A/N: Decided to be a little unpredictable and have some different POVs! Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Joffrey POV

For a moment, I'm frozen. It's as if Robb's hand was still there, pushing me up against the lockers. I put on my best "strong" face for the remaining onlookers, the usual façade of bravado I use to make people listen to me, but inside I'm stunned. There was I, thinking that the Stark family were too tied up in their naïve morals to do anything dangerous, that I could have them all under my thumb in an instant, just like I can with everyone else. Then one of them comes along and beats me up. Everything I thought I knew is wrong. It sounds clichéd, but it's the truth right now.

There are some people in this world who aren't scared of me. Who won't be silenced by one word from my mouth. Who I can't make bow down to my every command with a single authoritative stare. It's a new revelation, and a frightening one.

Shut up, Joffrey, I tell my conflicted mind. What would your mother say if she knew you were thinking like this? She'd be disappointed. You are a Lannister, so act like one. Throughout my life, my mother has told me that if I make people afraid of me, I won't get hurt, and that's a strategy that's worked up until now. The problem is, though, she had perhaps too much faith in me, and she never told me what to do when it doesn't work.

However, there is something else she always told me, right from when I was very young: a Lannister ALWAYS pays his debts. When I was still a child, I used to think that she was giving me some practical monetary advice for when I eventually inherit the Lannister family business, but now, of course, I see her true meaning. And never more clearly than today. I obviously can't pay my debt to Robb by fighting him; I'd lose in an instant. So I have to get my revenge some other way. And walking into History class, I have a few ideas.

I don't know her name. I've always referred to her in my head as "the innocent-looking ginger one" or "the quieter Stark girl", or something along those lines. In fact, I don't know very much about her at all. Other than, of course, that she is the most effective way to make Robb sorry for what he did to a Lannister.

Sansa POV

For me, the secret of avoiding being hurt is living in denial. Somebody isn't who he or she said they were? Focus on why you liked them in the first place. Lose someone? Focus on everyone who's still here. People always look at me with condescending eyes when I say things like this, like I'm an innocent little girl trying to give much wiser people advice, and perhaps I am still a little naïve (after all, I'm still only fifteen), but my denial strategy always seems to work. That, and the values of honour and justice that come with being a member of the Stark family.

I walk into History class, and sit somewhere inconspicuous. It's not that I don't want the teacher to notice me, which is usually why people sit to the side or at the back of classrooms – the teacher, in fact, is Miss Mordane, a kindly older woman who's always shown admiration and warmth towards me and Arya. Rather, it's part of my "living in denial" strategy. Robb apparently got into a fight with Joffrey Lannister earlier today, and no one seems to know why. I wasn't there to watch – I tend to shy away from big crowds of rowdy onlookers – but I feel like everyone's questions will be directed at the sister of the instigator, and if I hide away from those questions, and pretend nothing ever happened, then perhaps everyone will forget about it, and my family and I won't be in the Iron Throne High limelight for long.

And my luck seems to be getting even better, because a boy comes to sit next to me. And it's Joffrey Lannister.

Joffrey, who my brother just picked a fight with. Joffrey, who has just executed the quickest act of forgiveness I've ever been witness to. Everyone in the school just watched him be slammed against the wall and punched in the face (there are still traces of blood around his nose), by an older boy twice his size, and yet he very openly sits next to that same boy's sister in his next class? Unheard of. And then, even more strangely, he starts talking to me.

"Hey," Joffrey whispers. "God, she's dull, isn't she?" he continues, his blonde head inclined towards Miss Mordane and her passionate monologue about the English Civil War.

"So boring." I sigh in reply. I actually find Miss Mordane one of the more tolerable teachers in this school, but given the day's events, Joffrey doesn't seem like a great person to argue with. And even if the fight hadn't happened, Joffrey is the still the most popular boy at Iron Throne High, so I don't want to waste a rare, sought-after interaction with him on a pointless disagreement about a teacher.

"I didn't catch your name." He says, after a while. I hesitate before replying; I'd like to say my name is Sansa Stark, to honour one of the most respected names in Westeros, to do the proper duty to my late father, to do justice to Stark Inc., our family company, the continuation and success of which meant so much to my brother. But saying I share a surname with his attacker might alienate Joffrey, and whatever opportunities I might have had with him would be lost.

"Is that a hard one?" he asks, noticing my hesitation, a somewhat cruel smirk appearing on his face. No! He's not cruel, I hurriedly scold myself, he's just laughing at you because you're an idiot and can't think of one answer to his simple question.

I laugh light-heartedly, to rid myself of the confused loyalties inside of me. "Sansa." I finally say. Who knows what kind of awkward situations I could get myself into if I used my surname?

He either doesn't see my hands shaking, or he chooses to ignore it. "It seems we've never met before, Sansa." He says, emphasis on my name. "I've heard great things about you." From where?, I wonder. It's probably just his way of impressing me. We exchange casual conversation like this for most of the class, about school, people in our form, music, and the like, until he startles me."So listen, I was going to invite a bunch of my friends, Meryn, Boros, people like that, around to mine this weekend, to celebrate the new school year, and you seem nice, so I thought you might like to come too. You know where I live, right? Casterly Road, in the Lannisport area?" Lannisport. The RICH area. The LANNISTER area. "Nothing serious, obviously, we've only just met. But my mother said I needed new friends, and you seem the right type." He raises his eyebrows, and I look at him for just a moment, but it's enough. His blonde hair and green eyes that I can't help staring at, even though I know they're conventionally "Lannister" features, how accepting he's been of me during this class, the escape he provides from my current problem of how to deal with what Robb did, everything about him compels me into replying:

"Sure. I'm probably free Saturday. By the way, I'm sorry about what happened to you earlier."

"It's nothing. You think I haven't had some coward throw a punch at me before?"

I frown a little at this, but hide it in a giggle. There's finally a boy here who takes an interest in you, Sansa. And the best part is, he hasn't yet asked for your surname. I sigh inwardly, at this reminder of the problem that is my family. How will they react to me befriending a Lannister? And what will he say when he realises I'm a Stark?