Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi or Mayday Parade

this was a story I wrote for an English assignment, hope you like it!

p.s...REVIEW!

It was Christmas Eve as he sat in his oversized arm chair near the burning fire, letting the bittersweet memories of long ago flow through his mind. He looked out the window to his left just in time to see the delicate snowflakes of winter began to fall gently on the ground. He smiled to himself, reminiscing in the times when he would have done anything and everything for her. And he still would if he could.

His was so deep in thought, he hadn't realized that his son had come into the room and was quietly observing him from beside the heavily decorated Christmas tree. For a sixteen year old boy, Alex was very much well behaved. Physically, he looked exactly like his father, but he had his mother's strong personality. He was medium height, with jet black hair and his mother's gorgeous bright blue eyes. His facial features were soft, yet sharp. Overall, he was simply beautiful.

Alex had never gone through one of those "phases" where he would rebel against his parents (or parent in his case), and he probably never would. He was the kid every parent wanted and the kid everyone wanted to be, but there was something missing from his life. Something that almost everyone he knew had. A mother.

"Dad?" asked Alex, his voice low and hesitant. Eli looked up from the fireplace and looked at his son, "Hey, Champ, what's up?" Alex slowly made his way to his father, his head slightly bowed, when he reached him he raised his head, and Eli saw his eyes were full of tears.

Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out something, and handed it to his father. It was a photo, Eli's only photo of her. "Tell me about mom." Eli lowered his head and let out a sad sigh. "You never talk about her. It's not fair! I want to know her!" As Alex said this, his voice cracked, and he could feel the tears in his eyes threatening to fall.

"I know" said Eli; he motioned to the chair in front of him, "sit down". They sat silent for a few moments, before Eli finally said "You have her eyes, you know?" "I do?" asked Alex, Eli smiled sadly and nodded, "You do."

And with that, Eli started his story. "I was your age when I met her, but I wasn't like all the other teenage boys I knew. I didn't want just some meaningless random hook-up; I actually wanted to fall in love with someone unconditionally."

"I was sitting in English class, listening to the teacher go on and on about some paper that was due next week, I wasn't really paying attention to her give idea's to people about what to write. I was naturally gifted in writing, so an idea for a story wasn't hard to come by for me. That's when there was a soft knock on the door. Naturally everyone looked to see who it was, but I didn't care, I just continued to doodle on my notebook and ignore the world."

"Wow Dad" said Alex, obviously amused, "You were quite the little rebel". Eli let out a chuckle and said "Well, your grandparents always sort of let me do my own thing, but I never took of advantage of it, I knew my limits". "So what you're saying is, you never did anything bad?" questioned Alex, "Let's just say I never did anything extremely illegal…..Ok, let's drop this, do you want to hear the story or not?" "Okay, okay! I was just curious" defended Alex, "Please continue."

Eli dramatically cleared his throat and continued "As I was saying, there was a knock on the door, and the teacher opened the door and said "Oh! I almost forgot! We have a new addition to our class! Why don't you introduce yourself sweetie?" "Okay" she said, "My name is Clare Edwards". The second she opened her mouth, and her beautiful melodic voice filled my ears, I knew she was the one for me. Then I looked up and saw perfect face the beautiful voice came from. Everything about her was perfect. She had curly auburn hair that reached to her shoulders, full naturally pink lips, the cutest nose, and the most gorgeous blue eyes I had ever seen. "We're very glad to have you Clare, why don't you find an empty seat and we'll get started" said the teacher. Her eyes searched the room, until they landed on the only available seat, next to me. When she started to walk towards me, my heart started beating so fast I swore that anyone close to me would be able to hear it. She sat down and smiled at me, I smiled back and then suddenly without even thinking I blurted out, "You have pretty eyes". She seemed to blush and then replied "Thanks, yours aren't too bad either" then she smiled at me and turned her attention to the teacher."

"Real smooth Dad. You were a real ladies man" stated Alex, Eli snorted and rolled his eyes, not bothering to reply with a witty comeback. "After that we were assigned as English partners for the rest of the year, we would meet at the library, coffee shops and places like that. We started off by only talking about our English assignments, but we soon discovered we had more in common than we thought. We listened to the same types of music, read the same kinds of books, loved the same movies, everything you could think of we were the same in every way."

"She soon became my best friend, and I became hers, and each and every day I fell more and more in love with her. It killed me inside to watch other guys ogle her, and not be able to do anything about it. She soon took notice of my behavior and confronted me about it one day."

""I don't understand why you're acting this way! You're my best friend, but you're acting like a jealous boyfriend!" screamed Clare, "You're right Clare, you don't understand! You don't understand what you're doing to me!" "Eli, I have no idea what you're talking about!" "I'm in love with you Clare! And seeing all these guys drooling over you every day kills me! There's something between us, Clare, and you know it! So stop pretending you don't becau-" She interrupted me by pressing her soft lips to mine suddenly, she then pulled away and said "I love you too, Eli"."

"After that we became official. She was mine, and I was hers. We spent every single possible moment together; it's a surprise we never got sick of each other, but it wasn't always that way. Like most couples we had our fights, since we were so alike our personalities would often clash, and we found ourselves arguing about even the most meaningless things. But we'd always make-up, always."

"We stayed together through the last two years of high school, and the day before graduation, I took her to our special park for moonlight picnic. When we finished eating she asked me "What's going to happen?" "What do you mean?" I asked raising an eyebrow "I mean what's going to happen with us?" She clarified. "Oh…Well that's sort of why I wanted us to be alone. I wanted to ask you something." "Really? What is it? What did you want to ask me?" She said excitedly, "Well, you know how I have my own apartment right?" She nodded, "Well, I what I wanted to ask you is how you would feel if I were to ask you to move in with me?" she didn't even think about it before she jumped on top of me and hugged me tightly. "I'll take that I as a yes" I said while laughing, "Of course it's a yes, silly! I love you" she kissed me and when she pulled away, I whispered "I love you too"."

"So we graduated and moved in together, everything was perfect. I had everything I'd ever wanted, and as long as she was happy, I was happy. About two years later, she found out she was pregnant with you. That was probably one of the happiest times in both of our lives. She had wanted to start a family for so long, and she finally got her wish, but something was still missing, we weren't married yet. I wanted waited until after you were born, and things settled down before I popped the question. A few months after you were born, I noticed that she had been distant, and the light in her eyes was starting to go out, which was odd because it was Christmas time, her favorite time of year. So I decided that was perfect opportunity to cheer her up."

"It was Christmas Eve, the stars were out and it was just beginning to snow, just like tonight, as I led her blindfolded to the same exact spot where I had asked her to move in with me. She was whining like a little girl, complaining that it was cold and that she couldn't see. When we got the spot, I took off her blindfold, and she looked around and smiled, "Eli, what are we doing here?" I smirked and then asked her "Remember a couple years ago when I brought you here, to this exact spot and asked you if you wanted to move in with me?" She nodded her head and said "Yes, I remember", "Well, I've brought you here because I wanted to ask you another very important question", "And what would that be?" She asked curiously.

"I then got down on one knee and reached into my pocket and pulled out a small red box, and took her hands in mine. "Clare Edwards, you know I love you. I love you more than anything in this entire world. I loved you the second your perfect voice filled my ears. I love your beautiful smile and your contagious laugh. I love everything about you. I couldn't imagine myself with anybody but you and I wouldn't want to. And I know that I should've asked you this a long time ago, but I'm asking you now. Clare Edwards, will you please marry me?" Tears were streaming down her face, and I couldn't tell if they were happy tears or not. "Eli I have something to tell you, but I don't want you to be sad about it" As she said she sounded so sincere, but so sad too.

I got up and stood close to her "What is it Clare? What's wrong?" I asked worriedly. She smiled sadly and lifted her hand to caress my cheek softly, tears silently falling from her lifeless blue eyes, just staring at me, then she finally spoke "I'm dying, Eli". At that moment my whole world stopped, I felt tears falling down my face, but I didn't care. Nothing mattered to me anymore. "Wh-What? Clare, that can't be true! It can't be…it can't!" I looked into her eyes and my heart broke even more when I saw all the sadness in them. The once bright vibrant blue eyes that I loved were dull and lifeless and filled with tears. "It's true, Eli. The doctors told me I have a few weeks to live". "How long have you know?" I asked through my tears, "A few days" she replied, "Why didn't you tell me?" she smiled sadly and said "I didn't want you to be sad". I shook my head slowly as I looked into her eyes, "Lily, you know you can tell me anything no matter what it is". I pulled her into a tight embrace, and he both held each other as we sobbed."

"We stayed like that for what seemed like forever, but when we finally let go, she took my face in her hands and looked me in the eyes and said, "Eli, you are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, and I want you to be happy. But I want you to know that I will always, always love you, no matter what. And even when I'm not here I'll still be here" she took her hand and placed it on my heart, feeling it beating softly beneath my chest, "In your heart, and when you look at Alex, you'll see me, and you'll remember all the great times we've shared.""

"After that we spent every single moment together, with you too of course. We would talk for hours about anything and everything, and fall asleep in each other's arms. It was like we were falling in love all over again. But I knew that soon our time together would be over, and she would be gone."

"And it did happen, sooner than I had hoped. One morning I woke up to find Clare lying motionless in my arms, with a slight smile on her face. She had passed away peacefully during the night, in my arms. I felt a single tear slide down my cheek as I leaned down and a placed one last kiss on her now pale colorless lips. I looked down and noticed something clenched in her hand. I gently unlocked her fingers and took it. It was a photo of her, my favorite one, and a note addressed to me, and one to you. I opened the one with my name on it and read":

Eli, always remember it's you and me, forever.

Love, your Clare

As Eli finished his tale, his face was stained with tears, "So now you know, son. Now you know her". Alex didn't even know what to say. He had no idea his father had been through so much pain and suffering, and that he had kept it bottled up all these years. "I've never told anyone about her. It was selfish of me not to tell you. You deserved to know about your own mother, and about how much she loved you" As Eli said this, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn envelop and handed it to his son. "I never opened it. It was addressed to you and I wanted to wait until you were old enough to give it to you", tears began to fall from Alex's eyes, but somehow he managed to say "Thank you".

With shaky hands, Alex opened the envelop and began reading.

Dearest Alex,

Words cannot express my love for you. The minute I held you in my arms for the first time, I knew you were special. I imagine you're all grown up now, and that you have turned into a very fine young man, much like your father. As much as it pains me to leave you in this way, I know you'll be in good hands. And even though I won't be with you, I'll always be watching over you. I want you to know, that I love you with all my heart, and that you are one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. I don't want you to sad for me. My life was full of laughs, love, and happiness, and I wish the same for you. I wouldn't change a single thing that happened to me, not for anything. I love you, Alex. I always have, and I always will, forever.

Love, Mom.

As Alex finished reading, Eli looked at his watch, and said "Well, looks like it's Christmas day. I didn't think it would take me this long to tell you everything", "It was worth it though" said Alex. Eli began to shake his head and chuckle softy, "What's funny, Dad?" Eli stopped laughing and said, "I've been so caught up thinking about your mother, I forgot to get you a present" Alex smiled at his father and said "Dad, this", Alex lifted up the envelop, "this is the greatest gift you could of ever given me."

Eli smiled back at his son and said "Merry Christmas, Alex"

"Merry Christmas, Dad."