The Original Class

 

Samantha “Sam” Greene

Family: Dan and Jennifer (parents), Lucy (younger sister), Jon (younger brother)

The first character we are introduced to in issue #1, is Sam. She starts her first day at Redvale Comp after her family move back to England, from Germany, where they had been living for a few years. The day doesn’t start well as she has a run in with bullies, Lorraine Grover and her gang, but luckily she is helped by punk, Sharon Chandler. She soon makes close friends with Julie Barnsley and also Lisa , Megan and Marilyn. She is happy at Redvale, and while she later enjoys a holiday back to Germany, she has settled in her new home. Early on in the Comp, she meets a German boy Klaus, who is not liked by the rest of the class, but she soon discovers it was a misunderstanding about something he once said. She makes friends with him and helps him get along better with the rest of the class. She is sad when he moves back to Germany.

During a school visit to a castle, Sam and the others go exploring and she ends up hurting her leg and therefore misses out on her chance to join hockey team. It’s a disappointment and it’s not only  school problems Sam has to deal with…There are fights at home when her gran (on her dad’s side) comes to visit and she isn’t happy when her mum decides to get a part time job, thinking a woman’s place should be in home. Sam isn’t pleased about her mum’s new job for different reasons. The job her mom gets is a cleaning job with the family of a snobby 4th former, Deana Hartley. It turns out Mrs Hartley is not as snobby as her daughter and Mrs. Greene gets promoted to receptionist after helping out with Dr Hartley’s surgery, which makes things easier for Sam. It is also lucky her mom has a job when later her dad is made redundant and they have to rely on Mrs. Greene’s income.

As well as being friends with the girls at the Comp, Sam also becomes close with her neighbour Annabel Gate who goes to a different school, St. Helena’s. Often seen as rivals to The Comp, they don’t let that affect their friendship. Their mothers do have a falling out though when Mrs Gates makes a comment about St Helena’s being a better school. This nearly causes Sam and Annabel to fall out as well, but luckily after Mrs Gate helps Sam when Jon has an accident, everyone makes up. Later Sam goes away with Annabel for a weekend and they meet some boys. Sam falls for Gary and agrees to stay in contact, so she is hurt when it turns out he has another girlfriend.

Sam  is a friendly girl, she is a reliable and always helpful when problems arise. She is quite sympathetic to people’s problems, and a lot of people confide in her. Sometimes this can backfire, such as when she feels sorry for new girl Anna, and tries to help her out, but then she has trouble getting rid of her. She is very observant and quite perceptive about people, she is quick to realize that Lisa doesn’t want to go on a trip to London because money’s tight, she knows that Tina’s putting on a brave face when her mum is not well and she  is first to pick up on Tracy pushing Belinda aside so she can be friends with Suzanne. One time shes not observant is when she develops a crush on Dave, a 6th form boy, and doesn’t notice her sister, Lucy is being bullied. She feels terrible about it afterwards and makes up  for it next time Lucy needs help.

 

Julie Barnsley

Family: Mr and Angela Barnsley (parents), Sheila (older sister)

Julie is Sam’s best friend, she is quite steady and easy going.  When Julie falls for a sixth form boy, Jeff, her parents don’t approve of her riding on his motorbike and they forbid Julie from seeing him. Julie defies her parents but then is upset to find out he is just using her until his girlfriend is back. With the help of her friends and Sprot, she gets her own back on Jeff, pretending to date Sprot and ignoring Jeff when he’s with he’s friends.

When the only two people running for student council are Tina and Mary, she is encouraged by her friends to run as well. She wins and takes to her new role well. She also shows she is willing to work hard as when she needs to get more money, she gets a part time job. Her first two attempts don’t go well, she first gets a newspaper round but ends up falling asleep in class. Then she gets a job as waitress but the boss is horrible and Julie ends up quitting at the same time she’s fired. Eventually she has more success offering her services as a babysitter and shows she has a good way with kids.

When a new neighbour, Justin, moves in Julie fancies him straight away, but he likes Sam and asks her out. Julie falls out with Sam over this and Lisa sides with Julie. Megan meanwhile sticks up for Sam and so there is a split in the group. After a while Julie realizes she was wrongly blaming Sam, as she was jealous and disappointed that Justin didn’t like her and they make up.

Despite some slip ups, Julie has a good sense of justice and fairness, which is what makes her a good student council representative.  When Sam is put into difficult position when she sees Lorraine shoplifting. Julie doesn’t want Lorraine to get away with it, and wants them to try and catch her in the act but Sam is scared. Luckily Lorraine gets caught herself and is suspended from school. Julie does get in some fights with her Dad about makeup and boys but for the most part gets on well with her family and family is important to her. She is upset when her Gran falls sick and she missed her last visit because she was on a date. Luckily her gran gets better although Julie does go a bit overboard on the visiting afterwards, until her Gran tells her, she should be out having fun.

 

Lisa Hewitt

Family: Mary (mother), Mr Hewitt (father),  Sue (stepmother)

Lisa is head strong, opinionated and sometimes stubborn.  She is also up for some practical jokes, although they don’t always work out as she intended. Such as when she writes a fake love letter to Mr Russell from Marilyn not intending anyone to see it but Tosh finds it and gives her a talking to.

At home money is a bit tight since her father left. Lisa feels self conscious about this, and is also too proud to except help. When she is upset about missing out on a London trip everyone else is going on, her friends offer to pay. Lisa and her mum get touchy on the subject and Lisa tells them she wishes they wouldn’t interfere.

Often Lisa takes the lead in the gang, like encouraging the other to skip detention.  She can be rebellious in other ways too, she buys cigarettes, Sam and Julie refuse to smoke, but she does convince Megan to. Its only when a pop star she likes says a pet hate of his is smoking that she throws her cigarettes away. She also initiates wearing her tie around her head when there’s an important school visit, she falls out with her friends when they back out of doing it too. Although they make up eventually, she shows her stubborn side for a while. She also leads a protest against a shop, after working hard to save for top and then seeing it on sale after she bought it. She even tries to get the story in a paper and has words with editor when he doesn’t run it. This comes to a head when she nearly gets in trouble as she becomes a suspect after the store is vandalized. Luckily the real culprits are found. While Lisa maybe headstrong she does have a moral code, as shown when she is appalled when a new friend shoplifts.

When Lisa’s pretty and talented cousin, Charley, comes to stay, Lisa feels jealous of her. Although Charley is nice, she is relieved when she goes and her mom understands how overwhelming Charley can be. Lisa has a very close relationship with her mom and she isn’t happy when her mom starts dating  as she thinks they’re fine with just the two of them. She is  especially not happy when her mom starts to  dates a new teacher, Mr Cole. They do break up, but Lisa’s mom explains to her it is because they were too different and not because Lisa wasn’t happy about it, she tells her she will have to get used to her dating.

Lisa is also upset when her dad asks her to be bridesmaid at his wedding with Sue. She feels abandoned by him and she doesn’t want to upset her mom. After a talk with Tosh and both her mom and dad separately she agrees to be bridesmaid. Still while somethings are resolved with her family, she does still feel a bit envious when her friends can afford to go way on holidays while she’s stuck at home. Then she runs into Sprot, whose holidays plans fell through and she is surprised that she has a good time with him. They continue to date in secret after the holidays, neither keen to tell their friends. The relationship doesn’t last long. She is not too upset about this but she does feel left out when Megan gets a boyfriend. This comes to head during their exams before they move up to 4th year. They make up and admit stress of exams made things worse.

 

Megan Davies

Family: Mr and Mrs Davies (adopted parents)

Megan is a good-natured, friendly girl.  She dislikes sports and tries to get out of P.E. when she can, which puts her in Miss Blake’s bad books. She is often trying diets but they rarely work as she crash diets then binges afterwards

There are events that test her easy going nature though. When she breaks her leg after getting hit by car, she doesn’t want to listen to anyone sympathies or  have them trying to cheer her up. After seeing other people in hospital worse than her, she realizes how lucky she is.  A worse blow comes when Sam and Lisa accidentally find papers at her house, that say shes adopted. She is in shock that her parents have lied to her for so long. She doesn’t speak to them and leaves the house to sort out her feelings. When Sam’s dad is driving her home, Sam spots Megan late at night in the rain. The Greene’s give her lift home and she embraces her parents realizing that she is lucky to have such loving, caring parents.

Megan shows that she is level headed and loyal, when she sticks up for Sam after she falls out with Julie over Justin. Megan agrees its not Sam’s fault Justin liked her and not Julie and points out that Sam did turn him down. Even when Sam and Megan end up having a falling out after Sam accidentally gets her into trouble by messing around the swimming pool, Megan is not one to hold a grudge and quickly forgives her. She can be easily led sometimes by the more head strong Lisa, such as when she convinces Megan to  try cigarette. She gets sick after one smoke and it puts her off permanently. When Megan starts seeing Johnny, she is delighted and gets a little too caught up with her new boyfriend she ends up neglecting Lisa a bit, but they do make up afterwards.

 

Marilyn Smith

Family: Bob (father),  Mrs Smith (mother)

While she was not officially one of the main quartet, she was very prominent. The reader’s first introduction to Marilyn shows she’s quite boy crazy,  and she has a crush on french teacher, Mr. Russell.  She is also quite conscious of her looks. She decides she wants to be a model and enters a contest. But things go wrong when she gets caught in rain and it washes her make up off, the other models mock her for being too young. She also is self conscious when she has to get glasses, she only decides to wear them after Tim Spencer a fifth former admires them (although we rarely see her wear them after that!).

It is this introduction to Tim that starts their long term on and off again relationship. Marilyn is very much in love with Tim, they even make plans to get engaged when she turns 16. From early on there seems to be problems with Tim and other girls, first Doreen a St Helena’s pupil threatens Marilyn to stay away from her boyfriend. Tim tells Marilyn they split up ages ago, and it turns out he is telling the truth. Later though things become difficult when Tim moves schools, but they keep seeing each other. Then Marilyn sees him in the cinema with another girl. After a lot of apologizing about what a big mistake he made, Marilyn takes him back. But it seems to have become a habit of Tim’s as at his 17th birthday she catches him kissing a girl, again he explains it away, saying she chased him down and insisted on giving him a birthday kiss. Marilyn is not always so innocent either as she happily flirts with some French boys on a camping trip when Tim’s not around.

When they are not having arguments, they seem to be very in love. They both get in trouble for sneaking away to see each other during a school trip. Grim Gertie talks to her about the importance of school and exams rather than husbands. Marilyn doesn’t appreciate the talk though and actually has an outburst at her. Later Tim gets a motorcycle, her parents forbid her to go on it with him. Still Marilyn sneaks away with him on his bike. She is upset to find him cheating on her yet again and breaks up with him. Even though they split up, she is devastated when soon after he is killed in an an accident. Before she moves up to fourth year in school, she seems to be getting back to her old self, admiring the Romeo in a play that the class goes to see. Later when she is in 4th year she starts dating Nick Thomas.

 

Simon “Sprot” Potter

Family: Mr and Mrs Potter (parents), Danny (older brother)

Sprot is the joker of the class. He gets on well with Lisa, although when she encourages him to wear Marilyn’s earrings as a joke, she doesn’t realize Sam would hit him for being insensitive! He writes a parody play of the teachers in the school but is not allowed to show it as Tosh says it’s too obvious who the characters are. He decides to put it on anyway selling tickets, marketing it as “the banned play”. They only get to show half of it before they get caught. He shows more of his writing talents when he enters a Murder at the Comp essay for a competition. Although the others laugh at his idea and he doesn’t win, he does get special mention by the judge. He also has musical talent as he starts a band with Mike, Tony and Tina. Sam and the girls try to start their own band after being provoked by Sprot. It is Sprot’s band that wins the competition though. He can be quite resourceful as well, when there is a thief about he turns detective and manages to catch out a prefect stealing and organizes it so a staff member catch her. He stands up for himself when he believes his being wronged too. Such as when he and Mike gets detention for copying homework when they didn’t.

Although he is a joker, he also shows a  sensitive side when he expresses his distaste to seeing animals caged at a circus. Lisa is also surprised at how much fun they have when they date. It does seem he plays up his more goofy and bravado side around his friends which is probably why they don’t last as a couple after the holidays. When the class move to 4th year, he expresses an interest in Laura Brady, they go out for a while, but Laura isn’t looking for anything serious.

 

Tina Lomax

Family: Mrs Lomax (mother), older brother

At first Tina doesn’t earn herself a lot of friends, as the class think she is a swot and they don’t appreciate some of her actions, like telling a substitute teacher about a test they were going to have. She is also quick to tell others it serves them right to be punished, after they play up on the substitute. She is the only pupil to take Gertie’s suggestion to go home and study when the heating goes off in school. But her studies pay off as she often is top of the class and shows her creative side when she wins an essay competition. She also runs for student council and does well, but Julie beats her.

It is not only academics that she is good at and she shows her confidence as she joins Sprot’s band. As her brother is in a band she knows about sound checks too. The band win at the school competition. While she may come off as a know it all at times, when Tina gets bad news about her mom, being in an accident she puts on a brave face and the class thinks she’s a cold fish. But Sam knows she’s not as okay as she pretends and she is the first to go comfort Tina when she breaks down during choir practice. Luckily her mom regains consciousness, Tina is delighted and Sam is one of the first people she tells. They actually become better friends after this.

Unexpectedly Tina develops crush on a fifth former, Paul Hanson. Unfortunately she mislays her diary and Mary and Kath find it and blackmail her into doing their work. When Sam finds out, she tries to help and gives Tina the confidence to stand up to the bullies even though, as expected, they tell Paul about her crush in front of his mates. He blanks her after this, so Julie and Sam decide to give her a makeover and bring her to the disco. Megan asks her boyfriend to get one of his friends, Mark, to ask her to dance. Megan is surprised at how good Tina looks when she arrives and that she is a good dancer, as she took ballet when she was younger. Mark and Tina get on well although she acts coy when Sam and the others ask about them the next day.

 

Belinda

Belinda is a nice girl who likes to sees the best in people. She is also very forgiving. She can’t swim, but quickly forgives Sam after she accidentally pushes her into water. She is also the first to be friendly with, Maureen Somers, even after she finds out she lied about having a famous cousin. Belinda is understanding that it can be tough being a new girl and Maureen didn’t mean any harm by the lie.  Her best friend is Suzanne, and when Tracy, an old friend of Suzanne’s joins the class she feels pushed out. As soon as Suzanne realizes what Tracy is doing she is having none of it as she is loyal to Belinda.

 

Suzanne Parker

Suzanne lives with her aunt, since her parents died. Her aunt with good intentions and keeps her well fed. After a boy insults her, she decides with Sam’s help to go on a diet and get fit.  Sam thinks she is doing it to impress the boy, but it turns out Suzanne just wants him to fancy her so she can tell him to get lost.  Suzanne is a lot more confident after this and she is happy when a boy she meets at Megan’s party asks her out. Although she doesn’t realize that Megan fancied him too! She goes camping with some of the girls although they have to admit defeat that they are miserable when several things go wrong! She  is happy when her old friend Tracy joins the class, but is not happy when she tries to push out her best friend Belinda, as she’s loyal to her friend.

 

Mary Grant

Mary is one of the troublemakers in the class. Although she still wants to be successful at class. She cheats at an essay competition using story from old annual but she is found out. She also runs for student council but is disqualified for trying to bribe people for votes. Her and Kath manage to ruin school leave at lunch for 3rd years, when they mess up a shop.

She also fancies herself an actress, so she is not too happy when Lisa’s cousin Charley then Maureen get picked for a play ahead of her. She bullies Maureen, reminding her about the lies she told when she first moved to the school, in order to get her to drop out of play. The exams at the end of the year do worry her though and she collapses with stress.  This doesn’t make her change her ways though as when her and Kath move up to 4th year they still turn up bullying the new third years.

 

Kath Watkins

Mary’s friend, and bulling companion. She seems to have less ambitions then Mary and is happy to skive class. Both her and Mary smoke but an anti-smoking video shown in the school puts them both off and they quit. As she moves up the school Mary continues to be a bully, and her family is not any better. Her older brother Dave gets arrested for breaking into the school and stealing. She follows in his footsteps as she starts stealing too.  She gets caught and is expelled from school.

 

Mike Morris

Mike makes a solid trio with Sprot and Tony. He is never far from following one of Sprot’s schemes. Although they have their falling outs such as when Bartlett catches that Sprot copied homework from him and they both get punished.  He is the more romantic of his friends often developing crushes. He fancies Lisa’s cousin, Charley, when she comes to stay and is disappointed when she goes back home. He also gets a crush on the french assistant Francine Gaston, he even drops football practice to do extra french lessons. He finally has luck when Tracy Sudgen moves to the school and they start to date.

 

Maureen Somers

When Maureen was a new girl  she lies about being related to pop star to make friends. Lisa is to first to call her out on it and not very nicely either. Belinda is the first to forgive her, so she settles in, but doesn’t have a close friend. When Sooty says she should go for the princess part in play, Mary Grant isn’t happy. Mary and Kath bully her and she starts to avoid school. She then loses her part, but with Sam’s helps stands up for herself and makes friends with a girl Becky after she volunteers to help backstage.

 

Sharon Chandler

An older girl and a punk, she helps out Sam with bullies on her first day. She has a reliable boyfriend Mike, but they have a falling out when she won’t let him help with some family problems. Sam sees her upset but Sharon won’t talk to her. After Sam saves Sharon’s young sister Tracy from running out into a car,  Sharon admits her mother took off a few weeks ago. Her fathers laid up with his back and she’s trying to help out with, her young siblings, Wayne and Tracy. She skips school to look after kids and clean flat she’s afraid social services will split them up. She warns Sam not to tell anyone but Tosh overhears her and Julie talk about it. Sharon is mad at first but Goggles goes around and organizes home help and arranges with the primary school to keep Wayne and Tracy until Sharon collects them.

 

Tracy Sudgen

Tracy went to primary school with Suzanne and was good friends with her. When she moves back she wants things with Suzanne to go back to the old days and dismisses Belinda. Suzanne isn’t happy about that and they fall out, they come to good terms again, but Tracy finds a close friend in Natasha. She is a very out going girl and not easily pushed around. When Mary and Kath try to bully her she soon gets her own back on them. She is also happy when Mike asks her out, so despite a rocky start she quickly settles into the Comp.

 

Annabel Gates

Annabel is not a Comp pupil but lives next door to Sam and goes to St Helena’s. There is some rivalry between The Comp and St Helena’s but they don’t let that affect their friendship. Their mums do have a falling out though because Mrs Gates says St. Helena’s is the better school. Although they try to stay friends does start to affect their friendship. Luckily they make up and scheme to get their families friendly again. After Mrs Gated helps when Sam’s brother Jon has an accident things are resolved. Later Annabel invites Sam away for a weekend where they meet some boys. When she finds out that Gary, the boy Sam’s seeing has a girlfriend she breaks the news to Sam.

 

Others:

Klaus Meyer – A German boy, that makes friends with Nikki, moves back to Germany

Mark Thompson – Lisa fancies Mark, when he starts dating a 5th year St Helena’s girl and lies about his age,  Lisa drops him in it out of jealousy.

Toni Fleming – A rich girl, that makes friends with Lisa. She shoplifts to get attention from her parents. Moves to a different school.

Deana Hartley – A snobby girl, Nikki’s mom works for her family.

Lorraine Grover – A bully along with friends Janice and Jackie, she gets expelled.

Clare Horshall–  Sam sees her cheating in french test.

Anna – a new girl that latches on to Sam until she makes friends with Beverley.

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