I Do Not Own DeGrassi
This story starts just after Drop the World, I know it's going back a ways but it works better for this story. And yes I realize drop the world leads into spring break and not summer but for the purposes of this story I'm having it lead into summer. My story, my universe.
Clare's parents are ooc and Owen and Clare are more or less in character.
Since I torture Clare so very much in Dangerous Secret and Reese Returns and I about evenly torture her and give her fun moments in Her Unexpected Hero; this story is mostly fluffy fun and happy. I'm still rating it M because I'm a gutter bunny and you never know what my mind will come up with for later chapters. Possible trigger warning in later chapters, I haven't decided yet.
Ch.1 Crash the Party
(CLARE)
My Mom stopped the car and I looked at her, "Mom are you…"
"Clare you are not spending your whole summer reading in your room, now get into that party and have a great time. Home by midnight, love you sweetie." Mom said leaning over and opening the car door for me.
I sigh, grab my purse and get out of the car, shutting the door behind me. When I stood frozen on the walkway Mom honked on the horn, I look back at her and she shoo's me in and I sigh again. I groaned and walked up and knocked on the door, I hear Mom drive away and was ready to turn and try to walk home when the front door opened and a tall boy with medium brown hair stood there and looked me over.
"Hot chick come in." He said grabbing my wrist and pulling me into the house.
I looked around the crowded living room, I didn't recognize a single person, none of these kids were from DeGrassi as far as I could tell, I wasn't even sure what neighborhood I was in. "God Mom's really lost her mind since the divorce." I lamented silently just as two very drunk girls bumped into me pushing me farther into the living room and therefor the crowd. The music was grinding and loud, the entire living room was permeated with the smell of alcohol and nearly everyone looked drunk. Spying what looked to be a makeshift bar I walked over praying that there were non-alcoholic options.
"Hey cutie what can I get you." The blonde teenage boy asked eyeing me up and down.
"You got anything without alcohol?" I asked hopefully.
He stepped aside waving his hand over a row of soda bottles, I point to the one I want and he pours some into your stereo typical red plastic cup and hands it to me, I smile and walk off. Spotting a sofa in the center of the room I meander my way over and sit down, trying to stay invisible as I sip at my soda. A few minutes later a couple crashes onto the sofa right next to me, making out like crazy, not caring at all that they're in the middle of the party. I groan, roll my eyes and move over a little. I resume happily sipping my soda and being invisible until an obviously drunk guy sits down right next to me and puts his arm around me.
"Hey sweet thing you want to dance?" He slurs to me keeping his eyes on my chest.
"Not a chance." I state standing up out of his grasp.
I finish my soda and toss the plastic cup in the trash, and get bumped into for at least the tenth time since getting there; only this time I get bumped straight into the torso of some guy.
"Whoa sweetness if you wanted to dance you just had to ask." The guy laughs and squeezes my ass.
"Get off me you pig!" I demand as I push him away, he's pretty drunk too and he stumbles backwards.
I see a backdoor and push my way out, a few guys leer at me; one actually kisses the air in my direction. I shudder and head to the edge of the yard hoping to go back to being invisible, and I succeed for a short time. Then a boy who's had too much to drink stumbles up to me, he's wearing an inebriated grin and a neon pink wig.
"You're hot!" He slurs, spilling some of the drink in his hand.
"Uh thanks." I say rolling my eyes.
"Hows 'bout me n you go upshtairs." He slurs while staring at my chest.
"No thanks." I say turning away.
He grabs my wrist, "Aww come on baby I'll show you a good time and you aren't here wiff nobody."
I wrench my wrist away, "Actually I am here with someone, my boyfriend and he hates it when other guys hit on me." I lie, hoping he's so drunk he'll buy it and leave me alone.
"I don't shee no boyfriend, if you were my girl I'd never let you out of my shight sexy."
Before I can think of a response an arm comes around my waist and pulls me to a body, "There you are been looking everywhere for you babe."
I recognize the voice and look up to see none other than Owen Milligan, he's giving wig boy a daggered look. Now I barely know Owen and what little I do know about him isn't great but at the moment I have two choices; I can shove Owen off me and tell him in his dreams leaving me vulnerable to wig boy and every other drunk perv at this party. Or I can play into Owen's little game and get wig boy to leave me alone. At this moment Owen is definitely better than drunk wig boy.
"Hey sweetie, I came outside for some air." I say turning to Owen, putting my arm around his neck, leaning up and bringing my lips to his.
Owen plays along putting his other arm around my waist, lifting me up a little and kissing me back. I make it as passionate as I can while leaving my mouth closed, to convince wig boy and any other guy who's watching that I'm taken and to leave me alone. After about five seconds I pull away releasing my arm from his neck, he releases me but keeps his arm lightly around my waist.
"Was this guy bothering you babe?" Owen asks wig boy in a hard tone.
"He asked me to go upstairs." I say when I see wig boy is still looking at my chest.
"You hit on my girl?!" Owen growls, his face getting hard as he releases his arm from my waist and leans towards wig boy. "I'm very possessive, I hate it when other guys hit on my girlfriend, it makes me want to rip out their eyes!"
Wig boy looks petrified and takes off running for the house and I bust out laughing.
"Thanks for the save Owen, that was the most fun I've had at this party." I praise him after I control my laughter.
"No problem Clare, uh can I ask what you're doing at a party like this anyway? It doesn't seem like your thing." He comments smiling and I notice for the first time ever he has blue eyes.
"Oh my Mom dropped me off she made me come." I say a little timidly.
His mouth drops open, "Your Mom?"
"Yeah it's a long story. Well anyway thanks again for the save." I smile and walk away towards the house.
I only make it a few steps before some guy stumbles into me and spills the rest of his beer all over my chest. I freeze and shriek a little bit as the cold liquid soaks into my shirt and trickles down to my stomach.
"Ooops sorry hot stuff, how 'bout I uh lick it off you?" The guy suggests wiggling his eyebrows.
I'm still a little to shocked to come up with a response but as it turns out there's no need, as once again Owen comes to my aid.
"Stick your tongue out of your mouth and I will tear it off." Owen warns him.
The boy looks at Owen and walks away. "Thanks again Owen I think I'm just gonna walk home." I say when the boy is gone.
"Well where do you live I can give you a lift." Owen offers.
"No that's okay Owen I just live…" I stop to think about it, "Actually I wasn't really paying attention when my Mom was driving me here. But it can't be that far I'll find it." I tell him just as my stomach growls loudly announcing that I've had no dinner.
Owen smiles, "Come on Clare, I'll buy you some pizza and you can tell me that long story and then I'll give you a lift home."
"Well…" I'm really not sure about being alone with Owen especially after what Alli told me about her Vegas Night, and then two boys go streaking through the yard. "Pizza would be great, let's go."
He pushes his way through the crowd and in a few minutes we're back out front, we walk to his car and he unlocks the doors. As he begins driving I realize I really have no idea where I am and can't believe my Mom dropped me off at a party in this neighborhood.
"So how about that long story? Why would your Mom make you go to a party, especially one like that?" Owen asks after we order a pizza and sit down in a booth in the back corner of the pizza parlor.
I sigh and take a sip of my cola, "Well ever since my parents' divorce my Mom sort of lost her mind, she's reverted to a college student. She goes out every night, usually comes home drunk and I suspect is usually with some random guy. Well last week was my week with my Dad and while he was out every night with his whore that he left my Mom for, I spent my first week of summer reading in my room. Well he must have told her that I never left my room or my book because when she got home she told me I wasn't going to spend my whole summer in my room reading. She said it was summer and I was young and had to go out and have some fun that I should be out almost every night like she was. So she dragged me out of the house saying she heard about this party while she was at the market and dropped me off."
Our pizza was brought to our table just as I finished and Owen was staring at me. The smell of the pizza seemed to snap him out of it and we each grabbed a slice.
"Geez! So why not just hang out with one of your friends all summer to get your Mom off your case? I mean I heard you and Eli broke up but you have other friend's right?" He asks and then takes a huge bite.
"Oh yeah my friends well let's see Alli is in India with her Mom all summer. Wesley is at science camp, Connor is spending the summer with his parents in Saskatchewan, Dave is at basketball camp. Jenna and K.C. are busy with the new baby. And Adam is spending all his time with Eli, but seeing as Eli went crazy and crashed his car on purpose I figure he needs Adam more than me right now so I don't mind really." I inform him and take a bite of pizza.
"Sounds like you need Adam too but no matter I think we can help each other." Owen says.
I stop eating and look at him. "What do you mean?"
"Well your Mom wants you to be miss social butterfly this summer but all your friends are either gone or preoccupied right?" He asks me.
"Yeah." I nod.
"Okay so I can take you to every party, BBQ and event this summer. Your social calendar will be so full your Mom will be jealous and I'll escort you and stay with you to make sure you stay safe and keep the creeps away. If anyone tries to hit on you or anything I'll play the fake boyfriend again. You get out of the house just about every night and your Mom lays off you and you don't have to spend your summer alone." Owen proposes.
I consider his proposition for a moment. "Sounds good but what do you get out of this deal? I'm not going to sleep with you; I still have my purity ring."
"Clare please, give me some credit." He says and he looks a little wounded. "My Mom has been bugging me to bring my girlfriend home for dinner, thing is I've never had a girlfriend."
I scoff, "You've never had a girlfriend?"
"A steady girlfriend no, I've dated lots of girls, never more than a few dates with any one girl and the cheerleader bimbos and sluts at the ravine are not the type of girls I'd bring home to Mom. So your end of the deal is to be my fake girlfriend at dinner with my parents and a few other Milligan family events this summer. If I bring home perfect St. Clare as my girlfriend my Mom will get off my back." Owen enlightens me.
I sneer just slightly, "I'm not so perfect." I think about it for a minute and study Owen's face carefully but he seems entirely sincere. "Okay deal." I say holding out my hand and he shakes it. We eat in silence for a few minutes and then something occurs to me. "What if during one of these parties or events one of us meets someone we're actually interested in?"
"So we have an easy out clause, if one of us meets someone we like we walk away from the deal. You go back to your summer and I tell my parents we broke up, which I'll do anyway at the end of the summer so they don't insist that you keep coming over after school starts." Owen says nonchalantly and continues eating.
I smile and go back to eating myself. It's an odd deal but how bad could it be, I mean Owen will keep me safe he proved that tonight. Mom will stay off my back and if I go out I don't have to hear Dad when he comes home with his whore when it's his weeks at the house. Quite honestly I'm a little curious to meet Owen's family and if it's a family event it's not like there couldn't be too much PDA right?
"Uh Owen?" He looks up at me, "If we're going to pretend to be a couple at most of these things over the summer how much ummm…"
He laughs and cuts me off, "Relax Clare I'm not going to take your purity ring, minimum touching just enough to convince people, hand holding, my arm around you, some kissing." I smile and relax, when we're done eating I give him my address and he drives me home. When we pull up to the house it's totally dark and I know my Mom is out, probably at a bar. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay? Your house looks pretty lonely."
"I'll be fine, Mom will stumble in around two probably. Thanks for the ride and the pizza." I smile.
"Give me your phone so I can put in my number." He commands and I do, he punches a few keys and then calls his phone so that he gets my number then hands me back my phone. "There's a party tomorrow night I'll pick you up at nine." He says.
I wave and get out of the car, it takes me a minute to locate the lock in the dark and he waits for me until I do. When I get the door open I wave to him and he drives away.
(OWEN)
"Morning sweetheart I made pancakes." Mom greets me when I sleepily emerge into the living room.
"Sweet pancakes." I brighten a little, tousling Tristan's hair as I sit down next to him. Mom sets a plate of pancakes in front of me and I dig in. "Mom you know how your always bugging me to bring my girlfriend home for dinner, well I have one and she'd love to come to dinner." I inform her after I swallow my first bite.
"No way!" Tris stops eating and gapes at me, "You actually settled down with one girl long enough to make her your girlfriend?!"
"Shut up Tris!"
"Oh Tristan leave your brother alone I think it's great. What's her name sweetie?" Mom asks.
"Clare. Clare Edwards."
"Well she sounds lovely I can't wait to meet her. Let me see what your Father's schedule is like," She says pulling out her tablet, "Hmmm let's see I'm open Monday, oh no that's no good for your Father. Ummm how about Tuesday I can change my meeting that evening to the following morning."
"I'm sure Tuesday is fine but I'll ask her tonight when I pick her up." I say.
(CLARE)
Mom drags herself out of bed around eleven, pours herself a cup of coffee and slumps down at the table. "Morning honey how was the party last night? Make any new friends?"
"Actually yes Mom." I inform her as I finish my lunch and put the plate in the sink. "In fact I'm going to another party tonight."
"Well thats fabulous dear, see isn't it better to spend your summer doing things instead of hiding in your room?" Mom smiles.
"Yeah sure Mom, I'm gonna go out for a bit." I tell her, grab my purse and leave the house.
I take the subway rather than ride my bike ten blocks, walking the last block to the apartment building. I find the right apartment and knock on the door; it opens a few seconds later.
"Clare, hey." Jenna greets me sleepily when she opens the door, a fussy Tyson in one arm.
"Hey Jenna, I thought it was about time I dropped by to see you guys." I say and she steps aside so I can come in.
"Clare hey how you been? I heard about Eli, sorry." K.C. says when he sees me come in.
"Hey K.C. I've been fine." I smile.
"Have you been to see Eli in the hospital?" Jenna asks as we both sit down.
I hold out my arms and take Ty from her, "Not since the night of the dance but considering he crashed the car to get me to come see him in the first place I figure I should keep my distance."
They both look at me. "I didn't hear that part just that Eli crashed his car after you broke up with him." Jenna says.
"Have you heard from Alli yet? She said she'd e-mail." I ask changing the subject.
"No but I haven't checked my e-mail for three days either." Jenna says with a yawn and then Tyson begins to fuss in my arms and she takes him back.
"I gotta get him down for a nap but you're welcome to stick around Clare." Jenna says standing up and disappearing into the bedroom.
As soon as the bedroom door closes I turn to K.C. "K.C. you were on the football team with Owen so you kinda know him right?" I ask and he stares at me again.
"Yeah I guess." He says slowly.
"Well all I know about him is he's a jock, he threw Adam into a door, helped Riley haze Drew at the beginning of the year, bullied Riley and Zane and tried to pay Alli for a blow job on Vegas Night."
"Well I know he's friends with Drew now and he hasn't bugged Riley or Zane in months. As far as I know he hasn't bothered Alli or Adam again either after those incidents." K.C. says but his eyebrows are knit together.
"Okay thanks K.C. I should go so Ty can sleep, tell Jenna I said goodbye." I say getting up and heading for the door.
He jumps up and grabs my arm before I make it. "Hold it why are you asking about Owen?"
"Oh I was at this party last night and he was there and he seemed different that's all. I just realized it seems like he's changed and isn't a bully anymore I just wanted to know, morbid curiosity I guess." I assure him.
"Clare you don't have a thing for Owen do you? He's not a bully anymore but…"
"K.C. relax," I cut him off laughing a little. "I was just curious. I gotta go, tell Jenna I said goodbye and Ty is adorable." I say quickly and slip out the door.
I get home to find Mom sleeping on the couch and sigh. I go upstairs and take a shower and when I get out Mom is up. Owen said he'd pick me up at nine so at eight I start getting ready. After about half an hour of digging through my closet I settle on a denim skirt that comes to just above the knee and a dark blue short sleeve top with black ballet flats. I fix my hair, put on some blush, eye shadow and mascara. At exactly nine my door bell rings, I run down the steps but Mom makes it first.
"Hey Owen." I greet as my Mom looks him over.
Owen has on dark jeans, a white t-shirt and burgundy button up. He actually looks pretty good and I smile at him.
"Hey Clare ready to go?" He smiles.
"Yep." I say grabbing my purse and moving past my Mom for the door, "Bye Mom."
"Bye sweetie, I'll be out late don't wait up." Mom smiles and shuts the door behind us.
I roll my eyes and Owen kinda laughs as we get into his car. We drive for a while and he parks in front of a blue two story. The music is loud and the whole scene is very reminiscent of last night. He escorts me in with his arm over my shoulders I assume this is to show all the drunk idiots that I'm taken.
"You want something to drink?" He asks over the music.
"Anything without alcohol." I yell back as the music is terribly loud.
He leaves me and I look around, I don't recognize any of the kids at this party either and just like last night most of the kids look at least tipsy if not drunk. Owen returns after a moment and brings me my drink. We stand there for a few minutes sipping our drinks, me lightly swaying to the music and Owen looking around the party, either sizing people up or looking for hot girls I'm not entirely sure.
"Hi." A high pitched cheery voice chirps suddenly. The voice belongs to a cute brunette girl; she's about my size with green eyes just like Eli's and thinking about Eli sends a pang of hurt through my chest. "I'm Bethany this is my party I don't think I've seen you guys before."
"I'm Owen and this is my girlfriend Clare." Owen introduces us and he says girlfriend loud enough that several people around us hear him.
"Nice to meet you. You guys are a cute couple, oh and Clare you have the prettiest blue eyes, I wish my eyes were that blue." Bethany giggles and she's obviously soused.
"Uh thanks." I say.
She starts talking about my eyes and her eyes and rambling on about some other stuff, I smile and nod and sip at my drink. Suddenly someone stumbles into me, nearly falls and grabs the back of my shirt in an effort to keep from falling which of course doesn't work and only succeeds in tearing my top at the sleeves so that it falls down a bit exposing my bra. I gasp and cover my chest with my arms; I can feel my cheeks turning red. Owen also gets red in the face, his eyes narrow he looks ready to kill.
Bethany looks behind me to the laughing drunk boy on the floor. "Brandon you idiot look what you did!"
Owen moves swiftly pulling the boy off the floor by the collar and the boy stops laughing. I kept one arm across my chest holding my shirt up as much as possible and put my other hand on Owen's arm.
"Owen it was an accident, I'm fine I'll just pin the shirt." I look back at Bethany. "Do you have some safety pins I can borrow?"
"Forget that you can borrow something of mine, come on." She says grabbing my hand, putting my drink down and pulling me towards the staircase.
I look back at Owen and he's still holding the boy by the collar, but he's just yelling at him not hitting him so I figure its fine. Bethany pulls me up the stairs and into what I can only assume is her bedroom, she lets go of my hand and goes to her closet.
"It's really sweet of you to lend me something." I thank her, happy to be out of the loud music.
"Oh please, I can't let you go around my party in a ripped shirt besides we seem to be about the same size. Sorry about Brandon, he's an idiot, he always drinks too much. Here this is perfect." She says handing me a dress, with a red shiny top and a black leather skirt.
I gape at the dress in my hand. "Uh Bethany I don't know, my skirt is fine. I really just need…"
"Hush, your shirt got ripped at my party I gotta make sure you look good just leave your clothes on my bed and grab them before you leave. You can change in here; I should get back to my party." She smiles and leaves the room.
I look at the dress it looks like something Alli would wear or Darcy but not me. But Bethany was nice enough to lend me something and the only person I actually knew at this party was Owen and it didn't matter to me what he thought. I sigh and take off my torn shirt, and slip off my denim skirt laying them on Bethany's bed. I pull on the dress; it zips up along the side and fits almost perfectly. She has no mirror in her room and I'm a little afraid to see what it looks like on me anyway. I open her door and descend the stairs to rejoin the party, as soon as I become visible on the stairs several people stop and stare at me. I bite my lip self-consciously and look at my feet. A hand takes my arm at the bottom of the stairs and I look up to see Owen.
He puts his arm around me as soon as I'm close enough. "You're not making this fake boyfriend thing easy." He whispers in my ear.
"Why because everyone's staring at me because I look terrible?" I ask feeling a little awkward.
"No because everyone's staring at you because you're now the hottest girl at this party and my end of this deal was to keep them all away from you." He tells me.
I bite my lip again but this time it's because I feel good. Owen keeps his arm tight around me and we walk outside. The rest of the party goes pretty well, although Owen doesn't leave my side for the rest of the night. Whether this is because of the dress or because of the way guys are looking at me in the dress and he promised to keep me safe, I'm not sure. Oh well either way I stay safe and actually relax into having a good time. A little after midnight we leave but not before I change back into my clothes, ripped shirt and all.
"Oh hey before I forget can you come to dinner at my house on Tuesday?" He asks me after we've been driving a while.
"Tuesday's fine, I'm sure my Mom will go straight to the bars after work, she'll never notice I'm not home for dinner." I sigh.
We pull up to my house and there's actually a light on in my living room. "Well check with her anyway and there's another party tomorrow night so I'll pick you up at nine again." He says.
"You know of another party?" I exclaim as I open the car door.
"I told you your social calendar would be full this summer." He smiles.
"Yes you did, then I'll see you tomorrow night." I say then I close the car door and walk to my front door.
I hear him drive away as I unlock the door, as soon as I open the door I hear my Mom laughing and talking, I hear other people too male and female. I step into the living room to see my Mom sprawled on the couch between two men with a beer in her hand. There's another man in the arm chair with another woman in his lap, their smoking a joint and so is one of the men my Mom is with. When I step in they all stop drinking, smoking, laughing and talking to look at me.
"Hey sweetheart." My Mom laughs and I can tell she's both high and drunk. "We're just having a little private party baby, these are my new friends."
The men are eyeing me up and down, one of them licks his lips and I gag. Remembering that my shirt is torn I cross my arms over my chest.
"Why don't you come join us?" One of the men suggests patting the seat next to him.
My Mom laughs apparently this is funny to her and I pray that she's too out of it to realize the guy is practically inviting me to get raped. I can feel angry and frightened tears pushing at my eyes, I don't even respond just turn and walk back out the door. Normally I'd go to Alli's or Eli's but obviously those are both not options. If it wasn't after midnight I'd consider going to Adam's. All I know is I can't stay here and even though the summer night is pretty warm I don't want to go walking around in a torn shirt. I can really only think of one possibility at the moment and I pull my phone from my purse to call him.
"Hey didn't expect you to call so soon, what is Tuesday no good?" Owen asks.
I can still feel myself close to tears and I take a deep breath. "No Tuesday works great. Umm I know this wasn't exactly part of the deal but could you come back and pick me up?"
Update soon continuing from right here.
