This is is my first waterloo road fanfic and its mainly going to focus on Sian and my OC Lily but they'll be some more familiar faces around. Please read and review - it'd mean a lot to me! And feel free to PM me any time. This is going to be a multi chapter story so I hope you like it!
"Get up." He spat at her, poking her stomach with his boot. When she didn't respond he kicked her, again. This time it was harder and she coughed a "please, stop, please. I'm sorry. Just, please, let me go.".
She heard his laugh and the sound of a zip and she could, just seconds later, feel his breath – hot and stinking of cigarettes – against her cheek: "You know the deal. You know that this is our little secret, okay sweetie?" Again he laughed but that did nothing to lighten the atmosphere; she lay still, cold, her eyes shut, arms still tenderly over her stomach.
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"Morning guys." Tom Clarkson called as he walked into the classroom holding a pile of books in his hands. "Right," he dumped the pile on the wooden desk but didn't sit down as normal, "I've got somewhere to be this morning but luckily Mrs Diamond has agreed to take your registration this morning." Sian Diamond was a well-liked teacher at the school, as was Tom, so the suggestion of her taking registration wasn't met with the usual groan that ensued if Grantley Budgen was selected. "I'm sure Mrs Diamond will be here in a minute; I've gotta go so I hope I can trust you lot to at least be reasonably behaved."
As Tom left the room he heard shouting already coming from the classroom. For convenience he pretended not to hear. "Sian, hey." He called to her down the corridor – he'd noticed she was walking in the complete wrong direction. "Michael did tell you you were covering my registration this morning right?"
Confusion spread across her face, "No, he never mentioned it." She started walking back down the corridor towards Tom. "I'll head over there now." Smiling, she wished Tom good luck with his meeting about Josh at the hospital and headed down towards the form room.
She was met with a surprisingly intact classroom albeit with some shouting. "Alright, settle down guys I need to take the register." She sat down at Tom's desk and opened her laptop, logging onto the school system. Sian began to call out names, each one receiving the generic reply "Here Miss" or "Yes Miss". When she came to the name 'Lily Miller' she was met with silence.
"Lily?" Still silence, she looked up and asked if anyone had seen her today. No one had. "Weird, not like her to miss school." Sian sighed and carried on, reeling off the other ten names.
All the students talked among themselves for what can't have been more than five minutes before there was a creek and a click as the door to the classroom was opened.
"Lily why–" Sian started to say,
"Sorry Miss I – er – I overslept. My alarm, it didn't go off. I'm really sorry Miss."
"That's okay Lily, just take a seat." Sian went back to the pile of marking on her desk: various science homeworks from the year elevens, some from Tom's form group coincidentally.
"Where's Mr Clarkson?" Lily whispered to Scout who was sitting next to her.
"I dunno, he had some meeting or something." Scout paused for a second, staring at Lily intently. "Lil, what the hell happened to your neck?" The whisper wasn't quiet enough to not be heard by Mrs Diamond who had come to give Scout and Lily their homework back from last week.
"Lily?" She asked with a concerned lilt to her voice. "What's going on?" Now Sian noticed the bruising at the base of Lily's neck, red marks that seemed to stretch under her collar and across her shoulders.
"It's nothing Miss, I fell up the stairs this morning. I was in a rush 'cos my alarm hadn't gone off." She had taken the ring off her right index finger and was twiddling it between her thumb and forefinger, spinning it around.
Before Sian or Scout had had a chance to ask Lily more questions, the bell rang and the scraping of chairs being pushed back – including Lily's – as all the students got up echoed around the classroom.
"Lily, can I have a quick word." Sian said to her as she was standing up to leave the room. She waited until the rest of the class had left before gesturing Lily to sit at the desk nearest; Sian sat opposite her. "Has something happened?" Seconds passed with no reply. "Because you know you can talk to me whenever, if someone's hurting you Lily–"
"No one's hurting me. Why would someone be hurting me? I fell up the stairs, I'm clumsy, everyone knows that." Lily didn't make eye contact.
"So you hit your neck when you fell up the stairs?" Sian said, her voice laced with skepticism. "You better get to your next lesson but Lily," she looked her directly in the eyes, earnestly, "you know you can talk to me whenever, yeah? I'm not saying I don't believe you but if things are ever feeling a bit rubbish then you know where to find me." She squeezed a smile from her lips and stood up. "I'll see you later Lily." Sian and Lily both walked out the classroom; Sian turned left towards the science labs and Lily right to Maths.
