A/N: Warning for mentions of underage prostitution.
Jody anxiously paced the attic, painfully aware of the eight set of eyes trained on her, following her every move. How could this have happened? There had been no one around Tyler's room when she'd gone in there to update him on her mission or when the both of them had left the room to go and eat dinner. Moreover, the door had been shut and it wasn't like she'd been shouting, and even if someone had been listening from outside the door, she and Tyler would've heard footfalls in the corridor. They hadn't heard anything...
After a few minutes, the attic door opened and in walked Tyler, holding up a suspiciously familiar purple and black microphone. "What do you lot think you're playing at?!" he exclaimed, addressing the eight culprits standing/sitting around the attic. "Planting this in my room and then trying to get rid of it before I find out?!"
"Ugh, Taz!" Floss hissed as the youngest female resident dejectedly entered the attic behind Tyler.
"It's not my fault I didn't have a lookout!" she grumpily defended herself, sitting down on the floor next to Archie.
Recognising the microphone as their very own (used for karaoke) and locating its matching speaker on one of the attic shelves, Jody finally realised why it'd been so quiet when she'd gone upstairs to change before dinner.
"You were listening in on our private conversation?!" she asked, horrified. Her skin crawled at the thought of everyone hearing how she and Tyler talked to each other when it was just the two of them. No one had the right to hear that. No one. "Why?!"
Ryan, Floss, Finn, Alex, Taz, Archie, Jay and Bird all turned to Candi-Rose who sighed before peering up at Jody and Tyler.
"I wanted to see if you two mentioned your baby," she admitted, biting her lip. "I asked May-Li if you were the one who took the test but she wouldn't tell me..."
"She wouldn't tell me either but I didn't go around bugging other people's rooms!" Jody shouted, making Taz and Archie jump. "Ella's the one who took the test! Not that I need to tell you; all of you already know now."
"Is it true then?" Floss questioned. "Ella's a prostitute?"
"Butt out, Floss!" Jody yelled, feeling uncomfortable at prostitutes being mentioned around the younger kids. "You're too young to know about that stuff!"
Floss narrowed her eyes at Jody. "I'm only three years younger than you!"
"Four!" Jody corrected. "You weren't old enough to be interrogated about the test so you're definitely not old enough to discuss this!" She frowned, her eyes honing in on Candi-Rose again. "Do you have pink fluff for brains or what?! How could you let little kids hear all that?!'
"Hey, I'm not little!" Taz piped up.
"Neither am I!" Archie added.
Jody ignored the pair.
"What are your excuses, then?" Tyler interrogated, looking right at Alex, Ryan and Bird. "Come on, let's hear them!"
"I was bored."
"Candi-Rose needed my expert help."
"Jay talked me into it."
Tyler scoffed, sharing an irritated look with Jody who was positively fuming. Unbelievable. Not one of the nine culprits had thought to apologise and none of them appeared to be even the slightest bit remorseful for their sneaky actions. It was bad enough that they all teased her about sleeping with Tyler but now they were actively infringing upon their privacy. Today, it'd been eavesdropping. What would it be tomorrow? Around the clock spy cams?
"I think Mike and May-Li need to hear about this," Jody declared, turning to Tyler and tipping her head towards the door.
"I wonder how Mike and May-Li will feel about you spying on Ella?" Ryan wondered aloud, sounding mock intrigued. Jody stopped in her tracks, turning to face the skinny idiot.
"Yeah. And about you getting involved?" Jay added, nodding at Tyler.
Jody blinked, glancing at Tyler. That wasn't fair. This was the one time he actually hadn't done anything to help her with one of her schemes. "Come on, he didn't have anything to do with it."
"He seemed to at least know about your plan," Alex pointed out with a smirk before looking at Tyler. "After the lecture Mike gave us lads today, I bet he'd love to hear about how Jody barged into your room just after you got out of the shower."
"I was fully dressed!" Tyler retorted as Jody furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, wondering what on earth the two were on about.
"How could she have known that, though?" Ryan inquired. "She didn't even knock."
Jody closed her eyes in defeat. The guys had them well and truly cornered and it was all her fault. She knew better than to burst into Tyler's room, especially without knocking, but it was a bad habit she had trouble kicking off and one she would have to pay the price for.
"Fine!" she growled through gritted teeth, her eyes snapping open. "We won't tell about your creepy spying."
Ryan smirked. "And we won't tell about yours."
.:. QK .:.
The following morning, Jody picked at her breakfast, struggling to maintain a straight face as some of her housemates whispered amongst themselves, their eyes flitting towards Ella every once in a while. For once, she wasn't the subject of gossip but she couldn't bring herself to relish in it when she saw how uncomfortable the seventeen-year-old looked. She sighed. She should've just sat at the breakfast bar with Tyler to avoid witnessing this disgrace.
"Hey, Candi-Rose, do you want to go shopping this weekend?" Chloe asked in an unnecessarily loud voice—Candi-Rose was sitting right next to her—from one end of the table. Knowing her, she was probably trying to take the heat off of Ella. "I need new boots and you know how hopeless I am at finding bargains."
"I can't!" Candi-Rose moaned. "I haven't got any money left after I bought that new make-up set!"
"Oh, it's okay, Candi-Rose," Ryan spoke up from the other end of the table. "Why don't you, uhh, ask around for a loan? I hear that some people sitting round this table are loaded."
Jay and Floss sniggered from either side of Ryan, and Jody's eyes immediately darted towards Ella who was staring intently at her bowl of cereal, clearly understanding who Ryan was referring to. As Ella swallowed deeply, Jody glared at Ryan, wondering why he always went out of his way to make other people feel miserable.
"Hey, Ella, you're the oldest here," Jay started, grinning like he'd won the lottery. "I was wondering who—I mean what student job pays the best. Any suggestions?"
"Depends on what kind of hours you're looking for," Ella spoke up, surprising Jody with her decision to respond. Her eyes widened as she got a good look at the older girl and saw that she looked as exhausted as she had the day she'd first moved in. The bags under her eyes were particularly jarring.
Jay shared a conspiratory smirk with Floss. "Oh, I prefer minutes to hours. You know, quickie—very quick shifts."
Alex coughed just then, spluttering some sort of fizzy drink all over his own breakfast. Bird, who was sitting next to him, shook his head at his brother in what seemed to be disapproval.
"Alex!" Charlie chided, getting up from her seat at the breakfast bar and passing said boy the kitchen roll.
Jody abruptly rose to her feet, unable to listen to the stupid breakfast conversation for a second longer. She forced the last of her piece of toast down her throat before going to the sink and turning the tap on. Dunking her plate under the water and scrubbing ferociously (at nothing), she sighed in relief as the sound of the rushing water blocked out the boys' annoying voices.
"I can't believe them," she muttered as Tyler came to stand next to her with an empty cereal bowl in tow. "They're being so horrible."
"Why do you care?" he questioned, rapping his fingers on the counter. "You got what you wanted; they're not whispering about you anymore, at least for now."
"I didn't want this to happen!" she hissed, looking around to check if anyone was within earshot. Charlie was still fussing over Alex and everyone else was at the table. "I just wanted her to admit that she took that test! You know that!"
"I really don't want to say I told you so... but I did," he stated, putting his bowl in the sink as she moved away from it. "I told you that your mission would get you into trouble and look what happened!"
Placing her plate on the drying rack, she looked up at him in indignance. "Excuse me! You seemed pretty eager to find out how my mission went yesterday!" He sighed. "And we both know that it had to be done. I mean, the others invaded your privacy yesterday because they thought that I took that test!"
"Look, I thought about this long and hard last night. I admit that the others went too far with the mike but I can't really stand here and be all pissed off when I stood by and let you invade someone else's privacy."
Her mouth fell open. Taking pictures of someone in a public park and planting a microphone in someone's bedroom were hardly the same thing. "That's totally different!"
"Is it?" he asked pointedly, turning the tap off. She stepped back to allow him access to the drying rack, chancing a glance at the table to see that Ella's eyes were red. She felt a pang of guilt. Was Tyler right? Was she as bad as the others?
Returning her gaze to her best friend, she found that he was watching her attentively, looking like he wanted to say something.
"What?" she almost snapped, leaning back against the counter behind her. "You're on a roll. Please, don't feel like you have to hold back(!)"
"They might be distracted right now but they're always going to tease us as long as we hang out together," he said quietly.
She stood to attention, recalling the drama that'd gone down between them during the fake girlfriend incident. Was he going to suggest that they stop hanging out again? She hated it when they weren't talking. "We said we wouldn't let that get in between us again."
"Yeah, I know, but we wouldn't have to if one of us wasn't single," he responded, an almost sad expression flashing across his face. "Maybe you should start dating." She stared at him, thoroughly surprised. "I'm gonna go and get my bag. I'll wait outside for you."
She watched him go, feeling confused. Why was he bringing this up now, especially after they'd been doing so well? If the rumours were bothering him so much, why didn't he go and get a girlfriend? Why was she the one who had to 'start dating'? She didn't want to bloody date anyone.
.:. QK .:.
"Pulled your hamstring?" Jody implored sympathetically, frowning deeply as she watched Tyler limp next to her on their way back home after a mundane day at school. "What happened?"
"Some idiot attacked me in P.E.," he answered with a scowl. "It was brutal."
She patted him on the arm, walking extra slowly so that he could keep up with her. "Isn't that the point of rugby? Or at least the fun part?"
"Tackling is a part of rugby," he corrected. "This was a full-blown attack!"
"Wish we did rugby," she mused, wrinkling her nose. She would love to 'attack' some of the gossipy girls in her P.E. class. "Netball is so boring. It's just standing around, waiting for someone to chuck the ball at you!"
"You've already got boxing," he pointed out. "You can punch people without getting done for it. That's pretty cool."
"Yeah," she agreed, smiling at a fond memory of punching her Ryan and Kingsley (both) substitutes. Thinking of Ryan... "Hey, if you're like this after rugby, how is Ryan still walking?"
"Sick note," came Ryan's voice, and Jody turned around to see said boy and Alex walking behind her.
Tyler let out a noise of disbelief. "You're not sick! I—"
"At least not physically," Jody quipped, unable to help herself. Alex snorted and Ryan glared at her.
"—can't believe you get away with it every single week!"
"Some people have it, some people don't," Ryan replied casually with a shrug of the shoulders.
Seeing Alex and Ryan side by side reminded Jody of their antics that morning and now that she had the both of them relatively alone together, she decided to confront them about Ella. They, along with Jay and Floss, had been unnecessarily cruel to Ella all throughout breakfast and that wasn't something she could continue to watch and do nothing about.
"You two need to lay off of Ella," she spoke up, exchanging a look with Tyler who nodded in agreement.
"Why should we?" Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow. "People like her don't belong at Ashdene Ridge."
"And you do?" Jody countered, remembering half the evil things Ryan had done during his time at the DG. The other half would come back to her, soon.
"Yeah," he answered as if it was obvious. She rolled her eyes, looking to Alex instead.
"Alex, you were on the streets," she began, trying to appeal to his inner conscience. He, at least, had one of those. "You of all people should understand her."
"But that's exactly it," he responded, digging his hands in his pockets. "I'd get it if a homeless girl sold herself but Ella is not on the streets. She gets pocket money every week just like the rest of us do. She's just greedy!"
"Agreed. I mean, how many of our girls run out of money every week?" Ryan questioned. "Candi's out of money right now, I don't see her going out and selling herself."
"Candi-Rose is barely thirteen," Tyler reminded him.
"It's illegal for anyone under eighteen, Ella included," Alex said. "Let's be honest, Jodes, you wouldn't do it either, would you?"
"No, I have self-respect, thanks!" she exclaimed, shuddering at the thought. "But maybe she doesn't. We're not all the same."
"She takes all of my money anyway," Tyler piped up, and Jody shot him a withering look.
"Yeah, well, Charlie hasn't got a boyfriend to nick from—"
"Borrow, not nick!" Jody interjected, elbowing Tyler but then feeling bad when she recalled his injury.
"-When she wanted to get her granddad yoga lessons, she tried to make the money honestly. She didn't go out and do what Ella does," Alex finished, sounding impassioned. Jody recalled Ella's comment about him and Charlie and wondered if it was true.
"It's not even like she needs money to put food on the table," Ryan added. "That's all paid for by the government."
"He's got a point," Tyler stated, stumbling when he stepped on a rock.
"Woah, watch it!" Jody warned, helping him regain his footing and making him sit down on the wall in front of someone's driveway. Sitting down next to him, she looked up at Alex and Ryan. "You guys go ahead."
They nodded, muttering something about seeing them at home before walking off down the road.
"I'm fine," Tyler protested, trying to get up but stopping when she gave him a stern look. "Alright, I'll give it five minutes..."
Looping an arm through his, she sighed deeply. He'd been right about the others; they still thought that the pair of them were a couple, even though they were now aware that Ella had taken the test. That was never going to change, it seemed, which meant that she'd stalked and (unwittingly) exposed Ella for no good reason. Now Ella was going to suffer at the hands of the others and it was all down to Jody.
"I feel like one half of one of those old couples you see sitting on benches together all around town," he spoke up, making her smile. She couldn't imagine being old but, somehow, she could picture him being in her life until the day one of them died. She hoped she'd be the first to go; she couldn't deal with another loved one leaving her behind.
Her smile quickly vanished as she thought of Ella. She had Tyler, Mike had Fiona, May-Li had Alice, and the DG lot had each other but who did Ella have?
No one.
And Jody had just made her life a whole lot harder.
A/N: Thanks to CharlieSMarts12 and yourfire for the reviews! A special thanks to the latter for taking the time to answer my question. I also see Jody as a loyal friend and I'm glad some of that came through in the previous chapter.