[RenewedHope]

Chapter 98
Gerard, Bill, Tom and Kiro stood together, hiding the bodies from view. They all turned around just as the principal and English teacher reached them.
“What’s going on over here?” Asked the principal seriously.
“Nothing...” Said Gerard confidently. If they stuck to a story, they should be able to get out of it.
“It didn’t look like nothing….”
“Well there was….a huge spider and….Barbie over there fainted and we were checking for a pulse.” Said Tom quickly. The others looked at him and back at the principal. Surely he wouldn’t buy it.
“And then Max hit Gerard because he thought he was trying it on with Barbie, which is why Gerard has blood on his lip.” Said Tom shooting Gerard a meaningful look. Gerard raised his hand to his mouth and wiped it quickly. Tom was right, there was still blood there. Quickly, he put his hand back up to make it look like it was still bleeding. And Tom continued with his story,
“So anyway, Gerard hit Max back. Before you give us all the bullshit about no fighting, he had to defend himself.”

The principal looked at the group. He decided to let Toms use of bad language slip this time. He’d had enough with the recent run-ins between the group and the jocks and he didn’t really want to deal with any more.
“So there was….” The principal trailed off trying to make sense of what Tom had said to him.
“A huge spider, I mean HUGE and she just freaked out. She went crazy then she fainted.”
“And you were checking for a pulse?” Asked the principal.
“No, Gerard was, we were just around him to help him out if anything was wrong.” Said Bill, trying to make sure the principal couldn’t find any flaws in their story.
The principal and English teacher looked at the group.
“OK, I don’t want any more trouble, from any of you any more. I’ve had enough trouble from all of you so far this year. It stops now.” Said the principal with a sense of finality in his voice.
The group looked at him and nodded silently. They needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.

The principal and English teacher gave the group one last look and started off up the corridor. The principal stopped and looked back, he didn’t know why. He saw the two lying on the floor and walked towards them quickly. As he bent down next to them, he was horrified. They were dead. He looked up quickly but the group were no where to be seen.
Gerard, Bill, Tom and Kiro got just outside the gates before stopping and looking back. They would probably be in serious trouble, that was even if they went back to school.
“Come on, we’ve got to get back to the others. I’ll ring Mikey and get him to pick us up.”

Amy, Hannah and Frank were sat on the couch in the Way’s living room. Mikey had just had a call off Gerard and had gone to pick them up. Frank sat there staring at the floor, he’d still got tears streaming down his face. The two girls put their arms around him and hugged him tightly.
“Don’t cry Frankie. It’ll be ok.” Said Hannah gently as she hugged him.
“Yeah, and the others will sort Max and Barbie out.” Said Amy smiling. Whenever there was any trouble, Bill and the others always sorted it out.
“Well, we’ve got the rest of the day off anyway, so what do you wanna do Frankie?” Asked Hannah
“Anything you want.” Added Amy.
“Well,” Started Frank, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, “There’s not really loads of time before the baby’s here. Only a few months so I want to go baby shopping.”
Frank looked a little embarrassed at saying it as he looked at the two girls. He was relieved when they both seemed as excited as he was. They got up and started to get ready to go out.
“And I have my next scan in a couple of days. And if Gee wants to, we can find out what the baby is.” Smiled Frank happily.
“Do you think you’ll ask or keep it as a surprise?” Asked Amy.
“I dunno, me and Gee haven’t talked about it yet.” Smiled Frank, “I’ll be happy whatever we decide though.”

The three of them had just opened the door and were about to leave when they saw the rest of the group getting out of the car, looking extremely worried.
“What’s wrong, what happened?” Asked Frank quickly, he hadn’t seen Gerard look….well….he couldn’t even tell what mood Gerard was in. Deffinately not a happy one though.
“We all need to sit down and talk.” Said Gerard bluntly.
“But we were gonna go out, baby shopping.” Said Frank, the excitement fading from his voice as he said it.
“Well, it looks like we’ll have plenty of time for you to do that in the future.” Said Gerard, as the whole group gathered in the living room.
“What do you mean?” Asked Frank, looking scared.
“What Gee’s trying to say is….” Started Bill, looking at Gerard.
“It doesn’t look like you’re gonna need to worry about school anymore Frankie.” Sighed Gerard.