I DO NOT OWN DEGRASSI. SHOUTOUT TO GYMNAST1150 FOR THEIR HELP.

Degrassi Community School. Lunchtime.

After Media Immersions, Zack made his way to the cafeteria. This was definitely the worst part of being at a new school: finding a place to sit at lunch. After he got his lunch, he looked desperately for a place to sit, but didn't find any tables that looked particularly inviting. He was starting to get a little nervous until he saw a guy wave him over. He was blonde, handsome, and he just looked like the kind of guy who oozed popularity. It kind of turned him off at first, but he decided to ignore it so that he would have someplace to sit.

"Is it cool if I sit here?" Zack asked as the blonde nodded.

"For sure, dude. I'm just waiting for my band mates," he explained. "I'm sure they won't care." Young Ayers's ears sprung up at this. He had always thought that musicians were cool, even though he wasn't one himself.

Zack offered his hand to shake.

"Zack Ayers."

"Peter Stone."

All in all, Zack enjoyed having lunch with Peter Stone. A few minutes after he sat down, Zack was introduced to Peter's other friends who made up the awesome high school band known as the Stüdz.

"This is Sav Bhandari, lead guitarist for the Stüdz," Peter said as he introduced Zack to a handsome, dark-skinned Indian dude with a extremely cool hairstyle.

"What's up?" Zack asked as he shook hands.

"Nice to meet you," Sav replied with his signature grin.

"And this is our bass player and the quarterback for the Degrassi panthers: Danny Van Zandt. Dudes, this is Zack Ayers," Peter continued as a cool looking black kid with a head full of curly hair shook hands with the new kid.

"'Sup?" Danny asked as Zack returned the gesture.

"So, where you from, Zack?" Sav inquired.

"St. Paul...in Minnesota," he replied.

"From the states, huh?" Peter asked, and Zack gave him a nod.

"Totally, I'm a regular immigrant," Zack remarked with a chuckle.

"Why did your parents move you all the way from the US to Canada?" Danny asked as Zack debated on how much of his personal woes he should share with these guys that he just met.

"My dad got a new job managing the Country Inn and Suites," Zack explained, deciding not to tell them that his older half-brother was a bonafide meth fiend.

"That's cool. So, what do you think of Degrassi so far?" Sav asked as Zack shrugged his shoulders.

"It's cool, I guess," he replied as he smiled at the thought of sitting next to Jane Vaughn all semester long. Naturally, his table mates picked up on it.

"Oh damn, I know that face any day. Our boy Zack has the hots for a chick," Danny said with a laugh as the other guys joined in.

"Who's the girl, man?" Peter asked eagerly as Zack took a deep breath.

"Do you dudes know a girl named Jane Vaughn?" he asked as the guys' smiles slowly faded. Zack immediately got nervous at this.

"For sure, but...she's not on the market," Sav said as Zack's heart dropped like a lead weight and crashed into his stomach.

"Are you shitting me?" Zack asked desperately, hoping that it was an attempt at humor to give the new kid a hard time.

"Wish we were, man. she's actually dating our drummer: Gavin Mason; goes by Spinner," Peter explained as Zach slammed his head down on the table.

"Fuck me!" young Ayers exclaimed in agony. It was just his luck. He just happened to become friends with the hottest girl at his new school, only for her to already be in a relationship.

"Sucks to be you, bro," Danny added with a shrug.

"So, that's it?" Zack asked in despair.

"You never know, relationships end all the time. Maybe you'll get lucky?" Peter offered. His voice told Zack that he was trying to walk the fine line between giving Zack hope whilst being loyal to his bandmate. Zack did appreciate it.

"Look on the bright side, at least it's a half-day today and Principal Sheppard is going to have a fashion show for the football team," Sav pointed out, which got Danny excited.

"A fashion show for football players?" Zack asked. "Seems like an oxymoron, don't you think?"

"As long as we get to walk with hot babes on our arms, it can be anything you like," Danny replied as he got some well deserved fist bumps from his boys.

"You have got to be there Zack, for real," Peter insisted, and Zack reluctantly agreed.

"What the hell, something to do," he replied as he became the new recipient of fist bumps.

Despite his lack of relationship experience, Zack decided to hang on to hope. He would bide his time in the friend zone to make sure that he was there when and if a chance to date miss Vaughn presented itself.

Degrassi Community School. Later That Day.

Zack sent a text to his mom to tell her that he was staying for a bit after classes to see the fashion show. She agreed and after the final class, Zack found his way back to Peter and the Stüdz.

"I've never been to a fashion show before." Zack admitted as he and the band walked towards the auditorium, where they met up with Peter's girlfriend: a pretty senior girl named Darcy.

"There aren't going to be any scantily clad ladies, I'm sorry to say," Sav replied. the other guys got a laugh out of his comment as Jane suddenly walked up to them.

"Hey Zack, how is it going?" she asked with a smile.

"It's all good," he replied, even though it was not all good because of what Peter and the Stüdz had told him about her and Spinner. He didn't complain, though, because everyone was busy bitching about Principal Sheppard's first-day-back game plan.

"Half classes, fashion shows, and football?" Darcy asked in amazement.

"When will your mom come back to save us from The Shep?" Jane asked Peter.

"She comes back, I lose my pad." Peter pointed out. He had told Zack about his awesome place with little parental interference and Zack could understand his reluctance to lose it.

"A small price to pay for my sanity." Jane shrugged as everyone took their seats. As the fashion show went on, Zack tried really hard to focus on the fashion show instead of the gorgeous girl beside him, but that only seemed to work for a few minutes until Jane turned to him.

"So, why did you move countries?" she inquired. "Zach felt like telling her the truth-that his meth-addict brother messed everything up for their family, but he chickened out at the last second."

"My parents...wanted a fresh start," he explained. "They thought that St. Paul was too crowded."

"I see." Jane replied as her eyes lit up. "There's a place not too far from here called The Dot; we should totally go after school tomorrow. Their shakes are freaking amazing," As much as Zack wanted to scream yes, he was hesitant about hanging out with another guy's girl.

"I don't know...Peter told me about you dating some guy named Spinner," he replied.

"Yeah, I am. This isn't a date, you do realize that guys and girls can be just friends, right?" Jane pointed out, and Zack nodded, even though he was crying on the inside.

"I'd like that," he said with the best fake smile he could muster.

NEXT TIME, ZACK MEETS HIS ROMANTIC RIVAL. REVIEWS NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.