DISCLAIMER: I don't own Degrassi or anything else.

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I am SO sorry for how long it took me to write this chapter. I am sticking with this fic, but writing setup isn't always easy and I've got a lot on my mind right now.

Thank you so much for the support of this fic. All the reviews and messages I received were so wonderful. I know this idea has been done before, and I'm glad you're all on board with me.

Chapter 2

Room 204. Room 204. I walked back and forth between 203 and 205 wondering if I had lost my mind overnight. The only thing on the other side of the hall looked like a fire exit that led to a staircase. I checked my schedule for the sixth time and it was definitely Room 204.

Great. My very first university class and I couldn't even find it. And it wasn't like I hadn't had ample opportunity to get here on time. Mikayla also had a 9:30 class and she'd set her alarm to go off to go off at 6:30. And then hit the snooze button every seven minutes until 8:45. I'd given up trying to sleep by 7 and took a shower, coming back to the room and gritting my teeth every time I heard the loud buzz.

I was already late and starting to panic so I tested the fire door. No alarm went off so I walked to the bottom of the flight of stairs. There was an outside exit, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw a door that was half hidden by the wall of the stairway. Room 204. I breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door, to find ten pairs of eyes looking at me.

"Sorry," I mumbled lamely. It figured that the one class I'd be late for was my First Year Seminar, the only one that wasn't in a large lecture hall or auditorium. The students were seated around a large table and the only empty seat was up next to the professor.

And next to Eli Goldsworthy.

It took all the strength I had not to gasp out loud. I took the seat next to him, trying not to look at him, as the professor said, "Clare Edwards, I presume?"

I nodded, afraid to trust my voice.

"As I was saying before we were interrupted, Dr. Langton has had a family emergency which has forced him to take a last minute sabbatical. Unfortunately, since I was the only professor able to pick up this section and since the romantic poets are not my area of specialty, I will be teaching a second session of my seminar on Sex and Gender is Contemporary Pop Culture.

I tried to follow the professor's words as he went down the syllabus – Dr. Stinson was the name listed at the top – but I couldn't avoid thinking about the fact that Eli and I were sitting less than ten centimeters away from each other. I was trying to force myself to relax and pay attention but it was so difficult.

"I've notified the bookstore and they've placed an order for extra copies of the texts. If you are unable to get the main textbook before next class, there will be a copy on reserve at the main library. You will be expected to have the reading done, so please don't wait until the last minute. You will need to buy the 11th edition; please don't attempt to substitute an earlier edition as many of the chapters have been updated."

I stared at the list of assigned reading. The main textbook appeared to be about 700 pages long and we'd clearly read all of them throughout the semester. There were ten other novels required along with a list of movies and TV shows that we'd need to watch independently. Not only was this class going to be a lot of work but clearly my strategy of coming to campus three weeks early to write down the list of books I'd need for my class to order used online was a waste, because now all the books for my now cancelled class were useless and I couldn't exactly return them.

The assignments sounded pretty reasonable: no final exam or midterm but three research papers and a weekly short reading reaction. The first research paper was due in two weeks but it only needed to be six pages long. The final one was a bit scarier at 15-20 pages, but this was university and I knew I had to get the work done.

Dr. Stinson finished his review of the syllabus and started to lecture. I scribbled notes furiously, writing down as much as I could of what he said. The girl on the other side of Eli had a laptop with her, but I noticed that she was scrolling through Facerange. I kind of figured people in university would be a little more serious about their studies, but clearly I was wrong.

I did really well at Degrassi and I didn't expect there to be such a gap between what I learned in high school and university, but Dr. Stinson kept using words I'd never heard in this context as if we should know what they mean: agency and hegemony and zeitgeist and reification and subaltern. I wasn't even sure if I was spelling some of the words correctly as I wrote them down with large question marks next to them.

And of course, since this class wasn't on Wordsworth and Byron like I had expected, the lecture not only included lots of terms that I was completely comfortable with like transgender or patriarchy but a bunch of sex terms that I'd heard of but certainly hadn't experienced. I knew my cheeks must have been tomato red when the professor used the term "cunnilingus." He was describing a scene from Black Swan which had come out when Eli and I were dating and I vividly remembered watching that scene with wide eyes as Eli stroked my fingers reassuringly.

I wondered if maybe I should try to drop this class and pick up another seminar because between Eli's presence and the topic it just seemed like a bad way to start off my university career. But as I listened to the professor talk, I realized that even if sex wasn't my favorite topic of conversation, it was certainly something I had opinions on, particularly how women's sexuality was treated in literature and television. And for a 9:30 in the morning class, the professor was certainly holding my attention, and he promised in future sessions he would do less talking and open things up to discussion the majority of the time.

By the end of class, I had firmly decided that I was eighteen years old and I was ready to take a university class about sex. I had no idea what to do about the Eli situation. I had sort of glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as a student at the other end of the table spoke. He looked pretty much the same: floppy hair, long eyelashes, black clothing. He wasn't wearing any eyeliner that I could see but he still had his requisite guitar pick necklace which I'd always loved. I kept waiting for him to look at me but his eyes seemed to stay firmly on the professor, his notebook, or his fingernail that he must have colored with a sharpie.

When the professor dismissed us, I barely had a second to pick up my notebook before Eli sprinted from the class, the very first person to leave. I stared after him. Really? I hadn't seen him in over a year and I didn't even merit a, "Hi, Clare, how are you?" I threw my books into my backpack furiously and stalked outside but I didn't see him anywhere.

I was so pissed off that I didn't know what to do. It was too early to get lunch and I didn't have another class until 2 on Tuesdays. I figured I'd head back to the dorms, hoping that Mikayla hadn't slept through her morning class because I'd only been here for three days and I could already use a break from her. I figured I could send Alli an email and freak out over Eli being at U of T.

The First Year Seminar class was in the building next to the student center and I remembered there was a coffee cart near the entrance. After my fitful sleep this morning, I definitely needed some caffeine.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the line for coffee was long, and about five people ahead of me, I noticed Eli. I took a deep breath and tried to get up the nerve to talk to him. I tapped him on the shoulder. "Thanks for saving my place."

He glanced at the people behind him, looking uncomfortable. "Sure," he said.

Ugh, did he lose his ability to speak in the past year? "So how are you?" I asked awkwardly.

Before he could respond, the cashier called us up. "I'll have a large coffee, black," he said before looking over at me helplessly. "She'll have…"

"A small coffee with skim milk and two sugars."

Eli smirked and it felt so comfortable and familiar that it almost made me melt. "I guess I could have guessed that."

"That'll be $4.98," the cashier said, and Eli took out his wallet, fumbling with a few singles.

"Let me," I said, handing her my student ID which also worked as my meal plan card. I wasn't sure if Eli was living on campus and it didn't feel right to force him to pay for my coffee when I was the one who ambushed him.

"Right," he said. "I forgot the coffee cart accepts meal plan."

We stood in silence off to the side as they poured our drinks, and once we received them we sipped the hot beverages gingerly. We exchanged an awkward glance until Eli finally broke the silence. "I'm headed that way," he said, gesturing in the direction of the residence halls.

"Me too," I said.

I was hoping he'd say something else, but I suppose the fact that he was walking with me was a good enough sign. "So you're at U of T now?"

"Yeah," he said, sipping his coffee.

"What happened to UBC?"

I glanced over at him, and watched his face fall. "It just…didn't work out. I was doing pretty well in my classes but everything else wasn't so great and I didn't like being so far away from Bullfrog and Cece, so I transferred."

That made a lot of sense. I was surprised Eli had wanted to go so far away given all he'd been through in high school but he was doing so well in Grade 12 that I figured he'd be ready for it. "So you've been back all summer?"

Eli looked even more uncomfortable. "Not exactly. I only finished one semester there. I flew back after Christmas break and got my stuff and moved back to Toronto. But I spent the summer in New York City so I haven't really been around the whole time."

He'd been back since January? "Why didn't you tell me?" I couldn't believe Eli had been in Toronto for half a year and I hadn't run into him at the Dot or he hadn't texted or emailed to let me know. Things had ended awkwardly between us but even so…

"I meant to call," he said, and I got the feeling he was brushing me off. "But I was pretty busy. Bullfrog got me a job at the station and I worked a lot of hours and then I went to New York so I wasn't around much."

I remembered that Imogen had gone to NYU and wondered if he'd spent the summer with her. But that was a question I was definitely not going to ask. I still couldn't believe that I hadn't run into him at all. And how come Adam didn't say anything? He and I had spent a ton of time together last year. But suddenly the many times that Adam had blown me off and claimed to have plans with Dave or Drew started to make sense.

"You were Adam's secret girlfriend," I said, and Eli practically choked on his coffee.

"Excuse me?"

"You were Adam's secret girlfriend," I repeated, a little less accusingly. "All last semester he kept blowing me off and he was such a bad liar that I thought that maybe he'd found a girlfriend that he was too scared to introduce me to. But clearly instead of making out with some girl, he was spending time with you."

Eli laughed. "Yes. No making out going on there."

Eli seemed to think it was a joke, but none of this was making sense to me. "Why didn't Adam tell me he was hanging out with you?"

His laughter immediately stopped. "Because I asked him not to."

"But why would you do that?"

"Look, things weren't exactly great between us when I left for Vancouver. We didn't speak all summer. I thought that things between the two of us were just kind of done."

He wasn't saying anything I didn't already know but hearing the words out loud just felt…heartbreaking. "Well, we've got a class together now. I think we can act like adults and not avoid each other."

"Sure," Eli said quickly and I was starting to feel a little better.

We kept walking and I was expecting him to break off at some point but he stayed in step next to me, and I wondered if he was being polite and going to walk me to my dorm so we could continue our conversation.

"So what did you think of the seminar?" I glanced over and saw Eli's grin.

"It was…interesting," I stuttered. "Not exactly the romantic poets."

"Not exactly," he repeated with laughter in his voice. "Sounded interesting though. I've got some of the TV shows we need to watch on DVD if you want to borrow them."

"Sounds good," I said, surprised at how friendly he was being after he had tried to avoid me.

We reached the door to my dorm and paused. "I guess I better…" I gestured upstairs and Eli laughed.

"You live here too?"

My jaw dropped as I finally put the clues together. "You're Elijah," I said, shaking my head. Jake's stupid joke from move in day didn't seem quite so funny anymore.

Eli made a face. "Yes Clare, although I think we established the fact that I prefer to be called Eli a couple of years ago."

"No, I mean. You're Elijah. You live in the room across from me."

Eli narrowed his eyes at me, and I opened the door in exasperation. He followed me up the stairs and his jaw dropped when he realized what I had meant. "Clare and Mikayla," he read off my door. "Mikayla," he repeated. "Tall, blonde and..."

"She has a boyfriend," I said bitterly. If Eli fell for her, I would seriously lose my mind.

"I was going to say bitchy," Eli laughed.

"Yep, that's her," I said.

"Lucky you," he said, unlocking his door. "That's why I got a single." He gazed at me for a second. "It's nice to see you, Clare." His voice turned husky when he said my name and I turned to unlock my door so he wouldn't see the flush that rushed to my cheeks.

"You too, Eli," I said softly. I turned around to give him a quick smile. "See you on Thursday."

He grinned and shut his door behind him and I did the same, throwing myself onto my bed.

Eli Goldsworthy. In my class. In my dorm.

I was so screwed.