A/N: So this is pretty short and not so tense chapter. Call it the calm before the storm if you will because a certain infamous event is coming up. Some dialogue is taken from Can't Hardly Wait.
POVs: Marisol and Alli
Two weeks later, Marisol ran downstairs to the cafeteria to see the list of girls who made the Spirit Squad. There was a crowd of girls already around the list when she approached it. Tension bubbled in her stomach as she looked down at the list.
When she saw "Marisol Lewis", her face broke out into a big smile and she squealed excitedly as she bounced up and down. She made the team! She was now a member of the Spirit Squad!
Below her name was Imogen's, and she didn't know how to feel about it. While her and the other girl no longer hated each other, they weren't bffs either. They agreed to just be civil, and maybe that was the best they could be.
Marisol was getting ready to leave, when Imogen ran up to see if her name was on the list. When she did, she squealed excitedly just as she did.
Marisol tapped her on the shoulder. "Congratulations," she told her with a smile.
"Thank you," Imogen replied with a beaming smile of her own.
Alli was getting her books out of her locker for grade nine science when she felt someone cover her eyes. "Guess who," she heard Mo say to her.
"Is it you, K.C.?" She replied jokingly. Mo pulled his hands away from her, and when she turned around, they shared a kiss. Alli pulled away as quickly as possible.
"Wanna go to The Dot after school with me today?" He offered.
"Can't. One of my cousins is coming over for dinner tonight," she rejected. Her boyfriend pouted in response.
"Damn. Well maybe tomorrow," he replied before kissing her cheek. "See you at lunch, babe," he said as he walked away from her. She waited until he was completely gone before relaxing her shoulders in relief.
She actually didn't have a cousin coming over for dinner tonight. She just didn't feel like hanging out with Mo today and needed a quick excuse. Well, actually she didn't feel like hanging out with Mo at all these days. He was so sweet and spoiled her, but she found herself getting bored of him after dating him for a while. He wasn't what she was quite looking for in a boyfriend right now. She needed someone more…mature.
She needed to break up with him, but she didn't know how without really hurting his feelings.
Marisol looked at herself in the girl's locker room mirror in her new Spirit Squad. Today after school, there was to be a big girl's basketball game against Lakehurst Community School. The skirt was much shorter than the Pep Squad's uniform, being way above the knee. She felt so much more grown now than she did before.
After applying some makeup, which consisted of foundation, peach lip gloss, peach eyeshadow, mascara, and highlighter, she headed out to the gym with her new teammates and her pom poms. She already adored her captain, Manny Santos but the co-captain Darcy Edwards was kind of a bitch. She felt sorry for Clare for dealing with that every day.
She was just about to start up a conversation with Chantay when the Lakehurst people came in. The girls on their basketball team were….tall. Very tall. Then the students poured in with made up signs and posters for their school.
A boy caught her eye. He couldn't have been older than her but he was tall, beefy with thick eyebrows and crystal blue eyes. He was super hot. He noticed her looking at him, and flashed her a charming smile, making her skin heat up in desire.
"Is it too late to transfer to Lakehurst?" Marisol joked to Chantay.
"Trust me, girl. I heard the worst about Lakehurst boys. They're all trouble," her friend warned her.
Manny arrived with a girl that tried out for the team yesterday but didn't make it, or so she thought. The girl, Mia Jones, was in uniform like the rest of them.
"What is this?" Darcy demanded angrily.
"You can't keep her off the team," Manny replied.
"You know I deserve this! Or is there some sort of no single moms policy?" Mia accused.
"Yeah Mia, your baby is a huge responsibility and, well, so is Spirit Squad, I'm sorry," Darcy answered defensively.
"When my new manicure meets your face then you'll be sorry," Manny replied fiercely as she grabbed Darcy's shoulder, and Marisol tensed. She had seen Manny fight the previous Spirit Squad captain Paige Michalchuk back in seventh grade, and she knew Manny was a ferocious fighter. She heard that Manny fought Darcy too and tore her up. That was not someone she wanted to cross, ever.
"Darcy, Isabella has daycare. She can be taken care of whenever I'm at practice. I can do both!" Mia argued.
"How can I believe someone who made such enormous life mistakes?" Darcy questioned.
"Mistakes?"
"Unless you got knocked up on purpose in which case you got even bigger issues," Darcy sneered.
The next series of events fell into some sort of domino effect. Marisol watched in surprise as Mia pushed Darcy into some Lakehurst boy. The Lakehurst boy then insulted Mia, which earned him a slap from her. Then it caused a whole brawl between Degrassi and Lakehurst students. Everything was so happening so fast Marisol didn't have much time to react as some girl pulled on her hair. She turned around and quickly punched at the girl, sending her flying over the bleachers. Another girl swung at her, and soon she was fighting like everyone else.
When coaches from both teams came over to break up the brawl, she was on top of a girl in the process of scratching her face with her manicure. She looked over and saw Imogen biting on some girl's leg.
"Two weeks detention, all of you!" Coach Armstrong declared firmly with a glare.
Marisol pouted in annoyance. It wasn't her fault for defending herself. She was just taking out the trash.
"Well that was certainly an eventful pep rally," Clare commented as they left the gym.
"Those Lakehurst people have always been the worst. I don't even know why our parents sent Sav there. At least I'm at Degrassi," Alli replied as they waited outside for Clare's mom to pick them up.
"Is Degrassi really any better with all of the drama that goes on there?" Clare questioned.
"Yeah only fifteen percent of our student body are burnouts," she answered dryly just as Jenna approached them.
"Did you guys participate in the brawl like everyone else?" She asked them.
"No thank God. I just got a manicure and I don't need to break a nail over my brother's stupid schoolmates," Alli answered while showing off her freshly painted acrylic nails. They were ruby red and short. Her mother would never allow her nails to get past one quarter of an inch until she was sixteen.
"Good because I heard everyone got two weeks detention," Jenna replied before tilting her head curiously. "Where's Mo?" She asked.
"I don't know," Alli answered again with a shrug. For all she knew, he could have participated in the fight as well. She didn't see him in the stands though he did tell her that he was coming to the pep rally.
"You're not going to call him to make sure he's safe?" Clare asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"Am I his girlfriend or his mother?" Alli snarkily asked back. Her friend folded her arms in response. She knew a lecture was coming soon if not now, but luckily Clare's mother drove up in front of them so she didn't have to hear it.
"Mo's fine, Clare, I'm sure he would just call me if he was in a hospital somewhere," she reassured her friend as they got in the car.
She knew she should care, but she kinda didn't.
"Did you at least kick some ass?" Katie asked her as they did homework together at the Matlin house. It was history homework and so far it was nothing too hard to work on by herself but there was nothing wrong with extra help.
"I decked a Lakehurst girl right in her mouth," Marisol replied with a smirk as she thought about that moment. The other girl really thought she could get away with pulling on her precious hair.
"Good. I can't believe those thugs! Coming to our school just to pick fights with us," Katie replied in disgust.
"Well we whooped their asses so they'll think next about messing with us. We all got two weeks detention but it was worth it. On the brightside I locked eyes with this really hot guy from Lakehurst," Marisol gushed as his face flashed through her mind.
"It's not worth it, Mare. He's the enemy," Katie warned him.
"Maybe he's not as bad as the rest," Marisol argued as Katie stared at her wearily.
"You're only saying that because we haven't found you a cute boyfriend here at Degrassi. There are plenty of guys here who would be a better fit for you than some Lakehurst trash," her best friend replied, but Marisol wasn't paying attention. She was thinking about that boy with his perfect eyes and nice muscles.
She daydreamed about those muscles wrapping around her small frame and protecting her.
Alli was working on her science homework downstairs when she felt a knock on the door. She got up and had a look of confusion on her face when she saw it was Mo. She opened the door, but only just a little bit.
"What are you doing here? Are you trying to get me in trouble?" She hissed.
"I just wanted to see your beautiful face. I was worried about you during that epic brawl with those Lakehurst thugs," Mo answered. Alli sighed. This had to end soon and she figured now was a good time.
"Look Mo-"
"Alli, who's this?" Her older brother, Sav, asked as he suddenly appeared next to her, nearly making her jump. She turned towards him with a tight, nervous smile.
"A friend," she answered quickly.
"Interesting. Does Mom and Dad know you have other male friends than K.C. or Connor?" Sav asked with a suspicious glint in his eye.
"Not anymore than they know about your female friend Anya that you hang out with…a lot," Alli answered again with a warning tone in her voice, and she knew she had him. Sav paled a little at the mention of his crush's name but immediately got himself together.
"Well I'll leave you two be, though I hope your friend here isn't going to be on our doorstep for a while. Dad is going to be home shortly," Sav said smoothly before walking away, leaving just her and Mo. And the uncomfortable tension in the air.
"Should I be scared of him?" Mo asked her in worry. She snorted in response.
"A stack of marshmallows is scarier than Savtaj Bhandari," she replied dryly. "But seriously you do need to get out of here. Quickly."
"Okay I'll go, but not before a kiss from my sweet lady," Mo urged. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before shutting the door in his face, ignoring his protests. She turned her back on the door and slid down on the floor, throwing her face into her hands. She really didn't know how she was going to end things with Mo.
An idea then clicked in her mind.
In school the next day, Marisol was doodling a portrait of the boy she saw yesterday in her diary instead of taking notes for history. She truthfully didn't give a shit about the lesson for today, or what was going on in any of her classes really. All of her thoughts were on that Lakehurst boy and what he could do for her.
She had to find out who he was. It would be hard, especially with this stupid war their schools were engaged in, but she was confident that she could somehow make this work. Maybe she could get Chantay to get some info on him, she seemed to have known everything anyway. Or maybe she could get Alli to get some info from her brother, since he attended Lakehurst.
She quietly hummed the lyrics to Someday My Prince Will Come from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in her head. After everything she had been through regarding boys, she was in desperate need of a prince and she might have finally found him. If only he wasn't from the rival school.
"Marisol, name a First Nations Canadian tribe," her history teacher ordered sharply, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked around to see everyone in class staring at her, and Katie was pursing her lips critically. Her best friend was going to nag her as soon as class ended, she knew.
"The Cree people," she answered as that was the first people that popped into her head.
"Good, now put that book away before I take it and read it to the class. This is your only warning," the history teacher replied. Marisol complied, only because she already had enough trouble on her plate as it was with the stupid detentions.
The teacher went back to talking about the First Nation tribes, and Marisol did her best to follow along even though she was bored out of her damned mind. But her mind was still on that handsome boy from Lakehurst.
As Alli walked down the hallways in search of Mo, she braced herself for what she was about to do. It required a lot of good acting and practicing what she was going to say in the mirror. When she saw Mo approaching her, she quickly put on a face of dread. "Mo, follow me into this classroom right here," she said as she grabbed his arm. She pulled him into an empty classroom.
"Ooh, are we about to have sexy time?" He asked her with a sly grin. She tried not to get visibly queasy at the thought.
"No, I have some bad news. My parents found out about our relationship and forbade me from seeing you again," she announced with sadness in her voice.
Mo's face fell. "Seriously? What does this mean for us?" He asked her nervously.
"We can't date anymore. I'm sorry," she apologized, and deep down she did feel bad. Mo didn't deserve this.
"Surely we can still sneak around," he argued hopefully, but she only shook her head in response.
"We can't. I've already been grounded for two months and my parents are watching my every move," she lied. "It sucks but this isn't going to work out."
The heartbreak on Mo's face was clear, and she was worried that he was about to start crying. If he did, then she was definitely going to feel more like a bitch than she already did.
"I'm sorry," she apologized again before giving him one final kiss on the cheek. She then left the classroom without sparing him a second glance.
She was glad Mo Mashkour was her first boyfriend. But she knew they weren't meant to last long.
Marisol was eating her lunch with Katie and Jake in the cafeteria when Chantay came over. She was able to schedule a different lunch period with her best friend after dropping out of one of her classes. For once, Katie was actually eating something other than a salad or a small sandwich with water. She had a big slice of pizza on her plate with fries and a Pepsi. Hopefully her friend's weird issues with food were over.
"Don't ask me how but I found out about that boy from Lakehurst you're into," Chantay declared.
"Who is he?" Marisol demanded, immediately putting down her bottle of ice tea.
"His name is Owen Milligan and he's grade nine," Chantay answered, "He plays on the football team and is super single."
Owen Milligan. That was the name of her future prince. Marisol smiled brightly.
"I need to figure out a way to meet this Owen," she replied as a million fantasies went through her mind.
"Owen sounds like a name a total douchebag would have," Katie commented while folding her arms at the table. Marisol didn't pay her any mind.
All she cared about was finding out more about Owen.
A/N: Poor Mo! He loses again in the game of love, but there will be other girls for him :)))