Adam walked ahead of me, then stopped and turned around, sensing that I wasn't following him.

"Come on!" he cried impatiently, walking back towards me and grabbing my arm in a surprisingly strong grip. "I helped you with your room yesterday. I had to scrape some kind of unidentifiable substance off the floor from under your desk that smelled like horse shit. Therefore, you have to suffer with me through this dance."

I sighed. Adam was forced to go to the annual end-of-the-school-year dance because it was sponsored by the school board, which his mom was on. He said his mom had said he had to go because it would "look bad" if neither of her sons showed up at the dance. (Drew had gotten grounded a few days ago because his mom had caught him and Bianca in his room doing "the deed" as Adam had put it when he told me the story.) So now Adam had to go to represent both Torres brothers so the other school board members "wouldn't talk." And since he has in fact helped me clean out my room for several months now, I do sort of owe him.

As we approached Degrassi, I felt myself begin to get a little jittery. I was pretty damn positive that Clare would be here, since she went to all school functions. And ever since what had happened over Spring Break, we avoided each other like The Plague. In fact, I don't even think we've even said one word to each other since then.

The first month and a half after the break-up was almost un-bearable. Even though I'm strictly against clichés, I felt like I had nothing left to live for. I had been down this road once before, and I obviously didn't handle loss well. Nor did I handle grieving well. When I was in the hospital after the "accident" (that's what everyone calls it but I don't consider it an accident since I did it on purpose), this therapist would come to my hospital room twice a day, wake me up usually, and start talking to me about a bunch of shit retaining to "dealing with disappointments" AKA, not crashing your car into a telephone pole when breaking up with your girlfriend.

I had been in therapy before. My parents were worried about me after Julia's death and forced me to see a therapist. I didn't cooperate though, and wouldn't even talk to the therapist, so after a few failed sessions, he prescribed me an anti-depressant and diagnosed me as "temporarily depressed."

But now, it's almost the end of June. The last day of school was today, and it's been over two months since Spring Break. I didn't think it was humanly possible for me to be even somewhat happy again after the breakup with Clare, but I found myself actually coping. Not exactly over everything yet, definitately not over her yet, but I was coping. I was going from day to day and making it through each and every one. I'm not saying things were easy, because they weren't, but I found a will and some hope somewhere in me that I had buried deep after Julia died.

But I had a terrible anxiety that started creeping up on me that somehow Clare and I would bump into each other tonight and somehow, something bad would happen. I didn't know what to say to her if that would happen. So my plan was to go into the gym, find a nice corner, and sit there for the entire four hours of the dance.

Adam and I walked up the front steps of Degrassi, both taking small, slow strides, both dreading what waited inside. Adam didn't want to go because Fiona would be there, and he was still pretty hurt over that, even if he didn't really show it. Let's face it, Adam and I have had enough relationship problems combined to last an entire freaking lifetime.

There was corny pop music radiating from the building, which made the entire situation even worse. I mean I listened to rock or screamo, if you really wanted to put that kind of goth label on it, and I could be tolerate of several other genres of music: blues, alternative, even rap sometimes depending on the level of intelligence the lyrics had, but I could not stand any of that crappy pop music that basically every other teen was obsessed with. My ears would most likely be bleeding by the time the dance was over.

Adam flung open the door and we stepped inside the lobby. I scanned the lobby quickly for Clare, but there wasn't anyone there but a few couples and groups of girls. Adam and I slowly walked into the gym, where blue and gold streamers hung from the ceilings and a disco ball hung from the huge ceiling fan in the middle. On the opposite side of the gym hung a banner that read "Congratulations on another great year Degrassi!" Great? My ass. This was probably the worst year this school has ever seen. Does no one remember the crackdown?

I scanned the thick crowd for Clare but I didn't see even see anyone with curly hair. I sighed and Adam and I made our way over to the snack table. We looked like single losers, sitting there, stuffing our faces with potato chips. I was just about to go find a place to sit down when the music stopped and Sav's voice boomed from a loud microphone from a stage at the front of the gym that I couldn't see through the crowd.

"Hey Degrassi! Hope all that studying for exams paid off! Now it's time to kick back and relax and have some fun!"

The whole gym erupted in "woo." Then there was a shuffling noise and then Holy J's voice.

"Now, Sav and I managed to get a live performer tonight! It was very last minute otherwise we would have told you guys about it earlier."

The room broke out into applause. Adam and I exchanged a surprised look. Adam and I had been to a few dances this year, and there had never been live music.

"Now put your hands together for Penny and The Nicks!"

There was another shuffling sound and then after a few seconds the gym erupted into loud rock music. Adam and I took one look at each other and then pushed our way through the crowd to see who this mysterious band that saved us from a night of bad pop music was.

A girl started to sing and I stopped in my tracks. The sound sent chills down my spine, which was odd. I lost Adam in the crowd during that second I stopped and I mentally slapped myself as I pushed throw the people again.

And of course, just as I get through a row of couples making out, I run smack into Clare, literally. I was expecting this, because let's face it; I don't have the best luck. I felt my cheeks flaming, which doesn't happen often.

I didn't know whether to just keep pushing through the people or say hi. I finally shouted a meek "Hi Clare."

"Hi." she replied, looking uncomfortable. I couldn't help noticing how nice she looked. She was wearing a sky blue dress that complimented her eyes.

"Uh… how are you?" I asked, awkwardly shuffling my feet.

She cleared her throat. "I'm fine. And you?"

"I'm alright." There was an awkward pause and I wanted to get out of here. "Bye."

I shoved past her and continued up to the front of the gym, still blushing. As I was almost there, I ran into Adam again and then I saw the band. All thoughts of that awkward conversation with Clare were forgotten.

The singer was a petite girl with literally gold hair that I couldn't tell if it was natural or dyed. She had deep, dark blue eyes and a cute round face. Her lips were a hot pink color and she wore dark makeup around her eyes. She was wearing a black t-shirt, black skinny jeans and black converse high tops. But her voice… I had never heard anything like it. It was light and melodic and flowed over the heavy rock music with an indescribable ease. I found myself staring at the girl, and Adam and I were right in front of the stage. She noticed and smiled a bit at me.

I found myself blushing for the second time that night. Eli Goldsworthy does not blush.