Welcome to the new Sunday story! I dedicate this to Christlove88 who had the idea for this story and trusted me to bring it to life.

Legal: I do not own and am not associated with DeGrassi or Epitome, nor would I admit to it if I were at this point.

All the very important things you should know before reading:

*This story deals with selective mutism, a complex anxiety disorder usually brought on in early childhood. As I don't personally know anyone nor have any experience with selective mutism everything in this story about it is conjecture on my part from the research I've done.

*Clare was an only child and Darcy does not exist in this story. When Clare was three her mom began having an affair with Jake's dad.

*Helen Edwards married Glen Martin when Clare was five and Jake was six. Helen adopted Jake and Glen adopted Clare.

*The Martin family is not religious in this story.

*Since Jake has been in Toronto since he was young he went to DeGrassi in grade nine.

*Drew started at DeGrassi in grade nine and a year later Adam started in grade nine. Adam never liked Bianca and Fitz and Owen never bullied Adam. Eli came to DeGrassi last year in his grade ten year.

*Our story begins on the first day of school, Clare and Adam are starting grade ten and Jake, Fitz, Owen, Bianca and Drew are starting grade eleven.

Ch. 1 Becoming Wise in Simplicity

(FITZ)

"Another year at DeGrassi, is it sad that I actually missed the place? I mean at least it's something to do instead of hanging out at the ravine all day," Bianca remarks joining me on the picnic table.

"It's not all bad being back at school, no one messes with us," I shrug.

"Yeah because no one's that dumb, well except maybe Steve and Barry but they're usually too high to mess with us," Bianca comments as we see Owen pull up. He parks and comes over to us.

"How was the vacation?" I ask him.

"Very lame, my parents went antiquing; Tris spent all of his time at the pool watching the bartender. There were some hot girls in bikinis though," he grins.

"Hey there's Jake but who's in the truck with him?" I question noticing the pretty girl with the short cinnamon colored hair sitting next to him.

"No idea, maybe Jake got a girlfriend over the summer," Owen suggests.

"Well whoever she is she's new," Bianca remarks.

I watch them get out of the truck and walk across the parking lot to the front of school. The new girl seems extremely nervous to be here, she's sort of hiding behind Jake like she doesn't want to be seen. Of course she's new so everyone that's in the courtyard is looking at her. She bites her lip and looks down gripping onto Jake's sleeve.

"She seems overly shy it's kind of weird," Owen remarks.

"Let's go inside I bet Drew is already here," Bianca says hopping off the table.

When we get in Jake has a hand on the girl's arm and he's talking to her, whatever their relationship she doesn't seem to be his girlfriend. The girl nods and Jake escorts her down the hall with a hand at her back. Bianca sees Drew at the sports bulletin board, she goes over to kiss him and Owen goes over to see what's going on in DeGrassi sports. Since sports are not my thing I go off to my locker, the others join me after a few minutes. Well they go to their own lockers but we all have them in the same hallway. We stay by our lockers and compare classes I find out I have auto shop with Drew and Owen second period, photography with the three of them third period and math with Drew last period. I just don't have any of them in homeroom, my home room is media studies which is an open class for grade ten. I didn't take it last year and barely passed most of my classes last year so I thought taking a grade ten class would be easy.

When the bell rings we disperse to walk to our classes, last year Simpson taught media studies but this year he's principal. We have a new teacher this year; she looks pretty young and must have just graduated college last summer. She's pretty hot for a teacher and is attracting the looks of most of the males in this room. I sit at a desk in the back which is where I always sit. The only other person I knew in this class is Adam and I take the desk right behind his. Adam is Drew's younger brother and started going here last year when he was in grade nine. My step-bastard Steve found out Adam was transgender. He found out by accident, he pushed Adam in the hall and felt that he had breasts. Steve and Barry held Adam down in the hall and ripped open his shirt. They probably would have done more but Owen, Drew, Bianca and I came along. Bianca helped Adam while the three of us restrained Steve and Barry. They were suspended for three months and sent to juvie because Adam pressed charges. Drew and Bianca were already dating at that point and we already knew Adam a little but that's when everyone found out about Adam. Sadly Barry and Steve served their time and returned to the school. Now however any time they try to bully anyone and we find out about it we stop them.

"Hey Fitz," Adam grins.

"Hi Adam, get a load of the new teacher, she's a definite improvement on Mr. Simpson," I comment.

"She's definitely better to look at, and she's young which either means she's a cool teacher with fresh ideas or she'll stink at teaching and I'll be bored," Adam says.

"Hey if she's bad maybe she won't notice how dumb I am and I'll do okay," I remark and Adam laughs. He looks like he might say something but then everyone's attention is brought to the door. Jake is in the doorway with that girl, she looks nervous still and Jake is talking to her, he seems to be encouraging her to come in.

"You must be Clare Martin, please come in," the teacher encourages.

"You'll be fine, I'll see you at lunch," Jake tells her.

"Martin? She must be his sister, they do look a little alike but I didn't know Jake had a sister," I comment quietly.

"Me either but I don't really know Jake that well," Adam shrugs as the bell rings.

"Welcome class I'm Miss Oh," the teacher says. "It's my first year as a teacher so we'll be learning together. "I'd like you all to welcome someone else new to the school, this is Clare Martin some of you probably know her brother Jake. Please make her feel welcome, Clare is very intelligent and we are happy to have her. She is also mute so she will not be answering any questions by talking. Clare there's an empty seat in the third row next to…" Miss Oh says pointing at Adam.

"Adam," he replies with a kind smile at Clare but the friendly smile almost seems to make her more nervous.

"Why don't you take that seat next to Adam," Miss Oh tells her and Clare nods. I wonder if her nervousness is because she can't talk. I also wonder where she's been going to school up to now.

"Hi I'm Adam Torres, and this is Fitz," Adam tells her and she smiles nervously.

"This school isn't too bad, we can show you around if you want," I offer.

She just looks between us, it's like she's not used to people being friendly. She sort of bites her lip and then nods with a small smile. I grin back and it makes her smile just a tiny bit brighter. Miss Oh starts class by talking about what we'll be doing this semester but I admit I spent most of the time studying Clare. She's short; when she was standing next to Jake he seemed to be a foot taller than her. She's voluptuous and has an angelic face and lips, her eyes are like two blue crystals and when she looks at you it's hard not to be mesmerized by them. While Miss Oh talks about our first assignment I become hypnotized by the way Clare's leg bounces nervously under the table.

"You'll be in groups of three for this assignment Adam why don't you work with Clare," Miss Oh says and I feel Adam tap my arm.

"You want to be in our group Fitz?" Adam questions.

"Yeah cool," I nod. "Uh what's the assignment? I wasn't quite paying attention," I admit after we've grouped our desks together.

"A timeline of media outlets," Adam says.

Clare gets a notebook from her purse and writes in it: Yes like TV but that was not the first outlet. Media's always been controlled by the people with power.

We spend the rest of the class working on it, Clare might not talk but she's very smart, she might even be smarter than Adam. Between her and Adam's brains we get our timeline done first and turn it in to Miss Oh. Since there's only ten minutes before the bell Miss Oh dismisses us, after giving us our text books and the homework for tonight.

"So what's your next class?" Adam asks Clare.

Clare takes her phone out and types on it: Math principles with Mr. Armstrong

"Me too," Adam smiles and Clare gives him a half smile, at least she doesn't seem quite as nervous to be around us.

"Well I'm going to go put my book in my locker so I'm not carrying it around the rest of the day," I comment.

"Yeah good idea," Adam says and I look at Clare she nods to say she wants to put her book in her locker and we start walking.

"Do you know which is your locker?" I question and she nods so we go to her locker first. Her locker is close to Adam's so he stashes his book.

"So where'd you go to school before this?" Adam inquires while we walk to my locker.

Layton Academy she types on her phone showing us both when we reach my locker. I've never heard of the school before and apparently neither has Adam.

"Where's that?" He questions.

Scarborough. Private school for kids with special needs.

"So they thought you were disabled because you can't talk?" Adam queries and Clare shrugs. "Well we still have a few minutes before the bell you want us to show you around?" Adam offers and Clare nods. We start walking down the hall and show her around a bit. When the bell rings to let classes out most of the kids stare at her because she's new and obviously not in grade nine.

"Don't worry they're just looking at you because you're new and they have nothing better to do," I tell her.

"We should get to our next class, see you Fitz," Adam speaks up after showing Clare around another couple of minutes.

I wave to them and walk to class but I can't help but wonder what Clare's story is and why she was going to a special needs school. Other than not being able to talk she seems perfectly normal, okay so she's pretty painfully shy but most of that could have to do with being new. She's smart and nice, she doesn't have any learning disabilities she just doesn't talk, there are lots of people I wish couldn't talk.

(CLARE)

"Don't worry most kids are nice at this school," Adam tells me as we enter our math class.

Adam's very nice; he and Fitz were both kind to me in homeroom. Not really something I've ever had from strangers and there weren't too many nice people at my old school. And after Jake and Mom warned me about people, especially boys, pretending to be nice but really not being nice and only tricking me, I was wary of their kindness. However I don't think they are tricking me and believe their friendship to be genuine.

When Miss Campbell, my teacher for the last three years, first brought up the suggestion I attend a normal high school I was excited. Jake was not, I'd been the dark family secret as long as I could remember and everyone else was happy to keep it that way. It took months of me, Miss Campbell and Mrs. Wallace, the counselor at my old school, convincing my parents that a normal high school would be good for me. That it was far more suited to my academic potential and I could possibly make friends. They finally agreed and even Jake finally thought it was a good idea. He's spent the last two weeks of summer preparing me for what a regular high school was like.

As excited as I had been to come I was very nervous when we arrived. Actually I'd been nervous since we met with Mr. Simpson last week. We had to meet with him because I was still considered special needs since I didn't talk. He said it wasn't a problem and he would simply inform all my teachers that I would have to answer without speaking. I realized just how very different I'd be at this school, how the teachers would have to make concessions for me and kids, normal kids without any kind of disability or "special need", would probably spurn me. None the less I was determined to go to a regular high school and be as much of a regular kid as I could.

"Hi Adam," a girl smiles coming into class and taking a seat next to Adam and then she looks at me, "hey you must be the new girl I'm Alli."

"She talks enough for the both of you," Adam says quietly while Alli shakes my hand.

"You'll like DeGrassi it's a good school. Maybe you should try out for cheerleading both me and my best friend Jenna are going to try out. Oh this Jenna, and her boyfriend K.C., my boyfriend is Dave Turner but he's not in this class. My brother Sav is a senior he's student body president this year and he's going steady with Anya and they've been dating for like ever. Oh but Holly J is the…"

"Alli take a breath," Adam cuts her off and she sits down. "That's Connor, Wes and Hannah. Everyone this is Clare Martin, she's Jake's little sister."

"Jake who?" Connor asks.

"Martin," K.C. says shooting Connor a look for asking an obvious question.

"Connor has Asperger's so he's not always good at the standard social protocol but he's really smart and a generally good guy. Clare's also smart but she's mute so don't expect her to answer your questions," Adam tells them.

"Well at least you can't put your foot in your mouth, Connor does it all the time," K.C. laughs and Connor shoots him a look now.

"I promise they're all nice," Adam assures me just as Mr. Armstrong comes in.

"Welcome everyone, this will not be an easy math class so be prepared. Before we get started I want to introduce Clare Martin to the class. She's new this year and you should all make her feel welcome. Clare is mute so she will not be answering me the same way as the rest of you. Okay I'm passing out text books turn to page 16," Armstrong says turning to the blackboard.

I think all my teachers are going to single me out. I type on my phone passing it to Adam and he smiles.

"Something to share Mr. Torres?" Mr. Armstrong asks.

"Just helping Clare get oriented," Adam replies and I smile because he's quick.

Mr. Armstrong goes back to the board and we look in our math books. I'm good at math, pretty much good at everything academic. I have an above average I.Q. and learned to read at aged three. I read a lot, I don't talk so it's hard to connect with people and reading was always an escape. Before attending school I'd already taught myself a good deal and at my old school I was too advanced for the math class they put me in so I worked independently. It was just another point of isolation in my life. I've already done everything in this first chapter of the text book. I flip through the pages as Mr. Armstrong talks and I'm able to work out most of the solutions in my head. So when Mr. Armstrong asks for someone to work out the problem on the board I raise my hand.

"Clare, sure come on up. Can someone come up and explain what Clare is doing to the rest of the class?" Armstrong requests and Alli raises her hand. I solve the problem and Alli says what I'm doing as I go. Armstrong tells me I'm right when I'm done and thanks us both and we sit down again.

"Nice work, Armstrong likes giving a really tough problem on the first day class," Jenna smiles at me.

I smile back thinking this school might not be so bad after all, at least most of the kids seem nice. The bell rings to signal lunch and I walk with the group out of class.

"Clare, Adam you want to eat with us?" Fitz asks walking over with a tall boy who has dark hair and dark blue eyes. Another boy is with them, he has olive skin, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. The three of them make quite the attractive trio and I find myself blushing.

"Sure," Adam shrugs.

We all visit our lockers to grab lunches and a girl joins us, she has lots of dark curls and dark eyes. She's quite pretty and kisses the boy with olive skin. We take our lunches out to the picnic tables and sit down.

"Clare this is Owen, Drew and Bianca," Fitz introduces us.

"Drew's my brother," Adam tells me. I narrow my eyes and look between them, they look nothing alike, they could not be more opposite in looks. "We're not related by blood, my dad married his mom when we were little. My dad adopted him and his mom adopted me," Adam explains.

Like me and Jake. I type on my phone and show it to Adam.

"So you and Jake aren't related by blood?" Adam asks and I shake my head.

"Doesn't she talk?" Drew questions and I shake my head again.

"She's mute, she's in our homeroom and she's very smart," Adam says.

"I didn't even know Jake had a sister," Owen comments.

They don't like to talk about me. I've been the dark family secret for a long time. Jake's dad married my mom when I was five. His dad adopted me and my mom adopted Jake.

"I was five when our parents married too," Adam tells me and I smile. Adam and I share a lot in common and I already feel a connection to him.

"What did she say?" Fitz asks.

"She was five when her mom married Jake's dad and her mom adopted Jake and his Dad adopted her, just like mine and Drew's parents," Adam replies but doesn't tell them I'm the skeleton in the family closet.

"Cool, none of us really hang out with Jake he mostly keeps to himself and his projects. He does seem to party a lot but not with our crowd," Bianca comments and I nod.

Jake does prefer to be out of the house, our parents are so wrapped up in each other they barely notice us. We don't have many rules and I'm at school a lot anyway, when not at school I'm secluded to my room. My mutism keeps me isolated from people, Mom homeschooled me until grade six when they put me into Layton's. At which point I began learning ASL but only the very basics and it was only useful at school since my family didn't ever learn. I've spent most of my life communicating by writing or typing on a phone. Jake's not a bad brother, he does protect me when the need arises and when he is home he always comes into my room to talk to me. At least he tries, our parents tend to just avoid me they hardly ever talk to me, they talk at me but not to me.

I eat lunch while listening to the others talk, Drew and Owen talk about football and I find out they're both on the football team. Adam talks about drama club and says I could help out as a stage manager or something if I wanted, he offers to talk to Eli who is the head of the drama club. I write down that I'll think about it and he nods. I don't know about something like drama club it sounds like a lot of people and a need to communicate which wouldn't be easy. The rest of lunch is nice Owen is very nice, Drew and Bianca are a sweet couple and I already feel like Fitz and Adam are my friends.

"What class do you have now?" Adam asks me after we've walked back inside to our lockers.

I start to pull my class list from my locker but when I see a shadow approaching I turn to see who it is. An older boy approaches with another boy behind him and I know they're trouble before they even talk. I know they're trouble because of how Adam tenses up when he sees them.

"Well look at this it must be a freak convention, the he-she and a girl that don't speak," says the boy in front. "You're pretty hot, even if you don't speak I bet I can make you scream," he grins stepping closer to me and caressing the back of his fingers along my cheek.

I back up into my locker and shrink away from him, I haven't had much experience with boys affections but I know this is bad. His other hand reaches out to grab my breast and Adam steps over batting it away.

"Leave her alone Steve."

"I think I'll make you both scream," Steve grins maliciously.

(FITZ)

Owen, Bianca, Drew and I all have photography next and Drew says Adam has the same class. So we stash our books in our lockers and walk over to find Adam so we can all walk to class together. I also want to know what class Clare has next. When we turn down the hall to the sophomore lockers I see that my step-bastard Steve and his crony Barry have Clare and Adam cornered. The others see it too and we run over, I grab Steve and punch him hard.

"STAY AWAY FROM THEM," I yell.

"You fucker wait till I tell Dad," Steve hisses at me just as the bell rings and I look at Clare and Adam. Bianca and Drew are standing with them and Owen has Barry by the throat.

"Either of you comes near any of us again I will make sure you regret it," Owen growls and pushes Barry away.

"What's going on? Clare you okay?" Jake questions coming over and looking at her and she nods.

"Steve and Barry were bugging them we took care of it," Owen says.

"Stay away from those two, they're nothing but trouble. You have photography next right?" Jake asks Clare and she nods again.

"We all have photography next we'll take her," I tell Jake.

"Yeah good, wait for me at your locker after school," Jake instructs her and she nods.

"Come on we better get to class before the late bell," I comment offering my hand to Clare and she looks at it a few seconds before taking my hand. We all run to class coming in just as the bell rings, and we kick all of the kids off the back two tables so we can sit down. Eli comes in after us and he sits at the table in front of Adam, Clare and I.

That Steve guy, he's your brother? Clare types on her phone and hands it to me as the teacher welcomes us to class.

"Regretfully he's my stepbrother but he's an ass and I hate his guts. If he bothers you again tell me," I whisper to her. She doesn't type a response or even nod, she just briefly bites her lip before releasing it from her teeth slowly.

The teacher introduces Clare and tells everyone she's mute. We spend our whole first class watching a presentation on famous photographers and the history of photography. There's no talking which is good for Clare but she seems fairly shaken after her encounter with Steve, not that I blame her he's a creep and I know what he's like with girls.

"What's your last class?" Adam asks Clare when the bell rings.

"Hey you're the new girl right? Jake's sister? He mentioned he had a sister but never really talked about you. Anyway I'm Eli, I run the drama club and Jake always builds the sets. Adam usually works on the plays too," Eli introduces himself to Clare and she smiles in response.

"I told her she could probably help with the play as a stage manager or something and she said she'd think about it," Adam tells Eli.

"Yeah cool well I better get to class," Eli grins and walks off.

"Eli's pretty cool, he's my best friend. So what's your next class?" Adam asks her again and she shows him her class list. "You have forces of nature next with me, we have all our classes together, come on it's this way," Adam smiles. Clare smiles knowing all her classes are with Adam and they walk down the hall.

"We got math next," I comment to Drew rolling my eyes because I hate math.

"Yeah see you guys," Drew says to Owen and Bianca and we wave to them as we walk down the hall.

When we get to math class I see Jake in the classroom and we nod to him sitting down at two desks in the row behind him. Armstrong comes in and starts class; he breaks into pairs for a project. I get paired with Jake so he changes seats with Drew so we can work on it.

"Your sister's nice, she seems pretty shy but I guess that's because she's knew. Or maybe because she can't talk," I remark after looking at the instructions for the project.

"She can talk, or at least she could, she wasn't born that way. I first met her when she was three and she wouldn't shut up. She was only three and she used all these big words I didn't understand, big words I'd never heard most adults use. She knew she was way smarter than me and she liked it because I was older than her and didn't understand what she was saying. Then she just stopped, one day she just wasn't talking at all and she hasn't said a word since. Our parents took her to a doctor and they called it selective mutism, said it was an anxiety disorder usually brought on by trauma."

"What trauma?" I question.

"I have no idea," Jake says and then looks up at me from his paper. "You know I've never told anyone that. I've never talked about it before with anyone but for some reason I just told you everything. I know you just met her today and you don't have the best reputation but I get the sense that I can trust you with her. Can't say that about most people, she's always been sort of treated like a leper because she doesn't talk, even by our parents, I can't really say I'm much better. But you don't treat her like that, you and Adam, Drew, Owen and Bianca I saw what you guys did in the hall. How you were with her, she's never really had friends before."

"Never? But didn't she go to another school?"

"Yeah Layton's but that wasn't the place for her. Most of the kids there had severe autism or other learning disabilities, brain damage and that kind of thing. There were a couple of blind kids and stuff but Clare didn't belong there. Better than Mom trying to school her at home I guess. Come on we should get to work," Jake comments when Armstrong starts walking over to us.

We get to work and finish the project before the bell although we are the last two to turn it in. Of course I've always been really bad at math. I walk out of class with Drew and Jake is right in front of us.

"Hey Jake," Katie says running up to him, "I was hoping you could come over and help me with the homework for the architectural design class."

"Uh yeah sure," he smiles and it's obvious he likes her, "but I have to get my sister home first."

"I can take Clare home," I speak up and Jake looks at me. "It's no problem really you can help Katie and I'll see to it that Clare gets home safe."

"Are you sure?" Jake questions.

"Yeah no trouble and you said I was good with her, I'm sure she'll trust me to take her home."

"Okay thanks Fitz," Jake nods.

Drew and I walk down the hall and he shakes his head at me, "I got football see you tomorrow."

I wave to him and walk off to find Clare; I hope she really does trust me to take her home. I want to know more about her, I want to know why she's never had friends, why her family's been hiding her and what happened that was so bad she stopped speaking.

Well I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter and it's probably a little cruel to give you a single chapter with no update next week. It's one shot week next week so none of the long stories will be updated this will resume on Sunday September 13th picking up from Fitz taking Clare home.