Chapter Two
The halls of Degrassi looked remarkably the same to Gavin, even the distinct smells from the caf. Degrassi was obviously out for the Christmas holidays, but because of the occasional student or teacher he saw, he figured they must have kept it open for extended exams and such.
"Uh, Dad?" Julia questioned, blond eyebrows creased in confusion, "Where are we?"
He had stopped at one of the locker, and after a quick picking, it clattered open. He smiled at the fact they were the same lockers, and pointed to something on the inside. There, in a heart, were the words 'Spin & Paige.'
"We're at my old highschool!" He said as he continued walking, nearly tripping over some kids working on a project infront what looked to be the computer lad.
"Hey!" The kid, who looked middle-school aged and scrawny, said, "Watch it!"
"Back off," Julia snorted, giving the kid and death glare as he returned to his work. A head popped out of the classroom door and addressed the boy.
"Just checking on you, Theo, how --" but stopped short once he spotted Gavin and Julia.
"Issaacs?" Gavin exclaimed and Julia cocked her head to the side, studying this man.
"Spinner?" The man returned and Gavin embraced Tobey in a manly hug.
Gavin turned to Julia, smiling the 'proud father' smile that made her sick, "Julia, this is Tobey Issaacs, a former geek of these halls who turned out to actually be pretty cool. Tobey, this is Julia."
Tobey extended a hand to her and she took it, smiling because the tone in Gavin's voice had been light and complimentary rather than condescending.
"Hey," Tobey said, turning back to Gavin, "You should check out the gym. There's someone there who'll probably want to see you."
Gavin gave Tobey a goodbye after getting a quick run-over about how his newlywed wife was doing. Julia's dad seemed to be amused and still slightly amazed as he said her name, Manny Issaacs, but Julia didn't ask. Before too long, he had ushered Julia toward the gym, and once they reached it they found it vacant, though the lights were on.
Spinner walked the edge, spotting pictures and trophies in cases. He ran his hands across them til he found a picture of the soccer team and pointed to himself for Julia.
"Ew!" she exclaimed, studying him, "You had a tongue ring?" She questioned, for he was poking his tongue out and the offending piece of jewelry glinted. Spinner could only nod in response, "And you bleached your hair?"
Spinner laughed, pointing out other members of the team but then noticed Julia wasn't paying a bit of attention.
"Ju-lie," he said, trying to break her gaze but followed it into the court where a dozen or so boys were playing basketball. She was watching them, biting her lip in a manner Gavin could realize from his school days -- she was checking them out. Obviously, her sleep had worn off pretty darn well.
"Excuse me!" A stern voice called as a woman, dressed in gym shorts with a slender body and dark skin came toward them, "Practises aren't open for spectation."
"Liberty," another voice addressed the woman and an attractive, dark-skinned man in a wheelchair rolled up to them, "Give it a rest, would you? Not like they're the Bardell coaches." He looked up at the two of them, away from Liberty's stern gaze, and struck out his hand, "Jimmy Brooks, head coach."
"Jimmy!" Gavin exclaimed, and Jimmy studied it. It was a terse moment, before he finally produced a small smile, relaxing Gavin immensely.
"Good to see you, Spin," he said softly as they shook hands.
Liberty's reaction, however, was not so calm and friendly, as she shreiked"Mason?"
"Nice to see you, too, Liberty." He and Jimmy laughed, and Liberty turned on her heel to return to ridiculing the boys on the court.
"Again with the Spinner thing?" Julia questioned, moving Jimmy's attention from her father to her.
Jimmy gazed shifted between her then back to Gavin, his eyes finally resting on her again, "You must be Julia."
"Yes," she responded, shaking the hand he extended.
"Spin," he said, "She looks just like you. She's got some of Paige in her, but I'd swear she's your clone. Only ten times prettier, of coure."
Gavin smiled warmly at this and she leaned on his shoulder.
"Hey!" Jimmy perked up, "Do you two wanna come by the house? The twins probably just woke up from their naps and Ellie can try to cook something for you. She's trying the whole motherhood thing in full force so I've been eating partially burnt meals for about a week."
"Ellie?" Gavin echoed, "As in, Ellie Nash? That dated Sean? And Craig?"
"No, Spin," Jimmy responded, "It's Ellie Brooks now. We would've invited you to the wedding, but I didn't have your address and Kendra couldn't find it. She was just moving into James's place, and it was too much stress. You kindof up and left with out saying much of a goodbye."
"Yeah," Gavin said, studying his shoes before bringing his eyes back to Jimmy, "As much as I'd like to stop by and see how Ellie Nash could be a mother, we've gotta get on the road. Julie won these concert tickets to see this singer, AK, and we're on our way to see her."
Jimmy turned to the guys on the court, "Hey! Clark!" he shouted, and a short, olive-skinned boy who had just passed to a taller guy turned to face him. "What song does AK sing?"
After he listed the song titles, he cocked his head in Julia's direction. In response, she winked. Smiling, the boy returned to passing the ball with the others. Jimmy listened, the explained to Gavin.
"Yeah, you'll get a good show there. She's not half-bad, the guys listen to all that rock stuff on the bus. Says it gets them pumped. Well, I gotta go make sure Liberty's not being to hard on 'em, you know how she is. Good seeing you, Spin. You've gotta call me or something, really, everybody misses you."
Spinner nodded and Julia and him made their way back to the car, they were well on the road and Julia chattered distantly before popping in an AK disc into the car's stereo so her dad could get a taste of what he was in for.
But sleepiness got the better of Julia as she fell asleep on the car window, and Gavin leaned over to turn it off to give her some peaceful rest. But as he thought about it, he kindof liked the way AK sang, and left it on long enough to listen to her songs.
"I'm a big city girl from a low key little town / Pissed off everyone and anyone who was around / Didn't believe it would get better / Stuck in cold, Canadian weather / Just feelin' sorry for myself / and falling deeper into such a mess."
