The Storm

Zoe's alarm blared at eight o'clock, loud dubstep music filling the room. She had always been undecided on whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to set her alarm to a heavy, skrillex song. On one hand, it got her up and out of bed… but on the other hand, well. It got her up, and out of bed.

Like a zombie, she slung her arm out to silence the alarm, threw the sheets on her bed back and got up. Stretching like a cat, she yawned, reaching her arms up as high as she could. She looked directly in front of her to the wall, and noticed the calendar. June 12th was circled, and in angry, red letters, it read 'Community Service'. She sighed as it all came back to her, the judge sentencing her to 200 hours, her father, shaking his head somewhat disappointedly. Her bitch of a step-mum, Natasha, smirking.

After that dreary day, somehow Natasha had managed to convince her dad that Zoe was such a total disappointment, they should sling her out. He had ended up spouting some bullshit about how they would need the room for the new baby and 'Oh, come on Zo' you're twenty one now. It's time to be independent.'

He must have felt somewhat guilty about slinging his only daughter at the time out on the street with a suitcase of her clothes and some money in a paper bag. The set-up wasn't awful, Zoe had to admit. She had used her dad's money to get a flat, where the rent wasn't too awfully over-priced. Sure, the bathroom pipes were leaky and the lights would sometimes cut out unexpectedly, but the flat wasn't too bad. He still sent her a little money every month to help cover the rent, but Zoe took it upon herself to get a job anyway. She worked in the bar, on the estate four nights a week, which wasn't exactly glamorous, but hey, it paid the bills.

Zoe got ready quickly, knowing she would have to soon be at the community centre to start her 200 hours of hell. She had a quick shower, and pulled on some simple denim shorts and a cropped white vest top underneath her unbuttoned red checked shirt. She wore her old low red converse, smiling to herself as she wriggled her feet into trainer socks, her fingers delicately brushing against her beloved silver anklet that her mother had given her.

Make-up was never a necessity for Zoe, as her mother was mixed-race and her father white, so she had a nice tanned skin tone. Her skin overall was smooth and healthy, so she didn't see the need in caking on foundation like a fifteen year old girl. She stuck with simple black eyeliner, and some mascara. Her hair was being especially nice to her today too, which was helpful. Zoe had decided, long ago that her hair was her best feature. She had also inherited that from her mother. Her hair was a dark brown colour and fell in long tight curls, almost to her waist. It had an enormous mass, sticking out from her head disguising her ears, which she had almost hated. She sprayed in some hairspray, for good measure, and twirled a curl around her finger.

She stood in front of the mirror, checking her appearance for one last time. At twenty-one years of age, she had matured into her face a lot. The button nose that she had hated as a kid when it was too big for her face was now somewhat perfect size. It had become one of her best features, and she exaggerated it, sneaking out to get it pierced when she was seventeen. The silver ring still stayed there now, and she grinned. It wasn't to overzealous, but drew attention to itself nicely.

She checked the time on her clock, 8:45, luckily for her, the community centre wasn't too far away and she could easily walk it in fifteen minutes. She set off at a brisk pace, and felt oddly optimistic about the day ahead. Sure, community service was not something that she had planned in her life, but she'd be damned if she wouldn't make the most of it.


standing out there in a line wasn't exactly what Zoe had expected. In total there were seven of them. On her right there was a boy that didn't take a lot of guesswork to figure out, Curtis Donavon, she'd seen the papers. Golden boy runner, six foot three of pure muscle and training, and then he threw it all away, for drugs standing there with his orange jumpsuit tied around his waist. Then to the left of her, some kind of gangster wannabe, a skinny white kid with a ridiculous snapback that looked too big for his face. Next to him, was a reasonably tall pale boy, with a mass of curly dark hair on his head and a stupid smirk on his face. Just passed him, a skanky looking chavvy girl with a stern look on her face and hair scraped so tightly back Zoe was worried she might rip her scalp off. Next to her was a pretty mix raced girl, leaning casually with short, curly light hair that was obviously dyed, and a gold belt sitting round her waist accentuating her figure. On her left, at the end was a suspicious looking short boy with a rock hard jaw and an unfortunate hairstyle. He was standing rigidly, with his arms by his sides. They were an odd looking group, but Zoe didn't let it faze her. She knew how to make herself stand out in a crowd, and decided that there would be no fading into the background if she was going to make this experience any less disturbing. She had left her checked shirt in her locker, just keeping the vest underneath. Her trouser legs and sleeves were rolled up, and the front of her bright orange jumpsuit was zipped down to about her belly button, displaying her toned, tanned stomach.

Nobody had said anything yet, and she was just about to complain when a middle-aged black guy stepped out the doors in front of them. "Right," he said, clearing his throat to get their attention "This is your chance to do something positive. give something back. You can help people, you can really make a difference to people's lives. That's what community service is all about. There are people out there who think you're scum. This is you're opportunity to prove them wrong."

"Yeah, but what if they're right?" the curly haired boy piped up, in a heavy Irish accent. He looked around at his fellow young offenders, who had all turned their heads accusingly at him. "I mean no offence. But some people are just born criminals" he said, not-very discreetly motioning to the snapback boy.

"You looking to get stabbed?"

"You see my point there?"

Zoe stifled a laugh, and the probation worker was clearly agitated. He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but a ringing noise stopped him. The pretty mixed race girl pulled a mobile phone out of her pocket, answering with a cheerful 'Hey'.

The probation worker tried to continue his talk, "It doesn't matter what you've done in the past-"

"No I can't talk. Doing my community service." The girl said.

"Hey." The probation worker warned, but the girl ignored him.

"Boring as fuck."

"Excuse me, hello? I'm still talking here!"

"Well, I'd thought you'd finished?" she snapped, defensively.

"You see my lips still moving that means I'm still talking!"

"Yeah but you could be yawning, or chewing." The Irish boy said, adding his two pence.

"End the call," the probation worker said, ignoring the boy. The girl continued talking, so he shouted "Hang up!"

"Sorry, that's my probation worker."

"You alright there, weird kid?" the Irish boy said, leaning forwards to look down at the shorter boy, standing rigidly at the end.

"Don't be disgusting." The girl was saying, smirking into her phone. The probation worker was still glaring, so she rolled her eyes "I'll call you later."

The Irish boy, looking to cause trouble blew a kiss at The wannabe boy earning himself a somewhat threatening stare. "I'll rip out your throat and shit down your neck." He said, in a pathetic attempt to sound menacing.

"Well, thuggish as you might be mate, I doubt you'd be able to do that." Zoe said, smirking. She shared eye contact with the curly haired boy briefly, both of them grinning. "I shouldn't even be here." Curtis mumbled.

The wannabe boy and the Irish boy were now standing nose to nose, as the snapback boy grabbed the Irish boy by the collar. "Look we need to work as a team here," the probation worker said, but both boys were already in some kind of pathetic fight. It was pretty one-sided, the Irish kid making comedy squeals and the pair of them ignoring the probation worker's cried of, 'hey, that's enough'. Curtis sighed, "Can I move to a different group? this isn't gonna work for me."

"Erm, what makes ya think you're better than us?" the chavvy girl piped up. Now that made the fighting boys stop dead. "What is that accent?" the Irish boy asked.

"Is that for real?" Curtis laughed. Zoe wanted laughed a little too, but one menacing look from the girl, she decided against it.

"What? You trying to say somethin' are ya then ya?"

"Is that even?" the Irish boy was lost for words "Is that supposed to be? I'm sorry, that's just a noise." He turned to the probation worker "Are we supposed to be able to understand her?"

"D'ya understand that?" she said, turning her head and sticking up her middle finger. The curly haired boy just laughed, and wrapped his arm around the hoodrat. Zoe winced, big mistake. "I think she likes me." He joked, but the boy obviously didn't find it funny, and went for the Irish boy by the neck in a hilarious display. The probation worker easily intervened, but that didn't stop the rest of them laughing.


Painting benches. Well. At least it was easy work. The weird quiet boy, and the one with the snapback who Zoe had learned's name was Gary were at the far bench. Her, the chavvy girl and the Irish boy in the middle, and Curtis and the pretty girl on the last bench.

"Ah man! There's paint on my cap!" Gary suddenly shouted, standing up abruptly. "This is bullshit!" he hollered, before kicking a can of paint over for good measure, and storming away.

"Oooh," the pretty girl teased, and the rest of them laughed softly. Then, she turned her attention back to Curtis. "I know you." She said, smiling.

"No, you don't."

"Yeah, you're that runner guy," she said "You screwed up big time."

"You noticed yeah?" he said. Clearly she had struck a nerve "Thanks for reminding me."

Zoe's attention was brought back to her bench, when the curly haired boy decided to speak. "So… I'm guessing shoplifting?" he said, looking at Kelly. She remained silent. "No?"

"Don't act like ya know me, 'cause ya don't." was all she said, dragging the brush up and down the bench. "Just making conversation," he said, making his voice sound all innocent. "This is a chance to network with other young offenders."

"We should be swapping tips or something." Zoe said sarcastically.

"Yes! You see, she gets it." The boy smiled. "So what are you in for?"

Zoe smirked a little to herself, her eyes flitting down to the bench and then back up to his green ones. "I spray painted a massive dick on my next-door neighbour's car."

"Well, I can't say I'm not impressed."

"Why'd ya do it?" the chavvy girl asked.

"Well, he was a massive dick. He was perving on me, like all the time. And then he tried to make a pass at me, but when I told my dad, he denied the whole thing. He deserved it."

"Nice one," the boy said, holding up his hand. She high-fived him, glad that someone saw the funny side of it. Then they both turned back to the chavvy girl "So, come on, she's shared her story. What did you do?" he asked.

"This girl called me a slag, so we got into a fight." She shrugged.

"Was this on the Jeremy Kyle show?"

"No," the girl said, ignoring his humour "It was in Argos."

"Argos," Zoe said, nodding "You should've got one of those little blue pens and poked her eye out with it."

"Took the words right out of my mouth!" the boy said, laughing "I'm Nathan by the way."

"Zoe."

"Kelly."

Nathan nodded, and then turned to the weird boy, who was crouching down the end, slowly painting a bench. "What about you then weird kid?" he called, gainigng the boys attention. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything… but you look like a panty sniffer."

He then proceeded to mime sniffing a pair of giant nickers, causing Zoe to laugh and Kelly to roll her eyes. "I'm not a panty sniffer." The boy said his voice shaky "I'm not a pervert."

Not satisfied, Nathan decided to then to an obscene demonstration of wanking himself off with the paintbrush, walking slowly towards the boy until he snapped, "I tried to burn someone's house down!"

"Well," Zoe said "That's something."

The boy turned his attention back to his painting, and thunder roared in the distance. "What about you," Kelly asked Nathan "What did you do?"

"Me? I was done for er… eating some pic n' mix." He said.

"Bullshit." Zoe said, giving him a look.

"It's true!" he insisted, throwing his hands up. Then, hearing more deafening thunder, he turned his attention to the angry dark clouds that hadn't been there a second ago. "What is going on with this weather?" he said.

The probation worker walked outside to where they were situated, and noticed the paint can. "How'd that happen?" he asked, pointing to the massive stain on the floor. "I've been gone five minuets, its painting benches, how'd you screw that up?" they were all silent. "You tell me, because I've got no idea…"

Nathan grinned, a witty remark forming on his lips but suddenly a massive ball of hair crashed down, demolishing the car behind them. "That's my car!" the probation worker said, shocked. Zoe laughed a little, and turned her head, noticing the weird kid getting his phone out, filming everything. "Classic." Nathan grinned, but suddenly another one hit just behind him, nearly knocking him to the ground. "Okay so I'm a little bit freaked out now!" he shouted.

"What is that?!" the mix raced girl shouted, noticing the dark cloud looking a lot more… darker and traveling towards them. The weird kid held his phone up, filming the sky now.

"Oh yeah, crazy freak storm!" Zoe shouted at him "Definitely catch this one on YouTube!"

"Let's go, everyone inside!" the probation worker shouted. The six of them stood still, until he shouted "Move!" and they all took off in a sprint, back to the community centre as the hail grew increasingly stronger, smashing all around them.

Curtis, being a lot more athletic reached the doors first, and tugged on them violently. Zoe reached him next. "Open The door!" the shouted.

"I can't! it's locked!" he said.

Suddenly the rest of the group caught up, the probation worker pushing his way forwards. Zoe and Curtis stumbled backwards. "Open the door!" Zoe shouted, as he fumbled with his keys.

"Open the fucking door!" The mix race girl hollered, but hell the probation worker was slow ad not good at prioritizing. He turned from the door, "Don't speak to me like that!" he shouted.

"Is this really the time for dramatics?" Zoe screamed "Just open the door!"

But it was too late. Suddenly, Zoe felt as if she was alight. Something burned through her insides, and she felt… weightless. Almost as if she were flying through the air, everything was silent, and then suddenly she fell with a hard thud to the ground, with a pounding in her head. What the fuck was that… had she just been struck, by lighting?

"What the fuck." She said again, out loud to herself. she was the first to sit up, followed by Kelly.

"I feel really weird." Kelly said.

"At least the hail has stopped," Zoe offered, wiping sweat from her brow.

"I think we were hit, by lighting!" Curtis said.

"We should be dead…" the weird kid said, still clutching his phone tightly in his hand.

"A little reassurance might be nice, you know," Nathan said with a groan as he sat up. "Maybe, I don't know, 'you're fine' 'looking good'."

The probation worker sat up slowly, his face contorting. "W-wanker." He mumbled.

"What?" Nathan said, suddenly a lot more animated. "Did he just call me a wanker?" he asked. The probation worker breathed heavily, and Nathan started clicking his fingers. "Hey, hello?" he said.

"Is everyone alright?" the probation worker asked.

"We could've been died you dick!" the pretty girl said

"Are you alright?" Kelly asked, but the probation worker just groaned, his face twisting again.

"Oi," Zoe said "Are you alright there, mate?"

"You're acting like a freak" Kelly said.

"Maybe we should call it a day," the probation worker said, regaining control of his facial muscles.


Back in the locker room, Zoe had gotten changed rather quickly. Her hair was wet and stringy from the storm, but the hairspray had done its bit to keep it in place, which was an advantage. She took a hairband from her wrist, and tied it up into a pony tail.

Kelly was standing in front of the mirror, fixing the ridiculously high ponytail she had been sporting earlier. The mix race girl, who Zoe had discovered was named Alisha, was standing at her locker in a floral print dress, giving her a funny look. Suddenly out of nowhere, Kelly turned around to face her. "What did ya say?" she asked.

"I didn't say anything."

Kelly just sighed and tuned back to the mirror, brushing her hair and Zoe was thankful the conflict was over. Kelly had been acting weird. "What?" she suddenly said, turning around again.

"What?" Alisha said

"What!" Kelly said, moving closer to her. Alisha just rolled her eyes and turned on her heels, walking away. "Did you hear 'er?" Kelly asked.

"Nope, sorry," Zoe shrugged. Weirdo. She thought to herself.

"What?!" Kelly shouted

"I didn't say anything…"


Zoe walked out of the locker rooms to find Nathan, Curtis, Alisha and the boy who had addressed himself as Simon standing by the vending machine.

"And you'd know all about being, mental…" Nathan was saying, standing alarmingly close to Simon "Wwww-wanker!" he shouted, looming into Simon's face.

"Are we waiting for something?" Zoe shrugged, playing with the sleeves of her checked shirt. It was weird, she noticed, how Nathan was wearing exactly the same one under his black jacket.

"Probation worker." Curtis said, and Alisha rolled her eyes.

"It's been ages. I'm not waiting around for that dickhead." She said, walking towards the door.

"It's only been five minuets?" Curtis said, but Alisha wasn't listening as she walked away.

"Fair enough," Nathan shrugged, "We've all got places we'd rather be. What about you curly?" he asked, turning his gaze to Zoe.

"Your one to talk about curls, mate." Zoe said, gesturing to his head.

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were flirting with me?" Nathan said, exaggeratingly walking closer to Zoe, until he had backed her away to the wall by the door, putting his hand up on the wall. "Obviously you don't know any better then, curly." Zoe said before easily leaving his proximity. "Oh okay," he called as she walked away "Playing hard to get yeah?"

Zoe didn't answer, but smirked to herself. she'd be lying if she didn't think Nathan was fit, with those eyes and his thick, dark, curls. And those green eyes, when he'd been staring at her… God it was like he'd been staring into her soul or something.

Wait, she thought as she walked down the road Do I actually fancy this boy?


The Next Day

Zoe couldn't lie. She felt weird. Especially after what had happened to her when she went home yesterday. She had walked into her flat, chucking her bag on the sofa. She walked over, and sat down on it, putting her feet up and getting comfy on the sofa, sticking the telly on. Then she realised she had left the door open. Reluctant to get up, she willed for the door to be shut, and suddenly… it had closed. But then of course, that had probably been the wind. Right? Then, when she had been watching telly, she wanted to change the channel, and suddenly, it changed to exactly the channel she wanted.

Weird.

But still, standing there, staring at the graffiti that read 'I'M GOING TO KILL YOU' in red letters on the community centre walls, she couldn't shake the feeling that it hadn't been the wind. Or a blip in her shitty TV.

She stood there with Simon, Alisha, Kelly and Curtis, and suddenly Nathan bopped over from behind them, a lit fag in his mouth hanging out of his mouth.

"This is a joke! Did one of you do this?" Curtis asked.

"Don't look at me, 'cause I didn't do it." Kelly said.

"I'll tell you who did it," Nathan said, putting the fag out under his shoe. "That banksy prick. There's a hidden meaning. It's like that monkey policeman, with the banana and the Tesco's bag"

"I'm going to kill you…" Zoe said "Subtle."

"Maybe someone wants to kill us…" Simon said, ignoring Nathan.

"Well, why would anyone want'a kill us?" Kelly asked.

Suddenly, the probation worker emerged from round the corner. "Come on you lot, let's get changed." He said.

"Have you seen this?" Curtis asked "Someone's taking the piss."

"Yeah, it's terrible isn't it?" The probation worker said, in a voice that sounded like he didn't quite believe what he was saying "This anti-social behaviour…" he turned his eyes towards them.

"Oh, is he having a dig at us? Nathan said, putting another unlit fag into his mouth.

"Did you not just smoke one?" Zoe asked.

"Maybe I like to chain-smoke?" Nathan said.

"Maybe you like dying." Zoe countered. He rolled his eyes, but nevertheless took the fag out of his moth and into his pocket.

Alisha's phone started ringing again. "Right! That's it!" the probation worker said, through clenched teeth. "All of you give me your phones. No-one's making any more phone calls, not today!"

He looked at Alisha pointedly, "Now, come on." He said.

"Uhm, are you allowed to take our phones?" she said, holding hers in the air and snapping a photo of him. He snatched it out of her hand, but she just laughed smugly. Curtis held his out willingly; not wanting to get any grievances and the probation worker took it, gladly.

Then he turned to Kelly. "What?" she asked, folding her arms. The probation worker just reached into her pocket, snatching the phone ad she rolled her eyes. Then he turned to Simon, who reluctantly held his out like it was his most prized possession. It probably was, Zoe thought, after the way he had gone around filming everything.

He moved to Nathan who tried to skirt around the situation, "I'm expecting an important phone call from my mum," he tried but the probation worker, clearly wasn't up for it today and snatched it out of his hand. "Okay, take a message."

Then he moved to Zoe. "I really don't think this is necessary…"she tried, but obtrusively the probation worker reached his hand into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out the little pink phone. "Erm, mate, getting a bit close there." She said. The probation worker said nothing and glared at her, making he shiver. That guy was behaving really weirdly.

They all slunk off to the changing rooms, and Kelly spat out 'Wanker' into his face.


in the changing rooms, the team of ASBO owning delinquents all got into their jumpsuits. Nathan was standing in front of the mirror, ruffling his hair. It gave Zoe the opportunity to notice his jumpsuit, on the back where it usually said 'COMMUNITY PAYBACK' he had crossed out and customised his. 'COMMUNITY blowBACK' it now read.

"See somethin' you like?" he said, turning round to Zoe. Zoe fought the urge to blush, knowing that he'd caught her staring. "I was just looking at your jumpsuit." She said, keeping her cool.

"Oh," he said, and Zoe eternally smirked. Was he… disappointed? "I thought you were checking me out."

Zoe laughed "Yeah, in your dreams." Before turning round, and walking towards Kelly, engaging in normal conversation.

"I don't think he's allowed to take our phones," Nathan was saying, to Curtis "He's probably phoning one of those sex lines."

Curtis laughed "Them sex lines will eat your credit."

"Call them a lot do you?" Alisha laughed, standing in front of the mirror.

"He's probably filming himself on our phones… masturbating or something".


they wandered outside with buckets of paint, round to where the angry red graffiti stood. Curtis began scrubbing furiously, the rest of them going at it a little more half-heartedly. Alisha, on the other hand, pulled some sunglasses out of her pocket, and unzipped her jumpsuit to display a striped bikini and lying on the benches.

"Oh, you just relax, yeah," Curtis said, half-heartedly "Take it easy."

Alisha lifted her sunglasses to look him in the eye, smirking "Someone's just gonna right something else on there tonight, look they make us do these bullshit jobs in this bullshit orange jumpsuits… they can suck my dick."

On one hand, Zoe did agree with Alisha, but still- that didn't condone her to lounge around in hardly any clothes whilst they did all the work. Still, Zoe kept her mouth buttoned, kept on scrubbing lightly.

"Nice," she heard Curtis say, as he leaned back to get a full few of Alisha's tits.

"Feel free to stare at my tits, yeah?" she said. But her tone clearly displayed that she wasn't complaining. What are the odds of those two fucking? She thought sarcastically in her head.

Nathan pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, and promptly lit it up with his zippo. "Wanna share?" he asked Zoe.

"Sure." She said. Nathan handed over the fag and she took a drag, blowing smoke rings into the air. They continued this in a companionable silence, scrubbing the wall, passing the fag back and forth, until Kelly piped up. Something had clearly been bothering her, Zoe had noticed.

"Y'know after the storm," she asked "Did any of yous' lot feel like, dead weird?"

Zoe froze. Yes, but should I say anything? She thought, earning herself an odd look from Kelly. But before Kelly could question her anymore, Nathan opened his mouth. "Yeah," he said, nodding "I had a strange, tingling sensation in my anus."

Zoe rolled her eyes, "Hmm, yeah. maybe you should go doctor's about that?" she said.

"Oh yeah, sure you won't take a look for me?" he flirted.

Zoe was a flirty girl, and she knew it. She knew how to go about getting what she wanted, and she knew what boys liked. She couldn't stop herself from replying "Yeah, I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

Nathan gave her an odd look, raising a thick dark eyebrow and smirking. Obviously, he wasn't used to having someone around just as flirty as him. "Now that's an offer I can't refuse." He said. Kelly just rolled her eyes and went back to scrubbing, before abruptly turning to Simon. "What, did you feel weird?" she said, walking closer to him.

"What you don't want to hear about my anus?" Nathan said, moving his hand southwards.

"Do you really need to ask that question?" Curtis said.

"S-something happened." Christopher said, speaking for the first time.

"What's that?" Nathan asked "Squeak up."

"Something happened to me."

"Are you a virgin?" Nathan continued. "High five…" he said in a sing-song voice, but Kelly put his taunting to an end, turning and shouting "Shut up!" clearly she was quite interested in whatever it was Simon was saying, god knows why.

"What was it?" she asked.

"It-it's nothing." Simon said, before turning back to the graffiti, and scrubbing it. Zoe gave him an odd look, and then Kelly suddenly turned on Nathan, pushing him over a bucket. "What was that for?!" Nathan shouted, before she turned and stormed away.


back in the community centre, Zoe was sitting around on one of the chairs in the hall, drawing a doodle on a random piece of paper someone had left there. She could over hear the three boys talking, playing table football.

"We got a good deal, when you think about it." Nathan was saying.

"How's that?" Curtis asked.

"Well, you do the maths. There's three of us, and three of them. One each."

"There were four of us…" Simon mumbled, but Nathan ignored him.

"I'm talking about getting laid! Now how are we gonna do this guys?"

"Do what?" Curtis asked

"Divide them up! Now, the one with the short… frizzy hair. I don't see me and her getting it on."

"What, because she's beautiful?" Curtis asked

"No! because she looks like she'd be way to high maintenance man… you'd have to treat her really well. But that other one, curly over there- she looks like she likes it dirty."

"I can hear you, you know that right?" Zoe said, looking up.

"Yeah, it's all part of the charm. Don't you worry your pretty little head. Man talk." He said, smiling widely. Zoe just rolled her eyes, muttering 'Prick' under her breath and went back to her drawing.

"So yeah, I guess that leaves you with the other, other one," Nathan shrugged, turning to Simon. He clicked his fingers in the air, trying to remember her name. "Kelly." Simon said.

"Whatever," he said "A couple of Bacardi breezers in her man, I reckon she's good to go. You might need a couple yourself but hey! Who's counting?"

Simon looked very uncomfortable at the prospects of that scenario, and Curtis laughed, asking "Don't the girls get a say in this?"

"Apparently not." Zoe called over. "Our silly little womenfolk minds just can't take the pressure of choosing, apparently."

"See, she gets it! A group of young people doing mindless shit all day, it's bound to happen! Its biology… or physics. One of those." He said. "So, d'we have a deal?" he asked, spitting into his hand, and reaching it out for Curtis to shake. Curtis made a face, shaking his head "No…" he said.

"Fine well then, maybe I'll take both of them."

"I don't see that happening." Curtis laughed.

"You will see it happening! And then you'll be gutted you didn't take the deal. And then who's laughing? Me."


a little later, they were hanging about outside the main hall. Simon was sitting on the floor, hunched over, hugging his knees. Alisha was sprawled across the couch and Curtis was leaning against the door. Zoe was sitting in the other sofa, cross legged and Nathan appeared to be sexually assaulting the vending machine. "What are you doing?" Zoe asked.

"Getting free drinks!" he said. With a few more hits, two cans fell out the bottom. "Well that was lucky!" he said, holding them in each hand. He slumped into one of the wheelchairs, the drinks in his lap and wheeled over, tossing a can to Zoe. She caught it easily. "Thanks…" she said.

"No problem, but hey! You owe me somethin' now!"

She laughed and rolled her eyes "Define something?"

"Well I dunno about you… but I'm thinking sex!"

"Yeah, good luck with that." She smirked.

Zoe turned her attention over to Alisha and Curtis, who were talking about Curtis' conviction. "You came to my sixth form." She was saying "You gave this big talk about… athletics and all your medals and that."

"So, I'm guessing you're to going to the Olympics?" Nathan asked, grinning.

"Funny."

"I heard you were dealing crack…" Zoe said, looking up at him. "You don't look like the inconspicuous dealer type, I'll admit."

"I wasn't dealing crack!"

"Nah," Nathan said "The paper said it was steroids."

"Those things, will shrivel your dick." Alisha commented, smirking.

"It wasn't steroids!" Curtis said "I'm not a cheat!"

"Oh yeah, so what was it then?" Alisha asked.

"I got caught with a little bit of coke, aright?" he said.

Nathan tutted, and Curtis glared at him, but luckily Alisha interrupted the tension. "No-one gets community service for possession!"

"If it was anyone else, they'd of got a caution" he shrugged "But, I get 200 hours community service, and a two year ban from athletics!"

"That sucks," Zoe said under her breath "But it's fair," she said looking up at Curtis. "You were a role model. They've got to make an example."

"You let yourself down." Nathan said. Curtis looked up and hey, if only looks could kill. Zoe knew Nathan was hitting a nerve with Curtis, and tried to send him a warning look, not that he was paying any attention. He continued to push, saying "You let the kids down, you let your parents down!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Curtis shouted, lurching for him, but Nathan still pushed.

"You let your people down!"

"ALL I EVER DID WAS TRAIN!" Curtis shouted. "I SHOULDN'T EVEN FUCKING BE HERE!"

He went for Nathan, reaching out to hit him. The Irish kid shouted "Hey! You can't hit someone in a wheelchair!" and Curtis angrily wheeled him into the wall, before walking further away from him. Nathan opened his mouth to continue, but Zoe stopped him. "That's enough Nathan." She said "Obviously he regrets it. But he can't turn back time, so he's gotta pay the price. He's got enough to deal with without you on his case."

"Thanks." Curtis murmured and the two shared eye contact. Zoe did like Curtis, he was a genuine guy. He meant well, and was making the best of a bad situation, as was she.

The silence that followed was heavy and awkward, thick with tension. Eventually, Alisha had to say something. "You wanna know what I got done for?" she smirked.

"No, not really." Nathan said.

What followed was… not what Zoe exactly expected. Alisha recounted the story of going to some party, and her friend Chloe was drunk as hell, and upset because some boy called Jack was shagging some girl called Ellie. Then Alisha drove them away from the party, and the police pulled them over. Then Alisha demonstrated exactly what she did with the breathalyzer. The three boys were practically drooling, poor innocent Simon had his mouth hanging open. Zoe stayed silent, squirming a little as Alisha concluded the story, saying she was four times over the limit.

She was about to make a sarcastic remark, when suddenly, Kelly busted through the door, shouting "He's gonna kill us!"

"Ha," Nathan laughed "Nice entrance, very dramatic."

"The probation workers gone mental, he's just attacked me! Somethin really weird's going on, I keep hearin' these voices in my head. It's like I can hear what people are thinking!" she shouted.

"Have you been sniffing glue?" Alisha asked, raising her eyebrows.

"The storm, the lighting it's done something to us! I don't know!"

"Okay, if you can hear our thoughts, what am I thinking now?" Nathan asked.

"You think it's bullshit?!" she shouted.

"Of course I think it's bullshit, you don't need to be a mind reader to know that!"

Zoe kept silent. Should she say something? Kelly did look pretty crazy, and maybe last night was nothing, but there was just something in her that knew, deep down, that it wasn't.

"Why you in a wheelchair?"

"It was the storm!" Nathan said, playing up to her. A horrified look spread on Kelly's face, but dripped as Nathan concluded the tale with "The tingling sensation in my anus, its spread. I can't feel my legs!"

"This is serious!" she shouted.

"What do you mean the probation worked attacked you?" Curtis asked, trying to keep everyone calm.

"This does sound like complete bulllshit…" Alisha commented from the sofa.

Suddenly, Simon stood up. "Something's happened to me to…" he said.

"Did you pop your cherry?" Nathan asked cheerily "Ah, we're all very happy for ya!"

"Earlier on when we were in the locker room, I was invisible. I turned invisible."

"What, so she's psychic and you can turn invisible?" Curtis sniggered "That seems likely."

"Did anyone witness this miraculous disappearance?"

"You were all there!" Simon insisted.

"Erm, I think we might have noticed if you turned invisible." Alisha said.

"You didn't!" Simon said "I was standing right there, you couldn't see me!"

"Right, okay…" Nathan said wheeling over, pushing Simon into the corner "Go on then. Do it. Turn invisible."

Simon bulged his eyes and screwed up his face, making a straining noise. Zoe couldn't help but snigger a little, poor boy looked like he was about to shit himself.

"Oh my god!" Nathan suddenly said, staring past a very visible Simon "He's disappeared!"

"Can't you see me?" Simon asked. Zoe cringed inside, as Nathan scrunched up his can.

"No! you're invisible." He said, before throwing the can up, letting it hit Simon in the face. Alisha sniggered, and Simon looked disheartened. Zoe knew she had to say something, Simon and Kelly, they wouldn't make something up like this.

"Oi. Something weird happened to me to."

Nathan wheeled backwards a bit, and everyone turned to Zoe. "What can you do then? Super speed, turn into a ball of flames? Honestly what is this, a marvel film?"

"No, I'm serious!" Zoe said "Yesterday, in my flat, I wanted the door closed and it just… closed! And then, I wanted the TV channel to turn, and it just did. it's like I can do things, with my mind!"

"Oh come on, you lot are clearly on some sort of acid trip." Alisha commented.

"I'm being serious!"

"Prove it," Curtis shrugged.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed "Prove you're not lying."

"Fine." Zoe said. An idea sprung into her mind, and she went over to the vending machine. Gripping her hands into fists, she thought really hard about a can, and making it come out as if it had been paid for. Surely enough, after a few seconds, there was a drop. She reached inside, and a can of coke was there.

"Oh my fucking god…" Nathan said. "You know what this means right?"

"What?"

"Free drinks for life!"

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I think I can use it for better things than getting free drinks."

"Can you use it on people too?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know…" Zoe admitted "I'll try, hold on."

Suddenly, Nathan's hand Rose up in front of him. "Oh my god. No fucking way…" he said. "Stop doing that!"

His arm dropped, and he flexed it a little. "That is amazing…" Kelly said.

"That was weird as fuck…"

Then, out of nowhere, Curtis was leaning against the wall, panting heavily. He looked shaken and distressed, his eyes flying around the room. "I'm tellin' ya, don't go out there or he will kill ya!" Kelly shouted.

"she's telling the truth!" Curtis said.

"And you know this how? Are you psychic too?"

"All this, it's already happened once! I opened the door, the probation worker, he killed you!" he said, pointing at Kelly. "You were right there, everything froze! You were all just standing there! Time went backwards!"

"So what, you can turn back time?" Alisha asked

"This just gets better by the second, Nathan said, standing up from the wheelchair.

"Everything happened again,, exactly the same, I'm telling you. Don't open that door!" he shouted at Nathan. Nathan ignored him, and pulled the door open a crack. Using her power, Zoe hastily shut it, and the lock clicked. "He's telling the truth, I saw, before the door shut… he's gone mental."

"Wait, did you shut and lock the door?" Kelly asked Zoe.

"Yeah!" she said with a nod. The group of them stood up, as the probation worker banged against the door furiously. "Maybe he's on crystal meth, or something!" Alisha said "I mean that stuff makes you crazy! My friend Chloe once did it, and she nearly shagged her own brother! And he's really ugly."

"The graffiti…" Simon whispered.

"It was for us." Zoe said "I'm going to kill you. What the fuck?!"

"What did I say? I said there was a hidden meaning."

"How is I'm GOING TO KILL YOU a hidden message?" Zoe said.

"Okay," he winced "Maybe not."

"Did anything weird happen to you?" Kelly asked, turning to Alisha.

"No!" she shouted "We should call the police!"

"He took our phones," Simon pointed out, "He took all our phones."

"He's stopped!" Curtis pointed out.

"Maybe he knows another way in…" Zoe said.

"You dickhead!" Alisha shouted at Kelly "Why'd you come back here? You should've gone for help!"

"What do you know, bitch!" Kelly shouted.

"Oh shut up you chav."

"You know if you call me a chav one more time, I'll kick you so hard in the cunt your mum'll feel it."

"Her mum'll feel it?" Zoe asked.

"How does that work?" Nathan laughed.

"Now isn't the time for fighting, or jokes!" Curtis shouted.

"He tried to kill me!" Kelly said, "I came back here to warn yous lot, when I could've left her!"

"Kelly's right, she did us a favour!" Zoe said.

"I'm so sick of all of ya judging me, you can all fuck off!"

"Oh whatever," Alisha said "I'm getting out of here!"

"Yeah come on, out the back way!" Nathan said. They all took off running, when Nathan suddenly slipped. Zoe went to laugh at him, before realising what he fell in wasn't water.

"Is that blood?!" Kelly shouted.

"Oh Jesus Christ!" Nathan said, shooting up and rubbing his hands on his jumpsuit "Get it off me!"

They all turned their locket to wear the blood was emanating from, the locker. None of them dared move to touch it. "Should I…?" Zoe said. They nodded. She stood still for a moment, and then the locker door swung open and the dead body of Gary fell out. The smell was revolting. They all jumped back as his limp, bloody body crashed out of the locker, hitting the floor. He was battered.

"It's Gary…" Simon said.

"I did wonder what had happened to him…" Nathan cringed.

"He's going to kill us!" Alisha said, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Turn back time!" Nathan said to Curtis "Stop this all from happening!"

"I don't know how it works!" Curtis said, panicked.

"Oh that's great! That's really useful!"

"Come on," Curtis said, ignoring Nathan and turning to Alisha. "Don't look at him." He said. He went to touch her hand, but as he did so, something flowed through his veins and he grabbed her wrists, gasping. "I've gotta have sex with you right now! Oh you're so beautiful! Let's do it now! Raw!"

"Get off me you freak" Alisha shouted, realising Curtis.

"What?" he said "What'd I do?"

Alisha reached out her hand to slap him, and he grabbed her wrist to stop her. Suddenly he was taking over again, spitting out obscene comments about how hot she was. He even started getting his dick out, of his trousers. Alisha got out of his grasp again, and he snapped out of it.

"What did I do?!" he asked, panting.

"Erm, you said you wanted to shag her?" Kelly said.

"Yeah, and you were getting your chap out!" Nathan laughed. Curtis mumbled, 'shut up' under his breath, and zipped his trousers back up. "It happened when you were touching her." Simon said. Zoe could almost feel it in her mind, the cogs in his mind whirring as he pieced together the situation.

Alisha looked down at her hands, horrified, before reaching out and touching Simon, testing the theory. Something dark flowed through the veins on his neck, and he gasped. "I'm so hard for you! I wanna rip your clothes off and piss on your tits!" he shouted. Alisha, horrified, released him and Simon snapped out of the trance. "What is happening to me?!" she screamed.

"You sick bastard" Nathan said, raising his eyebrows at Simon, who blushed.

"What did I say?" he asked.

"Well," Zoe said. "Let's just say piss, and tits."

Simon blushed beet red, but before Nathan could ease him anymore, the probation worker lurched through the glass window. "Well, he's a persistent bastard, I'll give him that!" Zoe muttered under her breath. Suddenly, Kelly ran up behind the feral man, and hit him round the back of the head with a can of paint. "What did you do?" Nathan asked.

"Is.. is he head?" Alisha said.

"Well, I'm no doctor… but you see how the back of his head's caved in like that…" Nathan said.

They were all panting, when suddenly the probation workers arm struck out, grabbing Kelly by the leg. "I am not a chav!" she screamed, stamping on his head furiously, over and over. Zoe's hands flew to her mouth, and Nathan's went into his hair, pulling at it frantically. "Yeah, that should do it…" he said.

"You killed our probation worker!" Alisha said.

"This is very, very bad…" Nathan muttered.

"I feel sick," Zoe said.

"He would've killed us!" Kelly shouted, panting. They all stood around the bloodied, dead body.

"We should call the police!" Curtis suggested "It was self-defence."

"Yeah, yeah," Alisha agreed "We show them the locker, they'll do some CSI shit and figure it all out!"

"They won't believe us!"

"She's right!" Zoe said "They'll take one look at us, six young offenders and one look at those dead bodies… they won't even bother with any 'CSI shit'. They'll just arrest us!"

"We tell em the truth! Stick to our story!"

"And what's our story? That he can turn invisible and you can turn back time? They won't believe us!"

"Well, what are we gonna do?"

"If there's no body," Simon said, voice shaky "There's no crime. We should bury them under the fly over."

"Yeah? what if someone see's us?" Alisha shouted.

"Wait, no, no, wait!" Nathan said, he leaned in, closer to the bodies "We give 'em a quick-" he whistled a cleaning motion "We put them in those wheelchairs, we wheel 'em up there, and if anyone see's us, were just a couple of young offenders taking two specials for a nice walk in the sunshine."

"He's phrased it ridiculously, but IT could work" Zoe said.


Then out of nowhere, there they were, dumping two bodies into a pit. "I'm pretty sure this breaches the terms of my ASBO." Nathan joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"We can't tell anyone, not about the storm or what it did to us!" Kelly said, shovelling in the first heap of dirt.

"We've just buried our probation worker, we don't want to draw any attention to ourselves." Nathan agreed. Zoe nodded. He had been acting like a massive douche, the whole day, but Nathan did have a point. He was actually quite smart. It had been his idea to put the bodies in the wheelchairs, after all.

"I don't want anyone to know," Alisha said "I cannot be a freak."

"What about you?" Kelly asked Curtis. He looked up, like he was considering his options.

"You can't back out now mate, or we're all screwed," Nathan said "Hey, you're black and famous, you're probably more screwed!"

Curtis ignored this, spitting out through gritted teeth, "I shouldn't even be here."

"Just then, when he was touching ya, how did ya do that?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know!"

"You said you wanted to piss on her tits!" Nathan said, looking at Simon.

"Yeah, mate that's probably the kind of thing you want to keep between you and your internet service provider." Zoe smirked.

"Oh, she's a funny one isn't she." Nathan said "I like my girls with a bit of banter."

"Hardly the time to be trying to pick up girls, whilst burying two dead bodies." Zoe said.

"Hey," he shrugged "At least I'm persistent."

"Are you alright?" Curtis asked Alisha. Her face remained stoic as she shovelled dirt into the grave.

"What so hold on, all of you have some special power. Everyone can do something except me?" Nathan shouted, before pointing at Simon, saying "He can do so- he can do something and I can't, where's the logic?"

"Maybe you can do something." Zoe shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe you just haven't found out what it is yet…" Simon said.

"Yeah, right. What if… what if I can't feel pain?"

Then Kelly promptly smacked Nathan upside the head. "Ow!" he shouted.

"Did ya feel that?"

"Stop hitting me!"


that night, each of them left the community centre different people to when they walked in. they had committed a murder. They had concealed two bodies. They had been subjected to a freak lighting storm, and gained superpowers. Not your everyday shit.

Zoe walked into her flat, not even bothering to use her key to turn her lock. This power did have some advantages. She walked straight into her kitchen, shoving the bloodied jumpsuit into the washing machine and then wandered straight into her bedroom, slumping down on the bed and slamming the doors behind her without lifting a finger. She drifted off to sleep instantly. All of this bullshit could wait until morning.


the next day

the six of them were lined up, standing in the hall as a pale, upset looking woman with dark hair spoke to them. "Gary and my colleague tony have both been reported missing. Their families are very worried about them. Have you seen anything unusual… anything at all?" she asked.

They all remained silent, until Nathan hesitantly put up his hand. Here we fucking go, Zoe thought to herself. what the hell was this twat going to come out with?

"You saw something?" the woman asked.

"A few days ago…" he said "I go into the toilets… tony and Gary where In there, butt naked. And tony had him by the hair, like this and he's just… doing him." Zoe cringed, thinking it couldn't have got any worse, but then Nathan stared humping the air. "A-and Tony's like 'Oh, who's your daddy? I'm your daddy, I'm big daddy! oh you like that? Oh yeah, huh uh, I'm big daddy cool!'

He finished his display with a booming noise, and then causally slung his hands onto his hips. "SO I'm guessing they've run away together to continue their illicit homosexual affair, and I ask you, In this world of intolerance and prejudice, who are we… who are we? To condemn them."

The woman just folded her arms, as is she was about to burst into tears and walked away. The rest of them stared at Nathan, incredulously.

"What the fuck was that?" Curtis asked.

"That, my friend. Was comedic licence." Nathan smirked.

"You prick! Obviously she knew him!" Zoe said.

"What? I couldn't help myself." he protested.


they all stood out on the roof, a summer breeze flowing through their hair as they looked onto the grey estate, just over the grey, shitty river. Zoe noticed the woman they had spoken too, stare out for a little white, before folding her arms and walking inside.

"Well," Nathan said, smoking a puff of his cigarette and offering it to Zoe. She took it, noticing how he never offered anyone else a smoke but her. She blew smoke out through her mouth and nose, and carried on listening to him "I think we got away with it." He said.

"Do you actually believe that, or are you just really dumb?" Curtis asked

"I actually believe that!" he shouted. Zoe passed him the fag back and he inhaled it deeply. "You know, it's not fair. I was there, I should have one of these bullshit powers!"

"You can have mine." Kelly said "D'you wanna hear what people are thinking about you?"

"No," he said "I want something good, something from the A-List, like Zoe's. that whole mind shit, that's fucking awesome."

Zoe smirked, mostly to herself. "Here, look at this." She said. She took the fag back from Nathan and inhaled, hard. She blew the smoke out, and whilst it was still floating in the air, she manipulated it into a heart shape.

"You see?" Nathan said, "A-List!"

"Maybe you can fly?" Simon suggested. Noticing how Nathan's face lit up at the thought, Alisha let out a sigh. "He's not gonna be able to fly." She said.

Unfortunately, Nathan ignored her. "Yeah," he said nodding "There's always someone who can fly! Check it out."

"Don't" Kelly warned but Nathan ignored her as well, climbing onto a chair. He took a leap off it, and then fell immediately to the ground. "Nope, that's not it." He said, wincing.

"So," Curtis said "Is this it? We're gonna be like this forever?"

"What if we're meant to be like superheroes?" Simon said. Zoe could tell that this was obviously some kind of childhood dream of his, but the way his eyes lit up. "Superhero's?" Nathan sad incredulously "You lot? Superheroes. In what kind of fucked up world would that be allowed to happen?"

"I did not sign up for this," Alisha mumbled.

"Superheroes?" Nathan was still laughing "I love this guy, you prick!"

"What If there's loads of people like us all over town?" Kelly asked.

"Nah, that kinda stuff only happens in America." Nathan shrugged "Trust me, in a couple weeks, it'll be back to the same old boring shit."

"Probably." Zoe said. "I doubt that it affected anyone else."


So, I thought I'd write a misfits fic. Because I love misfits, loads! And Nathan is my favourite (No I'm not one of them ones that hate the new series. Rudy is perf and I do like Finley and Jess, but Nathan will always kinda have a special place in my heart) so I thought I'd write a Nathan x OC fic. I hope it's okay? Review pleaseee…? Reviews insipre me to update quicker, if that ocnvicnes you enough!