The staff looked mildly suprised.

A middle aged woman with blonde hair tied up in a bun, raised her eyebrows.

'Aspinall?' she asked, as if making sure she had heard properly.

Anastacia frowned,' Yes,' she replied, unaware as to why her surname bothered this woman.

'Would that be any relation to Brett Aspinall?' asked a rather grumpy looking man, about 50 years old.

The new teacher bit her lip as if unwilling to answer, before nodding.

'He's my nephew.' she confirmed.

'I only hope you're not going to cause as much havoc as you did when you were a pupil here.' muttered the grumpy man, whom she then realised had been her english teacher during her time the Waterloo Road.

Ananstacia smirked, 'I'll try to behave,' she smiled.

A fairly good looking man with brown hair, who looked just a few years older than herself, was stood in a little kitchen in the corner, by a kettle.

'Coffee, Miss Aspinall?' he asked.

'Please,' she nodded going over to the place where he was stood, 'and it's Anna.'

'Tom Clarkson, english department, head of pastoral care and coach of the girls' football team.' the man told her.

'Well aren't you busy?' laughed Anna.

'No rest for the wicked,' retorted Tom, handing her the cup of coffee he had just made her as they stood leaning against the kitchen corner's worktop.

'So,' began Anna, 'What's it like around here?'

'Oh it's great. The kids are a lively bunch and there's never a dull moment, if you can handle the chaos.'

'I look forward to it. Makes a change from what I'm accustomed to.'

'Yeah?' Tom looked intruiged,' Why? Where are you from?'

'Oh I was born here in Rochdale. Grew up here, even went to school right here but my family moved away afterI finished school. My parents are very well off, my elder brother is a business man like my father was. They had enough money to send me to Oxford, where I got my qualifications and since my father was very well connected and knew one of the governors of a private boarding school, he pulled a few strings and I got a job there. After being in that job five years, I got fed up of it - it was all a bit too prim and proper - so I started looking elsewhere for a job.'

'Did you happen to choose this school by coincidence?'

'No. When I began job hunting, I knew I wanted to move closer to where I had grown up but it was Brett attending this particular school that sealed it, and the fact that I had attended here myself.'

'Are you close to Brett, then?'

'I hardly ever get to see him, to be honest. I am hoping that will change now that I'm living around here and working here. My brother Roger, and I don't see eye to eye so he always makes excuses when I want to come and visit. Anyway - tell me who everyone here is.'

Tom sensed that she didn't want to continue with the topic of her family so obliged her request.

He pointed to the blonde, middle aged woman. 'That's Steph Haydock, financial director and head of the french department.'

He pointed out another woman, who was in her mid-twenties and looked of an asian background. 'Jasmine Koreshi, english'

He pointed out a woman about Anna's age who had long blonde hair. 'Davina Shackleton, classroom teaching assistant.'

He nodded towards two people deep in conversation in the corner, ' Eddie Lawson, deputy headmaster and Matt Wilding, music and drama, who you've been introduced to already.'

He went through pointing out the rest of the staff and telling her their names and roles in the school until the bell went.

The staff began filing out of the staff room and all down the same corridor.

When Anna passed the door that she knew her new classroom lay behind she reached out a hand to the door knob, only for Eddie to tap her on her shoulder.

'Rachel wants to hold a brief assembaly before registration.' he told her with a reassuring smile - a reassuring smile he hoped would show her that he hoped she would be happy in her new job and not to worry, she'd settle into the way of things pretty same.

Anna nodded and followed Eddie into the hall, where the pupils were sat on plastic chairs and the staff were stood all around the room.

Anna decided to stand next to Tom since they had spoken a bit and he seemed like an alright guy, but Rachel whispered something to Eddie as he approached the stage Rachel was stood on and Eddie turned around and motioned for his new collegue to come and stand at the front if the hall.

Rachel went through a ' Welcome Back' speech and spoke about how she knew this was going to be a good year and such. Near the end of her announcements, Rachel turned her attention to Anna.

'And as our previous mathematics teacher has left Waterloo Road due to a nervous breakdown from which we all hope he will make a full and steady recovery, I am proud to annouce that filling the role for the foreseeable - and hopefully very long - future is Miss Aspinall.'

She looked at Anna and motioned for her to come onto the stage. As Anna stood in front of the student body, all eyes were on her. Brett was a very well known pupil in the school so the others wanted to know if their new head of the mathematics department was a relation of Brett's - she looked as if she could be with her floppy brown hair and icy blue eyes for those who were close enough to the stage to see her properly. She also held herself with the same air of natural confidence that Brett did.

Miss Mason - aka Rachel, the headmistress of the school - looked at Anna expectantly.

'Would you care to make a speech Miss Aspinall?'

Now everyone was looking at her expectantly and she could hardly refuse.

She cleared her throat and leaned in to the microphone.

'Hi, as Miss Mason told you, my name is Miss Aspinall and I will be taking over the role of mathematics teacher and will be head of the department. I am very pleased to be able to work with such promising pupils and I am sure that together, we can make our maths department stronger than the other schools' and beat them in all of the competitions. I also hope I can get to know you all as individuals and that we can maintain a strong working relationship. I look forward to working with you.'

The pupils gave her a rather loud applause, including a few wolf whistles and cat calls from some of the lads.

After a long two minutes, Eddie stepped up onto the stage.

'Alright, that's enough. Everyone get to your classes.' he bellowed.

Annna prepared to teach her first claas at Waterloo Road