Nicky Walters (née Rafferty) is a canteen worker at Waterloo Road High School.
Series 11[]
Nicky previously worked as a beautician before her salon closed due to COVID-19. She raises concerns with Kim Campbell about how parents will afford the school's new uniform after the renaming from 'William Beswick High'. Though her children, Preston and Tonya, believe the family is alright for money, mounting bills and school costs eventually lead to them being evicted and forced to stay with Nicky's mother and sister. The same day Nicky accidentally locks Coral Walker in the kitchen freezer and breaks the handle on the door, only being able to get her out with the help of Donte Charles.
Series 12[]
In Series 12, Nicky accompanies her niece Kelly Jo to her ADHD diagnosis meeting after Kelly Jo's mother, Nicky's sister Debs, fails to show up. When Debs eventually rocks up at the meeting stinking of booze and an argument breaks out between he sisters, Nicky blurts out what Kelly Jo had told her on the way in about Debs illegally medicating her with diazepam. Nicky and Debs later get into a physical fight in the school kitchens after Debs slaps Nicky after telling her that she has always hated her for moving in with their father and leaving Debs with their alcoholic mother back when she was still in primary school.
Her money troubles continuing and reaching a new level of desperation, Nicky borrows £2000 from notorious loan shark Vinny McCullen, and predictably fails to be able to pay it back, earning her threats from Vinny and his goons Ryan and Reece. Her desperation comes to a head when she steals computers from the school to pay Vinny off with. Danny Lewis catches her, but ends up helping her to give the computers to Vinny.
Nicky is left devastated after her son Preston suffers a cardiac arrest caused by bulimia, and is furious with his boyfriend Kai Sharif for keeping the bulimia a secret.
Series 13[]
In Series 13, at the behest of Joe Casey, she and Donte begin teaching life skills classes, with Nicky teaching basic cooking and food preparation skills. Also, Nicky and Donte, now living together at Donte's after the Walterses were kicked out by Debs after another falling out, begin a relationship, which they keep secret until Kai finds out when he spots paint in Nicky's hair after she and Donte have a fumble at the school. Donte's daughter Izzy Charles is devastated when she catches them kissing, considering it a betrayal of her late mother Chlo.
When Nicky finds out that her daughter Tonya has been stealing in partnership with Schuey Weever and that Schuey has been threatening Tonya for the money he would've got for the stolen goods after they are found and confiscated, she is furious and storms round to his house to confront him while Kim is already there also trying to speak to him and his father Pete about it, but no-one is answering the door. They then hear knocking coming from the boot of the car parked in the driveway, and Nicky breaks into the boot to discover Schuey, apparently having been locked inside all night by his father. An angry Pete later shows up at the school, and ends up trying to punch Donte but Donte punches him. Pete then gets in his car and tries to run Donte over, but Nicky pushes him out of the way and gets hit by Pete's car herself, landing her in hospital with cuts and bruises. The truth is then revealed about her and Donte's relationship, and Izzy leaves to go and live with her aunt Mika.
Series 14[]
In Series 14 Episode 1, Nicky recognises Steve Savage and mysteriously hides from him. She is also seen visiting her mother Barbara, in hospital with an unspecified ailment. Later, at the school, Nicky receives a phone call informing her that Barbara has died of a stroke. Right after, she bumps into Steve, and breaks down in his arms. It is revealed that Steve was Nicky's first ever proper boyfriend when they were at school together, but she resolves to hide this from Donte, merely telling him that Steve was an old friend.
Over the next couple of episodes, Nicky and Debs repeatedly fight over funeral arrangements for Barbara. Debs wants to give Barbara the funeral she wanted, but Nicky feels they cannot afford it all. Matters are made worse when Debs finds a box containing a large quantity of cash of Barbara's, and gives Nicky a couple of notes, keeping the rest. Their fighting continues when Debs deliberately tells Donte the truth about Nicky and Steve, leading Donte to mistrust Nicky for withholding this information, but Nicky wins Donte over by proposing to him, and they get engaged.
Eventually, sick of her mother and aunt fighting, Kelly Jo steals all of the money and secretly distributes it between herself, Tonya and Preston after tricking Debs and Nicky into thinking she had emptied the boxful of cash out of a top floor classroom window, which had actually been toy money from the pound shop.
Also during this series, Tonya suffers extreme period cramps, and Nicky initially doesn't believe her until she collapses at school. Nicky takes Tonya to the GP and later to hospital, but none of them take her seriously. Nicky promises to help her.
In Episode 6, when Steve returns to the school with his head in a mess after identifying Boz Osbourne's body, he tries to kiss Nicky. When she knocks him back, he instantly apologises and walks off.
In Episode 7, Nicky kicks off at the police when they arrest Preston for Boz's murder after Dwayne Jackson tells them that he saw Preston punching Boz shortly before his death. Also in this episode, Donte finds out about Steve trying to kiss Nicky, and tries to punch him, leading to Steve firing him on the spot, though in Episode 8, Nicky begs Steve not to fire Donte, and he tells him that Donte has a job at the school for as long as he wants it.
After Steve and his son Billy are arrested for their parts in Boz's death and its subsequent coverup, Nicky blames Donte as he told Kim, who told the police. Unable to see eye to eye on the matter, they call an end to their relationship, but agree to remain friends.
Series 15[]
Quotes[]
- "The state of this. How could you? Eh? After what I've spent on these blazers!" (first line)
- "Stop, turn round, and find a skip for that!"
- "You know what I want? I want my kids to belong to a school that has decent sports gear and computers cos the money's not been spaffed up the wall on uniform vouchers!"
- "Hey, I told you not to go in there! Health and safety!" (after accidentally shutting Coral in the walk-in freezer)
- "Well, you did smash up a teacher's car, Donte. Does that not suggest to you that you got some things you need to deal with?
- "My sister's been medicating Kelly Jo with diazepam."
- "I wasn't being disloyal. Quite the opposite. Dosing Kelly Jo up on happy pills, that is not right, Debs."
- Reece: "Yeah, do we look like we're playing?"
- Nicky: "No. You look like a pair of pound shop Kray twins. I'll have summat for you later, now jog on."
- "Yeah, non-stop parties since you left. Mum harassing me, me running round after Kelly Jo as well as me own."
- Nicky: "But the school's insured, who's it gonna hurt?!"
- Danny: "You, if you get caught!"
- "I'm so sorry, love. I'm sorry...what ever you were-you were going through...you didn't feel like you could tell me. Thought we had a special relationship, me and you. Close. I thought I knew you inside out. But I know nothing, do I? Cos it was all one way. Me...always offloading on you, and...you saying, 'Don't worry, Mum. It'll be alright'. And why didn't I see? I'll tell you why. Because I was too wrapped up in my own mess, my own stupidity. There's me calling Debs a terrible mother, and what am I? It's me that needs to be better, and I will, baby, I will, I promise I will. You're not on your own now, baby, OK? We'll fix this, we'll get through it, one step at a time. My beautiful boy. And the first thing you need to do, is be OK."
- "How do you think he is? He's in hospital, after a cardiac arrest because of bulimia, that you knew about and you said nothing. And now he won't let anyone help him."
- Joe: "Uh, Kim is not with us today, so uh, I - well, myself and Lindon will be running things."
- Nicky: "Check out Ant and Dec over there."
- Nicky: "We shouldn't underestimate ourselves. My lunch wasn't a total disaster."
- Donte: "Yeah?"
- Nicky: "Mm. Stace even used the phrase 'slightly under-seasoned', which took me by surprise."
- Donte: "I just can't believe I'm teaching now. I used to be, like, the worst kid at school."
- Nicky: "Ah, well, you see, that's a toxic trait of mine, you know, because I love a bad boy."
- "Oh, so 50 quid's worth of makeup just jumped into your bag by itself, did it?"
- "If I ever see his dad, I'll lock him in the boot and throw the key away."
- "Ah, well, lucky for you I am daft, other wise you'da been roadkill, wouldn't you?"
- "Sod the flowers, where's the booze at?"
- "Mum. Yes, I got your message. Well, I can't just drop everything, can I? Yes, I'm sure Debs would, if she wasn't living her best life in Ibiza."
- "She doesn't have to sit through it. She doesn't have to pretend that she's just lost a devoted, loving mother. Because she's gonna be in her top-of-the-range Versace bloody coffin having the last bloody laugh."
- Nicky: "Well, it's Donte. Well, he knows that we knew each other, he just doesn't know..."
- Steve: "How well we knew each other."
- "I am marrying the fittest bloke in this school, OK? Why - why would I need to go anywhere else?"
- "And I knew Tonya'd be worried. You know what kids are like. Thought it'd be all over social media before they'd read Preston his rights."