"You're coming by later, aren't you?" Tyler asked, his voice barely audible over the general hubbub of the radio station. "Mum's working so it's just going to be me, you and Kamal. You know what that means!"

"Free burgers?" Jody quipped, her gaze sweeping around the busy cafe.

He chuckled. "No! Well, yeah, but it also means we get to mess around!"

She raised an eyebrow, wondering if he understood the implications behind what he'd just said; messing around just didn't mean what it used to anymore. When they were kids, it had meant doing whatever would piss Mike and May-Li (or Gina, in the earlier days) off, namely slacking off homework and stealing junk food from the cupboards, but now... now it meant what she'd heard in the gymnasium toilets a few days ago, or at least something leading up to it.

Sighing, she sat down at an empty table. "I don't know... I don't think we'll have the time; I've still got to study some more. I'm falling behind in maths again."

"You need a break, Jodes. You study literally all day every single Saturday. What are you doing right now?"

"I'm on a break, actually," she answered, rapping her knuckles on the table. "I'm out meeting someone."

"Should I be worried?"

She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, suppressing a giggle. "No, 'course not! I'm m—"

"Hey, Tyler!" came a voice that tugged at Jody's memory. "Mum's asking for you. Come on!"

The giggles instantly died in her chest, and she dropped her hand. What was Piper doing at the radio station? She didn't work there; according to Tyler himself, her presence at the station the day he'd interviewed Lethal G had been a one-off.

"Oh, Jody, I've got to go!" he said, his tone urgent. "I'll talk to you later!"

He hung up before she could reply, and as she put her mobile away, she tried to shake off the jealous churning in her gut. She trusted Tyler with her life, a choice that'd served her well in the past, but she did not trust Piper; she'd seen the way Piper had looked at Tyler back when they'd visited Ashdene Ridge together which was ridiculous considering that she'd had the gall to call him 'lame' mere hours before hanging all over him. Who did that?

"Didn't expect you to actually turn up."

Jody snapped out of her thoughts, craning her neck to see Amabel who'd come up from behind her. "Yeah, well, I can be pretty stubborn when it comes to getting what I want. I was actually starting to think that you weren't going to show."

"I got here before you; I was sitting out back," Amabel said, tipping her head towards the outdoor seating area. "I was going to come up and say hi but then I saw that you were on your phone. It looked important."

"It wasn't. It was just a chat with a mate. Anyway, sit down because I am not going to sit out back in the cold."

Shrugging out of her too-thick-for-March jacket and swinging it around the back of the chair across from Jody, Amabel did as she was told. The sight of her in everyday clothes was a queer one—she always came to and left the gym in some form of sportswear—but somehow, she looked happier and healthier than she ever had at the gym. It was subtle, perhaps somewhere around the eyes, but present nonetheless.

"Do you want something to eat or drink?" Amabel asked, glancing at the specials board.

"No, I just had lunch," Jody replied. "Besides, I didn't come here to eat or drink. You know why I'm here."

Amabel shook her head. "I don't get you. Why do you wanna know so bad? It's not like you've never seen people cry before; you live in a care home."

"It's not just the crying, Amabel. It's everything about you: everything you say, everything you do, how angry you always are..."

"You're not exactly little Miss Sunshine yourself."

Jody laughed under her breath as Amabel pointed to her now fully-healed nose. "No, but I'm not always in a strop either. How many times have you seen me lose my cool?" Amabel shrugged. "Once or twice, right? You, though... you're something else. I don't think I've ever even seen you smile properly."

Amabel squirmed in her seat, her eyes downcast. "Yeah, well, it's kind of hard to be all jolly when you know that all you've got to go back to is a warzone."

Kazima's background suddenly came to mind. "Warzone...?"

"Yeah. What else do you call a house where there's always screaming and shouting and all of that shit?"

Oh. That sort of warzone. "Well, my care home's one of those. It doesn't take long for us to fall out, especially the young'uns."

"No offence," Amabel began, her voice harsh, "but it's not the same thing. I mean, yeah, all of you kids fight—that's normal in big homes—but the adults don't, do they?" Jody wanted to say yes but she could hardly call Mike and May-Li's minor disagreements fights. They certainly didn't scream or shout to get their points across, at least not in front of her and the others; who knew what happened when they were all at school or college? Amabel released a short breath through her nose, smiling sadly. "I thought not."

"So your parents fight all the time? Are they getting a divorce? Is that why you were crying?"

"I wish! But no, they'd never divorce; they see it as a weakness. The whole Gray family does."

For the first time since meeting Amabel, it seemed Jody had real reason to believe that they weren't sisters after all. Too many things didn't add up. How could a man regard divorce as a sign of weakness after living in sin with a woman for at least a decade and having two or three bastards with her and then cheating on her with someone else? Even if Gray's behaviour could be explained away as him having been a rule-breaker in his youth before settling down with Amabel's mother after leaving Jody's, what about the fact that Jody had never heard of the rest of this 'whole Gray family'? Growing up, she'd always believed that her father had been an only child and that his parents had died well before her birth because neither of her brothers or her mother had ever mentioned any extended family, not even to complain or bitch about them. When she thought about the number of times that Denise and Kingsley had both badmouthed Gray over the years, it seemed impossible that they wouldn't do the same for Gray's relatives, be it his parents, siblings, or cousins.

"Wow," she uttered, unable to think of anything else to say. "But do you really want your parents to divorce? Isn't that a little harsh?"

She couldn't help but think that Amabel was being ungrateful. Didn't all couples fight occasionally? Was that a good enough reason to want one's whole family to be ripped apart?

"No, it isn't," Amabel said, clenching her fists. "I mean, I could get over it if they actually liked each other but they don't. In fact, they hate each other! He's always yelling at her, putting her down, blaming her for everything, and then she's always coming to me and complaining about it but ignores me when I tell her to leave him. She says she's together for us kids... yeah right. They're just two completely different people who should've never been put together."

"Put together?"

"Yeah, by God."

"Oh," Jody let out, feeling stupid. For a second there, she'd thought that Amabel had been referring to a forced marriage like those of Aliyah's many aunts. "Well, what can you do? You've just got to wait until you can move out. You've only got three more years left after this one and then you'll be off to uni."

"It's not as simple as that. They have this whole life planned out for me, this life I'm supposed to live. Because they hate each other so much, they need me and my brother to make them happy. They need us to get good grades, be great hosts to their guests, do well in extracurriculars, get into top unis, have successful careers"—Amabel's breath hitched, and she averted her gaze—"and then get married and give them grandchildren."

Jody frowned. "That's way too much to expect! It sounds like they want you to be perfect."

Mike and May-Li never told her or any of the other residents what to do with their lives. They suggested things, yes, and pointed out what each kid was good at, but they never expected anything other than the completion of homework and chores. Jody didn't even hold any of that against her carers anymore, especially the latter; after seeing the way Luke and Millie ran things, she was actually grateful to Mike and May-Li for teaching her the importance of cleanliness and order. Amabel's parents, though, were out of this world. No wonder the poor girl had cried the other day.

"Yeah, well, me and my brother are the only products of their marriage that they can be proud of. It kind of makes sense."

"It's still not fair! You don't even want a relationship, so how can they expect you to get married one day?!"

"The same way they expect me to become a boxing champ. What I want doesn't matter."

Amabel's admission should've come as a shock but, somehow, it didn't. If anything, it made a lot of things fall into place. For one, Amabel's lack of emotion upon learning that she'd failed the trials finally made sense; how could she be genuinely upset when she'd never wanted to succeed in the first place? Then there were the seemingly pointless and unfair lies to her mother, lies that were probably designed to keep the woman 'happy' as her daughter called it. Most importantly, however, was the fact that Amabel appeared to be so much more content and relaxed away from the gym—away from the pressure

"So you never liked boxing?" Jody asked. Somehow, she didn't want to accept that her connection to Amabel had been doubly fake.

"Oh, I used to," Amabel answered, bringing her gaze back to meet Jody's, "back when it was still a hobby. Something that was just mine, separate from them. But then, of course, they ruined it when I had to tell them where I kept going after school. They didn't want me wasting time I could use studying or doing something else worthwhile so they—"

"Made you try out for the team."

"Yeah. Only, I wasn't old enough for the junior division last year so they pinned all their hopes on me to get in this year."

"Amabel, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Fuck their expectations. Don't get into a relationship or get married if you don't want to. Your brother can give them grandchildren. And if they want to see a boxing champ in the family so bad, they can go and try out."

"Are you serious right now? They're both too old, especially him. He's in his fifties."

Fifties... Gray was likely in his fifties... Jody shook her head. "That's not the point, Amabel! You need to stand up for yourself; tell them you don't want to play it their way anymore."

"I can't," Amabel replied, her eyes becoming glassy. "If they find out I didn't make the team, they'll never speak to me again."

Jody felt her temper rise. "So what?! You don't need people like that in your life!"

"Oh yeah?! And what do you expect me to do if they stop talking to me? I'm not gonna put myself in care if that's what you're thinking!" Jody shrunk back in her chair, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks; Amabel had caught her out big time. "Look, Jody, you probably won't get why but I want to stay with them as long as I can. I want to be able to come back after uni as well."

"But what about all of that stuff you said? About how family wasn't that great, especially having a dad?"

All of a sudden, Amabel tensed up, a momentary flash of panic crossing her features. Jody blinked in surprise at Amabel's sudden change in demeanour; she'd never known Amabel to be scared of anyone or anything.

Amabel swallowed deeply. "Forget about that. I was just angry. Don't you say all sorts of crap when you're angry?" She twisted in her seat, grabbing her jacket. "I've got to get going. I'm supposed to be hitting the gym later."

Still astonished by Amabel's reaction to the mention of her family, Jody simply nodded and muttered a 'bye'. She watched on as Amabel left the cafe, noting that the girl seemed to be in a hurry to get away as if she was fleeing a crime scene. What was the crime, though? Being late to get back home? Or opening up to Jody?

A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

Blak3r1ght—Your question about Amabel will be answered soon. In regards to reviewing, it's better late than never. I'm always glad to see a new reviewer. Cool username, BTW!

Charlie—I believe this chapter answers your questions in regards to Amy.

yourfire—I've also begun to think that Tyler doesn't ask Jody to prom because she initially doesn't want to go. I think that Piper hears that Tyler's not going so she asks him to go with her, and that he says no at first but then changes his mind as Piper said she hoped he would (in the trailer). Unfortunately, Jody also changes her mind at the same time and assumes that Tyler will go with her but, of course, she's too late. This still doesn't explain 'she's not you' and Tyler saying that he needs time to think about what he really wants but I'm hoping the latter line is actually about something else; we all know that trailers deliberately mix and match videos and audio to make certain scenes look completely different.

I totally agree that there needs to be a successful relationship between a DG kid and an outsider. The closest we got was Josh and Sasha but that flopped so badly.