Chapter 14, Part 2: Penny's POV

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Thank goodness it was finally last period. This day had been going by painfully slow. Did I say day? I meant week! Ever since Cooper made Zach and I run those extra laps after gym class, it's like time decided that it was going to move extra slowly just so that my three-week grounding would drag on and on. Usually I would say that I'd take being grounded over getting spanked any day, but this punishment felt like it was never ending—kind of like how I felt when I ran those five or six laps (or maybe even seven ... I lost count after the first mile) before Cooper finally "dismissed" Zach and me. Neither of us ever finished a lap under one minute by the way (though I think Zach came close once or twice), but I think Cooper finally grew a brain and realized from Zach's heavy breathing and my gasping for air that we'd both seriously had enough. With that nearly two-mile run plus soccer practice, I was pretty rundown—although I didn't really feel the repercussions of running that much until I actually had to get out of the bed the next day. Maybe that was why this week was going so painfully slow—I was too tired to really do anything but go to school, somehow make it through soccer practice, eat every once in a while, and sleep—life was becoming repetitive and boring. Man, I really needed this grounding to be over with, like ASAP.

"Penny!"

"Huh?" I said as I quickly picked my head up from the desk and looked around to see Caroline, Emmett, and Marcus staring at me. "What happened?"

"You fell asleep," Caroline said. "Again."

"Oh, I did?" I said as I picked up my copy of Lord of the Flies. "Sorry. What page are we on?"

"We already finished the chapter," Marcus said. "We're doing the questions now."

"Oh right," I said as I pull out my question sheet.

"You okay, Penny?" Emmet asked.

"Of course," I said as I clicked my ballpoint pen. "Why?"

"Well for one, you just fell asleep in your brother's class for the second time," Caroline said.

"It's fine," I said, brushing it off. "He didn't even notice." I was super lucky that Ben didn't notice, otherwise I would have been dead. Either I must not have dozed off for long, or my friends were really good at shielding Ben from seeing me since we were sitting in the back of the room.

"You've been looking kind of tired all week," Emmett said. That made me perk up a little—no girl ever wants to hear that she looks tired.

"Yeah, you have," Marcus agreed.

"I'm just worried about you," Emmett continued.

"I'm fine, really. I've just been going to bed a little bit later than usual." I then slowly stood up from the rhombus-like shape our four desks made after we'd pushed them together. "I'll be right back."

I shuffled to the front of the room, weaving in and out of the groups of desks that were clumped together since Ben had let us do our busywork in groups today.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" I asked as I approached Ben's desk. He looked up from the paper he was grading with a stern look on his face. Judging by all the red marks he'd made on the paper, and on the paper at the top of his finished stack, he wasn't impressed with what he was reading (thank goodness neither of them were mine). His face softened a little after he looked at me for a few seconds. "What?" I asked, just standing there awkwardly as I waited for his answer.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked me.

"Yeah, I just need to go to the bathroom," I said. I needed to go check myself out in the mirror, to see if I really did look tired (aka, like a hot mess). "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You look beat," he said.

What was it with guys telling me that I looked tired today?

"I'm fine," I said in a monotone, trying to seem unfazed by his words. "So can I go?" Ben nodded as he went into his desk and pulled out the girls' restroom pass. "Thanks," I said as I grabbed the pass out of his hand before he had a chance to ask me another question that would make me feel crappier than I already did.

I waited until I was few feet away from Ben's classroom before I started running towards the bathroom, shielding my face as if I was Quasimodo. After taking a few steps, however, I realized that I was still hurting from soccer practice yesterday, so I started trudging along the hallway ... but I made sure to keep my face shielded. I wasn't a girl that was typically obsessed with her looks, but I mean c'mon—obviously something was wrong with my face if three guys that know me well enough just pointed it out to me within minutes of each other.

"Hey, Pidge," Zach said as he stood up from his leaning position next to the water fountain. I should of guessed that I would of run into him since Ben's classroom is on the second floor.

"Don't look at me!" I said as I did my best to not make eye contact with him and quickly shuffle my way past him. The girls' bathroom was only yards away.

"Whoa, whoa, Pidge!" Zach said as he grabbed my arm, pulling me back.

"Let go of me," I said as I tried to rip my arm out of his grasp.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Zach got a hold of both my arms and forced me to face him. "Pidge, get a hold of yourself! What's wrong?"

I looked down at the ground, hoping that Zach couldn't see my face. "They ... they ..."

"They what? Pidge, look at me." I refused to look at him. But I didn't really have a choice once he let go of one of my arms and lifted my chin. "C'mon spit it out. What's wrong? All week you've looked like, like..."

"If you say the word 'tired,' 'beat,' or any other synonym for 'exhausted' I'm seriously going to punch you in the throat," I warned him in a low voice.

Zach let go of me as he put his hands up in mock surrender. "I was actually going to say like something's been on your mind."

"Oh ..."

"Is that what's wrong? You're tired?"

"No!" I snapped at him. "What's wrong is that everyone keeps telling me that I look tired—not that I am tired, that I look it!"

Zach looked at me with a confused look on his face. "Oh ... kay."

"Do you know what that means!"

"Uh ... apparently not."

"It means that I must have this long, ugly look plastered on my face that everyone is picking up on but me. No, not everyone, every guy! Do you know how embarrassing that is? It's super embarrassing! Yeah I'm tried, but it's not supposed to show! What the hell is make up for if people can tell that I'm tired? Nothing, that's what—"

"Whoa, Pidge, slow down," Zach said as he grabbed my shoulders. It was only then that I realized how stupid my little rant probably sounded. I really was out of it today. "Who said you looked tired?"

"... Marcus and Emmett—"

"Those two soccer-playing losers?" Zach scoffed. "Please, don't listen to them, they don't know what they're talking about."

"And Ben."

"Yeah well I bet Mr. K would realize that everyone looks 'tired' after sitting through his class for more than five minutes."

"Still ..." I sighed. "I don't like looking tired, because looking tired makes people think that you are tired. And tired people are boring. And who wants to hang around someone who's boring—not me."

"Pidge, you're overreacting," Zach said. "I don't think you look tired. I think you look like yourself."

"Great, so now I always look tired! Why didn't someone tell me sooner!"

Zach smacked his forehead. "That's not what I meant. I meant that you look the same as you did the first day that I met you—perfect."

I looked up into Zach's eyes and could tell that he was being serious. I couldn't help but let out a small smile. "Thanks."

"You don't have to thank me," Zach said. "I'm just telling the truth." Huh, maybe there was something more to Zach than his douchey first impression. "Which isn't something I like to do often by the way, so don't get used to it."

Then again, maybe not.

"I didn't plan on it," I said. Zach cracked a smile.

"Penny, there you are!" I turned around to see Emmett jogging towards us.

"Emmett?" I said as Zach dropped the one hand he still had on my shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to find you," Emmett said. "Class is almost over and you still hadn't come back from the bathroom yet."

"I haven't been gone for that long, have I?" I asked.

"It's been more than ten minutes," Emmett said. My eyes went wide. I knew I was moving slowly, but I didn't think I was moving that slowly. "Your brother kept looking up at the clock as if he was keeping track of time for something, so I decided to come make sure you were okay."

"And how were you gonna do that?" Zach chimed in, stepping in front of me a little bit. "By going into the girls' bathroom? I didn't know Mr. K gave a girls' bathroom pass to little boys too."

Emmett's eyes narrowed. "This doesn't involve you," he said. "So stay out of it, bro."

"Guys—"

"I'm pretty sure it does, 'bro'" Zach said, cutting me off.

"Zach—"

"Oh really? Is your name Penny too?" Emmett said.

"Emmett don't—"

"No, but you're making Penny even more stressed out than you already did by saying she looked 'tired,'" Zach said. I whacked him on the arm—he wasn't supposed to tell Emmett that!

"I'm not making Penny stressed," Emmett said. "The only person that's doing any harm to Penny is you, bro. You're the one that's making Mr. K more and more pissed the longer you keep her here."

"I wasn't keeping her here!" Zach said.

"Oh yeah? Well it looked pretty different from where I was standing considering you had your claws latched onto her shoulder a minute ago."

"You really wanna mess with me, kid?" Zach challenged, taking a step towards Emmett.

"Please," Emmett scoffed, standing his ground. "Do us both a favor and don't make a fool of yourself."

"Both of you need to stop!" Just as I screamed the word "stop," the bell rang. Once again, I was saved by the bell. "C'mon, Emmett," I said as I walked past him, grabbing his arm as I did. "Let's go get our stuff. I'll see you later, Zach."

"See ya," I heard Zach say as kids started rushing into the hallway.

"You actually talk to that guy?" Emmett asked me as I let go of his arm. "Willingly?"

"Yeah," I admitted with a sigh. "It's a long story."

"Well I don't like him," Emmett said, looking over his shoulder even though Zach was no longer in view. "I can tell that he's bad news."

"If you don't like him, then just stay away from him," I said. "And please don't fight him. Nothing good can come of that."

Emmett grabbed my hand, causing me to stop walking. I turned and looked down at his hand in mine, and then back up at him. "You should stay away from him too. I don't want you getting hurt."

I smiled as I gently placed my other hand on top of his hand. "Thank you for worry about me, but I'll be fine. I can take care of myself."

"Well I want to take care of you too." Emmett took my other hand so that he now had both of my hands in his. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by saying you look tired, I didn't mean to. I really am just worried about you because when you're not happy, I'm not happy."

I was definitely blushing as I looked up into his gorgeous brown eyes. Emmett really was perfect—aside for the backwards smiley faces and Chivas USA fandom. How could anything ever come between us?

It was then that I remembered one of the three things that could come between us, and its name was Benjamin.

"C'mon, let's go," I said as I gave his hands a gentle squeeze before letting go as we turned the corner of my brother's classroom hallway.

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