Paul made his way down the corridor towards registration. He couldn't believe that, after everything, the Kelly's had made an appearance. It made him feel sick, especially when Miss Mason and Mr Lawson hadn't told them to leave. They didn't deserve to be here, not after what Earl had done.

He sighed as Bolton fell into step with him.

"What's up with you?" Bolton asked, nudging his arm

"The Kelly's are here"

Bolton stopped in his tracks, his calm demeanour quickly turning to anger. Paul saw the rage flickering in his best friend's eyes as his nostrils flared.

"Are you joking?" Bolton hissed

Paul shook his head.

"I saw them, in Reception. Marley, Sam and their Mum. Miss Mason took them up to her office" he explained

"Don't even know how they can show their faces after what Earl did to Maxine" Bolton huffed, shaking his head in disbelief

Paul nodded. He couldn't either. What right did Marley and Sam have to walk back into school after their psycho brother had killed another Pupil? It was wrong.

The temptation for Paul to give in and tell Miss Mason everything he knew about Earl was growing stronger. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Maxine. The guilt was weighing heavily on his shoulders, heavy enough to crush him. He couldn't handle it. Earl could have been stopped if he and Bolton had spoken up. But they hadn't. And now Earl was behind bars and they could tell someone (even though it was too late), they weren't going to.

The more he thought about going to Miss Mason, and then the Police, the more of a sensible idea it seemed. He knew that carrying around this secret was affecting Bolton just as much as it was affecting him. Bolton trusted Miss Mason, and so did he. As a Head Teacher, yes, she was scary; you didn't want to get on the wrong side of her. But, she listened and respected everyone. She would be able to help with this, if he could just get Bolton on side. Telling someone would help both of them.

"Bolton, why don't we just tell Miss Mason?"

Bolton scoffed, starting to walk again.

"Oh yeah, let's tell Miss Mason that we knew Earl had a gun from day one? Are you mental?"

"Why not? If you don't, I will!" Paul protested, running to catch up with him

"Why have you suddenly changed your tune? Last week you were totally against me telling anyone anything!" Bolton argued

"Because it's the right thing to do, Bolton! I was wrong last week; we have to do something... I have to"

Bolton stopped, grabbing Paul by the arm.

"You're doing nothing! Do you really want everyone to know we could have stopped Earl and didn't? Are you proud of that? Because I'm not!"

Paul sighed. Maybe it was a bad idea.

"Of course not, chill out" he huffed

Bolton sighed, loosening his grip on Paul's arm.

"Look, if it weren't for us, Maxine wouldn't be dead. How do you think Janeece would cope with that, or Haydock? We don't say anything to anyone"

Paul nodded.

...

When Rachel entered the office, the Kelly's were already in there, sat on the sofas. Rose bounced her leg up and down nervously whilst chewing on her nails. Marley and Sam sat quietly either side of her, staring at the floor.

Rachel immediately sat down at her desk to prevent herself from feeling too lightheaded. She took a sip of water to try and calm her stomach. Eddie sat down at the table.

"I told Marley this was a bad idea" Rose spoke, breaking the silence

Rachel agreed. It was a bad idea and she was struggling to find the words to tell Rose otherwise. She didn't really know what Rose had been expecting. Surely she wasn't naive enough to think that everyone would welcome them back with open arms?

"Rose, you must have been aware that some people would be unhappy to see you here" she pointed out

Rose nodded silently.

"You can imagine what the kids at this school have been through. Bringing Sam and Marley back might not be the best choice" Eddie agreed

"It weren't us who killed Maxine" Sam argued

"Do you think that matters to the kids here, Sam? It's probably them lot that smashed our windows!" Rose huffed

Rachel sighed, placing a hand to her head. She couldn't deal with this.

"Mr Lawson and Miss Mason are right, thinking we could come back was daft" Rose added, smiling apologetically at Rachel

"So what? We'll just go to another school and get bullied there?" Sam cried angrily

"Look, just forget it, alright, Sam? I was wrong, I'm sorry" Marley said, sighing heavily as he stood up

It was at that moment that Rachel made up her mind. The Kelly's were related to Earl, yes. But Sam was right, they hadn't killed Maxine. Like everyone else, they probably believed Earl was incapable of doing what he did. Sam, Marley and Rose were suffering from the impacts of Earl's actions, like everyone else. Sending them away was the wrong thing to do.

"No, no, wait- just wait" Rachel interrupted, standing up from her chair

Rose, Marley and Sam paused in their tracks, turning to look at her.

"Yes, it would be simpler if you went to another school. It would. But like Sam said, there's no guarantee that it would be better. Just like there's no guarantee coming back here would work"

"People do read the papers, Mum" Sam pointed out

Rose nodded.

"All I can promise is if Sam and Marley want to return, we will do our utmost to make sure they're every bit as welcome as any other Pupil" Rachel continued, looking to Eddie for support

"Like the Head says, we'll do our best" he nodded

"If it's what you really want" Rachel added

Sam and Marley nodded tentatively in response.

"Yeah, it is" Rose confirmed

Rachel smiled softly.

"Good. So let's sort out some catching up with school work, shall we?" she decided

Sam and Marley nodded again, looking a little more relaxed and comfortable now.

"Just give us a minute" Rachel told them, squeezing Rose's arm reassuringly as she stepped into the antechamber

Eddie followed her out. One thing didn't make sense to him. He knew questioning her about it would probably cause another argument, something that neither he nor Rachel could deal with at the moment. But he was willing to take that risk.

"So, Rach, tell me. How are you going to do that?" he asked lowering his voice

Rachel frowned at him as she grabbed some paperwork off of Bridget's desk.

"How are you going to support them when you're not even going to be here?" he continued

"It's the right thing to do, Eddie" she shrugged

Eddie scoffed.

"So, what? You just make everything neat and tidy and then go?"

"Something like that, yes" she nodded

Eddie rolled his eyes.

"Rachel, please. You can't do this, you can't leave" he sighed

"I'm not discussing this with you, Eddie. We'll talk about it later" she said firmly, walking back into the office

...

One hour later...

Janeece was sitting in the Sixth Form common room. It was her first free period of the day. She thought it would have been easier than this, being on her own, without Maxine. She'd been wrong.

Maxine and Janeece had spent all of their free lessons together, either in the library doing work, or around the school and on the playground, chatting about random things. They had always been together. Their free periods were always filled with laughter, because they had one another. Now it was quiet. Janeece felt lost.

It didn't help that her conversation with Steph this morning hadn't gone to plan. Not at all. Yesterday's plan had turned into a disaster too.

Up until today, Janeece hadn't seen Steph since the day after Maxine's death. She had tried calling Steph, but she never answered the phone. All she wanted to do was talk, to make sure that she was ok. Maxine would have wanted her to check in on Steph.

With Charlotte's help, Janeece had come up with a plan. She had organised a memorial service for Maxine to take place in the garden of her home yesterday evening. Chlo was coming round and they'd planned to light some candles and say a few words.

Janeece had invited Steph. To her relief, she had said that she would be there.

To her disappointment however, Steph didn't turn up. That was why Janeece had wanted to speak to her this morning, to make sure everything was ok. She just wanted to talk to Steph, to confide in her. She knew she had Charlotte, who was and had been incredibly helpful and supportive. But it wasn't the same. Charlotte hadn't been there when her best friend was murdered. Steph had been there, she knew what she was going through. They were both grieving; they had both been there when Maxine had died. Janeece wanted comfort and she wanted Steph to have that too, but she was shutting her out.

Their conversation this morning had been a disaster. Steph had told her that she hadn't come to the memorial last night because she'd had a ton of marking to do. "Books don't mark themselves, Janeece!". Janeece understood, but she still felt disappointed. Why hadn't she just been honest and told her that she wasn't coming? Or better yet, if she hadn't wanted to come at all, why hadn't she just declined the invitation?

Things had turned sour this morning when Janeece had asked if they could talk about what happened that day. The day Maxine had died. She knew that Steph was hurting, but she was trying not to show it. Steph didn't want to talk about it. She didn't see how talking about it would change things. So her words to Janeece had come out harsh:

"If you want my advice, Janeece, get on with it. Just like I am"

The words had stung. It had set Janeece back in her grief. Charlotte had been helping her, and Steph had just knocked her down. Janeece wanted more than anything to be able to just 'get on with it'. But she couldn't. The world was a dull, empty place without Maxine in it, and she didn't know how to move forward.

"Hey"

Janeece looked up to see Charlotte stood in front of her.

"Hi" Janeece replied quietly

"May I?" Charlotte asked, pointing to the chair next to her

Janeece nodded.

"You seemed deep in thought just then. I thought I'd check on you before we had our session later" she explained

"I was just thinking" Janeece mumbled

"About?" Charlotte questioned

"Maxine"

Charlotte nodded.

"We used to always spend our free periods together. It's my first one without her" Janeece confessed, picking at the skin around her nails

"I see. What did you get up to?"

"We used to walk around the school or the playground, or sit on one of the benches and just chat about things. Or we'd be in the library doing coursework. Sometimes if the hall was free we'd sneak in there and dance and mess around"

Janeece smiled fondly at the memories she'd shared with Maxine.

"It'll take a while to adjust, Janeece. But you're already doing so well" Charlotte encouraged

Janeece nodded.

"How did it go with Miss Haydock yesterday?" she added

Janeece thought about lying for a moment and telling her it went well. But what was the point in that?

"Janeece?" Charlotte prompted

Janeece sighed, looking at Charlotte nervously.

"She... didn't turn up, Miss"

"Did she say why she couldn't come?"

"I saw her this morning. She said she had too much marking to do"

"Did you speak to her about what you wanted to speak to her about this morning?"

Janeece nodded slowly.

"And?"

Janeece sighed, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"She told me to just 'get on with it'... that's all I want, Miss. To go back to how I was"

Charlotte let out a silent sigh. This was another thing to add to her list of things she needed to talk to Steph about.

"Well you can't do that by shutting off, Janeece"

"I know, Miss" Janeece nodded

The bell rang. Janeece stood up, swinging her bag onto her shoulder and wiping her eyes. She smiled at Charlotte weakly.

"Sorry, Miss, I've got to get to class"

Charlotte nodded.

"That's fine. I'll see you later for our session"

Janeece nodded, leaving the common room.