First day

Rose remained seated, those in front of her beginning to chatter and the teacher telling them to hush.

"We're all waiting Rose," the teacher reminded her, in a soft Scottish accent.

Alec was also trying to turn around but suddenly put his hand up.

"Yes Alec?" the teacher asked him.

"Please Miss, I think she has a sore throat," he suggested, the others starting to giggle.

"Quiet," the teacher told the class. "Yes Alec, I think it's that or she is just shy. Rose, do you have a sore throat?"

Rose managed a nod, she was already in too deep to back out of her mother's suggestion and she had to play along, for now.

"Very well, rest your voice and no sucking throat lozenges in class. Your mother should have sent a note."

Rose fumbled in her desk and brought out the hastily written note her mother had scribbled last night, she'd almost forgotten.

The teacher allowed her to get up and pass the note.

"You maybe should have stayed off?" the teacher suggested, glancing at the note, Rose thinking she'd never get away with it.

She also thought she was glad she hadn't stayed off, she'd finally got to know the boy's name and the one next to him was called Jamie.

It had been a double lesson since it was the first day so they had one more lesson before break time and Rose hung back, following everyone else to the next classroom. Jamie was nudging Alec.

"Bet she's not really lost her voice, she's having us on," Jamie told him as they went through the door.

"Leave her Jamie, we don't know that," Alec replied.

Jamie sat next to him and nudged him as Rose sat next to a girl called Marie, who had less friends than they did.

"Maybe? See how she gets on when she meets Kristy and Moira?"

"Then I'll have to keep them away from her, if she can't talk back, you know what they are like," Alec replied as the teacher put his briefcase on the desk in the science room.

"Good morning class," the teacher spoke up. "I'm your substitute science teacher, Mr Brown is unable to join you. My name is Doctor John Smith," the tall thin man grinned, putting his glasses on and picking up a piece of chalk to write on the blackboard.

Alec noticed at least he had the attention of all the girls, unlike last term when Mr Brown was there. Rose was paying attention, the man had an Estuary English accent and she wished now she'd never gone along with her mother's idea of how to keep quiet to avoid being picked on.

"So, anyone else here from London?" the teacher asked, looking around.

Rose was not going to admit anything and he was probably only here for a few days anyway. He seemed to be getting away with the accent but he wasn't a thirteen year old teenager who everyone would turn on. Alec saw her paying attention and began to wonder if she was covering something up. Had he been right? Was the sore throat just her playing along because he'd suggested it? What note had she passed earlier though?

He'd been thinking more about what he'd told his cousin John, whose double could be standing in front of the class but his cousin was no science teacher and was not from London, though he liked to act like it now. He'd told John he may want to join the police and since his curiosity always got the better of him, maybe he should?

The teacher was asking him a question, since he must have looked miles away.

"What's your name?" he asked Alec, everyone, including Rose looking at him.

"Alec, Sir."

"Then Alec, let's see how much you learned last term shall we," the teacher grinned, making the girls giggle.

Then it was Rose's turn as a few more answered questions.

"I've been told there are two new pupils this year? Would you raise your hands?"

Rose reluctantly raised hers, as did Sandra, who was sitting next to Kelly.

"So, what's your names then?" they were both asked.

"I'm Sandra, that's Rose, she lost her voice," the other girl replied, Rose being thankful but had the feeling Alec had been about to tell the teacher anyway.

"Well, never mind eh Rose? Bad luck on your first day," the teacher grinned, something Rose thought he seemed to do a lot of, when he wasn't coming out with words that sounded like he watched 'The Fonz' all day.

The lesson was almost over, Rose being relieved she'd got away with it so far but if this science teacher was going to be here again, she may go confide in him, if not, she would have to tell her class teacher, who should have already been informed. Rose bet Miss Robinson did know and chose to keep it quiet and had guessed why she'd been reluctant to speak.

The bell went for break time and everyone gathered their school bags and headed for the exit but the teacher held Alec back.

"You seemed to have all the answers," he asked Alec. "Do you know the new girl?"

"No Sir," Alec replied as everyone else left.

"I just wondered, she kept glancing at you. You were also looking at me a lot, any reason?" Doctor Smith asked, Alec thinking he should have been asking the girls that, not him.

"Sorry Sir, it's just you look a bit like my cousin, he has the same name as well," Alec explained, hoping Kristy and Moira weren't going around looking for new victims.

"Ah, no wonder then. So is he a teacher?" he asked Alec.

"No Sir, he's a travel writer, he does reviews of holiday destinations for travel agencies," Alec admitted, hoping to catch up with Jamie, or maybe Rose.

"Interesting job? Well don't let me keep you Alec, well done. That girl though, Rose. She seemed a bit lost."

"She was, when she arrived but I've seen her in the library a few times, she's been in town a few weeks, our teacher said she'd transferred schools," Alec replied, trying to be helpful if it got him excused.

"Right, that explains it then. Well off you go," Doctor Smith grinned at him. "Are you going to make friends with her?"

"I was going to try Sir, may I go now?" Alec asked, thinking this was the longest conversation he'd ever had with a teacher.

The fact the teacher looked a bit like his cousin was a bit strange, especially when his aunt thought he himself was beginning to look like John.

He got outside and went to find Jamie, who was talking to some of their other friends, well the ones who weren't trying to get in Kristy's gang, she wasn't really bothered who joined but she seemed to have lost a lot of followers, Alec thought. Maybe the old ones had come to their senses?

He looked around for Rose and saw her sitting on a bench under a window. Jamie was discussing where he'd been on holiday, Alec already having heard about it and it put him off because they'd been nowhere with just losing his mother several months ago and it wouldn't have been the same, well not for him anyway.

Since there were only just over five minutes left, Alec crossed to the bench and stood in front of Rose, who was trying to keep the sun out of her eyes but not wanting to move.

"Hi again, what are you doing on your own?" Alec asked her. "Not made any friends, not even the other new girl?"

Rose shook her head.

Since she wasn't talking, Alec decided to try and get a few things out of her by the process of elimination, something he was good at.

"So, you transferred from another school? Out of town?" he asked. Rose nodded, hoping she wouldn't try to correct him. "A long way maybe?" he continued. Rose nodded again. "The Outer Hebrides?" Alec grinned, making Rose smile. "Well maybe not that far then?" he smiled back. "Maybe Aberdeen or Inverness?"

Rose shook her head. He was about to get his notebook out and suggest she wrote it down when he saw a teacher at the doorway and he'd have to remember to use the other end of the pad anyway, he wasn't ready to show the new girl any of his stories, well not yet anyway.

"Did you bring a packed lunch?" he dared ask her. Rose nodded again. "Me too, my mum never approved of school dinners. Maybe we can talk later?"

Rose nodded and got off the bench, Alec thinking that was a daft thing to say but surely she could try and talk a little? She'd not ever tried or cleared her throat but he'd seen her take something out of her bag while he'd been walking over and assumed it was something she took to help. He followed her to line up to go inside, getting a look from Kristy and Moira, who nudged him from the next line.

"No good asking you, is there?" Moira asked, since she was the mouthy one out of the pair.

"Leave him, he wouldn't know what we're about anyway," Kristy told her friend.

Rose could see the two other girls were not so friendly and assumed she'd be best staying away from them.

After the next lessons, everyone was either going to the school canteen to line up to get their lunch or find a place to eat what they had brought with them, Rose having been used to a separate area in her old school but no-one seemed to be bothering. She found a table but assumed she'd not be alone and sure enough, the two lead troublemakers made a beeline for her.

"You're new here, want to join our group?" Moira asked her.

Alec could see they were trying to get Rose on their side.

"Leave her Alec," Jamie nudged him as he watched the other two girls sit either side of Rose. "She'll have to learn about them."

"What's so interesting about her then?" one of the other boys asked.

"She's new, she doesn't know about getting involved with their gang," Alec replied, trying to eat his chicken salad sandwich.

"Have you met her before?" another boy asked him. "You stuck up for her earlier."

Alec was going to try to deny it.

"She just looked lost," he replied.

"Aren't you going to tell them?" Jamie grinned. "She was in the library a few times."

Alec was going to thank his friend later.

"We never saw her," another one replied.

"Maybe because she was in our local one?" Jamie laughed. "Not the one in town."

Rose wasn't having an easy time and Alec knew what they were like when a new victim came along. The last two years, pupils had joined them and got tired of getting into trouble because of them and had the sense to leave. He was hoping Rose hadn't fallen for their tricks.

"Don't you talk or something?" Moira was asking her as Rose tried to ignore them by eating.

"Bet she's lost her voice," Kristy laughed, not seeing Alec walking across as he'd been unable to stop himself.

"Leave her alone you two, she's new," Alec called out to them.

"Well if it's not Alec Hardy," Kristy laughed. "Been hanging around the library all summer being a swot?"

"Yeah, nothing else to do while everyone else went away?" Moira joined in as Alec stood there, his bag over his shoulder.

Rose wanted to tell the two girls to get lost but it would just give the game away. She would have done and her friends from her old school would have made short work of the pair.

"Aw, I forgot, he'd have been at his auntie's since his mum's been gone," Kristy mocked.

"You leave my mum out of this Kristy Roberts," Alec almost lost his temper.

Rose wanted to say that was uncalled for. She thought he'd looked sad in the library, his mum must have either left home or passed away.

"Go find somewhere else Alec, we're talking to the new girl," Moira carried on.

"No, you're not, now back off," Alec warned them. "Go back under the rock you both came from. You don't get the fact no-one wants to join you this term, who can blame them when they get into trouble for what you two do?" he asked, trying to give Rose a picture of what they were like.

Rose had already got it, she wanted nothing to do with them, she didn't want to make friends like them even though at her last school, she'd caused most of the trouble herself but she'd not been desperate to get anyone to join her.

"Come on Moira, we'll get to her later," Kristy told her.

"No you won't, if she wanted to join you, she would not have ignored you, would she?" Alec asked them.

"So that was what she was doing?" Moira asked as she got up, a teacher approaching and Alec noticing it was the science teacher. "Thought she'd got a sore throat or something."

Kristy turned around and almost collided with Doctor John Smith.

"What are you two girls doing?" he asked.

"Nothing Sir, just talking. We were just leaving," she replied.

"Were they bothering you?" he asked Rose as Alec sat opposite to try to finish his lunch.

Rose shook her head.

"Alec, is that right?" the teacher asked him, Alec assuming he'd been watching and he was on dining room duties.

Either that or he'd been waiting for something to happen, going around looking for signs of trouble and the two who had just left would give him plenty.

"They were trying to get Rose to join them, they're the troublemakers around here, Sir," Alec replied, knowing he'd find out sooner or later the other teachers already knew.

"Then stay away from them. If they bother you again, tell one of the teachers," they were both told.

"Yes Sir. Finish your lunch Rose," Alec suggested as she looked in her lunchbox and brought out a carton of yoghurt.

"I'll leave you to it then?" Doctor Smith asked them.

When he walked off, Rose looked over at Alec, wanting to thank him but if she spoke to him, she'd have to speak to everyone, unless she could trust him to keep her secret that she was a very long way from home, further than the Outer Hebrides, which Alec had suggested and had made her smile.

Instead, she looked around and since everyone was occupied, she reached to touch his arm. Alec got she was trying to thank him.

"It's okay Rose, just ignore them again, they'll get the message. They soon get tired and try someone else. They'll have a go at all the new ones first then go back to the rest. Have you enjoyed the lessons so far?" he asked her.

Rose nodded, taking a drink out of the carton of juice.

"The new science teacher kept me talking after class because I was answering all the questions," he admitted with a bit of a grin. "I never intended to."

Rose thought then maybe he'd not intended to speak up for her at registration or got rid of those two girls for her.

"You would not have liked the last science teacher as such, he was boring but this one made it more interesting," he continued.

Rose was thinking if all the science teachers looked like that, she'd have taken more notice last year but he didn't sound like he belonged here and had already admitted it, she wished now she'd taken no notice of Bob or her mother and Alec didn't look like he'd be bothered if she was English. She decided to keep quiet for now and in a few days time, she'd try whispering or muffling her voice and see how she got on.

Well that was if she didn't confide in the boy she'd kept seeing in the library, who had rescued her more than once that morning. Everyone was starting to go outside, she wished she was back with her old friends plotting how they were going to wind Mickey up on the way home and if she was going to make her skirt shorter again. Now, there was none of that she was the new girl and there were already two troublemakers in her year and she was glad she wasn't in their class.

She'd not been really surprised to find the boy from the library had been outside the classroom she'd wanted nor that he'd stuck up for her. He must have wanted to know who she was as much as she'd wanted to know who he was. All through the holidays, she had wanted to meet him properly and there he had been.

"Coming outside?" he asked, interrupting her thoughts. She managed a nod. "You finished that book then? I was waiting for it taking back to the library," he admitted, thinking she had probably already noticed that since he'd pounced on the shelf the moment it had been put there.

Rose had to smile she already knew that by how keen he had been the day she had returned it. She was dying to ask him why he wasn't joining his friends as they went to sit under the window again in the far corner.

"So you like reading?" he asked, sitting a bit further away. "I like to write my own stories, about travelling," he told her, not wanting to say too much. "My cousin is a travel writer, I suppose I get my ideas from him," he had to admit, though he still insisted they were about a man from another galaxy.

When he thought about it, his cousin John could be the time traveller, well maybe not look like him but the way he acted and moved around, not staying in one place for long. He thought he'd best not mention his cousin looked like the new science teacher well maybe not yet anyway.

"You must live near me then, I mean if we go to the same library?" he asked, hoping she may break her silence if she was just pretending to have lost her voice, something he was thinking more and more was the case.

Was she protecting herself from something? Her real accent perhaps? Maybe she was genuine though and just a little overwhelmed. Alec continued the one-sided conversation, Rose nodding and smiling now and then, unaware Alec's friends were watching them.

"Seems we've lost Alec this term?" Billy was asking no-one in particular.

"You should have seen him in the library when she was there," Jamie laughed. "He told me he wasn't interested in girls, guess I should have known? I wonder why he never went to talk to her though?"

"Maybe he did, when you were on holiday?" another boy asked.

"No, he would have said something to me," Jamie insisted.

"Maybe not? Maybe he didn't want us to know?" Billy asked.

"I'm telling you, I'd know," Jamie insisted. "He may have told his cousin though? John came back a few days ago and I thought that was him in the science lab."

"His cousin looks like the science teacher?" one of them laughed.

"Never mind the science teacher. What are we going to do about Alec?" Jamie wanted to know.

"Leave him to it?" two of them laughed.

"Be serious," Jamie replied, now a bit worried for his best friend. "I've only seen him talking to the girls in school."

"She is in school," Billy joined in the laughing.

"Well I'm going to find out later," Jamie insisted. "I'm not going to lose a friend to a girl. I was only teasing him a few days ago that if he didn't talk to her, I'd get my older brother to pay a visit to the library. You should have seen Alec's face."

"So there's more to it then?" Billy asked. "You can find out what it is, Jamie."

A/N: I couldn't resist bringing in the Doctor type character as the science teacher from 'School reunion' and the fact it would be confusing for Alec with his cousin who had the same name and they looked alike.