The School
Jess still didn't think that there could be that many changes, but, as Chris had said, there were loads. Looking around she could barely believe it, the walls, the classrooms, the gym, everything had Johanna Simpson's mark on it. Her mum had left 5 years after Jess and that meant Johanna hadn't been here long. Though she had been perfectly happy to accept Karen's daughter into the school as a teacher. The science department was the only part that hadn't changed. Jess had walked through the same side door she had walked through hundreds of times, looked at the same classrooms she had studied in, and felt an almost definite yearning to just go and put her old red and yellow tie in and spend hours on end sitting in one staring at an ancient clock with only Chris Mead's piercing blue eyes, dimples and silk smooth voice to distract her from thinking about how much longer it was going to take for that hour of lessons to end. It turned out that while staring at Chris, she had actually learned some science…
"Jess are you ok? Are you listening?" Chris looked concerned as Jess was pulled back to the present. "Oh, just daydreaming I guess!" She giggled. Chris thought back to the days when Jess had been a pupil at Waterloo Road. She'd always had a dreamy look on her face but was attentive and seemed to learn. In fact in the last test she'd taken she got an A+. She had been happy with that. He guessed that was probably why she'd decided to be a science teacher. He arrived back at his classroom. He remembered convincing Johanna to keep the science department as it had always been. It had been quite a fight but as the depute head she trusted him and allowed it to happen. As for all the other teachers, well all of them disappeared except for him. Jess was the latest in what he called 'Jo's Army'- a group of people that came with Johanna when Karen and half the staff left.
"So- how's Karen doing?" Chris asked, getting rid of the awkward silence that had been there while he had stood enveloped in his own thoughts. "Oh, um, mum's doing fine. Ever since Bex came back things have been better. It was kind of like we were torn pieces of paper and Bex was some new brand of super strong glue. She kept us together fixed us so we could be read- without Bex- well we were all just almost no-readable pieces of paper weren't we? People could try and put us back together, try and fix us but it was never the same without Bex." Jess finished, her voice breaking, "And I guess that's why dad left us for Maria. We were smaller and smaller pieces of paper and she was just one large piece. The paper bit's getting old right!" She laughed one heartless laugh and burst into tears. It was like she was at school again. Confiding everything to Chris- Chris wasn't just Chris- he was Jess too. He had to live her pain. Every second of her day was shared by Chris. They had a complex relationship. One above normal student/teacher relationships. One he had ignored for too long. He had loved her when she was at school. Even to this day, he loved her. And he knew he would probably love her forever. She was still crying. He hugged her. His heart rate rose. Then he kissed her. It was so right, kissing her. Especially since he was where he had first found out who she really was. He needed air. He broke up this kiss to breathe. "For real this time?" He looked at her, his eyes that had once looked at her in an icy way, blue ice, had melted, they looked at her with water, deep, blue water. "For real." He said, and they kissed again.