Havelock High's Head Girl, Liberty is a rising athletic star and carer to her mum Sandra, who has rheumatoid arthritis. Concerned that Gerard's failing management of the school will ruin her university plans, Liberty secretly blows the lid on her head teacher with a damning story in the local paper. Liberty pleads with Audrey for a place at Waterloo Road before Gerard discovers she was behind the newspaper exposé. While Michael believes it would be wrong to poach Havelock's star pupil, Lorraine strongly disagrees. Under pressure, Gerard's bad press threatens to overshadow Havelock's performance in the first inter-school competition against Waterloo Road. Soon afterwards, when Liberty unwittingly reveals she was responsible for the newspaper article, Gerard snaps. Elsewhere, Janeece is excited after being asked to be Lorraine's PA for a day but fails to spot that Cheryl has chicken-pox. When the child-minder sends Cheryl home sick, Janeece leans on Chalky for help but fails to reveal Cheryl's illness -with far-reaching consequences. Meanwhile,Connor snubs Christine, thinking she's just seeking attention - but after a serious fall, he realises that she may have been telling the truth about being ill. Connor questions whether he can cope with two women in his life and pushes Imogen away.