A/N: Ah, gosh. I'm sorry, guys. Months is far too long for an update. But hopefully, I can start posting somewhat regularly again.

Keep in mind that this story is pre-Las Vegas. So Katie and Jake are still together and Drew hasn't returned to school. Campbell was also supposed to play a big part in this story; he was actually one of my favorite characters from season 12 and the end of Bittersweet Symphony made it hard for me to continue this fic with him in mind.

Nonetheless, I hope you can forgive this long note and the fact that I waited so long to post this and can enjoy following this story's journey. Thanks.

Chapter 4

The Matlin girl had always proved somewhat of an enigma for Bianca. One moment she was civil, or at least trying to be civil; the next she was practically screaming at her. And then there was something in-between. Like now, for instance, she seemed to have taken a vow of silence against her.

"You know, we're lab partners. I think we should at least learn to talk to each other about the experiment."

There was no response and Bianca frowned, watching Katie mixing chemicals unflinchingly. Was she invisible? Faintly, she gave her head a little shake as the other girl began heating the prescribed chemicals. Since Drew had dropped out, their lab group had been effectively reduced from a tense awkward love triangle to a very tense awkward love triangle minus Drew.

And it was all very discomfiting to say the least.

Even now, Katie's gaze hardly shifted as she reached for the tongs right next to the usually hot-tempered brunette. Bianca crossed her arms. Is it really that difficult to look me, Katie? She felt herself expel a breath explosively. "You're impossible."

The Matlin girl's face was turning red, positively crimson, and Bianca assumed it had something to do with either the chemical mixture or anger. She couldn't be too sure which though.

Actively annoyed, Bianca exasperated a sigh. "Why aren't you talking to me? I thought we were just starting to put this whole thing behind us."

Still nothing on the other side of the conversation.

"You know, I'm actually trying to be friends with you here. And if you just took a moment to appreciate that and stopped acting like a completely absurd-" Her voice died in her throat as she watched the other girl push herself up against the counter, the glass beaker falling to the ground with a clatter and her hair barely grazing the open flame.

"Friends?" Breaking her first rule of silence, Katie brought her gaze up from the chemical compounds. Her intense icy blue eyes shot up, but Bianca just held her own stance, keeping the other girl's gaze. "You're trying? Well then, how selfish of me! Because you're trying to be friends, never mind how you stole my boyfriend right as I was starting to get better. Or that you actually think I actually want to–"

"Katie!" Bianca shouted, reaching for the bucket of water primarily used by janitorial staff. She stared at the girl she's just drenched from head to foot. These days, at least one of them was getting drenched. "Er, you were on fire."

"Okay, I know for a fact that you did that on purpose."

"Of course I did it on purpose, you were on fire!" Bianca insisted, though such insistence was met with an unyielding glare.

With that, the former redhead snatched up her book bag from under the table and stormed out of class theatrically. Bianca pursed her lips, and from the corner of her eyes saw Dallas leaning over the watered down mess of a lab table.

He stared at the Desousa girl frankly.

"Smooth."

• • •

"I know she was the one who set my hair on fire." Katie interjected suddenly, and felt Jake groan beside her on the couch. He wondered why she always had to interrupt movie night like this. ET was a classic, despite Katie's insistence that it wasn't romantic enough for a movie night with one's girlfriend.

"We haven't even started making out yet." Jake said, cocking his head to the side coyly, hoping that it would have some sort of effect on her to simmer down. Frustrated, Katie pushed off the couch with her palms. Boys, she thought to herself with some mild lingering contempt.

"You know, she somehow always manages to make my blood boil."

"So, you've told me." Grinning, the moppy-haired boy propped himself against the armrest, pressing his knuckles against his cheek. She was about to go into all out Bianca Rant mode, and he knew there was no stopping that once it was already so far along.

"It was completely deliberate."

"Completely. Must've been planning that one for years." Jake agreed placidly, though something about the tone of his voice told her that he meant otherwise. After a few hours, she finally simmered down and returned to her spot on the Matlin couch.

"I think you talk about her more than you talk about me." He muttered, watching as she made her way back to the couch and plopped down next to him. "Should I be jealous?"

She grinned, shaking his hand lightly on his knee. "Not at all."

"Mom says Jake has to go now," A high-pitched voice squeaked from the top of the stares and the two of them groan.

Her boyfriend taps her lightly on the nose, murmuring a quiet 'see ya' before disappearing out the Matlin's front door. The screech of his dad's truck blares in the street and she shakes her head; he really ought to get that thing scrapped. Behind her, she can feel her sister's probing gaze.

"You know, Jake's right, you do talk way too much about Bianca."

The younger girl smiled and the older sneered. The former returned to the phone in her hands and began diligently texting, most likely about the antics of her bat shit insane older sister.

"Who are you texting?"

"Uh, no one." The blonde Matlin said unconvincingly and with that, she sauntered away upstairs, with some cello music blaring just as loud.

• • •

"It's imperative that you at least try to get on good terms with her." Dallas told her at lunch the following day in a voice that sounded very much like a gym teacher. Was he training her for the Olympics and she just didn't know about it yet?

"Wow." Was all she could say with genuine surprise.

"Yeah, I can be thoughtful." Pleased with himself, the hockey captain said, with a slight grin.

"No, I just didn't know you knew what the word 'imperative' meant." For this, he glared at her, though it really had no effect on the girl who spent much of her time glaring at people. "How am I supposed to 'get on good terms' with her if she won't even talk to me? She's impossible."

Dallas shot her a look that said quite frankly 'she's not the only one'. Though he had seen yesterday's debacle with the fire and the bucket – and she certainly saw herself as the victim in this whole scenario – he seemed to have already sided firmly on Team Matlin. How infuriating.

"She's not that bad." Dallas responded, trying to sound as civil as possible with the second most stubborn girl at Degrassi. For the most part it was true, he knew Katie had been down about not being able to play soccer and he had once been keen to help her. Though that whole debacle hadn't ended in the greatest way, he did feel a little bad about his hockey team trashing Jake's garden…Sue him for having feelings.

"Uhuh," Bianca nodded absently. This conversation with the hockey head had gotten a little stale and so, she pushed herself past him and vanished where she knew he wouldn't follow her. The girl's bathroom.

She, however, was not counting on the miniature hockey player waiting on the other side of that door.

"Hey, I was looking for you." The boy chirped, as he leaned by the sinks and her eyes nearly bulged out her head. "Er, Campbell Saunders." He introduces himself, sticking his hand out properly.

"I know who you are, Saunders." She said regaining her composure and briefly recalled the time she had found him crying in the girl's bathroom. Actually, it might have been this very bathroom. She kept her stone-cold look, crossing her arms over her chest, making the sophomore sheepishly retract his hand.

"Right," He said, shaking his head. "I need your advice."

"What? Why my advice?" She muttered, wondering when she had become the type of girl people came to with their problems. Last year hadn't she been the girl people spent all day trying to avoid? Not waiting for in the girl's bathroom for her to show up?

His face fell a little though when she pointed this out, and she watched as he stammered out this next part.

"Please, you're like one of the only people who's been nice to me in Toronto."

"Nice?" She asked the one-word question but before she can muster anything snippy to say, he nods affirmatively as said 'nice.' Caught a little off guard with the sentiment, she breathed a heavy sigh and leaned against the back wall with her elbows. "Fine, Saunders –"

At that exact moment, the bathroom door pushed open and some freshman with very dark curls came in and stared at them both with rather large eyes. The freshman's mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.

"Can't you see we're busy having a conversation here?" Bianca sniped at the same time Campbell said 'Hey Tori'. Needless to say, the freshman disappeared behind those doors just as quickly as she had opened them, this time a little actively scared.

"Speak." Bianca commanded the nervous boy.

"So, there's this girl –" He started rambling a little.

"There always is." Bianca interjected.

"She's wonderful –"

"They always are."

"She has an insane sister."

"They always do?" Bianca uncrossed her arms. Nope, she hadn't expected that one.

"She doesn't exactly approve of me dating her." The boy said, ruffling his dark-brown hair a little. Leaning with her elbows against the edge of the sink, he frowned a little seriously.

A beat skips between them and she realizes that perhaps she should be getting to the whole 'giving advice part' right away instead of you know, amusing herself with the semantics.

"Go for it anyway." She offered plainly. He might've asked her 'what?,' she couldn't tell with the way he nearly sputtered it out but she explained anyway. "Finding someone you actually care about can be tough. Take it from the girl who never lets anyone bring down her walls, when you find someone worth caring for, you have to take that chance on them. Regardless of what everyone else says. That's what I hope the person you care about would want you to do, anyway. So, screw the sister."

"Huh." He mustered, pushing himself off the edge of the sink. Thoughtfully, he nodded to himself as if this is what he wanted to hear all along. "You're right, thanks. That is exactly what Maya would want me to do."

"Exactly –" The dark-haired girl began as if she was so used to being always right, instead she stops halfway through the sentence and stares at the boy in the oversized hockey jersey intently.

"Wait, Maya? As in Matlin?" She hollered, though he was already halfway out the door. The door slammed shut with some authority and she stared at it as if doing so would rewind time. In short, it didn't.

She ran a hand through her frenzied black hair. "Ah, crap."

Well, at least now she wouldn't have any trouble getting Katie to say something to her – she just wasn't so sure she was going to like what it was...