It was a couple of days after that conversation with his sister, that he had first noticed a slight almost imperceptible change in the way he was being treated at school. OK so the boys were still picking on him at almost every opportunity, but it seemed to him at least that much fewer of the girls were doing so. At least that was how it appeared to him, well all except one girl in particular. That was no real surprise as Nicola picked on just about everybody. If anything she was getting worse, not worse in what was being done to him but more frequently than ever before. There was hardly a time when they passed each other in the corridor between classes, that she didn't say something or push him into somebody or something. The rest of the day carried on pretty much as normal, until lunch time at least.

It was just after he had sat down for lunch, in the same place as always, in the corner as far as possible from everyone else, when things took an unusual turn. Well unusual as far as he was concerned. Sitting there in the corner, content and lost in his own world, James suddenly became aware that he was no longer alone. Glancing up, he found a girl's face smiling back at him.

“Sorry I didn't mean to startle you, but I asked if you mind if I sit here,” she asked.

“Umm sure,” he replied. “But are you sure you want to be seen with me, I'm not exactly the most popular person around here,” he added quickly

“That's OK” she replied with a smile. “Being popular is overrated any way,” she added with a giggle.

“Well I'll have to take your word for that one then,” he responded with an uncharacteristic smile. There is definitely something different about this girl he thought to himself.

“Sorry I'm being rude,” he said as she sat down opposite him. “I haven't even asked you your name yet.”

“No problem,” she replied. “I'm not used to being asked anyway,” she added, “I was kind of an outcast in my old school.”

“I find that hard to believe,” he said. “Especially a good looking girl like you,” he added blushing slightly, hardly able to believe that he had said that.

“Thank you,” she said giving him a big smile. “The name's Laura, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Laura, my names James,” he added returning the smile.

They spent the rest of the lunch break, just sitting chatting about nothing in particular. This was mainly down to the fact that every time either one of them tried to find out something more, the other would quickly change the subject. Although each had managed to find out the others age, it turned out that she was about to turn 16 compared to his 14 and a half. It was then that the bell rang to signal the end of the lunch break, he stood with a sigh knowing that he would be lucky to talk to this girl again, she was bound to find out what everyone else thought of him. He was sure that she would want nothing more to do with him after that. This was when he got his second surprise of the day.

“Would you mind meeting me at the end of the day, and walking home with me,” She had asked “I really enjoyed talking to you.”

“Umm sure I can, he replied with a nervous smile, he still wasn't entirely sure whether this was somebody trying to play a big joke on him. He was still thinking about this fact as he made his way towards class, that was until he found himself toppling sideways into the wall. He glanced up with a look of shock passing across his face, this soon disappeared when he found himself face to face, or rather face to stomach with Nicola.

“Aww jeeze,” he said despondently. “I should have known it was you,” he added as he picked himself up from the floor.

“Well of course you should have known, who else did you expect it to be,” she replied as a small but evil grin passed across her face. “I bet you think you have just made yourself a friend,” she said the same evil grin passing over her. “Well we will soon see about that,” she added with some venom in her voice, just before she turned and walked away laughing to herself.

Letting out a sigh as he wondered, what had he ever done to her to deserve this, he picked up his bag from where it fell and hurried off to class. As a result of what had happened, he found himself getting into trouble several times though out the afternoon, due to not paying enough attention. This was because he kept replaying the incident, trying to work out if Laura and Nicola had been working together to set him up, or had it been Nicola simply taking advantage of the situation. After being told for what must have been the fifth time to pay attention, he finally gave up trying to work it out.

When the bell finally went to signal the end of the school day, he slowly gathered his belongings, still having not made up his mind whether or not he was going to meet up with Laura as they had agreed. Finally he decided that he should do what he knew was the right thing; he would as he had agreed. As he got closer to the school entrance, he was becoming more and more nervous, it wasn't helping that where she was standing waiting for him was right in front of the doors. He finally made it to where she was.

“Hi Laura,” he said with a nervous smile.

“Hi James,” she replied with a big smile, that showed just how happy she was to see him. “How was the rest of your day?” she asked.

“Not too bad,” he responded. “Well apart from a small issue with Nicola,” he added with a grimace.

“Why what happened?” she asked. “You can trust me you know,” she added after a few moments, when he had remained silent.

Finally after another few moments of silence, during which he decided he may as well tell her, after all it couldn't makes things any worse could it? With his choice made, he went on to explain about Nicola, and the kind of things she said and did to him. Laura listened, with a growing feeling of shock and anger, about how James was being treated. Laura was concentrating so much on what James was saying, that she only just noticed that they had almost walked past her house. She hurriedly threw out an arm to stop James, but pulled her arm back quickly when she saw him flinch away. “Sorry I didn't mean to make you jump,” she said looking concerned that she might have upset him.

“It's OK,” he replied. “It's just something I tend to do out of habit,” he added quickly noticing that she didn't look entirely convinced by his answer.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Honestly it's fine,” he replied. “Besides it's my problem, I will just have to learn to get used to it,” he continued.

“That's where you're wrong,” she said.

“What..........what do you mean I'm wrong?” he asked looking worried.

“Don't panic,” she replied, “all I mean is it is not just your problem anymore it's mine too,” she added with a smile.

“Why is it your problem too?” he asked her.

“Well because like it or not, I think of you as a friend and friends don't let friends, deal with this kind of thing on their own,” she said. “I better get inside before Mom starts wondering where I am,” she added. “I'll see you tomorrow,” she said as she pulled him quickly into a hug, before turning and heading for her front door.

James just stood there for a few moments, a look of complete shock on his face. He finally turned for home, thinking to himself I certainly didn't see that coming.