School rapidly became a very different place for Beth. For a majority of her school-life she was either treated as an object of ridicule or was invisible to those around her. She was accustomed to walking around the campus feeling insignificant and unnoticed, blighted only by moments of sporadic name-calling or cruel pranks. The most recent still seared in her mind with the audio message card hidden in her locker at the hands of the Clones.

Beth now found herself very much at the centre of school gossip, partly due to her winning the county singing competition for the school and partly because she had been at the heart of the incident involving Jessica.

When Beth turned up for school on the Monday following the competition she knew she would be alone for the morning sessions. Miles was at practice with an early start and Jessica remained at home recovering from the miscarriage.

She sensed a difference around her as she walked through the school gates. This continued up until lunchtime; throughout the morning in classes she had noticed several students and classmates turn to look at her and they always looked as if they wanted to say something to her, but her look of incredulity back at them always stopped them in their tracks.

Beth didn’t want to take her place in her usual toilet cubicle that lunchtime and opted to sit at the bench she, Jessica and Miles had adopted as their own, far away from the main building. She sat alone for a few moments eating her sandwiches and checked her mobile.  A message from Miles read, “Will c u at lunch, babe. Coach just let us out. Gimme 10 mins.”

Beth’s tummy flipped at the thought of seeing him and she quickly finished her lunch ready for his arrival. She texted him back, “Am at our bench. C u xxx.”

She looked up towards the fields hoping to catch a glimpse of him on his way to see her, but spotted a small group of people walking towards her. She recognized Danny immediately from the group but was surprised to see Lucy and Claire behind them, their faces remained impassive, but Beth didn’t detect their usual hard or dismissive faces that they always adopted around her.

“Hey Beth” Danny called over, “OK if we join you?”

Beth nodded and looked behind Danny, raising an eyebrow at Lucy and Claire.

Understanding Beth’s unspoken communication, Lucy walked forward, “Um, we wondered if we could join you as well?”

Beth, trying to hide her nervousness nodded simply and they all took their places around the bench and table.

Danny continued, “Um, we wondered … how is Jessica doing? We’re all really worried about her.”

Beth looked suspiciously up at Lucy and Claire and their expectant faces made Beth realize why they were there. They wanted first hand information about the events of Friday night.

Beth had seen Jess the day before. They’d spent the afternoon and early evening together. While they painted each other’s nails they spoke about what people in school would think of what happened on the Friday and what Beth should tell people if she was asked. Jessica tried to put on a brave face, but Beth knew that the prospect of talking about it to people at school upset her. Beth offered to give people basic information about what happened and to let them make the rest up for themselves. Jessica seemed content with this plan but mainly she just wanted to be left alone when she returned to school. She wanted to keep busy and vowed to Beth she’d be back in school that week.

So, Beth responded cautiously to Danny’s question and respected Jessica’s right to privacy, “She’s doing OK and trying to put things behind her. She’s wanting to come back to school this week and … well, she’d really appreciate it if people just treated her the same as before. Just … you know, don’t keep asking her how she is, it will be difficult enough for her without having to answer everyone’s questions.”

They all nodded and Beth glanced quickly at the Clones. Lucy appeared deep in thought and Claire remained looking solemn.

Danny, the apparent appointed spokesperson for the group then asked, “So, Michael was the dad? But he was acting like he really didn’t care outside the toilets. Is that why Miles had a go at him?”

Beth nodded, again not wanting to give anything away.

“Jeez, I’ve never seen Miles lose it like that. He was like a psycho. Just flew at him, anyone would think he was Jessica’s boyfriend, not yours.”

Beth blushed, she was still getting used to Miles being referred to as her boyfriend, but she loved the sound of it.

“No, Michael said something to Miles after he was being vile about Jessica,” Beth corrected, “It was unforgivable.”

They all nodded, clearly expecting Beth to go onto tell them what Michael had said, but Beth was not forthcoming. Beth again glanced up to Lucy who gave her a knowing glance, “Ah,” Beth thought, “you know what Michael said, and by the looks of it, you think it was unforgivable too.”

The subject then moved onto the singing competition and it was at this point that the Clones took their leave, clearly demonstrating that the only reason they travelled with the group that approached Beth was to find out more about Jessica’s situation.  As they got up to leave Beth couldn’t resist making a comment and icily called after them, “Got what you wanted now?”

Lucy spun around but Claire grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards the main building.

“What great friends you two turned out to be! One of you sleeping with Jessica’s boyfriend, the other blatantly not caring about how badly Michael treats either of them! You haven’t got a clue how to behave like human beings, let alone friends! Think you’re riding an all time high in the popularity market, or are your stocks falling?”

They continued walking on with no response and Beth watched after them before she reengaged with the group still sitting with her.

“Goodness, what was all that about?” asked a small mousy girl Beth thought was called Katy.

“They’re just poison, that’s all,” Beth replied flatly, “They turned on Jess really quickly and still believe they’re beyond reproach. They have also systematically seen to it that every moment of my school life has been miserable.”

The small girl nodded eagerly and added, “They locked me in my locker a few months ago. The caretaker had to let me out. I missed a whole lesson before I was let out.”

From across the bench, a thin, pale looking boy, probably a couple of years younger joined the conversation, “Michael stole my clothes in the changing rooms. I had to walk home in my shorts and it was the middle of winter. By the time I got home my legs were blue. My mum complained but nothing was done.”

Beth shook her head as more people from around the table shared their experiences of being at the mercy of the Clones’ and Michael’s cruel jokes and comments.  

“So, any of you here had that kind of treatment from Jessica?” Beth nervously asked, “It’s just … I know she was part of their group, but I can’t remember her being directly involved with anything against me. I remember this older girl that Claire and Lucy hung around with, she was really mean but she left last year, I think.”

Some girls in the group agreed and one offered, “Yeah, her name was Addie. I only remember because Lucy and Claire held my arm down while she tried to write her name on my arm … with a compass. She only got to the “d” and a teacher heard me screaming. Nothing happened though, I was sent to the nurse and ... well, I don’t think anything happened to them.”

“But none of you can remember Jess doing any of that?” Beth asked and one by one, they shook their heads.

Beth sat back, quietly content that although Jess may have moved in their circles and become partly embroiled in their pranks, she was mainly tainted by association.

“So, when are you singing again?” one of the girls asked quickly. “It’s just with all our lessons now being revision and recap sessions, we’re not going to have music again and … well, we wondered when we’d get to hear you sing again?”

Beth laughed, thinking they were playing a joke on her, but as she looked around at the expectant faces, she realized that they were serious.

She shook her head and blushed, “I – I .. I don’t know. I’ve … well it’s nothing really, but I’ve been invited to join a band.”

Danny laughed and excitedly leaned forward to interject, “It’s my brother’s band! I told him about you, it was me! He went on Friday and really, really wants you to sing for them.”

“What’s his band called? another girl asked.

Beth looked to Danny, because other than a quick conversation with Jez and what Miles had told her, she knew nothing else of Jez’s band.

“They don’t have a name for themselves yet. Jez said I could be their roadie once they’ve got more gigs lined up.”

“More?” Beth asked, “Are they already playing then? Who’s singing for them at the moment? Miles said Jez’s voice wasn’t … you know … ahem, the best?”

Danny laughed, “He sounds like a cat is being castrated without anaesthetic. It’s truly horrific.”

The group laughed and Beth couldn’t help but to join in with them.

Suddenly familiar arms were wrapped around her waist and she could smell shampoo and deodorant.

“Budge up, Danny-Boy” Miles laughed and pushed between Danny and Beth on the bench.  At once Beth felt secure. Being surrounded by people talking to her and asking her questions was taking its toll as Beth didn’t know how to respond or act. With Miles beside her, she felt like she could relax. He sat close to Beth and grabbed onto her hand on the table. Beth blushed and quickly looked around the table. Some of the girls had tilted their head and she heard one comment to the girl next to her, “Aw, he’s so sweet.”

Danny begrudgingly moved over for Miles but Beth smiled warmly at him, encouraging him to continue their conversation.

“So, as I was saying,” Danny continued, “Jez has already got a few bookings for the band over the Summer. When he heard Beth last Friday he was on the phone making more.  I think they’re booked to do a wedding at the end of July, a friend of the family who were desperate, but there will be so many locals there, Jez thought it’d be a great chance to get the band known.”

Beth swallowed and blushed as the party looked to her for a response, “But … but … but … I’ve not even tried singing with them yet and they’ve got gigs?” and she stared hard at Miles who grinned at her cheekily.

“Aaah, we’re talking about you singing in Jez’s band, are we?” he laughed, “Yeah, sorry about that but I told you Jez was keen.”

Beth shook her head, colour rising in her cheeks, “Unbelievable” she managed to squeak out, “What will they do if I try out at practice and I’m terrible? What will they do if I decide I don’t want to do it?”

Danny looked seriously at Beth and had obviously taken her last statement personally, “But, why wouldn’t you want to sing with them, they’re brilliant, Beth. You would love it. Plus you’d get to earn some good money doing it. The band are big, so gig subs would be shared among all of you, but the singer takes the biggest cut. You could make about £100-£200 for the average wedding, Beth.”

Beth sat there for a moment and listened to the group of strangers around her talk animatedly about the prospect of singing in a band, earning money for doing it and having the opportunity to do something that exciting.  

Miles squeezed her hand and kissed her on the cheek. He whispered in her ear, “Hello beautiful, missed you yesterday.”

She snuggled into him, smelling his clean, freshly showered skin and immediately wished they could be alone to enjoy each other.

“This is insane,” Beth whispered to Miles looking around the table at the chatting group, “Who are they all? Why are they here? What do they want?”

She felt Miles chuckle quietly and he nuzzled her neck, sending goose bumps down her arm. “They want to spend time with you, Beth. What do you expect?”

Beth whispered back, “But why? What’s changed from last week to this week?”

“You participated, my love. That’s all,” and Miles kissed her affectionately on the cheek.

Beth blushed and looked around the table. They were all still engaged in conversation, two girls chatting about what they’d wear if they sang in a band, Danny with a couple of other boys about what songs they should sing but Beth didn’t recognize any of them and three girls on the end of the table talked about how attractive lead guitarists were.

Beth smiled to herself and looked back at Miles, straight into his sapphire eyes and she giggled, “Have you been watching me the whole time?”

He laughed and nodded, “Sorry, just nice to see you so happy. I thought you’d be a lost cause without your Princess with you, but I find you here with a little social group of your own! Plus a very avid fan!” and Miles nodded towards Danny.

“Oh hush!” Beth laughed, “He’s just excited that his brother may have a singer. And I say MAY have a singer.”

Danny piped up, “So, when are you going to go to one of their rehearsals? They’re practising next week in the village hall?”

Beth smiled and said, “Danny, if I start now, my mother will never forgive me. I need to concentrate on my exams.”

Miles put his hand up and Beth stopped, “Um… hang on a minute, Miss Evans. Hands up here who took their English exam last year because they were so bloody clever they took it early?”

No one put their hands up.   

“Come on Beth, now … I know you did!”

Beth smiled, blushing slightly.

“And …” he continued, “Who has already received their coursework back for their science modules, technology modules, history coursework and drama coursework – each with pretty much full marks, so they only need to literally turn up for the exams to get an A star?”

Beth shook her head, cheeks flushing deeper. “How do you know all this?” Beth asked.

“You have very proud parents and a very talkative mother!” Miles replied, to lots of laughter around the table. Even Beth couldn’t help laughing.

“So …” Miles continued, “You’ve probably got much less revision to do than the lot of us and you could probably go to a few practices and pass with flying colours?”

Beth giggled, “Try telling my mum that then!”

“OK, I will ask her!” he proudly responded, sending girls at the table into another giggle frenzy as they enjoyed sharing Miles and Beth’s banter.

Miles grabbed Beth’s hand and suddenly said, “Right, sorry guys. Gonna spend some quality time with my girlfriend before lunch is over. Catch you all later!” and she was pulled to her feet.

“Um … bye!” she managed and quickly walked away with Miles towards the main building.

“Where are we off to?” she asked, a little out of breath as they were out of ear shot of the group.

“Nowhere in particular, I just couldn’t stand to share you any longer as I didn’t see you yesterday!” Miles replied and kissed the back of her hand, grinning wickedly.

“So, how IS Jess?” he asked, “I bet they were all fishing for information. I saw the skinny bitches walking off, so I take it they asked about her too?”

Beth nodded and told Miles about what she’d been asked.

“So, did you speak to Jess yesterday about being worried about her going back to being a Clone?” Miles asked seriously as they reached the far side of the main building that was thankfully quiet. They sat on a low wall together and Miles put his arm around her waist.

“I didn’t need to,” Beth began, “She started moaning about them shortly after I arrived because she’d got yet another text from one of them. Even Charmer, or whatever the fuck her name is, was texting her.”

“What kind of texts?” Miles asked, playing with a strand of her hair that blew in the breeze across her face.

“She read them all out to me, things like ‘so sorry babes, didn’t mean for you to feel like this, sorry I was with Michael before he finished with u, come back to us babe you belong with us, what you doing with her when you could be back with us now Michael out of the picture…’ then they started getting really edgy because she wasn’t responding to all of their texts, things like ‘are you too good for us now’ and ‘what makes you so fucking special anyway?’ By the end she counted them all up and only two of them asked about how she was feeling, the rest were about her coming back to them. Unbelievable!”

Miles laughed, “Hmmm, self-obsessed much?”

“She said that the flowers I’d brought, staying in the hospital, getting their parents tea from the vending machine, offering to revise with her … all those things I just thought I’d do because … well, it’s the right thing to do, well she said none of that would have occurred to any of them. Apparently she’s had an epiphany!”

“You can get a cream for that.” Miles added, making Beth snort laughing.

“Did you just snort then?”

“No,” Beth lied, “You must be hearing things.”

“Oh, I definitely heard a snort.”

“Nah, all that rugby’s made your head scrambled!” she laughed, “Anyway … as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted …”

“because you snorted…”

Beth dug Miles playfully in the ribs, “as I was saying, Jess decided what she wanted to do and has decided what courses to take for A’level and what Uni to head for. She wants to train to be a midwife.”

“Wow,” Miles stopped, “I – I genuinely would never have thought she’d choose that as a career path. Fashion photography or design or something, you know … a bit girlie. But that’s basic, up to your armpits in placenta and stuff.”

“Miles!” Beth laughed, aghast that he even knew what that was, “She’s not going to be like a bloody vet on a farm with her arms half way up a woman’s…”

“You know whatsit?” Miles interjected and Beth nodded, giggling.

“Well, I think it’s lovely. She’s turning something harrowing that happened to her into something wonderful. And … it’s made me think about my life and about something you said.” Beth began thoughtfully.

“Oh, bloody hell, don’t listen to anything I say, my mind has clearly been scrambled by all the rugby!” he mocked.

“You said that you found your place in life doing things for other people? Well, I know I’ve only met him once and … well, I’m kind of smitten with Charlie and I wondered if he’d like it if I helped him record your rugby game this weekend. I could help him with the video editing afterwards and he could put music to it … and … and … or do you not think that’d be a good idea?” and Beth noticed how serious Miles’ face had become.

“Babe,” he began suddenly smiling much to Beth’s relief, “Charlie’s not stopped talking about you since you said goodbye on Saturday. He’s desperate for you to come around again, but if you could tell him you’d do that with him, God, he’d be over the moon!”

Beth smiled, “Good, we’ll do that then. I just … well after talking with him, it made me realize that he likes to do things in sequences, like in pods or chunks of effort. He concentrates on one genre of music and then moves onto another when he’s exhausted the previous topic. I thought the filming thing could be something else for him to concentrate on that could also incorporate music. I’ve got great software at home, but I dare say with all the iMac’s and computers in your house, you’ve got that covered, so I could sit with him after he’s recorded the game and work on it with him?”

Miles suddenly threw his other arm around her waist and squeezed Beth tight. “Do you know,” he laughed, “a few weeks ago, you were petrified of meeting my family, particularly Charlie because you were worried about how to act around him. Now look at you! God Beth, just when I think I’ve found everything there is to love about you, you go and say something or do something else that just makes me love you more. Do you know how fucking incredible you are?”

Beth snickered and shook her head, “Nope … but I like hearing you say it.”

Suddenly his lips were on hers and his hand placed firmly on the back of her head, locking it in place. He kissed her deeply and passionately, groaning a little in his throat as his hand stoked the back of her hair.

Beth broke away quickly and grinned suggestively, “How long until lunch is over?”

Miles quickly looked at his watch, “Twenty five minutes and we’re in French revision ALL afternoon!” he moaned.

Beth winked and said in a low voice, “Fancy finding a quiet corner for a bit of Ooh-la-la, monsieur?”

Miles’ eyes flashed naughtily, the sapphire burning slightly at the suggestion of a little pre-lesson fun.

“Ah!” he laughed in a terrible French accent, “I wunder if madam wooood lak to shudderrr and baaat the baaak of ‘err ‘and while I play about weeeeth ‘er bits in the baaak of the ‘all?”

Beth chuckled and held up her hands in surrender, “Babe, if I’ve understood your terrible accent correctly, you’re suggesting a little “un on un” in the back of the hall, yes? The cloakroom, yeah?”

Miles nodded eagerly and pulled her to her feet, grabbing her bottom firmly.

“Oh, oui, oui!” she giggled at Miles.

“I’ll have you moaning that into the back of your hand, Beth Evans any minute now, so get a move on!” and he led Beth, giddy headed and blushing wildly to the hall.