It's Not the Same

Odd New Feelings..

The choir were practicing in the choir room after school. Ocean was now the 'leader' of the choir after the Cyclone accident. Everyone seemed fine. But then again, just because they looked fine, didn't mean they were. They'd picked up some bad habits and they definitely weren't okay. But they would act like they were. They wouldn't admit that the accident really traumatised them. All six of them decided to end practice early. It was almost the end of the week and they were all tired.

"Do you guys want to stay around my house tomorrow?" Penny asked, "my family is out for the week"
"Sure!" Ocean, was the first to respond.
Ricky was the second, nodding enthusiastically.
"I will come! My parents will not care!" Mischa said.
"Sure, I'll come as well" Noel mumbled after Mischa, causing him to get a smirk from Ricky, which he ignored.
"My parents shouldn't mind!" Constance smiled.

As they started packing up to leave, Ricky walked up to Penny, tapping her on the shoulder.
'Would you mind driving me home? My parents are busy.' Ricky signed.
Penny nodded, "Do you want to come back to mine and stay over for the night? I have spare clothes that you can borrow" She whispered.
Ricky frowned slightly,
'are you sure that's fine?'
Penny nodded, "Of course it's okay Ricky!"
Ricky smiled, a tinge of pink, spreading across his face.
'Thank you'
"Of course, Ricky"
The two of them walked out to Penny's car. Penny noticed Ricky struggling to keep up and slowed her pace, to match his. Ricky smiled, noticing it. They got in Penny's car and drove to her house, mostly in silence, except from Penny occasionally asking if Ricky was okay. When they got there Penny helped Ricky get their bag and walked inside. Penny's house was huge. Ricky had seen it before but it was still a surprise.
"Do you want to go to my room or stay down here?" Penny asked, not wanting to make Ricky struggle up the stairs. Ricky pulled out his phone, which Noel had helped set to text to speech mode, he was greatful for that.
"Stay down here" The robotic voice said.
Penny nodded and took their things into the living room.
"Do you want me to get some clothes for you?" she asked.
Ricky nodded again, smiling. Penny quickly ran upstairs, bringing down a cat hoodie and some pyjama bottoms.
"I hope this is okay" Penny smiled awkwardly,
"I'll go back upstairs and get changed so you can get changed down here."
Ricky smiled as Penny handed him the clothes and went upstairs. Ricky got changed as quick as he could and messaged Penny, saying that she could come back down now. It took her a minute before coming back down. Ricky could've sworn that he saw her blush slightly after looking at him, causing his own face to heat up. Penny mumbled something under her breath that Ricky didn't hear. Penny sat down on the couch next to Ricky. She looked at him.
"What do you want to do?" Penny asked.
"Tell me about yourself." The robotic voice spoke, "I only know 'Jane'. I want to know you."
Penny smiled at that,
"Well, uhm, I was in foster care for a while before my current family adopted me..Uhm..a lot of my foster families weren't great" Penny admitted, but continued, "uh, some other stuff is, my favourite colour is light purple, uhm.... I like cats as you can probably tell from that hoodie, and uh, I think I might be bisexual"
Ricky smiled, "Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me about your previous families, and your sexuality"
Penny fiddled with her hands slightly,
"Tell me about you now, I don't know much about you and I want to get to know you better"
Ricky looked slightly shocked,
"well, I like cats but I think that was obvious, uh, my family isn't home much, Noel usually drives me to school and back and uhm, I think I might be bisexual as well"

Penny smiled and gently hugged Ricky.
"Uhm, what do you want to do now?.." Penny asked.
"Could we watch Cats the musical?" Ricky asked.
Penny laughed slightly, "Sure, we can watch that."
Penny put Cats on and smiled as Ricky immediately fixated on it. The two sat their watching it when Penny rested their head on Ricky's shoulder, getting tired.
Ricky's face heated up, but he ignored it. A few more minutes passed and Penny had fallen asleep on his shoulder.
'that's so cute' Ricky thought and then realised after a second. He started panicking mentally. No. Him and Penny were friends. Nothing more, nothing less. They were friends.