This is based on the episode with the ethanol in series 5 but I can't remember the details of the episode.
The weekend passed much too quickly for Rachel's liking.
Normally coming into school on a Monday after the weekend wasn't something Rachel dreaded. Today felt like a very different Monday though as she drove through the school gates. Max was making Waterloo Road a completely different place for Rachel and she hated it.
Rachel parked the car and turned off the engine and was just sat there in her own little world for a while.
"Rach" Olivia said after saying goodbye to Rachel who didn't reply
"Sorry love what did you say? I was in my own little world"
"I was just saying bye, that's all"
"Bye girls, hope you both have a good day" Rachel said to Olivia and Mia
Olivia and Mia both got out of the car and went off to find their friends.
Rachel got out of the car and slowly made her way into school.
As she walked in she bumped into Kim. They both started walking up to her office.
They chatted for a bit about the progress with Lindsey and Emily. It was then that Rachel remembered she wanted to speak to Lexie today after Friday.
"Kim have you had any encounters with Lexie Edwards recently?"
"No I can't say I have. Why?"
"I've seen her spending a lot of time in school outside of school hours recently and then I spoke her after school on Friday and she started crying but ran off before I got chance to find out what was wrong"
"I know a few years ago Lexie was nearly put into care because of neglect but as far as I was aware her Mum had got a lot better and the case was dropped"
"Is her Dad on the scene?"
"Not that I'm aware of"
"Right well I'm going to bring her up for a chat today"
"I can do that if you like"
"No it's okay, I'll speak to her" Rachel said as she'd always thought Lexie was such a nice girl and wanted to help her herself
"Okay well let me know how it goes"
"I will do Kim"
After the bell went Max then turned up at the office and they fell into an uncomfortable silence.
Max got his things out ready to do some work.
Rachel didn't fancy spending any time with Max at the moment so decided to go and speak to her now.
Steph was Lexie's form tutor so Rachel made her way to Steph's classroom.
Rachel knocked on the door to Steph's classroom before going in.
"Can I have a quick word with Lexie Edwards please Miss Haydock?"
Lexie looked up and started feeling anxious at the mention of her name. She stood up immediately to find out what Miss Mason wanted.
"Shall I bring my bag Miss?"
"Yes probably a good idea"
Lexie picked up her bag before leaving the classroom with Rachel.
Rachel noticed that Lexie wasn't wearing any makeup which was unusual for her. Lexie always wore her makeup naturally but it was definitely noticeable that she wasn't wearing any at all. Her hair also looked as though it hadn't been washed in a few days which again was unusual for Lexie.
"Am I in trouble miss?" Lexie asked sounding nervous
"No, no not at all. I just want a quick chat that's all. Shall we have a wander outside seeing as it's not raining?"
"Okay" Lexie said wondering why her headteacher had pulled her out for a chat
Lexie really looked up to Rachel and always loved it whenever she spoke to her and her friends. She'd often ask about things related to school and give them advice.
"So did you have a good weekend?" Rachel asked as they walked out into the playground
"Yeah it was good thank you"
"What did you do?"
"Not much really"
Lexie definitely wasn't as chatty as she normally was which Rachel picked up on.
They got to a bench and Rachel sat down on it. Lexie copied her head mistress.
"Is everything okay at home at the minute Lexie?"
"Yes why wouldn't it be?" Lexie replied almost immediately before Rachel had finished saying what she wanted to
"It's just I've seen you at school a lot recently outside of school hours and when you ran off on Friday it looked like you were crying"
Lexie looked down at the ground and didn't say anything.
"Do you want to talk to me about what you were upset about?"
"I was just tired and I'd had a bit of a rubbish day. I'm fine now though" Lexie said but Rachel wasn't convinced
"Why were you having a rubbish day?"
"All my teachers seemed to be going on about exams and it was making me stressed about them" Lexie said making up an excuse
"You know you don't need to stress about exams. All we ask is that you try your best and I know how hard you work Lexie so you're going to be just fine"
"Hopefully"
Rachel still thought there was more to Friday than exam stress but it was clear to Rachel that she wasn't going to get anything out of Lexie.
It wasn't long before the bell went for first period.
"You better get to your first lesson Lexie. You know where I am if you feel stressed about exams though or you want to talk about anything else"
"Thanks miss" Lexie said before picking up her school bag and hurrying away
Rachel then went up to her office to do some work. It needed to be done so she realised that she was going to have to sit in the office with Max.
Rachel felt like am imposter in her office the whole morning. Little did she know that her day was about to get a lot worse.
At lunchtime Rachel started heading to the canteen to buy some lunch. Usually she brought her own but she hadn't got round to making anything last night.
As Rachel was walking through the corridor Sambuca Kelly was running towards her and not looking where she was going.
Sam ended up bumping into Rachel.
"Careful" Rachel shouted but then realised that Sam had a suspicious looking bottle in her hand
"Give that to me" Rachel said at once
Rachel took the bottle out of Sam's hand, opened the bottle and sniffed what was inside.
It smelt awful and Rachel realised at once it was alcohol. She couldn't believe it.
"Come with me"
Rachel took Sam straight to the cooler before informing Max about what had happened. This was the last thing she wanted to do but she didn't really have a choice.
Max decided to set the fire alarm off to get everybody out of the building.
It wasn't the approach Rachel would have taken but Max had done it before she could say anything.
Kids started filing out of their classrooms and into the playground.
Once the majority were outside Max started shouting at the pupils and informing them there bags would be searched.
The teachers started to take the register for their form groups when Rachel saw Steph running off so followed her back into school.
"Steph what's going on?" Rachel said after catching up with Steph
"It's Danielle, I think she's had the ethanol"
"What makes you say that?"
"I saw her earlier, she was in a right state. I don't know where she is now, we need to find her"
Rachel couldn't believe it but now wasn't the time to be telling Steph off so the two of them started looking for Danielle.
Rachel opened the door to the French toilets and went inside.
She couldn't believe it when she saw Danielle lying on the floor in one of the cubicles unconscious.
Rachel rushed straight over and crouched down on the floor and rested Danielle's head on her lap.
"We need to phone an ambulance Steph"
"I'll drive her to the hospital, it will be quicker" Steph replied
"Come on sweetie, wake up" Rachel said whilst hitting Danielle's cheek
Danielle came to a little bit and Rachel and Steph struggled but managed to get her on her feet.
The two of them then practically had to carry her between them out to Steph's car.
Rachel watched as Steph drove out of the school gates before returning to everyone else.
Kim came straight over.
"Rachel, Lexie Edwards is missing too" Kim informed her
"Oh god I hope she hasn't had the ethanol too"
Rachel ran straight back into school followed by Kim.
"I know she's not in the French toilets, I just came from there" Rachel said
"I'll try the English block then" Kim said
"Okay, I'll try maths" Rachel said before they split
Rachel ran to the maths block and couldn't find her there so then tried the science block.
Suddenly Rachel's phone started ringing. She saw it was Kim so picked up immediately.
"Kim have you found her?" Rachel asked so worried that Lexie was in the same state as what Danielle was
"Yes I've found her and she's fine. I'm going to take her to my office"
"Okay, I'll meet you there"
Rachel hurried to Kim's office.
When Kim saw coming she stepped outside and closed the door behind her.
"Where was she?" Rachel asked
"She was in the English toilets. She had a bottle of the ethanol but only had a sip"
"Did she say why she didn't go outside when the fire alarm went off?"
"She didn't say"
"Right, well let's try and find out"
Rachel and Kim went back into the office where Lexie was.
Whilst Kim was out of the room Lexie hadn't been able to stop her tears. Now that Rachel and Kim were there too she'd forced herself to stop and was brushing away her tears.
Lexie was expecting to be in a lot of trouble with Rachel but much to her surprise Rachel was actually really soft.
"How come you didn't go outside when the fire alarm went off Lexie?" Rachel asked and Lexie shrugged
"You know the rules. It could have been a real fire"
"I'm sorry"
Rachel and Kim tried talking to Lexie but they really didn't get much out of her.
In the end they let her go and gave her lunchtime detentions for the week like the other pupils that had been caught with the ethanol.
"That's so unlike Lexie Kim. I mean buying the ethanol like a lot of the others is one thing but hiding out in the toilets when the fire alarm is going off"
"I agree, maybe she's having problems at home again. I'll try ringing her Mum"
"Thanks Kim. See how you get on and then we can try and speak to Lexie again tomorrow"
"I'll let you know how I get on with Lexie's Mum, she's not the most cooperative woman though"
Rachel left Kim to it and went to find Max to deal with the pupils who had been caught with ethanol.
Rachel was pleased when the end of the day came around.
Olivia came up to Rachel's office and then the two of them left.
"Do you know if Danielle's okay Rach?" Olivia asked as of course pretty much the whole school knew about what Danielle had done
"I think so. They're keeping her in hospital tonight for observation but I think she's going to be fine"
"That's good, she looked like she was in a right state earlier"
"She was which is exactly why drinking too much alcohol is not a good idea"
"Do you think Danielle feels bad about what happened?"
"I expect she's feeling absolutely awful about it. Which is why I'm going to go and see her tonight"
"Why?"
"Because I'm sure she'll be dreading coming back to school so I want to try and make her feel a bit better"
"Surely you don't have to do that?"
"No but I want to"
"That's nice. What will me and Daisy do while you go?"
"I'm going to ask Angela if you can go to her house for an hour after tea"
"Okay"
They went to pick up Daisy from school before going home.
When they got in Olivia went straight upstairs to change out of her uniform and Rachel went into the kitchen with Daisy and got her a snack.
Rachel then phoned Angela who agreed to look after Olivia and Daisy whilst Rachel went to the hospital.
"Was that Angela?" Olivia asked after coming into the kitchen and hearing the end of the conversation
"Yes you're going to go to her house after tea so that I can go to the hospital"
"Why are you going to the hospital?" Daisy asked immediately sounding scared
"A pupil from Waterloo Road is in hospital poorly so I want to go and see her"
"Is she going to die?" Daisy asked
"No Daisy, she's going to be fine. I'll do tea for about 5 and then we'll go after that"
"Okay, what are we having?" Olivia asked
"Fajitas, is that okay?"
"Yummy"
Rachel got changed out of her work clothes and did a bit of paper work before cooking tea.
After they'd eaten Rachel dropped the girls to Angela's before driving to the hospital.
As expected Danielle was feeling mortified about what had happened and had got really upset when Rachel was there. By the time Rachel left though she was feeling a lot better.
Rachel left the hospital and was about to drive home when she remembered she needed a few bits from the supermarket so decided to go now.
As Rachel walked into Tesco she heard a hysterical young girl begging the security guards to let her leave the store.
It wasn't until Rachel came around the corner that she realised it was Lexie. When she did Rachel went straight over to try and help.
"Sorry to interrupt. I'm Rachel Mason, head mistress of Waterloo Road. Lexie is one of my pupils, is there anything I could do to help"
Lexie felt incredibly embarrassed and was now facing away from Rachel as she couldn't bare to look at her in the eye.
"We caught this girl trying to walk out of the shop with items she has not paid for" one of the security guards said
"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have. Please just let me go"
"We already told you we can't do that. You won't give us a phone number to contact your parents so we're going to have to hand this over to the police"
"Please don't. I promise I won't do it again, just let me go"
Lexie was in such a state and Rachel was feeling really sorry for her.
"I don't think that's an option Lexie" Rachel said calmly "I know you don't want to be in trouble with your Mum but the best thing you can do now is let the security guards call her. She might be angry to start with but she'll get over it"
"I can't"
"Yes you can, it will be okay"
"No I can't" Lexie cried
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know where my Mum is. I'm starving and I have no money which is why I tried to steal" Lexie said before attempting to run off
Rachel stopped her though and wrapped her arms around her.
Lexie tried to pull away but eventually crumbled in Rachel's arms.
"It's okay, it's all going to be okay" Rachel said holding onto Lexie
By now lots of people were staring so Rachel asked the security guards if there was somewhere more private they could go after a couple of minutes.
With Lexie in floods of tears, they followed the security guards to a back room.
"Can we just have a few minutes? I promise I won't let her go anywhere"
The security guards left so it was just Rachel and Lexie.
"When did you last see your Mum Lexie?"
"Five weeks ago"
"Who've you been staying with?"
"Just at home"
"On your own?"
Lexie nodded her head feeling so embarrassed.
"But you're only 15 Lexie, your Mum isn't allowed to do that"
"Well she has"
"Where has she gone?"
"How would I know. She just left me with nothing. All I wanted tonight was something to eat and some shampoo so I could wash my hair and not look like a tramp. I don't know what I was thinking, I didn't want to get into trouble"
"I completely understand why you did what you did"
"They're going to call the police"
"Not if I have anything to do with it. Are you going to be okay here while I go and talk to them?"
"Yeah" Lexie said still trying to stop crying
"And then you can come to my house and I'll get you some food and you can have a shower and sleep at my house tonight"
"But you're my teacher" Lexie said not really knowing what to say
"Yes and I want to help you Lexie"
Rachel went out and spoke to the security guards. It took a lot of persuading but eventually Rachel managed to get them to agree to not call the police.
Lexie apologised again before leaving Tesco with Rachel.
"Right, let's go back to your house so you can get some clean clothes and then we'll go to my house"
"No I don't want to go to my house" Lexie said adamantly
"Ok, that's fine" Rachel said before just driving home
Lexie was very quiet on the journey.
When they got in Rachel showed Lexie upstairs and into the kitchen.
Lexie had never been in such a nice house. It was so big and homely.
"So we had fajitas earlier and there's leftovers so you can either have that or there's some chicken pie from last night or I can make you some pasta. What do you fancy?"
"I don't mind, whatever is easiest"
"Any of it is easy, what do you fancy most?"
"The chicken pie please"
"Coming right up"
Rachel heated the leftovers up from the chicken pie they'd had the night before passing it to Lexie.
"Thank you" Lexie said.
"Right I just need to go and get Olivia and Daisy from my friend's house and then I'll be back"
"Okay"
After Rachel left Lexie was tempted to leave herself too. She was feeling quite uncomfortable and out of place being in her head mistress' house.
Lexie was so hungry though and she really wanted a nice hot shower so she decided to stay. She was nervous about Olivia and Daisy coming back though.
Rachel returned after ten minutes having explained why she'd taken so long and that Lexie was going to be staying the night.
Lexie had finished eating by the time they got back so after introducing the girls Rachel took Lexie upstairs to the guest bedroom.
"You can sleep in here tonight Lexie. Would you prefer to have a shower or a bath now?"
"A shower please if that's okay"
"Of course it is. There's shampoo and everything in the en-suite and I'll just go and get you some towels now"
"Thank you"
Lexie stood awkwardly in the middle of the room while Rachel went and got some towels out of the airing cupboard.
Rachel returned a few minutes later.
"There you go. There's some of my pyjamas which are going to be too big for you but hopefully they'll still be comfy. I also got my face cleanser and moisturiser because I thought you might like to use them"
"Are you sure you don't mind doing all of this for me?" Lexie asked as she took the stuff from Rachel
"Of course not, I wouldn't have offered if I did. Take your time and when you're done it's up to you if you want to come down or stay up here"
"Okay thank you"
Lexie went into the en-suite and closed the door behind her.
Rachel turned off the big light and turned on the lamps to make it a bit more cosy before leaving the room.
It was past Daisy's bed time by now so Rachel put her straight to bed. It took a while to get her to settle.
Once she was though Rachel went and sat in the lounge with Olivia.
"So is Lexie staying here just tonight or for longer?" Olivia asked
"I'm not sure yet love. I need to try and get hold of her Mum and then we'll take it from there"
"What happens if you don't. Will Lexie have to go into care?"
"I'm going to do everything I can to stop that from happening"
After another half an hour Lexie hadn't come downstairs so Rachel decided to go up and check on her.
Rachel knocked on the door to the guest bedroom.
"Come in"
Rachel went in and found Lexie sat on the bed. She still had wet hair and Rachel felt bad for not giving her the hair drier.
"Sorry Lexie, I should have gotten you my hair drier. I'll get it in a minute"
"It's okay"
"So do you want to come down and sit with me and Olivia or would you prefer to just stay up here?"
"I'll just stop up here if that's okay"
"Of course it is"
It was obvious how much Lexie had been crying and Rachel really dd feel sorry for her.
"Can we have a little chat first?"
"Okay"
Rachel went and sat by Lexie on the bed.
"So you say you haven't seen your Mum in 5 weeks now. Do you have any idea where she might be?"
"I don't have a clue"
"Does she leave you alone often?"
"Sometimes but she never normally goes away for this long. I think she owes a lot of money"
"What makes you say that?"
"Because we've had loads of final notices and then these men came at the weekend and took all of the stuff from the house" Lexie said relieved to finally be telling someone what was going on
"I hate being in the house, that's why I've been spending so much time at school. We have no hot water and no heating" Lexie said crying
Rachel pulled Lexie into her chest and gave her a much needed hug.
"You should have told someone sooner Lexie"
"It's not that easy"
"I know, but I'm so glad I know now so that I can help you"
"Please don't tell anyone at school about this"
"I'm going to have to tell a few people about this Lexie, but only people who really need to know"
"I don't want my friends to find out"
"They won't if you don't want them to. You have such a great group of friends though Lexie, they'd just want to help you"
"No it's too embarrassing"
"Ok that's fine, they won't find out then"
"What's going to happen? Are you going to call social services?"
"That's something we'll talk about tomorrow. For now I think you should concentrate on getting a good nights sleep"
"I have no clean clothes to wear to school tomorrow. I haven't been able to wash any of my clothes at home so they're all dirty now"
"Do you know Mia Bennett in the year below you?" Rachel asked and Lexie nodded
"Well she lives next door so I'll ask her if you can borrow some of hers okay?"
"So you told her?"
"No she wasn't there when I went to pick up Olivia and Daisy. I might have to explain when I ask her for some uniform though, would you mind?"
"She'll tell her friends though and it will get round the whole school"
"I'll tell Mia not to and I trust her to know that she wouldn't go gossiping about something like this, not even to her closest friends"
"Okay I guess so"
Rachel stayed talking to Lexie for a bit longer. Rachel could tell that what Lexie really needed was sleep though so left her to get a good nights sleep.
She quickly nipped to Angela's and got some clean clothes for Lexie ready for the morning before coming back and relaxing with Olivia. She couldn't stop thinking about what to do about Lexie though.
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