Chapter 35

Jon Snow Stark POV

It's the week before Thanksgiving break, and my parents have insisted that I bring Ygritte over for dinner after they saw her leaving the house. I'm surprised I didn't get grounded or anything, but I think they realize they can't stop everything. I've been able to put off this dinner for a couple weeks, but they have a free night where we can all have a family dinner. I told them I'll bring Ygritte over after rock climbing practice. I hope my siblings don't embarass me too much.

I never talked to Sansa about her drinking. I want her to make better choices than Robb and I have, but I know she won't see it as that. I don't like her hanging out with those girls, but I understand why it's important to her. Daenerys seems nice enough, but I still don't want Sansa to get too close. I know enough about Winterfell to know they could turn on her at any point.

When we walk in, Mom and dad are cooking dinner together. They actually are really good cooks, when they're home. We set our rock climbing stuff down by the door and walk to the kitchen. "Hi, Jon," my mom says in this fake nice tone. "It's good to see you, Ygritte." Is she going to pretend that she likes me and that our family is perfect all night?

"You too, Mrs. Stark," Ygritte responds. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Not at all, dear," my mom says. "Just sit down and make yourself at home." We sit on the couch and Ygritte grabs my hand.

Bran and Rickon come barreling down the stairs, I'm assuming because they smelled food. My mom and dad are making tacos, which both Bran and Rickon love. They're being loud and rambunctious until they see Ygritte, then they just stop and look at her.

"Who's that?" Rickon asks mom.

"Why don't you be polite and introduce yourselves?" My mom responds.

"Hi," Bran says timidly. "I'm Bran." I can barely hear him.

"Ygritte, these are my younger brothers," I chime in. "Bran and Rickon."

"Hi, nice to meet you," Ygritte responds. She seems nervous. I get it, I have a lot of siblings.

A little bit later the food is ready and my mom calls down Arya and Sansa. They come downstairs and go to the kitchen to serve themselves. When they come back, Sansa has about 2 spoonfuls of ground beef on her plate. That's so weird, she loves tacos.

"Sansa, don't you want full tacos?" My mom asks.

"No, tacos have been messing with my stomach lately," Sansa responds.

"Well, we have rice," my dad says. "We have avocado and tortillas."

"Really, I'm okay," Sansa responds, cutting him off. "I had a snack when I got home."

"Kids, this is Ygritte," my mom says after a long pause. Why does she have to announce it like that?

"Is she your girlfriend?" Bran asks.

"Yes, she is," I respond. Ygritte smiles but stays quiet.

"So Ygritte," my dad says. "What grade are you in?"

"I'm a sophomore," she says.

"And what do you want to do after you're done with school?"

"Either travel and do humanitarian work of some kind, or become an archery instructor."

"You do archery?" Arya asks. Ygritte nods. "That's so cool!"

"I'd love to teach you a little bit, sometime," Ygritte says to her. Arya's beaming.

"I thought you had sworn off girls for life," Bran says, laughing. "I never thought you'd bring a girl here."

"Bran," my mom says. "Be respectful to our guest, please."

"I'm just telling the truth," Bran says. "I thought he'd die alone." I glare at him, and Rickon is just laughing. Bran is usually much more quiet at dinner, I don't know what's gotten into him. I don't know why Sansa won't eat tacos anymore, I don't know why Arya never snitched on me for forgetting to pick her up or why she's been wearing a large hoodie in the house now. It feels like I don't know my own family anymore.

Sansa Stark POV

Everyone is talking and asking Ygritte questions, but it all sounds like white noise to me. Ygritte seems nice, it'll be good for Jon to see what dating is like. I wish I could see what having a real relationship is like.

"Sansa," Ygritte says to me. "How is cheerleading?"

"It's going well," I say, honestly surprised she took any interest in me. "We're about to start basketball season."

"Oh that sounds fun," Ygritte responds. Does it? She seems like she couldn't care less about stuff like that.

The dinner continues with awkward small talk. My parents always want to get to know our friends, which is a good thing, but it's always awkward when they have to talk to our entire family. Eventually the dinner ends and Jon leaves to drive Ygritte home.

…

Arya and I are laying in bed, trying to go to sleep. Sometimes we fall asleep immediately, but usually we stay up talking. "Sansa," Arya whispers after a long period of silence.

"Yea?" I'm facing away from her.

"I never told you that I got my period."

I roll over to face her. "What?" I'm shocked. "When?"

"Almost 2 weeks ago."

"And you didn't tell me?" How did I not figure it out or notice anything?

"You've been so busy with cheer and your friends," Arya responds. "I didn't see a time that I could." She isn't wrong, and that makes me sad. I really have been cheering, with friends, doing homework or sleeping these past couple weeks. We've barely talked just the two of us.

"I'm sorry, Arya," I say. "High school has been kicking my butt."

"I know," she says. "I just really wanted to tell you."

"How do you feel?" I ask her.

"It hurt a lot. And I felt like I wanted to cry all the time."

I chuckle. "Yeah, it's like that sometimes. You get used to it."

There's a pause. "I was with Jon's friend, Gendry, when it happened. He had picked me up from tutoring that week."

"That's horrible, I can't imagine how awkward that was."

"It was, but he was so sweet to me. He bought me chocolate and didn't make me feel embarassed."

"Awww that's so sweet," I'm unsure if I should say what I want to say next, but I decide to. "Arya, do you like him?"

"What? No! He's basically an adult. God Sansa, does everything have to come back to that?"

I chuckle, I'm not convinced. I hope we're always as close as we are now, she's the most consistent friend I've ever had in my life.

"Goodnight, Arya."

"Goodnight, asshole."

A/N: I'm back early! I got a lot of writing done recently, so I wanted to post this. Sorry this one was shorter, some of the upcoming chapters are really intense. Let me know what you thought of this chapter :).