Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter, i really appreciate your feedback, and i'm glad you like it so far! Here is chapter 2 :)

Like punching in a dream,

breathing life until my nightmare

~ The Naked and Famous

Chapter 2

She'd never fully appreciated the gift of running water before today, but her hand was burning, and the rushing cool liquid was a huge relief.

"Now I'm here, can you leave me alone?" She asked, still feeling bitter.

"Mhhm, I think I'll stay."

"You're going to be late," she said, watching him.

"You're going to be late too."

"I've been here a lot longer than you."

"What class do you have first?" he asked, ignoring her previous comment.

"Math."

"With Miss. Tye?"

"Yep."

"Great," he said grinning widely, she rolled her eyes. "Maybe you'd be less grumpy if you'd got more sleep," he told her.

She glared at him, "Why don't you mind your own business?" she said, ignoring her stinging hand as she withdrew it from under the water and turned to leave - as if she wasn't having a bad enough day already, this guy was unbelievable.

"Wait," he said, reaching for her arm, "Don't leave while your hand is still hurting."

"If I put my hand back under will you go away?" she asked.

"No," he told her, smiling, "but nice try."

The smallest of smiles passed her face as she returned her hand to the water, and he felt a sudden surge of happiness, that he'd done that. He got the feeling that she didn't smile very often at the moment.

"I'm sorry I mentioned the sleeping thing in front of your friends, I didn't realize it was such a big deal." He said, testing her out, seeing if she would open up, though she didn't seem the opening up type really… at all.

He was right, she didn't say a word, she was focusing very hard on her hand and the water, apparently.

"You could have just lied though," he continued, "You didn't have to tell them the real reason."

That got her attention, she turned her head and looked at him, her green eyes were piercing, she was more perceptive than people might think, but not as perceptive as him, obviously. She had a look, like she was trying to figure him out, but couldn't quite get it. It was obvious in her eyes, let alone her whole self, that she had a lot to hide, and a lot at stake if she didn't hide it well.

"I don't like lying to my friends." She said softly, she wasn't lying… but, ah, there it was, the shame.

"Yet you do it every day?" he asked, intrigued by her.

She kept looking at him, "I said don't like."

He was confused as to why she didn't repeatedly deny it, she obviously knew that he was right, but, she was definitely stubborn, no doubt about that. She looked tired though, and he felt an unusual guilty pang for pushing her the way he had, the fight was still in her, but for another day.

"How's your hand feeling?"

He could detect the relief when he didn't push, though she masked it well. "Painful," she said, taking the shot at him. He'd give her that, he deserved it.

"You really should go to math," she said.

"Come on now, what am I really missing?"

She shook her head, "Using me as an excuse to skive, on your first day,"

"I know you'd do the same with me," he teased.

"Bashing into me because I had hot coffee in my hand, it's all starting to make sense now."

"I'm never going to have hot beverages around you," he told her.

"What makes you think you're going to be around me at all?" She said, her tone stern, but secretly enjoying the banter.

He smirked at her, and she glared at him, but this time in an openly joking manner. "Your hand's stopped hurting, hasn't it?"

"Maybe," she said, looking up at him for just a second, the sweet flash of concern she saw in his eyes left her temporarily speechless, before she found herself again and began to speak, "We really should go to math now."

"Probably," he agreed, "But first you need to cover that," he began searching through cupboards apparently looking for something quite specific, "Isn't this supposed to be the nurses office? Whoever and wherever she is, she doesn't have many supplies."

This amused her, "Oh and I suppose you're a medical expert?" she said sarcastically.

"I know basic first aid! And what's your second name?"

"Lisbon," she cursed herself for the automatic answer, "Why?" she asked defensively.

"Oh there's just bunches of files here, there you are look, 'Lisbon, T'"

She swatted his hand away from the file, and pushed the drawer shut, "Leave that stuff alone!" She said, no longer light hearted. "You shouldn't be looking in there anyway."

He held his hands up in a surrendering manner, "Sorry, I did however find what I was looking for," he held up some gauze and medical tape.

"That's a bit over the top isn't it?" she said, quick to ignore his apology and pretend the exchange and her outburst hadn't happened.

"You can hardly cover a burn with just a band aid," he told her, not that she even knew the difference.

"Fine," she said, "I'll do it," she snatched the stuff off him.

"You can't do it one handed," he rolled his eyes at her, and took the stuff back.

She leant against the wall as he, yet again, took her hand and placed the soft white dressing to her burn, asking her to hold bits of tape while he tried to secure it in place.

"I like Lisbon, that's what I'm going to call you from now on," he stated in a decisive tone.

Again she looked at him like he was insane, he found it really quite amusing. "Why would you do that?" she asked, exasperated.

"Because I like it, and it annoys you," he teased.

She glared at him, "If you're such a huge fan of last names, I'll have to start calling you Jane," she said with a smirk.

"Oh so you were listening when I introduced myself," he said, and to her great dismay she started to blush a little, he didn't comment though, well, not with any spoken words.

"Fine," she said.

"Fine," he replied.

"Well we really should get to math class, Jane."

"That doesn't suit you, you know, and it really doesn't bother me, Lisbon," he smirked at her enraged glare, and quietly wondered what else he'd learn about Teresa Lisbon today, though even with his skills, he wouldn't bet on the answer being a lot. She played her cards pretty close to her chest, he was guessing. If her reaction to the file and her lying earlier was anything to go by, he still had a lot to learn.

Math was usually boring as hell, Alex was so good at it that she used it as a period to sleep in, positioned right at the back of the class, and with Miss. Tye as a teacher, she more often than not got away with it too. Cara was good, tried to pay attention like the polite student she was but ended up chatting to her best friend that wasn't asleep, and on occasion when the two got really bored, they'd aim paper pellets at Alex and see if they'd wake her up. They were such kind friends. The three of them were sat on a row of four on the back, usually Grace would sit in front of Cara, with Wayne and Cho also on that row.

Of course, with the new guy in class, he'd opted for the empty seat along the back row next to Teresa Lisbon, so today, math was not boring. He'd managed to keep almost the entire class entertained, and on occasion even Lisbon had stolen a couple of smiles, even laughed along with the rest of them. Though she wouldn't admit it to anyone else – especially not him, he was quite good entertainment and it was good to laugh a little, to forget for a few minutes what she had to go home to later.

To her slight dismay her next class was history with Cara and Grace and he wasn't in it, he had geography instead. "You're going to regret that," she called after him as Alex showed him the way to the geography block, the geography teacher was a complete pervert, not that that would affect him, but he was horrible and the subject was just the definition of boring.

"We'll see," he said, and smiled at her before disappearing down another corridor.

She absent mindedly watched the spot where he'd vanished from, and then turned to her friend, who was looking at her with the biggest grin on her face.

"What?" she asked Cara, quite innocently.

"Oh nothing," she replied, knowing that suggesting anything now would mean her hitting a brick wall, but Grace and her shared a knowing look. She hadn't seen Ter smile that much in weeks.

"Do you think we'll get that assignment back today?" Grace asked, and the conversation turned to chatting about grades and homework and any upcoming exams.

The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully, though she was secretly a little delighted to discover that a large percentage of her classes were with Jane.

And it was strange, but by the end of the day, he was almost already part of their little group. He was good at playing mind games, she'd already realized that, but seemed to get on well with the guys, Wayne and Cho, who they called Cho out of his distaste for his first name, Kimball. It was funny really, considering her and Jane's conversation this morning. Alex liked him because he was funny, Cara liked him because he seemed nice enough, but also she knew because she'd noticed the smile on her face more than once that day, and realized he was the source of that. Grace liked him for a combination of those reasons, and Imogen, Grace's younger sister more affectionately known as Immy, had only just met him, but they seemed to be getting on fine.

They were all taking their time gathering their stuff and chatting, when Lisbon checked the time on her phone. Shit. She had a minor internal panic attack before steadying herself. She had to go and quickly, she was ten minutes later than usual, and though the boys would wait she didn't know what mood her dad would be in. Some days he wouldn't have noticed if they didn't come home at all, others he expect her home at four on the dot, and it was already quarter to. If she was really quick she might make it.

"Sorry guys, I have to go," she said quickly, hoping to just say her goodbyes and make a quick escape.

She suppressed a moan when Jane started to speak, "Whereabouts do you guys live? Do you walk?"

"Bringham Road, yeah I walk" she said, silently praying he lived miles away.

"Cara and I live a few roads away, closer to school," Grace said, "And she" she pointed at Alex, "Lives a few minutes walk from us."

"I really have to go now, so I'll see you guys on Monday." She turned to walk away, and cringed as his voice spoke after her, just let me go.

He started to say something but seemed to think better of it, "See you then."

"Bye," she called back to everyone, and a chorus of goodbyes and see youon Monday's followed her as she walked out the door.

As soon as she was round the corner and out of sight of school, she began to run. She slowed slightly to check the time on her phone, almost ten to, she ran a little faster.

She made good time getting to the boys school, and they were stood by the gate waiting, Benny laughing, probably at something that Jack or Tommy had said. They were good with him.

"Oi you lot," she called, smiling, she tried her best to be cheerful around them, someone had to be.

"Tessa!" Benny's cry of delight made her smile a little more genuine, and the "Hi Ter" from each of her other brothers let her know they were okay.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, "Come on," she took Benny's hand, "We have to hurry and get home."

An hour later and she was glad that she didn't have school for the next few days. She'd run in with the boys at 4:02, and, as she'd feared, her father hadn't been in a very good mood. She had sent the boys to their room hurriedly so she could assess his mood, it hadn't been a good one. And she was the only punch bag in the room.

She had locked herself in the bathroom as quickly as possible, before any of her brothers could see – though Tommy wasn't stupid he knew what was going on. She'd told him in no uncertain terms that he was to stay upstairs. She assessed the damage, carefully examining her face in the mirror, tears stinging in her eyes built up even more when she viewed her reflection. She supposed the bruises on her stomach hadn't formed properly yet, but she was sure they would soon, but she didn't want to see them. Her face however, and chest and neck she couldn't avoid. She could feel a lovely bruise forming under her collar bone, she sighed, that meant higher neck jumpers or tops, she lived in Los Angeles, it was April and not exactly cold. She cringed when she looked at her face, it was pure vanity, she knew, but she hated the dark marks on her face where the whole world could see them. 'She's always been a clumsy child' her fathers words echoed in her head, slicing through her like a knife. He'd be apologetic tomorrow morning, or maybe the day after depending on when he sobered up. But then the fear would come, the cover ups. The, you don't want to be separated from your brothers, do you? Talk. She glanced up at her face again. You're sixteen years old and you're already damaged goods, she told herself. A tear trickled down her bruised cheek, she wiped it away angrily, viciously, it hurt but she didn't care. No one will ever want you, she told herself, you can forget about that new guy. What would he say if he saw you now? What would any of them say if they saw you now?

Then she forced herself to blank out her mind, and steadied herself to look in the mirror once more. She had a cut on one cheek and a bruise on the other, another quite big scratch down her forehead that ran along her hairline. Relief. She could hide that one easily. She reached for some toilet paper and wet it a little to dab the blood off her left cheek and clean the cut. She got some antiseptic out from the cabinet under the sink, and dabbed it on evenly, biting her lip as it stung. Her eyes watered some more. She cleaned it off and admired her work. It looked a lot better than it had a minute ago. Now the bruise, that was trickier. Bruises don't fade quickly and are much harder to hide. This one spread over her cheek bone and was quite an alarming colour already. She delved deeper into the cabinet – her mother had been big on medical supplies that they would mostly never use. It would break her heart to see why she was using them now, but she pushed the thought aside. She found some cream that was apparently for bruises; she'd used up the other stuff. She applied it generously, wincing as she rubbed it in. Then she took a couple of aspirin for good measure.

She glanced at the time, it was almost twenty past five, just the wrong time for this to happen – the boys would still be up. She grabbed the concealer out of her makeup bag, thankful that she kept it in here, and got to work on her bruise, dabbing the stuff on carefully, rubbing it in, trying to keep it subtle. She finished it off with a little bit of powder. She stared at her reflection some more, it wasn't by any means perfect but she deemed it good enough to go out and face the boys. She ran quickly to her bedroom to grab a sweater first though, just because they knew what was happening – Tommy especially, didn't mean they had to actually see it. Then she went out to see them, wondering as she went if that bread was still in the back of cupboard and whether it would be enough for them to have beans on toast for tea.

Sorry, that one's a bit sad. I promise it gets interesting, give it a few more chapters. Anyway i should probably go to bed now, as i have to get up and pick up my gcse results tomorrow :/ dreeeaaaad. You know what would cheer me up if i fail tomorrow? Getting reviews ;) Please review, your feedback really does mean the world to me, and it only takes a minute. I would really appreciate it.

Anyway, sleeep for me now. I hope you all liked it, if you did, let me know! :)

Thanks for reading,

Emily xxx