Only Fools...

'Felicity says hi!' - Chapter Twenty-four

I had done about three questions of the exercise before feeling faint and in desperate need of a break from the boredom that differentiation presented me with. "Danny," I whispered.

"What?" He snapped in a low volume but I could tell he was smirking in spite of himself.

"Felicity says hi," I joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Cool." He spoke quickly and aggressively; any sign of the smirk that was there before had gone. Why would the mention of Felicity insight such a sudden change in him?

"What is it?" I asked.

"What is what?" He wasn't getting it.

"What is it about Felicity that made you go so quiet? What has that bitch done now?"

"Jess stop!" He was suddenly talking at a decibel three times our usual Maths-lesson-whisper. "Just stop it." He was practically shouting now - what the hell was he playing at?

"Daniel? Am I going to need to send you outside?"

"No sir, sorry." He replied.

We didn't talk for the rest of the lesson - neither of us wanting to piss off Mr Wilding any more than Danny already had. At least, that's what I hoped it was. I really was not ready for Danny to be annoyed at me over anything - especially Felicity. What was it about that girl that always managed to cause arguments and frictions? She was toxic.

Danny packed up his stuff before the end of the lesson and ran out as the bell rang. As soon as I passed Mr Wilding at the front of the class I called after him, running as I did so.

"Danny!" He stopped as I placed my hand on his arm. "What is it that Felicity's done now? Why are you upset at her?"

"I'm not upset at her," he said as he turned around to face me. "I'm upset at you,"

"What?" That shocked me, to say the least. "What have I done?"

"You've really hurt her, okay? And you need to stop?"

"Who Felicity?"

"Yeah Felicity. Her parents are getting divorced Jess? And you need to trust me when I say that that's a really crappy thing to have to go through." Danny's parents had divorced last year, it was clear that he was still upset about it. It was the divorce that had really bought the two of us together when he was dating Amy. It was the divorce that had stopped Danny from just being Amy's boyfriend to me. He had been so upset about it that he really needed someone to talk to.

"Danny - I know that it's crap, I was there for you remember?" I sighed; I had no idea where he was going with this. And I knew that my next thought was selfish, but it was relevant all the same. "What has this got to do with me?"

"Because you're making it even worse for her. Her life is really sucky at the moment and she doesn't want to be at a school miles away from where her parents are. She needs this school to be a safe place for her, and a place where she can relax and forget about the divorce. How do you expect her to do that if you and Rachel are belittling her constantly? You two are managing to make her time here even worse and it's not fair."

"What?" I was in shock. "You're blaming me for belittling Felicity? You weren't there in the meeting yesterday Danny, she was absolutely horrible to us. Yelling across the room and the like - she's leading you on in some way you need to trust me."