Back in the School, Grantly Budgen's class were just settling down for their lesson.

Janeece's phone pinged. She picked it up off the desk, sniggering when she saw the message. Maxine frowned at her.

"Earl Kelly's only gone and killed one of them birds, hasn't he?" Janeece giggled

"Who's texted you that crap?" Maxine scoffed, rolling her eyes

"Ruth Jones. She heard it off Michaela. It happened at break" Janeece informed her

Maxine shook her head. Like everyone at Waterloo Road, she'd heard the rumours about her boyfriend. She knew they weren't true. Earl wouldn't do something as barbaric as that.

"I told you he was no good!" Janeece huffed

"Shut up!" Maxine shot back defensively

"The guy is a muppet, let's face it" Donte chimed in

Maxine rolled her eyes

"Ey, how do you spell psycho, sir? Is it E-A-R-L?" Donte added

Everyone but Maxine, Marley and Flick laughed out loud

"More like E-X-P-E-L-L-E-D!" Grantly smirked

The class laughed

Marley sighed. He wanted to tell everyone his little brother wasn't a murderer and that he wasn't the one killing birds. But, if he was completely honest, he wasn't sure what was true anymore. Every time a bird had been found on Tom's doorstep, Earl had been missing a few hours prior, only turning up a few minutes after the bird had been discovered.

"What are you going to put in your Head Boy speech now, Marley? 'It weren't me, it were my brother'?" one of the boys in the class taunted

"That's disgusting, murdering a little animal!" Janeece added

"Shut up, Janeece!" Maxine snapped

Janeece stared at her. It was obvious that Earl had her best friend wrapped around his little finger.

"It's got nothing to do with Marley!" Flick chimed in

"It's his brother, innit?" Janeece shot back

"So? You don't even know what's going on!" Flick argued

Janeece scoffed, rolling her eyes

"It's obvious, the whole family is trouble!"

"The only thing that's obvious is YOUR OWN stupid prejudice! How do you expect anyone to get better if you're always expecting the worst?" Flick shot back

Marley had, had enough. As Mr Budgen settled the class down, he furiously shoved his things into his bag, before storming out of the classroom.

"Marley!" Flick called after him

"Sit down, Miss Mellor!" Grantly ordered

...

Meanwhile, Earl stood in the middle of the field just around the corner from his house. He stared at Sienna through the bars of her cage. He smirked at her as he pulled the pocket knife from his pocket.

"Not so smart now, are you? Who's in control now?" he taunted

Eddie and Steve, who had managed to track down Sienna's location, were driving in the direction of where the tracker was leading them. Eddie hoped they'd find Sienna in one piece and that there had just been a huge misunderstanding. He hoped it wasn't Earl.

"We're pretty much on top of it, it should be down here" Steve told him, pointing straight ahead

As Eddie drove along, he suddenly realised the road looked familiar. When he realised why, his heart filled with dread. There was no mistaking that Earl was likely the culprit now.

"Uh-oh" he mumbled

"What?" Steve frowned

"This is Tom's street" Eddie explained

They parked up, dashing out of the car. Eddie looked around. There was no sign of Earl, and the house looked empty.

Steve ran over to the front door, picking up the discarded tracker that had been attached to Sienna. Eddie sighed heavily. Now they really were in trouble.

"I don't believe this! She could be anywhere now!" Steve exclaimed

Eddie banged on the front door loudly, shouting Earl's name. Of course, there was no reply.

Steve put his head in his hands.

"Rest assured, when I find him," Eddie growled

"That's not going to bring my Hawk back though, is it?" Steve huffed

"He couldn't have gone far" Eddie reasoned

"He must have gone that way, come on" he added, getting back into the van and driving straight on

After a few minutes, Eddie spotted a public footpath, which led to a field. On instinct, he pulled up, turning the engine off as he got out of the van.

"That's her cage!" Steve said, pointing at the discarded box on the ground in front of them

Eddie dashed passed it, refusing to think the worst until there was actual proof. Steve followed him.

"He can't be far" Eddie mumbled as he ran through the trees

The path eventually led them out into a field. They followed the sound of the screeching, Steve and Eddie sighing in relief when they saw Earl and Sienna stood a few metres away. Steve moved to run to him, but Eddie stopped him. They had to treat this delicately.

"She shouldn't be trusting him like that!" Steve commented, watching them

They watched as Sienna flew around in the air. Eddie sighed in relief. This was, as he and Rachel had expected, just a huge misunderstanding.

Eddie and Steve approached Earl carefully.

"I guess this has made Tom happy, having the whole school calling for my blood" Earl huffed, watching Sienna

"What did you expect?" Eddie questioned

"You thought I'd killed her, didn't you?" he asked

"No" Eddie replied calmly

Earl turned to him, frowning

"Then why were you running when you first saw me?"

Eddie looked at the ground. He had thought Earl had killed the Hawk. But admitting that wouldn't help anyone.

Earl smirked

"You expected the worst. Just like the rest of them"

"Can you blame me? You did break into the van and steal her!" Eddie pointed out

"I just wanted to fly her for myself" Earl shrugged

"You should have asked" Eddie sighed

Earl glared at him

"And so should you! Do you want to know who killed those birds?"

"Who?" Eddie asked, raising an eyebrow

"Our cat. We've just moved house, haven't we? She's been taking them to the wrong one" Earl told him

Eddie sighed painfully. They'd really messed up. Rachel had been right. Of course Earl hadn't killed those birds. Tom was just paranoid.

"Yeah, Tom didn't ask either. None of you did! You just looked at the evidence and assumed the worst" Earl huffed angrily

He turned his back to Eddie. Sienna flew back to him, landing on his arm. He smiled, watching her.

"That's the thing with wildlife. They make up their own minds who to trust"

...

Twenty minutes later, they were back at the school and Sienna was safely locked away in Steve's van. Earl was saying goodbye to her.

"Steve was telling me about these Falconry classes he runs at weekends. I'm sure he'd like to see you there" Eddie told him

Steve nodded in agreement

"She took to you quicker than she did me. It'd be a shame to let that go"

Earl shrugged

"I'll take that as a yes then?" Eddie questioned

Earl nodded

"Good. And I'll sort things with Mr Clarkson. There's no reason you two should be unhappy neighbours from now on" Eddie reassured

As if on cue, Tom walked onto the playground, studying Earl carefully. He was surprised not to see him covered in blood and feathers.

Eddie strode over to him. They needed to put this right.

"You got to him in time then?" Tom asked smugly

Eddie shook his head

"I got him wrong, Tom. We both did"

"Yeah, right!" Tom scoffed

"He didn't kill those birds, Tom! It was his cat" Eddie explained

Tom stared at him. How could Eddie actually believe that? He was more gullible than he thought. Cats killed birds, yes. But a cat couldn't bludgeon a bird to death with a stone.

Still, he didn't see the point in arguing. He'd tried with Rachel and had gotten nowhere. Eddie would be the same.

"Right" he mumbled

Eddie sighed. This was all just one big misunderstanding. Tom was letting his personal feelings affect his professional judgment.

"Tom, you might get to know the lad better if you talked to him" Eddie reasoned

Tom rolled his eyes. He sounded just like Rachel.

"Yeah, talking to him is one thing. You try living next door to him!" he snapped

"Tom!" Eddie scoffed

"Save it, Eddie. You're as dumb and deaf as all the rest" he huffed, storming away

Eddie sighed as the bell rang out for lunch. There was no changing Tom's mind.