Chapter 16

Daphne left soon after her conversation with Edwina, needing to go meet with Simon for dinner. Edwina was honestly happy that Daphne had stopped by, and now she was grateful to have some time to herself to think about what they discussed. Daphne definitely had a lot more experience than Edwina with love and relationships, so perhaps she did have a whole point about "risking embarrassment" when it came to finding love.

Edwina had certainly embarrassed herself with this whole situation, but at the same time, maybe Kate had been embarrassed too. She was probably too embarrassed to pursue anything with Anthony, most likely because Edwina had been so open about fancying him, and so Kate hid her true feelings from everyone. That certainly sounded like something Kate would do, and Edwina couldn't help but feel guilty.

Perhaps I do owe her an apology.

Edwina was still hurt and embarrassed by how all of this had played out, but she was tired of feeling this angry about it. Also, she couldn't help but admit to herself that she missed her sister.

Hopefully she doesn't hate me after everything that's happened.

Edwina was in her room when she heard the front door downstairs open. Based on the click of her heels on the hardwood floor and the sound of car keys jangling, Edwina knew it was her mother coming home from work. She was about to go downstairs and greet her mom before she heard the front door open again and someone else walk in.

"Kate," Mary said, and Edwina froze at the top of the staircase. "There you are – I didn't know you'd gone out. Where've you been?"

"Over at the Bridgerton's," Kate said, and Edwina could hear that they were both in the kitchen. "Anthony's younger siblings had a big video game tournament in their games room, and so we all played against each other. It was a lot of fun."

"That does sound like fun," Mary said with a chuckle. "I'm glad you had a good time. How's Anthony doing?"

"He's good," Kate said, and though Edwina couldn't see her, she could tell her sister was blushing. "We didn't win the tournament, but he was a good sport about it."

"That's good," Mary said. "Anthony clearly loves his family enough to play a video game tournament with his younger siblings… that's a boy worth holding onto, let me tell you."

Kate giggled, and Edwina felt her heart catch in her throat. "I hope you're right."

Silently, Edwina made her way back to her bedroom. She could hear Kate saying something to Mary before starting to make her way upstairs. Edwina lingered by her doorway until Kate appeared at the top of the stairs; Kate stopped in her tracks when she noticed Edwina.

The two girls stared at each other before Edwina finally cleared her throat. "Hey. How was your time at the Bridgerton's?"

Kate blinked at her, clearly trying to gauge how Edwina was feeling. "Erm, it was fine," she said, moving to head into her bedroom. "Goodnight."

"Kate," Edwina said quickly, and Kate stopped, looking at her. Edwina hesitated, unsure of what she wanted to say. "I was thinking… about everything. And I guess I was just wondering… were you hiding how you really felt about Anthony because of me?"

Kate frowned, her face falling in a way that told Edwina the truth. "Edwina," she said quietly, shaking her head slightly.

"I'm just saying that I get it," Edwina said quickly, frowning as she looked down at her fingers, which she was twisting in front of her nervously. "I get how difficult it is to be truly vulnerable in front of another person, which I don't believe I really understood when I was mooning over Anthony for all those weeks. If you really liked Anthony, then I understand why you were too embarrassed to say anything in front of me. I'm sorry for making you feel that way."

Kate didn't say anything, though Edwina could clearly see the emotion in her sister's eyes as she stared at her.

"I'm sorry about how I've been acting," Edwina went on, and she fought to not make her voice sound shaky. "And, er… I want you to know that I don't hate you."

Edwina didn't know what else to say, so she turned to head back into her room. But the next second, Kate had rushed forward and threw her arms around Edwina, crushing her in a hug.

"I'm sorry too," Kate said quietly, hugging her tightly. "For telling you to grow up. It was mean of me, and I hope you'll forgive me."

Edwina felt her heart catch in her throat as she tightly hugged her sister back. It had felt like ages since they had last done this. "You have nothing to apologize for, Kate. You didn't do anything wrong – I can't accuse you of anything except having feelings for a boy."

Kate let out a watery chuckle before pulling away slightly, looking Edwina in the eye. "But I lied to you about how I truly felt. It was completely understandable for you to be upset at me."

"Yeah, well, I'm done being upset, " Edwina insisted. "I'm trying my best to get over my issues with you and Anthony. I can't promise I'll be perfect, but I can promise I'll try my best to make my peace with everything."

Kate looked touched at her sister's words, and she smiled widely. "I love you, Bon."

Edwina felt herself getting emotional as she smiled back at Kate, tears in her eyes. "I love you too, Didi."

And the two sisters hugged again, feeling like the cracks in their relationship were finally beginning to heal.

~/~

With the summer officially over now, the following Monday meant the beginning of the new school semester at Hertfordshire High. Edwina was nervous yet excited to begin her final year of high school, but mostly she was happy to get to hang out with her friends again everyday. She, Mae, and Penelope all had multiple classes as well as first lunch together, so Edwina was optimistic that this year would be a good one.

"We've all got Mrs. Holt for Statistics this year," Mae said, reading her itinerary as the three of them made their way down the corridor toward their lockers. Students milled around, chatting and laughing with each other as they caught up after the long summer. "Is she difficult, do you know?"

"I've heard she's tough, but not as bad as Mr. Willard," Penelope said, looking at her own itinerary. "I've heard his calc classes are impossible."

"I wish we didn't have to take any math classes," Edwina pouted, frowning as they turned a corner. "We're seniors now – we should just be able to coast through our final year taking all the easiest courses."

Mae laughed. "Yeah. Just Home Ec and English 101 and I'll be set!"

The girls giggled, but the next moment they nearly walked into Cressida Cowper and her group of friends standing around in the middle of the hallway. Edwina, Mae, and Penelope all stopped in their tracks.

Cressida was a tall, beautiful blonde girl in their year, and she was also one of the biggest bullies at their school. Most people avoided her and her friends whenever they could, and Edwina and her friends were no exception. Cressida was the last person they wanted to run into on the first day of school, but it looked like they had no choice.

"Oh, hey guys," Cressida smiled at Edwina and her friends. They had all learned not to be fooled by her sweet demeanor. "How was your summer?"

"It was good, Cressida," Edwina said, hoping to avoid furthering their conversation much longer.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Cressida smiled, her voice simperingly sweet. "Mine was really boring, unfortunately. I'm so glad that the new school year has finally started."

"Yeah, it's great," Mae agreed, clearly not very enthused to be speaking to Cressida either. Before she, Edwina, or Penelope could make their excuses to leave, however, they suddenly heard a crashing sound from the lockers nearby. They all looked over at what caused the ruckus.

It was a boy trying to stuff a large amount of textbooks into his locker, but there were too many in his hands. All of them went tumbling onto the floor, causing several passing students to look over at him and laugh.

"Oh my God! What an idiot," Cressida cackled, and her group of friends laughed along with her. She was speaking loudly enough that made Edwina sure the boy had heard her. "Who is that?"

"It's that new kid, Matthew Bagwell," one of Cressida's friends stated, sneering at him. "I heard that he's here on scholarship."

Hertfordshire High was an independent school that cost quite a bit for students to attend, so rich kids were often the ones to attend here. If it came out that a student here was on scholarship, however, they were generally believed to be poor.

Edwina didn't think most of the people here actually cared if a student had a scholarship or not, but nasty people like Cressida always made sure to make a big stink about it whenever possible. Edwina was honestly tired of it.

"Does it matter if he's on scholarship?" Penelope asked, and Edwina couldn't help but feel proud of her friend for standing up to Cressida and her bitchy friends.

"Well, I just wonder how well he will fit in with everyone here at school if it turns out he comes from… lesser means," Cressida said, the innocent tone to her voice not convincing anyone. "We would hate for him to be an outcast."

Edwina felt anger and indignation well up inside of her, and before she could stop herself, she said. "Well, there's only one way to rectify that, isn't there?"

Before anyone could say anything else, Edwina turned and walked over to the boy, who was still kneeling down and picking up his books.

"Here, let me help," Edwina said, kneeling down beside him and picking up a few of the textbooks for him.

"Oh. Thanks," the boy said, accepting the stack of books from her. "Sorry I'm such a clutz."

"It's okay," Edwina giggled, and the two of them stood up. Edwina finally got a good look at the boy, and she saw he wore glasses and had light brown hair that curled slightly on the ends. His blue eyes were rather cute, Edwina couldn't help but notice. "You're Matthew Bagwell, right?"

His handsome blue eyes shuttered slightly when she asked that. "Yep, that's me," he said baldly, turning back to his locker and placing his large stack of books inside it, careful not to drop them this time. "And just like your friends said, I'm the new scholarship kid this year."

Edwina felt a pinch of sadness, but also anger at Cressida. She turned to look over at the aforementioned girls, who all rolled their eyes at Edwina and stalked away. "They are not my friends," she said firmly, looking back over at him. "You'll learn soon enough, but Cressida Cowper and her rich mean girl crew are disliked by pretty much everyone here at school. I promise, nobody actually cares that you're here on scholarship."

Matthew blinked at her before smiling slightly, clearly grateful for her saying that. "Well, that's a relief. So is this Cressida girl the reason you came over here to help me with my books?"

Edwina felt herself blush slightly in embarrassment before giggling. "It might have been... but I'm glad I did."

She was surprised at her honest confession, but Matthew's smile made it worth it. "I'm glad too. I'm sorry, what's your name? I don't think you told me yet."

"Oh, right – sorry. I'm Edwina Sharma," Edwina grinned, holding her hand out for him to shake. Matthew reached out and took it, smiling warmly back at her. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Edwina Sharma."


A/N: Happiness all around :)

I'm going to be wrapping up this story soon, so there will only be a couple more chapters after this one. Hope to see you all there!

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