Chapter 7

It was late on a Friday night and Gaby and Rachel had, had a falling out, they seemed to have been falling out quite a lot lately. Rachel was getting a lot of reports from teachers about Gaby not working hard enough during her lessons and being disruptive in class. All this was quite unlike Gaby, although she'd never been a model student she was normally very conscientious about her work and would get her head down in class.

Amy was out with one of her friends and Rachel had put Ivy to bed a while ago, so it was just the two of them downstairs

"Gaby I just don't understand your behaviour, Mr Michaels said that throughout the whole lesson you barely did any work and that you were rude to him when he tried to ask you why you hadn't done it"

"It's not my fault if his lessons are boring is it, he's a crap teacher" Gaby said

"Hey mind your tone. Mr Michaels is a brilliant teacher and I don't care how boring you were finding the work you will still show some respect for your teachers. I'm ashamed of you Gaby, you know better than to act like that"

"It's so unfair" Gaby said tears forming in her eyes. She didn't know why she was crying, she was just feeling angry and emotional all the time

"Unfair? I think the way you've been acting is pretty unfair young lady, I think it was unfair of you to ruin a lesson that Mr Michaels would have put time and effort into planning"

"No, it's unfair that no one else has a Mum that spies on them all the time"

"Gaby, I don't spy on you" Rachel sighed

"Yes, you do, and all the teachers tell you every time I've done anything wrong and then I get into trouble"

"Well if someone had been disrupting a lesson then I'd have informed the parents anyway"

"Mum I can't be arsed talking about it" Gaby said crying

"Hey, mind your language, and we need to talk about it, because your school work's been slipping"

"Fine put me in detention then I don't care" Gaby screamed before storming upstairs and slamming her bedroom door

Rachel sighed and rolled her eyes, there'd been a few little instances like this over the last couple of days with Gaby.

She decided to give Gaby a few minutes to calm down before going up to talk to her and decided to pour herself a glass of wine

Rachel had been down there for a while when she realised she was feeling quite hungry so went in the biscuit tin. She was surprised when she found some of them with only a little bit eaten and couldn't help but think it was rather strange. However, she decided not to think too much of it and went upstairs.

She was about to go into Gaby's room when she noticed that the light was still on in Ivy's room, this surprised her as she thought Ivy had gone to sleep when she put her to bed, so she decided to go and investigate

As soon as Ivy heard footsteps, she flicked the lamp in her bedroom off

Rachel walked into her room

"Ivy are you awake?" she asked going over to her bed

It was only when she got closer that she realised Ivy's face was all wet with tears

Ivy had come in from school really quiet today, but Rachel had just presumed it was just because she was feeling tired and was ready for a bit of a rest

"Hey sweetie what's the matter?" she asked gently sounding really concerned

Ivy suddenly burst into tears

Rachel flicked the lamp on and got into bed next to Ivy, putting her arm around

"What's happened huh?" she whispered "You can tell me can't you"

Ivy didn't say anything, but put her head against Rachel's chest as she cried

"Did something happen at school today love?"

Ivy nodded her head in response

Rachel stroked her hair gently and tucked a piece of it behind her ear

"yeah it did? Do you want to tell me what it was that happened?"

Ivy shook her head

"No don't want to tell me" Rachel said, "Did you get into some sort of trouble my love?"

"No, it wasn't that" Ivy cried

"Then what was it darling, you can tell me I promise I'm not going to get mad"

Ivy took a deep breath before saying "We did a maths test the other day and my teacher gave the marks back today and mine was the worst in the class" she sobbed

"Oh love, has that's what's been upsetting you?" Rachel asked

Ivy nodded her head

"Come here" Rachel sighed, giving her a big cuddle "hey I don't want you getting upset over a silly little maths test"

"I'm sorry I did try"

"I know you will have done Ivy and I promise that's all I'm ever going to ask for"

Ivy started to calm down now

"I heard how well you did in your Literacy lesson the other day, Miss Jones left a lovely note in your bag about it"

"Really?"

"Yeah she said you worked really hard, and did some really excellent writing"

"I like literacy, I just hate maths"

Rachel smiled slightly

"You know what, so do I" she said laughing "But we concentrate on the things we are good at not the things we aren't"

"Thanks Rachel" Ivy said feeling a lot better now

"That's alright, you should have just told me earlier darling, I wouldn't have been cross I promise"

"I know I was just worried"

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah"

"Okay, you ready to go to sleep then?"

"Yeah, I feel really sleepy now"

"Well it's getting pretty late" Rachel said "Come on then Mrs, why don't you get all comfy"

Rachel then got out of the bed and tucked Ivy in properly

She was about to go when she remembered something "Ivy did you eat some of the biscuits out the tin earlier"

"I think I had one" ivy said confused as to why Rachel was asking her

"Did you decide you didn't like it and put it back in the tin?"

"No why?" Ivy said laughing

"Oh no reason, night night love"

"Night"

Rachel smiled slightly before closing the door

She decided to go and see if Gaby had calmed down a bit

Rachel knocked on the door but there was no answer

"Gaby can I come in?" Rachel asked

"Go away" Gaby said crying

"Love I just want to talk"

"I said go away" Gaby shouted

Rachel sighed, she decided to go back downstairs for a bit and give her a bit more time

Gaby didn't know why she was feeling so upset, everything just seemed to be getting a bit on top of her at the moment. She was also struggling quite a lot with her eating, even though the bullying seemed to have stopped now, some of the comments that people had said to her, had stuck with her, especially about her being fat. Even though Gaby wasn't overweight in the slightest, she'd got it into her head that she was fat and now she was desperately trying to lose weight. No one had noticed what she was doing yet though. Not eating properly seemed to be making her so irritable and moody all the time though, which was why she kept snapping at people.

She couldn't seem to stop crying, even though she wasn't really sure what she was even crying about, as it wasn't as if Rachel had been really harsh on her or anything. Her stomach was also hurting her quite a lot which was making her feel worse.

In the end Gaby decided to read one of her books for a little bit, but by now she was feeling quite tired despite it being nowhere near her bedtime, so she ended up going to sleep pretty early.

Rachel was downstairs and was getting through her bottle of wine quickly. It was about 10.30 when Amy came in.

"Hey love did you have a good time" Rachel asked

"Yeah it was alright, we ended up getting Chinese" Amy said "You've had quite a bit of your wine haven't you"

"Yeah well I need it"

"Why? It's a Friday you should be all relaxed for the weekend"

"It's Gaby, we had a bit of a fight earlier, she just seems a bit moody lately" Rachel sighed

"She's 12, every girl is moody when they're 12" Amy said laughing

"Yeah, I guess you're right, it's just a bit unlike her" Rachel said "You don't think she's been bullied again do you?"

"No, she's really popular with all her class now, you must see her at break times with all her friends"

"Yeah, I suppose so, I just worry about her you know"

"She'll be fine Rach, don't stress." Amy said, "Can I have a glass of wine?"

"No you can't, you're too young to be drinking" Rachel said

"Please just a small one"

Rachel rolled her eyes but got another glass out and poured her niece a little bit

They stayed up chatting for about an hour, before deciding to go up to bed.

Amy went off and Rachel went to check up on Gaby

It didn't surprise her when she found her fast asleep as it was getting late now, Rachel went over and kissed her gently on the forehead

She was getting quite tired now so went off to bed

Gaby woke up at about 1 in the morning, her stomach ache was really bad now, so she decided to get out of bed and go to the toilet

When she got there, she realised she must have come on her period. Gaby began to feel a bit scared because it seemed a lot heavier than last time and had gone all over her pyjama bottoms. It was still a pretty big thing for her, as she wasn't used to it at all. She didn't have any of her pads left either so knew she'd have to go and ask Rachel for some.

Gaby suddenly started crying, feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything.

She stayed in the bathroom for a couple of minutes before going out to find Rachel

Gaby crept across the landing and into her Mum's bedroom

She stirred Rachel awake

"What's up love?" She asked sleepily

"can you come and help me"

"What with?"

"I just need your help"

Rachel was a bit confused by this but got out of bed anyway and followed Gaby into her bedroom

"What is it Gaby?" Rachel asked gently

Gaby pulled back her quilt and showed Rachel the red patch on her bed

"Oh love, don't worry, we'll soon have it all sorted out for you"

"My pyjama bottoms are ruined"

"It'll come out in the wash eventually" She said "Did it start while you were asleep"

"Yeah, my stomachs been hurting all night though" Gaby said "It seems so much heavier than last time"

"Well sometimes that can happen, often your first period is quite a bit lighter than a normal one"

"It's so unfair, boys don't have to go through any of this" Gaby sighed

"you're right love, girls do have a crap deal of it" Rachel said "Do you want a drink before you go back to sleep?"

"Yes please, just some water"

Rachel took Gaby's stuff down for her and put new sheets on the bed before the two of them went downstairs together

"Mum I'm sorry for being snappy earlier"

"It's okay, don't worry about it"

"I promise I'll be nicer tomorrow"

Rachel smiled slightly "I know it's not very easy when your hormones are all over the place love"

Rachel and Gaby stayed downstairs chatting for a bit before eventually deciding to go up to bed.

"Oh gaby"

"Yeah"

"You do know you can just have a full biscuit don't you?" Rachel said laughing

"What?"

"Well I keep finding these biscuits all half bitten"

"Oh right, yeah sorry I bit into and then suddenly realised I didn't like it"

"Well you could have chucked it, funnily enough no one wants it when you've eaten half"

"Sorry"

Rachel just shook her head and laughed

"Go on you, up to bed"

"Night mum love you"

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