A/N: Thanks for the review. Here's the next chapter. Another slow one, I'm afraid, but I promise that there will be some action soon. Any and all reads/reviews are appreciated

"What are you doing here?" I asked, once my mouth and my brain and decided to connect themselves once again. I hadn't seen Robin for years. Like most of my class in primary school, he'd gone on to the local comprehensive when he turned eleven, but halfway through year seven he'd moved away. That was four years ago now, and I'd never expected to run into him again.

"I'm back here now," he shrugged. "Got back just before Christmas."

I couldn't help it; my heart leapt.

"You mean for good? You're properly living here again?" I asked, trying desperately to sound casual and at the same time wondering why I cared so much. But he'd been one of my best friends when we were younger, of course I was pleased to see him again.

"Yep. Got fed up of the foreign food, didn't I?" he smiled, and I couldn't help but grin back at him. He looked so different; older, obviously. When he'd left he'd still been just a little boy, but there was something else about him too. His grin was as infectious as always, but he looked… tired, somehow. Still, it was unmistakeably him.

"So where are you living now? Are you back in Victoria ave, or what? How come I haven't seen you?" His father had been in the army, high up. Some sort of diplomat, I assume. Four years ago he'd been assigned a new position, and moved himself, his wife and child to live with him while he worked in Germany. Then Africa. Then Israel, and god knows how many other places. I knew this because, at first, Robin had kept in touch with his old friends. Then, a few weeks after he let us know that his latest move, to Lebanon, had gone smoothly, the letters stopped coming. At first I'd been worried, then hurt. Eventually I assumed that he'd just forgotten about his old mates. But now he was back; I couldn't help but be just a little excited.

He pulled a face at my question. "I'm on the other side of the estate now."

I frowned. "What? Where d'you-"

"Finish your conversation elsewhere, please. You're obstructing the corridor," a voice snapped behind me, and I turned to see the deputy head scowling at the pair of us as she passed. I glanced down at my watch, and swore.

"Look, I'm gonna be late for maths-" I apologised, turning away from Robin, but he caught my arm again.

"Who've you got?"

"Mr Harvey."

"Me too, you can show me what room I've gotta go to," he grinned, and took my arm. Repressing a sigh, I set off down the corridor, tugging him to keep up as we reached the door, slipping inside just before Mr Harvey slammed it shut. We'd made it; his rule was that if the door was closed by the time you got to the classroom, you were late. Now the only problem was to find a decent seat; your place tended to get nicked if it looked like you were absent.

"Maz! Over here," Guy was in the second row, next to the girls I'd normally talk to. And he'd saved me a seat. Shooting an apologetic glance over my shoulder at Robin, I went and sat down. I caught Robin's look of surprise out of the corner of my eye, and kept my head down as he went and took the only other spare seat; right at the front of the room and close to the teacher. No wonder it had been left free; Mr Harvey was notorious for picking on the people at the front to answer questions. That Safiyah girl from my reg group was next to him, and she and a dark haired boy looked up in surprise as he joined them. John and Guy had never liked them, and as a result they mostly sat alone.

"Who's that?" Aimee, sitting to my left, asked. Before I could answer, Guy cut me off.

"Robin Locksley," he sounded faintly surprised, "I thought he was in India or something."

"It was his dad's job though, wasn't it? I suppose he finished and got let back home," I shrugged, suddenly mindful that Robin and Guy had never been friendly.

"You know what I heard?" that was John, sounding smug, as though he knew something that we didn't. And that was never a good thing.

"What?" Natasha, the violently red haired girl sitting behind us leaned forwards to listen in to our conversation.

"I heard that his dad got killed out in wherever they were. So him and his mum, they moved back home, didn't they? But they haven't got any money, so now they're living in those council flats 'round the back of the chip shop." He sounded positively gleeful at the thought. As for me? I just felt vaguely sick.

I glanced up at the board and copied down the date and title, just to make it look as though I was doing something, and sneaked another look at Robin. He was in front of me and to the left, talking to Safiyah. She was deep in conversation, explaining or describing something animatedly while he listened, with eyebrows slightly raised, looking interested. It was the most I'd ever seen the girl say at one time. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of something like jealously, or regret. Why hadn't I sat next to him?

"Locksley," Sheriff finished importantly, "Is a chav."

Yeah. That's why.