A/N: Hi! I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for the long update with this chapter. The last couple of months have been mad, seeing as I went on holiday at the end of July, turned 18 in August, had results day and have had to prepare for uni! I did promise myself that I'd finish and post this before I go on Saturday too. Strangely enough, the first few paragraphs of the last scene of this chapter was the very first part of this that I wrote when I thought up the idea of a rewrite.

Anyway, most importantly I just wanted to say a massive thank-you to everyone who reviewed, story alerted, favourited and even read the first chapter. You guys are brilliant and you have absolutely no idea how much I appreciate that.

More thank-yous to Louise, my beta, for letting me email her with all of my frustrations at some stages of writing this and for the help she gave me.

Hope you guys enjoy this one!

Just for the record,

The weather today is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of:

A. Indifference or

B. Disinterest in what the critics say.

The rest of Monday and Tuesday went in a blur for Spencer and Chris. Spencer managed to get sent to the Cooler twice for picking fights with a John Foster's pupil, whereas Chris was busy with examining each of his classes' grades from the previous year, planning lessons and experiments and his duties as Deputy Head. Thankfully for Spencer, she didn't have another Chemistry lesson until the double period fifth and last period on Wednesday afternoon, so she was spared from any encounters that involved speaking to Chris in the slightest.

It was early Wednesday morning by the time Chris got round to looking at the final set of grades, which came from his Year 13 Chemistry class. He'd looked into any possible reasons why some students achieved much lower ones that they were expected in the lower years, so he felt it appropriate to do the same for the rest of his classes. Most of it seemed to be a result of what looked like laziness or disruptive behaviour during lessons, but there were some valid explanations, like a serious illness or family problems.

On this particular morning, fresh from the leadership team meeting, Chris wandered back down to his classroom. There was still plenty of time to start looking at the Year 13s' grades before first period started, as the pupils hadn't arrived yet and he didn't have a form to register.

He unlocked the door, dumping his messenger bag beside his desk and sitting down. He rifled through the stack of paper in front of him, eventually digging one out with the Waterloo Road letterhead printed on the top of it along with each student's full name; date of birth; exam, practical and coursework grades.

He skim-read the grade sections, not taking any notice of the names on there. He was fairly impressed; pretty much everyone except one student had done really well, achieving their target and/or predicted grades or better. Something told him that he knew exactly who this student was, and he traced a finger across the page to find the name Spencer Noëlle George in the exact same row. Sighing, he took out a pen and marked an asterisk beside her name as a reminder to look into it. Possibilities of how exactly he could do this filled his head, but he concluded that the fair option would be to have a look at her file, just like he had done with everyone else. He also thought of having a quiet word with her if he saw her around school before whenever their next lesson was – he pulled his timetable out of his bag and checked to find it was a double period fifth and sixth that afternoon – but quickly decided against it after remembering the exact same icy glare that she shot him every time they so much as walked past each other going down the corridors.

He still thought that he needed to speak to her about it before going ahead with the idea. Talking to Rachel about it first seemed like a better thing to do though, just in case she didn't think it was right.

He checked the clock on the wall to find that he needed to be in the staffroom for briefing in ten minutes. Maybe I could catch Rachel afterwards, he thought to himself. He got up again, picking his bag up and slinging it over his shoulder before exiting the classroom. He didn't bother to lock up, as he thought there was still ages before the pupils came in. He walked slowly down the corridor, hoping he'd be able to get himself a coffee before Rachel, Kim and Max got started.

Halfway through the briefing, Chris noticed Max looking through the far window with a foul expression on his face. Halfway through Rachel's next sentence, Max stormed towards the window and opened it.

'You, girl!' He yelled, making the room fall silent.

'What?' A familiar sounding voice replied.

'Cigarette out. Now.'

'No. One: It's before school hours, and two: I'm eighteen, thanks very much.'

'Don't be smart with me. Put that out, or you're spending first period in the Cooler.'

'Like I said. No.'

Before Max had the chance to say anything else, a stream of smoke blew through the window, right into his face. He started coughing, looking absolutely furious. Half of the Waterloo Road staff looked as if they were trying desperately hard to stop themselves from bursting into peals of laughter, and Chris could hear loud sniggers coming from outside. Max looked positively fit to explode.

'GET TO THE COOLER! RIGHT NOW!' He screamed, pointing at something out of the window.

'It – It would h-help if the doors were unlocked,' came the response, clearly in stitches laughing.

'Chris, open the doors, please.' Max turned around, shaking with anger.

'Uh.. Yeah. Right.' Chris looked at Max, confused. 'Which pupil am I supposed to be letting in?'

'I don't know her name, but she's short, with brown hair. Clearly one of the Year 13s. She had a redhead and a girl with black hair with her.'

Some of the teachers sniggered.

'Good look with that one,' remarked Grantly.

'Please don't tell me you mean –' Chris started to say.

'Come on, Christopher, just go.' He was tempted to answer back, but Max was still fuming so he just sighed, turned on his heel and headed down the corridor and walked towards the entrance.

No sooner had he reached the doors, he was greeted by the sight of Spencer happily stood there, cigarette still in her mouth. He rolled his eyes, then unlocked and opened the doors.

'Why am I not surprised?' He asked her, raising an eyebrow.

He could practically feel her looking him up and down, making him shift uncomfortably on the spot. 'What? It's not my fault my smoke rings are that impressive.' She quipped.

'Very funny,' Chris sighed, giving Spencer a look. 'In. Now.'

'Just let me finish this first.'

'Spencer..'

'Alright, alright! I'm coming.' She glared at him, throwing the rest of her cigarette on the floor and stamping it out with her foot.

'Thank you.' Chris stepped aside, holding the door open with one hand.

Spencer walked up the rest of the steps, pausing right in front of him.

'Come on.' He reached his free hand out to beckon her inside, accidentally brushing her lower back and sending a pulse of electricity through her. 'Ma– Mr Tyler's not pleased with you.'

The next few hours went by very quickly for the pair of them. Spencer earned herself a detention with Mr Tyler after school the next day ('Are you gonna go?' 'Fuck no!') and Chris worked on marking, lesson plans and teaching his classes. It wasn't until his free period the lesson before lunch that Chris had the time to be able to go to have a look at Spencer's file, then have a word with Rachel afterwards.

Once he'd finished talking to a pupil who'd been sat in the Cooler, he wandered over to Rachel's office to find her door closed, raised voices coming from behind it. Rachel and Max must be arguing again, he thought to himself, sighing.

'Can I help you, Chris?' Bridget asked him.

'What? Oh! Could you tell me where Spencer George's file is, please?'

'Just over there, third drawer down in the second cabinet.' She pointed to the row of filing cabinets to the left of where Chris was stood.

'Thanks,' Chris smiled, opening up the drawer and flicking through the students' files until he found the one with Spencer's name attached to it. 'Do you mind if I take this down to my classroom for a few minutes? I've got a free period now and I can have it back to you by the end of it.'

'Alright, but do I need it back.'

'Thank you.' Chris pulled the file out of the drawer, thanked Bridget again and walked back to his empty classroom. When he was sat back at his desk, he opened up the file and began to read.

Full name: Spencer Noëlle George

Date of birth: September 3rd, 1991

Tutor group/form: S4

Emergency contact(s): Renée George (Mother), Matthew George (Father)

Sibling(s): Olivie Leanne George, DoB - August 12th 1994

Attendance: 84% (Year 12 - Academic year 2008/9)

Previous education: Lycée Français Charles de Gualle, South Kensington, London: September 1996 - July 2003

GCSE grades: French - A*, Chemistry - A, Geography - B, Biology - C, Drama - C, English - C, IT - C, Mathematics - C, Music - C, Physics - D

AS grades: French - A, Drama - C, Music - C, Chemistry - D

(See next page for AS modular grades)

Previous or current medical/behavioural conditions: N/A.

Chris frowned, closing the file. There seemed to be no explanation for Spencer's poor grade last year, aside from what Tom had vaguely said to him on Monday. He checked the clock to find that there was still 15 minutes left of the lesson, so he quickly returned the file and checked on a student in the Cooler.

Instead of wandering down to the staffroom like he had for the past two days, Chris found himself heading upstairs to Rachel's office. He walked through the waiting area, smiling at Bridget before knocking on Rachel's door.

'Come in!' Her voice called from inside. Chris pushed the door open, stepping into the office, and quickly closed it behind him. Rachel was sat behind her desk, a cup of coffee in her hand with paperwork scattered in front of her.

'Chris, hi. What can I do for you?' She smiled, gesturing to a chair opposite her. Chris moved across the room, sitting down.

'I wanted to have a word with you about Spencer George..' He replied, shifting slightly in the chair.

'Right..' Rachel leant forwards, resting her elbows on the desk.

'I looked at the AS grades that my A2 Chemistry class got and I noticed that she only just scraped a D.. Then I had a look at her file earlier, and it says that the only subject she did well in last year was French.'

'Well, her mother's French and she went to a primarily French-speaking school in London for six years, so that explains the high grade in the subject. She's always spent a lot of time in the Cooler too, but last year in particular wasn't exactly a good year for her.' Rachel frowned, putting her cup down.

'Yeah, Tom said that on Monday. We didn't exactly get off on the right foot in the first lesson. She was late, disruptive and didn't seem to care about the class. I'm concerned, Rachel. Her knowledge of the subject seems to be very limited.'

'So what do you suggest we do about it?' Rachel asked, intrigued.

'Well, I was thinking that maybe I could arrange some kind of one-to-one after school sessions with her. Build her confidence up a little bit, seeing as she's so convinced that she can't do this, and maybe work on her retaking the AS exam at some point. This would be as well as going over topics that we covered in lessons.'

'Sounds good to me. What if she doesn't co-operate, though?'

'Then we'll find a way around it,' he stated defiantly, his expression faltering slightly as he noticed the look on her face. 'You don't think I can do this, do you?'

'Of course I think you can! All I'm saying is that Spencer is one of our most difficult pupils, so don't be surprised if she doesn't respond to the idea.'

'And what should I do if that happens?'

'I don't know. We could always work out another way. Let's not think of that now, just come back to me with any progress with it, will you? I'm interested as to how it'll work out.'

'Will do.' Chris grinned, standing up. 'Thank you, Rachel.'

Shortly after afternoon registration had finished, Chris' Year 13 Chemistry class slowly filtered through the door and into their seats. Surprisingly, Nat and Kate were exactly on time. Spencer, however, came in five minutes later, looking considerably ruffled.

'Spencer, you're late again,' Chris called. She just gave him a look as if to say 'and what're you going to do about it?'

Nat and Kate sniggered, and he turned to give them a warning look.

'Just.. Hurry up and sit down.'

Once the class had settled down again, Chris stood up and walked over to the board, writing 'Energetics' at the top in neat capital letters.

'Right.. The first unit we're going to be looking at this year is Energetics. It's an exam unit, so I'm expecting you all to be taking notes from now on.'

There was a series of grumbles as the class rummaged through their bags, depositing their books on the desks in front of them.

'That's better,' Chris smiled. He patiently waited for them to write down the date and title of the unit then continued to speak, jotting things down on the board for the class to copy.

'The first topic we're going to be looking at in this unit is lattice enthalpy and Born-Haber cycles. Lattice enthalpy is the energy required to make gaseous ions of the elements, and there are five steps of the Born-Haber cycle required to do this. The Born-Haber cycle was named after and developed by Max Born and Fitz Haber, and it's an approach to analysing reaction energies. Hess's Law states that the sum of the enthalpies found in these steps will equal the overall lattice enthalpy for the ionic compound. Endothermic steps are represented using an arrow pointing upwards -' He carefully started to draw a diagram on the board '- and an exothermic step is represented using an arrow pointing downwards. Each step is a different atomisation or ionisation enthalpy for the metallic part of the compound or an electron affinity for the non-metallic part of the compound. So, for sodium chloride, it's the enthalpy change when 1 mole of sodium chloride is broken up to form its scattered gaseous ions. In other words, you are looking at an upward arrow on the diagram. Everyone with me so far?'

Most of the class nodded, still frantically writing down the information he'd put on the board.

'Good. So the lattice dissociation enthalpy is the enthalpy change needed to convert 1 mole of solid crystal into its scattered gaseous ions. Lattice dissociation enthalpies are always positive. The lattice dissociation enthalpy for sodium chloride is +787 kJ mol-1.' He continued to explain how to work out lattice dissociation enthalpies for various compounds, then stepped back from the board to allow the class to catch up with him once again.

'Where the hell were you earlier?' He heard Nat hiss to Spencer.

'I.. I was with Wes,' came the embarrassed sounding reply. Kate gave a low whistle.

'Come on, then, how did it go?' She asked eagerly, playfully nudging Spencer in the ribs.

'Good, yeah. We ki-'

'Is there something you want to share with the class, girls?' Chris called, earning himself not one, but three glares.

'No, sir.' Kate and Nat sighed. Spencer just folded her arms, giving him a pointed look.

'Okay, now everyone's hopefully got this down, what d'you think are the main factors that affect the overall lattice enthalpy of a compound? Spencer?'

'Haven't got a bloody clue.' She shrugged nonchalantly.

Chris' eyes scanned around the class, thankfully finding four hands raised in the air. 'Hanna?'

Tall and blonde, Hanna was an ex-John Foster's pupil and the student who had got the highest AS grade in the class. 'The main factor that can affect the overall lattice enthalpy is size and charge of the ions that make it, as smaller ions are closer together and so it takes more energy to break them apart.' She recited, a hopeful yet questioning look on her face.

'Well done.' Chris grinned. 'To put it more specifically, the two main factors affecting lattice enthalpy are the charges on the ions and the ionic radii, which affects the distance between the ions. Sodium chloride and magnesium oxide have exactly the same arrangements of ions in the crystal lattice, but the lattice enthalpies are very different. The lattice enthalpy of magnesium oxide is also increased relative to sodium chloride because magnesium ions are smaller than sodium ions, and oxide ions are smaller than chloride ions. That means that the ions are closer together in the lattice, and that increases the strength of the attractions between them.'

'Spencer, can I speak to you for a moment please?' Chris called out as the class began to slowly file out of the room just overer an hour and a half later. Spencer rolled her eyes and turned around, folding her arms.

'Why?' She asked, remaining still by the door.

'I just want a word, that's all,' Chris replied, putting the pile of textbooks down on his desk. She paused for a moment, then eventually took a small step forwards.

'Fine,' she sighed, a touch of annoyance appearing on her voice. They locked eyes for a for a moment, but she still didn't move.

'I don't bite, you know,' Chris muttered, raising his eyebrows at her. All he got in response was a snort and Spencer rolling her eyes yet again. 'Alright, have it your way,' he said, swiftly moving forward so that he was stood beside her. 'Look, all I wanted to say is that I'm concerned about your progress with Chemistry. You only just scraped a D at AS and Miss Mason tells me that the main reason for it is that you spent most of those lessons in the Cooler.'

'So?' Spencer shrugged. 'S'not like I'm gonna get a decent grade in this anyway.'

'I think we'll find that's not true, don't you think? You proved yourself to be pretty talanted at this subject.. You got an A at GCSE.'

She said nothing, just backed away slightly and glared at him.

'Look, all I wanted to talk to you about is that considering you're going to be applying for university this year, I think you could benefit from some extra lessons after school to help you get your grade up in this subject.'

'What, with you?' She asked, frowning.

'Yes, with me. We can go through the things you find difficult, and-'

'No.' She cut across him. 'I can't do after school, anyway. I.. I have to go to work.'

He sighed, knowing that she was lying. 'Lunch or breaktimes, then?'

'How am I going to get any of my other work done?'

'Well, isn't that what free periods are for?' Her mouth opened, but no words came out. He smiled slightly, knowing he was right. 'How about a compromise? We do 1 session and if you don't like it, we can work something else out.'

She hesitated for a moment, thinking about it. 'Oh, alright.. If it gets you off my back for five minutes.'

'Good. How does after school on Monday sound?' He smiled.

'Can't. I've got band practice.' Spencer stated truthfully.

'Spencer..'

'I have! Ask Nat and Kate if you don't believe me. Or failing that, Mr Wilding.'

'Okay, fine.. Tuesday, then?'

'Yes, whatever.' She muttered, waving a hand dismissively. 'Can I go now, please?'

'Yeah, go on then.' Chris grinned. 'See you later.'