Chapter Text
February 1, 2014. 12:01 AM. Sansa Stark's 16th birthday.
But Sansa Stark was dead, as was the rest of her family.
In her place was Alayne Stone. And Alayne didn't turn 16 for months.
Alayne lived in a nice house in Northern California with her father Petyr and her stepmother Lysa and her stepbrother Robert, not with her parents and three brothers (five, if you counted Jon and Theon), and little sister in Southern California. Alayne was a shy girl, only friends with her family and Mya, not one of the most popular girls in her grade. Alayne was single, and would probably stay that way for a while. Not dating the most amazing boy to exist, a first year computer student named Willas.
But at least Alayne's family wasn't dead.
Eddard Stark "committed suicide". Catelyn and Robb were "killed in an accident" at Sansa's uncle's wedding, along with everyone else in the limo hired for the groom's family. Nobody had seen Bran or Rickon since "the freak school shooting" at the elementary school. And Arya had gone out with some of her friends one night - and none of them ever returned home.
The police claimed, coincidences. They weren't coincidences. And Petyr had saved Sansa from joining them. He disguised her as his daughter Alayne and brought her to live with him and his new wife, Sansa's aunt Lysa. Sansa was thankful, of course.
But damn, she missed her old life.
Alayne rolled over in her bed, giving up on sleep. She pulled open her laptop and opened Facebook. The usual notifications appeared - "Harrold Hardyng wants to be friends! Mya Stone liked your photo!" But Alayne was interested in a different account. Sansa Stark's.
She hadn't had the courage to open her old profile since she let Petyr change the password. She didn't want to be tempted in to resuming her old life, and risk being found and killed by whoever her father had upset. But it was her birthday! She deserved something, didn't she?
Just in case, she found herself connecting to a Virtual Private Network to change her IP address. Alayne never bothered - what did she have to hide? But it was a habit ingrained in Sansa, taught to her by the best computer programmer she knew.
A bunch of birthday messages were already on her screen. She looked at them, sadly, and remembered.
Margaery Tyrell said: Happy birthday, Sansa, wherever you are. We miss you. xx
Margaery, her best friend. They used to be like sisters. It was Margaery who she ran too when Joffrey's abuse got to be too much. It was Margaery who ultimately saved her from him, by seducing him. "I can handle Joffrey, sweetling," Margaery had assured her when Sansa had fretted, fearing Joffrey's wrath. "You worry about yourself." And although Quarterback Joffrey insisted on being with a cheerleader, Margaery fit the bill just as well as Sansa.
It was Margaery who introduced her to Willas... but Sansa wouldn't think about that.
Jeyne Poole said: We all miss you Sansa!!!! Happy birthday!
Jeyne. She and Jeyne had been close too, even though Jeyne never understood why she was so happy when she and Joffrey broke up. They would go to parties together, eat lemoncakes and drink tea, watch movies and have sleepovers. Jeyne had changed, though. She was dating Ramsay Bolton now - some arrogant prick who the old Jeyne never would have given the time of day. Sansa didn't know why. As long as she's happy, though.
She scrolled past the other messages: Tommen Baratheon, Joffrey's much sweeter younger brother; Loras Tyrell, her brief crush; a couple classmates and a friend of her mom's. But nothing from the person she actually wanted to see.
It was still early: 12:33 AM, according to her laptop. Willas wasn't as much of a night owl as her classmates, and when he did stay up late, he preferred programming over surfing the web. But still, Sansa was disappointed as she disconnected her VPN and closed the laptop.
And Alayne pushed away all of her thoughts as she fell asleep.