Peggy's POV, a few weeks earlier..

I sigh as I look at my homework. What was this even for? What on Earth did the stupid quadratic formula have to do with my adult life?

I shove my homework to the side and place my head on the desk, groaning dramatically. I think at this point, the only thing stopping me from becoming a stripper is the fact that I am a minor, and they probably won't hire me.

My phone starts buzzing and I automatically assume it's either John or Alex, calling me about their relationship problems. I swear, those two have not been doing so well lately, calling me every other day. You know it's bad when you have to go to a sixteen year old for help.

I answer the phone, rubbing my face tiredly. "Hello?"

"Hello, I'm looking for Ms. Margarita Schuyler?"

I cringe. "This is her, but please call me Peggy instead."

"Right, sorry. Hello, my name is Catherine Parr with Queen Writing Enterprises, and I just have to say I'm really interested in your work." The lady says through the phone.

I raise an eyebrow. No way this was real. I open my laptop and start to search it up. "Right.. What did you say the company was again?"

"Queen Writing Enterprises, a writing company where we take women's stories and publish them." She says.

I look up the company name and see it's a legit thing, and I nod. "And what did you say your name was again?"

"Catherine Parr, I'm the CEO of the company." She explains.

I look up her name and see her smiling pictures all over Google Images. A couple of them were with a girl with pink hair, so I assumed they were related somehow, and the whole thing seemed real. But it was also too good to be true.

"Right, and you said you're interested in my work? What work are you talking about exactly?" I ask.

"Ah, I see what you're doing here." She says chuckling softly. "Well Ms Schuyler, I read your book Anabelle's Homework on one fo the various writing platforms, and I really love this story. I want to publish it for real, with some editing of course."

My eyes widen. No way my story about John and Alex actually gained the attention from a real publishing company. "And how do I know this is all real? How do I know I'm not being scammed?" I ask.

"Well, I know it may be difficult, since there are so many scams, but here's the thing. I'm in New York City right now, but I can travel down to your city if you're somewhere else and we can meet up over lunch or something?"

I hesitate answering. I shouldn't tell her I'm from the city, in case this was some scam sort of thing. "Well, I'm actually visiting New York next week, if you want we can grab lunch then?"

"Sounds perfect. I'll keep in contact with you, Peggy. Can't wait to meet you." She says. I nod and hang up the phone, still trying to process that entire conversation.

"Angelica!!" I shout, getting up and running to her room.

Timeskip brought to you by dancing with your ghost

I hesitate as I walk up to the restaurant in front of me. Angelica was with me, because "I'm a minor and can't make decisions for myself without an adult present." I am glad she came with me, though, just in case this whole thing was sketchy.

"Don't get your hopes up, Peggy. It could very well be just a way for them to get money." She says.

I nod. "I'm aware, Ange. We'll just see if she's really who she says she is."

She nods and we enter the building, and I ask the waiter to bring me to Catherine Parr's table. I follow him and see the woman herself sitting in a booth in the corner. It really was Catherine Parr, that there was no doubt about.

I sit down and Angelica sits next to me. "Um, hello!"

She smiles. "Hello! Which one of you is Peggy Schuyler?"

I raise my hand slightly. "I am, this is my sister Angelica, I hope you don't mind me bringing her."

She shakes her head. "I'm completely fine with it, I understand wanting to stay safe." She holds her hand out. "Nice to meet you, both of you."

I shake her hand and Angelica gives her a skeptical look. "So, we're here because you want to publish my little sister's book?"

Catherine smiles and nods. "Yes, I really think your story can soar, Peggy. If you have the right people helping you, of course."

"Well, I would love that. But, excuse my hesitance, I'm still not sure how or why any of this is happening."

"Every month, I have a team that looks through the various writing websites to try and find our new writer. One of them stumbled upon your story, and I read through the whole thing, and knew this could go big. You've got some writing talent, you know that?"

I blush gently and shrug. "I think my English teacher would disagree, but thank you."

"I don't know how long your visit here is, but we'd like you to come visit the office. Your sister is welcome to join as well, but I'd like you to meet my team and then consider publishing your story with us." She says, sitting back in her chair.

I nod. "I think that sounds like a great idea. How does tomorrow sound?"

Timeskip brought to you by going back to the water fountain

"Hello, welcome in. Name and person who invited you?"

I look at the desk lady sitting in front of me. I instantly recognize her as the girl who was in some of Catherine's pictures and nod at her. "Peggy Schuyler, and Catherine Parr." I answer, before pointing to my sister. "And this is Angelica, my older sister."

She smiles up at me. "Ah, so you're the young girl we picked this month." She stands. "It's lovely to meet you, follow me and I'll bring you to her office."

We walk down the hallways, Angelica following close behind. As she's walking, she starts talking happily. This whole environment seemed to be so positive, which was much different than school. In a good way, of course.

"So I'm Katherine Howard. Know it can get a little confusing with two "katherines," so you can either call me Howard or Kay, either way." She explains. "And I'm sure Catherine will introduce you to the rest of us shortly."

I nod. "It's nice to meet you," I pause and notice the ring on her finger. "Mrs. Howard."

She giggles. "Not quite a Mrs, yet, just engaged." She explains.

She soon brings us to an office and knocks on the door before opening it. "Hey, love, Peggy's here with her sister." She announces and I immediately look to Catherine's hand, seeing a ring on her finger as well. I nod, they must be together.

"Oh good, give me one second to grab my stuff and we'll walk around a little bit."

She does as she said she would and then joins us. "Come, I'll introduce you to everyone." We walk down the hallway into a bigger room, where four girls were chatting together, occasionally typing on their laptops.

Catherine clears her throat and they look up at us. "Girls, I'd like you to meet Peggy Schuyler, the author of Anabelle's Homework. She's here to tour the building and learn a little more."

"Oh, she's here! I loved your book, you've got some real potential." A girl with a green skirt and space buns says. "I'm Anne Boleyn, I'm the one who found your book."

I nod at her and then the girl next to her with highlighted hair and killer shoes smiles. "I'm assuming you met the other two Catherines, so you can call me Cathy, so it's easier."

The girl across from her waves excitedly. She was wearing a red crop top and short shorts, but I had no idea how in this weather. "I'm Anna, similar to Anne I suppose, but enough of a difference."

The blonde girl then nods at me, smiling sweetly. I could already tell she was the mom friend in the group. "I'm Jane Seymour, it's really nice to meet you."

I look up at Catherine and she nods. "We are the ones who started this company, after we all got screwed by the King Publishing Company. Our boss hired us, and then made it so women could not advance their writing career, so we broke off and started a rival company."

"That is the most petty thing ever." I state before smiling widely. "I so want in."

"Well, come back to my office, and we can discuss just that."

We walk back to her office and Angelica and I sit in the two chairs in front of her desk. She lays out some papers and then looks at me. "So, if it's alright with you, I'm just going to go over everything that's going to happen if you do sign with us."

Angelica nods, finally speaking up. "Please, list it all out, and don't leave out any fine print details."

Catherine smiles and nods. "Of course. So, if you do sign with us, we will spend the next two or three months editing your book, and getting it ready to be published. We will make it the best it can be for the world. In the meantime, we will need something from you."

I tilt my head. "What's that?"

"A sequel." She states. "The ending you left leaves so much room for more after that, and I think it will be easier to promote your first book if you have another book lined up and waiting to be published."

My eyes widen. "A sequel? Oh, I don't know if I could do that."

"Why not?" She asks, tilting her head.

I pause. I shouldn't tell her my story wasn't from my mind, that wouldn't look good for me. The only possible way I could write it was if I spent every day with Alex and John, like I did for the first one. And we all know that's not possible.

"Well, I've lost inspiration. The people who kept me going moved to New Jersey, and I don't think I could write another book without them." I explain as vaguely as possible.

Angelica gives me a look and Catherine shrugs. "Simple then, spend the next few months in New Jersey with them."

"Hold on just a second," Ange interrupts. "Peggy is still finishing high school, you can't expect her to drop everything just to move to Jersey and write a sequel for a book that hasn't even been published yet."

I frown and Catherine looks over at Ange. "I understand that school is important, trust me. And she shall finish school, just online instead." She then turns to me. "That is, if you're alright with it."

I nod. "I have been wanting to go online this whole year!" I smile softly, but Ange once again bursts my bubble.

"I think she should finish high school, and then maybe come back." She says, leaning back in her chair.

"Well, we would love to wait, but I also think the sooner we get this out the better it's going to be." Catherine explains. "But, Peggy, if you feel like you need to finish high school first, then we will respect that. Just know you're always welcome to visit afterwards."

I look at Angelica. At first I was suspicious this wasn't even real. Now I know it is, and I was excited to do something like this. I never thought of writing in this way before, but someone liked my story. Someone big. All this wondering what I wanted to do was starting to point towards this, and now Angelica was going to try and stop me from going.

"Ange, please. How do I know what I want to do if you don't let me try this out?" I ask. "Just give me a few months, and if it fails, I'll come back and resume high school. Focus some more."

She looks at me and studies my face for a moment. A moment later, she sighs and looks back at Catherine. "If I said yes, and she went to New Jersey, what exactly would her days look like? When would she do online school?"

I sigh a quiet breath of relief as they talk about the plan and such.

The next day I was packing my bags, ready to head to New Jersey to live with John and Alex.

"Hey, you texted them, right? You're not just going to show up on their doorstep?" Angelica asks.

"Of course I did!" I say, definitely lying to her. If I told them, it gave them the chance to say no. If I just showed up, they literally could not deny me. I smile brightly as I attempt to close my overstuffed suitcase, struggling a bit.

Angelica comes in and helps me close it, looking around my room. She sighs softly. "I know you probably won't miss us, but I know I'll miss you." She mumbles.

I tilt my head. She was never one to show her emotions. They 'made her weak' she claimed. "Oh, it'll only be a few months. I'll be back before you know it!"

She nods and sits on my bed. "I know.. It's just with Liz in California and Mom and Dad not giving two shits about us, it's going to get a little lonely from time to time." She says.

I frown slightly and hug her. "It's okay, you can call whenever you want, and I'll make sure you don't get lonely."

She smiles at me for a split second before shaking her head. "Don't make me get all sappy. Come on, let's get you to the bus station."

We said our goodbyes at the bus station and then I sat on a bus for like an hour. Once I arrive at their apartment, I knock on the door, smiling brightly.

Alex opens the door, looking upset at first and I make jazz hands. "What's up, new roomies!"

2368 Words

Hi everyone!! So this is completely inspired by 98Unicorns (go check out their book Stars and Scars if you haven't), but I'm going to be hosting a character Q&A.

Right now we're almost at 700 reads and I wanna give you guys some time to get questions in, so ask questions to any of the characters in this book and I'll post their responses when it hits 1K reads. I dunno, I thought this would be fun :)

Leave your questions here -->