"Towards" is a real word, and it's just as old as "toward." Don't believe the people who tell you that it's not, or that it's the British form while "toward" is the American form. These people are lying or, at the least, ill-informed. (I also have a suspicion that if "toward" really is more common in print in America, it's only because editors are editing out what they mistakenly think is a "British" form.)