Moving on (Waterloo Road)

Chapter 7

Authors note: the chapter sees the introduction of Eddie. Only brief to start with but more will follow.

The week went by and Rachel finally came to terms with her mom's death; on the following Monday morning, she went into her office where Kim was putting some files on her desk. She put her bag on the sofa and hung her coat up before looking at Kim.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Kim asked.

"A week off was what I needed; what have I missed here then?" She asked, sitting in her comfy chair as Kim sat opposite her.

"Everything is good here; the open day is all ready for Friday. Rebecca Jones is back, no problems with her; same with Ros and Chlo."

"And Nikki?"

"Should be in today but there's still no change with her mom so..."

"I thought she might've woken up by now."

"They said it may take some time; all we can do is be there for Nikki."

"I know; i'll talk to her later. What about the staff meeting?"

"Rescheduled until Friday this week."

"Okay, that's probably a good idea actually."

"You sure you're okay? You could've took longer off if you needed."

"I'll be fine; I need to keep busy."

'You sure?"

"Thanks."

"Okay, I'll see you later."

As Kim left, Rachel set up her laptop; a couple of hours later, she left her office and walked down the stairs to Mr Lawson's classroom. Knocking on the door, she entered.

"Sorry to interrupt Mr Lawson, can I borrow Nikki for a while please?"

"She's just gone to the bathroom."

"Okay, I'll go and find her."

She left the room and headed towards the bathroom; she opened the door and heard sobbing coming from the one unavailable cubicle.

"Nikki, it's me, Miss Mason." She said as she knocked on the door. "There's no one else here; it's just us."

There was no answer so she tried again.

"Nikki, it's gonna be okay; come out and talk to me. We can use my office."

She heard a sniffle coming from the cubicle before hearing the sound of the door unlocking; she looked as Nikki came out, carrying her bag.

"Let's get out of here, eh?" Rachel whispered as she put her arm around her to the office. She gave her the box of tissues as she sat next to her on the sofa; Nikki wiped her eyes and sniffled as she avoided eye contact with Rachel.

"What's happened? Is it your mom?"

"She's still the same; I can't get her to wake up. I'm scared."

"I know you are; she'll wake up when she's ready to. You have to be patient and keep trying."

"I thought coming in and trying to keep my mind off it would help but I couldn't even get through one lesson."

"It's going to be hard but you've got the support you need."

"I wanna finish my GCSE's but it's hard."

"I know it is.."

"I just..."

"Take a deep breath, give yourself sometime and take it easy; you need to talk about it."

"I can't; if I do, I'll start crying and getting emotional and I won't be able to stop."