I DO NOT OWN DEGRASSI OR THE DIALOGUE. SHOUTOUT TO GYMNAST1150 FOR ALL OF THEIR WORK ON THIS STORY.

Degrassi Community School. A week later.

Zack was beginning to feel comfortable at Degrassi. His friendships with Peter Stone and Danny Van Zandt were forming quite nicely, and Jane Vaughn was a regular fixture in his school days. It was reassuring for young Zack Ayers to discover that going to school in Canada wasn't a whole lot different than going to school in the US. One similarity he found was that Degrassi had a football team. Zack had always been a football fan-going to watch the Minnesota Vikings with his father was always fun-but he had never actually had any interest in playing the game himself. Jane on the other hand, did. She invited Zack to come watch her try out for the Degrassi Panthers, so he went.

The tryouts which were taking place after school where he found Jane's boyfriend Spinner there with another friend of Jane's named Darcy. They waved him over as he walked to the field.

"You here to watch Jane try out?" Darcy asked, and Zack nodded.

"I had nothing better to do, so I figured why not?" he shrugged as miss Vaughn herself came over to greet them.

"Thanks for coming to my tryout, guys," Jane said with a smile.

"Like I'd miss a chance to watch you kick some butt," Spinner replied with a smirk. Jane smiled back as she headed out to the field.

"Come on, let's go!" Coach and principal Shepherd called as the exercises began. Zack had never seen girls play football before, so he didn't quite know what to expect. He was pleasantly surprised to see Jane dominating the field.

"That's my girlfriend," Spinner said with pride as Darcy cheered her on. Zack wanted to tell Spinner not to rub it in that he was dating such an awesome player, but his good judgement prevailed as he simply gave Jane a thumbs up instead.

"Come on Haig, get on the ball!" Shepherd ordered. The other guys were clearly giving Derek a hard time for getting bested by a girl and it was equally clear that he was not taking it well.

"I guess Derek's not used to being around good football skills," Darcy teased as Jane outmaneuvered him once again and caught the pigskin.

"Obviously, I chose our weak link for this little drill," Coach Shepherd insisted as Derek was looking pissed.

"Actually, Derek is one of our fastest forties and she beat him by 2 meters," Danny countered with a grin.

"You're awesome babe," Spinner insisted as Jane came back over to her cheerleaders.

"You were bad ass Jane," Zack remarked as Jane shrugged her shoulders.

"I was all right," she said, attempting to be humble.

"Everyone hit the showers. Except for you, Haig. You can run some laps after that poor performance," Shepherd announced. Derek was royally pissed, but nevertheless did as his coach bade him.

"We should go to The Dot because I am starving," Jane said as she turned to Zack. "You should come." Zack was going to say yes until he saw Spinner shoot him a look that told him he better not.

"Actually, I have a shit ton of homework, my mom will have my ass if I don't work on it," Zack replied as Jane frowned.

"Fine, but you owe me a burger and shake Zack Ayers!" Jane insisted as she walked off with Spinner and Darcy.

"I won't forget!" Zack exclaimed back, feeling a surge of annoyance at Jane's boyfriend.

The next day at school, Zack was hoping to run into Jane. When he finally laid eyes on Jane, she looked remarkably pleased with herself, and with good reason as he would soon find out. She waved Zack over and embraced him.

"Hey Jane!" Zack exclaimed as he returned Jane's embrace.

"You are officially looking at the newest team member of the Degrassi Panthers," Jane said with a huge smile.

"Seriously? The Shep is going to let you play?" Zack asked in amazement. Shepherd's misogyny had not been missed by anyone who had been paying attention to Jane's tryout; so the fact that he had caved without finding some bull shit excuse to keep her off the team was impressive.

"Yeah, he gave me some crap about wanting to join the team to pick up guys, but the PTA said that there's no rule against me playing, so I'm in," Jane explained.

"That is so bad ass, Jane. I'm really stoked for you," Zack said, genuinely wanting to be happy for his friend, but at the same time, being worried that the Shep and his alpha male Derek Haig would conspire to make life a living Hell for miss Jane Vaughn.

"Thanks. If you will excuse me, I need to go find my gear," Jane said as she walked off to the gym.

"Come on, you sexist douche bags, give her a chance," Zack pleaded to no one in particular as he heaved a sigh before heading to his next class.

NEXT TIME, ZACK SEES THE EXTENT OF DEREK HAIG'S MISOGYNIST WRATH. REVIEWS NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.