Day 3: Tryouts
Renly
Renly was incredibly nervous as he entered his old high school.
He tried to walk through the hallways with an aura of authority around him but ended up having to push pass the flock of freshmen trying to get to their next class in time.
When he had finally reached Stannis's office his designer shirt was covered in wrinkles.
He cursed while he tried to smoothen it down but he had to give up quickly.
He wanted everything to go perfect that day.
Renly knocked on the door with Stannis' name on it and waited until he heard his brother's voice telling him to come in.
He opened the door and saw Stannis sitting behind his desk.
His secretary was sitting on his desk and she gave him that weird look she always gave him as if she felt sorry for him somehow.
Stannis's secretary was named Melisandre and like usually she was wearing red, all red.
Her heels were red and her dress that was too tight and too short according to Renly too.
She had painted her nails red and her long hair was red as well.
On her nose were a pair of red glasses and Renly could go on like that forever.
She got up from the desk and continued stirring her coffee while she gave him that weird look.
"Good to see you" she said eventually and she actually smiled at him.
A shiver ran down his spine as the woman finally left the office.
"I didn't know she still worked for you" Renly said when he believed she was out of earshot.
Melisandre had been Stannis's secretary when he had still worked at their family's company and even then she had scared all seven hells out of him.
"She is good at her job" Stannis said shrugging.
Renly wondered what else she was good at since he knew that Stannis barely saw his wife anymore.
"Sit" Stannis said gesturing at the chair across from him.
Renly sat down and he tried once more to smoothen down his shirt.
"Thank you for giving me this opportunity" Renly said and he was glad the hard part was over.
Renly was currently in his second year at the Art Academy and Stannis had arranged for him to be a trainee teacher at his school.
Renly knew that this meant that he would have to spent the rest of his life having to hear Stannis tell him how lucky he had been but for once it was worth it.
Robert had also offered him a part-time job but he had to decline.
Ned Stark was the one who was really running the company now or at least the one who was doing his best to save it.
Robert was too busy drinking and whoring and shaming his company to realize what he was doing to himself and his family.
Renly hadn't noticed that Stannis was rambling on and on about all his little rules.
Honestly he couldn't care less but he made sure to nod every once in a while so Stannis would feel appreciated enough.
"And on top of that you will have to dress more appropriate next time" Stannis said concluding his monologue.
Renly couldn't help but feel insulted by that, if it wasn't for his wife, or more likely Melisandre, Stannis wouldn't even be able to dress himself.
Renly however spent almost all his money on expensive designer clothing.
It wasn't his fault that the students didn't seem to care about that.
"Fine" he said and he got up from his chair.
"Good and, Renly, uhm... it's uh... it's good to have you here" Stannis said while shaking his hand.
Renly knew how hard it was for his brother to show actual human emotion so he took it as a compliment and smiled at him.
"Good to be here, brother" he said and he left the office.
He hurried to his classroom and noticed that most students were already there.
"Sorry I'm late" he said and he wrote his name on the chalkboard in a flowing handwriting.
"My name is Renly Baratheon and yes Stannis is my brother but I'm nothing like him really"
A few students chuckled but most of them seemed barely awake.
Oh Gods.
Renly started reading the list of names Stannis had given him along with the curriculum.
Most names he didn't even recognize and some were more memorable like Targaryen.
Renly thought that the Targaryens had all fled the country years ago but apparently one of them had found her way back.
"Has anyone seen Loras?" he asked when he noticed that he was the only person missing from the list.
The door immediately swung open and a handsome boy entered the classroom.
He had shoulder length brown, curly hair and kind eyes.
"I'm here, professor" he said with a cheeky smile and he sat down in a seat in the front row even though many others were available.
Renly didn't really know why but suddenly he felt like it was unusually hot in the classroom.
"I've heard you all have been working on a drawing of your choice and I would love to see these" Renly said "that way it's easier for me to determine at what level everyone is"
The students retrieved their drawings from their backpacks and put them on the tables in front of them.
Renly went to the girl named Targaryen first and he was pleasantly surprised.
She had drawn a beautiful dragon curled up around a naked, little girl.
"It's very pretty" he told her smiling "I could look at this for hours"
He really meant that.
The way the dragon was protecting or maybe even keeping the girl hostage was intriguing at the very least.
The drawing of the girl sitting next to her was... different.
Without any sense of shame she handed him the drawing of her naked body and Renly couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
"I love the... uhh... light" he just said since he had felt like it was necessary to say something.
He retrieved all the other drawings and tried to encourage the children.
Finally he reached Loras Tyrell.
The boy was casually leaning back in his chair and gave him a dazzling smile.
Renly couldn't figure out what it was about the boy that made him blush every time they made eye contact.
The boy handed him his drawing and it was beautiful.
He had drawn a sword entwined in a rose bush.
The thorns, the blood red roses and the way the light seemed to reflect of the sword it was just magical.
"This is very good" he told him with a smile.
"Thank you, professor" he said and for the first time the boy looked slightly shy and he even blushed a little.
Renly started blushing too but only a lot less charming.
"Let me open up a window in here" he said and he quickly did and for the first time in his life he was happy that it was almost winter and therefore cold outside.
Margaery
Margaery and Cersei were sitting in the large garden of the Tyrell's family estate.
The late September sun wasn't enough to keep them warm so Margaery had turned on the heath lightning nevertheless it was more than comfortable.
The garden was full of beautiful flowers and they could hear birds singing.
In the distance they could also hear the bubbling of the fountain.
In front of them were many different pastries and a beautiful porcelain teapot and cups.
They were having a high tea like they did almost every Friday but Cersei was awfully quiet.
She was probably still thinking about Jaime.
"Do you want some more tea?" Margaery asked her and Cersei nodded vaguely.
Margaery poured her another cup of tea and tried to keep her calm expression glued to her face but in truth she was losing her patience.
Cersei wasn't a nice person.
Margaery knew that but she also knew this was only because she didn't let herself.
To Cersei kindness was weakness.
Margaery knew however that it could be your greatest strength.
"How's Jaime doing?" she asked Cersei.
"Better" Cersei answered and Margaery knew it was true since there had been a hint of a smile on Cersei's face.
Cersei did really love her brother and it was often the only thing she really liked talking about that didn't involve shopping or hurting other people.
"Now let's talk about Sansa" Margaery said and an annoyed expression appeared on Cersei's face.
Well to be honest that was Cersei's most common expression.
"She's so dumb" Cersei said staring off in the distance "she just wants to be popular"
"Don't we?" Margaery asked her and Cersei frowned.
"It's not just about having a lot of friends and going to parties" Cersei answered.
Margaery nodded and sipped from her tea.
"It's having the right friends and going to the right parties" she added.
This time it was Cersei's turn to nod.
They both knew exactly why they were friends.
The Lannisters and the Tyrell's were filthy rich and LannisCorp and Tyrell Enterprises had been doing business for years now.
They both knew that when they would graduate from college they would start working at these companies and their friendship would proof itself to be crucial.
"If you don't like her" Margaery started carefully "then why are we helping her plan her party?"
Cersei looked at her with that same annoyed expression on her face as if she had completely missed the point.
"I already told you that she just wants to be popular" Cersei said as if she was talking to a three year old "can you guess her next move after her party?"
"Prom queen?" Margaery asked sighing.
Cersei and Jaime had been prom queen and king for as long as she could remember but last year Robb Stark had won the crown.
"If Robb and Sansa become prom queen and king it's over for us" Cersei said and Margaery knew she was right.
No one would put up with their behavior if they lost that game.
No more skipping classes, no more having other people do your homework for you and more important they would lose their respect.
Just like in real life they just couldn't afford to lose to the Starks.
"So we'll ruin her party?" Margaery asked Cersei.
Cersei shook her head and put some more sugar in her tea.
"We won't do anything" she said while an evil smile spread over her face "but there's a Frey who owes me a favor"
Jaime
The football field was completely deserted just like the rest of the school.
Jaime was walking aimlessly over the field and he could smell the grass.
A whole year without football.
He couldn't understand it honestly.
Sport was his life.
He had never done anything else and to be honest it was the only thing he was good at.
Jaime couldn't imagine his friends playing a whole season without him.
They would lose of course and it would be his fault.
Well not completely.
He may or may not have called one of the players of the rival team the son of a goat but how could he have known that he was going to start a fight over it?
The pain had been unbearable but the fact that his right hand was now completely useless was even worse.
The cast was awkward and too large.
This morning he couldn't even dress himself and Tyrion had to help him.
Tyrion his little brother who had to climb on a chair to even be able to do this.
He had asked Cersei first but she had pretended not to hear him.
She was pretending his broken arm didn't exist anyway.
She thought of him as weak now and that might be the hardest to deal with.
Jaime hoped she would turn around soon tough.
She was his twin sister and he couldn't live without her at his side.
When they were younger they had been so inseparable that their mother had moved them to different bedrooms at opposite sides of the house.
She had hoped this would make them more independent but it hadn't worked.
Jaime noticed that someone had forgotten a football on the field.
He awkwardly picked it up with his left arm and tried to throw it.
It almost immediately hit the ground again and he let out an exhausted sigh.
"That was horrible, Kingslayer"
Jaime turned around and looked into the ugly face that had spoken those words.
Kingslayer was his least favorite nickname.
He had earned it when he had made an unforgivable violation against a player from the opposite team and apparently his last name had been King.
"Brienne the Beauty" he said.
She was the last person he had wanted to see.
The sight of her ugly mug made his eyes burn.
Brienne was a girl who was a bit larger than most girls.
Jaime and his friends had often teased her because of that.
One time he had challenged her to a duel to see who could do the most pushups.
He had won of course but he had to admit that he had underestimated her at first.
He also hadn't liked the fact that his friends kept mooing at her and indirectly telling her she was a cow.
"What are you doing here?" he asked the girl.
A blush spread over the girl's freckled face and she pointed her blue eyes at her feet.
"I came here to practice" she muttered.
"What? Cheerleading!" Jaime said and he started laughing.
The thought of Brienne jumping around in a cheerleaders outfit was priceless.
She was probably the most ungraceful person he knew and she would only look worse next to Cersei.
"No" Brienne said and she gave him a fierce look "football"
A smug smile spread over his face.
He should have known that that was her reason to be here.
She had even cut her hair.
"Show me" he said and awkwardly he tossed her the ball.
Brienne sighed and turned even redder.
"Come on, you will have to show it at tryouts too if you're actually serious about making the team"
"All right" she sighed and she threw the ball harder and faster than he had ever seen someone do.
Well apart from himself of course.
Jon
Nervously Jon stood in front of Ygritte's apartment.
He couldn't believe he was actually standing there.
It had all gone so fast.
That afternoon Ygritte had come to the AV room again.
She had walked up to him with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"Ask me out" she had said.
At first he didn't know if she was serious but when he didn't respond she punched his arm and asked him again.
"Will you go out with me?" he eventually managed to see and a smile spread over Ygritte's face.
"Of course, pick me up at eight"
After that she had disappeared and he had spent the rest of the day trying to find out where she lived.
Sansa had helped him find some nice clothes to wear but when she tried to mess with his hair he had kindly told her to leave his room.
Now all there was left to do was knock on Ygritte's door and hand her the bouquet of tulips he had bought but somehow that seemed incredibly hard.
He took a deep breath and did it anyway while he could feel his heartbeat accelerate.
It seemed to last an eternity before Ygritte finally opened the front door for him.
"Come in" she said with a smile and before he could greet her she turned around again.
Jon followed her into the small living room.
"I didn't know you invited more people" he said blushing while he looked at the older boys watching football on Ygritte's couch.
"Oh they live here" Ygritte said shrugging "it's better than the orphanage I guess"
He gave her a confused look.
"I didn't know you were..." he said but Ygritte just shrugged again.
"It's okay, Orell and Styr are my family now"
Until now all he had seen was the hard Ygritte but underneath that there was a kind and maybe even shy girl.
"You brought me roses!" she suddenly said when she noticed the small bouquet of flowers.
"There tulips actually" he muttered but he handed her the flowers nevertheless.
"I don't see the difference" Ygritte said but before he could react she was already looking for a vase to put them in.
Orell and Styr were staring at him from the couch and he felt more than a little uncomfortable.
"So you're her new boyfriend?" one of them asked.
"I guess" he said and he was starting to feel even more nervous.
"They won't last" the other one said "Ygritte will tear the boy apart, look at him he's prettier than half the girls you dated"
The men both laughed and clinked their bottles of beer together while Jon's face reddened.
He didn't know what to say and just hoped that Ygritte would return soon.
"I bet he'll cry when she breaks up with him" the first one said Orell or Styr.
"And then he can run back to his mommy and daddy at Winterfell" the other added.
They started laughing again but Jon quickly stopped them.
"My mother's dead" he said "just like yours, the only difference is that I don't act like an asshole because of it"
They finally shut up about him and went back to watching their football game but Jon was sure that he had just earned some of their respect.
Ygritte finally returned to the living holding a mug in which she had put the flowers.
Jon didn't really know what to say but Ygritte was smiling so happily that he just couldn't complain about it.
"Let's go" she said after putting the mug on the coffee table in front of Styr and Orell.
She said goodbye to her friends and opened the front door for Jon.
When he walked through the door Ygritte slapped his ass and Orell and Styr laughed harder than Jon had heard them do that evening.
Jon turned red again and Ygritte gave him a crooked smile.
"You're cute when you blush" she said and Jon turned even redder.
She took hold of his hand and they walked through the hallway.
"Orell and Styr didn't seem to like me" he told her and she smiled at him.
"So?"
"Well they're your family, don't you mind?" he asked her.
She laughed and put her arms around him.
"You know nothing, Jon Snow" she said and she gave him a long and passionate kiss.
His first kiss to be completely honest and he was sure he was never going to forget it.
Arya
It took a while before Arya had finally succeeded into dragging Jeyne away from Sansa and into the garage where the Outlaws practiced.
Arya opened her guitar case and retrieved her beautiful, black guitar.
She sighed as she saw how pretty the light fell on the shining instrument but before she could play it Gendry had already snatched it from her hands.
He put it on his lap and started tuning it for her.
"I'm pretty sure I know how to tune my own guitar" she told him like she did every single rehearsal but Gendry pretended he hadn't heard her.
"Stupid Bull" she muttered and she went back to setting up their equipment: the microphone and all the amplifiers.
Hot Pie was already sitting behind his drums and playing with his drumsticks while Jeyne was sitting on a stool with her legs crossed and a patient smile on her face.
"Are you finally done?" Arya asked and Gendry stood up from his chair while he held her guitar just out of her reach and looked at her with a cheeky smile.
Arya let out a tired sigh and started punching his stomach with her fast but tiny fists.
Gendry just laughed, ruffled her hair and handed her back the guitar.
"You're so annoying" Arya said sighing.
"Love you too" Gendry said and he pressed a quick kiss on her cheek.
A blush spread over Arya's face.
Did that just happen?
She concentrated on her guitar and pretended she was making sure he had tuned it right but in reality she was just trying to hide her blush from Jeyne and the others.
Gendry had been one of her best friends for a long time now but lately he was acting extra... friendly.
She didn't know how to respond to it honestly so most of the time she just ignored it or called him "Stupid Bull" again.
"Do you wanna start?" Gendry asked her and she nodded.
Hot Pie counted down and they started playing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" one of the Brotherhood's most famous songs but possibly not their best.
Arya started singing but it didn't last long before Gendry started laughing and Hot Pie too.
She turned red again and punched Gendry's arm.
"Don't laugh at me!" she shouted "I told you I suck at singing"
"I can't help it" Gendry said still laughing, apparently he had barely felt her punch, "it's not just the singing but it's also the stupid face you pull every time you start doing it"
Gendry tried to imitate her by pulling a very unattractive face and she punched him again but harder this time.
"Stop making fun of me" she said flicking her long fringe out of her eyes "I'm trying"
"Sorry, Arry" he said and this time he seemed to mean it.
"Jeyne, do you want to give it a try?" Hot Pie asked from behind the drums.
Jeyne's face turned bright red.
"I don't know..." she started but Arya had already dragged her to the microphone.
"You know the song, right?" Gendry asked her.
Jeyne nodded while she looked at the microphone as if it was going to bite her.
"Then there's nothing to worry about" Gendry said with a kind smile "I mean, you can't be worse than Arya"
She punched him one last time and by now he should be starting to bruise.
Hot Pie counted down again and Jeyne sang softly at first but not bad at all.
When they reached the chorus she closed her eyes and sang harder until the band became an unity.
It actually sounded really good and they practiced more and more songs with Jeyne.
Luckily she knew most of the lyrics and once you got to know her she wasn't even that shy at all.
The time flew by and before they knew it they had been playing for four hours.
They were just about to play "the Rains of Castamere" when Catelyn Stark opened the garage door.
She looked furious and she had crossed her arms in front of her chest as she entered the garage.
"Arya Stark, you have been playing this ungodly loud music for hours now and if you do not immediately stop you won't be allowed to play your guitar for another month!" her mother said.
Arya turned red again.
"It's just music" Arya said "let us play for another while it's finally starting to sound good!"
"Arya, this is not a negotiation" her mother said with that same angry expression on her face "put your guitar away"
Arya couldn't believe her mother was embarrassing her in front of her friends like this especially not in front of Gendry.
"Just one song!" she begged.
"Arya, enough is enough!"
They were both almost shouting now and the Outlaws awkwardly wondered when it would be appropriate to leave.
"Dad wouldn't have mind" Arya said while tears burned in her eyes.
Why did her mother have to ruin it like this?
Music and her friend were all she had now her father had left for King's Landing.
Winterfell just didn't feel like home anymore.
"Arya, you're grounded" Cat said with tears in her eyes "go to your room NOW!"