High Heels & Pink Glitter (the heavily edited version)

Despicable low lives

Nate's Friday had not started off well. Jennifer called him first thing and launched into an argument about the twins' future.

Naturally, she was vehemently opposed to them leaving the fancy private school, and yes, she firmly believed that they should accept Ed Sherwin's generous offer of monetary compensation in exchange for dismissing all charges against his son.

Scrupulously keen to keep his own biases out of it—there was nothing Nate would have preferred more than seeing Toby Sherwin banged up—Nate asked Ross what he wanted to do. Ross umm-ed and ah-ed before coming down in favour of accepting the money and continuing to attend private school.

There was no doubt he'd be safe enough. Toby Sherwin had been expelled, and since his return home Ross, funnily enough, had received a steady stream of visitors, his fellow pupils in awe that one of their number had been actually stabbed. When he returned to school, he was going to be a King Bee.

Erin, to make life harder as was her teenage female wont, refused to return to the school. And would have refused to return to school altogether, unless she was permitted to enrol at Shawlands Academy instead.

"She'll end up a hairdresser!" Jennifer hissed at Nate, the distaste for what she perceived to be a lowly occupation vibrating down the phone line. "Not a single qualification to her name. Like you!"

"I do have qualifications," he responded mildly, glancing at the diplomas pinned to his studio's notice board, assuring those who read them that he was a certified personal trainer, qualified nutritionist and a First Aider.

"Oh, not those! Exam results. The things that get you into university and proper careers. The law, accountancy, medical or veterinary school."

He stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes. The distorted vision in the studio mirror made him grin, and he hung up after telling Jennifer that he'd extol the merits of staying on at school to Erin.

Was she likely to heed him? Unlikely.

Then Avril rang. The A-lister who was supposed to accompany her to an awards ceremony had cried off at the last minute, and people like Avril didn't show up to events without someone accompanying them, even if was just the hired help.

He replied 'no' at first, convinced that it would be hell on earth, but Avril coaxed him into it, pointing out that it would be advantageous to get his face out there. The fitness trainer who had given her the killer abs the world would see on City Girls.

The outfit suggestion from Avril's stylist nearly changed his mind yet again, but he allowed the man and his team to talk him into it, and now here he was, sitting in a limo opposite Kelly and her pals Leon and Martin, who were happily tucking into champagne and quizzing Avril about life in LA.

That Kelly was not overjoyed to see him was no surprise. True, he had valid reasons for standing her up, but waiting outside the restaurant for him must have been humiliating.

She didn't seem completely at ease, and he noticed her cradling her arm as if she had an injury. Nonetheless, he was pleased they'd bumped into her. Avril, he knew, would be swallowed up by the crowds as soon as they got to the event. At the very least, he'd have someone to talk to now. He risked winking at her, and she smiled, a gesture that seemed to distinguish the two of them as outsiders.

The limo brought them to the Radisson, the route made over-complicated by the one-way system. Walking there from Bath Street would have taken half the time.

As they stepped out of the limousine and onto a red carpet, an explosion of flashes greeted them. To Nate's intense relief—he didn't want Jennifer seeing him in photos—the photographers quickly judged that just one of their group was worth snapping, and the requests came thick and fast.