Chapter One: The First Day on a Brand New Planet

"Janine what am I going to do? My parents are still freaking out." Cacie Cameron was talking once again to Janine Hogart, her best friend. She had to complain about how her parents, Sean and Ellie Cameron, had been treating her lately. It was insane. They had no clue what she'd gone through in the last few months, the drama with Ben, the drama with Christian, the many fights with Cameron. They didn't even know that she and Serena had stopped talking for a few.

"You did run away to California Cace. What do you expect? Cookies?" Janine, like always, said the words Cacie didn't want to hear.

"I expected them to understand that I had things I had to work through and I couldn't do it in Toronto," Cacie countered. It wasn't common to hear her defending what she thought to Janine Hogart before school. And this conversation could easily become the most important of the twelve years they'd been having them. After all, this was the first conversation of their senior year.

"So go to Wasaga! You went to a different country Cacie. With a guy," Janine was being logical. Trying to see things from the point of view of a parent. That was something that Cacie had never heard her do before. Janine was usually there complaining about her parents and the odd things Jay and Paige Hogart did to ever try to see it from their point-of-view. But ever since California, maybe before, she'd been different. Cacie couldn't put her finger on it. In California, Janine had seemed fine. But back in Toronto, she was not the Janine Hogart of the previous year. Must have to do with Tristan moving out. She was way too close to her brother.

"Oh yes, because Wasaga, with Ben, is where I wanted to be!" Cacie knew she was getting snappy but it didn't matter. What mattered right then was being sure that she wouldn't get yelled at by her best friend for running away. Sure, it was to join her and Cameron Michalchuk, Janine's cousin and one of Cacie's best friends, in California, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Cacie didn't need it. "And I needed to talk to Cam. We'd been fighting and…"

Suddenly Cacie's breathing grew heavy. She could feel herself start to shake, just as she did any time she started to get too stressed out, or start to feel anything too extreme. She stopped talking and bit her bottom lip, tasting the coppery taste of blood between her teeth and on her tongue. Once again she'd bitten too hard.

"Yeah I get that you two were fighting, but California. You quit your job to run away," Janine kept on griping for a few seconds longer before realizing that Cacie's breath had gone shallow. On the other end of the phone, Janine's hazel eyes widened. She could only imagine what was going on on the other end of the phone. It was common knowledge that Cacie Cameron had issues. And an anxiety disorder was near the top of that list. Or at least it was common knowledge to those privy to the inner workings of Cacie Cameron, which not too many actually were. "Cacie, you okay? You still with us? Did you get beamed up by the mother ship?"

Cacie heard Janine's voice but couldn't make out the words. Without even realizing that she'd done it, she closed the phone, hanging up on Janine. Then she felt the tears streaking down her face. She didn't know when the tears started, when she started crying. Just that she was crying. She didn't even know why she was crying, or shaking, or feeling her heart hammer against her chest like her mother's drumsticks on the ancient set of drums in the basement.

She faintly heard the home phone ring and a few seconds later saw the blurred vision of her mother walk into the room. "Cacie… Acacia. Calm down. Talk to me. What's going on?" Her mother was always asking those questions. Trying to get into Cacie's head.

Cacie looked up at the older redheaded woman and stepped back. She didn't want anyone to see her like this, see her breaking down and freaking out. She couldn't bear to have anyone see her in that condition, not even her own mother. Ellie didn't seem to care though. She walked over to her daughter and carefully started to stroke her back. "Calm down Cacie. Janine called, said you were upset. Calm down. Breathe."

The normal words escaped her mother's mouth. Telling her that she could do this, that she could breathe. All Cacie knew, once she finally was back to normal, was there was now a price on Janine Hogart's curly blonde head. She had called her mother, told her mother that she was having another attack. Cacie couldn't believe it. She had half a mind to not pick Janine up before school as punishment. But Cacie couldn't do that. More like, their other best friend wouldn't allow it.

When everything was over, Cacie walked back to her bed, taking a seat on the edge. Ellie followed her. "What was that about?"

Cacie shrugged a noncommittal shrug. "I don't know. Janine was yelling at me about California and then I started thinking about the fight I had with Cam last year and then next thing I knew I couldn't breathe and was crying and you were in here." She hated it. She hated having panic attacks, something she'd had since she was a freshman, since everything happened to her. Her new therapist suggested they were just a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, but Cacie, she knew better. She was just crazy.

Ellie listened with a very understanding look on her face and then smiled comfortingly at her daughter. "You going to be okay at school today Cace?"

Cacie nodded and then looked at the clock. "Speaking of school, I have to go Mom." She was grateful for once that she had school. She couldn't tolerate sitting there, talking about her feelings with her mother. She had never been able to deal with her mother asking how she was, asking if she was okay, or worse, asking about her love life. She knew that if she'd had the time, she would ask about her feelings for 'this Cameron boy' and then voice her disapproval. After all, Ellie Cameron had never run away to be with any boy in her youth. No that would be more Dad's type thing. Except he ran away from the girls. Never was the smartest was he.

She grabbed her backpack and found her way quickly out of the room, leaving her mother looking confused on the bed. She really needed out of that house. Small wonder I ran away right?

It didn't take long before Cacie had picked up her two best friends. She had no sooner pulled into the Hogart's driveway before Janine jumped in with an order for her to drive, fast and far away from the Hogart house. Cacie didn't understand it. Sure, Paige and Jay fought a lot but Janine was a tough cookie. She didn't ever just run out and order to be taken further away.

It took longer at the Mason house. Darcy Mason offered the girls some breakfast. Neither Janine or Cacie had eaten that morning, and they had to do something while they waited for the third member of their trio, Serena Mason. While they waited, Darcy fed them toast, scrambled eggs, and some bacon that Cacie refused to touch. Then, they got to hear the latest gossip of what was going on at the church the Mason's were a member of. "I really wish you girls would come to church with us more often. I don't think you've gone since you were girls were in tenth grade Cacie."

Cacie turned a bright red remembering the last time she'd been in that church. Janine gave her a look and Cacie offered up a weak smile. There was no way Cacie would tell Darcy Mason, or even her husband, about the things she'd done with Christian Hellsend at their church, especially in the closet that housed the choir robes. She wouldn't even tell Serena what had happened in that scenario.

"Mother, not everyone is as into religion as we are. Please stop force feeding my friends the bible," Serena's voice approached the table before the tall and curvy redhead. Both of her friends looked up with wide eyes, grateful to be saved by their best friend.

A few minutes later, the three were out the door and into Cacie's car, an old Jetta that her father had found a deal on. Sure, Craig Manning helped more on getting the deal, but it was still her father who did the paper work, her father who paid for the car, and her father who rebuilt the engine. After listening to Janine and Serena bicker about who got the front seat (Janine won the two out of three rock-paper-scissors), they were on their way.

Degrassi Community School had not changed at all since the previous school year. The same people went through the doors and as always, the three best friends separated inside the doors. Not once had they gotten lockers in the same hall. Cacie made her way to her new locker, down in the English wing, and stopped dead in her tracks. There was no way that he was back at Degrassi.