The walk to school is pleasant enough. The sun is shining, making it feel nice and warm and there are only a few clouds in the sky. However, none of this is enough to stop the anxiety that I am feeling. Only on rare occasions have I left the house without Erin and this is one of them. My mind keeps focusing on her, thinking about what she is doing, will she have everything she needs, and will my mum be able to cope? The logical side of my brain knows that she will be perfectly fine; after all, my mum raised me all by herself so she knows what she is doing.

Neither Cory nor I talk much on our way to school. I don't even know what I could say as we spend so much time together that everything has pretty much been said this morning. I guess that is a problem when you live together. He only ever moved in because his parents decided to move back to London as soon as they found out I was keeping the baby.

I still don't believe that it was a coincidence.

It doesn't take long before we get to school. There are not many people about, only those who are coming in for the introductory sixth form session. The younger kids have already started for the school day. I guess that is one perk of being a sixth former. That and no longer having to wear a uniform.

People lounge around outside the assembly hall, waiting to be called in. Cory and I join the large group and I scan my eyes around to see if I can spot any familiar faces. The majority of people here so far are those that have attended the school since they were eleven years old, though there are a few new faces in the crowd. The faces that I see are not the ones that I am looking for. It takes another few minutes before one of those faces becomes visible to me.

"Hey you," I hear from behind me so I turn around to see Laura standing there.

"You sound like you haven't seen me in ages. We spoke on the phone yesterday and saw each other face to face the day before that," I smile at her before pulling her into a hug.

"Yeah but seeing each other in school is different," she shrugs as if that is something I should understand. "Nice to see you too Cory. This must mark a year since you moved up here?"

"I can't say I've thought about it but now that you mention it, I have been here a year," he says back to her.

"Why does it feel like so much longer?" I question before seeing another of my friends walk towards us.

Maddie strides towards us with her long legs on show. Just by looking at her, you wouldn't think that she was dressed for her first day back at school but instead you would think she is still on holiday. The summer dress that she is wearing stops halfway down her thigh, her sunglasses are on top of her head rather that over her eyes and her hair looks like it has just been done in a salon. Her brown waves bounce as she walks.

And I'm pretty sure I'm wearing clothes with baby sick on them.

"Laura, you're here on time?" is the first thing that Maddie says when she sees us and I don't blame her. Laura has a habit of being late to things, especially school.

"My mum practically kicked me out of the house this morning so there was no chance of being late. Anyway, how are you today? You look pretty glammed up to say we're only at school," she then comments.

"The weather is still nice so I thought I better make the most of it. Where's prince charming today?" Maddie asks, still talking to Laura about her boyfriend.

"Yeah, where is Adam? Normally he would be here by now," I ask as well, wondering where my third, and oldest, best friend is.

"He had to drop his sister off at breakfast club in her school because both his parents had to work early today. He should be here soon though." She tells us looking down, while fiddling with the strap on her bag.

Nobody says anything after that because we have nothing to say, until Adam finally arrives what feels hours later but was really only a matter of minutes.

"Did you get your sister to school alright?" I ask him before anyone else has chance to speak.

For a moment he looks confused, maybe he wasn't expecting me to know about that but then he says, "Yeah she got there fine. Ran straight towards a group of her friends and never looked back. Felt quite unwanted really."

"Oh, that reminds me, Missy will be starting her first day of school later. I should phone her later on." Cory suddenly says, the smile dropping from his face as he says so.

It must be hard for him, being so far away from home when he misses out on milestones like this. Especially as Missy had no choice in the matter of moving or staying. She is just an innocent kid who misses her big brother.

"I'm sure she will have a great time," I stroke his arm and say just as the bell goes off.

Collectively, the whole of our year group marches forward into the assembly hall, taking seats in the bleachers. I immediately head for the back row, to try and avoid stares off of people and my friends follow suit. Once everyone has sat themselves down, our headmaster walks in with a strained smile on his face. I think he wants to be here even less than what we do.

"Good morning boys and girls and welcome to another year here at Abbey Moore. I hope you have all had a relaxing summer," I scoff as soon as I hear that, "and are ready to learn once again. It is so nice to see many familiar faces that have chosen to carry on their education here, rather than go elsewhere but it is just as great to see so many new faces as well. I can assure you that you will enjoy these next two years here and will learn everything that you need to learn."

"Bullshit, they barely taught me enough to pass maths last year," Laura whispers to me.

"I also think they're lacking in sex education," I joke back and watch as she nearly bursts out laughing.

"One day, you'll be the death of me Mason," she says before we turn our attention back to the headmaster's speech.

"Today, you will receive your timetable for the following year which is at the front here. Mr Danes and Mr Reynolds will both be here in a matter of moments to hand them out. Speaking of the two of them, they are the two sixth form tutors who will help you apply to university next year. As for this year, they will mainly support you in your exams along with getting you to think about exactly what you want to do at university and where to study it. Each teacher will have two tutor groups that will have weekly sessions that's are compulsory, no exceptions. Today, you will all meet with your tutor for a brief introduction but it will be in two large groups rather than smaller ones.

Other than that, I don't really have anything else to say other than I hope you enjoy your time here as sixth form students. You will be the students that the younger children will look up to and admire so I expect responsible behaviour from all of you. That is all, you may collect your time tables now." He finishes his speech and suddenly there is a stampede of people rushing down the steps to get their time table.

"Was it just me who thought that was a waste of time?" Cory asks us as we stand up.

"It's not like we didn't now all of that before. This should have been just for all the new kids." Adam replies.

"I just hope I've got Reynolds as my tutor because there is no way I can do weekly sessions with Danes," I say.

"What is it about him you hate so much Kristen?" Maddie asks me.

"Everything about him annoys me. And I'm pretty sure he hates me too."

"Well I guess we better go and find out who we have," Maddie then says to me.

The five of us make our way down the stairs and towards the two teachers who are handing out the time tables. It soon becomes clear that Mr Danes is handing the time tables for the surnames in the first half of the alphabet while Mr Reynolds is doing the second half. The only problem is having a surname beginning with the letter 'M' you don't know which half it is going to be in.

To begin with, I walk over towards Danes with Laura and he just looks at me and says, "Reynolds," so I turn and walk towards him.

"Kristen, it's so nice to see you. Did you have a good summer?" he asks while handing me my time table. I raise my eyebrows at him, unsure of what I should say. When I don't answers him he finally then tells me that I will be in one of his classes for the tutorial sessions.

"Thanks sir," I say before walking back to my friends.

Everyone seems to be studying their time table, something that I haven't even looked at yet. I unfold the piece of paper that was handed to me and I am pleasantly surprised with that I see. All I have are afternoon classes, except on a Friday when I have my tutor session with Reynolds but I do have to stay behind an hour every day to catch up in some lessons as I miss the morning ones.

"This is brilliant. I only have one nine o' clock start, every other morning I start at ten," Laura squeals excitedly at us all.

We swap details about what classes we have and when, liking the fact that our time tables look so empty compared to last year.

"If your time table says that you have CRS from half past eleven to half past twelve on a Wednesday or a Friday then will you lease follow me." I hear Reynolds shout to the crowd of teenagers.

"That's me, what about you guys?" I ask the other four.

"I think we all have him. I have him in a Friday, what about the rest of you?" Adam asks and the four of us all nod our heads and begin to follow Reynolds.

"It' strange that we're altogether again," Cory comments.

"Not really. Don't you remember last year in performing arts when Reynolds put you in the group instead of Maddie and Kristen threw a fit?" Laura says.

"I didn't throw a fit," I try and defend myself.

"Sure love, if that's what you want to believe. I think after that they're too scared to pull us apart," she then laughs as we make our way into a classroom.

This year the tables are set out differently, so rather than having the tables in rows of two, they have been pushed together so four people can sit around it. The five of us sit down at one, with Adam bringing an extra chair over so he can sit down. The room soon begins to fill up with more people than it can hold. There must be about fifty people in here before Reynolds shuts the door and begins speaking.

"First of all, I want to say welcome back to everybody who has been here before. There are faces in here that I know very well because I've taught them in the past or they were in my tutor group for the past five years," as he says that, his gaze lingers over to our table as we tick both of those boxes. "There are other faces that I recognise but do not know that well because I haven't had the pleasure of teaching them before. Then there are also faces that are completely new to me and are probably new to a lot of people in this room as well. I welcome all new students to Abbey Moore and I will always be here if you need any help."

"Is it just me or this exactly like what the head teacher just said?" Maddie whispers over the table.

"I don't know, I switched off when he started talking about faces," I reply.

"Miss Square, Miss Mason, please may I have your attention," Reynolds then calls us out causing me to roll my eyes. "As I was saying, I hope you all enjoy your time here. I won't be keeping you long today. All I need you all to do is fill out a form, stating your name and what subjects you are doing this year along with any current plans you have regarding university. If at the moment you don't know what you want to do once you leave here then you can leave that space blank." Reynolds stops what he is saying as someone walks into the room.

Straight away you can tell that he is a student just by the way he is dressed. Black jeans, white t-shirt and black leather jacket. Too informal for a teacher. He also looks slightly lost which to me, confirms that he is a new student.

"May I help you?" Reynolds asks him.

"Yeah, I think I am supposed to be in here,"

"What's your name?" Reynolds asks while picking up what looks to be a class list.

"Jack Carter," the new kid responds.

"Yes you're in here. Take a seat anywhere you can and I'll come back and explain to you what you will be doing." He says after a few moments of scanning the list to find his name.

"Anyway, back to what I was saying, this so I can help you over the next couple of years, making sure you are on target and heading towards your goal. If you have any questions then please don't hesitate to ask." He tells us all while handing out the forms and then turns his attention back to the new kid.

The first part is easy enough, filling out my name and the subjects I have but then I get to the university part of it. My dream was to always go to a dance school in Los Angeles but that is looking less likely to happen now that I have Erin. I just write 'dance' on the form, knowing that is what I want to do.

I look around at my friends to see what they have put and I notice that they have left the university question blank. I guess we still have a year to decide exactly what we want to do and where we want to go. I've just had bigger things on my mind over the summer rather than thinking about university.

"Once you have finished filling the form out then you are free to go. Just leave them on your desk," Reynolds says and straight away people get up from their seats and make their way out of the school.

"That was not worth coming in for," Maddie says once we have left his classroom. We leave the school and I text my mum to let her know that I am on my way home.

"True but at least tomorrow classes start properly," I say back to her, my mind now focused on going home and seeing Erin.

A/N: welcome to another chapter of Handprints. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. I've not read over it for any typos yet so if you see any then feel free to let me know.

Did you have a favourite part of this chapter?

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again in another couple of weeks.