This chapter was hard to write. Most of the Starks except Rickon and Robb have narrated chapters, and while I can easily get Rickon as a dank meme loving kid, Robb's personality is a bit harder. He doesn't exactly have a ton of battles to fight. I ended up going with him as a stressed pre-med student in a pharmacy because Robb's thing is he's initially impulsive and extroverted, but he's also very honorable which can go well with being on the track to medical school. Also, the Freys have a pharmacy because their shtick is they got rich from collecting money, which I feel like OG Walder can do with any business, and it needs to be medical so Robb interacts with them and large so hella Freys can work there too. Jeyne and her want to work a translating job, desire to get an apartment, and general chillness will impact Arya and her family in the future-wink wink, nudge nudge.
Chapter 4- In which Robb is stressy
Robb
The professor droned on and on about physics, too Robb's annoyance. His major needed plenty of science classes and while he could see himself needing chemistry or biology, physics felt almost totally useless. It was early too; most of his classes were either at eight in the morning or eight at night four days a week. He drank more coffee and stifled a yawn.
He had work a bit later, and was going to meet up with Theon for a late lunch early dinner thing. Both were bad and good in their own ways. Work meant dealing with his boss Mr. Frey and his many, many descendants that only had their jobs because of nepotism. It also meant he could see Jeyne, even it was just for a couple hours. Meeting with Theon meant he couldn't study or work on homework, but it also meant he could actually get a legit meal outside of school and see Theon for a bit.
His professor continued speaking monotonically way about how velocity final equalled velocity initial plus acceleration times time while pointing to a crude image of some kind of cart. Robb drained the rest of his coffee and frowned. Maybe he could convince Theon to buy him more.
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"Stark! Westerling! Back to work!" Robb and Jeyne jumped slightly at Mr. Frey's shout. One of his thirteen sons, a man old enough to be Robb's grandfather, smirked as though he was a snotty four year old getting someone in trouble. Robb wondered if Mr. Frey was a snotty four year old.
Jeyne smiled slightly and continued stacking vitamins by Robb. She was only there for about a month but Robb hoped she would stay. The two were literally the only people in Frey Pharmacy without the surname Frey, and Robb decided that this one out of a hundred mini-Freys was pretty chill.
"How's your classes going?" Jeyne turned a bottle of vitamin D a couple times before placing it on the shelf. She was stalling, most likely. Whether it was so she could talk to Robb or so she could avoid cleaning the one bathroom was a mystery.
"Fine," Robb said. "Physics isn't too bad so far, but I heard the tests are horrible. And I'm trying to balance that with organic chemistry so in about a month I'm gonna be exhausted." Jeyne nodded and after checking over her shoulder walked over to Robb. "What about you?"
Jeyne laughed a bit, leaning her forearms on the desk. "I'm not in college, remember?" Oh. Right. Robb opened his mouth to rephrase the question but she interrupted him with a laugh. "I'm doing fine. Still trying to save up for an apartment, but I think in a couple years once I get one I'll probably quit and work with translating."
"Oh." Robb hadn't thought of who would leave first, even though he knew the non-Freys only worked there for a little before quitting out of stress. He hoped Jeyne wouldn't quit from stress before that. "So, did you look into any companies-"
"Westerling! Stark!" Dammit.
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"Did you know," Theon began, awkwardly licking tzatziki off the side of his hand, "Roose tried to break into the greenhouse this morning?"
"No." The Boltons were a creepy, weird bunch. The family consisted of Roose the creepy maybe-sadist, Walda the actually pretty nice lady, and Ramsay the teenaged Fortnite addict. Their house was directly behind the Stark house and even though both had pretty big backyards for Brooklyn, Roose frequently tried to jump the fence to get into theirs. The running theory was that he was a vegan health nut-which was true-that couldn't grow anything to save his life-which was also true-and wanted to steal the veggies and fruits and herbs they grew in their teeny little greenhouse-ambiguously true. "How'd you catch him?"
"Oh, Cat did," Theon replied. "She saw him try to hop the fence and she was like 'What you doing' and he was like, 'Nothing' and went back to his side."
"Well now Mom's gonna worry that he or Ramsay will try to poison the dogs.""Eh. Ramsay's a creepy weirdo but he actually likes dogs. Roose doesn't." Robb shifted in his chair a bit and Theon took another bite, continuing with a full mouth. "I took archery before I came to live with you guys, remember? I even taught Bran and Rickon last summer."
Robb laughed. "I remember. You missed the target-not even the bullseye, the target-even though you were three feet away." Theon swallowed and joined him in snickering over it. It was a great moment, Theon attempting to string the suction cup tipped arrow and accidentally shooting it directly above, nearly knocking Robb in the head. It was only a few days after Theon moved from his family's home to the Starks', and the archery incident was the first time Robb and Theon began to bond.
"So how was work?" Theon's voice was still laughing but his eyes weren't as teasing as before. "How's that Jeyne girl?"
"Fine, I guess. Mr. Frey was on our asses all day." He rested his chin on his hands. "I bet if his daughter wasn't our neighbor I would've been fired already."
"Well that means since Walda keeps telling Frey good things about you, maybe he'll give you a raise before he kicks the bucket," Theon said hopefully. Robb kicked his ankle.
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"I'm home," Robb called as he unlocked the front door and was assaulted by half a dozen huskies. Grey Wind shoved to the front and began licking his knee. "I'll take you on a walk soon, I promise."
"How was your day?" Ned asked. He and Catelyn were on one couch, Sansa and Jon were on the other, and Arya was on the loveseat deeply engrossed in her computer, most likely editing a video.
"Fine," Robb called. He dropped off his bag and grabbed Grey Wind's leash. "I'm extremely confused in physics, my job is both too boring and too hectic, and Theon told me about Roose."
"Sorry," Theon called from the kitchen.
"Robb, if you're stressed you can just talk to us," Catelyn began, but Robb half shrugged and clipped the leash on. Waving goodbye he stepped outside. He looked down at Grey Wind, who sat and looked up with his tongue lolling out.
"Lets go on a jog," Robb said. He and Grey Wind jogged off, not caring where their feet took them.
