AN: This is my first fanfic, and about halfway through I realized I'd forgotten to have the moment where they realized there were no more uniforms, so I'm saying it was sent home in a letter… since clearly this story is AU. I hope you enjoy! There isn't any clear romance or anything in this chapter, but you'll see how things develop. (:
Chapter 1:
It seemed like quite an odd winter, as the students of Degrassi, now without uniform, scurried into the building before the first warning-bell was to ring. A months had gone by in the year, well half of one actually, and not a single snowflake had fallen since autumn. Christmas wasn't white, it was, whatever color you would use to generalize the grass and the mud and the pavement. Multiple-colored, a gross color if anything, a cesspool of unwanted colors that the autumn had forgotten to let fade to white. Hopefully in a month or two, spring would not be forgotten, either. The lack of snow did not really bother Zig, he was glad to have a roof over his head, and without the tundra or the angry wind, his parents didn't have to bite bullets to pay for an excessive heating bill. Not everyone could see things without rose colored glasses, and Tori Santamaria taught Zig just that seamlessly. Nothing was ever good enough for Tori. 'Why can't I have a white Christmas! It totes sucks that it had to rain on my first high school Christmas!' she would say, with occasional variance. It was a mystery how things like that could matter to anyone, really, didn't they know some people dreaded the snow because it was a risk of health? Eventually, Zig couldn't take it and was completely reminded of why he and Tori had broken up in the first place. Tori was a great girl, but she came from a completely different world, and wanted completely different things than Zig.
Zig's schedule was decent, he had a study hall first period, and then he had his mandatory classes that he would probably blow off anyway, he had lunch, and then he had the classes he was looking forward to; art and music. Without their uniforms, everyone looked so different, they looked more alive and actually seemed to radiate the comfort and self expression that they were now permitted to have. It almost made Zig dizzy, not being able to tell what grades everyone was in because of their polo. Some people that Zig knew as sophomores before break, now registered as seniors because they dressed like adults. If Zig hadn't been blown into school just in time to put his stuff away and find his first class, he would have needed to sit down to catch his breath. His locker was a new challenge of the day, Zig knew the combination, but the sequence in which a combination was applied to a lock had always baffled the lanky raven-haired boy. 36-24-12 was how it went, and after many failed attempts, Zig Novak was once again a man who could get into his own locker.
"Novak. We need to talk." Zig heard a nasally, somewhat deep voice penetrate into his ear as Tristan Milligan stood near the metal door of Zig's locker. Zig knew he was going to get the best-friend talk eventually, but the fact that it had to be right after break frustrated Zig. He was going to endure enough ridicule when he showed up to class after class wrong, why should he have to be at the bane of Tristan's hissy-fit already? Because he broke Tori's heart, that's why.
"Tris save it, it's between me and Tori…" Zig huffed as he closed the shiny locker, turning his back to Tristan and walking in the opposite direction—regardless of whether or not that was his real destination. Tristan continued to rant and rave, but Zig decided to no longer be at the mercy of anyone else's turmoil in regards to his break-up. Now and then, Zig had to remind himself that he was actually happy with Tori at one point or another, but the wrath he'd had to endure since dumping her made him wonder if things would have been any different had he gotten with Maya instead. That was, if Maya had ever liked him the way Zig had thought he might have liked her.
After being consumed by crowd after crowd, stopped by many a random girl, Zig had finally found the room number that was marked on his schedule as the first place he should be. It was very confusing to Zig when he stumbled in, finding that he was the first one there. This never happened to Zig, he was always the one showing up at least five minutes late to every class. "Uh, am I in the right place?" Zig asked, arching a single eyebrow at the teacher, who was reading a newspaper and drinking coffee.
"Yes you are, son" the teacher said, without looking up at Zig or anything. Zig didn't say anything back, he simply scurried to the back of the room and took a seat, setting his stuff down next to the desk; because let's be real, he was probably not going to do anything anyway. Thankfully, people began filling the classroom soon after Zig had made himself comfortable. What was weird, was that they were people of all ages. They weren't people he'd mistaken for older either, these were people that Zig remembered seeing in blue and red polo shirts in the months prior. Zig could count the number of people in his own grade that were in this class on one hand, and they weren't even people he could charm into being his friends; they were guys that were also on the hockey team, fresh transfers into Degrassi he had learned through word in the halls.
Zig was getting ready to put his head down for a nap when he heard someone sit in the seat in front of him. Zig would have wiped his eyes to make sure she was real, but the sweet smell of vanilla that floated into Zig's nose, that was all the proof he needed. What grade was she in? Zig wanted to find a suave way of asking her but didn't know how, hell, he didn't even know her name! Apparently the teacher was reading Zig's mind.
"Jenna Middleton?" the man called out as he read through the list of students in the class, why she would be the first he called was a mystery to Zig, but either the teacher was an angel, or Zig simply hadn't been paying attention to the rest of the names being called.
"Here!" Jenna said, in a cheerful voice. As she tossed her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder, Zig blinked vigorously, as if some of her precious fairy dust could get in his eyes. Zig Novak now knew who he was going to pursue to get his mind off of Tori Santamaria, Zig Novak was now smitten by Jenna Middleton.