The Next Chapter

1: Welcome Back

" Penny, why do you want to be homeschooled?" Josh asked as he set breakfast on the table for Penny and Ana.

" I just do." Penny shrugged. Bexley walked in with Jac on her hip.

" That not a reason, sweetie." Bexley put Jac in her booster.

" I just don't wanna go to school." Penny pushed her pancakes around with her fork.

" Penny, we're just confused. You normally love school." Josh explained kindly.

" Not anymore." Penny mumbled.

" Okay, how bout this, you go to school today and see if Nessa wants to come over to hang out today. Then, we'll discuss the whole matter afterwards." Bexley offered. Nessa and Penny had been best friends since the fourth grade.

" I doubt she would come." Penny poked at her eggs.

" Why not?" Josh immediately jumped into protective dad mode.

" We're just not really friends anymore." Penny's eyes darted to the window.

" It happens." Bexley nodded understandably.

oOOo

" Mommy, Mason broke my hair brush!" Harper ran into the room holding a blue hair brush that was split in to.

" How did you break her hair brush?" JoJo looked to her son.

" I don't know." Mason shrugged innocently.

" Mason!" Reese, his twin, jumped in him. The two fell on the ground.

" Mommy, Reese hurt me!" Mason called.

" You're fine, get up." JoJo laughed.

" Mommy, does this match?" Will walked out wearing green shorts, a purple shirt, and yellow socks.

" Ben!" JoJo shouted.

" Yeah, babe?" Ben stuck his head out of the kitchen.

" Help your son." She nodded to Will.

" Oh boy, come 'ere buddy." Ben chuckled, leading Will back to his room.

oOOo

Penny wandered through the halls of her high school, head down.

" Oh look, it's the orphan." An all too familiar voice snickered. Penny turned to Brooke Chandler, the ultimate prima girl of the eleventh grade. She had the perfect blonde curls and flawless skin. She was flagged by her posse.

" I'm not an orphan." Penny sighed.

" No, you were." Kaitlyn Windsor, a petite redhead with a nasty attitude, nodded.

" I never was." Penny turned to her locker.

" You were adopted, weren't you?" Kimberly Bishop, the school's head of gossip, pressed.

" Yeah." Penny resisted the urge to be snarky.

" So that makes you an orphan." Kimberly replied.

" So, could your adoptive parents not have kids or..?" Brooke asked lazily.

" No, she has two little sisters." Vanessa LaChance, Penny's ex bestfriend, replied, giving Penny a cold stare.

" Oh, you two were friends, I forgot." Brooke laughed with so much sarcasm Penny couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

" Guys, we're gonna be late for class." Lee interrupted. Out of everyone, she minded Lee Anson the least. After he came out as gay he was heavily ridiculed, Brook offered protection and he took it. While he never did anything to hurt others, he certainly did nothing to stop it.