Note: I am not GRRM. Nor was I in Phase One. Just in case you were confused.

Sansa Stark was indubitably the worst person in the world.

Arya glared at the word-a-day calendar on her desk, tapping her pencil on her notebook. "Indubitably" was the word for today, and she found it very appropriate.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Ta-CRACK.

The tip had just broken off of her pencil, leaving a smear of lead on the blank page in her notebook, and a few splinters of yellow-painted wood. Angrily, she threw the offending writing instrument across her room, where it hit the wall with a THWACK and fell to the carpet below. That, however, did not satisfy Arya's ire, so her green eraser quickly followed suit. This, unlike the pencil, made a much more satisfying noise as it hit the wall.

Less satisfying was the fact that this drew the attention of her indubitably terrible sister.

"Arya," her older sister said, rapping on the door frame as she pushed open the door. "What was that?"

"Don't you know that knocking means that you should wait to open the door, not just barge in?"

"I was just-"

"It's fine, I dropped my eraser, nothing's broken, nothing to worry about. Now would you please get out?"

"Jeez Arya, could you be any more annoying?" Sansa said, slamming the door behind her, her long red hair swishing dramatically.

"Could you be any more annoying?" Arya mimed to her now-closed door, faking a flip of her own, much shorter, hair.

Sighing, she got up and picked up the fallen writing utensils and dug through her drawer for a pencil sharpener. She had others sharpened and ready to go, but she didn't want to get back to the essay she was supposed to be writing quite yet.

"Bothersome," she breathed to herself, looking at one of the word-a-day pages she had pinned to her bulletin board. The word itself wasn't important to her, it was the note written on it that had caused her to save the page.

The year before he had died, her father had purchased a page-a-day calendar for his youngest daughter for Christmas. Initially, she had been upset that he had opened the wrapping on it, and didn't much care for calendars, so left it on her desk, with the page for January 1st showing. ("Laud" was the word for that day.) This was how the calendar remained, until April. Until the car crash.

That night, after their mother had come home to tell them the news, and they had all gone to bed, Arya stayed up. She couldn't cry, not then, she couldn't read, she couldn't concentrate on anything. Not sure what to do, she turned to the calendar she had barely looked at and started methodically ripping off pages.

January 2nd - jape. January 3rd - harangue. January 4th - caterwaul. January 5th - verbose. On and on the pages went. Encumber, aegis, festoon.

She stopped when she came to February 2nd - bothersome. A note underneath the definition was written in her father's handwriting. 'Arya - hope the groundhog doesn't see his shadow. Once winter is over, you can help me start planning our summer trip!' A small cartoon of a groundhog was drawn next to the note.

Almost reverently, she had removed the page, taking care not to tear off a corner. Her fingers swept over the note, feeling the depressions where the pen had written. This was her gift from her father, something for her and her alone. This page she set aside with care, and turned back to the remainder of the calendar. If there was one note, then…there would be more. Ned Stark was never one to do anything halfway.

Sure enough, several pages later (February 19th - uncanny) was a note on Bran's birthday, reminding her to treat her brother nicely, for at least today. This page she also set aside, with "bothersome." There were notes interspersed on important dates, an antidote when a word reminded him of a story about her, or sometimes just a page with 'I love you' written on it. All she pages she stacked up until she reached today's date. She had her hand up to rip off the next page, when she stopped herself. She could spend the rest of the night looking for these notes and binge on them at once or…she could wait, like her father intended, and savor each one as it came up. It took all of her willpower, but she left the calendar at the appropriate date, and brought the marked pages to her bed. The rest of the night she spent tracing her father's handwriting and memorizing his words, until she collapsed, exhausted, clutching March 8th - cherish to her chest.

It was these words that kept her strong and got her through the next few days…the wake, the funeral, her mother's weeping. Everyone who came to console her family seemed to comment on her stoicism, her lack of tears, like it was unseemly. They didn't know her, or how she was dealing with this, so she chose to ignore them. This is how she was until April 26th - eternal.

That was the day her father had written a note telling her how much he loved her, how proud he was of her, and that he would always be there for her. That was the first time she broke since her mother broke the news to her, the first time she couldn't handle being in her own skin, the day she slipped out without telling anyone to run around the track, and ended up running into Gendry.

The thud of a car door closing broke Arya out of her moment of nostalgia and jerked her back to the present, causing her to break the tip of her pencil off in the pencil sharpener. She crossed to the window to see who was there, and saw a familiar beat-up green car with a red drivers'-side door - Gendry. Speak of the devil.

For a moment, she grinned and dropped the once again broken pencil to the ground, prepared to dash downstairs to greet him. Then she remembered that she was just as angry at Gendry as she was at Sansa and kicked an errant shoe lying on the floor, sending it skidding under the bed. Still, she couldn't stop from watching as he unfolded himself from the car and began to walk towards the house. The intervening years since they had met had not only given him at least another foot on her, but had replaced his wisps of chin hair to full-blown facial hair. From the looks of it, it had been a day since he last shaved. He still had that annoying habit of touching his chin was he was trying to be impressive, though.

Gendry chose this moment to glace up and caught her eye. "Hi pipsqueak!" he called, raising his hand and grinning. Arya rolled her eyes and slammed the window closed in retaliation, then flopped down on her bed.

As the doorbell rang, she heard Robb lumbering down the stairs to get the door, and reflected that she was angry at him too. At the end of the year, he and Gendry were going to graduate and abandon her to go away to college, just when she finally got into high school. She had been looking forward so much to seeing them between classes and during study hall that she had glossed over the fact that she would be one year too late to achieve this goal. Rationally, she realized that it wasn't Robb's fault that she was born so long after him, but she wasn't in the mood to be rational lately. At least Jon would be there, but it wouldn't be the same.

"Sansa!" she heard her older brother call up the stairs. "If you don't get down here in thirty seconds, we're leaving without you!"

From their adjoining bathroom, Arya heard the familiar sound of her sister's lips popping as she made one last check of her lip gloss, a spritz of body spray, and the fumbling of Sansa's never-ending shoe collection as she searched for matching footwear.

"Sansa!" came her brothers' warning call, and she heard her sister giggling as the bounded down the stairs.

Arya didn't even have to look out the window to see what was happening next. She could tell it all from the noise she could still hear from the closed window. Sansa was grabbing Gendry's arm as she bent down to fasten her too-tall shoes, then push her hair back over her shoulder. Robb called for shotgun, but Sansa smiled that stupid smile she practiced for hours on end at Gendry and said something about "ladies first" and then Gendry was grinning back at her with his blue eyes, and opening the passenger door for her and making some stupid joke and calling her "mi'lady."

Stupid Sansa with her stupid hair and stupid clothes and stupid shoes and girly giggles and the ridiculous way she threw herself at anything that was male.

She hadn't always been that bad, but once she had moved on to high school, she discovered older boys, and a group of girls that introduced her to fashion magazines and let her use their makeup kits. From then, Arya moved from thinking of her sister as a minor annoyance from time to time to finding her mostly intolerable. But it was only this school year that Sansa had moved into the realm of terrible.

After their run-in at the track three years ago, Gendry had started hanging out with Robb, and eventually started dropping by the house. Every time he stopped by for longer than a few minutes, Gendry made an effort to drop by her room and say 'hi' and call her pipsqueak, which never failed to make her smack him and glare. The glare never lasted long as he always managed to make her smile, which, in turn, made his eyes twinkle.

Well, it always made her smile until the start of her eighth grade year and Gendry's senior year. He had made his first trip up to her room in a while, since he had been out of town all summer on vacation, and hadn't visited the Stark home in two months. He was in the middle of giving her advice on his history teacher that year (write a lot on essay tests, even if you said the same thing over and over again in different words, and make sure to answer at least one question every week to stay on his good side) when Sansa burst in through their shared bathroom.

This was becoming a disturbingly normal occurrence, as Sansa now seemed to think that Arya was stealing her clothes. On this particular day, Sansa popped in in a lavender sundress, full makeup, and straightened hair.

"Arya, where is my bl-" Sansa stopped speaking as soon as she saw the older boy leaning in her sisters' doorway. "Gendry, hi!" She gracefully tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled shyly, and smoothed her skirt. "How are you today?" Sansa's voice quieted, became more welcoming.

Arya didn't know what to do. All of a sudden, it was like the beginning of the one school dance she had gone to at the insistence of her mother. Girls making cow eyes at boys, who in turn tried to look all suave and ask the girl to dance, then attempt to move their hands to areas they had never thought of touching before. Luckily, Gendry was older, more mature, and wouldn't play into her sister's game.

Or so she thought.

To her surprise, Gendry stood up straighter and focused on Sansa, completely dropping his conversation with Arya, and asked Sansa how her summer went. Without even realizing what was happening, the two older teenagers had walked away and headed downstairs, leaving Arya gaping behind them.

It was at this point Arya concluded that Sansa was a horrible person, and Gendry wasn't any better. Now, it seemed like any time Robb went out somewhere with Gendry, Sansa came along, with her smiles and her scents and her giggles.

She hated them both. Not only was Gendry abandoning her, Sansa was taking him away from her sooner.

Arya didn't quite understand why she was this upset. It wasn't as if Sansa never acted like this before, or Gendry was never a stupid boy.

As Gendry's car sputtered off , she rolled off the bed and went back to the window. It was too hot out to keep it closed, and there were no other foreseeable awkward visitors today, so it was safe.

Picking up the fallen pencil once more, she removed the broken tip from the sharpener and twisted the pencil in the box, not caring that the shavings fell onto the carpeting. She would pick them up before her mother came in to vacuum next, and it wouldn't matter.

Again, she sat at her desk and looked at the paper in front of her. The essay she was supposed to write was for health class, on CPR. The teacher had arranged for five CPR dummies be sent to the school, and the entire class was divided into five groups, and instructed on how to give CPR. They had to practice breathing into the dummy the right way. Since they were sharing, each group was given a box of scratchy school tissue and a bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the lips of the dummy off after each person was done.

This was the closest Arya had ever come to a kiss, having not been interested in dating, at least none of the boys she went to school with. Frankly, she wasn't impressed with the sensation, and didn't understand the appeal. Besides, no one really dated in middle school…it was mostly passing notes during class, eating lunch next to each other, and talking to each other before class. You couldn't go anywhere without being driven by your parents, you couldn't spend time alone together outside of school, so there was really no reason.

High school, however, appeared to be a different story. Robb and Gendry had their licenses, and Sansa would be trying for hers on her next birthday. They could go places on their own, and were now "mature," or so their parents said.

Her father had always said she was mature for her age, and she felt he would have allowed her to go on a date, if she wanted to, and found someone she wanted to socialize with. She had never thought of anyone her age in this way…or anyone really. Well…maybe one. Sort of. Ish. Arya couldn't really imagine dating Gendry, but she couldn't imagine anyone else. But he was the one guy, outside of her brothers, that didn't make her roll her eyes constantly.

Suddenly, she shook her head, as if to clear it. She was going to go downstairs, get a snack, forget about stupid Sansa and Gendry, and finish her essay.

Several hours later, Arya was restless, popping pieces of pineapple into her mouth as she wandered her room as the radio played softly in the background. She was currently contemplating how the pineapple made her mouth burn as she straightened her room, as her mother had commanded her to do.

There was a soft knock on her door. "Arya," her sister whispered, "can I come in?"

Arya was frustrated she had to deal with this yet again tonight. However, Sansa was asking permission, and Arya had decided she should be nicer to her sister, so called out that she could come in.

A second later, Sansa opened the door enough to slip through, then carefully closed the door behind her.

"I have a huge favor to ask you."

Arya started towards her radio to turn it off, but Sansa gestured her to stay put. "Keep it on - and promise you won't tell mom anything I say."

"Fine," Arya said as she flopped on her bed. Sansa followed suit, collapsing onto her back and holding her hands to her heart rapturously.

"I'm in love!"

Suddenly, all of Arya's good will towards her sister melted away. She wasn't sure why, but it felt wrong for Sansa to be telling her all of this about Gendry, who she saw all the time. She also very much wanted Sansa to leave. However, before she could say anything, Sansa continued.

"I need to you get mom out of the house next Friday so I can bring him over."

"Gendry's here all the time, why do you think mom'll freak if he comes over? Every time he's here, you leave with him."

Sansa rolled her eyes at her younger sister. "Silly, it's not Gendry - he was just helping. I'm talking about Joffrey. Please?" Sansa batted her eyes and made an exaggerated pouty face.

"Sure," Arya said distantly, as the puzzle pieces fell into place, and Sansa started going off on some plot where in which Arya got their mother out of the house by saying she wanted to go clothes shopping.

If Sansa wasn't dating Gendry, and he was just helping Sansa see someone else outside of school…then…

"So…when did you come up with this?" Arya prodded as subtly as she could.

"Well, I had tried asking Robb if he would help, but he wouldn't do anything because he wanted to "protect" me or something. Then I thought that I could try to get Gendry to help convince him…it turns out he was even willing to drive me so Joffrey and I could meet up. And he convinced Robb it was ok. But I'm tired of spending all the time at the coffee shop and the skate park, we just want some time to talk alone. So would you please, please, pretty please with cherries on top help?"

As Ayra thought more on the subject, the plan seemed almost brilliant. She was surprised that Sansa had a part in it.

Feeling lighter than she had since school had started, Arya accepted Sansa's scheme, and managed to get her older sister to unload the dishwasher for the next two months to sweeten the deal.

With her mission accomplished, Sansa skipped off, humming, leaving the door cracked open in her reverie.

It was because of this, when another knock came on her door and a familiar face with bright blue eyes peeked in, she smiled without a second thought.

"How's it going, pipsqueak?"

Without a second thought, Arya dashed across the room, opened the door all the way, and wrapped her arms around Gendry. After a moment's pause, he patted her on the back.

"What's up with you?" he asked, slightly confused, but still smiling.

"I'm just glad you haven't abandoned me."

"Of course not, Arya," Gendry replied, using her name for a moment of sincerity. "I wouldn't do that."

Arya stepped back and let him step in, where they talked for a few minutes until her mother came by to tell her to go to bed.

Prior to turning off the light, she tore the next page off of her word-a-day calendar. Incredible.

Sansa was incredible.

Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying this so far. This should set up Arya and Gendry in a slightly better situation, and ends on a happier note. :)