From this point on, some dialogue in the chapters will be actual lines from Degrassi: The Next Generation. This chapter contains dialogue from the season 10 episodes "What a Girl Wants (1)" and "Breakaway (1)."

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Chapter 14 - Bhandari 2010

Drew got up earlier than he usually would for the first day of school, but this wasn't any old first day; it was his first day at Degrassi, and this year he wasn't Drew Torres: the football star, he was Drew Torres: the new kid.

Unfortunately this did little to help him get ready any faster as Adam had also gotten up early, and had decided to hog the bathroom.

"C'mon, dude," Drew said, knocking on the door. "Other people have to get ready too."

"Five more minutes," Adam said. He had said the same thing ten minutes ago.

Drew got it, he supposed. Drew only had to worry about being the new kid; Adam had to worry about being the new kid with a secret, it couldn't have been easy. But Drew had places to be and hair to gel. Adam wore a hat all the time; what could possibly be taking so long?

Tired of waiting, Drew shuffled down the stairs and helped himself to a bowl of cereal. Mom was sitting at the table, staring at a wall and nursing a cup of coffee.

"Is she still in the bathroom?" Mom said, breaking her distant stare to look at Drew.

"He'll be five more minutes," Drew said between spoonfuls, "so, like, a half hour."

Mom smiled, she looked so tired. Drew wondered if she had gotten any sleep at all.

"Everything's going to be great today," said Drew reassuringly, "I can tell."

Mom nodded, "I hope so. I just don't want to get any phone calls from the Principal."

"That's a shame," Drew sighed, finishing he breakfast. "Because I hear I'm a shoo-in for Student of the Year, there's a sash and everything."

Mom failed to resist a smile. Drew grinned too as he heard Adam come down the stairs.

"When you two are done with your little sewing circle – the bathroom's free."

Adam had finally finished getting ready and had made his way to the kitchen. He took Drew's seat as Drew ran up to quickly get ready. He had a lot to do before school started.

Even though his summer plans for popularity had amounted to nothing, Drew still wanted to pay The Dot a visit before school started, he had heard good things about it, and there was always the off chance that he'd meet someone from school. He finished getting ready, wished Adam luck on his first day and left the house geared up to start his first day as a Degrassi student.

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The Dot looked surprisingly busy, even from the end of the street Drew could see a steady stream of people coming in and out. He realized that he'd have no way of identifying if any of the patrons were his fellow students, not unless one of them wanted to announce themselves.

And, as Drew made his way to the entrance, that's exactly what happened.

"-It's gonna be a lonely place back at Degrassi" a voice from the counter announced.

Drew made his way into the café as the Degrassi student ordered a double espresso. Drew tried to work out what he should say to this guy. He looked cool enough, but what was Drew supposed to do – introduce himself? Say "hi, I'm Drew. Will you be my friend?" This guy probably had plenty of friends already without being hassled by the new kid.

"There's got to be some new people you can hang out with this year." Said the waiter serving Drew's new best friend. This was going surprisingly well. Drew casually made his way to the counter beside his future buddy.

"Man - all our friends graduated." The Degrassi kid sighed, "The band is dead, I got no girlfriend."

Drew made his move.

"-And I'll have a large double double - once you two ladies are done with your sewing circle." He said confidently. Granted, he had no idea what a sewing circle was, but Adam had said it and Adam was witty, so surely saying it made Drew witty too,

"Who's this guy?" Asked the waiter, gesturing toward Drew.

"A future regular customer," said Drew in a manner he hoped was self-assured, "I just transferred to the school down the street."

Drew's fellow student seemed to become more alert to Drew once he had said this.

"Oh, there'll be tons of cool people at Degrassi." He said in a tone Drew wasn't too sure was sarcastic or not.

"Oh, wait," Drew said, trying to sound as casual as possible. "You go there?"

The Degrassi guy nodded and turned back to the waiter to pay for his double espresso. Drew stopped him.

"I got you," he said, giving the waiter enough money for both of the drinks. The Degrassi guy nodded approvingly. Drew couldn't have planned it better if he had made a step-by-step list. Which he had.

"Thanks." Said Drew's first friend at Degrassi. Drew decided to introduce himself.

"I'm Drew."

"Hey – Sav."

Sav took Drew's hand and shook it. Drew knew he had made an excellent first impression and decided to leave on a high note.

"See you at school, bro." Drew said as he made his way out the door and towards his new school. He had made a new friend and he hadn't even been assigned a locker yet.

This was going to be a good year. Drew could feel it.

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It was going to a crappy year.

Drew's very first class on his very first day at his new school was math. Drew hated math. Drew wasn't good at math. Drew didn't have time for math.

That's why he was still in grade 10 math. Along with Adam.

They were sitting together at the back of the class when Mr. Armstrong, who Drew remembered was also the football team's coach and made a mental note to not goof around in front of, introduced them both.

"Class, we have two new students joining us this year." He said, causing everyone to turn around to stare at the fresh meat. "Meet Drew and Adam Torres."

Adam nodded. Drew tried to wave casually, but couldn't hide the fact that this was the most horrifying way to be introduced to a new school; sitting next to your little brother in a class you should have passed a year ago.

A blond girl in the front row raised her hand.

"Yes, Jenna?" Armstrong asked.

"Which one's Drew and which one's Adam."

Everyone turned back around to stare again. Drew looked over to Adam, urging him to answer. Adam did the same thing to Drew.

"I'm Drew, that's Adam." Drew mumbled. They'd only been in the classroom for five minutes but it felt more like five years.

"Are you twins?" Jenna continued, "you don't look like twins."

Drew shuffled in his seat, he knew where this was going.

"Uh, no, we're not," he said, barely audible to the class. "We're step-brothers."

"Oh, so that's why you're in the same grade then." Jenna said nodding.

Drew sank a little further into his seat. He could feel Adam moving further and further away from him.

"No," Drew said reluctantly, "I'm a junior. Math isn't really my thing."

There. It was out in the open. Now everyone could turn around.

But Jenna wasn't finished. She looked over at Adam, who had managed to move 3 feet further away from Drew since Armstrong had introduced them

"Wait, so are you in Grade 10?" She asked, looking at Adam.

Adam cleared his throat.

"Yeah," he said, shrugging.

Jenna squinted. Drew had made his first enemy at Degrassi and it was only first period.

"Really?" she said, "you don't look like you're in Grade 10."

Adam's eyes widened. Drew pulled himself back up in his seat.

"Look. He's in 10th grade, I'm in 11th, we're step-brothers and I don't like math. Are we all caught up? Great, let's do some algebra."

Jenna pulled a sheepish face and turned herself back around to face the front, as did everybody else. Adam put his hand over the side of his face and turned away from Drew.

"Hey," Drew whispered as Adam tried to ignore him, "at least one good thing will come out of this."

"What?" Adam hissed, still not looking at Drew.

"After that, none of the grade ten girls will ever see me as a viable candidate again."

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Adam spent the rest of the day avoiding Drew, even at dinner when Mom asked how their first day went, Adam spent the whole time giving Drew the death stare.

"It was great," Adam said, glaring at his brother, "the computer lab has bouncy balls instead of chairs."

Adam repeatedly stabbed his baked potato with his fork. Drew imagined that Adam was pretending that it was him.

Mom didn't seem to notice the tension.

"Really?" She said, amused. "How was your day Drew? Anything interesting happen."

Adam twisted the fork into his potato.

"It was fine," Drew said, "I made a friends with a senior at the Dot – Sav."

"And you made a great impression on the tenners," Adam said, angrily chewing on some broccoli.

"Blondie started it!" Drew said, defensively.

"Wait, wait," Mom said. "Did something bad happen today?"

"No!" Drew and Adam angrily shouted in unison.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence, as Adam turned his baked potato into a mashed one.

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Adam finally started to talk to Drew again in the car ride to school the next morning. Apparently they were already old news.

"Some tenners made a ranking of all the girls at Degrassi," Adam explained, smirking. "Some of them are not pleased."

"Is Jenna ranked low?" Drew asked, "Because that would be hilarious."

They laughed as Mom dropped them off in the parking lot. It was good to be friends with Adam again, Drew didn't really have anyone else at Degrassi to talk to.

"Listen," Adam said as they walked through the parking lot, "if you ever need math help, you know that I can always-"

But Drew cut him off. Sav from the Dot was standing in the parking lot talking to a snooty looking redhead. Drew didn't get the chance to see him in school on Monday, but he had a chance now.

"Sorry bro, I've gotta run," he said, patting Adam on the shoulder, "see you at lunch?"

"Sure." Adam said shrugging.

Drew walked briskly over to Sav and the redhead, she didn't seem particularly pleased about something.

"Nobody's running against me." She said shrilly as Drew approached.

"Sav, my man," Drew said, hoping that Sav remembered him "what's up?"

Drew looked at the redhead, she was cute, but even through her giant sunglasses, Drew could tell that she was glaring at him.

"Who's this?" Drew asked Sav.

The girl scoffed as Sav raised his eyebrows.

"Uh, this is my competition for student council president." He said, nodding at the girl who was gawking in disbelief.

"What?" She said irately.

Drew ignored her anger. Sav was the only person who Drew had really met at Degrassi and he was running for student council president; the biggest symbol of popularity a school could bestow. If Drew was friends with the school president, he was certain to be seen as one of the popular kids.

"You're running?" Drew said excitedly, "cool."

Drew walked away before the redhead could glare at him some more and decided to make his plans for how he was going to help Sav become the school's new president. There was just one problem; Drew knew nothing about politics.

Luckily he knew someone who did.

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"Hey buddy," Drew said as he sat beside Adam at lunch. "How's your day going?"

"What do you want?" Adam said, twisting open the bottle cap on his water.

"Why can't I just be interested in your day?" Drew said, trying to look innocent.

Adam glared at his from under his hat. Drew sighed.

"Fine. Sav is running for student council president and I want to help him win."

"And I can help you with that how?" Adam asked.

"You're dad's a politician dude," Drew said, "you must have learned something from him."

"He's an MLA-"

"-Yeah, a politician. He campaigns, people vote for him. I want to help Sav to do what your dad does, you know, minus the being a jerk part."

Adam clenched his jaw.

"My dad's not a j-"

"-I was kidding about the last part." Drew lied quickly, "will you help me? Please?"

Adam sighed deeply.

"Does he have a campaign slogan?" He asked indifferently.

"I don't think so." Drew said, "but he will."

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Drew had spent most of his evening working out a campaign strategy for Bhandari 2010. With a reluctant Adam helping, Drew had managed to come up with ideas for a slogan, a poster design and even managed to dig up some dirt on Sav's competition, Holly J (apparently, she had a Facerange page dedicated to how much she was hated and someone had even written a song about how much she sucked.) Adam saw the later of these as dirty politics; Drew saw it as being for the greater good – his popularity was at stake!

Drew found Sav at the lockers talking to someone before first period. Sav didn't look particularly happy. As the girl who was talking to him turned to walk away, Drew could see why. It was Holly J.

She glared at Drew as he walked past, he tried to ignore her as he approached Sav, who looked mildly shell-shocked.

"Hey future prez," Drew said, "how goes the campaign?"

"It's uh…" Sav said, staring away from Drew in disbelief, "it's great. It's just great."

"Cool, cause I was doing a little research and I think-"

"Dude, can I get back to you later?" Sav asked, still not looking at Drew, "I was just told that... I need to find out something. See you around."

Sav walked away from Drew, still looking dazed. Drew didn't know what he supposed to do. Whatever Holly J had told Sav had really shaken him up. She was clearly trying to upset the competition.

Maybe it was time to play dirty politics after all.

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Drew headed to the computer lab to pull up the dirt he had found on Holly J. He was sure he had read something about her cheating during a school fast for charity, surely that would be a good start.

He ignored the group of tenner dorks gawking over some blog and pulled up an exercise ball beside a free computer.

"Holly J Sinclair Degrassi fast." He typed furiously as the dorks talked amongst themselves. Drew wouldn't have even paid attention to what they were saying if one of them hadn't dropped a familiar name.

"But didn't Sav and Anya break up?" said a tall kid in glasses.

"Just because they're not together doesn't mean she can't be pregnant," Said a skinny kid wearing an oversized baseball cap, "they only broke up at prom."

Drew listened in, being as inconspicuous as someone bouncing on an exercise ball could be.

"Poor Anya," said a curly haired bespectacled kid, "she must be so scared."

"Poor Anya? Poor Sav," said baseball cap kid, "get your priorities in check, Wes. She's got him trapped forever – she probably did it on purpose."

"Anya's nice, Dave," said Wes defensively.

"Wesley has a crush on Anya," said the tall kid, "that's why he's defending her."

"Shut up, Connor."

Drew had heard enough, he turned off his computer and snuck out of the classroom as the three boys talked amongst themselves. So Sav was going to be a teen dad. Drew could sympathize sort of, he though he was going to be a teen uncle. He would have even related his experience to Sav, if it wasn't so impossible to explain.

He found Sav in the hallway campaigning. It turned out that he really didn't need Drew's help; he had t-shirts, posters; buttons and flyers to pass on to the enthusiastic student body. Drew also noticed that Holly J's stand wasn't nearly as crowded.

Drew spotted Sav wearing a campaign t-shirt and handing out flyers, Drew approached.

"Hey man, need any help?" he asked Sav, who seemed a lot less panicked as he had when Drew saw him earlier.

"Yeah sure grab a t-shirt."

Drew picked up a yellow t-shirt. He couldn't help but notice the logo was strikingly similar to Obama's "Hope" campaign. Adam had suggested it as a motif the night before; Drew thought it look really cool.

"Oh, and hey," Sav added, "I still owe you that coffee."

"Forget it," Drew insisted, "anything for the next prez."

Sav grinned.

"Is it my policy on Taco Tuesdays or…"

"Dude, I love tacos," Drew chimed in, he remembered how he felt when he thought that Gracie was in trouble, he was impressed that Sav was still around.

"You know," Drew said, "a lot of teen dad would just bolt, but not you."

Sav's eyes widened. Drew knew instantly that he had said the wrong thing.

"How do you know about the baby?"

Crap. He wasn't supposed to know. Drew suddenly realized what it was that Holly J had told Sav that morning; he'd only just found out about the baby.

"Some dorks in the computer lab had it up on some blog." Said Drew, cursing his excellent spy skills.

Sav stood, shaking his head and sighing.

"I though everyone knew," said Drew quickly, hoping Sav wasn't going to go crazy at him.

"Yeah, they do now." Sav said, in a steady voice, he patted Drew on the shoulder and started to head over to Holly J's stand.

"I'll be right back."

Drew made his way over to a stack of flyers. He tried to listen in to what Sav was saying, but he was too far away. This was all Holly J's fault. Drew had made is second enemy at Degrassi. She was going to ruin Sav's chances at being president by spilling all of his secrets.

Well Drew could spill secrets too.

He ran back over to the computer room. The three dorks were still there, talking away. Drew fired his computer back up, getting ready to print off every nasty piece of information he could find on Holly J Sinclair. He was deep in concentration, ready to bring her down when the dorks dropped another familiar name.

And this time it wasn't Sav's.

"What do think of that Adam kid?" the baseball cap kid – Dave – asked.

"I think he's really funny," Connor piped in, "he says things that people seem to laugh along with."

"I don't know," Dave said slowly, "there's something about him, you know? I just don't know what."

"At least he's not Degrassi's number one biggest loser," Wesley said, laughing.

"Shut up Wes, that list is stupid," Dave said defensively.

"Whatever," Wesley shrugged, "he seems cool to me."

Drew swallowed as he hovered over the print icon. He was ready to dish all the dirt he could find on a girl he hardly knew. How would be feel if someone did that to Adam? Was being popular by association really worth ruining someone's reputation over?

Drew shut down the computer, pulled on his yellow t-shirt and decided to hand out Sav's flyers instead.

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For the non-Canadians out there, and MLA is a Member of the Legislative Assembly – they're similar to Representatives in US congress, but aren't exactly the same. See? You learn something new every day :D

I will say nothing about the next chapter other than to give you its name: "Ghoulsworthy."