CHAPTER SEVEN
It had been a week, and despite Jonathan agreeing to let her stay at Waterloo Road, things had not been easy at home for Belle. The morning she'd been late had been less of a conversation and more him yelling and taking all of his frustrations out on his daughter. She'd been late because she'd had to stop in some public toilets to patch herself up and make sure none of her injuries were visible.
It hadn't improved. She could hear her dad on the phone to Rachel often in the evenings, shouting mostly. From what she could make out, her mother wanted to see her. Nobody was taking into account what she wanted, but nothing was new there. And when her dad wasn't yelling down the phone, he was yelling at her...and hitting her. Her torso was black and blue, and so was her back. She had a slowly healing cut on her leg from where he'd smashed a vase and shoved her onto the floor on top of the broken glass. It was getting worse, and she was having to come up with increasingly unbelievable excuses for getting out of P.E.
Her teachers were starting to pick up on it, but they had no concrete evidence and she was definitely not talking. She'd spend a little more time in the pastoral care office when she felt herself wanting to scream again; Tom had become somewhat used to her presence, and her ukulele playing softly in the background whilst he was marking. She was still silent, other than the occasional comment about her english studies, and she still clammed up at just the mention of her mother's name, but there hadn't been any more major incidents.
Rachel, meanwhile, had been trying to keep an eye on the girl from afar, waiting for her to wrap her head around everything before attempting to build their relationship. She'd appreciated Eddie's support, both in keeping her spirits up and in helping subdue the rumours flying round the school. She'd had to tell the staff the truth, but with both Steph Haydock's penchant for gossip and the student's, the corridors were alight with whispers.
That was, until, there was something new to take their place. Like, for instance, the skeleton of a baby being found on the grounds of the school.
Rachel was really starting to wish day drinking was acceptable for a head teacher.
"Oh come on Aleesha, stop being so up yourself!" Belle was pleading with her moody friend. "Mr Wilding's just tryna make sure everyone's completely ready, and that means rehearsing!"
"It's alright for you, you just sit at the piano! I'm the one everyone'll be looking at! I need to rest my voice!" Aleesha insisted, dramatic as ever.
"Well, I think you're a bit young to worry about harming your voice!" Their french teacher said.
"You could try talking less?" Brett sniped, causing Belle to roll her eyes. "That would help, enormously."
Belle felt a tap on her shoulder from her music teacher and took the hint to start playing again before her friend had the chance to retort. Brett started singing again, until a loud bang from the corridor stopped them all as they turned to see the commotion.
She watched as Mr Budgen stormed down the corridor, closely followed by Mr Lawson and her mother, who met her eyes as she strode past, a crease appearing between her brows as she caught sight of her daughter. Belle wondered what the hell was going on this time. She wasn't alone, apparently.
"Are we under attack or something?" Steph exclaimed from next to the piano.
"How can we concentrate with this racket?" Aleesha complained loudly.
Belle admitted to herself that her friend had a point, but didn't say anything, recognising that her annoyance undoubtedly came from seeing her mum as opposed to the noise.
"Just try and shut it out." Matt said.
"Does anyone else find diva teenagers a bit depressing?" Brett smirked as a few titters came from the rest of the students.
"Give it a rest, Brett." Belle turned to him with a glare.
Her friend shot her a grateful look quickly, before turning back to her co-star. "Everyone knows you'd rather have Mika doing it than me."
"Spot on there!"
Belle sighed, frustrated. The pair of them were being ridiculous.
Aleesha scowled. "If you don't take that back, I'm walking."
"Oh for goodness sake, lighten up, Aleesha." Steph's comment made no difference on the teenager.
"I mean it!"
"Brett," Matt sighed, "could you apologise, please?"
"You think she's gonna walk off this?" Brett said with a raise of his brow. "No chance!"
Both teachers exchanged a look with each other, then Belle, who seemed to be the only other person in the room with a brain cell today. Belle resisted the urge to bang her head on the piano. This musical was meant to be her escape from the drama in her life, not more drama on top of it.
"There's the door." Brett pointed, looking at Aleesha expectantly.
Aleesha looked at Belle, who shot her a pleading look. Matt and Steph rolled their eyes at each other behind her.
"Are we practicing or not?" The girl eventually mumbled.
Belle let out a small smile as her fingers picked up the melody once more, and she focussed on the keys.
It was only a short while later that they found out what the cause of the commotion was. She was sitting in Mr Budgen's classroom, in front of Danielle and Aleesha, with Rachel standing at the front telling them about the baby's remains found on school grounds. She stared out the window, tuning out the rest of her mother's speech about being able to talk to the staff, lost in thought.
Rachel couldn't help but let her eyes drift over to her daughter every few seconds, and it didn't escape her notice that she wasn't paying attention. She frowned as her mind raced internally. She had no clue what Belle had gone through the past ten years, who she'd hung out with, dated- for all she knew, the girl could be the mother. The idea made her nauseous. She pushed the thought back and left the classroom.
Barely an hour after that and they were back in the music room, Belle sat, idly playing the piano quietly; half listening to Matt talking to Brett and Aleesha and half keeping an eye on her mother, who was talking to Steph and the police officer. She noticed both her french and head teacher shoot her small glances once or twice, and she could feel her anger start to bubble away. She focussed on her breathing, and on the four notes she was playing repetitively.
The word hypocrite swam around her head. Rachel was acting so concerned about this baby and it's mother, but she couldn't help but think that she herself could be long dead and her mother wouldn't know or care. The word abandoned joined the chorus in her head, and her breathing got heavier. She thought of all the times her dad had nearly gone too far. She thought of just the other night, when he'd thrown a plate and she'd barely ducked in time. Her finger slipped, and the note echoed loudly throughout the room, drawing all eyes to her.
"Sorry." She muttered, removing her hands from the piano. She could feel the blood rushing through her ears.
Rachel's concern for her daughter only grew. She forced herself to turn back and finish her conversation before leaving the room, waiting in the hallway with the detective for Steph to join them.
Apparently she wasn't the only one to notice Belle's behaviour, however, and she watched the woman try to subtly usher the redhead out of the room, talking to her quietly. If the look on the girl's face was anything to go by, she wasn't doing a very good job.
"Nobody's accusing you of anything, Belle-"
"Clearly they are!"
"I just think it'd be a good idea for you to have a talk with us, is all."
They were out the room now, and Rachel could once more recognise the laboured breathing and clenched fists that indicated Isabelle was struggling to keep her temper in check.
"There's nothing to talk about!" She shouted. Her eyes drifted over to the detective and then to Rachel, at which point her expression darkened. "Abandoning children isn't a genetic trait, y'know!" With that, she turned heel and stormed down the corridor in the opposite direction.
Steph turned to Rachel sheepishly. "That could have gone better."
Rachel didn't meet anyone's gaze as she mentally shook herself. "It could, yes."
"I just thought, what with the issues currently being raised about her home life-"
"Yes, I know what you thought, Steph, but she was already worked up in there. It might have been better to try and talk to her alone?"
Steph only nodded, and as Rachel left, she turned to the detective to explain exactly what had gone on.
Belle more or less threw herself into the pastoral care office, and Tom looked up in surprise.
"Belle! Is everything alright?" He wasn't really expecting an answer; he didn't usually get one, just a shrug or an affirmative mumble, or nothing at all as she slumped onto the sofa.
This time was different. She chucked her backpack onto one of the chairs but continued to pace, clenching and unclenching her hands as she gasped for breath. "She- she's such a- a hypocrite!" Belle spat, half choking on her words.
Tom stood up and walked round to the other side of the desk, but didn't approach her, sensing that she needed space. "Your mum, I'm assuming?"
Belle didn't confirm or deny, only continued. "Acting all worried and fussing over this baby. She- she left her own child, her freaking daughter! I could be dead! She wasn't as concerned then!" She seemed to run out of steam after that, sinking down onto the floor to sit cross legged.
Tom was somewhat blown away. For Belle, this was a breakthrough… or a breakdown. Until this point, she'd refused to talk about anything at all. He awkwardly lowered himself to sit facing her.
"Do you want my opinion?" He asked.
"Are you going to give it to me anyway?" Belle scoffed with a frown.
"No, not if you don't want it. I can talk this all through with you, maybe help you see your mum's side of things… or I can not. We can just sit here. We can talk about music, or about your last essay, or we can not talk at all." She looked at him dubiously. "This is a safe space for you, Belle. What you do in here is entirely up to you."
She considered for a moment. She looked sad, deflated. A change from her usual bluster and anger. "So what's your opinion?"
Tom took a breath. "I think your mum isn't acting. She is worried, about this baby and it's mother, and about you." He paused, waiting for her to react. When she didn't, he carried on. "She didn't abandon you for death: she left you with your dad, expecting him to take care of you and love you no matter what." He chose his words carefully. "Does he do that?"
She immediately stiffened, and her answer was almost robotic. "Of course he does."
Tom frowned, but decided against pushing her now. "Ok then. There may be an element of hypocrisy in this situation, but there's a hell of a lot more to it, and I think an intelligent girl like you knows that, hm?"
Belle looked up, tears swimming in her eyes before she furiously swiped them away. "Maybe." She said it with an air of finality, and Tom recognised it as her way of putting an end to the conversation: she was done talking now.
"Can I give you one piece of advice? You don't have to listen to it, you can chuck it right out the window if you want to!" Tom ventured after they'd stood up.
"What?" She asked reluctantly, grabbing her bag.
"Give your mum a chance." He said, before sitting back down and pretending to focus on his marking so she wouldn't feel the pressure of his gaze.
She frowned deeply and said nothing, opting instead to just walk out. But the fact that she didn't slam the door behind her told Tom that there was a small chance he'd gotten through to her- even just a little bit.
Hi! So sorry about the wait! Like I said, got a lot going on and finding time to write has been hard. I was going to include a slightly edited version of the conversations between Rachel and Eddie at the end of this episode, but I can't get a proper transcript online and watching the episode and pausing it whilst I type just to add in a few bits of dialogue in so time-consuming, and I can imagine it to be boring to read as well, seeing as you've already watched the episode!
I thought it was finally time for Belle to open up a little bit, even if it's not about her dad, but I promise that is coming! I figured Tom would be a good person to chat to, being the head of pastoral care and a popular teacher, plus I just like him as a character! I'll try to update soon, but until life becomes less hectic no promises can be made! As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! :)