Once the girls were out of the house Naomi quickly brought an extremely curious and expectant Emily up to speed on what it was all about. It was Effy who had rung to say that she was calling a meeting of the whole gang to try to figure out how they could help Pandora who, in Effy's own words, 'was in deep shit' and 'was getting totally locked on'..

'What the fuck can that be about?' wondered Emily, already very concerned. She was really fond of Pandora and hoped she wasn't in any trouble at school. The last time Emily saw her she was as happy as she had ever seen her. She seemed just as much in love with Thomas as she, Emily, was with Naomi and gave the impression that life couldn't be more super-duper for her. Now that she was back with Thomas she didn't even seem to mind that she was going to have to re-sit a whole load of exams.

'That doesn't sound good, does it? said Emily. What do you think's happened?'

'I've no idea', replied Naomi, who shared Emily's concern. 'We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure.'

She too had a soft spot for Panda even though she thought she lived on a completely different planet from everyone else she knew and sometimes didn't have a clue what Panda was on about. Often she relied on Effy to translate for her as Effy more than anyone else seemed to understand Pandora's very unique style of communication and picked up on her vibe quicker than the rest of them.

'Who's turning up?' Emily asked Naomi as they made their way to the agreed meeting point, a park just a couple of minutes from Pandora's house.

'Pretty much everyone, I think. Effy, Thomas, Freddie, JJ. Even Cook.' One name was obviously conspicuous by its absence which Emily seized upon immediately.

'What about Katie?' Emily looked at Naomi closely as she put the question to her, knowing full well what Naomi's reaction to the mention of her sister would be.

Naomi and Katie still didn't really get on in any meaningful sense of the word. True, ever since the Love Ball Katie no longer openly flaunted her dislike and contempt for Naomi: in fact she had actually made some noticeable efforts to be at least civil to her. Nevertheless Naomi still didn't have much time for her, still wouldn't trust her as far as she could throw her, Emily knew this but because she loved Naomi so much and was terrified that Katie would still turn out to be a thorn in their side she had made her mind up not to push things too far with the two of them.

'Effy didn't mention her' said Naomi with a dismissive shrug of her shoulders. But then seeing the redhead fall silent and look disconsolately down at the ground Naomi grabbed her hand, pulled her towards her and, smiling deep into her chocolate brown eyes as she gently draped her arms around Emily's slender neck, kissed her long and deeply. Naomi was pleased to feel her girlfriend's eager response to her attempt to apologise for her unnecessary sharpness.

'I don't suppose Effy thought about calling her. Things are still pretty difficult between them, aren't they?' Naomi said softly to Emily, who had immediately cheered up after that knee-trembling, spine-tingling, utterly gorgeous kiss.

'Yeah. Katie still hasn't forgiven her, even though she won't press charges like Mum wanted her to.'

'Jesus!' exclaimed Naomi. 'Did your Mum really want her to do that? Effy was as high as a kite, we all know that and besides Freddie was as much to blame. He just used Katie to get Effy to react like she did!'

'I know that. So does Katie deep down but her pride was hurt all the same. Anyway, she's got herself a new bloke now so she's trying to move on.'

'Let me guess. Another fucking Neanderthal footballer, I suppose?' Naomi looked at Emily with a sly grin and the two of them exchanged smiles, still holding hands as they neared their destination.

'I'm not sure what he does, but she met him at Dad's gym so he's gotta be into sport or something like that. Actually, compared to Danny he seems quite intelligent.'

'Ems, that's not difficult, is it? The only reason Danny didn't enter the annual Village Idiot Contest is that he knew nobody else would bother running against him!'

Both of them burst out into fits of hysterics and were still laughing at Naomi's cutting remark moments later when they saw Effy, Freddie and Thomas standing a few yards ahead of them watching them approach.

'Hi Guys!' The two girls greeted the others who were all smiling at the pair of them as they stood before them, having released their arms from around each others waists but still continued to hold hands.

Both girls were now totally comfortable showing their love for each other in front of their friends. In fact they felt positively encouraged to do so by the matter of fact way in which almost all of the gang had just calmly accepted their relationship as something perfectly normal and right. It didn't stop one or two of them teasing the pair of them from time to time, but the girls knew it was done out of genuine affection rather than malice and they took it in the spirit in which it was intended – a bit of gentle piss-taking between friends.

'Hey there, lovebirds!' said Freddie, with a smile. 'How's it going?'

'Good,' replied Emily.

'Thanks for coming so quickly, 'said Effy who was standing casually next to Freddie. 'Hope I wasn't interrupting anything when I called,' she smiled wickedly. 'I thought it was just about late enough for you two to have finally dragged yourselves away from each other.'

'We were having breakfast, if you must know.' Naomi shot out her response to Effy's little wind-up with a self-satisfied smirk on her face as Emily giggled next to her.

'Anyway, what's this all about? You said Panda's in deep shit!' Everyone turned to look at Thomas who had been standing silently with a serious expression on his face while all this light-hearted banter was going on. His explanation came as quite a shock to Emily and Naomi.

'Her Mum's found out about us. Don't ask me how, I don't know. But she's very angry with Pandora' Thomas looked really sad and stared at the ground with a look of complete despair and dejection.

'Shit!' cried out Emily and Naomi in unison.

'She's a bit more than just angry, 'said Effy. 'She's gone absolutely fucking mental. She's been screaming at Panda about how deceitful she's been, going behind her back by 'mixing with boys', She's grounded her for two weeks, won't let her out of the house at all.. She's forbidden her to see Thomas again and she's even been threatening to take Panda out of college and get her private lessons at home!'

'It's a real bummer', said Freddie in his inimitable laid back style.

'We've got to come up with some plan to help Panda and Thomas, guys,' pleaded Effy looking around at all of them.

Her best friend had begged for help and she had no intention of letting her down.

She had looked out for her ever since they first met and she certainly wasn't going to stand idly by now when Panda needed her most. She would have gone around straight away and had it out with Pandora's Mum if Freddie hadn't warned her against such a rash and impulsive course of action and suggested getting the others together to come up with a proper plan instead. So, much against her natural compulsive instincts Effy had phoned round everyone to organise this meeting.

A chorus of shouts made them suddenly turn around to see Cook and JJ striding towards them purposefully.

'Thank Christ for that! Problem solved. It's Batman and Robin.' said Naomi turning her face upwards in an expression of mock relief. 'I expect we'll be storming the house, SAS style, in next to no time.'

'Something like that, I guess,' nodded Freddie in agreement with a wry grimace breaking over his face.

Sure enough, Cook's first words on his arrival, with JJ following in tow just like his trusted companion, confirmed all of their worst fears.

'Have no fear guys, the Cookie Monster's here! He's primed and ready for the fight. Panda's Mum won't know what's hit her!

'Not helpful, Cook' said Effy, fixing him with a withering glance.

'I think what's called for is a fiendishly delicate strategy, a carefully planned manoeuvre of bluff and double bluff which will take into account all the variables and all the statistical probabilities, just like a war game,' JJ suggested, his eyes wide open with excitement, nodding furiously.

'Yeah, right JJ, that's bound to do the trick. Subtlety's what's called for here, replied Cook screwing up his face in obvious scorn.

'Guys, this is Panda's Mum we're dealing with, not Johnny White, remember! Can we get real?' Effy was already starting to regret having allowed Freddie to persuade her to involve all the others. 'We need to think of something that will get Panda off the hook with Thomas but won't make her mad at us. Come on! This needs serious thought!