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you want something else, ’cause I ain’t in the bloody mood today, Angela.’

      When the phone rang, Lin answered it immediately. ‘Steph, Tammy’s on the phone,’ she shouted out.

      Stephanie bounded down the stairs, snatched the phone out of her aunt’s hand and dragged the lead into the hallway.

      ‘Can you talk?’ Tammy asked.

      ‘Not really,’ Steph replied. The kitchen and the lounge opened off the hallway and her mum was no more than ten feet away from her, serving the dinner up.

      ‘I thought I’d better warn you, I think I might have put my foot in it with your sister today. I asked her why you hadn’t been at school and I could tell by her reaction that she didn’t know. I’m really sorry, Steph. I know what a bitch Angie can be, but I made her swear on her life that she wouldn’t tell your mum.’

      Stephanie was feeling more confused by the minute. Something was wrong. The house had had a strange kind of atmosphere about it when she’d first come home, but her mum had just smiled at her, so perhaps Angela hadn’t opened her big gob after all. ‘Don’t worry about it, mate,’ Steph whispered.

      ‘Have you been spending time with Barry? Will you be in school tomorrow?’ Tammy asked.

      ‘Yes, and I dunno. Listen, I’ve gotta go, Tam, me dinner’s ready I think.’

      ‘If you ain’t at school tomorrow, try and ring me from somewhere else. I’m dying to hear all the goss,’ Tammy said. School just wasn’t the same without her best pal by her side. She was beginning to wish that Steph had never met Barry bloody Franklin, as she felt she was losing her friend.

      ‘Will do. Bye Tam,’ Steph replied.

      ‘So, why are we all sitting at the table, Mum? Is this a special occasion or something?’ Angela asked innocently, when her sister sat down between Cathy and Linda.

      ‘Eat your dinner first and then me and yous girls will have a nice little chat afterwards,’ Pam replied, quite calmly.

      Stephanie locked eyes with her sister, then stared at her plate. She wasn’t at all hungry. She felt far too loved-up to eat, but knew if she didn’t try and force her dinner down her gullet, her mum would go apeshit.

      ‘I can’t eat no more, but that was lovely, Mum,’ Angela lied a few minutes later. She was a bit worried that her mum kept saying she wanted a chat with both her and Steph, and Angie really hoped Mr Jones hadn’t dobbed her in the shit.

      ‘I’ve had enough as well, Mum,’ Stephanie mumbled. She wanted to know what was wrong, as the waiting to find out was doing her head in.

      Seeing her mother leave her own dinner, Stephanie began to feel more nervous than ever. Her mother usually ate like a horse; if her appetite had deserted her, perhaps she was seriously ill or something. She might have that terrible disease, cancer. One of her friend’s mums at school had just died from that. ‘Are you ill, Mum? Please tell me what this is all about? Because you’re really worrying me now.’

      Pam took a gulp of her wine and stared at her deceitful eldest daughter. ‘The only thing that is making me ill is the worry over you and that boy. I know you’ve been bunking off school to spend time with him, and I’m sure you were in his house today, as I kept seeing the curtains twitch. Now, don’t lie to me, Steph. Were you in that house?’

      ‘You cow!’ Stephanie spat, glaring at her sister.

      ‘Now don’t you start blaming her. It was your head of year, Mr Jones, that told me, not Angela. Well, was you with that boy in that old slapper’s house or not?’

      ‘Just tell your mum the truth, sweetheart,’ Lin urged, squeezing her favourite neice’s hand.

      ‘Yeah I was, but all we did was play some records. We’ve nowhere else to go, have we? I’m too frightened to be seen with him in case you go off your head, and I only bunked off ’cause you grounded me. I love him, Mum. Barry is the kindest, nicest boy I have ever met in my life and I won’t let you stop me seeing him just because of who his mother is. It ain’t fair,’ Stephanie whinged.

      Angela’s smirk was completely wiped off her face as her mother stood up and urged Steph to give her a hug. ‘I need you to promise me that you’ll never play truant again. These last two years at school are your most important and I’ll be so disappointed if you don’t get good marks in your exams, Steph.’

      Surprised by her mother being so understanding, Stephanie began to cry. ‘But, what about Barry? How am I meant to concentrate on me school work if I ain’t even allowed to see him? I promise I won’t ever bunk off school again and I’ll work really hard, if you just let me see him sometimes, Mum. Can I see him, please?’

      Pam still hated the thought of her beautiful daughter being involved with Marlene’s son, but seeing Cathy smile at her and remembering her friend’s wise words, Pam bit her lip and nodded. ‘I’ll allow you to see him, but only if I can meet him first.’

      Angela watched the scene unfolding in front of her in complete and utter disbelief. Her little chat with Mr Jones was meant to have spelt curtains for Steph’s relationship with Barry. Instead, all it had done was enhance it.

      ‘Can I go and tell Barry now, Mum? Shall I get him to pop over in a bit?’ Steph said, overcome by excitement.

      Pam looked at Linda and Cathy.

      ‘Yeah, sod it. If this lad has you grinning like you are, girl, then we all wanna meet him, don’t we?’ Lin said, winking at Steph.

      ‘Well, I don’t wanna meet him. All yous lot have done for weeks is stare out the window and slag off the old slapper over the road, so why have we now suddenly gotta be nice to her son? I’m going out! You all make me sick,’ Angela spat venomously, pushing her chair so hard it almost toppled over.

      Pam grabbed her youngest daughter’s arm. Mr Jones had let on that Angela was extremely worried about Steph and had spoken to him, and Pam knew that the spoilt little cow had only done it out of spite. She had always been more lenient with Angela, just because she was the baby of the family, but from now on things were about to change. ‘You ain’t going out nowhere, young lady. You’ll sit ’ere with us tonight and be polite to your sister’s boyfriend, and then tomorrow me and you are going up the Heathway to get you a hair dye. As I told you the other day, you ain’t going out to play at all until you dye that hair of yours back to its original colour. Look like a bloody child prostitute, you do.’

      Absolutely livid that her mother seemed more bothered about the colour of her hair than Stephanie bunking off school, Angela burst out crying and ran up the stairs. ‘I hate you. I hate you all,’ she screamed.

      Hearing the springs on the bed bouncing up and down once again, Barry Franklin turned up the volume on the TV to drown out his sister’s cries of unbridled passion. He had once been really close to Chantelle when they were young, but just lately they seemed to argue like cat and dog. Chantelle despised the fact that he still had a good relationship with his father. She also treated her pregnancy as though she had a serious illness and, since Barry had moved back home, she had expected and screamed at him to wait on her hand and foot. Debating whether to go out and find Jacko, Barry heard the doorbell ring.

      ‘What you doing ’ere? Get inside quick,’ he urged.

      ‘You’ll never guess what! Mum wants you to come over to ours,’ Steph said, with a big grin on her face.

      ‘You winding me up or summink?’ Barry replied, bemused.

      Hearing terrible noises coming from up the stairs, Stephanie nodded towards them. ‘What’s going on up there?’

      ‘It’s me sister and her boyfriend. Doing my head in, the pair of ’em are. Did your mum really say I can come over?’ Barry asked, conveniently changing the subject.

      ‘Yep, but I’ve had to promise her I won’t bunk off school no more, so I can’t take the rest of the week off,’ Steph explained,

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