Title: Highs and Lows at Bristol Grammar.

Author:

Characters/Pairings: Naomi/Emily, Effy/Katie.

Rating: M [For swearing, sex and everything else.]

Category: Romance/Drama.

Spoilers: None.

Disclaimer: I do not own Skins, or the characters. I can only wish.

Summary: Katie is dating school's bad girl Effy and Emily is lonely and confused with Naomi who can't seem to keep herself in class and can't seem to keep her head right.

A/N: This was actually really fun to write, I've always wanted a story about them all in school. I'd love to read it so I thought I'd write my own. Reviews are most welcome as is praise and constructive criticism.

I was still in complete shock as I walked home slowly. Ideas were going through my head as well as high amounts and volumes of confusion. Why was Naomi of all people like this? Why did she turn out this way? It must just be a phase, it has to be a phase, and she can't be gay because she likes boys, she must like boys because she is a girl but then again, looking back, she's never had a boyfriend really or even made a single comment about one, well not whilst she's been in my presence which is most of the time. Yeah, she's just confused, she has to be. She's confused because she hasn't really had the chance to look at guys as she does go to an all girls school, yeah, that's definitely the reason but then again, if it was only a short and simple phase then why would it be so hard for her to say to me and why would she get so upset over it.

Oh whatever, I can't be thinking of this and I can't be dealing with this at this moment in time. Right now I need to get home and I needed to get home rather quickly.

"Where the hell have you been?" My mother yelled at me. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"I'm in the house for like two seconds and you're already yelling at me!" I yell back.

"Where have you been?" She asked again.

"I've been at Naomi's! Are you happy now?" I replied.

"So that's where you went when you skived off after dinner then?"

"Yeah I guess" I said to her simply. Her face quickly turned to anger and annoyance as she heard me answer in a tone of voice in where there no was respect, concern or care at all.

"I am sick of school ringing up about you or Katie, or for today, about both of you, I'm sick of it. You're getting out of line Emily and I don't like it. This Naomi is changing you, it's awful" she screamed. I shrugged my shoulders and carried on looking at her with the facial expression of 'are you done yet?' and 'God, can I go yet?' She shook her head at me. "Yes you can go! Get out of my sight!"

"Christ! Finally!" I exclaimed as I walked out of the room and up the stairs.

I threw my stuff on to the floor and then threw myself on to the bed and looked at the ceiling. I sighed. I said I'd call Naomi, but in all honesty, I was too scared to now that it came down to it. I wasn't scared of my best friend, I was more scared of the fact that I would have to face what she was and who she was and that we would have to talk about it all. I didn't really want to accept the fact that Naomi different to me in yet another way. I didn't really wan t to face up to her living a different lifestyle to me because I didn't know anything about that kind of lifestyle. I sighed again and finally decided to brave it. I pulled my phone out of my shirt pocket and scrolled through my contacts until I found Naomi and then I pushed the button with the green phone on and waited for the call to connect. The phone rang, and rang, and rang, and then she answered.

"Hello Emily" She said. She wasn't talking like she usually did on the phone, she seemed upset, I could tell and feel it in the way that she spoke. She didn't seem like she was all there, usually she was bubbly and excited over the phone but then again, after what has just happened, I can't really expect her to be like that can I?

"Hi" I replied quickly.

"Did I scare you off earlier?" She asked. That was a good question, I might have said that she hadn't scared or freaked me out but I don't actually know if I was lying or not.

"Let's not talk about this over the phone, let's go somewhere" I said to her, hoping that she would agree, this wasn't a conversation that I wanted Katie or my parents to hear really, even if they could only hear my end of the conversation. I wanted to tell Katie what had gone on and happened later and I didn't want my parents to find out, I don't know how they would react to be honest, but with my mum hating Naomi already then I don't think it would be wise for her especially to know that I was talking to her about homosexuality. She would go off on one. I admit that I was a bit scared to go anywhere near her after what was said earlier but this really seemed like it should be a face to face conversation.

"Where?" She asked me.

"Anywhere" I replied. That's all that I needed to say. She agreed and I said that I would be at her house in ten minutes and that she should pack some stuff because it was going to be a long night full of talking most probably. I kept to my word and showed up at her house with 2 minutes out of the ten minutes to spare. I stopped outside her house and waited for her to finish sorting out her bike and when she was done, we rode out down the streets, eventually turning off down what seemed like an abandoned country lane or something stupid like that. It was an empty road, lined with green, fresh and alive trees. The wind blew through our hair and I nearly fell off as I lost balance as I wasn't paying attention because I was too busy thinking about other things.

We stopped off and started to walk with the bikes as Naomi showed me the way to a lovely little lake. It was wonderful, the water reflected the light off its surface as soon as the sunlight hit it, there were trees surrounding it and their branches were sometimes low and dipped into the lake. Naomi stripped down and eventually persuaded me too. She looked at me and I saw, I play fought with her and ended up pushing her in. I jumped in after and it was freezing, bloody fucking freezing. I didn't think that it would be this cold. That wasn't the worst thing though, when she was taking her clothing off, I found myself looking at her like I wouldn't look at any other girl. We splashed around for a while before deciding that it was way too cold to stay in the lake any longer so we got out and found different clothes to put on, thankfully we had both packed clothes which was definitely a good mood, although we only ended up wearing a t-shirt and jumper each. I took a hold of the vodka bottle and put it to my lips and took a long drink out of it before resting it back on the floor.

"You okay Nai?" I asked her. She looked up at me then carried on rolling her spliff.

"Well?" I was getting annoyed already.

"Not really, the weather's shit, the company's even worse" she said with a smile on her face, how cute. We drank and smoked, she was tipsy and I was more bordering a complete drunken state. We lay down on a blanket that she had brought.

"So Nai… how long have you been like this for then?" I asked, starting the conversation that I didn't really want off because I had the feeling that she wouldn't have started it at all. Probably scared to.

"A while now. Since start of term" She admitted, a light blush appeared across her face. Beginning of term? That was about 16 weeks ago now, that's a whole four months. It's been a whole four months since she started to get sent out of lessons, oh god, Katie was right all along. How did Katie see it and I didn't?!

"I see. So how did you know?" I asked in an intrigued tone of voice.

"Erm… I saw you. I saw you and my heart raced and pounded and it was harder to breathe around you, so I just knew that it was something and over the months, it developed and I found out what it was." She replied.

"But how can you be sure? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, very sure." She said quietly. I sighed. I took another drink out of the bottle. "Look I'm sorry Ems, I never wanted it to be like it is, I really didn't, but things happen, things happen for a reason so there must be some reason as to why I'm feeling this." I didn't really think of it in that way, that maybe she didn't want to be like this, and I've just found out that she didn't really want to be gay but she couldn't stop, couldn't help it and she definitely couldn't fix it. I put my arm around her and pulled her in to a long hug and just held her through one of the times where she needed to be held.

"It'll be okay, it'll be just fine" I told her in a reassuring manner. I heard her sigh and then she pulled away and pressed her lips to mine ever so gently for only a couple of seconds before she bit her lip and actually realised what she had just done.

"What was that?" I asked her, with a tremor in my voice, I was scared, she had just kissed me. That had shook me up, that wasn't supposed to happen.

"I'm sorry, so sorry. I didn't think about what I was doing, I didn't realise and, oh I can't do anything right anymore can I? Why do I mess everything up, stupid useless lezza" she ranted at herself before slapping her own cheek/ I grabbed her hand to stop her from slapping or hitting herself of anything else again. Even though I was still scared, I was still trying to play the best friend, trying to comfort her and putting her before my own reactions and feelings.

"I know we haven't talked about this much like we were going to but maybe we should try and get some sleep, maybe we should talk about this gradually, then you can take your time and mistakes won't be made" I said to her and this was truth, it wasn't because I was scared, I just didn't want her to keep slipping up and making mistakes then hitting herself to make her feel better about what she just done. I looked at her and she nodded her head.

"Thanks. That would be a lot easier Ems" she replied softly as she pulled another blanket out, a thick blanket and threw it over us before turning on her side. I heard her sobbing softly so I managed to turn her around. I wiped the tears from her eyes and face and kissed her cheek. I wrapped her in my arms and held her tight, letting her sob to her hearts content. I kissed her blonde hair and eventually, her sobbing stopped and all I could hear was her soft breathing and I felt it blowing across my neck, I was assured that she was okay and on her way to sleep so I sighed and closed my own eyes, begging for sleep to overcome me so I didn't have to think about the girl who was confused and gay in my arms, so I didn't have to think about the girl in questions breath blowing on my neck, driving me completely crazy and so that I didn't have to think about that soft, gentle and extremely short kiss that she given my lips. I just couldn't think about any of that, I was a little bit too drunk and I hope that in the morning she knows that my holding her means nothing at all.