Chapter 2

thank you for the reviews really appreciate them all, going to try and update a chapter a day for a bit. I really agree with you, Rachel does remind me of Connie in these first few chapters, come to think of it the storyline is similar to the one between her and grace haha.

A week or so had passed since the girls moved in with Rachel and nothing much had changed between Rachel and the girls, they all kept there distance from each other as much as possible and although Rachel wasn't as cold and harsh towards them both as she had been when they first moved in, she was no where near forming any sort of mother-daughter type relationship with them. Although they were all living under the same roof they were far from being a family yet.

Things between Rachel and Thomas weren't particularly good either. Ever since they'd moved in Thomas had been around as much as possible, as he was finding that he was really enjoying getting to know both girls however all of this seemed to make Rachel annoyed, it was almost as though she was irritated by the girls taking up all of his attention and she didn't like the fact he kept snapping at her for the way she was being; she didn't think he had much right to an input on how she should behave around her own daughters.

It was a Friday afternoon and Rachel had just finished at work for the day, but Thomas was working later than she was and wouldn't be back till about 7 tonight. She collected her stuff from her office and walked towards her car, hers was the only one left in the car park by now as everyone else had gone home.

Both of the girls had a tutor sorted by now and although Thomas had said his parents would be more than happy to look after them on the few hours in the morning where they were home alone, Rachel had refused, the last thing she wanted was his parents to become involved in any of this, it would be different if it were just Lexi of course, but Holly was 15 now so she was more than capable of being home alone for a few hours Rachel thought.

She sighed as she pulled up on the drive and walked inside, she didn't like being home at the moment very much at all, particularly with all the tension there seemed to be.

When she opened the door she was greeted by Holly's tutor who was just on her way out.

"Oh Rachel I'm so glad I caught you, I was wondering if I could have a little chat about Holly"

"Yeah sure" Rachel said leading her through to the dining room where they could talk in peace.

She closed the door behind her and sat on the chair next to her.

"So what is it you wanted to chat about?" Rachel asked

"Well as I'm sure you're aware Holly is a very capable girl" she began, though actually she wasn't sure if Rachel was aware of this or not, from what it seemed like Rachel didn't seem to know very much about either of the girls. "I think it may be beneficial if we moved her back into a school environment in the time that school is closed, much as I love tutoring her I feel that she can get so much more being in a classroom environment, particularly at Holly's age it's important to mix in with other children, make a few friends while she's over here."

"Well if that's what you think is best, then that's what we'll do" Rachel said

"I think lexis tutor reckons it might be a good idea for her too, in fact she'll be just about done with Lexi now, I can bring her in for a chat too"

Rachel sighed when she went out, really just wanting to get on with her evening now, however she had to admit it would be nice if the girls could make a few friends as it might mean they would get out the house a bit and things wouldn't be so tense around the house.

When Ivy's tutor came in she sat down too

"Well as Joanna has explained we think schooling is the best option for both girls, Lexi seems to be struggling quite a bit at the moment and I think one thing we need to work on is her confidence, I think being around others her age will boost that though, however I do think that if it hasn't improved within a month or so we should look into some speech therapy for her, before it becomes a problem"

Rachel agreed to this quickly. After another 10 minutes or so of talking both women decided to show themselves out and get going.

Rachel wondered what she should do with herself now, but realised she'd have to talk to the girls about going back into school so went into the kitchen where they were both sat.

"H..hi mummy" Lexi said

"Hello Lexi, everything alright?" She asked, her voice sounding very forced

"Y..yes" Lexi said

"Good, now I wanted to speak to you both about something, your tutors both think it'd be a good idea for you to move back into a school for the time yours is closed"

"What if I don't want to" holly challenged

"Well If I think it's the best option then that's what we'll be doing I'm afraid"

"Why should you get a say in it? You haven't given a shit where we are or what were doing for any of,out lives so far so why should you start now?" Holly spat

"Holly go to your room" Rachel said

"Go to my room? That's all you ever do, send me away so you don't have to deal with me, so you don't have to face up to the fact you've been a shit mum all our lives. Oh and I'm not 5 years old either, but you know what I will go to my fucking room it's better than staying down here being anywhere near you"

"How dare you speak to me like that, show me some bloody respect" Rachel screamed however this didn't faze Holly at all, it just made her more angry

"Respect is something you earn, you stupid old cow" holly shouted, sounding hysterical now, tears forming in her eyes

Rachel couldn't stop herself reaching out and smacking her across the face hard. Rachel stood in shock as she watched her daughter stumble back, not being able to believe she'd actually hit a child, she'd just lost her temper completely and now she felt truly ashamed of herself.

However as soon as holly had regained herself she got up and slapped her mum right back, however twice as hard as she had and her watch caught on her mums cheek, immediately cutting it open causing Rachel to yelp out in pain.

Rachel had seen it coming and could have probably stopped her daughter before she actually smacked her but for some reason she didn't.

She stood shaking, the colour drained from her as blood ran freely down her cheek.

Holly was shocked when she realised what she'd done, however she didn't go over to try and help instead she just ran upstairs.

It was only then that Rachel remembered Lexi had been stood there the whole time and had seen everything, hence why she was now stood shaking in floods of tears

"Lexi are you alright" Rachel asked

Lexi just nodded her head, terrified Rachel would hit her too

"You shouldn't have had to see that I'm sorry" she said "go on, I think you should go up to your room too"

Lexi didn't need telling twice and immediately ran upstairs and collapsed into her bed in floods of tears, she hated it here and constantly felt scared particularly when Thomas wasn't around, she just wished she could be back at school with all her friends.

As soon as Lexi had gone Rachel immediately went to the downstairs bathroom to have a look at her face. Fortunately she could see that although the cut looked messy it wasn't actually that deep and was just a scratch really. She spent the next 15 minutes or so attempting to clean it up but it still looked really quite sore.

Rachel was just making tea when suddenly the front door opened and Thomas came in, she was shocked as she hadn't realised that it was already 6 o clock.

"Hi Rachel" he said cheerily as he came into the kitchen, unaware of the previous events

"Hi" Rachel said back

He came over to kiss her but stopped when he saw her face

"Rachel what the hell have you done to yourself?"

"It's nothing it's just a scratch" Rachel said however tears were already filling her eyes

"Here let me take a look" Thomas said

Reluctantly Rachel let him check her face out, though she flinched a bit when he pressed on it

"You're lucky it's just a surface wound, not that deep but keep applying the ice to it and the swelling should go down"

"Okay doctor" Rachel said with a weak smile

"You're lucky though, seems it could have been a lot worse"

"Well it's not that's the main thing" Rachel said

She turned around and attempted to get back on with tea

"Erm wait a minute, how did you do it?"

"Oh you know what I'm like, I walked into the edge of a cupboard while it was open"

Her voice sounded all shaky and her eyes still looked to be full of tears, so he could tell she was lying

"Rachel how did you do it?" He asked again

"It was my fault...me and Holly had a bit of an argument earlier and ...well this is how it ended up"

"What she did this to you?" Thomas said horrified

"Yes but it wasn't her fault..."

"Rachel you can't let a child go round hitting you, have you spoken to her?"

"We'll not since it happened no but I really don't think..."

"Well then maybe I should"

Thomas went to go upstairs and this panicked Rachel immediately knowing this would only make things a hell of a lot worse.

"Thomas stop..." Rachel begged "you don't get it"

"What don't I get?"

"I hit her first" Rachel admitted shamefully

This stopped Thomas in his tracks almost at once, he couldn't believe what he was hearing

"You hit her?"

"Yes but I just...I didn't mean to...we were fighting and she said a whole load of stuff...it just happened, I must have just...just lost my temper or something, everyone does it don't they"

"No most people don't go round hitting their kids" Thomas said "how badly did you hit her?"

"It was a light tap" Rachel said "honestly Thomas I never meant to hurt her"

"You've got to get a grip of yourself Rachel" Thomas sighed "can't you see what you're doing to those kids? Do you really think Lexi deserves to grow up without a mum, you've missed seeing one daughter grow up through to their teenage years, do you really want to miss out again?"

"You don't understand Thomas" Rachel sighed "you don't seem to get why it's impossible to be their mum"

"But can't you see how much you're punishing them, it's selfish to hurt them just so you can forget the past"

Rachel knew there wasn't much she could say to this she knew how unfair she was being but she couldn't stop herself, that's why the girls had always been sent off to boarding school, it would give her a chance to forget and them a chance to get some sense of belonging and security and she couldn't understand why Thomas just didn't get that.

They didn't say anything to each other for a while, Rachel got on with tea and Thomas went up to check on Lexi who was understandably very upset still.

When tea was ready Lexi and Thomas came straight down but Holly didn't so Rachel went up and knocked once before going in

Holly was shocked when she saw her mum and wondered what she was going to say to her

"Are you coming down for tea or not?" Rachel asked simply

"No"

"Do you want me to bring some up"

Holly shrugged though she was quite hungry by now and she knew Rachel had been making chicken tikka curry, which was one of her favourites

"Yeah" she said eventually

Rachel just nodded her head before going back down and bringing Holly some tea up

"M..mummy where " Lexi asked

"She's eating her tea upstairs today" Rachel said

Thomas and Rachel both noticed that Lexi didn't eat much at all for tea, they were getting a bit worried as she hadn't seemed to eat much at all since she got here.

"Lexi do you want me to make something else for you?" Thomas asked

"N..no thankyou"

"Lexi you need to eat something" Rachel said

"How about a mini pizza and spaghetti hoops" Thomas offered

"I'm not th..th..that hungry"

"Okay but tomorrow just have a try at eating all your meals okay"Rachel said

"Okay" Lexi said

They finished the rest of their meal and then Lexi went off and Rachel and Thomas tidied up

"How did they get on with their tutor today?' Thomas asked

"They both think it'd be good for the girls to get back into school, just as a temporary measure till theirs opens again"

"Might be a good idea, it'll be difficult though with such short notice"

"I know, I might have to take a day off on Monday to get somewhere sorted for them"

The weekend seemed to pass without any more major dramas, however things between Holly and Rachel weren't good at all.

On Monday morning Rachel woke early and got the girls up too, quickly sorted breakfast before getting them in the car.

She had an appointment first thing for one of the local primary schools for Lexi, however it seemed much more difficult trying to get Holly sorted at such short notice.

"Holly wait in the car while I get Lexi sorted. I'll be about half an hour and you've got your phone to play on, or you can go for a walk if you'd rather"

"I'll go for a walk"

Rachel led Lexi inside and they went to see the head teacher

Luckily there was a place available in reception and Lexi could start today if she wanted.

Lexi felt very scared when she was walking down however the headteacher seemed nice and been Rachel was being quite gentle with her, as she didn't really have the heart not to be when she was so afraid.

As soon as Lexi was inside she went back out, however Holly wasn't at the car.

She walked round a bit hoping to see her and eventually did, however she was shocked to see she had a cigarette in her mouth.

"Oi holly get that thing out your mouth right now" Rachel shouted as she walked over

Holly sighed but did stamp it out

"What's that all about, you don't smoke do you?"

"Sometimes" holly shrugged "anyway what's it to you, you don't get to tell me what to do remember"

"You know what fine it's your life, get back in the car"

In some ways Holly had wished Rachel had got mad about her smoking, at least it would have shown she cared even if it was just a tiny bit, but she clearly didn't care at all and Holly was wasting her time trying to convince herself otherwise.

"Right I've tried all the schools in the area and no ones taking anyone"

"How about yours?" Holly asked

"What?" Rachel said confused "no I don't think that's a good idea"

"Why not?" Holly asked, getting the chance to make her mums life hell seemed like the perfect idea to her

"Well would you want to?"

"Yep"

"Well I guess there is places" she sighed, this really wasn't what she wanted but it didn't seem like there were very many options other than this

In the end they finished up in Rachel's office

"Read this and Sign here" Rachel instructed

Holly didn't even glance at it and signed

"Did you read it?"

"Nope"

"Well maybe you should, it's a list of school rules and regulations"

"Sounds like I've missed out on a treat not reading it then"

"And loose that lip" Rachel said "rule number 3, there will be zero tolerance of disrespectful behaviour towards a member of staff, and that includes me"

"Is there any rule on there about not abandoning your children at age 3"

"Nope it isn't listed" Rachel said trying to keep her cool

"Well maybe it should be"

"Right I'm going to make this clear, neither of us are happy about this, but we're going to have to live with it and in the process you can show basic levels of respect, from now on I'm your headmistress and your my pupil, like it or not that's how things are"

"Fantastic can't wait"

"Stick to these rules, keep your head down,three strikes and you're out"

"Does that apply to everyone or just me?"

"To everyone" Rachel answered although this wasn't strictly true, normally expulsion would only be a very last resort

Rachel quickly went to print off a timetable for her

"Have you got a copy of the rules"

"Yep"

"Well see to it you stick to them" Rachel said

With that holly sauntered off to find her next class.

She found out she had english with mr budgen and it didn't take her long to get chatting to some of the girls and settle in

The problem was once holly started chatting she didn't want to stop

"And let's see what work you've completed this lesson miss mason"

Holly tossed a blank sheet of paper in front of him

"And what do you call this?"

"I don't know sir, to me it looks like paper but maybe I need my eyes testing"

This resulted in the rest of the class bursting into laughter

"Get out, I don't care whose daughter you are you will follow the same rules as everyone else"

"Nah I'm okay here thanks"

"You will follow orders from teachers"

"No I won't"'holly said casually

"Carla go and get mrs mason" Grantly ordered, having had just about enough of Holly's cheek.

"Who is she like the bloody queen round here, she's not all that perfect you know, I could tell you a shit load of things she's done that'd soon be enough to change your minds about her" holly shouted tears filling her eyes

As soon as Carla stood up holly began to get a bit worried

A few minutes later, having been filled in on what had happened Rachel came straight down

"Holly get out" she said trying to keep calm

"What you going to force me?"

"No but I'll expel you if you don't"

"What like you have power over me or something? Now you're trying to take charge of me, after abandoning me when I was 4 years old"

This was causing a lot of amusement to the rest of the class and a lot of embarrassment to Rachel, why know it'd be all round the staff room by break time.

She firmly grabbed hold of Holly's wrist and practically dragged her outside.

"Never do that again you got that"

"Why am I embarrassing you?"

"Once more and you're out Holly"

"Fuck off" Holly said unfazed by her mums harsh tone

"And don't you ever use words like that in front of me or any other member of staff"

"I'm going for a fag"

"Oh no you're not it's strictly against school rules"

"Oh yeah, well you know what you can shove your school rules up your arse" holly said before running off

Once she'd had time to calm down though Holly began to realise if she walked off now then her mum would have won and she wouldn't get any more opportunities to get her own back.

By third lesson Holly was back in school and went to her maths lesson and was practically perfect all lesson.

When Rachel went to find Eddie to check if her daughter had behaved herself in his lesson she was fully expecting to hear only negative reviews.

"She's been fantastic Rachel, she even managed to do the A* level quadratics, none of the others could do them and she's only in year 10, she's a very bright girl"

"Well I don't know what a quadratic is, but that's good to hear" Rachel said

She was about to leave when Eddie stopped her

"I never knew you had a daughter Rachel"

"I've,got two actually, my other daughter Lexi is 5"

"It's just you've never talked about them"

"They're at boarding school" Rachel said in a tone that told him that she didn't want to talk about it so Eddie left it

By the end of the day Holly seemed to have made loads of friends and had even been invited to one of the sixth formers parties later that night.

She ran up to her mums office figuring she should at least tell her she wasn't going to be in tonight

"Mum I'm out tonight"

"Fine, don't be late" Rachel Said

Holly knew perfectly well she would be late

"And holly it's mrs mason or miss at school"

"Alright miss" she said emphasising the last bit

Rachel rolled her eyes as she left but didn't say anything, she was just glad that she hadn't had to deal with anymore disruption from her today

She then drove to the primary to pick Lexi up from school.

By the time she got there Lexi was the only one In the playground and was sat at the bench all alone because all the other kids had been picked up

"Sorry I'm late" Rachel said

"How was school" she asked half heartily, however when she saw lexis face she realised she must have been crying

"Okay" Lexi said sounding tearful

"Good" Rachel said she knew she was being awful not asking what was wrong, but thought Thomas could have a word later

"I've got to nip and do a bit more work at my school is that okay?"

Lexi nodded her head in response

Rachel drove back to waterloo road and the two of them went up to her office. Rachel did feel a bit mean taking her up there though without anything to do

"Do you want to play on my iPhone, I've got games"

Lexi liked the sound of this so nodded her head and smiled so Rachel gave It to her to play on

This occupied Lexi for quite a while and took her mind off school today however soon she went all quiet and Rachel realised she as getting all tearful.

She finished off the work she had to do as quickly as she could as she didn't want Lexi there while she was all upset, as she didn't think it was fair on her.

Once she'd shut down her computed she and Lexi went home and to her surprise Thomas was already back

"Lexi nip up to your room to get changed out of your uniform" Rachel said and Lexi did as she was told

"Hiya love" she said before coming over and kissing her husband "you're back early"

"It's unusual isn't it" Thomas said smiling "how's your day been?"

"You know what don't ask" Rachel sighed she's rang him earlier after the incident with Holly and he could tell how stressed she was then

"Holly's gone out"

"Where to?"

"I don't know"

"Well did you not ask where she was going?"

"Thomas just for tonight, please don't lecture me about the girls I'm just really not in the mood"

Thomas didn't approve of Rachel just letting Holly out like that however he knew when not to push it

Once they'd had a coffee and a chat Rachel said "Thomas I think Lexi is upset, would you be able to have a word"

"Why don't we both go up" Thomas said

Reluctantly Rachel agreed and the two of them went through to lexis room and found her crying on her bed

Thomas immediately went over and scooped her up to out on his knee.

Lexi was quite hysterical though and couldn't seem to stop crying

"Lexi what's happened" Thomas asked

When Rachel saw Thomas with her daughter it made her realise just what a good father he would make, he'd always been a very gentle man and would never harm anyone.

Lexi tried to speak however she couldn't seem to be able to get any words out

"Lexi take your time" he said "it's just me and your mum here now and we're just here to listen"

Rachel could tell that her daughter felt uncomfortable around her though and would probably rather she wasn't there.

"Lexi, would you rather me go out so you can just talk to Thomas?" Rachel asked

When Lexi nodded her head to this, Rachel felt a pang of guilt for the first time since the girls had been there.

Rachel left quietly leaving Thomas and Lexi alone

"You can tell me what's happened Lexi, it's okay?"

"A...a..at sc..sc..school everyone was l..l..laughing at me b..b..because of my st..stammer" Lexi said through tears "and I c...couldn't do any of the work"

Thomas held her while she cried onto him and tried to comfort her a bit, but it was hard when she was so upset

Although Thomas did manage to comfort her a bit, Lexi stayed upset for the rest of the night and didn't eat much at tea again.

When they put her to bed that night, Thomas had to stay with her for ages until she eventually dropped off.

By this time Rachel was beginning to wonder where Holly had got to and was getting quite annoyed.

Thomas tried staying up to wait for Holly to get in however in the end he got so tired he went to bed.

Eventually at about midnight Holly came back in and it soon became obvious to Rachel that she was very drunk

"Holly what the hell are you doing, it's a school night"

"Oh piss off, I hate you, you left me" holly slurred

"Bed now" Rachel ordered

"You're a real bitch you know mum, you've been very very very nasty to me and I don't like you" holly said in her confused and drunken state "why don't we never talk again, that'll make me a really really happy person"

"Holly bed"

"I don't want to go to bed, I want to go back to the party, let me go now"

"How the hell did you get home?"

"People ordered me a taxi, because they said I was too drunk but they're lying and their bitches because I'm not drunk at all"

Suddenly Holly grabbed her stomach but didn't make it to the bathroom and was sick all over the white carpet and her mum

"Oh just get out of my sight and up to bed you stupid girl" Rachel screamed

It took her ages to clean both herself and the carpet up but eventually she managed to get some sleep herself.

Please review, next chapter Rachel will start to be more like Rachel again I promise x