Chapter One

The Return of...

Even though it was the middle of the week and nearing summer, the cafeteria was jam-packed with students varying from Freshmen to Senior's. Most of them would have usually been outside, but the summer storm had brought on the heavy downpour of rain for the midday and the students found themselves all packed into the small hall. The food queue's were buzzing with everyone eager to get to the front, pushing and pulling each other in an attempt to keep occupied. Shouts and screams came from all over the place. Friends calling to one and other. Arguments breaking out. The football team being their usual ass-like selves. It wasn't an unusual scene for Muskoka High school. Any event that required more than one class of them to be in a room together ended up like this.

In a secluded corner, far from the action of the rest of the school, a small group of teenagers in their third year found themselves having to talk a little louder than usual to themselves. They weren't used to having their table crowded by so many others. The conversation was hard to keep track of and between the five of them most had broke off into mini-discussions. None saw the sixth teenage boy running towards them.

The green-haired punk dodged in and out of the crowd, pushing and shoving to get to his destination. He looked a little in slow motion to anyone who was watching carefully enough, but no eyes were on him. It was a trial he wasn't good at, trying to get to the round table in the back, but he managed to sink into a seat beside his girlfriend, a look that read 'I'm-about-to-headbutt-a-table' on his paling face.

"Kill me!" He yelled, not caring who was listening in on them. "Someone just plunge a knife into my heart and kill me right now!" And then he did headbutt the table. His friends were giving him nonchalant looks, none of concern for their friend and his terrible acting skills. Duncan couldn't possibly be that hurt by anything; he was a man of steel.

"Okay," his girlfriend answered, not putting too much thought into it as she continued to flick through her Biology textbook. "What's wrong, Duncan?" Courtney eyed her boyfriend from her peripheral vision, trying to act as if she didn't care too much. Truth be told, she worried for him. Especially the past couple of days. Duncan hadn't been quite himself.

"My life is wrong!" Duncan continued to screech, not even looking up at the others as his head raised from the table and instantly weaseled it's way into his palms. Courtney pushed out her arm, rubbing his back in gentle circles. She was a beautiful girl, Courtney. She looked like a Victoria Secret model with her slim yet curvy figure, bending just the right way as she reached over to her boyfriend. Her skin held a fawn complexion, completely free of blemishes. She had been a very sheltered child growing up and her father rarely let her out of his sight, so it had been hard for Courtney to attain a scar or imperfection. Duncan often found himself wondering how he found such a perfect girl.

The rest of the table were now looking a tad more interested, leaning in closer. Duncan had usually given up on his stories by now, but the actor was still going at it.

"Dude!" A blonde boy directly across the table shouted, pushing his beige cowboy hat out of his eyes. "Calm down, it can't be that bad, whatever it is." The line sounded a little too rehearsed to Courtney, but she figured Geoff knew Duncan well enough to have used it before. Duncan shot his best friend a 'Yes it is' look, before shoving his head back into his hands. Everyone was starting to realize that the disturbance this time had really done something to hurt him deeply. It wasn't that his friends didn't care, they were just more curious about what it was rather than curious about a way to get rid of it.

"Please, don't leave us in suspense any longer." A girl to Duncan's right added, with an eye roll to show she really didn't care. Gwen had known Duncan the longest out of everyone at the table so Courtney didn't find it strange that she was the one who cared the least about her boyfriends tale. She remembered the story they'd once shared with her of how they'd met in Kindergarten because Duncan had fallen over and cut his knee and needed someone to assist him to the nurse. Somehow Gwen had been pinned with the task and they'd been best friends ever since. Courtney remembered being able to relate to it. The way she had met her best friend, Bridgette, was when the clumsy blonde had tripped in the yard and skinned her elbow, Courtney was the one to take her to their first grade teacher and they'd been best friends ever since.

Duncan sighed and slipped his head onto the table again, folding his arm's beneath his face to comfort the blow this time. "It's my cousin." He said, but it came out slightly muffled.

Bridgette leaned in across Courtney to hear him better, "What about your cousin?" She asked out of pure concern. Bridgette was the nicer one in the group. She was the one who cared for each of her friends and in this particular instance really didn't want to see Duncan hurting so badly.

The delinquent didn't answer her immediately, though. The table was in silence, waiting for him to do so. If something was bothering Duncan this much it must have been good. And now that they knew it involved his family, they were all the more interested. Duncan didn't talk about his family much.

"She's coming to stay with me and my parents for a while!" He finally blurted out, bringing his head out of his arms, only to slam it back down. Everyone at the table started laughing. They had been expecting some long, ranty story. Really, anything but that. Duncan had never been one to overreact, usually telling things as they were. But this seemed to be out of his hands, his usual 'I don't give a fuck' attitude not with him today.

Though Courtney was quite eager to meet a member of Duncan's family. They'd been dating on and off for almost two years by that point and she hadn't met any of them. His parents were always working, according to him; his elder sister was away and college and his younger sister was away at boarding school-the one he had got thrown out of at the end of middle school, thus how he had ended up at Muskoka High.

"What's so bad about that?" The final member of the group asked, giving a jerk of his head to sweep his black bangs from his face. Trent was always in need of a haircut, as Courtney would put it.

All eyes were on Duncan by now, even Courtney had looked away from her textbook to see what the fuss her boyfriend was kicking up was about. Not that she had many family members herself-actually, she only had her father-but she wanted to know what what could have been so bad about Duncan's cousin, who had never mentioned before.

"It is," Duncan tried to tell them. "My cousin is pure evil. No joke!" Everyone was trying their best to suppress their smiles and laughs, but it wasn't as easy as they all made it out to be. Duncan's ridiculousness was getting out of hand, and they all found it hilarious.

"She can't be that bad, Duncan," Courtney said, still rubbing circles on his back. It was a trick she had learnt at CIT camp over the summer to get someone to cheer up. Showing you were there for them tended to lighten their mood just a bit. However, it was not working with Duncan. He was adamant that this was the end of the world.

"When is she coming?" Bridgette asked, eager to meet the new girl. She was a people's person, she loved befriending everyone. And this was Duncan's cousin, so she had extra reason to be eager.

"She's already here," Duncan explained. "She arrived last night and started school this morning. And I'm the unlucky person who gets to show her around." The group gave Duncan a funny look.

"Where is she then?" Trent piped up, seeing as she wasn't around. Duncan took a long look around the cafeteria, scoping out every person before stopping and staring at the entrance.

"See that girl," Duncan pointed a sly finger over to the double doors on the far side of the room. The group of five strained their necks and focused their eyes through the mess of a cafeteria to see where Duncan was pointing to. "The one looking around in the blue shirt."

"The one walking over here?" The blonde boy inquired, a smirk on his face as he watched his best friend in distress. Geoff wasn't a soulless person, quite the opposite, actually, but he knew that his best friend was not in any kind of real danger, he was just being dramatic over something that meant very little to the rest of the group. It wasn't uncommon for one of their close friends to always be in some sort of turmoil and the others to not be as upset over it as they were.

"That's her." Duncan turned and ducked his head back into his arms. It was useless, of course, there was only one person in the whole school with a lime green mohawk on top of their head. This girl was going to notice him either way. Which sat well with Courtney, she was interested enough now to want to meet his girl.

"She doesn't look evil." Gwen told them, leaning in closer and whispering as Duncan's cousin was growing nearer.

"Neither does Darth Vader, but he is," Duncan muttered from beneath his arms.

No one saw that the girl had approached the table fully. She didn't look like Duncan at all, in fact she was quite the opposite with had tanned skin much like Courtney's, and long brunette hair that reached just past her chest. Her neon blue top lit up the room around them against the dull school colors of black and white. She had a chipper smile on her flawless face, looking very excited to be standing where she was stood. No one knew why; this school was the one place they all wanted to escape.

"Duncan." The girl said his name sweetly. "I've been looking all over for you." The punk groaned into his sleeves before picking his head up and smiling at his cousin.

"Well, you found me." He turned to his friends and shot them a 'I warned you' look. They still bit onto their lips and cheeks to stop themselves from laughing out loud and looking rude in front of their new friend.

"Aren't you going to introduce me?" The girl asked, looking happily at her cousins five friends. Her eyes caught Gwen's and Courtney could have sworn she saw them both wink at each other, or maybe all that studying instead of eating had gotten to her brain at last.

"I was getting to that," he snapped back. This girl had clearly done something to Duncan to piss him off in the past. Duncan held a grudge. "Taylor, this is Courtney, Geoff, Bridgette, Gwen and Trent. Guys, this is my cousin, Taylor." Duncan pointed to everyone as he said their names, making sure Taylor knew who-was-who, though he didn't plan on letting her stay around his friends for long. She had her own.

"Hey," Taylor waved to the group and they all smiled politely back. "Are you going to finish showing me around?" She impatiently asked her cousin, who was now pulling faces into his hands. The thought of being stuck with his cousin for more than five minutes made his toes curl in irritation. The two hadn't exactly grown up together, but from the times they had met Duncan had never been too overly fond of her.

Courtney couldn't tell, but she was sure that Taylor kept nervously glancing towards her, but as soon as Courtney tried to return the gaze with a kind smile she would turn back to her cousin. It made her wonder if Duncan had mentioned her to his cousin before.

"I wasn't planning on it," Duncan grumbled in reply, but Courtney jumped in to save Taylor.

"Sure he will," Courtney interjected, budging Duncan towards his cousin. She wanted him to be the best kind of person he could be. And if that meant blowing off his friends to show his cousin around school, then so be it. Duncan was not getting out of it, his friends were going to make sure of it. If he was being tortured, they were enjoying the show.

Duncan left and Courtney didn't see her boyfriend again until the school bell rang and they met up at their usual spot under the trees on the outskirts of the school.

The couple were walking up the pebbled lane, hand-in-hand and heads focused on the floor in front of them. They were heading towards their street where they both lived. Duncan usually walked his girlfriend home after school and he lived in the house almost directly opposite hers, so it was a win-win situation. Duncan didn't have a car and Courtney usually jumped a ride off one of her friends in the morning to avoid bringing her own car. She and her father were tight on money at the moment. But the couple enjoyed being in each other's company for longer on the walk home. Most of the time they enjoyed each others company, anyway.

"Your cousin is..." Courtney stopped to think of the right words, "Not so evil."

"Wait till you get to know her," the delinquent snorted, looking away from his girlfriend. He was sure Taylor was going to mess things up with her 'thoughts' just like she always did. There was a reason he refused to let his cousin come with him here in the first place, but she just hadn't gotten the picture.

The two continued to walk in silence for a few moments, both basking in their own thoughts before Courtney thought of a conversation starter, "So, what are we doing tonight?" She asked, hoping they could finally get some alone time together with her father planning on going away that night for business. He worked away a lot, leaving Courtney in the house on her own. Courtney had never been inside Duncan's house, it was one of his parents' 'rules'; no guests when they weren't there. And they were never there.

"We? Sorry, Princess, but I have plans." Duncan told her, smirking. Courtney stopped walking to turn to her boyfriend. She wasn't impressed like he seemed to be.

"Again? You never have time for me." The brunette tried to use her 'I love you' voice to persuade Duncan to change his plans, but when he didn't say anything she gave up on that way, and raised her voice, "Are you seeing someone else?" Courtney snatched her hand away from Duncan's grip. "Are you cheating on me?" She accused, not even daring to point a finger anywhere near him.

"No," Duncan placed a kind hand on his Princess' cheek. "No, it's nothing like that. I promise." He leaned in for a kiss, but Courtney avoided his lips, pulling his hand away from her face. She didn't believe him.

"Then what is it?" She asked. "What is so important that it can't wait, huh?" Duncan looked down to his shoes as he heaved a sigh. He knew he couldn't tell her the truth, he wasn't allowed to tell her the truth about him without telling her the truth about everything else too. And that would just complicate things. "What I thought." Courtney looked away from Duncan too, only she did it to hide the tears starting in her eyes. "Maybe this relationship isn't going to work out after all. Goodbye, Duncan." Courtney said, not wanting to prolong their departure. She walked away from the spot where Duncan still stood. It was pointless for him to call after her, she would only ask for something Duncan couldn't give her; the truth. But the truth was a complex thing for anyone to understand by this point. There had been sixteen years-if not longer, of events that Duncan could simply not sum up enough for Courtney even if he could.

A/N: Thoughts?

'If I could...I would go back in time and I would relive every single moment of it all again...'

I wrote that in an AN in the very last GO story. I never thought I'd get a chance to actually relive some of my favourite moments with my favourite characters in my favourite series. But I decided that yes, I can. And so, I have been working really hard on this series to make it better than the original!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, you are in for a treat as The Going's On STARTS ALL OVER AGAIN!

Whether you read the original or not, I welcome you aboard this story series that is going to take us over the next few months...And by few months, I mean it could take us up to a year! Hey, ya'll know how many stories there are in this series ;)

Updates will be every Friday. I look forward to seeing you then (:

Thanks for reading, please review :)
Love, ChloeRhiannonX