It's been awhile, so… you may wanna go back and re-read… I know I had to…

Chapter 4: Home Sweet Home

Pale and nimble fingers subconsciously contorted the numerous chain necklaces dangling from the irregularly skinny girl's neck. The girl released her grasp on the necklaces, unable to sit still for a moment longer; she raised her hand in silent request.

The bearded man in front of the room didn't notice, just continued mumbling curses under his breath while he flipped through the pages of the textbook. The girl's cold voice cut through the whispers and chuckling of the other students, her request no longer silent, "Kieran?"

The bearded man continued flipping through the book. "What?"

"I need to use the toilet."

"Right… Right. Fucking toilet. Oh." He looks up from the book meeting her cold blue and waiting eyes, realizing she had really just asked a question, and he hadn't actually answered. "Right, off you go then."

The room is filled with hushed laughter at Kieran's slow mindedness while the scarcely covered girl scoots her seat back and walks out of the room without another sound. Kieran cursed that he lost his train of thought then went on a rant on how students shouldn't need to interrupt every time they couldn't hold their bladder. It's not like he gave a shit if they left, he was getting paid to stand in front of the classroom and talk, whether there was ten students or one.

A boy with short and brown hair gets up from his seat; the guy next to him gives him a questioning look which is just answered with a rustle to his shaggy black hair. "I'll be back Freddie, dun' you worry." Freddie just rolled his eyes at his friend's antics, annoyed, and fixed his messed up hair. The standing boy wiggled his eyebrows and started to head for the door when the bearded guy stopped him.

"And what the bloody fuck are you doing?"

"I have to piss Kieran, thought I'd spare you the interruption…" He gave the teacher a cheeky smile, knowing he wasn't going to be denied.

"Cook…" The teacher attempts to come up with something but relents, "Whatever, I don't give a fuck…" Kieran raises his hands up and drops them at his side in defeat, mumbling how all teenagers are evil little shits, manipulating the system every way they can; not that Kieran didn't think the system wasn't corrupt anyway…

Cook laughed as he exited the door and started to run down the hallway banging on all the lockers he passed making a ruckus and pissing off any teachers giving lessons nearby. He jumped down the staircase to the ground level and exited through the main entrance, his eyes caught sight of his prey. He walked up behind the girl exhaling smoke and grabbed the fag out of her hand, taking a drag as she turned to look at the thief, even though she knew who was coming before the person had even decided to follow her.

"Sharing is caring." He shrugs holding the fag back out to her as he blows smoke rings in her direction.

She smirks and starts to walk away, knowing that he'll still follow her. She's about halfway down the hill when she finds what she was looking for. She flicks the fag into the air behind her, allowing Cook the chance to catch it, before taking a seat next to the girl sitting alone.

The blonde didn't turn her head to look who had joined her; she just sniffed and said through her tears, "I'm such a tit."

"Yeah, sometimes you are." Two pairs of blue eyes meet each other, each pair so different from the other yet somehow still able to share an understanding.

The brunette looks to Cook, and he obeys the silent command, taking a seat on the other side of the distressed Naomi.

"What did you do, babe?"

The blonde turned away from the blue eyes watching her and stared at the clothes still on the ground in front of her in a pile. Her voice was shaky as she told them the various important details of the eventful past two days all beginning with the sudden and highly unexpected intrusion of Emily…

…

"So you mean to say there is a half-naked red-head running around Bristol looking for some love?" Cook couldn't help himself; he was the most single-minded boy that any of the gang had met. Cook would even admit it, with his classic cheeky grin. Despite how frequent and uncontrolled the crude statements were, it didn't excuse him from the smack over the head he always got if he was in Naomi's company, especially if she was in no mood for humor.

This time the smack was joined with an annoyed glare from the other girl.

"Effy, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing anymore… I'm just so fucked up…" Naomi's blue eyes are rimmed with red, wet from sobbing all morning.

"Why don't you just take a break from school for a bit? Do that volunteer work you were going on about, might get you back to being your old self and distract you a little from that girl who's fucking with your head."

Naomi gives Effy an incredulous look, she's never 'ditched' school except for the few times that Cook and Effy had kidnapped her or blackmailed her into joining them.

"C'mon Blondie, you're an ace student, I bet you the teachers will be celebrating you being out of the building… I mean every fucking thing is a debate with you, and problem is, you're right most of the time… get's right fucking annoying." Cook adds, making Effy's plan at least somewhat rational.

"Oh, shut up." Naomi smiles shyly, knowing that was Cook giving her a compliment.

"You know you're clever babes, you don't need school. You know taking a break is the smart thing to do." He knows he's manipulated her, but he only does it because it's for Naomi's best and he care about her. When Blondie isn't looking, Effy gives Cook a nod of approval, a job well done.

"Fuck it. You're right." Naomi stood up and lifted her bike off the ground, climbing onto it. "I'm going to go home and take a nap. I didn't get any fucking sleep last night." The blonde was ultimately okay with leaving school for awhile to be helping other people, the main reason she had been attending school anyway; so that she could eventually make a proper and respectable career out of volunteering.

"Cheers!" Cook shouted, watching as his troubled friend pedaled off down the hill before turning to Effy and wiggling his eyebrows, "And then there were two…"

"Fuck off, whore." Effy mumbled, smirking as she got up and headed toward the car park instead of back inside the building. Cook laughed hard at the insult, knowing it was good-hearted teasing as he walked with her, always reliably persistent.

Emily was too upset to really focus on the fact that she was running around a city she wasn't very familiar with in only her underwear and bra. She was too frustrated, her mind still repeating Naomi's bothersome words and sad face over and over to even hear the whistles coming from random guys standing outside of one of the bars she passed.

She almost smiles for a second when she realizes she's right by the gas station, where Thomas had originally found her. However, she's nervous and still unsure if she wants to see him again or just completely forget about everything when she sees him running across the street starting to pull off one of his jackets. Emily lifts her arms and folds them over her chest to try and be a little modest when Thomas is so close that she can hear him breathing.

"Emily, what happened?"

She stares at him silently. He sighs sadly, and gives her the jacket dangling in his hands and wraps it around her shoulders. A tear falls down her face, despite her not wanting to show this unhappy side of herself in public; she had shown Naomi way too much, had let it get out of her control.

Thomas catches her tear with his finger and pulls her into a hug to warm up her cold body. "Never mind what happened. I'll take you back to the house." He whispers calmly as he starts to walk her in the direction of it.

"No." Emily stops, forcing Thomas to come to a halt as well. For a second he gives her a confused look then realizes that odds are her anger and sadness may have something to do with the Campbell's… most likely Naomi as he knew Gina was not likely to have this bad effect on Emily. He thinks for a moment before coming up with a better solution. He takes Emily with him into the gas station before flipping through an address book and finding what he was looking for.

"I think I may know a better place for you…" She agrees to go with him. They walk there, and Emily feels mightily self-conscious wearing the baggy jacket that is hardly long enough to cover her underwear. But she feels safer with Thomas, noticing the way he glares at any of the guys ogling her on the way.

He opens up the wooden door to the building for Emily and follows her inside to a lobby area. The place looks very mismatched, all the furniture most definitely second-hand… probably stuff that was repaired just enough so that it needn't be sent to the dump. He talks to an elder woman behind a desk while Emily looks around, noticing that all the other people in the lobby are women, similarly dressed in thrift shop clothes… probably in the same circumstances as herself.

The warmth of the dark hand returns to her shoulder, taking her out of her thoughts and allowing her to focus on his voice. "They'll let you stay here Emily… I have to go back to work, and um, men aren't allowed beyond the lobby so I'll talk to you later, okay? Shelly will get you set up…"

Emily gives him a weak and grateful smile as he gives her shoulder a light squeeze and leaves the building leaving her to face the elder woman waiting behind her on her own. "Hello dear, welcome to the Women's Crisis Shelter of Bristol… have you ever stayed at a shelter before?"

"Um, no." Emily whispers.

"Right, well luckily for you we had one opening left. Come I'll show you your room and give you the rules…"

Emily nervously follows Shelly through another set of doors beyond the lobby and down a hallway. There's a room filled with racks of clothes where they make a stop, "This is the communal clothes, you can wear what you like, however you are only admitted two outfits to keep within your own personal room. One you're wearing and one folded away. At any time you can switch them with something else, but this is just to ensure that there is enough for everyone…" She sees Emily grimace and frowns. "Everything is washed between uses, and all the underwear is brand new, which you get to keep a few pairs of… Go on select what you need then I'll take you to your room."

Emily steps into the room, moving past a few people sorting through the racks. Once again she can hear Katie's disapproving voice echoing through her thoughts but pushes it away as she finds a pair of torn jeans that don't look too bad. They might be a little over-torn and probably a bit big for her, but at least she won't stand out wearing them. She then grabs a plain green t-shirt and takes some underwear when no one is looking, clearly embarrassed.

The woman is waiting for her in the doorway, and gives her an encouraging smile when Emily is through and they go down the hallway towards another room. Shelly opens the door, inside are a couple of bunk beds already covered in sheets and folded blankets. "There's no one sleeping on the bottom bunk on the right."

Emily lies down on it, needed no further persuasion, it feels good to be on a bed that she won't have to feel guilty sleeping on, but she remembers there are rules about this place and sits back up to the woman still standing there. "You said there are rules?"

"Yes, during the day you are expected to be working, you don't need to look for a job as it's already set up if you choose to stay here. Not to worry, the position open is a filer for the generous agency across the street. They'll pay you, and with that money you should be balancing saving up for something important. There are no drugs or sex, or men on the premises. If you're caught doing drugs outside the home you'll be kicked out… You are expected to participate in helping around the shelter, switching between cooking duty and laundry and cleaning. However, your pay from the job is yours to keep, and stay and the meals are free… Do you have any questions, Emily?"

"When do I start working?"

"Tomorrow."

"Thanks."

"And Emily… if you need someone to talk to, the women here are very… understanding… Oh! And don't forget to be respectful of the other residents… we aren't very tolerant if there are any reasonable complaints so, don't do anything regrettable… You good then?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Sure thing." Shelly shuts the door behind her and leaves a very tired Emily to fall asleep under the covers of the bunk bed. However, that was only after she had herself a deep cry… unable to escape the reality of the desperate situation and the loneliness she was feeling.

Aww. Poor Ems. Hope y'all like this story… things will be getting better … but first… they'll be getting worse. –Cackles.

;) Teasing was too tempting. Hope to update this soon. Tootles.