***Fanfiction partly based on some characters and storylines from axed UK soap opera Brookside (to which I own no rights) with new characters of my own added*** 14-year-old choir singer Anthony Murray has no friends in school. Bullied constantly by...
Lucy Williams, a Year 7 choir girl who saw Anthony as a friend, had also been on her way to choir practice when she'd witnessed Anthony running scared from Imelda and Paige and into the boys' bathroom. Lucy had been too scared to do anything to stop it there and then. She also knew that Anthony didn't like teachers knowing he got bullied. All in all, she'd decided to just wait until the terrifying Imelda and Paige were out of the way before making any attempt to help Anthony. But if she was honest, she had another ulterior motive for playing it that way - she wanted to be Anthony's saviour.
Lucy could tell that Anthony had trouble trusting anyone enough to be friends with them. She also suspected that he had been keeping her at arm's length for the past year because of her being two years younger. Being in Year 9, Anthony could get teased for knocking around with a Year 7 - as if he didn't get made fun of enough already. But Lucy was determined that Anthony was going to be her friend: she really liked him and she was sure that saving him in his hour of need would seal the deal. And even though she'd get in trouble for missing Mrs Linden's choir practice, at least she wouldn't be the only one.
Twelve-year-old Lucy didn't particularly enjoy the company of other girls. Even though she did get along with people her age, she didn't click with them enough to be close friends with them. Even though she was tomboyish, she didn't get teased or bullied because she knew how to handle herself. But she felt bad for Anthony and she wished those two awful girls in his year would leave him alone. She wanted to help Anthony Murray in any way that she could.
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With her striking wavy red hair, freckles, slight frame and face like an open book, Lucy looked absolutely harmless. Like someone Anthony could safely be friends with. And Lucy saw Anthony as the perfect friend for her because he was older, yet only a little bit taller than her and they both looked about the same age.
She also hoped that one day, Anthony could even be her boyfriend - if she could show him that it was ok to trust her. But she wasn't going to spook him by talking about love, yet. She knew that he just needed a friend.
Having walked in holding Anthony's schoolbag that he'd hastily dumped it when the bullies were chasing him earlier, Lucy was utterly shocked to find Anthony in the state that those two fearsome bullies had left him in that day - unclothed, curled up on the floor and completely defeated.
How could they do this to him? This was going too far. Even though Anthony was the same age as Imelda and Paige, it was unfair for them to bully the boy as he was only little for his age, Lucy reasoned. If she was just a bit older and bigger, Lucy would have hit Paige and Imelda for what they had done.
The Year 7 girl had been doing karate outside school for two years now and, unlike Anthony, certainly knew how to defend herself. She was happy to hit any bullies her own age - but certainly not Imelda or Paige. Like Anthony, she went to great lengths to avoid them both.
Setting Anthony's backpack down on the floor next to the door, Lucy started: "Anthony! What have they done to you?"
