Snippet #2735936

Penelope Von Dietrichstein

Location:En Route
Outfit:Here
Hex: #9b1178

Penelope sat at the dining table, one leg folded over the other. Her foot tapped in time to a hidden beat as she sipped her lemon tea. Behind her, Johnathon was searching through his schoolbag and Lizzie was practicing pirouettes in front of the TV. Her father was reading the morning newspaper. Her mother was organising the staff. In short, it was a perfectly normal morning in the Dietrichstein household.

She heard the paper crinkle and her father's still-accented voice. "Lizzie, darling, time to get your shoes on." Max folded his paper and placed it across his place at the table before he rose from his seat. Lizzie skipped over to the table and handed Penelope her shoes. "Do you want some help?"

Lizzie nodded and pulled a chair around to sit in front of Penelope. She propped her feet up on her big sister's lap. "Ah yes, because a little Countess never puts her own shoes on, does she? No, she gets her older, and wiser sister to do it for her." Penelope tied the second lace and patted Lizzie's feet. Lizzie slid from her seat and hugged Penelope.

"Thank you.

Penelope kissed her sister's cheek. "No problem. Have a good day at school sweetheart."

Lizzie skipped over to Max and took his hand. "Will you be alright dropping Johnathon off as well? he asked Penelope.

She nodded in response, having taken another sip of her tea. She checked her phone. There were already a few notifications. "We need to go now anyway. Johnathon?" she called her brother. She tied her coat at the waist and slid her bag onto her arm. She walked down to the foyer with her brother. High schoolers were lingering in the lobby, waiting for their drivers. They spotted Sam's car at the front of the building and a few cameras. Penelope rolled her eyes. Apparently, not even the first day of school was off limits. "Just ignore them, John, they won't hurt us."

Until recently, Johnathon had used a different entrance to avoid the camera. Knowing that it would be impossible to shelter him forever, Max had slowly been loosening the reigns he kept on Johnathon. Penelope put her arm around Johnathon and ushered him across the street to the car, where Samuel had the door open for them. She let him in first and slid in after him. Once they were safely in the car, away from the snapping cameras, Penelope checked her notifications. Her eyes scanned over the Gossip Girl blast. Her name wasn't in it. Not yet. But Clara's was, very prominently. "It might be a good year to keep out of trouble, John. Apparently, dearly beloved Gossip Girl is back."



The car pulled up outside the school and Penelope and Johnathon climbed out. Penelope swept a bit of lint from the shoulder of his blazer. "Now, behave yourself. I'll meet you in the courtyard at lunchtime ok? If anything happens, call me, ok? And don't worry. You're gonna have a blast."

"You sound like mom."

"And that's no bad thing. Now go, before you're late."

Penelope saw him through the gates of St Jude's before she headed through the gates of Constance. Her low heels clicked on the hallway floor. She saw Madison's flame-red hair in the crowd. Madison was rarely more than two steps behind Clara. Penelope weaved through the crowd. She was taller than a lot of the girls in Constance, but that was no bad thing. It made it easier to find her friends. She placed a gentle hand on Clara's shoulder when she had caught up with the brunette. "Please tell me you've remembered to breathe since you read the blast."