Lauren was awoken by the continuous beeping of her alarm clock. She lifted her head and looked at the time. 7 o'clock, it was time to get up. She reached out and switched the alarm off, then sat on the side of her bed. Time to get ready for school. She didn't mind school, not only because she got to see Sam, he best friend in the world, but also because Josh was going to be there. Lauren has been completely in love with Josh since the first time she'd seen him. It was like... love at first sight.

She pulled her pyjama top over her head and pulled on her shirt. When she was buttoning it up her phone beeped. She walked over to her phone and looked at the screen. It was a text from Josh. 'Morning babe xx' she read. The text made her smile. When she got texts from him, they always made her smile.

After replying to Josh's text, she went back to getting ready. She was just finishing putting on her make-up when somebody knocked on her bedroom door.

"Come in," she said, concentrating on her eyeliner to much too even notice her mum's presence in the room.

"Lauren?" her mum asked, waiting for her attention.

"Yeah," she replied, putting her eyeliner back into her make-up bag, and turning to face her mum. Her mum looked upset; she could tell that something bad had happened.

"I have some bad news," she said, walking over to Lauren's unmade bed, and sitting down. She took a deep breath and sighed.

"Mum, what's happened?" Lauren asked, sitting next to her.

"It's your grandfather, he got taken into hospital last night," her mum paused. Lauren was worried; why was her grandfather in hospital? He'd been perfectly fine when she'd visited him yesterday. "He had a heart attack Lauren, the hospital rang last night, but, I didn't want to wake you up."

"What?" Lauren asked. A heart attack? Yeah her grandfather wasn't the healthiest of people, but... people died from heart attacks... didn't they?

"You don't have to go to school today if you don't want to," her mum told her. "You can take a day off if you want."

"No," Lauren replied, holding back her tears. "I want to go to school."

"Maybe seeing your friends will be good for you..." Her mum replied.

"Yeah, maybe," Lauren replied, but she didn't seem too convinced. The only person that she really wanted to see was Josh. He always seemed to cheer her up.

"Well you're late for school now, so I'll drop you in on my way to work, come on," said Lauren's mum, standing up, taking a deep breath and walking out of the door. Lauren grabbed her bag and reluctantly followed. She could tell that this was going to be one of the worst days in school ever. She just hoped that Josh and Sam would be able to cheer her up.

Both Lauren and her mum were silent in the car. Neither knew what to say to the other. "Lauren, you can talk about it you know," her mum told her, breaking the silence. "Talking does help."

"I don't want to talk about it," said Lauren. She looked out of the window, and hoped that her mum wouldn't try talking to her again. She wasn't in the mood for her mum to try and make everything better. Normally her mum could fix anything, but not this time. This time it could never, ever be fixed, and there was nothing that she, or anybody else, could do about it.

She got out of the car as soon as her mum pulled up at the school. She wanted to avoid talking to her mum, because seeing her mum upset, was only making her more upset. She walked towards the school building, and opened the big, heavy doors, and wandered into the empty corridors. Everybody would be in registration now.

As she was wandering towards her locker, she bumped into Mrs Fisher. "Lauren, why aren't you in your registration class?" she asked.

"Sorry miss," replied Lauren. "I've only just got into school."

"And why are you so later this morning?" asked Mrs Fisher.

"Sorry miss, my grandpa went into hospital last night, and my mum only told me this morning," replied Lauren.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that. Remember that my office door is open if you need a chat," Mrs Fisher told Lauren.

"Okay, thanks miss," said Lauren, as she walked off towards her registration room. The only noise she could hear was the sound of her feet going 'tap' on the floor tiles. She arrived outside her registration room, and took a deep breath before walking in.

"Lauren, where have you been?" asked Grantly, Laurens registration teacher. He was in a bad mood today, as he often was.

"Sorry Mr Budgen, I came in late," said Lauren, walking towards the table that Sam was sitting on.

"Well, make sure that you get to school on time in future, or I will be contacting Mrs Fisher," said Grantly.

"Okay sir," Lauren replied, taking her seat.

"Lauren, you never oversleep?" Sam asked, puzzled.

"I know, I was ready on time, it's just, my mum came into my room this morning..." Lauren started.

"What does that have to do with you being late?" asked Sam.

"Well... She told me that my grandpa had a heart attack last night, and he's in hospital," sighed Lauren, looking down, and trying her best not to cry.

"Aw Lauren, he'll be fine," said Sam, putting her arm around Lauren's shoulder.

Not long later, the bell rang for first lesson. Lauren took a deep breath, and stood up. She grabbed her bag, and walked out of the room, with Sam by her side. Finn and Josh caught up with them in the corridor.

"Where you both off to next?" asked Finn, smiling at both Lauren and Sam.

"French," sighed Sam.

"History," mumbled Lauren.

"Hey, Josh has history too, you two should walk together, come on Sam, lets leave them alone for a bit," said Finn, dragging Sam towards the French rooms.

"Are you alright?" Josh asked Lauren. "You looked really upset in registration."

"My grandpa went into hospital last night," Lauren said. She felt a tear escape down her cheek. No! She didn't want to start crying. Not in front of Josh.

"Aw Lauren," said Josh, hugging her. She started crying harder, so he pulled her close. "Don't worry, he'll be fine."

"But what if he's not, I haven't even seen him yet," said Lauren.

"I'll go to the hospital with you too see him after school if you want," said Josh.

"But, I'm scared of hospitals," sniffed Lauren.

"Don't worry," said Josh. "I'll be with you, so nothing bad will happen, I promise."

"Thanks Josh," Lauren smiled.

"Welcome," said Josh, smiling back. "Come on, we should get to history."

Lauren and Josh walked to history together. Lauren was surprised how much that Josh had actually cheered her up. It was like being with him had made everything go away. She really, really liked him, but she knew that he wouldn't like her, I mean, she wasn't anything special.