Monday finally arrived and Tom and Hollie said goodbye to Nikki and AJ before heading to Waterloo Road. Tom had been in several times since accepting his old job back, but it was the first time that Hollie had stepped foot in the school since they left. She took a deep breath and smiled, feeling as though she was home.
"Oi! Boston!" A booming voice reached her ears and she turned, leaning on Tom's car with her arms folded over her chest as Zoe and Scout headed towards her across the car park.
They threw their arms around her and hugged her tightly, all three squealing with excitement at being reunited. Linking their arms through hers, the two girls pulled Hollie towards the building filling her in on everything that she had missed in the month she had been away. Apparently things hadn't changed much and Waterloo Road had been as busy as usual.
"Girls!" Miss McFall chastised as they made their way through the corridors. "Calm down!"
"Sorry, Miss!" Scout apologised, although it was completely pointless as, seconds later, Dynasty and Imogen spotted them and the squealing reached a new level. "Hollie's back!"
"And it's truly lovely to see you, Hollie," their teacher assured her with a warm smile, "but can we have less of the screeching please, girls."
"Oh my god we've missed you, Hols!" Dynasty gushed, hugging her tightly. "Have you got pictures of the baby? I bet he's dead cute! What's his name again?"
"Alexander John Clarkson, but we just call him AJ." Hollie told her with a broad grin, pulling out her phone and showing them some photos.
Imogen and Dynasty started cooing over the images, with Scout and Zoe crowding round to get a look as well. Hollie grinned and accepted the comments on his cuteness as though she had something to do with it. By the time they reached their form room she had promised that they could come over and meet him that evening, although she demanded that they let her check it was OK with Nikki first.
"What's your first lesson?" Scout asked as they left registration a short while later.
Hollie glanced at the timetable their tutor, Mr Green, had just handed her. "Free then Geography with Hart. You?"
"Double Chemistry." Scout said with a wince. "Fulman's OK, but the new one, Miss Spark, is rubbish. She couldn't control a puppy."
"That's shit… point her out to me, yeah?"
The blonde nodded and waved as she headed in the direction of the science block while Hollie and Zoe made their way to the common room for their free. With no work to do yet, the brunette spent her time being as annoying as she possibly could while her friend attempted to finish the Drama essay she was supposed to hand in that afternoon.
Just as Hollie was about to leave for her Geography lesson, Miss McFall poked her head around the common room door and informed everyone that all History students from the sixth form were required to go to the lecture theatre in the double lesson between break and lunch for a history session. As Hollie had double history with the woman then anyway it wasn't a big deal and she simply shrugged at Zoe and went on her way.
It turned out that they were going to be watching a film in the double lesson and Hollie yawned and settled herself on her seat beside Zoe, making herself comfortable.
"Right, quiet, please; settle down quickly." Miss McFall called out as the chatter began to die down. "Now I have a treat for you today. I have managed to secure a rare copy of the Origins of Conflict, a wonderful film. Now, each year will be doing their own project on this film, which is why you're all here together today."
Hollie sighed deeply, slouching further down in her seat and raising her eyebrows at Zoe, who smirked back. From the other side of the room Darren yawned loudly, causing the teacher to sigh with exasperation. It only lasted a minute or two, however, as an error with the disk in the DVD player made the entire room laugh and Miss McFall begin to panic.
As she struggled with the technology, the class began to have their own conversations. Hollie rested her chin on her hand and listened as Zoe told her all about the hot guy who had started working in the chip shop near the School House. She grinned as her friend wondered aloud what she could do to attract his attention, more to herself than to Hollie.
"Will you be quiet?" Miss McFall ordered just as the teenager was about to reply.
As Hollie looked up, her eyes fell on a tall man in some kind of military uniform with medals pinned to his chest. Darren raised his hand to his forehead in a mock salute and the two year 13's rolled their eyes at his behaviour.
"Mr Brown!" Their teacher breathed, as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Miss McFall, you were right." The man said and then dropped his voice so that their conversation couldn't be overheard.
Zoe nudged Hollie and the two girls watched curiously. It seemed to be quite a heated conversation, with a lot of hand waving and gesturing between the two. It was more interesting than listening to Harley and Lula's conversation, though, so they strained their eyes to try and hear what was being said. They had little success, but it was still quite entertaining.
"Is that your boyfriend, Miss?" Shaznay asked, winking as Miss McFall took the man by the arm and attempted to guide him outside. There was a wolf whistle and a lot of giggling.
"Silence!" The man barked, the effect instantaneous. "You, boy!" Darren looked up guiltily. "Give that back." He stepped forward as the teenager held out the hipflask he had taken from the man's satchel. "It's worth more than you can imagine."
"What?"
"Idiot…" Hollie muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes at his stupidity.
"This once saved my life." The man explained quietly, holding up the flask to reveal a small dent in it.
"How?"
"Well…" Miss McFall tried to usher him out, but he stood his ground.
"Can we hear what happened, Miss?" Harley asked, gaining a murmur of agreement from the others in the room.
"Come on, Miss, it's alright." Darren agreed. "It's better than that DVD."
"You are an impossible man." She said, before stepping aside and letting Mr Brown continue.
"I joined up when I wasn't much older than you. I had to trust that the people giving orders knew what they were doing. Like Miss McFall and you unruly bunch. We were on patrol in the jungle in units of three…" His stories were so interesting that by the time they were dismissed for an early lunch no one realised how much time had passed.
Hollie tucked her arm through Zoe's as the two girls headed back towards the common room, discussing the lesson they'd just had, before their attention was drawn to other, less educational matters.
By the time they managed to get to their lockers, a crowd gathered around them prevented the two girls from depositing their books and grabbing their lunches. Sighing, Hollie attempted to push her way through, but was soon stopped by Imogen and Dynasty, who squealed something excitably at her before moving away. Completely nonplussed to what they'd said, Hollie glanced at Zoe, who simply shrugged.
"Oh, Hols!"
The teenager looked up sharply, confused by the sound of her mother's voice. Out of the crowd of students Nikki appeared, with the handle of AJ's car seat slung over her arm and her jacket clutched in the other.
"Mum? What are you doing here?"
"I've popped in to see Christine. Can you watch AJ for a while?"
Not giving her daughter a chance to complain, the woman pressed a kiss to her temple and vanished, leaving Hollie to look down at her sleeping brother with a deep sigh.
"So you're going back part-time?" Hollie asked in confusion, twirling spaghetti around her fork and frowning at her mother.
Nikki nodded, finishing her mouthful and smiling. "I'm doing Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday mornings teaching some English and some PE, as of tomorrow."
"Wait… what? Tomorrow?"
"I can't sit around at home all day every day, Hols!" Her mother laughed at the notion. "You know me, I'd go mad!"
The teenager frowned. "But you're on maternity leave? What about AJ?"
"I've booked him in with a child-minder." Nikki explained casually. "She comes highly recommended and she can fit him in for two and a half days a week."
"He's six weeks old, Mum! You can't just put him in a child-minders! Tom? Are you OK with this?"
He smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder from his seat next to hers. "Of course, love. It's only two and a half days a week and, like Nikki said, she'd go mad cooped up here all the time."
"So… you're just dumping your latest kid too?"
Nikki's jaw clenched. "Hollie…" She growled warningly.
"Look… I have frees the lesson before lunch and in the afternoon on a Tuesday and the first two on Wednesday… I'll look after AJ then so he doesn't have to spend as much time with the child minder." Hollie suggested looking between the two adults determinedly.
"You need that time to do your work." Nikki said firmly, matching her daughter's hard stare.
"AJ really will be fine, Hollie." Tom tried to assure her.
"I can work and watch him at the same time." Hollie said, completely ignoring her stepfather's words. "Surely if I'm willing to look after AJ for free when I can then that's better than paying a child-minder to do it instead?"
Leaning forwards and resting her elbows on the table, Nikki raised an eyebrow. "So what are you proposing?"
"I'm free from about 12 on Tuesday, so I can go and pick AJ up and look after him until you and Tom get home. Then I can take him to the child-minder's before getting to school for Geography after break on Wednesday morning."
There was a pause and then the woman nodded. "OK."
Tom and Hollie were both surprised by her easy acquiescence. "OK?"
"Why not, if you feel so strongly about it." Nikki nodded. "We can give it a trial period and see how it goes. If you find that you need your time back to keep up with your work, we'll re-evaluate."
Grinning to herself, Hollie shovelled her dinner into her mouth. She escaped from the table and up to her bedroom as soon as she had loaded the dishwasher. Despite the large amount of work that still needed to be done so that she could catch up in all of her classes, she couldn't bring herself to open any of her textbooks. Instead, she lay on her bed and flicked through the channels on her television instead.
That was how Nikki found her several hours later when she went up to take her daughter a mug of tea. The woman smiled fondly, leaning in the doorway and watching the teenager who, for once, looked completely content in her sleep. Pulling the door closed behind her, after turning off the television, Nikki left Hollie in peace.
"Right, you lot!" Nikki shouted, addressing her year thirteen class from her perch on the edge of her desk. "Novels away; we're going to be working on entries for the National Schools' Poetry Competition this afternoon."
Hollie, along with the rest of the class, groaned at her words. The next almost two hours passed agonisingly slowly as the teenagers struggled to write poems that were deemed acceptable to enter the competition and be judged by Mr Budgen on his first day back at school.
In the end, only a handful were deemed worthy to be exhibited in the reading that Mrs Mulgrew had organised for after school. Hollie was slightly irritated and more than a little embarrassed that hers was one of them. She complained all the way from her mother's classroom to the assembly hall, where rows of chairs had been set out for the audience.
"We're going to listen to some of the brilliant entries that didn't quite make first place; one poem has been chosen from each year as runner up. Then Mr Budgen will announce the overall winner." The head teacher informed the staff and students who had assembled for the presentation from the stage at the front of the room. "First, from year seven, reading her poem 'Under Grey Skies' is Esme McGregor."
Hollie sat through the first readings, twisting her hands in her lap and waiting for her name to be announced. She knew that her Mum had been disappointed with Kacey's performance in the boxing match and, although Hollie couldn't say that a tiny part of her wasn't pleased, she didn't want to let Nikki down again. Her jealousy over the time that Nikki was spending with Kacey caused her to be almost glad that the younger girl had failed in the thing that linked the pair so closely. But, when she thought about it properly, she realised that she was just being stupid.
"Next up, from year thirteen, reading her entry 'Alone' we have Hollie Boston."
Feeling almost sick as she made her way to the podium, Hollie fiddled with the corner of her piece of paper uneasily. She took a deep breath and, keeping her eyes fixed on the words in front of her, she began to read.
"Memories like mist in autumn; start off so strong and solid but over time they fade and disappear until there is nothing left. Nightmares grasp the edge of sleep and take a firm hold; refusing to relinquish their grip even when the morning light rolls in to offer its own form of protection. Hopes so childish and bright; dimming and disappearing with every disappointment and cruel, whispered word that cuts straight to the heart. Dreams start off so convincing; drift further and further out of reach until reality forces the realisation that they will never become a reality. And then there's nothing left." Hollie paused for a moment, glancing up almost shyly to meet Nikki's eyes. "But then the nightmares fade and the dreams and hopes fight their way back into the light. Memories return, burning brighter than ever before. And you were there. You came back and so did the light. And now I'm not alone."
There was a round of applause as she finished. Making her way back to her seat beside Kevin, Hollie was sure that she'd seen her mother wiping her eyes. A small smile twisted her lips at that; not because she'd made Nikki cry, but because what she'd written had obviously touched her mother. For that, she was content.
Mrs Mulgrew took her place at the front once more, still clapping. She smiled around, before motioning towards the front row of the audience. "Mr Budgen, our most experienced English teacher, has in his possession… well, I'll let him tell you for himself. Mr Budgen?"
"Err… this is a fantastic body of work." He announced, with far more enthusiasm than most of them had ever heard coming from him before. "My congratulations to all who entered the competition." He chuckled lightly. "To be honest with you, I didn't feel like coming back to work today and had it not been for a certain person pushing me, quite literally on occasion, I wouldn't be standing here now." There was a pause and he swallowed thickly. "To the competition… err… I have an apology to make… to the author of this." He held up a tatty, ripped scrap of paper with a warm smile. "It is so good I didn't believe he wrote it. But he did. I just hope he can forgive an old dog who's run out of tricks. The winning poem; For You, by Harley Taylor."
Loud applause filled the hall as Harley stood and made his way to the podium where Mr Budgen stood. He waved his hand away as the teacher attempted to hand him his poem. "I know it off by heart anyway."
"For you." He began. "If I could pray your pain away, I surely would. If I could hold you fast until your pain had passed, I'd try. If I could cry your weary tears well dry, I'd weep. All I have are words and words alone. But these few words I have hewn from dank and unyielding pits and torn by wretched tattered hands in charcoal; dark and bitter, brittle stone. These are my words and I have polished them… for you."
As the applause for Harley died down, Maggie's terrified and pain-filled cries filled the room. It was only then that they realised what had happened. A hush descended over the room as they realised that there was nothing anyone could do.
Mr Budgen was dead.