Youngblood

Chapter 7

Dianne's POV

I arrive back at my house to see my Mum's car on the drive. That's odd. She's always at work. Seriously, always. Even when she's home she's always babbling on about it. It's been like that for years really. Ever since I was a little girl, Mum always took work seriously. You can tell that she puts it above me. But it's got to the point that I don't really care.

The door's locked so I grab my keys and unlock it, and then I go to say hello to my mum but I hear her voice on the phone.

"Yes, yes, right, so what's next?"

I sigh and dump my bag and head up to my room. I then receive a text from Joe from my crappy phone. I gave up hope for saving up on a new one a while ago. Maybe I could get Mum drunk and then convince her to lend me money? But Mum hardly ever gets drunk, so she could get really angry when she is.

I then finally read the message rather than contemplating getting my mum drunk. It's from Joe, asking if tomorrow after school I wanted to come round to meet his family. I don't even bother asking mum, as she won't care where I am, and text him to say that I'll come.

"Dianne! Are you home?"

Finally, my Mum trying to make some sort of conversation with me.

"Yes, how are you?"

"I'm good-"

At that moment her phone rings again.

"Sorry love, gotta answer this!"

Again, Mum puts her work life before me. I just don't even care anymore. She can do what she wants. Why should it bother me?

I get out my science homework and make a start from that, and just watch my evening go by. Eventually, I go to bed, for once looking forward to tomorrow.

-TIME SKIP-

Joe's POV

I rush to get ready for school yet still manage to arrive before Caspar.

"Here before Caspar, again," I say. "Where's Josh?"

"Not in today. He said he's ill, yet I'm not sure if that's the truth or he's skiving," Byron says.

"He better be ill. If he's skiving without me then he's so dead," Mikey responds. "We've got maths today, and if he's left me, then he will not be hearing the end of it."

The bell goes and I turn around to see Caspar walking up towards us. I head off for form without speaking to him though, and just smirk at him as he rolls his eyes.

The morning goes by alright. It's now lunchtime, and I've just bought food from the canteen, but without hurting anyone this time. I then spot the redhead coming over to us with Anna, but she's also bringing four other people.

"Hey Joe," she says, sitting next to me. I put an arm around her.

"We brought Katya, Lauren, Amy and Chloe," Anna says. "Dianne was going to ask you, but then I thought that I don't care."

"Oo, feisty Anna," Conor says, getting him a stare from Anna. "But yeah, course it's fine."

Everyone else then introduces themselves. The four new girls seem nice. Apparently Katya, Amy and Chloe dance like Dianne, so they click so well. Lauren's amazing at sports.

"I bet I could beat you in a race," Mikey challenges.

"Mikey, are you sure? You're the worst at sports out of the lot of us, and Lauren sounds pretty good," Oli says.

"Hey!" Mikey shouts.

"Honesty is the best policy," Oli replies, making Dianne laugh into my shoulder.

We all continue to talk for the rest of lunch, then the bell goes and we all head to PE. It's rugby outside, and I do quite well at this, and spend majority of the lesson trying to tackle Mikey, which he doesn't thank me for.

After PE I wait for Dianne to come out of the girl's changing rooms, as she's coming back to mine.

"Ready?" I check.

"Mm," Dianne says.

"Everything alright?"

I can see that there's something bothering her. I'm good at being able to pick apart people's emotions.

"What if your family doesn't like me?" Dianne questions. I smile at her. Why wouldn't my family like a sweet, amazing, talented girl like her?

"Of course they'll like you," I tell her. "You don't need to worry about that."

I lead us back to my house and knock on the door, since I don't have the effort to get my keys out of my bag. Zoe answers, since she must have been let out a couple of minutes early as she's in Sixth Form.

"Dianne!" she exclaims, hugging my girlfriend. They both have big grins on their faces. "So this is who Joe's been talking about?"

"He's been talking about me?" Dianne asks.

"Saying how amazing you are, don't worry," Zoe says. She leads us inside where my mum is making dinner.

"The famous redhead," Mum says, also hugging Dianne. "How are you both?"

"Good. I just spent an hour tackling Mikey," I say. Mum just laughs.

"In rugby I hope," Mum says.

"Obviously," I say. "What's for dinner?"

"Pasta bake," Mum says. "I think Zoe wanted you both to watch a film before dinner."

"Films. They aren't even sociable," I mutter under my breath, but Dianne still hears me and giggles.

"Depends on the film," Dianne replies. I open the door to the lounge where Zoe is waiting, holding two DVDs in her hand.

"Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid?" Zoe asks.

"Disney?" I scoff.

"Hey, they're good films," Dianne says. "The Little Mermaid!"

"Well you are practically Ariel," Zoe laughs. We spend the nest hour and a bit watching that, Dianne sitting close next to me on the sofa, then Mum calls us for dinner.

"Did Joe put up with the film?" Mum asks.

"Yeah, I made him," Zoe says.

"Good," Mum says. "Joe you need to learn to put up with films."

"But they're so antisocial," I complain.

"I thought your age group was meant to be antisocial," Mum jokes.

The rest of the evening goes amazingly. Everyone seems to love Dianne, and she seems to fit right in and love them all back. It's a shame when the time finally comes that she has to head home.

"See you tomorrow," I say, planting a light kiss on her forehead. She heads off and I check my phone, seeing so many messages from the buttercream group chat asking about Josh, but he hasn't replied.

I'm sure it's nothing. I'm sure he's ok.

But it does worry me slightly when it gets to eleven and there's still no response.

A/N: New chapter! Sorry it's been so long, things have been stressful recently. Hope you all liked it! What do you think has happened to Josh? Xx