Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Sarah Jane, remember your brother and sister start school tomorrow. Please look after them, Sky's only a 12." Barbara cupped her oldest daughter's cheeks, face creasing with worry.

"Yes, I will. I'm sure it'll be easier for them." Sarah Jane gave her mother a warm smile, hoping to avoid worrying her even more.

"Barbara, Alistar is already here! We have to go!" Eddie entered the living room of 13 Bannerman Road, going over to his daughter and hugging her close. "We'll be back before you know it. Look after Luke, Sky and K9. And of course yourself, Little Miss."

Sarah Jane hugged her father back tightly. "I don't understand why you still work for unit... You always say they go in all guns a-blazing." She complained. Honestly, she just wanted her parents to stay for a little longer. She wanted to get a chance to be a 15-year-old.

"Technically, not UNIT. Just Alistar." The car outside honked. "Speaking of. See you soon, Petal."

"Look after yourself. I love you, Sarah Jane." Barbara hugged her daughter one last time before following Eddie outside.

The teen waved goodbye from the doorstep before going back to the sofa and sinking into the warm cushions. She needed to do some revision but she was so tired and knew the next few weeks of her siblings settling into school would be tiring.

Footsteps interrupted her thoughts. They were quiet but still caused the stairs to creak a little. It was Luke. The almost 14-year-old silently took a seat beside his older sister. After a few minutes, he spoke. "I can look after myself."

"What do you mean?" Sarah Jane sat up, worried that perhaps her genetically engineered brother was now able to read minds and knew how much she resented only children.

"I know you're under a lot of stress... I'm nearly 14, I can look after myself. Tomorrow will be fine, I think Sky will be okay too. She's got an electric personality." Luke nudged Sarah Jane lightly, his terrible pun receiving a soft laugh.

"Hopefully someone other than dad can teach you jokes." She ruffled her younger brother's hair gently. "You two are my little siblings. I'll always worry about you. Speaking of, you better get to sleep. Big day tomorrow, the first day of school after winter break. Did you remember to shut Mr Smith?"

"Yes, Sarah." Luke got up and rushed back up to his room, snickering at the sound of Sarah Jane correcting him.

The next morning was a lite more stressful than Sarah Jane intended. They ran out of Orange Juice, so Sky was a bit upset right away. Then Sarah Jane burnt her toast. Like had to tie Sky's tie and she kept moving so he ended up snapping at her a bit. But soon, they were out the door on time.

Well, Luke assumed it was on time because Sarah Jane wasn't pulling out her hair and two girl's across the road in the same uniform as they did were leaving their houses at the same time.

"Hi, Sarah Jane!" One of the girls waved, smiling kindly. She just got a nod in response from Sarah Jane.

Sky was about to go over to the girl before Sarah Jane took her sister's hand and lead her in the direction of Park Vale.

Since it was the first day back after two weeks and there was a new building, all students would be shown around the new building in their form groups. It started with Luke's, where he had found a girl called Maria and a boy named Clyde. Clyde was a bit mean and kept pursuing another new student who Luke had seen that morning.

Sarah Jane wasn't having a great morning. Her friend Andrea was sick so she was all alone, leaving her as a perfect target for mindless teasing. With Andrea, she at least had someone on her side with enough attitude to fight.

At lunch, Luke was able to sit with Maria and Clyde. Despite Luke's strange behaviour, Clyde was too focused on the other girl to care. "Where's she off to?" The boy thought out loud.

"Oh, Rani? She said she was going to check out the newspaper club. I didn't feel like telling her it would be barren except for the ice queen." Maria and Clyde shared a laugh.

"Ice queen?" Luke tilted his head curiously and Maria's laughing halted.

"Oh uh... no one." She poked at her mouldy cafeteria food.

"That Sarah Jane in year 11, she's a total ice queen. Face like she's sucking a lemon, you know?" Clyde didn't pick up on Maria's glare until it was too late.

Luke stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. He didn't argue, always remaining non-confrontational no matter how much he was upset by someone. He put his uneaten food into the bin and the tray on top of a dirty pile.

Maria slapped Clyde's arm. "Dude!"

A younger teen, probably a year 8, came over. "Was my brother here?" She had similar eyes to Luke, but hers shone like a light bulb. "Luke Smith? Tallish, scrawny... Pretty unremarkable. Oh and he's a super brain!"

Clyde snickered a bit. "Yeah, he was just here. Are you okay?"

"I'm Sky... It's my first day." The young girl took a seat beside Maria, who gave her a kind smile.

"I wouldn't eat the cafeteria food, everybody's seems to be mouldy."

"Thanks for the warning. That's fine, I hate carrots. And I can probably get Sarah Jane to make some of her pea soup again! It's so good, she always makes it when our parents are away because she's always so busy and I'm a hazard to myself and those around me." Sky abruptly stopped, "sorry, I started rambling."

"It's no problem." Maria giggled, "I'm Maria Jackson, I live just across the road from you."

"Sarah Jane, do you need me to stay or will you be okay on your own?" Mr Jones asked before exiting the computer room, where Sarah Jane typed away an article for the newspaper.

Just as Mr Jones left, another person entered. "Excuse me? Is this the right room for the newspaper club?"

"Yes." Sarah Jane spoke bluntly, not looking up from her work.

"But it's just you?"

"Yes. What an astute observation." Sarah Jane saved the document and turned to see the girl from across the road, who had straight black hair kept back by a headband.

"Right well... I'm Rani Chandra, I'm new here. I'm interested in being a reporter, so I thought it would be a good idea to join the school newspaper."

"Oh..." Sarah Jane stood up and offered a hand to shake, "I'm Sarah Jane Smith. It's nice to meet you, sometimes Sanjay comes and helps out but he has friends so he doesn't need to hide in here every lunchtime."

"Well, we could be friends. If you wanted?" Rani shook Sarah Jane's hand, glad she wasn't as mean as she seemed.

"That would be nice actually..."

Chapter Text

By the end of the day, Maria had been able to explain that Clyde wasn't as mean as he seemed to Luke. Now, the 14-year-old stood outside the main doors to the side waiting for his sisters.

Between thoughts about the world and aliens and boys and girls, something distracted Luke. It was a ball flying toward his face. With only a moment's hesitation, Luke was able to grab the ball a few inches away from his nose. A boy came jogging over, "thanks for catching that! Sorry, mate." The stranger took the ball and gave Luke a charming smile.

Just as Luke was about to speak, Sarah Jane came over. "Oh, Sanjay! Could you get me that building plan from your dad you promised me? I'm almost finished with the story, I just need that building plan."

"Of course, Sarah Jane. See you two!" He jogged back to the boys playing football, showing them the ball triumphantly

"Who was that?" Luke's cheeks were dusted pink, and his eyes glistened in a way Sarah Jane had never seen before.

"Sanjay, he's in my year... Why?"

"No reason. Do you know where Sky is?" Luke quickly changed the topic of conversation. As if on cue, Sky came over with Rani, Clyde and Maria. She looked like she'd been crying and Sarah Jane rushed over to her.

"Sky, are you okay? What happened?" She brushed Sky's hair out of her face gently, pulling her close.

"Yes, Sarah Jane... I'm okay now. I fell down the stairs and didn't know which door we were meeting at." Sky hugged her older sister back, a smile soon returning to her face, "Maria, Clyde and Rani helped me..."

Sarah Jane looked towards the three teens and after a moment of plainly analyzing them, she smiled. "Thank you for looking after Sky." For the first time in the 2 years Maria and Clyde had known Sarah Jane, she looked warm and genuinely glad.

"Of course!" Maria thought for a moment, "we all live near each other, we could walk home together?"

Sarah Jane was going to say no, but the excitement on Sky's face made her stop. "Sure, why not." Sarah Jane glanced back at Luke, who stared at the ground.

Unlike Sky, Luke and Sarah Jane both weren't very social. While Sarah Jane decided to remain detached from people her age, Luke wanted to make friends and have normal conversations but as soon as he was around strangers, he would go silent. He especially struggled in big groups.

As the group walked down the road to their street, Luke remained a metre behind with his small headphones in his iPod. He seemed to be having a deep internal debate because he ended up walking into Clyde. The nerd almost toppled over but soon regained his balance and slipped off his headphones, "I'm sorry..." His voice was barely above a whisper and was shaking a bit.

"It's fine." Clyde shrugged, brushing his hoodie off a bit.

Luke felt a sudden drop in his levels of anxiety. He had expected Clyde to insult him or attack him. But he was completely unphased by Luke's accidental bumping into him.

He looked back at his surrounding for a moment and realised they were standing just outside 13 Bannerman Road.

"Well, see you all tomorrow!" Sarah Jane had ended up getting on very well with Maria and Rani. She turned to enter when Sky spoke.

"Maybe you could stay over? If you wanted!"

"Sky!" Sarah Jane spoke through gritted teeth.

"I mean, I haven't got any plans." Maria shrugged, "my dad won't be home for a few hours, it would be nice to not be alone."

"Hold on a second." Sarah Jane tugged her siblings over, so they could have a private conversation. "Mum and dad don't like strangers in the house without their permission."

"They also want us to make friends! We can just make sure they stay downstairs." Sky grinned.

"Luke, what do you think?" Sarah Jane asked her brother, so they could decide the majority.

"I don't care... I'll just go to my room." Luke shrugged and went to the door, using his key and going inside.

Sarah Jane turned back to the group, "come in, but don't break anything, don't go upstairs unless you have to and don't even think of going near the attic."