Sorry about the quality of my last update, had to write it on my kindle which was really difficult and I was rushing so didn't check through it. Also I started writing this a while ago but haven't had chance to finish it until this morning so apologies for the delay.

The end of the summer holidays had arrived so it was back to the usual morning getting ready for school.

Chloe was actually quite looking forward to going back, she always quite liked the first day back but she knew this would soon change once she was actually back.

It was Ellie's first day at Waterloo Road and although she was excited about starting secondary school she was also quite anxious about going to a bigger school with lots of people. She'd loved primary school so had been sad to leave, but now she was feeling ready to go to Waterloo Road.

Rachel was rushing around trying to get everything sorted, having two more kids in the house was making it a lot more stressful than usual especially when you had a little 5 year old to get ready.

Rachel was in the middle of brushing of Ruby's hair which wasn't easy when she kept trying to pull away.

"Ow, you're hurting me" Ruby said who seemed to be feeling reluctant to go back to school.

"I wouldn't if you stayed still, come on I'm nearly done"

Rachel finished brushing Ruby's hair before putting the top half of it into a French plait. She didn't really have time for it but when Rachel picked up on the fact Ruby was feeling anxious about going back to school she promised to do her hair however she liked.

"There you go all done, do you like it?"

"Yes thank you, Auntie Rachel do I definitely have to go to school today? Can't I just stay with you for one more day?"

"I'm not allowed to let you stay off school for no reason, why don't you want to go?"

"I just don't"

"Are you sure there's nothing you're worried about? Because if you tell me I might be able to help you"

"There's nothing"

"Well make sure you tell me if there is, won't you?"

"I will"

"Anyway I'm going to go and get stuff out for breakfast"

Rachel went down and got it ready before shouting them down.

Ruby was already in the kitchen and it wasn't long before Phil was down too but there was still no sign of Chloe or Ellie. Amy was still in bed and Chris had left for work.

"Chloe, Ellie breakfast"

Chloe materialised. Rachel happened to turn around as soon as she walked into the kitchen so noticed the length of her skirt at once.

"That skirts way too short pull it down now"

"It's not that short"

"We're tightening up on uniform this year so there's no way you'll get away with it"

"You say the same every year, but give it to the end of the month and none of the teachers will care anyway for another few months when you go strict again for a few days. It's always the same Mum"

"Well this year it's going to be different and there's no way I'm letting you leave the house wearing a skirt that I could see your knickers in if it was an inch shorter"

"No you couldn't"

"I could if you wore knickers that actually covered you"

"Mum you don't need to discuss the size of my knickers in front of everyone"

"Sorry love, but pull your skirt down a bit will you?"

"Fine" Chloe said

She did as her Mum said before sitting down at the table

A few minutes later Ellie came down when everyone was already eating at the table.

Rachel was shocked to see Ellie's face. Chloe had to try really hard not to laugh when she saw not wanting to upset Ellie. Even Phil was a bit surprised to see how different Ellie looked now that she'd covered her face in makeup.

Ellie sat down, she couldn't help but feel that everyone was looking at her which was making her feel self-conscious. Rachel didn't say anything for the minute deciding to wait until Ellie had eaten to have a little word with her.

Once breakfast was done Rachel gave dinner money to Chloe, Ellie and Phil.

"Ellie can I have a quick word upstairs love?"

"Why?"

"I'll tell you in a minute"

Ellie went upstairs with her Mum wondering what it was she wanted to talk to her about.

"Let's go into my bedroom" Rachel said smiling

When they got in there Ellie sat down on her Mum's bed and Rachel closed the door behind them.

"Now then" Rachel said sitting down on the bed next to Ellie "I think you might have gone a bit over the top on the makeup"

Ellie started to blush when she heard Rachel say this, she had hoped no-one would notice that she was wearing makeup.

"Have I?"

"If you go from wearing no makeup at all to having a full face then it's obviously going to make you look very different and I really don't think you need to, you're beautiful as you are"

"I bet all the other girls will be wearing loads of makeup like Chloe does"

"Not in year 7 my love, but you're right lots of girls do wear loads of makeup some of them even more than Chloe but not until they get older. How about I take it off for you?"

"Okay then"

Rachel went into her bathroom and got a makeup wipe out before coming back to wipe it off. Ellie really hadn't done a very good job anyway, her skin looked very orange and blotchy and the eye liner she put on hadn't gone well at all.

"Are you going to take it all off?" Ellie asked and Rachel nodded

Rachel realised Ellie probably wanted to feel a bit more grown up so when she'd done she went over to her dressing table and started rooting through her drawers.

"What are you doing Mum?"

"I've got a mascara in here that I haven't opened yet, so you can have that if you want"

"And wear it to school?"

"Yeah I don't think wearing a bit of mascara will hurt, but I really don't think you need to wear foundation or anything like that yet there's no need"

"Thanks Mum"

Ellie sat down at her Mum's dressing table and put the mascara on. She looked a little bit older but really pretty too.

Rachel looked at her watch and saw that they needed to be leaving soon.

"Are you nearly ready to go?"

"I think so, my bag feels really empty all I have in there in my pencil case and purse. Do I need anything else?"

"I don't think so, it won't stay that way for long though you'll soon be moaning you've got too many books in your bag"

"Do I need to bring my PE kit in?"

"I wouldn't bother with that"

"What if I have PE today though?"

"I'm sure the teachers won't mind on the first day"

Rachel rounded everyone up before getting into the car.

They drove to Ruby's primary school first to drop her off.

Rachel parked the car before walking Ruby up to the gate. Ruby was holding on really tightly.

When they got to the gate Rachel tried to let go but Ruby kept holding on.

"Have a good day at school love and I'll pick you up at the end of the day okay?"

"I don't want to go in Auntie Rachel"

"But you have to, are you sure there's nothing worrying you?"

"There's nothing, I just want to stay with you"

"I'll walk you to your classroom door but then I've got to go to my school okay?"

Rachel walked Ruby over to her new classroom where her new teacher, Miss Middleton, was stood.

"Hi Ruby, are you going to come in?" Miss Middleton asked Ruby who was now stood slightly behind Rachel and holding onto her leg

"No I don't want to" Ruby said with tears filling in her eyes

"I'd really like you to come in though because I've got lots of fun games for us to play today and look how bare all of the walls are, we need to start making the displays"

Ruby stood rooted to the spot she was on, determined not to go into the classroom.

Miss Middleton took hold of Ruby's hand and tried to ease her away from Rachel.

Rachel helped and in the end they got Ruby into the classroom but she was crying quite a bit.

"Have a good Ruby, and I'll be here at 3:15 to pick you up" Rachel said having to hold back her own tears

Rachel knew the best thing she could do was leave, so she left Ruby in the hands of her teacher and walked off. She could hear Ruby screaming which was making her feel awful.

Rachel let a few tears fall feeling so bad for leaving Ruby when she was so upset, but composed herself before getting back into the car.

She drove the other three to Waterloo Road.

Chloe and Phil went straight off to find their friends but Ellie stayed with Rachel.

"I don't know where to go Mum"

"I'll take you to the year 7 and 8 area, you'll be able to find your friends there"

As soon as Ellie saw one of her friends stood with a few other girls she'd never seen before she said goodbye to Rachel before going straight over.

Now that Ellie seemed happy Rachel made her way up to her office to get ready for her morning of assemblies.

She was doing the year 7 one first which she was looking forward to, welcoming them all into her school.

The bell for registration went and the year 7s were meant to be making their way straight to the hall so Rachel went down too.

She passed her daughter on the way and was pleased to see her chatting and laughing seeming very happy. Rachel didn't speak to her though as she knew Ellie wouldn't want any special treatment.

Rachel did the assembly and then the tutors started to read out the names of the people in their tutor groups.

Ellie was really hoping to be in with her best friend Jen so was disappointed when Jen's name was read out on Miss Haydock's register but she wasn't. Ellie had to try really hard not to cry.

Jen waved sadly to Ellie as she went off with her tutor group.

Ellie's name was read out on the next register and she wasn't with anyone she knew other than one girl from her primary school, but she didn't really like her and they weren't really friends.

Now Ellie really did want to cry but she didn't want to show herself up so asked her tutor if she could go to the toilet.

She was told to wait until she knew where her form room was so she held back her tears until she was eventually allowed to go to the loo.

As soon as she was in the toilet Ellie had a cry, not liking being at Waterloo Road and wishing she could be back at Primary school.

Ellie was still feeling upset but she wiped her eyes before going to her tutor room.

They were meant to be spending the morning with their tutor groups and then after lunch it was team building activities as a whole year.

Ellie was sitting with a few girls but she wasn't really talking or making an effort to make friends. She just wanted to be in the same tutor group as Jen or at least one of her friends.

At break time everyone was making their way outside but Ellie didn't feel like being with her year even if she could've found her friends.

Instead she walked off in the other direction and came across a little garden. There was no-one there so she went and sat down on the bench.

Rachel was walking around at break time chatting to the new year 7s and seeing how they were all settling in.

She was trying not to look for Ellie but she couldn't help it. When she couldn't see her she went and asked Jen if she knew where she was.

"I was looking for her too Rachel, I haven't seen her since the assembly"

When the end of break came and there was still no sign of Ellie Rachel decided to have a little look for her daughter.

Ellie heard the bell go and she really didn't want to go back to her tutor base but she was too scared not to.

She left it as long as she possibly could but she realised she really needed to go now.

Ellie was just about to get up, when she saw her Mum walking across the field and Rachel had seen her now so she decided to stay there when she saw her Mum walking towards her.

Rachel came and sat down on the bench next to Ellie.

"What are you doing over here on your own love? Why aren't you with your friends?"

This was all it took for Ellie to burst into tears.

"Hey what's wrong El?" Rachel asked placing her hand on her daughter's back

"I want to go back to primary school" Ellie blurted out

"How come? When I saw you this morning you looked like you were having a great time, you were laughing and smiling"

"I hate my tutor group, there's no-one I know expect from Maddie and I don't like her anyway. I wanted to be with Jen"

Rachel knew that the transition from primary school to secondary school could be quite hard for a lot of pupils and Rachel always did as much as she could to help them feel happy and comfortable.

"I'm sure you'll soon make friends with the others in your tutor group"

"But I don't like it, everyone else seems to be with their friends from primary school so I feel really left out"

Rachel had nothing to do with sorting out tutor groups so hadn't looked through the registers to see what tutor group her daughter was in.

"Do you want me to see if I can get you changed into the same tutor group as Jen?"

Ellie nodded her head.

"But what if people think that I'm getting special treatment because I'm your daughter?"

"I would do the same whether you were my daughter or not, I've done it with lots of year 7s before. Let's go up to my office and I'll see what I can do"

Ellie and Rachel both went up to the office. Ellie sat down on the sofa and Rachel got her a tissue out of the box she kept in her drawer and passed it to her daughter so that she could dry her tears.

Rachel then phoned Kim to see if she was available to come up.

Luckily Kim had a free period so came straight up to Rachel's office.

Ellie sat timidly on the sofa while Rachel and Kim sorted it out.

Kim didn't have a problem with changing Ellie's tutor group for her and so once Ellie had her new timetable Rachel took her to Miss Haydock's room.

Rachel knocked on the door and waited. Steph saw her stood there so made her way out.

Steph and Ellie had met a few times before so knew who each other were.

"Hiya, is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, I have a new member for your tutor group"

"Come on in Ellie, grab a chair we're just playing some… what was it Kim called them… getting to know each other games"

Ellie made her way into the classroom with Steph. She was feeling quite shy and felt like everyone was looking at her.

She was pleased when Steph got her a chair and put it right next to Jen.

Ellie was so much happier now and was able to enjoy the rest of the morning. By lunchtime her and Jen had been talking to two girls from another primary school and they were getting on really well and all sat together to have their lunch.

Rachel was really busy at lunchtime and was eating her sandwich whilst getting on with her work.

She was engrossed in writing a letter to go out to parents when her mobile phone started ringing.

Rachel saw it was Ruby's primary school so she started thinking the worse and presumed they hadn't managed to calm Ruby down. The last thing Rachel needed was to have to come out of work now to pick Ruby up.

"Hi Rachel, it's Miss Middleton"

"Has Ruby still not settled?"

"Yes Ruby's fine now. I was just ringing to let you know that she's completely fine and happy now. It took a little while but once she stopped crying and we sat her with her friends she was fine"

"Oh that's great, thank you for letting me know"

"I knew you'd probably be worrying, so I thought I'd put your mind to rest"

"Yeah she's been on my mind all day, I really do appreciate you letting me know"

"It's no problem at all, anyway I'll let you get back to work I'm sure you've got a million things to do on the first day back"

Rachel put the phone down feeling relieved that Ruby had settled. At least that was one less thing she had to worry about.

The rest of the day went by quite quickly and 3 o clock soon came around.

Rachel had come to an agreement with the LEA that she could leave at 3 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and on a Tuesday and Thursday when she'd need to stay until later Ruby was going to Chris's parents' house.

Rachel packed all of her stuff up and drove round to Ruby's primary school.

Ruby was really happy to see her Auntie and ran straight out as soon as Miss Middleton called her name. She started telling Rachel about all the things she'd done at school as the two of them walked back to the car.

"I'm glad you've had a good day love"

When they got in Ruby went straight up to her room to change out of her uniform.

Rachel went in and spoke to Amy who was making tea for everyone.

"It smells good in here" Rachel said coming into the kitchen

"Good" Amy said turning around to face her Mum

"Have you had a good day?"

"Yeah good thanks, have you?"

"Busy, but it's good to be back in a way. I'm just going to nip up to get changed"

Rachel got changed out of her work clothes before going to check on Ruby.

When she went in Ruby was playing with some of her Polly Pocket stuff.

"I'm going to go to Tesco now, do you want to come with me or shall I ask Amy if you can stay with her?"

"Stay with Amy"

Rachel came out of Ruby's bedroom and when she did she passed Amy who was on her way up to her own bedroom.

"I'm going to Tesco love. Ruby wants to stay here with you, I'll only be an hour or so"

"Well I'm on my way out"

"Oh where are you going?"

"I've just got to do something"

"What?"

"I don't have to run every single thing I do by you Mum, I'm moving out next week remember?" Amy snapped

"Sorry love, I was just wondering that's all"

"Sorry I don't know why I snapped. I'll be back in half an hour probably if you can wait until then?"

"I'll just wait for Chloe to get back, she probably won't be too much longer"

Amy went upstairs to freshen up a little bit and grab her bag she then made her way out to her car.

She hadn't meant to snap at her Mum, she just didn't want to tell her about where she was going.

Amy had a doctor's appointment because she was going to see about going on the pill but she felt too embarrassed to speak to Rachel about it.

Now that she was at the doctor's surgery she was actually feeling quite nervous and kind of wished she'd asked her Mum to come. She never usually came to the doctors on her own.

Amy signed in and then took a seat. She picked up a magazine and started to read it but she couldn't read it. She had really bad butterflies because she was feeling nervous and she couldn't keep her legs still.

The longer Amy had to wait the more nervous she was getting.

In the end she decided she didn't want to go in on her own and told the receptionist she was going to have to reschedule before rushing out.

Amy felt really stupid. She was leaving for Uni next week and she couldn't even go to the doctors on her own.

Once Amy got home she went and sat with Ruby while she did some drawing. Rachel was still shopping and apparently Chloe had just nipped upstairs.

Rachel came back about half an hour later so Amy helped her to unpack the shopping.

Ruby went to the playroom to play so it was just Amy and Rachel left.

"Mum"

"Yes love"

"You know earlier when I wouldn't tell you where I was going, well I had a doctor's appointment"

"Oh okay, what did you have an appointment for"

"Erm… well I was thinking about going on the pill" Amy said feeling quite embarrassed

"Right" Rachel said but really she wasn't that surprised, Amy was 18 after all "so are you on the pill now then?"

"No I couldn't go in on my own, I wanted you there" Amy said with tears in her eyes. She'd been getting really emotional at the thought of going away and leaving her Mum and all of her friends

"Oh love" Rachel said coming over to her daughter and wrapping her arms around her

Amy put her head against her Mum's and gave her a hug.

"How about you make another appointment then and then I'll go with you?"

"Okay"

"How come you didn't just tell me about it in the first place?"

"It's just embarrassing, I thought you'd think I was going on it because I'm planning to sleep with loads of boys at Uni. But I'm not, I just thought it would be good you know just in case"

"It will help to regulate your periods too" Rachel said, quite often Amy's periods would end up being really irregular when she was stressed so after two years of A-levels this was often the case

"Yeah exactly that's what I was thinking"

"Just let me know when your appointment is and we can get it sorted together then darling"

"Thanks Mum"

Amy felt a lot better after speaking to her Mum about it and didn't know why she hadn't just done this in the first place.

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