Damage Control

By Degrassi-Doll

Jay x Emma

Chapter One

Well, it is time for me to write this story because I've been thinking about it for a really long time! I related so well to Emma in Our Lips are Sealed, being a recovering ED patient myself. It is so, so painful to deal with, so it might get into a lot of detail into the minds of those who have EDs. By the way, I am always open to talk with anyone who's struggling through one!

Anyway, I've always loved Jay and Emma together, even before "Secret." One of my OTPs, in fact. And, of course, it kills me to write Sparcy in this story considering how much I ship Spaige (I actually don't hate Palex), but it's only for one or two chapters and it's not like they'll stay together in my head! Haha, sorry to the Sparcy-ers. I personally hate Sparcy more than most pairings. But they won't break up or anything in the story. They won't even be in it for more than a few chapters.

By the way, Emma's anorexia is still there. But, in my story, she's been going through it for about a month and people haven't really noticed due to her baggy clothing. She never passed out at school and her family never intervened.

Anyway, here goes! It's Jay's POV throughout the whole thing.

You know me. I'm always down for a party, even if it's a small one that probably can't even be considered a "party."

Good ol' Spinner, whose life kind of sucks right now due to pretty much everyone in the school hating him because of Jimmy Brooks getting shot, got persuaded by his perfect little girlfriend Darcy to have some people over to his house. He told me that she said it was a "healing process" and that he needs to "reach out to other people more" if he wants to keep his friends. I think she's full of shit, but I wouldn't tell him that. The guy's got pretty much everyone in the school on his case, and he doesn't need me telling him that his girlfriend's a wackjob. She's a wackjob who apparently thinks a "party" can have eight people, too, so it's not like a whole load of people are coming; nobody would come to anything at Spinner Mason's even if he did decide to invite everyone in the school. Nope, just him, Jesus Darcy, and me. And, well, a few others.

Paige and Alex are coming – Paige kind of forgave him, I guess, because of their history. Alex never really cared at all about the whole situation. And Darcy wanted Manny and Emma there, so Greenpeace just had to bring along her douchebag boyfriend Peter. Don't like that kid at all. Smug little bastard.

It's probably going to suck. I have the car radio on, listening to James Hetfield from Metallica wailing about being the master of puppets. I almost wish I could stay in my car, drive around, and keep listening to my music. Or I could go to the ravine. It would be better than spending a Friday night with the people I'm about to go be with. Spinner, of course, I'm cool with right now. Alex and I have smoothed things over since she decided she was a lesbian (which still confuses the hell out of me), but those are the only people I really don't mind seeing tonight. Darcy. Oh, well. She's nice and all and makes Spinner happy, but I can't help but think that she thinks she's the most glorious thing since Jesus Himself to walk on the planet. Paige is a preppy little bitch, and I think that Alex can do a lot better in women. God, it still feels so weird to even think that, considering how very, very close Alex and I used to be. Manny, eh. I saw those girls of hers, thanks to the video that pretty-boy Peter Stone took. Not bad at all. I still don't care either way about her, though. Emma...oh. She's hated my guts ever since she found out I gave her a social disease after she gave me a fantastic hummer at the ravine. Well, she gave me something. It was only fair to give her something back, right? Even if I didn't mean to. I mean, I'd be pissed, too. But she's being so whiny and dramatic over it, so I stopped caring about her, too. And Peter? I could shove the kid to the ground and kick his ribs in and not feel sorry for a second. I won't, though. I don't want his face coming in contact with my shoes. So, in the end, I could probably be having more fun at the ravine, in my car, or even at work. But it's for Spinner, and it is technically a "party" according to Darcy. Who am I to say no to a party, even one that's most likely going to be crappy?

I turn my radio off and pull into his driveway. Yeah, so I'm a little bit late to this party of his (he so-very-kindly texted me to "get ur ass over here, ur the last one here") because of work. Even though it's a Friday night and I should probably have been coming from school like the rest of them, I got expelled. Oh, well. Not a problem. School's never been my thing, anyway.

I finally get there to see everyone sitting at the outside patio table, eating pizza. Seems to me that Spinner's getting through to everyone a little – hell, he even seems to be enjoying himself. Everyone looks pretty damn happy, and they all greet me when they see me. They are a fun group of people, I guess, even if I wouldn't be caught dead hanging out with half of them.

Pulling up a seat in between Spinner and Paige, I help myself to a slice of pizza – damn good pizza, at that - and look around the room at the company I have. Everyone looks pretty animated, except Peter and Emma. Emma's resting her shoulder on her head (and, for some ungodly reason, wearing a sweatshirt despite the hot temperature) and Peter looks like he's trying to talk to her about something. She doesn't seem to care. I don't blame her at all, actually. I'd be exhausted too if he was yapping in my ear the way he was to her.

"You gonna eat that?" Alex asks Emma, who is the only one on the table who still has a slice of pizza left on her plate.

"Go ahead. I ate dinner before I came," Emma replies as Alex shrugs and takes the piece. This action, for some reason, prompts Peter to look at Emma with a strange look. God, that kid's weird. When Emma rolls her eyes at him and turns to Manny to engage in a different conversation, I, again, don't blame her.

The conversation shifts when Paige says, with her usual Paige I'm-better-than-you air, "God, I can't believe it's May. I'm officially going to be a Banting girl come another few months."

"Yeah," Alex replies, "and I'll be stuck here again for another year. Can't wait."

"Hon, you'll be fine. We still have the whole summer!"

"Only until the end of July. Then I leave for Puerto Rico."

"You're going to Puerto Rico?" Darcy jumps in. "Gosh, it's so nice there! I went there last summer."

"And this summer you're going to California and leaving me here," Spinner complained.

"Oh, relax! It's only May."

As a result of all the summer chat, Manny butts in, "Our little Emma here is going to a leadership camp in Alberta! It's really difficult to get into. She must've impressed them with her resume. Saving the animals and supporting organic cafeteria food, one protest at a time."

Emma, who seemed to be in a daze of some sort, looks up and snaps out of whatever she was thinking. Everyone else seems too busy talking to everyone else to catch it, but I can't help but notice that she's seemed a little spacey since the party began. It's got to be tiredness - I thought I heard Peter talking about a really hard test that Kwan gave out today - or otherwise the fact that she was sick of Peter. Neither would surprise me. Again, though. I don't think much of it.

"I'm not going anymore," Emma says, a little hazily.

Manny chuckles. "You're funny, Em. 'I'm not going' my ass." Turning to everyone else, she says, "This is the only thing she's talked about since we were grade eights, finally becoming old enough to go to the Alberta Camp for Young Leaders or whatever it's called."

"I'm not kidding, Manny."

Stopping dead in her tracks, Manny looks Emma in the eye. Everyone else looks on at her, too, expecting an answer. They do all, though, seem a lot more indifferent than Manny. It's not the kind of thing I'd expect them to care about. "You can't be serious."

Emma stays silent for a minute. She looks from the ground, to her hands, to her side, back to Manny. She looks so damn uncomfortable.

"Why the hell would you do that?" Manny argues. "What if you don't get in next year?"

Emma shrugs a little. "I just wanted a free summer! We can hang out more, Manny. I thought you'd be happy."

"Well, not after you've been talking about this since-"

"Okay," Alex pipes in, pointing at the door to Spinner's house. "If you two are having some issues, get them out of the party and go sort them out inside."

Manny nods, grabbing Emma's hand and pulling her inside. Emma rolls her eyes and mouths a sarcastic "thank you" to Alex, who sits back and looks at the rest of us.

"Anyway, back to what we were saying before-"

I listen to Alex only halfway; the other half is wondering what the hell was up. Emma's not being antisocial by most standards, but for talkative and outspoken Greenpeace who's always shoving her opinions down people's throats, it's weird to see her making few comments and not smiling much. Not hearing her talk about how Spinner shouldn't have ordered pepperoni pizza because of the meat is a little odd, but it's kind of relaxing, in a way. I quickly shove it out of my head and listen to what Alex is saying when Manny comes walking back out of the house, looking aggravated.

"She said she's going to try to spend more time with her birth father who lives in a mental hospital. I don't believe it for a second."

"Her dad's a nutjob?" Spinner asks.

"You're such a sensitive guy, Spinner." Manny rolls her eyes. "Yeah, her dad fell down and lost it, or something like that. She found out about it a few years ago. And she hasn't even mentioned him since then, so I don't know why she cares all of a sudden. You didn't hear it from me, though."

"Visiting her dad? That sounds sweet, Manny," Darcy says. Typical Darcy comment. "Maybe she's not lying."

"I know Emma pretty damn well. She's lying."

"Where is she, anyway?" asks Paige.

"She said she'll be out in a minute."

No more than a minute later, Emma walks back outside. It's weird. She looks a little paler and more tired, but seems happier than she was before. She takes her seat again, in between Manny and Peter, and flashes each of them a weary smile.

"Wow. Pretty sure you weren't this happy five minutes ago," Paige points out. As much as I don't like Paige, she pretty much stole the thoughts from my head at that point.

Emma freezes for a second. "Oh! Yeah...just, uh, my mom called. She...surprised me with a new phone and she's going to give it to me when I come back from the party."

"What kind?"

"A...Blackberry."

"Nice!" everyone comments. Manny seems skeptical, but the idea of seeing Emma a little bit happier must have made her forget about it. Maybe it was just me, but they all seem to take Emma's answers so lightly. Am I crazy for wondering if she was lying or not? Seems kind of fishy to me. It doesn't help the matter when I see her head start to fall down in what seems like tiredness, and then all of a sudden jerk back up as if realizing she was falling asleep. She still has a weak little smile on her face, though. It's all kind of strange to me how everybody is accepting her answers for what they are when I'm doubting them so much - that she's fine, that she's trying to spend more time with her dad, that her mom really did get her a new phone. Either I'm being overly perceptive, or Emma's acting really, really strange. I kind of think it's the second one, but nobody else seems to catch on.

Not that I'm going to make it a priority or anything, but it's weird to see Greenpeace acting so strange. And I want to know what's behind it.

I love Jemma. God, it took about fifteen minutes to write just the last two paragraphs because I kept falling asleep. I've learned something - writing in the POV of Jay and writing accurate dialogue for some of the characters is pretty hard, as well. Oh, well! Please review - more to come soon!