Chapter 40
Sansa Stark POV
Arya, Myrcella and I are hanging out after we pick Arya up from her fencing practice. I pick Myrcella up from her place and we head to pick Arya up.
"Hey," I say as Myrcella gets in the car. "How's it going?"
"Pretty good," she says. "Is it cool if I sleep over tonight?"
"Yeah, that's fine," I say. "Is everything okay with you and Podrick?"
"Yeah, things are much better," she says. "I just thought it would be fun. I haven't decided yet, though."
"Yeah, I don't mind either way," I say. "I'm happy to take you home if you decide you want to go back."
"Thanks," Myrcella says. There's a pause as we head to Arya's fencing class. "Is Arya glad to be back into fencing more?"
"Definitely," I say. "I can tell she's really enjoying it."
"And she forgave you for not going to her competition?"
"Yeah," I say. "She wasn't happy, but we made up."
"That's good to hear."
We pull up and Arya gets into the backseat. "How was practice?" I ask.
"It was good," Arya says. "Same as always, but I had fun."
"Are you hungry?" I ask.
"Yes," she says. "I'm starving. Can we go to a drive-thru?"
Myrcella laughs at how eager Arya is to get food. "Sure," I say, chuckling and playfully rolling my eyes. "Let's go."
We go to a drive-thru and order food, we decide to eat it in the parking lot. Arya and Myrcella both got milkshakes, but all I got was fries.
"How excited are you to graduate?" Myrcella asks.
"I'm excited, but I'm scared," I say. "I'm not ready to be an adult."
"Aren't you ready for unlimited freedom?" Arya asks.
"I guess," I say. "But I'll still have to go to class and probably work."
"Still, you'll be able to party as much as you want," Arya says. "I'm sure Dany can get you into all the great parties."
"Maybe," I say, chuckling. "I'm glad I'll at least have her."
"Are you having a going away party?" Myrcella asks.
"Maybe, I haven't really thought much about it," I say. "But I'll probably do something."
"Oh, that reminds me," Myrcella says. "I have an outfit that would look great on you. I meant to give it to you when you picked me up, but I forgot it."
"We can go by your place once we're done eating," I say. "That's nice of you."
"Is that okay with you Arya?" Myrcella asks, turning around and asking Arya. "I'm pretty sure Gendry isn't home."
"Yeah, that's fine," Arya says. "I don't mind."
"Oh, Arya," I say. "Have you talked to Meera lately? Did you get any more info about her and Bran's relationship?"
"No, unfortunately not," Arya says. "I texted her a couple times, but that didn't come up. I didn't want to seem too nosy."
"Why do you need info on Bran's girlfriend?" Myrcella asks.
"She made a comment to me saying that sometimes all Bran wants to do is make out," Arya says. "I've caught them kissing, and I just worry he's pressuring her."
"We've said we're going to beat him up if he is," I say. "Arya, you should interrogate Bran about it."
"I might," she says. "I bet if I ask, he'd tell me."
Arya is much closer to our younger brothers than I am, it would be easier for her to get the truth out of Bran than if I tried to.
"Let me know the info," Myrcella says. "I'm invested now."
Arya and I laugh at that, and we finish eating. "Are you ready to go to your place?" I ask.
"Sure," Myrcella says. "I can still hang with you at your place after, right?"
"Of course," I say. "And you can sleep over if you want."
"Thanks," she says. "Let's go."
We head back to Myrcella's place, it's nice to get time together to hang out. I'm definitely going to miss this when I go off to college, I'm not ready for time with my friends to end. There will be good things about going to college and growing up, but it'll still be hard to adjust to.
Arya Stark POV
We pull up to Myrcella's place, and my heart starts pounding when I see all the cars out front. That means Gendry is here.
"Oh shit," Myrcella says. "I didn't think Gendry would be here."
Sansa turns to me. "Do you want to wait in the car?"
"No," I say. "I'll need to face him eventually, I can be civil."
We get out of the car and start to walk towards the apartment. I lied, I'm actually dreading this. But I meant what I said, I can't let him hold me back. We walk in, and Gendry and Podrick are on the couch.
"Hey guys," Gendry says when he sees Myrcella ans Sansa. He doesn't know that I'm there until he sees me walk in behind them. "Oh, hi Arya."
"Hi Gendry," I say. "How are you?"
"I'm okay," he says. "I didn't expect you guys to stop by."
"I'm just popping in to get something," Myrcella says. "We'll be out of your hair soon."
"You're fine," Podrick says. "Do you know when you'll be back."
"Not exactly," Myrcella says, putting her bag down. "I'll text you if I decide to stay at Sansa's place."
"Okay," Podrick says. "Sounds good."
Myrcella starts to dig around the apartment to look for the jacket and skirt she wants to give to Sansa. She goes into her room to see if it's in there.
"How's school?" Gendry asks, looking at me.
"It's good," I say. "Tech is fine, but boring without you."
"I bet," he says, laughing. "Sometimes I miss it."
"You do?" I ask. He nods. "How's trade school?"
"It's fine," he says. "Hopefully I can finish my certification and get an internship after next year."
"I hope you do," I say. "That sounds fun."
Gendry smiles at me, maybe this isn't as awkward as I was expecting. Podrick gets up and starts to go into him and Myrcella's room.
"Oh, Pod," Gendry says, stopping him. "Can you get me that book on fortunes that you had in high school? Remember I said I wanted to show it to Maggy."
"Oh, right," Podrick says, going into his room. "I forgot you were still talking to her."
"Who's Maggy?" Sansa asks.
Gendry pauses and looks at her. "Oh, just a girl I met at this coffee shop I like to go to," he says. "She works there, it's a place some guys from school and I like to go to since they have board games."
"Oh," Sansa says. I can tell she's embarassed she asked. "I was just curious."
"She's really into astrology and fortune telling," Gendry says. "It's really cool, and I knew Podrick had that book so I wanted to show her."
I can feel my face heating up, why did he think to bring that up right now? Myrcella walks out of the room with the outfit around the same time Podrick walks out with the book.
"I found it," Myrcella says to Sansa. "It was buried."
"Here's the book," Podrick says, handing it to Gendry. "Just bring it back to me when you're done."
"What's that for?" Myrcella asks.
"I want to show Maggy," Gendry says. "We're meeting up again tomorrow."
Myrcella pauses. "Oh," she says. She clears her throat and turns to me and Sansa. "Are you guys ready."
"Yeah," Sansa immediately jumps in to say. "Let's go. Good to see you guys."
"You too," Podrick says. "Bye guys."
Myrcella gives Podrick a kiss, and we walk out of the apartment and head to the car, I'm pretty upset and I'm trying to stay calm.
"I'm sorry Arya," Myrcella says as we're walking to the car. "I didn't realize he was still talking to her."
"So you knew about it?" I ask.
"I knew he went met up with someone once or twice," she says. "But I didn't really think much of it because he didn't really talk about it." We get into the car.
"I can't believe he's seeing someone," I say. "I really didn't expect that."
"You didn't expect him to move on at some point?" Sansa asks.
"I guess I just never thought about it," I say. "And it still hurts to know for sure."
"I get that," Sansa says. "It seems like it took him a while to move on and get over you."
"It definitely did," Myrcella says. She turns to me. "He wrote a song about you."
"Yeah," she says. "He played it outside one night for me and Podrick."
"Really?" I ask.
"Yeah," she says. "He didn't say it was about you, but I could tell. Maybe that's what he needed to do to feel like he could move on."
"What was in the song?" Sansa asks.
"The lyrics were about you two being in love," she says. "But he wondered if either of you were mature enough to know what love is."
"He may have a point," I say. "I thought we were in love, but he definitely acts younger than he is."
"That's interesting," Sansa says. "You definitely act older than you are."
"The song also said he didn't see what everyone else saw in the relationship," Myrcella says. "He just saw love."
"What does that mean?" Sansa asks.
"Maybe it meant he didn't see the disapproval so many other people saw in us being together," I say. "I know he didn't see things the way our parents, Jon or Margaery saw them."
"That's probably it," Myrcella says. "I'm sorry, Arya."
"It is what it is," I say. "I can't change it."
Sansa turns around to look at me. "Are you going to be okay?" She says.
"Yeah," I say. "I will. Let's just go." They don't seem sure about that, but Sansa starts the car and we drive away.
I hate that Gendry is seeing someone else, but I can't stop him. I guess it makes sense, I can't expect him to just wait around for me to get older. I don't know when we'll get back together, if ever. It just hurts.
It means a lot that he wrote a song about me, it tells me that our relationship was deep. Maybe I should avoid seeing him if I can in the future. This interaction didn't go well, and it just hurt me more. I want him to be happy, but I think for us to both be happy we need to just avoid each other.
Daenerys Targaryen POV
It's Jon and I's third anniversary, but we're back on campus now. It sucks that we can barely even focus on that with everything that's been going on. I hope we can take today and just relax and enjoy each other's company. I'm not sure what we'll do, I know we should've thought about earlier.
I ordered his gift, but it shouldn't be here for a few more days. He's been talking about this watch he's been wanting, so that's what I got him. He doesn't know I got it for him, so it'll be a nice surprise.
I wake up, and Jon isn't in bed with me. I sit up, and it doesn't take me long to see him in the kitchen making something. I can also smell it. "What are you doing?" I ask him.
"Just making some pancakes," he says. "Happy anniversary."
"You too," I say, getting up and walking over to him. I give him a hug from behind. "I ordered your gift, but it won't be here for a bit."
"That's okay," he says, putting down his spatula and giving me a kiss. "You have the day off right?"
"Yeah," I say. "I just have my afternoon classes, but I'll be done by 4."
"Same," he says. "What do you want to do?"
"Maybe we could have an early dinner and then go for a sunset walk," I say. "I know it's not much, but maybe it'll be nice."
"That does sound nice," he says. "Do you want to go to that Italian place you like?"
I smile at him. "That sounds great."
We get ready and head to the stuff we have to do for the day. We may not have planned on what to do for our anniversary much, but we both remembered and it does mean something to us. We just have a lot going on, it sucks that this is happening at such a sucky time.
…
Jon and I head to the restaurant after we get home from class, and I actually get dressed up in a black dress and do my makeup. The place isn't super fancy, but it makes it feel more special. Jon smiles at me when he sees what I'm wearing.
"You look gorgeous," he says. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah," I say. "Thank you."
I take his hand and we head to the restaurant. We get there, and I actually get a cocktail since I'm 21 now and he drove.
"How was class?" I ask him.
"It was fine," he says. "I missed you though."
"I missed you more," I say. "What are you going to get?"
"I kinda want to try the lasagna," he says. "What about you?"
"Maybe the gnocchi," I say. "I haven't tried that from here yet."
We order our food, and Jon grabs my hand from across the table. "You know I love you right?"
"Of course, I love you too," I say. "Why wouldn't I know that?"
"I just didn't want you to think I didn't care about our anniversary," he says. "I feel bad that I didn't plan anything special, I feel like a bad boyfriend."
"I didn't plan anything either," I say. "Am I a bad girlfriend?"
"No," he says. "I just want to make sure I'm being attentive, I know I've struggled with that in the past."
It surprises me that he brought that up, that was an issue in our relationship a while back. It means a lot to me that he's still thinking about that and actively avoiding that issues happening again. He is a good boyfriend.
"You're fine," I say. "We've both been dealing with a lot."
We finish our meal, and we even order dessert. He pays and the sun is setting as we're leaving, it's the perfect time for our walk. We walk to a nearby park and hold hands.
"Do you know when the DNA results will come in?" I ask him as we've been walking in silence for a while.
"No, not for sure," he says. "But I know it'll at least be several weeks."
"Be sure to tell me what it says," I say. "I know your dad told you, but I still want to know for sure."
"Of course I will."
There's another pause. "Are you going to reach out to your biological father if what your dad told you is true?" I ask him.
"I haven't decided," he says. "My dad says I shouldn't, but I may at least want to find out who he is."
"I get that," I say. "I'll support you no matter what you decide."
"Thank you," he says. We stop and kiss, and then we keep walking. "Are you going to reach out to Cersei at all?"
"No," I say. "But I'm sure she'll call me."
"And you're going to answer?"
"Yeah," I say. "I'll tell her that I talked to Jaime, and that I don't want to be friends anymore."
"Are you worried about how she'll take it?"
"Yeah," I say. "I know she needs friends right now, but I can't have her toxicity in my life."
"I agree," Jon says. "I think she's contributed negatively to your life for a long time."
"I know that," I say. "It's just hard because we literally went through everything together. It may be hard to believe, but she got me through middle and high school and she was my voice of reason for a long time."
"I understand it's hard to give up a lifelong friendship," Jon says. "I can't imagine having to cut off contact with Sam."
"We always talked about being each other's maids of honor and being there when we had kids," I say. "I really thought that would happen."
"There's no way you could forgive her?" Jon asks me. It's a weird question, especially since I know he wouldn't want me to keep her in my life.
"I can't trust her ever again," I say. "I can't keep someone in my life who's willing to hurt people so easily, especially people I care about."
"We'll always have each other," he says. "I know you can make new friends, and I want you to. Just good ones this time."
"Thank you," I say. "I know we can do it."
Jon and I go home and have some nice anniversary sex, I'm glad we were still able to have a good night despite everything that's been going on. I do want to make new friends soon, and I know Jon wants that for me too. We have each other and that's amazing, but I know it's important to have platonic friends.
As much as this hurts and I know it'll take a while to make peace with, I know I can't have Cersei in my life anymore. Part of me wants to be able to forgive her, but I would be looking at her forever wondering what else she could be capable of. That's not a good energy to have around.
A/N: I wasn't sure when to announce this, but now is as good of a time as any. Part 4 is going to be the final installment of Winterfell High. I've known for a while that this would be the last part, I just feel like it's coming to a natural end.
I'm not sure how many chapters are left, but it'll most likely stop at the end of this installment's Summer vacation. I wanted to ask you guys: What plot points do you most want to see resolved? I want to end this right, and I want to make sure I have no unfinished business. Please let me know, I always really love hearing your feedback.
