SHIELDED

1:5

Penelope Martinelli's POV

We get to the French room and I turn to face Peter. I need to try and alleviate some of the awkwardness from the quiet walk here.

"We have chemistry together next hour, right?" I ask to try and spark at least a small conversation.

"Yep! I'll save a seat for you," he replies seemingly back to his normal self. 

"Great! I guess I'll see you then?"

"Yeah," he says but doesn't move. We just look at each other a bit awkwardly until the bell jolts us both back to reality.

"I should probably go," he starts to walk backwards. 

"Bye," I wave and wait for him to turn around before entering the classroom.

I look around the room for an empty desk that's low profile. I notice a group of guys in letterman jackets sitting on desks in the back corner and recognize one of them.

Shane notices me too and motions to the guys that he'll be right back.

"Hey, lucky Penny," he greets with a contagious smile.

"Hey," I return trying to be nice. As much as I wanted to believe Peter's judgement of Shane, Shane just didn't seem all that bad.

"Do you want to sit over by me and the guys? That way you don't have to sit by some stranger."

"I just met you ten minutes ago," I remind him.

"But you met me, and know my name. Am I really a stranger then?"

"I hardly know you."

"How about this. You sit next to me in this class, then after my practice we can go get dinner and you can get to know me then."

"Very slick, quarterback," I smile at his shocked expression. "I'll sit by you in this class, and you can walk me to my next class and talk a bit more."

His constant smile beams even brighter. 

"I can work with that." 

The second bell rings notifying the start of class. Shane leads me to his group of friends. They all quietly greet me while announcements are on. Shane tells one of the guys to move one seat back then gestures me to that seat. It's right next to him. The evicted boy looks slightly hurt but changes his expression when he notices me looking.

"Bonjour à toute la classe," the teacher greets once announcements have finished. "Avant de commencer, nous avons un nouvel étudiant à présenter." She smiles and gestures towards me. 

Of course I knew that I would have to introduce myself in every class, but that didn't mean that I was looking forward to it.

"Penelope Martinelli, could you introduce yourself for us? En français si tu peux," she adds at the end.

I stand up and nod my head. All eyes turned to me, and I gladly took it as an opportunity to prove that I didn't need to go to silly high school classes.

"Hé, je m'appelle Penny et je viens d'être transférée aujourd'hui. J'ai été scolarisé à la maison avant et maintenant je suis ici." 

Even the teacher was left speechless. I sat back down triumphantly.

"Je ne savais pas que j'allais recevoir un élève courant dans ma classe. Bienvenue! Bienvenue!" Madam Fortin claps her hands together excitedly. "Sur ce, commençons par notre mot du jour."

"You didn't tell me you were a pro at French," Shane leaned over and whispered.

"My mom was French so we spoke it regularly," I easily lied.