A/N American equivalent to GCSEs, anyone? I'll put GCSEs cos i don't know what to put
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2) She's REALLY smart.
No, seriously. She out-performed Tracey, Link, Seaweed, Amber, in fact, all of the council kids and most of the kids in their year, in the GCSEs, and in every one of the end of year tests since first grade.
It's not something she talks about, and neither does anyone else, and she's never really minded the fact that most people usually act very surprised when they learn that she has a 4.0 grade point average. When what you say usually makes people look at you in a slightly amused, slightly pitying way, you know they think that a slightly different outlook is synononmous with perfect grades.
But it doesn't matter. She's fine with being known as "Traceys slightly blonde friend", or "Seaweeds girlfriend" (she's actually better than fine with being Seaweeds girlfriend), because she's never really wanted to be in the spotlight, and if you have to be defined by something, its better to be defined by people you love rather than by pieces of paper.
She's secretly proud of her grades, though.
They were the paper-thin line, where the separate spheres of she and her mothers lives overlapped- bringing home another test with 100% or another straight-A report was one of the few ways she could secure her mothers approval and praise, for a day or two at least, and she treasured the times Prudy would look at her and say "Well done. I'm so proud of you".
Grades were also her thing. Tracey had dancing, and standing up for things, added to which she was alomost universally loved by all who met her; Link had his singing career, and Seaweed had his reputation as undisputed leader of the detention crowd.
Penny was used to being on the fringes, and mostly she didn't mind.
But it was nice to know she had her intelligence, too.
It was like her secret power.