What if the storm ends?

And I don't see you

As you are now

Ever again

~ What if the Storm Ends?, Snow Patrol

Hands of Stone

"Need some help?" Alo was blocking out the now bright sky from Mini's view and holding a hand out in front of her face.

"Keep your manky hand away from me." She muttered menacingly before standing up by herself. She looked down at the other fallen bodies. Mini had been flung off to the wall of the community centre, away from the others. Liv was near to Mini, but not touching her. Grace's head was resting on Rich's stomach and they were absolutely still, as if they were pleasantly sleeping.

"What the fuck happened?" Liv asked, in a confused voice. Grace stirred at the noise and stretched her arms above her head before finally opening her eyes.

"What's going on?" Grace asked. She felt something move beneath her and her eyes widened when she realized who she was lying on top of.

"Sorry…" She mumbled, stumbling up into a standing position. Rich let out a low groan, as he winced in the bright light.

The door to the community centre opened and the probation worker was glancing around the destruction that lay before him. A bench was smashed up, a gate was bending at a strange angle and everyone was still trying to stand up straight.

"You did all this?" He shouted, but sounded puzzled at how badly things seemed to be messed up.

"Yeah, yeah that's what happened here." Mini snarled, her voice full of sarcasm. "Didn't you hear the lightning?"

"You can't hear lightning..." Rich said in an equally sarcastic tone with a roll of his eyes. He finally managed to stand up and get rid of his dizziness.

Mini stuck her middle finger up at him as a form of a reply. The probation worker was about to try found out what was really going on, because he hadn't actually heard thunder and now the sky was bright and cheerful. However Alo puked up his breakfast in front of everyone. The rest of the group pulled identical disgusted facial expressions at the sight.

"Uhh… I think I might've caught something." Alo said while wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Maybe I should take the rest of the day off?"

"Fine!" He said with a defeated sigh.

"Awh, that's ace mate!" Alo said, already heading towards the community centre door. The others trailed after him.

"Just him! Everyone else get back here!" Liv exchanged a sidelong look with the others and they all proceeded to cough, sniff loudly or make gagging noises.

"I think we've got… what he's got!" Liv called in between a fake cough. They hurried in before the probation worker could stop them.

"What happened when the storm hit us?" Grace asked when the laughter began to die down.

"Hey, we're fine… There's no need to worry about it Gracie!" Liv said, throwing an arm around Grace to give her a tight squeeze.

"Olivia is bang on there! So what's the plan for the rest of the day then guys?" Alo asked conversationally, while holding open the door to the lockers for them to enter.

"Uhh… going somewhere far away from you." Mini snorted in response. Grace giggled a little making Rich shake his head angrily. Grace noticed this and frowned. He turned away from her to head to his locker, but heard her reply, "What's so bad about laughing?" He couldn't resist saying something horrible back to this.

"Absolutely nothing, but normal people laugh at something funny." He raised one eyebrow cockily at her and took pleasure in the fact that he managed to insult two people in one go. Grace furrowed her eyebrows slightly and gave a small, disbelieving laugh.

"What are you talking about?" She asked slowly and the two other girls both narrowed their eyes at Rich.

"Right… So stupid you can't even understand me." He shook his head and turned back to his locker. Liv and Mini looked aggravated at the last comment, but Grace still stared at Rich's back as if she was studying him. Alo was watching the scene before him with slightly worried eyes – he was used to Rich starting up arguments with people due to his honesty, but Rich was acting a little strange.

"Well, I'm getting changed out of these shitty, rank overalls." Mini said in tones of disgust as she walked in the direction of the bathroom with Liv at her heels.

Rich was rifling in his locker for his shirt, but he could feel Grace's eyes burning a hole through his back.

"What?" He grumbled and Grace came to his side, so he could see her small smirk.

"What were you talking about earlier, Rich?" She gave the kindest smile she could and hoped she came off as understanding. "Were you talking to yourself?"

He lifted one side of his mouth in total confusion and was on the verge of laughing.

"I was just replying to you -" He was cut off by a loud scream. Rich and Grace snapped their heads around in the direction it had come from.

Rich chose not to believe what his eyes were telling him as he walked the few paces towards Mini, Alo and Liv.

"Wh-" This was the only sound Grace managed to make as she saw Alo's still body standing before her.

"He – he was trying to g-get something out of my fucking hair and I slapped his hand away…" Mini stared at her own hand in horror, as Liv began to back away from her.

"What the fuck did you do to him?" Rich asked, the fury completely evident in his voice.

"N-nothing." She chewed on her nails as she stared at Alo, who now was made of cold, hard stone.

"This is crazy!" Liv shouted, her voice filled with panic. She was moving her arms wildly about her in an attempt to calm herself down, but it wasn't working in the slightest.

"How could this happen?" Grace mumbled, moving closer to the statue that stood before her. "The storm…"

She turned around to see what the others reactions might be. Mini looked too much in shock to answer, Rich turned his gaze away from Alo to Grace and Liv shook her head wildly.

"All I did was touch him…" Rich heard Mini say and he turned his attention to her. She was slumped up against the wall, still staring at her hands.

"Touch him again," He said calmly. "You can turn him back… Just fix this and then we can start worrying about what's happened."

"That's the best thing he's said all day…"

"Yeah?" Rich asked, looking back at Grace over his shoulder. She seemed taken aback and raised one perfect eyebrow up at him.
"Yes?" She asked, moving away from Alo, so Mini could try to turn him back.

"Didn't you just say – Nevermind." Was there something wrong with him now? Was he just hearing things?

Mini cautiously touched Alo's face and closed her eyes, as she waited to see what would happen… Nothing. She knew it wasn't working, but opened her eyes to check if he had gone back to normal.

Rich's face fell and tears pricked annoyingly at his eyes. Before anyone had a chance to try other options, they could hear the footsteps of their probation worker approaching the door. They all quickly exchanged and just seemed to know what they had to do.

Mini ran to the door and pushed against it so the probation worker couldn't enter. Rich and Liv attempted to push and pull the statue towards the bathroom.

"What the…. Open the bloody door!" Mini widened her eyes in the direction of the gang as if she was asking what she should say. They didn't pay any attention to her, so she came up with something off the top of her head.

"Uh… I'm changing!" She could still hear him breathing on the other side of the door, so pushed her back up against the door.

"It would be good if you helped here!" Rich snapped at Grace, who was just holding the bathroom door open for them.

She left the bathroom area and placed both of her hands on the statue. Her hands began to tingle, as if she was getting an electric shock.
"Ouch…" She gasped and instantly tried to pull her hands away from him. However when she tried to do so, she couldn't. A pinkish gummy material that joined her hands and Alo's arm together wasn't letting her pull away. She shrieked and the others stared in amazement as the statue slowly began to turn into the proper Alo. Grace managed to break away from him when he turned back into a proper human. He fell into a heap on the floor and Grace fell on top of him.

The probation worker now broke through the door and stared at the strange scene that was happening before him.

"What the hell is going on here?" Grace and Alo began to stand up, and Mini walked over to where the others stood. "Never mind… I don't really want to know the answer to that. I think all of you seem well enough to continue, so we'll just have a fifteen minute break then back to work, alright?"

There were a few mumbles of 'alright' and the probation worker nodded with a slight hint of smugness, as if he had restored order. He left soon after, leaving the gang alone again.

"What is going on here?" Alo asked, his voice full of uncertainty and plain bafflement. "What happened to me?"

"Mini touched you and then you were… made out of stone? Then Grace touched you and you turned back…" Liv said, although she seemed completely confused herself.

"Right…" Alo slowly said. Rich gave him a pat on the back to express his happiness about Alo being okay now.

"Is it just me and Gracie with… something wrong with them?" Mini quietly asked, still glancing down at her hands.

"I don't really fucking know anymore…" Liv said, sounding like she wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Grace gave Rich a meaningful look, but he didn't say anything.

'You can hear me…'

A/N: This is so bad and I'm really disappointed with how this turned out! Sorry… Hopefully you're all still willing to give this story a chance :) Thanks for all the reviews so far!

And yes, you will be seeing the other characters later on in the fic!