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She had been looking for her the whole evening. Where are you, Josie?, Penelope thought.
“I haven’t seen her yet”, said some girl that Penelope couldn’t care less about, she wasn’t Josie. Having realized that she might have been talking out loud, Penelope replied with a quick whatever before walking out of the big hall.
When the door fell shut behind her and the music was a mere muffled sound behind thick walls she inhaled and exhaled slowly. She wasn’t really a party person especially when she was worried about someone she cares about. Where could she be? Was she in trouble or just merely avoiding all of them? But why would she do that at her own party? Penelope rolled her eyes at her annoying internal voice.
The door behind her opened, making Penelope jump. She quickly put on a scowl to hide her worry from whomever decided to walk through that door. It was MG.
“Park, hey what are you doing out here?” MG asked.
“I could ask you the same thing, but I won’t if we can get out of here.” Penelope replied, giving MG an imploring look to go along with it, which he did. They walked out of the school until they were surrounded by the forest at the abandoned house.
MG sat down on the steps moping about how his evening had ended with Lizzie, while Penelope paced in front of him still thinking on where Josie could be, before voicing her thoughts out loud.
“Hey, have you seen Josie recently?” Penelope inquired, hoping to get something from the pouting boy.
“She’s probably having the time of her life, like I was until Prince Charming showed up and turned me into the pumpkin. I have hate in my heart.” MG replied, which Penelope should have cared more about since MG is her friend, but in her head something just seemed so off about Josie disappearing from her own party and no one having seen her that her mind was filled with worry.
The boy stood up and strode forward suggesting for them to duel. What kind of a dorky idiot, Penelope’s inner voice started to say before she reminded herself the fool was just too far gone in his infatuation. Instead she decided to remind him of their deal that he would let Lizzie go. Before he could reply however they heard footsteps, turning towards the sound she saw Hope walking there with a torch and a shovel. What is she doing with a shovel? This school really keeps getting weirder and weirder the longer she is here.
Instead of asking outright Penelope decides to get on Hope’s nerves, not that doing that has ever helped Penelope achieve anything, but she cannot let herself outright care now, can she? “You going to howl at the moon wearing that?” As she expected nothing good came out of provoking her classmate as Hope waved her off and kept walking, until she stopped.
The Mikaelson girl turned towards them saying that she could use their help finding Josie. Help finding Josie? What happened, where did she go? Thousands of questions raced through Penelope’s head and her worry and stress levels went into overload. She decided to voice one of her questions out loud.
“What happened?” she asked looking at Hope dead serious, matters to do with Josie were no laughing matter to her.
“Apparently her possessed biological mother buried her alive in the cemetery”, Hope replied to her question. A few seconds passed when she didn’t know how to feel before instinct kicked in, if Josie is in trouble then she needed to go. She strode forward with intend yanking the shovel from the dirt, no focus for either Hope or MG. Just single-mindedly striding towards the cemetery in a hurry.
One foot in front of the other that is the only thing that she knew how to do, towards the cemetery just keep walking, just keep walking. While a steady mantra of Josie please god Josie be alright was going on a loop in her head. They arrived at the cemetery where they found zombies. Zombies? This place keeps getting weirder.
Next thing she knew she was fighting zombies with Hope Mikaelson at her back while one of her only actual friends went to look for her girl. No, not her girl, Josie is not her girl even if she wants her to be. No time to think about that right now, she reprimanded herself. Hope urged MG to listen more carefully so they could find Josie and Penelope vehemently agreed in her head.
She felt powerless in that moment knowing the girl she cares about was in danger and she didn’t have the ability to save her. That thought went away quickly when MG said he got something and ran off with supernatural speed. Penelope and Hope ran after him quickly. Penelope fuelled by her worry for Josie completely forgets about the burning in her legs from how much she is pushing her body to run faster. All that matters was getting to Josie, her Jojo.
When she sees MG on his knees on the ground digging at the dirt, she skids over falling to her knees not even feeling them opening up with scratches from the hard surface. Penelope holds her breath. I can’t lose her, not like this, please oh god please. A hand. It shoots out of the ground grasping at empty air. She knows that hand. She had held it, traced it, kissed it so many times in the past.
Without thinking she reaches out to grasp at the hand, which clutches onto her. That warm hand is all that her mind focuses on until her vision refocuses. It is her Josie covered in dirt, but she was alive and gasping for air. Only now realising she had been holding her breath, Penelope releases a gulping breath. She recognizes that Hope is speaking about some necklace, but all she can focus on is that warm hand still holding onto hers. She traces her thumb across the smooth skin and all her worries seem to melt away.
They’re not out of trouble yet with all of the zombies still around them, but the knot that had been in her stomach the entire evening started to dissipate, because Josie was here and she was okay. The others had also realised that they were in dire circumstances and decided that they needed to get back to the school quickly. Still holding onto that hand Penelope helped pull Josie out of the dirt together with the others. When she was standing Penelope decided that she should probably let go of her now. However when she let go of her arm she saw the other girl shake on legs, but before she could collapse Penelope put her arm around Josie’s waist catching her.
“I’ll support her, you guys keep the zombies at bay”, she commanded to the other two teens who quickly agreed and they were on their way.
Penelope felt the heat of Josie’s body against her side and held on a bit more tightly to the arm around her shoulders. She felt a head with soft hair rest against her shoulder. She’s probably tired from the day’s events, nothing more, keep your head in the game, Penelope, her inner voice told her. But she looks so pretty, another smaller voice said. Not right now, this is not the time, the first voice said again. Shaking her head to get rid of the voices she focused on keeping a good grip on the girl and trying to keep up with Hope and MG.
“I’ll get you back in one piece, Jojo, just hold on”, she whispered to the other girl.
The lights in the distance got closer and closer, showing them that they were almost out of the woods, literally and figuratively. Before she knew it they are back in the school and Josie has been ushered away to look at any injuries and to wash off the dirt of the days’ events. Unable to bring herself to do the same she sits on one of the chairs in the hallway connected to Josie’s room. Finally being out of trouble she assessed the situation realising that her hands were covered in dirt, the same going for her knees which also had some small cuts on them. She’d worry about that later.
Eventually her eyes rested on the spot on her shoulder which was still covered in dirt. A small smile crept onto her face thinking of how it must have gotten there from Josie’s hair which had been covered in it. She was shaken out of her reverie by MG walking up to her with his jacket casually slung over his shoulder, looking pleased with himself. Nothing like the mopey look from before, she thought. They talk about his new hero status and she genuinely laughed at his antics, feeling so much better now that she wasn’t worried for Josie anymore.
Speaking of the devil, more like angel, her inner thoughts went, Josie decided to walk out of her room at that moment, looking refreshed after what had transpired that day. Josie walked by them, looking at MG, thanking him for tonight. MG replied in his own dorky way before heading off. Before she could stop herself, Penelope called out to Josie.
“Hey! What about me?”, she called after the retreating form before adding more softly, “I helped..”
Josie turned around accusations on her tongue on how she is the reason that she got buried alive on her birthday. That hurt.
“I took your advice. I wanted something and I went for it. I made the selfish move and I ended up fighting a zombie”, she continued on, “There is room for people in this world that just care about other people. Not everybody has to be a showboat!”
Penelope breathes in and out slowly before replying to her, “You’re right. This world needs the selfless and the selfish to keep spinning.”
Looking at her in that moment Penelope knew she couldn’t resist those lips which were pouting at her. “I happen to be the latter”, she added before grabbing Josie’s neck softly and pulling her towards her until their lips touched. It felt amazing to kiss her again, but Penelope made herself wait a few seconds to see how Josie would react, consent has always been important to her. When Josie pushed back into her lips she greedily moved her lips against those lips that she had missed for so long. All the fluttery feelings came rushing back to her, until Josie suddenly pulled away from her.
Oh no, did she do something wrong? Was it over? How long would it be until she could kiss those lips again? She silenced her inner voice to focus on the girl in front of her. “I hate you”, Josie said with such conviction, but also such underlying meaning. Penelope just smiled she knew this girl so well, she knew what those words meant she would always know, so she simply replied, “I know.”
To her surprise Josie leaned back in and kissed her again. Everything felt right again in the world at least for that moment. The feel of those lips on hers and her warm skin beneath her hands, reminding her that she was safe in this moment at least. Eventually Josie pulled away from the kiss and she started to distance herself from Penelope again. Realizing that their time was coming to an end, she remembered why she had been looking for Josie at her party.
“Wait, I have something for you”, she blurted out before thinking.
Josie regarded her curiously, the eyes focused on her questioning what she meant. She reached into the small bag she had been wearing and pulled out a box, which she handed to Josie.
“Happy 16th birthday, Jojo, I hope you like it”, Penelope nervously stated. Watching on as Josie took the box slightly surprised, but opening it nonetheless, she watched closely for her reaction.
Josie fished the charm bracelet out of the box and looked at it appraisingly. When she was about to thank her, Penelope cut in, “It has some of my magic imbued into it, so if you are ever in trouble and I’m not around, just siphon that to get yourself out of that situation.”
The other girl looked up at her with those dark eyes, which she always got lost in, showing such appreciation, and love, her inner voice added. Instead of a reply as Penelope expected Josie stepped towards her and she hugged her. Then Penelope heard her whispered words near her ear, “Thank you, I love it.”
Once again that evening she released the breath she had been holding and hugged Josie back. In those arms she felt safe. But the hug wouldn’t last forever and they parted once more. She told her she should probably get going and so Penelope turned around to walk away from her Jojo.
“I still hate you”, she heard from behind her, but it sounded more like a mantra than an actual admission of hate.
Penelope turned towards her and smiled, “Oh Jojo, just remember that there is a thin line between love and hate.” With that she winked at her and then turned around and away from her, and started to walk again. A very thin line indeed, her inner voice said and for once she didn’t tell it to shut up and just smiled. She would get her girl back or at least do everything she could to make her happy, Penelope swore it.