A/N: Another chapter? Wow. It hasn't even been three months yet. Hope I haven't 'lost' Emily's character in my absence! Thanks for reading and commenting and pls leave a comment, it's always a booster for the next chapter ;) x

Emily, without a doubt, was considering cutting alcohol off her list the minute it solved all her problems. She'd been consuming the shite since that night with Lewis, downing vodka from water bottles during the sessions disguised as water, whiskey in flasks, chugging a bottle of gin on her way to community service. Someone might start thinking she should go to AA.

"Someone knows we killed him." Kelly said, tightening her ponytail.

"Do you think it could be Sally?" Simon asked.

Curtis scoffed "Who's Sally?"

Emily finished her mouthful of the devil's water and shoved the flask deep into the pocket of her jumpsuit, turning around with her back against the locker "The probation worker." She answered.

Nathan leered "Ooh, Sally. Why'd you both know her name?"

"She told us." Simon stuttered.

"You're a twat because Sally didn't show up till the day after we killed the other probation worker. I suppose you know his name too?"

Simon's neck went blotchy and flushed before he said "Tony."

"Do you love him?" Nathan demanded.

"Oh for fuck sake," Emily rolled her eyes until she was sure her pupils would never leave the inside of her skull. She shouldn't do that, it made her head ache. Nathan really did have that affect on people. "Leave the poor sod alone, you menace."

Nathan leered "Want me to start botherin' you then, four eyes?"

"Please do, I need a reason to whack you round the head."

"That's domestic violence, I'll have you know, four eyes." He stuck his nose in the air as Emily let out an undignified yet entirely bemused snort that Alisha grimaced at. Kelly glanced at her from the corner of her eye. Emily took another swig.

"He's right though, she wasn't 'ere." Kelly, albeit reluctantly, agreed.

"If I'm invisible, I can see if anyone puts anything else in our lockers." Simon suggested slowly, uncertainly. Hell, she'd be pretty uncertain about talking of her power if at first nobody believed her and instead threw a can at her forehead. Lucky for her, her power appeared suddenly and everyone witnessed her finest moment; slamming into the ceiling whilst weeping.

"Sounds like a plan." Curtis nodded, then turned to Alisha who met his heated gaze in the reflection of the mirror. His grin became cheeky, and flirtatious in a way that made Emily want to gag, and not because she was on the verge of alcohol poisoning. "You alright with that, yeah?"

"Works for me." She smirked. Little wench knew exactly what affect she had on him.

"Go on then," Curtis suddenly said, turning to Simon "Turn invisible."

Pure nastiness. All eyes were on Simon now, Simon with his hands in his pockets, jumpsuit legs and sleeves down, collar as tight as possible. She had a passing afterthought of him just wetting himself then and there and scolded herself for being so horrible. He was a good guy.

"Let's not pressure him, now." Emily said, reasonably "We're maturing small-time criminals, we don't have to be proper scumbags."

"Ugh, why're you defendin' 'im? 'im of all people!" Nathan groaned.

Simon shot a glance her way, something akin to a smile on his face but she wasn't so sure, it looked an awful lot like a grimace "I-I can't do it when everyone's watching me."

"So, I guess it's like pissin' at a urinal if you've got a tiny cock." Nathan said. She actually thought it was a fair simile to be honest, got the gist of it across fairly simply.

"You'd know all about that, huh?" She replied, absently choosing a song on her iPod to listen to during their 'maturing sessions'.

Alisha rolled her eyes "Well, er, that's really impressive." Then stalked away, the others following close behind her.

"Hey, if it's any consolation, I saw it, remember?" She patted Simon on the shoulder with a grin, any solace would do, right? His eyes slid down her arm to the small reddish pink hole blemishing the area that joins her arm and hand. She froze.

"What happened to your wrist?" He asked quietly, voice merely a murmur.

It was odd, she thought, talking to someone about this that wasn't Kelly, who would know all if you just thought about it. Kelly knew Lewis' thoughts, she knew Emily's too. She probably understood all this shit more than Emily did, so talking to Simon who didn't know as much as the telepath about her situation was new.

"It's a long story." Emily smiled weakly, slowly retracting her hand from his stiff shoulder.

"You can tell me." Simon quickly told her, voice practically torn from his throat as if he felt he didn't have enough time to say it "I saw you – last time. You didn't say how that happened but you-you can tell me now, if you need to."

"That's…awful nice of ya, but…" She trailed off, not quite able to find the words to finish the sentence. In the end, she ended it with a shrug and an uncertain, so-so expression that her mother would scold her for. 'Impolite' she would've said 'Not how you end a conversation.' Just like ending a conversation by saying 'later!' is rude because it's so casual, like the goodbye doesn't matter.

She quickly jogged to catch up with the others, standing beside Kelly whilst a fairly average looking man wearing a chequered shirt with floppy mousy hair blathered on about their task for the day. "Okay, so all of these clothes have been donated by members of the public and we need to sort them before we ship them out to Africa."

"We're gonna get fuck all done." Kelly muttered.

"Too right, this is gonna be a field day for everyone." Emily snickered, smiling innocently when the man raised a brow in her direction.

"Just another day in paradise." Alisha commented sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure the people receiving them will be grateful for your hard work." The man replied.

"Only thing hard Alisha's ever been close to is-" Nathan guffawed as Kelly whacked the back of his head, cutting his sentence short. Alisha glared at Nathan – fuck, if looks could kill, he would be a corpse splayed on the pile of clothes then and there.

"It's almost like you want people to hate you." Emily commented.

"Always been a fan of tough love." Nathan winked.

The man coughed to gain everyone's attention again "Ah-hem, yeah, anyway, this work will be easy and generous, so it's not too bad."

"Well, they should be grateful, they're getting a new wardrobe." Alisha said whilst hopping over a larger pile of clothes.

"You are so wrong." Curtis scoffed.

"Alright, so these are the categories to sort them into. It's children's clothes, shoes, coats, that sort of thing." He instructed "Ok, so if you've got any questions, just ask."

Immediately, Nathan's hand shot into the air "If a bear and a shark got into a fight, who would win?" He asked sassily, twizzling his finger at the bloke like he just proved him wrong or questioned his manhood. Emily snickered at the look of baffled bewilderment on his face.

"If you've got any relevant questions, just ask."

"What a wet blanket." Emily droned, unamused.

"And if it's on dry land, I'd bet on the bear." The man quickly finished, before leaving. Dramatic exit or what? Emily watched him leave with an air of disdain around her, and she wasn't the only one. Curtis seemed totally put off by the guy, maybe he saw him as competition for Alisha's panties.

On a different note, Kelly was right; they got absolutely fuck all done. She wondered how the hell they – them, of all people – could be trusted with shit like this. Or any responsibility really. This was giving the delinquents a whole wardrobe to try on and the higher ups expected them to get work done? As if. They'd have to be properly retarded if they thought instead of fucking about – from across the pile, Kelly tugged on a pair of white and yellow pyjama bottoms over her jumpsuit and then thrust her hips out in a very ladylike fashion – that they'd sit there, cross legged, sorting through clothes like good little developing offenders.

"There's a used condom in these high waisted khaki shorts," Emily grimaced, throwing them across the room onto Nathan's head. Kelly snorted as he squawked, batting at them until they tumbled to the floor.

"No way, that's bullshit- ugh, oh god, that's fuckin' rank." Nathan exclaimed, tilting the shorts upside so it fell onto the ground with a slapping noise "Who the fuck keeps a condom? I mean, it'd make sense if I did it, my sperm is invaluable but still!

"Maybe the guy was thinking 'just had a shag, let's keep this to commemorate the time we spent together?" Emily suggested innocently.

"So, it's a souvenir?" Nathan raised a brow "Maybe his lass was totally into storing cum, I saw this post on the internet that some people cum into jars and fill it to the top-"

Kelly groaned loudly in disgust "Shot op! That's disgustin', just frow it away already."

"I don't wanna touch it!" Nathan replied "I can't even pick it up with the shorts, they might absorb the HIV into the fabric! I cannot be to blame for infecting all of Africa!"

"Imagine that on your criminal record." Emily smirked, pulling out a horrible shirt that looked like something her mum might wear; frilly and flowery, definitely not Emily's style for sure. She pulled it on anyway. "Stole pick 'n' mix and infected the second largest continent with HIV. That's 0 to 100 right there."

"Has a sorta ring to it, dunn'it? A deeper meanin'." Nathan pondered, chin in hand as if he was thinking of something wise and deep to say, philosophical even – sort of like El Pensador - but anyone who'd heard Nathan say a single sentence knew that wasn't going to happen "I'd be famous, at least."

"You wanna be remembered for that?" Curtis rolled his eyes.

"Fame is fame, buddy." Nathan replied, then shoved his hand into a bin bag, pulling out a ski boot with a shit-eating grin on his stupidly annoying face "Ski-wear. Classic."

"Just what the people in Africa need." Emily cracked a grin.

"Exactly! Try walking ten miles to the well in these." Nathan scoffed, holding them up "Hey, hey, hey. Who am I?" He asked, pulling the goggles over his head and started singing One Love by U2 in a voice similar to after suffering a stroke. Or the lead singer of Nickelback. Emily watched in disdain, turning to peak at the others and seeing similar expressions. Good to know she wasn't the only one left in the dark.

"C'mon!" Nathan exclaimed in exasperation when he realised nobody was going to understand his impression "Okay, all right, all right, I'll give ya a clue. I'm an annoying cunt."

That startled a laugh out of Emily, who snickered into the jeans she was folding "You didn't have to tell us that."

"We know." Alisha scoffed.

"I'm Bono!" Nathan cried, voice echoing through the room as the door opened and a girl with dark skin, wearing a cap walked in, hands fidgeting by her chest like she really didn't want to be there. Sally followed not far behind with the same pursed lip expression scarred on her once probably pretty face. Emily winced, she was getting to be too harsh. Maybe the other offenders were influencing her.

"Who's that then?" Emily whispered.

"It's the girl I 'ad a fight wiv." Kelly explained "I've gotta do some restorative justice bollocks wiv her."

"You poor thing." Emily crooned, narrowly avoiding having a polo shirt with a disturbing dark stain on the front of it lobbed at her face. Kelly sent her the middle finger with a 'not-putting-up-with-your-shit' smile on her face before she got dragged to her 'restorative justice bollocks'.

Once she'd gone, Emily let out a sigh of guilty relief. It was hard to have to control your thoughts constantly, she'd taken to listing her favourite brands of cereal – rice krispies were the best – to her least favourite comedians – Amy Schumer was up in the Top 5. She hoped no sneaky vacant thoughts slipped through her aggravating mental list taking, she didn't need Kelly knowing all of this when she would solve it. She would have to, in the end or else it might become her forever.

Emily snorted humourlessly. When had she started referring to Lewis and the possible demon spawn inside her 'it'?

"Care to share the joke with the class?" Nathan asked, lobbing a pair of dungarees at her head. This time she wasn't fast enough to dodge them and got a face full of fake denim.

"That, of course." Emily said, beckoning to Curtis' deathly glare sent at the man, who'd just said that Alisha suited the ugliest dress Emily had ever seen. Red polka dots on white, she didn't see the appeal. He was totally just trying to get in Alisha's pants.

"What, Curtis' flaccid cock cryin' in his jumpsuit?" Nathan replied.

"Obviously." She bobbed her head "Look, she's preening."

"Like a cat being suggestively rubbed." Nathan nodded, pausing when Emily stopped and sent him a grossed-out stare "What? I'm just conversin'! God, the likes o' you people…"

Emily rolled her eyes with an amused grin, digging out a pair of tatty old roller skates from beneath a pair of knickers that could fit her, Nathan, Kelly, Simon, Curtis AND Alisha in them at once. The skates remind her suddenly, vividly, of her dad. The breaks on the skates are broken, but that doesn't stop her from toeing off her converse and slipping into them instead, standing on unsteady legs.

"What are you? Bambi?" Nathan called from across the room as she slowly starts skating around the room, she stuck her middle fingers up at Nathan as she glided past "You're puttin' the rest of us to shame, four-eyes, as slackers! At least we're doin' our job, you're completely off task!"

"You skate a lot then?" Curtis asked, watching her slowly glided around the room, movements languid and calm, keeping her body relaxed as her dad always told her to.

"Used to." She replied idly, "Me and my dad used to skate a lot, but haven't done this in a while." Her dad used to be a paper boy as a kid, instead of the customary bike, he used to skate and then taught her how to skate and it sort of became their thing. Tyler had the balanced of a one-legged dog so he was useless at it and used his skills in other areas, usually taking photos of the two on their daily outings. Even though the setting wasn't really like before, and without the large, sturdy form of her father beside her, it didn't really feel the same but in that small moment, she felt a sudden wave of nostalgia.

"You're good." Curtis told her, almost looking impressed.

"Is roller skatin' an Olympic sport?" Nathan piped up, innocently whistling a tune when Curtis shot a glare in his direction.

Emily stopped in her gentle gliding around the room and slipped them off to pull her converse back on, giving them to the eager Nathan to show off his own skill. It took him a minute to get his footing and a soft push from Emily to get him started.

"Eyy, look at me!" He cried "I'm four eyes!"

"Wow, my looks have faded." She droned.

"Ouch, that really hurts, right here." He pouted, hand over his heart as he glided close to Sally's office. He tugged the ski goggles over his and threw his arm out "Ahhhhh!" He sung.

"What the hell is he doin'?" Alisha frowned.

"Didn't you hear?" Emily snickered, distractedly folding a few t-shirts to place in the 'children's clothes' pile "He's the entertainment."

"If that's what you wanna call it." Curtis mocked.

The door to Sally's office slammed open and Sally walked out, brows low over her eyes "Take the roller skates off. And the goggles." Nathan paused, and raised a brow at her. Emily could practically the words 'seriously?' written on his forehead "Take them off!" She finally barked, sighing in the way people to when they're counting to ten to calm down.

"Poor woman has a work load having to deal with us." Emily stated when the door close again.

"Nothing wrong with most of us." Alisha said with a flick of her perfectly coiffed hair.

"Ouch." Nathan fell backwards onto a full bin bag, clutching at his chest, the position he was in made the baby blue blazer's shoulder pads bunch up and look ridiculous "That so totally wounded me."

Emily said "Loving the theatrics."

"You're the only one, get out of the fuckin' way-" Curtis shoved at Nathan who tried to slide a baseball cap onto his already hatted head "Prick."

"Keep it down girls." Alisha droned, fixing up the glittery dress she was showing off whilst standing on the table.

The door to Sally's office once again slammed open and the girl – Jodi – stormed out, this time without her brown leather jacket or baseball cap, she was yelling "She's getting' life! She headbutt me!"

"Just get out." Sally said.

"YOU SLUT WHORE!" Jodi screeched, being ushered out by a fretting Sally, who Emily thought had probably aged at least ten years in the few days she'd been supervising them. As much as the woman grated on her nerves, there would always be a certain amount of sympathy she felt for any probation worker they got. Tony Morecombe was one of them, despite how much he scared the shit out of her the day he was killed.

A chair flew out of Sally's office's doorway, making Emily jolt in tying the flowey skirt-wrap around her waist "Shot op you twat!" Kelly shouted.

"Kelly!" Sally exclaimed in shock.

"I was tryin' to be nice!" Kelly shot back, sparing the rest of them a short glance before storming off in the other direction, obviously fuming. For a moment, the rest just stood there, absorbing the recent events like the shorts absorbed HIV.

Curtis said "I think that went pretty well."

Emily smirked in reluctant amusement before climbing to her feet and untying the skirt, then set off to find Kelly.

"-Y'know most people 'ate their exes so I just said 'er ex 'ad a rat's face and that he sniffed glue and all that. She blew it way outta proportion, honestly. I was tryin' to be nice." Kelly huffed, blowing smoke out of her nose.

"Some couples break up on good terms. Maybe they were one of them?" Emily suggested.

"I dunno. Darren never does anyfin on 'good terms'. 'E's a cunt anyway. Doin' that bollocks was a waste of time, me and that bitch'll never get along." Kelly frowned, tugging on the sleeves around her wrists "I guess I shouldn'ta thrown the chair at 'er, but still."

"From my perspective, that didn't look like apologising, but if you had good intentions, then maybe you just have to reword what you said." Emily began "Say sorry, s'not always good enough but it's a start."

Kelly laughed, shoving at her shoulder amicably "Stop bein' so fockin' wise." She barked, then offered the fag to her.

"No way, this is who I am." Emily laughed, placing the offered fag between her lips "Gotta accept me as I am, what you see is what you get."

"Right." Kelly scoffed "You don't look much like ya got an A* in English."

"I thought the glasses would give that away." Emily deadpanned, exhaling a laugh when Kelly sneered at her, dropping it on the ground and stomping on it with the heel of her shoe.

As they meandered back into the facility, Kelly asked "Didja ever read Lord o' the Flies?"

"In High School, yeah."

"Boy in my school actually killed a pig on 'is dad's farm for a presentation in class, handed the pictures out an everyfin. Got a call home and excluded for a week because o' violent content shown to minors or whateva. Pretty sure he got an F on the presentation too." Kelly told her.

"What the ever-loving fuck?" Emily crowed "What school did you go to? Never mind, I don't wanna know. Ignorance is bliss and all that."

Kelly sniggered, then asked "What school did you go to?"

"Didn't go to school around here," Emily replied "Lived near Middlesex to start with, went to St. Marianne's up until I was like, fifteen then Baldrick's Academy."

"Shit, you went to an all-girls school? In't that really religious or somefing?" Kelly balked.

"Well, my parents didn't want me around guys. Though it was a Catholic school which I did not sign up for. They preferred me being around my own gender, but then thought 'hey, she might be end up being wary around the opposite gender when she leaves school so let's shove her in a public school for the last two years.'"

"Did ya 'ave to wear skirts down to your ankles or wot?"

"I want to say no, so badly."

Kelly guffawed "Seriously? God, that musta sucked like 'oly hell."

"Fitting." Emily commented, remembering how the skirt brushed against the clunky black shoes she had to wear. She'd never be seen dead in clothes like that again in a million years.

"Is that wot they looked like?"

Emily paused, swallowing the sudden tennis ball that appeared in her throat and absently started listing her favourite books.

· Of Mice and Men was a good book, she read it in College

· Tyler suggested Grapes of Wrath, she still had that copy somewhere

· Emily stole Lolita off him before she left home

· Junkie was good

· So was Naked Lunch, in a weird way

"Em," Kelly said "Oi, I'm talkin' to ya."

"Hm, what?" Emily jolted, looking at Kelly, who's eyebrows were drawn in close, lips pursed thoughtfully.

"It makes me uncomfortable too, ya know." Kelly told her "A guy in a Tesco car park thought that I looked like I should be his date to a pig party. Pissed me righ' off."

"What a cunt." She immediately replied on instinct "Kelly, it's not that…Well, it's just I would like to have some secrets." Emily admitted awkwardly, scratching the nape of her neck "What if I'm thinkin' of something really weird that I did in private?"

"It's pretty fockin' obvious what sorta fings you wanna hide." Kelly retorted.

"It's only obvious to you because you can dig through my head." Emily pointed out.

With a harsh, throaty sigh, Kelly opened the doors and walked inside "You're not as subtle as you fink. Simon knows, Nathan sorta does too."

"Ah, but Curtis and Alisha are completely unaware." Emily replied dryly, ignoring Kelly's pointed expression.

"It ain't funny." Kelly said, obviously "Does your power ever bug you?"

"Does my defensive 'get-away-from-what-I'm-afraid-of' power bug me? Nah, not at all." Emily drawled sarcastically. Kelly's next glare is practically scathing, enough so that Emily has the decency to look sheepish "I've hit the bathroom ceiling enough times that the ceiling is starting to crack, so yeah, it does bug me. Plus I'm getting major back pain from it."

"Maybe you can control it or somefing." Kelly shrugged, shoving at a pissing around Nathan who was tackling the vending machine again, he traipsed along with them as they walked to the changing rooms "Practice makes perfect and all that bollocks."

"Are ya talkin' about sex?" Nathan asked, eyebrows bobbing suggestively.

"No, you fuckin' wanker." Kelly deadpanned.

"Jesus, kitty got claws." Nathan mockingly roared at Kelly, flinching away from her angry stomp in his direction with a pathetic meow "What as all that in Miss. What's Her Name's office then?"

"I was only sayin' that the lad she used to go out wiv was a dick." Kelly explained, stalking to her locker "I was only bein' nice!"

"Oh yeah, you were bein' lovely." Nathan crowed "Right up until you threw a chair at her."

"I told Em I shouldn'a done that."

"Repentance, good for the soul that is."

"Em would know, she went to an all-girl Catholic school." Kelly smirked at the betrayal carved on Emily's face "She 'ad to wear skirts down to the ankles and these giant, black plimsoll shoes."

"Kelly, what's said in girl talk, stays in girl talk!" Emily gasped dramatically.

Nathan picked his jaw up from the floor, staring at Emily with bugging eyes "Wait, seriously? Four-eyes, I'd expect you to be wearing cardigans and clogs in the name of our father, who art in heaven!" Nathan exclaimed in shock.

"I'm surprised you know the Lord's prayer." She replied.

"Oh god." Nathan said "She's a Christian!"

"I'm an Atheist, actually."

"Good! If you started singin' hymns and shite then we'd have a lot to discuss, mainly about your sanity-" Curtis let out a shocked gasp and slammed his locker door shut. Simon stood close to where Curtis' locker door had been, looking at him like a disturbed animal.

"Don't be doin' that shit around me!" Curtis demanded harshly, then furrowed his brows "You been in here all day?"

Simon smiled, satisfied "Yeah."

"Wot 'appened?" Kelly asked.

Simon, creepily, kept his eyes on Curtis, sparing only the shortest of glances at them "Nothing." He said "No one came in."

Nathan gasped "That's an anti-climax!" He sneered mockingly, and turned on his heel to leave, Kelly following soon after. Emily stared at Simon, his creepy little face paling – if that was even possible – becoming slightly uncomfortable as he shifted on the spot then moved away.

Without another peep from her, she took a swig from her flask and slowly ambled out of the changing rooms.

There was a pregnancy test on the counter when she got back to Lewis' flat. She stared at it like a one would an enemy, like it had just offended her mother, like it was horrible to her brother when she was the only one allowed to be a bitch to him. It felt heavy in her hands, like she'd just picked up a fucking boulder or Lewis' ego. Just the sight of it made her stomach roll.

Could be the gin and tonic, her mind supplied.

Emily knew it wouldn't work. Her and Lewis had only had sex like five days ago, so it would mean nothing using it now, but just looking at it made the situation pile on her shoulders, on her chest. Realisation of reality slammed onto her person.

What the fuck had she been doing?

Why had she stayed with Lewis? WHY? He was never going to be the Lewis she had fallen in love with, he wouldn't suddenly turn a table and become cute, shy Lewis twisting the hair on the nape of his neck again. He hurt her so much, he blamed her for it.

WHY WAS SHE STAYING?

And as much as she didn't want a baby, it shouldn't pin her to him, a small human doesn't mean she has to stay with someone who would ultimately ruin both of their lives.

Her shoulders shook with an unrelenting fury she hadn't felt since the first time Lewis laid his hands on her. She had blown a fuse that day, screamed at him, told him 'that isn't how you solve problems!' but it had been for him. Every time she acted in a way he didn't like –

But he had managed it. He moulded her into exactly what he wanted her to be but Emily didn't want to be his clay figure. She wanted to be Emily 'won't shut up about her A* in English' Ward, lightweight, procrastinator, small time delinquent, sister, daughter, friend.

Without realising it, the small cardboard cylinder in her hand had been crushed, nails indenting the word 'PREGNANCY'. She thought it was fitting enough.

She dropped the ruined packaging onto the counter, and hurried to the bedroom where she piled jumpers, tops, jeans, the lot into a spare carrier bag. She placed her chargers and her makeup and her cigarettes in too, ignoring the things that didn't matter before leaving the bedroom.

Emily considered writing a note, but the thought vanished from her mind almost immediately. She had no time to fuck around, so she grabbed her backpack and hurried to the door.

But she froze. She could hear an engine cutting off outside and with her heart in her throat, peaked through the curtains to see the familiar BMW in the private car park to the flat. Shit, shit, shit.

There was no elevator in this building. She couldn't hide in there and then leave through the lobby, if she left now then she'd had to cross Lewis on the stairs and she didn't want to know what injuries she'd sustain if he threw her down two floors. Emily would rather not be paralysed, thank you very much.

Keys jangled outside the door, imitating the rapid beating of her unstill heart.

A/N: I'm trying to post more frequently at the minute because I know for a fact I'll totally lose inspiration one day and leave it for like, a year, so when inspiration strikes, I'm spewing out chapters. Thanks for reading and commenting! x