Chapter 1
It was a Friday afternoon and Rachel mason was feeling particularly tired. She was having a stressful day and didn't seem to be able to go a moment without a kid being sent to her office for one reason or another.
She tried to get on with some paperwork for a bit before glancing at the clock, it was a relief to see that it was almost home time for the kids. Rachel was looking forward to getting back and relaxing with her 12-year-old daughter Gaby. Gaby had always been a good kid, her and Rachel were really close, even more so since Gaby's father had died a year or so ago. At first both Rachel and Gaby had really struggled to come to terms with their loss however over time they had gradually started to get over it. Recently however, Gaby seemed to have gotten in with the wrong crowd at school, she was hanging round with some much older girls and no longer seemed as focused on her school work. Gaby also seemed to be going out all the time and Rachel wasn't happy about not knowing where exactly she was.
A few minutes later the phone in Rachel's office rang. Rachel sighed heavily before answering, hoping it was nothing too important.
"Hello" she said
"Rachel it's Steph, it's just to let you know there's no sign of Gaby in my lesson"
Rachel rolled her eyes instantly feeling quite angry at her daughter
"Right thanks for letting me know Steph, I'll see if I can find her now"
Rachel had a good idea who her daughter would be with. When she checked the register, her suspicions were confirmed. Leah and Kelsey, the year 9 girls that Gaby had been hanging round with hadn't showed up to their lessons either.
Feeling really angry now, Rachel rang her daughter's mobile, it didn't really surprise her when there was no answer.
She decided to have a walk round the school and see if she could find them anywhere.
As Rachel was walking down the English corridor she heard giggling and chatting coming from inside one of the toilets.
Frowning, she opened the door. When she did she discovered Gaby and her best friend Molly inside along with Kelsey and Leah.
When they saw Rachel stood there Gaby and Molly instantly looked scared however the older girls looked unfazed, they were more than used to being caught skipping lessons.
"hello girls, sorry to interrupt your little chat" Rachel said icily "Would you like to explain to me why you're in here and not in your lessons?"
Neither Molly or Gaby said a word they were both feeling upset at being caught skiving off and were worried about what Rachel was going to do.
It was weird for Molly and Gaby to have Rachel as their headteacher, they had been best friends since reception and Molly had been round Rachel's house loads before they moved up to secondary school. Gaby especially found it so strange having her Mum as the boss here.
"We couldn't really be arsed going miss" Kayleigh replied cheekily causing Leah to laugh, Rachel however did not look impressed at this response.
"and you think that's acceptable, do you? To throw away valuable lesson time simply because you don't want to go. You should all be ashamed of yourselves" Rachel said sternly "All four of you can go and wait outside my office"
Rachel went off as she had to quickly go and speak to a teacher about something.
Molly and Gaby were feeling pretty scared now, this was the first time they'd ever skipped lessons and they had felt really nervous about it however Kayleigh and Leah had kind of bullied them into it and they didn't dare disagree.
"What are you two kids looking so frightened for" Leah said laughing
"We're not" Gaby mumbled
"You really are pathetic sometimes, but then again it's no wonder when you're masons daughter"
Gaby could feel her cheeks turning red, she hated it when people brought attention to the fact she was the headteachers daughter. This was part of the reason she'd started hanging round with the older girls as she wanted to prove to everyone she wasn't a nerdy little kid. Gaby had always been very popular however she suffered with low self-confidence which seemed to have gotten even worse since starting secondary school.
A few minutes later Rachel appeared. She glanced at all the girls before turning to Kayleigh and Leah
"You two into my office, I'll talk with you first. Molly and Gaby, you wait outside please"
When Kayleigh and Leah went in with Rachel Molly turned to Gaby
"Do you think your Mum will go mad?"
"probably, at least you don't have to live with her though, she'll be going on about it all weekend now" Gaby said sadly
"She won't ring my mum, will she?"
"don't know depends what kind of mood she's in. Your Mum isn't anywhere near as strict as mine though" Gaby pointed out
A few minutes later Kayleigh and Leah walked out even they looked a little sheepish after their telling off from Rachel.
Rachel waited a moment or so before calling the girls in
"Right what have you two got to say for your selves, I hope you know how disappointed I am in you both. You two know better than to skive off lessons"
Rachel always found it strange having to tell Gaby and Molly off in school, however she knew it was important that she did, when Gaby started at waterloo road Rachel had been determined to treat her the same as any other pupil.
"Mum we're really sorry it won't happen again" Gaby said starting to feel upset about it all
"How many times do I have to tell you it's miss mason when we're at school" Rachel snapped "and saying sorry isn't good enough, I want a proper explanation"
Neither of the two girls said anything, they just stared at the floor looking sheepish
"Okay perhaps one of you would like to tell me why you've started hanging round with girls much older than you two huh?"
"We like Kayleigh and Leah" Molly said sounding scared
"Really, because they're not the sort of girls I'd expect the two of you to be hanging round with, you've got a nice friendship group in year 7 so why are you spending all your time with them?"
"Shut up" Gaby said losing her temper "you think you know everything about me but you don't"
Rachel was shocked at Gaby's tone, she would never normally speak to her like that
"How dare you talk to me like that at school Gaby, I am your headteacher"
"Why do you always have to get involved in my life, its literally got nothing to do with you who me and Molly hang round with. You wouldn't be bothered about who any of the other year 7 girls are friends with" Gaby shouted tears forming in her eyes
"oh yes I would young lady if I though they're behaviour and school work were being compromised"
"you're so annoying, all you want to do is try and control me"
Rachel was about to retaliate and really lose her temper however stopped herself, she realised that a shouting match between her and Gaby was the last thing that was needed right now, so instead she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.
"Gaby go to the cooler, you can stay there till the bell goes and then do a 15-minute detention. After you've finished your detention I'll come and find you and discuss a punishment for skipping class and speaking to me the way you have"
At first Gaby didn't move but then she grabbed her stuff and ran outside crying.
Rachel then turned her attention to Molly, who looked a bit shocked at what had just unfolded
"Molly I'm sorry about that"
"It's okay Miss"
"Have you got anything to say about this afternoon"
"No Miss" Molly still felt a bit weird calling Rachel Miss, however at the moment she didn't dare call her anything else
"Right well you can spend the rest of the afternoon in my office completing the work you missed, what's left can be homework, you'll also be in detention every break time next week and I'll be calling home to let them know what's gone on" Rachel said, she felt a bit awkward calling Molly's mum over this as she was quite good friends with her, with Molly and Gaby being so close Rachel had met Molly's mum loads of times and they'd even been on nights out together before, however she knew it was only right she called her.
"Miss please don't call my mum" Molly said sounding worried
"I have to I'm afraid Molly it's only fair, isn't it?"
"Miss please don't"
"It's not up for discussion I'm afraid. Go and sit down and start your work please"
Rachel was a bit puzzled however about why Molly didn't want her to call her mum so badly, Lindsay had never been overly strict with her children.
Once Molly had started completing her worksheets, Rachel decided to get on with some more work.
After a while Rachel became so engrossed in her work that she didn't notice Molly crying. It was only when she looked at the clock on her wall she saw how upset she was.
No matter what had happened earlier Rachel still instantly felt sorry for Molly and went over to her.
"Molly what's the matter love?" Rachel asked gently
"Nothing Miss" Molly said hastily brushing her tears away
Rachel sighed before putting her arm on molly's shoulder
"Come on, I don't know about you but I'm absolutely shattered, how about you go and sit on the sofa and we'll get a cup of tea?"
Molly didn't know why Rachel was suddenly being nice to her but she put her stuff away and sat down with Rachel
"Look love I'm sorry if I was a bit hard on you earlier, but you've got to understand I can't treat you any differently to any other pupil okay"
"I know miss and I'm really sorry"
Rachel smiled slightly and put her hand on Molly's "I know you're sorry, it's just been a pretty busy day and I took it out on you and Gaby, but what I really don't understand is why the two of you are spending so much time with those girls, they're honestly not good people to be around"
"I know it's just because we didn't want to look daft in front of them, they would have been horrible to us if we hadn't skipped class with them"
"But what I don't understand is why you've started hanging round with them in the first place"
Molly looked at the ground and started playing with her hands, she didn't want Gaby to be angry with her for telling Rachel the real reason but she knew that she didn't really have much choice
"They kind of saw me and Gaby doing something a couple of weeks ago and said that they'd tell you about it if we didn't do what they say"
"okay what did they catch you doing?"
"They caught me and Gaby trying to get over the back gate at lunch time, I know we shouldn't have been doing it"
"Yes well I can't exactly say I'm delighted about you trying to get out at lunch, but I don't really think it was worth all this do you?"
"We just didn't want to get into trouble"
Rachel sighed "Well I think getting a slight telling off would have been better than putting yourself through hell for the last however many weeks"
"I guess" Molly said
Rachel could tell something wasn't quite right willy Molly by the way she was acting
"Molly is there something else you want to talk about?"
"No miss"
"Are you sure? Because if there was it wouldn't go any further, I wouldn't say a word to Gaby"
Suddenly Molly found her eyes were filling with tears
"love what's the matter"
"Mum and Dad said they might be getting a divorce" Molly said
"Oh Molly no wonder you're feeling upset, that must be awful for you" Rachel said
She wasn't exactly surprised by this news as she knew that Lindsay and Chris's marriage was going through a bad patch
"It's horrible they keep having these rows and they wake me up at night"
"That must be tough on you and your sister" Rachel said sympathetically "but what you've got to remember is all parents row from time to time but it doesn't mean they don't love each other really and it certainly doesn't mean they don't love you"
"I know, mum just keeps snapping at us though, that's why I didn't want you to call her"
"It won't be anything to do with you though my love it'll just be because she's stressed out with what's happening with your dad"
"Are you going to call her Rachel?"
"No not this time, I don't think there's any real reason to is there?"
"It won't happen again"
"Good make sure it doesn't" Rachel said however she didn't sound too firm "now the bells about to go, is your Mum picking you up?"
"Yeah"
"Off you go to meet her then" Rachel said
Molly got her stuff together
Just as she was about to go Rachel said, "and molly you know you're welcome round our house anytime, you know If things do get bad at home just come and stop with us a couple of days"
"Thanks Rachel, I'll see you Monday"
"Have a good weekend love"
Rachel decided she was going to do a bit more work after the bell went
Once all the kids had gone home she got her stuff together and decided to go and get Gaby, hoping they'd be able to talk sensibly now they'd both had a chance to cool off
When she went in the cooler she realised Gaby wasn't in there
"Steph where's Gaby?" Rachel asked
"She went to the toilet about 10 minutes ago, she seemed really upset"
"oh okay I'll go and find her, you can get off home, thanks for keeping an eye on her"
Rachel went over to the toilets and saw one of the doors was locked
"Gaby are you in there" Rachel asked
"Yes" Gaby replied sounding small
"come out now love, let's go to the car and have a chat in there"
Gaby unlocked the door, when she did Rachel could tell she'd been crying loads
Rachel pulled her into a hug
"Come on you, it's okay now"
"Mum I'm so sorry for what I said"
"Do you know what love I think it's a good idea if we forget all about it for now and go home to get a takeaway"
"So you're not mad?"
"no not really, but I should probably tell you that Molly told me about why you've been hanging round with those girls" Rachel said "and even though I'm not exactly happy about you two trying to get out of school I really don't think it was worth all of this do you?"
"No I guess not" Gaby said
"But I'm not going to go on and on, but if in future something like this happens please just let me know" Rachel said
"I will Mum I promise"
"Okay love, come on lets go home"
"Can we get a Chinese for tea?"
"Oh go on then" Rachel said smiling
The two of them went home and got into their pyjamas ordered Chinese before getting all cosy on the sofa
Rachel always loved nights in with Gaby, it was so nice for the two of them to be able to spend time with each other
They'd just put a film on when suddenly the phone started ringing
"I wonder who that can be" Rachel sighed
She then went over and picked up the phone
"Hello am I speaking to a Rachel mason?"
"Yes that's me" Rachel said confused
"I'm Linda Smith, I'm a social worker, I'm afraid I've got some bad news"
"Is it concerning one of my pupils?" Rachel asked instantly starting to feel worried
"No it's actually about your brothers children, Ivy and Amy"
Rachel was shocked when she heard this, she didn't have any contact with her brother, he'd already been in prison twice and was just generally bad news. She knew that he was married and that they had two kids, Amy who was 14 and Ivy who was 6
"Okay what about them?" Rachel asked confused
"I'm afraid they were taken off your brother and his wife a week ago after it was revealed that they were being physically and emotionally abused by them. In the end it did get quite serious"
"What" Rachel said in shock, she knew her brother could be violent but never thought he was capable of harming his own children
"I know it must be a shock, we placed the girls with an emergency foster family but sadly they've decided they can no longer take care of them and you're the only family they've got. I know it's a big ask but we were wondering if you would be happy to take the girls in, even just for a couple of weeks until we can find something more permanent"
"Yes of course" Rachel said instantly
"That's fantastic, I'll bring them round as soon as I can, we will have to go over some paperwork first though"
"okay I'll set up the spare rooms"
"Thank-you so much"
Rachel then said goodbye and hung up the phone before turning to Gaby
She explained what was happening to Gaby who was also in shock, but agreed she was fine with them coming here
The two of them spent the next hour clearing out the spare rooms and trying make them look a bit more cosy
Before long there was a knock on the door
Feeling quite nervous now Rachel went to answer it
She saw the two girls standing there, she noticed at once how frightened Ivy looked, Amy was standing there looking quite indifferent to it all
Rachel could see a lot of her brother in the two girls, both were very pretty, Amy had long brown hair and Ivy was blonde she looked a lot younger than 6 Rachel thought to herself
"Hey girls, do you want to come inside" Rachel said sounding friendly
The girls and Linda stepped inside the house
Neither of the two girls spoke
"Do you want to come through to the kitchen? I can get you a drink or something to eat if you fancy"
The two girls walked through to the kitchen with Linda
"Would you like anything getting"
"I'm alright" Amy said "can I go to your loo?"
"Yes of course, it's erm it's just through the door and first on your left"
Amy nodded before sauntering off
Rachel then crouched down so she was on a level with ivy
"What about you Ivy, would you like something to drink?"
Ivy paused for a second before saying "Please can I have some water"
"Sure I'll go and get you some now" Rachel said smiling
A few minutes later Rachel called Gaby down
"Hi Amy, hi ivy" Gaby said
"Gaby why don't you show Ivy and Amy around the house a bit?" Rachel suggested
"sure, I'll give you the grand tour"
The three girls went off leaving Rachel and Linda alone
"Thank you so much for taking them in last minute"
"Oh it's not bother"
"Both girls are suffering quite a bit, Amy's trying to act like she's not bothered and is just closing up to everyone and Ivy's having some real issues at the moment"
"What sort of issues?"
"Well she's obviously extremely sensitive, she's having a lot of problems with nightmares and bed wetting, so be prepared for that and whatever you do don't punish her for it"
"I wouldn't dream of it, oh the poor little thing it must be awful for her at the moment"
"It is, she just needs to be handled very gently reward good behaviour and go easy on the bad"
"Yes of course"
"And as for Amy, her behaviours pretty bad at the moment, she keeps sneaking out and can be quite rude to people, just be firm with her and make sure she knows the boundaries from the beginning"
"right"
The two women chatted some more and then Rachel signed all the paperwork she needed to
Linda then left so Rachel went upstairs
She went into Ivy's room first and saw her sitting on the bed looking very alone and scared
"Hey love, do you mind if I come and sit down for a second"
Ivy shook her head so Rachel smiled before sitting down next to her on the bed
"I do know how scary this must be for you my love, but I promise after a few days you'll settle in just fine, and you don't need to be scared of anything here okay anything you need you just ask yeah and if you need anyone to talk to at all you come straight to me"
"Okay" Ivy said her eyes filing with tears
"Oh sweetie it's going to be okay you know. I promise nobody here's going to hurt you"
"Even if I'm bad?" Ivy asked
"Darling I promise you're safe here, no matter what you do nobody is going to hurt you or shout nastily at you okay?"
"Okay" Ivy mumbled
"How about we get you unpacked then maybe you can watch a bit of TV before your bath"
Rachel helped Ivy get her stuff unpacked, she couldn't help but be a little shocked about how little she had
Ivy still seemed very scared but a little more relaxed now, Rachel decided to give her a bit of time
"Right I'm going to nip downstairs for a bit and then we'll sort a bath out okay?"
"Yeah okay"
Rachel smiled at her again before leaving her to it
She decided to go and check on Amy as she thought she should try and have a little chat with her
She knocked on the door but when she didn't get an answer she decided to just go in anyway
Rachel was shocked when she saw Amy smoking out the window, she knew she had to stay calm about it though
"Amy can you put that out please"
Amy sighed and rolled her eyes but then put it out
"I don't allow smoking in the house okay is that understood"
"I suppose"
"Where did you get them from, you're too young to buy them yourself"
Amy just shrugged her shoulders in response, Rachel wasn't exactly happy but decided to leave it for now
"Have you unpacked your things"
"Yep"
"Is there anything I can get you?"
"Nope" Amy said, "I'm going out tonight, there's a party"
Rachel didn't really like the sound of this as she thought it was better that they all stayed in tonight
"I think it's better if you stopped at home tonight Amy"
"Tough shit"
"Amy, I know how hard things have been for you and I know that you probably don't want to be here and that you're feeling very unsettled."
"You don't have a clue what I'm feeling"
Rachel ignored this and carried on "but I can't allow you to be disrespectful, while you're in my house you'll live by my rules"
"You can't stop me going out"
"I'm afraid I can, especially when I have no idea where you're going and who you're going to be going out with"
"Fine I'll just stay in my room all night and be miserable if that's what you want" Amy said
"Amy come on be reasonable" Rachel sighed
"No why should I, you don't know anything about me or Ivy. You couldn't be arsed getting to know us when we were little, you hated our family"
Rachel shook her head "No love that's not true, a lot went on between your Dad and I that you don't know about, but it had absolutely nothing to do with you and Ivy believe me"
"Whatever, just leave me alone"
Rachel didn't really know what to say or do but decided to give Amy a bit of space
She went downstairs for a bit before running Ivy a bath
"Ivy your baths ready love" she said
"I don't need one"
"Well I've ran it now so you may as well have it"
Reluctantly Ivy followed Rachel through to the bathroom
"Come on Ivy get undressed" Rachel said gently
"I don't want to"
"It won't take long" Rachel said
She tried to take Ivy's top off for her, but as soon as she did Ivy hit her
It wasn't a very hard slap but it shocked Rachel all the same
Rachel looked up at Ivy who immediately burst into tears
"Ivy look at me" Rachel said sounding calm "We don't hit people in this house okay, nobody here is going to hurt you I promise so there's no need for you to hit"
"I'm sorry" Ivy stammered
"It's okay just don't let it happen again okay"?"
Ivy nodded her head looking scared, she couldn't believe how nice Rachel was being to her but she still didn't fully trust her
"You get yourself undressed then"
Ivy slowly took her clothes off
When she did Rachel noticed the bruises over her body. Seeing them made Rachel want to cry however she knew that now wasn't the time to mention them
She gave Ivy a quick bath but she could see how tired she was so knew she needed to get her to bed
After her bath she dried off her hair and got her into pyjamas
"Right do you need to use the bathroom before bed?"
Ivy nodded
"Okay I'll just wait in your bedroom then"
A couple of minutes later Ivy came back from the bathroom so Rachel tucked her into bed
"Right anything you need during the night you come and find me okay, it doesn't matter what it is or what time it is, just come straight through to my bedroom"
"Okay"
"Night, night then my love" Rachel said, she then smiled at Ivy and flicked the light off
A few hours had passed and everyone was fast asleep
It was about 1 when Ivy woke up suddenly. She felt very confused and scared but soon remembered why she was here.
She looked around the room, everything seemed strange and frightening. All of a sudden Ivy started to cry, she'd been through so much recently and had lost her trust in more or less everyone, she just felt so alone.
A few minutes later Ivy started to feel quite sleepy again but realised she needed to go to the toilet so crept out of bed and made her way across the landing.
Once Ivy had been she started making her way back but suddenly Rachel's door opened, and her auntie came out
"Hey Ivy, is everything okay? I was just getting up to get some water" Rachel asked crouching down beside her, she ten noticed her tear stained face "oh love have you been crying?"
Ivy nodded her head and then her eyes filled with tears again
"Come on, how about you come through to my room and have a little chat?"
Ivy felt a bit anxious but followed her through anyway
Rachel flicked her lamp on and sat down on the bed indicating for Ivy to do the same
"You're having a nasty time of it at the moment aren't you huh?" Rachel said gently. Putting her arm around Ivy
"I feel scared" Ivy whispered
These words made Rachel's heart melt, she hated to think how horrible all this was for the little girl
"I know you do, I know you do my love, but I promise you're going to settle here just fine and I know you don't believe me but I promise you nobody here is going to hurt you"
"I hurt you earlier"
"What?" Rachel said confused
"When I hit you"
"Oh Ivy, it's okay to make mistakes love, I'm not surprised after everything you've been through, all you need to know is that there's no need to hurt people here because you're not in any sort of danger"
Ivy stayed with Rachel for quite a bit longer until eventually she was feeling really sleepy
Rachel took her back through to her bedroom and tucked her back in
"Night then Ivy, if you wake up again come straight to me okay"
"Thankyou" Ivy mumbled
Rachel smiled before flicking of the light.
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