Starting to worry

Alec had been concerned as he had talked to his cousin. Was he getting too deep into this and maybe seeing something that wasn't even there? John was right on one thing, his suspicious nature was beginning to show itself, the makings of a good detective, he hoped.

His dad asked what he'd been talking to his cousin about.

"Was that about your new friend Alec? I thought maybe you'd not told her about John?"

"I was undecided last night if it was him or not, before I spoke with him but he may have upset Rose," Alec admitted. "She wasn't ready to talk in front of everyone Dad. John told her to take her time, then he tricked her."

"I'm sure he did it for her own good Alec. Are you bringing Rose back every day after school?"

"I don't know yet Dad, she wasn't going to come round tonight but she has to go back to an empty apartment. We can't blame her for not wanting to, can we?" he asked.

"No Son but surely she will make more friends?"

"Only Sandra, she doesn't get our bus and the girls that do aren't in our class. Jamie's a bit off with her but he used to tease me about her in the library when I didn't know who she was."

"Maybe he never expected anything to come of it eh?" his dad smiled. "It's your choice Alec but if Rose is coming round every night, no going to your room with her, I've already warned you about that. Like I said, maybe when it gets dark early you can spend a bit of time."

"She may not want to Dad. She told her mum she made some friends but not that I was one of them. She came from an estate in London, her mum probably thinks all boys are like the ones Rose used to know. I'm worried about her though."

"Alec, she will settle in, it just takes time," his dad tried to assure him. "So her mother lives with someone?"

"Yes and she doesn't like him. All she will say is that she wishes she'd never been brought here. I think she's scared of him Dad."

"You don't know that for sure Alec. If she is, it's up to her to get help about it but she should talk to her mother first."

"She says her mother won't listen to her and that she won't hear anything against him. Now you know why I want to join the police."

His dad smiled at him, feeling sorry for him.

"You have to admit it Alec, you're starting to prefer Rose to Jamie, Jamie's not going to like it."

"I know Dad but Rose needs my help and she could also use another friend but Jamie won't hang out with us. Now, Rose has to worry about school tomorrow and what everyone will be saying."

"From what you said, everyone will be pleased she finally put those two girls in their place."

"Yes but they won't like it Dad. She even stuck up for me and I was the one sticking up for her yesterday."

"How does that make you feel Alec?"

"I should be mad at her, she thought I would be but I don't think I am. Should I be mad at her?"

"No. Maybe she was repaying you for yesterday eh?" his dad suggested.

Rose had gone to her room to escape watching her mother with Bob and there was nothing they were watching on TV that she wanted to see, even though there were now four channels to watch, Bob seemed to favour the one with all the boring programmes. She was just going to bed when there was a tap on the door and she saw the handle turn. She prayed it wasn't Bob.

"Rose," her mother called out as the door opened, Rose letting out her breath. "Are you okay only you left early."

"I'm fine Mum, I just didn't like what you were watching."

"We should start doing more together, the three of us. Watcha think?"

Rose would rather say no.

"Why don't ya come shopping with us on Saturday morning, to start with?" her mother asked.

"I wanted to go to the library, the big one in town. Maybe I can meet ya somewhere?" she dared to ask.

"Rose, do ya need to catch up on school work?"

"Yeah, the new science teacher gave us a question, I bet I can't find the answer in the local library," Rose replied, thinking Alec and Jamie may be there anyway and Jamie was bad enough towards her.

"I thought ya didn't like science?" she was asked.

"I don't but he makes it interesting, he gets everyone to join in. Mum, can ya ask Bob to put a lock on my door?"

"Rose, why do ya want a lock?" her mother wanted to know.

"I just think I should be allowed one, that's all. When Bob's friends come over, well I don't know them, do I?"

"Well I'll ask him, I dunno what he'll say though. Rose, you won't stop coming back early and getting tea ready, will ya? I mean if ya made a friend. Who is it anyway, someone who lives nearby?"

Rose wanted to say it was Sandra but her mother was bound to see her with Alec sooner or later.

"His name's Alec, he lives two streets away. He figured out I hadn't lost my voice. Mum, we're both on our own until you and his dad get home, that's all. His dad makes me a sandwich while they're eating but he invited me to have tea with them. I said I had to come back and make it for you and Bob so I never bothered."

"Rose, I'm sorry Bob thinks I do the cooking but ya know what I'm like?" her mother asked her. "He'll ask questions if ya don't eat with us."

Rose thought it was non of his business where she ate. She also thought now her mother knew her friend was a boy, she'd impose some sneaky restrictions.

"Mum, I don't mind but I would prefer to eat earlier, I mean I have a sandwich and I can still eat later, it's a bit late for me, that's all and after tea, well there's no time to go out again."

"To hang around with your new friend?" her mother asked.

Rose thought this was the longest conversation they'd had since they moved, well when Bob was there and wondered how her mother had escaped from his grip. If he was the one stopping herself and her mother talking, what chance did she have of convincing her mother she hated Bob?

Her mother left and Rose hoped Bob wouldn't be next to check on her, though why, she had no idea. She just had this feeling in her stomach that he might make a start. Maybe she should talk to Alec's dad or his cousin after all.

"What were you and Rose talking about?" Bob was asking Jackie as he was drying his hair.

"Just about her new school, that's all. She made a new friend but not around here," Jackie lied. "Rose was asking if she could have a lock on her door."

"What for?" Bob wanted to know as he combed his hair. "Does she not trust me?" he laughed.

"I don't think it's that Bob, she had one at our old place, well a small catch. She might be worried about when friends come over they might think it's the bathroom."

Jackie was hating the fact she was having to tell white lies but she had Rose to think about despite the arrangements they had made about her.

"Jackie, you are not backing out are you?" Bob asked her.

"No, of course not. She's a teenager Bob, ya know what they're like?" she tried to joke.

"Aye, we get enough of them causing trouble when we're still trying to work. At least she's not one of them but I'll think about it and you think about what we agreed. You want me to put it back, don't you?"

"I'm not saying that Bob. She'll do as ya say, I'll make sure but she may not be in much the rest of the summer, if she made new friends?"

"Well as long as there are no boys Jackie? Maybe she does need a bit more time though?"

"Yeah, maybe? She may not tell me though if she makes friends with any boys, she was one for flirting back home before she was even thirteen."

Jackie wondered if that was a factor in her new relationship with Bob? She shook the thought off, he was just being a father-figure to her daughter, Rose having grown up without one and now, she could use one.

Rose was getting ready for school the next morning, trying to avoid her mother's boyfriend who kept smiling at her.

"Have ya found out about a bus pass yet?" Bob asked as her mother got her purse out.

"No but the others around here don't seem to have one, I might not qualify but I asked a teacher, he said to go to the office," Rose replied, trying to cram her lunch into her bag and wishing he'd go to work.

Then her mother wondered why she'd spent so much time out at weekends. She wondered what Alec would be doing but it wasn't fair to impose herself on him when there was no school. She was faced with what she could do the next holiday, though that was a few weeks away yet she supposed and she'd managed before.

Alec had set off to walk over to meet Rose, having set off a few minutes early but then he had second thoughts in case her mother went out at the same time so he waited on the corner for her. He saw a man walking out and getting into a car but it drove off in the other direction, then he saw a blonde-haired woman and Rose was following her.

He stayed back, hoping Rose wouldn't wave to him but why was he acting like that?

"Bye Mum, see ya tonight," Rose was saying, trying not to look to see if Alec was waiting for her again.

Alec hadn't seen them both yesterday morning but he was a little early, not having any particular reason for doing so but he thought it would do no harm. Would Rose think anything of it?

Rose saw him on the corner and quickened her step to reach him.

"Hi Rose, was that your mum?" he asked as they looked to cross the road.

"Yeah, giving me another lecture not to be late back. She's terrified of doing the cooking though what she'd do if I weren't there?" Rose smiled. "Alec, why don't you have a bus pass?"

"My dad never bothered, I suppose I could get one though? Are you going to apply for one?" he asked as they got to the bus shelter and two boys were hogging the opening so Rose walked to the other one and pulled a face at them.

Thankfully they were first years and she wouldn't have to deal with them. She saw them whispering to each other and Alec turned around, Rose telling him not to bother, she'd had worse back in London. They got on the bus, avoiding Jamie and the others but Jamie went to sit behind them.

"You never bother any more Alec," Jamie reminded him.

"Hello to you too," Rose huffed.

"Leave it Rose. What do you want Jamie? You never wanted to hang around with us last night," Alec reminded him.

"I told you why Alec. So are we doing our homework together tonight?" Jamie asked him.

"Do ya homework with him Alec, I can go home," Rose told him.

"There's no reason we can't all do it together," Alec replied. "Jamie, I asked Rose round because she's on her own when she need not be, okay?"

"Fine, count me out then," Jamie huffed and went back to his original seat.

"He'll come round Alec, he was your best friend until I arrived," Rose told him.

"He wants me to chose Rose and I can't, I don't want to. He'll come round," Alec tried to convince himself. "I'll call for him on Saturday, he'll be okay by then. What will you be doing?"

Rose thought he'd already asked her once.

"Oh, ya know, me and mum shopping, it's what us girls like to do," she joked, wishing that was true but Bob would be there.

Still, she could get a ride into the town and meet them later, at least Bob had a car.

While they were laughing about it, Alec could almost feel the eyes on them from behind. Since when had it become a crime to make friends with a girl, he wondered. Jamie was not going to make him choose between his friends, he'd just have to talk to Jamie and say they could hang out at weekends and school holidays, if he wouldn't join himself and Rose.

Rose was thinking that Jamie shouldn't have been teasing Alec about her in the library if he didn't expect something to come out of it. Maybe he wasn't expecting Alec to take the bait? Could she step back so Alec and Jamie could be friends again? Judging by the laughing coming from behind them, it didn't seem like Jamie was that bothered and if Alec backed off, both herself and Alec would be on their own.

"Take no notice Rose," Alec told her, trying to ignore the others.

"I'm used to it Alec but I never meant for you and Jamie to fall out."

"I know. He'll be fine at the weekend," Alec tried to reassure himself.

When they got off the bus, Rose said she was going to the office to get a locker key, since some were open and no keys in them and to get a form for a bus pass.

"You should try too Alec or don't ya bother 'cos the others don't?"

"I never wanted to be the odd one out Rose but it looks like I already am?" Alec replied as he followed her inside.

Getting two locker keys was easy enough and being given two forms for bus passes and told to get their parents to sign and bring a passport size photo in at the same time was going to be difficult, well for Rose anyway. If it saved her mother some money, she'd be all for paying for photos.

"Hey Alec, we could go get the photos done together and save some money," Rose suggested as they went to find their lockers, the secretary thinking it was amusing to give them one next to each other.

Now Alec thought they would be seen together more often, he could expect more treatment like Jamie and Billy were already dishing out but funnily, he wasn't really bothered what they thought. As predicted though, Rose was already getting pointed to as the bell was going and they were going upstairs.

"Hey, you're the English girl, right?" someone asked Rose on the stairs.

"Leave her alone," Alec defended her.

"Geez Alec, are you her minder?" the girl wanted to know. "I was gonna say well done for standing up to Moira, no-one's ever done that before. Now we know it can be done, they won't be very popular."

Rose heard mumblings of agreement as they got to the top of the stairs.

"See, now you are not the odd one out, it seems Moira is," Alec smiled as he saw Kristy follow her friend instead of them both talking and everyone else avoiding them.

"Well she's not Queen Bee around here any more is she?" Rose asked as they entered the classroom, looking for Sandra but seeing she was sat next to Marie and Jamie had taken up next to Billy, leaving two spaces for Alec and Rose.

"I thought we had regular places?" Rose asked him.

"Seems not," he replied, sitting next to her.

"Class," the teacher addressed them. "This is the third day back, I hope you are going to settle in your regular places?"

So did Rose. It seemed though every classroom they went in, everyone was purposely sticking together and Rose wondered why Sandra had chosen to sit next to a girl who seemed more shy than she had been. She caught up with Sandra in the girls room at break time.

"What's going on Rose?" Sandra called from the next cubicle.

"Nothing, why?" Rose called back and hoping her two now enemies weren't hanging around.

"I saw Jamie go sit next to Billy, I assumed there was a reason?" Sandra laughed.

Rose opened the door and went to wash her hands, Sandra joining her.

"Come on Rose, have Alec and Jamie fallen out?"

"Not exactly, Jamie was being a bit funny this morning but he'll come round. Alec said they'd been friends for years."

"Maybe so Rose but what about now you've come along? Anyway, we can still be friends, I'm not the jealous type and Marie talks less then you did the last two days. See ya later."

Rose went back outside into the sunlight, shading her eyes and spying Alec talking to Jamie and Billy, thinking she should leave them to it but they weren't giving Alec an easy time and Alec didn't want to depend on Rose to get him out of it after Billy had marched him over to where they were all sitting at a bench and on top of it.

"So come on out with it Alec," Billy was telling him.

"What are you talking about?" Alec wanted to know.

"Don't act all innocent Alec, Jamie told us you've been calling for him with that new girl following you," Billy told him.

"Thanks Jamie," Alec told his old friend. "She has got a name you know? She's called Rose and she's new to the area, in case you were asleep in the science class yesterday?" Alec asked them.

"We know and she stood up to Moira, guess she's the school's new hero?" Billy laughed.

"Did any of you stand up to them?" Alec turned the tables. He saw them suddenly finding the grass or the table were more interesting. "No, no-one dared until Rose came along. Do you prefer those two get away with bullying everyone into joining them?"

"She's not bothered with the boys Alec," Jamie chipped in.

"Well she was yesterday, I saw her but they had the sense to walk away. It was going to happen when she'd run out of girls," Alec replied.

"Yeah and you making friends with Rose was going to happen, wasn't it?" Jamie asked him.

"Yes Alec, you don't spend time with us now and you even sat with her in the classrooms," Billy reminded him, getting agreement from the others.

"Well you went to sit with Billy," Alec told Jamie, wondering where the cause of all this was and hoping she'd stay out of it but did Rose ever stay out of anything, he wondered. "So what do you want?"

"Why should you care Alec?" Jamie asked him, looking at the floor.

"We can all hang around at weekends and I'm not stopping you hanging around when Rose is there either. That was your choice Jamie," Alec reminded him, Billy looking at him.

"That's not what you told us Jamie," Billy reminded him.

"Are we done?" Alec asked, since there wasn't a lot of time left.

He knew Jamie had some explaining to do now but just to show him he was disappointed in his friend, he decided he'd still sit with Rose, unless she was going back to sitting with Sandra.

They had history after the break, John trying not to grin that Rose and Alec had sat next to each other and he surmised Jamie felt he'd had his nose pushed out or it was self-imposed in protest?

"Right class. Who can tell me about the Highland clearances? Someone other than Alec," he added with a grin.

In the dining hall, John was watching from a distance as Alec went to join Rose and they were talking. He hoped his young cousin would get the bottom of why Rose was worried but if anyone could, it would be him since he wanted to join the police.

"Do ya think it was wise to sit next to me all morning?" Rose grinned.

"We can sit where we like within reason for the first few days. What about at your old school?" he asked, opening his lunch box after they'd been to their lockers.

He thought at least now they didn't have to wear their blazers all day and they'd both put their jumpers on.

"Oh, we just flitted around, the teacher didn't really care as long as we showed up and were weren't pushing each other," she teased him.

Alec saw she was joking.

"Not asking what I was talking about earlier?" he asked.

"It's nothing to do with me who you talk to Alec. Sandra's still friends with me but she's keeping her distance. See, not everyone's like Jamie who goes off in a huff, you can still be friends with him."

"I know. I'll call for him on Saturday morning, while you go shopping with your mum. He'll come round, don't worry about it. You are still coming round to do your homework?" he asked to make sure.

"Yeah but we'd best not call at Jamie's," she teased him, considering the alternative of Bob getting home early for a change and he'd find out she did all the cooking.

She wondered how her mother explained the weekends, when she insisted Rose went in to help her and that if he was really as clever as he made himself out to be, he'd have worked it out by now? Maybe he didn't want to?

John watched the two of them from where he was sitting and resisted the urge to cross over and talk to them but doing that too often would surely arouse suspicion or that they were the teacher's pet pupils. As everyone wandered outside though, he noticed the pair of them go sit in the same spot and everyone else seemed oblivious to the fact this was the third day in a row they had done so. Maybe no-one was bothered and he'd heard no incidents involving the two former troublemakers but maybe that was the calm before the storm and the storm was called Rose Tyler.