Series Title: The Kids Aren't Alright

One-shot Title: Fire and Rain

Rated: T, over all; T this time.

Summary for this one-shot: Hazel Aden just wants to be okay.

Disclaimer: I own no characters from the show, but I own any titles or ideas used.

Author's Note: This series is basically a bunch of one shots about the graduating class of '06 and the class of '07 three-eleven years after 2006.

I would also like to thank all those that reviewed.

People get fucked up, it's just something that tends to happen. Especially kids from Degrassi.

It was like the kids of Degrassi had magnets in their pockets to attract bad situations. It was why Hazel Aden had gotten gone to college as far away from her old high school as she could. She had promised to visit on breaks, but the truth of the matter was that she never wanted to see her high school friends again. She just didn't need the drama.

Was Paige Michalchuk gay, straight, or bi? Who was Emma Nelson dating this week? What was Sean Cameron caught doing in the boy's locker room? Guess what idiotic thing Craig Manning and Manny Santos did now?

Hazel went off to college and started a new life. She quickly formed her own group, where she wasn't the faithful sidekick, but the queen bee. She knew who and what was in and who and what was so five minutes ago.

It was...perfect. Very little drama and no Degrassi.

It didn't last, of course. Hazel made a visit home the summer after her second year of college. She ran into Jimmy first. Jimmy who was so depressed over his failed relationship with Ashley. Jimmy who really just needed a friend, and not a half-drunk ex-girlfriend, who still happened to be pissed at him. Hazel had promised to help. She promised to be there for him. She lied.

The summer was spent drinking, laughing, crying, having pity sex. Hazel didn't know who was giving the pity sex and who was taking it. She and Jimmy were both just...lonely. Both just failures so early in life. It was beyond pathetic.

The night Jimmy died Hazel was drunk and angry with him. He didn't want to have sex, he just wanted to die. He had told her he wanted to die, and she hadn't said or done a damn thing about it. She just rolled her eyes and called him a drama queen; she asked if he had been taking lessons from Paige.

Hazel had been passed out when Jimmy took the pills. She...she...she couldn't have helped him anyway. He wanted to die. Why didn't anyone understand that? Why...

August 13, 2014

Hazel smoothed out the creases in her skirt, before making her way to the front of the room. She gave a warm smile to the man who had just introduced her, before adjusting the mike.

"Good evening. My name is Hazel Aden, and I'm an alcoholic. I've been sober two years, eight months, one week, and six days." She let out a small, relieved, laugh. "I honestly never thought I'd get this far. Three years ago, I honestly didn't care what happened to me. But that was before. Before I woke up in a pool of my own vomit. Before I lost one of the best jobs I could ever get. Before...before a lot of things. I don't think I'd be here without the help of you guys."

Hazel paused, scanning the crowd. "It's because of your support that I'm here. It's because of you guys that I've stopped blaming myself for what happened six years ago. Jimmy's dead, he killed himself. I didn't. And, at least I know that. He wasn't some saint or just some depressed kid. He was Jimmy, he had problems, and he just didn't get the help that he needed. But, I have and that's what matters." She smiled. "I'm going to be okay. For the first time in years, I'm okay. So, thank you."

Hazel's speech was met by applause from her support group. She was okay. Jimmy was dead, she was alive...that's what mattered.