Chapter 26, Part 1: Penny's POV

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Cooper?

And Ms. Corella?

Together?

What in the hell was happening!

This was a nightmare, one of those nightmares where one minute you're standing up tall and the next you're falling into a never-ending black hole that you can't seem to get out of! Sure, I hadn't told Ms. Corella any of my deepest darkest secrets, but that didn't mean it didn't cross my mind to once or twice—there was a time when I thought about going to her over my guidance counselor on advice about what to do when all of my brothers were pissed off at me! And now I knew that truth: she was just using me to get to my big brother! She wanted to get in my good graces so that she could get in Coopers' faster! She didn't really care about my feelings, all she cared about were her feelings for him! What a bitch!

I was so wrapped up in the tornado that was blowing through my mind that I had tunnel vision to everyone I ran past on the way to my room. My vision only became normal again once I stopped running to fumble around for my room key. When I finally managed to put the key into the keyhole, I heard someone yell my name. But I didn't care who it was—I didn't even bother to wait for this familiar voice to turn the corner of the hallway as I turned the doorknob and stumbled into my room. Unfortunately my dorm room door was one of those that slowly closed on its own, so as much as I wanted to slam it shut, I couldn't.

"Penny!" I heard the familiar voice say, this time a lot closer than it was before. I turned around to see that Zach had caught the door with his foot before it'd closed shut. "Penny, what's the—"

I picked up the closest tangible item I could find—which was the geometry textbook on my desk—and threw it against the wall. Zach flinched at the loud thud it made, both when it hit the wall and when it hit the ground.

"Cooper." Was all I could manage to say to keep myself from crying or screaming, or both.

"Cooper?" Zach said. He just stood in my doorway, waiting for me to elaborate. "Um ... could you be a little more specific?"

"Cooper and Ms. Corella," I said, still staring at where my textbook hit the wall.

"Okay ... we're getting closer—"

I turned around and glared at Zach. "What, do I have to spell it out for you? God, take a hint! Cooper and Ms. Corella! They're dating!"

"Penny ..." he said as he looked at me with big eyes, shocked that I was taking my anger out on him. I guess it wasn't that obvious what I meant, but in the moment I felt like it should have been. I mean, I felt like it should have been obvious to me before that they were dating.

"Sorry," I mumbled as I went and sat down on my bed and put my face in my hands. "I didn't mean to yell at you."


"Don't be sorry," Zach said as he came in the room and let the door close behind him. Boy and girls weren't allowed to be alone in each other's dorms with the doors closed, but I didn't give a fuck about that rule at the moment. I didn't really give a fuck about any fucking school rule, especially the one about respecting your teachers. "I was just caught off guard, that's all." I looked up when I felt him put his arm around me after he sat down by my side. "I've always thought you're sexy when you're angry, Pidge."

I looked at him with the least amused face I could muster up. "This is serious, Zach."

"I'm just trying to make you feel better—I'm Mr. Smooth Talker, remember?" I sighed as I shrugged his arm off of me. "I'm sorry, Penny." As I put my face back in my hands, he tried side-hugging me this time. "How about I stop being Mr. Smooth Talker and become Mr. Good Listener?"

"How could I not have seen this?" I said as I looked down at my tear-stained hands. I then looked up at Zach. "Seriously Zach, how could I not have known that Ms. Corella was dating Cooper?"

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Zach said. "No one knew—I certainly didn't know that the art teacher and the gym teacher were dating, and I know everything that goes on in this school."

"Yeah but that's different—Cooper's not your brother, he's mine. It's my job to know these things, to know everything that's going on in my brothers' lives. And I failed." My face went back in my hands. "I failed at the most important job I have in life! I'm such a failure!"

"Hey, hey!" Zach gently but firmly grabbed my shoulders and turned me so that I faced him. "Don't you dare say that f-word ever again, you hear me? You're not a failure, Penny. You're not even close to it." Zach caught a teardrop that was about to start rolling down my cheek. "Now I said that I wasn't going to be Mr. Smooth Talker right now, so I'm not going to sit here and be all sappy and tell you that you a perfect human being, because it's impossible to be perfect—no one is perfect, Penny. You may be the perfect girl in my eyes, but you're allowed to make mistakes. So you didn't know that Ms. Corella and Cooper were dating—so what? Do you have a right to be pissed that they're a couple? Absolutely. Are you a failure just because you didn't know it sooner? Absolutely not."

I stared deeply into Zach's dead serious eyes. I never knew he could be this insightful. Everything that came out of his mouth was right. And it was actually, surprisingly seeping in.

"Yeah, Cooper might have found out about your dating life a lot sooner than you found out about his, but you have to remember that he's your older brother, a lot older. Even if he didn't accidentally find out about us during homecoming, he would have snooped around and figured out that we're a couple eventually because that's his job as an older brother, which is why we now have to be super extra careful about hanging out together. I don't know if I'll be as annoyingly overprotective with my sisters, but I definitely will want to know who they're dating at all times." He started rubbing my back. "So don't feel like you did anything wrong, okay Pidge? Because you didn't."

"You're right, Zach. I didn't do anything wrong. It's that hypocritical Cooper and piece of shit Jane that are the problem."

"Jane?"

"Ms. Corella. That's what Cooper called her—they're on a first name basis," I said, wrinkling my nose.


"A lot of teachers are on a first name basis, Pidge," Zach said.

"Still, Jane and Cooper ... those names don't even go that well together," I said. "What would their couple name even be?"

"Their couple name?"

"Yeah," I said. Zach rolled his eyes. "Would it be Jooper, or Japer, or Janoper, or Janer, or Coone—"

"It's good to see that you're feeling better enough to be thinking about something so ridiculous."

"It's not ridiculous. Every couple has to have a couple name in order to be official," I said, being one hundred percent serious.

Zach raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? Then what's ours?"

"Funny you should ask," I said as I got up and went over to my backpack. "I was thinking about this during biology the other day."

"I know I'm gonna regret asking that," I heard Zach mumble as I pulled out my science notebook.

"No you won't," I said. He sighed as I plopped down on the bed next to him, which made me smile. I wasn't sure why my boyfriend being uncomfortable seemed to make me feel better, but I went with it. "So, I wrote down a bunch of options in my notebook, and let me tell you it wasn't easy," I said as I flipped through the pages. "I wasn't sure whether to use our full first names, Zachery and Penelope, or short names, Zach and Penny, or nicknames like Pidge and—" I quickly stopped myself.

"... Pidge and what?" Zach asked. "What's your nickname for me?"

"Zach," I said quickly, totally forgetting that I'd never shared the (not-so-funny) story of how I previously had a douchey nickname for him. "My nickname for you is Zach. Duh, Zachery."

"Oh."

I quickly shoved the list of names into his hands before he could ask any more questions. "So anyway I came up with a bunch of options: Zanny, Zenny, Pennery, Zachny, Penach, Penelory, Penachery—"

"Penachery?"

"But then there was one name that I wrote down that seemed to really click once I read it." I turned the page to show him our perfect couple name, which I had carefully finished doodling in big block letters during every class that didn't have a Kherrington as its teacher.

Zach squinted as he read the lined piece of paper before looking back up at me. "Pach?"

"Yep!" I said with a huge smile on my face. But my smile dropped once I realized that he didn't get it. "Because the P is from Penny and the 'ach' is from—"

"No I get how you got it," he said. "It's just, out of all the creative names you have written down in this notebook, the one you chose is 'Pach?'"

"Penachery was actually my top choice at first..."

"But then?"


"But then as I read Pach out loud and realized that it sounded like 'pact,' I realized it was perfect because of the pact we made with each other and to seeing this relationship through." I smirked at him. "Pretty smart, huh?"

"Showing me that you're sexy and smart," Zach said as he scooted closer to me. "You're two for two today, Pidge."

I smiled as we both slowly leaned in for a kiss. Our lips had barely made contact though when there was a sudden pounding on my door.

"Penny!" a voice from the other side of the door demanded.

"Shit," I whispered as I quickly popped up off my bed.

"Who is that?" Zach asked as I pulled him up by the arm. "One of your brothers?"

"Penny! Open the door!"

"It's Owen," I said as I pushed him towards my closet.

"Oh? Is that all?" Zach said as he suddenly stopped letting me willingly push him.

"Penny!"

"Zach, please," I begged quietly as the pounding and banging continued. "I don't want a confrontation. Just hide in the closet for two minutes until I make him go away. Please."

Zach sighed. "Fine," he said as I finally managed to push him into the closet and close the door. "But this really isn't necessary—"

"Shut up," I told him before walking over to the door. I bet Zach wasn't very good at playing Hide and Go Seek as a kid.

I could sense anger on the other side of my dorm room door—it was as if Owen's body was radiating heat because he was so pissed off about something. But it must have been important for him to be banging on my door like a lunatic, so I opened it.

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