The Second Class

 

Laura Brady

Family: John (father), Margaret (mother), Maxwell (older brother)

Laura is considered a tomboy because she likes sport and cars. She is certainly not one to be told she can’t do something a boy can, which can lead to some challenges between her and Hodge and Freddy.  She does also show some interest in fashion, as she is a good artist and often sketches clothes designs. She wins several competitions with her art talents and even gets a paid job as a cartoonist for a newspaper.

Her best friend is Becky, but mostly they hang out in a quartet with Hayley and Roz. While they are good supportive friends they do have falling outs at times. Becky isn’t happy when Laura’s primary school friend, Pat Roper returns to Redvale and Laura raves about her. Pat goes to St Helena’s and after meeting some friends of Pat’s and hearing how great the school is, Laura decides she wants to go to St Helena’s. In the end she does make up with Becky and she realizes that changing schools would put a financial strain on her parents. She also she miss the Comp so she decides to stay.

Laura, although not as concerned about romance as some of her friends,  does go out with a few boys over the years. She dates Sprot for a while but breaks up with him when he gets too serious. Although not officially a couple she does hangs out with Hodge a lot and they seem to be reliable back ups for parties and such.  Her brother Max dates Jayne the Pain for a while which Laura isn’t happy about especially when she acts all sweet around her parents. She is glad when they break up and Max moves on.  She has a good relationship with Max, they both love cars and he often takes her to shows with him.

She has a lot of difficulties and changes in her family life. She is upset when her parents start fighting, and later they decide to divorce. She still hopes they will get back together but it seems unlikely when they both start dating other people. When Rolston school has to close for a while, pupils come to the Comp temporarily. She figures out that one of those pupils, Anna, her mom is dating her Dad. Although Lynne and Anna are very nice, Laura worries that they will become a family and she will be pushed aside. Her dad does reassure her though. She is less happy when her mum starts dating Ron Hacker, straight away she thinks he’s sleazy. He tries to convince Maggie to put on 2nd mortgage, lucky the intervention of Laura and her Dad send him packing. Laura’s wish does come true as her parents do end up getting back together and remarrying.

She is happy with her family being back together, but that doesn’t mean things are all smooth sailing.  When her Grandad dies when she is holidaying in America with Roz, it hits her quite hard. Later the family decide to foster. Laura is unsure of the idea but tries to be supportive, but their first charge, Rachel, doesn’t make it easy. Everyone thinks she’s nice but Laura knows truth, as she is quite nasty to her and steals things from the family. Max overhears a confrontation between them and helps Laura bring the problem to their parents. Rachel leaves, but Maggie feels she let her down.  Their next foster child 10 year old Richard settles in better. He does miss his dad in Australia, Laura decides to writes to him about it.  He manages to comes for Christmas but then wants him to come live with him in Australia. The Bradys are happy for Richard but also sad to see him go. A later foster child Robbie also fits in well with the family, the one thing that makes Laura unhappy is he starts dating Jayne, although it bothers her more than Max.

 

Rebecca “Becky” Sinden

Family: Mary Hughes (mother), Michael Hughes (stepfather), Angie (stepsister) Hayley (twin), Ben (half brother), Thomas Michael (half brother)

Being a twin is a big part of Becky’s life. Although the girls are close, they do fall out at times and they hate being dressed up alike. Becky has no problem standing up to bullies is often the more level headed and sensible twin. While she gets crushes and dates boys, she is not as boy mad as Hayley.  She is also not as hung up on looks, she is  more happy with her French penpal who actually writes to her, than Hayley’s good looking one. The twins do compete over their new neighbour Glen when he first moves in…only for Roz to come back from her holidays and he asks her out on their first meeting.

The family is quite big, and there is excitement when their new brother comes 5 weeks early! Laura feels bad when she puts her foot in it saying he will be Thomas Michael Sinden, but the rest of the family are called Hughes, the twins kept their father’s name. There are problems with such a big family, as her parents think they should move to bigger house, which would mean a change of school for the girls. It’s Becky that makes the suggestion that they could build an extension instead. When their stepsister Angie becomes prefect  she seems to be less lenient on the twins than others, although Becky prefers that to when Angie becomes punk and starts dating troublemakers. It comes to ahead when Angie’s new “friends” get caught shoplifting. Angie does revert back to her old self and earns back the prefect status she had lost.

While she loves her family, she is delighted when her dad comes back to town. She doesn’t understand why Hayley doesn’t want to meet with him. Her Mom also tells her to be cautious, but Becky  thinks they are all wrong and even considers living with him. But then as the others expected, he lets her down. He moves to Scotland suddenly for a job without even saying goodbye in person. Naturally Becky is upset, although it does make her appreciate her stepdad more.

While Hayley often thinks she is the unlucky twin, it isn’t always smooth sailing for Becky such as when she breaks her leg, which continues to affect her later. She hasn’t much luck with jobs either as her first job at a cafe is a disaster. Later she works at a greengrocers with the owner’s lazy granddaughter, although she does most of the work, the owners are nice and the money’s good, but unfortunately they sell the shop when they retire. At school, she also shows her achievements when she becomes form captain. Although sometimes  it is a thankless job when people don’t agree with her negotiations.

Meanwhile the Hughes/Sinden family expands as Angie gets engaged to Mark, eventually they marry and have twins, Blair and Hannah. The twins didn’t even mind dressing alike at the wedding and are delighted with their niece and nephew.

 

Hayley Sinden

Family: Mary (mother), Michael (stepfather), Angie (stepsister)
Becky (twin), Ben (half brother), Thomas Michael (half brother)

Hayley is more sensitive than her twin and she she has a jealous streak. She often feels like she has all the bad luck, while Becky gets the breaks, such as getting the boys she likes or the part in a play she wanted. She falls out with  her twin when a boy she likes, Alan, asks Becky to play tennis doubles with him. Although he soon shows that he’s not a great catch, Hayley continues to have many crushes and boy problems. She gets asked out by Hodge’s older brother who is 16  and her parents don’t approve. She initially defies them, dating him secret and getting Becky to cover for her. When she is caught she does break up with him, but he’s not too upset as he wants to get back together with his ex. Having a twin is convenient when she does a swap with Becky to date William who asked Becky out. When he finds out he is happy enough to keep seeing Hayley as he enjoyed their date.

She is upset  when her best friend, Nadina, leaves, particularly as she doesn’t get a proper goodbye. She is lonely, while Laura and Becky thing she could pal up with new girl, Roz. But Hayley initially thinks Roz is cold, not caring about her family being split up. But after seeing her crying, Hayley realises she does miss family and was just putting on a brave face. They become close friends after that, although like with Becky, Hayley shows her jealous nature,  when Roz gets all the attention from boys. When she falls for Roz’s boyfriend Phillip, even though she has own boyfriend Lee, she and Roz have a fight. Hayley only gets over Phillip when she meets Alex.  Alex comes with his own problems though, a clingy twin sister, Lucy!

Other difficulties at home is when she gets into a fight with her mom over getting her ears pierced, that day mother is in car accident and she feels terrible. It is a long road to recovery, Becky knows that their mom may even be paralyzed after overhearing her stepdad talking, but Hayley is unaware of that development. Luckily Mrs. Hughes makes a full recovery. Like Becky she is delighted with her niece and nephew.

 

Nadina Syal

Family: Ranjit (father), Mrs Syal (mother), Shamim (older sister) Rajiv (brother) Meera (niece)

Nadina is best friends with Hayley, like Hayley she is a bit more quieter, she doesn’t like to be in the spotlight. When the class put on a play she prefers to work in the background with props, which she does a good job of. She also does not feel brave around bullies, Mary and Kath, but luckily her friends can back her up. Her family is quite traditional and Nadina follows their example. She’s not allowed to date and she respects her parents wishes. She is upset when Hayley tricks her into going on a double date. She can’t believe her best friend wouldn’t respect her traditions. They do make up again. Although Nadina sometimes hangs around with Hodge and Freddy as just friends, she still gets nervous. Even hiding from family members so they don’t see them together.

Her family own a shop, and it is vandalized, by some thugs. Despite some rough types hanging around earlier that day, her father doesn’t like to jump to assumptions that it was them.  Nadina meanwhile takes in a stray cat, which she names Sher. She is worried when he starts acting strange but it turns out Sher is female and  having kittens! When the family go to India to visit family for a few weeks, they decide to stay for good. Although she does write, she clearly settled quickly, she is happy to be around her extended family and excited to start school with her cousin.

 

Rosalyn “Roz” Cummings

Family: Bob (father), Lisa (mother), Carly (sister), Cathy stepmum Stancee (stepsister)

Roz moves to Redvale from California after her parents split. The first person she makes friends with is Laura. They meet after an old lady drives into Max and Laura, Roz and her dad help them. While she pretends to be fine about the move, she does miss her mom and sister and cries privately. Luckily after becoming close friends with Hayley, Laura and Becky she soon settles in. She also gets a lot of dates, although she knows her boundaries, when one boy Terry, starts getting handsy in a cinema, she quickly puts him in his place. She does get bit of reputation of not sticking with one boy for too long but she doesn’t let that bother her. Roz is a confident person, she can stand up and rarely lets other people get to her.

One of her longer relationships is with Brad Carrington, he is not her usual type, a bit plainer than other boys she dated but he has a good sense of humour and they get on well. Unfortunately his father isn’t as happy with them dating. Mr Carrington is a maths teacher at the Comp and maths being Roz’s worst subject, she keeps getting in trouble with him. She also has problems when she has a secret admirer and Brad isn’t happy with the attention she is getting. When she does catch the culprit, Jimmy Smith, she blows up at him, she feels a bit bad afterwards for upsetting him and thinks she could have approached it better. Still she thinks it’s all over until she sees Brad fighting Jimmy, and she isn’t happy that Brad has stepped in as she’s capable of handling things herself.

Having her family split across continents is quite difficult too. When her sister, Carly, comes to stay for holidays, she usually brings drama too. Her first visit Carly is not happy to be in Redvale and causes lots of trouble. Her second visit starts off no better than first time, especially when her boyfriend dumps her, but she comes around and her and Roz actually have a good time, especially when their mom decides to join them for Christmas. Roz actually has hopes that her parents will get back together, like Laura’s did, but instead her mom asks if Roz wants to come back with her and Carly. Roz says no, but later has second thoughts. Then her dad gets sick and she is glad she is there to take care of him happy to stay. She is happy when her Mom comes to work in London for few months., so she gets to see him lots. Her dad isn’t too happy about Lisa spoiling Roz.

When money gets tight her Dad decided to get a lodger. Their first lodger is Andrew Carlton the new P.E. teacher at the Comp. Roz uses her friendship with him to help out her and her friends. Later when Roz visits her mom and sister she considers staying in America, particularly as her Dad has now got girlfriend Cathy. But with her mom and Carly are so busy, she finds it lonely and decides to stay in UK. The family grows as her Dad marries and she gains a stepsister, Stancee, and a gran. When she first met Stancee she thought she was weird but they grow close and Roz is surprised that they talk like her and Carly never did. When Cathy gets pregnant she wants Stancee to change her name to Cummings too but she doesn’t want to. Roz helps comfort her and even enlists the twins help to talk to Cathy.

 

Emma Hodges
Emma starts off as a boy mad girl along with her best friend, Sandie. When she fancies a boy, her friends encourage her to get with the times, she can ask a boy out not just wait for him to ask. She dates a few guys but none seem to last long. When new girl, Linzi joins the Comp she is impressed by her looks and that she is an actress and model. Emma is the only one not to wise up to her arrogant and selfish ways. She even falls out with Sandie and decides Linzi is a better best friend. She doesn’t make it easy for other people to stay friends with her either, as she keeps going on about how great Linzi is. Emma cuts her hair to look more like Linzi and sends off £25 to become a model in order to stay friends with her. But the modelling ad was a scam and her parents aren’t happy that she used her savings to pay for it. She is upset that after all her efforts Linzi drops her and doesn’t even tell her that she is leaving the Comp.

Emma has a lonely time for a while until Claire helps get her and Sandie back together. Later she becomes close friends with Amy and Kiko. When her Dad is made redundant by Kiko’s dad, she struggles to know if she can keep friends with Kiko, but seeing her bullied she doesn’t hesitate to step in and defend her. She seems to mature since her early appearances, she developed more interests such as horse riding and she helps Kiko and Amy campaign to save a woodland. She dates Kiko’s cousin, Takashi while he is visiting. Although she still dates and has crushes, she’s certainly not as concerned with her looks and boys as she was.

Sandie Masters

Like her friend, Emma, Sandie starts off only thinking of boys. They fall out over a boy they both like but soon make up. They also bond over that they are both lazy and don’t like gym. When she gets an Italian penpal, she pays 2nd year student to translate but then finds out, the girl has been lying in the translations. Sam  Greene and her sister, Lucy, help give the girl a taste of her own medicine. When Emma drops her for Linzi, she is understandable upset. She is also quite stubborn and slow to forgive her. She becomes good friends with Claire when she joins the Comp. It is only because of Claire that she forgives Emma and the three of them hang around together.

Claire Carter

Family: Bill (father), Jan (mother), Kate (older sister), Jonathan (brother)

Claire is deaf in one ear and has 50% hearing in the other ear. She is able to lipread, which can be convenient at times! Of course she can find things difficult, like she mentions that she wishes there were more subtitled programmes on tv. When she first moves to the Comp she becomes friends with Sandie and Emma. She gets a puppy from Amy, which she names Boots as the first thing he does is  eat her sisters boots! When he is older she is annoyed at having to take Boots out in the rain, but then blames herself when he gets hit by car. She is upset at school, but Grim Gertie is sympathetic as she has a soft spot for animals. Luckily Boots makes a full recovery.

Her siblings relationships sometimes cause trouble for Claire. There is trouble when her  sister, Kate decides to give up teaching training so she can spend time with her video clerk boyfriend. Claire can see Kate is unhappy with her new job and when she finally wises up and dumps Adam, she helps Kate talk to her dad. She also isn’t happy when her brother, Jon starts seeing Jayne the Pain, and she later helps get him together with her friend Nikki.  Although she begins to regret that when Nikki spends more time with her brother than her! But Nikki does realize she has been neglecting Claire and they stay close even after her and Jon break up.

Claire shows she has a natural talent for skiing, on a skiing trip, but she has brush with danger when she doesn’t hear ski instructor telling the group to stay away from a certain area. Soon after that she has an operation to improve her good ear.  She has to have a few operations over time, on one such occasion she makes friends with Lawrence a very sick boy around her own age. She continues to visit him even after she’s discharged.

When she gets asked out by  2nd year Dave, she likes him but is worried about what people will say and tries to keep it a secret even from Nikki. But Pippa and Morag find out and tell Nikki before she can tell her. At that point she has realized she has nothing to be embarrassed by and was going to tell Nikki anyway, but Nikki is upset she didn’t tell her to begin with but neither are going to give the bullies the satisfaction of falling out. Later she has a serious relationship with Jack after initially getting off to a bad start. Because Jack goes to boarding school, she can’t see him much. When a letter from him gets confiscated by Major Finch she sneaks into his office to get it back. After she gets caught and her father believes that Jack is a bad influence. Claire is stubborn about continuing to see him though.

Jacqueline “Jacki” Ross

Jacki appears to not care about the Comp as she is constantly in trouble, she smokes and always talks back to the teachers. It’s clear that her upbringing has a lot to do with her attitude. She is the eldest of 8 children and her parents don’t mind her skipping school, they write her notes to say she was sick, sometimes she stays at home to look after the younger kids. Her father uses a disability sticker to park where he likes and she shoplifts, she doesn’t see anything wrong with that until Selina’s bike is stolen and Selina points out that shoplifting is stealing too, so Jacki says she’ll stop.

But underneath her tough exterior she does have a soft side and even morals. She does not like bullies and is quick to stand up for anyone being bullied. She becomes best friends with Selina Smith, which others think is an odd pairing and Selina’s family don’t approve. When Selina is sent to boarding school, Jacki feels like she’s a bad influence on her and pretends not to be bothered about Selena leaving so she can have fresh start.  Soon after this her boyfriend Mike drifts away and she becomes more of a loner. When new girl, Nikki is being hassled by Pippa and Morag, Jacki helps her but she doesn’t want to become friendly because she feels she’s trouble and Nikki’s a nice kid, most likely influenced by her experience with Selina.

It’s not just other pupils that she helps out. Jacki often spars with janitor Mr Hadler, as he often catches her smoking.  When bunking off class once she finds him collapsed, she gives him CPR and actually visits him in hospital. She doesn’t want fuss in school, and isn’t happy with an announcement of her heroics is made. She looks after Hadler’s cat while he is in hospital and she takes her home when Hadler dies.  Later when the cat has kittens, she drops a kitten on Grim Gertie’s doorstep after hearing her cat died. Only Nikki suspects it was her, the others think Jacki wouldn’t do anything nice for Gertie. There is one subject she likes, art and she actually tries hard and doesn’t disrupt that class.

At home the landlord threatens to evict the family for not paying rent. They have a sit in, but have to give up when brother gets sick. They had gotten a lot of media coverage though and the council offer the family a house at other side of Redvale. This means she has to leave the Comp. Again others think that it won’t bother Jacki, but Nikki knows better, that she is actually sad to be going.

Nicola “Nikki” Johnson

Family: Sarah (mother), Len (father), Clive (younger brother), Elizabeth (younger sister)

Nikki is first introduced living in Merton when the factory, Bensted Glass, that her father works at decides to relocate to Redvale. She is upset that her best friend Rose is not moving  but bullies Pippa and Morag will come to Redvale too. Because the three of them have same uniform, Nikki gets sent to head twice on first day, because of trouble Pippa and Morag did.  These misunderstandings eventually get cleared up, and when Hayley collapses, she helps as she has first aid knowledge and this helps her make friends.  She becomes best friends with Claire and has a crush on her brother, Jon.  When Jon and her finally get together he messes her around a bit at start, as he just got out of serious relationship, but Nikki shows she can’t be dropped and picked up when he feels like it. After this they do become quite serious and she neglects Claire at first. Later they break up and she finds it hard to visit Claire especially when Jon’s with his new girlfriend. After a while she starts moving on and it doesn’t hurt to see him with someone else.

At home she gains two pets, first a kitten she gets from Jacki and secondly a dog, George. At first she started walking George for an old lady, Mrs Potter. When she finds Mrs Potter collapsed, she calls an ambulance and looks after George. When Mrs Potter goes into home  she tells her she’d be happy knowing George is going to a a good home, so then it’s just up to Nikki to convince her dad, Another addition to the Johnson family is when her sister, Elizabeth is born. She cries a lot, which leads to Nikki not getting much sleep, she even nearly hits her in frustration. She feels terrible about it, then when she nearly loses Lizzie when she’s out she has a complete turnaround and takes her everywhere with her, until her Mom tells her she needs to balance things better.

There are also difficulties when her Dads’ hours  get cut down at the factory. Her Mom gets a job, and her dad is to be stay at home dad, which he isn’t too happy about.  There are more problems for Nikki when she sees Lorraine Grover an ex-pupil at school one night. The next day it seems the school is vandalized. Lorraine catches Nikki, and threatens her to make sure she keeps her mouth shut. Nikki isn’t always the most confident standing up to bullies, as evidenced with her continued troubles with Morag and Pippa, but when her friends as backup she does better.

 

David “Hodge” Hodgeson

Hodge and his best friend Freddy are often the clowns of the class, and like to play up on substitute teachers in particular. They also tease the girls a lot  but are also there to help out when needed. He helps out Emma and Hayley get back at their two-timer boyfriend, by pretending to date them.  He is closest with Laura, although he sometimes taunt her by saying she can’t do the same things as boys!  Often though  if he’s in a need of a date it is Laura he goes to. When Jayne Saunders turns down an invitation to a party with him, he then asks Laura. As Laura can’t go he then asks Nikki, she isn’t happy when she later finds out she wasn’t his first choice. He has a big falling out with Laura when he wrecks her painting, when he was aiming paint at Freddy and misses. Usually Laura’s not one to hold a grudge but it takes her a while to forgive him. In typical Hodge fashion he makes it up to her by getting her flowers that he stole from the school greenhouse!

He does have his admirers though, when a French exchange is arranged, one of the visitors Dominique likes Hodge. France doesn’t always bring him luck, when the class go on trip to France he’s part of the group that misses the boat back, and his father picks them up. Not only is he grounded, he is excluded from trips for rest of term. Despite his jokes he can show a different side around his family, he’s quite close with his aunt. She helps the class with props for their school play and  always dotes on Hodge. He is naturally quite upset when she dies.

John “Freddy” Fredericks

Freddy is rarely seen without his best friend, Hodge and usually follows his lead. They often mess around in class and play pranks on the girls and each other. They start a prank war with each other but when it goes to far they end up falling out. The girls have to scheme to try to get them back together. Despite some arguments they stay close, and loyal to each other. When Hodge is banned by the Blizzard from the swimming pool for messing around, Freddy protests the ban. Particularly as it was unfair as Hodge genuinely slipped into the pool. He puts a banner on the Blizzard’s car and she bans him from the pool too.

Amy Lister

Amy’s surname has also been listed as Rodgers and Linton. She has several older brothers and her father is a police man. She is a popular student and is the on student council.  She can also be proactive, along with Emma and Kiko, they team up to save woodland after learning about it during a school project.

Amy is self conscious about her weight and often tries to diet.  Her first big crush is on her neighbour, Gavin Maddox, she is upset when he asks Roz out.  Amy goes out with Brian to try and make Gavin jealous but then discovers Brian is actually a fun guy to be around while Gavin’s a sore loser.  She has other boyfriends over time like Gordon, yet she still has some confidence issues feeling that she’s  fat, plain and boring. When she starts writing to a German penpal, Andrea,  a misunderstanding with a photo leads Andrea to think Amy is Emma. Amy decides not to correct her as she feels Emma’s more prettier and interesting, and keeps writing about things in Emma’s life. But then Andrea comes to visit! She is also surprised she gets picked for modelling at school, Tosh tells her models come in all sizes and she moves gracefully.

Kiko Kimuro

Kiko has an adjustment period when she first moves to Redvale, her English is not too good at first and she is more accustomed to bowing to greet people, rather than shaking hands. She gets homesick early on but mostly settles in and becomes close friends with Amy and Emma.  When there are cutbacks at the factory her father is manager at, it is his job to make the cuts. As many pupils at the school  have family that work there Kiko is worried.  Pippa and Morag  start to hassle her, blaming her family for both their dads getting made redundant. Luckily her friends stick by her, even Emma, who’s father was also let go.  While she is grateful for her friend’s sticking by her, only Kiko knows it could get worse, there’s a possibility that the factory could close for good. She is worried that may mean she will have to leave her friends if they have to go back to Japan. She is happy when her father along with managers stage a buyout, so the factory can stay open.

She becomes friendly with a new boy Thomas, understanding what it’s like to be the new pupil in school. Although her friends tease her a bit about him, she insists they are just friends. As well as that her parents do not allow her to date, still she is surprised her father refuses to let her go to cinema with Thomas even just as friends. She starts meeting him secretly until her Dad catches them. It is only when Thomas and his father helps Kiko after  an accident that her Dad lightens up. He invites Thomas’s family for dinner, he gets along well with the family and her dad allows Kiko to continue to be friends with Thomas.

Pippa Cragston

Pippa and her best friend Morag move to Redvale from Merton after their father’s factory relocates. It comes at a great time for them both as they were about to get suspended from school, both of them decide they don’t have to tell their parents  about the the suspension. Pippa doesn’t use the new school as a fresh start, instead she and Morag continue their bullying ways. They particularly have it in for Nikki. They also end up getting suspended for bullying a first year, Lena, after she gets into an accident while avoiding them.

Morag Gordon

Morag is never far from Pippa, they are always scheming or bullying together. Although when Ronnie Hacker joins the school, they become friendly with her, but are often left at the bad end of her cons. Her and Pippa can pretend to be nice when they think they can gain something such as when they start being friendly with Laura when they find out her brother Max’s band may become famous.  Morag does have hobbie outside of school, she likes horse riding and even starts working in stables. When Nikki also starts working there, she tries to cause trouble for Nikki to get rid of her but ends up getting herself fired.

 

Selena Smith

Selena is a quiet girl to begin with, then when her sister, “Mad Maureen” starts teaching at the school, and she goes out of her way to prove not a teacher’s pet. She then becomes close with Jacki, which doesn’t make any of  her family happy. She starts smoking, being more outspoken and she even gets suspended for graffiti, which she had done in order to stick up for Jacki. Her parents try and convince her to stop seeing Jacki, even bribing her with a bike, moving classes and eventually sending her to boarding school. She is upset when it seems Jacki doesn’t care that she is leaving, but it does seem that Jacki’s plan works so that Selena moves on and settles in her new school as she seems happy enough when she is back on visits in Redvale later.

 

Vera-Jayne Saunders

Jayne becomes an instant hit with the boys when she first moves to the Comp. With the girls she soon earns the name “Jayne the Pain” due to her boasting and often catty remarks. She does some modelling and makes a big deal out of it even though it was only for a short time. She dates Maxwell for a while, which annoys Laura, particularly as her mom is taken in by Jayne’s fake sweetness. She has lots of other boyfriends over time including, Jon Carter and  Laura’s foster brother, Robbie, which bothers Laura more than Max.

When someone starts playing nasty tricks on her, Jayne suspects Emma because she started dating her ex-boyfriend. It turns out to be Leanne who had a crush on Jayne’s new boyfriend, Emma suspected this and confronted her but didn’t rat her out to Jayne.

Margaret Harlow

Margaret earns the nickname “Mum Says Margaret” as she always repeats what her mum says. She is quite prim, old fashioned and not at all feminist, she believes women should stay home and do all the housework.  She has her talents though, as she has a very good voice and often takes parts in concerts and competitions. She becomes form prefect, as the only other runner is Annette and nobody wants to vote for her!  Her belief that mothers should stay at home changes when her mum gets a job at a department store. She even starts to dress more trendy but still quotes her mum all the time.

Veronica “Ronnie” Hacker

Ronnie used to live in London with her mom, until she moves to be in Redvale with her con artist dad Ron Hacker. She is as big a scammer as her dad, and is always trying to flog dodgy items to her classmates.  She becomes friendly with Morag and Pippa, but mostly just uses them for her own gain. When Pippa loses a valuable ring, Ronnie finds and sells it, Pippa blames Kath Watkins and they both get suspended for fighting, but Ronnie doesn’t care.  She is upset when her dad is arrested though. Her mom moves to Redvale to help out and even sticks around when Ron is released.

Annette Stringer

Annette is an unpopular girl, she bullies, blackmails and sneaks on people. She makes nasty comments and likes to stir up trouble. When new girl Rachel moves to town she manipulates her into thinking Helen took her lost locket. She also likes having power over people, she goes out for class prefect, she doesn’t win but she late becomes a litter prefect. She likes using this position to order people around.

 

Others:

Helen Baines – Laura helps her out after she is embarrassed that she get dumped after bragging about boy. She is also upset when her Dad leaves.

Rachel Harding – She tells people her mother died because she doesn’t want to admit her mom and sister left.  She becomes friends with Helen despite a bad start over misunderstanding.

Linzi Parnell Jones – a model and actress  that comes to Redvale to try out an ordinary life. She is tactless, selfish and snobby. She shoots a photo story with the school.

Paula Swithin – A boastful girl,  who dates Maxwell to try and get to his friend Nick (Marilyn boyfriend).

Michelle Landers – The daughter of Mrs Brady’s friend.  Becky isn’t happy that her and Laura are so friendly until Michelle becomes friends with Amy.

Murial Drew – a girl with low self esteem she makes up gossip for attention although not intentionally at first.

Toby Dickinson – The vicars son, who Laura believe’s isn’t as innocent and humorless as he appears.

Bradley Carrington  – His father teaches maths at the Comp, he dates Roz for a long time.

Thomas Masters – Becomes good friends with Kiko, after some Resistance from his father. Is pleased when his voice breaks so he doesn’t have to sing solo at concert.

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