Eli walked into the school cafeteria the next morning to see Imogen sitting at a table by herself looking pretty sad while eating some breakfast food. "Why so glum, chum?" He asked her as he sat down next to her.

"My parents are divorcing," she simply answered, not really looking at him.

"That sucks, I'm sorry," he told her in sympathy as he looked over her outfit for today. In contrast to the eccentric, bright colors she wore yesterday, she was wearing a dark blue shirt dress with cloudy designs on it. Instead of wearing low pigtails with cat ears, her hair was styled in a single bun on top of her head with blue hair sticks going through them. It seemed like she dressed in whatever mood she was in.

"They've been fighting for a long time. I just never thought they would actually separate one day," she replied glumly while playing with her cereal. "I'll still live with my dad in the neighborhood while my mom will basically move on the other side of town."

"That's good. At least you won't have to move far away from here," he assured her the best way he could. He had never seen his parents really fight. They have always had a loving marriage, sometimes a little too loving for his liking. There were a few moments where he had walked in on his parents getting it on while drunk or high and the mental scars he got from those experiences were deep.

Mo arrived and approached them. "What's up guys?" He greeted cheerfully as he sat across from them. When he noticed Imogen's sour mood, his cheerful disposition fell. "What's wrong with her?" He asked him.

"Parents are getting a divorce," he explained.

"Neat! Two Christmases!" Mo replied, and Eli sent him a scolding look in response.

"What? I'm trying to lighten up the mood," Mo added defensively.

"I couldn't live with my mom honestly," Imogen said as if she didn't hear him, "She's the worst. She's probably the reason they're divorcing in the worst place."

"Is she like super strict?" Mo asked.

"And controlling. She doesn't like the way I dress and is always trying to make me dress more "normal". My dad allows me to express myself however I want to," Imogen explained.

"You have to admit, your style is pretty weird," Mo replied.

"I like being weird. Normal is boring," Imogen argued. Eli could agree with that statement. He didn't know what it was like to be "normal" due to how his parents raised him and seeing how "normal" kids acted, he found that he didn't want that kind of lifestyle.

However, sometimes he wished that Bullfrog and Cece did act a little like regular parents because cleaning up puke off the kitchen floor early in the morning because your parents were drinking last night was not fun.

"At the club fair this Friday, I was thinking of making cute posters for the Pep Squad table. Since the Spirit Squad's color scheme is blue and gold, I was thinking that we could do gold and blue. There can be a big bowl of candy at the table and music playing," Marisol said to Katie while they stood at their lockers. Marisol was applying a fresh coat of strawberry lip gloss to her lips while looking in a mirror.

"Cool," Katie replied, not really paying attention as she got her books out for the first four periods of school.

"Would you like to help me out?" Marisol asked her, popping her lips together one more time before putting the tube of lip gloss away. Then, she pulled out a tube of mascara and began applying it to her eyelashes. Marisol couldn't be seen anywhere without some kind of makeup, and Katie could never understand why. To her, makeup was a sexist concept intended to give girls unhealthy expectations of themselves in order to make them more appealing to boys. She didn't find wearing makeup empowering at all no matter how many times Marisol tried to get her into it, and even if she did, it wouldn't have mixed well with her playing soccer.

"I can't help out, I'm signing up for clubs," she replied. She heard that Degrassi had a journalism club and an after school karate club. Both of these she was deeply interested in doing in addition to soccer. She was thinking that if soccer didn't work out, she could be a reporter as an adult. In regards to karate, she was already a green belt with a stripe. If any boys attempted to pop her bra strap, she was going to pop their arms out of their sockets.

"Well I want to sign up for other clubs too, like the Drama club," Marisol said, "I really think I have the talent to be the lead in the school play!"

"You certainly have the dramatic attitude," Katie teased. Marisol could be quite the drama queen sometimes.

"I know right?" Marisol asked as she finished doing her makeup. "So do you think they'll allow us to have cute uniforms? I hope so."

"Shouldn't you be more worried about everyone being in top shape and representing the school instead of uniforms?" Katie asked critically. She shut her locker, Marisol shut hers immediately after, and they both began to walk to homeroom.

"Yeah, but uniforms are the best part. Everyone looks at the uniform the members wear," Marisol answered.

"Well don't expect tank tops and miniskirts. I hope you guys get to wear something at least more respectable," Katie replied while wrinkling her nose in disgust at the thought.

"Like what? Nun skirts? Don't make me throw up," Marisol said as they walked past Imogen. Marisol looked back at her and rolled her eyes. "Hopefully she doesn't try out."

Katie looked back at Imogen as well. "Why not? Beggars can't be choosers," she asked.

"Pep squad is going to be about representing the school and having the most popular girls in our grade on the team. I'm not having freaks represent the team," Marisol explained.

"Well there has to be at least one source of entertainment on the team, right?" She questioned her in amusement.

"Yeah that's what the mascot is for," Marisol replied as they both laughed.

Throughout the day, Imogen wasn't really paying attention in class. It was hard to, with the bomb her parents dropped on her yesterday.

She should be relieved. Since she was little, all her parents did was argue intensely and then not speak to each other for three days. She could count the number of times they had been affectionate to each other on one hand. Often, the arguments were over her. Her mother didn't like the way she dressed while her dad didn't care. In fact, he was the main one encouraging her to dress the way she did because he loved her style.

Her dad was so much more supportive of her in general and that's why she would rather live with him than her mother, who was a total ice queen in her opinion.

The bell rang, ending her class period. Imogen got up from her seat and left to go to her locker. It was now lunch, and while she personally wasn't in the mood for eating, she would go to lunch for Eli and Mo.

Her friends were sitting at their usual table in the back of the cafeteria. She sat her bag down on a seat before getting in the lunch line. Soon Eli was right behind her. "Hey Im, you want to hang out with me and Mo after school today?" He asked her.

"Really?" She asked. "Where?"

"At my house," Eli answered with a smile as he picked up a burger and fries for himself. She got herself a pizza and fries. "We can play video games, watch a movie, or…..just hangout."

"Your parents would allow a girl to come over your house?" She questioned in disbelief.

"Yeah, you're just a girl," Eli answered, "It's not like we're going to be having sex or anything."

Imogen blushed at that statement. The idea of her and Eli doing anything like that made her skin heat up. "Okay! I'll come over!"

If she was being honest, she would be fine if it was just her and Eli hanging out.

Marisol was scoping out potential members of the Pep Squad in her history class. Instead of writing history notes, she was instead writing down notes about each girl in her class who said that she was interested in trying out for the team.

'Emilie…..short, petite, will probably fit really well on top. Christina…..is tall and has strong looking arms. She would fit at the bottom. Joanna, seems really friendly and full of energy. I can see her as my co-captain,' she thought to herself as she wrote. Hopefully at tryouts, these girls would prove they would be a great fit for the team. She may have been running a junior high cheer team but that did not mean she wanted a bunch of boring slackers on her team. She wanted the best of the best in her grade.

It was a shame Katie had no interest in being on the team because she had energy and work ethic to be on the squad. From all the soccer games she had attended for Katie, she knew her best friend was a great athlete who took sports seriously. Katie worked out vigorously for an hour each day, and wouldn't bail out on practice for anything. It was one of the many things she admired about her best friend, and the type of energy she needed on the team. Marisol could admit that she was a bit of a slacker sometimes but never when it came to cheerleading, and she expected any potential teammates to have the same attitude. Pep squad needed to be seen as an actual respectable team.

As the teacher prattled on and on about the geography of New France, Marisol rested her chin in her fist as she thought more about Pep Squad. She knew she should pay attention, but whatever she didn't get in class, Katie always had the notes for her to copy later. Katie had always been the better student between the two of them.

Eventually, the bell rang and school was thankfully over for the day. Marisol got out of class as fast as possible and headed to her locker. Opening it, she got out her workbooks needed for homework tonight. She already had math, science, geography, spelling, and English. 'I HATE homework,' she grumbled to herself. If school was just art, music, lunch, and cheerleading, she wouldn't hate it as much as she did. In fact, she would be quite excited to attend school every day.

"Hey Mare, we're doing homework tonight as always right?" Katie asked as she approached her.

"As always," Marisol confirmed as she looked inside her locker one last time before closing it. "And after that can we watch a Disney movie or something? I'm thinking Aladdin."

"I would rather watch Mulan," Katie replied.

"We'll talk more about it at my place," Marisol told her as they started walking. "We can get candy first, lots of it."

"You can get lots of candy, I would rather not," Katie declined.

"Why? You love candy, especially chocolate," Marisol questioned in confusion.

"I already had my calorie fill for the day, Mare. I don't need to consume anymore unless it's something healthy," Katie explained.

"But the only thing you ate today was pb and j, a small bottle of water, and a small bag of apple slices," Marisol mentioned, "A snickers bar won't kill ya."

"Yeah, but is it worth gaining another pound for? I have to keep up a healthy regime and you should too Mare," Katie argued.

"I guess…," Marisol replied as they walked out of the school.

Katie always had a weird relationship with food.

One thing Mo found out quickly about Eli's parents was that they were fucking weird.

Very fucking weird.

"We have only three rules when for Eli's friends when they come over: no drinking Mr. and Mrs. Goldsworthy's booze, no smoking our weed in the basement...and no sex with the door open or without condoms," Bullfrog, Eli's dad, said with a goofy grin.

Him, Eli, and Imogen were all sitting on a couch awkwardly as Eli's parents made small talk with them. With both of his parents dressed like 70's coked out rockers, it was no wonder Eli dressed the way he did. "Bullfrog…," Eli scolded his father about the last statement about sex.

"What? You and your friends are old enough to know what that is," Bullfrog replied defensively. "If you don't then I guess now is the time-"

"I think we're going to go upstairs to play some games!" Eli cut him off as he hopped off the couch. He looked down at him and Imogen. "Come on guys, let's go!"

"Alright kids, have fun! I'll be making tacos downstairs so if any of you guys are hungry, you can come down when they're ready!" Cece, Eli's mother said cheerfully as Eli led them upstairs.

Eli's bedroom was a goth haven. There were rock posters, skull beddings, and skeletons hanging on closets. There was a blood red lava lamp sitting on Eli's nightstand.

His parents would never allow him to have this type of room, and for that Mo was a bit jealous.

"So is your dad's name really Bullfrog?" Mo asked as Imogen sat primly on Eli's bed. He noticed how amazed she was at Eli's room more than he was. She gingerly touched Eli's bed sheets as if they were sacred cloth.

"Yeah, my dad's parents were hippies. Their names used to be James and Gloria, but now they're Hawk and Robin," Eli explained as he went over and turned on his TV. There was a cartoon playing on one of the channels.

"Meanwhile my parents have typical arabic names like Fayez and Iman, and they're both boring as hell. Makes me wonder if I was born in the wrong family," Mo replied. His parents, especially his father, were rather hard on him. They did not like that he wanted to be a comedian at all.

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to be in this household. Sometimes I feel like I'm the parent and they're my kids," Eli tried to convince him.

"Really, because they seem cool. Weird, but cool. My parents haven't mentioned sex yet to me and I don't think they ever will. I suspect they think I'm just going to pop up with magical grandbabies one day," Mo joked. "So what games are we playing?" He asked.

"Whatever you prefer," Eli answered with a shrug. "I got Mortal Kombat, Mario Kart, Street Fighter on pretty much any system."

"Mortal Kombat, bro. Let's see what you got," Mo challenged. Eli smirked at him with an equally challenging look.

"I warn you, my skills at fighting games are top notch. Don't cry when I kick your ass," Eli warned him as he set up his Sega Genesis.

"Oh believe me, you don't want to underestimate me," Mo replied.

As they played Mortal Kombat for the next hour, Mo would look back at Imogen every so often.

She was completely focused on Eli.