Chapter 7

"I have to go to school," Rachel was saying as Jamie descended the stairs. "I have work to do."

"I'm not sure dear," their mother said. "You should take a couple more days off."

"I feel fine," she protested. "I want to go back."

"Are you sure," their dad asked.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry."

"OK then. If you really want to go then you can."

"Thanks mum, dad," she smiled for the first time in ages. As they left the room Jamie entered the room.

"I'm not going to let you go," he said bluntly.

"And why not?" she asked as he sat down.

"I'm worried," he replied. Rachel looked at him and rolled her eyes slowly.

"I can take care of myself," she said defensively.

"I know I know… but- OK you can go, but be careful OK?"

"Cause I will," she replied. However, he wasn't convinced. He had another mission. He was going to look out for her, make sure she was all right.

"Jamie Richardson?" the teacher's voice boomed across the classroom. "If I have to tell you one more time you'll be in detention for a week." Jamie's eyes appeared to be looking at a page of a book on his desk; however, his mind was somewhere completely different. He was worried about his sister. Although he wished he could get out of classes, he knew it wasn't a good idea to have another pile of letters sent home to his parents. But the bullies were in most of her classes, and he didn't think Athena would be put off by the fact that there were teachers present. It would be something subtle, tripping her up as she walked to her seat, whispering abuse across the classroom. But it was still effective.

"Jamie," Lewis, who was sitting beside his friend, nudged his elbow to get his attention.

"What?" Jamie asked, annoyed, rubbing his elbow.

"What's the matter with you today?" Lewis asked. "You're even more out of it than usual!"

"Nothing's the matter," Jamie replied. "I'm just tired."

"Tired?!" he exclaimed. "That's the excuse people who don't want to give the real excuse!" Jamie looked at him and rolls his eyes slowly.

"Since when did you know everything?"

"I don't know everything, I just know you," he replied, smiling.

"I'll tell you later," Jamie promised, although he wasn't sure he should upset Rachel any further.

Jamie spotted Rachel as he stepped out of his last class. She was swinging her bag backwards and forwards, and looked happy. Jamie smiled, if she was happy that meant he had been worrying all day for nothing. It looked like the bullying hadn't been as bad. He wanted to go up to her, see her smiling face close up and give her a big hug, but his mission had to continue. So, keeping in shadow as much as possible, he followed her home.

"Rachel?" Jamie shouted as he walked into the house after following her at a safe distance all the way there. As he walked into the living room he saw her, she was sitting on the sofa with the TV on, however it was turned so low that she couldn't possible hear it. As she looked up and noticed him, she stood up swiftly and ran up the stairs without saying a word. Jamie was speechless. He stood there for a couple of minutes, not moving. When she had turned her head, he had noticed, that they were wet with tears. She's been happy before. What had happened?

"Rachel?" he shouted, running up the stairs after her. She had gone into her room and turned up her music loud. He knocked loudly on the door, so hard that the door vibrated and threatened to crash to the floor. However, Rachel didn't answer. Following his usual pattern, he opened the door to the room gently and walked in, turning the music off much to Rachel's annoyance.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, not looking up at him. "Don't people knock anymore?"

"I did knock!" Jamie protested. "But obviously you were either ignoring me or you couldn't hear anything except your damn music!"

"I ask again… what are you doing here?" Rachel had stopped crying, but her eyes were red, revealing that she had been earlier.

"I want to know what's wrong," he replied.

"Why? So you can go and tell the police that Athena's been hassling me again?" she asked bitterly.

"You know about that?"

"Do you think it'd just blow over? Did you think she wouldn't mention it to me?"

"Well I guess I did…" he muttered.

"Then you thought wrong."

"I'm… I'm sorry," he muttered.

"Get out and leave me alone," she said simply.

"Oh… OK," Jamie replied. "But I will find out you know," he said as he wandered out of the room calmly. And he swore he would, somehow he would find out why one minute she had been smiling and the next her face was covered with tears.