Chapter 3

Jon Snow Stark POV

The first day of school is today. I feel like so much has changed since last year. I'm still worried about Sansa, but I'm more worried about what will happen after I'm gone. I applied to Robb's school, but I'm considering delaying by a semester if I get in. I'm not sure how my parents will handle the 4 younger kids by themselves. I hate that I have to worry about this stuff, my parents shouldn't have had so much sex if they couldn't handle having this many kids.

I'm waiting for Sansa in the car, and eventually I honk because she's taking so long. I understand it's the first day of school, but she doesn't need to impress this much now that she isn't a freshman anymore. She walks out of the house in a yellow dress with her hair half up, half down. She looks pretty, but I know she doesn't need my reassurance about that.

Sansa immediately splits off from me when we get to school. I know she wants to find her friends, but I'm giving her rides so she could at least act grateful. I'm getting more and more fed up with her the older she gets. I'm loading stuff in my locker when Gendry and Tormund walk up to me.

"Hey man," Tormund says. "We should swap schedules and see if we have any classes together." I didn't talk to them much over the summer, I figured Tormund didn't want to talk to me after what happened with Ygritte and Gendry got really busy.

"Are we cool?" I ask Tormund.

"Yeah, it's all good," he responds. "You and I have always been fine."

"Where's Sam?" I ask.

"He went to help Gilly with her schedule," Gendry says. "He drove her here, too." I'm not even upset about that, I know Gilly needs the extra help. I'll catch up with Sam later.

"Are you still doing tech?" I ask Gendry.

"Yeah," he says after a pause. He looks nervous. "We started this summer to get ready for fall shows." He's avoiding eye contact with me. It seems like he doesn't want to talk about tech, which is weird since he loves it so much.

I'm excited for what this year will bring. I'm a senior, and it'll be nice to be able to have a good time this year before I graduate. I should probably figure out what I want to do after high school, but I feel like there's so many other pressing things I need to worry about before that. This year will be really busy, but I hope I can figure out more about myself.

Sansa Stark POV

After lunch, Margaery and I head out of the cafeteria. Lunch wasn't very eventful, it was just me, Margaery and Missandei. The guys went our for lunch. I'm hoping they'll let a couple more people potentially hang out with us this year, it feels weird without Cersei and Dany.

"What class are you going to?" Margaery asks me, peering over my shoulder to see my schedule. I doubt we have any classes together since she's a senior.

"Um…" I say, looking at my paper. "I have English now, with Mr. Baelish."

"Oh," Margaery says, making a face. "Interesting."

"What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing, I guess. He's just a little creepy and dramatic, but you'll be fine. Don't worry too much about it." That was weird, but I trust her word.

English isn't that uneventful, but I did feel like Mr. Baelish was looking at me like he was trying to remember me from somewhere. After school, I'm passing by his classroom on the way to cheer practice when I hear him call my name.

"Sansa?" He calls out to me. I walk back to the classroom doorway and look at him. "Can you come in here?" I walk in and stand in front of his desk.

"Am I in trouble?" I ask him.

"Not at all," he responds. "I just wanted to say how nice it is to finally meet you, and how honored I am to have you in my class."

"Thanks," I say. I'm so confused.

"I grew up with and was very close to your mother."

Oh okay, that makes sense. "Oh, awesome," I say. "I'll let her know I'm in your class."

"Actually, maybe you shouldn't do that."

"Why?"

"I don't want her to think I'm giving you any special treatment," he says. "I'm sure you'll do amazingly in my class, and I want her to know that you've earned it."

"Okay, if you really think that'll help." I'm not sure what he even means, but it's nice to know that he knew my mother. Maybe he'll go a little easier on me this year.

"I don't want to keep you," he says. "I know you probably have cheer practice. It was nice talking to you."

"You too, Mr. Baelish." I wave goodbye and walk out. I know he said I shouldn't tell my mom, but she's going to find out anyway that I'm in his class. If they were so close, she should be happy about it.

Jon Snow Stark POV

We're back at rock climbing practice, it's Sam, Tormund and I's last year doing this. It's bittersweet, I'm going to miss it but it will be good to move on from high school. Sam and I are sitting on a bench next to the locker rooms after practice, Tormund went into the teacher's lounge. He's determined to land Coach Tarth before the year is over. I know she's only like 5 or 6 years older than us, but that's still really weird to me.

I see Ygritte packing up her stuff alone, and I have the urge to go up and talk to her. I want to break the tension and clear the air, I want us to be friends. "Do you mind if I go talk to Ygritte, or do you need help packing up your stuff?" I ask Sam.

"No, go ahead," he responds. "I have to take Gilly to work anyway." Oh right, Gilly got a job over the summer. It sucks that she has to help her family out financially so much, but she's really selfless for being willing to do it. We wave goodbye and he walks out the side exit.

"Hi Ygritte," I say, walking up to her. "How did your first day go?"

"It went okay," she says, looking surprised that I'm talking to her. "You?"

"Pretty okay," I say. There's a long pause of awkward silence, and I debate walking away.

"Why are you talking to me?" She asks. "Don't you have a girlfriend?"

"I can still talk to girls," I say, a little too defensively. I take a deep breath. "I just didn't want there to be any bad blood or tension between us. I was hoping we could be friends again."

She just looks at me, I feel like enough time has passed that it's okay for me to ask this. I still really like Ygritte as a person, we had a lot of fun together.

"I'll see you around," she says, starting to walk away.

"Wait," I say. "Do you need a ride home?"

She peeks her head into the teacher's lounge. "Sure, why not?" She says, shrugging. "I don't think Tormund wants to be bothered right now."

"Are you getting your license?" I ask her as we're driving to her and Tormund's house.

"I got it over the summer," she responds. "Tormund and I just still ride together."

"Oh, awesome. Congratulations."

"Yeah, sometimes he'll let me practice driving in this car. I haven't gotten to drive much by myself, though."

"If you ever want to practice, I'd be okay with you practicing on this car."

"Are you sure?" She asks me.

"Yeah," I respond. "It's pretty old, I wouldn't mind."

"I might take you up on that," she says as we're pulling up to her place. "Bye. Thanks for the ride."

"Bye." I'm glad we're finally starting to be friends again. That was one thing I was scared of when it came to dating. I didn't want to lose friendships if a relationship didn't work out. It looks like the tension between us is starting to subside, I'm very grateful for that.