"Annabelle?"

Annabelle sat at her desk in the English classroom, absent-mindedly doodling on the corner of a report she was supposed to be checking over. Her dark, decorated eyes rose to meet Miss Dickinson's bespectacled ones lazily; the end of school for Christmas was looming and she was deathly bored knowing she would have to wait until end of school hours to see Kelly, leaving her with very little motivation for her work.

"Yes, Miss?"

"Could I ask a favour? My friend needs to be picked up from the train station. I said I would, but I have a lesson with the Year Eights next… I was wondering if you could possibly fill in for me, just this once"

Annabelle's mind slowly processed the information, "Fill in… for a lesson? Miss, I'm not sure if I'm good enough for that…"

"Don't be silly, Annabelle. This is the year that grew up adoring you, remember? I'm sure they'll behave, especially for you." The older teacher patted her shoulder.

"You're right," Annabelle gave a lengthy stretch and pulled herself upright, trying not to show that her worries were not calmed, "Thankyou, miss."

"Just don't give in to their tricks and name-calling, and you'll be fine" She paused momentarily, "Oh, but you already know that, of course. They'll be carrying on from their last lesson; the books should be in the supply closet" She gave a wry smile, "I'm sure you'll be a natural"

-------

"…Ok, class. Settle down"

Standing at the front of a class of twenty-something (they were moving far too fast to count) young St Trinian's girls who were only just approaching womanhood without the presence of Miss Dickinson was, to put it bluntly, absolutely terrifying. Of course, to let them know that would be suicide, so Annabelle gulped and put on a brave face. Hopefully, her legacy would shine through and she would be able to get through the next hour and make a decent job of it. Just pretend you're still Head Girl; all the tricks worked back then.

She brought her fingers to her lips, hesitated for a moment, then let loose a shrill whistle that caused the entire room to come grinding to a halt,

"I said, settle down" She repeated, tapping a foot. The girls scurried to their chairs, with looks of fear, bemusement and respect. She gave the class a quick headcount, then asked "Where's Tabitha?" The girls threw eachother confused looks, as if they had never noticed their classmate was missing. Annabelle sighed; fine, one absent student was actually a godsend, especially for an English lesson. Still, she would have liked the entire class to be present for her debut. She picked up the pile of books from her desk and distributed them among the class, ignoring the groans of dismay and resent. This particular book had been her favourite in her youth, sat a quiet classroom of Cheltenham Ladies College, flipping through the pages and dreaming of something she was sure was reserved only for the popular girls. She had just made her way back to the front of the classroom and was about to bark out some more orders, when she heard the door creak nosily. She rolled her eyes in annoyance,

"Tabitha, you're late, as usual!" The younger girl slumped into her chair and pouted,

"But Miss Annabelle, I really did make an effort to get here on time! It's just; I was coming back from the Hockey Pitch…"

Annabelle was about to cut into her excuse with a retort when she noticed movement in the doorway from the corner of her eye and turned her head fully.

The curvy form of Kelly Jones was leaning against the doorframe, tongue running across her top lip in her trademark way, the corners upturned into a sly smile. Annabelle's mouth moved, but no noise came out. Tabitha's long-winded excuse fell on deaf ears for a moment, before Kelly gave her a wink and snapped her painfully back to reality,

"…So, I told Miss Kelly I'd show her to the classroom" Tabitha finished proudly.

"..Kelly, what are you doing here?" She groaned, rubbing her forehead.

"I hate to brag, Fritton" Kelly replied, slowly and deliberately, "But I'm the very best at keeping teachers in their place." Fritton. It had been so long since Kelly had referred to her by her surname; when she had earned the respect of the school, she had also earned Kelly's friendship, and the formalities between that had loosened. It made her feel so much smaller, but she tried not to visibly shrink backwards.

"Kelly…" As much as she loved having her around, her presence would make her even more conscious of herself. It was her first lesson and she had to make a good impression; she could do without any form of distraction.

"Oh, come off it, Annabelle. You won't even know I'm here" With that, she strutted into the class and lowered herself into a chair at the back of a room, crossed one leg over the other, picked up the book and pretended to become exceedingly engrossed in it, all the time a smile still playing on her face. She glanced upwards, eyes shining mischievously, "And for God's sake, stop staring at me like that"

The class chuckled and Annabelle tore her eyes away. She knew at this point there was no shifting her; even without her provocative acting. There was nothing that could be done when Kelly was intent on something. If Kelly had wanted her to, she knew she would have no choice but to dance the Funky Chicken in front of the entire dorm in a bathrobe (although Annabelle never told her this; she was better off not putting ideas into her mind) Sighing, she brought the book up to her face and took a quick look at the next extract,

"Fine. Everyone turn the last page we were working off. I need a volunteer to read out this next part, please."

Silence. Annabelle frowned, "Oh, come on, this is one of the most famous moments in literature!" When her plea was met with blank looks, she gave up and was about to assign the role to any random member of the class- eyes hanging over the unpunctual Tabitha- when Kelly lifted her hand and cleared her throat, looking dangerously serious,

"Pick me… Miss"

"Uh, preferably someone who is actually a pupil of the class?" Annabelle begged.

"Aw, come on, Miss Annabelle! Let Kelly have a go!" Yelled a girl from the front row, relieved that someone else was actually offering to do the hard work of reading. Her cry was taken up by the rest of the class, who cheered in agreement. Seeing that she was fighting a loosing battle, Annabelle relented fearfully,

"Ok. Kelly, from line 67, please"

Smiling at her easy victory, Kelly rose and began to read the famous words in an over exaggerated, sultry voice,

"She speaks!
O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art
As glorious to this night, being over my head
As is a winged Messenger of Heaven
Unto the white upturned wondering eyes
Of Mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,
When he bestrides the lazy, puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air!"

She recited dramatically, taking a step closer to the front of the classroom with each word of emphasis, not taking her eyes off Annabelle's for a moment. By the time she had reached the end, she was standing mere inches away from the teacher, an expectant look on her face. Annabelle hesitated, unsure of how to react. Kelly tapped a foot impatiently, "Why doth thou not answer, Juliet?" She asked, dark eyes still boring into Annabelle, one eyebrow slightly raised in challenge. Annabelle realised what she was asking her to do; she should have seen this coming, of course Kelly would try and make the next hour as uncomfortable and embarrassing for her as possible. The room fell silent with anticipation and awkward waiting. Still Kelly kept her gaze locked on her, silent. Damning the curriculum for choosing Romeo and Juliet as their subject study (and her own play-by-the-rules attitude, for actually following said curriculum) she began to recite the piece. No way would she lose. Not now.

"O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?" She looked down and deadpanned, trying to give no signs of emotion away, "Deny thy father… refuse thy name… Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn… My… L-love…" She awkwardly stumbled over the words, much to the amusement of the class, who snickered and whispered to eachother, "And I'll no longer be a Capulet" finishing breathlessly, she returned her gaze to Kelly, a slight blush on her cheeks. Challenge accepted. What else do you want to throw at me? Kelly grinned and, all too happy to oblige, took a few more steps forward until Annabelle could feel her warm breath on her face. Coming to a jolting realization, the blush on her cheeks darkened rapidly. Uh, actually, no, no, not in front of the class… She closed her eyes, failing to make her body protest in any way.

Thud.

Her eyes flew open. Kelly had thrown her copy of the play carelessly onto the desk to her side. With a slight nod, she turned away from her victim with an air of nonchalance, acting as if nothing had happened. The rest of the class sat in awe as she sauntered out of the classroom, closing the door behind her.

"Urmh… Right…" Annabelle faltered. What just happened? Had she won? Or, had Kelly succeeded in making her look like a fool? "Can you all make a start on question 1…?"

-------

The rest of the lesson went surprisingly well, despite the whispers and excited giggles behind her back. She had attempted to ignore them, knowing full well what they were discussing the possibility of; the very thought made her stomach clench. Of course not, right? They were just children; they didn't know what they were talking about, right? Her reaction, and the amount of respect she held for a woman who had influenced her life so thoroughly were perfectly normal…Right? After the lesson had ended, she had hurried down to the foyer in search of the ex Head Girl. Despite her embarrassment and aching confusion, she felt she needed to ask Kelly what on earth that was all about. She found her gossiping casually with Beverly at the reception desk, giving the occasional laugh at Beverly's wild re-enactments of… something. Part of her hoped they weren't talking about her, yet some part of her secretly hoped they were.

"Kelly!" She called, surprised at how coarse her own voice sounded. Kelly looked up, and Annabelle tried her best to make a stern face at her.

"Oh, hey, Annabelle" She smiled again at Beverly, "I'll see you tomorrow, Bev. Nice to catch up." She stretched and made her way over to Annabelle, "What's wrong? Tough day?" She asked, teasingly.

"Kelly… About earlier…"

"Oh, that? Stop getting so paranoid. That was just a little test to see if you could cope in St. Trinian's as a fully-fledged teacher."

"And…?"

"You passed."

Annabelle tried to suppress her grin of delight, knowing that she should be annoyed and not overjoyed to have pleased her friend, "Just promise you won't do something like that again, ok? You've put me through enough."

"At least you're not naked this time" Kelly pointed out shortly.

"…Good point."

"I should be getting on" She groaned, "It's my holiday, but I still have a bunch of paperwork to fill out. Your aunt tells me there's going to be a Christmas booze-up tomorrow?"

Of course. Tomorrow would be the last day of term before Christmas, "Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about that"

"I'll see you then. You better get me something better to drink than Trinski!" She smiled widely, before giving a wave, which Annabelle shyly returned. She watched, somehow feeling a little lonely, as her old friend pushed open the doors and walked away with her usual confident swagger. Despite everything she had done, Annabelle knew she had forgiven Kelly the instant she had looked at her again. And by the sounds of it, tomorrow was going to be fun. Life was good.
Oh my GOD, Belle, please stop staring!
Oh yeah. Except that. The taunting of her Year Eight class, along with her pounding heart and reddening cheeks, had turned her mind into a torrent of confusion. Annabelle didn't like being confused. She liked knowing exactly what was going on, especially with her own feelings. She would have to talk to someone, she decided. Someone she could confide the happening of the last few days (…Or… was it perhaps the last few years?) in. With a final (and sneaky) glance at Kelly, she spun around and made a beeline for Roxy's room, desperate to shift the weight off her chest.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet does not belong to me... Obviously...
Needed to get this chapter over and done with. Urgh. Just one more, and I can get to the part I've been itching to write. Thanks again for reviews, favorites, ect. Love you all!