When Opposites Attract
Clare's POV
In high school, there is clearly a spectrum. On one side you can see the cheerful, pleasant students like me. And once crossing to the other side you see people like Johnny DiMarco. But right in the middle there's Elijah Goldsworthy. Elijah, Eli for short, wears black, is quick-witted and sarcastic but realistic, with a trademark crooked grin. He doesn't approve of bullying which is why he isn't on the very end of the spectrum but he still is my complete opposite. If I were the old Clare I would be staying as far away from him as possible, but I consider myself the new Clare; a Clare who is willing to change her image, her attitude, and to challenge herself. This entirely new life ethic has led me to falling in love with Eli and for some strange reason, I'm okay with that.
Alli Bhandari cornered me by my locker and shoved the obvious in my face, "You are in love with Eli."
First idea that came to me was to deny it: "I am not!" I say, before slamming my locker door shut with a bang.
"You are, too! I know you, Clare; you are definitely in love with him."
As if on cue, Eli appears beside me. "In love with who?" He says with too much enthusiasm, because of course we are teenage girls and think everything is a big deal.
"You!" Alli exclaims before running off. Her jewelry clinks loudly and is heard from down the hall.
Eli leans against the locker beside mine and smiles, "Is this true Clare?" he says with fake astonishment.
"You can believe whatever you want." I say with a smile before heading after Alli.
Eli pushes away from the lockers and falls into step with me "Hold up a second, do you have your English paper so I can review it?" He says.
"Of course." I reach into my tote to recover my latest English assignment and hand it to him. He studies it quickly.
"Well, the title's centered so I already can tell this is A+ material." He jokes. I smile.
"If I could have the feedback by fifth period that would be great,"
"Actually, I was wondering if we could look over this together later at the Dot." He looked me right in the eyes but fumbled with the corner of my paper nervously.
I paused; I had to think this through: Would this coffee break be considered a date? Was Eli actually asking me out?
"Tick tock, Clare." He smirked. While I was thinking, the nervous Eli had vanished.
"Sure." I said.
"We'll go after third period, if that's okay with you?"
"That's perfect!" I chimed before turning to try and find Alli.
I found her standing by the vending machines chatting with Drew Torres.
Ever since her party last week, she has obsessed over Drew. Multiple times she has blown me off to go make out with him and every day she has waltzed around radiating bliss. But from my point of view, you could clearly understand Drew wanted to move on. He constantly was glancing away from her to look at other girls who were older than Alli and was perfectly okay with them flirting with him. Alli would be crushed but it's her own fault for dating a player.
I rolled my eyes before Alli saw me. She kissed Drew goodbye before gesturing me to come to her.
"Isn't he just adorable?" She sighed. She was completely love drunk.
Eli is adorable too. I thought to myself. What? No! Eli isn't cute! He's a bad influence on me! But his crooked grin makes me melt… STOP IT CLARE! Get a hold of yourself!
I started to argue with myself and glancing at Alli I saw she looked satisfied.
"Thinking about Eli, Mrs. Goldsworthy?" She laughed, with exaggeration on the new nickname.
"Don't call me that! But I think you're right. I think I do like him." I had caved.
"Whatever," She mumbled, "Anyway, I got to get Drew to go on a date with me. Making out is great, believe me, making out is great but I want an actual relationship!" If this went any further, I swear, Alli would begin whining.
Before she could say anything more about Drew I cut her off, "So, Eli wants me to go to the Dot with him later, would that be considered a date?" Alli's eyes widened.
"You, Clare Edwards, have a date with Eli Goldsworthy?" She had placed her hands on her hips and looked like she was about to burst, but instead started to squeal. "Oh my god! That's awesome!" For a few quick seconds she seemed like the old Alli; the one who cared what I did and if I did something, she would acknowledge it. These days, Alli only tried to avoid me accept when she needed advice about Drew, parties, or, now on more frequent occasions, to just copy my homework. "I leave you two alone for five minutes and you're already making plans." She rolls her eyes and starts to walk away from the vending machines.
The homeroom bell finally rings so Alli and I run off to class.
xxx
The first three periods of today were torture. The only person I could think about was Eli. I thought about his chocolate brown hair, his smile, his sarcasm, and finally our date.
After the ring of the third period bell, butterflies filled my stomach. I shuffled through the halls and tried to find Eli. I finally found him waiting on the step outside the front lobby with Adam Torres, Drew's stepbrother. They were leafing through a worn out comic, but the minute Eli saw me the comic was shoved into the pocket of his jeans.
"Come on, dude!" Adam whined angrily. Eli elbowed him hard and stood up quickly, too quickly, and surprisingly became a bit off balance.
"Watch it; I wouldn't want your face in the pavement." I joked. A smile appeared on his face.
"Nice," Adam muttered.
"Why wouldn't you want my face in the pavement?" He ignored Adam and skipped up a step to close the gap between us.
"W-well…" I stuttered. I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks. "It would hurt, first of all, and I would have a damaged English partner." I carefully brushed my shoulder against his.
"I'm glad you care so much Clare." He said. I glanced quickly at Adam who was rolling his eyes.
I pulled an original Eli, "Ouch! You thought I didn't care?" I announced sarcastically and placed my hands on my hips.
His brow rose slightly, "Wow, I've really had an effect on you." He said as he gently nudged me in the ribs. With just that simple touch, I felt electricity circulate through me.
"Apparently, Eli does that to a lot of people." Adam said before standing up, gathering his books, and removing the comic from Eli's back pocket.
"So are we going to review my English paper or not?" I asked.
He laughed a bit, "Of course Clare," He gestured for me to go first but then led me to his vintage hearse. He grabbed the keys from his front pocket, walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for me.
"Such a gentleman, I feel obligated to curtsy." I giggled a bit and stepped into the hearse.
"Ha ha, very funny," He smirked before rounding the car and stepping into the driver's seat.
"Why do you have a hearse instead of her car?" I asked him once we pulled out of the school parking lot.
"Well, as you already know, I am very different from other people. So driving a hearse just took my nonconformist act up a notch." Eli directed the vehicle down the street towards the Dot. "But really it's because of the great backseat." He said. I actually couldn't tell if he was joking or not until a smile crossed his face.
"Yes, Eli. Girls are totally attracted to you because they love the backseat of your hearse. Which I may add, has previously carried a coffin." I rolled my eyes, which is something I do much more often since I started to hang around Eli.
"That does seem strange, but you're here now, aren't you?" He seemed pleased with his response.
"I would never—"
"Clare, I'm joking." He laughed, but I still clutched my abstinence ring tightly.
"I knew that," I pouted. "But Eli, a hearse?"
"As I said before, the whole nonconformist image and besides, I love Morty." He patted the dashboard lovingly.
"You named your hearse?" I said. I was amused but shocked.
"You never knew? Wow, Clare, I thought you knew me better than that." He snipped before taking the key out of the ignition, removing himself from the car and heading for the restaurant's entrance. I followed him into the Dot.
We took a window seat and ordered two coffees. Eli handed me his essay and I immediately started to read.
"So, Miss. Dawes' assignment was to write a 3,000 word essay on family relations." Eli stated interrupting my reading. He realized what had been said and looked at me with concern. "How are your mom and dad these days?"
"The fighting has been put on hold since my dad has taken an extended business trip to Toronto. The house is quieter, but my mom is beside herself." I choked before taking a sip from my freshly brewed coffee. Coffee became a new morning favorite once I started pulling all-nighters because of homework and unending arguments. The taste was sweet at first but the aftertaste lasted longer than pleasurable which did not appeal to me. On the other hand, I watched Eli drink his coffee as it was water, and I noticed, for some reason the caffeine never had a too drastic effect on him.
I read his paper from intro to conclusion and marked off some run-on sentences and within the margins wrote down some improved vocabulary he could use. I placed the paper down on the table and glanced up at Eli from my coffee cup.
His mother and father had divorced when he was eight and he stays with his mom. His dad lives in the United States and has a girlfriend. Would my mom or dad ever remarry? Would my parents even divorce?
They're just going over a rough spot. I tell myself every time they start to disagree but in the back of my head I know things will never be the same.
"You okay, Clare?" Eli asked.
"I know that you've been through the same stuff I'm going through now and you turned out okay," He smirked, "But once reality sets in it's scary. No more family dinners, or complete Christmas cards, and the whole idea of child custody scares me. Nothing will be normal anymore. I need my mom, but sometimes I need my dad too. This is so confusing!" I put my head on the table and take a deep breath.
"But I'll know you'll get through it when the time comes." I sat up and looked at him. "You're intelligent and strong, Clare, you'll be scarred but soon the new will become the old. Besides, the definition of normal will always change." He looked at me with complete sincerity.
We were both quiet for a while before Eli glanced at his watch. "Okay, so my watch may be wrong here, but I think we have ten minutes will get back to class." I instantly stood and gathered my stuff.
"Wait, you never gave me feedback on my piece." I looked back at Eli.
"You have definitely improved. The piece is personal, original and unique. You'll be fine." We exchanged papers, paid Peter at the counter and returned to Morty.
Eli's POV
We arrived back at Degrassi in time to collapse into the desks facing Miss. Dawes. Our assignments were handed in and a new novel was distributed around the classroom. For the next two weeks the class would be discussing Romeo and Juliet.
Great. Prepare for unjust reenactments, stuttering readers, and Shakespeare. I thought to myself.
"Each of you will pick a partner, to not only discuss, but each week one pair will reenact an important scene from the play." Miss. Dawes explained.
I turned to face Clare, "Want to be partners?"
"Why not?" She smiled.
Miss Dawes cleared her throat to quiet and rising chatter and continued, "At the end of our Romeo and Juliet unit there will be not only a paper to write but a quiz to test your newfound knowledge of old English." A few groans echoed throughout the classroom. "Anyway, starting tomorrow the first pair will reenact the first scene."
I glanced behind me at Clare to see her reaction to this but instead, I saw her doodling.
xxx
The first week was boring. I watched too many classmates humiliate themselves. At this point: the servants had quarreled, Romeo had crashed the Capulet's party where he meets Juliet, the two lovebirds perform the famous balcony scene, Juliet asks Romeo to marry her, Friar Lawrence gets involved, Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo kills Tybalt, and we left off on Thursday when Romeo is banished to Mantua. And of course, Miss Dawes picks Clare and I last. We have to reenact the death scene.
One by one, I watched the others stand in front of the class and read a few lines in old English, but apparently our Romeo and Juliet unit is ending with a bang. Ergo, I actually have to act.
So here I am, on a Friday afternoon, reading Shakespeare aloud in class. Clare is lying in front of me on her "death bed" holding back complete laughter. Her face is as red as a tomato as she bits down on her lip hard, but still I glance at the script and start to read:
"Eyes, look your last.
Arms, take your last embrace.
And, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss…"
Kiss? I have to kiss Clare?
I lean down gently press my lips hers. Her mouth is soft and even though she's supposed to be playing dead she kisses me back. I'm leaning over her now while she lightly grips the collar of my shirt.
'Ahem' Miss Dawes coughs, implying this is clearly not classroom behavior. All around us I hear laughter arising among my peers. I straighten myself and Clare falls back onto the desk. She no longer holds back a laugh but is now grinning from ear to ear.
"You're blushing." She mouths to me.
"Yeah, well, so are you." I whisper back, brushing my fingertips against her hand.
"Shall we continue?" Miss Dawes says but you can tell she is somewhat pleased with our performance.
I continue: "O true apothecary, thy drugs are quick." I put my hand on my forehead and pretend to die. I eye Clare who sits up and starts to read.
"Romeo. What's here? Poison.
Drunk all, and left no
friendly drop to help me after."
After the lines are read and Clare and I are dead, we return to our seats and I actually cannot stop smiling. It may sound sappy, but I have wanted to tell Clare how I feel since Day 1. From the corner of my eye, I see Clare who is in the same mood I am.
I impatiently bounce my foot up and down and wait for the bell to ring. Once the bell finally rings, I spin around and face Clare.
Act cool.
"So…" I tap my fingers on her desk.
"Yeah…" She whispers. Her face still is bright red as she hugs her books closer to her chest.
"Can we—" I start,
"Talk?" She finishes.
"That would be good idea." I say. We both stand head for the door but are stopped.
"Miss Edwards and Mr. Goldsworthy, may I have a word?" Clare approaches Miss Dawes and I follow close behind. "As you know, that incident does not, under any circumstance, qualify as acceptable classroom behavior."
I can just tell that I'll be getting a detention for this, but Clare surprises me, "Excuse me, Miss Dawes, but you're saying that we might get detention for following a script that you distributed to the class?"
Testifying against a teacher? That's new. I think to myself as a smirk crosses my face.
"No, well, not exactly but there will be a warning issued." Miss Dawes seemed completely stupefied but still continued, "Well I guess that's all, but I was still pleased with your performance." She handed each of us a score sheet. I smiled at the letter grade, A.
"Great job partner," I say.
"The same to you," Clare replied.
Once outside the classroom, we continued to walk with each other until we reached Clare's locker.
"Okay, we definitely need to talk." She says as she shoved books next to her jacket.
"I know, but first…" I leaned forward and kissed her again on the mouth. At first she is shocked, just like earlier, but still kisses me back softly and gives into my embrace.
Clare's POV
"I know, but first…" He stopped mid-sentence to kiss me on the mouth. I was melting onto cloud nine until we are caught by Alli.
"O-oh my god…" She stuttered. I heard her phone clatter to the floor. Alli's jaw fell along with it, while her face experienced complete shock.
I pulled away from Eli but he reached down to clasp his hand to mine.
"Oh, I see. You two finally realized you like each other." Alli smiled smugly and picked her phone off the floor. "I'll just be, uh… Dave!" She cried and ran up to Dave, Wesley and Connor.
"That's Alli, being Alli." I sighed.
"So, you really like me, huh?" He said.
"What gave you that idea?" I laughed softly and squeezed his hand.
"Hmm, I have no idea. The thought just came to me." He said sarcastically. I smiled.
"Well, I have to go, but I'll see you later, okay?" I kissed him on the cheek and closed my locker door.
"Talk to you later, Blue Eyes!" He called after me.
xxx
I sat on my bed with my laptop in front of me. I was supposed to be writing my paper about Romeo and Juliet by all I could think about was my kiss with Eli. My brain was cluttered by his expression just before our kiss. His bright green eyes were staring down at me and his hair was falling in front of his face. That crooked grin of his was permanently etched into my mind.
*Ping*
An IM box had appeared on my laptop screen:
eli-gold49: ive been thinking about you
My heart started to flutter rapidly.
What should I say?
clare-e23: what are you thinking about exactly?
eli-gold49: your pretty blue eyes
clare-e23: really?
eli-gold49: why? what should I be thinking about?
clare-e23: miss dawes's assignment
eli-gold49: well when I think of that assignment, our kiss registers in my mind
eli-gold49: which leads me to think about you
clare-e23: you do understand you're making me blush, right?
eli-gold49: of course
clare-e23: did I ever mention what I like about you?
eli-gold49: nope, I don't recall that
clare-e23: I like your emerald eyes
eli-gold49: I feel honored to know that clare :)
I paused before I continued to type.
clare-e23: I also like you
eli-gold49: who doesn't?
clare-e23: are you serious?
eli-gold49: just kidding
Suddenly my cell phone buzzed from inside my bag. Looking at the caller Id, I saw a recognizable number so I answered it.
"Hello?" I said into the phone.
"I love you." The voice said. I froze.
"Eli?" I asked.
"Clare? Who did you think it was?" I heard a single laugh.
"I have no idea." I giggled.
"Well, I'm not lying. I do love you." A smile crept upon my face.
"I love you too, Eli."
Hope you enjoyed my story. Don't you just love Clare and Eli? They're just so cute! This is my very first Degrassi fanfic so I hope it's good. Comments are appreciated. Maybe I'll write more, but that all depends on the feedback I get. So if you want more, please drag your mouse to "Rewiew" button! :)