Just Like Heaven
CONTEXT: This story takes place in the middle of season three. It falls just after the events of "Holiday", with the only change being that Ellie never joined PMS for "Rock and Roll High School". Any other discrepancies are purely accidental and I apologize in advance.
1. In which school begins again
If they knew how it felt, would they still treat me the way that they do? I know I messed up, messed up bad, and maybe I deserve what I'm getting. I don't know, though. I don't think anyone deserves this.
No one wants me here. No one cares, not even the guys who call themselves my friends. The friends who thought it was so damn studly to have two girls at once. Even they look at me now like I've got some kind of disease, some plague that could rub off on them and cause their girlfriends to love them less.
What no one understands is that I hate myself just as much as they hate me. I hate my weakness, my hormones, my temper... and most of all I hate the fact that more and more lately it seems like everything I touch just fades away.
The other thing that no one seems to believe is that I really loved Ashley. Loved her with all my heart, everything about her was magic. Maybe I was afraid to tell her because I've always so closely connected love with pain. I guess that was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I am untouchable.
Craig Manning walked through the doors of Degrassi on the first day after holiday recess and it was like a bomb had dropped. A hush fell over the students who happened to be standing in the hall and all eyes fell upon him. Silence followed his every footstep as he made his way as quickly as possible to his locker. The quiet didn't last long, and soon his ears were accosted with the sound of endless whispers. Hunching his shoulders protectively, he grasped his black messenger bag and camera and quickened his step.
Finally he reached his locker, where Spinner, Marco, and Jimmy were all standing. Spinner and Jimmy gave him a half nod and Marco gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Hey Craig." He said, watching as the other boy laid his burdens on the floor by their feet. Craig began to fiddle with the combination of his locker as Jimmy and Spinner continued their conversation.
"Oh man, have you seen the new girl? So cute..." Spinner spoke, gaze growing dreamy. Jimmy rolled his eyes and gave his friend a smack on the arm.
"Paige, Spin. You're dating Paige." He told him, emphasizing the last word. Spinner shook his head.
"You just don't get it, Jimmy. It's the Betty and Veronica effect. I love Paige, and think she's the best. But I can't deny that the new girl is pretty. It's like, who would you choose? Betty or Veronica? Betty, of course, she's totally the hottest and way less uptight. But that doesn't mean that you don't think that Veronica is a babe." He finished, and his three friends stared at him in shock.
"I don't know what's worse, the fact that you've thought about this or that it actually kind of makes sense..." Jimmy replied. Craig finally got the door open and turned to his friends.
"New girl?" he asked, recovering his fallen lyric notebook. Spinner grinned.
"You haven't seen her?" he asked, and Craig resumed stuffing things into his locker.
"You'd know if you had. She's got a different look, that's for sure." Marco told him, and Jimmy and Spinner shared a glance.
"What?" Craig asked, already knowing their joke would be about him. They shared another glance and a snicker before turning to him.
"Well, we were thinking..." Jimmy began.
"You should find her and talk to her." Spinner continued.
"You know, before she gets a chance to talk to the other girls." Jimmy explained with a laugh.
"So you might have a chance to have a girlfriend sometime in the next, oh say, three years." Spinner finished, and the two shared a high five as Craig turned quickly and set off down the hall. He could barely hear Marco's voice behind him as he left, calling the two other remaining boys idiots. In truth the whispers and giggles that surrounded him weren't what really got to him. What really killed him was the fact that his closest friends, Spinner and Jimmy, thought it was all some big joke. They found humor in the fact that he was pitied by every guy and hated by every girl.
Craig didn't think any of it was very funny. He finally made his way to his first class of the day, Composition Literature. There he found Hazel already shooting daggers in his direction. He found a seat in the corner by the window, as far away from her prying gaze as possible. It was going to be a long, long day.