Grace Piper

Grace Piper was a friend of Faye Windass for a few months in the autumn of 2013, both in and out of school, and whose bullying manner and psychopathic tendencies caused problems. Grace was one of the most popular girls at school and drew others to her flame, wanting to be part of he "in-crowd". As a result, she had little or no empathy with anyone around her though she hid this well beneath a veneer of politeness.

When Anna Windass and Owen Armstrong, Faye's parents, first met Grace, they were taken aback by her self-assured manner when she complemented them on their home. They were further impressed when Grace pushed Faye into doing their homework immediately and not putting it off until later. They questioned her over dinner and found out she was an only-daughter whose father was a carpet fitter for hotels and other large establishments while her mother ran a card shop. Behind their backs however she freely admitted to Faye that she played people well to get more out of them, such as her expensive shoes that she had wrangled out of her parents.

After a couple of weeks, Faye grew upset when Grace appeared to have dropped her from her intimate circle of friends but her fears proved unfounded when he made contact with her again. One effect of Grace's influence was that Faye started to become more cheeky and outspoken, especially with Sally Webster once she started a relationship with her father, Tim Metcalfe, resenting them being together. Grace engineered an argument between Sally and Anna over some change in Roy's Rolls which caused Faye some qualms but Grace egged her on to push Anna to host a fancy dress party on Halloween for her to enable her "overcome" her upset. Anna agreed, though Owen could see through Grace and saw the negative influence she was starting to have on Faye.

At the party, Grace, dressed in an expensive hired costume, was malevolent towards Simon Barlow, picking ruthlessly on the young lad both for his cheap mummy costume and about his dead mother. She also made fun of Nick Tilsley who was recovering after sustaining head injuries in a recent car crash, not impressing Owen nor Sally who overheard her comments, the latter making her views quite clear on the subject. Grace's next prank was to try and cause an argument between Tim and Sally. She and Faye invited themselves into No.4 and when Sally went to the shops, they rang Tim and pretended there was someone trying to break in. Putting on a show of being terrified, they brought him rushing back and he argued with Sally, just as they had planned.

Grace's next target for her attentions was Mary Taylor who earned her resentment when she gave her and Faye unwanted healthy eating advice as they were tucking into a burger in Roy's Rolls. Pushing Simon into joining them, they threw stones at Mary's motor home, and then wrote on the back in shaving foam. They were caught red-handed by Mary, Norris Cole and Emily Bishop, the latter being threatened with being sued by Grace if she touched her. The group of kids ran but Owen was on the scene and heard the allegations, later apologising to a tearful Mary though Anna reluctantly accepted Faye's innocence.

Grace then pushed Simon into stealing sweets from the Corner Shop by taunting him that he was only a little kid. He was almost caught by Dev Alahan and went back to the girls at No.6 where Leanne Tilsley ran him to ground. She and Owen had their suspicions that the girls had put the lad up to the robbery but Faye, when questioned, stood up to Owen and answered him back in a style previously prompted by Grace.

Grace's attention then turned back to Mary and she repeated the stone-throwing when she and Faye were supposed to be at dance practice. Mary complained in strong terms to Anna who that night asked the girls how their practice had gone and received a convincing answer, even when asked directly if they had been behind the vandalism. Izzy Armstrong was present on this occasion and, like Owen, started to wonder if Grace was too good to be true. Anna also had some doubts but had no firm evidence on which to base her suspicions.

Things reached a head when Tracy Barlow paid Grace and Faye to walk Eccles, taking Amy Barlow with them. They gained access to No.1 with no adult supervision where the two elder girls wreaked havoc, scattering clothes all over the place and smashing a vase. When Simon tried to leave, Grace got Faye to hold him down while they forced him into one of Amy's dresses and covered his face with make-up, all the time recording the incident on Grace's mobile phone. Leanne was appalled when a tearful Simon burst into the bistro but before she could get to Anna, Tracy got there first complaining about the house damage. Anna was floored by Leanne's accusations but recovered her equilibrium when her daughter was accused of being a "vicious cow". Anna demanded the truth from Faye, who said that Simon was a liar and stood up for her conniving friend.

Owen was convinced of Faye's guilt though, and banned Grace from their house. Simon refused to go to school where the footage that Grace had recorded was passed round on everyone's mobiles after a fight between the two girls when Faye tried to get the original deleted. Faye was suspended and Anna was at her wit's end. Worse was to come though when Asha Alahan received a copy of the footage and showed it to Mary who in turn passed it to Tina McIntyre and then on to a livid Peter Barlow. The scales were pulled from Anna's eyes as she watched the recorded events but worse was to come as the footage had made its way to pupils at Bessie Street School, leading to phone confiscations and complaints to parents. Having viewed the footage, head Brian Packham had to follow policy and report the assault to the police. Anna and Faye were summoned to Weatherfield Police Station, as were Grace and Mrs Piper, who robustly defended her daughter. Faye found out that Grace had put the blame solely on her and, as a result, came totally clean herself about events and her own fear of Grace. With the threat of prosecution hanging over Faye, Anna threw herself at Leanne and Peter's mercy and any charges against her daughter were dropped. To everyone's relief, Grace ceased to be a part of Faye's life.

List of appearances
2013