AN: So I managed to update in less than a month. It's gotta be a record. Anyway, here is your chapter...

Chapter 10

The next day I turned up at school in a shitty mood. This was probably due to the fact I had only had about 4 hours sleep.
At about 3 in the morning John had convinced me that I had to go home, that I couldn't go on arguing with my mother all the time. He gave me a great long speech on how terrible I would feel if something had happened and those were the last words I had said to her. It took him a good half hour to convince me to go home and make amends. Partly because I'm so bloody minded and partly because I was in a state of bliss, I had never felt so safe and protected from the world as I did when I was lying next to John. But eventually he managed to coax me out of the bed and he walked me all the way back home.
My mother was still up when I got back. She was sat in the front room in the dark, staring at the television set that displaying that grey fuzz that plays after the channels have closed down. I hadn't planned in this, i had expected her to be in bed and to be able to apologise in the morning. Instead i had to stand there and swallow my words. And I hated them, they tasted so sour and burned my throat on the way down.

By trying to avoid my mother I left the house early for school the next day. I didn't want to cause any more arguments with her. I especially didn't want her to find out about me and John. She was old-fashioned and highly Christian; I hated to think what she would have to say about it.
I walked incredibly slowly the whole way to school. The whole thing reminded me of how I'd shuffled my way there on that fateful first day. There had been a nervous knot in my stomach. Then I remembered Paul and instantly tried to forget about him again. I was with John now. I was pretty sure I loved him, and he loved me. I mean, we had had sex. I don't think I had thought about what that meant. But definitely meant something, right? As I got closer to the grey school gates I kept thinking and analysing and predicting things and a noticed that nervous knot returning once more.

At school I met Prue in the girls toilets as i did every morning and she instantly started bombarding me with questions of what had happened about anything. I proceeded to tell her the whole story: from breaking up with Paul to the conversation with Emma to snogging John on the way home from school to the argument with my mother to the sex to the returning home. I tried to skirt over the second from last point like it was no big deal but my blushing and giggling probably gave it away before I'd even told her.

"Oh my fucking God!" she practically screamed, "You shagged John!"

"Shh," I said trying to calm her down. There was the sound of a toilet flushing and a second year girl with greasy pig tails walked out of a cubicle. We remained silent for a few minutes until she walked out the room. I carried on, "Anyway, don't say 'shagged', you make it sound dirty,"

"Well, I'm sure it was,"

"It wasn't," I replied a bit too defensively causing her to change her tone a bit.

Prue scoffed at me, "Whatever you say." she paused, "So, um, what was it like?"

"I don't know, really," I said, giggling because I didn't really want to describe it to her. It was private, you know? I noticed I was giggling a lot more recently.

Prue nodded knowingly, doing that thing where she pretends to be much more worldly than she actually is. Prue then changed the subject to herself and Harry and what on earth was she going to wear to their date on Thursday (I offered to lend her my red dress). This went on for a while before the bell rang and we made our way off to our first class.

-

By lunchtime, the rumours had spread like wild fire. Apparently the greasy girl had heard more than we had thought. It also turned out, that considering John had never been to this school, a surprising portion of the student body knew who he was. When I walked down the corridors I could see people turn around and whisper to their friends.

"That's her, the slut."

"She's the one who fucked Lennon."

"I heard she's shagged 8 different guys,"

I tried to walk past them and rise above it.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I chanted to myself. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.

I glanced up from my dinner. Sat at the other end of the long, grey dining table was Paul. Our eyes met for a few seconds before I focused back on my sandwiches. There was a look in his eye that told me he was upset. Upset seemed like and understatement, he looked dejected. That cut me more than all their words. I didn't know I even had that power. I mean, I was just plain boring old me, not exactly head-over-heels material.

I sat and picked at my sandwich for a while. I noticed that while all the girls were busy calling me every name under the sun the boys didn't really seem that bothered.

It was all so ridiculous. Everyone else seemed to sleep around and nobody gave a shit.

"You're a fucking whore, Edie," Emma jibed as she made her way past. For some reason her comment caught me off guard. I felt tears start to prickle the back of my eyes.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but...

It was no use, the person who came up with that was the biggest fucking idiot I've ever heard of. They didn't have a clue.

I felt hot tears start to flow down my cheeks and I blinked them back furiously. I had left that version of me behind. I was tough now, I didn't cry any more. Sticks and stones...

***

Afternoon school was hell. Nobody wanted to sit with me, it was as if they thought I was contagious or something. And then there were the notes that landed on my desk. Notes from anonymous boys asking me to suck their dicks or something equally crude.

The last bell of the day rang and I almost wept tears of joy and skipped out of the classroom. When I reached the school gates I saw John was stood right outside them, waiting for me. He was wearing blue jeans and a leather jacket, a cigarette hanging from his lip. He looked incredibly sexy. When he saw me he winked and tossed the cigarette on the floor, crushing it with the sole of his shoe. I walked towards him and he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me in and kissing me.

"Slut!" called a passing girl I didn't know the name of. I felt me face redden and John looked down at me quizzically.

"Johnny, everyone knows," I said quietly. He didn't say anything in reply only kissed me again.

"Her," said another girl to her friend as they walked by, "She's the whore everyones being talking about."

"Shut up, you stupid bitch," yelled John at the girl, "Who the fuck are you to talk about my girl like that?"

The girl looked down coyly, looking as if she were about to cry. Unfortunately for John this girl was walking home with her boyfriend as well. And her boyfriend was on the Rugby team.

"You better shut up yourself, Lennon." The girl's boyfriend said, "Unless you want to be fucking crippled," he didn't smash his fists together but he may as well have done considering the threatening feeling that hung in the air around the group.

"Bring it on," snarled John as he started to shake off his jacket.

"John, stop!" I grabbed his arm in a vain attempt to prevent the fight. I knew already that John had a bit of a reputation for picking fights with people but to be honest I didn't fancy his chances against this guy. He had to be at least 6 ft 4 with wide shoulders and muscular arms. He was the kind of guy you could easily imagine in a boxing ring, even when he was dressed in school uniform.

Both the guys wriggled out of their jackets and threw then to the ground. I half expected to see a circle of people form around them and start chanting "fight, fight, fight!". Of course this didn't happen. A few punches were thrown until the big guy smacked John right off balance and he landed on the pavement in front of me. He spat at John, mumbled a few threatening words, then kissed his girl and walked away triumphantly. I helped John to his feet and handed him his jacket, which he put on without thanks.

"You didn't have to do that," I said to him.

"Yeah, I know," he wiped the trickle of blood from his nose on the back of his hand. I passed him my hankie. "I just wanted to protect you, you know?"

"But he's a bloody giant, John,"

"Hmm," he stared at the blazer the girl's boyfriend had left behind, "I'm gonna get that little shit back!"

He picked up the blazer off the ground and rifled through the pockets until he found what he was looking for.

"Aha," he shouted a bit loudly causing some first years that were walking past to jump.

"What's that?" I asked nodding at the piece of paper John was now clutching in his fist.

"Not entirely sure,"

"Why are you wooping then?"

"Cos it's got his name and address on it," he said matter of factly.

"And?"

"I'm gonna get him back,"

"Oh God," I laughed despairingly, "Please don't do anything stupid."

John, who now had another cigarette hanging from his lip and was in the process of lighting it, didn't answer. Instead he merely winked at me.

AN: So, um, yeah. Don't know how I feel about this chapter. So if you could review or something, that would be good! Also don't forget to check out my other story on here, it's a collab with VickyTMandy and also really awesome.