"Right, get into a single file line please," Ms Boston ordered.

"We're not in primary school anymore, Ms," a pupil said, getting a laugh out of the rest of the class.

"I know, just after last week we've been told to inspect you all," she clapped her hands together, "make sure none of you are coming in here with anything that could harm this school. Now, bags open."

The class groaned before following orders.

"Now today, we will be discussing what we did over our holiday," Ms Boston suggested. "One by one we'll go round and talk about a highlight from the past two months."

"What if we didn't do anything, Ms?" Barry asked.

"Well then you better think of something," Ms Boston concluded.

"Uh, Nik, can I barrow you for a second?" Ms Donnegan walked in.

"Y'alright, Ms D? Looking good, I say."

"It's going to take more than that Mr Barry," Ms Donnegan shot down, glancing over at Nikki and smiling at her briefly.

Catching Lorraine's eye, Ms Boston told the class to get out a pen and paper and start listing the things they had done ahead of the discussion then she followed Ms Donnegan outside.

"I just wanted to say we're having a meeting at the end of the day about what we have planned for this term," the blonde started, holding her books to her chest. "I think we should pitch them together."

"Ye-yeah, brilliant," Nikki stuttered. Pitching was new to Nikki – she is a speaker don't get that wrong - but as a deputy Head? That's a first and knowing Lorraine and the rest of the staff are depending on her to make these plans work, is a lot on her shoulders, with having to still prove herself with the PRU. She breathed out. "So, can we say four?"

Lorraine nodded. "Perfect. I'll set that up; you get back to your class." She pointed out Nikki's nerves. Reaching over, she rubbed the brunette's arm. "Don't worry, you're doing great."

The two smiled at each other then said goodbye and Ms Boston push her door open.

"So have we written anything down?"

Barry sat up. "What were you and Lorraine talking about, Nik?" That got the class gasping.

Ms Boston glanced over at the troublemaker. "It's Ms Donnegan and Boston to you, Barry and it's none of your business."

He huffed. "If you say so."

Ignoring any further comments from him, Ms Boston told the class to all stand up with their work and she started pushing the tables to the corners of the room. "Take your chairs and sit in a circle, go."

Nikki went ahead and sat on her desk. "Alright-y then. Who wants to go first?"

"I will!" Barry got in quick. "I had a few hook-ups in my holiday."

The class laughed.

"And what has that taught you Mr Barry?" Boston folded her arms.

"That sex is good?" he shrugged his shoulders, earning himself another laugh from the other pupils.

"Okay then…" she looked around at her pupils. "Anyone got a better story? C'mon people, anything happen to you that inspired you? Maybe you realised something over the break?"

"I've got one, Ms," Rhiannon raised her hand.

"Go on."

"I spoke to Scout—sorry, Jodie—over the break and she says she's very excited to go to Uni and it got me thinking about what I want to do when I leave here."

Ms Boston smiled. "And that is?"

"Something like you, with the PRU or something similar," the red head said. "If it wasn't for the PRU I wouldn't have stayed here. Remember I told you that when Bolton visited?"

"I do," Ms Boston nodded. "Thank you, Rhiannon, it means a lot." Giving a soft smile, she continued with the rest of her class. "Anyone else?"

Kacey slowly raised her hand. Nikki caught it and urged her to speak up. "I went to the doctors about my future—"

Barry laughed.

"In here we are all equal, if you want to make sly remarks you can get out of my classroom, got that Mr Barry?" Nikki projected.

"Fine with me," he pushed himself off his chair, knocking it over with the force, and walked out.

Upon hearing the slam of the door, Ms Boston gave Kacey, who had lowered her head and was pinching the bridge of her nose, a sincere look and sighed. "I think it's it for today guys, excuse me."


Waterloo Road ended on a high last term, eight per cent of their students made a C or higher grade in their GCSEs—a new personal best for the school—Scout had done enough to get herself into University after all that happened with her Mother and the new school didn't go up in flames.

Not so much for Nikki Boston though. After going over Scout's test paper with Michael Byrne and Lorraine Donnegan, Nikki bottled up her nerves and had asked Lorraine out for a drink. Whether or not at that time she meant a glass to congratulate her on their success this term, as friends or more she didn't know. But what she did now was that she got rejected. After seeing Lorraine's face freeze, Nikki had quickly exited the room, brushing off what she had said and left a very confused blonde standing in the classroom alone.

What a lot of pupils don't know is that teachers do in fact have a life outside of school and they do have Facebook—that would make any pupil cringe—and all the teachers talked over it, they had their own little group if you wanted to call it that. For the first two weeks, none of the teachers talked to each other—Michael was on holiday with Christine, Maggie Budgen looked after husband, Grantly, and Tom Clarkson had spent it with his son. But one night, when Nikki was simply scrolling down her newsfeed, a little box popped up with Lorraine Donnegan across the top.

Hi was all it said before they ended up getting into conversation about work and what plans Lorraine had for the term. Then nothing could have prepared Nikki for what Lorraine had suggested.

You still fancy going for that to discuss this face to face? Xx

A smile had crossed Nikki's features almost instantly.

What happened from there was history. Maybe they had had one too many but Lorraine knew she was breaking her own rules about kissing on a first date with Nikki but it wasn't really a first date and they laughed about that when a first date actually happened and they kissed sober.

The past two months have been pure joy for the two of them. With no work to do, they had spent nearly every waking hour together like giddy teenagers.

They came from very different backgrounds—Lorraine was brought up very old fashioned. She is well spoken, intelligent on little things you wouldn't even consider to be things but at the same time, she knows when to let her hair down. Nikki on the other hand was brought up to defend herself, it was one of the reasons she joined the army. She's a fighter. She's good at her job but she wasn't as smart as Lorraine, her mind was very basic. She knew the everyday things and that was as far as her general knowledge 'tended.

From this, Nikki thought that, when Lorraine suggested they spend some time round the brunette's house for once, she wouldn't live up to Lorraine's expectations. Going from a penthouse to a little two-bedroom flat? 'Cause that didn't make Nikki feel insecure at all.

But it didn't bother Lorraine, in fact, it made her feel better. She loved her penthouse but at night when she was alone in such an open place, there were times when she wished she had someone to share the space with and that's what she loved about Nikki's place. It was warm, well looked after and the kind of place you expected to be living in with your girlfriend and Lorraine loved that.

There were times when Lorraine thought that there was a possibility that Nikki was using Lorraine for her money but it was clear to Lorraine that it wasn't the case because the brunette has yet to pressure her. Nikki didn't always want to go round Lorraine's, she had offered to pay for many of the meals they had shared and there was something about that that put those thoughts to the back of her mind. Lorraine had been used before by male and female so she knew, well, whether or not she was being lead on. But something about being with Nikki was different, like she felt content with herself and with her relationship for the first time in a long time.

Lorraine just hoped it would stay that way.


"So, what's this all about?" Michael asked behind him as Nikki and Lorraine lead him into his office.

"To pitch the plans myself and Nikki made over the break," Lorraine started. "Take a seat."

Michael took a seat at his desk, Nikki and Lorraine took a seat each opposite him. Nikki placed some papers in front of him.

"Firstly, we agreed to start up some after school hours classes," Nikki pointed her finger up at Michael before he could object. "Yes, this is more hours for us as teachers but just an hour could really benefit these kids. From three-thirty to four-thirty is all we're looking for."

Lorraine nodded. "Also, we're not taking them away from their homes. Most of the students live in the dorms so it doesn't affect any travel time—worrying about giving home before dark."

Nikki flipped the page on the papers she'd put on the desk. "This is what Tom suggested last term about having support slash counselling classes for the pupils who are having problems at home."

"Yes it means bringing in more staff and paying out more, but with experts in the area, it will benefit the school drastically," Lorraine said, looking over and smiling at Nikki briefly.

"Okay," Michael nodded, scanning over the papers quickly. "Anything else?"

"One more," Nikki said. "This one will be very efficient, especially after what happened with Fergal last week. "

"We want to install more cameras," Lorraine continued, "in classrooms and outside the school. That man got in last week because we have no cameras. On more than one occasion this has happened in the past. With Barry last term, accusing Sian she had hit him, we had no proof. Installing these cameras will help this matter."

"We understand this means more money and TVs but Sonya has agreed to become the watcher of these cameras during school hours. Anything that happens after that will be checked first thing in the morning if the break-in alarms don't go off of a night." Nikki concluded.

The pair awaited Michael's response.

Michael sat up, putting his entwined hands on the desk. "Okay," he nodded. "I'm on board. I say we install the cameras as soon as possible—take the money out of the school fund, keep your money in your pockets, Lorraine." She nodded. "As for everything else, I shall run it by other members of staff. Good job, you two."