MY SKIN
The door banged open and Tosh staggered in, ignoring the librarian's glare as she rushed to a corner surrounded by shelves. She sunk onto the floor, pulled her legs up to her chest, snatched the nearest book and opened it. She was panting and it was hard to concentrate on the words. It was a mistake coming back to St Mary's. She should have stayed in her nice clean, white private room for all eternity where she could read books and not be expected to pass exams. The year before she failed miserably in Biology. She got a U; she never got a D in her life let alone a U before. It broke her. All that stress, all that loneliness and all that silent suffering built up and snapped. At the age of seven it had been acknowledge that she was a prodigy. She was put in the Year Six class and flew through her SATs. She went on into secondary school and immediately sat her Year Nine SATs before going into GCSE. When she was thirteen she was sitting her first set of A-Levels. That was when she met Gwen Cooper. Gwen was in Year Eight and failing miserably in Maths. Tosh was asked to tutor her and eager to get into a prestigious university, she agreed. Gwen dazzled Tosh, unlike most people who begged for tutoring, Gwen was polite and considerate. Many times Gwen brought snacks for Tosh and spoke to her afterwards about little things. Eventually they built a good friendship and Tosh didn't feel so alone. After two sleepovers, one shopping trip and a handful of hanging out in the park Tosh was offered a place in a private prestigious boarding school. She would be sitting as many A-Levels as she desired. Doing the occasional course that was often seen at university and being taught multiple languages. Tosh was now fluent in not only Welsh but French, German, Spanish, Italian and Greek. She also had the A-Levels to prove it. Sitting her last set of A-Levels before moving onto Cambridge or Oxford or maybe Edinburgh or Glasgow (all offered her a place) she was shocked to see the U in Biology. She flipped. At first she did nothing but when she got home shocked her mother had scolded her. Told her that she was a disgrace. It had set Tosh off, she shrieked, she cried, she threw plates at her mother and then she began to get paranoid. She couldn't walk down a street without accusing someone of thinking something bad about her. After being taken to the hospital by her mother (who couldn't understand why her daughter was behaving so badly) it was discovered Tosh had long ago taken to cutting. She was then admitted by her own mother into a psychiatric ward. Tosh was only released last August where she quickly registered back into her old school to do Biology, English Lit and History A-Levels. But now she wasn't sure she could cope with the stress of being round people. Though, she couldn't help think that Owen Harper was rather cute. TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW The bell rang after registration. Both Gwen and Ianto had a free and were planning to go watch the boys' football practise. Anything to ogle at Jack Harkness shirtless which for some reason tends to happen whenever the girls come and watch the boys practise. "Hold on Yan I need to grab my psychology folder, Mrs Davis set us a ton of homework and it's only the first proper week back" Gwen moaned. Ianto smiled. While Gwen worked hard she was not a natural hard worker and despised homework in all guises. "Of course, would you like me to carry it for you again?" "No thanks Yan, you shouldn't keep doing that. You're my friend not my lapdog" "I'm merely looking out for you" "I know sweetie, I know" Gwen said turning the dial on her locker till it opened up. The moment the door opened a red rose fluttered out and landed on Gwen's shoe. She frowned and bent down to pick it up. "Beautiful" she murmured. "Probably Jack" Ianto said half teasingly and half jealous. "Nah, Jack likes to show off" Gwen pointed out. "He would have presented a giant bouquet in front of the whole school" "Very true" Ianto said grinning at the embarrassing memories of Valentines Day where Jack embarrassed every good looking girl and boy. "How about Rhys?" Gwen raised an eyebrow. "All right stupid question" "Whoever it is, it was very thoughtful" Gwen said smelling the rose and smiling serenely. "I hope I find out who they are just to thank them" TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW Owen was irritated. A passing teacher who knew about Owen's punishment for stealing the girls' bras and informed him (while smirking) that he had to take Toshiko Sato back to the headmaster's office before school ended. This teacher must have also known that Toshiko ran off during lunch and Owen had no idea why nor did he care really. So now he had to find the geeky bookworm before he gets to go home. Oh the joy. Deciding to go to the most obvious place for someone like Toshiko Sato to run to, Owen headed towards the library. He didn't have the fucking time for this. His grandmother would want him home as soon as possible and then he's got to go to the hospital... He rolled his eyes when he spotted Toshiko Sato curled up in the far corner reading a book. Typical. He marched over and snatched the book out of her hands; she looked up with terrified wide eyes. "Come on Bookworm, I've got to take you back to the office" he mumbled refusing to look at her. She made no movement; he clucked his tongue impatiently before taking her hand and helping her up. She gasped as if she was in pain. "Did I pull something?" he asked bored. She shook her head. "All right then lets go" He led her back to the office where the headmaster was accepting a file from one of his many secretaries. Owen has no idea why the headmaster needed so many and had started the harem rumour that went around back in Year Ten. "Ah Toshiko there you are, good day?" Tosh nodded shyly. "Mr Harper taking good care of you?" another shy nod. "That's good, well visit me whenever you need someone to talk to or if a problem arises though I hope my staff will be capable of taking care of you" "I'm sure they will" Tosh whispered. Owen rolled his eyes. All that girl ever does was whisper or move her head, doesn't she ever talk properly? What a loser. Once the headmaster left Owen walked past Toshiko Sato without even looking at her. She wasn't worth his time. TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW Jack came home to the smell of his mother's cooking. He loved his mother's cooking, his father can barely make toast and Jack could never do a homemade meal like his mother can. Despite it being early September the evening air was rather chilly and Jack had stupidly left his jacket at home, so the warmth was pleasant and most welcoming. "I'm home" he called out. His mother, a small brunette woman came out wiping her hands on her apron. "Hello darling how was school today?" she asked kissing his cheek. "Good, classes went well, football practise went brilliantly and Gwen is looking sweet as ever" Jack said pulling his mother in for a proper hug. His mother chuckled. "You always did have an eye for the ladies, it always got you into trouble and your father doesn't want to get involved with angry fathers again" she turned and walked back into the kitchen, Jack followed. "Your brother has written to you" Jack swallowed. "Gray?" "Yes, you only have one other brother Jack" his mother said smiling fondly. "Gray appears to being doing well. The teachers have also written and said he was doing brilliantly in science" Jack's younger brother refused to leave America. It caused many arguments and almost destroyed their mother when Gray threatened emancipation, in the end their father made an agreement with their sole surviving grandmother. Gray went to boarding school and lived with her over the holidays. Every summer they visited Gray who has become more and more distant and no longer the little boy Jack loved dearly. Jack expected Gray was getting in the wrong crowds, especially since one of his new found friends was Jack's only ex-boyfriend John Hart. Who was in rehab for alcohol or was it drugs, hard to keep count on. "Good for him" Jack said flashing his movie star grin. "Now where's my little princess" Jack bent down and picked up a chubby dark haired two year old out of her high chair. "There she is, my beautiful wonderful little princess" he cooed twirling the baby in the air. "Dada! Dada!" the baby shouted gleefully reaching for her father. "Dada home!" "Yes I am my darling little girl" Jack said holding the baby close to him, kissing her forehead. "Have you been good to Granny, Alice?"
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