Sitting in the canteen before the bell rang for morning lessons with a bowl of porridge in front of her, Hollie prodded at it half-heartedly, not actually intending to eat it. Kevin polished his off and began eyeing hers up as well, grinning as she pushed it towards him.

"Everyone?" Miss McFall stood at the end of the canteen and raised her hand in the air, clutching an envelope. "I have some terrible news. HMS Victoria, which was crossing the Atlantic with our food supplies, has been torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat..."

"Is she for real?" Hollie muttered, shaking her head and slumping back in her seat, folding her arms disgruntledly.

"… which means there will be no lunch and no tea today." A loud groan ran around the room at the news. Hollie scowled at the woman irritably as she continued. "I'm sorry, but living history means exploring genuine Second World War conditions."

"What?" Lula asked angrily. "Starving to death?"

"Yeah! We're Hank Marvin, Miss!" Darren agreed.

"Which is why," the woman continued, "we are going to do what people did during the war years."

"Order in a pizza?" Barry asked sarcastically, crossing his fingers hopefully. Hollie laughed, shrugging when Kevin shot her a look.

"No… we are going to forage!"

"Eh?" Hollie arched an eyebrow. "That's not going to end well…"

"Now different groups are going to be exploring different environments. One group might go to the sea shore and look for cockles…" She paused as a childish snigger ran around the canteen at her words.

"Cockles?"

"Cockles are shellfish. Others might go to the fields for berries or into the woods to look for mushrooms. But please, please, please, no one may pick or eat anything without a teacher's approval. Now, is that understood?"

"Oh god… shoot me now…" Hollie muttered, resting her head on her arms on the table.

"And then Mrs Budgen will rustle up something from what we've provided into a delicious meal."

The look on Maggie's face was enough for everyone to realise that she hadn't been given any warning that this was coming. Hollie shook her head again, disbelief on her face as she stared at her history teacher. Kevin was grinning at her cheerfully, obviously thrilled by the new turn of events. As they rose to head to their first lesson, a session on war poetry with Mr Lowsely, the boy chattered enthusiastically while Hollie did her best to tune out her boyfriend's voice.

Miss McFall noticed that Hollie was approaching the day with far less enthusiasm than she would have expected from the teenager, but was at a complete loss as to how to encourage her to join in. Everything she tried seemed to fall flat, the girl seemingly off in her own little world rather than focusing on the tasks at hand.

"Is there somewhere you have to be, Miss Boston?" The history teacher asked at last, gaining no response from her pupil. "Miss Boston? Hollie Boston, will you listen, please!"

"Huh?"

"What's the matter with you, girl? Should I ask your mother to–?"

"No!" Hollie snapped. Then she seemed to catch herself and jerked her shoulders slightly. "Sorry, Miss, I… sorry."

From then, trying to divert attention away from herself as much as possible, Hollie joined in with what was expected of her. She smiled and laughed in the right places, answered the right questions and made the correct statements. She said and did all the right things, but Hollie was not at all invested in any of the things she participated in and it was obvious. Hollie downright refused to attend Mr Lowsley's break-time poetry reading with Dynasty and Imogen preferring to escape out to the park down the road with Scout and Zoe, neither of whom were particularly enthused by the events of the week either, instead.

Hollie trailed down to the beach with the seashore group, looking as though she was being forced to go to her death, rather than a trip foraging for anything edible they could find. Nikki perched herself on a large rock, keeping a careful eye on the teenagers as they spread out in the space and began digging around in the rock pools.

After a while, Hollie distanced herself from Zoe and Scout who were mucking around and throwing seaweed at each other, to sit on the rock beside her mother. In their matching blue boiler suits, arms folded across their chests, their physical similarities were more obvious than usual.

"Audrey said you don't seem to be enjoying yourself." Nikki said softly, glancing sideways at her daughter who was fiddling with one of her large hooped earrings. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just don't see the point in all this… crap."

"Hol?"

"Look… what I said about you and Tom dealing with this better or splitting up… I meant it." She told the woman in a low voice. "I'm not saying that I want you to split up or anything, but I'd rather you were both happy than… than… this." As Nikki opened her mouth to speak, the girl shook her head. "I know you're trying, Mum. I saw how he acted. But I get why he's angry that you hid something from him again."

"So do I." Her mother agreed. "But I don't know what to do!"

"Well maybe you should tell him that? Put the ball in his court and see what happens?"

"But what if–?"

"Miss, is this a muscle or a cockle?" Kacey interrupted, holding something in their direction.

"Neither, it's a limpet." Nikki told her, sliding off the rock and making her way over.

"They're really hard to get off the rocks. They're stuck on like… like it's…"

"Limpets?"

Kacey laughed. "Yeah!" Then she frowned. "I dunno how we're gonna cook these, though."

"Well, that's a challenge for Mrs Budgen." The woman said, taking her seat beside her daughter once more. "Shove over, love."

Hollie did as she was told, almost toppling off the rock as Kacey approached, lowering her voice as she spoke. "Hey… isn't this a good chance to call Eve?"

"You just don't give up, do ya?"

"Nope… I'm like these limpet things!"

"Well, I'm sorry, Kacey, but can we just drop it, please?" Nikki asked softly.

"Miss!" Lula's raised voice cut through their conversation. "I've found something disgusting."

"What've you got? A crab?"

"Not exactly…" She raised whatever it was out of the rock pool on the end of a stick. "It's a tampon."

"Ahh… nice…" Nikki curled her lip in disgust, shaking her head and glancing at her watch. "Twenty minutes, guys."

When Kacey had wandered over to re-join Lula and Harley, Hollie fixed her mother with a knowing look. For a couple more moments, Nikki pointedly refused to acknowledge her presence. Finally, when the teenager resorted to poking her in the side, the woman let out a long, loud sigh and swivelled to face her.

"What?"

"Talking about Eve…"

"Yes…?"

"Can she come and visit?"

Nikki exhaled sharply. "Sweetheart… it's not the right time."

"OK, so not right now… but when you and Tom have figured things out? Can she?"

"Will she even want to?"

"Course!"

"How do you know?" The woman asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

Hollie looked at her sideways, under her fringe. "Maybe I asked her…"

Nikki frowned. "Hollie… Eve and I… we have a long way to go. Having her coming to stay with us isn't going to happen overnight. And when… if… she does come to stay with us, it's not going to be easy; Eve's going to see everything she's missing out on and she's going to be angry and upset and…"

"But I want–"

"This isn't about you, Hollie!" Nikki snapped. "It's about your sister and…"

"Mum… she just wants the chance to get to know us." The teenager assured her.

"Well… let's just see how it goes, OK?"

Nodding, the teenager slipped off the rock and moved back to where Scout and Zoe were peering as something in their bucket. They chatted and messed around until Nikki attracted their attention and told them it was time they returned to the school.

Her focus on Kacey's continued boxing training and the fight Nikki managed to arrange between the teenager and Nicola Adams managed to drive an even bigger wedge between the woman and her boyfriend. Hollie forced herself not to get annoyed at the amount of time her mother was spending with Kacey, but she could see that Tom wasn't half as willing to do so.

As half term approached, Hollie became more and more convinced that the couple were going to split up. She and Josh were almost constantly on the phone to each other, discussing the situation and coming up with ideas to try and smooth things over between their parents.

"The end of term can only mean one thing." Nikki announced to her year 13's on Friday.

Since she had returned to work fulltime, yet another reason that she and Tom were fighting, the timetables had been shifted around again to make things easier for everyone concerned. The only real change to Hollie's timetable was that her English lesson with her mother had moved from the session before lunch on a Thursday, to the session before break on a Friday.

"No more work!" Kevin song-songed enthusiastically, causing Hollie to roll her eyes and slap him lightly on the arm.

Nikki laughed. "Nope… Reading! For the holidays!"

Everyone groaned and Rhiannon even went as far as laying her head melodramatically on the desk. There was no chance for anyone to speak, however, as a loud knock came on the classroom door and Sonya appeared.

"Umm… have you… uhh… have you got a minute?"

The English teacher pulled a slight face. "Well… I'm in a class. Is it important?"

"Err… yeah… like, times about a hundred…"

"Right…" Gathering the pile of books, Nikki moved towards the door. "Rhiannon? Would you hand these out please? I'll be right back."

As soon as she'd left the room, closing the door firmly behind her, Kevin turned to his girlfriend. "So? What's going on?"

Hollie looked at him disbelievingly. "How the hell should I know? I'm her daughter, not her keeper."

"Yeah, but like… she tells you most things. Is it something to do with school?" He pressed.

"Like I said, how should I know?"

"But–?"

"She said she doesn't know, so leave her alone, yeah?" A Scouse accent cut across him and they both turned to look at Barry Barry who was lounging in his seat at the table behind theirs.

"I don't need you sticking up for me, alright?" Hollie snapped, frowning at him. He merely shrugged and smirked. Lowering her voice, the girl turned back to her boyfriend. "It might be AJ or something. I honestly don't know."

Not wanting to talk about it anymore, she turned to Dynasty who was sitting at the table beside theirs and allowed her friend to chat excitedly about Kacey's future. A short while passed and then the classroom door opened once more and Nikki walked in. She was clearly doing her best to stay calm and not give anything away, but Hollie saw through her mother's act at once.

"You alright, Miss?" Dynasty asked as the woman walked to the front of the class. "You're looking well ropey."

"Yeah, I'm fine, thank you."

"You might wanna work on your happy face, then." Barry suggested with a smirk. "Today's supposed to be a good day, isn't it? What with our Kace jetting out of here…"

Hollie narrowed her eyes as she looked between Barry and her mother. The bell rang and everyone else escaped as quickly as they could. Moving slowly, the teenager pushed her things into her bag and approached the desk. Nikki shook her head sharply, her eyes fixing on Barry instead as she called his name.

Reluctantly she left, waiting while Nikki pushed the door to and spoke to Barry for a moment. He smirked as he left the room, winking at her. Hollie rolled her eyes and walked back inside, looking curiously at her mother. Nikki sighed and shook her head, turning away.

"What, Mum?"

"Kacey's money should have gone to the college today but… it's gone."

"What?" Hollie breathed, her eyes widening. "Like… stolen?"

Nikki nodded. "The college have said that if they don't get the money today Kacey can't go. She's worked so hard… she deserves to go…"

"What can we do?" The teenager asked, placing her bag on the closest table and looking determinedly at her mother.

"Christine's phoned the police but… just don't say anything, Hol. Not to anyone." She almost pleaded. "We don't want this getting out. We need to talk to Kacey and her mum before we do anything else."

"Carol's going to kick off, ain't she?"

"She's not going to be best pleased."

"You think… Barry?" Hollie asked, frowning. "Surely even he wouldn't steal from his own family?"

Nikki sighed. "Your guess is as good as mine. With Barry I wouldn't rule anything out."

Hollie couldn't deny that she deserved being sent to the Cooler by her Geography teacher part-way through the double lesson after break. She refused, however, to apologise for telling Mr Hart to fuck off when he announced, in front of the other students, that her work was sub-standard and she wouldn't get preferential treatment in his class. The implication that Tom and Nikki went easier on her than anyone else was one that stung and the teenager reacted angrily on instinct.

Slamming her bag down onto a table in the back corner of the room, the seventeen-year-old slouched down in the seat and folded her arms obstinately across her chest. She completely blanked the other students in the room, not even entirely sure who they were. It was only when one of them spoke to her that the red mist descended and she managed to calm down enough to talk to them.

"You alright?"

"Do I look alright?" She snapped sarcastically. Then she exhaled sharply. "Sorry… sorry, Kacey."

"What you in for?"

"Told Mr Hart to fuck off." The older girl replied with a shrug. "What about you two?"

"I threw some books around in the library and told Miss Boston I hate her and she ruined my life. Stevie decked Mr Lowsley."

Hollie laughed. "Nice one."

"You aren't mad about what I said to your mum?"

"I've told her worse." Hollie said with a shrug. "She's a big girl; she can handle it. Besides, it's none of my business, is it?"

"You've ended up in here more than once for defending her before." Kacey reminded her. "I doubt those times it was your business either."

"Yeah… but this is different, isn't it." She reasoned. "I don't agree with you; it's not Mum's fault your money is gone. But I know you're angry and upset and hurt, just like I was when I called her a bitch and slapped her. At least you didn't physically hit her… or I would have had to beat your ass up."

Kacey laughed. "I'd like to see you try. Boxing champ, remember?"

"Yeah?" Hollie raised an eyebrow. "Shot and survived, remember?"

The door to the Cooler opened as the three of them laughed companionably and Mr Lowsley appeared. He reprimanded them half-heartedly for talking, before perching on the edge of the table beside Stevie's and talking to him in a low voice. He was obviously a little embarrassed about having to have the conversation in front of the two girls, but he blocked them out for the most part and focused on the boy instead.

They left a couple of moments later, leaving Hollie and Kacey to continue their conversation. They largely steered clear of America and boxing, the older girl realising it was an uncomfortable topic for her friend. Instead, they chatted about Eve and Dynasty and Kacey mocked Hollie for her relationship with Barry. Hollie rolled her eyes and pulled a face, laughing at the disgust that was sent her way.