1st Chapter -

The SANTOS Residence ;

Manny grabbed her morning coffee as she approached the stairs. ཁMatthew, get your butt down here right nowཀཁ, she yelled looking upstairs. She sighed realizing she would have to go up and get him herself, but her mother stopped her. ཁManuela be nice to your cousin while he is living under this roof.ཁ, Mrs. Santos scowled. Manny rolled her eyes. ཁWhateverཁ, she muttered under her breath as she walked to the kitchen counter.

Matthew came shuffling down the stairs in his pajama pants and a power rangers t-shirt , half asleep. ཁWhat do you want?ཀཁ he asked, his words slurring together. He let our a yawn and stretched a little. Manny turned to Matthew. She frowned a little, then gave him a stern look. ཁYou're not even dressed yet. Hurry up or I'm leaving without you and I'm taking the car.ཁ, she informed him. Matthew rolled his eyes and jogged back up the stairs. He was nervous enough about his first day at a new school, without his snotty cousin yelling at him. ཁWhatever it takesཁ, he whispered to motivate himself.

*(Opening credits roll)

Degrassi's Main Entrance ;

Manny pulled up to the main entrance of the famous drama-filled school, Degrassil. ཁWas that stop at Starbucks really necessary?ཁ, Matthew asked giving her a look. ཁYes, very. I have things to do today and I need all the caffeine I could possibly getཁ, she told him, taking another sip of her latte. ཁWhatever, It's my first day and in two minutes I'm gonna be late to classཁ, he told her, glancing at his watch. ཁWell then you better run, little freshmanཁ, she said with a giggle. Matthew let out a sigh and ran through the front door ; waving a little to let her know he was safe inside and she could go. She waved back a little and drove off. Which left Matthew alone in the hallway to face his first day of high school at Degrassi...

The Halls of Degrassi ;

Matthew quickly picked up his schedule and started running to make it to his homeroom. ཁI'm gonna make itཀཁ he confidently thought out loud, when BAMཀ ; he felt his body collide against another person, he heard belongings fall all over the floor, and he saw a fairly tan, dark-haired girl scattering on the floor for her stuff. ཁI'm so sorryཁ, she muttered jamming things into her bag. ཁUm, it's okay.ཁ, Matthew said as he knelt down to help her. ཁSorry..ཁ she repeated ,not looking up. ཁNo, really, it was my own fault. I should of been more aware of my surroundings.ཁ, he said. She finally finished gathering her belongings and smiled a little. ཁI'm Mia.ཁ, she said softly. ཁMatthewཁ he simply stated as they both got up. ཁNice to meet youཁ, he said smiling at her. ཁYeah, um, same hereཁ she said. ཁSee you around.ཁ, he said beginning to walk away alittle slow. She continued to walk in the oppisite direction with a smile. As she walked, Matthew looked back to watch her 'walk' and smirked.

Freshman Homeroom ;

Matthew walked in late to 's homeroom. Everyone stopped and looked up at him, like any other class would. Matthew walked over to and gave him a note that explained who he was. Mr. Simpson nodded reading the letter, he stood next to Matthew. ཁOkay, class, we have a new student with us. His name is Matthew and he just moved here from New York. I hope you all welcome him with open arms.ཁ, Mr. Simpson announced to the class then turned to Matthew. ཁClare will show you around after class.ཁ, he explained. A corky girl with glasses and looked like she was dressed to attend a Catholic school waved a little. Matthew half smiled and took a seat in between a blue eyed blonde chick and an Indian girl with hoop earrings.

ཁI'm Jennaཁ, the blonde one said with a bubbly smile. Matthew looked at her then back to the front of the class. ཁI'm Matthewཁ, he said. She giggled a little. ཁYeah I heard.ཁ, she said. ཁHey, later a bunch of us are swinging by The Dot after school. You should definitely come withཁ, she cointinued with anothr bubbly smile. ཁUm.. suuure.ཁ, he said a little freaked out by her happiness. ཁCoolཁ, she said with a light giggle and turned to pay attention to .

The Indian girl tapped Matthew lightly on the shoulder. He turned around slightly to face her. ཁYou don't wanna know her, trust me on that. She's a boyfriend stealer.ཁ, she informed him, very sassy-like. ཁUm, good to know?ཁ, he said a little werided out. 'Why is she telling me this?', he thought, but shrugged it off. ཁI'm Alli, by the wayཁ, she said sweeping her long black hair behind her shoulder. He was about to say something when the bell rang. Mr. Simpson was going on about something when Clare walked up to Matthew. ཁYou ready?ཁ, she asked with advanced math books in her hand. ཁAs ready as I'll ever be.ཁ, he said gathering his things. She started walking toward the math room, with Matthew following close by and looking around. ཁWe're hereཁ, she announced to him as Jenna walked past them into the classroom.

Freshman Advanced Math ;

They froze in their place, gave each other a look, then kept moving. Matthew could feel the tension, but didnt say anything. 'What is up with the girls at this school and Jenna?' he thought. He shrugged and walked to the teacher's desk, handing her the letter. The teacher nodded and pointed out a seat in the back next to some basketball jocks. Matthew sighed and sat in the seat that was pointed out. 'Jocks, really? I'm not the JOCK type', he thought. The jock with brown surfer hair looked over at Matthew. ཁWho are you?ཁ, he asked curiously. Matthew looked over at him. ཁI'm Matthew, I'm a new student here.ཁ, he explained. The jock nodded, ཁAh, I see. I'm KC and welcome to Degrassiཁ, he said. Matthew looked at the teacher and made a face. ཁMore like De-GROSS-iཁ, he joked. KC laughed, ཁYou know what, dude, you should hang with us.ཁ The jocks nodded in agreement. 'Me hanging with the popular kids? Awesomeཀ', Matthew thought, which made him smile.

The Lunchroom ;

"Over hereཀཁ, Alli called over to Matthew. She was sitting with Clare and a boy with curly hair and big glasses. Matthew quickly looked around for Mia as he started walking towards the table, but he didn't see her. ཁHey Matt.ཁ, Alli greeted as he sat next to her. ཁThat's Connorཁ, she said pointing to the boy across from them, next to Clare. ཁAnd you already know Clareཁ. They greeted each other and started eating.

ཁMatthewཀཁ, Jenna called from the jock/cheerleader table. Matthew and his table turned to them. ཁOver here, manཀཁ, KC shouted ; ignoring Matthew's friends. Matthew looked back at Clare and Alli. ཁI'll be back, I promiseཁ, he promised them. ཁWhatever, just go.ཁ, Clare said underneath her breath. Matthew got up,leaving his tray as a sign he was coming back.

_As Matthew came closer, KC made room for him. ཁWhat are you doing with those major nerds?ཁ, he asked. The grouped snickered. ཁThey're my friendsཁ, Matthew said softly. ཁFriends? Man forget them. You should hang with us.ཁ, he said. ཁI guess.ཁ, Matthew said softly glancing at Alli and Clare. ཁUm, do you guys know a girl named... Mia?ཁ, he asked changing the subject. ཁWhy? Do you like her?ཁ, Jenna interrupted with a bubbly giggle. Matthew was about to answer, when Holly J interrupted. ཁA junior with a freshman? Please. You must be joking.ཁ, she snapped at Matthew, looking him up-and-down before she strutted away, clicking her heels, and people moving out of her way. ཁ...hate her.ཁ, Matthew muttered to himself.

*(Ending Credits Roll)