CHAPTER 1. First day at Degrassi.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, irritated Carmen opens her eyes and steps out of her bed. Her alarm clock is on the other side of the room because otherwise she won't get out of bed. When the alarm is finally off she looks into the mirror. What happened to me? she thinks. I used to be happy about going to a new school. You know, a fresh start, meet new friends! But going to a new high school for the 8th time is not something to be happy about whatever her mom says. She walks through her room towards her closet. When she has found a nice dress to wear she walks to the bathroom to shower. Although Degrassi is a 5 minute walk from where she lives she still gets up at the time she used to when she lived on the farm 4 years ago. It's just an old habit she says when she's asked why.
Carmen is listening to her mom while eating guinoa for breakfast. If you don't know what guinoa is it's a kind of grain that the Inca's used to eat. Her mom is all into ecologic and healthy food. 'so first day at a new school are you exited?.'Carmen looks at her mom they have talked about this for over 2 weeks her mom most have understood that she's NOT excited.
After breakfast Carmen grabs her schoolbag and runs out shouting a quick 'bye' at her mom. When she arrives at Degrassi she notices an immediate difference from her old school. The big notice board in front of the school is actually up to date! She looks at the school and thinks that she's lucky the school year has only begun for 1 month so she should probably be fine. When she walks up the steps she has the weirdest feeling that she might be able to have a good year. She shakes it of immediately no that's just hope and there isn't hope she says to herself as she walks in.
Well the first hour she was already sent to the principal's office good start of the year Carmen really great. When she sits down in a chair in the waiting room before the office she smiles at a boy sitting in front of her. He smiles back, he's cute she thinks. 'Uniform problems?' the boy asks. Carmen laughs and says:' I don't do uniforms.' 'I have a friend who has a problem with that to'he smiles 'but Degrassi is pretty strict so if you ask me for advice to survive here I would say try not to stand out to much.' 'I didn't ask but thank you I'll keep it in mind I'm Carmen by the way.' 'I am Adam nice to meet you. ' I smile at him and then I notice something on his bag. It has an GHBT clip on it. 'Cool clip' I say while I point at his bag. 'He follows my eyes and swallows 'Yes thanks, look don't judge all right!' 'No of course not I think it's actually really cool you are coming out for that even though you just gave me the advice to try and fit in.' 'What do you say I'm coming out for exactly?'Adam has an interested smile on his face but she can see in his eyes that he is concerned about her answer. ' For being transgender.' Adams expression changes from amused to astonished. 'What gave me away?' ' Nothing in your appearance it's just I saw you look at me like a boy would and not like a gay boy would so I figured.' 'I could be bi though.' Adam says. I smile and say: 'But you aren't are you?' 'No Sherlock I am not.' He smiles and says bye to me when he is called into the office.
When it's lunchtime she feels absolutely lost. The first couple of hours have been filled with trying to find where her classes are and with having dirty looks thrown at her by teachers for not wearing the school uniform. The principal was weirdly nice. But still the only thing she could think of was or finding that nice boy Adam or just running home. Luckily when she walked in to the canteen she saw him sitting at a table with another cute and kind of darkish looking boy. Now she doesn't know what to do, should she just go over there and say hello? He is the only person she knows at the moment so why not. She walks over to the table and says: 'hi, Adam would you mind if I sit with you for lunch you're probably the only cool person I've met today so is that okay?' 'Sure' Adam says 'and thank you for calling me cool not a lot of people call me that.' Carmen laughs and sits next to him they talk a little about the principal and then the darkish looking boy cuts in and says: 'I am sorry but Adam you haven't introduced me to this lovely lady yet.' 'This is the girl I was talking about Eli, the one who said she didn't do uniforms.' 'I'm Carmen' Carmen says. He nods and looks at her weirdly his eyes are really nicely green colored. 'I'm Eli, hopefully the second cool person you met today' he winks at me.
When Carmen is walking home after school she can feel her entire body relax. This day wasn't as horrible as she had imagined . Eli and Adam are really cool they showed her where she had her classes and they compared schedules with her and she now knows that she has 2 classes with them tomorrow. Lightly smiling she walks home.
The next morning she does put on her school uniform after a lecture about obeying the rules from her mom. When she walks out of the house, Eli is standing in front of it against a black actually rather nice car. 'Eli? That's weird, I was just talking to my mom about Adam and you, how are you?' He looks weirdly at her and says 'I'm fine thanks, do you need a ride?' 'For that five minute walk? Normally no but your car looks really interesting so yes I need a ride.' Eli laughs 'well come on and meet Morty then.' He gestures that she should follow him and opens the door for her. When she is in the car he walks around it and sits next to her in the car behind the steering wheel. He starts driving and says: 'so this is Morty the second, Morty thinks it's a pleasure to meet you.' 'Okay hi Morty nice to meet you to.' She plays along with a little smile on her face 'what happened to Morty the first?' 'Oo, I crashed him into a wall.' She looks at him wondering if he is messing with her. His expression is serious. 'What your girlfriend broke up with you or something?' He looks at her astonished 'wow right and it was only your first guess. ' She looks at him wait a second she was just joking did he really crash his car over a girl? 'She must have been very special' Carmen says. He looks at her like he is thinking about what to tell her and what not. 'She was, but I'm over it.' 'So crashing a car helped?' 'Not directly but somewhere maybe.' I look bewildered and he smirks at me. ' You know what's weird' he says driving into the Degrassi parking lot. 'Weirder then crashing cars that you call Morty? No tell me.' He laughs and says: 'that you haven't asked me why I was in front of your house or how I even know your address.' We step out of the car he's looking at me to answer his question while we walk up the steps into the school. 'That is weird indeed, thanks for the lift but I really have to go and get a locker now, see you at lunch' Carmen says finding herself incredibly mysterious. Eli watches her walk down the hallway he has an amused smile on his face. Adam walks up to him. 'You like her don't you?' Eli laughs and changes the subject.
From Carmen's perspective:
When I got my locker I wonder through the hallways trying to find it. When I think I found it I try to open it. It isn't working, and I'm using force. 'What are you doing?' a voice says behind me. I turn while saying : 'I was trying to open my locker, but it's not working.' 'That's because it's not yours it's mine.' I look at her 'oops I'm sorry, I just can't seem to find mine.' 'You're new aren't you? I'm Clare Edwards.' 'I'm Carmen and yes I'm new.' 'your locker is this one next to me I think, because I know it's not used this year yet.' I try and open it yes it's my locker. 'So have you met anyone nice yet?' for some reason when she asked me this I got the feeling that she knew who I met. 'Yes there are some nice people.' 'That's nice, who are they?' 'Well I met you and Adam and Eli.' 'Oo, you met Adam and Eli? What did you think about them?' I see she knows them, she probably saw me with them yesterday or she saw me with Eli this morning. Eli who crashed his car for a girl. What if Clare was that girl or maybe she is Adam's girl. 'They are great' is the only thing I say. I quickly say bye and just before I walk away she says: 'Don't let Eli fool you he is charming but on a lot of meds.' 'Thank you, but I think he should tell me that himself, I'll see you around.'
END OF CHAPTER ONE.