I'll keep you safe

Chapter 98

Back in the School, Grantly Budgen's class were just settling down for their lesson.

Janeece's phone pinged. She picked it up off the desk, sniggering when she saw the message. Maxine frowned at her.

"Earl Kelly's only gone and killed one of them birds, hasn't he?" Janeece giggled

"Who's texted you that crap?" Maxine scoffed, rolling her eyes

"Ruth Jones. She heard it off Michaela. It happened at break" Janeece informed her

Maxine shook her head. Like everyone at Waterloo Road, she'd heard the rumours about her boyfriend. She knew they weren't true. Earl wouldn't do something as barbaric as that.

"I told you he was no good!" Janeece huffed

"Shut up!" Maxine shot back defensively

"The guy is a muppet, let's face it" Donte chimed in

Maxine rolled her eyes

"Ey, how do you spell psycho, sir? Is it E-A-R-L?" Donte added

Everyone but Maxine, Marley and Flick laughed out loud

"More like E-X-P-E-L-L-E-D!" Grantly smirked

The class laughed

Marley sighed. He wanted to tell everyone his little brother wasn't a murderer and that he wasn't the one killing birds. But, if he was completely honest, he wasn't sure what was true anymore. Every time a bird had been found on Tom's doorstep, Earl had been missing a few hours prior, only turning up a few minutes after the bird had been discovered.

"What are you going to put in your Head Boy speech now, Marley? 'It weren't me, it were my brother'?" one of the boys in the class taunted

"That's disgusting, murdering a little animal!" Janeece added

"Shut up, Janeece!" Maxine snapped

Janeece stared at her. It was obvious that Earl had her best friend wrapped around his little finger.

"It's got nothing to do with Marley!" Flick chimed in

"It's his brother, innit?" Janeece shot back

"So? You don't even know what's going on!" Flick argued

Janeece scoffed, rolling her eyes

"It's obvious, the whole family is trouble!"

"The only thing that's obvious is YOUR OWN stupid prejudice! How do you expect anyone to get better if you're always expecting the worst?" Flick shot back

Marley had, had enough. As Mr Budgen settled the class down, he furiously shoved his things into his bag, before storming out of the classroom.

"Marley!" Flick called after him

"Sit down, Miss Mellor!" Grantly ordered

...

Meanwhile, Earl stood in the middle of the field just around the corner from his house. He stared at Sienna through the bars of her cage. He smirked at her as he pulled the pocket knife from his pocket.

"Not so smart now, are you? Who's in control now?" he taunted

Eddie and Steve, who had managed to track down Sienna's location, were driving in the direction of where the tracker was leading them. Eddie hoped they'd find Sienna in one piece and that there had just been a huge misunderstanding. He hoped it wasn't Earl.

"We're pretty much on top of it, it should be down here" Steve told him, pointing straight ahead

As Eddie drove along, he suddenly realised the road looked familiar. When he realised why, his heart filled with dread. There was no mistaking that Earl was likely the culprit now.