It's already Friday, which means Stella, Noah and Liam are coming back to school after their suspension.

"Morning!" River chirps as I come downstairs after dressing up.

Someone has been really kind to me recently.

"Morning," I frown.

I enter the kitchen and open the cupboard to retrieve a jar of peanut butter and a packet of Oreos. Placing them on top of the table, I take a seat before twisting the lid of the peanut butter. I open the packet of Oreos and take one cookie out; I dip it into the peanut butter. On the other side of the table, River is sat eating her breakfast, all of her concentration devoted to the food on her plate.

No reaction! What's going on? Usually, she would be complaining about how my choice of breakfast would put her off eating hers but this morning, she's pretending that she hasn't seen what disgusts her most in the world. I know I should be at peace of mind that my sister for once, isn't nagging me but I can't help to be worried.

When I lick every crumb of peanut butter and Oreo off my fingers, I consider myself finished and enter the kitchen to restore the items I had used back to their original places.

"Do you want a lift to school?" River startles me with a question I wasn't expecting. There is definitely something going on! The only time she takes me to school is when Mum and Dad tell her to because they want my older sister to keep an eye on me as I had got myself into trouble. As far as I can remember, I haven't committed a wrong deed so why would my parents want River to take me to school?

"Has Mum and Dad put you up to this?" I ask.

"No, it's a favour."

"Since when do you do favours?"

"Sorry, that you wouldn't understand that when someone does a favour for you, you're supposed to be grateful not ungrateful !"

"How can I be grateful when this so-called favour is having to spend the whole car journey to school with someone who doesn't even play the radio?"

"I'm in a more understanding mood today. Now, do you want me to drive you to school or not?"

Do I? River has the weirdest mood swings so I don't want to risk it but at the same time I want to take advantage of the good spirit she's in.

"Alright," I answer.

Zipping up my coat and gathering my school bag, I follow my sister out the door and onto the driveway, where her car is parked. When both of us have sat down and buckled our seat belts, River starts the engine; she manoeuvres out of the driveway and onto the road. Unlike last time, she permits me to turn the radio on as long as I listen to it at a reasonable volume. I'm satisfied with that because if I had the music on any louder, I wouldn't have heard the notification that sounded from my phone, alerting me that Noah had texted me:

Noah: U at school yet?

Me: Almost

Noah: K. Will be at the school gates

Only after I read his last message, do I realise that River was peering at my phone to discover who had contacted me because as soon as I lift my eye line(so that it's not on my phone anymore), she turns, pretending that her attention was on the road the whole time. Nosy!

When she parks opposite the school, I open the door and say bye to her, which she repeats. I shut the door and turn to see that just like he told me, Noah is waiting by the school gates, his phone in the palm of his hand. After checking it's safe, I cross the road.

"Good to see that you haven't changed over these last three days I haven't seen you!" I greet.

Noah looks up but he's not looking at me. More like past me. Because he's frowning, I turn around to find out what he's looking at. On the other side of the street, River is manoeuvring out of her parking spot.

"Have a problem with my sister?" I question, turning to face him.

"I felt like just before you turned around, she was watching me," Noah replies, eyes narrowed.

I turn around again but my sister has left.

"Anyway, it was probably nothing!" Noah lightens up," How are you? You look like you're in a better mood than the last time I saw you!"

"I was hoping I'd get the chance to talk to Stella today. Have you seen her?" I ask, scanning the students entering the gates on both sides of me.

"No. I also need to clear the air with her."

"How are things between you and your friends? You know, after what happened on Monday."

"I've cleared the air with them but any foolish person could see our friendship isn't going to be the same as it used to. I still can't believe they did that to Stella and left me in the dark about it."

Poor Noah! I need to make sure that I fix things between him and Stella because I know that he would definitely be much happier with the relief of her not being angry at him anymore. However, it's much easier said than done because that girl is really good at hiding when she doesn't want to be found. It's not like I could apologise over the phone because she could just ignore my texts/calls, block me or hang up on me if she answers when I call. Also, it would be better to do it face to face so that there would be a much stronger sense of understanding.

Noah and I continue to talk before it's time for both of us to go to tutor time. Just as Mrs Riley is about to start the register, I walk into the classroom. My tutor shakes my head and instructs me to take a seat quickly. What problem does that woman have with me? It's not like I'm late! I sit next to Sophie, who I whisper a 'hi' to as Mrs Riley begins calling the names down the register, to which everyone responds with a 'here'.

"Stella?"

No answer.

"Stella?" my tutor calls her name again, her eyes leaving the computer.

Joining Mrs Riley, I look around the classroom at every person filling the chair but none of them are her. Where is she? Isn't she supposed to be here? Is she sick? My tutor continues reading the register but one question remains in my mind: where is Stella?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stairs and  corridors are filled with noise as every student is rushing outside for break. It's a miracle how nobody has got injured yet with the huge amount of pushing that happens whenever it's the beginning of break and lunch.

"Storm!" a voice carries across the corridor. I look behind me to find out who is looking for me and it's Miss Cooke. What does she want? The temptation to make my escape from my English teacher looks like a finer option than waiting for her to catch up with me and say whatever she wants to tell me but curiosity over what she wants to converse about wins. When Miss Cooke finally reaches me, the corridor is almost empty as most of the pupils are outside now.

"I was hoping to bump into you! How are you?" my English teacher asks optimistically.

Fine until I bumped into you!

I put on a fake smile that I'm used to spreading onto my face," Fine, thanks! What about you?"

"I'm great! How has your day been?"

Just as boring as all the other days!

"Alright. Yours?"

I hope that Miss Cooke ends up sidetracked and has forgotten the subject of this conversation.

"Good!" she replies before changing her tone to a more serious one," You must be wondering what it is I want to bother you with."

Really, the thought didn't even cross my mind!

I nod in agreement.

"Remember the project that I've set that's due in on the last day before the Christmas holidays?" my English teacher questions.

What is she talking about? What project...oh, the project where Stella and I are partners! Oops, I completely forgot about it since there's been so much on mind that homework was my lowest priority(I can't tell Miss Cooke that).

"Yes?" I say but it comes out more as a question.

If she asks how's my project going, I'll lie to her that it's going well even though I really need to get a wriggle on!

"Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, you can no longer do the project about Stella. You can't base it on the tweet as the information might not be true or on the notes you managed to get from her as that can cause backlash from the class during the presentation," Miss Cooke explains.

Usually, if a teacher told me that I had no homework, I would be jumping for joy but I can't be when the reason for it is because of the hell that someone's going through. After school, maybe I can message Stella a  'hope you're well'. It's her choice whether or not she reads it - she has every right not to - but at least I would show that I care.

Hold on a second, even a teacher has seen the post on Twitter!

That means a lot of people have seen it, which makes the situation that Stella's stuck in even worse!

"However, I need something to mark you on for the homework this term and it would be unfair for your classmates if they had to write and present their homework and you didn't," my English teacher continues.

She can't be implying that she's going to set me a slightly different homework from all the others but I will still have to hand it in on the same date.

Why do teachers always have to be mean? They tell us to be kind to each other but here is one of them, setting me a different homework than the one I've already started with less time to hand it in! Hypocrites!

"I'm going to set you a slightly different homework from all the others but you will still have to hand it in on the same date," Miss Cooke repeats my thoughts word for word," When marking it, I will take into consideration that you had less time to complete it."

"What's the homework based on?" I ask.

"Any topic. An example could be climate change. Do you understand?"

I nod, which makes my English teacher say," I better start going! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me."

After stating that, she walks away but I still have a million questions crowding my mind about my homework.