Right, second chapter. Let the slaughtering begin... only kidding but please R&R, any suggestions are welcome as you will see,I still need all the hope I can get!

The Arrival(s)

Naturally the coming of anyone with even the slightest of importance to a small northern town where the biggest gossip was what new crush Lily had got herself into, well, there was always going to be a celebration. And this was no exception. Therefore the year 11's (headed by Lily and Katie) had decided to locate and overtake the classiest – underage – local bar to welcome the new comers. There were several reasons for the choice of venue, the main one being that it was not school, which also meant no shapeless bottle green uniform, no overbearing teachers (though you could never tell where some might turn up…) and no inconvenient lessons to disturb them.

If you don't go to an all girls school, let me give you a little insight, very rarely are there multiple conversations going on, and if there are, you can pretty much guarantee that it is the same topic. As you may have already guessed t'was at that moment the coming party. Even in another language it was all they could talk of. Namely German. This was Toots' class and by their third lesson on Friday, having received the same answer from everyone in the class – Ich will nach einer Party mit meine neue Freunden gehen (the question ever being of the personal and nosey nature from Toots: Was willst du dieses Wochenende?), Toots was about to blow out her poor little ditzy brain.

"Right ladies, I am putting my foot down," actual demonstration of foot going down… several times "The next person who dares even refer to this rotten party will be spending the duration of it here! I warn you I've got plenty pencils that need sharpening!"

You may say that Toots' reaction was a tad OTT, but the fact was that all details of the party (apart the actual occurrence of it), had been strictly kept from her since she had an unusual and questionable knack of turning up 'accidentally' to previous parties. She was also put out by the fact that she still had had no confirmation from West that he was going to meet Barnsley and the rest of them, and if he didn't it was very likely that they would be considerably miffed and go back south. As would her chance of meeting anybody famous…

However, the class made the compulsory moans and utterances of just how unfair life was, when Toots heard "but I'll never get a chance to be in Barnsley's movie nowww" (they were whining somewhat), Toots managed to snap again

"No, that is absolutely IT, I don't want to hear anymore – I am sick of Charlie Barnsley"

"That's a shame" Lizzy as was her usual custom, had been staring out of the window and daydreaming for the whole lesson, unusually though she had caught the last of Toots' rant. And she did like to be the bearer of good news…

"He's arrived"

In the sudden movement that followed, chairs and desks went flying as the whole class tried to get a front window space. The infamous Charles Barnsley was standing with his back to them, they weren't too disappointed. It was a very satisfactory view. After a few seconds Mr West appeared, the cool, calm welcoming party, doing everything in his power to lead his charge away from the blatant staring from the classrooms. This was not lost on Lizzy and neither was the small gasp from behind her. Toots was grumbling under her breath, "…hypocrite!... all that vexing… never again, so good…raise?..."

Lizzy hid a smile; some things never changed.

Toots and West's feud was legendary throughout the school, there was the Sports Day Fiasco, where Toots did her best impression of a drowned rat while West held the bucket. And the following year there was the Christmas Dinner Food Fight, the Chocolate-egg Eating Contest and the Haunting of Mr West on St. Cuthbert's Day(A/N: not kidding based on real events). After all this it was no wonder that the rest of the school just used them as entertainment whenever life got to boring (so pretty much on an everyday basis).

So, in much higher spirits, Toots decided that if you couldn't beat them you might as well join them. "Well, girls, looks like you'll all be dancing tonight then. Who d'you think'll be first?"

The universal agreement seemed to say that it would be Lily, because, as Lizzy so delicately put it, "she's the only one of us with a big enough mouth on her to ask first!"

Lily retorted "'S only cos I'm not afraid, like."

It is ironic that in a private all girls school that the rebellious few seem to learn how to bulldoze the barriers and then completely forget them in the space of a second, when those barriers are supposed to label them as being refined and sheltered, innocents.

The rest of the day was devoted to getting as much out of Mr West as humanely possible (a case of easier said than done). He was infuriatingly allusive and obviously enjoying watching Toots suffer with the lack of details, but that also meant the girls were too. Even when pitted against Lizzy, JD and the bribe of cookies, he only let out that on first impression Barnsley seemed to be "a decent, canny bloke, makes a good cuppa, shame he's a bit of a cricket player then." (No one had managed to work out Mr West's aversion to this particular sport or the players. It was rumoured to be something to do with his youth…)

Rescue then, strangely came in the form of the balding, unbelievably camp history teacher, Mr Lucas (uncle and guardian of Chrissie). He revealed that he had passed in on the meeting with Mr West 'accidentally', but he was at least able to tell every one who happened to be in the corridor (he had one of those booming voices that just seems to carry on) that Barnsley was a cross between the good side of David Tennant and the back side of Johnny Depp. The night was looking up.