My apologies, folks. Real Life... well... it got...

It got awesome, so I'm afraid I'm not remotely sorry for not writing. I was busy for fantastic reasons.

"So, friends; this is it. This is your moment. When everything you've been striving for, everything we've tried to teach, everything that your parents have dreamed of, that their lives finally add up to something. Now, it gets tested, in the crucible of academic excellence. Mr Sweetcheeks has your digital exam codes -"

"You're all just numbers now," Mr Sweetcheeks interjected encouragingly.

"Ms Long has your personalised exam timetables," Doug continued.

"Um, I've got stripes, spots and diamonds," Josie said cheerfully, turning over her clipboard to show her own decorated timetable.

"She's tracking you personally. So you see, nothing can go wrong unless -"

"Unless you balls it up," Mr Sweetcheeks interrupted helpfully.

"I think perhaps that's not the right word, Simon," Doug admonished.

"Unless you fuck it up," Mr Sweetcheeks corrected.

Doug gawped like a fish for a second, and then attempted to recover. "Well, I guess we're all adults now. Promise me: promise me you're going to take it easy."

And that was why they all loved their current headmaster.

Mini had a feeling she'd stopped being into all of this. She blamed not being able to drink. In the last ten minutes she'd had to feed the plant three drinks that smelt of the shit she could find in the science lab cupboard. One of them was still fizzing from some shit Liv had told her to party on. The plant stood no chance.

Was it just the baby, or had she grown up? She wasn't really into this shit anymore. It was just a bit crap really. Nick and Franky were all over each other in one corner of the room, and Liv was dancing with Alex, who as usual was half naked, whilst some other half naked guy danced up behind her. Mini wasn't even sure who the other guy was interested in, the filling of the sandwich they had going there, or the other slice of bread. Either way when Liv called her to come over she couldn't help but think that dancing with the three of them was the last thing she wanted to do, that she couldn't think of a scenario at the party that would make her feel more uncomfortable.

And then she caught a glimpse of Alo getting high in a gas mask, and thought again.

She waved goodbye to Franky and Nick, went to go find Liv but saw her dash outside and heard her vomit loudly, Alex and his new 'friend' laughing, and so decided to skip the farewells. She'd see her just before their first exams, if Liv turned up to them.

She was already walking down the street, her jacket wrapped round her tight to keep out the chill, when she heard Alo's familiar footsteps behind her. "Mini?"

She stopped, turned around. "Alo, go back to the party, it's fine."

He blinked slowly, the gas mask sitting on top of his head, smoke still wafting out a little from the remains of... how had he turned it into a make-shift bong anyway?

"I'll walk you home."

"Alo..."

He shook his head, walked up to her side. "No objections tonight, McGuinness."

She smiled, didn't back away when he slung an arm round her shoulders, and fell into step with him. His hand on her shoulder moved down to rub her arm, as though sensing her goosebumps. Good thing boys were walking radiators.

They chatted about how they were going to miss the routine of skipping classes and smoking joints round the back of the humanities block. How they were going to miss the warmth of Doug's well-meaning, unobservant watch. Alo told her about how Doug had come to see him when he was arrested, and that he was going to remember 'oggy-oggy-oggy' whenever things looked absolutely hopeless, which, knowing Alo, was inevitable.

When they got to Mini's they stood outside on the steps awkwardly for a moment whilst Mini considered whether or not to send him home. In the end she took his hand, and pulled him inside. When he shut the front door behind them she waved a stern finger in front of his face. "You're sleeping on the floor."

So, that's what he did. And when Mini heard his breathing steady she waited a bit, thought about whether it was a good idea or not, and then slipped out of bed anyway, and curled up into his side.

She didn't know that he'd been faking his breathing, and that he was awake when she did that. He just waited until she actually was asleep before tucking her in better.

Mini woke after he did. He was playing with his phone with one hand, the other was drawing patterns on her shoulder, his own shoulder acting as her pillow. She was suddenly strongly reminded of Morocco, of him admitting to attempting to download his porn app onto the stolen iPhone. "Hey."

He stopped, looked down at her and smiled. "Hey." He put his phone down, returned his attention to her. And then frowned. "Please don't kick me out again..." he winced.

She smiled sleeply, and shook her head. "No, not yet."

He chuckled. "Okay. How long have I got until then?"

She snuggled into his side, murmured contentedly when he wrapped his other arm round her. "Dunno," she answered, making him chuckle again. "Until I wake up properly."

He grinned. "Then go back to sleep, Mins."

"Okay..." She felt his face split into another grin against her forehead. "Alo?"

"Hmm?"

She shifted a little, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and settled into his side again. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Sure," he answered. Then he frowned. "Wait, let's hear the favour first."

"You just said 'sure'."

"No, I'm retracting the 'sure' until I've heard what the favour is."

"Well, you can't."

"Mini."

"Yeah?"

"What do you want me to do?"

She peered up at him. He looked half worried, half amused. "Whilst I'm revising, and whilst the exams are going on... I think it's best that we don't see each other." Then he just looked pained for a moment. "I need to focus, Alo. You're a bit distracting."

His face lit up a little. "Distracting in a good way?" If he'd had a tail, it would have been wagging. She couldn't help but smile up at him, or help but run her hand over his messy hair.

"Alright, I'll let you have that one," she teased, making him grin. "Yes, in a good way."

He leaned his head against her hand, and sighed. "But you still need to go and be a clever swot and ace your exams?"

"Yep."

He ran his hand over her cheek. "Okay." He thought for a moment. "Can I still text you?"

"Only if it's important."

"And Facebook?"

"Actually important, by the way."

"Twitter?"

"As in Armageddon serious."

"Skype?"

"As in not about Pokemon again."

"Pokemon's serious."

She just lightly batted at the side of his head.

"Okay, not about Pokemon again." He frowned suddenly, remembering something. "Speaking of important, what was that thing you wanted to tell me about, when we were at the barn?"

Shit. She froze. Now was the chance to tell him everything, even to tell him why she needed him to stop seeing her for the foreseeable future, given that she was swelling like a balloon already. I'm having your baby. Just say it, just say I'm having your baby... fuck.

Instead she panicked, and did something that maybe was a bit stupid: she kissed him. Chastely, and softly, and a bit desperately. He reacted immediately, kissed her back, didn't even question it. He even moaned happily. When she pulled back he looked dazed, and silly. But mostly, just pretty darn happy. When his brain finally started working again, he looked less happy though. "We need to figure this out, Mini."

She sighed, and nodded. "Not right now though."

He studied her for a moment, and then conceded. "Alright. That's okay. But we do need to figure this out. And not after the exams. We both need to think for a bit, and then we need to talk. Otherwise I'm not going to be able to focus on my exams either."

"Were you going to focus on them anyway?"

He grinned. "Yes, but I was aiming for being my adorable C-average self."

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh."

He mocked indignation. "You saying I can't get Cs?"

"No, I was questioning the 'adorable' bit."

He pinched her sides lightly, making her giggle. But as the giggle subsided, it made the niggling paranoia rise to the surface. How in the world could he not notice when he pinched her? She rested her head on his chest, partly to listen to the sound of his heartbeat, partly just to hide her face from him. "Alo..."

He stroked her hair, and sighed. "Time to go?" She nodded. He took a deep breath. "Okay," he said, and slowly sat up. She lay back down at his side whilst he shuffled back into his trousers and buttoned up his shirt. Then he looked back at her again, smiled and kissed her again quickly, quickly enough so she couldn't push him away. "Good luck with the exams."

And then he was off.

"Franks! Mate! Compadre! Hi."

It was only a couple of hours and she bloody missed him already. The hormones weren't helping. She'd been snapping at Franky since she'd arrived, summoned because Mini really needed to stop hugging Alo's pillow just because it still smelt of him and it was one of the few smells that didn't make her vomit these days.

So whoever it was at the door... "Tell whoever it is to fuck off!" She yelled to the front door. She really didn't want to see anyone right now.

"Whoa... is she okay?" Whoever it was asked.

"Err, yeah," she heard Franky cover. "Just a bit stressy about the English exam."

"English! We need to get into that, Little Dorrit and all of it." Whoever it was sounded like they were bloody high. "Or... we could just get totally fucking wasted!"

"Who is it?" Mini asked, her patience at its limit, and she went to the door. Ah. Liv.

"Alright, Minerva?" What the fuck? Since when did Liv call her that? Only... only Alo called her that. Usually just to annoy her. "Remember me? I'm your best matey, Liv!"

Seriously, what the fuck? "Have you been drinking?"

"It's breakfast," Liv said perkily. "Malone-style."

"It's 10am."

"Yeah, so?" Ah, fantastic. Liv was on one of her self-destruct sequences, 'Malone-style'. "Let's get wasted on Brandon Hill, smoke a fatty!"

"Yeah, what about little bummer boy?" Mini asked.

Liv shrugged slightly. "He's away."

"Oh, so now you're back in my life? Is that how it works?" Mini said acidly. Whilst Liv struggled to come up with a response, Mini decided she'd had enough and went back inside. Never mind the hormones, that did piss her off. What did Liv expect? Things had been sour for months. She couldn't come back now that Alex had fucked off without her and expect that everything would be the way it used to be.

"That's not fair," she heard Liv say as she walked away, and ignored it. Who cared if it was fair? "What's up with her face?"

What's up, Liv, is that I'm pregnant with Alo's baby and you weren't there to help me. That's what's up with my face.

"Maybe just give it some time, yeah?" Franky said.

"Give what some time?" Liv asked, oblivious. "What's going on?"

"She'll talk to you when she's ready."

Mini heard Liv start to shuffle away, and then, as Franky started to shut the door, turned back, her tone sharper. "How's the rugby player?"

Mini raised her head from the kitchen table. What the fuck now?

"Nick doesn't play rugby anymore," Franky answered.

"What does he do? Go to Zach Braff movies with you? Like Matty?"

"Mostly we fuck," Franky retorted. And Mini frowned as Franky's face turned bitchy. "Says he's never really enjoyed it before." And then she shut the door in Liv's face, fuming.

Mini just stared at Franky. What the fuck? Since when was she so easily baited? That was pretty fucking low, given all of their messy history with Nick.

She looked around her home, and at Franky standing in it. Suddenly she didn't feel so comfortable. "Come on, let's get to college."

"No, wait for that bitch to go first," Franky said sulkily.

Mini ignored her, and picked up her bag. "Fine. You do that. I'm going. You coming?"

Franky took a heated breath, let it out, and then grabbed her bag too and stormed out.

Gracie, how did we all end up like this?

By the time they got to Roundview, Mini had calmed down, had found some centre of serenity in just walking. Franky, who she'd ignored the whole way, was fuming even more by the time they got there than when they left the house, her own thoughts very obviously not half as pleasant. All that was going through Mini's head was a small degree of appreciation that Liv had come back to her, no matter how clumsily.

It was time to try to make amends.

Unfortunately, Liv's mood also seemed to have turned more sour by the time Mini found her. But at least when she realised that Mini was there, she didn't tell her to fuck off.

"Mr Hinkles is mine," Mini pointed out, smiling slightly. "What's he doing with you?"

"We've been having an affair."

Mini chuckled. Yeah, they were alright. "Look, I'm sorry about before," she said, and shrugged. "I was feeling sick."

"You've been hanging out with Franky a lot?" It was more of a statement than a question, although she could hear the silence 'why'.

"Yeah, but she's... you know, she's with Nick now. So, you know, they're doing a shitload of fucking and everything. It's romantic." Well, no, not really.

"Yeah... and you've got nothing to say about that?" Liv began. Dangerous territory... "How screwed that is? Whoring around all year?"

"I'm right here, you know!" Mini heard Franky say behind her, slamming the locker door shut. Mini didn't even flinch. Oh shit... "Clearing out my locker before I go whoring."

Mini stepped out the way, letting the two girls square off. This was not going to be good. "Am I the only one who dares speak to you about your bullshit?"

"Bullshit?" Franky closed her own locker, her face icy.

Even as Mini shrank away from the fight, she was surprised. Really? Franky had nothing to counter that?

Liv handed Mr Hinkles to her. "Yours..." and pointed to Franky. "... and yours." And started to walk away.

Mini started to sigh with relief, but then...

"You know, it's not my fault you're jealous!" Mini's head sprang up. What the fuck? Even Liv stopped and turned to stare at her incredulously. "Because Matty and Nick chose me!"

"Shit, no..." Mini started, but there was no point. Liv marched back, with a look on her face that Mini had seen plenty of times before. It was the one before she punched someone so hard in the balls that they were rendered incapable of having children.

"Like I said, nobody calls you out," Liv said right in Franky's face. "Nobody can say it."

"What? About what?" Mini shut her eyes. She knew what was coming. Liv wasn't the only one of have thought it...

"That Grace wouldn't be dead, if you hadn't been fucking over Matty and every other boy you get your hands on."

Mini did flinch when Franky slapped Liv. "Franky!" She said warningly. Stop this. Stop this now.

Liv just raised her head back up to stare Franky down, waiting for Franky to deny it. "Better out that in."

Instead of retorting to Liv, she spoke to Mini instead. "Just tell this stupid bitch what you're supposed to tell her." She narrowed her eyes at Mini, and shrugged as though she was indifferent. "Just tell her, okay?"

And walked off, leaving her in the crater. That wasn't cool, dropping her in the shit like that.

But, now that that was over, Liv took a breath and stepped in front of Mini, and waited.

So she started to just vomit it out. "I've been having sex with Alo and -"

"What?"

Mini breathed hard, struggling under the heat of the spotlight. "Yeah, err... with Alo, and -"

Liv interrupted again. "No! No, no, no, no, no..." She trailed off, her hands still up. "How long?"

"A few months," Mini admitted. "But we stopped, and -"

And Liv interrupted again. "No, stop there. Is this what it's all been about? You've been fucking Alo and you didn't tell me?"

Mini didn't really know entirely what she meant there, but there was more. "No, that's not it."

Liv almost flinched back. "Shut up."

She tried to say it. It wasn't just that Liv's words had actually shut her up. It was just... the words wouldn't come out. She wasn't brave enough to say it, no matter how hard she tried. And then Liv gave up waiting for her to get brave enough. "It doesn't matter." And walked away.

"Liv, I -" Mini called after her and then was silenced when Liv grabbed the locker door and started slamming it shit repeatedly, as though trying to rip it from its hinges, trying to break something. And then she stormed off, leaving Mini on her own.

Fuck. That wasn't how Mini imagined it paning out when she walked to college.

"Truce?"

She was in her room, in bed, the duvet tucked up to her chin, staring out of the window into the dark. It looked like a cold night, and she could just picture Liv on her own somewhere, so much tougher than the rest of the world, smoking a rollie and looking like she didn't give a fuck. Alo had sent her a text telling her that Liv needed her, that she'd thrown Rich's revision around the library and said things that made sense only to the fucked-up. He said that he knew Mini needed her space right now, but she had said he could contact her if it was important. And he was right. This was important.

"You should have told me about Alo."

I know. "I'm sorry." And she meant it. Liv had been her best friend forever. When they said sorry to each other, they meant it.

"No more secrets. I can't take it, okay?"

Mini froze. Shit. Alo was just the tip of the iceberg. They were all full of secrets. So she took a moment, and faked it. "Hey, you know what?"

"What?"

"Little Dorrit. I've never read it."

"No?"

"And I was hoping you could tell me what happens in it, cos we're doing our English A-levels tomorrow?" Please Liv. Accept the olive branch.

"Sorry. Why not ask Franky?" This wasn't fair, being stuck in the middle between these two warring girls. She wasn't even sure what they were fighting over now. Was it the Levan brothers? Grace? What a fucking mess.

"Cos she wouldn't think it was funny."

And then they both chuckled down the phone to each other, finally sharing something. "I love you!" Mini sang, meaning it far more than her playful tone suggested.

She could picture Liv smiling at that before she hung up. Mini stared at her phone for a second, went through her messages.

And deleted Franky's so Alo's was at the top.

Please come round x

"McGuinness, I knew you couldn't resist..." Alo's cheeky grin slid off his face fast and his sentence trailed off. "Mini, what the fuck happened...?"

She was shaking, and she could barely look at him. It was a mistake to text him. But she'd done it so blindly, so instinctively she wasn't sure if she really did it or not.

After Liv had stumbled out of her house, sobbing and retching, after she'd yelled at Matty to stop staring and get the fuck out too, Franky finally came down from Mini's room where she'd been hiding. And Mini saw red. She yelled at Franky to get the fuck out of her house too, that Liv was right and it was all her fault that Matty had driven off that road and killed Gracie, that it was her fault that he had come here with Liv, that Liv had lost it and no, she didn't want Franky's help, no, she didn't want to sit down, no, she didn't want Franky to stay and could she please just fuck off.

When she was finally alone, she grabbed her phone, texted Alo, sat down on the stairs, and sobbed until he rang the doorbell. She didn't even wash the blood off her face.

And when she finally looked up at his face, and saw the horror there, she burst into tears again.

Alo had no idea what had happened. He couldn't even guess. He just held her tight as she sobbed into his shoulder, stroked her back, stroked her hair, told her again and again that everything was going to be okay. He sat her down on the stairs, grabbed a clean dishcloth from the kitchen, soaked it under the cold tap, came back and put his arm round her as he dabbed at the blood on her face until finally he found bruising and slap marks.

This was not a role reversal he ever expected to find himself in.

He tried to get her to tell him what happened. When she couldn't speak because she was so choked up from crying he tried guessing out loud so she could nod or shake her head. She just kept shaking her head. Eventually she put her hand over his mouth to silence him and hugged him until she had calmed down.

But even then she didn't tell him anything. She looked like she really wanted to. But for whatever reason, she couldn't. So he told her it was okay, and stayed with her. For once, they slept in her bed rather than on the floor.

She managed to say one thing before they went to sleep. "I think I aced the Little Dorrit exam this morning." It only made him hold her tighter.

And in the morning, she thanked him by making him Weetabix with candy floss with Panda Pops cola poured over it.