Hey B. Meet me 15 min. earlier in the morn. - Adam

Adam turns off his cell and sees the sun has yet to set. Phew. His mom gets mad if he comes home when it's getting dark. When he reaches the house he walks in and calls out, "Mom! I'm back!"

"In the kitchen, sweetie!" He hears her respond. Adam follows her voice. "Hey, when's dinner ready? Need any help?"

Grams assures him, stirring a pot behind Mrs. Torres. "Oh no, we're fine. Dinner will be ready in half an hour."

"You and Dave have fun?" His mother asks him.

"Dave?" Adam quickly recollects what he earlier told his mom. "Oh, oh yeah. I played some games over at his house."

"Hm, well, you should've invited him over here. You have your Xbox." She reminds him.

"I meant basketball games. He's, uh, really into basketball. He's a player at Degrassi." Adam 'corrects' himself.

"I hope that boy wasn't too rough with you, Gracie." Grams says in a concerned tone, listening in.

"It's just basketball." Adam almost mutters. He leans against a wall. "So... um, what's the surprise?"

"We'll tell you at dinner. I already told you." Mrs. Torres reiterates as she sets the oven to 350°.

"Oh, Audra. You're tormenting the girl. She can know." Grams laughs and smiles at Adam.

Mrs. Torres smiles widely and sits down at the table. Adam follows suit.

"A- Gracie." Mrs. Torres catches herself, "Before your father and I were married I got to meet his entire family. Drew spent some time with them two years ago, if you remember? That summer?"

Adam nods. At the same time he clenches his hands together into a fist, steaming over all these girl terms. How much longer do I have to take this? It can't get any worse. It helps him not explode right then and there.

"You were so young at the time and haven't seen your father's side of the family since." She continues.

"And? What's the big surprise?" Adam asks impatiently.

She smiles widely again. "They're all coming over this Thursday for your grandmother's birthday!"

Adam opens his mouth in shock. "What?"

"They moved back their usual family reunion three weeks early to come see us again. This is why grams came to stay this week. So we can all be together. Isn't this exciting?" She turns to grams to mention how she can't wait to see so-and-so again.

Adam thinks over the sitation, trying to process it. On the plus side, he gets to see his cousins, aunts and uncles of his dad's side of the family again since he was little. On the negative side, he gets to meet them as Gracie, like they knew him last they saw him, and not as Adam. This just got a lot worse.

Wednesday Morning

"Drew you know I never ask you for anything." Adam begins, pleading. He wish it never came to this. "Just do me this one thing? Help a brother out? I promise I'll pay back the favor somehow." He follows Drew into the bathroom.

"Look, you already woke me up early. I wouldn't back out now anyway." Drew says groggily and irritatedly. He musses with his hair, giving it the perfect 'just out of bed' style as he looks at his reflection. He then looks at Adam's reflection. "You still haven't told me why we're going to school early."

"I need to meet up with Bianca." Adam fesses.

"Oh, yeah? Why not just see her later?" Drew questions.

Adam sighs, already sick of answering to things this early in the day. Something about asking about him being with a girl got to him. He wasn't sure why. "I just do, okay? I have something to show her before classes start."

Drew recognizes his brother getting angry by the rise in his voice. They may have their arguments, but Drew and Adam started out as best friends before they became step-brothers. Instead of having fun torturing a sibling, purposely making each other mad, Drew actually preferred to keep Adam calm - except when it came to sports and video games of course. "Okay, okay. Sorry I brought it up." He won't bother asking what this thing Adam wants to show her is. 'Pfft. Probably just some new comic he's been reading he thinks Bianca will think is cool. Go all geek-zoid or something on her.'

"Mom? Can you drive us to school early?" Drew asks his mother as he rummages around the pantry looking for a quick bite for breakfast.

"Oh, but what about breakfast? What's so important you have to get there early?" Audra drills her son.

"Nah, this is fine." He mumbles as he chews on a cold poptart. He grabs a second one. "Adam's." He clarifies, looking at his mother, to show he had already talked it over with Adam and okayed it with him. "I need to meet up with some of the guys. We're going over our math equations before our test." He lies.

"You have a test today?" His mother asks, surprised. She always keeps check on this sort of thing.

Whoops. "Uh, I meant a fake quiz. No biggie, mom. We just want to get ahead." He tries to play it off as casually as possible.

"A fake quiz?" Audra puts her hands on her hips, facing her son, noticing how odd it sounds.

Drew smiles nervously, but tries to hide it. "Teacher's idea. She did this last year with her students at this time and just told us about it yesterday. I forgot to tell you." He answers quickly. The stuff just spills out of his head.

"Oh." Is all she says. She cocks her head slightly, "Why is it called a fake quiz?"

"'cause it's not graded. It's to prep us for real quizzes and tests and junk like that. Kind of like a summary of what we've just learned so we don't forget anything." He shrugs. Man, I'm good. He inwardly smirks to himself.

Mrs. Torres smiles in approval. She is about to yell for Adam to call down when she remembers her mother is still asleep... and the fact that her mother is here and doesn't know Gracie as Adam. Adam appears on the stairs as if on cue. "Ready to go?" He says briskly. He opens the door indicating for them to leave. Mrs. Torres is none the wiser as to what is up.

END OF CHAPTER 7