chapter 005.
{ real life }
୧ ‧₊˚ 🥣⋅ ☆

✿˖° # ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ

PENELOPE'S BLUE ADIDAS SPECIALS BRING THE GIRL TO her weekly target, the mailbox.

There is a mailbox on each floor of the multi-floor building for the dorms. Which is hanging on the wall somewhere and there is a small mailbox with your name on it for every student on this floor.

She placed her hair behind her ears with her hands as the mailboxes were finally in her eye sight.

Some people have even taken the time to decorate them with stickers, lettering and all sorts of things. This is actually forbidden for good reasons here at school, but after a while too many students copied each other and they just left it like that.

Penelope has never taken the effort or time, she only goes here once a week, not even every week, because there is never anything in there. The little disappointment continues to overwhelm her, but she's now learning to deal with it.

Rarely is there anything in there that makes her feel a bit stupid when she sees how some people take out several things every two days, which is why she just doesn't go there as often anymore. No matter how stupid it sounds, every time she decides to go again she hopes for a letter or something, which scares her because in the end there is nothing in it anyway.

A small wave of sadness always hits her when she sees the brightly smiling Nat opening her letters from relatives, but she always pushes this unpleasant feeling down, not wanting to deal with it.

She drops her arms back to her side as the mailboxes come into her view and quickly makes her way over to the white wall, where they're all pinned on.

Her eyes fall on the colorful boxes, they are listed in a row and one below the other at a distance from each other. If you are new you may have to look for yours first, but Penelope's catches eyes straight away because it is the only one thats just white.

Her lips press into a thin line, not expecting much as she raises her chip card. This is her school ID card that she must always carry around with her. Because that gets her into her dorm, the stables and her mailbox.

She raises the card and it is scanned and when the small beep sounds she lowers it again and raises her other hand which opens the small door to the box.

At first glance nothing comes to mind and she has to suppress a sigh, which is exactly why she never gets her hopes up. Her eyes go to the box next to her, that's Nat's. And the box next to nat's is almost overcrowded, which you can even see from the outside.

Her hazel eyes turn back to her box, which she slowly closes again. However, when a small piece of paper falls out, she stops mid-track.

Her eyebrows, plucked this morning, furrow as she looks down at the note that has landed between her feet. Penelope's eyes look around the surroundings, she is alone.

With a small thud she closes the box and bends down to the paper that has fallen out.

A frown lies on her smooth face and her lips are pressed into a straight line as she folds the paper over to see what it says.

Her eyes meet a clean handwriting, the piece of paper is probably torn from a sheet, at least that's what it looks like. The writing is legible and neat which makes it difficult to figure out whether it belongs to a girl or a boy. But her strong facial expression falls a little when she sees the text.

"𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦. 𝐼 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑖𝑛 𝑏𝑙𝑢𝑒"

Her eyes read through the short sentence more often than she looks down. She's not wearing blue today, means the note is from another day.

Nelly's hands turn the note over to see if her name is on it somewhere, but nothing.

The person who wrote the note probably put it in the wrong mailbox. Because there is no name on it, it couldn't have been put in by the postal carrier. The person must have slipped it in through the two columns themselves like the postal carrier.

It shouldn't be difficult to measure the boxes because the name is always in the top right corner, but it can happen, it's not a big deal.

Without thinking too much about it, because she is relatively sure that her thoughts are in order, she crumples up the paper and puts it in her back pocket because there is no trash can nearby.

Then her legs carry her in big steps back to her dorm, she doesn't know whether her roommates are still there or have already gone to dinner because she's been away for longer than planned.

Their goals this year are to eat earlier so that they don't have to wait in line for long and can still get the best and warmest food, which hasn't really worked so far but there's still plenty of time to fix it.

The aisle is relatively empty because most people are eating. The opening of a door and two familiar voices make her look in their direction in interest.

Natalia and Abby are just coming out the door and looking around the hallway, they are waiting for Nelly and looking if she's already back in eye sight area.

Bee's face lights up when she sees her brunette fiend she is looking for, approaching and hops over to her.

The two hook their arms as soon as they meet, Penelope doesn't say anything anymore with Abby, she has to go through with her physical touch needs, it's not that bad, but she would never say that out loud.

Nat waits at the door until the two are within range again and joins them. "Where were you?" Nat scans her best friend with raised eyebrows. "Mailboxes"

Nelly's eyes go down on Nat, she's wearing something blue.

It would be even more likely that the note would go to Nat now that she thinks about it, and their boxes are next to each other which makes the chance of confusion where to put the piece of paper higher.

That would be her only reasonable explanation.

Penelope's eyes are focused on the small lines in front of her.

Normally she would put on her glasses for something like this, but she doesn't sit alone in the dorm and she never wears it outside, so now she just strains her eyes more and tries to read the small letters.

She doesn't have really bad eyesight, it would just be easier for her to read these small letters with glasses, like the doctor said. It would do her eyes good too, but that's why she doesn't wears them so often. Because it's not a need.

The school library around her was a little quieter than usual because it was already late. The reading lamp leaves her table bright, the one open window draws a bit and she can hear the light autumn wind outside if she focuses on it.

But her attention is completely on the book in front of her, she is already preparing for tomorrow's reading.

For things like this she always retreats to the school library because it is the quietest place on the premises. There aren't many people here, most of them learn in groups or in their own room.

That's why she feels so comfortable here, she always has peace here. She pinned her long hair up with a clip, but over time a few strands fell out and she pinned them behind her head because they irked her in some way.

She has pulled the sleeves of her black sweater over her fingertips because the breeze gets a little colder, the later it gets, through the window.

The fact that the sweater covers only one of her shoulders doesn't make it any better. The brunette moistens her lips, from which the lip gloss is slowly coming off as her eyes still fly fastly over the lines.

A small gong brings her out of her focus, her eyes go to the librarian who once spoke slightly, saying it is 9pm and the library closes at 10pm.

In an hour it would ring twice, meaning she still has a little amount of time till then.

She no longer notices what is happening around her because she has switched off. You can tell she's in her own bubble, her eyes focused on the reading task and her right hand just turning the pages from time to time.

She's good at stuff like that, which is definitely an advantage. Maybe she's a little too good at that because she doesn't notices a person or more people stopping and standing in front of the table she's sitting at.

The brightness of another cell phone brings her out and her head lifts from the book to the people across from her. She tucks her hair, which has fallen out of place, behind her ears again as she is greeted by two smiling lips.

Nelly's eyebrows raise in surprise as the last two faces she expected suddenly appeared in front of her.

A black haired and brunette are standing beaming in front of her. Penelope's eyes fall on the green ones from, Nikova Blake.

She has seen the little black-haired woman several times in the other group of friends and of course because she has mentioned her before.

Her father is the boss of the company that built the school and the things around it that they needed or need, her place in the collage was basically secured.

She could just take a guess and say that their fathers know each other from business.

Next to her is someone who was even more beaming. Tamara Elsher.

Penelope would say slightly redheaded but it is light brown. Her large curls sit gently around her face. Making her look more special besides how pretty to look at she is.

A small pang runs through Penelope as she remembers her hair. It is also curly, of course not as much as Tamara's but in a different way.

However, these have been straightened out since she can remember, because of her father, her mother loved them, as Nelly also got them from her. After the divorce, where she saw her dad less, she didn't stop with the straightening.

She didn't felt pretty without straight hair, no matter how often she heard otherwise.

She thinks the straightened hair makes her face look better after cutting her hair to about her chest. A few light baby hairs on her forehead can easily be seen under the beginning of her hair but are always there no matter how she wears her hair.

However, she wears her hair in a clip right now so it's not important and she doesn't need to worry about how her hair looks at the moment.

"Do you mind if we sit down with you?" Penelope looks at the two of them a bit dumbfounded.

However, Mara doesn't wait for her answer but sits down opposite her and pulls Nikki down into the chair next to her.

"No.." Nelly answers quietly, but her answer is no longer needed. Her gaze goes back into the book, but she feels two pairs of eyes on her and words that are in the air that they just doesn't dare say so she can actually forget the book.

Maybe this is a sign that she should stop studying for today, so with a little sigh she closes the book.

Which makes a soft thud in the quiet room as the brunette girl raises her eyes at the other two girls in front of her.

These two look expectingly at her making Penelope raise her brows in confusion, do they know something she doesn't?

The three girls look at each other quietly, words on the tip of their tongues. Mara opens her mouth but nothing comes out and she becomes quiet again, which makes Nelly a little nervous and she moves a little around in the chair, fidgeting with her nails in her lap.

The red paint on them is almost gone again, which she notices when she runs her thumb over it because it's a little hilly.

The black-haired girl caught that and sits up straight and leans her upper body over the table closer to the unsettled girl who directs her eyes on her.

"We wanted to say hi" Nikova's gentle voice speaks up making Tamara nod energetic next to her friend.

"You look really pretty today, i like your-" "Mara." Nikki rolls her eyes and shuts the girl next to her up.

"Slowly " The girl with the curly hair nods and turns her focus back to Penelope.

"I'm mara." the black haired girl can't suppress a sigh at that. "She knows who you are?"

"Right?" Nikki says and turns her eyes back to Nelly, raising her eyebrows, who nods with a quiet "yeah."

"See?"

"So what? I just said my name"

"Anyways" Nikova's eyes linger on Penelope's with a friendly smile. "We wanted to say hi because-"

"We think you're really pretty"

"That too but we never really talked and we always wanted to talk to you, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity"

The two friends complete each other's sentences. While Penelope sits in her chair a little suspiciously, she doesn't know why the two of them just want to talk to her, but their friendly smile softens the girl and she nods with a sigh.

"You guys are really pretty" Nelly gives the compliment back making Mara Squeal.

"Ugh I love you," "Mara what did we say?"

"Sorry right, I think you're super cool and my feelings are already drawn to you, because my first impression tells me that we'll get along well together"

"Do you like writing?" Penelope tilts her head at Tamara questioningly. "Yeah?" Mara looks at her surprised. "You give off the vibe, the way you talk too" Nelly's presses her lips together as she sees the curly girl's face light up. "Oh my gosh, thank you!"

The brunette just gives her a small smile before looking around again. "You look pretty attentive, at least that's how i think you are for the first impression..," Nikki speaks again. "Are you studying something psychological related?" Nikki looks at Nelly with interest. "Just asking."

Penelope opens her mouth to answer but Tamara raises her finger with an "uh" which makes the other two girls go quiet. "Don't answer that. Because I know, Matt told us. That you're sitting next to him too"

Nelly's eyebrows furrow slightly after her statement. That he's sitting next to her? He doesn't.

The last lesson was an exception and she had no real choice anyway. She thought she made that clear and why would he tell them about that?

Nikova's eyes widen a little at the mention of Matt and she turns to Tamara, who sees nothing wrong with her statement.

"What?" She innocently looks at her friend who just gives her a look that goes through Tamara's head until it clicks and a little gasp escapes her glossed lips and she claps her hand over her mouth.

"Forget what I said, that's stupid. Who the fuck is Matt?" she awakrdly laughs and looks around, scanning the area while nikki rubs over her face with a sigh.

"We don't sit next to each other" Nelly clears up instantly in a gentle tone, a little confused. "We know" nikki nods.

"Now that we're over that.. i can tell you another reason why i'm here" Tamara beans but Nikova just gave up and doesn't even try to stop her rambling anymore.

"Matt would not stop talking about you" Tamara rolls her eyes as she raises her brows with a grimace at the memory.

"And i thought you're really pretty, and like we said we always wanted to talk to you, plus matt fancy's you and i wanted to know more about that so... I thought i'd say hi"

Fancy's you.

Nikki just sits next to her with a blank expression shaking her head, loss of words.

"Anyways" Mara beams again leaving everything behind. "Do you wanna hang out sometimes? Without Matt of course, if you like have something against him, like.. I would've too. But like just with us." Nikki groans at that.

"The library is not the best way to bond, expect this is like your favorite spot, we can bond here too. I don't know if you're like really smart, do you need to be smart for psychology? I just know that Matt's smart and you look smart too, so."

A quiet forced giggle escapes Nelly but she nods, "I'm sure we can."

Tamara squeals a little at that and claps her hands until she notices that the librarian giving her a side eye and she stops abruptly.

She gives the old women a quiet "sorry," as a grimace forms on her pretty face watching the woman just shake her head and muttering something under breath.

"Well someone's grumpy" she mutters under breath too before grabbing nikki's hand out of nowhere.

"Anyways it was so nice to meet you, and you're so cute." She lifts her friend with her and the two stand in front of the seated Penelope.

"We will definitely come back to you. See you girly!" she waves with a smile what Nikova does as she does and the two of them make their way out of the library while the old woman looks after them angrily and shakes her head as they close the door behind them, fixing her gaze back on her papers.

Leaving Nelly a little dumbfounded, like originally planned, alone at the table.

marie speaks! 𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔
wattpad wouldn't let me post this again after i took it down for the first time so i had to redo it 😁😁
im so mad don't
wattpad im coming for u