CHAPTER ONE

HISTORY LESSONS &
MORNING COFFEE.

"Good morning Mr. Steven!" Penelope Price projected from her doorway across the hall as Steven Grant exited his apartment with a cup of coffee present in each hand.

"Be good, Gus!" The man called back to his goldfish before turning to Penny with a kind smile. "Mornin' Penny. How'd you sleep?"

"I'm sure you could hear Grandpa's snores from across the hall, Steven." She gave him a knowing look. "Mom left a few hours ago for work and I've been up since." Steven snickered.

"How about you?"

The sweet man took a second to respond, worrying Penny. "Pretty good, Gus doesn't snore."

Penny snorted at that, she never knew why he was so hesitant about telling her why he was so tired all the time.

"Ready for work?" She spoke up.

Steven smiled "Always am." Penelope often followed Steven on his daily morning trek from the apartment complex to the museum. He handed her a warm travel mug with a smile.

The teenage girl took the cup with a grateful smirk. "My mom never lets me have coffee."

"You tell me this every morning, yet still except it with open arms." Steven nudged her with a chuckle.

When the pair arrived at the elevator doors, Steven shuffled the items around in his arms before pushing the down button.

"Hey, its my turn to push the button." Penelope groaned. "You did it last time."

"Fine, you can hit the one on the inside." The grown man rolled his eyes, yet looked a bit let down by the defeat.

The girl smiled in triumph. "So what history lesson do you have for me today?"

"Ah, yes."

••

Steven taught Penny the story of Nefertem, the God of the Lotus Blossom and how he was present for the creation of the world.

The girl's eyes were as big as saucers as her friend finished telling his story. "No way! I think he might be my favorite so far!"

"But there isn't much known about him, he isn't as important as the others?"

"I don't care. I like him, he deserves more recognition. Seems badass." The girl chuckled, bumping Steven with her shoulder.

As the duo got onto the bus, they spotted two open seats and quickly made eye contact before rushing over. A middle aged woman made herself comfortable in one of the seats only milliseconds before Penelope would've made contact with it.

"Dammit." She screeched, the woman looked taken aback, holding her chest and glaring the girl down.

"You take the seat, love." Steven sighed. He motioned toward the seat with one hand, grabbing a pole with the other.

"What? No, you're going to be working all day. You should sit!" She argued.

Steven only raised his eyebrows, showing that he wasn't going to back down. Penny sat down with a huff, discretely throwing a middle finger at the woman beside her. 

The bus ride felt long, when in all reality it was only a few minutes. Penelope watched as Steven tried to stay awake, his head fell a few times, landing on stranger's shoulders.

The bus screeched to a halt, nearly throwing everybody standing to the ground. Steven quickly shook himself awake, heading toward the door as the crowd started to spill out. Penny watched as he apologized to anybody he made contact with.

Once on the cobblestone side walk, Steven waited for Penny to squeeze through the wall of people blocking the door.

"I hate buses." She muttered, pulling up her sock and hopping on one foot to catch up with Steven. "Hey Steve, bud, wait up!" The girl fell into her friend with a grunt.

"Sorry, Pen. If I'm late again, Donna will be mad." He sputtered out.

"Just relax, I'm sure it'll be fine. She needs to realize how dependable you are and bump you up to a tour guide some time." Penny tried to reassure Steven. "Besides, if she gives you a hard time, just give me a call. I'll take care of that bi-"

"Hey, J.B.!" Steven greeted, smacking Penny in the shoulder to warn her to be nice.

"'Sup Sammy." The man commented nonchalantly as he stared at his phone screen.

Penelope's eyebrows furrowed and she made a face at the security guard. "It's actually-" The girl was cut short by a tug on her arm as Steven attempted to pull her away from the situation.

The man groaned as he made eye contact with Donna. "Stevie." She spat. "You're late. Again."

"So sorry Donna, traffic was bad-"

"I don't want to hear it today." The woman made eye contact with Penny. "I see you brought the kid again."

"Aren't you observant." Penelope smiled.

Donna's jaw ticked. "Get out."

"It's a free museum! I'm a loyal customer." The girl argued, standing straighter.

"Penny, won't your grandfather be wondering where you are?" Steven questioned, turning to her with a pleading look on his face.

Penelope sighed with a nod, "See you later, Mr. Steven." She pivoted on her foot and stalked back off toward the entrance.

••

There were days when Steven Grant wasn't exactly Steven Grant. Penelope first picked up on this a few months ago, noticing how he barely spoke on some days, almost as if solely driven to do something of importance.

So Penny found it odd when she saw Steven exit the elevator with a giddy smile on his face. She sat up from her spot on the stairs across the hall and approached him. "What's up? How was your shift?"

"I have a date!" He cheered, giddily bouncing on his feet.

"That's awesome!" Penelope genuinely felt happy for the man. He was often lonely and seldom left his apartment for any reason other than work. "When is it?"

"Friday. We're going to that new steak house..."

"Aren't you a vegan?" Penny quirked an eyebrow, trying not to laugh at the fact that he seemed to of forgotten.

"I'll figure something out. See, the strange thing is that I don't remember asking her. I must've been super tired or something." He trailed off in thought, growing worried the more he focused on it. "Anyway, do you think you can feed Gus that night? I don't want the poor chap going hungry, y'know? I may not be home until late."

Penny smiled, raising her shoulders. "Of course I can," the girl loved having responsibility like this.

"Oh, thank you so much Pen! There's a spare key under the mat-"

"Penelope! Time to eat!" The shrill voice of Penny's mother caused the teenager to roll her eyes with a sigh.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning." Steven said before retreating into his apartment.

What a strange man, the girl thought to herself.

••

Penelope curiously looked through the peephole in her door as she awaited Steven. He was taking forever, Donna was surely going to have an aneurysm.

Finally, the door across the hall opened quickly, violently. And out came Steven, only different. His posture wasn't as good as usual and a vein in his forehead popped out as if he was stressing about something. His hair was neater than usual, and his attire was different. An unbuttoned shirt rolled up to his elbows with a wife beater underneath. Strange, Steven usually made sure he looked more... presentable.

Penny opened the door, stepping outside with a warm smile. "Good morning Mr. Steven! You heading to work?"

The man stopped his hurried pace towards the stairs (another weird thing, Steven loves using the elevator, so why use the stairs?) he pivoted on his foot, turning toward the girl. His mouth was set in a straight line and his eyebrows furrowed. "Uh, yeah." He stated simply, his voice was tougher than usual, maybe he was sick?

"No coffee today? That's okay, I think my mom has noticed how hyped up I've been. I need to get her off my back." She chuckled. Steven didn't even crack a smile. "What's wrong? You should probably call in sick if you're not feeling well."

Steven turned around, shaking his head, before starting toward the stairs. "Hey, wait up!" She called, "the elevator is quicker, Donna's going to lose it if you show up late again!"

Again, Steven ignored her as she followed him down the stairs, jumping every three steps to keep up with him. "Anyway, do you have a story for me today?"

Steven scoffed, rubbing his face with his hands. "Look kid, go back home. Stop following me."

"Jeez Steven, why are you being such a dick? You were fine yesterday." She gritted her teeth. "You pms-ing?"

When she didn't get a response, she followed up with, "well, I should follow you anyway. I don't know what being hung over is like but I'm guessing this is what it is. It is my duty as your friend to make sure you get to work safe." That was when Penny took notice of his lack of briefcase.

Once out of the building, the duo entered the lively streets of London. With the abnormally busy morning crowd, Penny ended up losing sight of Steven. "Are you kidding me?" She groaned, turning around to just head home.

With a grunt, Penny walked right into somebody's chest. "Oh, I'm so sorry, excuse me." She turned pink, trying to side step. The girl refused to meet the eyes of whoever she walked into.

"No worries." Oh bloody hell, it's an American.

Penelope forced her gaze toward the boy's face. The sun rising behind his head casted a glowing halo around him. He had golden brown eyes and Chestnutt hair.

The boy looked down at Penny, taken aback by her. He admired her for a solid ten seconds as she did the same to him, none of them the wiser. Finally, their drooling contest was cut short when a man bumped into Penny, knocking her to the ground with a thud.

"Hey!" The boy across from her yelled, "asshole!" He turned his gaze toward the girl on the ground, offering her a hand.

She graciously accepted it, letting him pull her up. "Thanks." She mumbled.

"Anytime. I'm Miles." The short introduction was enough for Penny to gauge this boy's person.

"Penelope, but I hate it, so please call me Penny." She stuck out her hand with a witty smile as Miles took it and shook. "I haven't seen you around here before, do you live here?"

"My dad, uh, he likes to travel. We never stay in one place for too long." He brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck anxiously. "What about you?"

"Oh, yeah I live there." She sent a backwards thumb in the direction of her apartment complex. "With my mom and grandpa."

"Sweet. Well, I'll see you around?"

"Definitely." Penny blushed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

The two went their separate ways as Penelope headed back home. Today was off to a great start.

5.9.22
hi!! so I am going to try my best to portray this series in a healthy and respectful way! Please call me out if something I write isn't correct or comes off as wrong! The last thing I want to do is offend anybody!
NOT PROOF READ