: A Warning from Cameron Roe

I didn't need to wait for Adam, as it turned out. He was already there when I left my form, leaning against the wall. He nodded at Louis and his friends as they passed him, and grabbed hold of Aaron Lougher, his twin brother. "I'm not walking tonight," he said to him. "You go on without me."

"Waiting for your girlfriend?" Aaron sniggered. Aaron is, to put it simply, a less-intelligent, less-attractive Adam. Sure, most of the girls still fancy him, and he only has a slightly lower social status, but he's...not Adam. None of the teachers like him, and he's not as friendly. Plus, he's got brown hair and lacks Adam's friendly smile and fondness for Pink Lady apples. He used to be very nasty to me in Year 7, so I never really liked him. I glowered at him as he said that.

Adam quite calmly reached out and smacked Aaron, hard, across the back of his head. Aaron let out a kind of whimpering sound and glared at his brother. "Piss off," was all Adam said. Aaron did as he was told, taking off down the corridor with a thunderous look on his face.

"My brother's a dick," he then said to me, as a way of greeting. "Ignore him. C'mon, let's walk."

I hitched my bag up my shoulder and smiled at Beth.

"See you tomorrow," she said to me, giving me a friendly tug on the sleeve as she passed me. She'd more or less been on cloud nine all day because she'd kissed Danny at the weekend. I was happy for her, but at that point, I was far too wrapped up in myself.

Adam walked down the corridor and then turned the corner, in the opposite direction of nearly everyone else swarming towards the exits. I followed him, just a few paces behind until we reached the Humanities corridor. It's an unusual corridor, that. For some reason, it's nearly always deserted. Even between lessons, it's practically empty. And this was where he stopped, leaning against the wall. He fiddled with the zip on his rucksack for a few moments, dragging it open; he made me wonder what he was looking for. He finally pulled an apple from the bag's depths. Of course.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked, shifting my weight to my other foot. I began to play with a strand of hair that had come loose from my ponytail, suddenly nervous.

"I don't fancy you," he said bluntly, examining his apple and avoiding my gaze. "You're a nice girl and all, but I don't want you getting the wrong idea."

The wrong idea I had certainly got, and now I feel stupid. "Um. Okay," I said staring at the floor.

"I realize that you might have got that impression, you see," he ploughed on. "John and Sian were talking about it at dinner. But trust me, I'm not interested in anything other than friendship with you, I'm not jealous over you and Billie –"

"There is no Billie and me," I interrupted, tugging on my hair.

The corner of his mouth quirked up. "I know. And, I'm not jealous of any attention Glyn's been showing you. I'm just...worried, that's all." And he looked it.

"Why would you be worried?" I asked, leaning against the wall behind me and mimicking his casual stance. He bit into his apple as he mulled my question.

"I've heard things," he responded. "That's all."

"What things?" I pressed. He opened his mouth to answer when Mrs. Gibbs swept out of her Geography classroom. She eyed us curiously.

"Don't you have homes to go to?" she asked.

"I'm just waiting for my brother, miss," Adam lied easily. "He has detention tonight. Nerys is coming home with me so we can work on our Drama project."

"I see." She smiled. "Bye."

She hurried away, briefcase in hand, and Adam turned to me.

"I've just heard things about Glyn," he said, slowly, "And I don't want you to get hurt. You're a nice girl, Nerys."

"Things?" I echoed. "Hurt? Adam, tell me what the hell you're talking about. This isn't funny. Especially not if you've heard he's planning on killing me or something –"

Adam chuckled. "No, no, nothing like that. It's just..." He raked the hand that wasn't holding an apple through his mop of hair and bit his lip.

"Yes?" I prompted.

"Right. Okay. You know that I play football outside of school, yeah?" I nodded. Everyone knew that. "Right, well, before I went to high school I played for a local Under-11's team, yeah?"

"Hmm. Go on."

"It's where I met Louis. He played for the same team," Adam continued. "And there were others, obviously who played for that team."

"John did," I remembered. "But I don't think he was very good."

Adam pointed his apple at me. "Yes, he did, I remember him. Anyway, another lad was on our team. Cameron Roe."

"Yes. He went to my primary; he was John's friend. I used to get on with him quite well," I nodded.

"He moved to Cardiff, yeah?" It wasn't really a question, more a statement, so I didn't answer. "I kept in touch. We were good friends. Probably be even better if he'd come to this school and hadn't moved. Well, anyway, I was on MSN a few weeks ago."

I curled an errant strand of hair around my finger and nodded for him to continue.

"I was talking to him. I hadn't been for a while, so it was like, you know, a catch-up. He was telling me about school, and I was telling him about school, and then I mentioned Glyn. Anyway, Cameron seemed to find this pretty funny and starts describing Glyn – you know, red hair, kind of short, geeky looking, yeah? And he says that a Glyn left his school at the end of Year 9, and we both figure it's the same lad."

I raised one skeptical eyebrow. There must be millions of Glyns in Wales.

"Go on," I finally said.

"And then Cameron says, 'has he met any girls yet?' So I say, 'What d'you mean?' And he goes on to tell me about how the Glyn from his school had this thing of a girl named Lucy. He said that Lucy was a really nice girl, really well liked and friendly, and she was the only person who tried to be nice to Glyn – you know, made an effort. Cameron said that everyone knew Glyn fancied Lucy and that he had done since Year 7 because he made it so obvious. Cameron said that he was constantly asking Lucy out and shit – you know what I mean?"

Boy, did I know?

Adam continued. "And then, in Year 9, she starts going out with this lad, and Glyn like proper backs off, although he freaks them all out because he gets a bit angry at first, you know? And then she breaks up with that lad, and Glyn goes back to being full-on stalkerish towards her. And then, right at the end of Year 9, she starts a thing with this lad named Dave."

Here he paused and took a large bite out of his apple. He chewed and swallowed before starting again. "According to Cameron, Glyn flipped. He went mental, one day, in the schoolyard, screaming all sorts at Lucy and calling her all sorts of names and all this crap, 'I thought you liked me' and stuff. Apparently, Lucy was crying, and everything and Glyn were being really aggressive. So this Dave, he starts telling Glyn to back off, and then Glyn swings for Lucy and breaks her nose. Anyway, Cameron said that Glyn was expelled, and then he heard that Glyn was moving away," he finished, shrugging.

"But – but they could be two different Glyns," I pointed out.

"Sure," Adam agreed. "They could. Doesn't it all sound a bit familiar, though? How many ginger Glyns who develop small obsessions with girls can there be in Wales?"

I sighed and didn't answer.

"I'm sorry, Nerys," Adam then said, looking somewhat sheepish. "I came up with that idea of having you date someone because...well, of what Cameron told me, I understood that Glyn backed off – mostly – when that Lucy had a boyfriend. It was just an idea. But now I seem to have really upset you because of Billie, and that wasn't my intention, I swear."

"I know it wasn't," I assured him.

"I know it might not be the same Glyn," he went on as if I hadn't spoken, "But...You know. I got to know you because of Drama and the whole Danny situation, which was why I voiced that idea when I did. Cameron's opinion of the Glyn he knew was that he wasn't above doing some really crazy shit when he lost his temper. Apparently, that happened quite a lot."

"So, to conclude," I said slowly, after a few moments passed, "Glyn's potentially had an obsession with another girl before me which resulted in him hitting her because she got a boyfriend."

"Uh-uh. You are correct, Nerys."

"Oh, and you don't fancy me," I added.

"Yes. Just so we're clear."

"Crystal." I grinned. "I didn't want you to fancy me, can I just say?"

"Oh, I know you didn't," Adam said, waving a dismissive hand. He began to walk down the corridor, and I followed him. "Most people reckon you're hung up over that Kiss guy...you know, the Hungarian? He's a good footballer, he is."

I gaped. "Antal?" I squeaked. "Most people?"

"Well." Adam grinned cockily. "Just Louis and John. They're in your Spanish, yeah?" I didn't reply. "Well, he reckons that something's been going on between you two. Or maybe, just with you. They say you go all gooey-eyed whenever Antal speaks to you."

"That's...I do not go all gooey-eyed!" I squawked indignantly, coming to a halt.

"Louis also said during Science that you practically pissed yourself with excitement when Antal asked you to be his partner for the computers," Adam sniggered. I reached out and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger."

As he spoke, we reached one of the stairwells and proceeded to descend. Gareth appeared at the bottom, mouth set into a thin line. He was clearly annoyed and looking dejected. He wasn't wearing his blazer, and his hair was oddly ruffled. I frowned at him.

"Gareth?" I said, trotting down the last few steps with more speed. "Why are you still here?"

"Where were you?" he growled, sounding very upset.

"I was just..." I waved a hand at Adam. "Are you okay, Gary?" I reached out and took his blazer from him. It was all tangled up and the pen and ruler, usually kept in his blazer pocket, were missing. I righted it and placed it over my arm. "What happened?" I asked, taking hold of my brother's arm and leading him out through the exit. Adam followed us.

"Nothing," Gareth snapped. "You were late, so I waited. I didn't think you'd want to walk on your own."

As we got into the quad, I noticed a biro crushed into pieces and a ruler snapped in two. "Gareth," I said slowly, "Are those yours...?"

"Shut up," Gareth said shortly, beginning to walk faster.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said distractedly to Adam, and he nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. "See you."

And so I took off after my little brother, feeling concerned and protective but also kind of helpless and guilty that something had happened to him and I hadn't been able to do anything to stop it. As usual, I was too wrapped up in myself.