Chapter 2

Phil walked with him down the corridor, Zain looking paler by the second.

"How did you know him?" Phil asked, to break the silence

"I went to school with him" Zain whispered, looking even sicker.

Zain slammed his front door behind him again and hoisted his schoolbag onto his right shoulder, making sure none of the contents would spill out from the hole at the top before continuing down the garden path. With 5 younger brothers and sisters, and another on the way, Zain's parents didn't really have time to buy him new stuff. He turned his head to David's house when he heard his door shut quietly. Zain took in his perfect uniform, new school bag and polished shoes with disgust on his face. So David was a poshboy… He wasn't going to last 10 minutes at Sunhill Comp.

"Zain!" David called, running to catch up, then tripping over his wall, nearly landing on his face. Zain rolled his eyes, praying that David wasn't going to be in his class.

"Zain! Are you getting the bus?" he panted

"Yep" Why else would he be walking towards the bus stop, in the opposite direction from school? God this boy was slow.

"Can I sit next to you?" he asked

"No" Zain said, hoping the boy would get bored of following him eventually

"Oh okay" the boy didn't seem in the least put out. Fortunately for Zain, the bus arrived early and he took his usual seat at the back of the bus, next to his best friend, Andy Thomson.

"Who's the new boy?" Andy asked

"David Hood. Just because he moved in next door, he thinks that means he can stalk me. He's been following me around all weekend." Zain replied, glaring at the back of David's head. Andy laughed

"So I heard Jack Allen beat you up"

"It was nothing" Zain said shortly, not wanting to remember having to be saved by David. Andy raised his eyebrows, but said nothing else. The two boys sat in comfortable silence until the old bus shuddered to a stop at the next bus stop and 3 more of Zain's mates got on. Michael Williamson was one of Zain's oldest friends. He'd been to primary school with him and although they weren't as close as they once were, Zain couldn't imagine going to school without him. Mike had been the only reason he'd put his name down for Sunhill Comp. in the first place. Chris Dowell was a small, rat faced boy that Zain couldn't stand. However, he was Mike's new best friend so he supposed he'd have to put up with him. Chris was always picking fights that he knew he couldn't win, then would come running to Mike, Andy or himself to save him. Jason Martin was a tall, slim, athletic boy that had only moved here last month, but he was already big competition for Zain on the girlfriend front. Zain had lost countless numbers of girls to him, but he didn't care. Jason was very likeable, but he had a short temper. He had been known to beat people up for no reason, which was probably why the others liked him so much. They thought it was funny. Zain honestly didn't give a damn who he liked to beat up, as long as it wasn't him.

15 minutes later, they had all arrived at school and Zain heard that David was to be in his class. Would he never get away from him? He walked into his registration room and slung his bag into the corner, not caring what fell out now. He heard a giggle from the opposite side of the room and turned to see a group of girls staring at him. He winked at them and grinned at one in particular- Janet Peterson. He'd wanted to get with her for a while, but it didn't help that one of his other girlfriends, Becki hated Janet. Jason walked in behind him and a wolf whistle sounded from the same group of girls. Zain smirked as he saw who it was from- Marie Harris. Marie had avoided Jason since his first day, disliking his quick temper and his friends. Maybe she was finally coming around. Knowing he had lost the girls attention, Zain sat down in his seat and turned to talk to Andy.

"Jealous?" Andy laughed

"Of Jason? Yeah right" Zain laughed too

"He's been trying to pull Janet for months and all Jason has to do is walk in and he has her. Of course he's jealous" Chris smirked. Zain just glared at him. One of these days he was going to punch him. Very, very hard.

"Hey Zain!" David said, stumbling over Jason's discarded school bag. Zain shut his eyes, hoping that when he opened them, David would have disappeared. He opened them. Unfortunately, David was still there.

"Hey David" he sighed, "What's wrong?"

"I was just wondering if you could introduce me to those girls…" David trailed off, looking embarrassed, yet hopeful at the same time. Zain's friends sniggered.

"Okay" Zain sighed "Hey Janet! This here's David Hood. He wants your number. Will I give it to him?"

"Don't even think about it Zain" Janet laughed,

"There's your answer" Zain said, turning away from David

"I didn't want to go out with her! I just wanted to talk to her!" David said, turning red

"Whatever" Zain turned away, ignoring him. David glared at Zain and all of his laughing friends and walked back to his new desk, looking very embarrassed. However, out of the corner of his eye, Zain spotted a lone figure move towards David, glaring at all of them as she did so. It was Marie. Maybe David would find a girlfriend here after all…

They reached the toilets and Phil held the door open for Zain to go in and sat down on a seat outside, waiting for him to come out again.