AUTHOR'S NOTE***READ . IMPORTANT . READ***: Hey. This is my first Degrassi fanfic, so please don't be too hard, but REVIEW. Just a heads up on a few very important things. Eli and Clare are not quite together. VEGAS NIGHT HAS NOT HAPPENED YET, which means the 'not-so-stab' never happened. If I've forgotten anything, I will put it in an author's notw at the beginning of next chapter. That is, if there is a next chapter. I will update depending on my reviews/favourites/etc. Thank you. :D

A hall in Degrassi. That's where it all started. Eli and I were standing there being ourselves; horrible to each other. That's when my life changed.

I walked down the hall after opening my locker to find it filled with little pink paper hearts and sparkles; now I was covered in them. I knew exactly who had done this. I looked everywhere for him. Then I saw him down the hall flirting with Clare, like he always does. I walked towards him."Why the hell did you do this?" I yelled, motioning down at my body. He just laughed.

"Fitzy! Finally decided to warm up to the world and show who you really are, have you?" he said, smirking.

"Yeah, now please, let my fist warm up to your face!"

I raised my fist and swung. I felt it collide against a face. Too bad it wasn't Eli's. Eli had stepped back just in time, so my arm swung around and came up to hit a person who was walking by me. I looked down at the person who had fallen to the ground.

The first thing that came into my head was 'Oh shit! I just hit a girl!' as I saw the blond figure clutching the right side of her face. She brought her hand down from her face and looked up at me. The second thing that I thought was 'Oh shit! I just hit a really cute girl!' She winced when she blinked and brought her hand back up to her face.

"This is the greatest welcoming I've ever gotten" she said sarcastically. I kneeled down next to her.

"I'm really sorry! I never meant to hit you!" I said, my voice laced with worry.

"Oh I know" she said. "You meant to hit him." She pointed up at Eli. "So I don't truly blame you for hitting me. Boys fight. They shouldn't, but the world wouldn't go around if they didn't." she said, slowly getting up while clutching her eye.

I was really surprised by the way she was acting. Most girls would totally freak out.

For the first time in a bit, I looked over at Eli and Clare. Eli looked totally shocked, and Clare looked totally shocked and worried.

The girl had gotten up by now, and I watched as she looked me up and down. She gave me a really confused look as to why I was covered in paper hearts and sparkles.

"I'll explain. Looks like you need some ice for that" I said, as I watched her eye become more of a red colour, and become slightly puffier. "How about I walk you down to get ice and I'll explain." I offered.

"Sure, thanks." she said with a small smile.

We started walking down the hall towards the office. I looked back to Eli and Clare, who were standing there giving me a questioning look. I knew they were probably wondering why I was walking a girl to the office, but I had just punched her in the face, so I wanted to be nice to her; for her to know I'm not a completely bad guy. And well . . . she was cute.

I looked at her fully for the first time. She had her blond hair, which reached past her shoulders, in a braid to the side. It came and rested on her left shoulder; a few loose strands of hair hung from her head and the braid. She had a hot pink flower tucked behind her ear. She had a bit of make up on, but it gave her a natural glow, though her eye was red and puffy. She had an orange sundress on, and a pair of white flip-flops. She was really beautiful.

"So, explain please?" the girl asked, breaking me from the sort of trance I was in.

"Well, a while ago, Eli and I, the goth-ish guy who I tried to punch, kind of got into this battle thing after I broke a piece of his car off. From then on, we've kind of been taking turns doing horrible things to each other. This morning, I guess he put paper hearts and glitter in my locker, so I went to punch him in the face, but I ended up punching you." I said all to quickly. She looked at me funny, and then let out a laugh.

"Wow! I guess it was partially my fault though. I had my nose buried in my map trying to figure out where I was supposed to go. I should have watched where I was going."

"No, please. This was all my fault." I said apologetically. "So . . . that means you new here?" I asked and she nodded.

"Yeah, just transferred here." she said, brushing her bangs behind her ear. I loved her look. It felt earthy, but in a fun and laid-back way. "So, Eli was the guy and the girl was?"

"Oh, well that was Clare. She and Eli are completely into each other, but nothing serious has really happened." I replied. "She always tries to break up mine and Eli's fight. I guess she fails every time."

"Well at least there's some one trying to stop it!" she said with a laugh, as we arrived at the office.

We walked in and the secretary immediately asked what happened.

"Well, I kind of . . . punched her-" I started, but I was cut off.

"By accident! Yeah, it's funny really." she laughed. I looked at her not knowing what she was doing. She looked at me and gave me a 'play along' look. "I was walking down the hall, looking at my map and I almost walked right into him. He was swinging his arm up just at the time, and he ended up punching me in the face." she laughed again.

The secretary looked like she didn't believe it, as she had seen me in the office millions of times before. She gave a quick, questioning 'ok...' and walked into a room and came back out with ice. The girl gave a quick thanks and walked out, me trailing behind her.

"Why did you do that?" I asked as she leaned up against a wall outside the office.

"You don't seem like that bad of a guy, but she looked at you like you get in trouble a lot. You helped me, and were nice to me. I didn't want you to get into trouble again." she said with a smile.

"Thank you . . . a lot" I said, shocked but happy.
"Anytime. Well, I should get to class. Thanks for the help and everything." she said nicely as she got off the wall and took a step away, before turning back again. "Oh, and I'm Carter Clair. Yeah, Carter is sort of boy-ish, but it's me." she said. I didn't even think of that. I liked it.

"I'm Mark Fitzgerald. Call me Fitz though." I said back.

"Okay, I will" she tugged on her braid slightly. "Um, see you around?" she asked, shyly, which surprised me. I smiled.

"Definitely." She smiled once again, then I watched as she turned around and walked to her class.

I felt weird. I felt good, like I wanted to not punch Eli, or anyone else. It was a great feeling. I didn't know what it was, but I could've gotten used to it.

I hope you liked it. PLEASE REVIEW. I like reviews :D .