Dying to Breathe

3.2: drawn to goldstone blue (unedited)

Chapter 3, Part 2: Drawn to Goldstone Blue

The week, having started on a Tuesday, flew by. Penelope found herself very slowly growing used to the noise of the city and the frenzied energy it produced. Taking it upon herself to go on mini adventures around the dorm buildings after school, she was already beginning to build a morning and evening routine up by the time Friday rolled around—a gym, café, and library just around the corner that she particularly enjoyed.

Charleston-Abbot Academy, however, was even more confusing to Penelope a week into it. She had to learn the bus route and the learning curve caused her to already have two absences and many more late notices. On top of the confusing bus schedule, she had to map out the very large school—memorizing how to get to and from classes. But to her credit, she was on time for almost every one of her classes come Friday afternoon.

Penelope sighed tiredly as she slouched down in the cafeteria seat, her bag sliding off her shoulder and to the floor with a thump.

"Hey there stranger," the familiar voice sounded out as she took a seat next to her.

Penelope looked up from her arms, catching sight of the natural redhead. Nina had been texting her throughout the week, but they ended up having no classes together. Lunch had been reserved for Gabriel. Or, as Penelope liked to call him, Goldstone Blue. They had been sneaking off to the football stadium together where he would help her study, trying to get her up to speed of the academy's curriculum. He seemed to be good at every subject and Penelope found herself wanting to be a little dumber to steal more of his time. (Un)fortunately, she was a very quick study, and he was an even better tutor.

She even knew how to find the T score from the t-test of a Student's t-distribution.

On the other hand, she was beginning to grow antsy—she wanted to solve the puzzle Millie had left for her. She had barely convinced her parents on holding off on a funeral for her sister (by telling them they should wait until her body was recovered), and she doubted she'd be able to stop them the next time they wanted to go forwards with saying a permanent goodbye to their (perfectly alive and in hiding) daughter. On top of that complication, after Chloe had talked to her about the nightclub, she had been racing against time to be able to join them. She was beyond exhausted, but her blood boiled with anxiety and hope for Saturday night.

"You basically made it to the weekend." Nina smiled, resting her cheek on her hand.

"Hallelujah," Penelope laughed sarcastically, "This school is damn exhausting—did you know there are at least three identical hallways that lead to absolutely nowhere? I have one class in who-knows which one, and I'm always late because I take the wrong hallway—sometimes twice." Grumbling, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before letting it out. "But...I finally made it to the weekend."

"That's the spirit!" Nina laughed, messing Penelope's hair up. 

Nodding, she opened her eyes again, throwing her now-knotted hair into a bun, "I'm just excited to finally see this Carnival club you and everyone else keeps talking about." She bit her lip, butterflies quickly filling her stomach.

"So, that must mean you'll be able to come, after all?" Nina spoke excitedly, grabbing her arm as she moved closer to Penelope. "It will be amazing. And I'll finally be able to introduce you to the guys—since you've been too busy lately." She gave her an unimpressed look.

Just as Penelope was about to apologize, her phone went off beside her; telling her it was time to head to the field.

She smiled sheepishly at Nina, "Sorry."