Day 16: Taking Advice

Daenerys

The students were buzzing with excitement when they entered the classroom and noticed the little trays with dead frogs on it.

Daenerys remembered that Professor Qyburn promised them that they were going to dissect frogs if he thought they were ready.

She wasn't looking forward to it like some of the other students but she didn't really mind either.

Daenerys had a pretty good stomach for things like this ever since she had to go through the hazing of the Dothraki.

Qyburn entered the classroom after the students and she could see that he was looking forward to this lesson too.

"To understand our bodies" he started "we need to get to know them from the outside and the inside"

Daenerys had never seen students listen so carefully to a Professor and Qyburn seemed to notice this too and he took advantage of this.

"Of course we could impossibly dissect a human body" Qyburn said with a strange smile on his face which made Daenerys shiver "so let's start with these little fellows here"

"Gods be good" she heard the girl next to her whisper while she stared at the little frog in front of her with big brown eyes.

"Now let's carefully break the skin, shall we?" Qyburn said and he started working on his own frog which was projected on the screen behind him thanks to a little camera on his desk.

Daenerys guessed that Jon or one of his friends from the AV club must have installed the camera and the projection screen for today's lesson.

Dany and the other students picked up their own scalpels but when she wanted to cut her little frog she noticed that the girl next to her was shaking heavily.

"Are you okay?" Daenerys asked her but the girl shook her head while tears rolled down her face.

"I can't hurt it" the brunette said "I can't, I can't, I can't!"

Daenerys guessed that explaining that the frog wasn't alive anymore and that the girl couldn't really hurt it was useless right now.

"Come on" she said and she gently took the girl's arm and escorted her out of the classroom

Daenerys noticed that the girl was hyperventilating and she had turned as white as a sheet.

Dany was afraid that the girl was going to pass out soon so she made her sit on the floor next to the classroom door and she sat down next to her.

"Look at me" Daenerys said but the girl's breathing only accelerated "look at me!"

The girl opened her brown eyes again which were filled with tears.

"You won't hurt anyone, they're not hurting anyone and you panicking is not going to help the frogs!" Dany said looking into the girl's eyes with her violet ones.

"I'm sorry!" she said and she started to cry harder but her breathing was becoming more normal.

Daenerys sat with the girl until she had calmed down again.

"What's your name?" Daenerys asked her.

"Jeyne" the girl answered softly "what's your name?"

"Daenerys Targaryen"

Jeyne nodded while she wiped away her tears.

"Thank you, Daenerys" she said "I'm sorry that I made such a fool out of myself"

"You didn't" Dany said shaking her head.

Daenerys was wondering what she could say to cheer the girl up.

She knew that Jon and Tyrion would want her to befriend Jeyne so she might vote for her but she also really wanted to help the girl.

Daenerys thought she had seen the girl with Ramsay Bolton at the bonfire that Sunday.

She knew him because they were in the same common tongue class and she had learned that he wasn't the brightest but definitely the loudest student in that class.

"You're Ramsay Bolton's girlfriend, aren't you?" Daenerys asked her with a smile.

She hoped that would be a subject Jeyne liked to talk about and which would cheer her up but it only seemed to make her sadder.

"Yes" she said softly and Dany saw her fidgeting with her sleeve.

She knew that movement and she knew that guilty look in Jeyne's eyes.

Dany grabbed her arm before the girl could move and she rolled up her sleeve.

"Stop!" Jeyne shouted but Daenerys had already exposed the bruises.

"Did he do that?" she asked her.

Jeyne pulled back her arm and shot Daenerys an accusing look.

"You don't know that" Jeyne said and she got up from where she was sitting.

Daenerys got up too and she grabbed Jeyne's arm before she could run away.

She rolled up her own sleeve and showed her the scars on her wrist.

"My brother used to hurt me so I wouldn't do anything he didn't want me to do" Daenerys said and Jeyne's expression softened "so whoever did that to you or even if you did it to yourself, you're not alone"

A shy smile appeared on Jeyne's face but Dany could see that she wasn't completely convinced yet.

"Thank you, Daenerys" Jeyne said "I know that's not an easy thing to share with anyone"

Daenerys shrugged and gave her a shy smile.

"Well, I'm not going back in there again" Jeyne said awkwardly while she pointed at the classroom door "not after making such a fool out of myself, so I guess that'll see you around, right?"

"Sure" Dany said smiling and she watched Jeyne walk away.

Sansa

Sansa was sitting on Little Finger's desk and Mya was sitting in his chair.

They were eating lemon cakes and they were laughing about one of Mya's stories about her now ex-boyfriend Mychel.

It turned out that he had cheated on her and Sansa knew that there was no other way of getting over a guy than crying it out with a friend while eating sweets.

Mya wasn't one for crying though but she did seem to enjoy the company and the cakes.

Little Finger's office was on one of the highest floors of the Eyrie and it provided a beautiful view of the blue sky and the landscape.

Petyr was in a meeting so they had the office all to themselves.

"So are you excited for the wedding?" Mya asked her while eating another lemon cake.

Sansa shrugged.

"I guess" she said "it's something to keep my mind of things"

"What happened?" Mya asked her.

Sansa didn't really know how she should answer that question.

She didn't want to talk about her own failed relationship after Mya told her about hers.

Sansa shrugged again.

"I don't really want to talk about it" she confessed eventually "if that's okay with you"

Mya shrugged too but Sansa could see that it annoyed her that she refused to open up to Mya after she had opened up to her.

They heard someone knock on the door and Petyr entered his own office.

Sansa could hear Mya curse under her breath but she was already sitting in another chair before Petyr even noticed that she had been sitting in his.

"There are my girls" he said chuckling.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Mister Baelish?" Mya asked him.

"Yes, can you copy these files for me?" Little Finger asked her and he handed her the binder he was carrying "leave the copies in the archive and bring the originals back to me, okay?"

"Sure thing" Mya said and she left with the binder after winking at Sansa.

Petyr sat down in his chair behind the desk and smiled at Sansa again.
"Is there anything I can help you with, Sansa?" Petyr asked her looking at her in that strange way again.

She shook her head.

"I was just hear to visit Mya" Sansa said.

"You're a good friend, Sansa" Petyr said "your mother and I were friends too but you knew that already, right?"

Sansa nodded and she sat down in the chair across from Petyr's.

"She always smiles when she talks about your childhood together" Sansa said "she told me that you were very close"

Cat had not always been positive about her friendship with Petyr though especially when it concerned him trying to get in the way of her and other boys but it was a small lie and she wanted to keep Petyr happy.

"Maybe a bit too close" Petyr said "and it worries Lysa, I mean, who can blame her? You look exactly like her!"

Sansa didn't really know how to respond to that.

Her aunt didn't think that something would happen between Petyr and her, right?

"I don't understand" Sansa said softly "have I done something wrong?"

"No, of course not" Petyr said chuckling while he shook his head "Lysa just worries too much about everything"

Sansa nodded but she still felt like she was being accused of something.

"Maybe you could do something to change that though" Little Finger said.

"Like what?" Sansa asked him.

She didn't want any trouble so if she could do something to make her aunt feel more comfortable at her own wedding she was willing to do so.

"I mean you look so much like Cat" Petyr said "maybe you could dye your hair brown just too make her feel more comfortable, if it's not too much trouble of course"

Sansa bit her lip while she thought about that.

She had always loved her auburn hair but she didn't think that dying her hair brown for just a few days would be that bad.

Jeyne and Sansa had dyed their hair before for a fancy-dress party with dye which could easily be washed out of your hair when you didn't like it anymore and she didn't mind doing it again.

"I could do that" Sansa answered and she added a smile "no problem"

"You're amazing, Sansa" Petyr said and he took hold of her hand "I was so afraid of asking you something as stupid as this"

Sansa blushed and she didn't think that Petyr was afraid of doing anything as long as it meant he would get his way.

He had once even tried to fight her uncle, who was a lot taller and muscular than he, just because he didn't want him to date her mother.

"Don't worry" she said and she managed to add a smile "you can count on me"

Arya

Arya and Gendry were walking through the forest near Winterfell.

Nymeria was walking alongside them and she kept looking at Arya as if she was afraid that she was going to run off again.

The ground was covered in dried up leaves which crunched underneath their feet and this was the only sound they heard.

Arya noticed a tree that had fallen down and she got up on it so she could walk on the tree trunk.

Syrio had told her to work on her balance and she thought it was a good idea to practice even harder than usual since she had missed some lessons.

Gendry wanted to take her hand so it would be easier for her but she didn't allow him.

She needed to be able to do it on her own.

Arya jumped off the trunk when she reached the end and Gendry broke the silence that had fallen between them.

"So this is a Godswood, right?" he asked her when they had left the oaks, sentinels and the ironwood trees and arrived at a little black pool in the middle of the forest next to a weirwood tree.

"Yes, my father came here to pray a lot" Arya answered while she threw a stone at the pool and watched it skip across the water before it sank.

There was another silence and even the animals in the forest seemed to be too afraid to disturb the peace and quiet.

"You never told me what happened when you left" Gendry said.

"Because I don't want to" Arya answered while she looked at the crying face of the heart tree.

She wondered if the children of the forest had really carved faces into the heart trees or if it was just some bedtime story people used to tell their kids before they went to sleep.

Even though it was hard to believe in anything as magical as that nowadays, it was almost impossible to deny it in front of a real heart tree.

"Listen" Gendry said and she noticed that he was struggling to bring up whatever he wanted to tell her "if something happened between you and... and Sandor, you have to tell me!"

"Of course not, you idiot" she said and she punched his arm but the smile she put on wasn't convincing.

Nothing had happened between her and Sandor and nothing serious had happened between her and Jaqen either but that didn't mean she hadn't changed.

She really felt like she had grown up somehow.

Arya realized how stupid it was to run away from home like that and she wasn't planning on doing something like that ever again.

She realized that she was going to become more serious and that she needed to set a goal for herself and she thought she already knew what.

Sandor would be punished for his crimes even if the reason he was going to prison wasn't directly one he had committed, he couldn't deny that he had done other bad things.

She knew he had beaten up children for Joffrey even if these children had no way of defending themselves and that was a crime too in Arya's eyes.

She just couldn't stand that there were other people out there though like Cersei and Joffrey who weren't going to be punished for anything at all.

Someone needed to punish people like that and she had decided that that person was going to be her.

Arya was going to take her lessons with Syrio more serious and once she finished high school she was going to join the army.

Her uncle Benjen was in the army too and she had heard Jon say he was thinking about enrolling so she wouldn't be completely alone.

"Why don't you want to talk about it if nothing happened?" Gendry asked her and he interrupted her train of thought.

She sighed.

"Can you, please, let it go?" Arya asked him and she took hold of his hand.

Gendry was looking at her with his usual stubborn look but it softened when he saw her pleading grey eyes.

"Fine" he sighed eventually and she kissed him.

She noticed that he was looking at something behind her when he spoke.

"Arry, can I ask you something?" Gendry asked her.

"Sure" she said shrugging

"Can we go somewhere else?" he asked her "I feel like that tree is judging me"

Arya laughed at that and Gendry gave her a slightly hurt look.

"Come on, you baby" she said dragging him away from pool "before the big bad trees can hurt you"

Margaery

Margaery was sitting in Joffrey's bedroom and waiting for him to return.

She felt horrible to be honest.

Margaery felt horrible for stealing Sansa's date on her own birthday, even though she had to admit that Sansa seemed to understand that she should be thanking her, and she felt horrible for the fact that she had to spend another day with Joffrey.

Joffrey was a terrible brat who thought he was smarter, stronger and more handsome than everyone else even though he was clearly not.

Joffrey had been spoiled by his parents and Cersei and even at school no teacher seemed to be brave enough to punish him for the stuff he did.

The only silver lining was that he had ensured that she would become Prom Queen now Cersei had had a mental breakdown and Sansa didn't seem to want to be Prom Queen anymore anyway.

Margaery didn't really care about becoming Prom Queen because unlike Cersei she knew what was really important in life.

She knew that being Prom Queen wouldn't last forever and that her real goal should be working at Tyrell Enterprises.

Her grandmother was training her for that and Margaery couldn't wait to turn it into the biggest company in Westeros.

She wondered how much Cersei would still benefit from being the most popular girl in school when she watched Tyrell Enterprises surpass LannisCorp.

Margaery imagined that it would look something like the mental breakdown the blonde had had at the mall.

It would have been humorous if her walk of shame hadn't been so terribly sad.

Margaery unlike Cersei didn't enjoy watching people suffer but unlike Sansa she knew that something like that was part of playing the game.

Joffrey entered his bedroom again and Margaery managed to put a smile on her face.

Joffrey had left the room because he had gotten a phone call from one of his friend and she thought it was a bit rude that he had kept her waiting for so long but she guessed that was just Joffrey being Joffrey.

"Who was that, love?" she asked him.

"That stupid dog finally turned up again" Joffrey said throwing his phone on the bed, only missing Margaery by a hair "he's in prison"

Margaery knew that he meant Sandor Clegane by that but she could see that he didn't want her to pursue the issue.

There was something else she wanted to talk to him about anyway.

"You know, love" she started carefully watching Joffrey's facial expression "it would be smart if we started working on our campaign"

Joffrey snorted and sat down on the bed next to her.

"Look at us" he said "who wouldn't vote for us?"

Margaery chuckled at his joke even though she thought it was immature and arrogant.

He put his hand on her upper leg and she had to keep herself from pushing him off her.

"Besides" he said looking a bit more serious "I don't know if I'm willing to compete against Cersei"

She had been afraid that he was going to say something like that.

"Why not?" she asked him while she pretended to be surprised.

"A Lannister can't fight another Lannister" he said simply.

He kissed her and she had to keep herself from shivering while he stuck his tongue into her mouth.

Margaery just thought he was too disgusting.

Joffrey stopped kissing her and played with her brown curls.

"Did you hear what happened at the mall the other day?" she asked him.

Joffrey frowned and nodded.

"Cersei shouldn't have done that" he said and she thanked the Gods for that reaction.

She didn't want to think about what could have happened if he had gotten angry at her for bringing it up.

"I felt so bad for her" Margaery said shaking her head "no one likes to see a friend like that"

"You're too kind, my dear" Joffrey said "It was her own fault and she has shamed our family"

Margaery knew that she was very close to convincing him to compete against Cersei.

"You're too hard on her, love" Margaery said and Joffrey got up from the bed.

He walked to the mirror on the wall which he probably did to check his hair before he continued.

"I'm not too hard on her" he said and he seemed to think about something for a while "maybe we should compete against her after all, we can't let people think they can make fun of Lannisters"

Margaery made sure to hide her smile from him but she felt butterflies in her stomach.

"Cersei will just have to move over for a new generation of Lannisters" he said.

Margaery smiled.

"If you want to compete, we will" she said.

Jeyne

The loud music boomed through the bar and the air smelled of alcohol and sweat.

Jeyne was standing next to the Bitches of Bolton and she envied their laughter and how much fun they seemed to be having.

She couldn't remember the last time she had danced and laughed like nothing else matter but she feared it was around the time she met Ramsay Bolton.

Ramsay was obviously drunk and his singing sounded slurred even though no one seemed to care.

They finished the song and Ramsay smiled at her and she forced herself to smile back at him.

"Now for our next song I'm going to need a little help" he said "Jeyne, why don't you come up here?"

The Bitches cheered while Jeyne climbed on stage and she was glad that they didn't seem to hate her anymore.

Ramsay put an arm around her.

"Pretty, right?" he asked the audience and she could hear the boys respond by whistling, cheering and shouting her name.

She didn't believe them though, they were probably just scared of Ramsay.

"Now I know what everyone is thinking" he said giving her a loving smile "you're probably all thinking "But Ramsay her tits are so small?" and you're right of course, but she puts out so who gives a shit, right?"

She could hear some of the audience laugh with him but the Bitches stayed silent.

"Enough talking, let's rock!" he shouted and Jeyne quickly got off the stage again.

There were tears in her eyes while she fled into the women's bathroom.

Jeyne hated that he made her his whore when they were alone but she had hoped that he would at least have the decency to leave her some value when they were in public but she guessed that that was too much to ask.

She wondered what she had done wrong to deserve something like this.

Jeyne thought about the time she had called Arya "horseface" to cheer Sansa up after her friend had a fight with her sister.

She wondered if this was her punishment because she didn't think anyone deserved something like this.

The door to the bathroom opened and Red Jeyne entered the room.

Jeyne quickly wiped away her tears and looked into the mirror as if she had just been checking her hair.

Red reapplied her lipstick while she watched Jeyne in the mirror.

"Did he send you?" Jeyne asked eventually and her voice sounded small due to the echo in the bathroom.

"No" Red said and she put her lipstick back in her purse "by the way if you want to cover up a bruise with foundation, you need to chose the right skin tone"

A blush spread across Jeyne's face.

She had used foundation of one of her sisters because she had run out of her own.

"Does he beat you?" Red asked her.

Jeyne turned her head and looked into the mirror instead so she didn't have to look at Red but somehow watching the guilty look on her own face was even worse.

"Let me break it to you" Red said "this won't stop"

"What?" Jeyne asked softly.

"He won't stop beating you and treating you like shit if you stay with him" the girl said almost sounding annoyed.

Jeyne felt tears burn into her eyes again.

"I have no choice" Jeyne said "he will kill me if I leave"

Red grabbed Jeyne's arm and rolled up her sleeve just like Daenerys had done.

"And how do you think this is going to end?" Red asked showing Jeyne her own bruises.

She nodded.

She couldn't deny what Red was telling her was true but that didn't mean she wasn't still afraid.

"Take the backdoor, I'll cover for you" Red said and she smiled at Jeyne for the first time.

Jeyne nodded but she remembered something before she left.

"Did you know that he's like this?" Jeyne asked her.

Red nodded with a guilty look on her face.

"Then why are you still here?"

Red shrugged and regained her old careless attitude.

"Where could a bitch like me go?" she asked before she started to laugh "No, I just really like the music and besides I'd like to see him try to hurt me. I'll bite his face off"

Jeyne gave Red a shocked look before she realized that she was joking.

"Come on, let's go before someone notices we're gone" Red said and they both left the room.

Jeyne disappeared through the blue backdoor of the bar and walked onto the street.

She tried to keep herself from running because that would look too suspicious while her heart hammered in her chest.

She retrieved her phone from her pocket and texted Theon.

"I left him"

She didn't have time to text him more because she still felt like Ramsay was going to come after her any minute now.

There were two ways for her to walk home: through the park, or around the park.

The park was very poorly lit at night so she didn't feel entirely save but she knew that walking around the park was going to take her twice as long.

"Fuck it" she said under her breath and she walked into the dark park.

It was quiet and the only things she heart was the pounding of her heart and the crushing of the fallen leaves underneath her feet.

She started jogging and she couldn't believe she had really left him.

He would get the hint when he noticed that she didn't return from the bathroom.

Ramsay would be furious of course but as long as she made it home safe she would survive.

She heard her phone buzz and checked it.

"Where are you now?"

She quickly replied to Theon's text.

"The park"

She started to run again until someone bumped into her and threw her onto the ground.

Jeyne accidently dropped the phone and Ramsay stepped on it breaking the glass screen.

"You little, filthy bitch" Ramsay said and she had never seen him so angry before.

His face had turned red and there was spit in the corner of his mouth.

He grabbed her arm and pushed her against a nearby tree.

"Let go off me!" she shouted and she tried to get free from his grip.

He punched her in the face and her nose made a terrible crackling noise and before she could recover he started punching her stomach again and again and again.

"Please" she said softly.

Ramsay grabbed her throat with one hand and ripped her dress with the other.

"I'm gonna fuck you one last time before I'll kill you" he said while tears rolled down her face.

Then someone pulled Ramsay off her and she could breathe again.

"You've hurt her enough" Theon said and Jeyne noticed that he was shaking.

She could see the fear in his eyes but that didn't take away the fact that he was there for her.

"Know your place, Reek" Ramsay said who got back on his feet after Theon had thrown him onto the ground.

"I won't let you hurt her again!" Theon shouted.

"You won't?!" Ramsay asked laughing maniacally "I've fucked her and beat her countless of times and now you think you can stop me? You're pathetic, Reek, I'd kill you if I thought you were a real threat"

"Like you killed your brother?" Theon suddenly asked and the smile on Ramsay's face disappeared.

"Yeah" Ramsay said softly while he approached Theon "Like I killed my stupid brother"

Ramsay laughed again but it sounded even stranger this time, it sounded almost soft.

"He was so fucking happy to have a little brother" Ramsay said "but as long as he was alive Roose wouldn't care about me. Now I'm all he has apart from that cow but if she gives birth, I'll just have to kill those children too"

Jeyne didn't know what to say or to think anymore and everyone seemed to have forgotten about her while she cried softly.

"You're wrong, Snow" Theon said smiling his old smile "he won't have you around any longer either"

"What are you talking about?" Ramsay asked him confused but Theon had already unbuttoned his shirt and exposed the microphone which was taped to his chest.

Within a few seconds the park was filled with cops, blue and red lights and obnoxious sirens.

The cops handcuffed Ramsay while he just stood there with his mouth open.

Jeyne didn't think he had ever lost anything before in his entire life.

She knew that Roose had enough money to buy a whole army of lawyers but she had a feeling he wasn't going to use them.

Roose might be happier without Ramsay especially after what he said about Walda's future children.

The cops asked her different things but she was unable to answer them.

The only thing she could do was look at Theon while he explained the whole situation to them.

Someone offered her a blanket but she hardly noticed the person who put it around her.

Jeyne waited until Theon was alone before she approached him.

"I thought you said that you couldn't help me" she said almost accusing.

"I couldn't" he said "but these people can"

She looked at him and she didn't know what to say.

She didn't know how to thank him for saving her, for standing up for her, for being the only one who simply cared.

Jeyne didn't even think words could express her gratitude.

"Theon" she whispered softly.

"Are you okay?" he asked her concerned "you look pale, did he hurt your right now?"

She shook her head.

"Theon, I love you" she said "and I don't care if you don't like me like that but I just needed to tell you. You're the bravest man I know and you saved me! I mean, Gods, you saved me from that monster and I can't even say how much I love you because of that and because of all the wonderful things you've done for me"

She looked at him and she noticed that he was smiling again.

"Dear, Jeyne" he said "how could you ever think that I don't love you back?"

Then he kissed her and everything fell into place.

No matter how many people will try to break you and no matter how many people try to take advantage of you, some people will always find the strength to love again which is all that matters in the end.