Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi.
Chapter Two: Apples
"Why does she have to sleep with me in my room?" Katie whined to my mother as the three of us were washing the dishes.
Actually, my mother and I were washing the dishes as Katie stood in front of the stove and watched us with a scowl across her face as she entered the beginning stages of another one of her meltdowns.
"Katie," my mother warned, sending my sister a pointed look. "Maya or Cam or his parents cannot sleep in the basement or on the couch. Maya will only be sharing the room with you for one night, you'll live."
Katie's lower lip began to tremble and her face was slowly becoming a very scary shade of fuchsia as she stared at our mother in absolute horror.
"I won't live," she said, stomping her foot against the linoleum, tears pouring from her eyes. I really hope the Saunders' couldn't hear this or I might just die from second-hand embarrassment and shame. "This isn't fair!"
I sighed, shaking my head as I handed my mother another dish for her to dry. These tantrums had become so frequent and a part of our normal routine since Katie had come back from rehab to find out Drew was in love with Bianca and dumped her.
It hadn't been pretty.
The only good thing that had come from my sister slowly losing her sanity – and student council position – was that my parents had stopped trying to make me become her. Sure my parents wanted me to play sports, get good grades, and maybe even achieve some student government position, but the whole "Maya why can't you be more like Katie, she blah, blah, blah, blah" had stopped.
"Katherine Elizabeth," my mother snapped, swiveling her chair away from the sink and made her way over to Katie who was still stomping and crying. "Stop it right now! We have guests over and you and your sister are going to share a room and that is final!"
Katie seemed to shrink under my mother's menacing glare. Even though my mother had been in a wheelchair she always seemed to tower over people when she scolded them. It was quite impressive, and completely terrifying that she could intimidate a person so much while sitting down.
"B-but –" Katie sputtered, looking shell shocked.
"It's final, Katie." My mother said, heading back over beside me.
"But, Mom," Katie moaned, clutching onto the granite as if it were a life raft, "Maya snores!"
"What?" I snapped in a shrilly voice, spinning around to face her, dropping the cup I had been scrubbing in the process, sloshing soapy water everywhere, including my clothes. "I snore, are you kidding me? You of all people should not complain about other peoples' snoring, Katherine Elizabeth Matlin. You sound like a darn freight train coming at full speed."
Katie's eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah, well you, Maya Lydia Matlin, moan and groan in your sleep!"
"I don't moan!" I hissed, my face flushing to a deep scarlet. "And you kick!"
"No, I kick you to stop your moans," Katie said.
"I do not moan!" I practically screamed, crossing my arms over my chest and shoving my nose into the air.
"Sure you do. All night long you hear "ooh, ooh, ooh!" Katie mocked, making her eyes roll to the back of her head.
"That's disgusting! I don't do things like that in my sleep, you liar!" I exclaimed, clenching my fists so hard that I could feel my nails threatening to break the skin of my palms.
"Oh, Cam, I love you so much. Oh!" Katie continued to mock.
"Girls –" My mother warned her voice dangerously low.
"Shut up!" I screamed at her, throwing the first thing I grabbed off the counter in her direction.
Katie ducked, and the apple I had grabbed from the fruit dish flew over the island two feet from where Katie was crouched.
At that moment Cam had come into the kitchen unaware of the present danger of flying fruit.
"Ow!" Cam moaned, stumbling back a bit, clutching the side of his face from where the apple had hit right under his left eye, the apple rolling away.
"Cam, are you okay?" My mother said, rolling over to him.
Katie snorted. "Nice going, Maya."
I couldn't say anything. I just stood in front of the sink, arms spread apart and eyes wide as saucers and mouth wide open.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Cam said, removing his hand to show a nice purple bruise blooming on his cheek.
"I-I-" I sputtered from my spot as he looked at me, his eyes watering from the pain my apple had caused him.
Katie began to snicker. "I was wrong, Maya, you have no hope at hand eye coordination."
"Oh go back to your temper tantrum!" I snapped at her, and ran past Cam in complete embarrassment.
It was bad enough I hit him in the face with an apple, but what if he had heard all that stuff Katie had said.
"Maya, what's wrong?" My dad called to me, as I ran past him to head up the stairs, try to hide my face in shame and embarrassment.
"I'm going to find a rock to crawl under for the rest of my life!" I wailed, running up the stairs to my bedroom.
"Teenage girls," my dad said with a laugh. "They certainly are a handful."
I lay curled up on my bed, crying.
I'm turning into Katie.
I'm so embarrassed I think I might die. The mattress is going to suck me in and I'm going to be forced to watch my humiliation for the rest of my life.
Maybe I should wear a bag over my face for the rest of my life if my mattress doesn't suck me whole. Tristan, Zig, and Tori would still be my friends. They probably wouldn't have anything to do with me in public and they'd probably delete me off FaceRange, but I'm sure they'd still text me and instant message me every now and again.
As I began to contemplate either wearing a bag or a ski mask for all eternity someone began to knock on my door.
"Go away, Dad!" I said, lifting my head up.
"Actually," a much softer, and not at all my dad's gruff voice came from the other side of the door, "its Cam."
Oh, Fates, why? Do you hate me so much that you'd make me face him so soon?
"Uh, just as second." I said, hoping up from my bed and hurrying to my mirror. My face looked blotchy and my eyes were a bit wild from all the crying. If this boy isn't already scared of my existence now, seeing me like this will have him running for the hills.
But we're soul mates so if he did that he'd be a pretty bad other half.
I sighed, wiping my face on a shirt that was hanging on the side of my dresser, attempting to look presentable.
"Uh, Maya," Cam called to me timidly.
I threw open the door and tried to be calm and not look at his bruise. "Uh, hi," I said, stuttering.
"I just wanted to see if you were okay." He said, walking past me to head into my room.
"Oh, well I'm hunky dory, right as rain, and all that jazz." I said, throwing him what I hoped to be a believable, and not at all frightening, Sheldon Cooper-like smile.
"Uh, yeah," he said, looking around my room as if my books and stuffed animals would give him what to say next.
"I'm sorry about your eye and falling on top of you." I said, not looking at him.
"It's okay, I've had worse."
"Have other girls done worse than land on you after falling down a flight of stairs, or threw an apple that hit you in the face?" I asked, hoping that there had been others who'd done sill stuff like this to him.
"No, but hockey does batter you up a bit."
"Oh, yeah," I said.
We stood in my room awkwardly, neither of us knowing what to say.
"So…" I said, my eyes landing on my book bag. "Are you excited for school?"
He shrugged. "I guess."
"Well at least tomorrow we don't have to go." I said, trying to think of another topic.
"Yeah," he said.
"So do you want to hang out tomorrow? I'm going to my friend's house to watch movies, his brother's on the hockey team."
"Oh, I would, but I have practice for most of the day."
"Oh, right." I said, my face falling to the floor.
"But we could hang out after. I mean, if you'd want too."
"Sure," I said, a bit too excitedly, making him recoil a bit. "I mean, uh, sure, that sounds like fun."
Suddenly I could hear Katie humming K-I-S-S-I-N-G from my doorway and I looked over to see her standing there with smirk. "Aw, that's cute, Cam, asking her out on a date."
Cam's face drained of color and he became very interested in my carpet.
I glared at Katie. One of these days I'm going to kill her, and I won't be sorry when she's gone.
Author's Note: Oh, Katie, you and your shenanigans. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, they made me smile! And to everyone favorited, and followed this story, thank you as well. I hope this chapter didn't disappoint any one of you at all.