It was the third of December and their Secret Santa people had been sorted out. Ray had drawn Alicia's name from the hat; Frank had drawn his own name out at first but then had to redraw a name which ended up being Mikey's name; Gerard drew out Ray's name; Alicia drew out Gerard's name; Mikey drew out Frank's name.

Just because they were doing Secret Santa didn't mean they couldn't get the other's presents; Gerard and Mikey would be getting one another presents seeing as they're brothers and Mikey would be getting Alicia one as would she be getting him one. Ray and Frank almost always brought everyone a present each year, even the years they were doing Secret Santa in. Frank mostly because his mum told him that he should buy everyone of his friends a present for Christmas and he's kept up with it every year. Ray was over the fact that he was that sort of person – nice, liked his friends and liked shopping (though he wouldn't admit that to anyone) so he would get presents every year for his friends.

It also meant that they would all be getting one another presents on top of whoever they had for the Secret Santa.

Alicia and Mikey were meeting up so that they could go shopping together. They had arranged it not only just so they could spend time with each other, but because Alicia didn't quite know what she could get Gerard that could be classed as a 'useless but useful' present. That was the theme of their Secret Santa this year; last year it was the 'one thing they hate the most but you love' theme.

It had been interesting to say the least.

“Angharad?” Alicia called through the bedroom door, knocking on the door lightly as well. There was no reply. She debated about whether or not she should just go already but she really needed to use the spot cream that Angharad had so that the new spot she had found on her forehead never reared its head fully.

Deciding that Angharad wasn't in and that the likelihood of her finding out was slim, she opened the door and slipped into the room. She headed straight over to the desk and was about to grab the cream when she saw a countdown on her desk.

Alicia knew it was a countdown from the fact that there were loads of numbers written down, the number that she presumed to be the first number was crossed out, and the number was one hundred. She only presumed that because it seemed like she was counting backwards like that.

Just as she was about to look away and actually get the cream this time, a drawing caught her eye. And it wasn't for good reasons.

There were lots of other papers all on the desk too, some were pictures and some were covered in writing. Alicia never could really understand Angharad's writing; it was rather messy and squashed together in her opinion.

“What...” Alicia breathed out when she saw a list of names on a sheet of paper. Some of the names were scribbled out and some looked like they had been traced over with pen several times as if for emphasis. Taking a closer look she could see that some of the names that had been traced over in pen were the names of the bullies.

The ones who constantly shoved her in Mikey's locker.

Alicia's eyes skimmed over the paper and they stopped when she looked at some of the scribbled out names. Squinting slightly, she tried to read what the names were beneath the scribbles. It was hard because the lines of the scribbles kept making the letters look wrong and joined up and sometimes it just looked like there was no name underneath the scribbles.

She eventually gave up trying to work out the names when she couldn't work out most of the letters. It seemed like Angharad had deliberately scribbled over them several times so that no one could do what she was doing now and try working out the names.

Grabbing the cream that she had gone in the room for, Alicia went back to her room, applied it before grabbing her jacket and scarf so that she could go meet Mikey. Her mum was out so she didn't have to let anyone know that she was going out.

Mikey was waiting for her outside the house. “Hey Alicia,” he said softly, his voice coming out in little white clouds.

“Hey Mikey.”

Mikey held out his hand for Alicia and she grabbed it, threading their fingers together so that they were holding hands and also in an attempt to keep each other warm. They began walking to the shops with little conversation between them.

When they were getting closer to the shops Alicia decided to bring up something with Mikey.

“Hey, Mikey... do you think Angharad could ever be capable of hurting someone?”

When she said that Mikey looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She didn't blame him though; it wasn't a question that was one that you heard being asked in most conversations.

After thinking for a while, Mikey licked his lips before answering, “No, I don't think she is capable of hurting someone. She might be intimidating to people, but I don't think she could ever willingly hurt someone. Why do you ask?”

Alicia just shrugged, telling him that it was just on her mind. He nodded and they continued to the shops in silence.

She couldn't shake the uneasy feeling she had, though.