It seemed the staff of Waterloo Road weren't the only ones who had, had run-ins with Earl Kelly. Aside from Paul, Bolton and the girl in year 9, he seemed to be Maxine Barlow and Janeece Bryant grief too.

When the bell rang for the start of afternoon classes, Earl stalked along to his next classroom.

As he walked along the corridor, he paused, looking into Mr Budgen's classroom.

He was mesmerised by Maxine Barlow as he eyed her through the window. Her sparkling blue eyes had captivated him. All temptations to bunk off for the rest of the day were forgotten when he saw her, laughing and chatting away to her best friend. Maybe this school wouldn't be so bad after all.

He waltzed into the classroom, cutting Grantly off mid-sentence and startling everyone. He strutted smugly over to Maxine, sitting at the unoccupied desk behind her and Janeece.

"Hello, can I help you?" Grantly boomed sarcastically

"Nah, mate, you're alright" Earl responded sharply, sitting down

Maxine eyed him briefly, her expression bored and slightly repulsed. She turned her back to him. He didn't mind though. She was playing hard to get.

"Are you supposed to be in this class?" Grantly asked, growing increasingly irritated

Earl ignored him

"I'm Earl, what's your name?" He asked flirtatiously, unfazed by the fact he was talking to the back of Maxine's head

Janeece turned around with a massive grin on her face. She was keen to make introductions.

"Hiya! I'm Janeece, this is Max" she grinned, nodding to Maxine

Earl stared at Maxine who had turned briefly to face him. She really was stunning.

"Aww, well, now that we've got introductions out the way," Grantly mocked, smiling sarcastically

Earl shushed him, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Trying to have a conversation here" he said

Maxine scoffed, refusing to look at him. But Earl wasn't giving up.

"I was going to go home, until I saw you" he rambled

Maxine turned to face him now, shooting him a glare.

"I'm not interested, alright?" She snapped

"So there we are!" Grantly interrupted

"Not interested? I haven't even made you an offer yet!" Earl snarled

"I know what you're offering and you've got a pretty high opinion of yourself if you think this is going to get me to drop my knickers!" She shot back

"Ok, that's it! You're leaving!" Grantly ordered, pointing to the door

Earl remained seated

"You think I've got a high opinion of myself? Well, it's not as bad as the low opinion you've got of yourself!"

Maxine rolled her eyes

"And if I wanted someone easy, I'd be talking to your mate!" He added

Janeece turned to face him angrily

"Eee, you cheeky get!" She snapped

"You don't even know me!" Maxine huffed, scowling at Earl

"Yeah I do" he shrugged

Maxine scoffed

"Right! To the cooler!" Grantly barked at Maxine

"Why me?!" Maxine shot back defensively

"Why?! Cos you're a slapper!" Janeece snapped

"That's just one of the reasons!" Grantly hissed, continuing to point at the door

Earl stood up angrily, glaring at Grantly

"Oi! Take that back!" He snarled

"Just leave it, alright?" Maxine growled at him

"No. Who does he think he is, talking to you like that?" Earl hissed, looking Grantly up and down in disgust

"The Teacher!" Grantly answered

"Look, I don't need you sticking up for me, alright? Especially when you created the problem in the first place! Just back off will you?" Maxine snapped

Earl stared at her with a smirk

"Later, babes!" He huffed, walking away

"Oh and you," he added, turning to Grantly

"You're fooling no one, mate!" He finished, putting a finger in Grantly's face, the entire class bursting into a fit of giggles

Earl left, leaving Grantly to calm down his class.

...

Meanwhile, in the Head Teacher's office, Rachel was pacing up and down manically, still holding the note in her shaking hand. She didn't know what to say, how to react.

A gun at Waterloo Road?

Rochdale was rife with knife crime and violence, she'd known that long before she'd started working at Waterloo Road.

But a gun?

And who had it in their possession? Where did they get it from? And why bring it into school?

Why had a note been shoved under her door?

Why was all of this happening on her first day back?

Eddie couldn't stand it anymore. All the pacing Rachel was doing was making him dizzy.

"Rach, will you stop pacing? You're making me dizzy!" he huffed

Rachel stared at him blankly. If she was honest, she'd forgotten he was there.

He could tell she was overwhelmed and panicking. Anyone in her situation would be. But they had to come up with a plan of action, and they had to do it quick.

"Rachel, listen to me, we need to call the police and evacuate the school" he said

Eddie's words were muffled as she stared at the note for the hundredth time.

No, this wasn't real. It wasn't happening. It was a prank.

"This is someone's idea of a joke" she mumbled

Eddie stared at her in shock. He hadn't been sure exactly what she was thinking about all of this, but it wasn't that.

"Pretty sick joke" Eddie scoffed

"What? A gun? Here? Eddie on the first day back? No, I'm not falling for that!" She snapped, throwing the note to the floor

"Rachel!"

"No, Eddie! It's ridiculous! When I find out who's done that!" She exclaimed angrily

"Rachel! Calm down!" Eddie ordered, grabbing her arms

She glared at him, shaking him off her

"I won't 'calm down'! Eddie, this is Rochdale! It's not happening on my site! This is not happening here!" She cried

Her breathing was getting quicker and heavier by the second, so much so that she was gasping for air. Her heart was pounding painfully against her chest. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe.

What were they supposed to do?

Eddie needed to calm her down before she had a panic attack. Since the miscarriage, she'd been having them a lot, not that she'd told anyone. Eddie couldn't bear to witness her going through another one, especially at work.

He sat her down gently on the sofa, sitting on the coffee table so he was facing her directly. With his hand, he tilted her chin so her deep, brown eyes were staring into his own.

"Rach, we have to evacuate the school" Eddie said calmly

Rachel shook her head frantically, suddenly becoming panicked again.

"I'm not doing that! I'm not going to put the kids through that! I don't want this school to be full of panicked and traumatised kids!" She cried, her breathing growing heavier, almost turning into wheezing

"Rachel, deep breaths" Eddie reminded her, taking some himself so she would copy him

She did, inhaling and exhaling with Eddie until her breathing was back to an acceptable pace.

"This is supposed to be a place of safety for the kids" she mumbled

"Of course" Eddie nodded

"Now, listen. We do this quietly, class by class. We keep it calm, controlled. We do it that way and nobody is going to panic, nobody is going to do anything stupid, ok?" He continued, his voice calm and steady

Rachel took a shaky breath

"Ok" she nodded hesitantly

"All right, nobody is going to do anything stupid" she whispered, repeating Eddie's words to herself

"Exactly" Eddie nodded, rubbing her arms reassuringly

She sighed, offering him a weak smile

"Thank you" she mumbled

Eddie smiled at her encouragingly. They could handle this together. They were going to handle it together.

"I'll call the Police, you evacuate the school" Rachel decided, her voice trembling

Eddie nodded, reluctantly leaving her side to make a start.

Rachel picked up the office phone, dialling 999 with trembling fingers.