The next day, Taylor almost skipped down the staircase and into the kitchen, a broad smile stretched across her face.

'What are smiling about?' Yawned Josh who clearly hadn't yet adjusted to the day. Taylor beamed at him. He had no idea of the effort she was putting into this smile. Taylor was determined not to feel sorry for herself anymore. From now on she was going to be a hard-working, positive being.

In fact, she was going to work harder on her homework, do better in class, and, most importantly, not bugger things up again with anyone. There were to be no more disasters like the one with Barry and Kevin. Taylor had put all of that behind her.

'It's just a nice day,' sighed Taylor, looking out of the window at the pale sky, 'and I did the majority of my homework last night.'

'Well done,' muttered Josh, not really taking in what Taylor was saying. In fact, he still seemed half asleep as he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

Nicki too was slightly startled at Taylor's sudden bouncy attitude. Nevertheless she was happy for her daughter. Nicki knew that Taylor had been through a lot recently and was glad that her daughter was finally smiling.

This 'happy' thing was going to take some getting used to, thought Taylor, but with practice she could actually become a positive person. All she needed now was for today to go smoothly.

Also, Taylor was going to try and not snap at anyone like she had done to Harold. he was actually quite charming now she came to think about it. And he was a lot more sensitive than some guys at Waterloo road.

Perhaps, if she had the time, she could go out somewhere with Harold. Just for an hour or so though. She didn't want it to be like an actual date as she'd never had luck in the whole 'romantic' area. In addition, she probably wouldn't be able to fulfill the commitment of being in a relationship anyway. The thing was that Taylor didn't want to disappoint anyone or let anyone down. She probably wouldn't be able to take the shame.

Taylor left for school slightly earlier today so that she was sure to be on time. perhaps she'd be able to do some of her leftover homework if she had time to kill.

To her surprise, the sky was free of clouds for the first time that year and rays of golden light were casting bright beams through the windows of the classes. For once, the day seemed to be going okay for Taylor. It was good not having to listen to the rain pounding on the roof of the building. The nice weather made it easier for Taylor to relax.

'Have you done your History homework?' Queried Dynasty.

'Yup,' replied Taylor proudly, 'it took ten pieces of paper to write it all out but I did it.' At this, Dynasty uttered a small gasp and demanded to see Taylor's work for herself. After checking that Taylor's work was indeed ten pages long, she stared at Taylor and asked, 'how on earth did you manage to write this out on ten pages?'

'I rambled on a bit. Half of it probably doesn't make sense but still, it's better than my last essay.'

'Can't argue with that,' murmured Dynasty, her eyes scanning over some of the homework pages.

Taylor was glad that her friend was impressed with her work. Her teacher, however, seemed shocked at how much Taylor had done, 'was all this really necessary?' he quizzed loudly so that everyone in the classroom could hear.

Taylor tried not to be affected by her teacher's words as she answered simply, 'I don't know. That's for you to decide.'

'Well anything's better than that other essay you did,' they sniggered. The class stared at the two of them. Taylor, still trying not to portray any of her anger, looked down at the floor as the teacher began to collect the rest of the papers.

'Unbelievable,' muttered Dynasty, scowling at the teacher's back.

Taylor nodded. She wasn't going to let a teacher spoil her mood.


In the corridors on the way to her second lesson, Taylor gulped slightly as she spotted Barry lurking near the end of it. Taylor was not going to hide her head anymore. Instead, she stood up straight and walked with her head held high.

As barry noticed her, he quickly avoided her gaze and looked at the floor.

Taylor smirked as she passed him.

Barry scowled at her. Instead of being offended by this, Taylor grinned and chuckled, 'well that's a pretty face.'

It was evident that Barry had not been expecting a response from Taylor. His nostrils flared at her response. He watched her go before stalking off to his lesson.

Thankfully, Taylor had Tom for her next lesson. He never gave her a hard time and was, by far, the best teacher she had. He seemed to actually understand the pressure that was put upon these students and was willing to he;p them with any problems they had.

A teacher that was likeable, in Taylor's opinion, was a lot easier to understand.

That was probably why she found Tom's lessons much more enjoyable than any of the others.

During that lesson, Kevin, who was sitting with Connor on the desk in front of Taylor and Dynasty, turned around and showed them a joke on his phone.

Dynasty sniggered as she saw it but Taylor was too busy doing the work that had been set for her.

'Just read it Taylor!' Urged Dynasty, 'it'll only take a second.'

Sighing, taylor looked up from her work and read the phone under the table. She chuckled softly before returning to her work.

'You're really putting a lot of effort into this aren't you?' Said Dynasty.

'Just want to make up for everything...' muttered Taylor.

Dynasty nodded however she didn't pursue the subject.

Taylor found that she was running into Barry quite a lot today. She wondered if he was following her on purpose... but no... he had no reason to.

Then she brought herself back to earth with a quick shake of her head. Why was she thinking about this? She had to take her mind off Barry. It turned out that this wasn't that hard to do as Harold approached her after school, smiling nervously, 'your teacher told me to tell you that you got an A* in your essay. In fact he showed it in front of our class as an example for which we should aspire to.'

'Seriously?' Gasped Taylor joyfully.

'Yeah congratulations.'

'Thanks,' Taylor grinned. They stood there in silence for a second before Taylor murmured, 'well... bye.'

'Bye,' replied Harold as Taylor walked out of the gates.


As soon as Taylor got home, he quickly sat on the sofa and started to do her homework so that she then had a couple of hours free to watch TV and relax at the end of the day.

Upstairs, Nicki was examining her slight baby-bump in the mirror. Well, it was definitely growing bigger. She was almost three months pregnant now. She ran her hand across her belly, smiling happily to herself.

Tom joined her in the room and walked up behind her. Slowly, he put his arms gently around her and placed one of his hands on hers which was still feeling the baby.

'Still can't wait,' muttered Tom, grinning. Nicki leaned slightly back against him, resting her head back on the front of his shoulders.

Inhaling deeply, a weak smile spread across Nicki's face and she kissed him softly.

For a few moments, they rested in each other's arms, all worries vanishing from their minds.

'Love you,' murmured Tom before pressing his lips gently on Nicki's forehead.

'Love you too,' replied Nicki.

No man had actually ever told Nicki that he loved her. Well, perhaps John... the one who had raped her. But he had been drunk. He had said it while pulling Nicki's hair and pinning her helpless body violently to the stone cold floor.

Tom though, was gentle, funny, kind- in short everything that John had never been.