“You need to be careful.” 

Scowling, Peggy glanced up from where she was painting her nails a dandelion yellow. She’d purposefully closed her bedroom door to keep her brothers out. Mack hovered there with a pinched look on his face. 

Brothers are a pain. 

Mack wandered into her room taking a snow globe from the collection of them on her desk. Having been collecting them since she was seven, Peggy had twenty-three snowglobes dotted around her room. 

 The sleeves of Mack’s old rugby shirt jerked as he shook the mini Eiffel tower and watched the snowfall. 

“You need to learn to knock.” Blowing on her nails, Peggy watched him from the corner of her eyes as he picked up a picture of her and Alya. He stares at it as he talks. 

“I saw your little stunt today on the rugby pitch.” He sits the picture aside and comes to lean against her magenta desk. “You basically yelled at the Tank and practically humiliated him and Vivienne. I’m surprised you're not in a body bag already.” 

“I stood up for myself.” Peggy had felt so light all evening, walking around knowing she’d stood up for herself. But now Mack made that sound like the wrong thing. “Would you rather they walk all over me?”

A weight settled on her back. 

 “I’d rather you not talk to them at all.” He twisted his hands in his lap. “I know you don’t want to work with them, so I’ll talk to Mrs Maddison for you. Get your group changed so you can be with Alya.” 

“I don’t want that.” Peggy frowned, unsure where the conviction within her to stay with Attis and Vivienne came from. 

“Look I know you don’t want to make a fuss-”

“It’s not about making a fuss. I don’t want to change groups.”

“It will be better this way, you’ll actually have a good shot at winning with Alya.” Mack stood and Peggy realised he’d decided this all already and this was only a courtesy call to tell her what was happening in her own life. 

“I don’t like Alya’s designs. They aren’t going to win the show. The design we came up with is different and it’s actually got a shot of winning.” Her hands sweat under his gaze, but she keeps going. “I know you are only trying to look out for me, but I’m not changing groups. They want to win this as badly as I do.” 

“You won’t win anything with those freaks.”