Hollie didn't return to school that afternoon, missing both her Geography and History lessons. Mrs McFall was concerned after seeing her earlier that day looking fit and healthy outside the staff room and, remembering what the teenager had said, went in search of Miss Boston to see if she could shed any light on the matter. Her classroom was empty and the lights were off, but the laptop on her desk was still running.

Curiously, the History teacher moved behind the desk, glancing at the screen. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she read the title of the page that was open. Closing the lid and wondering why her colleague was looking into abandonment issues, Mrs McFall left the room, closing the door behind her and making her way through the corridors past the crowds of teenagers heading home.

"Ah, Tom." She said, spotting the man walking out of his classroom with his son. "You haven't seen Nikki around, have you?"

"Not since lunchtime, why?"

"Hollie Evans didn't turn up to my lesson this afternoon and, according to Mr Green, she didn't go to his either. It's most unlike her to skip lessons." She explained with a small smile and a shrug. "I saw her at break time waiting for Nikki outside the staffroom."

"Really?" Tom furrowed his eyebrows. "Why? I didn't think they got on."

"Apparently she was going to help Hollie with an essay. But if you haven't seen her, I won't keep you."

As she walked away to continue her search, Tom gazed after her, wondering what was going on. Josh nudged his arm and he started walking along the corridor, almost on autopilot. As they put their things into the back of the car, Tom noticed that Nikki's car wasn't in its usual spot. Glancing around, he realised that it wasn't there at all.

"What's going on?" Josh asked suddenly, making his father jump and whip round to face him, almost guiltily.

"What?"

"Is something up with Nikki?"

Tom shrugged and reached over to plug his seat belt in. "Not that I know of."

On the drive home, his mind was turning over the possible causes for Nikki's disappearing act, not to mention Hollie's truancy. He wondered briefly if they were together, but after his short conversation with Nikki at lunchtime, he ruled this theory out. Perhaps Nikki had found out that her daughter hadn't returned to school and gone looking for her. But somehow that didn't seem to be the right answer either.

"Dad?"

"Sorry, mate." Tom apologised, locking the car and hurriedly following Josh to the front door, both of them doing their best to shield themselves from the heavy rain. He unlocked it and stood aside for the teenager to go in. "Bit distracted, that's all."

"Nikki?"

"Mmm…" He murmured. Then he shook his head. "No. Hollie Evans in the year below you; what do you know about her?"

Josh looked thoughtful for a moment. "She's nice… quiet though. I don't really know her that well."

"You haven't heard that she's having problems… being bullied or anything?"

"Nah… everyone likes her." Josh shrugged and then he grinned. "Except Nikki, apparently."

"Eh?"

The teenager shrugged as he started heading upstairs. "Imogen was saying the other day that Hollie gets much lower marks from Nikki than she does from Mrs Mulgrew."

Tom thought about what Josh had said as his son disappeared into his bedroom. He pulled out his mobile and called Nikki's number, wondering where she could have got to. The call went straight to answerphone, which worried him slightly. In an attempt to distract himself Tom moved into the kitchen and dumped a pile of year 10 essays on the table.

x-x

"Miss Boston?" A tall, well-dressed woman appeared through a doorway and looked around the waiting room.

Nikki gathered up her things and smiled, walking purposefully towards the woman and following her through the door. She took the seat the woman motioned for her to sit in in front of the desk and glanced around nervously. The office was incredibly neat, not a single object out of place. It was in Nikki's nature, not to mention her military background, to be tidy but this was something else. Not a single object was out of place, although the designer had obviously gone for rather a minimalist approach anyway.

"So, what is it we're here to talk about?" The woman asked, looking up from her notebook.

"My daughter." Nikki replied quickly. "I think she's got abandonment issues and I need to know how I can help her."

"Why would you think that?"

Furrowing her eyebrows, she shook her head. "Can't you just tell me how I can help Hollie?"

"Before you can help your daughter, you need to start understanding your role in her problems." The psychiatrist told her. "How do you feel knowing that your daughter feels abandoned?"

Suddenly irritated, Nikki stood up. "I don't think this was such a good idea."

Before the woman behind the desk could stop her, Nikki had left the office and made her way quickly through the building. Outside, she took a deep breath, only pausing for a moment before getting into her car. She had made an emergency appointment in order to ask how she could help reassure Hollie that she wasn't going to let her down again. Nikki hadn't been prepared to be asked about her own feelings.

Turning her mobile on, she realised she had a missed call from Tom. Clicking re-dial, she held the phone to her ear and waited for him to answer.

"Nikki?"

"Hi, Tom. What's up?"

"Nothing?" He sounded confused at her question.

"Oh… you rang me, so…"

"I was wondering if you were alright." He explained. "Audrey McFall asked if I knew where you were after school and I realised you'd already left. Apparently Hollie didn't turn up to her History lesson this afternoon and skipped her double Geography lesson after break."

"What?" Nikki furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you sure? She told me she had a double free."

"She's not with you, then?"

"No…"

"Right, come over to mine and we'll go up the School House and make sure she's back there." Tom suggested.

Nikki couldn't quite process what he was saying for a moment. "How would we explain that away? What reason would we possibly have for going there?"

"Josh could need to borrow something from Tariq… or I could need to ask Grantly's advice on one of my essays. It's a new one, but it might work."

With a sigh, Nikki agreed and hung up, turning her car in the direction of Tom's house. She knew the drive well and was soon pulling up in a parking space outside. Aiming the fob over her shoulder, she locked her car as she hurried up the path. No sooner had the woman rung the bell than Tom was opening the door with his jacket clasped in his hand.

"Alright?" He asked and she nodded, following him to his car and getting into the passenger side.

Neither of them spoke until Tom turned his car into the driveway of the School House and came to a halt beside the front door. Getting out, they both tried to act as casually as they could. Nikki moved towards the door, reaching it slightly before her colleague because her strides were longer. They waited impatiently for someone to answer, sheltering from the rain as best they could.

"Alright, I'm going!" An irritated voice shouted on the other side of the glass, before the door opened and Scout stood in the hallway. She looked surprised to see the two drenched English teachers on the doorstep. "Alright, Miss, Sir?"

"Hi, Scout." Nikki said with a warm smile. "Is Mr Budgen around?"

"Yeah… come in." She stood aside as the teachers walked past her along the hallway.

As Nikki and Tom went into the dining room at the end of the corridor, shaking their coats free of excess raindrops, they heard Scout muttering to Phoenix that living with Budgen was weird enough but having other teachers dropping in was just plain freaky. Neither of them could hide the smirks that forced themselves onto their faces at the girl's words.

"And to what do we owe this pleasure?" Grantly asked in his usual sarcastic tones as they headed towards his table.

"I wanted to ask your opinion on this essay." Tom told him quickly, shrugging off his jacket and sitting beside him at the table and putting the sheets of paper on the surface.

As they started discussing the literary effort, Nikki leant against the counter that ran along one wall of the room and smiled at Maggie. "Audrey McFall mentioned that Hollie Evans didn't turn up to any of her lessons after break or lunch. Is something wrong?"

"That doesn't sound like our Hols…" The House Mistress murmured, looking concerned. "She's upstairs in her room, I think. Maybe I should have a word with her."

"I'll go… if that's alright?" Nikki said, realising she should probably check the woman didn't mind. "I need to ask her about the last essay she handed in anyway. I might as well do both at the same time."

Maggie shrugged. "Go ahead. Second floor, third door on the right; you won't be able to miss it."