I really can't believe it's taken me so long just to update. I can't even count the months. Well, I could, but I'm too lazy at the moment. So, anyway I just wanted to update since I haven't got anything better to do. Here we go:



"It's a gunshot wound. What on earth have you kids been doing?" Mr. Van Zandt inquired. Paige and Liberty looked at Emma and Craig, obviously wondering the same thing. It wasn't normal for a 14-year-old boy to be shot in the middle of the day with no explanation.

"It's a long and very disturbing story." Emma sighed. Mr. Van Zandt stood up from crouching over Craig's wound. It wasn't bleeding as much but still needed to be tended to.

"I see." He scratched his head. "Well, how about while I fix up Mr. Manning here, you tell me all about it."

Emma nodded and pulled up a chair next to Craig. Mr. Van Zandt had taken out his tools already. "The bullet will have to be removed and then I'll have to give you a couple of stitches. Well, more than a couple, actually it'll be around five stitches. I'm going to numb your shoulder here with some anesthetic."

Craig's eyes widened with horror. He hated needles, more than anything in the world. He would rather live through years and years of pain except for watch that needle go inside of him. "No! No!" He yelled frantically.

Emma took Craig's hand and squeezed it tight. "Shhh, Craig, shhh it's for the best. C'mon, quiet down now."

"No Emma! Look at it! It's humongous!" Craig was up against the wall, holding onto his shoulder for dear life. Mr. Van Zandt seemed surprisingly calm throughout the whole situation.

He put down the needle and beckoned for Craig to come over to him. "You won't stick me, will you?" Craig asked while inching over to him. Mr. Van Zandt continued beckoning.

"Sit down." He lightly pushed Craig into the chair. "Convince him Emma."

Emma wasn't sure, but she was almost positive Mr. Van Zandt winked at her. After a few seconds she finally understood what he meant to accomplish.

"Craig, shots are nothing. Look at what just happened to you, your shoulder was just punctured by a bullet and you were bleeding like crazy. A shot will feel like nothing after that." Emma soothed.

"But Emma, you don't understand. I've had the worst experience with shots and-."

"Done." Craig was interrupted by Mr. Van Zandt's announcement. Craig turned sharply too see a small piece of cotton over where Mr. Van Zandt had stuck him. Craig was obviously dumbfounded.

"Y-You tricked me! How could you do that? You promised you wouldn't stick me!" Craig cried.

"I did nothing of the sort. Liberty, did you hear me promise him anything?" Mr. Van Zandt turned to his daughter who had been silently talking with Paige.

"No, and Craig don't worry about it. He did the same thing to me when I was younger." Liberty smiled warmly. Paige had a worried look on her face.

Craig sighed, oblivious to Paige's anxiety. "At least I didn't feel anything. Oh wow, I can't feel my shoulder at all."

"That's the idea." Mr. Van Zandt replied. He removed the bullet, which hadn't gone beyond withdrawal and began stitching him up. His work was tedious and precise. You could tell he got an A in Home Economics.

"So, tell me how all this riff raff began. It must've been serious if bullets were involved. Not much happens like that in Degrassi." Mr. Van Zandt said.

Emma bit her lip. She knew she would have to be the one to explain. Yet, to her surprise a voice other than her own spoke up.

"This is about Toby Isaacs, and I'm certain of that." Paige chimed in. Emma looked at Paige intently. How did she know?

"How did you know that?" Emma's eyes were wide with curiosity. Never in her life had she imagined Paige as the observing type.

"I put it all together myself. I've seen Toby at the zoo," she seemed quite embarrassed to say this, " once, when we were coincidently there at the same time, he was asleep on a bench mumbling your name under his breath. That's only the beginning though.

There was one instance when I saw you staring at Craig. I think it was just yesterday and Toby was staring daggers at you. It was the worst thing I've ever seen. I knew he must've been outrageously jealous. Then, Sean came over and asked you if you wanted to do something or something like that and you said something really weird like, 'I do NOT like Craig', and Toby's look got even worse.

Later, in the hallway I saw Manny dancing around acting like a crazed lunatic just because you and Craig were going to hang out-."

"-Which you totally insulted me over. What was with the snobbish attitude?" Emma interrupted.

"Excuse me, please refrain from asking questions until I'm finished, OK hun?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Anyway, after that little incident I decided to go over to Ashley's house to finish this enormous project we had due for Ms. Kwan's class. At one point JT and Toby had come over to get something. I don't remember exactly what it was but I remember JT coming over to me, trying to be Mr. Mack Daddy or something. It was really funny. He started talking to me, on and on, and accidentally repeated a conversation him and Toby were having at his house. Toby had said something about killing someone just to be with Emma, that's what caught my attention. How psycho can the guy be to kill someone just for Emma? No offense, hun."

"None taken." Emma rolled her eyes.

"So, I started getting worried. Here we have a maniacal Grade 8 with no fashion sense whatsoever running loose and saying freaky things that are downright weird. But, I'm getting beside myself.

I went to the zoo, as I normally do-."

"Why do you go to the zoo, anyway?" Craig asked. He had remained quite for the duration of the explanation but couldn't hold in his questions a minute longer.

"Like I said, please refrain from asking questions until I'm finished explaining." Paige's cheeks flushed a deep red. Her secret was a private one.

"Sorry." Craig went back to watching Mr. Van Zandt who was still finishing up his stitches.

"OK, where was I? Oh, yes, I went to the zoo as I normally do and saw Toby there. It wasn't the first time I had seen him there but HE didn't know that. So, I tried to play it off cool but failed miserably. No one, except for Liberty here, had ever seen me at the zoo. He promised he wouldn't tell anyone about our little encounter and I don't think he has. When I went home a half an hour later, I had stopped by Chubbie's to get a burger, Ashley called me and said something about how Toby asked her if she wanted to help him get rid of Sean.

We were both sort of discussing why he would want to get rid of Sean and it immediately snapped into my brain that Toby was SO jealous he was going to get rid of anyone Emma liked one-by-one. He DID say he would kill anyone to be with her didn't he? So I warned Sean but he didn't believe a word of it. Of course, why he didn't believe me is still a mystery to me. The next day I saw Emma break up with Sean, which must've put a rift in Toby's plan. Sean wasn't the problem anymore, Craig was. I saw Toby lurking in the shadows and he must've felt so thrilled since Emma was doing his dirty work for him.

Then, there was that infamous fight at lunchtime between Craig and Sean. Comments were made, fists were flying and then there were Jimmy and Spinner who put a stop to the whole thing, which was very nice of them if I do say so myself. I looked around to spot Toby and there he was in the corner, laughing. It was the queerest thing I had ever seen up to that point and that's saying something.

Emma had watched the whole thing and decided to run out, Toby followed her and I followed Toby. I watched you two talking and then you guys ditched. Of course, I wasn't about to follow them since Mr. Raditch was staring at me from his office. He yelled at me to come back inside and I was left with my thoughts. What happened in that time anyway, Emma?"

Emma's eyes had watered again. The memories flooded back into her mind. The way Toby had kissed her, the way he grabbed her. It brought pain into her heart and she flinched. Everyone in the room finally noticed the bruise on Emma's face. *You don't want anyone to interrupt do you?*

"Oh my god. Did h-he, did he rape you?" Paige touched her arm. There was compassion in Paige's voice since she went through exactly the same thing. That party, that wretched animal of a boy, all that happened upstairs----.

"N-no." Emma shook her head.

"He was going to though. He tried to when we were at JT's house." Craig muttered. He had a look of hatred in his eyes.

"Really?" Liberty, Paige, and Mr. Van Zandt asked in unison. They turned to Emma who was dwelling upon those not too distant memories. The way he forced his body on her *Sean give me some scarves, and a condom*. She couldn't control it any longer and the tears came like the ocean's waves.

Paige enclosed her arms around Emma's quivering body. She ran her fingers through Emma's hair and tried to calm her down. She knew how it felt to be taken advantage of.

"I think I've heard quite enough. It's time for some adults to take action in this situation this has become out of control." Mr. Van Zandt stood up. A look of pride was shining in Liberty's eyes.

"Where can we find this Toby Isaacs?"



Reaaaalllly long. Ok, so um, review please. That would be super nice. Bye.