AN: Hello again, welcome to the next chapter! This chapter picks up right where the last one left off. Again, so sorry for that itty bitty sorta cliffhanger.
Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi, I only own this idea.
Chapter Nine: Found Family and Family Found
Clare nearly falls forward into Eli's arms at the motion, gasping as she tumbles forward. "Eli, let me go."
"Come on, Clare, talk to me." Eli insists, his voice harsh and clouded with anger as he's gripped both of her arms and holding her closer to him.
"We're finished talking, and class will be starting soon. Now, let me go." Clare shakes her arms, fighting his grip.
Walking out of the cafeteria with Dave, Adam immediately spots a crowd and pushes through with Dave. They're whispering that maybe it'll be something to talk about on mano-a-mano the next day, but Adam stops short when he sees what the crowd is doing. Dropping his backpack on the ground Adam rushes up, shouting, "Eli, what are you doing? Let her go." Adam gets to Eli and Clare's side, his hand on Eli's arm as he looks between his two best friends worriedly.
"Stay out of this Adam. I'm just talking to Clare. We're working things out." Eli explains, his eyes never leaving Clare's.
"Eli, let her arms go. It looks like you're hurting her." Adam insists, but Eli shakes his hands off and Adam takes a step back looking at Clare. "Clare, are you alright?"
Clare's eyes are wide and she's not responding to Adam's question right away, focusing on trying to get out of Eli's grip instead but it's tighter on her arms. "Get help."
"Why do you need help, Clare? It's me. It's just me. We belong together." Eli insists, stepping closer and looking at Clare with wider eyes and a grin. If you took away the wider eyes, it's a look that Clare knew and loved before this moment. Now she just wants to be out of his grasp.
"Eli you sound crazy." Adam points out doing his best to keep his voice level as he looks around the hallway to see if there's anybody who could help them. Why are there never any teachers in the hall when you actually need them? Adam's stress is high enough on his own, he can't imagine how Clare's feeling.
"I'm not crazy." Eli shouts, turning to glare at Adam for a moment before looking back at Clare. "I just need to talk to Clare."
"Eli, we talked. We've talked. We're done talking, please, let me go." Clare comments with a sigh, looking around the hallway. She knows that she and Adam won't be able to get away from Eli alone, but if they could find someone else to help. She knows that Eli is clearly in some sort of state now, probably brought on from the fact that Clare won't talk to him about everything. That Clare hasn't changed her mind, that Clare won't change her mind. But, why should she? Eli clearly won't change his mind either. She shouldn't be forced to change her mind simply because Eli still wants to be with her and he doesn't want to have the child.
When the bell sounds the hallway gets even more crowded filling up with everyone leaving from lunch. The hallway was filling with echoing with noise filling, and people coming back inside. The crowd around them gets larger, both from people stopping short to see what's going on with the crowd and from people just not being able to get by. Before Clare knows it there's more people around her and Eli. People who are shouting at him to let her go, all of their voice's blending together. Alli, Jenna, KC, Connor, Dave, Drew, Bianca, and even Owen, Fiona, and Imogen.
Seemingly realizing that everyone is surrounding them, and telling him to let go of Clare, Eli's face falls and he drops Clare's arms abruptly before gasping and shaking his head and walking back through the crowd, pushing his way through and avoiding the calls of Fiona and Imogen who are chasing after him.
With Eli dropping her abruptly, Clare falls forward and gets caught before she falls to the ground by KC who was standing closest to her. "What's his problem?" KC asks, turning his attention back to Clare after watching Eli race off down the hallway and looking at her. "Are you alright Clare? Should we take you to the nurse or something?"
Clare shakes her head, "No, I'm fine, KC. Thanks, guys. Really, I'm fine."
Adam looks at Clare, clearly worried as he adds in, "Are you sure, Clare? Eli was holding you pretty tightly, it can't hurt to go to the nurse."
"Or go to Simpson." Drew buts in.
"Yeah, Clarebear. Eli looked crazy." Jenna nods her head.
"Please, I'm fine. I had a doctors appointment earlier today, remember? I don't think I need to go to the nurse so soon after that." Clare says, taking a couple of steps back, but she does rub at the arm that Eli grabbed roughly and winces for a moment.
"All in favor of Clare going to the nurse, raise your hand!" Alli says, her hand going up as she says it. Even though Clare's rolling her eyes she can see that a whole handful of the groups hands go up.
Clare groans, "Fine, I'll go to the nurse. But I see absolutely no point in doing this because you're all just worried about nothing."
"Jenna go with her, I'll take Clare's bag to co-op class and explain what's happening to Ms. Oh." Alli says, holding out her arm for Clare's backpack which Clare reluctantly gives up.
Jenna leads Clare to the nurses office, her arm linked through Clare's as she walks through the nearly empty school hallway as everybody else has already begun filing to classes. "We're just worried about you."
"There's no reason to be worried. Eli and I haven't seen each other since," Clare pauses for a moment, looking around the hallway and then looking at Jenna knowingly before continuing the sentence without the phrase in there that they both knew needed to be in there, "and it's hard. For both of us. He's always been a bit hotheaded, emotional."
"Clarebear." Jenna rolls her eyes and looks at her friend with a sigh, shaking her head. "I'm pretty sure hotheaded is one word and crazy is another. This is the guy who egged a bully on enough to get taunted with a knife at a school dance last year."
Clare sighs and pauses before answering, licking her lips. "I wouldn't say he's" Clare pauses, sighing, "he has his moments, I guess. But you know he's gotten past that."
"Sure he has." Jenna doesn't sound convinced at all, and the way she's glancing at Clare out of the corner of her eyes makes Clare squirm. "But I didn't even see all of that back in the hallway, Clare, and I was scared for you. I think...well, I think we all were. He was holding you really tight. It really looked like... Are your arms okay?" Jenna asks, pausing in her steps to look at Clare seriously, a worried glance as she looks at her friend finally face to face.
Clare nods her head, "I'm fine." Clare says with a little waver in her voice, but as much confidence as she can manage. It's true, she's fairly sure that she's fine. But with Jenna looking at her, she adds, "I guess they're a little bit sore, but that could be from anything. I mean, I had to have blood drawn earlier at the doctor's office." Clare shrugs her shoulders and moves to keep walking through the hallway to get to the nurses office.
When they're in the nurse's office the nurse looks over Clare's arms and doesn't see much happening, but tells her she can sit with a bit of ice if it'll make it feel better for a bit. Before Clare can insist that she's fine and can head back to her class, Jenna thanks the nurse and leads Clare over to the room and sits her down on the nurse's bed and takes a seat. The nurse tells the pair that they should give the ice twenty minutes and then they should both head back to class.
Once it's quiet, Jenna looks at Clare and smiles, "So, how was your appointment this morning?"
"It was alright. It felt a little weird, I guess. I always thought if I had one of those appointments I'd be there with my mom or sister or," Clare adds with a whisper, "my husband."
Jenna nods her head, "Yeah, it was weird for me. I had Kyle with me, for my appointments. But it's kind of weird having your brother there at your prenatal." Jenna laughs softly shaking her head. Jenna always thought it would be weird to talk about Tyson, about all of the experiences she'd had while being pregnant, but it's oddly comforting to talk about everything with Clare. To know that Clare would be able to understand in some way.
Clare couldn't imagine that, but then again having a brother isn't something she ever thought she'd deal with. Now look at her, living with the Torres brothers. "Yeah. I went from having an absentee older sister to two live in somewhat brothers. It's strange. Darcy was...well, you didn't know her, but she was always around even if she wasn't. I don't know if that makes sense. Even at home when she's been gone, I've just thought she'd be coming around the corner to talk to me about something. But with Adam and Drew," Clare makes a face, laughing along with a shrug of her shoulders. "I can't even imagine bringing them with me to one of those. Well, maybe Adam if he sat in the waiting room or something. But even that feels weird to think about."
"Yeah, I barely wanted anybody in the room with me for anything. I wanted to be alone, I didn't even want to think it was happening." Jenna admits with a sigh.
Clare can understand that, nodding her head as Jenna speaks. She felt that way today. "Audra asked if I wanted her to come in with me and I needed to do that alone, you know? But it was scary. I felt so alone, being in that room all by myself."
Jenna looks up at Clare and takes her friends hand, "Here's the thing, you're not alone. Cause you've got me and Alli. And Adam and Drew. And KC and Connor and Dave and Wes. And, like, Bianca?" Jenna can't help a laugh coming as she says Bianca's name, smiling as she speaks. "I know your parents are going through a divorce and it's shitty. I'm here if you want to talk about that, because my parents have been separated my whole life basically, but family isn't just your parents and your sister, you know."
Clare nods her head, smiling. "I know. I know you guys are my family too. I keep telling myself that after the fact."
"Well, that's dumb." Jenna teases, giggling.
Clare sticks her tongue out at Jenna and laughs too, "Yeah, well, I know. But it's been hard. It's been really hard."
"Hey, maybe you can come to Alli's this weekend? We can do a girls weekend the three of us at the Bhandari's?" Jenna suggests with a grin, clapping her hands together and smiling excitedly.
Clare smiles back and nods. "I think that sounds great, I'll ask Audra when I get back to the Torres house tonight. How about tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sure...wait, don't you have church on Sunday?" Jenna asks, gathering her things as the nurse pokes her head in to tell the pair that it's time for them to go back to class, handing them both notes to give to their teachers.
"I haven't been going lately." Clare explains, shrugging her sleeves back down as she holds her arms closer to her sides. She thanks the nurse as they leave her office before turning back to Jenna as they walk out. "I guess it's a crisis of faith? With my parents issues and everything else it just feels like God isn't here for me. And I've never felt like that before, but going to church seems like something I need to do when I need it, and the congregation knows my parents so well that I'm sure if I showed up they'd have so many questions about mom and dad and I couldn't handle that."
"Well, if you want, I'm sure Alli and I could go with you." Jenna offers, stopping in the hallway where they need to part ways to go to their separate classes.
"I'll think about it, thanks Jenna. If you see Alli before I do tell her the plan." Clare suggests with a raised eyebrow.
"Aren't you going to class with her?" Jenna asks, confused.
"I'm gonna stop by the office to see Mr. Simpson." Clare explains with a shrug of her shoulders, waving toward Jenna and heading off toward the office. When she gets there she smiles at the secretary and asks. "Is Mr. Simpson free?"
"He's got a phone meeting in five minutes."
"I'll be quick, I promise." Clare explains, and the secretary nods her head before popping into Mr. Simpson's office. Clare stands off to the side and waits for a few moments hearing the conversation between Mr. Simpson and his secretary but not paying much attention.
"Come on in Clare." Mr. Simpson calls out to her and she finds her way in, closing the door behind her.
"Hey Mr. Simpson." Clare says, taking a seat in the chair across from his desk.
"Is this about the altercation I've heard rumors about between you and Mr. Goldsworthy?" Mr. Simpson asks, folding his arms and looking at Clare from across his desk. "Is everything alright?"
Clare bites her lip and sighs. "Sort of? Yes, that happened. I was just at the nurses office, I've got a slip to class." Clare says, tugging it out of her pocket and holding it up for him to see. "You see Eli and I broke up and it didn't go well and I've been avoiding him and then today he finally saw me in the halls and he grabbed my arms. I'm fine but it kind of scared my friends and they made me go to the nurse."
"Alright. I see." Mr. Simpson leans back in his chair and looks at Clare before glancing at the clock. "I've got a phone meeting with the superintendent of schools soon, Clare. I feel like I'm missing the point to all of this."
"Sorry," Clare explains with a sheepish glance off to the side and a sigh. "I know you're busy, I just. Well, I was wondering if I could maybe have a meeting with you? Maybe not at school? I don't need anybody to overhear everything that's going on right now and I think that since you're the principal you need to know so that in the future things can be arranged..." Clare's beginning to ramble and she trails off, unsure of how to phrase what she's looking to say at the moment. Biting her lip she sighs, looking at Mr. Simpson. "I'm sorry if this is confusing."
"Clare, are you alright? Is everything okay?" Mr. Simpson asks.
"I'm fine. Really. I'm just, well, I'm going to need to talk to you about something but you're busy now. So I'm going to go and leave you to it. I'm so sorry for interrupting." Clare stands up and backs up out of the office.
"Clare." Mr. Simpson stands up from his desk and looks at her when she's at the door.
"Really, Mr. Simpson. I'm sorry to bother you. I'll talk to you some other time." Clare nods, assuring him everything is alright with a smile as she heads toward the media immersion lab with a sigh.
Clare's sitting in the lab after school waiting for everything to be done. She's feeling guilty for walking out of Mr. Simpson's office earlier, and is debating going back to talk to him after school. But for now she's checking her email when she sees something she's been waiting for a long time. An email from her sister Darcy finally appearing in her inbox.
Clare,
I'm so sorry it's been so long since my last email! I can tell from your emails, plural, that a lot has been going on. But you're being kind of cryptic with everything that's happening with you in some ways too. So is mom. Other than the divorce, uh...that's actually happening? Our parents are getting a divorce? I can't believe it! I had to read it a couple of times, and then I still didn't believe it. Then I read it in your several emails and mom's email and I was like holy crap that's actually happening, huh? So mom's with Nana and Pop? And you're with your friends Adam and Drew? I'd ask how that's going, but I can tell from your emails that it's kind of an adjustment for you. You've only ever had to share a bathroom with me, never with a boy, let alone two before!
It's going to be okay, Clarebear. I know I'm not there and I'm not really reliable in writing back, but if you keep writing me with all your thoughts then at least it can feel like I'm almost there with you. Plus, I didn't want to say anything earlier because it wasn't a definite thing, but there's a possibility that I've got some time off and a relocation coming up so I can come home for a bit. Do you think the Torres' would mind letting me crash with you in that guest room of yours? If not I'm sure it's fine, I can probably ask Chantay or Manny to hook me up with a couch or spare bedroom in town. It won't be too long, I don't think, but I'll do my best to keep you updated. And, Clarebear, I know I'm not the best older sister out there, but I can promise that you can tell me anything and I won't judge you. I love you so much. And I hope that I can see you soon.
xo, Darcy
Clare takes in a deep breath and looks at the email, it was dated earlier today. Clare writes back immediately with all of her thoughts, telling her sister the majority of what happened during the day. The only bits she leaves out is the appointment with the doctor and the pregnancy, but tells her that she hopes she can see her soon too because she has something to tell her that she'd rather do it in person than over an email. Clare signs the email and sends it off before logging off the computer.
"Clare!" Alli calls out, waving to her as she runs up with Jenna at her heels. "We thought you'd left school already. What are you doing here so late?"
"Oh, I was getting a jump start on homework and Degrassi Daily stuff in the media lab, then when I finished I was checking my email. Darcy finally replied to my emails." Clare explains with a grin. "I think she's coming home soon, or something. I'm not sure, but it's a possibility."
"Clarebear, what? That's amazing!" Jenna exclaims, and Alli squeals in excitement too.
"Clare, that's so exciting. I hope that she comes home." Alli nods her head and then the three of them walk out of the school building together.
"Right? It would really be amazing. Especially with everything that's going on right now, to have her around it would be helpful." Clare nods her head with a shrug of her shoulders. She turns to look at Alli and Jenna and smiles. "Of course, I know I have you guys too."
"Yeah, but there's something about family." Jenna nods her head.
"Yeah, I know if I was going through everything you were I'd definitely want to have Sav around." Alli nods.
"But it's good to have friends too." Clare says, stopping where she walks and smiling.
"Aw, group hug." Jenna laughs, pulling both Alli and Clare to her and the three of them hugged each other.
"I love you guys."
AN: Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked this chapter, please let me know if you did (or if you didn't you can let me know that too) I'd love to hear your thoughts. Reviews really help me know where I should be heading with the story. If you'd like to, check out my other story "A Play on Words" which is a s11/12 Klare fic!