ZENIA'S POV
Episode three - Crushed
WITH TOBY GONE LIAM AND I WANTED TO USE IT TO OUR ADVANTAGE. We went into his room to look for somewhat valuable items that he left behind to sell. That's when I found some comics. "Jackpot" I say looking over at Liam.
We run out the house to the gate where there is a guy waiting to buy them from us. We ended up getting a pretty good price for them i would say.
•••
"Right" Mike starts, placing cans of painting on the table " after all the trouble we've had recently today is going to be fresh start day because we're all about moving forward"
"Can I paint my room the same colour it already is?" Gus asks.
"Well i guess"
"What Mike is trying to say is that you can all paint your own room" Gina says hand us paintbrushes.
" just make sure you use dustsheets guys and clean the brushes when you're finished" Mike Gina and Tracy walk away.
"I wouldn't mind changing rooms" Tee says "I wonder what they're doing with Tobys room"
"Do you think he's coming back" Carmen asks
"Nah i think he's been fostered" says Liam "Otherwise he would've been back by now Plus there's still loads of stuff in his room"
"What stuff?"
We all went to Toby's room to have a look at what stuff he has and that's when everybody went to grab a few things to take. I mean he's probably been fostered which means he's left this behind so I don't think he'll mind.
Well that's what we all thought. toby barged into the lounge area.
"Who took my comics" He demands and we all look up. I looked over to Liam
"I did" I said taking full blame.
"What?" Mike asks
"She sold them to a shop" Toby continues
"To be honest we all thought you weren't coming back" I replied
"Right" Mike starts "You put back everything that belongs to Toby immediately" and Toby walks out "You're all grounded, nobody leaves the building."
"What!" I exclaim and Mike looks over at me
"Especially you Zenia"
Liam Frank and I had decided to go to Tobys room to try and make things better with him.
"We Ortex something it was a way of remembering you" Liam informs him
"Zen, you sold my comics to remember me?"
"Well yeah"
"I promised one of those to a friend I'm supposed to meet her tonight at 6 o'clock"
I look shocked at him "Your going on a date?"
"Is she your girlfriend?" Liam asks
"No! I don't know, she's gorgeous"
I find myself smiling at what Toby says and I look over at Liam to find him already starring at me.
"And now i'm trapped, here"
"Can't you phone her?" Frank suggests
Toby sighs "I don't know her number"
"Well where Does she live would look her up" I suggest.
" I don't know that either"
" email address?" Liam adds and Toby shrugs
I laugh "Have you even actually talked to her or have you just stalked from a distance"
"If he stalked her he would've known these things" Liam replies
"Look Toby" he looks up at me "I'm going to get your comic books back and you will go on that date"
Liam and I had spent about 2 hours redoing my room. I decided not to paint my walls again because I like the plain white they were already. I had been collecting fake plants from a charity shop ready for this day and now I had finally finished.
I smiled looking at the finished result of my bedroom. "Thanks for you help Dono, now it's time for the plan" I smile at him as we make our way to Gus' room.
"Question" Liam asks Gus "If you had to go to Toby's, what we thought was, foster home how would you go?"
"By Bus, 1st to the number 12 the change to Number 39 after 17 stops go to the 301 to St Maris, that's a double decker, to come back go to the 301-"
"Thanks Gus i think we've got it" I interrupt
"Last bus leaves at 7" Gus adds and I sigh
"Tight," Liam starts "But we can do it"
Liam, Toby and Frank go to get the paints from the kitchen to take up to Liam's Pink palace as i go talk to mike.
I enter the office "Mike, Liam, Toby, Frank and I have decided to paint the Pink palace after all"
"Great and i'm glad to hear you're friends again"
"Yeah we're going to blitz it out and have a proper go at it. We are not leaving that room until it's finished, even if it means missing dinner"
"Missing dinner?"
"Yeah but we need some help moving the wardrobe"
"Oh you need some good old fashioned muscle eh?"
"Yeah" I laugh "So do you know where Gina is?"
"Oi i can do it i'll prove it" He says walking out the office to Liam's room
As he does that i go looking around the office for a tape recorder. I finally find one in one of the draws and smirk and run upstairs.
Our plan was to do a bit of painting I'm just talk like a normal conversation whilst recording it so after we've recorded a decent amount we can just replay it as we sneak out. As soon as we finished recording we pressed it so it was on repeat and ran out the house.
•••
We had just gotten off the 301 bus.
"20 minutes to go" Toby panics.
"Plenty of time" Liam assured him "So which way are we going?"
"Uh that way? Or maybe that way? I don't know I haven't come from this direction before. That building kind of looks Familiar"
"Well let's try this way then" I say.
15 minutes is how long we've been walking and running around trying to find the shop.
"5 minutes to go, If only we had a sign" Toby complained. And that's when we saw it a sign that pointed the way to the comic shop. We smiled at each other and immediately started sprinting off into the shop.
I slap the money onto the desk greeting the man. "We're here to buy the comics back"
"It's going to cost you more than that"
"What?"
"Some of these are collectors items" the man informs us
" you bought the lot for 25" Liam complains
" welcome to the world of business"
"They belong to him"
"So what were you doing selling them?" He questions
"We're just kids i didn't know they were worth that" I retort
"Tell you what" Liam starts "We'll give you half now take the comics i'm goofy the other half tomorrow"
The man starts laughing "i don't think-"
"We just need truth or dare right now" Toby interrupts
"Limited edition that, but i'll let it go for 25"
"What!" Liam exclaims
The Man passes Toby his comic in a brown paper bag and we all rush out the shop. Once we had arrived at the cafe Toby started freaking out again.
"Don't be nervous" Frank says
"The thing is I've decided i'm definitely going to ask her out"
"Ooh" I say
"But that mean telling her the truth"
"What do you mean?" Liam asks
"She thinks my foster parents are my real mum and dad and I have three sisters who love to sing and dance"
"You told her that?" I question
"But then I found out her mum died" Toby says "She would understand" he starts to walk in but Liam grabs him.
"No no no no no you you don't wanna talk about that, compliment her eyes ask her questions but don't bring that up and tell her you're a care kid, she won't want to know"
"When did you get good with the ladies Dono?" I mock
Liam blushes but covers it up by shoving me lightly.
"Truth or dare though, it must be a sign"
"Toby it's just a comic" Liam informs "At least wait till you know she likes you" and Toby goes into the cafe.
We follow slightly behind and sit at a table with an easy view of them.
"You know if Frank wasn't here we could be on a date" Liam whispers in my ear.
"You would have to ask me for that to happen" I whisper back. I feel Liams hand slip into mine under the table.
"Ok when we're not trying to help Toby get a girlfriend, would you like to go out with me?"
I smile "Of course I would Dono"
I look over to see that Toby has given his date the comic and was about to reveal to her that he is a care kid. We all shake our heads at him.
"I don't live at Manor Avenue" He says
"What?"
"Not anymore, I was being fostered"
"I don't understand"
"I live in a care home" He reveals and i sigh letting my head fall into Liams shoulder.
"Is this a windup?"
"Because you told me about your mum and I realise we had so much in common" she starts to stand up "No because my mum died too and my dad in a car crash" and she runs out the shop. Toby starts to run after her and Frank Liam and i get up to run after Toby.
"Mate she's gone"
"Lates go home" Frank says
Toby checks his watch "Last bus left a minute ago"
"I'm starving" I complain "and it's Pizza tonight"
"We can still go to pizza" Toby tells me
"Yeah with what money"
"Follow me" he says as he starts running of again.
We end back at the comic shop just as he was about to close.
"Want to buy it one more time?" Toby asks putting the comic in the desk
" make up your mind it's a comic not a boomerang"
"Well you know it is a classic" Toby says as the man turns around. As he's doing that I take the comic off the desk and remove it from its paper bag handing it over to Liam without anyone else noticing. I then grab a comic off the shelf and replace it in the bag putting it back on the counter.
"15, take it or leave it" the man says and i hand him the comic.
I grab the money "Let's go" and we all walk out the shop.
"15?! 15?! And do you let him get away with it" Toby starts to complain to me. I look over at Liam who smirks at me.
"Well at least we still got this" Liam says pulling the comic out of his jacket.
"How did you do that?"
"Zen did the old switch"
"It's simple when you know how" I tell them, " but we may need to run now" as soon as I say that we hear the man shout from inside the shop and we dash off to a pizza place.
•••
"Mikes going to go ballistic" Toby worries
"Don't worry about it he won't even know that we are missing" Liam say to calm him.
"excuse me" i call over to the waitress "can we have some service over here please" the waitress turns around to reveal Tracy and we all go wide eyed.
We explain to Tracy everything that happened up until the point where we met her.
"So why do you think she got up and left" she questioned
"It's obvious, it's because he told her the truth" Liam says pointing his drink at Toby.
" I had to I wanted things to work the proper way"
"Toby's right you should tell the truth" Tracy informs us
"Too late now"
" is it though maybe Sarah just wanted A little time to get her head around what you told her. so do you know where she is because if you do let's go because there's something I need to do as well" Tracy says
"I quit" she tells the owner grabbing a pizza box, " take it out my wages"
Toby went to talk to Sara and it turns out but she had lied about having a dead mum because she thought she would be too boring. I personally think that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard but I mean at least Toby got a kiss on the cheek out of it. As Tracy was driving us home she was telling us it's just the best idea to tell Mike the truth because he won't be as angry about it.
As we got out the car Mike came out the front door and believe me he looks pretty angry and we hadn't even said anything.
"This had better be good" He says in a low voice
"We were kidnapped?"
"We got lost?"
"We were sleepwalking?"
"We lost our memory?"
"We did it for charity?"
We all fire excuses at him
"A girl" Tiny emits. Trust me the whole thing Tracy had said about him not becoming angry was a big lie.
EPISODE 4 - REFUGEES
(Short version)
2 Boys had turned up at the dumping ground and no one even knew their names. After a lot of interviewing from Gus we managed to figure out their names and what had caused them to run away.
Mike told us immigration was coming to take them away so we hid them in the attic. That's when Saff got a call from Tracy asking if her and I could come and babysit Lily, Carmen and Tee.
"Why? what's wrong with cam?" I question
"I asked the same thing. Cam was never there, she lied to Mike"
"You're joking" I say unimpressed "right we'll let's go i guess" and with that me and Sapphire got a taxi to Tracy's apartment.
"Thank you so much" Tracy says as she's about to run out the door.
"Hey, £20 each" I say holding my hand out. She rolls her eyes but hands us the money anyway. When we walk into the apartment it's is an absolute mess.
"Jesus" I mutter under my breath and turn the music off
"Was this Beakers idea?" Saff asks, the three of them just look at us and say nothing. "Well looks like we came along just in time. Tee, Carmen you sort out the pigsty whilst me and Zen make lunch"
Me and Sapphire start to make lunch.
"Saff i've had someone i've been keeping a secret for a while and i think i should tell you"
"what is it?"
"Well Liam and I are kind of together i guess"
"You expect me to be surprised?" She laughs "It's obvious from the way you two look at each other, not to mention how angry he looked when one of the new boys checked you out"
I chuckle at her response
"Do you love him?" She asks
"Woah woah that's a bit sudden" my eyes go wide "I would never say it out loud yet but i think i'm getting there"
She looks up at me as she's chopping chillies on a cutting board "I can tell he makes you happy, it really showed when you went to burnywood and didn't see him for weeks. You were very intimidating when we were there and i think if you weren't my best friend i would have been scared of you" She laughs.
"Yeah, he does make me happy"
Carmen, Lily and Tee had decided to have a spa day after all their dressing up. The wore dressing gowns, towels on there head and had the calming lavender smell floating through the apartment.
They used a chopping board to squash avocado to make face masks. Using natural ingredients is good for the skin according to Carmen. They relaxed back on the sofa with their masks on and i was cleaning up the kitchen. However they all started to complain about how their face burns.
Tee got up and tried to manoeuvre her way through the kitchen knocking over items as she went. I looked over in concern as Saff went up to her.
"Hey hey hey what's wrong?"
"Carmen what have you done my eyes are burning" Lily says from the couch.
Carmen stand up also trying to make her way back to the kitchen but ends up falling back on the sofa "I haven't done anything"
"Oh you idiots you saw me chopping chillis on here" Sapphire exclaims holding up the chopping board.
Tee starts freaking out near Saff as i make my way to a panicking Carmen.
"Carmen calm down it'll be fine" I try and calm her down. "No Carmen!" she walks into the table with about 10 candles on knocking them all over onto the floor. As Saff runs over leaving Tee in the kitchen.
Flames start to engulf the room and Saff grabs Carmen shoving her into the hallway and picks up Lily carrying her out as well. The flames keep growing and growing, i'm right next to the door ready to escape but I remember that Tee is still inside the kitchen practically blind due to the fact she can barely open her eyes because of the chilli face mask.
I hear Saff starting to call 999 as i run back into the apartment. I find Tee crying whilst crawling to try and say cooler because heat rises and it's easier to breath. "Zen! Saff!" She cries out.
I manage to reach her as i cough due to the smoke.I grab her by the arm and start pulling her toward the door. I put her in-front of me and shove her out of the door as i scorch my arm on a flame. I retract from the pain and despite my struggle to breath a manage to get out the apartment.
Once i'm through the doorway Saff runs up to me and hugs me patting my back as i continuously cough. The fire brigade arrive shortly after and manage to put out the fire.
I look over to check the girls and i see them wiping their faces with their dressing gowns. I walk over to Tee and crouch down to her "Are you ok?" I ask with concern and she immediately starts crying. I wrap her in a hug as she sniffles through tear.
"I should be asking you that question"
"Hey don't worry about me" I move some of her hair out her face "You know me, tough as nails" I say trying to lighten the mood.
When the apartments air had be filtrated we went back inside and waited in the kitchen that was way less damaged the the lounge. That's when Tracy comes in and walks over to the girls hugging them.
"What happened?" She asks as she looks at me and Saff accusingly.
Saff catches the look Tracy give us "Hey don't look at us like that, i called 998 and Zen jumped back into the fire to save Tee making sure Tee was safe before thinking about herself."
"TRACY!" Cam yells from the doorway.
•••
We all went back to the dumping ground with Cam and Tracy going to the office, Tee, Saff and Carmen going to the lounge and me going to the kitchen to run my burn under the tap.
"Saff said you'd be here" I hear a very familiar voice behind me. "What's on your arm?"
"Oh just a lightly large burn"
I look over at Liam "A what!" he shouts as he runs over to me to inspect it.
I smile at his caring reaction "Might have jumped in a minor house fire to save Tee" I tell him and he just looks shocked.
"You're going to have to give me more context then that Zen"
I laugh and start to tell him everything that had happened.
"You sacrificed yourself? why would you do that?"
"I wouldn't exactly call it sacrificing myself and i did it because of the fire brigade didn't come soon enough Tee might have been injured or maybe even died"
"You could have died" he says as he comes up behind me and wrapped his arms around my body kissing the top of my head. "My girlfriend could have died".
My heart flutters at his words. I guess it's official now, Liam O'Donovan is my boyfriend as well as my best friend.
Turns out news like that spreads around the dumping ground like a fire- too soon.
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