“Hey, I heard they are handing out the results today!” Heather announced to her friends. “Want to not read them until after school? We can all go to the coffee shop and open them together!”

There was some grumbling, the idea had merit but the girls were itching to look at their score.

“Oh come on! It’ll be great!” she pushed.

Eventually, everyone reluctantly agreed.

“What if everyone gets good grades and I tanked?” Susan asked, “It's going to suck!”

Jo gave her a hug, “Hey, you won't have. I think we all did well, and if not, we’re all friends and we’ll support you. Hell, if anyone needs help it might be a good thing that we know, we can help each other.”

There were encouraging remarks from everyone, people were actually really keen on starting a study group after school, meeting at each other's houses.

“Erm, well, cool! I think. Perhaps we can start a Friday thing? Want to come around my house this week?” Heather asked, organising things on the fly, “We could go on the bus after school and get fish and chips for dinner?”

Everyone was keen.

The results were handed out at registration, making the delay in looking at them so much more frustrating. Every break when the girls met up people wanted to open them early. Heather insisted they wait, somehow making the girls listen to her.

The day dragged, every subject seemed to last an entire day. The other students were all happily discussing their results in class, lamenting the hard exams and celebrating their good grades. The teachers were going over parts of the exams that people found hard, it all made the wait so damned difficult!

Eventually though the final bell rang and the girls all raced to meet at the back gate. This time there were only seconds between each of them arriving. To everyone but Jo's surprise, a few boys turned up too, including Brian who made sure to apologise to Susan for his previous behaviour when she met him here.

They headed down the road, excitedly chatting, the boys hadn't opened their results either, though somehow this didn't seem to bother them as much.

"You know, I doubt my dad would like me bringing boys home, even for a study group." Anne said, concerned they may feel left out.

"My parents won't care as long as they're in and we stick to the kitchen and living room." Heather said, "You're free to join when it's my turn." She seemed to mainly be talking to Brian.

When they reached the coffee shop they had to pull three tables together to accommodate everyone. The woman behind the counter seemed pretty pleased though, probably happy to have the custom.

They all ordered at the counter and paid, most of them also getting cream buns and sweet slices too.

"Right!" Heather called, taking charge again since it was her idea. "I think we do this by alphabetical order, first names only!"

"Aww! That means I'm first!" Abby complained.

"Votes for?" Heather called, almost every hand went up. "Motion carried! Abby, you're up!" She seemed to be enjoying her chairperson role.

Abby huffed and pulled the crumpled white envelope from her bag. She nervously tore it open, face scrunched up in anticipation. Anne gave her a one-armed hug.

"Erm… not bad… enough for the uni entrance I think." She handed the paper to Anne and it then got passed around the table. "I guess I just need to work on English."

"Right, my turn." Anne said, giving Abby's hand a quick squeeze. She tore the envelope open and looked at the paper. "Hmmm, yep." Was all she said before passing it to Abby.

"Holy crap! Your results are insane! Anne, you could have gotten into fucking medicine in any fucking university in the country." She passed the sheet to the right. "Fuck." She said, dropping her head into her hands. She had a sinking feeling that she was ruining her friends future by letting her follow her to a sub-par uni.

"Hey, you can't compare yourself to Anne! Come on Brian, your turn, show her a normal score." Heather said, misunderstanding Abby's despair.

Brian's results were fairly bad, he hadn't expected much though. They all got pretty much exactly the scores they expected until it came to Jo.

"Holy fuck!" She exclaimed, dropping the paper and putting her hand over her mouth.

"What?" Heather exclaimed, reaching over and grabbing the paper. "Jo, these are great, what's wrong?"

Jo blinked, "Erm, I've never gotten grades that good. I… I think I'm going to university!" She blinked back tears. "Holy shit. I have to phone my mum… and Jenny's mum too!" She pushed her chair back and went outside, already dialling the number.

Susan watched her go, smiling wistfully.

"Right, well! Kevin, your turn." Heather took control again.

Jo returned just in time to hear Susan's result, which wasn't bad, certainly enough for the entry requirement on the business studies course she wanted to enrol in. She gave her a big hug, "What did your mum say?" She asked, enjoying the huge smile on her girlfriend's face.

"She's stoked, she wanted us to go out for dinner but I don't think she's up for that. What did I miss?" Jo asked.

"Well, turn's out Kevin is a math's whizz but pretty crap at everything else." This got a protest from Kevin. "And Michael isn't bad at physics." She gave the boy in question a nod and thumbs up. "Hey, perhaps my mum might like to have you guys around again? She really enjoyed Christmas. Perhaps you can stay the night again?"

"Mmm, I liked that." Jo agreed.

"So, study groups!" Heather called after the last results had been read out. "Who wants to come round on Friday?" There was a show of hands, unsurprisingly including most of the boys. "Hmm, right, might be a tight fit. Okay, who needs maths and sciences?" She took a note, "and who needs English, language and the soggy subjects?" It was obvious her views on the 'humanities' subjects. "Okay, we need some crossover, people good at the subjects to tutor. How about we have the sciences at my place this week and the rest at someone else's next week?" Seeing everyone's agreement she asked "Anne, would you be okay coming to tutor?"

Since her girlfriend would be there she readily agreed.