Clare Edwards walked up to the beach where the back-to-school party for the Degrassi kids was being held. She and Alli had been excited about it all week. Over the summer, the girls had hung out nonstop, Alli even went on vacation with Clare and her mom to visit Darcy in Kenya. They had had a blast, but now, as summer was winding down, they were ready to go back to Degrassi and have fun at the beach with their friends.

The first person she saw when she got to the beach was Eli, her ex. Her smile faded when she saw him and she looked away quickly. She didn't want Eli to ruin this night. He had already ruined the end of her sophomore year. She hated thinking that, though. Because most of their relationship was fantastic, Eli was great before and after they got together. But then, for some reason, he snapped and became possessive and manipulative. She didn't like it.

They started walking around looking for someone they knew. Clare saw Adam and ran over to him. Alli following behind. "Adam!" She called. Adam turned and looked around for who called his name, his eyes finally locking with Clare's.

"Clare. Hey." He said and smiled. "How was your summer?"

Clare smiled weakly back. "It was fun, thanks… so, um, how's Eli?" She knew she shouldn't care as much as she did, but she had loved the boy a lot and didn't want him to be in any kind of pain from the accident and had desperately hoped he had moved on.

Adam shrugged. "He's alive. He doesn't seem the same anymore, though. Like a piece of him is missing, you know?" Adam saw the look on Clare's face and said quickly. "I'm sorry. That was really insensitive of me. He's hurting, Clare, I'm not gonna lie, but Eli's strong. He'll get through it."

Clare nodded and hugged him. "It's great to see you again."

Adam smiled. "You too." He walked away. Clare and Alli continued strolling the beach.

They had been walking and talking for a few minutes when Alli stopped and grabbed Clare's arm suddenly. "Oh, my God! Look at that new guy. He's kind of cute." Alli exclaimed. She had her "flirty Alli" smirk on. Clare followed her gaze and her eyes landed on a guy with brown hair and green eyes. Clare agreed, he was really cute, but he looked familiar.

"He is cute, but he looks like my friend from when we used to go camping during the summer. I haven't seen him in years, but he looks a lot like him." The auburn haired girl replied.

Alli raised an eyebrow and smirked mischievously. "Oh, really? Only one way to find out." She said and before yelling, "HEY, JAKE!" and running off.

The guy turned and looked in the direction that his name was called and saw Clare. He started walking over to her and she panicked a little inside. What if it wasn't the same Jake? Would he think she was a freak? As he got closer, his face lit up in recognition and he smiled at her. "Clare?" He asked. She nodded, nervously. "Wow, I haven't seen you in years."

She nodded again. "Y-yeah. Small world. It's great to see you again. You look great." She blushed a little. Jake smiled.

"Thanks. So do you." He replied. The two began walking around the beach like she and Alli had and were talking about the summers they spent camping with their families.

"Do you remember that year we all went swimming in the lake and Darcy was freaking out because she kept thinking fish or something was brushing against her or that something was going to eat her?" Jake asked.

Clare laughed. "Yeah. That was such a great day. It's hard to believe that Darcy's in Kenya now, considering she's never been an outdoors type, but she loves it."

Jake looked at her, questioningly and she forgot that he had no clue about what had happened to Darcy. She sighed. "When Darcy was here, a lot of bad stuff happened to her, and I guess she wanted a fresh start helping kids in Kenya So she went, and she loves it."

Jake smiled. "Well, at least she's happy if a lot of crap happened to her." Clare smiled back and nodded.

The two kept walking in comfortable silence, both realizing they didn't really need words. It was hard to see, even with the fire and all the sparklers going, and Clare accidentally tripped on a log. She reached out and Jake grabbed her hand, catching her before she fell. Clare looked at their hands and felt electricity starting from where Jake was touching her all the way up her arm.

"T-thanks. I-I need to go talk to Alli, I'll… I'll see you around, Jake." She said and hurried off, trying to fight the blush off her cheeks as she ran away. She tried to find Alli to tell her what had happened, but when she saw her, she was sitting by the fire with Adam, a girl Clare didn't recognize, and Dave, who had his arm around her. They were looking at each other lovingly.

Clare didn't want to interrupt, so she just decided to ignore it. Maybe it was a fluke, like she wanted to rebound from Eli. She didn't know. What she did know was that she didn't want to like her childhood friend. It would make things awkward, plus they barely knew each other. They hadn't seen each other since the summer she was ten, and things were way different then.

It was the last day of their camping trips and the Edwards had went to the Martins' cabin, to let Clare say goodbye to Jake. Darcy wasn't thrilled, because every year since they had gone on this annual camping trip, she always tried to get out of it.

When they got to the cabin, Jake and Clare hugged. Clare was almost crying, because Jake had became her best friend and the Martins weren't going camping next summer. "I'm gonna miss you, Jake." She said.

He nodded. "I'm gonna miss you, too, Clare. But we can still talk on the phone and stuff, right? We just need to keep in touch."

Clare nodded. "Okay. That sounds good."

"Come on, Clare Bear, it's time to go." Her father said. She hugged Jake one last time and followed her father out, looking back in time to see Jake wave goodbye sadly.

They never kept in touch.

Clare ran into Sav and he handed her some sparklers. She walked over to the fire and lit them. She began dancing and twirling gracefully, having a lot of fun. Sav had made it to the lifeguard stand and was playing guitar and singing (very off-key). She was laughing and having fun, but somehow Jake was still on her mind.

She was still twirling the sparklers and walking backwards when she ran into someone. She jumped and looked to see who it was. And of course it was the guy that had been on her mind at that exact moment. Jake.

They stood there and looked into each others eyes, not saying anything. Jake was kind of smiling and Clare was just staring at him. She wanted to kiss him, she realized. She didn't know how he'd feel about it, though. She decided to do it anyway. She reached up and pressed her lips against his. And he kissed her back.

They pulled away when they heard fireworks explode. They looked up and Clare smiled and Jake wrapped his arms around her waist. She smiled. This was going to be her best year yet at Degrassi.

Fin

So… here's chapter two. I like it better than the first one (although Eli/Imogen interests me more). I can't wait to see how these two know each other, I just picked camping. What'd you guys think? Was it okay? Was Clare OOC? Let me know!

Disclaimer: I've never owned, I don't own, and I won't ever own Degrassi.