"I can't believe I were picked for the cross country team." Scout said for about the twelfth time the next morning as she, Hollie, Rhiannon and Phoenix made their way through the school gates and towards the main building.
"Big deal." Rhiannon muttered grumpily beside her.
Hollie rolled her eyes, exchanging a look with her friend, who smirked. "Says the heffer who didn't get picked for either team."
Before the red-head could reply, Phoenix spotted the charm on the chain around Scout's neck and reached for it, a smile curling his lips. "What's this?"
"Oh… shut up, right?" The blonde chuckled, swatting him away. "It's my good luck charm."
"You're actually gonna wear it, then?"
Scout shrugged. "Yeah! I always wear it when I run. My mum gave it me."
"You heard from her lately?" Phoenix asked gently, his eyes meeting Hollie's for a split second.
Behind them, Rhiannon moved closer interestedly. "What? Where is she?"
"Shut up, Rhiannon." The boy muttered. "You know where she is. The whole school's heard about it."
"Yeah? Well obviously I didn't."
Embarrassed, Scout cleared her throat reluctantly. "She's in prison."
"No way?" The younger girl looked delighted at the prospect of something new to hold over the blonde. Hollie glared at her. "I knew you were a skank, but seriously?"
"Scout… she were only joking, alright?"
Fixing Rhiannon with a furious stare, Hollie pushed her arm through Scout's and drew her away. Once they were clear of the younger girl, she gave the blonde's arm a squeeze. "Ignore her. She's just a jealous cow. No one likes her, really. Besides, no one even bothered to ask her about the competition, did they? You wrote questions for the quiz and you're doing the run. Forget about her."
With a nod, a sigh and a weak smile, Scout agreed and they headed inside just as the bell rang. Both having written questions for the University Challenge style quiz taking place that morning between Waterloo Road and Havelock High in the hall, Hollie and Scout had been given the morning off to sit and watch the competition. Although it seemed quite boring to the teenagers, they had to concede that it was better than being in lessons.
As they approached the desk where they had to hand their mobiles in, Scout paused, staring at the screen of her phone as though she'd seen a ghost. Handing over her own mobile and slipping the token she received in return into her blazer pocket, Hollie turned to see what the matter was. Phoenix glanced at her worriedly and shrugged.
"Scout?" Hollie asked gently, putting a hand on her friend's arm.
"It's my…" She started before holding out the mobile for her friends to read the message that had just appeared there.
Hollie read it quickly, her mouth dropping open in surprise. Somewhere in the back of her mind suspicions were stirring. Something didn't seem right; the timing of the information Scout had just received struck her as odd. Keeping this opinion to herself, however, she turned to look at Rhiannon, who appeared beside them, looking intrigued.
"What's happened?" The younger girl asked.
"Scout's mum's been given an early release." The boy informed her. "She's coming to meet her after school."
"You gonna go see her?" Rhiannon asked quickly, fuelling Hollie's suspicions further.
"I know what my mum did were wrong…"
Phoenix snorted. "An understatement!"
"But I can't just ignore her, can I?"
"Yeah, you can."
"I do kind of know what it's like." The red-head said gently. Hollie had to stop herself glaring at her. Now she knew that something was definitely wrong. There was no way Rhiannon would have done such a U-turn in her treatment of Scout in such a short amount of time.
"Yeah, right…"
Rhiannon shrugged. "You only get one family, don't you?"
"Come on…" Hollie muttered, pulling Scout forward. "Let's get into the hall."
As they left Phoenix to head to his lesson and settled themselves into seats facing the podium on the stage, Hollie thought about the revelation. It seemed like too much of a coincidence to her that Rhiannon found out that Scout's mum was in prison and then, less than twenty minutes later, Scout had a message to say her mum was coming to see her. Wondering whether she should say anything, Hollie glanced sideways and spotted the preoccupied look on the blonde's face. She wondered whether she was just being cynical because of her own mother and how many times she had felt let down. Deciding to see if anything else happened, the brunette settled down to watch the quiz.
"Mr Budgen's getting a bit into this, ain't he?" Hollie whispered to her friend a while later as Gus correctly answered a question that, if he'd got the answer wrong, would have shown him up as a complete idiot.
"He's loving it!" Scout agreed with a giggle. "Look at him, sitting up there like some sort of King."
They both dissolved into giggles, earning themselves a stern look from Mr Byrne, who turned around to see who was making the noise. Pulling themselves together quickly, they settled back in their seats, resuming their whispered conversation and only keeping half an ear trained on the quiz taking place in front of them.
"And the winners, by an impressive margin of 19 points, are Waterloo Road!" Mr Budgen announced at last, causing the two girls to join in with the cheering and applause going on around them.
They headed quickly out of the hall and Scout hurried off to get changed for the run, leaving Hollie to go in search of Imogen and Connor, who hadn't been lucky enough to be allowed to sit in on the quiz.
"Alright, lovebirds?" Hollie joked, putting herself deliberately between her friends and grinning at them. Neither looked particularly amused, so she pulled a face. "What's wrong with you two?"
After exchanging a quick look, Imogen shrugged. "Mr Chalk had a little kid in his class and it looked like she had chicken pox."
"Eh?"
"She had spots and everything… it was well weird." Connor agreed with a shrug. Sensing that Hollie could tell she wasn't being told something, he shouldered his bag more firmly and nodded towards the front doors. "We should get out there or we'll miss the start of the race."
Agreeing, Hollie followed her friends outside, narrowing her eyes slightly as she tried to work out what she was missing. There was something odd going on; the atmosphere between the teenagers was decidedly less cheerful than normal. With a shrug, she walked outside, heading straight for Scout, who was standing with Phoenix and Rhiannon.
"Alright?" She asked, nudging the blonde gently with her shoulder. "You ready?"
"Yeah… I think so."
Rhiannon smiled and Hollie instantly tensed, not trusting the younger girl. "Go on, Scout."
As she walked away, the brunette watched her carefully, wondering why she was being so nice all of a sudden. But then her attention was focused on the starting line where Scout and Madi were both preparing themselves for the run, looking fiercely determined. Mr Clarkson started the race with an air horn and the runners were off; Hollie cheering as loudly as anyone else.
Once they were out of sight, Hollie and Phoenix turned. The girl realised that Connor and Imogen had vanished and briefly wondered whether they'd even bothered to stick around to watch the start of the race. Furrowing her eyebrows, she tried to work out what was going on with them at the moment. Giving up, she made her way towards the canteen with Phoenix, suddenly starving.
With the race still going on, their PE lesson that afternoon had been cancelled, so Hollie and Phoenix were free to wait at the finishing line with the others to see the end of the race. The Havelock High student, Liberty, crossed the line first. Their head teacher was delighted, punching the air and cheering. The teenagers exchanged a look, rolling their eyes, before clapping as Madi appeared through the gates with Scout and Harley not far behind her.
"Nice one!" Hollie grinned, giving Madi a quick hug, before standing back and pulling a face of mock-disgust. "You are disgustingly sweaty…"
"What d'you expect, you weirdo…" The blonde gasped, doubling over as she tried to catch her breath.
A commotion started up a little way off and they watched as Liberty was accused of cheating. Shaking her head, Madi lead the way back into the school, muttering in annoyance.
"Did you see her face when she was running? She was like… possessed… or something."
"Leave it out, Mads." Gus commanded, sticking up for the other girl. "She's coughing blood up there."
Rhiannon rolled her eyes. "Who cares?"
"Gus, obviously." Madi replied, equally irritated.
As Madi moved away to get changed out of her running clothes, the others came to a stop beside Scout and Tariq. Hollie gave her another quick hug and Scout beamed, delighted with her performance in the race.
"Nice one, Scout." The red-head congratulated her with a grin. The older girl didn't quite believe her sincerity. "Me and Phoenix were thinking cinema and chips later, if you fancy it? You too, Hollie."
"Err… my mum…" Scout reminded them. Remembering with a jolt, Hollie wondered whether to say anything.
"Oh yeah, course." Rhiannon nodded, looking a little too smug.
"Are you actually gonna meet her then?"
"Babe… you don't think this might be… I dunno… a mistake?" Hollie asked gently, wondering how to say it without upsetting her friend. "I mean, does your mum even have your new number?"
"She could have found it out, easy." Scout said, apparently not getting the message.
"You gonna get her anything… like a getting out present?" Rhiannon asked, smirking slightly.
The blonde nodded. "Yeah… yeah, I suppose I should…"
With a grin, the younger girl walked away. Phoenix followed her, rolling his eyes. Hollie stayed, looked worriedly at her as Scout seemed to be thinking about what was a suitable present in such a situation.
"Don't get your hopes up." Hollie warned as the two girls watched Rhiannon and Phoenix heading away down the road. The brunette had refused to leave Scout to wait on her own, taking up position on the cold stone wall beside her.
"Just 'cos your mum hardly ever showed up, doesn't mean mine won't. You're just jealous."
For a moment, Hollie had the urge to walk away and let her friend wait alone. Bitterly, she wondered whether Scout had a point about her reasoning. Then she shook her head. "It's got nothing to do with my mum. I just don't want you to pin all your hopes on yours turning up and then her not showing."
"Is there something you're not telling me?"
"No. I just… have a bad feeling about this."
They waited in silence for a while, until a beep caused them both to jump. Pulling out her mobile, Scout stared at the screen for a second, before standing up and showing it to Hollie. The brunette read the message bitterly.
"You were right, then, someone was taking the piss."
"Look, Scout, don't–"
"I bet I can guess exactly who it was, too." The blonde snapped.
Before Hollie could even stand up, she had sprinted away along the road. Knowing that there was no way she'd be able to catch her friend up, the teenager sighed and started following the path Scout had taken at a much slower pace.