If I Never Knew You

Chapter 6: School

If I never knew you

Chapter 6

School

Penny was glad she didn't have those mean girls in her class. She was actually able to enjoy it. Well sort of, it was school after all. A lot of the day was incredibly boring and mostly reading through the handbook.

Her lunch however ended up seeing her again from across their assigned seat lunches. So she watched the girls point and laugh at her with a few of the guys. Penny couldn't care anymore then she already did. She actually made a few friends herself.

One of which had gone to preschool with the girl and she wasn't a good person back then either.

"Yeah, her mom lets her dye her hair that color so she looks more like her rather than her dad." Penny was half listening to what they were saying. She smiled down at the note that her uncle left in her lunch.

"What's up, Penny?" One asked with a smile. Penny wiggled the sticky note before stuffing it into the folds of the lunch box.

"Just a note from my uncle." She told them, at the beginning of the day everyone in class stood up and introduced themselves and told everyone what their parents did for work. So it wasn't a mystery that her uncle was the infamous Inspector Gadget and was currently her constant caregiver.

"Its so sweet that he write you a note. You two must be close." She said as she stuffed a chip into her mouth.

"He's all I have," Penny told them truthfully.

"You know everyone at the police station too though right?" Another much younger girl who had skipped preschool because of her smarts.

Penny shook her head and shrugged.

"I know some of them, others not so much. Just the desk staff mostly. Oh and the chief. He's been part of my family since I was born."

The girls got quiet for a moment and gasped just as Penny felt something cold slip down her shirt.

"Oh that looks better doesn't it?" Penny felt a chill go down her spine as she felt the jello go into the crevices of her shirt. Penny turned around and stood up practically in the mean girl's face. Yet she did nothing, but gave a soft crooked smile. Everyone in the lunch room seemed to be laughing at her misfortune.

"Are you aware!" The room went silent and everyone turned to look at the woman who spoke. The dark black hair and ice blue eyes hidden behind a set of slim glasses. The clothing she wore was baggy almost like she decided to wear mens clothing rather than womens. "Bullying is a cover up for ones insecurities?" The woman glared down at the child.

"Good afternoon Dr. Anthem." Penny said with a smile. Anthem reached out, brushing the remnant of the jello from her shoulder.

"Good afternoon, Penny. I see you've become acquainted with this hellion." She motioned for the girl to go back to her seat.

"What are you doing here?" Penny asked. Dr. Anthem kept glaring at the young girl as she sat down and remained silent.

"I work for the science division which means I'm also a teacher. I mean seriously didn't expect me to be just a mechanic right? What do I do in my downtime when I'm not taking care of your uncle?" She told Penny who looked thoughtful.

"I just figured you slept, looked at the stars, invented things, and took care of my Uncle Gadget." Ren laughed and shook her head.

"Not true, well yes that too...just not all the time." She told her. Penny stuffed a piece of pretzel into her mouth before Ren herself pulled out a bottle that said 'it's a smoothie! as far as you know.' on the side. It did look like a smoothie though.

Penny motioned to all of her friends telling Dr. Anthem each one. It would seem one of them knew her.

Out of the corner of Penny's eye she spotted that mean girl who looked angry at Penny.

"What is that girl's name anyways?" Anthem looked up and rolled her eyes.

"Her name is Amanda Anthem." This caught them by surprise. "She's my husband's sister's daughter. Acts like her mother too, we never got along." That would seem to be a habit among some people.

"It's not an excuse for her to be a brat to everyone that doesn't wear the same things she does." Another girl growled out. Another nodded.

"Seriously! Some of us can't afford those clothes." Penny was slightly glad she wasn't alone. She was incredibly frugal and hated to spend money unless she had to. She didn't even have a lot of toys.

Dr. Anthem stood back up finishing off her smoothie before turning around and smiling at Penny.

"You remember that box that you weren't supposed to open till you could use the computer?" Penny had to think of it, but she knew.

"Yeah, it's in Uncle's closet."

"I think it's time you opened it...it'll come in handy." Penny gasped and smiled. She had been dying to open the box. Gadget had opened it once but didn't think anything of it and continued to clean up. It was during their move from the police station's safe house to the house they were in. she couldn't wait to get home.