"Emma, hurry up! We won't ask you again!" Gina was the strictest of the careworkers in this new home, and Emma knew she had no choice but to get on the bus with the rest of the kids.

"Please, Gina, don't make me go. I'm going to get bullied again, let me just stay here, it's not like anyone will care if I go to school or not. I'm new, they don't know me."

"Emma, this is your first day back and I do not have the time to be dealing with your nonsense. GET ON THAT BUS!"

Emma grabbed her bag, and walked reluctantly up the steps. As she made her way to the back of the bus she heard a few of the other kids whispering to each other, and made out words like 'annoying' and 'freak'. She'd been at this new home for nearly 2 weeks now, and still didn't have a single friend to show for it. Not that she was surprised, she'd been almost a year at the old home, and she hadn't had any friends there either. She thought she'd had one, but he'd betrayed her, and she'd learned not to trust people any more.

As she sat herself down at a window seat near the back, she reflected on the incident that had caused her to be moved here in the first place. Neal had been the only person she really spoke to at the old home. He was funny, exciting, and had seemed genuinely interested in her. They'd arrived roughly at the same time, and bonded when they both tried to steal the same cake from the kitchen. They had always worked together on everything, they'd take it in turns to do homework, and would be an alibi for the cover story the other one made up for not having done it. Emma would distract the careworkers while Neal sneaked in to the office to find extra pocket money, or took food from the kitchen. Neal was the best thing to ever happen to her … Or so she'd thought.

On her 15th birthday, Neal had ran into her room, and told her excitedly that he had a surprise for her. He said he'd found the key for the locker where the teachers kept all the confiscated phones. All she needed to do was pull the fire alarm, and he'd sneak in and take the phones. They could keep the best ones for themselves, then sell the rest and buy something really cool. It sounded perfect, and Emma had readily agreed. At first, everything went according to plan; Emma pulled the fire alarm, the whole school ran outside, and Neal went to the locker to get the phones. He'd forgotten his bag in the excitement, but Emma had just given him hers to hide them in, and he was going to put it straight back in her classroom when it was done. But as the class came back inside, the headteacher had come striding in. She'd walked straight up to Emma, and asked to check her bag, where of course she found all the phones. One was missing, but the headteacher thought Emma had just hidden it somewhere else. An anonymous student had turned Emma in. Emma was sent back to the home, and the careworkers threw her in her room. She'd remembered waiting all evening for Neal to come in so she could ask him what had happened. But he never came. The next morning, as she went down for breakfast she heard all the other kids muttering. Neal had run away. Over the next week, Emma was suspended while the school decided what to do with her, and even though she protested her innocence, she was seen on the CCTV pulling the fire alarm, and there were no cameras in the room with the locker. They said they had no choice but to expel her, and as there were no other schools in the local area, Emma had to be moved to a new home. And so here she was, about to start her first day at a new school. A new place to be mocked and bullied… She so hated her life.

After about 15 minutes, the bus slowed to a stop, and the kids started getting off. Emma sighed as she picked up her stuff and walked out with the rest of them. The sun was high in the sky, and she could already feel small beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Some jocks were playing football in the schoolyard, and there were clusters of kids chatting to each other. For a brief moment Emma envied them, wishing that she knew what it felt like to have friends and fit in, but then she brushed those thoughts out of her head, there was no point dwelling on what she'd never have. Over in the corner near the door, a boy on crutches was sat on a bench, staring intently at the crowd of people by the buses. His eyes met hers, and he smiled deeply; it unnerved Emma how excited he looked. The boy lifted himself onto his feet, and started making his way over to her. Emma looked around for somewhere to hide, but it was open ground, and at any rate, she'd feel kind of bad escaping someone on crutches. When he finally arrived in front of her, his sentence sent chills down her spine.

"Hello, Emma. I'm August. I've been waiting a very long time for you."