"Happy birthday!" Hollie exclaimed as Imogen walked into the common room on Friday morning. From her perch on the table she was the only one directly facing the doors and so the first to spot her. She beamed and stood up to give Imogen a hug, drawing everyone else's attention to the teenager.
"Here she is!" Scout added, turning round and beaming at their friend. "Happy birthday!"
"Thanks."
"I squared it with Maggie that you can come round tonight." The blonde continued excitedly.
Imogen nodded and smiled, but she didn't seem as enthusiastic as the others. "Cool."
Noticing a look passing between the birthday girl and Connor, Hollie winked at Scout, who couldn't resist speaking. "You coming?"
"Nothing else on…" He assented with a casual shrug. Hollie smirked and looked at her hands.
"D'you want us to bring drinks and stuff?" Imogen asked, shuffling slightly uncomfortably at the looks passing between her friends.
Scout sighed. "What we need is a bottle of cider."
"Cider? How old are you, twelve?" Hollie giggled, shaking her head. "We need a bottle or two of vodka!"
"Get you," Phoenix laughed, "Miss hardcore over there!"
As Hollie shrugged and stuck her tongue out at him, Connor sat up straighter on the sofa. "Count me out; I don't drink."
"Ohh… what's up? Scared of Mummy finding out?" The blonde pressed, teasing him.
Connor didn't reply, but they were prevented from pressing the matter further as the bell rang and the teenagers gathered up their things. "Speaking of your mother," Hollie said with a grin, "we'd better get to English."
"I'll catch you up." Connor told them as they moved towards the door. "Toilet."
Shrugging, they left, moving towards the English corridor. Hollie, not being the biggest Shakespeare fan, was easily distracted away from Hamlet and more interested in whispering with Scout about the evening ahead of them. When Mrs Mulgrew put them into groups to discuss the role of women in the play, they struggled to stay focused, earning themselves a frown as they dissolved into a fit of giggles.
"Pack it in, you two." The teacher ordered as she passed. "I don't know what's got into you this morning."
Attempting to settle down to their work, the girls were distracted only moments later by Mrs Mulgrew starting to sing. Exchanging a look with her friend, Hollie laid down her pen and rested her chin on her hand, watching the conversation between Imogen, Connor and his Mum with interest. Imogen looked embarrassed, but Connor looked totally annoyed, especially as the teacher turned and walked back towards her desk.
"Scout," she called as she passed them again, "swap places with Imogen, please."
Frowning at each other, Hollie watched as her best friend stood up and gathered her things. When the other girl sat in the recently vacated seat, she sighed deeply.
"What's wrong with her?" The younger girl muttered, nodding her head towards their teacher who was now back at her desk.
Imogen shrugged. "I dunno… it was dead weird. She told me there was nothing wrong with being easily pleased and confiscated my ring."
"Maybe she's just being protective of Connor?" Hollie suggested.
"Maybe…"
As the bell rang at the end, they filed out of the classroom and separated with most of them heading off to their next lesson and Hollie deciding to go to the hall to watch the boys rowing challenge during her free.
She dumped her bag on one of the benches and went to stand with Madi and Phoenix, watching Tariq, Josh and Gus on the machines.
"How far are they supposed to be rowing again?" She asked the girl, her head on one side as she watched them interestedly.
"I dunno…"
"They're rowing the distance from Greenock to Edinburgh." The blonde woman supervising them said, overhearing their conversation.
"Greenock to Edinburgh?" Madi repeated incredulously. "Isn't that like a hundred miles?"
"Clarkson reckons it's about 80." Phoenix informed them.
The blonde woman smiled. "77 to be precise."
"By lunchtime?"
"That's crazy!" Hollie said, shaking her head.
"Easy." Phonix argued with a nonchalant shrug.
"Come on, boys! Don't let the pace drop."
Phoenix shook his head. "Come on, slackers, what's this?"
Hollie stood with her friends for a while, but soon got bored of watching the boys on the rowing machines and went back to the common room to spend her free working on some homework. When the bell rang for break and her friends appeared, Hollie noticed that they were avoiding mentioning the situation in the English classroom and steered clear of it herself.
After break, Hollie walked with Scout to Maths. Connor and Imogen followed behind, deep in conversation. Glancing over her shoulder, the blonde teenager suggested that if they didn't get together by themselves, she was only too happy to play cupid that night at Imogen's party. Phoenix rolled his eyes, but Hollie laughed and said she would help.
"Davidson?" Mr Chalk called, going through the register.
"Not here, sir." Scout told him.
"Evans?"
From beside the blonde, Hollie nodded. "Here."
"Hamilton?" There was a short silence. "What, no Stephanie either?"
"I ain't seen her today, sir." The brunette told him with a shrug. "She weren't in the common room."
Mr Chalk sighed and continued with the register. He hadn't even reached the end, when the scrape of chair legs on the floor and a scuffling sound made Hollie and Scout whirl round interestedly. They barely turned in time to see Imogen storming past them and throwing open the classroom door, stalking away down the corridor.
"Hey!" The teacher complained uselessly. "I haven't finished the register yet."
"What was that about?" Scout muttered.
Hollie shrugged and twisted in her seat, attracting Connor's attention. He looked at her reluctantly. "What's going on?"
"I dunno…" Connor shrugged unconvincingly, not meeting their eyes.
"Yeah, right, what did you say?"
"Just… you know that blonde woman helping with the rowing challenge? Well she might have sort of chatted me up."
"No way…" Scout breathed.
"You're kidding me?" The brunette said at the same moment.
Glancing at each other, Scout and Hollie snorted with laughter at the thought, much to Connor's annoyance. He glared at them furiously as they giggled until they turned around and began whispering between themselves. Mr Chalk called them to attention after a couple of minutes and managed to settle the class down enough to launch into his lesson on advanced quadratic equations.
