Rachel groaned when she saw the email informing her that the new supply teacher the LEA had hired was stuck in traffic. Of course she knew it couldn't be helped, but it meant that she would have to find someone to cover the class. And with the first period only 15 minutes away, she had to find someone fast.

She clicked on the staff timetable folder on her computer, scanning over it to see who was free. She groaned again when she saw Grantly was the only one free. He always had some excuse to get out of covering another Teacher's class.

Still, he was her only option. If Eddie had been free, he'd have done it in a heartbeat. But even he had a full timetable this morning.

With a sigh, she headed over to the staffroom, taking the new Health and Safety protocol poster with her so she could pin it onto the notice board.

Her eyes scanned the staffroom carefully as she put the poster up. Grantly was already in there, chatting away to Steph. There was no doubt in her mind that he was planning to stay there for the duration of his free lesson.

She cleared her throat, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Our supply teacher is stuck in traffic and I need someone to cover the first half of lesson one" she announced

All of the staff went silent immediately, as she'd predicted. No one wanted to give up their free lesson.

"So who..." she started

All the staff looked away from her, pretending to busy themselves. Some even walked away.

She turned to Grantly, who was pretending to be indulged in his newspaper.

"Right, Grantly. I believe that you have some time free?"

"I have actually, but it's my PPA time. Staff cannot be re-directed to undertake any other duties, including cover for absent colleagues" Grantly declared robotically, sounding like he was reading from a Union manual

Rachel rolled her eyes, biting her tongue hard to stop a snide comment from slipping out of her mouth.

"Right" she replied through gritted teeth, scoffing lightly

"I'll do it!" Davina offered enthusiastically

Rachel smiled at her gratefully

"We were that enthusiastic once" Steph whispered to Grantly

"Enthusiastic, yes. Brown noser? Never!" Grantly grumbled

Steph sniggered

Rachel ignored them, walking over to Davina

"Thank you very much Davina. The problem is, it's the Year 11 PSHE group"

Davina shrugged, unfazed

"Well, I've got to learn some time. Experience and all that"

Rachel contemplated Davina's words. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

"Ok. Right, well, I'll get Eddie to watch over you. This supply teacher is here for about three weeks, and I believe he's quite a character. So, how about you follow him for the day and see how he deals with new classes?" Rachel suggested

Davina nodded with a smile, her eyes dancing with excitement

"Yeah, that'd be great"

"Ok, good! His name is Maaka Lacey. I believe he's from New Zealand" Rachel informed her with a smile

She left the staffroom, happy that Davina was taking on such a fantastic opportunity.

Davina smiled to herself. She was finally getting her chance!

...

Rachel walked back in the direction of her office, bumping into Eddie on the way.

"Davina is covering the Year 11 PSHE group this morning. She's in the classroom next door to you, so I wondered if you could check on her every so often?" she requested

"Yeah, of course" Eddie nodded

"Great, thank you" Rachel smiled, sighing in relief

"I take it Grantly refused?" Eddie guessed

"He read out his rights to me and everything!" she huffed

Eddie rolled his eyes

"Honestly, I could throttle him sometimes! He is so lazy!" he grumbled

"I know. But I think this will be good for Davina, she is training to be a teacher after all" Rachel pointed out

"Yeah, this will be great for her" he agreed

Suddenly, Candice ran up the stairs towards them, breathless and angry. Rachel and Eddie frowned at her.

"That flamin breakfast club has turned into world war three!" she exclaimed

Eddie and Rachel glanced at each other nervously before dashing down the stairs and into the canteen.

Rachel groaned at the mess. There was food everywhere. On the walls, the floors, the ceiling, even the tables and doors!

Janeece walked up to them sheepishly. Rachel wasn't impressed at all. She should never have let her supervise.

"I'm sorry Miss, sir. I couldn't stop them, and I was on my own!" she explained

"Well, who was meant to be in here with you Janeece?" Eddie asked

"Miss Haydock, and Maxine. But Miss Haydock never turned up, and Maxine wouldn't answer her phone"

Rachel sighed

"It's not your fault, Janeece. Why don't you go and get changed? When you come back you can help Candice clean up" she reassured

Janeece nodded, running out of the canteen towards the girl's toilets.

At that exact moment, the bell rang for registration. Eddie groaned.

"You go; I'll sort this, ok?" Rachel insisted

Eddie nodded, pecking her cheek gently before exiting the canteen.

Rachel turned her attention to Candice.

"I'm so sorry about this Candice! Miss Haydock must have been unavoidably detained. I will find out why, and we will get some students in to help you clean up" she promised

Candice nodded, smiling weakly. She knew it wasn't the Head Teacher's fault. She knew Rachel would get to the bottom of it.

Rachel left the canteen, confused and mildly embarrassed. This wasn't what she needed today.

One thing was for sure, she would be finding out exactly why Steph hadn't been at Breakfast Club. There was no doubt in her mind that she would come up with a lie.

As Rachel headed in the direction of Steph's classroom, Tom was heading downstairs to cover an absent colleague's registration class. Chlo and Donte took their chance, chasing after him.

"Tom? We need to talk to you" Chlo called after him

"We're a form teacher down, love. Can it wait?" Tom asked, walking briskly along the corridor

"Well, it's just... me and Donte reckon it's time we had our own place" she explained

"Because of the Kelly's?" Tom questioned

"Well, we had to go sooner or later" she shrugged

Tom stopped walking, turning around to face his step-daughter.

"Why give them the satisfaction?" he pointed out

Chlo and Donte glanced at each other nervously.

Tom looked between them sceptically. They evidently knew something he didn't.

"What?" he frowned

Chlo sighed, looking at Tom painfully.

"We want to sell the house" she blurted

Tom stared at Chlo and Donte, taken aback. He hadn't been expecting that at all.

"Chlo, have you thought about this?" he asked

Chlo nodded quietly but confidently

"We'll let you have first bid at buying us out, like, if you want?" Donte added

"Well, there's no rush. It's not exactly the best time to sell" Tom reasoned

Donte was about to argue, when Chlo cut him off.

"We'll talk about it later, yeah? I just wanted to let you know as soon as we decided" she told him

Chlo and Donte walked away, leaving Tom in the middle of the corridor. He wasn't sure how he felt. But one thing was for sure, the Kelly's were ruining everything. Had they not moved in, Chlo and Donte wouldn't want to move out.

Of course he knew Chlo had every right to sell the house. Izzie had left everything to Mika and Chlo after she died, meaning they could do what they wished with the house. But the thought of Chlo flying the nest physically pained him. He had this overwhelming desire to protect her. But, this was what she wanted, and he couldn't stop her.

Steph spotted Tom from her classroom. Maxine had stayed over with Chlo last night. She wanted to check Maxine had been ok and hadn't caused any trouble.

She left her classroom, joining him in the corridor.

"Tom, did Maxine behave last night?" she asked

Tom was in a daze, staring blankly down the corridor. He could see Steph was stood in front of him, but her words were muffled.

"Hello?" she chuckled, waving her hand in front of his face to get his attention

Tom snapped out of his trance, his eyes focussing on Steph, who was staring at him expectantly.

"Sorry, what?"

"Maxine stayed at yours last night?" Steph prompted

"No, she didn't" Tom answered matter of factly

Steph frowned

"Yeah, her and Chlo had a study over"

"No. I was around the Kelly's this morning. She was there, with Earl" he told her

"She stayed at the Kelly's?"

Tom shrugged at her, heading off to cover his registration class.

Steph was reeling. Maxine had lied to her. Why?

As far as she had been aware, they had no secrets between them. As far as she had been aware, they told each other everything. And suddenly, Maxine was lying to her.

Steph wasn't going to stand for it. She had to talk to Maxine, and she had to do it now. She knew exactly why she'd stayed at the Kelly's. Because of Earl. Maxine had told her last week that Earl had a thing for her. But she'd been adamant that she wanted nothing to do with him. That had obviously been lies too.

Grantly had also informed her of Maxine's ordeal with Earl in his classroom on the day of the gun scare. It all made sense.

She walked along the corridor, desperate to get to Maxine's form room. They needed to sort this out, now.

"Steph!"

Steph stopped dead in the corridor, groaning internally. She really didn't need Rachel Mason breathing down her neck right now. Maxine was more important.

Still, she turned around, giving Rachel her best false smile.

"What can I do for you, Miss Mason?"

Rachel glared at her, folding her arms

"I've just been in the canteen. It's a mess, Steph! There was a huge food fight because no one was supervising the kids!" Rachel exclaimed

"What's that got to do with me?" Steph asked, frowning

Rachel scoffed, shaking her head in despair

"You were supposed to be supervising, Steph!"

Steph sighed quietly. She'd completely forgotten. But she wasn't about to admit that to Rachel.

"I'm sorry, Rachel, I was... unavoidably detained. There was an emergency" she mumbled

Rachel rolled her eyes

"Sitting in the staffroom, gossiping with Grantly is not an emergency, Steph!" she argued

Steph sighed

"Look, I didn't want to say anything, but Grantly is going through a bit of a hard time at the moment. He was upset this morning. I was just being a friend" she explained

It wasn't exactly a lie. Grantly had been pre-occupied recently with his wife, Fleur. He was convinced she was having an affair. It's why he'd bought that stupid wig. Steph didn't understand it and thought he was being stupid. But if it got her out of trouble it was worth it.

"He seemed perfectly fine to me" Rachel shrugged

"Well, that's Grantly isn't it? He's very proud, doesn't' like to talk about his private life"

Rachel nodded, unconvinced.

"Yes, well, you owe Candice and Janeece an apology. Don't do it again, Steph"

"Sure, can I go?" Steph requested, unfazed

Rachel nodded, placing her head in her hand as Steph walked away.

"Alright, Miss?"

Rachel spun around to see find Earl Kelly stood in front of her, grinning smugly. He looked incredibly dishevelled.

"Earl? Why aren't you in registration?" she questioned

"I'm running a bit late. We had a massive study party at my house last night," he explained

Rachel raised an eyebrow at him. The alcohol on his breath told her he'd been doing a lot more than just studying.

"I see. What were you 'studying'?" she asked

"Ask your Philip, he was there. He had a great time!" Earl smirked

Before Rachel could question him, he'd walked away.

That's where Philip had disappeared to last night! The Kelly's house. No wonder he'd come home drunk and high on drugs.

As she stood in the corridor, she was starting to think she'd been right all along. Earl Kelly was trouble.