A/N Hey guys! Big thanks once again to HopelesslyFictional , Kayla Crystal , and Islanda for your kind reviews! Also big thanks to everyone who continues to read, favourite and follow this story! It means a lot! Who watched the finale on Friday? It was intense. Maya's big freak out scene where she admits how sad she is that Cam left her by killing himself actually made me cry. Anyway, this chapter again has a few Cam moments, but he's not technically in the chapter. I hope you're all enjoying reading this as much as i've enjoyed writing it. As there hasn't been too many Camaya moments yet, some of you may be getting slightly impatient, or anxious for more chapters on the couple themselves. Ya'll don't need to worry though, this story is not even close to being over, and there are still many moments to come. There's just so many elements to this story, it's sort of like an episode. You don't always see the characters you desperatly want to see, and when you do see them and their stories sometimes it's only for a short while. Please remember to leave me a lil review! Reviews make me happy, and if you leave me one i'll give you a cookie. (Yes, i've resorted to bribery now.) Hope you enjoy! xx
Disclaimer: I don not own Degrassi, or any of the characters.
Chapter 11 - Friend Request's Confirmed. Someone's Got a Crush!
Maya wolfed down her dinner as quickly as humanly possible. Even though she loved KFC, she couldn't be bothered with actually tasting it today. Her confrontations with Katie had taken up most of her valuable Cam time that evening, so she was eager to log into FaceRange after dinner and finally confirm their friendship. Not that she wasn't glad for the confrontations with her older sister in a way, because of them, Katie was going to try harder, and she was going to get better.
During the course of the very short dinner that the Matlin family shared, Katie had brought up the fact that she would not be able to do it alone, and that she would need help. Help from the entire family, and most importantly help from a professional. She was obviously very serious about defeating this illness and getting better, and Maya couldn't have been more glad.
Maya threw her last chicken bone down carelessly onto her paper plate, and stood, her cheeks bulging. "I'm done. May I be excused?" She inquired her mother with her mouth so full that the words were garbled and tricky to understand.
Thankfully though, this is something all mothers are extremely gifted in. Understanding their children when no one else can, or when it seems nearly impossible. For example, when one is speaking and yawning simultaneously. You might think one would not be able to decipher what the other one yawning is truly saying, but this, most definitely, is not the case with mothers.
"I suppose." Mrs. Matlin replied with a little laugh, "what's your hurry dear?"
Maya swallowed the rest of her dinner before answering. "Oh, nothing really. Just have a lot of homework that I need to be catching up on." She told her mother, waving her hand as she spoke. As if waving away the matter, and the question entirely, as though it had not been an important one.
Katie, who was seated across the table from Maya, and who was picking away at her second piece of chicken rather slowly, (though you had to give her credit for trying) looked up at Maya suspiciously. "It's only the second day back Maya." She stated, her blue eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What's the deal?"
"Nothing." Maya insisted in a high pitched voice, one that was at least an octave higher than her regular tone. This of course was a dead give away that she wasn't being truthful.
Katie studied Maya for a few moments, the kitchen completely silent. Maya looked to Katie, then feeling uncomfortable by her sister's stare, she shifted her gaze to her mother, which wasn't much better. Mrs. Matlin was also studying her daughter, curiosity blazing in her own blue irises.
"You're lying." Katie finally said, calling Maya's bluff.
It was silent for a few more moments, and then;
"Okay, fine!" Maya finally exclaimed, cracking under the pressure, and sitting back down. "I need to check my FaceRange."
Katie laughed loudly, "Maya, FaceRange will always be around. It's not like it's gonna go away in the amount of time that it takes you to eat a meal. What's the rush?"
"Nothing." Maya insisted once again.
It didn't matter how hard Katie studied her this time, or how uncomfortable Maya felt. She would not tell her mother or her sister about Cam. This was something that she could not do, not yet. She was definitely not ready, simply for the fact that she knew teasing and utter embarrassment would follow. She had never really liked a boy before, unless you counted Zig back during the summer, and no one had known about that. No one ever would know about that either. She was past it now, obviously.
"Maya." Katie said in an exasperated tone.
All the while, Mrs. Matlin was watching her two daughters curiously, just waiting for events to unfold. Waiting to get some sort of insight into their lives. She wasn't home often, especially as of late, and it was getting increasingly difficult to keep up with both of her girls lives.
"It's none of your business!" Maya snapped at her sister, picking up her plate and walking over to the trash bin to toss it. "I'll be in my room." She added, walking quickly out of the kitchen, using every ounce of willpower within her not to sprint to her bedroom.
Katie and Mrs. Matlin exchanged looks, before shaking off Maya's strange behaviour and resuming the previous dinner conversation about getting Katie the help that she needed.
Once Maya arrived in her bedroom she grabbed her laptop from her desk and placed it on her bed, sprawling out upon the bedspread on her stomach, she powered the computer on and pulled up the FaceRange home page. She logged into the site, and immediately found that the little friend requests icon was lit up. She clicked on it, opening the little window, and found the usual friend request format, but to her surprise there was more than just one.
The first request said 'Campbell Saunders would like to be your friend.' Followed by the usual 'confirm' or 'ignore' buttons. This was the request that Maya had been expecting, and the request that she had been dying to confirm ever since she had first arrived home.
The next request however was the one that caught Maya off guard.
'Zig Novak would like to be your friend.'
Maya couldn't explain why, but she felt uneasy about this. Zig and her had been friends for approximately 3 months already, and he had never bothered to take the time out of his day to add her on FaceRange before. So, what had changed? Why the sudden request?
Of course, most people would just simply click accept and be done with it, but Maya couldn't. She stared at the tiny request in the tiny window, trying with all of her might to make sense of it.
Maybe she was being silly. It was just a friend request after all. No big deal, right? It didn't mean anything out of the ordinary. So, why did Maya have the feeling that it did?
Zig had mentioned to Maya yesterday that he wanted to talk to her about something on their walk home, and she had brushed him off, to concerned with her own problems, and not wanting to have to try and deal with anyone else's. Had he been trying to discuss something important? Maybe involving… feelings?
No, she was being silly. This did not mean anything. Nothing at all. Her intuition about this had to be completely wrong, because she liked Cam, and Tori liked Zig, and Zig liked… Well, Maya wasn't exactly sure who Zig liked, but she knew one thing, it was not her.
She accepted both of the boys requests without giving it another thought, and then pulled up Cam's profile page. From here, the creeping ensued, and she checked out all of his pics, information, family listed, and so on and so forth.
She felt like a complete stalker, but hey, this was what FaceRange was for. Right? The only place on the web, or even on earth where stalking is a common, acceptable thing.
Maya was busy swooning over one of Cam's cuter pics when she heard a small cough come from directly behind her.
Startled, she slammed her laptop shut and sat up, spinning around to face her doorway, where she saw Katie, looking quite comfortable leaning against the door frame.
"Campbell Saunders, hmmm?" Katie said loudly, sounding amused, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
"Katie!" Maya exclaimed, "how long have you been-" she began, but was cut off.
"Long enough. I've been silently watching ever since you accepted the friend requests." Katie replied with a small smirk.
Maya's face grew hot, and she knew it must have been a very bright shade of red.
Katie crossed over to the bed and sat down next to Maya. "Aw, chicken little! You've got a crush!" Katie exclaimed excitedly, poking and prodding her sister's arms and stomach.
So, the teasing had begun. This was the reason Maya had not wanted to say anything. She flinched away from her sister. "Cut it out." She mumbled, shifting over on the bed, creating more space between them.
"Don't worry, I won't tell mom." Katie reassured her, quitting with the poking.
Somehow, Maya didn't believe her sister. She was sure that before the night was through her mother would know about her crush as well.
"So, what's he like?" Katie questioned.
Deep down inside, Maya had been dying to gush about Cam to someone other than Tori, even though Tori was great and always responded enthusiastically. Even though she had been dreading her sister and mom finding out about her crush because of the teasing that would follow, in a way she was sort of glad that Katie now knew. If that made any sense in the slightest.
Maya's face broke out into a smile, and she felt her face cool from it's red hot temperature. "Katie, he's so so cute, and he's the sweetest guy you will ever meet!" Maya began, "you wouldn't expect him to be though, considering he's a jock." She gushed.
Katie raised an eyebrow at this revelation. "A jock? Really? I never expected you to go for a jock Maya. I didn't think the sporty ones were your type."
"Well, normally they're not." Maya replied honestly, "but he's different Katie! There's something about him."
"So, what does he play?" Katie asked, smiling at the way Maya was gushing about this guy. She remembered her first major crush, and how exciting it had been. She remembered talking with their mom all night about him. Now crushes were old news to her, and they weren't nearly as exciting as they had once been.
"Hockey, for the Toronto Ice Hounds actually." Maya told her sister. "They say he's going to be the next big NHL star."
Katie's smile disappeared instantaneously, as the name and the information she was just given clicked. It was as though a light bulb had went off in her brain. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. "Campbell Saunders!" Katie yelled, jumping up off Maya's bed.
"Shh!" Maya shushed her sister, jumping up as well, and placing a finger to her lips. "Not so loud! I don't want mom to know, not yet!" She whispered, walking over to her bedroom door and gently closing it.
"THE Campbell Saunders? I knew the name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it! I read about him in the local paper the other day!" Katie hissed.
"Yeah, so?" Maya questioned, giving her sister what can only be described as the "What about it? Who cares?" Look.
Katie stared at Maya, as if she was missing something extremely obvious. "Look, you can crush on him all you want Maya, but you will never get a date with him, and you will never 'date' or 'go steady' with him. Do you understand me?" She told Maya fiercely.
Maya felt anger flare up inside of her. "Excuse me?" she replied in utter disbelief.
"You heard what I said." Katie retorted.
"How do you know I'll never get a date with him? You don't know that!" Maya exclaimed, feeling slightly hurt by her sisters words. "You never know! He might be interested if…" She trailed off. She didn't know how to finish that sentence. He might be interested if… what? If she was actually pretty? If she was interesting? If she wasn't a band geek who spent all of her free time practicing the cello?
Katie laughed, but it wasn't a happy, or amused laugh. It sounded harsh. "Oh, believe me! It's not the fact that he might not be interested in you! Who wouldn't be? You're gorgeous and funny, and talented, and you have an amazing personality. Any guy, especially him would be crazy if he wasn't interested in you."
"Oh… then, what did you mean by what you said?" Maya inquired, feeling very confused indeed.
"You won't date him in the future, because I won't allow it!" Katie nearly shouted, pointing at Maya for emphasis.
Maya scoffed. "You can't control who I date Katie! It's not up to you."
"Those hockey guys are bad news!" Katie exclaimed.
"You just don't want me to be happy." Maya stated flatly.
"Girls, aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves here? Isn't this boy just Maya's crush? I highly doubt things will get to serious anytime soon."
Katie and Maya had both been so caught up in their heated argument that they had failed to notice Maya's bedroom door opening and Mrs. Matlin stepping inside.
"Mom! How long have you been there?" Maya cried, feeling her face flush with embarrassment for the umpteenth time that day.
"Not very long, 20 seconds at the most. But you girls did seem to forget that these walls are paper thin." Mrs. Matlin replied with a smile.
"You're right mom. I am getting a little ahead of myself. I just don't want some hockey jerk hurting her." Katie said, looking at Maya. "She's my baby sister! Plus, she seems so fragile."
"Cam's different than the others. Like I already told you Katie! He told me he doesn't even like hockey." Maya argued.
Mrs. Matlin's laugh filled the room, pulling the girls out of their argument once more. "Alright girls, that's enough of this Cam talk. Boys is one subject I would rather not hear about anymore. Save that kind of talk for when I'm not around."
"Sorry mom." Katie and Maya replied in unison.
"It's getting late, and I'm going to bed. So keep it quiet, please." Mrs. Matlin said politely. "Goodnight girls. Sleep well." She said before departing.
"Goodnight mom." Maya and Katie replied in unison once more.
"You're not going out with him. Not as long as I have breath in my body, and believe me, I intend there to be, for a long, long time." Katie told Maya, in a tone of voice that closed the matter. She then walked out of Maya's bedroom.
"We'll see." Maya muttered to herself. She then began her bedtime routine, already feeling excited and looking forward to another day at school. For the soul reason that he would be there.