The next day at school, everyone and I mean everyone was talking about Penny Miller. In simple terms, Penny Miller had been the school's Heather before Heather arrived. Now that Heather had joined the school and been there since Penny went on holiday to Mozambique last July, her popularity had somewhat lessened.

"Hey Zoe!" Penny called out to me.

She was a fairly extroverted soul and tended to talk to everyone, regardless of their social status. She was a nice girl, all in all, but she was a little jealous after Heather had arrived. I supposed that much was understandable, though. Penny had been the popular girl for so long that now she had been dethroned from that title, she was a little annoyed about that and I could understand that, too.

I had always believed that the solution to all of these troubles was for Penny and Heather to become friends, but the two of them hadn't ever really bonded, apart from that time when Heather had accidentally bumped into Penny in the school cafeteria. That really wasn't exactly her proudest moment.

After my moment of introspection, I decided to go and talk to Penny. I couldn't see Heather around anywhere and so I decided that talking to Penny was the next best thing. Well, not exactly. I missed Heather so much but there wasn't very much that I could do about that. I couldn't miraculously think her into appearing.

"How has school been since I've been gone? I'm sure it's been entirely dull, right?" she asked me. There was that air of confidence that could easily be mistaken for arrogance, again.

"It was...something," I said.

"Is Heather Violets still here?" she asked me.

"Heather is still here," I replied.

"Maybe she and I could become friends this year. I already know we'll get along great!" Penny said with such optimism that I wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

"Maybe," I said.

"Have you still been getting on with your drawing? I remember like a year ago when you weren't hanging out with Drew you always used to sit on the bench, right there," she said, as she pointed it out, "Drawing."

I gave a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, that was me," I said.

"Well, you were incredibly talented, Zoe. Perhaps you should do more of that. What does Heather do now? Sing in Drew's band?" she asked, as amusement flickered in her eyes momentarily.

"Actually, she does," I said.

"Oh really?" Penny asked me, as her eyes settled on Olsen Stevens, as he walked past the two of us.

It had been rumoured a while back that Penny had a pregnancy scare with Olsen. Fortunately, it didn't seem that was true. It was very obvious that the two of them had been together, though. The only unfortunate part about that was that Penny was sort of a player. I believed that she had real feelings for Olsen but she was too worried about acting on them.

Penny cleared her throat, as those green eyes of hers returned to me.

"Whatever," she said, as she ran a hand through her brown hair.

"Are you alright?" I asked her, with genuine compassion.

I could be sympathetic to how Penny felt. After all, it hadn't been that long ago that I had liked Drew. That crush on him now felt like a distant memory, though, when I considered how much I felt for Heather.

"I need to go and do some boxing," Penny said, "To clear my head. Everyone's been asking me questions about Mozambique for the past six hours. Like, chill."

I was fairly sure we hadn't even been in school for six hours, but I could understand Penny's want to get away from everyone for a while. I supposed that even though she loved to be the center of attention, it could become tiring after some time.

"I'll see you later, alright, Pine?" she asked me.

"Sure, Penny," I said.

Penny smiled at me, before she walked away.

I decided to go to the music room. I sometimes played the piano, if I was feeling particularly alone and needed a break from my thoughts. I didn't have class for an hour, so it would be a good way to kill some time.

I hadn't been expecting to find Olsen in the music room once I got there, though.

Olsen always had this way of looking at people which made you feel as though he was looking directly through you. I supposed that he had always been an intuitive soul.

"Hey," I said, so he turned his attention to me.

"Hey, Pine. You alright?" he asked me.

"I just needed some chill time. You?" I asked him.

Olsen gave a nod of his head in response to that.

"I can understand that. It looks as though you have a lot on your mind. I came here to get away from the others. Since Penny got back, people keep asking me questions," Olsen said.

Unlike Penny, Olsen didn't like to be in the limelight. He had always been more of an introvert, like me.

"I...people need to stop gossiping so much. This surface level drama had always been incredibly boring to me. Penny and I are just people, why can't people just leave the two of us alone?" Olsen asked me.

Well, people probably had loads of questions because he and Penny had been one of the most attractive couples in school, when they had been together. It was weird to now know that they didn't talk to each other anymore.

"Anyway...it's not as if I haven't thought about it," Olsen said.

I gave him an expression of curiosity at his words, so he went on.

"I suppose that when Penny went away, there was this part of me that did miss her. I suppose I've always liked her," he said, "Can we keep this between the two of us, Zoe. I know I'm not the only one that people are spreading rumours about, here, so..." he trailed off, then.

"What rumours?" I asked him. My mind had registered the rest of his words but they had played particular attention to that last part.

"I thought you would already know about that, of all people. People are beginning to wonder whether there's more to your bond with Heather than just a friendship," he stated.