It has been a few weeks since Katie and Sean had come home from the lake district, although she still liked him, she had tried her hardest to avoid being alone with him. Mel had gone to live with her new boyfriend, leaving Philip without saying goodbye. Katie and Philip had both been having issues at school, they had both been getting into trouble frequently and Rachel was fed up with them, although she knew they had both been through a lot in the previous months, she was starting to lose her patience. And to make matters worse she and Eddie had a falling out, over how public their relationship should be at work, English or America as Eddie had said.
One Thursday afternoon just after lunch had finished the corridors were quiet again, she was walking along when she seen her sister standing outside of her Moder Studies class, Katie was slumped against the wall, twirling her hair whilst staring into space. Rachel considered turning round and leaving before she saw her; she was afraid of another argument about school, but it was too late Katie seen her.
"Great" she said to herself but just loud enough for Rachel to hear.
"What are you doing out here?" Rachel asked as she got closer to her sister. Katie shrugged her shoulders.
"You better ask Mr Singh" Katie replied.
"I am asking you?"
"He said I was being disruptive".
"And were you?" Rachel said as her eyes narrowed.
"I was just talking and…" Katie was cut off as the door opened and Mr Singh came out.
"Miss Mason, I was just going to send Katie home with a detention note for tomorrow in her planner".
"Katie, do you have anything to say to Mr Singh" Rachel asked expecting her sister to apologise. Katie looked back and shrugged her shoulders "Apologise for being disruptive and back to class, we will discuss this further at home.
"I'm sorry" Katie mumbled as Mr Singh opened the classroom door.
"You better be on your best behaviour for the rest of the day Young Lady".
It was nearing the end of the school day, Rachel was warning off a headache, she looked away from her laptop screen at the accounts for the month with a slight worry at how much money the school was spending, it didn't help that a spate of vandalism had been taking the school by storm, so their building fund was dangerously low if they were going to need any more paint. She was suddenly distracted by a knock on her door.
"Come in" Rachel shouted as Mr Walker came in with Philip, Bolton and Paul sheepishly following behind. Mr Walker was a student teacher who was working with Mr Mead.
"I hope Mr Walker is brining you here for some praise but going by the look on your faces I'm guessing not".
"Sorry Miss Mason not this time. These 3 were throwing pyrotechnics around in science."
"Pyrotechnics?" Rachel repeated.
"Yes, Fireworks, Mr Mead made it clear they were to be brought here".
"Boys this is completely unacceptable and dangerous, you are lucky you didn't cause any damage to the building, or a person, I want you to apologise to Mr Walker".
"Sorry" they said sheepishly as he left. Rachel looked at the 3 boys standing in front of her.
"Where did you get Fireworks from?"
"I know a guy" Bolton said.
"And do you have any more on school premises?" Rachel asked.
"No, used them all" Philip replied as the bell went. Bolton turned towards the door followed by Paul.
"Excuse me!" Rachel shouted, "Come back here, I am not finished with you!" Bolton and Paul turned back round to face Rachel.
"What were you thinking, how could you even think this was a good idea?"
"It was just for a laugh" Paul replied.
"I for one am not laughing, I am this close to putting you all on report" Rachel said, "Give me your planners." They handed their planners over where a note was put in for parents to sign along with a detention notice.
"2 Weeks of detention starting from tomorrow, if you set one foot out of line in the 2 weeks you will be on report, do I make myself clear".
"Yes Miss" they all replied.
"Bolton, Paul you may go, Philip stays where you are" Bolton and Paul were glad to get out of there, but they did feel sorry for Phil.
"I cannot believe how stupid you were" Rachel started as Katie walked in.
"Katie, you can not just walk into my office, wait outside please".
"Sorry" she said arrogantly.
"No just wait I want you to hear this too" Rachel sighed, she was feeling incredibly stressed recently, and everything was getting to her.
"The two of you are constantly in here, and I am sick of it. I have tried to be nice; I have tried to help you, but I just can't take it anymore. I know your both hurting, but I lost my dad too, and Mel is my sister, her leaving hurts me too. So, I really need the pair of you to grow up. If its not one of you acting up, it's the other and I just can't take it anymore" she didn't realise she was shouting as much as she was.
"Rach, I'm sorry" Katie said.
"No, I don't want to hear it, that's all I hear from the pair of you, but nothing changes, I want you both to go home, you will go up to your rooms and stay upstairs for the night. I will be home shortly. But I just need some space tonight, we will discuss consequences tomorrow".
Katie and Philip didn't know what to say, they both felt awful for what they had being putting Rachel through. They quietly walked to the doors.
"You can leave your planners downstairs, I ill sign then when I get home" she added.
The door closed behind the kids and Rachels head fell into her hands, she had never meant to shout at them, she didn't realise what she had said, but she knew she needed a break.
"I have never seen her like that" Katie said to Philip as they started to walk out of the school "Should we do something, maybe make her dinner, or clean the house".
"No, we will probably do something to make her madder, lets just stay out of her way".
"I have an idea!" Katie said as she turned around and went back upstairs.
"Katie we are not going back up there, not when she is like that".
"Just wait", Katie ran by the management suite and over to the maths corridor, she spotted Eddie was still in his class, so she ran in
"Katie, everything OK" Eddie asked.
"No, Rachel lost it, she yelled at us, I've never seen her like that, she told us she is so stressed out and she didn't even want to see us tonight" Katie said.
"Look, I'm sure she didn't really mean it, the 2 of you have a been a nightmare recently".
"I think she meant it" Philip replied.
"I know you two are fighting, but I think she could use some time relaxing, and I don't think we are the ones to help her, could you maybe come round with some wine and try and take her mind of it".
"I don't know, I have a lot of marking to do and I don't know if she really wants me there".
"Please Eddie, she needs an adult to talk to, we will both stay upstairs, she doesn't want to see us anyway".
"OK, go see her, see what I can do".
"Thanks Eddie" Katie said before leaving to head home.
Phil and Katie were almost home, they had both just talked about Rachel and how they could make it up to her.
"What did you do that she was chewing you out about, I seen Bolton and Paul leave so guess the 3 of you did something".
"Yeah, Bolton got some fireworks, so we set the off in science using the Bunsen burners".
Katie laughed "That's epic" Katie laughed.
"Not sure it was epic enough for 2 weeks of detention though."
"I got detention too, just for tomorrow, for being disruptive in class, I'm only disruptive with the teachers who can't control a class, maybe I'm doing Rachel a favour in weeding out the crappy teachers".
They arrived at home, and quickly made dinner, leaving both their planners on the coffee table before heading upstairs. They both had a lot of homework and revision, so a night in their rooms wasn't too much of a hardship.
Rachel felt awful, she didn't know why she took it out on the kids so badly, she decided to go home and speak to them. She was just packing her bag as there was another chap to the office door, she sighed hoping it wasn't another crisis she had to deal with.
"I hear you have been having a bad day" Eddie said. Rachel suddenly felt a wave of relaxation over her.
"And who told you that".
"2 little birds came tweeting at my door".
"I told them to go straight home and to their rooms" Rachel said as Eddie came behind her and started to massage her shoulders.
"Don't be angry with them, they are worried about you, and they have every reason to be, your shoulders are so tight".
"I was pretty hard on them".
"Don't worry about them they can take it, and they deserve it, I don't think they will be giving you much trouble for a while. What do you say we get out of here, go for dinner and then I'll take you home"?
"I think that sounds wonderful Mr Lawson".
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