Louise's POV

I walked into English and again I was greeted by every pair of eyes in the room. I wasn't even late this time, what's their problem? I strolled past them all to the back of the room, where my empty desk was, acting like it didn't bother me.

"Dude..." Ross said from my left. I slowly looked over to him.

"Tell me everything..." I mumbled. I knew that comment meant he'd heard gossip. Lots of gossip...

"Everyone's talking about you and Conor!" He whispered. A small smile appeared of my face but I tried my best to hide it.

"Why?" I questioned as if I didn't know.

"Georgia saw you talking to him outside the toilets before class, she ran in here and told all her friends, who told everyone else! People are gossiping that you're an item and everything!" He shook his head. "It's crazy!" Holding back the smile was actually beginning to hurt, I wanted to jump up and say 'Yeah we talk, get over it!' but at the same time I wanted to bask in the glory.

"Is it true?" Another popular girl, Kaiya, asked me. "You and Conor?"

"Is what true, sorry?" I asked, wanting to hear her say it.

"You and him are friends?" She twisted further in her chair to be able to see me.

"We talk, I dunno about friends..." I shrugged. Oh how badly I wanted to say 'yeah we're friends'.

"I mean you stuck up for him outside, stood in front of him and stopped him hitting Josh. That's gotta count for something, right?" She asked, her eyebrows raised. Thinking back, he could have just pushed me to the side and hit him, but he didn't. He listened to me. He hit him for hitting me. We must have some sort of friendship brewing!

"Yeah, I mean at the time I just wanted to help him, you know? I dunno if it counts as anything! He did help me off the floor though!" I smirked. She shook her head.

"Unbelievable. Us popular girls have been trying to get his attention and all you have to do is punch someone! Not me personally, but a lot of my friends tried everything; gifts, flirting, acting nice, acting horrible, dates... He never accepted any of it!" She shook her head again. "Count yourself lucky!" She turned back round to her friends and began whispering to them.

"Pfft!" Ross held back from laughing. "That's gotta mean something right?" He mimicked. "Please. It's only Conor, what's the big deal? He's no different to me!" Kaiya turned back round.

"There is a lot of difference between you two, but I won't go into it, I'll be here all day!" She looked at him up and down slowly and the fire in the pit of my stomach was burning.

"Maybe if you weren't such a bitch, guys would actually love you..." I spat back. She glared at me for a few seconds before she turned back round, all her friends silent as they looked sympathetically at her.

"I can fight my own battles, Lou!" Ross hissed at me.

"Yeah, looked like it!" I rolled my eyes.

"Look, just because Conor's started to notice you doesn't mean you need to turn into a bully... I miss the old Louise..." He mumbled regrettably. "And let's face it, you lose me and you've lost everyone!" I sniggered to myself.

"You're so full of yourself. You just can't deal with the fact other people are actually talking to me! Have fun being a loner..." I stood up and my chair scraped backwards across the floor. Taking one last look at Ross, I stormed out of the room. People have a serious problem trying to wind me up today. Rushing through the empty hallway, I ran up to my locker and through the tears tried to unlock my locker, but the combination was too hard to see. Frustrated, I kicked my locker, the sound echoing through the corridor.

"You alright, Lou?" A voice said behind me. I didn't have time to see who it was, think who it could have been, I just collapsed onto the floor and cried. So many things swam through my mind; Was I overreacting to Ross? Was it because my dad had been bought up? What had happened was now fresh in my mind as if it'd happened hours ago not years. "Louise, get up, come on..." The voice pleaded with me. I struggled to my knees, which felt weak under the pressure that was suddenly on top of me.

"I'll- I- I'll be... Fine..." I said taking heavy and quick breaths through crying.

"You're not fine. Come on." They put their arm round my shoulders and walked me to somewhere familiar but comforting – as strange as that sounds, and believe me it does – they walked me to Mr Gregory's office. Opening the door, Mr Gregory looked up from his desk and immediately walked over.

"Louise! What's the matter?" Mr Gregory walked me to the familiarly cold feeling leather seat in front of his desk. The door shut behind me before I could thank the person who brought me in. "Louise?"

"I don't know!" I sobbed into my hands. "All the stuff with my dad has come back up, Ross was shouting at me for sticking up for him and I'm practically kicked out of the school!"

"Look, Louise, I know the stuff with your dad must be hard but it'll get easier with time. Unfortunately there isn't a quick fix to things like that..."

"Yes there is!" I shouted, slamming my hands on the table.

"NO LOUISE!" Mr Gregory shouted. "THAT IS NOT THE WAY!" I flung myself back in the chair as I covered my face with my hands.

"I don't want to be here anymore..." I mumbled.

"Louise... You've got so much to look forward to! You'll go to Uni, get a well-paid job, get a great partner and live happily ever after. You can achieve it!" Mr Gregory was back in the state of trying to make my life sound great. After my dad had gone, I didn't go to school for months and when my mother forced me to go back Mr Gregory had to do this same speech to keep me going. It helped then...

"No I haven't!" I shook my head, I clasped my hands in my lap allowing Mr Gregory to see the state of my face. "Mr Gregory, you know that..." He looked down at the floor.

"I don't say it as a joke, Louise, you can do it. If you couldn't, believe me I wouldn't waste the breath saying it." The bluntness of his statement made me realise he had faith in me.

"I just have no-one to talk to..." I sighed.

"Ross?" He said almost instantly.

"No. I've never been able to talk about it with him... He's my best friend, but if he knew the extent this has broken me, he'd run a mile..." I gazed out of the window, the weather pretty much reflecting my mood.

"And the fact you've changed at school isn't enough? He's stuck by you constantly when you've gotten into fights, had breakdowns and arguments. He's always going to be there for you. He just needs to realise that. Give it time; he'll come back to you." Mr Gregory walked slowly to his chair and sat down in front of me.

"I guess you're right... It's just hard to talk about..." I murmured.

"I understand, but honestly it'll be worth telling someone. You'll realise how much better you feel after you've let it all out. It won't be easy, but it'll be worthwhile."

"Thank you..." I nodded, attempting a smile.

"Do you know who brought you in?" I shook my head.

"I- I- I was in too much of a state. I feel so embarrassed..." I looked back at the door.

"Would you like to know who it was?" Mr Gregory asked, leaning forwards onto his desk.

"Yes please..." He always felt the need to check everything was alright with me before he said anything.

"It was Conor..."