As the week went on, Jen’s good mood was dampened as the planned girly cinema trip became less and less popular amongst the group and people gradually began to pull out. Firstly, Jane approached her on Wednesday and explained that her grandma had gone into hospital and she had to go and visit her on Saturday, then Sally and Richy said that they were going out for lunch with Richy’s parents an important occasion as it was the first time his parents had met Sally in their six month long relationship.

Eventually, the entire group had made excuses leaving only Mike, Yema and Jen going to see the film. Jen was pissed about it and really didn’t like the idea of acting the third wheel for the day. She had voiced this concern to Yema.

“I don’t want to get in the way of you two,” she said.

“Don’t be silly. You need the day out. Mike won’t mind and I certainly don’t.”

“I don’t want to hold you two back though.”

“Hold us back from what? It’s not like we’re going to be up to anything major. You know me. I wouldn’t jump into anything like that.” Yema shot a warm smile in her friend’s direction, reassuring her.

“Okay then. I’ll come.”

“Glad to hear it,” Yema stated, the grin that was permanently etched on her face still in place. Yema had been uncontrollably happy ever since the sleepover and the beginning of her relationship with Mike. “We ought to get to Business now or Redmond will give us a right bollocking. He wanted task five of our coursework in last week and most people still haven’t done it.”

“Shit,” Jen cursed. “I thought we only had to get task four done.”

“Nope. It was all the way up to five. I wouldn’t worry if I were you though. Everyone else is still on task three.”

The two girls slowly clambered up the stairs in Hughes block on their way to Mr Redmond’s top floor classroom. When they finally reached the door, they were both slightly out of breath as they took their seats in the middle of the class, just in between the “good kid zone” at the front and the “hard kid zone” at the back. When, Mr Redmond walked in and was clearly disappointed (but not surprised) at the lack of work that his class had produced. “So,” he began. “How many of you have done what I asked for?” Four out of the five sat on the front row raised their hands along with Yema.