Chapter One
Degrassi
Class had only started 10 minutes ago, and Paige Michael-Chuck was already bored out her brains. With no Hazel to keep her company and pass notes with, Paige was lost. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been without a close friend in class. Sure, she had Marco and Spinner and Craig and Ash in class, but they were all too wrapped up in their own little worlds, catching up on missed homework, which Paige had finished the night before. Instead, the girl sat and fixed her make-up in her little pocket mirror that she took everywhere with her, while she waited for the others to finish.
Half an hour later, class was finished and Paige couldn't be happier, the day had finished and that meant she got to go home, no work tonight! Paige fiddled at her locker for a few moments, before heading over to Marco's, as he was going back to her house to work on their M.I. project together. As she reached Marco's locker though, she noticed Ellie was hanging around.
"Lets go Marco" Paige said sweetly, steering him away from the redhead.
"Oh, you're going with her" Ellie said, pouting. "You promised Marco. This exchange thing is important to me…"
Marco looked between the two girls.
"El, I know its important, but this projects due tomorrow and we haven't even started…" Marco started to say. Ellie interrupted him though.
"Well, maybe you should have started earlier, instead of hoping that Dylan would be around every time you go over, and then getting upset when he's not and then leaving before you get any work done."
"Come on El. You know I have to do this project…" Marco said.
"Fine then" Ellie said. "I'm coming with yous. Paige can help organise this trip too. After you've finished this project." Ellie grabbed Marco's arm and hooked hers into it, beginning to walk away.
Paige looked confused, but went along anyway. Maybe Ellie would keep her mouth shut for 5 minutes and they could get the project done, and then she could leave them alone to do whatever it was Ellie wanted to do.
Ellie had positioned herself on Paige's bed the moment they had arrived at her house, and showed no signs of moving anytime soon, so Marco and Paige took the floor and worked on their plan for the project, organizing their ideas and such. Every few minutes Ellie would go to butt in, but she stopped after the third time when Paige nearly hit her.
Slowly but surely the project was done, and when it was finally finished, Ellie gave a heavy sigh.
"Finally!" she said to both Marco and Paige. To Ellie and Marco's amazement, Paige agreed.
"I know what you mean. That was ridiculous Marco. Next time no excuses… We get it done in class."
Ellie and Marco shook their heads at one another as Paige went to the bathroom. Ellie then pulled out all the things she had organised for their exchange trip.
"Right-o" Ellie began as Paige returned to the room. "I've put it to Mr. Raditch and he thinks it's a great idea, and the other school has agreed and all, so it's full steam ahead" Ellie said to Marco.
"Great" Marco said, flipping through a pile of Ellie's papers.
"What's full steam ahead?" Paige asked. Ellie looked at Marco and then back to Paige.
"Oh, we're organising an exchange trip to Australia for Degrassi students. Open to our year, and the year below us as well. I'm bringing it up at home group tomorrow morning. And so yeah, we go and live with an Australian family and go to their school and their classes and all that." Ellie said.
"Wow" Paige said quietly. She could tell that Ellie was proud of the work she had put into this. "I wanna help."
"What?" Marco said, looking up from one of the papers, before glancing at Ellie.
"I want to help. Is that so hard to believe that I might actually be interested in something like this?"
Marco shook his head.
"I didn't think so. So, can I be in?" Paige asked, turning to Ellie.
"Uhh…" Ellie said, kind of uncertain. She knew that Paige could be a nice girl when she wanted to, but she also knew that she could be a bit, unmanageable, if you got onto her bad side. "Sure…"
"Thanks. So what do you want me to do?" Paige asked.
Ellie's morning broadcast during home group had gone well, and Ellie and Marco were waiting in the M.I. classroom for anybody who was interested in the trip to show up. Paige wandered in, Ellie had already given her all the information she needed the night before, so she wondered why she was here. Paige pulled up a chair and dragged it closer to Ellie and Marco, who were at the front of the room.
"Um… Paige…" Marco began to say, before the door opened, and Manny, Emma, JT and Toby wandered in.
"Hey Paige, Marco, Ellie" JT said, while Emma and Toby smiled and waved hello. Manny simply just sat down.
"Oh… Hey Ellie, Marco. How are you?" Manny said, ignoring Paige. Paige scowled at the girl, but quickly got over it.
The group talked amongst themselves as they waited for anyone else to show up. A few moments later, Craig came running in.
"Hey... sorry I'm late guys" he said, waving to Ellie, Paige and Marco, before taking a seat. A few more randoms joined them in the next few minutes, and just as Ellie was about to start talking, Jay and Alex wandered in, more interested in themselves than what they were walking in on.
"Oops… Is this where we want to be Alex? Around Greenpeace?" Jay said to Alex, using an old, old nickname for Emma, who simply ignored Jay and asked Ellie "Are we gonna get started?"
"Uh... Yes" Ellie said, who was more than a little surprised that Alex and Jay had shown up. "Right. Well. Basically we've organised an exchange trip to Melbourne, Australia. Marco's gonna hand out some information sheets for you and your parents, and then we'll cover any questions you've got."
Marco handed out the sheets Ellie mentioned to everyone, before he sat back down next to Ellie. They watched everyone quickly read their sheet, everyone except Jay, who had folded it up and put it in his pocket. It was obvious that he was just there to keep Alex company. Emma raised her hand.
"That's an awful lot of money… How are we going to pay for it all?" She asked.
"Fundraising, mainly. Plus the school council is willing to put a bit in, and I'm going to try and organise some sponsors. I just don't want everyone's parents to have to pay for it all. Maybe they could all chip in a little bit, just to help out…" Ellie replied.
"What sort of fundraising?" Toby asked. Paige took this question before Ellie or Marco could get in.
"Well, the Spirit Squad are going to run a car wash in a few weekends time. Plus we're going to organise chocolate drives, a concert, a dress up day with a raffle and a barbeque." Paige had made all the fundraising up on the spot, which was good because Ellie hadn't really gotten her thoughts together about the fundraising, but also annoying because Paige wasn't in charge… Ellie was.
"Thanks Paige. I also want to see if we can get the Dot, Joey's car yard and the place where I did my co-op job to contribute by sponsoring. We've also got the sausages and bread and sauce and that for the barbeque covered because the local supermarket is going to sponsor us on that one."
"So what do we actually do over there?" JT asked. "We don't hafta go to school do we?"
"Yes JT. We have to go to school." Marco said.
Paige rolled her eyes. "What sort of trip did you think this would be JT? A holiday?"
JT made a rude gesture to Paige and Ellie took control.
"Well, we fly to Melbourne, and then we get picked up by our host families. Then we go back to their houses and live with them for 10 weeks, so we do whatever the family we are staying with does. And we go to school with the person we are staying with, so we'll all see one another during the day, because the school we're going to, all the host families children go there." The group nodded in understanding.
"Right well we need to know who is coming by the end of the week, so we can organise the enrolment at the other school and whatnot. Also, if you're coming you'll need to get yourself a valid passport. The info sheet explains it all for you. Also, my numbers on there if you get home and your parents have any questions and want to ask me." The group stood up to leave, and slowly they did, heading off to their various classes, as did Ellie, Paige and Marco.