Alice's alarm beeped at 6:30. She whacked at it trying to turn it off. All she wanted was another 30 minutes. But if she had another 30 minutes she'd no doubt run into Josh and after his little declaration lat night she didn't want that! Alice had thought about it and it seemed he was attracted to her. She wrinkled her nose. So that is how he shows that he likes someone. Through basically terrorising them. Not a way she'd want to be her life partner but there you go! There was one thing she knew for sure, that Josh was a freaking weirdo! She grabbed a large towel and ran into the bathroom. She showered quickly. The spray cleansed her of all the thoughts of Josh. She then ran back into her room. She turned the key into the lock, but didn't notice that the key was hanging out. She didn't know that the door wasn't actually locked!

Alice was humming softly as she dressed. She had her black school trousers on and her blouse. The top 3 buttons were open which exposed her throat and the top of her chest. She felt claustrophobic when they were closed. Her tie hung around her shoulders. It was black yellow and red and was absolutely minging. She swore she was gonna burn it on her last day. She was sat on her bed pulling on her socks when the door opened. Oh my god why isn't that locked! She thought. Josh walked into her room and looked her up and down almost assessing her.

"Get the fucking hell out of her now Josh before I hit you so hard you'll have to send the rest of your body a letter where to find you!" she said "And that's before I scream the place down!" she said, she knew that screaming wouldn't help. No -one cared enough to come and save her and Josh knew it! She grabbed her deodorant tin. The closet thing to hand but better to have then not!

"Alice I'm not here to…" he started but Alice cut him off.

"Look you asshole get the fuck out of here or I swear to god I'll hurt you! After what you did to me it's less than you deserve. I would be happy never to see your weasely little face again." Alice was relieved that her voice sounded firm and didn't betray the fact that she was a quivering little wreck inside and was about 5 seconds away from being hysterical.

He walked out of her room she ran to lock the door but he placed his foot between the door and the frame. She tried to close it but his foot blocked it. Josh looked into her eyes

"I'm sorry for attacking you Alice. And for hitting you yesterday and basically being a complete and utter ass to you." he said softly. He went to touch the slight bruise on her cheek but she pulled away before he could.

"Move your foot!" she told him icily.

He did and she closed the door. She pushed the key in as far as it could go and locked her door.

"Alice you idiot! Your getting sloppy. He got in here you stupid little IDIOT!" she told herself. "What could have happened eh?" she asked rhetorically.

She lay on her bed, inhaled and then exhaled slowly. Alice wasn't stupid, she knew that if Josh really tried then she couldn't stop him. But she would go down swinging! She vowed. She placed her hand over her eyes. Why hadn't he tried anything? She wondered. He was messing with her head! In a moment of weakness she phoned Danny.

"Hey Alice you ok?" he asked. Danny paused for a second. "It's Josh isn't it, he's tried something. I'll kill him!" he shouted.

She heard Amanda in the background. She couldn't make out what she said.

"No Danny - I'm fine honest! He did get into my room."

"Bastard!" Danny swore.

"But he apologised to me then left!" she finished.

"Really?" he asked incredulous.

"Yeah - look I'm going to go down to my breakfast, I'm going to have to face him at school today anyway so I may as well do it on my home turf!" she said.

"No Alice I don't like it. What if he's trying to lure you downstairs?" he asked worry clear in his voice.

"Trust me Danny I'll be next to many sharp objects! He won't get near me." she checked her watch. Quarter to 6. "I'll see you in 45 minutes ok Love ya loads."

"Alice wait…"Danny said but she disconnected this was something she had to do.

She checked how many minutes she had left. They were getting low. She had a contract which had been set up by her mum before she died. It was paid by direct debit. She had a year left on it. She walked slowly downstairs. Josh's mum and her dad were probably still in bed. Probably still drunk from their binge last night. At least her dad didn't bully her anymore. He didn't talk to her either but that was just an added bonus. She felt sick and her heart was nearly beating out of her chest. It sickened her to think she was frightened in her own home! She took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen.

Josh was sat at the kitchen table flicking through a magazine, he was eating a slice of toast. He didn't even look at her as she entered. She placed 2 slices of toast in her toaster. All was quiet. She could hear the clock ticking in the living room and the rhythmic sound of josh turning the pages in the magazine. The toaster popped breaking her reverie. She picked the toast out and turned to butter it when she heard a loud pounding on the front door. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

Josh looked at her. "For you I presume." he said and returned to his magazine.

She walked to the front door and opened it. Danny's face looked flushed.

"For Christ's sake Danny. You were knocking like a mad man. You nearly killed me!" she told him. "But you are sweet!" she added and kissed him.

He grabbed her arms and looked at them. He then looked at her face. "O thank God he didn't do anything to you!" he breathed. "I was so worried!"

"No!" she said puzzled. "He hasn't even looked at me!" she whispered in a relieved tone.

"This is weird!" he agreed.

"Hey I'm not complaining!" she told him. "If he wants to leave me alone!" she said.

She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him. "Mmmm minty fresh." she said "You've just brushed ya teeth haven't ya!" she said.

He grinned his pearly whites at her. Josh flicked his eyes over and saw Alice's soft eyes rest on Danny's face. The only word he could use to describe her was besotted. Absolutely completely one hundred million percent in love! And he hated that she didn't feel that way about him! He stared at the page of his magazine but he couldn't tell you what it was about.

Danny and Alice walked into the kitchen. She walked over to the toaster and placed some bread in it.

"Hey Alice, I'll have these bits. I know you like your toast warm." he told her and took a bite of the toast on the counter. "I do prefer my toast browner though!" he said.

"No Danny you mean you like it black as in burnt!" she pulled a face. "Minger!" then smiled at him.

"Just coz your toast is pale!" he said.

"But I appreciate the warm toast." she said and kissed his cheek.

The toast popped and Alice buttered it. She loved the easy banter they had. It was like they'd known each other for years instead of the week it had been! They walked into the living room. She sat on the floor and he sat on the sofa above her head. She had her back to him. He started playing with her hair.

"You'd better not be getting crumbs in my hair. Imagine me walking outside and a swarm of birds attacks. All you'd see is Alice running and then like 60 birds swooping." she said and giggled. "Or even better walking to school with a bird on my head! I'd be blacklisted for the rest of the year!" she said.

He laughed. "I love your hair though. It's so soft and silky." he ran his fingers softly through the strands.

"So first it's my bum and now it's my hair. I'm definitely getting used for my body!" she said in mock disgust.

"Well such a nice body it is too!" he replied.

They looked at the clock at the same time. 25 to 9. "We'll have a slow walk." Danny said.

Alice quick pulled her hair into a bobble and grabbed her bag.

They were walking slowly along the road to school.

"So on a scale of 1-10 how much trouble you in?" Alice asked Danny.

"11" Danny replied.

She smiled.

"No seriously, I'll be put on yellow report or even red for walking out of school." he said.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Well it's a yellow/red piece of paper with little boxes on. You give it to your teacher at the start of every lesson and they sign it. Depending on your behaviour you get a "S" for satisfactory and a "U" for unsatisfactory. There's a boxes on the bottom for teachers to write details of any punishments you receive and a space on the back for any misdemeanours." he said

"Your head of house looks at it every night and every morning. Although the morning check does ya head in coz ya mums not going to give you a S or U is she." he said and laughed.

"Your parents sign it too." he added.

They reached the school gates, they walked down and sat on the wall between the French block and RE block.

"I'll be on report to then!" Alice said.

Danny nodded. "Probably but we'll be on report together and I'll stop you from being too daft and getting 5 out of 6 U's a day."

"No that'll be me. You're the little rebel!" she said. "Whose your tutor?" she asked.

"Mr McCann. He's Irish."

"I hate him already!" she said and smiled.

"He's so canny and he's always got funny stories about St Patrick's day. Last year he ended up in America. (True Story he actually did end up in America one year lol)

"You hit lucky with Mrs Hedley. She's lovely. I had her for Spanish in first and second year."

The bell rang. "Well." he said and kissed her softly. "I'll see you in 15 minutes." he then walked towards his tutor. She walked the opposite way. She came to the building and walked up the stairs. She knocked briskly and entered her tutor group.

"Hello Alice, nice to have you back." Mrs Hedley said.

Alice saw where Sarah was sitting and walked to the opposite end of the room. She sat down. Sarah glared ay her but Alice ignored her. She sat and crossed her arms. Deep in thought.

Mrs Hedley had just finished the register when Mrs Craig entered the room. The whole class stood up.

Alice frowned and looked at the rest of classmates. Mrs Hedley motioned to her with her finger to stand up. Alice stood up lethargically.

"Good morning EHY!" she said with false cheerfulness.

"Good morning Mrs Craig." they droned back in monotone.

"Sarah lengthen your tie and fasten your top button. Everyone else can sit down. Alice a word please."

Alice had begun to believe that Mrs Craig had forgot about her. Fat chance! She weaved her way through the maze of tables. Sarah who had sat down stuck her foot out to trip her. Alice fists clenched. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth open ready to let rip. A vision of your mother filled her head. She unclenched her hands, closed her mouth and looked away. Mrs Hedley smiled at Alice. Then glared at Sarah. "2 codes of conduct for that Sarah."

Alice looked back and smiled a smug grin. She then walked into the corridor and closed the door.

"Well Alice as you know I spoke to Mr Zaraga and he wanted to give you another go. Based on your test scores and on the fact that you were not trouble at your previous school. She went into her pocket and pulled out a yellow report. "This is to monitor you during your lessons. After I saw how you ignored Sarah in there you might not need it." she said.

"Don't count your chickens yet what she did was mild. If it's something really bad the aftershocks will be off the Richter scale!" Alice said.

"Bit it's a start in the right direction Alice. You're my special project it seems. Every year there seems to be a child who pushes me. I always see something in them and try my best to stop them being expelled. And this year it seems to be you! There's also this." she said and handed her a laminated card.

Alice looked at it. "What's this?" she asked.

"This allows you to leave your lesson at any time for 2 minutes to calm down if you need too. The teacher is to write on your report whenever you use it!" she said. "This is a privilege Alice. Don't abuse it. It's the first time we've tried this so your our guinea pig so to speak. I've also informed all your teachers to make sure you are kept separated from her at all times. I was impressed with the way you ignored Sarah in there. You showed maturity."

Alice shrugged, "I made a promise to someone that I would keep my head down in school and be more tolerant of bit… people." Alice said.

"Go on join your tutor." Mrs Craig said and walked away.

Alice walked back into the room and handed her report to Mrs Hedley who signed it and handed it back. The bang rang and the tutor group walked out. She walked over to collect her coat. she folded her report and placed it in her pocket. As Alice was pulling on her coat Mrs Hedley spoke to her.

"I was proud of the way you held your temper with Sarah today." she said. She walked into the cupboard and got some French books.

"Well I needed to grow up. I did a lot of thinking while I was away I spoke to my friends in Glasgow who also gave me some perspective. See you later." as she picked up her bag and left the classroom. As she walked over to the English block she realised that her class had already went inside. She walked in and the day began.