One hour later...

It was 4pm. Eddie and Rachel had arrived back at school about half an hour ago, after stopping off at home. Rachel had taken her anti-sickness tablet, and, after fifteen minutes, was feeling much better. Physically anyway. She was still anxious about the upcoming scan.

Eddie had shot off to inform Candeece of what had happened at the match. She knew the woman would be furious, she was too.

If Rachel was honest, she was struggling to wrap her head around the events that had transpired in the last couple of hours. She had been expecting to go to the Boxing Match with Eddie and the rest of the staff and students, and then head home a little earlier than normal once it was over. Wishful thinking.

The last thing she had expected to do today was to have to suspend one of her staff members for giving a pupil drugs. She'd never thought she'd have to do that. It didn't matter if they were harmless vitamin tablets, like Rob was claiming; she still had to suspend him. Giving students drugs or medication of any kind was and is illegal, unless you are a medical professional, but even then.

She was furious that Rob had done this, and she was furious at herself for not keeping tabs on Bolton's one-on-one training. She had trusted Rob to coach him and he had let her down by doing this.

How long had Rob been giving Bolton those tablets?

How much damage had they caused to Bolton's body in the time he had been taking them?

And most importantly, what were they?

She didn't want to know the answers to any of these questions, but she was going to find out anyway.

One question kept running through her mind, playing on a loop. How could Rob do this? What would have happened if Bolton had, had an allergic reaction to the tablets? What then? Had he even taken that into account? Probably not.

This wasn't the first time Rob's 'training methods' had been flagged up. She recalled a few weeks ago, the day of Maxine's death, Davina had accused Rob of bullying and physically abusing Bolton. It had resulted in a fight between Rob and Tom, which Linda, the school inspector had witnessed. She had spoken to Rob a few hours later about the whole situation. He had brushed it off. The issue had been forgotten about with the chaos of Maxine's death. Now, it was going to be called into question again. Physical, verbal abuse towards a young person, were two very serious things to be accused of. Giving them drugs was another. How much worse could it get?

"People just don't understand what we're doing"

That's what Rob had said when she had questioned him the other week. He was right. Neither she nor Eddie knew what went on in Rob and Bolton's training sessions. They should have been paying more attention. Maybe this could have been stopped.

She knew that Bolton had played no real part in this, other than taking the pills. She knew by the way he had seemed a little oblivious to the fact that he was in trouble, and how he had explained what the pills were. He didn't know what they were really. Rob had tricked him into taking performance enhancing drugs somehow. And it made her so angry.

One thing was for sure, she was so grateful to Davina for taking action the second Janeece had mentioned to her that Rob had given Bolton pills. Davina had trusted her gut instinct that something was wrong and had found the pills. If she hadn't, they'd never have known, and there was a chance that Rob's training methods for Bolton would have become so much worse. Rachel had never had any doubts about Davina becoming a teacher in the future. Today had just reassured her that she was right.

She watched from the office window as hundreds of students hopped off the coaches, chatting away as they headed in the direction of home. Their day was ending, whilst Rachel's was just beginning. She had a huge mess to try and clean up before she could even think about going home with Eddie. She had a feeling they would be going to the hospital straight from work, something that she really didn't want. She'd wanted time to get changed, to have a cup of tea and to mentally prepare herself. Of course that was never going to happen, not when you worked at a school like Waterloo Road. Chaos hung around the building like a bad smell.

She sighed as she watched Rob and Jasmine exit Rob's car. The two of them were in a heated discussion, which seemed to be about what had happened at the match. Rachel was aware that they were an item, but she hoped that Jasmine wouldn't lie for him if he asked her to.

A knock on the door pulled her from her thoughts. She turned to see Eddie stood in the doorway, looking nervous and apprehensive. Candeece was hovering behind him.

"Miss Mason, what's going on?" she asked, pushing past Eddie as she walked into the room

"Candeece, take a seat for me and I'll explain" Rachel reasoned

"Mr Lawson has told me enough. Has that Mr Cleaver been giving my Bolton drugs or not?" Candeece snapped

Rachel sighed.

"Yes. But we don't know what they are. Not that, that matters of course"

A flash of anger flickered across Candeece's face.

"Where is he? I will ring his bloomin neck!" she grumbled

"He's coming up to the office now, but I need you to stay calm about this, Candeece. Just until we get all the facts" Rachel explained

"I hope you're suspending him!" she huffed

"We're going to sort it, Candeece, but I need you to wait outside my office while we do, ok?" Rachel reassured

Candeece sighed, shaking her head in disbelief as she stepped into the antechamber.

"Do you want me to deal with this?" Eddie asked

"Let's do it together" she told him

Eddie nodded, placing a hand on her arm gently.

"It's a good job the scan isn't until six o'clock" Eddie chuckled

Rachel smiled weakly.

The two of them turned their heads when they heard Rob, Jasmine and Bolton enter. To avoid an altercation with Rob and Candeece, Rachel grabbed him and Jasmine, pulling them into her office.

"Miss, please can I have a word?" Bolton asked quietly

Rachel could tell he was upset, and it made her anger towards Rob increase. He hadn't asked for any of this. He had just wanted to compete in a Boxing Match, and Rob had taken it too far.

"Of course, Bolton. Will you just give me a few minutes? Sit with your Mum and I'll be with you as quick as I can"

Bolton nodded, sitting down next to his Mum.

Rachel shut the door, shooting an angry look at Rob. Thankfully, he missed it. He was too busy staring at the floor to be able to look her in the eye.

"Right, I think I know the basic details, but I need the facts" Rachel announced, breaking the silence

Rob didn't say a word.

"Rob?" Eddie prompted impatiently

Rob sighed, finally making eye contact with Rachel.

"Look, the lad was struggling! I couldn't let him go in the ring unless he was ready! His mind had gone and he was all over the shop!"

"He seemed perfectly fine to me when I saw him before the match" Rachel challenged

"Well, he wasn't. He often acts confident when he's really not" Rob reasoned

"So you gave him the tablets for his 'safety' then, did you?" Eddie questioned

"Yes!" Rob answered

Eddie and Rachel shared a look of disgust and disbelief. He was determined to weasel his way out of this, whatever it took.

"Look, I admit, it's not a method that you'd read in a coaching manual, but it worked"

Rachel scoffed.

"Rob, YOU gave Bolton a PILL and then told him he was Superman! That is NOT a method! That is a breach of your duty of care!" she snapped

Eddie subtly placed his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently. If she wasn't careful the floodgates would open and she wouldn't be able to stay calm. He sighed in relief, when he felt her shoulder relax against his touch.

"After all the effort you put in, no one is questioning your commitment. But, this was wrong, Rob. It's as simple as that" Eddie added, his voice firm, but calm

"Well, in my view, what you did was, at best, a serious error of judgment. So, when we come back next term, and the Boxing Authorities have done their investigation, you'll be facing disciplinary proceedings. Until then..."

Rob cut Rachel off before she could finish.

"What? Why?"

Rachel ignored his question.

"Until then, I'm suspending you, pending a full investigation"

Rob scoffed angrily.

"All I did was give the kid his five a day in a tablet! For goodness sake!" he snapped

"We've only got your word for that" Eddie pointed out

"It could have been a jelly bean, Rob. It's not the point and you know it!" Rachel cut in

Rob stood up, throwing his chair back in a fit of rage.

"I put EVERYTHING into his preparation and I NEVER heard you or Eddie complaining!"

Rachel rolled her eyes. He was grasping at straws now, trying to place the blame on everyone but himself. It was clear to her that training Bolton and him winning meant more to him than it did to Bolton. This was about Rob's career and reputation, not Bolton's. He had been willing to put Bolton at risk, just to boost his ego. It made Rachel furious.

"That's got NOTHING to do with it!" Eddie argued

"All the kudos we'd have received if he'd won! You'd have given a couple of 'jelly beans' for that, wouldn't you?" Rob questioned, glaring at Rachel

Rachel shook her head in disbelief.

"If you think that about me, you don't know me and you don't know this school!" she shot back angrily

"I won that fight! I won it fair and square!" Rob snarled

"Don't you mean BOLTON won that fight, Rob?" Jasmine challenged

Rob looked between the two of them before storming out of the room, slamming the office door behind him. It took a few seconds before Jasmine ran after him.

Rachel looked to Eddie, letting out a sigh.

"What now?" he asked

"I need to talk to Bolton and Candeece. I think Bolton should go to the walk-in centre at the hospital to be checked. Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but I'd rather be on the safe side" she told him

Eddie nodded.

"I'll talk to Candeece, you talk to Bolton. Then we can finish up here and head home for a bit, yeah?" he suggested

Rachel nodded, standing up from her chair.

...

Whilst Eddie took Candeece into the corridor to speak to her, Rachel brought Bolton into her office. The two of them sat down on the sofa. Bolton stared at the floor, bouncing his leg up and down nervously.

"Bolton, are you ok?" she asked gently

To her surprise, he shook his head. He lifted his gaze to make eye contact with her. There were so many emotions reflected in his eyes, she wasn't quite sure which one was at the forefront.

"I let everyone down, innit? All that hard work we put in for me to just be disqualified!"

"No, Bolton, you didn't! Absolutely not!" she reasoned

"All because of them stupid tablets! I got in my own head, Miss! I was so nervous, I just wanted to do well and make everyone proud. That's why Cleaver gave me the tablets. If I hadn't been so nervous, he wouldn't have had to give them to me and I wouldn't have been disqualified!" he pointed out

"Bolton, none of that matters. You are NOT in the wrong here, do you hear me? You were given drugs to boost your performance and you weren't aware! Whether you were nervous or not, they shouldn't have been given to you!"

"What's going to happen to Mr Cleaver?" he asked

"I've had to suspend him for now. Even if those tablets were harmless, that isn't the point, Bolton. He shouldn't have given you them anyway. Once the Boxing Authorities have completed their investigation, we'll know more and we'll go from there" Rachel explained

"What about me? Will I be expelled?"

"No, Bolton. This wasn't your fault. Mr Cleaver is at fault here" Rachel reassured

"But I'm the one who took the tablets, Miss. I was the one who was nervous and freaking out, that's why he gave me the pills" he pointed out

"And Mr Cleaver has a duty of care to you as your coach and teacher to keep you safe. He shouldn't have given them to you in the first place, whether you were nervous or not. There are better ways to manage nerves without medication. What he did was incredibly dangerous, Bolton. Anything could have happened! You could have had an allergic reaction, or overdosed. You could have done a lot more damage to your opponent than you intended"

Bolton nodded quietly.

Davina's accusation from a few weeks ago kept replaying in her mind. It was a serious thing to accuse someone of physically assaulting someone. Rachel needed to know if it was true. Bolton wouldn't lie to her, or she hoped not anyway. When the LEA investigation started, Bolton would be asked questions, and she needed to prepare him, just in case. She couldn't sweep Davina's accusation under the carpet, not after he'd given Bolton drugs.

"Bolton, when we come back after Christmas, you'll probably be called to a meeting with the LEA. They will ask you some questions about Mr Cleaver and your sessions with him. I'm telling you, because you need to be prepared" she explained

Bolton nodded, urging her to continue.

"An accusation was made a couple of weeks ago. Mr Cleaver was seen with you on the field and he... kicked you. Is it true?"

Bolton fell silent, his gaze returning to the floor.

"I need you tell me the truth, Bolton" she added

"Yeah, he did" he mumbled

Rachel sighed painfully.

"It was only because I was being lazy, Miss. He was trying to get me motivated to put the work in" he reasoned

Rachel scoffed silently. Rob had really brainwashed and manipulated Bolton. First with the pills, and now with physical abuse. Even if the LEA somehow found him innocent, Rachel knew there was no place for Rob Cleaver at Waterloo Road. He would have to go elsewhere.

"Bolton, there were other ways of getting you to be motivated. Kicking you and hurting you deliberately is not acceptable, you understand that, don't you?"

He nodded.

"What's going to happen if I speak to the LEA, Miss?"

"Whatever you tell them will be added to their final report, Bolton. It will be treated in the strictest confidence of course, and I'll be there with you in the room when they're talking to you"

"Ok" he mumbled

"I know you're upset about this, Bolton, but it isn't your fault" she reassured

"I'm crap, Miss. I'm not cut out for this" he mumbled

"No, Bolton, you're not. I've seen you in a Boxing Ring before, you are fantastic! And one of these days, you're going to compete in the championships again and you will win fair and square"

"I'll probably never be allowed to compete again, Miss" he sighed

"The investigation is into Mr Cleaver, Bolton, not you. You can carry on training and competing if you want to"

"I don't have a coach anymore" he pointed out

"Then after the holidays, we'll find you another one, yeah?" she suggested

Bolton nodded.

"Are you feeling ok after taking those tablets? Mr Lawson is going to suggest to your Mum that she takes you to the walk-in centre to be checked"

"I've got a bit of a headache. Could be from all the noise of everyone cheering though" he shrugged

"I would go and get checked, just in case, yeah?"

"Yeah, thanks, Miss"

Rachel smiled.

"Come on, let's go and find your Mum" she decided, escorting him out of the office