Forbidden Love at Waterloo Road

Family is only skin deep: Chapter 6

“Kaitlin!” I heard Maggie shout and I got up from the floor pausing the game I was playing on the Xbox with Harley, I walked out the room and into the hall where I saw Maggie stood with the door open. “Aiden’s here to see you” she said and walked back into the dining room, I smiled and kissed Aiden’s lips before pulling him inside and shutting the door behind him. “Aiden Scotcher, well I never thought I’d be seeing you ever again” I heard Budgen say and I spun round in confusion, I looked from my boyfriend to my teacher. “Oh I didn’t tell you did I, I went to Waterloo Road. Left the term before you started” he told me and my eyes widened a little in shock but he just nodded before shaking Mr Budgen’s hand. “Would you like some breakfast, Aiden?” Maggie asked politely which he kindly refused and just sat with me at the table and watched as I ate my own breakfast. We were sat at a table with Rhiannon and Kevin, Aiden seemed to get on quite well with them both and I smiled as he helped Rhiannon to finish her homework then started talking to Kevin about some English thing I wasn’t paying attention to. “Have you got college today, Aid?” I asked him as I finished my breakfast, he looked over at me and nodded before continuing his conversation with Kevin, Aiden was 19 nearly 20 but he’d gone to College to get further education in what he wanted to do – Phycology. Aiden ended up walking with me, Rhiannon and Kevin to school and we kissed at the gate before we went along the street to the bus stop, as I was walking inside the gates with Rhiannon I saw Barry watching me from the other side of the drive way so I just plastered a smile across my face and carried on walking up the steps and into the building. “Wahey here’s the boxing champ!” I exclaimed when Rhiannon walked through the doors; I ran over and wrapped my arms around her, picking her up and spinning her round in a large hug before putting her down again and walking with her and Dynasty – along with Rhiannon – to form. We soon gave Kacey over to Harley and Lula and Rhiannon went off to the library to do some work so I stayed with Dynasty but felt awkward when she stood with Barry, I wasn’t going to be rude about it so I stood with them both, Dynasty was my best friend after all. “Oh look at the pair of ya, you two need ya bloody ‘eads bangin’ together” Dynasty said after a few minutes of deadly silence, I looked up at her and laughed slightly. “Just cause you ain’t together no more don’t mean you can’t still be friends or civil to each other at least” Dynasty said and to be honest, she was right. I looked at Barry and smiled slightly, he did the same and we hugged each other, it wasn’t an awkward hug not at all, it was kind of nice really. Eventually Imogen, Connor and Kevin came over to us and that’s when it did get awkward, after Barry had pointed out to Kevin that Dynasty didn’t want to speak to him and Dynasty had told him off for that but agreed with him, I grabbed my best friend’s arm and walked her away, saving her from the awkwardness and going into form together. “Oh Mr Lowsley, Oh Mr Lowsley what are we doing todaaaay please tell meeee” I sang when me and Dynasty walked into the classroom, everyone laughed including my form tutor as I sat down on the table as Dynasty sat on a chair. “Oh Kaitlin Byrne, Oh Kaitlin Byrne, last time I checked Tables were not seaaaats” Mr Lowsley sang back and we all laughed again as I jumped down and sat down on a chair. “Hey sir did you ask Christine about doing Educating Greenock?!” I called out after a further few minutes, he looked up from his work and smiled. “No, I forgot to mention it I shall do tomorrow don’t you worry” he said and I smiled at him as he looked back down at his work or marking or whatever he was actually doing.

After form we had Science and I walked with Dynasty and Barry to Sickbags room before sitting between them both, of course I wasn’t paying any sort of attention to Miss Spark and I was watching what Barry was doing under the desk with his phone. I laughed along with everyone else as Barry started playing some dance music from his phone, a few seconds later I looked over and saw Kevin press play on his phone and then Rhiannon did the same a further few seconds later. “Are you going to let them do that, miss?” Imogen suddenly snapped and I rolled my eyes knowing exactly what was coming “Well if they don’t want to learn then that’s their problem” Miss Spark said almost with a laugh to her voice which really annoyed Imogen “No but I do and I can’t if you can’t control the class. I’m better off teaching myself” she said and bent over to pick up her bag “Well piss off then, nobody wants you here anyway, Stewart” I said to her and everyone laughed but looked up as Miss Spark went racing out the classroom. I looked at Barry and we both started laughing even more. We’d been left alone for nearly 10 minutes and I was sat playing on Barry’s phone as he sat talking to Rhiannon, eventually Miss Spark did come back in but she looked weird almost off with herself. “Miss are you high?” I called to her and everyone laughed including her “No I’m not high, Kaitlin” she said, she certainly sounded high that was for sure. “Let’s look ahead” she suddenly said after closing the textbook on her desk, I let my eyes wonder to Imogen and she looked up from doing whatever work she was doing and I chucked Barry his phone back. “I’m talking about our futures. Life, death, marriage” Miss Spark said, I looked over at Rhiannon and she looked at me “She’s definitely high” I said and few people smirked as Rhiannon piped up asking if she was okay “Absolutely, never better. I mean, I know what I want to do with my life” Miss Spark said and for the first time in her life, Imogen actually said something funny and worth laughing at “Give up teaching?” she asked and every single one of us started laughing. “No, Imogen. Get married. I am having the works – vintage car, church, sickeningly expensive dress…” Miss Spark said, she’d gotten down from her desk and was stood in front of Imogen who really did not look impressed at all and this humoured me quite a lot really. “Aw, that sounds amazing” Dynasty suddenly said and I looked over at her, she was obviously bored out of her mind. “It’s all set. I’m going to be a princess” Miss Spark said, I smiled a little until Imogen went and ruined that. “I thought marriage was about how much you love someone and not about how you look” she said and I groaned “Shut up, Imogen, nobody cares what you think” I said and a lot of the class laughed including Miss Spark actually. “Mr Lowsley is my dream man and he wants me to look my best” Miss Spark said, by this point I’d just got bored of the conversation and picked up my bag “Great lesson miss, I’d love to stick around but I have more important things to do. See ya tomorrow” I said and walked out the classroom, as I was walking down the corridor I didn’t hear one shout from my Science teacher so I walked through the school until I got to the library and sat in there until second period, I had this poem competition submission class or whatever it was with Mr Budgen. I was sat next to Barry at the back of the class and looked out as Mr Windsor and his class trooped past the window “Sir, it’s too ‘ard” Rhiannon suddenly piped up and I looked over to see Mr Budgen picking up what she’d written “Swag, swag, swag on you, chillin’ by the fire while we eatin’ fondue” he read out and I laughed along with everyone else as someone pointed out it was a Bieber song. I sat and watched as Mr Budgen started going on about favourite words before piping up “Sir my favourite word is Wanker, can I use that in my poem?” I was soon shunned with a curt no but a laugh from the rest of the class as I made a list of my favourite words then swapped with Barry to read his own list. When the lesson finished I walked out with Barry then waited for him as he spoke to Mr Budgen about something “Oh I need to go give Maggie something, save us a seat yeah?” I said to him, he nodded and walked away as I went up the stairs to home mec. As I rounded the corner I heard voices and soon saw Harley and Maggie standing outside the classroom talking, the older woman who was now like a mother figure to me turned around and smiled at me as I gave her my coursework for home mec. “You alright, Harley?” I asked him and ruffled his hair a little as Maggie went back inside, he just looked at me then away again, making a slight noise like a sniff as if he was crying. “Hey, hey what’s up babe?” I asked when I realised he was in need crying and I pulled him into a hug. Once he’d told me about Mr Budgen thinking he’d copied his poem when he hadn’t, I walked with him into the dining hall and got some lunch with him before sitting with Barry – Harley joining us.

After lunch had finished Harley and I left Barry and met up with Dynasty before going into the sports hall to watch Kacey’s fight against the Havelock girl. Kacey did eventually come out from the changing rooms and we all cheered for her as she climbed into the boxing rink before Miss Boston who shortly followed her, said something then exited again. Kacey was doing awful and it was only just the first round, she’d only managed to hit the other girl about 3 times all the other hits were being given to her by Havelock. “Come on Kacey!” we all continued to shout her on although we all knew she was doing pretty badly, we weren’t done yet we weren’t done cheering and supporting her. Not yet. She did a little bit better on the second round, getting in a few more punches but the Havelock girl was still winning by a mile, I knew Kacey wouldn’t be able to bring it back but she got up for the third round. Her worst round. When the bell went for the end of the match and Kacey was on the floor, I saw Barry’s face of triumph and that was the one thing that made me realise what he was really going to be like now, that he hadn’t changed and that he was still the same prat who won’t defend or encourage his sister in anything that she does and that pissed me off a lot and made me wish I’d never made up with him again. When everyone started to disperse out of the gym, I sat with Dynasty on the side of the rink and we started talking about what had happened until Christine came in and tried to get us to go to class. “We want Kacey! We wanted Kacey!” Kevin started chanting and eventually everyone in the sports hall started chanting ‘We want Kacey’ when Kacey did eventually come out again, she got into the rink with Miss Boston and listened to what Christine was saying “I’ll do it, Miss” I called out when she said about doing a sponsored clean of the school to raise money for Kacey to get professional training “Thank you, Kaitlin” Christine said and eventually loads more people volunteered to do it.

It was soon last period and I went with Dynasty up to the office to get whatever it was we needed to do the sponsored clean, we got a talk from Sonya and eventually Christine came into the office and spoke to Imogen, Dynasty, Connor and Kevin about something I wasn’t involved in. By the end of the day we’d finished the clean-up round the school and I met up with Rhiannon to walk home, neither of us were going to the presentation we didn’t see the point in it. We’d been at the school house alone with a few of the other students for about an hour when the door opened and Harley walked in “Hey did you win then?” I asked him as I watched him walk past the back of the sofa, I saw he was crying and got up. “Where are Maggie and Grantley?” I asked him, smiling but he just stared at me before pretty much falling into my arms and bursting into tears. Harley told us about Mr Budgen dying at the presentation and we all sat around together in the living room, none of us spoke a word we just cried silently, as it got late one by one everyone started to go off to bed even though Maggie hadn’t returned yet. It was soon just me and Harley on the sofa together, I let him put his head in my lap and I put my arm around him, playing with his hair a little as he slowly and peacefully fell asleep. I looked ahead of me at nothing in particular as more tears streamed down my face, Mr Budgen had been a big part of my life, he along with Tom had helped me through my English and helped me get the grades I needed and they were now both gone. It was nearly 3 o’clock in the morning and I was still lying on the sofa with Harley sleeping next to me, Maggie still hadn’t returned and knew that she wouldn’t until morning, at that moment I decided that I’d help in the morning even if I was tired I’d get everyone up, make breakfast and make sure they were all out on time for school, I owed that to Maggie. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn’t even realise my phone vibrating in my pocket, I pulled it out and saw a text from Tariq. Hey Kait, sorry this is sent late, you’ll probably read it in the morning anyway. Thought I’d tell you, I’m up in Greenock and I’m coming back to Waterloo Road next week! Boston contacted me about doing some PE lessons? Can’t wait to see you, Tariq xxx it read and I actually let a tiny smile appear. I hadn’t seen Tariq since he left, I hadn’t been able to find the time so it would be brilliant to see him again.

Sorry it’s a late one, didn’t get the chance to finish this chapter last night and then went out all dayL Can’t wait to write next week’s episode with Tariq’s return, gonna be such a good chapter I could just picture it now;o Anyway, don’t need to vote if you don’t wanna but you can if you want. All I ask is that you comment on what you think of the story so far, what you think is going to happen in future chapters and what you think will happen with Kaitlin and Aiden’s relationship and anything else you want to tell me, your comments mean a lot to me I swear, I love reading themJ