December soon rolled into January without any trouble. As predicted Erin had stopped becoming so clingy to Leo and now camping outside his room only seemed to be a rare occurrence. Leo's car pulled up outside the school gates and he turned to a nervous looking Erin who was sitting beside him

"Are you alright?" he asked gently

"Yes I'm fine" she gave him a false smile which didn't quite reach her eyes

"You don't have to do this you know…"

"I said I'm fine, come on lets go" she got out of the car before Leo could utter another word

The two of them walked into the school and across to where the school reception was. Erin clutched her new school bag nervously as she followed Leo into the warmth of the building. Today was Erin's first day at Park Lane School and to say she was nervous was a huge understatement

"You must be Erin" a man came up to the pair and introduced himself "Hello, I'm Mr Matthews. I am your new head teacher" he held out his hand to Erin who shook it shyly

He introduced himself to Leo and the three of them went into his office, to 'discuss the finer details' as he had put it

"Now Erin" Mr Matthews said as he seated himself in the chair across the desk from them "I know you've not had the easiest time of late and I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you. But I want you to feel safe and happy here, now I know some of what you've been through" he said placing a hand on a file "And I have your school records here; I must say you've done quite well for yourself considering what you've had to go through"

"Thank you" Erin said softly and Leo gave her hand a gentle squeeze

"So you'll be joining our sixth form in lower sixth and this is your timetable" he said passing a sheet of paper to Erin "And this is a map of the school, I don't think you'll get lost, the school is quite small but just in case"

There was a knock at the door suddenly "Come in" Mr Matthews called and a young boy about Erin's age stepped into the room, he had messy brown hair and dark brown eyes "Ah perfect timing" the head teacher smiled "This is Nathaniel…"

"…Nate" the boy corrected with a lop sided grin

"Sorry Nate" the head teacher smiled "And he'll be showing you round for the first week or so. He'll help you find everything and introduce you to a few people"

"Okay" Erin said shyly as the boy grinned at her

"Right Nate it's nearly break time so why don't you give Erin a quick tour and then show her to her next lesson"

"Have a good day" Leo smiled at Erin as she left the office followed by the young boy


"So I'm Nathaniel like he said, well Nate actually, and I will be your humble guide" He said

"I'm Erin" she said introducing herself properly "And I guess you cant really shorten that" she blushed and he laughed gently as they passed a couple of teachers

"So what do you think of old Matthews?" Nate said as soon as they were out of earshot of any teachers

"He's alright" Erin said shyly

"Yeah" Nate agreed "He's not got such a stick up his arse like other teachers"

Erin let out a small laugh at his crudeness and was rewarded with one of Nate's warm grins "So was that guy in there your dad?" he said as they turned down another corridor

"You mean Leo?" Erin said "No he's my foster dad, my parents are...um not around"

"Ah" Nate said taking the hint "That must suck, my mum and dad split up when I was eight, my dad lives all the way over in California"

"That must be hard" Erin said sympathetically

"Yeah, well what can I say, men are useless" he laughed "So what subjects are you taking?"

"Fine art, unendorsed art, English literature and biology" she said reading off the sheet as Nate peered over her shoulder

"I'm in the same class as you for that one" he said pointing at her unendorsed art class "And that one" he said pointing at her biology class "And I know a couple of people who are in the other two classes" he said as they walked through a pair of double doors into a small room filled with chairs and tables "This is our common room" he said "I know it's not much but still it beats hanging outside in the freezing cold playground"

"Hey Nate" a girl called "Who's your girlfriend"

Nate shook his head "Shut up" he called to the girl "Erin just ignore her, she suffers from verbal diarrhoea"

"Says the one who got detention only yesterday for talking in class when he'd been told to shut up at least twelve times" the girl grinned flicking a strand of blonde hair out of her face

"Whatever Stella" he said sitting down beside her and pulling up a chair for Erin "Be nice to Erin, she's a newbie"

"Well stick with us and you'll be fine" Stella smiled at her

"Stella's in your English literature class" he informed her

"For all the good it's doing me" she moaned "If I have to study one more word of Chaucer I might go mad"

"Is it that bad?" Erin asked nervously

"You want some advice?" Erin nodded

"Run away while you still can" she sighed loudly

"Stop scaring her" Nate grinned

They chatted for a while longer until the room started to flood with people "Come on Erin let's get out of here before the room overflows" he said pulling her out of the room

"See you around Erin" Stella shouted after her


Nate showed Erin through a maze of corridors and building until they stopped outside of a small classroom which had a few people inside

"This is your new art class" he said gently pushing her inside "A whole fun hour of unendorsed art awaits"

Erin walked into the classroom and felt all eyes turn on her suddenly. She flushed bright red and a few people turned to whisper to their neighbours and Erin had a sinking feeling that she was the topic of conversation. She sat in an empty seat next to Nate and kept her eyes on the floor so as not to attract any unnecessary attention

"It appears we have a new member" a voice said and she looked up to see a fairly young man standing in front of her, smiling warmly at her "You must be Erin Jones, I'm Mr Peters your new art teacher and I assume Nate has been filling you in on the details"

"Yeah" Nate flashed Erin one of his signature smiles

"Maybe Erin can keep you in line Nathaniel" the teacher scolded but the smile on his face said otherwise "That artwork wont finish itself now, will it?"

"No Sir" Nate said as he got off the stool and padded away to the other side of the classroom

"Now Erin, you've got about a term's work to catch up on but don't worry I don't think you'll be too far behind and we have after school catch up sessions which I can be of service. So today the class is working on some observational drawing" he said putting a blank sheet of paper in front of her "So just give it a go and we'll see where we go from there"

Erin nodded taking in all the details he was telling her and soon set about sketching the vase of flowers he put in front of her. As she worked she could hear more whispers floating around and she could still feel people's eyes on her. Nate came and sat back down beside her and watched her work for a few minutes before turning back to his own work

"Don't worry about all those lot" he said motioning to the rest of the lass "They're just interested that we've got someone new"

"Oh" Erin said flicking a strand of hair out of her eyes

"I heard the teacher say that you've been out of school for a term. How come he asked?" Erin hesitated in her answer and Nate sensed this immediately "Sorry, I'm sticking my big nose in again aren't I? He said apologetically

"It's fine" Erin shook off the apology "My mum died recently" she said wrinkling her nose at the memory "And I've been trying to sort out staying with Leo and stuff and it just took ages"

"Oh cool" Nate said "But if I ever stick my nose in to a private matter just tell me to mind my own business or tell Stella and she'll kick my arse for you"

Erin burst out laughing at this point and Nate smiled once more; he liked Erin she was easy to get along with and she didn't ask awkward questions about his own dad. She understood what it felt like to be lonely and knew that there were some things a person would keep to themselves. He liked Erin a lot and suddenly felt very protective of her and resolved to stop these whisperings about her. There was a rumour going round that the new girl's mum had been murdered by a dangerous criminal and that her mum was a prostitute and a drug dealer all in one. He was going to make sure she didn't have to hear those rumours, whether or not they were true was another issues but he sensed Erin had gone through a lot recently and wanted to protect her

"How are you two getting on?" the teacher came up to them pulling Nate out of his thoughts "Nate you're making good progress" Mr Peters said studying his work "Erin…" he paused as he surveyed her work

"Whoa…" Nate said as he craned his neck to see the paper "That's amazing" he breathed

"It's nothing" Erin said modestly

"Now Erin, don't be so humble" Mr Peters smiled warmly at her "You've got a real talent there. I had heard something about you being a very talented young arist" he informed her

Erin fumbled in her bad and pulled out a small sketchbook "That's not my best sketch" she pointed to the sketch of the flowers she'd been drawing

"May I?" he said gesturing to her sketchbook and Erin nodded

Mr Peters opened the sketchbook carefully and flicked through the pages. Each of the drawings were in pencil but sketched with such detail and precision, they were nothing like he had ever seen before

"You did these Erin?" he asked and she nodded "They are fantastic" and the young girl blushed at the praise "If this is what you can do in unendorsed art class I can't imagine what you'll do in my fine art class"

"Mr Peters teaches both classes" Nate told her as he gawped at her pictures "He's like the god of art teachers, his presence is everywhere"

"And you'd do well to remember it" Mr Peters teased as he glanced at his watch "Right class, it's time to pack away" he passed the sketchbook back to Erin "And as for you Miss Jones, I think you have a very special talent that needs nurturing and I hope that this art department can be of service" he smiled as he turned to hurry the rest of the class

"You never told me you could draw like that. You have hidden depths Erin Jones"

"Harry said that too" she said as she packed her belongings away

"Who's Harry?"

"My friend, well actually he's more Leo's friend. Leo, Harry and his fiancée Nikki work together at the lab"

"They're scientists?"

"Pathologists" she corrected

"As in they cut up dead people?" he asked raising his eyebrows and Erin nodded

"Yeah I found it a bit weird at first too" she admitted "But you get used to it" she assured him as they left the classroom

Mr Peters watched the two of them leave, he knew all about Erin's past, the head teacher thought it best that her teachers knew so they could handle her better. He had also heard the rumours flying about though he was careful to ignore them. Meeting Erin today had opened his eyes; she seemed shy but also very happy and more self-assured than that which had first been made out to him. He knew that Nate would take care of her and maybe that she would be a good influence on him. Others avoided Nate as they saw him as 'weird' but Erin and Nate seemed to be on the same wave length and she was already bring out something good in him. Mr Peter's ran a hand through his hair; Erin Jones had certainly made an impact on Park Lane School and it had only been her first lesson

Author's note: I know some of you are eagerly awaiting the wedding of the year! But I just had to write this chapter first. The next chapter will be Nikki and Harry's hen and stag party and then the wedding comes! *squeal*