“I haven’t forgotten about the book.”
“You’ll have it after the picnic. But only after you eat something,” Penelope smiled.
“You keep changing the terms,” Odette gasped, crossing her arms in front of her. “That is not fair.”
“I’m adapting them to suit your stubbornness,” Penelope replied, laughing now.
“What are you two whispering about?” Alexander looked at her curiously.
“Nothing,” they both said in unison.
Alexander looked between them with a narrowed gaze, clearly unconvinced.
“Besides, it does not concern you,” Odette stressed, “you should not interfere.”
Alexander raised an eyebrow, but let it go.
Penelope reached for a sandwich and handed it to Odette again, “Eat now.”
“Fine,” the girl begrudgingly took the bread from her hands, and began feasting.
Extortion, it seemed, was working incredibly well for Penelope. Odetta was behaving as nicely as Penelope wanted her to.
It occurred to her then that she had different sides to her personality. One that enjoyed reading romance in secret, but wouldn't be caught dead doing so in public as it did not match her tom-boyish persona.
Growing pains,Penelope thought with a smile. She remembered what it was like growing up. Conflicting identities, and the struggle to choose one.
Suddenly, Penelope found herself relating to Odette. And that in itself was endearing.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, irked.
“Only because you are so pretty,” Penelope leaned forward and pinched her cheeks softly. A bold move, but one that did not go unnoticed by Alexander, who seemed to be watching the exchange with great fascination.
“Pretty?” she echoed, wrinkling her nose. “No, I am not. I am strong.”
Penelope chuckled, and exchanged a knowing look with Alexander. It occurred to her that Odette had never known what actual girlhood could look like, having grown up around men for most of her life.
“You could be both,” she asserted. “There is no need to pick and choose.”
“But people only ever say one or the other.”
“Well, they’re wrong,” Penelope said, matter-of-fact. “You can climb trees and read romance stories. You can be brave and still want someone to braid your hair. There’s no rulebook, darling.”
Thedarlingwas surely testing the limits of their connection, but Penelope was in a good mood. She did not mind taking the risk.
Alexander seemed just as surprised by Penelope’s assertion as Odette was. Though he did not interrupt.
“But being a girl means being quiet. And neat. And… polite all the time,” Odette rolled her eyes.
“That’s not being a girl,” Penelope laughed, “That’s being what the world thinks a girloughtto be.”
“I don’t want to sit around with other girls and talk about hair ribbons,” Odette asserted stubbornly, as usual.
“Good,” Penelope replied evenly. “Because I don’t want to either.”
Odette did not seem to have a response to that immediately.
“I do want you to know that there’s more than one way to be a girl. You don’t have to become someone else.”
