Chapter Eleven: Torn

As they walked into the classroom, Isabella and Owen's attention was drawn to the instructions on the blackboard. With Mr. Swatton out for the day, the class had been given worksheets that was to be done in pairs and due at the end of the period. Taking the paper off the desk and giving the supply a warm smile, Isabella and Owen sat towards the back; something Isabella was not accustomed too. She enjoyed sitting at the front so that she could avoid distraction. Part of her agreement with her parents was that she needed to maintain her GPA if she moved to Toronto and thus far she had been successful.

"Look at you! Being all cool and sitting in the back," Owen teased, nudging Isabella as she put her backpack on the back of her chair.

"I was always cool," she muttered to Owen, flashing him a sarcastic smile as she grabbed her pencil case out of her bag. Tapping the pencil on her desk, she was fixated on the students in front of her. She never realized how much attention she barely paid to the people in her class.

"Pretty interesting stuff, huh?" Owen joked as he pointed around the classroom with his pencil.

"Shut up," she joked back. She pointed towards his paper. Sighing, he returned his attention to his paper. He watched as she scribbled profusely onto her paper, answering every single question within a matter of minutes. Smart and pretty, he thought to himself as he tried to maintain his concentration. He hadn't met a girl quite like her since Anya.

Anya.

He missed her.

Terribly.

They hadn't spoken in months. They exchanged the odd letter but it hadn't been the same. He hadn't been the same without her. But he knew she was chasing her dream by providing service to her country. He wished she stayed but even he knew that was selfish of him. He was so proud of her and he knew this was something she need to do. No matter how much he missed her.

"Owen? Hey? You-hoo?" she asked, snapping her fingers in front of him. Snapping out of his thoughts, he mustered a small smile.

"Return back from the planet that you were on?" she questioned jokingly.

"Yeah, got a bit distracted."

"I know that look all too well. Who is she? If you don't mind me asking," Isabella asked meekly. Looking down, Owen tried to find an answer. Feeling as if she overstepped her boundaries, Isabella retracted.

"Look. Forget I said anything. It's not my business anyways. Beside I don't think you'd want to tell a girl you just met you're problems," she rambled. Isabella never put her foot in her mouth but right now she had. And she felt horrible about it.

"No, it's okay. For some reason, I feel like I can trust you. Her name is Anya. She's in the military. I haven't spoken to her in months and I guess you reminded me of her a bit," he explained. Isabella's mouth formed into the shape of an 'O'. She knew exactly what he was going through.

"Well wanna hear something that sucks with something that sucks," she responded, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sure," Owen said with a laugh. He liked her sense of humor.

"This is something I haven't even told Cam, so you're the only one whose gonna know. Before I came to Toronto, my boyfriend of five years cheated on me with my best friend. So I know what it's like to get your heart broken," she said, resting her hand on Owen's forearm.

"Why haven't you told your brother?" he asked curiously.

"Josh acted as if he was apart of our family. Just because I hate him doesn't mean Cam should have too," she replied, chewing on her bottom lip. To say Owen was impressed was an understatement. He broke her heart and she willingly spared his feelings.

"I guess we're just two broken hearted fools, huh?" Owen teased.

"Damn straight," she said with a smile.

"Well now that, that is settled. Pass over your paper," He said, grabbing her paper from her side of the desk. She jokingly tried to fight him off, which earned them a glare from the supply teacher. As they quieted down, they exchanged a glance at each other. The snickers continuing as Isabella attempted to

teach Owen the material.

~Degrassi~

Cam had been sitting in French when his phone had gone off. Looking down discretely, he noticed that Isabella had sent out a mass text message telling them all not to miss lunch. Even Cam had to admit that his sister could be insanely weird sometimes. She should have known better. Of course, he wouldn't miss lunch. That was his favourite subject of the day! No matter how close they were, Cam was positive that is sister forgot the most important details about him.

"Hey," he heard Maya whisper next to him, "did you get that text from your sister?"

Cam nodded his head, circling his finger next to his head. Maya laughed at the gesture. She didn't think Isabella was crazy but she had found it suspicious. Why was lunch so important? It hadn't been important any other day. Looking behind her, she saw Tristan and Tori shoot her a confused expression. Isabella must have sent them the text too. Thankfully, lunch was next and all of Maya's speculations would become distant memories.

As the bell signalled, Cam, Maya, Tristan, and Tori grabbed their bags and rushed out of class towards the cafeteria. As they stepped foot in the caf, they noticed Isabella standing with her arms folded across the door; a smirk plastered securely on her face. Giving his sister an eyebrow raise, Cam walked over to her. He knew that look. He knew it all too well. She was up to something and surely, it was not good.

"What's going on?" he asked curiously. Isabella's smile had widened as she pointed to Michael Dallas standing up on one of the cafeteria tables. Cam's eyes widened as he noticed his captain preparing himself to give a speech.

"Isabella Mercedes Saunders! What did you do?" he hissed as if he was their father. This wasn't going to be good. He knew Dallas. He knew the Ice Hounds. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"You better get a seat and maybe some popcorn ready. I'm positive this is something you won't wanna miss," she said, pushing herself off the wall and walking over towards her friends. Even Cam had noticed her friends expression. Isabella may have just bit off more than she could chew.

~Degrassi~

Dallas was nervous. All eyes were on him and he hadn't prepared anything. What the hell was he supposed to say anyways? Sorry I fucked up your school and all of you? No, he couldn't say that. He'd have to sound sincere especially if he wanted to become friends with Rookie's sister. He was jealous of her new found relationship with Owen. Even though he knew Owen behaved better than him on most occasions, Dallas found himself jealous of him. She had known Owen for five minutes and had let him into her world. She had known him for over two months and could barely have a conversation without shooting him an insult or shooting daggers at him when she caught him staring at her. But that was all about to change. He was the new and improved Dallas, regardless of Luke Baker's protest. His team didn't need Luke. They needed Cam and in order for him to stay on the team, Dallas knew he needed to start being more polite.

"Excuse me, may I please have your attention!" Dallas yelled. The noise in the cafeteria had continuted causing him to yell louder.

"EXCUSE ME!" he hollered. The noise began to simmer down as all eyes were drawn to him. Straightening out his jacket, he muttered a thank you before continuing.

"To the students of Degrassi, I would like to formally apologize..." he began as he looked to Isabella who nodded her head and smirked, "for any poor behaviour that my team and I have caused to you and your school."

"With the exception of Owen Milligan and Campbell Saunders, the team and I are incredibly sorry for all that we have caused and anything we have destroyed please allow us to help fix the damage. I realize, now, that it was nice of you all to allow us into your school to outlive our dreams and it was wrong of us to destroy other peoples."

As Dallas concluded his speech, the entire cafeteria looked at him in a state of shock. Everyone except Isabella. She was just surprised that he had actually held his word. As Dallas left the cafeteria with the Ice Hounds, everyone began to whisper amongst themselves about Dallas's change of heart.

"Izzy. May I speak to you for a second?" Campbell said pulling his sister away from her table. He led her towards the caf doors.

~Degrassi~

"Ouch Cam. Can you not pull so hard next time?" she asked, yanking her arm out of his grasp.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? I know you're the reason behind Dallas just made that formal apology. You're playing dangerously close to fire, Is," Campbell warned her.

"Campbell, I know what I'm doing okay," she reassured him.

"Do you really, Is? You haven't even been at this school for two months and it's always you causing trouble with the Ice Hounds," Campbell reminded her.

"So what? You think I'm doing this to be selfish?"

"It looks like it Is. I'm just looking out for you! You don't realize how many people you just put in jeopardy! You're friends, you, me, Maya..." he trailed, grimacing at the thought of someone hurting his sister or Maya. The Ice Hounds had come dangerously close to hurting his sister before.

"I did this all for you! I moved schools for you! I picked up my entire life because Maya was concerned about you! Because I was concerned about you! Cam, this isn't the first time someone's been overly concerned about you. I was doing this to protect you!" Isabella exclaimed, immediately regretting what she had said. They hadn't talked about the incident in the past in years and now she had brought back everything he had tried to avoid.

Five years ago was when it all began. The anxiety. The panic attacks. The depression. It began when Billy Martin had embarrassed him in front of his entire school. He hadn't attended school for weeks after the incident because all he could do was cry. When his parents and siblings grew concerned, the suggested he visit a psychologist. He assured them he was fine as he returned to school the following day and they never spoke of it again. But Cam knew he wasn't fine especially after he willing jumped off the catwalk leading to his broken arm.

"I don't need you protecting me anymore! Like I told mom, dad, Justin, Maya, and everyone else... I'm fine. I always have been fine! And I didn't ask you to come here okay! You came all on your own. I'm a big boy and I don't need my damn sister, or anyone else for that matter, protecting me!" he screamed, brushing past her and walking through the cafeteria door. He felt the tears begin to perk in his eyes. The anxiety slowly creeping in.

He was torn.

Broken.

He couldn't do this anymore.

There was only one thing he could. Make his way to the locker room and find a freshly sharpened skate. It had taken his pain away before. As he made his way into the locker room, he hadn't even noticed that Isabella was following closely behind him.

She hadn't known where he was going but she knew to keep a good enough distance away. She watched him enter the boy's locker room. Bringing herself close the door, she heard the soft, muffled sobs escaping her brother's lips. She could hear him rummaging through things and watched as he placed the blade to his palm. With one push on the door, she rushed her way in; sinking to her knees as she threw the skate away and holding her brother for dear life.

"I'm so sorry," Cam sobbed as she shushed him. She was trying to soothe his hysteria but she, too, couldn't stop the tears from flowing. She hadn't realized it was this bad.

"Hey, It's okay. I'm right here. You're going to be okay," she kept reminding him as she rocked him back and forth just as their mother had after the incident five years ago.

"I lied. I'm not okay," he sobbed once more.

"The catwalk. It wasn't an accident... was it?" she asked. He shook his head, sobbing further, as he confirmed her biggest fear.

"I don't want to play anymore. It's too much pressure," he told her; his sobs continuing.

"Hey," she said, wiping the tears from his eyes and sniffling back a few of her own, "we'll figure out the hockey stuff later okay. Right now, we need to get you some help. To see someone. I'm so sorry that you had to do this alone."

Kissing the side of his head, they held their embrace. They didn't care who was going to walk in. His sister knew the truth and he had never felt a sense of relief. He didn't want to play hockey anymore, she knew that. But if he didn't play hockey anymore, the possibility of returning to Kapuskasing permanently had become that much greater. Jeopardizing one thing. His relationship with the girl he loved.

~Degrassi~

HAPPY 2013 EVERYONE! Well this was certainly a tough chapter to write! Isabella now knows the truth about Cam. Will Maya and Cam's relationship be tested? Will Cam really stop playing hockey? Will something brew between Owen and Isabella? And will Dallas finally get what he rightfully deserves? There is still so much I want to explore and I hope you will all be along for the journey. Thank you all for the reviews and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Like I said, even I got teary eyed writing this chapter!

Love you all,

Sam