Perfect Friends (1)

Chapter 45: My Fault

On the Friday Jan came into school with more bruises on her arms and she was a lot more depressed now. She quickly zoomed down the hallways only to be stopped by a hand which spun her around on her heel.
"Don't worry Jan it's only me." Rico chuckled until he saw the bruises on her arms due to her falling cardigan.
She quickly pulled it back up sharply.
"Jan...did somebody hurt you?" Rico asked staring at her arm which was now covered back up with the cardigan.
Jan shook her head, "no."
Rico sighed, "Please Jan, don't lie to me...is everything alright with you and your step-dad?"
Jan swallowed the hard lump in her throat, "um...yes? I mean maybe," Jan sighed, "no."
"Had he been hurting you?" Rico's face suddenly turns shocked and horrified.
"No, he's just really needy and shouty." Jan said in dismay.
"Jan."
"Yes Rico, he's been hitting me."
Rico's face went white as snow, "I knew something was up with that man, Jan you need to tell someone."
Jan grabbed his arm tightly, "no! God no please don't. I'm begging you Rico."
"Jan it's only going to get worse...I don't want to see you hurt." Rico told her calmly.
"Rico, he'll know if I've told someone and he'll attempt to do something worse if he knows I've been blabbing to childline." Jan panics.
Rico turns and puts his hands on her arms, "now Jan listen to me, I won't let you get hurt, I will never let that happen, please you've got to trust me. Do you?"
Janice nodded, "of course I trust you."
"Good, now you need to tell someone meanwhile and hopefully you can see of that evil retard of a step-dad of yours." Rico chuckled making Jan smile.
"Ok, thanks Rico, I never thought you would do this for me." Jan says staring down at her shoes before looking up into his brown eyes.
"I want to help you, you don't deserve all this hate." Rico says.
Jan smiled having a slight feeling she was starting to like Rico more than just a friend.

"Right in this lesson today you'll all be working in the rest of your science project, so get into the partners you worked with before and this has to be finished today." Mr Fisher instructed.
Jan walked up to Mr Fisher with a nervous look on her face, "um sir?"
Mr Fisher looked up from his desk and smile up at her, "yes Jan?"
"I um, don't have a partner." Jan said fiddling with her fingers.
"Oh well, Quinn is on his own as well so you can partner up with him, anyway you two are great friends aren't you." Mr fisher said gesturing over to Quinn who was scanning through a text book.
Jan looked at Quinn then back at Mr Fisher awkwardly, "I suppose." She mumbled quietly.
"Great." Mr Fisher cheered as he continued to mark test papers.
Jan sighed and walked over to Quinn who was busy writing in a poster.
"Ahem." Jan cleared her throat signalling that she was there.
Quinn glanced up to see Jan stare at him, "what?"
"Um, I don't have a partner so Mr Fisher asked me to work with you." Jan explained taking a seat next to Quinn.
"Yeah, whatever." He muttered scornfully not looking away from his poster.
"Quinn we need to talk." Jan said after an awkward silence.
"No we don't, it was my fault." Quinn stated still not looking at Jan.
"What was?" Jan asked.
Quinn finally looked up at her but his face was full of anger, "falling for you."
Jan stared at him tears welling up but she blinked them back.
"I just feel sorry for that boy that hangs around with you, what's his name? Oh yeah, Rico." Quinn said.
Jan sighed, "Quinn leave Rico out of this, he has nothing to do with you."
"Just saying, I've moved on, so why don't you." Quinn snapped erupting out of his seat and walking away to talk to Max.
All Jan wanted was to make up with Quinn and just stay friends.
Was that too much to ask?

After school Tom decided to invite Katie round his house seeing as they could work on their science project together.
As they entered the house they walked into the kitchen where Ursula was sat reading the newspaper.
"Gran?" Tom said.
"Oh hello Thomas," Ursula greeted with a smile on her face, she turned to Katie, "hello Katie."
"Hi Mrs Crowe." Katie said happily laying her coat on the stool.
"What are you two up to then?" Ursula asked.
"We're just going to sort out our science project." Tom smiled.
He beckoned Katie over to the living room as she dropped her school bag in the floor.
"I'll leave you two to it." Ursula said walking out of the room.
As soon as Ursula went out of the room Katie turned to Tom, "Tom?"
"Mm?" He murmured as he started to research scientific definitions on the laptop.
"Did you really mean any of it...what you did at the hollow tree?" Katie asked.
Tom looked up at her, "What's brought that on?"
Katie shrugged, "it's just, when Jan kissed you at the party it knocked me off, I didn't think I could forgive you Tom."
"Katie it's over now, Jan hasn't spoken to any of us in ages." Tom said reassuringly.
"I just wanted to make sure you still...well..what I'm trying to say is..." Katie was stopped by Tom.
"Katie, I will never do that to you again, I swear, now stop worrying." Tom said putting his arm round her.
Katie kept frowning and Tom noticed this after a few seconds, "hey, where's that smile?"
He suddenly started tickling her in the stomach making Katie giggle.
She smiled up at him as soon as he stopped.
"I told you before I will never do anything like that to you again, I promise." Tom told her firmly.
Katie nodded, "I know, I trust you."
"Good." Tom smiled and hugged her.
"Ok Tom we better get going with this science project." Katie chuckled.
Tom let go of Katie and grabbed his pen, "yeah or Mr Fisher will be planning a murder on us."
Katie smiled at him before helping him with the poster.

Jan waited patiently in the stuffy small room waiting for Mr Graham to get back to her, she had reported her stepdad and Mr Graham was making a few phone calls to childline and social services. She looked at the clock which read 4:00 exactly and sighed staring back down at her shoes as she felt her nose tingling and a large lump starting to form in her throat. Slowly the door opened and Jan was expecting Mr Graham but it wasn't. Rico.
"Rico?" Jan asked slightly confused.
"Hey Jan," He sighed sitting down on the sofa next to her as there was just enough for two to sit on there, "how are you feeling?"
Jan swallowed, "I'm not sure, I'm just nervous."
"I'm sure you'll be fine Jan, I'm glad you've reported this, it's for the best." Rico said.
"Is it?" Jan asked.
Rico reached for her hand and held it, "yeah, this is the best way to handle a situation like this."
Jan clutched his hand tighter, all she could do was hope, she knew Rico would be there getting her through this all the way. But all the same she had her doubts.
"Rico this is my fault I shouldn't of let my dad go to war in the first place and then all of this wouldn't of happened." Jan cried tears starting to blur her sight.
"Jan listen to me, this isn't any of your fault, don't think like that, be strong for me, please." Rico begged.
Jan looked at him sympathetically, "ok, I'll try, thanks for getting me through this Rico."
Rico and Jan stared at each other for a moment only to be interrupted by Mr Graham.
"Um, Janice the social services will be here any minute do you want to come out." Mr Graham said.
"Please can you give me a minute." Jan told him.
Mr Graham nodded closing the door just leaving her and Rico again.
They both stood up still holding hands.
"Are you ready?" Rico asked her.
"Yep, I'm ready," Janice paused for a moment turning to face Rico, "Rico, thanks, no ones ever helped me through anything like this before."
"Well I couldn't let a monster damage that pretty face could I, you were going to have to do something about it." Rico said.
"I'm glad I did and if it wasn't for you that monster would still be...you know..." Jan trailed off.
Rico locked his eyes onto Janice's and leaned in.
"Rico." Jan started lightly pushing him away from her.
Rico looked stunned and shocked, "sorry Jan I didn't mean to."
"No it's fine Rico, I just can't do this right now." Jan said awkwardly.
"You better go, the sooner you talk to social services the better." Rico told Janice.
Janice nodded letting go of his hand before walking out ready to tell social services everything...