Chapter 22

It was a Thursday afternoon and Rachel had finally managed to get a few moments to herself after a busy day, she felt like she'd not stopped all afternoon. She decided to quickly check her phone and saw that she had a text from David, about a month had passed since she'd first met up with David and things were going really well, the girls seemed to be totally fine with him which was a big relief for Rachel, however, they were only taking things slowly at the moment.

She was just about to reply when there was a knock at the door, Rachel sighed, she might have known 2 minutes peace was too much to ask for.

"Come in" she shouted

Rachel was surprised to see Hannah walk in, immediately Rachel got the impression this wasn't going to be good news whatever it was.

"Hannah what are you doing out of class?" she asked

Hannah had been in trouble a few times already this week both at home and at school and Rachel was starting to get fed up of it.

"I got sent here" she mumbled

"Well I hope it's for something good, but from the look on your face I gather it isn't" she sighed, she really wasn't in the mood for this, especially after such a stressful day

"I've been sent here to do my work"

"Why what did you do?"

Hannah just shrugged her shoulders

"Don't shrug your shoulders at me when I'm talking to you, tell me what you did"

"I got into trouble in French for being cheeky and for not listening, and then Miss asked me to leave but I said no and she said that if I didn't go to the cooler I'd have to go to you, but I didn't go there so I had to come here"

"So, you've been acting up all afternoon then huh, Hannah I am sick of your behaviour, the teachers who work in this school deserve better than to have to deal with your poor attitude, if you want to be a student at this school then it stops right now" she said firmly

"It's not fair everyone else was acting up but everyone always just picks on me" Hannah shouted

"Mind your tone" Rachel said icily "you admitted yourself you were acting up, you know fine well if a teacher asks you to do something you do it, no questions asked"

Hannah didn't say anything just stared at the ground, she'd been feeling so angry and upset all of this week and couldn't understand why, she just kept picking arguments with everyone for no real reason, it made her feel horrible afterwards, but she just couldn't seem to help it.

"Right well you can spend the rest of the afternoon in here, you can spend the afternoon writing a letter of apology to Miss Haydock, at least 2 sides of A4"

"But I've got my work to finish"

"You can do that as homework"

"That's so unfair" Hannah said

"Tough, you can also do 20 minutes after school detention for the next week"

"But I'm going to the park tonight"

"No you're not"

"Why" Hannah shouted

"You don't actually expect me to answer that do you? Aside from the fact your behaviour this week has been completely unacceptable, I hate you going to that park it's not safe, there's been loads of trouble there recently"

Hannah opened her mouth to argue

"And don't you even think about arguing with me, now get on with your work"

Hannah took as long as possible to stroppily sit down and start writing.

"I mean it Hannah lose the attitude right now, it doesn't work on me" Rachel warned

When she'd started, Rachel got her phone out to text David back

"I thought we weren't allowed phones out during school" Hannah said

"You're already treading on thin ice, I'd think really carefully before you say anything else"

Hannah knew better than to push it any further. She hated feeling so angry all the time, but she couldn't help it.

She'd been working for about half an hour, when her stomach started to really hurt. She ignored it at first but then she started to feel really sick.

"is it okay if I go to the toilet?" she asked

"yes, if you go straight there and back, without chatting to any of your friends on the way"

"Okay" Hannah said

She got up and went across to the toilets, when she went, she realised that she'd come on her period. She felt really surprised by this as she wasn't really expecting it, it was still quite new to her as it had only happened twice before, so she still found it quite frightening. Her stomach seemed really sore as well this time and she felt sick.

Suddenly she started to cry, she didn't know why she was just feeling really emotional and just generally rubbish, she didn't have any pads with her either so just used toilet paper.

After a couple of minutes, she went back to her aunties office

"What took you so long, I told you to be quick" Rachel snapped

"I want to go home" Hannah said

"Why?" Rachel asked "What's the matter?"

Hannah didn't really want to tell her auntie what was wrong, she still found it really embarrassing and it wasn't as if Rachel was in the best mood anyway.

"I don't feel very well" Hannah said, her voice broke as she said it and tears began to fall down her face

"Well that's come on quite suddenly" Rachel said, however her voice was gentler than it had been earlier, "How don't you feel well?"

"my stomach really hurts and I feel sick" Hannah cried

"Well its not that long to the end of school, why don't you just have a lie down on the sofa for 10 minutes"

"Okay" Hannah mumbled

A little while past and Hannah's stomach was still really sore, she felt as if she was going to be sick so got up to go to the toilet again

Rachel was getting a bit worried about her now as she really didn't seem that well.

When Hannah went to the toilet she started to cry again, she felt awful, she realised she was going to have to tell Rachel about it too as it seemed quite heavy.

She walked back up to the office

"Hannah are you alright" Rachel asked, coming and sitting down next to her on the sofa

"I just don't feel well" Hannah said

"It's come on really quickly" Rachel said, she wasn't sure if she believed her or not, but she could tell something was wrong

"I know but I'm not lying" Hannah said

"Is it just your stomach?"

"Kind of"

"What do you mean?"

"I think I've come on my period again and it's really heavy" Hannah mumbled, tears started to fall down her face

Rachel felt sorry for Hannah now, she could see how scared and embarrassed she was. Despite the way she'd been acting recently she was still just a little kid really

"Okay, have you got any pads with you?" She said calmly

"No"

"Right well I've got some in my bag I think" she said "you can take it with you, there in the back pocket"

"Thanks"

Hannah went off and a couple of minutes later she came back

"Rachel I really don't feel that well" Hannah cried " I just want to go home; can we go home?"

Rachel sat down on the sofa and gestured for Hannah to do the same

"I know it's not very nice especially when you're not used to it, but I can't really let you go home"

"Why?"

"Love if everyone took a day off every time they had their period there'd never be anyone in the school" Rachel said "Although I do understand it really is a pain"

"I've felt weird all week that's why I've been mean to everyone"

"I know it can be hard when your hormones are all over the place, but I'm afraid you've just got to learn to control it, your behaviour this week has been awful, and you can't use this as an excuse"

"I know I'm sorry"

"Well I hope this will be the last of it Hannah"

"it will I promise"

"Okay well I'll say no more about this afternoon, but I do want you to finish that letter off" she said "There's only half an hour to the bell goes now, so we'll be able to go home soon anyway"

"I wish I was a boy, nothing happens to boys" Hannah said

"I know, boys have it easy compared to us"

The next half an hour past quite quickly and before long it was the end of the school day, Amy and Gaby came up soon after.

"hey girls how was school"

"It was good, I'm going to a party at the weekend" Amy said

"is that code for, would it be okay if I go to a party please?"

"Why should I have to have to ask permission?"

"Because you're 15 years old living in my house"

Amy rolled her eyes

"And if you roll your eyes at me you won't be going at all"

"Please can I go then" Amy said a little sarcastically

"We'll see how your behaviour is young lady"

Amy sighed, Rachel could be hard work sometimes, even if they did get on well most of the time.

"How about you Gaby, did school go okay for you?" Rachel asked

She'd been a little bit worried about Gaby recently, she'd just seemed a bit down and not her usual self.

"Yeah" Gaby said

"Is everything alright?" Rachel asked, as Gaby had sounded a bit flat.

"Yeah I'm fine"

"Okay, let's get going then"

When they got home Rachel just wanted to relax after a stressful day, almost as soon as she got in she went upstairs and tied her hair back and put on some jogging bottoms and her comfy sweater and took her makeup off. She would always do this when she came home from work, it would always help her to unwind.

She then went downstairs and decided to do some cleaning as the house was starting to look a bit untidy.

After tidying the living room, she went into the kitchen, she found Gaby at the table with some school work out. Rachel noticed that she had dark circles round her eyes, she looked stressed too.

"Do you fancy a coffee Gab, I'm just making one?"

"Oh yes please" Gaby said "Can I have mine black"

"Sure"

After she'd made them Rachel went and sat back down with Gaby

"How much work have you got to do tonight?"

"Loads" Gaby said "and I've still got to revise for our science tests tomorrow"

Rachel had noticed over the last month or so that Gaby had been taking her school work very seriously, she seemed determined to come top in everything, although Rachel had been happy about it at first, she was beginning to get a bit worried as she didn't seem to do much outside her work at the moment

"There only mocks Gaby and you've done really well in all your other tests"

"no, I haven't" Gaby said sounding as though she was on the verge of tears

"Your scores have all been within the top 10% of your year group" Rachel said "All your teachers are saying how well you're doing"

"I'm still not doing well enough, If I want to do medicine, I have to come top in everything"

"Gab I know at the moment you've got your heart set on doing medicine, which Is fantastic, but, you've still got years to think about it, you might change your mind completely in a year or so, so don't get too hung up on it, there's no rush at all for you to decide what you want to do"

"I'm not going to change my mind"

"Just don't stress yourself out too much over it that's all I'm saying" she said "Why don't you finish off and just have a night off, go and see your friends or something"

"Oh you just don't understand" Gaby snapped, she gathered her stuff up and went off to her bedroom

Rachel was taken aback by Gaby's outburst, after all it wasn't as if they'd really been arguing.

Gaby ran straight upstairs, as soon as she got into her room she started to cry, her life just seemed to be spiralling out of control at the moment. She never seemed to feel happy anymore and was trying to gain control again by dieting. She'd managed so well with her food since being discharged from hospital, but now it seemed to be taking over her life again, she'd also started to hurt herself, she had cut her skin a few times, at first it seemed to help but now every time she did it, she felt ashamed, she just didn't know how to stop. Nobody knew anything about it though and she was determined to keep it that way.

Because of how miserable she'd been Gaby had been snapping at everyone a lot more, she felt awful when she did but she just couldn't seem to help it. Part of her had wanted to talk to her Mum about it but she didn't want to stress her out, especially after everything that had happened last time. She knew she just had to deal with this on her own.

About twenty minutes later there was a knock at her door

"Yeah"

Rachel came in and sat down on the bed "Hey Gab I just wanted to check you were okay?"

"I'm fine, sorry for snapping"

"It's alright, we can all get a bit stressed sometimes, you are alright though aren't you?"

"yeah"

"Okay, well you know where I am if ever you want to talk"

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