor, he loved being able to carry a simple sketchbook and pencils around with him and capture what was around him at a single moment in time. He'd probably mail a couple finished drawings to Professor Mott the next time he had a chance, that was if he could find a post office.

Five-thirty rolled around quickly and Gendry was caught off guard when his phone alarm buzzed to let him know it was time to head out. He hadn't even noticed that it was starting to get dark as well. He packed his things up and walked off to find the restaurant from this morning where Hot Pie worked.

He pulled out the resort map and studied as he walked towards what he figured was the right direction. Now, what was the name of the place Hot Pie worked at? Gendry wondered, still eyeing the map as he made his way out of the square. It was something pretentious sounding, High Valyrian maybe… hah! There it is, he thought as he spotted the restaurant, Dracarys Grill, on the map.

Quickening his pace and fumbling to fold the map back up, Gendry only managed about three more steps before walking straight into another person. Before he knew what was happening he was on the ground, tangled up in skis and poles and someone's arms and -

"WHAT the HELL!? Get off me, will ya?" They yelled,which made Gendry realize he was on top of someone on the brick pavement, and that someone was a small girl.

"Oh, gods," he started, trying to apologize, "I… I didn't even see you and -"

"Hey! Could you get your fat ass off me?" She yelled back, cutting him off. She started to try to wriggle free and whipped her head about to him and he caught himself staring back into the stormy grey eyes of a small girl who looked to be a few years younger than he was. She stared back at him, narrowing her eyes almost as a challenge, and he could tell that despite her size he did not want to mess around with her, yet he was having a hard time looking away, reacting, or doing anything really. One second he had his nose to his map and the next second he was lying on the ground on top of feisty girl with eyes that had glued him to that spot. "Oi! Dumb shit! Did you hear me? Get. Off."

"Alright, alright," he said finally, and tore himself away from her glare. Small girl, big mouth, he thought and jumped up off her and stood up, offering his hand out to help her up.

"I can do it myself," she growled as she pushed herself up to her feet and started to pick up her skis and poles that had flown all over.

"Fine then, here, at least let me help," Gendry offered and picked up her ski poles that had somehow landed behind them. "Listen, miss, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Don't call me miss!" She said, grabbing her poles from him. "You know, maybe if you weren't so stupid and walking around staring at a map instead of where you're going, you wouldn't bulldoze right into people." He stopped and looked back at her as she finished gathering her things up, and he first noticed the forest green snow pants and matching Winterfell jacket. Gods, I hope she's working no where near customers… or children, Gendry thought to himself. Right then, they both heard the chimes from the clock tower in the square - 5:45pm. "Ugh, I'm going to be late and mom's gonna kill me," she said and looked back at Gendry, square in the eyes. "I will finish yelling at you later," she told him as she turned from him, hiked her skis over her shoulder, and walked away in the other direction as quickly as her boots would allow her to.

Gendry watched her walk away and when she turned around he noticed the writing in large white capitol letters on the back of her jacket - SKI SCHOOL. Below that, in a slightly smaller font was her name, Arya. An oddly pretty name for someone so rough. But there was something about those eyes, he couldn't help but think. Maybe I'll actually look forward her continuing to yell at me.

Remembering that he did have some place to be that evening, Gendry made his way towards Hot Pie's work and met him about halfway there.

"Hey, Gendry, what happened? I was worried you'd forgotten about the meeting, or maybe gotten yourself lost," Hot Pie asked.

"No, don't worry about that, I haven't forgotten. Too bad you weren't by here a couple minutes earlier," Gendry started. "I practically plowed right into a ski school instructor, knocked her on the ground, skis everywhere. Totally my fault, ya know, but I offered to help and she just yelled at me. Told me she'd yell at me again later too next time she saw me."

"Don't worry about it," Hot Pie replied as they started walking towards the administration building. "It's not the first time we've had some spectacular collisions here and on the hill, and it certainly won't be the last. Too bad I missed it though, but Jeyne will definitely want to hear about it."

Gendry listened to Hot Pie talk about his day on the remainder of the walk towards the administration building and was genuinely glad to hear that he thought Gendry's job placements in rentals and tuning would be a good match. He listed off a couple of people he knew of that also worked in some of the rental counters and said that Gendry could try to meet some tonight after all of the speeches and introductions were over.

A few minutes later, they got to the administration building and were able to find Jeyne and the extra two seats she had saved for them. The room was huge, larger than any university lecture hall he had ever been in and aside from company-wide meetings it probably only got rented out for weddings, maybe a high school dance. It was decorated immaculately, halfway between wedding reception and Winter Solstice, real hardwood floors, walls and doors decorated with pine wreaths spotted with bright red weirwood leaves, deep forest green tablecloths with golden stitching on the many large round tables across the room. On the far side of the room there was a large fireplace with a long table full of various appetizers, finger foods, and desserts. The table they were all seated at held about ten people and was three rows back from the large stage in the front of the room. He glanced around quickly and saw that the tables were almost completely full. He thought he recognized the shuttle driver from the day before but he knew he was really just trying to spot that Arya girl he had collided with not twenty minutes earlier. I bet she'll be late, he thought, unless she shows up in all her gear. Glad that it's not me, I can't imagine how much attention you'd get showing up in the middle of the speeches. Gendry could tell that Jeyne and Hot Pie both knew the other seven people seated around the table and he started to try to inconspicuously read their name tags when the lights in the room dimmed. The room quieted as everyone's attention was directed towards the stage at the front.

"Here they come," Hot Pie whispered to Gendry watched the stage and a family which he could only assume were the Starks filed on from stage right. Most everyone else seemed used to this, but the cheesiness of it reminded Gendry of The Sound of Music, when Baron von Trapp lines up his children to first introduce them to Maria.

The first person to walk across the stage, a tall middle-aged man, broke away from the rest of the family and took the microphone from the stand in the center of the stage. He had hair that was on the slightly longer side, dark brown with a couple streaks of gray throughout and he wore slightly darker khakis with blue Fair Isle patterned sweater.

"Good evening," he started, glancing at someone in the far corner that turned the volume up slightly, as about half the audience murmured a 'good evening' back in response. "I'd like to start first by thanking everyone here for taking time out of their busy work schedules to be here tonight, as well as thank our many returning employees from last season. All of the upper management is very pleased to be able to announce that we had close to eighty percent of last year's seasonal employees join us again this year. For everyone that is new to us this year, my name is Ned Stark and I am lucky enough to be the owner of Winterfell Ski Resort, which has been passed down to me from my father and grandfather before him."

He went on to introduce his wife Catelyn, who stood with perfect poise next to Ned, dark auburn hair spilling slightly past her shoulders onto her dark green cable knit sweater. She wore dark blue denim jeans tucked into black boots, making her close in height to her husband. She worked as the resort's head event planner, managing the conferences and other special occasions, like weddings and family reunions, that often took place on the resort. Next to her was their eldest son Robb, who was tall like his father but in all other ways seemed to favor his mother, slightly fairer skin and the same dark auburn wavy hair. It wasn't said outright, but Gendry assumed that Robb was being groomed to take over the family business one day.

As Ned finished introducing his wife and Robb, Hot Pie leaned poked Gendry's arm and leaned over. "They're missing a daughter…" he whispered. Sure enough, there was an awkwardly large gap between the next daughter and the following son.

"Next, my daughter Sansa. Now, I normally don't go too deep into my children's personal lives, but many of you know Sansa personally or have seen her compete in the various slalom competitions held here over the years. I wanted to take this time to formally announce that Winterfell has been selected to host the World Winter Games in January." The whole room went up in applause and he could tell that Sansa was trying her hardest to contain her excitement in front of the crowd. Gendry was surprised to see Sansa also closely resembled her mother, he could imagine that she the spitting image of her mother at that age. Much like her mother, she held herself poise and a sense of pride as if she had been taught from a young age exactly how to compose herself. She wore a long heather gray sweater and a khaki corduroy a-line skirt over thick gray wool tights and brown knee-high boots. "Now," Ned started again as the applause died down. He walked over and put his arm around Sansa. "I know we've had some setbacks before, but I know that this season is going to be -"

Ned's speech was cut off by the large hall doors opening and from his seat Gendry was able to see a short girl running towards the front and then up the stairs to the stage. He looked at the girl running up towards the stage, forest green Winterfell jacket, black jeans tucked into gray clunky looking snow boots.

"Sorry!" She yelled, halfway up the stairs. "Dad, I'm so sorry I'm late, there was this problem with lessons, and... and..." She kept trying to explain and catch her breath.

"Alright, everyone," Ned said, laughing as he quieted her and ushered he towards her spot next to Sansa. "This is my daughter Arya... she really does know how to make an entrance, right?" Ned was laughing, Robb and the next youngest son, the one in the wheelchair, both had smirks on their faces, and in stark contrast to Catelyn and Sansa who were practically shooting daggers from their eyes into Arya, the youngest sibling was almost exploding with laughter down at the very end of the line.

Gendry couldn't stop staring. It's her. Her. That little slip of a girl that ran into me with the power of a half dozen linebackers in the village square. She looked up at the audience and he immediately saw the similarities between Arya and her father. She didn't have the refined looks passed down in her mother's genes, but Gods, Gendry thought, everything about her just looks wild, willful. As a given, he did know she'd just ran halfway across the village and maybe her wavy brown hair just looked like messy bed-head since she'd worn a ski helmet all day, but once he saw the way her eyes frantically scanned the conference room and the big smile she gave when her father put his arm around her, he knew not only would he have to apologize for earlier, but he was determined to find out if she always looked like this – flushed, slightly mussed up, but not that mussed up look some girls do on purpose. Unlike everyone else on stage, she was not trying to impress everyone, especially compared to the rest of her family, which made Gendry rather intrigued.

"So, where was I?" Ned started again. Gendry didn't really catch much after that, he kept trying to think of an excuse to go up to her after the introductions were finished. Finally, about ten minutes later, all the formalities were finished and tables of people started to mingle around and search for food. Eyes still on the stage, he watched as Robb walked off the stage towards two other guys his age and the younger two Starks, Bran and Rickon made off towards the food tables. At the other end, Arya followed her mother and sister in to the backstage area. This can't be good, he thought. I'd hate to go anywhere with those two with the looks on their faces. I guess I'll have to find a way to catch up with her later.

"Well, leave it to Arry to keep everyone on their feet, eh?" Hot Pie said as they got up from their table. "I was waiting the whole time for her to show up but I didn't think her entrance would be that amusing."

"I guess it's my fault," Gendry said under his breath as he started to walk with Hot Pie and Jeyne over towards the buffet tables.

Jeyne stopped and eyed him oddly for a few seconds. "That's just Arya, you'll see. She'd be late on purpose just to put her mother through hell. Besides, why would it be your fault?"

"Well, ya see... I started to tell Hot Pie before but I had a bit of an accident in the square on my way here. That's her, Hot Pie. I ran head first into her," he explained, emphasizing the 'her' and nodding his head towards the stage, "and because I'm such an idiot we ended up tangled up together on the ground. I really should apologize and I was going to try to catch up with her here during dinner but it looks like she's gone and not in for a good night if the look on Mrs. Stark's face means anything."

Hot Pie laughed and put his large arm around Gendry's shoulder, pulling him in towards himself and Jeyne as they moved through the crowd. "Don't worry, Arry's a tough one. Anything her mum sends her way she can handle and most often she'll dish it right back at her. And besides, it's a good story. New guy in town is the cause of the little she-wolf's tardiness at the all important family introduction?" He said and Jeyne started to giggle at the obvious melodrama. "See? I told you that Jeyne would love to hear the story."

"Oh, I definitely love it. I've got an awesome image in my head right now. Skis every where in front of the large wolf statue, Arya Stark looming over our dear Gendry, parents covering their children's ears because of all her yelling..." Jeyne continued, but stopped once she noticed the look on Gendry's face – clearly not as amused as her and Hot Pie. "Really though, if you want to apologize, you can come with us on Friday. Her half-brother is throwing a party at his apartment in Wintertown. Everyone'll be there."

Smiling, Gendry looked down at Jeyne. "Of course... a party. Definitely, I'll be there." That's my chance, he thought, this will give me the perfect chance to apologize and find out what her deal is. "Now, let's get to the food! I've got to try some of Hot Pie's famous cooking."

Next chapter: Arya's POV. I hope I was able to make Gendry and Jeyne sound believable. I've got so many great writers to look up to for Gendry but there really isn't too much to go on for Jeyne in fics or in the books, so I'm trying to develop somewhat of a personality for her.