THE EXTREMELY LONG AUTHORS NOTE THAT WILL SCARE READERS AND POTENTIAL REVIEWERS AWAY!!!

Summary: A.U. Something I had been planning to write for some time now. I finally just got the audacity to do it. It is about how people can be so obsessed with CRAIG! (But then, who isn't?) Rated as it is for swearing and violence.

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the shirt on my back and the floppy disk that this is saved on, which actually technically belongs to my mom because she bought it, so there is no way I could possibly own the entire concept of Degrassi or that lovely Craig Manning. That would be nice though... *Puts on Wish List: One Craig Manning* (This is the only Disclaimer that will be posted because it is EXTREMELY unlikely I will become in possession of Degrassi by the time the story is over!)

I kind of blurred everything together (episode wise), so some of it may be out of order or happen too fast. Basically I just put it into the order of my choosing so please, please don't go all nut-so on me just because you finally realized that wasn't how the episodes went. It's an Alternate Universe fic and yeah, it is written in a weird POV. (Too many I's)

Rated: PG-13 just because of a little ol' something called SWEARING and VIOLENCE. I apologize ahead of time for the constant profanities, but that is just how the fic was written.

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Part One

He never came near me. Never ever.

He didn't look at me or talk to me. I practically didn't exist in his little world. I don't think he even knows my name, let alone how much I love him. What I would give if he would just say my name? My life, my soul, my everything. I would love to see those three little words on his tender lips...

But that would never happen. Not as long as he was him and I was me. Never.

I was looking at him. I always watch him. I don't know why. No, I do. I love him. I love him more than sunsets and pink cotton candy.

This time, it was from across the room during Commons. Why did I say that? I'm always watching him from across the room. I've never sat remotely near him.

He was going over some of his notes. I was pretending to be reading.

I wasn't sure if I was actually fooling anyone. I wasn't even looking at the damn book; I was making cow-eyes at the guy I love and trying not to giggle.

Whenever Craig's around me, I seemed to just loose my train of thought... but who wouldn't? What, with his great personality, his prince charming nature, and the fact that he was FINE with an F-I-N-E. I could get lost in his eyes. And the hair... who didn't love the hair? There, I was doing it again.

I tried to get back to my reading. The book was Tamora Pierce's In the Hands of the Goddess. It was the tenth time I had read it. But I thought the story was the most awesome thing I had ever. Better than butterflies and bubble gum.

I briefly looked up from my book in a fit of mad giggles. What I saw enraged me. Apparently, he, Craig, the god, was talking to one of his 'friends'. It was that Emma bitch. She must of come up to him when I wasn't looking. She had a tendency to do that. Emma was always creeping around, spying, and ruining other people's lives. Sneaky bitch.

Just look at what had happened to that Liberty chick. She was totally cool, and then came the little dirty rumor train - conducted by Emma - and the next thing you know, Liberty's a harlot.

I have no idea as to why Craig was talking to Emma. Craig was too cool for someone like Emma. Craig was too cool for everything.

~ Why would he stoop to such a level? I think it's out of pity. Unless Emma is some sort of witch who has put a spell on him...? Maybe she's secretly a demon who is going to kill everyone! Yeah, and I have to exorcize her, but than make a mistake, and kill her. And then I would have to comfort Craig...  No, that's just gay, besides really hott. But it would be funny to think about. Emma the Bitch-Witch. ~

Pulling out my notebook, I quickly drew a small doodle of Emma the Bitch-Witch. She had fangs, a cape, a hat, and zero cleavage.

~ Not that she has any now! It's just toilet paper... ~

Looking up to the unsuspecting model and then back at the drawing, what I saw was funny. The picture looked exactly like Emma. She was in the same stupid pose and everything.

I decided to add the picture to my scrapbook of 'Thing's That MUST Be Done to Emma Nelson by Another or Myself, Whichever is More Convenient to Harming the Bitch, But Preferably Witnessed by Myself Either Way!' God, I love that scrapbook.

It was really just a folder full of pictures of Emma dying in various ways. I had a few favorites. Like the one where she was strapped down to an electric chair with me pulling the switch, and another that I drew of her in a gas chamber, suffocating. Hilarious stuff, the bits and pieces in that folder and my passionate hate of Emma could combine to make.

Quickly looking around, I rummaged through my blue backpack and took out the folder. I unceremoniously stuffed the picture in and jammed the folder back to its hidden resting-place. I was fighting the urge to throw the folder's contents around the Commons to show everyone just how I felt, but I didn't. I didn't want to get in trouble.

I once had a friend who drew pictures and wrote dark poems and stories. She had had such a folder. Her name was Amanda. Amanda left her folder in a class one day, and when she went back to get it, she found the teacher looking through it.

I remember hearing her tell me about how upset the teacher had been. I think it was Ms. Kwan. We had laughed about it that day, but the next, she didn't show up for school. Or the next, and then a week passed, and then another, and then a couple of months. I thought maybe she had gone into rehab, because she was like that.

I didn't learn until three months after Amanda had left that her parents had totally freaked out. They had decided to get her out of public schools and into private education. Amanda also had to go through some serious counseling. ~ But at least Amanda had parents who cared... ~

It was a damn shame that she moved because Amanda had been my only friend for two years. I had never bothered to make any others. That was kind of stupid of me. By now I had grown a reputation as a 'freak'. All of the exclusive cliques were closed to someone like me, and even the other weirdoes didn't like me, let alone the normal people.

~ But it's not like I care about that kind of crap... I just wish that Craig didn't care about 'social circles' as much as he does. ~ We could have been the best of friends by now. ~ And maybe even more... ~

I have loved Craig from the first time I saw him. I remember that day perfectly. It had been on the first day of grade nine.

I was sauntering - yes; I saunter - along as usual. I remember I had been late that day, so maybe I could have been a brisk stroll. Or was I scrabbling along?

~ Screw it, might as well tell it like it happened... ~

* * * * *

So I was running. Yes, I am -the last- person you would expect to be doing a mad, deathly dash down the hallway, but you would be too if you had only just arrived at school four minutes before the bell was going to ring and your first class was with Ms. Kwan.

She remembers things like tardiness. I don't like to be remembered.

Anyway, I was running through the packed corridors when I roughly pushed past someone. That person yelled "watch it freak!" so I turned to yell back, "sorry", which, I learned, was a very stupid thing to do. At a dead run down a hallway filled with people, you don't look back and excuse yourself.

As I was apologizing I think I tripped over something, maybe a foot. I felt myself crash into something hard. It might have been a wall or a locker or a backpack, I can't remember, it gets kind of hazy. But I'm on the ground and I see the other kids laughing at me, two in particular and then I blacked out.

When I awoke he was there. Craig was the first thing I saw, him and all his loveliness. It was like a new beginning for me. To think that I had been contemplating suicide the night before! Ha!

Who wouldn't want to live in a world where there are people like Craig Manning? Psychos are what you would call those persons. But at the time I didn't know who he was. All I knew at the time was that he was my savior. And this was our first encounter:

My mind was in a haze. Everything was blurry.

~ Have I gone blind? No, wait... My glasses are missing ~ I could just make out that someone was standing over me. Male. Seemed cute, but with my vision you never can tell... I closed my eyes again.

I heard something. It sounded like someone was talking.

I thought I was still in bed and my brother had come to wake me. "Ten more minutes..." I mumbled and rolled over.

~ Wait. My bed isn't this lumpy. What the...? This isn't my... ~

"Are you Ok?" someone was asking me.

"Ahh!" I shrieked in absolute terror. I just don't like waking up in strange places. I don't even like waking up. I jumped off of the cot I had been lying on, and nearly knocked over the stranger standing next to me.

As I regained my vision, I saw I was in the nurses' office. "Sorry!" I said sheepishly.

The nurse, whose name I forget, simply laughed. "That's Ok!" she said, still laughing. "It's those darn smelling salts! They always affect everyone differently! Your reaction just happened to be the second-to-worst one yet!" The nurse politely smiled at me

~ So she had had to use smelling salts to wake me. That was why I had this urge to puke out everything I had eaten within the last three days. And I was in the nurse's office. Ok. I can deal with this. Just don't start hyperventilating... again. ~

"Why am I here? What happened?" I asked.

"That is a question I myself am puzzling over. Perhaps Mr. Manning here would care to explain." The nurse had lost her humor. Damn it. Most nurses do, I have learned, when it comes to the care of their patients.

I looked over to the direction that she was motioning to and saw an angel. He was perfect. Seriously. He was not the hottest thing on the planet -that title belongs to Brad Pitt, but that is just what made him even better. His hair was the ultimate aphrodisiac, in my opinion at the time. (As it still is now) Its fluffiness made me want to go up and rub it... His ass was really fine too. We were fated to be together.

~ I really hope it wasn't anything embarrassing that got me down here. Please oh please oh please! Nothing to embarrass me in front of him! Please! ~

Hark! The angel spoke: "So I was walking in the hallway to get to my class, right? When I hear this really loud 'SMACK' sound. I looked over to where the noise had come from and I saw you on the ground. I think I heard a couple of people say you were running and hit the wall. Nobody was doing anything but laughing, so some other guy, Jimmy I think, and me decided to bring you here. That was like fifteen minutes ago. Then the nurse came in, gave you the salts and you woke up." Damn, the angel was annoyed...

~ Damn, shit, crap. Talk about embarrassing. ~ I don't mean in front of the other students. I mean in front of this mysterious new student. ~ Bad first impression! ~

"Look," he said, getting impatient. "You seem to be all right now. I have to get to class. Can I go?"

~ Did I say bad first impression? I meant horrible. He's mad at me; I made him late to a class on the very first day. Great! ~

"Sure!" said the nurse, getting back some of her fake enthusiasm. "Let me just write you up a pass!" They both left the room. I plopped back down on the cheap cot they had provided me with.

~ Shit! ~

* * * * *

That had been some two months ago.

I had found his schedule in the nurses' office that day and immediately had most of my classes changed to be with him.

So I just keep watching him. Right now it was second hour Commons. At precisely nine-fifteen, he would get up and go to the food counter and order a bagel. I checked my watch. ~ Two more minutes. ~

I tried to get back to reading.

~ So now Alanna is meeting with Jonathan. In a dress! ~ This was my favorite part of the entire book. I was giggling rather loudly by the time I got to the end of the chapter.

Someone at another table 'shushed' me. I turned around and 'shushed' them back, mouthing, 'I'm trying to study, jackass!' I turned back and checked my watch.

~ Nine seventeen, Craig should be getting his bagel now! What the...! ~ When I had looked over at the line, he wasn't there. I coolly turned back around and briefly glanced at the table he was sitting at. It was to the far left of me. I had chosen the table I was sitting at because I could see him clearly, if you could see someone from across the commons clearly.

~ Oh my god! He's still talking to that Emma slut! She's keeping him off of his schedule! Someone ought to teach that bitch a lesson! ~ Hell, Emma didn't even have Commons this hour. She was probably missing some class that she deemed 'unworthy'.

~ Fucking the village fuck goat! Fuck! ~ Emma the bitch had sat down. She was blocking my perfect view of Craig! This was something to think about.

I mean, sure Craig and I haven't spoken more then two hundred ninety-seven words to each other since that first day. I know how many because I keep count. But because we haven't talked much doesn't mean that we can't have a good relationship. And fuck like rabbits.

I wish one day he would just come up to me and start talking about anything, photography, Hollywood, detentions, whatever. Did you know that it is really frustrating to like someone, and have not spoken more then three hundred ninety-four words total.

I just know he would like me. We could be the best of friends. But whenever I tried to talk to him, one of those loser grade eight persons would get to him first. I don't know how or why he made friends with them. Seriously. They are all so immature.

The eighth graders would turn him against me too, I just know it. They know me better then Craig, and like most people, find me odd. But I still continue to watch him.

He was still talking to Emma the Bitch. I took out that picture I had drawn of Emma the Bitch-Witch and ripped it in half. I wish I had powers. The things I would do...

Ironically, just after I had torn up the picture of Emma the Bitch, a supervisor came up and asked her what she was doing in second hour Commons.

~ Yes! ~ Emma got back up and left. My view of Craig was perfect once more. He was reading something. I think it was funny. He kept laughing.

He laughed. I laughed. We were bonding...