A month later, Anna had settled into the way of things at Waterloo Road.
She was generally well liked amongst the pupils and she had made some good friends amongst the staff.
In particular, she had become close to Jasmine, Matt and Tom.
Her brother had not carried out his threat of making her leave and her relationship with Brett was growing stronger since he was spending more time at her house to get away from his dad and stepmum, who he got annoyed with easily.
It was three thirty of that day, when she was in the school car park putting all of the books that she had to marks in the boot of the car.
Tom, Chlo and Mika were getting in Tom's car across the car park whilst Brett was getting in his Aunt's car - since he was staying at her house for the night with his dad being out of town and refusing to let him stay in the house on his own.
'Miss Aspinall! Brett!' called Mika, jogging over to them.
'Hi Mika, what can we do for you?' asked Anna.
'Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?' she asked.
'Me?' asked both Anna and Brett at the same time.
'Yeah both of you. Chlo and I were just thinking and you know with it being Tom's birthday today, we thought we'd get you to come over - kind of a suprise.'
'That's a great idea,' said Brett.
'Yes, of course we'll be there. What time?' asked Anna.
'Chlo's cooking dinner for six o clock, so how about then?'
Anna agreed and that was how she found herself running around the house at ten minutes to six o clock.
'Where the hell are they?' she asked, pretty much to herself.
'What are you looking for now?' asked Brett exasperatedly fom where he sat in the living room, in front of the television.
'My red heels,' came the reply.
'Why don't you just wear some other shoes?' said Brett rolling his eyes.
'Because they look best with this top.'
'Why do you have to get all dressed up any way?'
'It's nice to look nice.'
'We're only going over the road.' he said.
'I know but I don't want Chlo and Mika to think I'm a boring teacher. I should wear something un-teacher-like.'
Brett sighed. He would never understand how the female mind worked. What did it matter what a peron wore to go to the house of some friends?
'OK calm down,' he said, ' I'm sure I saw those shoes in the porch.'
Five minutes later, Anna was stood in front of the dining room mirror.
Her dark hair had needed no styling, as in true Aspinall fashion, it was always perfect. Something that many peaople were jealous of.
She wore a pair of black trousers and a dark red halter neck top.
'Do I look OK?'
Brett made an annoyed moaning noise, 'You look fine, now let's go,' he sighed running a hand through his hair - something Anna did very often too.
'Are you sure?'
Brett was fed up of this now and placed a hand in the small of her back and pushed her out of the front door, locking it behind them.
Once they were across the road, it was Tom who answered the door. He was wearing the clothes he had worn for work - black trousers, a white shirt with thin purple stripes down it, tough had taken his purple tie off.
He looked quite suprised, as Anna handed him a bottle of champagne and kissed his cheek quickly.
'Happy Birthday,' she said happily.
'Well this is a suprise,' he said, 'What are you doing here? You gave me a present at work.'
Anna thought of the cufflinks she had presented him with.
'Yes I know, but the girls asked us to come over and we can hardly say no.'
'Come in then, come in.' he laughed.
They followed him in to the house where Chlo came in to the living room and told them dinner was ready.
Chlo made a delicious shepherds pie which every body enjoyed.
After wards, they spent a while in the living room watching television and generally hanging out for a few hours.
It was nearing midnight when it was decided that it was time to leave.
They probably should have broken up the gathering earlier, since Tom and Anna had to be in to work at 8 o clock and school started at 9 o clock.
Brett and Anna said goodbye to Mika and Chlo and then Tom walked them to the door.
'Can I have a word Anna?' he asked quietly.
Anna gave Brett a sideways look, before pulling the house keys out of her pocket.
'Let yourself in the house, I'll be across in a minute.'
Brett smirked and did as he was told.
'So,' prompted Anna, folding her arms across her chest.
'So,' echoed Tom, looking fairly amused.
'So what did you want to talk to me about?'
'Well I was wondering if you might um..' he trailed off and looked at the ground turning steadily pink.
'Yes?' probed Anna.
'Doyouwanttogoforadrinksometime?' he said very quickly. Too quickly.
'Sorry, I didn't catch that,' Anna said in confusion.
'Do you want to go out for a drink some time?'
A grin slowly spread across her face, 'Yeah I'd like that.'
'Great, I guess we can talk about it properly tomorrow.'
'Um, yeah I'll see you then.' she said shyly, turning to leave.
Tom watched as she crossed the road and found him self wondering why he was just standing there watching her.
'Why waste time?' He thought to himself.
He jogged across the street after her.
As she was almost at her front door, she heard him call her name softly.
'Tom,' she smiled spinning around to face him.
He didn't speak a word as he stepped forward, closing up the gap between them.
He put his hands on her cheeks and brought his lips to hers.
She was quite suprised at his forwardness but allowed him to deepen the kiss as she wrapped her arms around his middle.
The feel of him on her lips made her tingle and after a long few minutes, they broke apart.
'Well, that was..' began Tom.
'I know,' said Anna, slightly dazed by what had just happened.
He grazed her cheek with the back of his hand, 'I guess this is good night then.'
'Yeah,' she said leaning up and giving him a short but sweet kiss before leaving him.
He traced his lips with his fingers, a small smile creeping up on his face.
A/N - Don't worry, this is not the end. I won't make the story boring by getting the characters togther and all happy right away. There is trouble ahead.
Also - What is the deal with Roger and Anna? What is the secret?