"You know how you said everyone we go to school with is an asshole? Well, you were right." - Allie

PART TWO
↳ an unholy party    

PENELOPE SAT SOUNDLESSLY ON GRIZZ'S BED, her arms wrapped around her legs, back leaning against the head of the bed, as the sound of her friend's message notification sound came over and over again.

As she rested her chin on her knees and examined her surroundings, she came to the realisation that Grizz's room was oddly comforting.

Although she knew they weren't necessarily real, the girl had many pleasant memories in this room. It was apparently a constant throughout her life, a safe space.

The navy blue walls, the white shelves filled with books and football trophies, the soft gray bedsheets. It all seemed to bring her a sense of solace.

Grizz was quietly hunched over his phone in front of her, their toes touched as she watched his forehead crinkling in confusion.

His friends were no doubt sending messages backwards and forth, trying to make sense of the peculiar situation.

Penelope mindlessly wrapped Grizz's jacket tighter around herself, using it as a barrier between herself and this impossible situation.

She glanced down at her own phone, it hadn't stopped buzzing since they'd gotten to Grizz's house.

She recognised many of the names popping up on her screen but it was strange to see them as contacts in her phone.

She still couldn't wrap her mind around it. But with the little thinking time she'd had to herself for the last hour or so, she'd decided that rather than obsessing over the how and why questions, she may as well enjoy herself.

Maybe even attempt to change a few things, make life better for everyone here.
She had an unfair advantage on everyone here. She knew exactly what was going to happen in the next few days.

Maybe she could save that girl who would die on the first trip into the forest with Grizz and Luke, maybe she could warn Elle before Campbell can sink his hooks into her, and maybe she could even go so far as to save Cassandra from being shot.

The possibilities were surely endless and Penelope was determined to find the good in these difficult circumstances.

"Looks like everyone is gonna meet up, maybe try and figure out what's going on," Grizz murmured, finally looking up and meeting her eyes.

Penelope nodded slightly and made to get up but Grizz gave her an expectant look.

"What?" she demanded.

"You gonna give me my jacket back?" he inquired with a lopsided smile that said he didn't really mind either way.

Penelope grinned at him and reached down to pick up a discarded hoodie from his bedroom floor.

She chucked it at his face as she left the room, "Nah it's pretty comfy, but don't worry you can wear this instead."

The boy rolled his eyes, but slid the hoodie over his head without complaint and hurriedly followed after his best friend.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

"Hey, so who decided that we needed a flash mob?" Grizz announced, sauntering over to the group, hands in his hoodie pockets, with Clark on one side and Penelope on the other.

"I did," Cassandra asserted, turning her body to face the mass of children.

"What the fuck, Cassandra?" Grizz complained, Penelope elbowed his side. He was being a brat for no reason and he knew it.

"Better than 200 people sending texts." Cassandra responded, completely unfazed, "Has anyone been able to reach anyone?"

There was a chorus of 'no's and shaking of heads.

"No one?" She questioned again, in disbelief.

A second chorus of 'no's'.

"Okay," she paused for a split second, considering her approach.

"Well, there's there's definitely a simple explanation," she stated, attempting to calm everyone with delicate lies and assumptions.

She didn't know what was going on, but she was going to pretend that she did.

"Like what?" Jason questioned, unconvinced.

"Um- they uh, they were evacuated. After we left. And there was a miscommunication, and we were brought back here by mistake," she offered, sounding as though she didn't really believe what she was saying.

"Someone would still answer a phone," Kelly's voice came from Penelope's left and the blonde girl turned her head quickly. She held in a smile as she caught sight of the boy she'd been anxious to see.

Harry Bingham met her gaze with an expressionless look and embarrassingly Penelope could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest. She looked away quickly, grateful for the darkness that hid her burning cheeks.

"Maybe they're asleep.I don't know, maybe they're some place with no reception. They're in a shelter with with no reception or something. In the morning, someone will answer a phone."

"Maybe it's not safe for us to be here, if they all left," Elle volunteered, looking rather wary.

"A couple hours isn't gonna make a difference. We'll figure this all out in the morning. Right now, we should just uh, go home. Yeah, we should go home. And anyone who doesn't want to uh, be alone can come back to our house. Yeah?" Cassandra looked to her younger sister at the end for confirmation.

Allie nodded along, forever acting like the obedient younger sibling.

"Is that your advice, Cassandra?" Harry quipped, his voice dripping with obvious disdain for the eldest Pressman sister.

"Yeah. Yeah, Harry, yeah. Just go to sleep," Cassandra challenged, returning his attitude.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Nobody was really certain who's idea it was in the beginning but everyone had made their way over to the local church, Penelope was still sticking with Grizz and the boys, unsure of who else she might consider her friends at this point.

It seemed like she had to be having a conversation with someone or at least be near them to have any sort of flashback to her previous fake life.

The more time she spent in the presence of Grizz, Luke, Clark and Jason, the more she seemed to remember.

Much like her life at home, she had seemed to get along with boys better in this life which she was quite grateful for.

Guys were usually pretty straight up, 'what you see is what you get' kinda people and Penelope admired that about them.

Penelope was onto her second beer when the sound of a door handle clicking to her right and Clark's voice attracted everyone's attention, "The fuckin' church is open!"

Penelope had to grab Grizz's arm to steady herself as a steady stream of teenagers flooded past her and onto the sacred ground, beers in hand.

She was quick to join the rest of her friends. Music began blasting through someone's speaker, red cups emerged from out of nowhere and many, many more cans of beer were cracked open.

After Penelope had done her fair share of bumping and grinding, and after she was finishing her fifth beer, she left the jocks in search of a bathroom.

After relieving herself in the church bathroom, Penelope found herself back on the dance floor. Her steps were clumsy as she made her way towards the drinks table, she hadn't drank this much in a long time. But this was a special occasion.

Penelope grabbed two shot glasses from someone walking by with a tray full of them and noticed Harry standing close by, she approached him with a sly grin, the alcohol was having a strange effect on her.

She nudged his arm and offered him one of the glasses. He gave her a strange look but accepted the drink nonetheless and clinked his glass against hers before they both chugged their drinks.

The pair stared at each other for a long moment before Harry shouted over the music, "Hey!"

"Hi!" Penelope shouted back. Before he could respond she focussed all of her energy on Harry, searching her brain for any kind of memory involving him.

Thankfully, it only took a moment for something to come to her.

It seemed as though Harry and her had been friends as younger children, close friends in elementary school and the beginning of middle school but as high school began they drifted apart naturally.

They'd began to butt heads and although they hung around the same people, they often ended up in pointless arguments. The summary of what her fake memories were telling her was that they didn't get along nowadays.

"What brought you over here, Marks?" Harry yelled, bringing Penelope back to the present.

Penelope smirked, indicating the table covered in alcoholic beverages beside Harry, "The drinks, of course!"

It seemed as though the alcohol was helping Harry to forget their usual argumentative banter, maybe they could get along after all.

Harry rolled his eyes teasingly, but grabbed two more cans of beer and opened them expertly.

However, they must have been shaken up beforehand because as he handed it to her it fizzled up everywhere, covering the both of them in lukewarm, sticky beer.

The duo laughed, gulping up as much of the bubbles as they could and as Penelope settled her now empty can onto the table beside her and she gazed down at her chest, rubbing uselessly at the black sticky fabric.

"Oh, sorry! It was my fault, let me," Harry chuckled, wiping his hands across her chest, then realising what he had just done, he quickly pulled away with wide eyes.

Penelope opened her mouth to give him some sort of witty reply but she was interrupted by an absolutely fuming girlfriend.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kelly belted, throwing a furious look in Penelope's direction.

"Hey Kelly, it wasn't what it-" Penelope began.

"Shut the fuck up. Can you fucking leave?" She demanded.

"Hey! I didn't mean anything by it, you know that," Harry was quick to defend himself.

"Listen, it's fine. I was just leaving anyways," Penelope consented, giving Harry an apologetic grimace before leaving him to deal with his angry girlfriend.

Although the situation was nasty, it had proved something to Penelope. She had changed the story. That confrontation was always supposed to happen, yes, but it wasn't supposed to involve her.

It was a small victory, it did give her hope for the future. Maybe she really could make a difference here.

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