I was quite disappointed my dad had lost his job and we were all moving to Toronto. I'd had to quit my spy job and I'd have to see if I could find a new one here. I wasn't able to tell my parents that I was losing my job by moving, because my spy job was to be kept a secret.
I knew nothing about Toronto and according to my parents I would be starting at a new high school called Degrassi. I needed to get around Toronto and find a new spy job, but spies didn't make anything obvious, epe.
When we arrived at our new house, I figured I'd tell my parents I'm meeting the neighbors, but then go check out Toronto. I hoped I could find another spy job.
When I left my street, the first places I saw were a CVS and a grocery store. Nothing suspicious enough to be spy place. A few streets down, there were more grocery stores, then I figured I should get home. I would try some more tomorrow.
As soon as I walked into Degrassi and saw kids walking around, I could tell what almost half of them were feeling. I could feel my spy skills kicking in.
I saw a couple walk in together. A girl with short light brown bouncy hair and a fairly long haired emo boy. They smiled at each other and walked separate ways. I also saw a stressed looking dirty blonde haired girl and many other people.
I saw the main office, and figured that's where I should be heading. As I started walking towards it, I continued to observe it. I stopped in the front entrance in the office and the woman behind the desk looked up at me. "Hi, I'm Ariana Blocksten. I'm new here." I said.
"Hi Ariana." she said. "Here's your schedule. Let us know if you can't find anything." She said matter-of-factly, handing me a small piece of paper.
My first class was Biology so I figured I should go find it.
I observed people in all of my classes. When I got to English, I sat down in the only empty seat. I saw both the light brown haired girl and her emo boyfriend. He was talking to a shorter light brown haired boy. The emo boy's girlfriend was sitting next to me. She seemed friendly so I introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Ariana. I'm new."
"I'm Clare." she said. "Welcome to Degrassi. How do you like it so far?"
"It's okay. Same as my last school basically."
"Yeah." Clare said.
"Ok, work with your partner on an expository essay on your opinion on something in current politics." The teacher, who according to my schedule was named Ms. Dawes, said. Clare got up and walked over to where the light brown haired boy was sitting and took his seat as he got up. Apparently got to work with her boyfriend. The light brown haired boy came and sat in the seat next to me and was talking to the girl on the other side of him. I saw the teacher coming up to me. "Adam and Bridget, why don't you have a group of three and include our new student Ariana." She said to the light brown haired boy.
He turned to me. "Hi, I'm Adam."
"Hi, Ariana."
"I'm Bridgit. Bridgit said.
"So what do you want to write about?" Adam asked. We continued to discuss the assignment for the rest of the class.
I was also thinking about lunch which would be hard because I was new. Hopefully there would be someone I'd introduced myself to from one of the three classes I had so far.
When I got there, I immediately saw Clare with her emo boyfriend and Adam sitting together. I figured I could try and sit with them. I walked over to them. They looked up when I got there.
"Hi." I said.
"Hi." Clare said welcomingly. "Come sit."
"Yeah. You seemed really good in English." Adam said.
"Thanks." I said sitting down.
"Ariana, this is Eli, my boyfriend." Clare said, gesturing.
"Hi." I said.
"I noticed you have Ms. Dawes too." He said. I realized they might be starting to think I was going to become Adam's girlfriend. Despite the fact that he was kind a cute, I didn't come here for dating. Actually I didn't come here by choice, but I would rather find another spy job.
"You should come over today. We could work on the English assignment. Clare said. She studies a lot, I noted. But I had a better reason to object.
"I have to help my parents move. We just got in last night. That wasn't why, but it worked better than the fact that I was looking for a spy job.
"Oh. Maybe tomorrow." Clare said.
"Sure." I said. Hopefully I'd have found one by then. They seemed like pretty cool people to hang out with.
After school, I told my parents that I was getting the mail. I ran farther than I went yesterday and past many more store and many new corners. I really needed to learn my way around. It was essential to being a spy. I went back so I wouldn't get caught and I would have to go back tomorrow after studying with Clare.
The next day as I walked into school I saw Eli and Clare talking together. They didn't seem too happy, so I kept going. About 30 seconds later, Clare had caught up with me.
"Hey. Are you okay?"
"What? Yeah, I'm fine." She lied, obvious enough for a non spy.
I didn't realize she was the denial type. After a pause, she continued.
"Eli just got kind of possessive and he's not entirely over his dead ex." I stopped walking in horror and stared at her. She looked back at me, expecting me to continue walking so I kept walking.
"I didn't realize he had a dead ex. I said explaining my stopping.
The walk to lunch was awkward. It seemed like Eli was walking with Clare even though she was trying to poitely get away from him, but not succeeding. At lunch, Eli talked to Clare a lot, but she looked to Adam and I to try and get herself out of it.
The next morning, I saw Clare walk into Degrassi alone. She came up to me "Eli and I are taking a break," she said. Was break temporary before breaking up. Were they going to break up?
"Oh." I said.
In English, I was sitting next to Clare again and she said, "Hi Ariana!"
"Hi," I said. I wondered how things would go if Ms. Dawes asked us to work in partner again, but she didn't."
Right after English, Clare turned to me and said, "You should meet my friend Alli. C'mon." She led me to a table in the cafeteria where an Indian girl was already sitting.
"Alli, this is Ariana." Clare said, sitting down. I sat down next to her.
"Yeah." I said.
"You should come to the dance this Friday. Clare and I made it happen." She said proudly pointing at Clare and herself.
"Really?"
"I didn't really do much, it was mostly Alli." Clare said seeming embarrassed and modest.
"Yes, you did Clare!" Alli whined. "Anyway, Principle Simpson said that we weren't going to be able to have another dance because of how the last one turned out with police and lots of other bad stuff. So when standardized testing was coming up last week, I said on announcements last week that we were having a dance if everyone did well, so Simpson said yes to bribe everyone. So Clare and I tutored everyone." It did seem like something a friend of Clare's would do considering her study habits.
"Oh, cool."
"Yeah, you should come." Alli said.
"Sure." I said.
At the end of the day, Clare and I were sitting by the front of Degrassi waiting for her mom to come pick us up, when Adam came up to us.
"Hi." He said, sitting next to me on the steps.
"Hi." Clare and I said.
"I haven't seen you much today. How are you." He said directed at me.
"Good. You?"
"Good. Have you heard about the dance this Friday." He asked. Oh no, he is going to ask if I want to go the dance with him.
"Yeah." I said.
"Do you want to go to the dance with me. I know we don't know each other very well yet and it would mostly just be as friends…" He trailed off, expecting an answer. Just like anyone else would have, I definitely heard the word 'mostly'.
"No, I won't go to the dance with you, I'm sorry." Adam looked really disappointed and started to walk away. I felt like I needed to explain. "Adam, I like you, you're cute, and I like you too. But I don't date," I said. "It has nothing to do with you. I have just more important things."
"Oh, okay" he said, seemingly more satisfied. I went back over where Clare was.
"You don't like him?" she asked.
"I do, I just don't date" I said.
"Your parents won't let you?"
"They will, I just don't want to." I said, hoping she'd understand. She nodded and gave a look of slight confusion.
I went to Clare's house when her mom picked us up and left when we were done studying.
By the end of English the next day, I had had two days in awkwardness where it seemed extremely tense. Was he not able to handle Clare and his break? I still had not found a spy job yet, but I had gotten to know the city better.
When I got to the dance, I saw Clare and Alli siting on the steps. "We were waiting for you, c'mon, let's go in!" Alli said enthusiastically. We went into the dance.
As we started to dance, Clare seemed nervous. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"I just want to make sure Eli's okay. He seemed upset to me. I should call him."
"You're letting him control you," Alli said.
"No, I'm not. I just need space."
"Did you tell Eli that?"
"I need to go break up with Eli now." Clare left.
I couldn't help notice a pig-tailed girl with a long blue dress staring at Clare as she left.
About 5 minutes after, Alli said to me, "I think I should go check on Clare. I'm sorry, Ariana. Can you find some other friends to dance with?"
"Sure," I said. knowing that Adam was the only person I have met so far. I didn't want to give him the wrong impression, but I wanted to have someone to dance with. I went over to Adam.
"Hey" I said. He was dancing with a group of his friends. "'Hey, " he said, "You having fun?"
"Yeah," I said.
About twenty minute later, Clare and Alli came back in, Clare looking like she was slightly upset.
"Are you okay" I asked, concerned.
"I just broke up with him." She paused. "After he crashed his Hearse through a wall and as upset as I was for Clare, I couldn't help but also notice the pig-tailed girl staring at us again. Was she stalking us? Was she stalking Clare?