Charlie looked up at the posh building as he walked back into his old school after the half term break. He stopped, smiling, it felt so good to be back. He straightened his royal blue tie and pulled down his sweater vest, looking around for someone familiar.

"Charlie?"

He grinned as he turned around, he's recognize that voice anywhere.

"Hollie."

She beamed, wrapping her arms around him, "I never knew you were coming back."

"It's kinda been short notice.." he said, hugging her back, holding her close.

"What made your Dad change his mind?"

"Long story."

She just nodded, deciding not to push it any further, "You still in the same house?"

"And in the same form," Charlie nodded.

"Aww, everyone's gonna be so glad to have you back!"

Charlie's face was still in a wide smiled, moving his head so he could lean in and softly kiss her.

"Alright, that's enough!"

Charlie rolled his eyes at the sound of his old deputy head, "Sorry sir," he said, stepping away.

Mr Webb's eyes widened, "Treneman?"

"Mr Webb?"

He paused before saying, "I suggest the pair of you get off to your form room."

Charlie nodded, turning away and walking inside. Hollie quickly followed after him, "What's with you being such a good boy today then?"

"Just trying to keep in my Dad's good books… So, anything happen while I was away?"

"Not really, but we have got this new student teacher."

Charlie's eyes gleamed, "A student teacher, eh?"

"Thought you were being a good boy," Hollie teased.

"Aww, but that takes the fun out of everything!" Charlie groaned.

Hollie laughed, "Oh well, it's not like she's a push over or anything. Her name's Miss Lipsett. Look, that's her there," Hollie pointed towards a woman with very short, black hair up ahead.

"What's she like?"

"Alright," Hollie shrugged, "Like I said, she's no pushover. But she's better than most people here."

Charlie smiled, "Yeah.. that's not hard though."

"Spose not," Hollie stopped, looking down at her watch, "Hey, why don't we skive off form like we used to… I haven't seen you for ages."

Charlie stopped, shaking his head, "No.. come on, let's just go.." he carried on walking.

Confused, Hollie ran after him, gently pulling on his arm, "Come on.. there's no point in going, we don't do anything!"

"I know.." Charlie said, still walking, "But I can't skive.."

"Why not? We always used to.."

"Coz they'll just ring home and tell my Dad."

"So? Never bothered you before."

Charlie stopped looking round at her fully, "Things are different now.."

"How?" Hollie asked, taking hold of his hand, suddenly concerned.

"Can't say.." Charlie muttered, rubbing his forehead.

"Char.. you're shaking.."

He shook his head, turning away from her and starting to walk again, "I can't get into any trouble anymore Hollie.."

"Okay.. " Hollie said, running so she could walk alongside him again, "But just talk to me? Look at you.. you're terrified. Why are you so scared of your Dad Charlie?"

…

Charlie tapped his pen on the desk, pausing to scratch the side of his head as he struggled to remember the word. He glanced across at Hollie, sighing as she scribbled quickly, already filling up half a page, compared to his paragraph or so. He sat up straight, stretching out and pushing the piece of paper away from him slightly.

Already the new student teacher Miss Lipsett has focused in on him, raising her eyebrows a little. She was definitely no pushover.. Charlie caught her eye, moving his pen round in his hand and putting it down on his page again, just leaving a small dot in the margin.

He groaned to himself quietly, it had been like this for the whole week he had spent at Kingsmere. He just couldn't concentrate or think of anything.. He used to find French so easy, but now..

"Charlie?"

He rolled his eyes slightly, before looking across, "Miss?"

"Everything okay?"

"Yes, miss."

"You don't seem to have written very much…"

He glanced down at his work, "I'm just thinking."

"Anything I can help with?"

"Yeah.. what's the French for why again?"

"Pourquoi," she replied with a small sigh, "You're in Year 10 now Charlie, you should know that."

"I know, sorry miss.." he replied, copying the word down just as the bell rang.

"Stay behind a minute, alright?" she said quietly before stepping away and speaking much louder, "Alright, off you go."

Charlie pushed his books into his bag, watching as Hollie walked away, giving her a small wave before turning towards the teacher.

"So, what's going on?"

Charlie's eyebrows furrowed, "Nothing.."

"I've seen your work from last term, you're an A student in French.. but now.. you couldn't remember a basic word like pourquoi…"

"I've just got a lot on my mind, I'm fine, honestly.."

"Well, your grades are already suffering as a result. Can you sort it out..? You know I'm always available to talk.."

"I'm fine," Charlie repeated bluntly.

Jo just nodded, giving up slightly, "Okay.. but if these marks don't pick up, we're gonna have a problem.."

"I know miss, sorry.."

"Alright, go off to break then."

…

Andrew finally arrived back home. The giant traffic jam out on the main road really hadn't helped his bad mood, today had been his first day with the added Advanced Skills Teacher post.

"Charlie?" he called up the stairs, dropping his bag by the stairs and pulling his blazer off before draping it over the banister.

"Yes?" his son asked meekly, suddenly appearing at the top of the stairs.

"You okay?"

He just nodded once.

"Good day at school?"

Again, just a nod.

"How's Hollie?"

"She's fine."

"Why don't you invite her round sometime?"

"Could do I suppose.."

Andrew sighed, trying his very best to keep this conversation going, although it was becoming more and more of an impossible task, "What you been up to then?"

"Just homework.. coursework."

"Got much to do?"

"Not really."

"Okay," Andrew said, giving up, "I'll shout up when dinners ready.."

….

Half an hour until the meeting, 15 books left to mark]

Andrew rubbed his forehead, turning over another page of the battered exercise book, skimming through the words and lifting his red pen up to tick a few sentences. Once he was done he pushed it across to the other side of his desk before checking his watch and picking up the next.

27 minutes left, 14 books left to mark…

There just weren't enough hours in the day at the moment for Andrew. Everyday he had several meetings now, some of which were at other schools, on top of his usual classes, extra paper work, dealing with discipline issues, a tonne of coursework coming up to mark, and he was still trying to fit in some time with Charlie. Not that the latter was going incredibly well.. Arriving home late in a foul mood was never the best position to be in, especially as things were already bad enough.

Andrew shook his head, turning his thoughts back to his year 9's books. He needed to get this done before the meeting.. afterwards he had a class, then cooler duty, where he was hoping to get some paper work out of the way..

He groaned, there was no way he'd be able to get all this work done today, but he knew tomorrow it would be the same thing all over again.

Suddenly he felt the faint buzz of his phone in his pocket, raising his eyebrows he pulled it out and was rather surprised to see a message from Charlie.

Any chance you can pick me up from school? Wanna get home quickly as poss.

Concerned, Andrew quickly replied, ignoring that fact that Charlie shouldn't have been using his phone.

Why? What's wrong?

He put his phone down to one side, running a hand through his hair. This was his perfect chance to make a breakthrough with Charlie.. but he had that stupid meeting. He grabbed his phone as soon as it went off, rushing to see the reply.

I'm fine. Just wanna get home.

Andrew paused before replying, I'll see what I can do.

Giving up, he closed the book shut and pushed it away, instead focusing all of his attention onto how he could get out of this meeting.

He heard a sharp knock at the door, but swiftly decided to ignore it hoping it would go away. Then there was a second knock, which he again ignored. It wasn't until the third knock that Andrew twisted round, "What?"

The door was already half way open as Kim stepped into the room, but as Andrew spoke she stopped, "Oh.. I'll leave you then."

"No, wait.. Kim," Andrew stood up, following her out into the corridor.

She twisted round, "No, I can see you're busy… didn't really need anything anyway."

He caught up, resting his hand on her arm to stop her, "It's just a bit of a busy day.. I'm sorry I snapped."

Finally she stopped, crossing her arms and turning to look at him, "Okay. How is it? The extra advanced skills work..?"

"Well, it's a lot," he commented, "But I can manage.."

"Well it certainly looks like it.."

"I'm fine. Work though a couple of lunches, bit longer after school and it's all done."

"You can have a break y'know Andrew.. I'm sure someone else would be happy to cover for you once in a while. And Jack's not gonna kill you if you miss a meeting.."

"You really think so?"

Kim nodded, "Not like he's never missed a meeting, is it?"

Andrew smiled, "I suppose not. I do have a bit of a problem tonight actually.."

"Oh, so you want to miss tonight's?"

"If possible.. yes."

Kim paused, "Leave it with me, I'll sort it."

Now Andrew smiled widely, "Thanks Kim, that's a relief.."

"Anytime. Is there a problem or something then?"

"Charlie wants me to pick him up straight after school… not entirely sure why."

"Oh.. well, I'm sure everything's fine."

"I hope so."

…

Charlie stood waiting outside the school, his hands firmly pushed into his pockets. He shuffled his feet, watching as Hollie walked away and occasionally glanced back to give him an odd look. He sighed, wishing his Dad would hurry up, he promised he'd be here as soon as the bell went… he was already fifteen minutes late.

"Still here Treneman?"

He rolled his eyes at the sound of the deputy's voice before turning round, "Yes, sir. Just waiting for my Dad.."

Mr Webb nodded, taking a step closer to Charlie, "Settling back in then?"

"Fine, thank you."

"Nice to see you've been keeping out of trouble too."

Charlie sighed, "Just turned over a new leaf, sir."

"Good," the teacher commented, before pointing to a car entering the school, "Here he is. See you in class tomorrow Charlie."

"Bye sir," he smiled, after 3 years the deputy had finally used his first name.

When he turned back round the car had pulled up right in front of him, and Andrew had stepped out of the car, "What's happened?" he asked quickly.

"Nothing.." Charlie lied, stepping towards the car and opening the door, "Just not feeling very well.."

"Are you ill?"

"Nothing serious…"

"Why didn't you go to the nurse, come home sooner?"

"It's fine Dad.. can we just go home now?" Charlie exclaimed, climbing into the car and slamming shut the door.

….

As soon as Andrew had unlocked the door, Charlie had barged through it and was suddenly storming up the stairs.

"Charlie…" Andrew sighed, shutting the door and walking after him, "Talk to me…"

"I don't want to talk!" Charlie exclaimed, slamming his door shut.

Andrew leant against the wall, speaking through into his son's room, "Please..? Never know I might be able to help."

"No you won't."

"You don't know that.."

"You just won't Dad."

"I don't even get a chance?"

There was a long silence, where the only sound was the slight rustling of Charlie's bed sheets. Andrew had nearly given up, already starting to turn away, when the door clicked open, leaving just a tiny gap. Taking this as a yes, Andrew pushed it open, stepping inside, "Charlie?"

The boy looked up from his bed, nodding just once. Exhaling slowly, Andrew sat down on the bed next to him, his eyes flickering between Charlie and the window, as an awkward silence fell between them.

"Has something happened?" Andrew said suddenly, even shocked at himself for speaking.

"Not really…" Charlie replied, leaning back until his back hit the wall.

"Someone said anything?"

Here Charlie remained silent, instead just combing his hair with his fingers, pushing a few strands out of his eyes.

Andrew shuffled back so he too was leaning back against the wall, "Talk to me son… please?"

"Settling back into Kingsmere just wasn't as easy as I'd expected..." Charlie admitted, pushing himself up to sit up straighter.

"But you've still got Hollie and Chris… and all your other friends."

"So I thought.." the boy muttered, just loud enough for his father to hear.

"Why? What have they said?"

"Just that I've changed.. That I'm no fun anymore."

"Well you seem no different to me."

Charlie shrugged, "They think I'm a square…"

"A square?"

"A boffin... keener?"

"You've still lost me."

Charlie groaned, "Basically just because I'm behaving myself Dad! I've already lost half the friends I used to have…"

"I'm sure that's not true."

"It is. When I first came back they were all 'Wow, you're back!' and were talking to me all the time.. but then I kept saying no to them, and now they don't even talk to me."

"Saying no to them about what?"

"Skiving from lessons… picking on the younger kids, going out with them on Friday nights."

"Well I understand that… but why can't you go out with them?"

"Because they've all started drinking Dad... god knows what else!"

"Oh," was all Andrew could manage, "I didn't think they were that type of bunch..

"Well neither did I," Charlie replied, sighing.

Andrew paused again for a minute. Partly he was glad that Charlie had had the common sense to say no to these kids, especially if they were drinking… Although of course he hated seeing his son like this…

"Why the sudden change anyway?"

Charlie looked across to meet his eye, "You know why… Last week."

"Oh," Andrew looked away, fiddling nervously with the sleeve on his shirt, "I.. I never…"

"I know," Charlie interrupted, "But still.. I…"

Andrew nodded, "Hang on... wait here."

Charlie looked up confused, watching as Andrew rushed out of the room and down the landing. He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them, waiting for Andrew to return.

A few minutes later he came bustling back in, carrying a load of shoe boxes in a pile and placing them on the bed.

"What you got?" Charlie asked.

"Pictures," Andrew replied simply, opening one of the boxes and picking up a few loose photos.

Charlie smiled slightly, reaching over and picking one up, "Oh my god, look at you!"

Andrew moved round to look over his son's shoulder and laughed, "And what's wrong with that?"

"Everything! I mean, look at your hair!"

"That was the style back then…"

"What, like your weird metal armband things are the style now?"

"Shush you," Andrew said, still laughing, rummaging through some of the other pictures.

"Why'd you get these out anyway?" Charlie asked, looking down at them all.

"Well, I've never really talked to you about when I was your age, have I?"

"No," Charlie admitted, "Why is that anyway?"

"Just never really wanted to talk about it…"

"How come?" Charlie asked carefully, looking up at his father cautiously.

"Didn't really get on with my parents.." Andrew muttered, flicking through some pictures.

"Is that why we never really see Granddad and Grandma?"

"Yes… never really trusted them."

"Trusted them?" Charlie asked confused.

Andrew sighed, "Let's just say they weren't the most loving of people."

Charlie looked back down, not wanting to push the subject any further, but still Andrew continued, "Swore to myself you'd never feel like that… promised your mother I'd never hurt you. Can't believe I…" his voice faltered towards his end until it trailed to a halt as he shook his head.

"It's fine…" Charlie said, his eyes coming back up again, "Really."

"I'll never forgive myself…" Andrew carried on, oblivious to the fact that his son had spoken, "If Julia was here…"

"Dad," Charlie cut in, slightly louder to grab his attention, "I get it… it's fine, really. I shouldn't have done it… even with Lewis there..."

Andrew just nodded once.

Charlie looked back down at all the different photos, "Why do we still go see them then? Grandma and Granddad?"

"They wouldn't let me cut you out of their lives… Said it was unfair on you and them."

"They never really seemed to like me though…"

Andrew gave one small chuckle, "They don't really like anyone son."

"That's not true… They must've loved you really."

"Well, if they did they had a funny way of showing it."

Charlie just accepted this, changing the subject slightly, "I haven't seen them for ages…"

"No. And you've just reminded me… they're coming down next week."

"Oh…" Charlie said, the disappointment in his voice obvious.

"Just for the day, they're stopping off on their way down to London, Father's got a reunion or something…"

"I suppose I can live with that," Charlie replied reluctantly.

Andrew smiled, "Trust me, if I could get you out of it I would."

"Yeah, I know. Wonder if he's realised my name's Charlie yet?"

"Well in his defence, your real name [i]is[/i] Charles."

"So? I hate being called that!"

"You'll survive… Charles," Andrew teased.

"Shut up!" Charlie groaned, laughing jokily.

"It'll be fine, just a couple of hours!"

"Yeah," Charlie smiled, pausing before suddenly shuffling across and hugging Andrew. He was slightly taken aback, but almost immediately he smiled widely, as he wrapped his arms around his son, "I love you."