Chapter 8

"Right," Lewis said, placing his calculator on the desk, a relieved look on his face. "We're done with the maths."

"Thank God for that!" Jamie exclaimed. "Maths sucks!"

"Everything sucks according to you," Lewis grinned.

"Well maybe that's because I'd rather be doing more interesting things with my time!" Jamie replied as he took the books off his bed and threw them on the floor in a careless manner. He didn't care less whether they got ruined or not, it could do him a favour.

"What's up with your sister lately anyway?" Lewis asked. "She's been really moody lately."

"Nothing," Jamie said protectively. "There's nothing wrong with her,"

"Come on mate, you can tell me. It's not as if I'm likely to spread it round the whole world or anything." Jamie pondered for a moment. It should be safe, he thought. Rachel wouldn't mind him telling his best friend, would she?

"She's just been getting a bit of hassle at school," he replied eventually.

"Hassle?" Lewis replied. "You mean she's being bullied? But I thought she was really popular."

"She is, and I get the feeling that's the problem," Jamie said.

"It's Athena isn't it?" Lewis suddenly spoke. "I knew there was something strange going on when they were taken to the police station."

"Yeah, it's her," he replied simply, having guessed that he would know already. "I think it's getting better though," he spoke again. "She seemed happier yesterday when she was coming back from school."

"That's good," Lewis replied. "Before you know it, she'll be back to her old happy popular self."

"I hope so," Jamie replied. And he did, he wanted to see a real smile on Rachel's face and he couldn't see that happening until Athena and her friends were out of the picture.

"You fancy going for a walk?" Lewis asked. "I could do with some fresh air after all that hard work."

"Sounds good," he said. "Anything to get away from that music."

Ten minutes later Lewis and Jamie were walking away from the house. Although they were a fair way away they could still hear the droning beats of Rachel's music.

"She sure plays it loud doesn't she?" Lewis commented.

"She never used to," Jamie replied. "Apparently it's a way of 'venting her anger'."

"Yeah I can imagine," Lewis said, passing the can he had been kicking along the street to Jamie, who caught it with his foot and propelled it into the air. Watching it fall, he was shocked to see that it was about to land on someone sitting on a wall ahead of them. Athena. As the can bounced off her head, she screamed and looked into the air, trying to find the offending object. Upon seeing nothing, her gaze turned to the two boys coming towards them.

"Well look who it is," Athena smirked. "The wimp and his little friend."

"Watch it Athena," Jamie growled. "I meant what I said last week." Lewis stepped back, afraid of what was going to happen.

"And let me guess," she said. "You've brought your friend to help? Well I hate to tell you wimp but he looks like he's about to run away." Jamie glanced over at Lewis who was giving him a dirty look, as if telling him to leave before he did something he regretted. But Jamie wasn't leaving.

"Stay away from my sister," he said more bravely than he was.

"Why should I?" Athena said, standing up. She was almost a foot taller than Jamie.

"Because she doesn't deserve it. Rachel is a fantastic person and she doesn't deserve to have bitches like you putting her down."

"You hear that girls?" Athena grinned. "She doesn't deserve to have bitches like us putting her down." The girls laughed almost manically.

"And you two?" Jamie continued. "You're just mindless followers who don't have the brains to get on by yourself." Lewis was still standing back, he was even smaller than Jamie and had decided that Athena could beat him to a pulp if she wanted to. The girls were beginning to surround Jamie, but Athena wasn't joining in. She appeared to be enjoying her 'mindless followers' beginning to scare Jamie, and she was happy watching them doing so. Jamie was pretending not to be scared by the girls' behaviour but he was beginning to realise that talking back to them hadn't been such a good idea. Making a swift decision, he spun round and pushed one of the girls out of the way.

"Lewis!" he shouted. "Run!" He watched Lewis race down the road.

"Later Athena," he said, before swiftly following his friend down the road. Behind him he could vaguely hear Athena's shouts.

"I'll get you, wimp!" she screamed at the top of the voice, but Jamie was too far away to hear her.