"So now we continue with the irregular verbs. First up is the verb 'to swear'. Who can ..." Esther didn't even hear the rest of the sentence. Being back here was too strange for words. As if she had been living in a dream and was now woken up by the school bell. But she knew that the past six months had not been a dream. Kian was dead... gone forever. He would never ever...

She knew she had to stop thinking about it if she wanted to get through the day in one piece. Her mother had doubted if it was such a good idea to go back, with her classmates and all. But Esther knew that if she wanted to get a diploma she had no choice.

"Who can build a sentence with the verb in the past and future tense now? Yes Stephanie?" "I swore to you my love would remain and I'll swear it all over again!" Mrs. Tingle smiled at Stephanie. "Very good! And how romantic." The whole class started laughing. They had seen what had slipped from the attention of the teacher...

Esther fought her tears fiercely, but she knew it was too late. She had been avoiding Westlife's music as much as she possibly could. Just because she couldn't deal with all the emotions that rose when she listened to it. For every song she had at least one memory, and in each of those memories was Kian...

"Please be quiet for a moment, I have to copy these first. It won't be long." With those words she left the room. Immediately after she had left the whole class turned to Esther. She sat quietly at her desk, crying softly. "Hey Esther, how’s it going with your boyfriend? What was his name, Kian?" "I heard he died a while ago!" "Good for Esther cause now she finally has something stiff about him!" This was more or less the conversation that was held in class. They all watched Es closely, as they wouldn't want to miss the effect their words had on her. Meanwhile, Esther had started to cry harder. She knew they had been informed of what had happened, and she had hoped they would leave her alone a bit so that she could come to terms with her normal life again. And now this... She buried her head in her hands and just cried. There was nothing else to do. The others cheered at the sight. They started singing a version of 'swear it again.' "I never had the chance to say goodbye, and now I will never see you cry. I swore to you my love would remain, but I can't swear it all over again..."

"HEY YOU BASTARDS!!! LEAVE HER ALONE!!!" Esther looked up at the sound of those voices. She saw it were Nicky and Bryan who had come in. But they didn't see her immediately. Their eyes were fixed on the others. "Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? I wish you had to go through for ONE DAY what she has been going through for six months. You'd sing a different tune then!!" The answer came quickly, from a girl called Kim. "So the guy died, big deal, if she can't take this then she..." Bryan didn't give her the chance to finish her sentence. The sound of the hard slap he gave her echoed through the class. Tears arose in Kim's eyes. Bryan concluded to his satisfaction that it must have hurt her. The whole group was as quiet as a mouse.

Nicky looked round at Esther and saw she was crying very hard. He walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Hey girl, don't let them get to you! You see, Bry and me, we take care of them!" He pulled her closer to him and held her tight. Nicky knew that that wasn't the real problem... "C'mon Nicky, let's get out of here. I don't think it's a good idea for her to stay here." Accompanied by the two boys Esther finally could get out...