Liberty Van Zandt squinted a little to see the time on the clock above her stove, but then realizing that her vision was even worse than she'd perceived, she grabbed her glasses, making a mental note to pick up her new contact lenses before work. After putting on her glasses and seeing the time, she opened her mouth to yell upstairs to her son, but right on cue, he zoomed past her.

"Off to school, Liberty."

With an unusually wet peck on the cheek he grabbed his lunchbox from the kitchen counter and headed for the door, but as he'd already predicted, she stopped him.

"Uhh...wait right there." Liberty called out. She turned around to look at him, and with a quick roll of her eyes, she sighed. "Jay, I thought we discussed this..."

"My name is Scott, and discussed what, Liberty?"

She could tell by his sarcastic yet subtly confrontational tone that this was going to be another one of those 'rough mornings' that she'd spend the rest of her day reviewing in her mind. For a moment, she considered telling him that his brat-ish behavior would not be tolerated in her house, and that he needed to be more respectful to her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. It hadn't been long enough.

So instead, all she could do was take a deep breath and then point at his ensemble. "This-...your outfit." she spoke in muted disgust. "We talked about this, and I thought we'd agreed that you would brighten up your wardrobe a bit."

He laughed. "I'm 14 years old, 6 feet tall, and my locs are down to my back. I'm sure wearing black is the least attention grabbing aspect on me."

Liberty half-smiled. "Well, yeah I guess. But-...what about the silver chain I bought you?"

With a bit more enthusiasm than normal, his eyes widened and he jumped at the opportunity to lift his black shirt, revealing a silver chain that looped through his belt hold on his black jeans. "It's right here."

In disbelief, Liberty's mouth dropped open. "Jay, that was a four hundred dollar chain."

"I know. Isn't is awesome?" he spoke, before once again turning toward the door. "And for the last time, my name isn't James...it's Scott." he said before throwing up his eyes and darting out of the door.

"Well have a good-" noticing that he was already halfway down the street, she sighed and mumbled "day", before flopping down on the chair at the kitchen table. Looking down at her reflection on her phone, she shook her head, thinking to herself, Liberty woman, what ARE you doing?

Her reflection quickly cut away to a notification on her phone. Seeing the name Toby Isaacs light up on her screen, Liberty curiously opened the notification, only to see the caption "Isaac's Triumphant Return". With narrowed eyes, she looked at the picture of Toby, now sporting a full grown beard and visibly a bit more in shape than before, and she chuckled, before reading. "The famed scientist responsible for discovering the herb-based medicine 'Thorexin', the medicine that infamously saved the life of actress Heather Sinclair, has returned home to Toronto. In a recent interview with Bossip, Isaacs reportedly returned home to 'show that great things come out of Degrassi, and to help cultivate a new generation'. Isaacs was a 2007 graduate himself from Degrassi Community School, and later went on to be one of the largest sponsors for the school. In fact, the football field now dawns the name 'Toby Isaacs Stadium'. Isaacs returns to his alma mater today, just in time for his first day as head of the Science department at Degrassi"

In disbelief, Liberty just stared down at the phone, and as if already her inadequacy wasn't showing through this morning, the feeling intensified. "Great", she murmured, grabbing her phone and rushing back upstairs to finish preparing for work.

"Name?"

"Scott Donaldsen".

Scott looked down at the floor timidly as the counselor rummaged through what seemed to be tons of files, and for what seemed like minutes, she began to hum an annoying, blatantly off-key tune. Awkwardly Scott looked up at her stringy black hair, and when their eyes met, he quickly broke eye contact, looking back down at the floor. Obviously his eyes were enough to tell her that she was annoying him, because she finally stopped the humming and cleared her throat before muttering, "sorry."

Scott shrugged his shoulders haphazardly.

"Well, Scott, there's obviously been some sort of mistake. I checked our database, and even looked through all of these files. We don't have you in our system." Her eyes looked concerned. "Is your mother here?"

"My mother is-..." he suddenly stopped. "No, she's not here. Try James Van Zandt."

Still with concern, she typed in the name, and then a slight smile creased her face. "James Tiberius Van Zandt" with the click of a button, his schedule printed, and she turned around to retrieve it. "Is Scott a nickname?"

"No, it's my name. James is-...it's some stupid name Liberty gave me." he responded, before taking the paper from the counselor and then leaving out of the office.

Standing against the wall in the hallway, Scott's best friend...well, Scott's ONLY friend Micah, smiled. "Took you long enough, dude."

Scott grunted. "The psycho strikes again." he said as they headed down the hall.

"Your mom?"

"She's NOT my mom." Scott interrupted quickly. "She's some weirdo who gave me up for adoption, years later changed her mind, fought my parents in court for custody, and now wants to force some random dude's name on me. She's crazy."

Micah glanced over at Scott, and then looked away. He wanted to advise Scott to give Liberty a chance, but he knew it'd be like talking to a brick wall. In fact, Micah had spent the entire summer talking to a brick wall and he knew this time would be no different.

"I just can't wait to graduate this place, and move the hell out of her house." Scott finished, just as they both came to a screeching halt as Micah stuck out his hand in front of Scott to stop him.

Curiously Scott glanced over to Micah, whose eyes were fixed straight ahead, almost as if in a daze. His dry mouth dropped open, and he whispered dizzily, "BEHOLD."

Scott followed Micah's eyes down the hall to Draya Nicks, dressed in a short, body-fitting one piece dress. Her long black hair was brushed to one side and over her shoulder, each strand seemingly covering just enough of her cleavage to keep both boys from being swept up through another horizon by their hormones.

Seemingly unenthused, Scott chuckled. "Why don't you go talk to her?"

"Dude...do you remember what happened the last time I went to talk to her?"

Scott nodded with a nostalgic smile. "Wasn't that the first time Jed beat your ass?"

"Yeah, well it's the first day of school. These chicks left grade 8 with nice smiles and came to grade 9 with boobs the size of melons. I think the least I can do is show how much I've grown as well." With his eyes fixated on Draya, Micah dramatically dropped his Algebra book into Scott's arms. "Watch and learn, kid." Slowly, he took off walking down the hall.

Already embarrassed, Scott covered his face with his hands. "Dude...you don't have to prov-" he stammered. "Okay, so you're just gonna-...you're gonna do it huh...WOW."

Micah, as confident as ever, stepped into Draya's effervescent presence, interrupting her conversation with her best friends Nicole and Sam. It was as if reality slapped him with an entire stack of algebra books when he saw the look of annoyance on Draya's face as her eyes met his.

"Yes?" she questioned.

"Draya-...nice uh-..." he looked down at her breasts, and sheepishly he smiled. "Dress."

"Still a perv, I see." Draya spoke quaintly before rolling her eyes. Slowly, she looked down the hall at Scott, and then she shrugged. "Why don't you go back over there with your loser friend and do something productive...why don't you go find a calendar, count the days, and make sure they're all there?"

Smiling, Micah shrugged his shoulders. "Alright..." he called out, in the midst of all the laughter of Nicole and Sam. "You say that now, but eventually...I'm going to wear you down."

As he turned around, he saw Scott coming towards him. "Bro, just-...come on, let's get to class."

Draya watched Scott pull Micah down the hallway, and with a bit of a frown but a hint of curiosity, she rolled her eyes.

"Micah, aren't you ever gonna get enough of this?"

"NEVER!" Micah interjected with a laugh, before turning to look at Scott. "Dude, you obviously didn't see what I just saw. She's TOTALLY into me."

Sarcastically, Scott nodded. "Of courrrrse"

"And mark my words. By the end of this year, she'll be mine." he finished.

"That sounds like a wager." Scott responded quickly. "How about we add some cash to spice things up a little? Let's say...50 bucks?"

A devilish smile creased Micah's face as he looked down at Scott's extended hand, and then reluctantly shook it. "Deal."