Welcome to Gaia! ::

Penelope was lost in her thoughts, nearly forgetting that she had a club to run, when the first member arrived. Looking over at the unfamiliar blonde, Penny assumed she must have been a first year. “No, no. We’ll be getting started soon,” she responded, assuring the girl that she wasn’t early. Or well, not too early. Even Penny wasn’t too early. She didn’t know how she showed up to the morning classes every year, for she absolutely hated going to bed early. “I’m Penelope. Please – choose any mat,” she offered. A couple of different pastries were displayed across the mats, so whoever showed up early got to choose their preferred one.

Next, a second year that Penny had recognized from last year’s meetings arrived. “Oh, um, you’re welcome. Although I don’t think this club has been around that long...” she said, trailing off in a little confusion by Flora Helen’s comment. If she wasn’t mistaken, Hailey and Chanda had founded the club, and they were only a few years older than the current Club Captain. As she sat, trying to recall what year the club was founded, the next couple of members arrived. Suddenly, her eyes were met with Eden’s – she’d recognize his Egyptian blue eyes anywhere – and her heart began to thud in her chest. Not even a second later, her eyes darted onto Callie before gazing upon the lovers’ fingers intertwined with one another. Penny’s brown eyes darted back onto Eden’s as he mustered out a good morning that sounded like there was supposed to be more to that sentence. Oh God, she knew they were dating, but Callie and Eden never – or at least, very rarely – showed up to the same Namaste meeting. Why had they shown up together now?

“Good morning,” she responded quietly as they handed her their forms, before Calliope had called her dear. Penelope wanted to hate her, and she tried her best to dislike the girl, but she made it incredibly difficult to do. The Club Captain looked back at her as she continued, going on about how nice it was to see her before narrowing her eyes onto the forms. Part of her wanted to rip their forms and tell them to get lost, but she couldn’t do that. Truthfully, she really didn’t hate either of them. In fact, she missed hanging out with Eden and rivalling with him as friends (even if she did gloat when she did better than him. It pissed him off a lot – it was funny). However, she wasn’t about to tell him how she felt. Not after the last time she had told him how she felt. And that was why they couldn’t be friends, she remembered. Looking back up at the couple, she waved them off to go find seats before the meeting started. At least she had a few more minutes to compose herself before having to lead the first meeting of the year.

Although Penelope wasn’t watching, she could sense that one person had stepped back while the other lingered. She looked back up to discover that Eden stayed behind as he addressed her by Miss Barrett first, then Captain before ending on her first name. He wanted a moment, why? Perhaps to laugh at her and gloat about having found a better girl for himself while Penny was not only single, but now rejected by two guys in their year? “What do you want, Eden?” she asked quietly, trying to look as composed as possible while feeling like she was going to throw up.

She raised an eyebrow when Eden admitted that he wanted to apologize for how he had turned her down last year. An apology was the last thing she expected. She stayed quiet as he paused before finding the words to continue. Another moment of silence passed, this one longer than the last. Penny didn’t know what to say. He hurt her too much, which caused her to hang with the wrong crowd – the wrong boy – who ended up hurting her even more. She had done a lot of thinking over the summer and jumped between blaming Eden for all that she’d been through in the last year, blaming Ashton, and blaming herself. Eden’s voice broke up the silence once more, offering her the opportunity to hit him.

She stood up, not breaking eye contact as she did so, and paused before slapping him sharply across the cheek. For a second, she was shocked that she had done that, but it felt good. It felt really good. However, the pain that he was clearly experiencing made her feel bad, so she pulled him into a hug. “Wow. I – uh – that was amazing. Apology accepted,” she said with a small smile after pulling away. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Penelope could feel all of the club members’ eyes on them, which brought her back to reality. What a way to start the day.

“Right, um. Let’s get started, shall we?” she asked, addressing not only Eden but the rest of the club members. Penny hoped no one would ask her what that was about – except maybe Callie. Penelope would completely understand if she wanted to know why her boyfriend had just been slapped across the face. To be fair, he shouldn’t have given her that option. “Namaste, everyone. Thanks for joining the first meeting of the year. I hope you all enjoyed your pastries! We’ll get started by doing some simple stretches and poses. Follow me.” Penny glanced at Eden as he made himself comfortable on a mat beside Calliope. She noticed his cheek was beaming red and flashed him an apologetic smile before leading the group through the first stretch, placing her feet directly underneath her body and raising her arms up.